Ah Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, la la la la la la la la la Hallelujah. God ruler of the universe, you are. There is There's no one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you.
God think of what tremendous thoughts you are Thinking for God Royal, holy, true you are. And there is no one like you. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come.
but begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now.
Well, good morning. We are. Still talking. About what we started the other day. And uh Why love?
cannot fail. This is Brother John. You're listening to Love Never Fails. And wherever you are in the world, I hope and pray that. This helps you, teaches you.
You grow, you mature, you become all that God wants you to be. There is This thought that's been running through me for several days. Why can love not fail? 1 Corinthians tells us that the three of these remain. It's the most 1 Corinthians is the most popular scriptures concerning love, but it says the three of these remain.
Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. And Part of that is not just because love, this arbitrary. feeling Can't fail and is the greatest thing. Because most of us, if there's one thing I've learned, is that most of us, including myself, have a very skewed.
Mistake in opinion or definition of what love is. We spoke about this in part one: that there are 32 different words in the scriptures that we in the original languages that we translate into either love or the King James translates into charity or some version of love, loveth. You know, 1 John, we read this to you. How can a man Say that he loveth God. but loveth not his brother.
The the scriptures tell us that's impossible. You cannot hate people and love God. It's impossible. If you choose to hate people, then what you're really doing is not loving God. Oh, you may.
wear the cloaks of Christianity. But that does not make you A child of God. Because even 1 John tells us that he said, no man can be a child of God who hates. You cannot Be both. You have to be one or the other.
Jesus said somewhere in, I believe it's a revelation: I'd prefer that you be either hot or cold. And many Western mindset Christians are lukewarm because one day, and I gave this example in the last episode, there are many people who go to church on Sunday mornings and they love, oh, they're wonderful. But if you meet them out on the street during the week during business, they are sharks. And they treat people accordingly. Mm.
And I would say to you that that's not love. That's not child of God stuff. What? I'll give you an example, and this is going to make a lot of people upset, but love. 1 John says this: No man who loves can continue in sin.
If you really study that, one of the things he says is: you can't continue in that lifestyle. You can't continue in the habitual things. You can't promote it. You can't endorse it. You can't.
Pay for it. You cannot be a politician and vote. for things that go against love. See, people want to argue with me and say, or argue with others, and I hear this and they go, Well, the scripture says this: you should not commit adultery, you should not be a homosexual, you should not allow abortion or any of that. And I am cautious because there are many people who get caught up in those things.
And then get right with God. But There is no way you can convince me. Based on scripture. That a politician that votes for those things is also A child of God. There's no way from scripture.
You know, I'll give you an example on a minor scale. Tattoos. I disagree with tattoos. I personally do not believe that tattoos. That people should get tattoos.
I don't care if you're a Christian or not a Christian, you just shouldn't get tattoos. And it's not because there's a law in Leviticus that says. Don't get tattoos. Or don't put ink on the skin, is how it says it. And there's a lot of people that argue it from that standpoint.
And when people try to argue sin or the activities of sin based on Leviticus and Deuteronomy and all that, I'm like, you're never going to win this argument. This argument's never going to go away. If you want. to address that argument. From a New Testament child of God mentality, my simple answer is this.
is If you and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Why do I need to add graffiti to it to make it any better? Why, if you and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And I've got all of the best of everything in me who is God. Why do I need to add all of those other things to it? Alcohol.
Etc., etc., etc. The thing is, many times people in Christendom, those of us who wear the cloaks of Christianity, We want to argue based on a rigid outward law that Jesus Himself said. Hinges on this one law, which is love. And we want people to obey the rules and the regulations. That they have no spirit.
In them to obey.
Now, the paradox in this is God Himself said, I will write my law on their hearts.
So when you become a born-again Christian, you begin to become transformed and living in the fullest measure. At that time, that you can because it grows day by day, then those laws become secondary. And what I mean by that is they don't become obsolete. Jesus Himself said they would never become obsolete, but those laws become. Not even fine print to the great command.
Jesus said in John 13, 34, Today I give unto you a new command, that you love one another.
Now, in reality, when you study that out in the Greek, Jesus did not say that. Yeah. What do you mean, Brother John? What Jesus actually said is, Today I renew with you the original command. Think of that.
John 13:34, Jesus said, Today I renew with you the original command. That you love, that you agapeo one another, even as I have agape-heyo you.
Now remember, agape-heyo is the action, agape is the noun, agape is the person. Of who God is, his name, as well as who he is. It is the part of his nature that he deposited into you and I when we became born-again Christians that we are supposed to turn into. That's why Jesus said, Are you not little gods? Because that Nature is in us.
When we become born again, Romans tells us that it's been deposited in us. It's that seed we have to begin to grow. How do we begin to grow? Because we, one, study His Word, because Jesus said, You must live in spirit and truth. Those who worship God will worship me in spirit and truth.
So, when we begin to worship Him in spirit and truth, what is the Spirit? The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is love. The Spirit of God is love. God is love. Nothing is done in the kingdom of God apart from love.
Oh, brother John.
Now, see, be careful. Don't run with that word love and think that I and turn it into hyper love that has nothing to do with God. Come back to God's nature. God's nature is truthful. God's nature is honest.
God's nature is holy. God's nature is righteousness. His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, rooted and grounded in love. The kingdom of God is about righteousness, rooted and grounded in love. You and I were created in the image of love, and that image that was given away to Satan in the garden was given back to us.
It's always there, that missing piece always crying out to us. And when we get born again, we get on our knees of our heart, say, Jesus, come into my life. He revives, he brings back, or he's reborn. That's why we say, born again. And Jesus himself, what are you speaking to Nicodemus in the garden?
Said, this is why a man must be born of the spirit, born not again by his mother and father, and of the womb and of water, but of spirit.
So, what I'm saying to you is that when we begin to say, Okay, I'm going to develop the spirit, I'm going to learn the spirit of love and truth, I'm going to delve into spirit and truth and into this kingdom of righteousness that's about love. You're not talking about all these other words that are translated into love in the Greek and Hebrew, that some of them you don't want to have in your life. Character. The way it's translated, those should be completely different words besides love. Because there's fileo love.
There's, well, there's about seven different words that all come out of that fileo love. The brotherly love, the human love. Christianity is not supposed to operate in brotherly love. Christianity operates in agape love. Those who wear the cloaks of Christianity should never be identified with brotherly love.
We should be identified with agape and agapeo. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce the Old Testament words that were used before the Greek in the original Hebrew and Arabic. But you want to be associated with the God kind of love. The God kind of love walks into the room and says, There you are. Phileo of Waxaduru says, Here I am.
Everybody, worship me. If you're the person who's the greatest in the room, you're operating in fileto love. If you're the person that needs to be the center of attention, you're operating in fileto love. If you're the person that has to sit at the seat at the head of every table, you're operating in Phileo Love. If you're the person that's all about.
And you may not even realize it, but it's all about you. That's filet or love. One of the saddest things that happens is when people get sick. They become very selfish. That's filet or love.
Win We act in selfishness. We're acting in the fallen nature. I would say to you that phileo love has to do with. The fallen man, the unregenerated man, the untransformed man. Agape has to do with the transformed man.
Now, there's this area in between there. From the day that you say, Jesus, come into my heart, be my Lord and Savior. Romans 5, chapter 5, verses 1 through 8 takes place in your life. God demonstrates His love for you, and He deposits. Excuse me.
In your nature. See? A C portion. Of who he is.
Now there's this growth period where you come out of being a child, and Paul talks about this. You're no longer a child. Ephesians says, being swayed back and forth by the cunning teachings of every men and all of their doctrine. But rather You become rooted and grounded in love coming to the fullest Measure of God. What is the fullest measure of God?
It is not standing in a pulpit. and seeing miracles, signs, and wonders. That's part of it. That's a byproduct. That's a result.
But not even everybody who stands in a pulpit and sees miracles, signs, and wonders is walking in the gape. The world knows that. The byproduct or the result of those who Develop agape love. Can be found throughout Scripture. But I would caution you and tell you that Even Jesus said if they hated me.
They're gonna hate you. The world does not want to see Agape love and demonstration. Much of Religious Christianity does not want to see Agape love. In demonstration. Because agape love is the gold.
And it destroys the brass. It destroys the clanging cymbals. It destroys the fake. It destroys. That which is not of God.
And it doesn't destroy it by. Anything other than being so pure in and of itself that it doesn't have to defend itself. It doesn't have to make a scene. It doesn't have to go, I destroy you because you're not. It doesn't have to do any of that.
Agape love in a person, agape love, the nature of God in you and I. If we come to that fullness of the measure of God, when it goes out into public, it will be so obvious to others, you may not even recognize it. Because one of the things that happens is, in the same manner, an addict becomes an addict, and they don't even realize they become an addict. That many people who begin to be transformed and the renewing of their mind and their body and their soul, and all these things happen that you get to experience it, you witness it, but you don't even realize. What you become?
And others begin to say to you, you're different. People will be drawn to you. Ezekiel says, Arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. See how darkness covers the earth, but the glory of the Lord arises upon you. You may be surrounded in darkness.
You may be surrounded in the valley of the shadow of death. But the amazing thing is, wherever there's a shadow, there's light. Where's that light come from? You. When you're the one who's walking in the fullness, rooted and grounded in agape love, and you're demonstrating agapeo love.
without even meaning to. You don't have to plan it. You don't have to set up a schedule. These things, I call it the accidental life. They happened and and and You're like, wow.
I mean, if you're like me, I usually will drive down the road or walk away crying or I'll try to escape. I've been in places where. I knew the Lord was saying, do this, do this. And And uh yeah I did it. And people just start clapping and they start pointing, and you're like, I got to get out of here, time to go.
I have one of my sons who sometimes would go out with me, and he doesn't do it so much anymore, but he would go out with me. And I went to a place, and the last time I'd been to that place, I was obedient to the Holy Ghost, and I did what the Holy Ghost said to do. And when I did, These people around who witnessed it started crying. Yeah. Well, I I forgotten about it.
And a few weeks later I happen to be in that same place. And the Lord said, do it again. Not the same thing, but he told me to do something, I did it. And one of the people working. Basically, started going, that's him, that's him, that's the guy.
And people just started clapping, all these employees and all these. And I looked at my son, I said, We got to go. And I said, I can't go back to that place. Because I don't do it for the attention. I didn't obey God so that people go, oh, there he is, there he is.
Look, there he is. I don't do it for that. I do it because he says, Jesus himself said, if you love me, you will. Obey me. And so, in these little things, I obey God, and they end up being these huge miracles or these huge transformations in other people's lives.
And I'm going, I gotta get out of here. And, you know, we had a situation. He um Yeah. Thank you. You know, you don't ever have to argue with people.
You don't have to argue with people. You don't need to debate people. Because all you need to do is, if you will develop the fullness of God in you, which is love. All of that stuff. Just kind of Takes care of itself.
I'm not going to tell you the full history of this story. But There were some people at a church that we went to who just. They weren't my I wasn't their favorite person. And I knew it. And it's hard sometimes knowing that to continue to be cordial and polite and walk in love towards them.
But I just, you know, it's not like I went to their house every Saturday and I had to fake it. No, I didn't even, I don't think I ever went to their house until after this event. But. This We went to a Bible study. And In this Bible study.
We had just, anyway, none of that matters. We were in this Bible study. My wife and I were sitting on the floor against a wall. Everybody else was sitting on couches and chairs, and I'm fine with that. I'm not telling you, I'm just kind of describing the situation.
We had our backs against this wall, and we could see everybody in the room. And after the Bible study They said, well, any prayer requests? And they started at the far corner of the room from where we were. And this couple, she begins to speak. And The husband is just watching her and looking at her as she's speaking.
And As I'm listening to her. I said, Lord, How can you help her? How can you even that how's that What are you gonna do? And Several of the women in the room spoke up. And as I'm listening to their response, I said, Lord.
That's not you. That's just a band-aid, and you're not a band-aid god. And and And what I mean by that is, I don't mean that, you know, like one demonstration of love is taking care of the injured. And I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about God doesn't cover up.
Issues temporarily. He wants you to be free completely, 100%. That's his desire. oftentimes in in Our cloak of Christianity lifestyles that we live, we encourage people, which is a beautiful thing. But You know, when people have been encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged and encouraged, and you're getting sick and tired of me saying that, right?
How do you feel if you're that person that needs something more than encouragement? Get my point. Yeah. So I said the God, I said, You're not a band-aid god. And immediately it was as if a cloud settled in that room.
And my chest began to burn. Shh. And After everybody sat down. But they were getting removed to the next person, and I blurred it out. I don't even remember what I blurted out.
And as the words were coming out of my mouth, The husband is looking at me. His eyes are welling up with tears, and he's shaking his head up and down. Yes, yes, yes. The girl starts crying and said, How did you know that? I said, That was not me.
And Totally got the answer that she needed, totally got. And it was one of these things that Um I was a little bit shocked. I was taken aback. 'Cause it was not something I would have ever. been able to make up.
So then I said, okay.
Next person. And the next person Spoke. And shared. And everybody in the room looked at me. And I'm like, oh, great.
Well, right about that time. My chest began to burn and out it came. I was like, wow. This happened. For most of the people in the room, they're only about.
10 couples in a room.
Some of the couples did not. Once they saw what was happening, they reacted the ways a lot of people did, and they didn't have a prayer request all of a sudden because they were like, God's on the scene. Let's not. Expose these. Who knows what it was?
I know what it was, but I'm not going to tell you. And, you know, so. You know, a few of the couples didn't ask, you know, just said, We're good. And and by then I already knew. And I was like going, wow, God.
You don't always tell everything that God shares. And then we get to this last person. And this person had come in after the Bible study had studied. I had not seen this person. in months.
I did not know until she walked through the door that she was pregnant. And This is her second child. Not married. She begins to cry. And You know, she's talk thinking about giving the baby up.
And all the women in the room ran to her, loving on her. And my chest began to burn. And I went, God And and All the women sat down, Okay. And I go to stand up. This is the first time I go to stand up.
And the leader of the Bible study looked at me and shook his head and kind of gave me the motion to sit back down. I was like, okay, God. The girl gets done crying and she looks right at me. And as far as I was concerned, that's the invitation.
So I looked at her and I said, I hear two words. I said a name. And I said girl. She broke down hysterical. And I slid down that wall, said, I'm so sorry, God.
I'm so sorry that I got so bold. I got so. Proud, and I messed that up. I'm so sorry because now everybody who you did speak to is going to think that I just made that up for them. I said, I'm so sorry, God.
And I was just in the corner. I put my head between my knees, and all the women, and I looked up a few times, and all the women in the room are shooting arrows of hatred at me. And I mean, you know what I mean when I say that. And it was like, oh, great. I couldn't crawl out of there fast enough.
And then this girl started going, no, no, stop, stop. She saw what was happening. She said, stop. And a calm settled over the room. Yeah.
and she reached for her Bible. And she pulled out. An ultrasound. She said. I just came from the doctor's office.
They just gave this to me. a few hours ago. And I've not said this to anybody. And she turned the ultrasound around. and across the top she had written the name.
And it was a girl. And You talk about hysteria. That place just broke out into worship, broke out into. You know, and and my wife and I, we leave, we're in a borrowed car. We were dirt poor.
And had a couple of kids and just We drove home that night. And we were crying, going, What did you just do, God? And we were so excited and so full And so just Man, this is the way we want to live. And we'd seen things like that before, and we've seen things like that since. But the reason I shared this story with you because I started out by saying that when you're walking in the fullness of God, You don't need to debate people.
You don't need to argue with people. You don't need to prove yourself to people. Hmm. My wife and I, after that, we left the country. And we were gone for several months overseas.
We were in Ind India. And when we came home That baby had been born. And this person who I mentioned earlier that We uh We were not best friends. We did not We were on two opposite sides of the stream when it came to missions. And and he made it known.
And I walked into the church door with my wife and my son. And he's coming down the hall, and he's carrying that baby. And he says, Brother John, Have you seen? and his name in the says the baby's name. And he hands the baby to me.
He goes, It's the miracle baby. And I mean, I cried. I was like, you know. And and and The amazing thing is, is that That man knew. I never came at him.
I never tried to be right. I never tried to prove who I was. I'm not worried about that. All of that stuff when we concern ourselves. With becoming what God wants us to become.
All of that pans out. All of that.
sorts itself out. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, Which is a kingdom of love. It is the kingdom of agape and his righteousness. God Has given us a path that we can walk on, that we can develop, that we can mature. Ephesians says, let me read this to you out of Ephesians.
This is one of my, we're doing some episodes as well called the Ephesians prayer.
So we will get into this even deeper. But let me, when I read this prayer, I said, God, why can't that be me? You know, two decades or more ago, I read this and said, why can't I be that guy, Father? In Ephesians Oh, I'm sitting here looking at this. He says, Ephesians 5, he says, Therefore, be followers or imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love.
As Christ loved us. Walking in love is that we treat others the way that He treated us. You can't just treat people the way your daddy taught you. You have to treat people the way Abba Father taught you.
So, listen to this. What I'm about to share with you. Because this is The Just listen to this. This is Ephesians chapter four. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, Beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation whereby you are called.
What vocation? What did he call you to do?
Well In a Born again, since the first thing he called you to do is to walk in love. But in out of that, he may give you a job, he may give you an assignment, he may give you a mission. And listen to what he says, with all lowliness and meekness and with long suffering, forbearing one another in love.
So, in everything we do, we don't come in. See, remember what I said earlier about Phileo love comes in and wants the high seat, wants the best seat, wants this. Here I am. Look at me, everybody. I'm the greatest.
I'm the best. But yet, God's kind of love walks in and says, Here, let me get the door for you. Here, oh, there you are. I've been praying for you. Can I help you?
What can I do for you? God kind of love walks in and doesn't rebuke people, but he walks through the wall and says, Peace be with you. Remember when Jesus when the disciples, those he had trained for three and a half years, who should be great successes? Because what better revelation could you have than to spend three and a half years with Jesus himself seeing everything he saw? But then he dies and is hung on the cross, put in a grave.
And what do you do? You and your buddies go hide in an upper room. And you're cowering in fear because you know they're looking for you. You've denied him.
So you're in this state of I mean, could you imagine what the upper room was like? The state of that room, how depressing, dark, and dis Disturbed, they must have been, and what did Jesus do when he walked in the room? He didn't go, Well, here I am, worship me. No, he walked through the wall and he said, he solved all of their problems in a heartbeat. He said, peace.
be with you. He didn't rebuke them. He didn't destroy them and didn't build them back up. He didn't do all these things that we as humans do in our cloaks of Christianity. He walked through the wall and said, Peace Be with you.
He's a God of restoration. He's a God of love. He's a God of peace. That's the thing I seek on a day-to-day basis: peace. And he says, love, forbearing one another in love, enduring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Well, there you go. That's the thing. My son came home from Bible school and He tells you, he'll tell you if you ever have a conversation with him. One of the first things I taught him. was not to let anybody Not to show them s show anybody that he's sweating.
Not to Overreact to not let people get his goat. You can argue with Joel. about stupid stuff and he'll never let on that he's frustrated. That he's because why? And then he told me this the other day.
He goes, Because, dad, if there's one other thing I'm learning. It's endeavor to to stay in peace. with everybody and even myself said, yeah. That's it in every situation. I'm looking for peace.
And that's exactly what Paul says right here, endeavoring to keep. the unity of the spirit. In the bond of peace. You can't have unity without peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father in all, who is above all, through all, and in all. He is the God, He's a spirit, He's omnipresent, and everything He is is everywhere. If God is love, which John tells us, and we've seen that throughout the scriptures, God is love, then wherever He is and wherever His omnipresent Spirit is, love is there. It's everywhere. But in every one of us is giving grace according to the measure of the gift of God.
So Romans 5:8 and chapters 5, verses 1 through 8 tells us that when we are born again, we confess Jesus as Lord, he puts a deposit in us. That the positive love comes with grace. To fulfill your calling, to fulfill not just walking in love, but the mission that He gives you, your vocation, as Paul says. He's equipped you, but the thing is, you can't tap into what he's equipped you or called you to do if you don't first. Begin to transform and walk in this thing.
And listen, he's going to give it to us. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captives captive and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it that he didn't also first descend first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is also the same that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
Now, the whole point there is. Before Jesus was born, there was something called Abraham's bosom, and there's examples of it in the Old Testament. And when Jesus died, he went to Abraham's bosom. He went into the lower parts of the earth or hell, Hades, and Abraham's bosom, and he preached the gospel. And then all those that were captive in what the Catholics still call purgatory.
He led them out and took them to heaven. None of them could go to heaven until the gospel, until the cross, what happened at the cross had happened, and the blood had been poured on the altar. Nobody could go to heaven at that point. None of these people, they were all in Abraham's bosom, which is the whole theory where purgatory comes from. But when Jesus led captives captive, this scripture right there destroys the whole concept of purgatory.
Okay, do you see that?
Now, let's keep reading. He gave some to be apostles, prophets, and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. These are the vocations he might be referring to.
Now I don't believe that these are the only ones. But we've turned it into the five-fold ministry for the perfecting of the saints, for the working of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
So these offices, these vocations are for that purpose, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. What is the perfecting of the saints? That's the question, and I have that highlighted right here. What is the perfecting of the saints? Maturity.
for the maturing of the saints. for the transformation of the saints. I could show you, there are 242 scriptures dealing with. Shepherds or pastors, or we call priests. Or religious leaders.
There's 242 scriptures dealing with that. Many of them. or in the context of prophecy. Yeah. And I would suggest that if you think you're called to five-fold ministry, that you go study those 242 scriptures.
Before you make a Choice for yourself about whether you're called or not to those areas. Because there are too many people. You know, my son is in a Bible school. One of the things he went when he went there, the first one of the things I told him said, now listen, son, the majority of the people that go there are not called. They're there because they need help.
They're there 'cause they're looking for a path in life. Or they need help. And lots of help. And I said, there's probably going to be less than 10%. Of those people, the that are actually called of God to ministry, to the five-fold ministry.
Well When he came home after several months. He said to me, he goes, Dad. He goes. There are so many. People who were there because their dads are preachers and said, you need to be a preacher.
You're going to Bible school. Their dads or their family said, This is what you're supposed to do. And he said, and yet they'll sit there and admit to you. That they don't want to do that, that that's not what they're called to do. He goes, and I'd say, Dad, that 90% of the people in that Bible school need help.
They're not called. They need help. I mean he's No he's a young man. And that's a conversation that him and his roommates have had, and they just marvel. Yeah.
Yeah. The number of people that need help. I would never discourage somebody to go to a Bible school, especially this Bible school, because what you learn there will help transform you and get you on a path to help. Get you on a path to perfection. That's why they're there, so that those ministers can help perfect them and edify them.
And he says, This: till we all come into a unity of faith, and you can't have unity without peace, and at the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. I read that and I said. That's what I want. That's what I want. I want to come into the fullest possible nature.
or the fullest possible Version Of what God wants me to be. Then when I walk through the gates, I'll hear Well done, thy good and faithful servant. And not just, well, you're done. I want to walk through the gates and hear, well done, thy good and faithful servant. But how do I do that?
How do I come to that place to where, when I walk through heaven and I hear, well done, thy good and faithful servant, that to me is success. I don't know if it's possible, but if I walk into heaven and he says, well, you're done. I'm not going to feel like a success. I know that when I get into heaven and I go up into the third heaven, as Paul did, and if I'm allowed to walk into the throne room of God. Because I've become a some portion of love.
That I will probably spend an eternity in awe and amazement learning things I never learned here, and in awe of who he is and the amount of love that he has. A love that is so intense, it probably cuts through you like a thousand pin needles. You don't know. I can only speculate. But what I don't want to do is go to heaven and hear, well, You're done, but You didn't learn how to love.
So, John, we need you to go to this school. We needed to go down here to the first heaven. And that's a whole speculation, but you know. Yeah. Man, if the purpose of the five-fold ministry is to help me and you get to that place where we become the fullness of what God has for us, then that's what I expect from preachers.
That's what I expect from shepherds. That's what I expect from priests. I expect them. To help me down the road toward what he's called me to do, not to what he's called them to do.
Now, there may be a period of time where you serve and you help them, but I would believe that there should be a game plan. Listen, stay with me. And let's build this, and I help you get everything in place so that you can launch out and do it yourself. The greatest thing that any teacher, preacher, evangelist can do is train up others and release them. Release them, bless them, give them everything they need to go.
When you go through the Old Testament, that's what you see. You see that when people are released, they don't just send them away. Oh, we bless you. No, they give them a portion of everything they have so that they can go out and succeed. Who does that?
And it's not just okay, you were here, now you're gone, goodbye, we don't want to talk to you anymore. You keep mentoring, you keep teaching, you keep growing. You become their wise counsel. But too many preachers, when somebody comes in and says, Well, I believe the Lord's telling me to do this. They get mad and upset But yet, the blessing for these ministers, the blessing for these preachers, the blessing for them is in.
The release scene. And they don't realize that. Yeah. They don't realize that.
So let's keep reading because it's gonna get good. Gonna get gooder, gooder, gooder. Till we all come in the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God made us. unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So he's telling you right there. That the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. is possible. What's possible? And then I love what he says here that we then no longer.
Our children Tossed to and fro, carried by every wind of doctrine and by the slight of men, and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait in deceit.
So he acknowledges that if you were to become Rooted and grounded in love, and mature into the perfect man, because that's what he's speaking of here. That you would no longer be mere children, you would no longer be swayed by the cunning teachings of men, you would no longer be swayed to chase after the latest and greatest fad of Christianity. You wouldn't be swayed by those things. Yeah. But listen to verse 1.
Or verse fifteen, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him. All things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body is fit and joined together and compacted in such a way that every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the full measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. What has God called you to do? Yes. Your path, your vocation.
Is a vocation of love. I don't care if you sell cars. I don't care if you sell turnips out of the back of a pickup truck. I don't care if you're a general contractor, a coach, or a public speaker, a pastor, a preacher, whatever. Your first and primary vocation.
is to become love. to become rooted and grounded in love.
So that you can become Mature. Your vocation may not be the five-fold ministry. But you're still required to become mature. You're still going to be Accounted According to whether you Okay. Grew in maturity, whether you were rooted and grounded in love, becoming mature, attaining to the fullness of Christ.
Yes. That's what this whole experiment on planet Earth is about. Becoming the nature and the fullness of Christ in this world, in his place. As he was, so are we. Your job, your desire, your purpose as a Christian is not to wear these cloaks of Christianity.
Your purpose and and and and and The desire of God in us when we become born again is to become what he was. Romans 5:1. Therefore, be imitators of God. And walk in love. That's it, guys.
If you get nothing else out of that, imitate God. How do you imitate God?
Well, if God is love, then what? Walk in love. Walk in agapeo, practice and walk in love. Then, what happens is you take that into the car lot, you take that into the plumbing store, you take that into the gas station, you take that into the foreign field, you take that anywhere, and people are going to say, There's something different about you. And they're going to come to you like it says in Ezekiel: arise and shine.
See how the glory of the Lord rises upon you, see how dark grossness covers the earth. But yet here you and I are. Here we are. It may be dark all around us, but yet the glory of the Lord rises upon us and causes Him to come to us. People will be attracted to that that they've never seen.
And what the world is crying out for, Romans tells us in Romans 8:14 and 8:20, 8:16. And it goes on to say: those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Those who are led by the Spirit of love are the sons of love. We could say it that way, but he goes on to say that all of creation waits with eager expectation for the sons of God, the sons of love, to be revealed. Let me make you a promise, my friend.
You may be listening, going, Brother John, you're off your rocker. I'm okay with that. You may be going, this is the biggest pile of rubbish I've ever heard. I'd rather study prosperity. I'd rather study love or faith or whatever.
I don't care. You go for it. You study those. If that's what God's told you to do, you be obedient. But you will not achieve what you're after in any of those things if you don't first learn how to love.
Because of all the things in the Word of God that cannot fail, because I don't know about you, but I believe the scriptures. I believe the scriptures before I listen to some brother on the radio.
So, you need to go out and study these scriptures yourself. You need to feed on the word. Why? Because there's only four things that cannot fail. God?
His mercy, His Word, and His love.
So if you dedicate yourself to those four things: relationship with God, to act according to His mercy towards others, to love as He loves others, and then to study and feed on His Word. How can you ever fail? That's why love cannot fail. Because when we come to that place, we say, God. See, it's not just about, I don't want to fail, but it's about God.
If love can never fail, if mercy can never fail, if your word can never fail, and if you cannot fail, then how about I dedicate my life to becoming those or getting as close and as much of those four things in me as I can? And what you will find is that you will become the fullness and full to the stature of God. You will find yourself overflowing. To the fullest measure of God, you will find yourself. In the place of accidental miracles, you will find yourself.
Living A life that very few do. You will be the one that they write about. You will be the one that they tell stories about. You will be the one that people come to and go, Can I tell your stories in my book? You will be persecuted.
The religious church will come after you. The the religious will come after you. They'll call you a fanatic. But you see, if you were to meet me in public. Because you might say, oh, he gets excited on that show.
He gets excited on the radio. You probably won't see me get excited in public. Except maybe overseas preaching a crusade. You know, one of the ways people it's funny because I go into places in other countries where our show is on the air and and uh with translators and all of that. And I went into a pantry one day, and not a pantry, a pastry shop one day, and I said I'd like this and this and this and this and a head peeked around the corner.
and looked at me and came back around the corner and then a girl comes around the corner and goes, Are you Brother John? I said yes. And everybody came out and wanted to see me because they didn't know what I looked like. They knew my voice, but they didn't know what I looked like. And it's neat because you go, wow, I didn't know y'all were listening.
Oh, we listen every day. Every day your show's on, we listen. I go, wow. Praise God You know Never in studying and doing a radio show in college for fun. and and taking a few classes in radio.
Would I have thought that it'd turn into that? Never. And I'm not great at it. I I purposely don't Not purposely, but I I don't I'm not endeavoring to have the greatest editing, the greatest this. And I would love all that.
Maybe one day it'll come along that I've got people who can do that for me, but I'm not worried about it right now. The only thing I really care about is that this revelation gets out there, and that some of you out there begin to listen and you begin to say, you know what, Brother John? And you'll make the same choice I did. Because I said, God, if this is true, if love can never fail, then what have I got to lose? What have I got to lose?
than to start treating everybody the way I think Jesus would. What have I got to lose? to give it a shot. And I've been at this experiment now for 20 plus years. I have failed love.
But love has not failed me. And I'm fair enough to say that I know the difference. In the areas that I've made mistakes and I've fallen and I've done those things. I was the one who did those things. Love didn't do those things.
I would never call. My mistakes God's mistakes. I would never call what is evil good and what is good evil. And and I would say to you if you're out there listening and you say What do I do, Brother John? How do I get started?
On my experiment Okay.
Well, I said it to you earlier. Get in relationship with God. First of all, Ask God into your heart. Ask him to forgive you of your sins and make it right with God. Go outside, look up at the stars, and just talk to God.
Cry and let it all out. Let him have that experience with you, and you have that experience with him. Then. Begin To study the word. And I would start in Johns, in the John Gospels, and maybe even if you study Johns, the Johns first.
And then, as you get to where you've got John's down pretty good, and then find a good Yeah. Bible-believing church. A word in a spirit church, not just a Bible-only church, but a word in a spirit church. And what I mean by that is, and we can talk about this someday, but there are churches out there that believe in what, they know that God is a spirit and that God does many things by acts of the Holy Spirit. We call those miracles, signs, and wonders, and all of that.
But find a good, Bible-based spirit church, a word in the spirit church. You won't find a church that calls itself the word in the spirit that I'm aware of, unless you, there's only two that I know of, and I was part of. helping them, but the um Find a church. And I'm not going to tell you a name or anything like that, but find a church in your area that preaches the word and the spirit and preaches love. And then every day you begin to practice love and show mercy.
even where mercy is not due. Show mercy. And give love, even to those who don't deserve it. Yeah. We'll have episodes talking about how tough love can be because there is such a thing as tough love.
Bible's full of it. But for most of us, We love the whole judgmental. I can judge people. I can turn the money changers' table over. But, you know, people love to talk about Jesus braiding the whip and all that.
The problem that I have often with that is. You're not judging the situation correctly because when Jesus did that, he had already mastered something that most of the church has not mastered, and that is love. He had learned to walk in love. That's why that event was recorded and so extraordinary because it was so different. For him.
See, most of us spend more of our time turning over the money changers table than we do. Walking in love.
So, you've got to judge things correctly. Give up turning over the money changers' table and arguing with people and fussing and fighting for a while. And just learn. to walk the Via del Rosa of your own life. Learn to have people spit on you and mock you.
Learn to have people spread lies about you. Learn to have people in your house eating from you one day and lying about you the next. Learn to carry those things, to carry the cross of the vocation he's called you to. Then, when he does ask you to turn over the money changer's table, wow. We've got to change our perspective and become rooted and grounded in love.
And by becoming rooted and grounded in love, we become all that He wanted us to be.
Okay. And we are no longer just wearing the cloaks of Christianity, but now His glory, His righteousness rises up upon us and it draws people to us. It changes us, but it changes those around us. And all of creation is waiting for you and I to get started on that. It all of creation waits with eager expectations for the Sons of Love to be revealed.
So, I want to challenge you, begin to take that step. get so close to God. That you smell like him, you look like him, you act like him, and you can fail. You cannot fail like him. Is what I should say.
Listen, we love you. We appreciate you. We're glad you're listening. We hope that this helps you. We hope that we're not just rambling, but you're learning and you're thinking, going, man, that makes sense.
We loved you. We appreciate you. Remember, Jesus loves people, and love never fails. Thank you for listening to Love Never Fails as we pursue revival. Remember, Jesus loves people and love never fails.
For more information on Love Never Fails and ministry events, please email us at love neverfails with brojohn at gmail.com. That's love neverfails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, yeah, yeah, hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
