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In this piece, we will be sharing a very interesting topic; one I believe is very dear to the heart of God. We are looking at “The Height and Depth of God’s Love”. One of the characters of God that is very strong, which I believe that other expressions of God come from this particular expression is this important statement about God: that God is Love.
Listen to Podcast: Experiencing the Height and Depth of God’s Love
Every of the expressions of God and every of the dealings of God comes from this point. If you want to enjoy God, and you want to step into the deep waters of God, you must understand this truth about God i.e. this character of God; God is Love.
So, we want to look at the height and depth of God’s Love. This God’s Love that we’re talking about, talks about the character of God. In fact, another way we can put it is, we want to look at the height and depth of God; because if we can examine and properly x-ray and understand the Love of God, we will understand to a great degree; God Himself: because everything emanates from there.
Our text is Ephesians chapter 3:18-19, “May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the Love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”.
So, if you look at verse 19, it talks about a dimension. It talks about the width, it talks about the length, it talks about the depth and the height of God’s Love. One of the things about the Love of God is that you cannot have a book and hold it in your hand and say, this is God’s Love. God’s Love passes knowledge; it is something that is not completely written in books. God’s Love is not in any encyclopedia.
That the understanding of this width, length, depth, and height of God’s Love would do something for us; and that’s what Apostle Paul mentioned in verse 19, he said, ‘that you may be filled’. So, the purpose of understanding the height and depth of God’s Love is that you and I be filled with the fullness of God: that’s the purpose. If the Love of God and the understanding of it does not translate to you being filled with the fullness of God, you have not seen the Love of God. And that’s what Apostle John was saying in 1 John: he said, if you say you Love God, and you hate your brother, he said you have not known God.
And that’s why this is very important for us to examine. Our desire is that we are filled with the fullness of God. What is the vehicle? What is the tool and the instrument that makes us as children of God, and as disciples of God, to be filled with the fullness of God? Apostle Paul said it is understanding that makes us to know the Love of Christ. To know the Love of Christ is what makes you filled with the fullness of God.
There are four things that were mentioned in that Scripture. So, we want to examine the dimensions that Apostle Paul mentioned in this Ephesians chapter three. We want to look at how wide, how long, how high and how deep the Love of God is: that’s our focus.
I want to show us what would prevent us from being filled with the fullness of God, i.e the things that we must say no to; that will cause an impediment to us being filled. Romans chapter 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? (It is a question; and you will think that he will mention the names of people. That is it Simon? Is it Deborah? Is it Philip?) Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who Loved us; (What made us to be more than conqueror is through is Love. The fullness of God is the fullness of Love). For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, God needed to bring Egypt out of them. He brought them out of Egypt by His mighty power: physical location. When we’re talking about Love of God, we might look at it that what can separate us from the Love of God; nothing. You sit down and you think about it, and you say nothing. But there is a depth of understanding that Apostle Paul was communicating from here. The children of Israel saw how God delivered them with His mighty power. They saw the plagues. What a God!
I’m sure many of them, at the instance when those things were happening, they were shouting Hosanna! Wow! Praise God! What a God! When we study the Exodus of the children of Israel, how God brought them out and their journey, we would see the ordeal of a believer. When God brought them out; it is like the power of salvation: how God brought us out of sin. But there is something left; sin has to leave our heart. We have been rescued. We are been saved. We have been brought out of the miry clay: but that’s a physical mud but there is a mud in our heart. It was the Egypt in the hearts of the children of Israel. God had brought them from a physical location of slavery in Egypt, but their mindset had not changed.
How do we know they were still carrying Egypt? When they were hungry, what happened? You don’t know that a sin has left you, until there’s a trial. That’s why Apostle Paul was saying: what can separate us from the Love of God; is it famine? Because you don’t know what you would do in famine until you get into famine. You don’t know what you will do in persecution until you are there. Don’t say me, I can never deny Jesus: wait till you get there.
Now, they were not saying these things to boast to us that they were super humans. They were reiterating their experiences. You see the famine he mentioned here; they had gone through it. The persecution, they had gone through it. They were faced with death. Remember, they had killed James, and they took Peter. So, Peter knew they were not keeping him so that after some days they would release him. The intension was also to kill Peter and I’m sure they had proposed to him: ‘Peter, you saw how we killed James and nothing happened, we will kill you also because heaven did not fall down: you have seen example: deny Jesus or you will die; and he stood his ground.
And some of these Scriptures were a result of their experience. What shall separate us? These are men that were already in the trenches. They were not looking at the trenches from afar and saying; that maybe it was out of the excitement of the Spirit. No! They were there. Many of the epistles we are reading about Paul, he wrote them in prison. He was already in chains when he was writing them. When he was saying to us, ‘rejoice in the Lord, and I say again, rejoice’: he was in prison.
So, you understand that they were not talking out of the fleshly experience of comfort: this was a deep conviction of the Spirit. And he was saying to us, that it should get to that point in your experience; whether it is famine or persecution, when we are declaring our Love for God; it is not lip service, it’s a matter of conviction. It is not a feel-good confession.
When you declare your Love for God, it’s when you are in the trenches of famine, in the trenches of persecution; when you’re faced with those situations of death, when you are faced with a situation of life, when you are in those deciding moments: that is when you declare your Love for God. There is something that will bring about that persuasion; which is understanding: knowing the Love of Christ. That was the difference between the Apostles and other people. That was the difference between Moses and the children of Israel.
The Bible says, and Moses knew the ways of God, but the children of Israel; the acts of God. So, they said; Moses, why are we suffering here, at least we were eating cucumber in Egypt? They had left Egypt, but Egypt was still in them. When Moses went to the mount to meet with God, suddenly the people that saw the ten plagues and how God frustrated the Egyptians and Pharaoh; killed all their first born, they were there: it was their generation, it was their time; they saw it. And suddenly Moses was gone, and they started donating their trinkets and their jewelries and they were making a golden calf; the same thing they saw in Egypt, they were replicating it even though they were out of Egypt. How is it that as believers, we are still living the same life, we are still communicating the same thing that we were doing when we were in sin.
In the Love of God, God said to Moses, He said I have heard the cry of My people, now go and deliver them. He said, I’m sending you to deliver them. I’m sending you as a god to Pharaoh, and truly Moses was a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron your prophet and God wrought wonders in Egypt, they saw it but they forgot.
How is it that when we get into situations, we forget the Love of God? How is it that when the famine, the persecution, when those trials, those perils; when they come, we forget the Love of God? When they were hungry, they started lamenting: ‘we’re hungry, so you brought us to this wilderness to kill us. We had been better off in Egypt (you see that Egypt did not live them), slaving with no freedom.
Do you know some believers say, we had been better off in our sin; following God is boring: no fun. Do you know that there are some believers that say that, why? They have been taken out of sin, but sin has not been taken out of them. But what is that thing that would take that sin out? It is understanding the Love of God.
Number One: we are going to look at how deep is God’s Love. John chapter 3:16, “For God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That’s how deep His Love is. He gave His only begotten Son; there was no extra anywhere, no alternative. God gave up His only Son that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life.
How deep is the Love of God? John chapter 15:13, “Greater Love as no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. There is no greater Love than what God has done; what Jesus has done. The depth of the Love of God is in His sacrifice, and He paid the ultimate price, which is death for us. It is not just in knowing it, it is in understanding it. You must understand the depth of that Love.
The Bible says while we were yet sinners, while we were still inter mingling with the world, while we were still deep in our own mess; Christ died for us. He did not die when you were holy; He died when you were in your mess. That’s how deep His Love is.
How deep is the Love of God? Romans chapter 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own Love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. This is how He demonstrated the depth of His Love. While we were yet sinners, there was no comeliness about us; we were not holy, we were not pure, we were not supposed to be sought after; but He sought after us: that’s how deep the Love of God is. And because of the depth of that Love, you and I must come into the understanding that we have being translated from the kingdom of darkness; we have being translated from the realm and regime of sin into the righteousness of God. And that’s why the Bible says we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; understand the depth of that Love.
So, let me explain it, you were still in sin; you did not even know Him, you have not even put Jesus on your lips but God Loved you. He demonstrates His Love for us that while we were yet sinners. While you weren’t even conscious of salvation, God was mindful of you. And now that you have His name on your lips, do you think He Loves you less? He doesn’t. When we were in sin, nothing beautiful, and nothing glorious about us: He Loved us. Is it now that we are now in Him that He now Loves us less; that He Loves the unbelievers more than we?
There’s an analogy Jesus gave in Luke chapter 15:11-31, the parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus was demonstrating with that analogy, the Love of God to us. He said, a father had two sons, the elder and the younger. One day, the younger came to the father, he said, give me what falls to me: living with you is becoming boring, I want to explore, I want to see what is happening on the other side.
We were made in the image and likeness of God; a fallen man is a man that is away from God even though he is sourced in God. Every human being on earth, God is the Father. You can choose to go to the world and take what is yours because what is yours is what God has: the image and the character of God; you can take part of it and go away, it doesn’t diminish God, and it doesn’t reduce God. And that’s why there are several people today that have gone away in the world after the passion, the pleasure of the world; but God is still God: it doesn’t reduce Him.
Now, this young boy had gone, the Bible says he went into riotous living, he wasted everything he collected. But there was the elder brother; we must not forget the elder brother. The elder brother is of much significance also, the elder brother stayed with the father. He did not collect what was his own; he was working in the father’s field. How did we know? When the younger son returned and the elder brother was coming back; the Bible says he was coming back from the field: that means he went to serve. He has been serving the father, he even said it himself; he said father I have been serving you and you’ve not even killed a small kid for me and my friends to enjoy, but your son that have gone in riotous living has come back and you are celebrating. But what did the father say? The father said that everything that I have is yours.
So, it is when you go away from Me that you don’t enjoy My fullness, but when you are with Me, you enjoy My fullness. Luke chapter 15:28, “But he was angry i.e the elder brother; and would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him”. There are some times when we just feel as if God, can’t you see; I’ve been serving you faithfully? Those that don’t care about You, and those that are not even concerned about Your Love for them; they are enjoying and driving big cars, they’re enjoying and doing all that, they are living the life in a big way. But see what the father said, the Bible says the father came out and pleaded with him. That’s how God goes out of His way to reach out to us in His Love. God’s Love is inexhaustible.
Do you know Jonah was angry that God considered the children of Nineveh? God didn’t want to destroy them, and he was angry, and God came out to meet Jonah. And He made a tree to grow overnight to provide shade for Jonah in His Love. Jonah was enjoying the Love of God. And suddenly God made sure that the tree dried up in an instant and sun was scorching Jonah, and Jonah was very upset. And God came to him and said to him, Jonah; you did not plant this tree. You don’t even know how it came about and you enjoyed it; and now it’s dried up, you’re angry. And God used that to explain to Jonah how His Love is available for everyone. That the same way you don’t know how these people of Nineveh came about; that you are so passionate about Me destroying them. You should also not be so passionate about these trees since you don’t know how they came about.
So, the father came out to meet the elder brother and pleaded with him. So, he answered and said to his father, these many years I have been serving you; he didn’t say I served you because the elder brother knew he was still serving. He said I’ve been serving you; I never transgress your command. Is that not what we do? Our self-righteous nature! I have been serving you. I have never transgressed your commandment at any time. I have been holy and righteous. And yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends; but as soon as this son of yours came;
You see what we do when unbelievers come to Jesus, and say this person has killed too many people, raped so many people; and in our self-righteous, we say, God should not forgive these ones. As believers, the fullness of God is not possible for us if we don’t understand the depth of His Love.
Verse 30 says, “But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, ‘son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” You are always with God. God said, don’t be angry, understand the depth of My Love. And he said, and all that I have is yours. So, you should not be jealous, you should not be envious. He said all that I have is yours. That is the depth of God’s Love.
If God did not deny His son from us, the Bible says how much more will He not give us all things? All things are yours, because God said so. Verse 32; “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” That’s why we rejoice. That’s why the Bible says, heaven rejoice over one soul that comes back to God. It is the depth of God’s Love; even the angels could not comprehend it, they came to ask Him: God, what is man that You are mindful of him? Nor the Son of man that You visit him. They will be angry, You will visit them. They will be crying, You will visit them. They will be messing up, You will still visit them. It is the depth of God’s Love; it is incomprehensible, but it is part of the fullness of God.
How high is God’s Love? The Love of God is as high above the heavens; the place where God dwells is a demonstration of His Love towards us. The Bible says that God dwells in an unapproachable light. In Isaiah chapter 55, he was saying to us that as the heavens are high above the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Another word we can use is that; so is My Love higher than your Love. God’s Love is higher than our own Love. There is no matter how much you can Love, you cannot out Love God.
The Love of God is so high; higher than the mountains. Psalm 103:11, “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him”. There is no matter how much you jump, you can’t touch the heavens, and heavens have strata’s, there is a first heaven, there is a second heaven, and there is a third heaven. Apostle Paul said, I know a man whether in the flesh or in the spirit I do not know, but was caught up to the third heavens: that’s how high God’s Love is.
We’re using the Scriptures to understand the dimension of God’s Love, so that when we understand the dimension of God’s Love, we’ll be able to understand that it is incomprehensible: you can’t hold it with one hand; you can’t hold it in a book: it is deep and it is high.
So, let’s look at how long is God’s Love. Psalm 136:26, “O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever” that’s how long His Love is; forever. The Love of God is forever. The depth of God’s Love is to the degree of the sacrifice that He gave. The height of God’s Love is to the degree of how high the heavens is above the earth. And the length of God’s Love is how long forever is. His Love is forever; it is not for a time, it is not for a season, it is unending; and that’s forever: without end. His Love is without end.
It is understanding of this that makes us walk in the fullness of God; the way God Loves me, the depth of His Love for me is to the degree of the sacrifice of Christ. The height of His Love for me is how high the heavens is above the earth. And the length of His Love for me is forever; it is without end. The devil does not want us to understand this; he wants us to have this feeling that the Love of God is short, that the Love of God is weak, and that the Love of God is not for everybody: that the Love of God is with partiality.
How wide is God’s Love? Isaiah chapter 54:10, “For the mountain shall depart and the hills be removed. But My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace, (another translation calls it the covenant of Love) nor shall My covenant of Love be removed, says the Lord who has mercy on you.” The Love of God is so wide that it comes with a covenant.
Let us also see how wide the Love of God is: Romans chapter 5:5, “Now, hope does not disappoint; because the Love of God as being poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Another translation says, the Love of God has been shared abroad in our heart. That is how wide the Lord has made is Love: the reach of God’s Love is abroad. It is shared abroad; it is wide. The net of God’s Love is able to reach all mankind: that’s how wide it is.
In John chapter 3:16, for God so Love the world. Not some of the world, but the entire world which includes you and I. He Loves us so much that He gave; the net of God’s Love is so wide, He accommodates everyone. Love is God’s character.
In 1 John chapter 4:8, He who does not Love, does not know God. The reason why we spend time to look at the depth of God’s Love, the height of God’s Love, the length of God’s Love and the width of God’s Love is because we must know Him to Love. He who does not Love, does not know God; for God is Love.
The reason many of God’s servants struggle with the instructions of God; is Love: our ability not to be able to comprehend the Love of God. That was the problem of Gehazi, how can a whole general from Syria come all the way and we will just heal him free of charge? And brother Gehazi felt this Love, I don’t understand it; even if the man of God is saying that is how God Loves, but since I don’t understand it; let me catch up with him and collect the price: and that’s how he collected leprosy.
Our failure to understand the Love of God is what will make us clash with God. Ananias and Saphira could not understand the Love of God; how that Barnabas will sell his property and bring all. They said we are also trying to understand the Love God, but we don’t really understand it: let us keep some and bring some; that was how Ananias and Saphira died. What makes men clash with God is the failure to understand the Love of God. Any person that does not understand the Love of God will clash with God.
It is lack of understanding of God’s Love that will make some people erect an image, and call it the golden calf and they’ll be bowing to it. It is lack of Love that will make some people erect the image of a mother carrying a child and be bowing to it and say that is God because it was Mary that gave birth to Jesus: it is lack of understanding of God. And that’s why when God wanted to take Egypt out of the children of Israel, He gave them Ten Commandments. He said, you will Love the Lord your God, only Him will you serve: no other God besides Him.
Romans chapter 8 says what shall separate us from the Love of Christ? He said no principality, nor power, nor angels. So, if you are worshipping angels, you are going to clash with God; because even angels should not separate us from the Love of God. No principality, no power, no ancestor should separate us from the Love of God. He said, for your God is a jealous God. God is jealous because He is Love. He said I’m the Lord your God, My glory will I share with no one.
And that’s why, one of the things that God frank against critically is idolatry. For example; nobody knew when Achan took what he took. But God made sure the whole of Israel paid for it; because Achan clashed with God. That’s why the Bible makes us understand in Ephesians chapter 3:19, he said, when we know the Love of Christ, then we will have all of the fullness of God. So, that height and the depth of the Love of God bring us into the place of alignment with God: God is Love. Anyone that does not Love, does not know Him.
1 John chapter 4:16, and we have known and believed the Love that God has for us. This is what we must do, this is the place we must come to; where we know and believe. It is not enough to know, you must believe. God Loves me, I know. But do you believe? Believe the Love that God has for you. God is Love. And he who abides in Love, abides in God and God in him. Do we now see where the fullness of God comes from? He who abides in Love, abides in God and the fullness of God is in him: that’s how we get the fullness of God.
The fullness of God does not come by praying for mantle. What we should be concerned about is the fullness of God. And how the fullness of God comes is by abiding in Love, and he who abides in Love, abides in God and God in him. Deuteronomy chapter 7:9, therefore, know that the Lord your God He is God. Another word is He is Love. The faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations: He doesn’t change, with those who Love Him and keep His commandments. Know that the Lord your God is God. God does not change for anybody; He is God.
When Jesus was giving the analogy of the prodigal son, even though the son had gone a riotous living; the posture of the father concerning the son did not change. But the only thing we must understand about God is that, God will not leave His throne and come looking for you; but when you come, the Bible says and when the son came back to himself, he went looking for his father’s house. He said, now I will go to my father, even though I’m not worthy to be called his son; if I can be just like the servants in my father’s house, I think I’ll be fine. And when he returned to his father, remember his father did not go to the country he went to; to look for him. And when he came to the father; the Bible says ‘and the father was waiting’, that’s the posture of God in Love. He is waiting with open arms to receive him; he didn’t ask him questions, so what happened? How did you spend? Where is the change? The father said, give him a ring, a new rope, and kill the fatted calf for him. That’s God, and that’s Love. He said, those that come to God, He would by no wise cast-away: that’s Love and that’s God.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji.
