THE POWER OF LOVE
By Pastor Tom Pickens

The power of love is the greatest weapon against the enemy. Love is power because it can change things. Love is more powerful than politics, more powerful than TNT, and more powerful than the atom bomb. Love is the greatest and most powerful weapon of mankind. Love comes from God. If you want to be effective in living a Christian life, then you have to acquire the love of God. If you are operating in the power of love, then you are operating and flowing in the power of the Almighty God.

The Attributes of Divine Love
Agape love has to do with the quality of God’s love. It is divine love, and divine love is the most powerful love there is. Love can only be known by the action it prompts. Love is a servant, but love is also an action. You can actually see love. The way you see it is by the action that is prompted when love is expressed. God’s love was expressed by the giving of His Son. In John 3:16, the Word of God says, “For God so loved the world that he gave….” God so loved the world that it caused an action to come forth from Him, and He gave His son Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for this world. Now, when God did that, He was serving mankind. God was giving to mankind. There wasn’t anything good about man that caused God to do this. God did it because He loved us.

The Bible lets us know that we should love one another in that same way, by serving one another. In 1 John 4:7, the Bible says: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows of God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.” Love is the greatest weapon against the enemy. It is more powerful than the spirit of division, more powerful than racism, and certainly more powerful than hatred. When the love of God floods your heart, it comes out and spreads to other people.

Divine Love Has God as its Primary Object
We express divine love toward God. God gave us agape love and, therefore, we are to express this love to Him first of all. We should have our focus on the One who died for us. We don’t do this because of how we feel, but because it is in absolute obedience to His commandments. The Bible says that we love God because He first loved us (I John 4:19).

Were you looking for God to love you when you were a sinner? No, you weren’t looking for God, and you didn’t find God. God found you. We have an obligation to express love to our heavenly Father. When you enter the house of the Lord it’s okay to raise your hands and tell the Lord how much you love Him. If you really love Him you become less self-conscious and more God-conscious. When you awake in the morning and get out of bed, you should say, “Lord, I love and appreciate you. Thank you for waking me up this morning.” Communicate with God. Tell Him how wonderful He is.

There are other ways we can express our love to God. God says that we are to obey His Word. Obedience epitomizes our love to the heavenly Father. We shouldn’t obey only in the areas that we choose to obey in; it should be our desire to be obedient to the Word of God in every area of life.

In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” That means keep God’s Word. Whatever God says in His Word are commandments to us. In the New Testament, the Word of God is the promise of God, the principles of God, the teachings of God, given through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Luke 24:49, Jesus told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. Jesus sent his disciples to be anointed for ministry and service so that they could continue to do and teach what He had done and taught. His commandments, His Word, His teachings continue to go forth even to this present day. If a man loves God he will keep His commandments.

In John 15:12, God tells us to “love one another with the love wherewith I have loved you.” This means we have to love each other with agape love. If we love God, truly love God, then we will make Him the center of our lives and consider Him in every decision we make, every place we go, and every word we speak.

Divine Love Is Unselfish
Divine love always seeks what’s in it for others. This means that God’s love is an unselfish love. We have to raise our children to be unselfish? The Bible says that we were all born in sin and conceived in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). As we grow up and matriculate through life, it is up to parents to teach the child how to love and how to be unselfish. Selfishness is a quality of Satan. Unselfish love is a quality of God. The flesh desires to act a certain way, and it gets gratification when we please it. Unselfish love denies the flesh the comfort of acting in a selfish way. I don’t want to be a flesh-pleaser; I want to be a God- pleaser. If I am going to be a God-pleaser, then I have to love you regardless of how my flesh feels. I cannot allow my flesh to treat you in a selfish way because you are God’s creation. God made you in His image and after His likeness. Therefore, God mandates that I love you. It is my responsibility. We must do this if we want to obey God. I must express God’s love to you. Even if you’ve say something against me or treated me in a wrong way, I must still love you.

Today, people speak of love and they don’t really understand what they are saying. We use the same word to express our feeling for another person as we do to express our feeling for a machine. For example, some men say “I love my wife,” but in the next sentence, they say, “I love my motorcycle.” They put the two in the same category. The love that a husband has for his wife should certainly be different from the love that he has for his motorcycle. It is an imperative necessity that we love each other. If we don’t love each other then how can we expect the love of God to be manifested in our lives? If I don’t forgive you, then how can I expect God to forgive me?

To love a person doesn’t mean that you have to be weak. Love means that you manifest the character of your Father God. It means that you express the love of God toward individuals that you come into contact with. Meekness does not mean weakness. The Bible says that the meek shall inherit the earth; it does not say the weak shall inherit the earth. Meekness means strength in control. It means you know who you are and what you can do in Christ Jesus. It means that you have inherent strength and are in control of the situation. It means that you do not have an identity crisis and you don’t need to prove anything to anyone. It means that you have control of your flesh.

It is the love of God that every believer receives at salvation. Everyone who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior receives the agape kind of love, and they receive a measure of the God kind of faith. Every person who receives a measure of the God kind of faith receives the spirit of love, which is the love of God. We should no longer say that we hate anyone. The power of love is greater than the power of hate. The power of love is more powerful than the spirit of division and separation.

In Romans 5:5, the Word of God says, “Now hope does not disappoint.” Why? Because “the (agape) love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” The Holy Spirit was given to us that we might receive the Spirit of Christ. I thoroughly believe that as we, the body of Christ, begin to express love on an unselfish plane, the anointing of God will be manifested to a higher degree.

In Romans 12:4-9, the Bible says, “For as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function, so we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts different according to the grace that is given us. Let us use them in prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry; let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches in teaching; he who exhorts in exhortation; he who gives with liberality, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let (agape) love be without hypocrisy.” Let love be expressed without being phony. Let love be shared and expressed without being hypocritical.

Divine Love Is Not Motivated by Feelings
Divine love, whether expressed toward believers or sinners, is not a feeling. Agape love does not run with the natural inclination of the flesh. It doesn’t wait until it feels like loving before it loves. The Bible says that even while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God sent Jesus Christ to die for us (Ephesians 2:5-6). While we were not looking for God, not seeking Him, He found us. God told us to love everyone. We cannot be choosy with His love. It doesn’t belong to us; it’s God’s love.

The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, so we can love everyone. The issue is, do you desire to? God’s Word tells us to take His Love to the world. Love is a basic characteristic of God Himself. God is love. You cannot divorce God from love anymore than you can divorce love from God. We should allow God’s love to be expressed not only to our brothers and sisters in Christ, but also to those in our places of employment, at the market, and those we encounter when driving our cars. We must be led by the Spirit of God that lives on the inside of us. We have to begin to respond, not according to society, not according to some psychologist, but according to the Word of God and the law of love. If you are a person who has great faith, then you have great love. The Bible says that “faith worketh,” and the mode of operation for faith is love. Love—divine love—is a motive for the operating of our faith.

Have you known individuals who have knowledge of God and lived for God, but turned away? These individuals were once on fire for God, but took their eyes off Him. As a result, they stopped living according to the Word of God. Rather than condemn them, you as a child of God must go out there and love them back. You can achieve this by being patient with them, as God is patient with us. They are still God’s people. They may be living like sinners, but God loves them and died for them. We cannot give up on them. We have to pray for them. The Bible says to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers to minister to them (Matthew 9:38).

In John 13:30-33, the Word of God says Judas, having received the piece of bread, went out immediately. After he had gone, Jesus said, Now the son of man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me; as I have said to the Jews, Where I am going, you cannot come.”

Conclusion
In John 13:34, the Word of God says “A new commandment that I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” How did God love us? He so loved the world that he gave (John 3:16).

In John 13:35, the Word of God says that by you expressing the love of God toward others as He has toward us, all will know that we are His disciples. If we express agape love toward one another then the result will be that we will be witnesses of the love of God.

In John 15:9, the Word of God says, “As the father loved me I also have loved you: abide in my love.” Earlier in this same chapter, God says abide in my Word and my Word shall abide in you. You cannot separate the Word of God from the love of God. He says “abide,” which means to settle down and get established in the Word and love of God. The center and focus of our lives should be the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider God in everything that you do, and in everything that you say. Put your time in Jesus.

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide within my love, just as I kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, than laying down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:10-13).

Now this does not mean that you are to leap in front of a moving truck for another person. The Word of God is saying that on a day-by-day basis, consider the other person and go one step beyond with them. Be patient and gentle with them. See how you can serve them. That is laying your life down for them. That is seeing where you can be of help toward that individual.