"Love Stains" quotes

i've just finished a really good book -- it's called "Love Stains" by Bob Johnson. for me, it was an excellent picture of what incarnational ministry looks like - about walking with God, being who He has made me to be and loving others.  i can't even begin to go into all of the ways that God is working on this theme in my life and how significant the timing of reading this book has been....so i'll just share some of the quotes that were meaningful to me (and if you are offended/take issue, you may just want to read the book for yourself - taken out of context some of these quotes might not make quite as much sense...taken in context, the words in the book are a beautifully brilliant expression of Love and how to share that Love with others).

It's really important to know who you are.  If you don't know who you are, you can never live to the fullest of your potential - to the fullness of God's plans for your life.

...as long as i was trying to look like someone else, i continued to miss out on what God had planned for me.

My greatest desire is that you would come to know the loving, gracious, and merciful Father and how He feels about you  When you discover this, you will be ready to give the world a taste of Father's love.  Nothing on earth compares to the joy of participating in this flow of love from Heaven.

Listening to Father's voice  and doing what He says to do - what He's doing - is what is important.  I didn't see the Father going to that brothel and setting captives free, but I knew that loving on broken prostitutes is the sort of thing He likes to do.  I wasn't obeying a diving command from heaven.  Rather, I simply wanted to get out and get busy loving people with Jesus' love....I didn't hear anything specific from Father in that instance, I simply acted upon the truth of Scripture...

certainly our words have power.  using words or not using words isn't the point....many times the most effective manifestation of God's power flows out from our actions.

you don't (necessarily) need to change anything that you do during your day; just ask the Holy Spirit to show you the impact that you have on this world and how the Kingdom inside you changes people and circumstances around you.

...we are not meant to lace our lives with "christianese."  we are meant to emanate Jesus through every single thing we say or do or think.

it's Jesus who lives inside us who transforms lives.  when we get this, something as simple as giving someone a compliment releases the Kingdom.

Jesus' presence in us and through us is not an on and off switch that we control by our moods, or anything else for that matter.  We do not have to "act" or "feel" any specific way in order for God to use us.

you have more power than you realize, and you have more influence than you think.

listening for what God is telling you to do do - and then doing it - whether that is giving an old woman some bungee cords or a prostitute a rose - is obedience.

God loves to use our circumstances - like hunger - or emotions - to communicate deep Truths or revelations.

our eyes must be on jesus.  we need to know what He is asking us to do.  And then we need to do it.  We do not need to worry about anything else.

...dreaming with Him is tapping into the possibilities of Heaven - and it is rooted in relationship.  Relationship is built on the everyday mundane aspects of regular old life and realizing that God is present through it all.

our assignment as believers is to discover Heaven's treasures in the people we meet at school, the bus stop, the grocery store, the mall, or wherever God happens to place us.

all people are heaven's treasures - God's children...most just don't know it yet.  When we treat people according to who they are in God (and not according to their sins), we partner with Father's heart.  We open doors for people to encounter Heaven and to step into their destinies as children of God.

we didn't try to "lead this man to Jesus." We told him that God healed his broken foot because He loves him so much.  That was ridiculously fun and extremely simple.

...desperate for God's intervention and provide Him opportunities to move.  If we never expect it, it may never happen.

...while every may not need healing, everyone does need a word directly from God. Everyone - from the highest ranking general to the little boy picking through the garbage - wants to know that God knows their name.

Sometimes God positions us so that we can be the tipping point in a person's life...but most of the time, evangelism can be summed up in this phrase: giving people tastes of Heaven.  That is often as simple as complementing a person on having a beautiful smile.

A prophetic word is like a word of encouragement, but it is also more than that.  God give you a glimpse of the treasures inside someone and you point them out, breathing hope and life deep inside the person you are speaking to.

...the person's response to the word cannot be our motivation.  Our motivation must be to simply obey God's voice.

you may never minister to a homeless person but God may send you to wall street to love on people who are -in their hearts - worse off than the homeless ones.

all you have to do is ask yourself these 2 questions:  "where has God placed me right now?" and "how can i become love to those around me?"

He cares about the souls of people much more than we ever will or could.

...it is my privilege to be one of the divine contacts - one of the tastes of Jesus - in a person's life.

a good idea is only a great idea when the breath of the Holy Spirit is on it and it is carried out in His timing.

i gently put my hand on his shoulder and told him to have a great day.  what i didn't tell him was, in that simple and unpretentious act, i was releasing the Kingdom of Heaven to him.  when i touched him as he walked by, i gave him an encounter with Jesus. he didn't realize it, but that won't minimize the effect it will have on his life.

God will get the credit, regardless of the package.

we affect them by virtue of our presence and the presence of the Spirit within us, not because of our spiritual namedropping.  The kingdom of heaven is within us - whether we tell people about it or not.  As a result, we impact the people we encounter - wherever we go and whatever we do.

Our job is to be Daddy's love in the moment.  More often than not, that does not look like giving a gospel presentation or leading a person in the sinner's prayer.  This is not ignoring the person's need for salvation.  It's loving without an agenda.

give God an unqualified, unreasonable, and risky yes to whatever He might say.

don't miss the beauty of simply moving forward.

ask Him to help you not only enjoy the journey, but also be acutely aware of the faces around you who need Jesus.

 once you've given Jesus full control, you can expect to get some pretty awesome testimonies. but let me give you a little tip, don't collect trophies.

you are blessed to participate with the Father in setting the captives free and destroying the works of the enemy , but that is not your focus.  when all is said and done, get back to the main thing, which is your relationship with Father.  

when we partner with Father, healing the masses and seeing the lost come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior is just as significant to Him as taking my kids fishing the following day.

find identity in Father rather than in what you've accomplished.

our purpose in life is this: get as close to Father's heart as we can and follow His lead - to do what He's doing and say what He's saying.