Intimacy With God: love

intimacy with God we're going to continue talking about that today but we're gonna focus on a very important part and that's love don't go away I'm gonna be right back in every generation there have been revivals massive lose of the spirit that changed the course of history in every revival there were believers like you who chose to answer the call to become the one their generation discover your call to be the one in your generation we're about to take you face to face with history welcome to revival radio TV I'm your host dr. gene Bailey along with pastor Greg Stevens and Linda Lane thank you guys for joining us again we're talking about intimacy with God and what does that really mean what does it really mean we talk about intimacy with God and we've kind of been diving in and Greg's been given us some definitions as we go but have you ever wondered what inspired you to pray for others what inspires you to pray for others great well Jesus was moved with compassion so I think there's times when I get moved with compassion over a situation and you know it doesn't have to be this big long name you know just I've got to move with compassion and seeing somebody in a car wreck or anybody at the store and say father bless that person and you're just that you see some sort of brace on them and you just say god they look like they're hurting and you can just see them healed see them feeling relief and you know we really haven't we haven't tapped into this much but what you're talking about is really the the level of intimacy you have with God is equal to the level of compassion you're gonna have for others there's a closer you get to God with the Holy Spirit leading you you're going to have that you can't have one without the other gonna begin to see things the way he sees them and that'll change you if it'll change the world around change the world around you this is why there have been certain people that you know when you're around them you just go whoa they've got something I want you know I think Kathryn Kuhlman was one of those people there's a guy in Tulsa lived in Tulsa and Keith wheeler carried a cross around all over the world and just talking with Keith and you know and he is witnessing to people all over the world and you know countries in the Middle East you're just like wow you can develop that gene because you begin you can ask the Lord to show you this make me aware of this and you develop it because you automatically do it have you ever been in a shopping situation or someplace and and somebody just strikes you you just you're like that's a striking-looking person or that that person's interest and you don't know why you don't even know who they are but there's something that's drawing do you don't disregard that and as a pastor you have to learn to do that when visitors come to your church different people there will be certain ones that'll just stand out and and you don't even know why well go find out Kenneth Copeland has that when you watch him at the believers convention my sons would say there's something different Jerry Savelle would say there's something on him but there's something different and and they they were they wanted to know what that was like when the Jerry Savelle and then Jesse one would you know have their sermon and they'd end on a verse and then the next guy would take up the next verse and then we'd find out later they hadn't talked to each other it was just the Holy Spirit guiding them my son said I want to know that I want that operating in my life I want to know what that it experiences like and it's developed by operating and listening to the Holy Spirit spending time with him and he'll leave you and got you but and that's certainly an aspect that you're talking about but the part I want are there's always worked my love gene it that we'll talk about thought the whole love part of this you know it's I wish there was another word for it because the word love has been so tweaked and you know it doesn't when you say love everybody gets this image it's this mushy thing and that's not what we're talking about we're talking about the love of god that's a compassionate force there nothing can can compel somebody to do something like compassion in the Old Testament we were told to love the Lord your God it was all all of the responsibility was on us in the New Testament all of the responsibility is on us to believe his love for us once you're convinced of his love for you you'll scale any mountain and I think it's interesting even some ministers and preachers that you've probably heard you can probably think if you think hard enough don't don't spend too much time on this but you can think of people they have services you've been in where you didn't disagree with one thing they said everything they said was right on is biblical but it was flat there was just nothing to it had no legs to it there was no depth to it you just felt like he was all just words mm-hmm no revelation no revelation but the reality is because there's nowhere there's no intimacy there's no love coming from it but yet the same words and you talked about brother Copeland he can say the same scripture over and over again and you're like oh okay you know there's there's a whole nother level there from these because he's speaking out of his experience yeah I'm in a second area instead of speaking from here yes the book textbook but it's not just experience it's because of that relationship and he knows you know the love and I've seen brother Copeland through the years to all these decades grow and grow just like we all have hopefully when I was we all it all said follow me as I follow Christ and that's what we're all endeavoring to do worship we don't worship brother Copeland or know the Hagin or any of these people from these revivals we're all following that example of faith faith acts you believe something you act on it now when you just mentally agree with the fact that it's true then how do you change that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God so you're gonna have to spend time meditating on the fact that he loves you you're gonna have to spend time in the word with love scriptures and love that what God has done for you don't just be saying God all the time go back through and say love did that love did that for me love went to the cross for me love has done this thing for me he did this cause he loves me it it hit me just kind of like just just slap me and it was a if it's one of those huh it was one of those moments of Revelation or anything oh god I need a dad oh it was so rich and so good the Lord said Kenneth that I healed you cause you have faith that yes sir he said not in huh he said no son I healed you cause I love you you need faith cuz at your connection to him and he just said it cuz you wanted me to there's nothing now listen to me particularly you watching out there on the internet and on be VOV in listen now listen there is no sin that exists that's bad enough to stop God from loving you he can't change he can't change God never changes Jesus Christ the same yesterday when you are operating in love and in the the availability to the Holy Spirit and I talked about lens book about the Masters calling and being able to actually give yourself up giving yourself up to be open to hear from him I think that's one of the greatest examples of love I'm thinking a Todd white and Michael truly honest you know when they're here you don't get too far in a conversation that Todd's probably gonna cry about something and you know and Michael's gonna talk about the the depth of God's love for you and and it's just that's what we want that's how we should live you should infect I love what I heard Todd savers I want to see hell empty in heaven full and I've heard other preachers say that but I mean that's really what drives him you can tell it's that the the hunger for souls and the love that God and the compassion God's put on him brother did he said this he said that speaking of the fruit of the Spirit he said that love is the curtain rod that every one of the gifts hangs on it Paul says if I don't have love I'm just a bunch of clanky noise true and and that's exactly what can I borrow your Bible let me show you diverse and Isaiah then while you're looking at that I'll get it wrong I think of umbrella I think of love as the umbrella over all the names of God because God is love and yet he has all these different characteristics he brings to the table El Shaddai the Lord who heals us the Lord Most High turn yet over all of these names is love that's right let me show you this in Isaiah chapter 19 we hear this a lot Isaiah chapter 1 sorry verse beginning with verse 19 20 says if you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good in the land but if you refuse and rebel you should be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it men I've heard that taught and preached so many times but if you go to verse 18 which precedes this it says this come now let us reason together says the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool if you be willing and obedient you shall lead the good the Lance see what he's talking about here gene is being willing and obedient to believe that God wants you absolutely totally forgiven like nothing ever happened if I'll be if I'd be willing to believe that then I'm gonna eat the good of the land and that's love see even in this verse we've heard it taught if you refuse and rebel you'll be devoured no no to refuse means I have to refuse to believe that he wants me totally cleansed and that's whoa that is well it is awesome that he totally cleanses us I had somebody ask me I had did this I did this how can God forgive me and it's like he already did you're totally cleansed the blood of Jesus covers everything love is king I call the blood liquid love pour it out on my behalf one interesting point here that we have to make and I know you've touched on it pastor Greg is your intimacy with God has nothing to do with your performance it's you can't doesn't mean you don't take bility right but your performance doesn't mean that you're intimate with God you can't it can't be that way he doesn't love perfect people he loves perfect love from flawed people yeah say that again one more time doesn't love perfect people he loves perfect love that comes from flawed people I like what Charles Spurgeon wrote and he says if we do not have the Spirit of God it's better to just shut the church's nail up the doors put a black cross on them and say God have mercy on us if ministers do not have the Spirit of God they had better not preach and the people would do better to just stay at home it must be the Holy Spirit or nothing and that is just huge Holy Spirit or nothing you know TB Barrett who is he this man Barrett TB Barrett he was a Methodist pastor and he was sent to this country by the Methodist Church to raise funds to build some new buildings in Norway and so he came tall carried himself like a first-class gentleman brains he had it this great church he had it you know and and and he came to America to raise money and what he's here for a little while someone said have you heard about the revival we got going over here no well said I'll take you tonight and he told me that when he when he came to himself again he had his head up under a piano speaking in tongues now for a stately gentleman to find his head under a piano talking in tongues it's just a little bit embarrassing you know but he cut his visit short to America and he went back to Norway and he told the bishop says call all the preachers together I got it they thought it was money but he had he didn't have any money so here were the Methodist pastors called together and they were waiting to see how many thousands he had gotten to build some new churches or something and he read to them Acts chapter 2 he says brethren I got it I speak in tongues the bishops of them said you didn't get it here and they turned him out of the church that it seemed to bother him very much he went down to England to an Episcopal Church he got the the Episcopal pastors daughters food of the Holy Ghost first and then he got the Episcopal priest with the Holy Ghost and his wife full of the Holy Ghost they began to shout and praise God and people began to receive the Holy Ghost and and and and and here came a gentleman by the name of wiglesworth he had never heard of it before except you heard there was a revival and he came down to the Episcopal Church to look into it and got the Holy Ghost here came Howard Carter he was a bisque opinion and here came Donald GE and here came many of the leaders so he was a man who established the Full Gospel in the country of England he brought it there a man from Norway then he goes back home for a short time and he goes across to Sweden and he finds a young man over there named Navy Patriots a Baptist preacher with a small Church of a hundred maybe or something like that he was talking with a news reporter he an article and the asked in this article would you do anything for Jesus would you go anywhere for him well this guy from from Sweden he sees this and he says yes and his name was Louis Petrus I was actually on the phone with a Canadian pastor and they were there family was all in the revivals that followed with that was right in 1906 right along the time of another famous revival so tell me miss Sweden yeah go ahead yeah there's Oslo Norway and on the way over in the boat Louie Petrus gets filled with bad son Holy Spirit but nobody's explained to him what is the baptism Holy Spirit all he knows is he has this huge intimate experience with God speaks in tongues and it's like I don't know what this language is that's pouring out of me and so when he gets over to Norway they explained it to him he takes it back to his church and his whole church they have a mass you know here's here's the here's the people a massive group and they all at the same time get their back to the Holy Spirit with the evidence of species saying here's azusa mm-hmm I mean right behind you see what I love about this and this is how I know it's God he doesn't just because that the days of him singling out one group of people or one location nation or whatever are over because now cursed is everywhere things on the tree the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentile we've been grafted-in it's not just to the Jew the Jew writers Azusa was happening mm-hmm but now this is happening everywhere and that's that is consistent with and here's intimacy knowing something about that person it's consistent with that he's not a respecter of persons he's going to pour it out there he's gonna pour it out here he's gonna pour it out in this other place and that the key number the next key to intimacy is responsiveness it's being responsive to that person whatever they tell you to do you do it and you know when you talk about that responsiveness I was just remembering to picket two guys from our revival history one was aaand you know they bring the guy up there with the stretcher and he's got so I guess stomach cancer or something his digestive system and his first words are don't get him a glass of milk and a sandwich that's bull before we prayed for yeah I mean that's responsive and you better that's again you better be hearing from God on this or it's not gonna end well and that's just amazing to me how these guys would do that you know they would be so responsive well it's cuz they've spent time you can't develop intimacy my wife Michelle and I are more intimate today than we were two years after we got married yeah sure because we've grown together I can I can anticipate now I can read her I can see the look and I know you know you want me you know say with that yeah we understand what the look is and no I don't mean a negative look but I can I can tell if something's bothering us something is bothering sure something's not not setting right and it comes from spending time with them the net because here's what happens the next key to intimacy number six is mutuality and do you want to mean by that it's it's changing my view from me to we and when you get a heart like Alan did and that it's not just me you mentioned Benny Hinn on the part of them before it's not just him out there it's him and the holy spirits why he wrote the book good morning Holy Spirit but that's what David had you know when he was writing the songs we sure knew what he was dealing with but when he's writing the songs he never forgot the week at the end he picked it up and and that made as the Lord called him a man after his own David hosted the Holy Spirit in his reign as king for 33 years and here's the interesting thing was prophesied in the last days I'll restore the tabernacle of David David had the Ark of the Covenant in its own tent and it was available to Gentiles and Jews alike and that's today yeah he's talking about our day and he here's the interesting thing he was king for 33 years he hosted the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit wasn't the tabernacle Moses was still there you could go to where it was but he took the presents out that the Ark of the Covenant took that out and put it among the people instead of being locked behind doors that only priests can get into and that's that's significant of our day and that's the intimacy that David had even though there's wrong actions I mean my god he slept with a lady and had her husband killed mm-hmm and there were things that played out in the flesh because of that but because of his heart he had that he had the covenant of Abraham but God said to him I'm gonna make sure that your throne that you never lose your throne that there will always be somebody from your lineage and so when they called out to Jesus many times Jean they would say son of David so they recognized something in in Jesus do you like David do you know a guy named a B Earl I don't know if we get to Earl interesting thing about David is that he made some pretty big mistakes huge yet he's got the word says he's made after God's own heart that's because of the intimacy because look what he was called look what he was called although other brothers come forward and is there not anybody else he does well we're not gonna sit down until you go get that last one right and and over and over the Prophet said I the Lord told him I don't look at the outward I always look at the heart that's why I said while I go what I said God doesn't love perfect people he loves perfect love coming from imperfect flawed people right as you know there's nothing you can say that makes it's because you're so good right no there's no no I can't give you any love so because I know I'm not but intimacy is also God meets you where you're at I mean David started as a shepherd he ended up a king all right so a B Earl a mural was a spirit-filled evangelist and one of the things he wrote the song that you guys might have known bringing in the sheaves oh yeah and I thought was bringing in the cheese when I was a kid that's why I don't sing sorry go on one of the reasons that he comes to mind is that in one of his outreaches he had 50 ministers okay you know during the first American Awakening how the ministers they stopped saying hey you have to be born again to be a minister he had 50 ministers in come-to-jesus in one of his meetings that's huge he had obviously a whole bunch of other people that found in the Lord as well 150 thousand of them but the ministers you know why and I don't I don't find that strange because the Pharisees were the ministers and Jesus day they were tasked for looking for the Messiah and here he is standing right in front of them they don't recognize him lot was a righteous man and he's 24 hours from destruction doesn't know that it's about to happen in Revelation chapter 3 now I got to preach on me Revelation chapter 3 Jesus is standing at the door knocking he's knocking on the doors of the churches and he's outside wanting to come in if you'll let me come in and so he's knocking outside the church door so I'm not surprised that 50 ministers got saved because they were doing it all from here Jean and not from this place that's right here and you said it well ago about Spurgeon I think it was if he's not here we should just lock the doors well Spurgeon there was that passion you always got that in what he was doing a bee Earl you had the same thing where he would come back in and he and there was just this this he would say I have a strong will I want them to do things my way but he had to yield he said I couldn't do it by myself yeah I had to yield you know and Evan Roberts bend me you know intimacy is just saying to the Lord I trust I'm willing to adjust and just meet me that's right I think that's where we want to end it today listen we've talked about being intimate with God and what that really means and how you can be at a place of intimacy where you have trust confidence what were the other ones Greg's well this is acknowledged in interdependence right here trust responsiveness mutuality and then the last one I didn't tell you this commitment that this relationship is indefinite there's no time limit on this relationship in a commitment that's good so I hope you've enjoyed I know you've enjoyed I've enjoyed going back through this and you know this thing is always we touched on it Greg earlier about flowing in the with the Holy Spirit being able to see him and hear him he's always gonna challenge you out of your comfort he's always gonna ask you to do something or lead you to do something you haven't done before but I think what's so cool is that the Holy Spirit is always a gentleman mmm he's never gonna beat you over the head with it he's never going to make you embarrassed because you didn't do it you may kick yourself later for not doing what he told you to do but he will always lead you if you're listening and if you're not listening then it's a one-way relationship and you don't have that intimacy so what I encourage you today not only just to be the one but be the one that listens to God listens to the Holy Spirit like you haven't before make a conscious decision and pastor Greg talked about it in your prayer time stop and listen say your prayer like you're gonna pray but let God talk back to you let him hear let yourself hear what he's trying to say to you because it's at that point not only does intimacy begin and is fulfilled but plans purposes are actually seen and God gives you the path on where to go I think about see more with Azusa in all the trouble that he had all the issues everything from racism I couldn't listen couldn't walk into the school room because of the times he did something I think a lot of us it took me a long time forever knew this how he would he humbled himself enough that he would stick an orange crate over his head just so he could block out everything else and be intimate with the Holy Spirit enough to hear what he wanted to say I'm not saying we should all go get orange crates but sometimes that's not a bad idea do whatever it takes to get alone with God get alone with the Holy Spirit and let him talk to you and because of that you'll hear the next thing - do you want a revival this is the way to do it Holy Spirit field time with prayer and like Greg was talking about with Benny Hinn wake up in the morning the first words out of your mouth need to be good morning Holy Spirit what do you want to do today let's just talk what is it that we need to do thank you guys enjoyed it today we've learned a lot about intimacy with God and there's I don't think we've only scratched the surface really really because there's so much more about going deeper and you know one interesting thing and I've learned this from brother Copeland slike I've seen him as a pilot look at that checklist like it's the first time he ever saw the piece of paper I've seen him as a minister of God go back through the scriptures like he's first time he's ever read them and and I think this is one of those things with intimacy with God it is an ever-evolving thing you have to keep pushing deeper to go and understand who the Holy Spirit is let him be your guide understand who the father's how much he loves you I'm so glad you were able to join us today listen go to the website revival radio tv.com watch us click follow us on Facebook Instagram and everything else that's there we want to be a part of your life and a part of your family so thank you for being with us thank you guys see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Revival RadioTV

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Id: KTKYVT0b6IM

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2019