A Loving People

SPEAKER B Jesus promised his disciples in Acts One eight, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all here and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Welcome to. You shall receive power. And here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Colin Hone. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome to the program. We are glad that you have joined us again today as we spend more time in this wonderful little book, 50 Days Prayers and Devotionals to Prepare for the Latter Rain and Christ Returned by Pastor Dennis Smith. Now we're continuing on in our journey here. We're actually on day 35 out of the book, so lesson 35 a Loving People. Now last week we just spent a little bit of time looking at an emotionally healed people. Now love and emotion go hand in hand, so I'm looking forward to us unpacking this a little bit more Colin. But just before we do that, as is our habit, we're just asking for God to guide and lead us through his spirit. So we just invite you to bow your heads in prayer with us. Gracious Father in heaven, what a privilege it is again to spend time with you to learn about this incredible love and the sacrifice of Jesus that he made for us. That the forgiveness we see in Christ. We can also experience that you have forgiven us Father, and in that forgiveness we can receive your love and forgiveness we can give to those who have wronged us, Father. Not only that, but we can always seek forgiveness ourselves for those we have wronged in our own experience as well. And we just pray Father, for your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us in this discussion as we open your word. May you bring healing to each one of us is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. Right, so a loving people. Now everybody likes a loving and lovable person, but we don't have that ability by nature. So Colin, how do we get to experience God's love? SPEAKER D We all want to experience God's love and it's important that we do experience God's love. Our last session we talked about emotional healing and it's important that we experience God's love if we are to enter into the deliverance that God offers. And it's not just a head knowledge that God loves us. Rather we must become to know God's love for us on the deepest level of our being. And that full deliverance from the influence of Satan in our lives is dependent on knowing this. Paul points this out when he writes in his prayer for the believers in the Book of Ephesians chapter three, verse 16 or 20. He talks about this, what his prayer is for them. SPEAKER C And it says that he will grant you according to the riches of his glory. To be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. SPEAKER D It's an amazing promise, isn't it? Incredible passage of Scripture, amazing promise. And there's two requirements. Two things are required for us to experience the power of God working our lives to bring about the deliverance. We're exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, as the Ephesians just said. And those two things are this number one, we need to experience the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit so we can be strengthened with the might by His Spirit in the inner man. And that Christ can dwell in our hearts by faith for that promise. So we need to experience the power of God's work in our lives. We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And the second thing we need is we need to know the fullness of God's love for us in our deepest inmost being, which goes beyond understanding or head knowledge. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D So we need to know that God loves us deep in our hearts and we need the baptism, Holy Spirit of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And these two experiences will lead us to be filled with all the fullness of God and be delivered from Satan's influences in our life in ways that are exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. SPEAKER C What an incredible promise. SPEAKER D But here's the thing. Satan knows this. Satan knows this. So he will do everything he can to keep us from being filled with God's spirit and experiencing God's love. And one of the major methods he uses is to bring experiences into our life, often in our childhood, which causes us to get deeply hurt. So his goal, because remember, if he can get us deeply hurt, we will then hold on to what? Anger, bitterness and resentment. All right. And so he brings these things into our lives. His goal is that we know only conditional love and acceptance. And these hurtful experiences cause us to feel a sense of worthlessness and shame. We feel unlovable. And as we grow into adulthood, we project these negative attitudes about ourselves, onto God's attitudes towards us. We believe he feels the same way about us. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER D And such feelings are very painful. And so therefore, we develop self protecting feelings and behaviors to relieve the pain and protect ourselves from further hurt. We put a protective walls and shells around ourselves. We don't do these things consciously. They are natural emotional reaction to hurtful situations. And Satan especially attacks us in childhood because he knows that is when much emotional damage can be done. He wants us to grow up feeling unloved and unlovable, unworthy, worthless, ashamed of who we are and undeserving of God's blessings. But God designed families to protect a child from these things, didn't he? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The family is to protect us. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And this is why we see Satan attacking families so fiercely, especially in the. SPEAKER C Times in which we live. Colin yes. SPEAKER D And statistics verify what is happening in families in our society today. I mean, just alone in the United States there's nearly 3000 teenage girls get pregnant every day. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER C Every day. SPEAKER D Every day. Every day, over at least maybe 1100 teenage girls have abortions. 372 teenage girls have miscarriages. More than 689 babies are born to women who have had inadequate prenatal care. Every day. Every day, 67 babies die before one month of life. Every day, 105 babies die before their first birthday. And every day, 27 children die from poverty. That's just in the United States alone. And you look around the rest of the world every day, ten children are killed by guns. And you can look at what's happened in Chicago. There are 3000 people a year are killed in Chicago alone from guns. 30 children are wounded by guns. Six teenagers commit suicide every day. 135,000 children bring a gun to school. This is in the United States of America. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER D You know, you can see it's. It's just messed up. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D You know. 7742 teenagers become sexually active every day. 623 teenagers get syphilis or gonorrhea or some sexually transmitted disease every day. 211 children are arrested every day for drug abuse. 437 children arrested for drinking or drunk driving every day. Every day, 1500 plus teenagers drop out of school every day. 1849 children are abused or neglected every day. Every day, over 3000 children run away from home. Every day. 1629 children are in adult jails. How about this one, Eddie? 2556 children. And this is back in 1990. SPEAKER E Okay. SPEAKER C Right. These are statistics from back then. I don't think anything's got any better. If anything would have got worse. SPEAKER D Worse. These statistics are taken from the Almanac of Christian World, page 779, edited by Editha Draper in 1999. So that was just stats from back then. And every day you see two and a half thousand children are born out of wedlock. Nearly 3000 children see their parents divorced every day. You can imagine all these above experiences have devastating effects on families and children involved. Satan's goal is to do everything he can to keep us from experiencing the love of God. Instead, he wants us to cause us to feel shame, which is the result of put downs, rejection, unfair treatment and abandonment emotionally or physically in my own life, I remember my parents were divorced when I was five. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And because of the effect of that my brother and I went to over ten different schools, went to boarding schools, boys homes, lived at grandparents, lived back and forth with my mother and father. So this is just not right. And in the end we turned to drugs and alcohol and addictions like sex and things like that. And so in the end it cost my brother's life at 23 and he died of a heroin overdose. And so all these experiences can affect us. And so there are common behaviors and attitudes that a child develops and takes into adulthood when they go through deeply painful experiences. Craig Hilling's book The Ancient Paths lists several of them. Some of them are you know, for example, sometimes you might feel feeling and expressing anger when circumstances seem out of control, people get angry, a fear of emotion, not wanting to express feelings or get out of control. People have difficulty saying no to people. Maybe you're afraid to try new things because of fear of failure. You can develop compulsive sins and addictive habits, a feeling of need to succeed in order to be accepted. An individual may also develop unhealthy independence, attitude and self sufficient behaviors towards others. Or you can isolate yourself and you find it difficult making close friends. And people have great difficulty asking for a favor or help. Or it's much better to giver than to receive. And when they do receive, they feel the need to repay. Or maybe you're fearful or uncomfortable in small groups unless you're either the controlling leader of the group or you withdraw and not participate. Or maybe you have feelings of being tolerated rather than accepted. And I'm sure most of us can see some of these attitudes and behaviors in ourselves. I can see things. Why? Because we've all been hurt. We've all been hurt and have experienced conditional love and acceptance. And what happens is such hurt and pain and emotional wounds are unpleasant to feel. And that is why we develop some of the above behaviors and attitudes. And we put a protective shell around ourselves to protect us from further hurt. No one wants to keep on getting hurt. So we put a shell and protect ourselves. And without experiencing the love of God in our deepest innermost soul we will try to relieve the emotional pain we are feeling in destructive ways. Remember, we've got a sinful nature and our sinful nature will seek to cause us to relieve the pain through the flesh. And this will lead us into such things as alcohol, drug abuse, fulfilling lustful desires which can lead to pornography, destructive sexual relationships, eating disorders, anger, hostile behavior, false pride, jealousy and a critical attitude. And so if one becomes religious without experiencing God's love the emotional pain will try to relieve the pain through religion. Okay, 1 may became illegalistic in the attitude towards God. The feeling is if I can only obey God perfectly then he will approve of me and love me. And of course this doesn't work. SPEAKER C Doesn't work. That's right. SPEAKER D I love what Beth Moore describes in her book. They're called The Beloved Disciple. On page five, she describes how the Jews of Christ day had the same kind of religious experience. Okay, what did she say? Just let's read. SPEAKER C Says the year was 28 Ad, give or take a few. For a chosen people who hadn't heard a word from God in four centuries, life was pretty good. The Jews had covered their insecurities with a blanket of sameness. The absence of a fresh encounter with God had them clutching to what they had left the law. Interesting, isn't it? The Hebrew people climbed to the summit of their legalism during the silent years between Malachi and Matthew. That's what really religious people do when they do not have much of relationship with God. SPEAKER D It's amazing, isn't it? SPEAKER C Is amazing. SPEAKER D And when we don't have a fresh, daily, spirit filled encounter with God, we cannot experience his love to the depth we need to. And when this happens, we seek other ways to find healing and deliverance from our pain, either through the flesh or religion. And such efforts will always fail to bring the deliverance we so much desire and need and this pain causes to cry out to God for help. We cry out to God. However, the very walls we have erected to protect ourselves from further pain and hurt become a barrier to our experiencing God's unconditional love and acceptance. These barriers that we build up actually prevent us from experiencing God's love. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER C So they're actually, instead of fixing and resolving things, it actually makes things worse. SPEAKER D Yeah. Our emotional hurts, wounds and pain can only be healed in one way. And remember the scripture we quoted at the beginning of this chapter? It gives us the answer. Remember we just quoted the Scripture of Ephesians, chapter three? SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D Verse 16 to 20. And it says, this is what it says. We must comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Jesus which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That's in Ephesians three, verse 18. SPEAKER C It's incredible that the love of God can actually pass knowledge and understanding. SPEAKER D It's amazing. And only when we experience the deliverance that is exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in us, ephesians 320, we must basically experience God's unconditional love and acceptance in our deepest innermost being. Unconditional love and acceptance. You remember Mary Magdalene? Mary Magdalene was the one that Jesus cast seven devils out of. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER D She experienced this kind of love from Jesus in Mark, chapter 16, verse nine. And some Bible commentators believe that seven demons cast out refers to Mary returning seven times to her old immoral life. SPEAKER E Wow. Yeah. SPEAKER D It was only because of her deep inner knowledge of Christ's unconditional love and acceptance. Of her that she was able to return to Him and finally gain the know. Many of us, when we fall down, we don't go back to God because of the shame and we think we're unworthy. And this is why she felt such deep love for Jesus when she anointed his head with the expensive ointment at Simon the Leper's house. You can read in Matthew chapter 26, verse seven. She also was weeping and began to wash his feet with hair hairs of her head, and kissed his feet and anoint him with the anointment. And in Luke chapter seven, verse 38. And Simon, interestingly, critically judged Jesus for allowing this sinful woman to do this to him. And then Jesus gave a really beautiful parable that taught the lesson that he was forgiven most, loves most. You see, Mary had experienced Jesus forgiving love and acceptance in her innermost being and this enabled her to experience healing in the depths of her very soul. You see, love is the greatest environment for healing to take place. We need to know that God loves us deep in our hearts. And I love what Morris Vendon says in his book To Know God, page 90. He clearly just states this beautiful fact. He says, the greatest need of any young person who is striving to overcome but is having problems, falling or falling and failing and sinning is to know that someone loves Him. The only one who grows out of his mistakes is the one who knows he is loved and accepted while he's making them. And does this lead to license? No, it is this loving relationship that this continuing relationship with Jesus that leads to victory. That's what leads to victory. Just knowing that God loves you and you can keep on going back to Him and you just keep on going back to Him and ask Him to heal. You ask Him to have the victory and if we go back to Him, he will have it. SPEAKER C God loves us in spite of ourselves. And quite often we think it's a barrier. But God loved the world that he gave. And they look, the world was a sinful world. It was a world that did many wrong things and hurt people. And there's a lot of suffering and pain, but still God loves us, even if we are the one that has inflicted pain. So, I mean, we're talking about obviously healing for people who've experienced pain. But if we look at our own experience, we might have to say that at times we've actually been the ones that inflicted pain. Sometimes deliberately or sometimes just ignorantly. But we've done that. SPEAKER D And God is able to heal both aspects and we hold on to we can't forgive ourselves. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And we think, how can God forgive us? And so we've got it back to front. We think that if we can really overcome our faults, sins and failures, then we'll have peace. The truth is that we will only have peace through the knowledge of God's unconditional love. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER D Then when we know that deep in our hearts, then we'll begin overcoming our faults, sins and failures. And that's only through Christ's righteousness and his imparted righteousness, which is a gift anyway. SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER D So let's look at Jesus. Jesus had two essential experiences. Jesus had two very important things in his life. The first thing, Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit himself. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And he knew that his father loved and accepted him. You read that in Luke, chapter three, verse 21 and 22. Luke, chapter three, verse 21 and 22. SPEAKER C When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heavens was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, you are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased. SPEAKER D So Jesus was baptized by the Holy Spirit, and what is the fruit of the Spirit? SPEAKER E Love. SPEAKER D Then he heard a voice from the in heaven. Say what? SPEAKER C You are my beloved, loved Son. That's right. SPEAKER D I love very much. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C And I'm well pleased with you. SPEAKER D Yes. So we must also have the same two experiences. We need to know we need to be daily received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As Ephesians, chapter five, verse 18 says that keep on being filled with Spirit. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Continuous action. And we must know deep within our hearts that we are loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father in Ephesians, chapter three, verse 16 and 19, that he. SPEAKER C Would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. SPEAKER D And just like Mary, we can get up and go back to Jesus, and his arms are open to take us back and to heal us and to forgive us and to give us victory as well. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D Eventually she had victory. SPEAKER C She did. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER D She did. But potentially six, seven times she went back. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D I know that my own life. There's certain things that I just keep on going back to. You keep on defaulting back to. And so Jesus had two things. He was baptized with the Holy Spirit, and he knew his Father loved and accepted Him. And we need the same experiences. We need to know deep within ourselves that we are loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father. And this knowledge will enable us to have emotional healing to take place more readily, because love is the most healing environment. Now, why is knowing God's love for us so important? Why is it so important? Well, John tells us in one john, chapter four, verse 19, why knowing God's love is so important for us. SPEAKER C It says we love Him because he first loved us. SPEAKER D That's right. We can only love God if we know that God loves us. So that means that we can love God only to the degree that we know his love for us. And the more we know deep within ourselves that God loves and accepts us, the stronger our love for Him will be. You see, love begets love. And this is why the baptism of the Holy Spirit is so essential. It is only through the Spirit's infilling that the love of God is shared abroad in our hearts. We read in Romans, chapter five, verse five, that God's love is poured in our hearts for the Holy Spirit. That's why we need a daily infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D So God's love is poured in our hearts. And it's only by the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we experience the fruit of the Spirit, which is love. In Galatians five, verse 22 and 23, talks about the fruit of the Spirit. And the first fruit that is listed is love. SPEAKER C Love, then joy, and then peace, then long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. And it says, against such, there is no law. SPEAKER D Yeah. And so once this divine love begins to be experienced, then the other fruit can begin to grow. But we need the love first, because dust is the fruit of the Spirit, not fruits. SPEAKER C Fruit. Singular. SPEAKER D The fruit of the Spirit is love. And from love we have joy, peace, patience, all those things. So once this divine love begins to be experienced, then the other fruit can begin to grow. The greater we experience God's love for us, the deeper we experience emotional healing. And the deeper our experience of emotional healing, the greater we'll experience joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. You see, God's provided a way for us to be delivered from anger, our bitterness, our jealousy, our critical attitudes and more. And John gives us another important insight. In one John 421, it says, he who loves God loves also his brother. You see, our experience of God's love is essential for us to truly love one another. We will love our brothers and sisters in Christ only to the degree that we know that God loves for us. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER D See, it goes vertical and it goes outward horizontal as well. Yes. And here's the good news. You and I cannot make ourselves love one another. We can't make ourselves love others. Only God can do that in us. And he does this by leading us to experience his love for us to the fullest. That's why we need God's love poured in our hearts. That's why we ask daily for a baptism or a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. We're asking for God's love to be poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit so that we can love others as God loves them. Loving God and our fellow men is our essential requirements in order to be ready for Jesus'second event. Remember, in one John, chapter three, verse two, those ready to meet Jesus will be just like him. They will love the Father with all their hearts and will also love others as Christ loves them. And I love what Ellen White wrote in these words from the book Desire of Ages, page 641. When we get this, and we not only get this from a knowledge, but we experience this, this is what God's desire is for us. SPEAKER E Okay? SPEAKER C Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love to make us children of one family, that the King of Glory became one with us. And when his parting words are fulfilled, love one another as I have loved you. As we read in John 15, verse twelve, then we love the world as he loved it. And then for us his mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven, for we have heaven in our hearts. SPEAKER D That's what God's waiting for. Did you see that? Our mission, his mission for us is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven, for we have heaven in our hearts. We have the love of God dwelling in our hearts. That promise from Ephesians, that's really what. SPEAKER C It comes down to. I mean, the greatest gift that God gives us is actually that agape love, that self sacrificing love. And when we love as Jesus loved his Father and our fellow man as Jesus loved us, it's incredible that it says that his desire, his mission, his purpose, and his aim for us is accomplished. SPEAKER D It's good news. So how does God well, how does knowing God loves us and accepts us heal us emotionally? How does that happen? Well, John gives us the answer in One John, chapter four, verse 18, john tells us that knowing God's love and love and accepts us heals us emotionally. SPEAKER C Let's read that says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. SPEAKER D So we're going to unpack that a bit more shortly. So let's take a break. Sounds good. Shortly. SPEAKER C Great. SPEAKER D Thank you. SPEAKER C Stay tuned. SPEAKER F Has the world gone crazy? International diplomats are frantically negotiating to try and stop ISIS, immigration and suicide bombers. But it often seems so futile. What are we missing? I'm Julian Archer, an author and international speaker, and I monitor world news trends. Things are getting crazy. My latest booklet, The History of Tomorrow, reveals the last 2600 years through the eyes of kings, prophets, popes and presidents. It unveils a pattern in the timeline of history, and it exposes an event that will soon permanently alter the face of our planet. It takes less than an hour to read but it could change the rest of your life. To receive your free electronic copy, email [email protected] au to order a print copy, phone three ABN on 024-97-3456. SPEAKER C Welcome back to You Shall Receive Power. Just before the break Colin was leading us through an understanding of experiencing God's love and how God's love and accepting his healing power and his love emotionally in us would actually transform and change us. So what was the text we used there? I think it was first John chapter four, verse 18. SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER C And it says that there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment and he that fears has not been made perfect in love. SPEAKER D So when we know in our deepest innermost being that God really does love and accept us, our fears begin to dissolve or be cast out. But that's why we need to know God's love and God's love in our hearts. Because what happens that it casts out fear. And why is it important that fear be cast out? Because the root cause of our emotional hurts and pains is fear. The painful experiences we have gone through have caused us to feel fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of failure and fear of everything. And when this fear is gone the way is open for us to experience the greatest healing. We can then experience Christ's joy. It talks about, jesus talks about that in John chapter 15 verse eleven, he. SPEAKER C Says these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you, that your joy may be full. SPEAKER D Right, which brings greater inner strength because in Nehemiah chapter eight, verse ten it says the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is our strength. So what happens is when fear is cast out, stress is alleviated. When you don't have any fear and you know God loves you and you're completely just in his love nothing bothers you. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's true. SPEAKER D Yeah. So when fear is cast out, stress is alleviated and worry and anxiety are gone. The way is then prepared for us to experience emotional, spiritual and even physical healing. For many of our physical ills are closely related to our emotional pain. And so when God's love casts out our fears, then Christ's peace can be ours. As he speaks about in John chapter 14, verse 27, which used to be. SPEAKER C My mum's favorite text, it says peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. SPEAKER D Right? So when we have the peace of God in our innermost souls then there's no need to seek peace through the desires of the flesh. We don't have to turn to alcohol, drugs or we don't have to develop eating disorders or anger or. A critical spirit in order to attempt to relieve the pain that we're feeling to achieve inner peace. When the peace of God is within us, then the need for those solutions of the flesh have no attraction. We no longer have a need for them. So the important question is, though, Eddie, is how can I come to truly know God's love and acceptance of me? How? How do we experience God's love? Because remember, there are strongholds that we have erected in our lives to protect us from the emotional pains and from further hurt. Remember, Satan brings all those things in our lives so that we experience them, because he doesn't want us to experience God's love. That's true, because then he loses his power over us. But these strongholds and protect barriers have become an obstacle to our experiencing God's love for us. There are three things we can do to cast down these strongholds in order to clear the way for us to experiencing God's love. Firstly, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Number one, Ephesians, chapter five, verse 18. Remember says, be filled with the Holy. SPEAKER C Spirit and continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And we can only experience God's love only by living by God, living in us through the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER D Remember, it's through the Holy Spirit that God's love is shed abroad in our hearts. That's found in Romans chapter five, verse five. And we experience all the fruit of the Spirit when we have God's love poured in our hearts and found in Galatians five, verse 22 and 23. So that's the first thing we need to do. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we should learn to practice what I call listening prayer. Paul tells us that we have spiritual weapons that will cast down any stronghold Satan is in our life. And that principle is found in two Corinthians, chapter ten, verse four to five. SPEAKER C It says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. So it's not fleshly but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. SPEAKER D So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, are pulling down strongholds and casting down imaginations. This is amazing. Promise and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ. So in prayer, we ask God to reveal the strongholds, the past hurtful experiences that are keeping us from experiencing God's love. We ask God, god, reveal the strongholds or the past hurtful experiences that are keeping us from experiencing God's love, then ask him to remove them. Then you must forgive anyone whom God brings to your mind who has hurt you. And we cover that in emotional healing through what's called the prayer of forgiveness, right? So many times we are unaware of these strongholds that are blocking our experiencing God's love to the fullest. I can tell you about my own experience as I was learning these things, I wanted to experience God's love more fully. I knew it was important, but many ways I knew my understanding of his love for me was somewhat superficial or just head knowledge. So I began asking God to reveal to me any stronghold or experience that was keeping me from experiencing his love on a deeper level. And so when I started asking God, what are the strongholds in my life, Father, that are preventing me from experiencing your love? What are the strongholds? Because I wanted to have a deeper level with God. As I explained before, I realized that I get to be critical sometimes because of my anger and bitterness, resentment towards my mother and father. And God revealed to me the strongholds in my life were anger and bitterness, resentment to my father and to my mother for our childhood, and my brother dying of heroin overdose when he was 23. I blamed them, and so I was angry at them for our childhood. And so I then basically went through the prayer of forgiveness. And I prayed that. And it's just an incredible thing that happened to me when I went through that prayer of forgiveness. This overwhelming love came for those people that I'd hurt. And I've had to do this in many other things and hurtful relationships. There was a person who really hurt me when I was younger, 18 years old, and I went through the prayer of forgiveness. And the interesting thing is that I now look at a different light at my mother and father. Instead of reacting to their faults and being anger, I see past their faults and see their need. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER D And that's a gift from God. SPEAKER E That is a gift. Yes. SPEAKER C That is a discernment which we don't by nature have that's right. SPEAKER D And I can relate this personal experience, trusting that it may help someone else who's struggling to experiencing God's love. And maybe you're unable to do it, and they could have done things that are pretty horrific and terrible to you. But don't be afraid of the emotional pain that you might tap into. God will be with you all the way through such an experience and will wrap you in his love. I know from my own personal experiences, it's the only way that the deepest emotional healing can come through forgiveness. I've had the opportunity to share this listening prayer concept with many people through seminars I presented on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And many, many people have shared with me their own experiences when they began asking God to remove any strongholds that is keeping them from experiencing God's love more fully. God knows the emotional hurts we have, and he wants to heal them because he knows they are barriers that Satan has brought into their lives that keep us from growing into the fullness of Christ. But many times the experiences were so traumatic that we have suppressed them. I've come across many people who've been sexually abused and they've suppressed it, suppress it deep, deep down, and they're not even aware. SPEAKER E Many. SPEAKER D I remember when I was at a prayer conference in the USA and I did a seminar on emotional healing and Experiencing God's love. And I went through all the things we've been going through, and at the end I said, look, is there anyone who would like to have private prayer? And I made sure that I had another lady with me as I was doing this. And I also wanted to train and equip her as well. She didn't know that at the time, but there was about 120 people. This prayer conference, these were all saints. People go to prayer conference are really full on for God. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And it came to my attention that at least probably 30 or 40% of them came in wanting private prayer. And all of them, some of our pastors wives had been sexually abused. SPEAKER E Wow. SPEAKER D And I found out that statistics tell that nearly two out of three women have been sexually abused. SPEAKER E Is it that high? SPEAKER D Wow. Yeah. And so they were holding on to anger and bitterness and resentment. Some of them were holding to anger and resentment to presidents of conferences because they'd been moved around so much and friendships, and it messed up with their family and affected their relationship. And so a lot of them were anger and bitterness through presidents. And so we took them through the prayer of forgiveness. And I saw people, men and women, healed from sexual abuse and other abuses in their lives through the prayer of forgiveness. SPEAKER E That's powerful. SPEAKER D Yeah. And so many of, you know, are carrying deep hurts in their lives that are inhibiting us from experiencing the emotional, physical healing that God wants us to have. See, he knows that these deep hurts cause us to react in certain ways. But Jesus, remember, he looks beyond our faults and sees our need. SPEAKER E He does. SPEAKER D And he wants to bring healing and freedom in our lives. And when the emotional healing comes, the immune is set free from the anger and bitterness the abusive experience has caused. I remember one lady, a story of a lady that she felt the compassion for the man who abused to her as a child, instead of hatred and anger she struggled with for years. How true is Jesus statement? It reads, if the Son has set you free or shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. That's taken from John, chapter eight, verse 36, which says, if the sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I remember of a story of there's a story of a man in a dungeon, and he was in the dungeon and there was a table next to him, and he was shackled to the table, his hands and his legs. And every day he cried out to the Lord of the castle, free me from these shackles. Free me. And he would cry out every day, free me from these shackles. And then every day it seemed like the Lord of the castle didn't hear Him. Anyway, one day he looked at the table again and he noticed there was a key there. Now, the key had been there all the time. He took the key and he unlocked the shackles and he was free. The key had been there all the time. He just didn't see it. And in God's word, we have the keys to be set free. Forgiveness is the foundational of being set free from the emotional pains in our lives that we're holding on to from our past. And so we need to know how it works. Now. Thirdly, in order to cast down these strongholds and experience God's love more fully into what we call what I call is a Wineskin fellowship group, god loves us through people. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D We were created to be in relationships. God created the family. God Himself is a relational being. Before he even created anything, there was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a loving covenant relationship, being loved and loving one another. That's why God can say he's loved. Because he's loved. Because there's always been a Son in eternity past the Holy Spirit to love one another. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D So God is in a covenant loving relationship Himself, and he created us to be in a covenant loving relationship with Him and each other. So he created the family. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D Created the family. So a small group is like a family. And a fellowship of spirit filled believers is the best environment to experience God's love on a human level. You don't experience this going to church every week necessarily, whether you got 100 or 200 or 300 people or even more, when it's like Happy Sabbath or whatever. Happy Sunday or whatever. Church you go to. You go to church, it's sort of like you shake hands. You don't get to intimately get to know people on a deeper level. But in a small group environment, you get to know people and trust people. And so this loving environment is the best environment for healing to take place. Remember what James wrote in James, chapter five, verse 16, he says, confess your faults to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D Well, it sounds like you're in a small group confessing and praying for each other. And remember in Hebrews, chapter ten, verse 23 to 25, can you read that? SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER C Let us hold fast our confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. SPEAKER D Wow. So he's saying, hey listen, come together, meet together. When you look at the early church, the early church in the Bible was basically a group of small groups. You can read that in Acts chapter two. I mean, what happens if 3000 people got baptized? They didn't have churches for them to all come together. SPEAKER C Well, it says they were breaking bread from house to house. So I think they were meeting in houses there from what I can let's. SPEAKER D Just go to that in Acts chapter two. To me it's the biblical model of doing church. If you go to Acts chapter two it talks. First thing is Peter just preached a sermon. It says after the sermon they realized they'd put Jesus on the cross and it says they were cut to the heart. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And cut to the heart. And they said to Peter, what do we do? SPEAKER C That's right, men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter answered to them in verse 38 repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then he said that the promise is to you and to your children and all who are afar off and as many as the Lord your God would call. But then I like what's being said next there. Colin, I think that's where you were heading there. About those who gladly received the word and were baptized and the 3000 were added. Then verse 42 it says and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine which is Bible study. Bible study, yes. And fellowship. So it's meeting together. So in small groups and in breaking bread they ate together, eating together and in prayers. SPEAKER D So what the four things they did? SPEAKER C So continuing steadfast in doctrine. So the teachings of the apostles, which is obviously the word of God and fellowship. So spending time together socially, breaking bread. So eating together and in prayers, praying together. SPEAKER D Everybody eats eddie and that's right. And everyone loves fellowship and eating. And they had studied God's word together and prayed together. And it says that fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believer together had all things in common. Because of this love they had in their groups some people sold things to help each other out. Then I love in verse 46 it says and they continually daily with one accord. You will find the word one accord right. Throughout acts the Book of Acts yes. They met in the temple so they still went to church. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And they broke bread together from where? SPEAKER C House to house to house. That's right. SPEAKER D They're in small groups eating together, gladness and single of heart and because they did all of these things praising God and having favor, and they found favor with the people. So they worked together and found favor with the people in their communities. And because they did this, it says the Lord added to the church daily, such as were being saved. So small groups is just a beautiful way to experience healing. And so I just love small groups. I remember when I first came to church, I was invited to a small group. And I believe that's what saved me, because you had 1ft in the world and I was exploring. And this small group, I got to know people, they loved and cared for me, they nurtured me, they studied together, they prayed together, we ate together, we did all those things. And that small group has been going for 40 years. People have come in and out for 40 years. SPEAKER C Wow, that's a lot. SPEAKER D This small group's been going on and helping people. So I want to talk now about the prayer of forgiveness and understanding why and how to experience God's love to the fullest possible depth of our being is very important for our healing. And the Lord has also led us to fully understand how we can be delivered from many of the satanic oppressions that come upon us as a result of harboring hurt and angry feelings. And we did talk about the prayer of forgiveness before, and I'm going to give people an opportunity and at the end on this, I'm going to take them through the prayer of forgiveness, okay? But I want you to before you do this, I want you to understand something. I want you to remember God's attitude towards you if you listen to this. In Jeremiah 29, verse eleven, it says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future. I want you to understand that God loves you. He has plans for you to prosper you, not to harm you. He wants to give you hope in a future. And also one of my favorite Bible verses is found in Zephaniah, chapter three, verse 17, okay, where it says, the Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. Do you know that your Heavenly Father is mighty to save? Do you know that he takes great delight in you? And do you know he'll quiet you with his love? And how about this? Did you know that our Heavenly Father sings over us? SPEAKER E It's incredible, isn't it? SPEAKER D When I read that, I went, wow, god sings over us. I can't wait to hear when I get to heaven, when Jesus returns and we travel back and go back to heaven and he raises the dead and those who are living and takes us back to heaven that we will hear. SPEAKER C God sing, the God who created all musical talent. Just imagine how incredible it would be to hear his voice. SPEAKER D It's amazing. So I want to do something now. I want you to prepare you before I take you through the prayer forgiveness. We're going to ask God to reveal the strongholds in your life. Going to ask you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then I'm going to take you through the prayer forgiveness. But before I do that, I want you to, if you're listening, to close your eyes and I want you to close your eyes and just through my voice, I want you to just imagine that the Father in Heaven is speaking to you because I know he does love you. It says it in God's word. We just spoke about that. I want you to close your eyes and I want to hear these words. And when I put the word son or daughter, for example, Etienne, I just want you to put your name in there. When I say son, you put Etienne. If your name is Mary, you'll put your name in there. Mary, but just put your name in there when I say these words. So close your eyes and I'm just going to say this little prayer. Son, daughter this is from your heavenly Father. I love you. You are precious to me. You are worth the life of Jesus to me. I'm so proud to call you my son or daughter. Let me wrap my arms around you and love you. You are secure in me. No one can shake my love for you or your destiny which I have planned for you. You can open your eyes now. God loves you. And Paul states this in Romans, chapter eight, verse 35 and 39, when he says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword? No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. Through him that loved us fine persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you more. And there is nothing you can do to cause God to love you less. His love for you is unchanging and eternal. And my prayer for you, listener, is that you experience the love of God in your innermost soul as never before. For I know this experience alone will bring about the greatest healing and deliverance from Satan's influences in your life. And those who are ready now, I would just like to take you through the prayer of forgiveness. The first thing is we need to ask God to reveal the strongholds in our lives. So I want you to pray and ask God to reveal the strongholds, the past hurtful experiences in your life. Just reveal them. Ask Him to reveal those things that are in your life. So I want you to pray this. I want you to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For the first step is ask God to fill with the Holy Spirit. So just now, just pray, Father, fill me with the Holy Spirit. And you might have to ask God to forgive you for things in your life. Ask him to forgive you. And one John, chapter one, verse nine, says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteous. So ask Him, Lord, forgive me for my sins and fill me with the Holy Spirit. Baptize me with the Holy Spirit. Then ask God to reveal the strongholds in your life, the past hurtful experiences that are keeping you from experiencing God's love most fully. Ask Him. And maybe God is revealing to you some names in your life. Maybe he is bringing back some past hurtful experiences in your life where you've been hurt. Ask Him to reveal those names. And now when he's brought those names to you, I want you to say this prayer. I want you to say, Father, forgive me for my anger and my bitterness and my resentment and name the person. Say that, Lord, forgive me for the anger, bitterness and resentment of those people that have hurt you and name them. Name them. And I want you to say to them, father, forgive me for my anger, bitterness and resentment and my unforgiving spirit. And I want you to say, Father, I forgive and name the person. I forgive that person and list the names of anyone God brings to mind that have hurt you in the past. And I want you to say, ask God to forgive those who have just forgiven and to bless them. And say, Father, I forgive them and I ask you to bless them. And if you've gone through this prayer and if you've said these things, the door's been closed on Satan. He has no more power. You have closed the door. And if the door is closed, I now say in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray that the spirit of unforgiveness, of bitterness, resentment, or whatever other spirit that you've been feeling, I pray in the name of Jesus that you depart in the name of Jesus Christ. You have no right on this person. And if you prayed this prayer. SPEAKER E I. SPEAKER D Don'T want you to ever think on it or mention or discuss it again. You have been free. Remember, if the sun has set you free, you are free indeed. Never think on it. Never mention or discuss that person that hurt you in the past in a negative way. They are free, you might have to do this prayer again. And if these negative emotions come back, the Satan tries to bring them back, rebuke them in the name of Jesus Christ. And I just pray that God will bless you, that you will experience God's love more fully in your life is my prayer in Jesus name. SPEAKER C Thank you Colin for leading us through that beautiful prayer. We're just going to take a short break now just to share our contact details with you and we will wrap it up straight after this message. Stay tuned. Thank you for joining us on You Shall Receive Power. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning 024-973-3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We look forward to hearing from you SPEAKER C Welcome back to you shall receive power. We have been going through day 35 a loving people and just looking at experiencing the forgiveness of God and letting the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. As we read in Romans chapter five and verse five, that's important for us to know the love of God. It's absolutely essential for us to grow in the fullness of Christ. And the things that can hold us back is resentment and anger and unforgiveness. And even as we've looked previously, Colin, it can have a detrimental effect on our health. So we just thank God for this study. We thank you dear Father, for the Holy Spirit you've given us to guide and lead us through these studies in the scripture and also this exercise of forgiveness through prayer by recommitment of our lives to you. Everything we receive in regards to salvation is a gift from God. And Colin, there's a beautiful book you can share with people that is written by Pastor Dennis Smith. What is that book called and where can they find it? SPEAKER D It's called Spirit Baptism and Deliverance by Dennis Smith. And much of what we've covered today is in this, including the prayer of forgiveness. And it can help you. You can contact your nearest Adventist Book Center or you can go to Holy Spirit Ministries website which is www.spiritbaptism.org. And the book is called Spirit Baptism and Deliverance. And I just want to leave you with this, that this is a process. There's many times in my life I've had to go through that prayer, that prayer forgiveness. And I just want you to remember this there is nothing you can do to cause God to love you more, and there is nothing you can do to cause God to love you less. His love for you is unchanging and eternal. And our prayer here is that you will experience the love of God in your innermost soul as never before. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER D For I know that this experience alone will bring about the greatest healing and deliverance from Satan's influences in your life. SPEAKER E Great. SPEAKER C Thank you for that. Colin, thank you for leading us through that study today. Dear listener, we pray that you've been blessed, and if you need to get in touch with us or you would like special prayer, please use those contact details we shared with you just in the break. We look forward to catching up with you next time on this program called You Shall Receive Power. May the power and love of God be with you until that time is our prayer. In Jesus name. SPEAKER A The glory of his name all creation by at the coming of the king every eye shall see every heart will know every niche I every dunk of faith holy, holy, holy, holy see the coming of the king it holy. SPEAKER D You'Ve been listening to a production of Three ABN, Australia radio.