Become The Sons Of His Love
BECOME THE SONS OF HIS LOVE
Let all that you do be done in love. I Corinthians 16:14. Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. I Corinthians 14:1, 3. These passages of Scripture are about love, but the vehicle for that love is prophecy. We have love in a measure, but not in the same measure as it is related here.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. I Corinthians 13:1, 2. We want to move those mountains. We want to know all mysteries and have all knowledge. We ought to be able to prophesy with the tongues of men and of angels. This is an important point of emphasis. We are told that we should pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that we may prophesy. I Corinthians 13 emphasizes that if we have all those gifts, but do not have love, we are nothing. What we are to become now is sons of God. That does not mean that mountains are not to be removed, or that the poor are not to be fed, or that nothing good will come out of those actions. Good does come out of them, and we may be channels through which all this comes; we may have all faith, all wisdom, and all knowledge, but if we do not have love, we are nothing.
In this walk we have had a great emphasis on wisdom. In the beginning the Lord said that by the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge He would lead and teach the people. And it has been true. We can bear witness that it is not man’s wisdom. In ways far beyond the abilities of a man, God speaks to us. Now we are at a place where we are to become manifested sons of God. The reality of manifested sons is in what we are becoming, not in what we are doing. I myself am nothing, but I become the revelation of God to the world. I literally become a living epistle, a living word, when I move into the realm of love. That love has to be very, very strong.
I have tried to evaluate certain problems which I have been praying about and following very carefully in the churches. I know exactly what is wrong. It is not that God has not given gifts and revelation; it is the lack of love. This phrase needs to be memorized: For the love of Christ controls us. II Corinthians 5:14a. Until that happens we do not plumb the secrets of what we need to know.
Everything we need now is in the realm of transference. It may seem that what has been said up to this point has nothing to do with transference, but it does. I am convinced that the only way anything happens on the positive side is through transference—faith which works by love (Galatians 5:6)—and that nothing else is going to be effective. I am concerned about the level of prophecy, that it be creative. People in the Body need to be built up, exhorted, and comforted; however, the prophecy is falling short of the spiritual level of need right now. Never before have we reached the depth of spiritual battle as we have now, when we must break through on an international basis to see continent after continent released. Previously we had not reached the place where so many sons were coming to the birth and to a place of maturity. There has not been a time like this before; consequently, the prophecies and the worship are now less effective.
With every new step more love is required. You must be pursuing it. You must be looking to God for love. You must seek to develop a sensitive conscience by the Holy Spirit for every evidence of a lack of love within your heart. The love of Christ will have to control you. When you quote Romans 8:14, “As many as are led by the Spirit are sons,” you still cannot eliminate the fact that love is the controlling, motivating principle behind being led. No one is going to be led without that deep love within his heart. Someone might decide to tune in until he becomes almost psychic in knowing what God wants him to do. That would be a good way to become a mechanical man; but if God wanted that, He could have created angels or other creatures for that. He wanted sons, capable of drawing His eternal love and of loving Him in return, who would cast out all fear because they were perfected in love and were walking totally directed by the Holy Spirit.
People often express to me their thanks for loving them. They realize that this love must still be perfected in them. People receive love, and they are thankful when their leaders love them; but frequently the ministers do not love one another or the people do not love one another on the same plane as they have seen it manifested. That is not right, and it grieves and disturbs me. We are all going to strive to walk together in the love which will control us.
Transference operates through love, and the effectiveness of transference can be tremendous. Leviticus 16 tells us that sins were confessed and actually imparted to an animal, to the scapegoat. I can believe that. I know that a man can pat his dog’s head and impart a spirit that will cause the dog to attack a Christian who happens to come along. Dogs can be devil-possessed or oppressed. Sins and spirits can be imparted to animals.
By our worship and praise we can impart to the Lord Jesus Christ what He wants—His inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12). An impartation can come to the sinner, to the believer, to the whole Body, and to this nation. This we have been burdened for. Everything God did in planning our salvation involves transference. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Why? So that God could lay upon the Son the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Our sin was transferred to Him, that He might transfer His righteousness to us. Until we understand thoroughly the principle of transference and how it works, we are not going to move into the next step.
We need to be aware of the relationship of love to transference. Love can break through every barrier. We can tune in to another man’s spirit by entering into his certain little vibration level, but it is done through love. At the same time, we are aware that there are also negative emotions at the other end of the spectrum, which are capable of opening up tremendous things to us. We must learn how to control the force of transference. When we learn how, we can bless and curse not. We can turn aside the curses of the enemy and walk in absolute immunity when we can control and blank out the transference which comes by witchcraft, by Satan, by the hordes of darkness. We must learn how to draw from the Lord His fullness which we have all received (John 1:16), in an unequaled appropriation (which is transference). Even if we only learned to do it in a measure and we could increase the flow five percent, we could meet the spiritual need of the Body right now.
We will have to set ourselves on a course of prayer and intercession, and become hungry for God. This walk is not just a matter of mechanics—the mechanics of prophecy and the mechanics of ministry—enabling us to understand more and more. The purpose of this walk is that we actually become the sons of His love. Unless we are careful, we will be self-defeated. Iniquity will abound to the place that the love of many will wax cold (Matthew 24:12). It will always be a struggle for us to understand how we can draw the full measure of His love. However, if we do not strive for it, we will gradually walk in less and less love; and then this walk will become a very meaningless movement. It is not important for us to have the distinction of being a church where we sing in the Spirit and prophesy more than other churches do. That is not enough. This is a walk with God, and to walk with Him we will have to learn the principles of transference.
We are going to start seeking the Lord to open up the principle of transference to us. We are going to learn how to move in greater love. We will understand this principle of transference. We are going to break through to the next step that God has for us. God has led us step by step and we have responded with a whole heart, step by step. If we just open our hearts to love each other, everything will start clicking and we will find that there are no great mysteries.
Somehow we are going to know how to walk in the love. The spiritual maturity that we have been yearning for is going to come forth so that we will no more be tossed to and fro, but speaking the truth in love, we are going to grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:14, 15). Through transference we will draw from Him, and every member will come forth to supply every other member. We will appropriate for one another (Ephesians 4:16). Impartation is only another aspect of transference. Appropriation is a principle of transference. Salvation is a manifestation of transference. Every blessing that comes is involved with transference.
I Corinthians 14 tells you to pursue love, to desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Why the emphasis on prophesying? Because it is possible for prophecy to become the creative channel of love. You can build up, you can exhort, and you can comfort the people of God; but if you do not have love, you will be like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Your gifts must take a deeper or a higher (which ever direction you are thinking of in your mind) level in God. A higher plane of the Spirit is needed in order for the gifts of the Spirit to meet the present emergency that God has put you in. You have cried for a new step, and you are at the place now where you either take the new step or you perish. He has put you in the position where you must, therefore you can, move into it.
Do you yearn for hours of the prophetic flow coming with such love that it leaves you broken? You can become so in tune with God’s love that you are melted by it. You can so love one another that intercession is not a labor, but it becomes the sweet agony of spirit through which all of His creativity is channeled. You need to love each other; you need to feel that love. The love of God captivates you. It is true—we are not going by feelings, but when the love reaches such a depth, it controls you. It controls your mind, it controls your thinking, it controls your attitudes toward one another. The love becomes so strong that it reaches through to the physical sensations and into the realm of spiritual perception. It permeates everything. Oh, that the love of God would fill our hearts! It is the only answer for immaturity.
But when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. I Corinthians 13:10–14:1. Do you get the picture now?
The immaturity and the maturity are all explained in this passage. We can move in faith, hope, and love. The beginning for a spiritual child is his walk by faith. He learns to believe God’s Word. Then he begins to hope for that which shall glorify God and for Christ to come forth within him. It is Christ in you that is the hope of all the glory to come (Colossians 1:27). But the greatest of these three is love. When the divine love comes in its perfection and in its fullness, then all the acts of faith and all the steadfastness of hope become creative to the fullest extent. Then we are walking in what God really wants. That is the Kingdom.
We need to be edified, don’t we? We need to be exhorted. We need to be comforted. But it must be on a higher plane than we have been in. Let us dedicate ourselves to this and see God break through for us. Not one of us is going to draw back.
During the first five years of this walk, whenever a new word was to come, my mouth would be hopelessly oppressed with sores. I could not eat or drink anything without experiencing pain. Then the living word began to flow in a greater measure. For twenty years, I have watched that take place again and again from time to time. Now, once again, Satan is attacking my voice, I know there is only one reason: the words that are about to come will be on a much higher plane of revelation. We have rejoiced in the living word, and it will not decrease; it will increase. When Satan comes, trying to bring discouragement and despair, we must be alert to the fact that we do not get out of the wilderness until we have first been tested by Satan. Remember that Christ went into the wilderness, and after He had fasted for forty days, He was hungry. It was there that Satan met Him, and He stood on the Word that God had spoken (Matthew 4:1–4).
We are going to believe for the greatest flow of love from God into our hearts that has ever come upon any body of people. We are going to stand together and love each other as we never have before. Any negative feeling toward one another is going to go. Every satanic lie that causes anyone to feel as if he is not an important part of this Body is going to be destroyed. Each one is important! How disgusting are the lies that Satan brings. But even that is in the permissive will of God. And at no time will Satan prevail.
Before God we dedicate ourselves. We claim new levels of the gifts: new levels of prophecy, exhortation, and prayer. Above all, we claim new levels of worship, but undergirding and infiltrating all of it, let there be an expression of love that we cannot even comprehend. Oh, that we move into that perfect love which will be such a key to the transference that we seek, the right transference. We loose ourselves to move into it in the name of the Lord.
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[1]John Robert Stevens, This Week, Volume VII (1976) (North Hollywood, CA.: Living Word Publications, 1986), 27.