What Does an Ambassador of Love Look Like?

The Son of God became one of us so that the people who love Him could become like Him. I want to share a few examples with you of how I have seen that play out in my own life. I think they will be helpful pictures of the power of supernatural love.

Once, while visiting an Islamic university in the Middle East, I met a brilliant Muslim scholar who is very well-known in that world. I was excited when I found out I could meet with him, but I realized I did not have a gift to give him. I wanted to honor him with something tangible.

I think that is very important, not only because it is appropriate within that culture, but because honor is what love looks like. I had not known ahead of time that I was going to meet with him and had not prepared. I did not have a way to show my affection toward him. I asked my coordinator if he had a copy of one of my books, Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes. Fortunately, he did. I wrapped it up and gave it to this scholar when we met, and he expressed great appreciation for it.

About two days later, I was getting ready to leave that country when my coordinator got a call from this man.

“I don’t know what has happened,” he said. “I started to read the book last night, and then something that feels like waves has been coming over me. I do not normally cry, but I have not been able to stop crying. Every time I open the book, this occurs. What is happening to me?”

I got to meet this scholar again about a year later. He still could not describe what had happened to him over the last year, but I understood. He was being changed from the inside out. This was just a private transformation in his own life. Other imams and clergy around him could see the change that had taken place and were being affected too. I could see a shift in the environment. The spiritual temperature changed. He had accidentally bumped into the baptism of love.

I had another experience with another influential Muslim leader back in my office in the United States. I had recently returned from a trip to England and then went to Washington, DC, for an event related to the Freedom Act near the end of former President Barack Obama’s second term. This leader was also at the event, and when it ended, he said he wanted to visit my home.

So, we returned to Atlanta together. We went to a mosque together, and then we met in my office. I had done a little preparation before he came by putting the Quran and the Bible on the highest shelf in my office. While we were seated in my office, he stood up, took the Quran off the shelf, then sat back down in a chair and began reading it in Arabic. I was still jet-lagged and about to fall asleep, but I tried to straighten up and keep my eyes open.

The next moment, I could feel the presence of Jesus coming into the room. I have to admit that I was thinking, This is not a good time, God. But it got heavier, and I was feeling a little under the influence of the Spirit. I am sure that I must have looked drunk when I was looking at him. And the presence just kept getting thicker and thicker.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What is this tingling? It is going from my head all the way down to my feet, up and down like waves. What is this?”

“Oh,” I said, “That’s just the presence of Jesus. He is pouring His love over you. Can I pray for you?”

I had enough favor to pray for him but not to actually touch him, so I went over to him, put my hand a few inches over his head, and prayed. To me, it felt like heat was going down into his stomach area and making circles like fire and then disappearing.

The next morning, I went to his hotel to pick him up. I was going to open my car door for him, but he said very firmly, “No, I want you to come in here–up in my room.” He had a beautiful, long beard and warm, brown eyes, but his voice was a little bit strict. This was very unusual. Whenever I have been in the Middle East, I would not go to an imam’s or scholar’s room. Was I in trouble? I did not know what he had in mind. It felt very awkward.

When I walked into his room, he went over to his laptop where his whole family was on Skype–two wives, children of all ages. “I want you to give them what I received yesterday.”

So I prayed over Skype, and the presence of Jesus filled that room in the Middle East where his family was gathered. They had encounters with divine love, and those encounters have transformed their lives.

When the man returned to his home country, he began to notice things he never had before: people living in poverty, beggars, people in pain, women who could not get pregnant. These people had been there all along–he had grown up with this pain all around him–but the common attitude is that Allah is going to do whatever Allah is going to do. He had not noticed these things before he was filled with a heart of love.

But now, with the heart and the eyes of love, he saw brokenness. I don’t know if he had prayed a salvation prayer yet, but he was being changed by this love from the inside out. He had new lenses on his eyes. He was beginning to see what Jesus sees, feel what Jesus feels, and say what Jesus says without realizing that a seed of love had been planted in him. He had begun to feel love that he had never known before.

This experience eventually led to a healing meeting in a mosque. He wanted to address the brokenness. But he did not know what to do, so he called me. “Can you help me? I do not know how to pray that way.” So I offered to help. I have actually been to that mosque now to do a healing meeting. It has been amazing to see what has happened in this man’s life.

The seed of love that brings encounters with love created people who love. We receive love, give love, become love, and release love. If we are going to bring the love of Heaven into this earthly realm, we need to be immersed in that love ourselves. We need to know we have an A-plus on our report card before we go out and complete our assignments.

We need to look into the darkest places of this world and see them with the eyes of love. Jesus became the incarnation of love so we could become an incarnation of love. The new identity first appears in our homes, families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. But we can live it out anywhere.