Day #143 - Love Flood

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

Have you ever had an experience where the love of God flooded your heart over and over again?

When our minister friend Leif Hetland spoke at a conference we once hosted, I had an incredible encounter with the love of God. Leif often teaches on the love of Father God and during this time of worship and ministry which he was sharing, I was drawn to the altar almost magnetically. I just had to come forward and lay on my face before the Lord. It was an unusual tug to come to the altar. I went on the floor next to my Dad and he stretched out his arm to place his hand on my back. I wept uncontrollably as the Spirit of God poured the love of God over and over in my heart. Leif ended up laying next to us as we experienced the power of the Father’s love washing over us.

Paul describes in Romans 5 that a part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us as believers is to pour the love of God into our hearts. This is not only a settled theological reality for the child of God but is to be an ongoing reality and experience in the Christian life.

Douglas Moo in his comment at on the book of Romans says it so profoundly:

The verb “pour out” connotes an abundant, “extravagant,” effusion: “he does not say ‘given’ but ‘shed abroad in our hearts,’ so showing the profusion of it” (Chrysostom). Paul uses this same verb to depict the “pouring out” of God’s Spirit (Tit. 3:6; cf. Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28–32). This raises the possibility that the “real” subject of “pour out” is the Holy Spirit, who witnesses to our hearts of the love of God. But we must respect Paul’s decision to make “the love of God” the subject of the verb. Paul is asserting two things at once: that God’s love has been poured into our hearts in the past, and that this love is now within us. And this love is conveyed to our sensations by the Holy Spirit, who resides in every believer (1).

The Holy Spirit releases a love flood over and over again into our hearts. Oh how we need “the Presence” and the work of the Spirit in our lives. The more we focus on One Person of the Trinity, the more we see how they cooperate and flow together as One. The Father’s love is magnified and effused by the Spirit in profound ways to make personal what has been done for us by Christ.

Romans 5 starts with reminding us of our position in Christ and affirms this reality of God’s love in our lives in midst of trials and hardships. God’s love towards us is not on trial during difficult seasons of our lives. The Father’s love is secure for us in Christ and no matter what we walk through the Spirit is present to remind us of this truth.

Father God, thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. I receive Your love. Fill me up and flood my heart Holy Spirit. Pour out the love of God over and over again. I want to know and experience the depths of Your love for me. I receive Your love. In Jesus name, amen.

(1)Moo, D. J. (1996). The Epistle to the Romans (pp. 304–305). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.