The New Covenant Leads Us To Love God Supremely — Zac Poonen

The Great Commandment and the Disciples’ Transformation

Matthew 22, we know the main thing that changed the disciples from what they were on the day Jesus was crucified to what they were on the day of Pentecost. When you look at the day Jesus was at the Last Supper, they hadn't really made much progress in their life.

In fact, they were still arguing about who was the greatest and in the Garden of Gethsemane they all ran away. So though they had a lot of admiration for Jesus and probably some understanding of the things that he taught, if you look at their lives, it didn't bring much of a change.

They were still, even after seeing the resurrected Jesus, they were scared and sitting inside a ruined locked room. What was it that changed on the day of Pentecost? You know they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they didn't become perfect.

We know that Peter was for example very reluctant to mix with the Gentiles and Paul made mistakes like circumcising Timothy and even many years later we find Paul yelling at the high priest. So they were not perfect, but yet they were not the same like they were at the time when Jesus died.

So I found that this thing which Jesus said in Matthew 22 where someone asked him a question in verse 36, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? We know that, you know the verse which says what the law could not do, God did.

That's Romans 8. So the new covenant does in us what the law could not do. The law really hasn't changed, God's law is eternal. The little details of the ceremonial part of it may have changed, but God's essential law is eternal.

That means when he created man and woman, this is the law. So there were so many things that we are commanded to do which Adam and Eve did not have to do, but this law was there right from the beginning.

That is verse 37, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and Jesus said, I can't give you one commandment by itself, that is linked to the second one. And you know the man is early asked for what is the great commandment, number one.

And Jesus said, I can't give you only one, I have to give you two because both are linked. Like you know there's no cross without two arms. So these are like the two arms of the cross, the one vertical one which is always longer than the horizontal one.

So the vertical one is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and then your neighbor is yourself, the two are linked. There's no cross without two arms. So it's easy for us to inwardly compare ourselves with others who don't have certain external things that we have in our church or in our life or we have understood the new covenant.

And to not essentially be proud of it or glory in it but to inwardly congratulate ourselves that we're a little better than others because of maybe we don't go to the movies or we don't watch television so much or you know all the things we don't do and we don't do, we don't do.

Positive Testimony Versus Religious Negatives

I've often thought of the time of Elijah. When Elijah was so discouraged and he was particularly when the Queen wanted to kill him. If you're not familiar with that passage, let me just show you in 1 Kings and chapter 19.

It says he got so discouraged that he ran away. He had killed 450 prophets of Baal single-handedly and then one woman threatened him and he got scared and he ran away. And then he tells the Lord in 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 10, Lord, Israel has forsaken you.

1 Kings 19 and verse 10, you know, they've killed your prophets, only I am left. And then the Lord told him, okay, I'm going to anoint, verse 16, Elisha as a prophet in your place, verse 16. Okay, Elijah, your time is up, you're exhausted.

And I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, verse 18, who have not bowed to Baal in every mouth that has not kissed him. So, many people look at that and say, well, it wasn't only Elijah, there were 7 ,000 people there in Israel who also hadn't bowed to Baal.

But the interesting thing is, those 7 ,000 never had a testimony. Nobody knew, Ahab never knew about those 7 ,000 because their testimony was negative. I have not bowed to Baal and I have not kissed Baal, the statue.

Whereas Elijah's testimony was not negative, it was positive. In 1 Kings chapter 17, you find Elijah's testimony is this, verse 1, the first time he's introduced, it says here, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, that was his testimony.

So, his testimony was positive, those people's testimony is negative and that's why none of those 7 ,000 could bring fire down from heaven. No matter how much they would have prayed at the altar, nothing would have happened, their prayer may not have been much better than the prophets of Baal.

The way that applies to us is, you know, many Christians, their testimony is negative. I don't bow to Baal, I don't go to the movies, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't beat my wife, I don't get angry, I don't tell lies.

It's a whole lot of negatives, just like these 7 ,000. It's good, it's a wonderful thing in a country where everybody is bowing down to Baal. There are people who say, I don't do it. So certainly, Christians in a church who have to stand on all these things are definitely better than a whole lot of other Christians who compromise in many, many areas.

But yet, it doesn't bring fire down from heaven, in our life or in our ministry or in our home or in our church. It's a positive testimony that Elijah had, I live before God, I mean I stand before God, He's the only one who matters to me, He's the only one whose opinion has any, that ever bothers me.

What does my heavenly father think of me, what does Jesus think of me, I stand before Him and all the time I am conscious of living before Him. That is what made Elijah different from all the others. And that's why, you know, the Lord didn't say, okay, go and pick one of those 7 ,000 to be your replacement.

No, there was another man in Israel, Elisha, who God had watched him. He wasn't a prophet, he was just plowing the field and, you know, just like the disciples were before the Lord called them, they were just fishing people, but the Lord saw something in their hearts, which made it, there's something in their hearts of those people like Peter, James, John, Andrew, which the Lord saw and which made Him pick them out to be disciples and something that the Lord saw in Elisha, who was also, had not bowed the knee to Beal and had not kissed Beal, and yet the Lord could not pick one of those 7 ,000 to be the replacement for Elijah, it had to be Elisha.

So there's a distinction, even among those who don't do this and don't do this and don't do this and don't do this, there's a multitude of Christians who avoid so many sins, I don't commit this sin, I don't commit this sin, I don't commit this sin, and you can go through the list of it.

Think, for example, of the Sermon on the Mount, I don't get angry, I don't lust after women, I don't divorce my wife, I'm just going through Matthew 5, I don't tell lies, I don't hate my neighbors, I don't curse those who curse me, I don't reveal to others when I pray or fast or give, I don't do so many things, I don't judge others, I can go through the whole Sermon on the Mount, I don't get anxious, I don't love money, you can go through the whole Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and essentially it is that I don't bother Nehemiah, I don't kiss his statue.

That's why we got to come back to Matthew 22 where it says, the law is not a whole lot of you shall not do this, you shall not do that, it was like that, I mean the Ten Commandments were like that and all the other 613 commandments there in the Old Testament were basically things you could not do and there are a lot of things in the New Testament too which you were not supposed to do, I mean a lot of things in the Sermon on the Mount as I just said but we go back to the law of God which is a positive thing, I must love the Lord with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength, it's not a question of what I don't do and I must love my neighbor as myself, it's not what I don't do to my neighbor, it's what I do.

It's a positive thing and that's what God wanted Adam to be like, He wanted him to love Eve, she was the only one human being around but to love the Lord first and that's where he failed in the Garden of Eden and this is where you know it's very easy for us as Christians particularly when we have taken a stand against Babylonian Christianity and all the wrong things there are in Christendom to as I said inwardly congratulate ourselves that we don't, we're not in that group of people who are Babylonian but the question is do I love the Lord with all my heart, you know Jesus said that one of the main alternative masters to God was not the devil but money, Luke chapter 16, I mean if Jesus hadn't said that and we were to ask anyone a question, what are the two masters which are vying, vying means v-y-i-n-g, that means trying to claim our hearts, if Jesus hadn't said that we would have immediately thought it's God and Satan because in the Garden of Eden it was not God and money, it was God and Satan, Adam didn't love money, there was no money around, the choice was in the Garden of Eden was God or Satan but for us today it's God or money which is not just money, so when he said mammon he's I think refers to this old material world which has so many things in it to attract that Luke 16 and verse 13, no servant can serve two masters, he will hate the one and love the other, devoted to one and despise the other, so I don't think most Christians, to tell you honestly I don't think most Christians face up to that verse fair and square looking at it and meditating on it and examining their own life in the light of it, the people are scared to look at that verse and think too much about it because it's very demanding, first of all there must be absolutely no element in me of serving material wealth, earning material wealth yes, doing a business and making profit out of that business yes, that's okay, Jesus I'm sure Jesus didn't sell us the stools and tables he made at cost price because if he did he'd have no money to take care of his four brothers and widowed mother and all that, so I'm sure Jesus added a commission to his material cost to cover the cost of his labor and there's nothing wrong in it, there's nothing wrong in making a profit in business, in fact Jesus spoke about the someone who went out with one talent and earned ten, so there's nothing wrong in making profit but it's a question of what one lives for, you cannot serve God and wealth, that means two masters claiming my allegiance and it's very real in the world in which we live, God and wealth claiming my allegiance and the test for me is something like the test in Eden, God says one thing, the devil says another thing, who am I going to listen to, okay today it is God pulls me in one direction, money pulls me in another direction, which pull am I going to yield to, now I'm not talking about a sort of asceticism or being a hermit where I think that spirituality is to get the lowest salary and live in the most difficult place and it's more spiritual to go to Afghanistan than to go and live in the United States, I don't believe that because I mean I'll tell you why, because I don't believe Jesus lived in the most difficult place on earth, the most difficult place on earth was certainly not Israel, so you don't have to go and live in the most difficult place and earn the least amount of money in order to be spiritual, that's not what I mean, it's a pull, God and material things, I think of that going back to Adam that his body was made of the same dust that the animals were made of and I think there's something significant in the fact that it's not only man that was made on the sixth day, the animals were made on the sixth day too, in fact all the others were created earlier but the animals, the earth-bound animals, the fish were created on the fifth day but the animals were on the sixth day, the first part of the sixth day made the animals from the dust and these animals are in terms of their body and all of the most similar to human beings, I mean fish are not like human beings but those things that God created on the sixth day, you know dogs and monkeys and all, they've got a lot of internal organs which are just like us, made from the same dust we're made of and then towards the end of the sixth day God makes man from the same dust that he made animals and he breathes into man and that breathing into man didn't just give man breath, it did give him breath but the animals also had breath without God breathing into them but there was something more that Adam got and that was a conscience or what the bible calls the spirit, man is body, soul and spirit as the soul is our mind and our feelings, I think dogs have got a mind and feelings too but what they don't and will, dogs have got a will, sure they can obey or disobey but spirit, the deepest part of man that no animal has, that is what came with the breath of God and so man is constantly pulled by the spirit pulling him up and the body which is made of dust pulling him to the things of earth that's what happened in the garden of eden that there was something in, I'm sure there was something in Adam and Eve that pulled him up towards God saying hey you shouldn't be doing this, God's told you not to eat from that tree and there was another part of that which it says Eve looked at the fruit and it was really made her mouth water, there was some something of the earth part in her body pulling her towards in that case a tree, in our case it may be money, it can be something else, is these two pulls that we find the part that pulls us upward and the part that pulls us downward and I see it like that in terms of God and money, God and material wealth but the reason I feel that many don't meditate too much on this verse is because it's a very strong word to hate the one and love the other, that means I've got to hate money if I want to love God, you know we're thinking of the first verse the commandment is you should love your God, Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, so I've got to hate money in the same way in which Jesus said if you want to be my disciple you've got to hate your father and mother and you've got to hate your wife and you've got to hate your children, so we know it doesn't mean that I detest them, that's not the meaning but that in the light of my love for Jesus, my love even for my wife and children is hardly anything, the Bible commands us to love our wives, to love our children, bring them up and we all do but I cannot be a disciple if not just that I love the Lord more, I thought much of that commandment you must hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters even in the church, is I'm going to hate my brothers in the church if I want to be a disciple, so the best illustration I've used, the picture I've used, I find a great help when I try to understand some difficult verses with an illustration or a picture because that's how Jesus taught is between the light of the sun and the light of the stars, the stars have got light and any night you look up, they are there, my love for my father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children must all be there, it must not be non-existent, it must be there but when the sun comes up, even though the stars are there, you can't see any of them, it's almost as though they're not there and so that's how I see it, that my love for Jesus must be like the light of the sun in which light my love for my wife, even my wife and children sort of fades into insignificance compared to my love for the Lord, it's a wonderful thing to love your wife and children but it's not the greatest thing, the greatest thing is to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, so I see that this is the way in which I've got to hate money too, it's not that I have nothing to do with money, I've got to hate money like I hate my wife, and like I hate my children, in other words, the light of the sun, the love for Jesus is so great that the other is almost insignificant, it doesn't, if the Lord pulls me in a certain direction, nothing can pull me away from in another direction, not my wife, not my children, not money, nothing, no brother, no sister, no ministry, nothing, this is how Jesus lived, he was that perfect man who did exactly, who lived exactly the way the father wanted man to live, and when we say we are going to walk as Jesus walked, we can look at the externals that he forgave those who killed him or he was very disciplined in the matter of prayer and resisted temptation, all that is good, but inwardly, the thing was he loved the father more than anyone else, even his going to the cross, which we often think of as a mark of Jesus' love for man, Jesus described it in John 14, his going to the cross, was an act of obedience to his father and love for his father, where John 14, 31, that the world may know that I love the father, I do exactly as the father commanded me, let's get up and go from here, where, to the cross, so what he was saying is, I'm going to the cross because I love my father, you know, when Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, people looked at that and said, behold how he loved him, and they saw him weep, and when I look at the cross, it's something like that, look at Jesus hanging on the cross and say, behold how he loved the father, I don't think many Christians think of that part, they think of the cross as behold how he loved me, it's true, but that was a small arm of the cross, the big vertical arm was behold how he loved the father, that he would go to the cross, it was his love for the father, he says, the world may know that I love the father, John 14, 31, let's go to the cross, let me go to the cross, so I would choose the cross every day in my life, if I love the father, if I love him more than anything else, more than my wife, children, the pull of anything on earth, that's the reason why when Peter told Jesus in Matthew 16, when Jesus said, you know, I've got to go to the cross, that's the first time he explained the cross to his disciples, it says in Matthew 16, 21, from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he's got to go to the cross and be killed and be raised on the third day, he included the resurrection, he told them it's not the end of everything, after three days I'm going to come out of the grave, but Peter rebuked him saying, no Lord, never, I mean it's okay you're coming out of the grave after three days, but you should not suffer like this and immediately Jesus said, get behind me Satan, as I see it, there are only two times in the Bible where Jesus says, get behind me Satan, one is when he spoke to the devil directly, when the devil said, fall down and worship me, he said, get away Satan, the second time was to Peter, get away Satan, so the voice that told him to avoid the cross, Peter's voice, is the same as the voice that tells, bow down to Satan, you got to equate the two, bowing to avoid the cross is bowing down to Satan, in both cases Jesus used the same expression, get behind me Satan, so I got a seed like that, you know, any voice that tells me, don't die to yourself here, assert yourself, I'm really worshiping Satan, maybe a milder form of it, but it is and so I got to think of the pool of money like that, in a situation where I choose to indulge myself rather than deny myself.

Christian Freedom, Material Wealth, and True Spirituality

Paul said in 1 Corinthians in chapter 6, 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12, there are a lot of things we can do with money and material things and a lot of those things are lawful, all things are lawful, 1 Corinthians 6, 12, but all things are not profitable, all things are lawful but I will not be mastered by anything, we can apply that to God and money, I must allow only God to master, not my bodily desires, not money, not my loved ones, should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, it means with spirit, soul and body, how to love God and a lot of things are lawful, a lot of things I can do lawfully with my time, with my money, a lot of things but they may not all be the best for me, they may not always be what God wants and again, I have to give a warning against asceticism, where I think that if I avoid all these things and become like a monk or a hermit, that is spirituality, no, I am always encouraged by the fact that when Jesus got into the boat, he asked him, hey, have you brought a pillow, I want to lie down here, Lord, you want a pillow, don't you want to be a bit tough and sleep on the hard wooden boards, no, I would like a pillow and I love that passage where it says, he was sleeping on a pillow, to teach me that he was not an ascetic, he didn't live on wild locusts and honey like John the Baptist, he enjoyed a good meal, in fact, he enjoyed it so much that people called him a gluttonous man, he wasn't gluttonous, far from it, he could fast for 40 days but when people looked at him, I thought, boy, this guy is asking for a second helping, do Christians ask for a and if there was enough for everybody else at the table, there's so many ideas we can have about true spirituality which are fake, Jesus' life was a very natural life, it says in 1 Timothy in chapter 6, there are two things it says about riches here, since we're talking about money, 1 Timothy 6, 17, it's like those who are rich in the world means those who got plenty of money, don't be conceited and don't fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God, but he says, remember God has richly supplied us with a lot of material things to enjoy, our material things, things meant to be just denied or enjoyed, I have no problem enjoying a lot of things, good food and many other things, a comfortable house to live in, provided it doesn't become an idol, God has provided us with things to enjoy, non-ascetic will never accept that, everything on earth is to be denied, I'm just saying that as a word of caution but the other side of the cliff, that's one side of the cliff, the other side of the cliff is where I say, you know, one side is, I must not enjoy anything, I must just, anything that's going to make me a little happy, I just deny myself, I must even take a second helping, I mustn't touch that ice cream, that's not Christianity, the other side of the cliff is, it's lawful for me, there's nothing wrong with it, that's another cliff because all of those, among those lawful things, there may be only 10 that's profitable in terms of the way I use my time or the way I use my money, so when we come back to the original law of God, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, that is the life of Jesus, it's not that I don't bow the knee to Beal or I don't do this and I don't do that and I don't do the other thing and it's not asceticism and it's not just denying certain external things, it's a positive thing that I, with my heart's taken up with love for Jesus, it's, I always come back to this passage when it comes to serving the Lord, I say, Lord, you called me to serve you full-time 52 years ago, what is the main thing you want from me?

Peter’s Restoration, Failure, and the Call to Follow God’s Plan

Studying the Bible, seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In John 21, when God was, Jesus was recommissioning Peter after Peter had failed miserably, denying the Lord three times and it's interesting that Peter had given up because when he says in John 21 and verse 3, I'm going fishing, I think what he meant was, I'm going permanently back to fishing.

I know the Lord called me more than three years ago to be an apostle but I'm a failure as an apostle. I tried it, I was sincere, absolutely sincere, I really wanted never to deny the Lord and I thought I would never let him down but I've discovered that I would deny him even before a servant girl, not once but thrice.

I'm not fit to be an apostle but I can do fishing and that's where the Lord allowed him to fail. You know, when God's called you to something and you try something else, you'll find repeated failure. You'll try all night and you won't catch anything because that's not where God called you to be.

When he's called you to a particular task, like he called Peter, if he tried anything else, he would be a failure. He goes back to fishing even at an area where once upon a time he was an expert and God makes sure that no fish get into his net and when the Lord loves a person so much that he's jealous to make sure that we fulfill the plan he has for us and not some other plan which may be a good plan but not his plan for us, which may be a lawful plan but not the profitable one.

He will make sure we fail there. See, that's why our life can be so much at rest. You know, when we drive different avenues of ministry or looking for a job or something like that and something doesn't open up, it looks as if we try and try and try and something doesn't work out or in the case of people trying for a visa or permanent residency etc.

A true Christian is at complete rest, total rest in God because he knows that anything outside of God's will I'll just be a failure. I'll toil all night and catch nothing. I'll try my best to get something and I won't get it.

It's just like John 21. That's because God doesn't want me to go into that direction. All those hours in which they tried to catch fish and they didn't get anything was the Lord's word telling Peter that's not what I called you for, Peter.

That's a good way of earning a living. There's nothing wrong in that. Nothing wrong in earning a living by fishing but that's not what I've called you for. I know you've been a failure so far as an apostle.

It doesn't matter that failure was part of your education. I don't know whether you realize that in God's economy, in the way he deals with us, failure is part of his education. It doesn't apply in earthly circumstances.

A brilliant student never fails all the way from first grade right up to PhD. He's a success always. But it's not like that in God's dealings with us. In God's dealings with us, failure is a part of our education.

I found that in my life. I found in my life that God took me through. When I started my Christian life, it was great. It was like an ascending curve and God allowed me to fail, fail, fail as a believer.

As I look at my life, I think that my graph hit rock bottom. When I look back now, I see it is so easy for God to prevent me from that. But I was assessing my life in terms of, you know, I didn't bow the knee to Beal.

I didn't kiss Beal. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. And I didn't do the other thing. So I was pretty good. But God wasn't happy. And I was taken up with, and I was doing a lot of things positively, mostly in terms of service for God.

But the Lord wanted me to love him with all my heart. And that's why he allowed me to fail. And it's when I hit rock bottom, about 43 years ago, that the Lord, in that place of total failure, that the Lord filled me with the Holy Spirit.

My life turned around. That's what happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. It wasn't a message to challenge them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they had to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, Scripture, and the Mark of Spiritual Filling

And what did the Spirit of God do? Many people ask, what is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit? It's unfortunate that people have got that doctrine in this from Acts of the Apostles. Acts of the Apostles was never given to us as a book of doctrine.

One of the principles I've understood in Bible study, after 58 years of studying the Bible, is that you must never get a doctrine from the historical sections of Scripture. You'll get a wrong doctrine.

Example, Jesus healed everybody. You're trying to get a doctrine out of that for today. You'll be a hypocrite, deceiving others, because it just doesn't happen. Acts of the Apostles didn't heal everybody.

Paul himself was sick. Timothy was sick constantly with stomach problems. So that's one example of Jesus healed everybody. What doctrine do you get from that? Jesus walked on the water. What doctrine do you get from that?

Jesus turned the water into wine. He fed the 5 ,000 men with five loaves. What doctrine can you get from that? Same way with the Acts of the Apostles. It's a historical book. You can't get doctrine from history.

You've got to get doctrine from the teaching sections of Scripture. In the Gospels, whenever Jesus is teaching something, that's for me. What he did, that's not necessarily for me. He walked on the water.

He fed the 5 ,000. He healed everyone. Not one person was left out. That may not be for me, but what he taught, every single word he taught, that's for me. Think of a word like Matthew 12, 37, which I often say is one of the verses which hardly any Christian believes.

Every idle word that you speak, you will give an account in the day of judgment. I really don't know how many believers really believe that. Every single idle word that you speak, that means a word which is un-Christlike.

You'll give an account in the day of judgment, Matthew 12, 37. Those things are necessary for me. Jesus healed them all. I say praise the Lord. He did it, and I believe it. But I find, for example, in Pentecostal Christianity particularly, I've never heard a message on Matthew 12, 37, that every idle word you have to give an account in the day of judgment.

I have lots of messages on Jesus healed everyone. Why can't you do it? You see how the devil's led people astray by making history a doctrine, and it doesn't work. And even then, people don't open their eyes and say, hey, it doesn't seem to work.

Something must be wrong here. And then to miss out on the main thing. So what is the mark of, I was talking about, what is the proof of being filled with the Holy Spirit? Every Pentecostal charismatic would say Acts 2, 4.

They spoke in tongues. I say if you want to go to Acts, why don't you go to Acts 2, 4? Why not start with Acts 2, 3, which happened before Acts 2, 4. And that is, there was a tongue of fire over their heads when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, teaching me that my tongue should be on fire in the Holy Spirit, that I don't sin with my tongue.

Not that I speak in tongues, that's Acts 2, 4. Acts 2, 3, that if I'm really filled with the Holy Spirit, my tongue will be controlled by the fire of heaven, that I will have control over my temper, and I will have control over idle words and useless speech.

I've never heard a single person preach on Acts 2, 3 as the sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit. And yet that's the first thing that happened there. But besides that, you go to the teaching sections of Scripture, and then, and that's in Romans chapter 5 and verse 5, I say this is the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

From the teaching sections of Scripture, not the historical sections in Acts of the Apostles. Romans 5, verse 5, when the Holy Spirit fills us, the love of God is poured out within our hearts. It fills us.

So, I see Romans 5, if I were to paraphrase, it's like this. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, your heart will be filled with love for God, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and filled with love for others.

It's the fulfillment of the law of God, which we read in Matthew 22. They asked him, what is the great commandment? Here it is. Nobody in the Old Testament could keep it. Nobody. When the Holy Spirit comes, He fills my heart with the love of God.

Assurance in God’s Love and Freedom From Insecurity

That means, I think, I get three things from that. One, it fills my heart with the assurance of God's perfect love for me. That's number one. My whole heart is filled with the fact that God loves me as He loved Jesus.

I never want to doubt that. He, the Holy Spirit, makes, you know, He cries out, Abba, Father, and assures me that He loves me more than any earthly father. That's very, very important. It's very important, my dear brothers, because I find a lot of Christians are not assured in that love.

The problem with a lot of Christians is their insecurity. If you look at your own heart, you may find that if you have a problem with your wife, it's insecurity in your own heart that causes it. It's insecurity in your heart that brings tension between you and your wife, or creates unrest in a certain situation.

It's an insecurity. It's the love of God. It's not, you're not allowed the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with the God loves you as He loved Jesus. To be filled with that, that's the first thing. And the second is that my heart is filled with love for God more than anything else.

I love God more than my wife, husband, my wife, children, brothers, sisters, money, material things, property, everything. And the third is love for everybody. And my heart is filled with love for everybody else.

It's only the Holy Spirit who can do that. I cannot produce it. I cannot. I can say like Peter, even if all men deny you, I will not deny you. And I may be very sincere, but in the moment of pressure, I'll deny Him.

And so I need to go to God all the time and say, Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the mark of it will be, I'll be perfectly assured of your love for me in any circumstance, no matter what happens around me or what doesn't happen, what God gives me or what God doesn't give me, I'm rooted and grounded in the fact that God loves me as He loved Jesus.