There is no ability to understand the love of God for us without a personal, direct intervention in one's life. We do not know naturally God loves us. We cannot come to explore the depths of His love simply by quoting John 3:16. It is only when God chooses to open our eyes (and heart) to His love that we "know" He loves us.
Jesus asked Peter in John 21: 15 "Do you love me more than these?" This was a probing question from the all-knowing Christ straight into the heart of Peter in a vulnerable moment. But Jesus wanted to Peter to know something more here. His revelation was not so much for Peter to know if he loved Jesus, but to discover a deeper and growing sense of His love for him.
John knew something of this love. Five times toward the end of the gospel bearing his name, John describes himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." (John 21:20; 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7). Was John boasting of a special place in Jesus' line claiming he was "the favorite" of Jesus? I don't think so.
Instead, he had come to realize how much Jesus loved him and he was basking in that new depth of understanding that only could be attributed to a fresh, new work of God in his heart.
Romans 5:5 "God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (CSV)
Evangelist Charles G. Finney was gloriously saved because of a visitation of God in "waves of liquid love." Finney was an agnostic. He was a trained lawyer with a brilliant mind scoffing often of the things of God and eternity. But he was converted and changed by the love of God.
One Sunday night before going to his own apartment, he stopped by his little law office and kindled a fire in the hearth, the fireplace there, to stave off the winter's chill. And then he began to seek God, for there had been a great hunger in his heart for God recently. As he writes in his own autobiography, He would begin to pray and seek the Lord. He says there came over him a sensation of wave upon wave of liquid love. His whole soul was filled with Divine love. He said he didn't realize how long he lingered there, but when he finally finished that time of adoration and prayer, enjoying the outpouring of God's love, the fire had long since gone out in the fireplace, and there was nothing there but cold, black embers. He then put on his overcoat and went to his apartment.
Wave upon wave of liquid love is the same way D. L. Moody described his experience when the Holy Spirit filled him. According to his testimony, Moody was walking down the street when the power of God fell on him. He went to a nearby friend's house, asking if he could have a room to be alone with God. He stayed in that room alone for hours; and the Holy Spirit came, filling his soul with such joy that at last he had to ask God to withhold His hand, lest he die on the spot from the joy.
Only God can open our hearts to the revelation of how much He loves us. May the prayer of Ephesians 3: 17-19 be ours: "I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
I hear the little chorus:
"Oh, how He loves you and me; Oh, how He loves you and me; He gave His life, what more could He give? Oh, how He loves you; Oh, how He loves me; Oh, how He loves you and me."
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