I was stirred recently by the Holy Spirit and he led me to this passage: "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 20–21). As I read these verses, I heard the Spirit whisper to me: "David, you've never yet come into the fullness and joy of my love. You have the theology right—but you haven't yet experienced the ecstasy and rest of keeping yourself in my love. Up to now, you've only been in it up to your ankles. But there's a whole ocean of my love for you to swim in."

The Bible is filled with the truth of God's love. But at times I allow myself to wonder how the Lord could ever love me. It's not that I doubt his love; it's more a failure on my part to keep myself in the knowledge and assurance of his love to me.

The revelation of God's love comes in part when we are born again. If you were to ask most Christians what they know of God's love for them, they'd answer, "I know God loves me because he gave his Son to die for me." They would quote John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

It's a wonderful moment when you grasp this truth. You suddenly realize, "God loved me when I was lost, undone, a stranger. And he proved his love for me by sacrificing his own Son on my behalf."

Few Christians, however, learn how to be kept in God's love. We know something of our love toward the Lord—but we seldom seek the revelation of God's love for us. In fact, if you were to ask most Christians to find biblical passages on God's love for us, they could point to only a few. Yet, understanding the love of God is the secret to an overcoming life. Multitudes grow spiritually cold and lazy because they're ignorant of the Lord's love for them. They don't know that their greatest weapon against Satan's attacks is to be fully convinced of God's love for them, through the revelation of the Holy Ghost.

In his final prayer on earth, Jesus said, "Father…thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). What an incredible thought; Christ was greatly loved by the Father before creation.

Then Jesus prayed this remarkable prayer. "Thou, Father…hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (v. 21, 23). He also prayed, "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them" (v. 26). Christ was saying, "Father, I know you're going to love those I bring into my body, just the way you've loved me."

The implication here is that when the Father loved Jesus before eternity, he loved us too. Indeed, when man was still only a thought in God's eternal mind, the Lord was already numbering our parts and planning our redemption: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Ephesians 1:4).

How long has God loved you? He's loved you since he has existed—because God is love. It is his very nature. He loved you as a sinner. He loved you in the womb. He loved you before the world began. There was no beginning to his love for you—and there is no end to it.

When will God stop loving you? He'll stop loving you when he stops loving his own Son—which is impossible. Christ says, "The Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1).

Years ago, God put it on my heart to start a boys’ home on Long Island. I truly sensed the Lord was behind this work. Yet, after just eighteen months, state officials imposed such stringent regulations on the operation of the home that we had no option but to close it down.

We’d taken in four boys during the brief time we were open. After we closed down, I lost touch with them. I had always thought that venture was one of the greatest failures of all time. For more than three decades, I wondered why God ever allowed us to move forward with it.

Recently I received a letter from a man named Clifford. He told the following story:

“Brother David, I was one of the four boys sent to the home on Long Island. Your houseparents were so loving and kind. They taught us the Bible and took us to church. One day they took us to a church that was holding a tent revival. I was so bitter and despondent. It was there, under the tent, that the Holy Spirit began tugging at my heart. I heard the preacher say, ‘Jesus loves you.’ All the years of pain, confusion and hopelessness came to the surface. I got on my knees and prayed. That was thirty-five years ago. Now God has called me to preach, and he’s moving me into full-time ministry. This ‘thank you’ has been brewing in me all this time. I just want to thank you for caring. I know what the love of God is.”

This man’s letter proves to me that nothing we do for Christ is in vain. That boys’ home was not a failure—because one lost, confused Jewish boy discovered the meaning of God’s love.

"And the king of Assyria sent…Rabshakeh…to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem" (2 Kings 18:17). The Assyrians represent today's "guides to prosperity." The devil will parade his army around your walls: people who are powerful, beautiful and seemingly successful in all they undertake. When you see them, you will feel walled in like a prisoner!

The first trick of the man of sin is to question a believer's commitment to trust the Lord fully. Rabshakeh, whose name means "drunken envoy," was the king's ambassador. He mocked the godly with a taunt (see 2 Kings 18:19–20). The accusation was, "God is not going to get you out of this mess. You are going down! You are in real trouble, and your faith is not going to work."

Satan then adds another twist; he tells you that God is the one behind all your troubles. Assyria's messenger claimed, "The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it" (2 Kings 18:25). Satan will try to convince you that God is getting even with you, that he is mad at you. This is his slickest lie! He makes you believe God has forsaken you and turned you over to trouble and sorrow. He wants you to think all your problems are the result of God's punishment for your past sins. Don't believe it! It is Satan who is out to destroy you.

Our Lord is a deliverer, a fortress. Isaiah said he comes "to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3).

No, dear saint, you are not going down. You are simply under attack, being barraged by the enemy's lies because you have set your heart truly to trust in the Lord. Satan is trying to destroy your faith in God.

"What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage [delegation], and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:31–33).

Enoch once prophesied, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints" (Jude 14). Scripture says we are kings and priests unto the Lord, and we represent these tens of thousands going out to battle Satan's army. Satan wars against us because he hates us greatly (see Revelation 12:17).

We must be prepared for what is coming. We must be ready to spend our days in spiritual warfare, knowing that a flood of iniquity is aimed against the people of God. If we are determined to lay hold of Christ, then we need to realize that we are invincible in Christ. It is written, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). God says we are guaranteed victory over all the power of the enemy; we have all the host of heaven fighting for us!

May God give us more Holy Ghost fight so that each of us can shout to the world and all the hordes of hell, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am 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 other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35, 37–39).

This is the battle cry of those who hunger for Jesus.

Every man or woman of God is going to become the target of hell's evil devices once a commitment is made to become a living sacrifice for Christ. The hordes of hell will be unleashed against the one who sets his heart to walk in holiness of faith.

Satan will afflict and set up roadblocks because you have become a real threat to his program of deception. You can resign the warfare, give up, quit, and become a dull, fruitless wanderer.

For me, I chose to resist the devil's plot, rise up in faith, and resume the fight. Satan cannot keep down one who truly trusts in the Lord.

"Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish" (Luke 14:28–30).

Christ knew many of his followers would not have what it took to see them through. He knew they would turn back and not finish the race. I believe this is the most tragic condition possible for a believer—to have started out fully intending to lay hold of Christ, to grow into a mature disciple and become more like Jesus and then to drift away. Such a person is the one who laid a foundation and could not finish because he did not first count the cost.

What a joy it is to meet those who are indeed finishing the race! These believers are growing in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ. They are changing daily, from moment to moment. Paul says to them encouragingly, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is not heaven these believers seek, but Christ in his glory!

I know that many who read this particular message are in the process of pausing or taking a step backward. It may seem like a small step, but it will cause a swift descent away from his love. If this is true of you, realize the Holy Spirit is calling you all the way back—back to repentance, self-denial and surrender. And at this very moment, time is a big factor. If you ever intend to lay hold of Christ, do it now; see it through!