God's Greatest Challenge

By David Hobbs

4/30/2009

Not long ago I had a unique experience with God at our Wednesday night prayer and soaking service at the church. Things started out tough. There was no anointing and no desire inside me to pray. It looked like it was going to be a long, dry night. But I entered in anyway.
Soon, I became aware that there was a difference about the night. Duane was playing the piano, but instead of playing like usual—banging it out with driving beat and high volume (“erecting a musical wall” is how I think of it)—tonight he was more about finesse. He was changing the volume, sliding into songs and out of them, going from a song into free worship, then seamlessly back into the same or another song. I’d never heard him play any better or more breathed on by the Holy Spirit.
The level of anointing in the room rose rapidly, as did my own anointing along with it. Soon I was on the mountaintop, a complete turnaround in about 20 minutes!
The level of anointing got so heavy that I began to be awash in the love of God. Then I reached a place I get to every now and then—more so in the last 6 months—where I was overcome and conquered by this same love. What do I mean by “overcome?” To be overcome is to be filled to such an extent that normal functioning is impossible. It’s to make somebody incapacitated or helpless, or break down somebody's normal self-control (Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.)
Usually during prayer I have to battle against distracting thoughts. But when overcome by God’s love there is no room for those things—they can’t even enter. I can’t think rationally, I can’t function normally. God’s love has filled me and taken over. It’s a most wonderful experience. In this state I realize that God’s love has conquered me. He’s overcome all my resistance, all my questions and reservations, all my desire to be in control and in charge, all my fears about things…. There’s nothing left but His love.
In this state I felt 2 questions surface from the Holy Spirit. The first went like this: “What do you think was the hardest thing God ever did?” It turned out to be a multiple choice test because He gave me three possible answers: 1) Create all the worlds, seen and unseen, by speaking them into being out of nothing? 2) Raise Jesus from the dead against all the powers of hell, death, science, militaries, precedent, history, natural law, and whatever else you can think of that opposed it. 3) Conquer the stubborn and rebellious heart of man by His love?
I couldn’t really answer the question, even though I thought I knew what He was driving at, because they all looked equally impossible to my human eyes.
Then He asked the second question, which drove His point home. “Taking those same three answers, what single accomplishment is God most proud of? Which one does He regard as His single greatest achievement in all time and eternity?” Then it hit me. The first two accomplishments, stupendous as they may be, can be accomplished by power alone. Granted it’s a power beyond anything I can imagine, but still, with enough power, either one of the two could be done. But the third one, oh but the third one! Not all the power in the world can win a heart in love! You cannot will someone, or force someone to love you, even if you’re God. God could have cowed my heart by fear, bribed my heart with endless blessings, manipulated my heart with flattery, rejected my heart in total justice, or created my heart like a robot that responds on command. But instead He wooed and won my heart over until I totally surrendered. “Lord Your love has overcome me. I resist no more. Do with me as You will. I am yours forever.”
“For love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a mighty fire, like a blazing flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. (S of S. 8:6-7, NIV)