The Roar Of God’s Love
By K.D. Anderholm

 

The Bible is full of references pertaining to the wonderful subject of God’s wonderful love. In First Corinthians chapter thirteen, the Apostle Paul writes:

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Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Cor 13:4-8)

 

These are the basic characteristics of God’s love that every Christian should be developing in their lives, family relationships and ministries. However, there is another characteristic of God’s love that the church today seems to know very little about. I’m referring to the roar of His love. (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2)

I have a friend who pastors a growing church in South Africa. He was raised in a family that used to hunt lions. While he and I were traveling together in Eastern Europe, he told me about the incredible strength of these fantastic creatures. He said that lions actually have the ability to chase down a moving vehicle, swipe at its side with its claws and leave deep gouges in the vehicles’ exterior. He once saw a lion bite through the steel hood of a truck! According to my friend, lions are absolutely fearless. Once a lion has locked its eyes on you, there is no amount of waiving or yelling that will scare him away.

 

THE LION’S ROAR!

My friend went on to describe how the lion roars. He said that when a lion spots its prey, it runs towards him with lightening speed. Then, it stops suddenly -- just a few feet from its target, and lets out a thunderous roar, which completely paralyzes his enemy with fear. The lion’s roar comes from deep within his belly and actually causes the earth to tremble for several feet around him. My minister friend said that it’s one of the most terrifying sounds that he has ever heard.

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The roar of God’s love is unleashed on our behalf in a similar way. God is like the lion who hears the cry of His cubs when they are in danger and appears immediately to defend them! When God hears you calling on His name in times of trouble, He bursts on to the scene with a thunderous roar! He completely paralyzes your enemies with fear and causes them to flee in terror from before your face! God’s mighty "roar" turns the situation around and causes things to work in your favor. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah in Hebrew means praise. You could just as accurately say that Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of praise! When you praise Him and call on His mighty name in times of trouble, the roar of His love is manifested on your behalf to bring you into victory!

 

IMITATE GOD

As Christians we need to strive to imitate our Father in heaven. We need to incorporate the roar of God’s love into our character and personality. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us..." (Eph 5:1). Understanding the gentleness of God’s love is important, but that alone will not carry you through these increasingly dangerous times. You need a revelation of the roar of God's love in order to overcome the tremendous fear that is already beginning to sweep the globe.

 

SPEAK WITH AUTHORITY

When the enemy comes to devour our households, ministries and churches in these last-days, we need to take our authority in Christ and use it to roar against him! I’m not talking about obnoxious screaming or some other fleshly foolishness. I’m talking about allowing the strength of Heaven’s authority to be manifest in the tone of our prayers, praise and preaching. We can’t act and speak like we’re powerless and expect the devil to flee in terror from us. We can’t sing "Hallelujah" in a weak, pitiful voice and expect the Spirit of God to come in like a flood! We need to speak, sing and pray as one who has authority.

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One of the first things that people noticed about Jesus was that He spoke with a tone of authority in His voice. "And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes…" (Mark 1:2). Jesus didn’t speak like the self-absorbed religious leaders who were pretending to be humble but were really full of pride! Jesus' words were overflowing with strength, liberty and life! The authority of Heaven was in the tone of His voice and everyone including the religious folks could hear it! Jesus has given His church this same degree of authority. He has given us power over all the power of the enemy! It’s sad that most of us don’t act like it! The world is never going to listen to a weak, wimpy and beat-up Church! And neither will the devil!

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"But Pastor Kerry, we shouldn’t be arrogant! Paul tells us to speak the truth in love!"

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I agree! But we have to get rid of our faulty religious ideas about what love and humility truly looks and sounds like. I wouldn’t dare accuse Jesus and John the Baptist of being arrogant and not walking in love when they raised their voices in front of the multitudes and rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees! You see, true love is not always sweet and "syrupy," and true humility is not always timid and quiet! Sometimes love is tough and warlike, and sometimes humility is loud, bold and authoritative. (Not cocky and arrogant) How God’s love is administrated all depends on the way God chooses to express Himself at the moment.

DOES GOD COME WITH GENTLENESS OR A ROD?

Some people you can gently lead into the knowledge of the truth through correctly teaching the scriptures, but others are simply too prideful to receive the truth of God's Word gently! To the tax collectors and sinners, Jesus was gentle. Their hearts were soft and open to Him so there was no need for strong confrontations. "A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust." (Matt 12:20-21) But to the religious leaders, Jesus brought harsh rebukes, and because of it, "even among the rulers many believed in Him…" (John 12:42-43) If this was true in Jesus’ day, how much more will it be true in ours?

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The higher the walls of pride in your life, the stronger God will have to deal with you! Why? Because He loves you and He knows that a strong rebuke is sometimes the only way He can reach you! A "paddle on the bottom" can be just as much an expression of love as a "pat on the back!" The Father chastens, rebukes and scourges every son whom He receives. (Heb 12:5-6) Whether you receive a chastening, a rebuke, or an outright scourging is up to you my brother and sister. "Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die." (Prov 15:10) Always remember, "Whom the Lord loves He corrects…" (Prov 3:12)

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Any way that God expresses Himself is a form of His love. Why? Because God IS love! (1 John 4:8) Even His expressions of wrath are motivated in some way by His love! This is difficult for most of us to fathom, but it’s true anyway. This doesn’t in any way diminish the fact that the Lord is good! But Paul exhorts us to, "…consider the goodness and the severity of God." (Rom 11:22) Let’s take our religious "glasses" off and begin viewing humility and love from the perspective of the whole counsel of the Word of God, not just from the perspective of one chapter!

 

THE LORD ROARS FROM ZION

The prophet Joel said that: "The LORD also will roar from Zion..." (Joel 3:16). The Prophet Amos prophesied the same thing saying: "The LORD roars from Zion..." (Amos 1:2). Zion is always symbolic of the Church in scripture. This could just as accurately be translated: The Lord will roar from His Church! The roar of God’s love should be heard loud and clear in our praying and singing! It should be especially heard in our proclaiming of God’s word. It’s The roar of God’s love that distinguishes a strong church from a weak church. Spiritually speaking, most churches today sound like a tiny trickling brook. This should not be so. To be completely scriptural, our churches should sound like Niagara Falls at flood stage! The end-time church must not be afraid of a little volume! On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blew in with the sound of 1000 freight trains! Those who were present began to speak in tongues so loud that the whole city heard and came out to see what was going on! If the Church was born with a roar from heaven, then the end-time Church must go-out with an even louder roar from heaven!

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The Church today desperately needs to understand the roar of God’s love. It's the roar of His love that moves us to action. It's the roar of His love that burns with great zeal within our bones. It's the roar of His love that causes us to speak out against evil and wrongdoing. It's the roar of His love that fans the sparks of revival into a raging inferno! The Church must begin to demonstrate this awesome characteristic of God’s love, only then will she have the volume and strength to completely arrest the attention of the earth with the gospel message. (Mt 24:14)

 

"The righteous are bold as a lion." (Pr 28:1)
 

© Copyright 2022  — K. D. Anderholm
All Rights Reserved

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All rights reserved. This article is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version, Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, Tennessee. All references to deity have been capitalized.