When Charles Finney was converted in 1821, he had a radical encounter with the Holy Ghost. So much so, he said, “My heart overflowed with waves of ‘liquid love.’ It seemed like the very breath of God flowed through me, over and over again.” This demure lawyer had a radical change of heart, when he encountered God’s love. In this third, and final broadcast of the series, Carl delves into the book of Jude and shares an obscure scripture, which reveals exactly how to stay filled with the love of God. Join Carl now for this compelling broadcast…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, this is the third and final session on love is the way to victory. It is. What love? God’s love. The agape love. And friend, most people are like, well, I can’t do that, Pastor, it’s too hard. Romans 5:5 speaks in contrary to that, friend, “the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost.” That means there’s a tangible opportunity to feel God’s love on a daily basis. I call it the love activation. And at the end of this segment, I’m going to pray that you can feel God’s love in your heart for yourself. Oh, the treasures that are accessible to us that we do not access on a daily basis because we don’t apply faith in those areas. Friend, join me now, live in session. You know, Perry Stone said, “you know, for like a year I was chasing demons everywhere. And this guy said to me, he said, what are you doing? He said, well, all the time I’m thinking about demons and I’m reading the Bible where demons are and then I’m listening to testimonies of people with demons. And it’s like, well, your focus is the demonic. So demons are going to start playing with you. They’re going to start entertaining you because your focus is that. If you want to get rid of the demonic realm, focus on the Father. Start worshiping God.”
And all of a sudden, the darkness dissipates, right? Because light overcomes darkness, right? No one buys a light bulb of darkness at Home Depot, flicks it on, and all the light in the room goes out. No, it’s the other way around. We get the light bulb and the darkness dissipates, right? So the good news is, 2 Corinthians 5:14, “the love of Christ constrains us.” Listen to that word. The love of Christ constrains us. The more we focus on love, the more we interact with love and fellowshipping with the Father, the more it’s going to be difficult to have fun with sin. Like I said last week, the Christians who are the most unhappiest are the ones who have not broken away from their old lifestyle. And they cannot enjoy the fruit of sin. Because the incorruptible seed living on the inside of you will not enable you to enjoy sin anymore. It will be scratching away on the inside. You’ll be there doing the stuff, and it’s like, oh, I just don’t feel good about this. I know I shouldn’t be doing this. Conviction comes on. Friend, make a clean break tonight. No longer dip into the sea of the works of the flesh, alright? But Pastor, that’s really hard. Yeah, it may be hard if we’re doing it ourselves. But if we say, Lord, take over this situation. I’m tempted in this area. I ask you right now, by the love of God, to just help me to overcome this temptation. How many can do that? It’s not a sin to ask for help in a time of temptation, right? Amen? So, how do we express love? Well, there’s the five love languages. I won’t get into that.
But John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” People who love, give. They’re givers, right? They demonstrate it, right? It’s not an esoteric idea. I love you as an idea. It’s a wonderful idea, but I’m not going to get into action to prove my love for you. It’s just going to stay as an idea. Do you want to hang with that person? So, we give our time, resources, energy, our knowledge, our service to people as the Lord leads. And again, it’s the agape love. If something can be commanded, then it has to be a decision, right? Because God couldn’t command you unless it was a decision you had to make, right? So, love is a decision. So, this is a fantastic verse. Please, please, please get this. This bounced off the page the other day when I was reading it. We’re talking about staying in the love of God, keeping ourselves in it. We talked about fellowshipping with the Father. Though we may break relationship, and we may feel condemnation from the enemy, but we always run to the Father’s bosom. The Father is always running, right, to the prodigal son. He’s saying, come, I’m here, I forgive you, 70 times 7, kill the fatted calf, get the ring, it’s time to fellowship again with the Father. He’s always got his arms open. There’s never a time when he’s too busy, amen? But this verse right here is awesome. Jude 20:21 says, “but you, beloved, that’s you, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, praying in the Spirit,” okay? Keep yourselves in the love of God. Whoa, time out, right? We know that context always determines meaning when we’re reading a verse.
We look at the verses prior and following. It’s saying here, as we pray in the Spirit, we’re going to keep ourselves in the love of God. It’s going to be easier. Whew, man, that’s worth coming tonight just for that. That means as you’re revving up the engine of the Spirit, your ability to stay in love is going to be so much easier. Hallelujah. Walking in love, it’s not always easy, friends. But God has equipped us, he’s given us his Spirit, he’s put it inside of us, he died for us. It’s there to use. And I commend your courage and your honesty for coming tonight and submitting yourself to the Word. A lot of the people in this room have overcome massive offense. I can tell that by the Spirit of God. There’s been some opportunities to be offended in here. But you are overcomers, amen? So staying in God’s love is arguably the most pressing focus of our Christian walk, and it should never be forgotten. The focus should always be the Father. Lord, I messed up yesterday, but you know what? Today’s a new day. And the Father says, well done, son. That’s the attitude. That is the attitude. It’s not, well, I need to do six days of penance, and then I need to fast for five days, and then I don’t need to go to Krispy Kreme for a month, and then I might return to the Father. Some people are like that.
They’ve got to punish themselves, right? Because they screwed up, I’ve got to punish myself. No, no, no, no, no, no. You don’t do that, friend, okay? God’s forgiveness and mercy is there 490 times a day. It’s a supernatural love that flows from us, just as the Holy Spirit flows through us when we’re praying in the Spirit. Here’s the point. The love of the Father is flowing through us, right? Otherwise, well, that person’s sweet. I’m not sweet, so I’m not going to be sweet. Do you see the problem? Well, I wasn’t born sweet. Right? Do you see the problem? Because then it’s an excuse, right? Charles Finney said, now he was a lawyer. Charles Finney was stoic, no emotion, cold, callous. He might have been British, but he was converted in 1821. He had a radical encounter with the Holy Ghost, and this is what he said. My heart overflowed with waves of liquid love. It seemed like the very breath of God flowed through me over and over. That’s the radical encounter that Charles Finney had, okay? Now, we’re not trying to conjure up an encounter here, okay? We’re not trying to do that. But what we are going to do is we’re going to pray that we may feel the presence of God and that we may feel the love of God, okay? Now, don’t walk away from here. You’re like, well, I was supposed to feel that liquid love, and I did not. No, you don’t need to do that, all right? We’re doing it by faith, all right? Don’t send me the letter.
But we’re just going to open it up and say, Father, we want to feel your presence. How many want to try it? What have we got to lose, man? What have we got to lose? And what do we have to lose, friend? Absolutely nothing. I sincerely believe it is possible to feel the presence of God on the inside from the spirit man. In union with the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5 makes it clear. Just as Charles Finney felt waves of liquid love, we too can feel the presence of God. And I’m going to pray for you shortly that you will feel his presence. You know, pride is usually considered a virtue under some circumstances. People, you know, acknowledge they have pride, and they’re proud of it. But, friend, pride is a sin, and God resists those with pride. We can have pride in knowledge, in virtue, in power, and all of these things. But egocentricity, arrogance, self-adoration, selfishness, and self-love are all sins. And, friend, our community, our culture, is clearly on the rise of loving oneself. I mean, how many pictures does a person need to take of himself and put it on Facebook? Are you kidding me? We need to be, oh, the wretched’s focus. I’m all for taking pictures now and again, okay? But some people are obsessed with it, and we need to let this stuff go. It shouldn’t be any part of our manner, our decorum, the way we hold ourselves in life. As Christians, our focus should be the Father, okay? Not us, not even worrying about us. And Bertrand Russell said in his book, Power, A New Social Analysis, every man would like to be God if it were possible. Some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.
Why is it impossible? Probably because God loves everybody unconditionally. He doesn’t sanction or condone their behavior, however. But he’s willing to extend a hand, and that should be our attitude as well. We should be willing to extend a hand. If we see a brother who’s slipped into sin, we should approach him with love and lovingly confront and say, I’m going to help you get back up on your feet. I don’t care what it is. I’m going to help you until you overcome this. I’m going to stand by you. That’s a real friend. I’m reminded of Pastor John Osteen, and he really had that attitude. He was a pastor’s pastor. He would always be the person, you know, the pastor to call the other pastor who fell. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon of slander and joining the criticism train, he was always there to say, you know what? That man loves God in his heart. He’s fallen. Let’s restore him. And that’s something that we all need to do, friend. We need to have John’s attitude, that we’re going to help people and not look down on them because they love God, friend. It’s the devil and the flesh that entices us. It’s not our spirit man. That’s somebody who’s willing to take up the concern of others, and that’s the attitude God wants us to have when we love other people. But right now, friend, I am going to pray that you feel God’s presence.
Father God, wherever this person is, driving, sitting at home, or even at work, I thank you right now that the tangible, manifest presence of God is coming into this person’s heart and expanding right now, that you’re touching them deeply by the Holy Spirit, that you are the comforter, the standby, the advocate. You are the strengthener for this person in their time of need. I thank you, Lord, that they are casting their care and that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding is guarding their heart and mind in Christ Jesus. That peace, Lord, that you said you would leave with them, not as the world giveth iron to thee, for in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And friend, Jesus has overcome the world for you, so you don’t have to overcome the stuff.
You can put it in his hands. Lord, I thank you for that tangible joy that is in the heart of my friend, that you’re expanding it and carrying him for the rest of the day and into tomorrow. Whatever he needs to accomplish or she, then it shall be done by your precious blood and by your assistance of that wonderful God within us, the Holy Spirit. In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Friend, let me shift gears here and thank my radio listeners, those of you out there who listen regularly. I would love to hear from you. Shoot me an email. Pretty much every one of these radio broadcasts is being catalogued and articled and put on the website if you missed any of them. And then we have various articles and teachings and even Bible studies, and we’d love for you to go to that website. But friend, we have financial demands, and I would ask that you would ask the Lord if you would consider sowing a seed for us as our radio dues become due. And we’re very grateful to those who’ve been generous and continue to be generous in the endeavor of spreading the gospel worldwide as we are doing.
You know, I had an email from a lady from Jordan the other day, and she was saying, God told me to contact you, and we prayed with her, and it was awesome, friend. You know, God’s doing some stuff around the world, and He’s using a broadcast that goes into about five or six states. He’s even using that to touch people outside of the United States. And we have a growing following overseas, which we are most grateful of. Don’t forget, love is the way to victory. If you stay in God’s love, you will not stray from His path.
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