God is Love

God is Love

By Tiaan Gildenhuys

Copyright 2013 Tiaan Gildenhuys

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

1. Write about My love!

2. One can hear God’s voice

3. My people are ignorant!

4. God knows and tests our hearts

5. What is the greatest force in the universe?

6. What are the people going to think of me?

7. What is love?

8. Spirit, soul and body

9. Does my past determine my future?

10. The choice is simple- become born again!

11. The prodigal son.

12. It’s so easy- simply accept it!

13. Being justified by faith remains the crux of the matter.

14. Love in relationships.

15. My beloved knocks at the door- of my heart.

16. Has Jesus visited you yet?

17. Love and peace brings forth forgiveness

18. Peace will conquer!

19. I may not pass judgment.

20. God singles out no-one as a favorite.

21. We have to walk in unity of spirit.

22. God’s dividing line is very thin.

23. Password: Humility

24. Watch out for spiritual pride

25. What you sow you will reap

26. What about the least amongst us that the Bible refers to?

27. Are we Jews…or are we Israelites?

28. In God’s eyes we are all equal.

29. The first multi-racial church (in Antioch)

30. Does racial discrimination (in any form) equal love?

31. The signs of the last days

32. The fruit of the Spirit

33. Tithing, or my finances in God’s hands

34. Oh damn, this swearing!

35. Brandy has no brakes

36. Light and darkness

37. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood – also known as satan’s camouflage

38. The good Sower

About the Author

Preface

I wrote the printed version of this book in 2001, after having given my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ in 1999. Since then a lot of water has passed under the bridge and the Lord has revealed Himself to me in numerous ways from His Word, the Bible and also in other ways.

At the end of 2012 I experienced in my spirit that the Lord wanted me to revise this book and to publish it as an e-book. During the time I spent revising this book, it was just awesome to realize how true the Holy Spirit is to the Word of God, and how the things He led me to write in 2001, was still applicable in the lives of my family to this day.

May this book help you as reader to also realize how wonderful our Creator God is, and what an amazing adventure it is to serve Him on a daily basis, and to have a personal relationship with Him. And may this lead to you living a life of victory over all the attacks of the enemy in your life.

Tiaan Gildenhuys (February 2013)

1. Write about My love! (Back to top)

Since I gave my heart to the Lord on August 28, 1999, He started giving me certain very clear instructions, sometimes directly from His Word, sometimes by way of revelations in my spirit. My first very clear instruction was the writing of my personal testimony about my personal salvation and what has happened to me since then. Shortly after having finished that, the Lord instructed me to write this book, inter alia because of the following reasons:

so many people do not realize on a daily basis exactly how all-encompassing and unconditional God’s love really is; and

certain groups of people are of the opinion that only certain race groups can or may be Christians, and can therefore go to heaven; and

because our people do not walk in the Spiritual unity He planned for us from the beginning of time; and

because we do not really understand or experience what God’s will for our lives is.

Often God’s repeated instruction to me, as I sat in front of my computer was this: Tiaan, you just write about My love, just write about My love! And all that I could do was to start typing, and to write about His wonderful LOVE! I pray therefore that you may be touched, through reading this book, by the fact that His love is WONDERFUL, all-encompassing, predominant, comprehensive, PERFECT – and part of EVERY ASPECT of our normal, day to day lives! Please note - EVERY aspect, there is NOTHING that God’s love does not touch around us every day, in one way or another.

Because, very clearly, the Bible states:

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8)

"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16)

You see dear friend, God IS Love, He does not only GIVE love, like we do. No He IS LOVE! That is what He is, who He is and how He is, every moment since the beginning of time, and until the end of time. Hallelujah! And Amen! So I started to write …. And I ask you to please walk with me through every chapter of this book because maybe, just maybe, God wants to tell yóú something from these pages …

2. One can hear God’s voice (Back to top)

When Jesus Christ personally exonerates you, you begin experiencing Him in a wonderful, sometimes literally breathtaking, personal way. I regularly get goose-bumps when I am busy praying to Him or speaking to Him. At other times it feels like a rushing river inside of me – how else, with another living being (Spirit) inside of me? Gee, how can I say: …another…! It is THE one and only living Spirit! When you start to walk the walk with Jesus, you also start to hear His voice very clearly in so many different ways.

The reason for this is that, the closer you get to God, the clearer you hear His voice, and the clearer you hear his voice, the closer you WANT to get to Him, and the closer you get to Him, the clearer you hear his voice, et cetera ……

The hearing of His voice very definitely stems from the personal relationship you have with God. As that personal relationship grows more intimate, the clearer His soft voice becomes, which wants to implant God’s Word in us, as stated in James 1:21:

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."

The condition is that I listen when that soft voice speaks, and that I obey His voice, otherwise I am only grieving Holy Spirit with my disobedience, and will He gradually start to withdraw Himself from me. By gradually withdrawing Himself I do not mean that He will totally remove Himself from me, but only that He will lie dormant inside me, waiting for that time that I again start using Him correctly, by depending on Him with and for EVERYTHING I do, enabling Him to demonstrate His power in and through me in such a manner that I, and the world around me, may again glorify Him for the new things He does in me and with me.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

For the same reason Proverbs 3:5-6 states very clearly:

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

The code words here, naturally, are: "…in ALL thy ways…" We cannot attempt to solve certain things in our lives on our own or in our own power (…lean not unto thine own understanding…), while being content to trust Him for those other things in our lives that we feel we can not handle personally. No God wants us to share EVERY little aspect of our lives – albeit very small, or very big, (from our choice of which clothes to wear, or what food to cook, or which house to buy)-, with Him, and that we should not lean on our own understanding, and THEN He will direct our paths and ensure that we walk on the right road – the road which HE has planned for us, and NOT the one we always so dearly wish to plan for ourselves.

In other words, I must learn to be sensitive to His voice and His directions in EVERY aspect of my life. I cannot say: Lord I entrust my marriage to You, but Lord I refuse for You to also take my career into Your hands. The reason being that I am of the opinion that I am qualified to handle any problem coming my way in my own strength and knowledge. Or on the other hand, to entrust my career to the Lord, but to decline His help with the education of my children. No when God says: In ALL thy ways acknowledge Me…, it literally and physically includes EVERY possible dimension of our lives. Don’t shut Him out. Ever!

Many times I have heard the question: How do I really know that God is speaking, and that it is not satan, or maybe just my own thoughts? I have also asked that same question to myself a few times in the past. But as a result of the personal relationship that I have the privilege to have with Him, I know that I know that He dóés talk to me in various ways. I have also had the privilege to read a book titled: IS IT YOU LORD? by Robert J Watkins. In the book the author refers to six specific questions you can ask in order to ascertain whether it really was God speaking to you. I would like to refer to these questions here, as it most definitely works the way it is stated in the said book.

These questions are:

Do you need faith to react to what you have heard? God wants us to walk in faith. Therefore, if the words I heard would require faith, it’s most definitely God’s words.

Do you need God’s help to carry out the instruction? If I will be able to do anything I heard in my own strength only, it does not come from God.

Does it require courage to carry out what you heard? What I may have to do might result in my being opposed very strongly, or may even bring real and physical persecution of some kind or another, which I must be willing to endure.

Are the words you heard contradictory to your human logic? It sometimes happens that certain things that come up in one’s mind and which does come directly from God, are contradictory to our human mind and logic, because the Lord does not always work according to acceptable human norms and standards. So for example, it happens quite frequently that your finances are in a mess, but God tells you to give away money to somebody else. From a human point of view it is just not logical. God’s plan for our lives however, is to bless us, and He wants to see how obedient we are, even in circumstances which may look illogical to our human minds.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. (Isaiah 55:8)

Do you have peace in your heart? After having made a decision as a result of what you have heard, there should be no uncertainty or restlessness left in your heart. If you do still have the least bit of uncertainty or restlessness about the matter, be sure that it most definitely does not come from God, and that it most probably was your own thoughts, or the devil’s subtle input. Should you still experience some restlessness or an uncertainty, please do not proceed to do the thing you prayed for at that time! Keep on praying for it and wait for the right answer, which the Lord will most definitely give to you, coupled with His peace.

Are the things you have heard, compatible with the Bible? You should be able to find two or even three texts, which confirms the aspect for you.

If you are able to answer yes on every one of the six questions, after having heard something, you can accept with all certainty that it was the Lord’s voice you heard with regards to that specific aspect. On the other hand, if you answered no to any one of them, you must keep on praying and keep on waiting for the right answer, before summarily accepting that it was indeed His voice.

The author of the said book also gives four guide-lines to how I would know it was satan speaking to me, namely:

He always tries to persuade you to sin against God. If I know the Word of God and really make it my own, I will immediately know if the result of that which the little voice told me, will lead to sin.

His way always looks the easiest. The best example of this is when my problems become so large that I decide the best way out of my predicament is to commit suicide, because it looks like the best, the easiest or the only solution under the circumstances. No God will never want us to make such a decision!

Satan always perverts or distorts God’s words. Remember the devil knows the Bible much better than most of us, and he knows exactly how to take a truth and to distort it only slightly. It sounds good and fine to us but if we REALLY know God’s Word, we will immediately know that which we have heard is indeed wrong. I think the best example of this in the Bible, is where God tells Adam and Eve that they will die if they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What does satan do? He tells them they will not die, but will be like God Himself, through knowing everything. Only a small distortion of the truth – and look at the tragic results!

The devil tells us that we can do without God’s help in certain circumstances. Compare this with the second question I quoted under the six questions I can ask myself in order to ascertain whether it was God talking to me. If I do not need God’s help in such a case, and I think that I will be able to solve the specific problem in my own strength, I must immediately know where thát idea comes from!

There can be NO doubt whatsoever that God most assuredly talks to His children, although there still are people today who try to imply that God does not talk to His children, or that He only talks to a select few (like preachers or pastors). From own experience I can do no less than to totally reject that point of view. Dear friend you may be certain that when you start to walk on God’s road of a personal relationship with Him, that He is most definitely also going to talk to yóú! Be prepared!

For me, personally, the best example that God does talk to me, was a situation not so long ago. The result of something that happened to me, during which time I was certain that I had heard His voice very clearly, but which did not turn out the way I thought or accepted, led to myself doubting whether I really do hear or can hear His voice. I started wrestling with God and I made it clear to Him that I now doubted whether I could hear His voice. We are allowed to wrestle with God, dear reader, because we áre His children! A few days after the incident that caused the doubt in my mind, a friend and I were on our way to a neighboring town to pick up his LDV. On the way there, my thoughts were with my wife and children, who at that stage were on holiday.

I wondered what they were doing and how they were enjoying the holiday. I can assure you, my thoughts were most definitely NOT on God at that time, partly as a result of the doubts I was having at the time and because I was also actually cross with the Lord. Suddenly the following words came up in my mind, very clearly: Tiaan, you really do hear My voice! I just started laughing and then shared the wonderful revelation with my perplexed friend. I praise the Name of a great and mighty God, who loves His children so much, and who cares about them so much, that He personally takes the time to give a very CLEAR answer to a child with doubt in his heart! I repeat therefore, that I know that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I dó hear my Father’s wonderful voice. And so will yóú hear His voice when