…of the Lord.
What is on my heart to share, really sharing over the next few weeks, is one of the keys to recovery. We know the Lord, in this day, is trying to recover His testimony. We hear the word recovery used often, and we will consider one of those keys: this matter of loving one another.
It comes from a couple of verses with which we are somewhat familiar. May our familiarity not be a hindrance. John 13:33-35:
Little children, I am with you a little while longer.
Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
It can sound strange to say that it is a new commandment, but it is a new commandment: “That ye love one another.” The key thing is this: “Even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
The fruit of that is that all men will know that you are His disciples if you have love for one another. What a glorious testimony it is when the love of Christ is seen in brothers and sisters.
Lord, we are thankful for the fresh reminder of Your love this morning around this table. Lord, whatever we touch on in this matter of Your love, it is a love that is incomprehensible to us.
But, Lord, You have revealed it to us through Your Son and through the enabling of Your Holy Spirit. We want to be those who are continuing to learn more and more of You, of Your heart, and of Your desire in these days.
Lord, we see a great need in our own lives, in the lives of our brethren, and in the lives in this world. There is one answer, and it is You. We are really desiring to be those who return to You and keep our eyes fixed upon You.
In Your precious name. Amen.
As I said, we have been hearing a lot about recovery lately. In fact, we know it is going to be an aspect of the theme for the coming conference this summer. In these days, we see there is a great need for it, because nobody has to tell us that the world is in crisis.
There is great concern. We all have great concern for what is going on. Beyond looking at the world, there is concern for the lost. We sense these are the last days. The Lord does not desire for anyone to perish. There is a great concern for the lost and for the gospel.
We are thankful for the ones from here who are able to participate in Chicago this weekend. Dear ones are in the midst of the cold. Ryan sent a picture yesterday; they were all bundled up, with hoods on and everything. They were pressing on in the midst of the cold of Chicago.
But there is also a great concern for the condition of God’s people. Are we who He desires us to be? There is a question that keeps going out, not only within the church but within the world: What is really going on? What is going on in this hour?
We talk about crisis locally; everywhere is a crisis, it seems like, including the church. And people are scared. One of the things that comes about in times of crisis is fear.
As we look back upon COVID a few years ago, the unknown of that, and everything that it was hyped to be, one of the tragic things that affected so many people was fear. It was gripping them in an abnormal way.
That fear can come in during the days we are living in now. What is happening? Bombs going off everywhere; so many lone rangers out there, exploding bombs here and killing ones there. It can create within us a great fear.
That is why the Lord wants us to find Him as our security, to really know Him in a fresh way: that, in the midst of all that is going on, He will carry us through.
What is God doing in this hour? My focus is not going to be so much on the conditions of the world. What is really on my heart is the church, His testimony.
Particularly related to us as His family, I think He is really crying out for us to wake up as the people of God—for the church to wake up and realize the time we are in. We are here for such a time as this.
As He said in Esther, if we do not stand up, He will use someone else—some other believers. We see how God is doing this work, and He is desiring in this hour to recover His testimony, recovering the testimony of Jesus back to its original heart and original purpose, to be seen through His people.
In general, Christianity is in a weakened condition. Sadly, because of that weakened condition, so much evil has been able to come in—evil within because of sin, self, the flesh, and the enemy himself.
When the church becomes weakened, it provides a way for the enemy’s work to increase. But God is crying out for His testimony to be recovered within the lives of His assembly.
When His testimony is strong among His people, there is a place of security, rest, and peace. Also, when the testimony of God is strong, one of the fruits is that the glorious gospel goes forth. The gospel of God and the spirit of the gospel are released in a fuller way through the strength of His people.
I have used this term, the testimony of Jesus, so it is probably good to spend a moment considering it. What is this testimony of Jesus?
There are many ways you can describe it. Trying to put it in a concise way is always a challenge. But the testimony of Jesus is when the reality—not merely the knowledge—of the headship of Jesus is being lived out, expressed, and seen through the lives of His people, both individually and corporately.
That is the testimony of Jesus. It is not us being seen; it is His life being seen through us: the life of Christ, the power of God, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, seen and expressed in the lives of His people.
He is jealous for that. He is jealous because He is all about one thing. Whenever God does something, it is always with His end in view.
Why does He want us to be strengthened? Why does He want us to be that testimony? Is it simply for today? That is an aspect of it, yes—that we could be a testimony of His people in the midst of a dark world today.
But it is also with His end in view, with His purpose in view: the bride making herself ready. The bride is made ready through the crises and experiences that we go through in our lives today. As we go through various things, we would hopefully decrease, His life within us would increase, and there would be a brighter shining of Himself.
How is this testimony recovered? How is His desire for His life to be seen fulfilled? It always starts in the heart.
The first essential thing is that the hearts of brothers and sisters are captured. Our hearts have to be on fire for Him. Above all, He is not looking for outward things. What He wants first of all is to capture our hearts.
It is wonderful as you look through Scripture and see David. He had that heart for God. Many are not commended for all their knowledge about God; they are commended because they had a heart for the Lord.
This heart, this love that we have for Him, must be open to really see our true condition. An honest heart allows the Holy Spirit to shine in and reveal to us what our true condition is.
We not only have concern for ourselves, but for Him. He is desiring that we, in this hour, would wake up as He does this work within us.
One of the characteristics of the days we are living in—what many refer to as the Laodicean period—is that you do not really know your true condition.
Speaking in a broad way, He says, “You think you are rich and have need of nothing, but actually you are poor, blind, and naked.” He does some things to shake up His people.
We have to remember that the shakings of God always come out of a heart of love—a love for His Son’s life to be expressed through His people. He is jealous for us to return to the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Jesus.
It brings us back to the one thing that is necessary: the life of Christ. That is what He is jealous for. When the life of Christ is there, many fruits come forth. But without that healthy, vibrant, full life of Christ within us, the fruit is hindered from coming forth to the glory of God.
It is wonderful how the Lord teaches us, and how patient He is with us. The older I get, the more I appreciate the patience and longsuffering of God, and how He does not mind repeating things to us.
Sometimes He teaches us something, and we do not quite get it. He teaches us again and again. One of the teaching illustrations He has given us is the Old Testament.
There are many wonderful stories of how people started off well. They had those hearts, but then they fell away. The Lord did not give up on them; He brought about a great recovery.
I am going to use one of those examples today as a picture from which we can learn how God goes about doing works of recovery, because that is what He is jealous for.
There is a beautiful Old Testament example when, finally, the nation of Israel was taken into captivity in Babylon. They were taken into captivity because of their sins. They fell short of all that God had provided for them.
Even though God had loved them with an everlasting love and had sent prophets to them over and over again, they fell into the trap of leaning on their own understanding, committing sins, and following after idols and man’s ways.
So the Lord, in His love, took them into captivity that they would return to Him in that simplicity of devotion to Him. While they were in Babylon, God did not just give up on them.
In a marvelous, sovereign way, God moved through King Cyrus, opened the door, and gave freedom for all of them to return to Jerusalem to build the house of God.
This is recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah, the historical books. Along with those, you have Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as the prophets of that time. Prophets are so necessary during times of recovery.
As we look upon this period of recovery, it is interesting how the first person recorded as really standing as a vessel for this recovery was Daniel.
Daniel had a great place of influence in Babylon. But the work of recovery really starts within the heart of Daniel. Daniel always had a heart for God.
We know all that he went through to stand for God—even in what he would eat, what he would not eat, what he would do, and what he would not do when tempted. We see God’s heart within Daniel.
Even though Daniel was in Babylon, his heart was in Jerusalem. Remember Joseph in Egypt. After he passed away, where did Joseph want to be buried? He did not want to be buried in Egypt. He said, “Take my bones back to that promised land.”
Just like Joseph, Daniel was in Babylon, but his heart was in the promised land. We are in this world, but where are our hearts? That is what He is after today.
Daniel always had that heart for God’s purpose. What really captured Daniel’s heart? He was in the Word of God, reading and studying the Word of God.
Through the Word of God, the Lord spoke to him through the prophet Jeremiah and said, “This captivity that you are in is only for seventy years.” That really revived Daniel. It brought a spark within him.
That word was united with faith within Daniel. It created a spark and a burning within his heart. Led by the Holy Spirit, he entered into travailing prayer for God to move and accomplish all that was upon His heart: recovering His people back to the place He had chosen.
We do not have time to go through the full prayer of Daniel, but it is in Daniel 9. As he was captured by this heart for God’s purpose, he humbled himself before the Lord and confessed the sins of the people.
One thing you notice in Daniel’s prayer is that he identifies with the people. He does not say, “They have sinned so much. They did this. They rebelled.” He says, “We.”
He saw the oneness there was with all of his brothers and sisters. He was identifying with them: “We have sinned. We have failed. We have come up short. We have rebelled.” He always acknowledges that only the Lord is righteous.
He concludes his prayer in Daniel 9:19:
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
You can almost hear, “O Lord.” You can almost feel the crying out of his heart. He does not have enough words to express it: “O Lord, listen and take action.”
Look at whom Daniel’s heart is for. It is not focused on the people; it is focused on God: “Take action for Your own sake, O my God.” It is not self-centered. It is God-centered; we could say, in our time, Christ-centered prayer—for His interest, His heart, and His purpose.
Daniel did not know how God was going to act, but he was saying, “Lord, You take action.” Daniel is such a wonderful and beautiful picture of this whole matter of recovery.
In Daniel’s prayer, you see some of the keys to recovery. They are not in a specific order, and they are by no means comprehensive, but I was touched by them.
Any time the Lord wants to bring people back to Himself, it starts by the grace of God. The grace of God brought Christ to earth. He is the initiator in all of this. That is His great love.
Then you see the fruit of that through prevailing prayer, Holy Spirit reality, and the Word of God. You see people who overcome in the midst of these times. You also see the love of God: love for the Lord and love for one another.
This is what is particularly upon my heart. Perhaps at other times, others at CFC can speak about some of the other aspects of the keys to recovery. But this matter of the love of God and love for one another is upon my heart.
As we look at these books of recovery, there is a twofold aspect of His recovery work. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we see an answer to Daniel’s prayer. Daniel said, “Take action,” and God starts taking action.
God worked sovereignly by turning Cyrus’s heart. He allowed people to go back. Sadly, even though the door was open for all to return, only a few returned.
We see this throughout Scripture, and we see it in this day and time too. In Revelation 2 and 3, there is a call that goes out in this hour for everyone to return to the Lord. There is a call for everybody to overcome.
But the response is individual, and normally only a small number respond. Everyone is called. The Lord does not merely call individual people to overcome; He is calling everybody to overcome. Everybody, respond to His love. Would we be able to respond in that wonderful way?
God’s sovereign hand turned the heart of King Cyrus. It says in Ezra that whoever’s spirit or heart is stirred can return to Jerusalem. Again, it is a matter of the heart.
In the Old Testament, spirit and heart are used interchangeably. If your heart is stirred to return, it is not for your own self-centered ways, but it is that heart for God to return.
They returned with one purpose. They were not returning to build their own houses, to start their own soccer league, or to build a fancy city. They were there to build the house of God—to rebuild the house of God.
Sadly, many stayed in Babylon, but some did return. God was able to begin this recovery work through Ezra. They returned, built the altar, and started rebuilding the house.
Then they faced resistance and opposition, and they stopped building. They said, “This is too hard. It is not time yet to build the house of God. We need to stop a minute, and when it is time, we will build.”
But thank the Lord, God raised up Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them. This is why we need prophets during times of recovery: they can speak into situations for that specific moment.
What did Haggai say, in a broad way? He cried out, “Consider your ways. Consider your heart. Where are your hearts?” He says that numerous times throughout those few chapters.
“Consider your ways. Look at your heart.” Then they said, “Oh, we have been doing our own thing. We need to keep going.” They rose up, continued building, and finished.
After they had started building, Zechariah encouraged them: “Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.” Do not simply focus on outward things that we are doing, but return to Christ. Return to Him.
Thank the Lord, they responded. Even after they completed the rebuilding of the house, the latter part of Ezra talks about how they beautified the house of God. What beautifies the house of God? It is Christ—Christ’s life.
There was a sanctification and cleansing process in their own lives. This is what beautifies the house of God and strengthens His testimony in this hour.
In this first aspect of recovery in Ezra, the altar and the house were built. It speaks of our personal relationship with the Lord—our individual relationship with Him through the work of the cross and coming under His headship.
To me, in Ezra, what was recovered was their personal, vertical relationship with the Lord. They got straight with the Lord. Recovery always starts with individuals having that personal relationship strengthened with Him.
Then we see Him coming into Nehemiah. In a broad, general way, Nehemiah and others returned with an intent to build the wall around the city.
They started working together and rebuilding the wall. It is wonderful how there were many different people—old and young, brothers and sisters, a great variety of people—building the wall.
They faced continued, consistent, and growing opposition. They were mocked. Their enemies tried to scare them and make little of their work: “That little thing you are doing—somebody could just jump on it and knock it down.”
There were all sorts of opposition and challenges. But praise God, through prayer they continued. They rose up, did not allow that to intimidate them, and completed the wall.
After they completed the wall, their life together in that city was purified. Again, there was a sanctifying work of God through all of this.
The second aspect of this twofold recovery is seen in Nehemiah. In Ezra, you had individual relationships—the vertical relationship restored. In Nehemiah, as they lived within the city, what was restored was their relationship with one another: their love and care for one another.
In Ezra, we see their love for the Lord—the vertical. In Nehemiah, we see their love and care for one another—the horizontal.
Both aspects must be recovered. As He works in both the vertical and the horizontal, He strengthens the full testimony of Jesus. He does not merely want individuals out here who love the Lord; He wants a body, a corporate testimony seen by the world.
It is the manifestation of His headship among His people, so that people can look and say, “They are Christians.” It is the manifestation of His love.
God always has that bride for His Son in view. Everything God does comes out of a heart of love, with that end and purpose in view. As He works to make His bride ready, it comes by people loving the Lord with all their heart and loving the brethren as He has loved us.
Romans 12 reminds us of the freewill offering of ourselves to the Lord. By His mercies, our hearts have been captured. We are in love with Him, we see what He is doing, and we manifest His love for one another.
As we yield to Him, come under His headship, and allow Him to be Lord of our lives, it grants permission—or liberates—the Holy Spirit to work in us, to perfect our relationship with Him and with one another. That is making the bride ready.
So often, we can hinder the Holy Spirit from working within us because we are still in control of our lives. We may turn one part over to Him, but keep another part.
But His lovingkindness and mercy continue. He loves us. He keeps going on, and eventually He arranges it so that we surrender a little more to Him. It is a progressive surrender.
Then you think you have come through, and you see that you are still holding on to another little part, and you surrender that. We just love how patient He is.
We talk about loving one another, but it can actually be a challenge. We cannot love one another unless we first love Him. That is the whole foundation.
Without that fundamental love for Him—without Him capturing our heart—there can be enough challenge in our own personal walk. But thank the Lord, we have the provision in Christ to overcome all of that.
In my opinion, it is an even greater challenge for His people to walk and dwell together in unity. I think that is where such a great challenge comes in during this day and time.
It is easy to love people who visit from China, Europe, or wherever. We see them once, and they are gone, and we say, “We love these brethren so much.” But here we are together. This building work goes on locally, together. This is where our challenge is.
You can see the importance of this because we see the effort the enemy has made throughout time to destroy it. When the enemy makes such an effort to destroy something, that tells you it is of value.
If you simply have your individual life with Him, the enemy is not happy, but he is not as terrified. Once you start relating with brothers and sisters and coming together under His headship, that terrifies him, and he makes a great effort to oppose it.
This is why we have to have that strong personal relationship with Him—that daily relationship with Him. I will use one of Lenny’s terms, since he is not here today: it is wonderful if we can abide with Him.
That is foundational, because if we are not abiding with Him, we are not going to be able to abide with one another. Loving Him and abiding with Him provides the basis and the way for God to work and enable us to abide together and love one another.
Why is it so hard for us to love one another and dwell together? There is a very simple answer: self-love and pride.
We love ourselves so much, and we are so proud. Because of that, the testimony of Jesus gets weakened in these days. That is why there is such a need for recovery.
When we think about self-love and pride, what happens is that there is such an unwillingness for us to take the cross and allow the cross to work within us.
Remember when the people first returned from Babylon to Jerusalem: the first thing they did was build the altar. That is the testimony of the cross.
That is part of the reason we take the Lord’s table every week. It is a fresh reminder that the foundation of our lives individually, and the foundation of our life together, is what Christ did on Calvary.
He is the One who has made the way for us to walk on in these days, individually and together. Sadly, because of our unwillingness to allow the cross to work within us, there often ends up being division among us.
We always agree that we need to take the cross. But when we get into a situation, somehow our perspective changes: “Yes, I am willing to take the cross, but this brother needs to do it first.”
I am glad Christ did not wait for us to do something first. While we were yet sinners, in His kindness, as we were reminded this morning, He took the initiative. He laid down His life to restore and redeem us.
Thankfully, David got a glimpse into this. David saw that when people were under that headship, and when they were allowing the Holy Spirit to do this work, that was where God commanded the blessing. That blessing was His life, as we see in Psalm 133.
It is a familiar psalm, but it is so precious:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
That ran down upon the beard,
Even Aaron’s beard;
That came down upon the skirt of his garments;
Like the dew of Hermon,
That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the blessing,
Even life for evermore.
“Behold” gets your attention. How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity—dwelling together under His headship, in the oneness and unity they have in Him.
It is like precious oil upon the head. The oil is the Holy Spirit. It comes down upon the beard of Aaron. Aaron is a priest, and we have been made priests unto Him. The oil comes down to the edge of his robes.
I love how it says, “the edge of his robes.” The Holy Spirit comes upon us and enables us to walk through a fallen world, a sinful world. We are clothed and fully anointed with the Holy Spirit as we walk through this fallen world and all its decay.
Even in weakness within the church, there is an empowering for us to go through. Praise God for that.
The psalm also describes it as the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion. I love how it says that the Lord commanded the blessing. It does not say that He merely hopes there will be a blessing there. He commands blessing.
What is the blessing? Life. Jesus came that we might have life—His life, the life of Christ forever, eternal life. Praise God.
This is what He is after. It is so sad that so much damage has been done to His testimony in the church throughout history when people have not been able to diligently keep and preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There has been so much damage by division. That is why I call it the sin of division. The sin of division, to me, has done more damage to the church and its testimony than any other sin. It is so tragic.
When we look around at all the divisions in this earth among the body of Christ, the root of that sin of division can be traced back to the original sin of pride.
Is there anybody here whose pride is fully dealt with? I would like you to help me if there is.
Thank the Lord, I am from Scotland. Scots are very proud. My Scottish family would always tell me how stouthearted we were. That was just another fancy word for pride.
But the Lord is patient. Hopefully, we have had a little bit of that pride dealt with, but He is continuing to work with us.
If you really look at church history, so many divisions have not been over doctrines, practices, or experiences. It has just been self-love and strong flesh—people saying, “I have got this. I have got that.”
Strong personalities can be unwilling to take the cross and unwilling to allow the Lord to work things out. “You had this experience with the Holy Spirit. I did not have that experience. Therefore, I am going to divide.” Wait a minute. Why do we not come together, humble ourselves, and see what God is trying to do?
The Lord may have spoken to one person about His return in one way and to another person in another way. Must we divide? “You are pre-millennial. I believe in multiple raptures.” No. Come together, fellowship, and see what we have together in Christ. Let Him work through these things.
There is a little phrase in Jude that has so often been misused throughout history: “contending earnestly for the faith.” Often, the faith became what people thought the faith was—their interpretation of the faith.
Sometimes you can be right, but dead right. You might have the right doctrine, but your spirit is dead. It is the wrong way of doing it, and it brings about division between people.
Sadly, there is so much division that division starts to become acceptable. Pride says, “Well, we are the group.”
One example in history, a little more current than some of the older ones, was in the nineteenth century with the Brethren. We are greatly indebted to the work of God that He did through the Brethren, beginning in 1825 in Dublin.
Various believers from different backgrounds began to see something. They simply came together to break bread as Christians. Whether they were from high society or low society, whatever their beliefs were, there was a focus on Christ. Christ was why they were there.
The Lord did a great work through that, recovering many precious things. One was the universal priesthood of believers. They did not have titles. Everybody was simply a brother. Everybody was there to function.
It was not, “You are the pastor; you function,” or, “You are the responsible brother; you do that, so I do not have to.” No. Brothers and sisters were there together.
The unity of the church and the oneness there is in Christ had been lost so much, and it was fresh to them. They also recovered an awareness of the second coming and the preciousness of the Lord’s table—simply gathering in His presence.
Sadly, about twenty years after this blessing occurred, a conflict arose between two influential brothers: John Darby and Benjamin Newton.
It was cloaked, in a broad sense, as a theological issue, because there was misunderstanding that needed to be worked out. Newton said some things concerning Christ that sounded strange and were interpreted as not affirming His sinlessness and perfection. Darby took exception, and a great division developed between them.
Sadly, it broke up this whole work that God had been doing. But if you look back and read the history, the root cause was really their personalities. Both men were very strong and had very different personalities.
Neither one was willing to humble himself, take the cross, and allow the Lord to show His way through. Tragically, a great division occurred.
When they had this difference, instead of coming and humbling themselves together before the Lord—perhaps with some other brethren—and asking, “Lord, what is going on here?” there was not that humbling together.
Eventually, a couple of years later, Newton did apologize for the way he had said some things. He said, in hindsight, that he could have said them better. I think we have all done that.
I do not want to get distracted by those two, but the issue was that there was never this humbling of themselves together. They ended up standing for and defending the faith, but there was division. It was so sad.
The Lord wanted to work it out in both of their lives because He wanted to do something in both of them. Many times, when there is an encounter or a clash and it looks like there is potential for division, God is actually trying to do a work in both people.
He wants this brother to learn something, and He wants that brother to learn something. But we deny God the opportunity to prove Himself because we do not stop, humble ourselves before Him, and ask Him to work and teach us more of ourselves.
But praise God, in spite of man, God is a God of recovery. He has always been a God of recovery, ever since Adam. He is always recovering.
Throughout history, we see many works of recovery. One characteristic, as with Daniel, is that many awakenings occur through a few individuals—perhaps one or two—whose hearts are touched, set on fire, and captured by the Lord.
They humble themselves in a spirit of repentance, and they begin travailing prayer: “Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years.” It is continuing today. Praise God for that.
One of my favorite examples, since I am from Scotland, is the Hebrides Revival in the Hebrides Islands. My grandparents were from Inverness, Scotland. They migrated over here not too long ago, so I am a recent immigrant—but we came in legally, by Ellis Island and all that stuff.
These islands are in northern Scotland. They were cold, and there had not been a real work of God. Everything was dead.
Then two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith, began to pray. They were young sisters—one was eighty-four and the other eighty-two. The older I get, the younger that seems. Eighty-two is not that far away.
The Lord spoke to them that He was going to do a mighty work. They began praying on their own. After a while, they went to their local pastor and said, “We really believe God wants to do a great work of awakening the people of God and reviving the work of God in these islands.”
The pastor agreed, and several nights a week they got together and began praying. They went on for months. Nothing seemed to happen.
Some would get discouraged, and others would say, “No, I just sense it is coming soon.” They kept going.
Then one night, as they were praying as they had been, all of a sudden the Spirit fell upon them. There was great conviction of sin, and the Spirit moved throughout the island in a marvelous way.
Duncan Campbell was invited to come there. It is interesting to hear his testimony and the testimonies of others. He came totally unprepared. He did not know what God was doing.
He came thinking he was just a regular minister coming to help these people, and all of a sudden he was helped tremendously. He was caught up in it just like everyone else.
The work was so powerful. People would be walking down the street and all of a sudden be slain by the Spirit. It was not unusual to walk through the community or countryside and see an individual kneeling on the ground, weeping—nobody around, but captured by the Spirit.
The bars were closed, and the sheriff got very busy. People who had done wrong would come to him and confess. Someone might say, “I stole this plow from John a couple of years ago. I have returned the plow and made restitution, but I did wrong. I want to turn myself in.”
The other farmer would say, “No, no, he has made restitution. That is okay.” The sheriff would say, “You are okay now.” The sheriff got saved too.
People had swindled one another, and they began to make things right. They made restitution. Broken marriages were restored; relationships between parents and children were restored. In all the normal chaos of life, there was great restoration.
It continued through the major islands into the early 1950s. The last island it reached had been particularly hard. People had been praying for it, and finally, in 1957, the Isle of North Uist was touched.
There is a testimony from one brother about a prayer meeting. They said, “The prayer meetings continued, and we sensed God beginning to move. Our faces were before Him.”
Then, at three o’clock in the morning, in the middle of the prayer meeting—because it was not unusual to have all-night prayer meetings—God swept in. About a dozen were on the ground before the Lord, but they knew the forces of darkness were going to be driven back and people set free.
Later that morning, as they left, they saw people repenting, falling to the ground, and coming to the Lord in marvelous ways.
It was not the work of man; it was the work of the Spirit, the work of God manifesting Himself through hearts on fire and in love with Him. We praise God for that.
Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, uses the word love more than in any of his other letters—even more than in Corinthians. There are some key verses I want to read.
Ephesians 4:15-16 says:
Speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, even Christ;
From whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
We are to grow up in all aspects into Him. I love the comprehensiveness of this verse because it shows the oneness that all of us have together in Him.
He is the head over each and every one of us. From Him, the whole body—not just some, but every one of us—is fitted and held together.
I love how it testifies that He not only fits us together, but the power of His love holds us together. That perfect bond of unity is the best bonding glue around.
We try to use other bonding glues; they work for a little while, but then they break. But His love is that perfect bond of unity.
Each and every one of us, every joint, supplies according to the proper working of each individual part. He has a work for each and every one of us. Praise God. He has such a great and diverse work.
The fruit is the growth of the body, building itself up in love. The building work is love. This is reinforced in 1 Corinthians 8:1, where it says that love edifies—love builds up.
Sometimes, when we start talking about love, we say, “Oh yes, I have heard of love. I know that.” That is why Paul says that love edifies and builds up, but also warns us: “Knowledge puffeth up.”
We can know about love, but are we living in love? Is it our life? Is it impacting our lives? Does it impact our relationships? Is it governing us in such a way that we are allowing His love?
What is this love of which we are speaking? God is love. That is a simple statement, but it is powerful. It is the very character and nature of His life, and everything He does originates from a heart of love.
It is a divine, self-sacrificing love, of an altogether other nature and purpose. Praise God for the comprehensiveness of this love.
I am going to give everybody an assignment. You have all week: read John 13 through 17.
As we look at John 13 through 17, we see that John 13 records a very intimate time He had with the disciples. It was the last time He was with them before the cross.
The very first thing He says to them is the most essential. It is the main thing, and we know what to do with the main thing: keep it the main thing.
In John 13, He says, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; even as I have loved you.” “Even as I have loved you”—that is the key phrase. It is not with your love; it is with His love.
Then, at the end of John 17, just as He opened with such a powerful word about loving one another, He concludes with what is really the Lord’s Prayer—what some call His high-priestly prayer.
Just as the first thing He shared was so important and essential, the last thing He says is also essential. It is like bookends. This is the heart of the issue. This is what holds up everything else in between.
It is this matter of love: the oneness you have in love, your care, and the unity you have with one another.
In John 13 through 17, He has this great burden of love for one another, love and unity. Throughout those chapters, we see that it comes from knowing Him.
Whether He is teaching about being the vine, being the shepherd, or sharing in other ways, it is about knowing Him. It is that love and unity that holds us together and keeps us to the very end.
This morning was more of an introduction and foundation to build upon for the next couple of times when I share.
Next time, I want to look at this matter of loving one another as He has loved us, and stop to consider the love of Christ. What is this love of Christ? Sometimes it is so great that we shy away from even touching it. But we will try to look at it and see how the Lord can speak to our hearts.
Then, after that, there is the testimony that all men will know that you are His disciples—the testimony to the world and to other believers of who we are in Him.
There is the practical outworking of love for one another. This phrase, one another, is used over fifty times in the New Testament: forgiving one another, receiving one another, accepting one another. They are all manifestations of, or practical outworkings of, loving one another.
As we conclude, what we want to reinforce today is that God is doing a great work of recovering us to come under His headship—that Jesus would be Lord of our lives, living within us both individually and corporately.
We can be encouraged because God is a God of recovery. He is going to finish and recover everything that He started. Praise God. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. He will accomplish that.
He accomplishes that through recovering the testimony of Jesus in our days. May we know more and more of this work that He is doing.
The key of recovery starts within our own hearts. Would our hearts be open to really hear the call of the Holy Spirit as that cry goes out: “He that hath an ear, let him hear.”
May we be those who open the ears of our hearts to receive what He is saying in this hour. May we consider: How do we love one another? What is the effect of this?
Somehow, the impact and testimony of people loving one another has caught my heart lately. It sends an unspoken message throughout the seen and unseen realms.
It does something spiritually. It strengthens His testimony and sends forth a power that breaks down barriers. We have too many barriers today among believers.
We do not necessarily have to agree on everything. I am not talking about trying to agree on everything. We do not all have to meet together in one huge meeting.
But at least there can be fellowship, love, care, and support for one another, without divisions and unsettled issues within our hearts and lives toward one another that truly weaken the testimony of Jesus.
That is what is on my heart as we share over these next few times: that the Lord could speak to us, and that we could have ears to hear what He is saying.
Lord, we do come, and we are ever grateful for Your great love that You have shown to us.
We are ever grateful, Lord, for the way You have reached out to each and every one of us in Your kindness and led us to repentance. We are thankful that You continue to hold us and keep us.
Lord, as we consider this matter of Your love—the height, the depth, the length, the breadth, and the indescribable nature of it—we want to have hearts open to be expanded.
May You expand our knowing of You and the reality of Your love working in our hearts and lives, that we could be the people of God You desire us to be in this last hour.
Lord, it does break our hearts when we look out and see a lost world. So often, when they look, they just see a divided church. They do not see what You desire them to see.
Even among believers, there are so many unsettled issues. Lord, as far as it is with us, that is all we can be accountable for. We want to be at peace with all men and allow there to be no unsettled things within our hearts.
So speak to us, Lord, as we open our hearts to You, that we could be those captured by Your love and set free from things that entangle us—set free to serve You in a fuller and greater way in these last days.
In Thy name, we pray. Amen.