Gregory Dickow - 5 Miracles Of Knowing God's Love
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Hi, family of God. I consider you family because we have the same Father, amen. And welcome to "The Power to Change Today". Do you know that the devil woke up this morning with one goal, and that was to distort your view of who God really is? The devil distorts our view of God through condemnation, through shame, through inferiority, through religious limiting beliefs, through low self worth, but in today's teaching I'm gonna show you how to obliterate every demonic stronghold and distortion and replace it with a crystal clear view of how beautiful God is, how beautiful his faithfulness, his love, his mercy, and his grace are, so let's get right into this teaching. Share it with someone who needs to hear it, and I'll be back at the end to pray for you. Check this out.
The devil's number one goal is to distort your view of God through religion, through condemnation, through shame, through inferiority, through a low sense of value, a low sense of self worth, and this is why Jesus came. The devil's number one goal is to distort your view of God to make you think that God is against you, that he is mad, that he is mean, that he is angry, that he will judge you, and, my God, he put it all on the cross, he put all of his judgment, all of his wrath, all of his anger, all of his perfection, all of his holiness. Jesus's crucifixion was the evidence of God's perfection, the evidence of God's holiness, the evidence of God's justice, and the evidence of God's love. He is just.
Somebody has to pay the price for mankind's sin. Somebody has to pay for Adams sin, and Adam didn't have the credit to pay for it himself, so Jesus took it, took it all. Took the beating beyond recognition. Didn't even wait until he died. He was beyond recognition before he even was on the cross. He was scourged, a crown of thorns was put upon his head. It's the worst thing that could ever, the worst death anybody could ever experience. He experienced it. It wasn't instant, it wasn't a shot with a lethal injection, it wasn't a gunshot with one bullet goes through his heart or goes through his organ or goes through his brain, it was long, painful, he was betrayed, he was hated, he was lied about, and everybody knew he was lied about. He was innocent, and everybody knew he was innocent. He was good, and everybody knew that he was good, and they crucified him anyway.
That is the justice of God. We deserve that crucifixion, Jesus took that crucifixion. Jesus deserved the love of the Father, and we get the love of the Father. Jesus deserves to be seated at the right hand of the Father, and yet he pulls us up before he takes his seat, he stands up and picks us up, and then he sits us with him in heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6, we are seated together with him. We died with him, we were buried with him, we've been raised with him, and now we're seated with him in heavenly places. The idea that you need to change in order for God to be good to you, Jesus obliterated that. The idea that he's angry, Jesus obliterated that. The idea that he's distant, Jesus obliterated that.
In John Chapter 12, verse 45 it says, "And whoever sees me sees the one who sent me". Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. The idea that sometimes God says yes and sometimes he says no, Jesus obliterated that. The idea that he wants you condemned when you sin or when you fail, Jesus obliterated that. The idea that maybe he'll heal you or maybe he won't, Jesus obliterated that. The idea that God keeps a list of your sins, Jesus obliterated that. I might have said this to you last week, but I'm saying it again. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12 says, "And he will remember your sins and iniquities no more. Their sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more". God says that. All because of the blood of Jesus. The idea that God will leave you in your time of tragedy, Jesus obliterated that, because he came at our worst moments.
Jeremiah 31, verse 2 through 6 in the Message Bible, this is the way God put it. "They found grace out in the desert". The old way is dried up, people. The old way of trying to earn God's forgiveness and grace, you can't earn it. It's forgive, it's a gift, it's grace, it's a favor. Somebody said, "What do I have to do to get God to do me a favor"? Nothing, because if you have to do something to get God to do you a favor, it's no longer a favor, it's a trade, and God's not trading. "They found grace in the desert, Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God, who was out looking for them". God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will". Expect love, love, and more love.
You know, there are some people in my life, and I believe some people have felt this about me in the past, that, oh, it's him calling. And they're like, oh, Dickow's calling me, man. Like, oh no. It's like we have this knee jerk reaction to certain people in our lives that trigger, some people, their phone call triggers anxiety. Anybody know what I'm talkin' about? I'm just sayin'. Oh, and all the sudden it's because we're traumatized by our upbringing, we're traumatized by tragedy, we're traumatized. And so, we have come to expect something, God to judge us, we're kinda expecting to be yelled at.
If you grew up with a parent that always yelled at you, you became accustomed to being abused, it became an expectation, they're gonna yell at me, they're gonna be mad at me, and that makes people nuts, that makes people crazy. And you know we are living in the worst mental health crisis of any generation, and frankly it's because in our homes, we've lived in fear in the very place that we're supposed to feel safest, in the very place we're supposed to feel safest, in the custody of our parents. Why is it that we know we're supposed to be safe, but we don't feel that way growing up as kids sometimes? Because our parents were going through things that we didn't know they were going through, and we have to, like, we have to give them space, give them room, give them, like, you have to re-parent yourself, but you have to re-parent them sometimes too. Re-parent somebody, like, find somebody that needs, like, do somethin' good, re-parent somebody, but start with yourself.
We were talking about leadership yesterday, me and Joseph and his mom, and we're talkin' about how leadership begins with leading yourself. You have to lead yourself, you have to take personal responsibility for your life. Yes, you've been abused, you've been hurt, you've been mistreated, but this is why the solution is to discover the consistent love of the Father for you. That's why he says, "Expect love, love, and more love". I used to think I can expect love from God, but then sometimes I can expect his anger or his wrath, but maybe he'll come around and love me again, or maybe if I pray enough, I'll feel love, and all that it's nonsense. I wake up every day expecting love, and then no matter how bad my days goin', I'm expecting love, and no matter how bad I've been in life, I'm expecting even more love. Because God has conditioned me and God has trained me and God has come to me as love.
And if you want to know what is the essence of God, 1 John 4:8 tells us unequivocably, "God is love". So, why are we expecting his anger? He put all that on Christ, he put all his wrath, he put all sickness, he put all sin on him. God is not relating to you based on your sin anymore. You might be relating to him based on your sin, but that's because you have a misunderstanding of what he did for you. God doesn't come and talk to me about my sin. If I say, "God, I just feel so bad about that, that one sin that I did yesterday," a year ago, or whenever, and he's like, "What, what"? He's like, "What, what, what, what, what, what? What sin"? He says, "What sin? Well, I don't even know what you're talkin' about". How could you say that's what God is like? Because the Bible says, "He will remember my sins no more".
God is perfect in his mind, the reason why he doesn't remember my sins anymore is not because he's got Alzheimers, it's not because he's losing his memory. The reason why he doesn't remember my sins anymore is because that's how thorough Jesus's blood dealt with our sins. It obliterated our sins, so our sins don't even exist in the mind and heart of God. And in heaven there will be no mention of sin. The Bible says that he will come again without reference to sin. The first time he came to deal with sin, the first time he came was to deal with and obliterate the wrong views we have of God, and the second time he's coming, Hebrews chapter 9 says, "He will come again without reference to sin". Man. Expect love, love, and more love. Malachi 1:2 in the New Living translation, "'I've always loved you,' says the Lord. 'I have always loved you.'"
You know, there are five miracles that happen in your life when you truly know that God is perfect love. God's love for you is perfect. Number one, it calms your heart, "For he himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation," Ephesians 2:13. Knowing God's love for us calms the heart. My heart has been anxious, my heart has been, I felt some anxiety in the last year or two, in the last couple of months, and his love has calmed my heart. I go back to remembering his love. It calms my heart. "Knowing his perfect love for you, elevate your expectations," Ephesians 3:20, "above and beyond all that you can ask or think". I don't have time to get into that.
Number three, knowing the perfect love of God, it heals your soul. We have to realize the times we're living in, people. People have faced tragedy and terror, they've faced rejection and scorn, they've faced comparisons and not measuring up. This world is so caught up in comparing, so caught up in fake, false realities that we see on social media all the time, people posting the best or they're posting what took them 40 times to get the picture right, and you're like, ah, that person is so perfect, and I'm so... stop it. In the right light, in the right century, you'll look that way too. It just won't be this century. Ha, ha, ha. In Isaiah 43, he will heal your soul, it says, "A bruised reed," verse 3, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice". I love, what the Message Bible says here. "He won't brush aside the bruised, he won't brush aside the bruised or the hurt, he won't disregard the small and the insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right".
Have you been bruised? He won't brush you aside. Have you been hurt? He won't disregard you. Have you been small and felt insignificant? He's gonna steadily and firmly make it right. Have you been mistreated? He's gonna turn it around. Have you been lied about? He's gonna comfort you. Have you been ashamed? He's gonna wash your shame away. He's a healer of the soul. Have you had tragedy? Have you had disaster? Have you had calamity? Job had it too, and he said, "Yet, I will trust him". It wasn't God who slayed Job. We know that Satan did, we know, if we read it, Satan smote Job, Satan attacked Job. Job actually thought God did it and still said, "Yet, I will trust him". We know God doesn't bring calamity, but we still have a hard time trusting him. This guy thought the calamity came from God, and yet still trusted God.
I want to, that's why the Bible says have the patience of Job. Like, he trusted God no matter how bad it looked. He trusted God no matter what bad things happened in his life. There is only one way, gang. Trust God, love people, and trust God. Stop putting your trust in people. They will let you down, every human being in your life will let you down in one way or another eventually if they're in your life very long, but God will never let you down. And that doesn't mean you need to be dismissive of them. People are human. When somebody lets you down, it's a gift. It's a gift to you to look to God, and so, you know what? I was putting too much emphasis on them doing me right. I'm no longer expecting much from them, I'm expecting from God to make up for it. This miracle of love will heal your soul. He won't tire out or quit. He won't stop until he's finished his work to set things right on earth.
There's a lot of injustice in this world. You might have been on the wrong end of it. You might have been the one giving the injustice. I don't know. I don't judge. But I can tell you this, God is gonna set it right. He will avenge you. This woman cried out to him day and night, to an unrighteous judge, an unrighteous judge, and she said, "Give me legal protection, give me legal protection, give me legal protection," and he would not do it, but she would not stop. And she kept saying, "Give me legal protection, give me legal protection". She'd come over to his house, yelling at his window, "Give me legal protection, give me legal protection. These people are taking advantage of me". And he wouldn't do it. He said, "I don't fear God, I don't respect you". But she kept saying, "Give me legal protection, give me legal protection, give me legal", the persistent widow in Luke 18.
She kept saying it, she kept saying it, she kept saying it. He finally said, the unrighteous judge finally said, "Man, I gotta give this woman legal protection, because she's gonna just give me two black eyes". Literally says in the margin of the Bible, "she's gonna just knock me out, she's just gonna punch me in the head. I am dead if I don't give her legal protection". And the Bible says that he avenged her, and yet it says, "If this unrighteous judge would do that to the persistent widow, think about what your heavenly Father will do for you if you cry out to him. He will avenge you quickly". He's coming, he's gonna fix it, he's gonna turn it around, he's going to make it right, he's going to turn it to your favor. He's going to Romans 8:28 your life. If you ask me why I love him, it's because his love eliminates all my doubts.
When God says I love you, he means, "I will never break my promise to you". My favorite miracle of the perfect love of God is that it makes me safe to be vulnerable. It makes me safe. We can be vulnerable with him. We can be honest. The secret to intimacy with God is to know that he won't judge you, is to know that he is for you, not against you, is to know that he is love. If you ask me why I love him, I tell you in Song of Solomon, chapter 5, verse 10 through 16 in the Passion translation, "He alone is my beloved".
If you ask me why I love him, I'll tell ya, "He alone is my beloved. He shines in dazzling splendor yet is still so approachable, without equal as he stands above all others, outstanding among 10,000. The way he leads me is divine. His leadership, so pure and dignified as he wears his crown of gold. Upon this crown are letters written in black on a background of glory. He sees everything with pure understanding. How beautiful are his insights, without distortion, without distortion. His eyes rest upon the fullness of the river of revelation, flowing so clean and pure. Looking at his gentle face, looking at his gentle face, I see such fullness of emotion. I look at his gentle face, I see his emotion, his passion, his love, his joy, his happiness to see me. Like a lovely garden," it says, "where fragrant spices grow, what a man"!
That's your Savior. "What a man"! You ask me why I love him, "What a man! He speaks words so anointed, no one speaks words like him, words that both pierce and heal, words like lilies dripping with myrrh. See how his hands hold unlimited power! But he never uses it in anger". You ask me why I love him. "See how his hands hold unlimited power! And yet he never uses it in anger, for he is always holy, displaying his glory. His innermost being is a work of art, so beautiful and bright. How magnificent and noble is this one, covered in majesty. He's steadfast in all that he does. His ways are the ways of righteousness, based on truth and holiness. No one can rival him, but all will be amazed by him. Most sweet are his kisses, even his whispers of love. He is delightful in every way and perfect from every point of view. If you ask me why I love him, I will tell you it's because there is none like him. Everything about him fills me with holy desire! And now he is my beloved, my friend forever".
If he's your beloved and your friend forever, if you, like me, when somebody, if you are also like me when you realize, if you ask me why I love him, if you could say that's why I love him too, how his hands, this really gets me. How his hands hold unlimited power, yet he never uses it in anger. I've had a lot of anger in my life. I've had anger towards me, I've had anger towards others. But the one constant, the one consistent, the one who has never been mad, never been angry, never been impatient with me is this man. What a man.