(From a radio broadcast of Bro. Julius Adewumi)

There have been prophecies, very enlightened prophecy that made us to know that it is divine love that will rapture the bride. It says the Lord Jesus will continue to delay his coming until the body of Christ, the Church has come to that fullness of love.

Divine love, the love between brethren and brethren, between husband and wife. The Lord prayed for it that "they may be one" (Jn. 17 ). He wants us to be one in unity, in spirit, believing the same thing.

The Lord will continue to wait for this. He may have to pour forth anointing to accomplish it; it may also be by persecution that this will be enforced.

"The Lord will continue to delay his coming until perfect love is found in the body."

This is an extract from the message of Jane Leade (1600's prophecies).

The church is not there yet. What is divine love? Between brothers and brothers in the household of faith! Between husband and wife! Between church groups in the household of faith! Between the corporate body of believers, and finally between the body of Christ and the Lord himself! God established the family unit like the embryo. Husband and wife must be joined together by love!

That is why the bible said, "ye husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church."

Love has to start in individual house: husband and wife, children and parents, then brethren and brethren, then we can talk of churches to churches -- divine love! Then we can talk of love between the body of Christ and Christ the bridegroom himself. The Lord will continue to delay his coming until this perfect love is seen in the body. But the Lord will bring it to come to pass one way or the other, before the end comes.

How can this perfect love be manifested? I will like to read some instructions of the Lord Jesus Christ about love. We always talk about loving the believer, but the Lord went much further than that. Let's read Mathew chapter 5:43.

The Lord said we have to be perfect even as our father in heaven is perfect. And God is love.

"Ye have heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies."

The Lord made it much more serious. He said "love your enemies". This is where we should first start! It's very easy to love those who are not your enemies. The toughest ones to love are those who has declared to be our enemies.

"But I say unto you, love enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. (Mat. 5:43-48).

That is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ when it comes to love. Let's talk about loving the enemies. The bible commanded it!

Solomon wrote the following: "If thy enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. By so doing, ye shall heap coals of fire over his head, and the Lord shall reward thee." (Prov. 25:21) (Romans 12:20)

The Lord is not asking you to love your enemy just so as to cast coals of fire over his/her head. The Lord wanted it to come from your heart. God is living in the heart of Christians and he wants us to be as perfect as he is. "For he maketh his sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust."

Loving the enemy and loving those that hate us, is practiced in the new testament.

We have been given examples in the bible. Are we simply trying to put coals of fire on the enemies head when we love them? No. The Lord said "vengeance is mine and I will avenge". When we love the enemies, we are only letting the Lord do the battle for us. When someone is declared as our enemy, the Lord says, let God handle it. You commit your life into the hand of the Lord. You love the enemies, obeying the scriptures. When we are doing that, we are letting the lord take charge of the situation.

If we don't allow the Lord to defend us, we will be in trouble with the Lord for not obeying the scriptures.

An example is seen in Daniel. This is why we ought to let God do our battles for us. In Dan. 6, we see how Daniel was made a president by Darius the king in Persia. But there were other presidents and Gorvenors who didn't like him. Daniel knew about it. But he committed his situation into the hand of the Lord.

God will fight for you, so don't try to do anything about those who you know as your secret enemy or declared enemy.

(Daniel 6:4)

Now that is exactly what God wants us to be like. Like the example of Daniel--we have no fault in the eyes of men and in the eyes of God, then we can be clean and clear, then God can do our battle for us. It may look like they are winning at some point, but God himself that is fighting for us will turn things around. Many people, even in our generation have experienced that if you let God fight for you he knows how to fight that battle.

When we are right and walking upright following God, the enemy can go to the extreme and bring up an excuse, like they did to Daniel, against your God, then we know they are not fighting us, but are fighting God. When it comes to loving you enemy, let the battle be the Lord's battle. Get out of the loop of wanting to avenge your self. If you get out of the way they will be falling against the rock which is Jesus, but if you get in the way of the rock, then they will be falling against you. So let the Lord do the battling. Jesus himself said, "Bless those that persecute you." When you are doing all of those, in the eyes of the Lord you are making yourself perfect, then the Lord can fight for you. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and by so doing, you are actually putting coal of fire upon his head. You know the story of Daniel, that they arrested him but God was there to rescue him.

Another place where we can see another example of love is in the book of Samuel when David was running away from Saul. David already knew that Saul had declared himself to be an enemy, but he refused to avenge himself. There were two occasions where David could have ended the whole trouble for himself, so to speak.

(1 Samuel 24:1-7)

In verse 4 David's friends were reminding him of what God had said. They were saying that Saul had just walked into their trap. David could have smote him right there and none of Saul's soldiers would have known about it because Saul was alone. So David caught off the skirt, which was proving that David could have killed him right there. That was the first example where David showed that he refused to avenge himself. There may be times that your spirit is raging, because we are still human flesh, but we must control our spirit. Like the bible says, "Those that ruleth their spirit are greater than those who conquer cities"

(1Samuel 26:8-11)

This was the second occasion where David spared the life of Saul, and to prove that he could have just killed him right there, he took the spear from his waist. So what are we trying to point out in all of these exhortations? The Lord said, love your enemy. Matthew 7:24 says,

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man…"

Sometimes you see two people fighting. They may not even be enemies, but they are taking their quarrel to an extreme. The bible even said, love your enemy. Why don't you do more than that since this brother (or sister) isn't really your enemy? Since the bible tells you to love, you should extend your patience. You should extend your long suffering instead of being at loggerheads with each other. You have been in good terms all along. Why don't you just extend your good terms and be a fool for Jesus? God has said, even if he is your declared enemy, show love. Every word of God that I have mentioned here is very serious, and you should take it seriously. The Lord said, "I will liken you to a wise man if you are taking heed to all these sayings of mine". The rain will always come and the storm will always come, but if you do not base your faith on this word then you will not be like Christ anymore. Steven was stoned and when he was being stoned he said, "Father lay not this to their charge". That was the example shown to us. The Lord Jesus Christ did the same thing. The first church age believers, who were all killed by Rome, demonstrated the same love for the enemy. That is where the saints of these end times ought to be. We know now that if there were persecution at these end times, less than 10% of the Christians would be praying for their enemies. Most of them would be calling fire upon the enemy. We should ask ourselves, am I obeying these scriptures? Am I being like Christ?

…to be continued ..

Bro. Julius Adewumi

Gospel Distribution Ministry