<link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <meta content="urn:uuid:620cd545-1b87-4e07-a38b-c70b796a8e19" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body> <p class="chapnum"><b>14</b></p> <p class="chaptitle"><b>L<small>OVE AND</small> C<small>OMPASSION</small></b></p> <p class="block1"><b><em>Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.</em></b></p> <p class="block2"><b>—P<small>SALM</small> 25:6</b></p> <p class="noindent"><span class="dropcap"><b>O</b></span>ne of the greatest things that drew me to the Lord was His love. We know that the Bible says that God is love. It is His very nature. He loved the world so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. That is the greatest display and supernatural love that anyone can give.</p> <p class="indent">Can you imagine God asking you to give up one of your children? I am sure all of you who are parents would have a very hard time obeying that instruction. But Abraham understood that if he killed his only son on the altar, the same God who gave that instruction could resurrect Isaac.</p> <p class="indent">God’s love is expressive and that is why we are commanded to love each other. The Cross of Calvary is a supernatural sign of the love and nature of God. Jesus was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth. Love was hanging from the Cross; He carried our diseases, sickness, iniquity, and sin (Isa. 53:3-4). God will speak to us through His abiding love. We must understand that we didn’t choose Him—God chose us first.</p> <p class="indent">The Bible says we can’t come to the Father unless the Father draws us. His love drew you into a laid-down-lover, covenant relationship with the Father. When you fall short of the glory of God, His abiding love through the Holy Spirit speaks to us to arise and shine for our light has come and the glory of the Lord shall be risen upon us, according to Isaiah 60. God’s love covers a multitude of sins. God will speak to us through His unconditional love. When you are going astray, His still small voice and love will remind you that God will never leave you or forsake you.</p> <p class="indent">As children of God, His love toward us at times will chasten us. He corrects or chastens those He loves, the Bible declares. God’s love doesn’t condone sin but convicts us of wrong acts, and His love doesn’t condemn us but covers us. The Bible says He draws us with loving kindness and mercy. God is love and shows loving kindness as well. It other words, God is merciful toward us even when we sin or fall short.</p> <p class="indent">One of the powerful and primary ways God speaks to me especially in prophetic ministry is by moving my heart with compassion. He also does that to me in my day-to-day involvement with people when I ask Him to teach me how to love like Jesus. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a public place—a restaurant, on break at work, behind the pulpit, in Times Square in Manhattan, or running some sort of errand and not even thinking about ministering to anyone—when God speaks.</p> <p class="indent">Suddenly, someone catches my eye or stands out to me and my heart is moved with compassion to prophesy. I can’t get their face out of my head and God zooms in on them like eagle eyes. That’s when I know the Holy Spirit is up to something and I start inquiring of the Lord for prophetic insight as I approach the individual, ready to jump into the next God adventure. I feel my heart being moved with compassion and I hear the voice of the Lord as God begins to speak to me concerning this individual. God uses love through the lens of compassion to share His heart with a complete stranger through me.</p> <p class="indent">After talking to many evangelists and those called to curbside ministry throughout the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the compassion and love of Christ usually is the number-one way God grabs our attention to respond. I didn’t realize praying for more of the love of Christ would amplify my ability to feel and hear the heartbeat of the Father toward someone. God will speak if we ask Him for more love. Jesus understood and exemplified what love looks like when He died on the Cross. Even in Jesus’s ministry here on earth He was moved by compassion.</p> <p class="indent">Throughout the Gospels we can read fourteen times that Jesus was moved by compassion for other people. Matthew 20:34 shares an example: “<em>Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes.”</em> The fascinating part about this is whenever Jesus embodied compassion through what He felt, He would stop everything He was doing and would focus His entire attention on the individual His heart was being stirred up and moved for.</p> <p class="indent">I think it’s safe to say that compassion was a big part of how the Spirit led Jesus in His ministry. How much does it influence you in your daily decisions? I love this quote from Heidi Baker, a loving and compassionate woman of God whose ministry serves in the most desolate places on earth: <em>“Never be too busy to stop for the one.”</em></p> <p class="indent">One of my spiritual papas, Leif Hetland, who is called an apostle of love, shared with my brother and me one day that <em>“love is what God looks like.”</em> Compassion is seeing with God’s eyes. I believe it takes faith to love and love to have faith in others. Fear to love can kill compassion. We need compassion that stirs up faith to love like Jesus. Fear is the opposite of faith and hate is the opposite of love. Compassion and love are linked to faith. Faith without works is dead. We have to use the compassion of Christ to get results as Christians.</p> <p class="indent">God wants to speak to you through the lens of compassion. I learn compassion by loving the most unlovable people. I learn mercy by needing mercy I don’t deserve. The love of God that some people will experience is through you