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. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening to Love Never Fails. I'm Brother John, and I'm so glad you're with us.
I want to start today. and praying over you. Uh Many times in the past, I have prayed this prayer over myself and over my family. And would you believe it, I didn't bring in. My other Bible that I love.
to pray this over, so This, I'm not going to stop the recording just to go get it, but I do have my King James here with me. And this prayer comes out of Ephesians. And what it is, is Paul is praying. For himself and for others. And I've kind of just got the belief, and I was taught by a mentor of mine that, well, if it's good enough for Paul, it should be good enough for us, too.
So I want to start today by praying this prayer over you. And just listen to these words, how Paul prayed, and how he prayed over the church of Ephesus. And let it soak in. Let it listen to it. Don't just hear it, but listen to it.
And let it minister to you. And. These prayers are from Ephesians. uh one and chapter three.
So beginning with um Verse eighteen or fifteen of Ephesians one. Wherefore I also, after heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of Him. And at the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe, according to the working working working of his mighty power? Which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.
far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is to be named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things on under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things To the church. And what is his body? The fullness of him that filleth all. And all.
Real.
So he ceases not to give thanks. to us. About us, making mention of us in his prayers, that the Lord of our God Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you and I, you and I, friends. He's not just praying this for himself, he's praying this for the church of Ephesus, he's praying this for all of those who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ since he prayed this. And he said, May give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him.
Man. Can you imagine Being full of the spirit of wisdom and knowledge. of him and revelation I love revelation. I love when I'm studying the word and something just, I have for years described it like this, that when God says he could say boo to you. And that boo would come with so much information, so much of a spiritual download that you could run on that revelation of boo for a year, two years, or 10 years.
There are things God has said to me that haven't come to pass, but I'm holding to them. I'm still running with them. When hard times come, I go, wait a second, wait a second. God said I can do that through his word, but I can also do that because of my relationship with him, because he has. given me revelation.
We call that Rhema. He's given us a Rhema word. It's not just a logos word, which is knowledge, but he imprinted it. God said, I will write my law upon their hearts. And when God speaks to you and he gives you that.
He says one word or ten words, or maybe he takes you somewhere else, and you have an open vision, or you ascend into heaven, or maybe we all hear stories about people who have died, and on the table in the hospital, or wherever they would be, they'd be caught up into heaven and they would meet Jesus, and he said one or two things to them. For instance, I heard a story the other day about a man. Who died and he went to heaven And when he walked into heaven, he saw all these wonderful things, and the Lord Jesus was standing in front of him and looked at him and said, Have you learned to love? And the man's saying all this stuff, and he's trying to talk. He's excited.
Here's Jesus, the king of glory, the creator of everything. And you go, Lord Jesus. And Lord Jesus says to him a second time. Have you learned to love? And the third time he asked him The man stopped and looked at him and he said No.
And Jesus said, You have to go back. I know a man who was very instrumental in my salvation, in leading me to Jesus. He invested time in me and he didn't try to he did preach to me some. But he didn't try to his first encounter to turn me into a Christian overnight. But he kept He kept with me.
He kept working with me. He kept loving on me. And he actually died of a heart attack in the 70s, in the 1970s. And He went to heaven, and one of the things the Lord said he wasn't done with him, but that he needed to learn to love others. And when he came back to Earth, And he woke up in the hospital.
He dedicated his life to doing that and he became a teacher. Excuse me, my water bottle's crackling. Hope that doesn't disturb you. He came back and became a teacher, and that's how I met him. He was one of my teachers.
Sorry. I'm going so fast already, I needed a drink. I'll keep the lid off this time so it doesn't keep going. He was instrumental. His life changed after that, and he began to love people, and people thought he was weird.
I thought he was weird when I had him in class and then... He led to me becoming a Christian. He led to me beginning to. Learn things and go, wait a second, there's something that, sure, I was a good kid. I had a did a lot of good things.
I did a lot of horrible things, but I would do great things as a kid, but. When I began Meet somebody who's truly a Christian. Because I didn't go to church. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. I was raised in a home that.
I guess you could say we thought we were Christians because we were Americans. But my has that how has that been dispelled? But the man just kept working on me, loving on me, and you know, praise God for that. But he had a revelation he had a download and he ran the rest of his life Loving on people and serving God. And when we get this revelation, when God says whatever He says to us, that only sometimes you would understand.
It changes us. We want to be different. It's a knowing that. Wait a second, I'm not alone. He's here.
He wants me to be different. I need to be different.
Something about me's got to change. Whatever it is, that revelation, that wisdom that he imparts to you, and it's like somebody inserted the disc into your soul. And when he said whatever he said, it downloaded just tons of revelation and wisdom and information. about himself to you. And it changed you.
And Paul is praying here that we would get that spirit of wisdom, that spirit of revelation. Why? Because it changes us, it makes us, there's a purpose to it, and the purpose is transformation. It causes us to begin to grow, to begin to seek, to begin to go, wait a second. And like for me, it wasn't even that somebody had to tell me to stop doing certain things.
I didn't want to do them. I didn't want to participate. I would go places with people as a young man and go, wait a second, this isn't right. And it wasn't that I was taught, you know, that they were breaking a law or something, but something on the inside of me wouldn't let me keep doing those things. And that's oftentimes what revelation will do for us: the spirit of wisdom.
And Revelation and the knowledge of him. Because when we become aware of him, he who is, the great I am, he who alone knows. It should change us. It should change us. And the the biblical word is not just change.
The biblical word should be Transformed. Everything in us becomes different. We become transformed. We become a new creature. We.
are different. than we were before. I remember Coming home. from the very first Gulf War. in 1991.
nineteen was it ninety or ninety one? Anyway, I came home. I was getting ready to get out of the military, or at least off active duty. While I was in the desert, I spent a lot of time in the Word, especially in the foxhole at night. My eyesight was so good, the moonlight was so bright, I could sit there and read one of those little Gideon New Testament Bibles by moonlight.
And I remember sitting in my foxhole. one night just reading that word and My boxhole buddy. Juan was asleep. And I'm sitting there. and reading the word And just looking up.
At the stars, I didn't know it was called the word then. I didn't understand it. I didn't know all the what I know now. I was just a young punk of a kid in the military. And Here I am in the desert storm and desert shield.
And I don't know anything about God. And I'm laying there in the or sitting there on the edge of the foxhole. And I look up from the word and I look up at the sky. And just it was one of the most beautiful moments in my life. And I could see all the stars.
I could see parts of stars that I don't think I'd ever seen before. And it was just an amazing... Amazing moment. And it was like, I remember I got a download out of that. I got a spiritual download.
I've never forgotten it. And it wasn't long after that that the Lord told me to get out of the military and go to college. But it started in that moment that I was laying there. And I was like, whoa.
Well, you know, and and not lay in our Um sitting there. And I've got a download. And my knowledge of God started changing from Uh Just knowing That there was a Bible, knowing that there was a religion called Christianity, knowing that there were churches and I should probably go to some, knowing that I should do this or that and not do this or that. But it became a knowing that started a change in me. And when I landed back at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a few months later.
People who knew me before that, who who weren't deployed with us. I remember I walked into brigade headquarters one day. to do I was turning some keys in. And this person said to me, You've changed. I said, excuse me.
He said, there's something different about you. You're smiling. You appear to finally be happy. And I was like. And I knew what it was.
I knew. And and that moment, that night in the desert, It's become a desired pattern in my life. And what I mean by that is. I I know I'm not explaining it. In a way that anybody can really understand, I guess.
But You know, when God does these things to us, Only you. for yourself. can truly know the the power of that moment. And There are many, many, many times people have come to me and said, You know, brother John, I need help. I, you know, what can I do?
And I'd say, man. This sounds stupid, but make a cup of coffee coffee. And go late. in the grass in your backyard. Go go stare up at the sky.
Day or night, go stare at the sky, you know.
Well, probably one of the best toys I ever bought my kid was a trampoline. And I would lay on that trampoline sometimes and just stare up at the stars. I there are many, many, many nights. My family calls it my cave time. Where Uh you know, my responsibilities you could say as a dad are over.
Then We're winding down and maybe the kids have gone to bed or whatever. and I'll go sit in a chair. We have a just this a cheap chair that I'm able to recline in. And I'd go sit out there. And and worship And just talk to God.
I've done that. countless times in my life Expecting and waiting on one of these download moments, waiting on God to just minister to me, even if it's just a, hey, John, and he blows my hair, but I know it's him. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? And it's cultivated into a thing where now my family, all seven of us, and sometimes we have others join us, we love.
to just we have a a a ho place where we can burn Uh uh stuff a fire pit And we have chairs around it, and we will take music out there and just worship. outside around the fire and just Worship and you know, the fire, and as it's burning down, everyone else will come inside or go their separate ways. And I'll just sit there waiting on the fire to burn out, and I'll just lean back. And just look at the stars. And just it it's a moment.
That I'm I'm expecting, that I'm waiting, that I'm Desiring For God. I can't explain it any other way than that. Paul is telling us that we may have the knowledge of him, that we have these moments, these revelations, these wisdoms, these times of wisdom and impartation where we would grow in this. And as we examine his prayer, you're going to see that: that there's a purpose for this growth. There's a purpose for these moments.
There's a purpose behind each of these moments. Where we allow God. In. To speak to us. To encourage us to love us.
To act like Abba father, daddy. I mean it You know, I'm a middle-aged man. I still want. I'm a father. I still want Daddy.
My kids. Want daddy. I'm still the same way. I remember. Uh There was a I tend to work very hard, and I work long hours.
And so for me Two Um I'm in a season where some things happen. And uh basically a natural disaster. and our business, our company. Uh moves and operates in that arena. And when The recent hurricanes hit, we've just been slammed.
And I've been working seven days a week. Uh multiple hours, late nights. Just leading and guiding and mentoring our people. And people say, Well, Brother John, you can't miss out and you're quiet. You can't.
And I still find time to do that in the morning. You know, I wake up early, I get in the Word, I spend time with God, I still have those moments. But there are also seasons, and God knows this, where you're in battle. You're leading, you're mentoring, you're doing what's required of you, and then there's seasons of growth and prayer. And so there's seasons where you impart, lead, and mentor, and you're draining All of the resources he's put in you.
But you're still growing. It's just in a different manner. You know, maybe, maybe, you know, for us I can sit back and look at it, I see how he's developing our business. In leadership You know, when the s when one of the hurricanes hit. I was in my kitchen one Sunday morning, and the wind is blowing, and the rain is coming, and it's been ongoing for days.
And I'm sitting there cooking breakfast for my family. And I knew what was coming. I knew that this, that I had four or five months of just straight out work coming. And I knew that If I wasn't careful, you know, but I was praying. And I I remember I was standing in front of the stove.
Normally, I'm cooking potatoes and eggs and bacon and all that for the family. And I had my cup of coffee there. I have worship music on. And all of a sudden, I saw our team. And I knew it was several months down the road.
And one of the things we've been really working on is training, training, training. And in the midst of the hurricane, Before I knew the real storm was coming, I mean, the hurricane was just the beginning. The storm for us came once it made ground and we got over into that area. And let me tell you, when a disaster comes, you know, it's six or seven months after the disaster, it is still a disaster zone. There are so many things going on.
FEMA's gone, Red Cross is gone, the churches are gone, everybody's gone, and there are. thousands of people that still need help. Thousands of people. I mean, it's six months later, and we're still finding. People who nothing has happened.
And we're doing everything we can to help them. And we I tell people all the time, we're not in this business, we are actually in the business of helping people. And I lead my team and teach them, look at people and say to them, how can we remove this burden? and help you get your life back. That's our business.
That's what we do. And so. You know, it's months later. And the hurricane.
So, here when the hurricane that Sunday morning was pounded on our doorstep. All of a sudden, it's like I knew and I saw something. And it was off in the future several months. And I saw our entire team and a few people I didn't know. Sitting at the table.
And it was one of these folding tables that we would teach on. and with folding chairs all around it. And I knew that they were in a class. And the class in and the Spirit of God said to me, A well-trained team. A well-trained team.
Well, then A few days later, where am I? Um walking streets. I'm tarpon roofs, I'm climbing houses and Doing everything I can to lead, and it was a disaster. We lost some people, we've gained some people, things have changed. There's a team, but the team is growing.
I see the development, I see what's happening. And I just, I rejoice because I go, wow. Praise God You know, but that was one of those moments where God spoke to me, and I didn't hear the audible voice of God, but I knew. And I've gotten so accustomed to listening to the Holy Spirit. And, you know, my favorite two things to teach are walking in love and being led by the Spirit.
Because that's what we need in these last days. And so when Paul says, Praise this prayer. You know, and obviously it looks like the Lord has us on this prayer for this whole episode.
So let's pray that we can get through it. If we don't, we'll pick it up next episode. But he says, May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. Man. Isn't that what we want?
Isn't that what we want sometimes all we need to keep going? Is a little I love you. You know, if you're married, you you your spouse looks at you and you know, I love you. Or or my kids, each one of my kids can look at me in a different way. And I know what it means.
I know what it means. My oldest son, the way he talks to me is different than all the others. He's in Bible school right now, and he'll call me and go, Dad, I heard this or I heard that or tell me about this. Or, Dad, somebody brought this question up. What do you think?
And I'm thousands of miles away replying, going, Well, that's ridiculous. Or, well, here's what the word says. I always take him back to the word. And then my other son, who is just probably he could be a multi-millionaire platinum, whatever comedian if he wanted to. He could also be an athlete, you know, a football player.
He's 6'6, 200-some pounds. He's not fat either. He's huge. And He's got options. But he is so funny, and he's got his own way of talking to me.
He doesn't talk to me like my older son does. and in my youngest my my oldest daughter is just as affectionate. as can be. And it's just so genuine and so innocent. And she just.
She loves. to be pampered. She loves to pamper me. My next daughter, she'll look across the room from me, and it's like, you know, she'll start talking to me just with her eyes. And I know what she's saying.
I can't explain why I know, but I know. And she and I will look across each other. I mean, all of our kids, we could do this. And, It's just, you know, it's the way we communicate. And then my youngest son.
Man, he's just he's still young, but he he He's just excitable. He's full of laughter and joy, and he's going through a phase now, but. He loves to laugh. He loves the laugh. He's got a great laugh, much like my second son did, does.
And You know, for him. He just wants dad. You know, they all want dad. They all want mall. But he wants You know, he loves to hear things like I said to him one day.
I used to call him Biggin'. Or big boy. You know, I but I'd call him big and any. One day he just goes, Oh, I love it when he calls me that. And he's walking away and he gets all excited a lot, like I do, because I love it when he calls me that.
And I mean, right now he's three foot tall, 60 pounds, maybe, I don't know. Skinny as a rail. But I keep telling them, you're going to be bigger than your brothers. You know, he's got brothers that are 6'4 and 6'6 or 6'7. And I'm like, you'll be bigger than them.
And he said to me, I have to share this. And it's just all about relationship, guys. And he said, I go over to him one day and I'm getting a wrestle with him. And, you know, I walk up and he can tell because I'll start doing something stupid like fee, fi, full, fum. I smell the toes of a little one.
I've been doing that for 18 years. And as I'm coming over, he'll curl up and try to get away or run or whatever. And he just laid there this time. And I get on top of him and I wrap my arms around him and he won't move. Like, what are you doing?
I said, let's wrestle. He goes, Na I said, Why won't you wrestle? Because Dad? I'm going to wait till I'm bigger. I was like, what?
I was, yeah, I'm going to wait till I'm bigger when I can beat you. I'm like, oh no. He's learned from his brothers because his brothers, I'm only 6'2. His brothers will come over and just lean on me. And I'm like, I quit, I quit, I give up, I give up.
So. But those are daddy moments. Those are daddy moments. It's all about relationship. And they glean from me.
I learn from them. I'm a better person today because of my kids. I'm a better person today because of my wife and the way we communicate in our relationship and the little things that my wife and I do. If you're out there, you know. My wife and I.
have a custom that I learned from my parents. And When I took my wife to meet Uh my parents. We were engaged. We'd been engaged a few weeks. I called him and said, hey, just, you know, I'm getting married.
I was 27 at the time. And uh And so we met and And uh I can't. Anyway, I don't know where that started to go, but when. When I called my parents said, I'm getting married. My mom and dad said They gave us two pieces of advice.
My dad said whatever you do. have coffee every morning. He said, if you go to bed mad. If you've had a knockdown blowout fight the night before, whatever you do. You have coffee.
in the morning. And that has become a staple in our life. My wife and I will Fight to have coffee every morning.
Now they'll tell you I don't make great coffee. Even my sons will be like, Dad, you don't make great coffee.
So when it just so happens that I make great coffee, I get a compliment. The rest of the, but I've even got in-laws who are like, hey, it's coffee time. And I'm like, I'll make it. No, no, no, no. Let your wife make it.
I'm like, oh, come on, people, because they all drink tar, I just drink coffee.
So But my wife and I We have coffee time together. And when we have coffee time together, We're communicating. We're talking, we're planning, we're downloading from one another. Our relationship grows. We talk about the word.
She'll read a daily devotional, or I'll read it. One of us will read it. And we usually pick one, and it just, we didn't even plan this. We didn't go, oh, let's do this. And it's not something we plan.
Over the years, every morning, you know, or through the years, we've read a devotional or we'll read a quick little thing just to get us going and kind of jumpstart our day. And it's so great. And we both usually have two cups of coffee. And then we wake the kids up and get rolling.
So But it's those moments like that that she and I are communicating. That she and I, obviously, we're husband and wife, so we have other times. I'm just sharing. It is morning time with you. And so there are seasons we have to do without that, but then there's seasons whether I'm overseas preaching or our company is deployed to an area working hard.
Then there are seasons that we can't do that. But those seasons we do do that. Those relationships, that knowing, that knowledge, that revelation of one another carries us. through those seasons. During this season, I've been extremely busy.
I've fallen behind on radio shows. We've been in reruns. Everything has kind of been on pause, and I had to say, okay, what's most critical? We focused on those.
Well, with the new year coming, one of the things the Lord began to deal with me about was the radio and getting back new episodes done and getting all, you know, getting back on track with that. It's an obedience thing for me. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey me. One of the things he said was do radio. And I don't see where, I mean, I kind of have a hope about where it's going.
I hear stories, I hear things, I talk to people, we dream about the possibilities. But we know that throughout Central, South America, and even around the world, different people are listening to this program. And hopefully, you're learning, you're gleaning, and you're going, Man, I can live like that. I can live like that. Because there's been so many times in my life where I've heard somebody say something, and I would say, Well, God, if you can do that for him, you can do it for me because you're no respecter of persons.
And the only qualifier is that we're out there, we're trying, we are endeavoring to be what he asked us to be, which is his child. And to be his child, that means we've got to love, we've got to walk in love, we've got to try to become love. He never said we had to be perfect the day we got up from the altar. He just said That we and the Bible teaches us: the concept is throughout the word is that day by day, you know, John uses the word: any man who says he loves God cannot continue.
Well, we could say he could not continue in his old way. He's got to be transformed. There's got to be something about you that's changing bit by bit by bit. And I'm not here to say every moment or every day or even every week, but there should be change. And somewhere over a few years or a couple of years, I could look at the word and say, hey, you know, Jesus taught the disciples how to be the apostles over a three and a half year period.
So if you've been serving God for maybe three and a half years, I'm not saying you have to be an apostle, but that seed he planted in you should at least have some sprouts in it. It should have, as Ephesians, we're going to get into this later, that seed should have at least started to get rooted. You know, but there's a concept that the Bible also teaches that many people will hear the word. And that seed is scattered amongst all these people, amongst a field. And it says that a quarter of them it'll fall on rocky soil, another quarter will fall among the weeds which choke them out, another quarter falls on shallow soil, and then only a quarter of them falls on deep rooted soil.
And when God, we talked about this in another episode, but God said in Romans 5.8, or 5.5, he says, and he shed or deposited a seed of his love, you are his agape. the real you into you when you're born again.
So, if you're born again, you said, Jesus, be my Lord and Savior. When you got up off your knees, when your heart came up off its knees, There was a deposit put in you.
Now, I've said this before. Listen, you cannot just have a born-again date and think you're going to make it to heaven because the Bible clearly teaches that if you don't water and nurture that seed, it can either get choked out by the weeds and the cares of the world, that it may have landed on sandy, shallow soil, or it may have landed amongst the rocks where there's no nutrition for it to grow. Or are you the soil? That you're starting to make it grow. You go, Brother John, how do I grow?
How do I make that grow?
Well, that's what this show is about. Transformation, revival, not just in the world, but in you. And I need to stay on this course, but I want to see revival. But it starts with us as individuals. There's never going to be a mass revival in the United States that a lot of people are preaching about until individuals begin to.
Revive. And the aspect is that that seed of revival, that seed of love, that agape, because that's what that Greek word is out of Romans, the agape that was shed abroad in your heart the day you said, Jesus, be my Lord and Savior, that revelation seed is agape. It's love. It's his nature. It's the image that he created for you to be.
It's what he created Adam as. It's what Jesus, the first man, actually came to be and teach us. He restored us back. from the fallen nature. And what is that?
Love. The original nature of man, the image of God, was agape. When Adam said, Okay, I'll eat of the apple because the liar said. You'll be like God. Wait a second.
God already made you in his image.
So why would you want to be like God whom you're already like? That's what the I mean I guess I need to be careful here because I don't want to question what God's ultimate plan is and all that. He is supreme, he is sovereign, but sometimes I have to wonder. Adam, what were you thinking? But then I go, wait a second, that's the power of deception: you'll be like God.
Well, you already are, Adam. It's like the media these days all around the world preaching these lies to us, preaching these lies to us, preaching these lies to us. And saying, you need this, you need that, but you already are. It's like even you go to churches and they won't teach this, that you if you Had that seed in your heart, and it landed on that soil, and you begin to cultivate it, and you begin to grow. You water it.
How? With the word. You're studying the word, you're reading the word, you're spending quiet time with God. And as you spend that quiet time with God, or you get away and you talk to God, or you encounter other people who are going where you want to go, and you see that, you say, Teach me something. Teach me something.
Because I can tell you this, most people who know God are not going to just. blasted out at anybody and everybody.
Now, they will when they're up in the pulpit. But I know men that they know have great revelation about God. And and they just won't share it unless they're asked. Or invited. And it's, I don't know why, but that's just something I've experienced throughout my life.
Then I know other people who don't know enough about God, and all they do is run their mouths. About a God they don't know, and what are they doing? They're building a wall between that person and God. I have literally seen that dozens of times in my life. I remember I was at an airport one day, and I'm talking, I had missed my flight.
And I went up to the counter and I was already like, I'm not worried. I'm not concerned. You know, God knew this was going to happen before it ever happened. And actually, what happened is it was because of security. But this is early on, and you know, years ago, but um.
I went to the gate. We're to the ticket counter. I said, hey, you know, whatever happened at security, I couldn't get through. Blah, blah, blah. He said, no problem.
We'll take care of you. I was very nice, very polite. You know, I'm one of these catch honey, use honey to catch flies. You don't use vinegar. They said, okay, we'll take care of you.
You know, hang on just a minute. Let us find a flight. Right about that time, another person comes up, a lady comes up and just starts. Going off. And she said some things I wouldn't want to say, and she starts quoting scripture.
I have the favor of God. You're going to give me. And they literally. I remember this girl looked at me. I smiled.
She looked back at this lady, said, Ma'am, we can't help you. You need to go to such and such, such, such, and just.
Alright, and this Christian stomped off. I'm like, wow. Then they looked at me and said, Sir, we've found a flight. Here where you da da da da da da. Same excuse, same reason we missed our flight.
Well I'm standing there talking to them and the baggage claim person came up because they were wondering why I was traveling, where I was traveling and all that, and I started sharing with them. And I was, you know, I'm not one of these. I don't One, I don't assume people don't know God, and two, I don't assume that people want to know God. But I am obedient to share God, especially when they ask. And so we start talking and God comes up and we start sharing.
And I was actually on my way overseas. And All the people working back there, and I remember this baggage claim guy just stops. And he starts listening and we start talking. And Asking questions, and one by one, people would have to go do their jobs or whatever. And it was just me and this baggage guy.
And I had a long wait for the next flight. and uh we start talking. And he's to the point of basically almost crying.
some of the things were coming out. And up comes another person. I overheard what y'all were talking about. And this person starts Just The whole I've been taught to evangelize I know better than you stuff. And starts, you have to do this, you have to do that, you got to do this, you got to do that, and just started.
and I could tell they wanted to get them saved. And this man I could s literally see him. start putting up It was like, with one hand, he was taking the mortar, with the other hand, he's slapping the brick down, mortar, brick. And he's building that wall. The defenses started going up.
And and Finally, that Person left. And This guy looks at me and I said, I am so sorry. He goes, You didn't do it. And of course he walks away mad. And I was like, dear God.
You know, I can remember a time I was Uh In college. And I had been working on a relationship with a young man. who was troubled for probably Six months. And at the same time I was going to a campus um Christian Group And So I'm working overnight. In a particular place, And I'd been praying and I was just sewing, sewing, sewing into this guy's young man's life.
Okay. And um I finally bought him a Bible. and I put it under the counter at work. And uh That night I was going to give it to him. I was going to give him the Bible.
And Because it was one of these things where he would come in and just hang out in the store for hours. Asking questions about God. And by this time, I was already doing missions work and all of that in my fall or in my Christmas break and my summer break, I would go overseas and do open-air crusades and just minister to people in the streets through drama and stuff like that. And See, there's different times for different types of evangelism. And you've got to be able to identify that.
And with this young man and even with that person in the airport, Trying to lead them down Roman's Road to put a notch in your belt was not how that needed to be handled. Does that make sense? And yet at the same time, there are places, Ezekiel tells us, there's places for spreading nets. There's places and times for doing that.
Well, in this instance, that night, I was going to. Give uh this young man a Bible. And Before he came in, somebody who went to my Christian College Group came in. and started talking to me. And just honestly, just wouldn't leave.
And they were hanging out, and I didn't care. But I knew that this young man was going to come in, and a lot of times his mom would come in with him and. He came in that night, and it's not like I can throw people out or anything like that. And so, both of them are there. And uh And so this guy from my college group was there.
And this young man. And the Bible is under the counter. And This guy from the college group just kind of interjects himself into the relationship that I've built. with this young man. And immediately starts preaching to him, trying to lead him down Romans' road.
And I'm like, oh my gosh. And I didn't know what to do. And I I just kind of said, Well, Maybe This is what God wants. I didn't know better at the time. But I didn't feel right, but I didn't know better.
Finally, out of exasperation after about three hours. This young man Looks at me and then looks up and goes, all right, let's do it. And The Guy from my College. Christian group. basically prays the sinner's prayer with them and in bolts.
Leaves. And he's there with me, and he just kind of looks at me and then leaves. And I just kind of finished my shift. I didn't feel right about what happened. That Bible's still under the counter.
I never gave it to him. And the next night I'm at work. He comes in, he's drunk. First time I've ever seen him drunk. And he's cussing me, he's mad at me, I'm like, man and you know complaining about what happened the night before And he leaves.
And about two hours later, his mom comes in. Just blasted me and just ripped me up one side, down the other. And Basically that young man wasn't ready. He needed some more plowing. He needed some more.
hands-on relationship. And he went out that night and got drunk. out of guilt. And just frustration. And it took me months to earn his trust.
I never was able to give him that Bible. Never. And You know, I had those experiences like that as a young man. to where I was like, you know, you've got to have wisdom. about when and how to do things.
And just being a pure evangelist because you want to get. People saved, that's great. But I've met so many people, even in my age that I am now, I have friends. who basically demand That you pray the sinner's prayer constantly. And if you do something they don't agree with, you're going to hell.
And I don't agree with that. Because I would tell you that according to the Bible, Praying a sinner's prayer doesn't make you a Christian. It means that the seed of Christianity, love, was deposited in your heart. And if you don't get up from that altar and do something about the fire insurance policy he gave you, that fine print might expire before you walk out the door. Because did the seed land on a rocky, sandy, weedy, or good soil?
And if you're not there to disciple them and mentor them and lead them, then that seed is going to dry up, burn up, and be of no use to anybody.
Now God's word is incorruptible, but... Those people have to Have a relationship. The cultivation of the word and the relationship. It's the word and the spirit. The revelation, the wisdom, and the insight and knowledge of God doesn't just come from the Word, it comes from the Word and the Spirit.
That's why when people say to me, what denomination are you? I say the word and the spirit. They go, I've never heard that. I say, well, good. I am of the word and the spirit, and maybe, like Jesus and Paul, call me a follower of the way.
But I am not Pentecostal. I am not Baptist. I'm not Charismatic. I'm not word of faith. I'm not an assembly of God.
I'm not Baptist. I'm not Catholic. The Catholic Church is hates me. That's a whole nother story, but praise God because what they meant for bad, God turned out for good. And thousands of people heard the gospel because they tried to come after me.
In another country, and it worked out. Oh, that's a wonderful testimony. We'll have to share that with you someday. But the whole point here is: Paul is saying. And he's praying this.
That give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. Man, if you have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge, the Logos, that's the Word of Him. You have the Spirit of Wisdom and you have the Word. That's revelation. If you never hear an audible word from God, but you've got the spirit, which is the what?
God is the spirit, God is love. If you're walking in love, endeavoring in love, you're building in love and doing everything, endeavoring to walk in love. And as we're going to see later, In Ephesians, and even Paul talked about it in Romans. He said, In every way that you can, endeavor to live in peace. With everybody.
How do you do that? You love everybody. When people want to argue, you don't argue. When people want to fight, you don't fight. When people want to cuss, you don't cuss.
When people want to take advantage, you don't participate. Unless they're taking advantage of you. Careful there. I don't want people to think that that means you're a doormat. That's not what I mean.
Walking in love doesn't make you a doormat. But having the spirit of wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of him, and when you get that spirit of wisdom, when you get that revelation of knowledge, when you get that revelation, that logos, knowledge in you. The three of those will begin to change you. And as it changes you, you begin to transform. That seed that landed in that heart of yours, that soil, that field of you, that it'll begin to grow.
Why? Because you're watering it. You're feeding it. You're putting the logos and the rhema. You're putting the spirit and the word.
You're putting all that into that love. And now you're beginning to grow. And that love begins to grow. And then you go back to Psalms. And let's go to Psalms real quick.
Do you see why this prayer is such a good prayer? Because it's not just surface. Oh, let me have a spirit of wisdom and revelation so I can be a great preacher. Let me just have a spirit of revelation and insight, knowledge into God so that people will be amazed by how I teach. No, he wants you to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation because we live in a world where...
That lacks that. We live in a world, and especially the many of you listening to this, you live in a Western mindset world that is lacking this. We live in a day and an age where what was once good is now evil and what is evil is now good. Listen to what it says of someone. Blessed.
Blessed. Do you want to be blessed? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Why? Why do you not walk in the councils of the ungodly?
Oh, I say this all the time to people that work for me who think they know better than me and think they, and it's not that I think I know better than them, but I know not to take counsel from people who don't spend time with God. I don't take counsel from people who don't have a spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of his word. Why? Because there's no foundation under that counsel. And he says, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor seated in the way of sinners.
You don't act like the sinners, and not sitteth at the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in the law of the Lord he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his fruit in season, and his leaves shall not wither, and whatsoever he does shall prosper. Your delight is in the Lord. When you have the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of God, it's addictive. You want more.
You say, I want that, God. I need that in my life, God. I don't want to step out of this place with you, God, until I have that today. And then you go out and people look at you and go, you're different. There's something different about you.
I had a man say, an unsaved, drunk man, say to me not long ago, he didn't know how to put his finger on it, but he said, you're a dolphin in the midst of sharks. He said, This industry that you're in is full of sharks and crooks. He goes, But you're different, and I know that God has a niche for you. And I mean, when he was saying it, I could see the alcohol just running out of his veins. His eyes are bloodshot, and he's looking at me going, Why are you different?
You know, and I share a little truth with them. And I have a friend of mine, some people that work for me that, yes, they're friends. I let them answer those questions. Because it it helps that we spread that out. It helps that we share those opportunities with other people.
You know, the man anyway, and and why? Because I don't want to walk in the council of the ungodly or sit at the seat of scorners. I mean, just think about the world we live in: the media and the government and the politics and all that. That fits that. Right there, but Verse 2, but.
My delight is in the law of the Lord. What is the law of the Lord?
Well, John near 638 rules.
Some people say there are 618. It starts with the Ten Commandments, and in the following 608 rules, follow that. And you can find them in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And if you don't follow them, well, you're going to burn in hell. You're not engrafted in the vine.
No. No, no, no, no, no. That is not the way it works. We'll do another teaching on that because it seems to me that this little thing about the law is rising its head again. But that is nonsense.
If you have questions about it, go study the book of Galatians. Go study the book of Galatians. It's a great book for disputing the law of sin and death versus the law of freedom in Christ Jesus. Romans 5, 8, 8. But The law of God.
is not. Those ten commandments and those six yes, they God wrote those, He put those in place. Why? Study the full context of the word. Jesus said in John 13, 34, Today I renew with you an old command.
That word, I know your Bible, you're gonna go look it up, and it says new. That's not what it says in the Greek. That's the way the King James translated, and everybody who uses King James to translate Bibles puts it that way. But the word that's used there is bosco in the Greek, and that word bosco means I renew with you. I renew with you.
So, what was Jesus doing? He's saying, I renew with you today the original command that you love one another even as I have loved you. If you go look at 1 John, John says that we follow a command and it's not as though it's a new command, but one we've had from the beginning. That word beginning is that word alpha. It's eternal, it goes all the way back.
It's not the word alpha, but it's the same context. But it's a beginning referring to a beginning that you can find no end to. The law that always was and always will be, the law of the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning, the end. The word beginning he used there, and here it comes to me, is that word arch. Arch!
So in the very beginning You can never find it. But all the way back there, before God said Genesis 1, before God said the earth was without void, let us create man, let us create light, let us before all of that, there was a law. And Jesus on that day In John 13, 34, it says, I renew that law with you. What is that law? It's the law of love.
The law of love. It is not, you know, it's kind of like this. I tell my kids, I want you to act a certain way. I want you to do something. When they do it, don't do it.
What do I do? I have to come up with other rules and laws. To help break them and get them back to where they're supposed to be. When people do things, like even in my company, I lead with the law of freedom. I try to lead with freedom and liberty.
But there are some people who don't understand the concept of freedom, and part of it is because they're not born again. They don't have the spirit of life in them.
So they constantly don't understand and they break these rules. And then I go, well, okay, since you didn't break, since you broke the soft boundaries, let me give you a hard boundary. You know, because all of us in our lives have soft boundaries that we don't cross. And then at times we have to make hard boundaries. And so what happens is that God, when the people weren't living according to that law to love one another, it's the law that Abraham and Noah and Enoch walked in.
So what did God do? God set hard boundaries. And he had to put all those rules in place to define the one rule. That's why Jesus said that rule, that law will never disappear, but I give you, I renew with you the original command. Because you can follow the original command and all the other laws.
Jesus said, all of the other laws hinge on this one. Because that original law was the first law. And it is the law of the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. It's called love. It's agape love.
And when you get that spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him, what's going to happen?
Well, we will know, and we'll see this when we get to study in 1 John, that you'll begin to walk and talk and act like love.
So he says, and as the light is in the law, and his law does he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit. You're bringing forth fruit. Why? Because that seed of love, agape, that was deposited in you when your heart came up out of salvation prayer. You said, God, I want to be yours.
He said, Great, awesome. Here's a seed. He put it in you.
Now you begin to study with the word and the spirit. And as you do that, that seed grows. And then you go out and you practice. You try, you stumble, you fall. But what's happening?
You're fertilizing that word. You're beginning to grow. You're beginning to transform. And what happens? You become like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
And then people go, I want some of that out of you. I want some of that out of you. And what happens is the older you get, whether you like it or not, people come and try to pluck the fruit from your life. Why? Because they know you have fruit.
You notice people don't go try to pluck fruit from people who don't have fruit, but then you got this whole group of people over there that want to discount and criticize those who do have fruit. Hello?
So, what am I getting at? You need the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. Why? Because you want to be a tree planted by those waters. And we're going to get into this later with Ephesians, but we're running out of time.
We'll have to pick this up in the next episode. But that's where God wants you to be, my friends. He doesn't just want you to be a church-going Christian, He doesn't just want you to have fire insurance, He wants you to become a tree full of the spirit of revelation and knowledge of Him. Because maybe someday some guy will walk into your store. And you'll have a Bible under the counter.
And you may not have the guts to give it to him when you should, but you'll have the spirit of revelation and knowledge of him so that you know how to handle that situation and protect that man's heart like I couldn't. Because I didn't know. But if you will grow And you will try, you will endeavor, and you will wait on God and get that spirit of wisdom and revelation, it will happen. And you can be. a tree planted by those waters.
We love you. We appreciate you. We're so glad that you're listening. I hope this helps you. I'm trying to be as down to earth as I can and chalk it full of scriptures.
It's just my way. I apologize if it's not the best recording in the world or whatever, but please go out and make it a great day. Love other people. 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 never fails with B-R-O-J-O-H-N at gmail.com. Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
