Kathi Pelton
As I prayed for our nation and for the nations I heard the Spirit say,
“I’m taking back the sound!”
Then He went on to say,
“The sound of the ‘resounding gong’ will cease and be stilled as the sound of My love is released into the land, the people and the atmosphere. Release the sound of the height, depth and width of My love. It is the sound that stills the storms and brings forth peace.”
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
Ephesians 3:16-20
Yesterday at our church God was releasing a word about walking as “friends of God”. As this word was released I began to see the Church not only walk with the voice of truth but they took the hand of Truth (The Way, the Truth and the Life) and walked in friendship with Him. I saw it reversing historic divisions and restoring relationships between families, people groups and nations. It was changing a sound within the fabric of cities and nations.
Many of our forefathers brought truth without love which became like the sound of a resounding gong or a hammer that strikes the heart and wounds it. Watch now, a love reformation has begun.
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Sacrifice apart from love results in loss, truth apart from love is merely knowledge and prophecy apart from love is only a loud noise. But love is found in intimacy and intimacy begins with friendship. We must be friends with God in order to discover the love spoken of in Ephesians 3.
Most healthy marriages I know began in friendship. If they skipped that formative step then they usually had to return to that place and develop it in order to experience true intimacy. Walking hand in hand together is where friendship is developed. There is a closeness of spending time together, sharing hearts, listening and journeying together that creates intimacy.
And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God.
James 2:23
I have a friend that I have walked closely with for 35 years now. We dated our husbands at the same time, we married the same year, we raised our children together (we were even at their births), we walked through celebrations, losses, joys and pain together. We are very different people but we walked as sisters in deep friendship which resulted in intimacy and love. We committed to friendship even at times when our family lived in another nation. It was a commitment that was founded in friendships and kept in the bounds of love. Though we are very different we share one thing that is the same…love.
Just like marriage, friendship requires agreement and commitment. Agreement to stand together and walk hand in hand even when it is tough. This is the love that needs to be seen and heard in the land and experienced in hearts.
“Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.”
Songs of Solomon 8:7
Now is the time to take the outstretched hand of Jesus and walk in friendship. Love is the sound and language that all men understand and it will birth unity, intimacy and dispel fear.
Love is the defining “sound of reformation”! Reformation means making changes to something with the intention of setting it back on the right path. As we recognize the 500 year anniversary on October 31st of the great reformation we need to understand that God is doing it again. This reformation will carry a sound and that sound will be the height, depth and width of His love.
Take His hand, be like Abraham and walk with God as a friend. Let love grow, mature and release the sound of love.
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
If my writings are an encouragement to your journey, consider sowing a financial love offering into our ministry. To give go to:
Oceans in the Desert 
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