On Becoming Love, Part III – Dan Mohler

Guess what happened to love when man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It got perverted 180 degrees and became selfish. Love became self. Why do you think Jesus, in Matthew 16, said, “If any man come after me, let him first deny himself”? [verse 24] Because you were never made for you; you were made for His image!

“A new commandment I give you… it’s not a new commandment, you had it from the beginning” [see 1 John 2:7] – you were made to love! You weren’t made to go to heaven, or to die in the first place; this whole going to heaven thing just connotes everlasting life that is not lost through Jesus the Redeemer. Our goal and carrot is not everlasting life, it’s being restored back to why we’re on the planet. Hello?

Look, I don’t know if you get this part, but the cross of Christ is not fulfilled when a man prays a prayer to get his name in a book called life!

The cross of Christ is fulfilled when a man’s nature is restored back to love and he looks like his Father! Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren conformed to the image of His Son.

If our goal is to be forgiven and go to heaven, it’s STILL all about “me”! And I’m still just as mad at my boss, and I’m still mad at God now and then, and why do two things have to go wrong in the same week, and I’ve got all these faith Scriptures on my refrigerator and I’m quoting them like a robot hoping things go better, and if they don’t I’ve got serious questions, or guilt and condemnation…

It’s one or the other. I’ve been around enough to see this stuff happen to us. We just need to get a tape like this and listen to it over and over and over, not because I’m preaching so good (which I am! [audience laughs]) but because there’s a lot of content to absorb.

So God made man in His image. God made man with a created value to love. The only reason you desperately need love so badly is because man got cut off from the source of love through sin.

You might ask, “But I thought we’re grafted back in? I thought we’re the branch and He’s the Vine and the fruit hangs on the branch?”

What He’s saying is, “I’m Love, I’ve connected you back to love, and now you’re released again through the Son to be love again.”

The reason you’re a Christian is to become love. It’s not to be forgiven so you can go to heaven. Being forgiven takes place through the blood so you can become love; so the Spirit of God can come inside you.

But there’s too much discouragement in our hearts, things that we’re seeing wrongly: we’re making it all about us. You say, “But you don’t understand my circumstances…” It’s not about pushing our story. Be careful about that!

It’s all about what Jesus has been through, and what we are now that He’s been through it. See, we make it all about us, and we’re trying to get to God through our past. No, let’s look to Him to find ourselves!

“Oh, but brother you don’t know what I’ve been through.” That’s irrelevant. A lot of people don’t like this kind of preaching.

The gospel is simple.

Look, I had an alcoholic dad who said I’d never amount to anything… I had to drive to the bar to pick up my end-stage alcoholic dad… He never said, “I love you,” because he was a dry cup with nothing to give. Now you might have a worse story to tell. The point is, all of us have some kind of story, but I can never get to God through my story.

Some people say, “Oh, you lost a lot of years because of that.”

No, I only lost a lot of years if I don’t put my faith in the Redeemer and get my life back on track through Truth! None of that with my dad matters to me; he was a lost man who had nothing to give. I don’t find my identity through my dad. I find my identity through Jesus and through the Father!

So it’s a simple transition [looking up to God]: “Oh, wow, I’m not worthless! My dad was taking his pain out on me. You think I’m worth Your blood! You have destiny for me! Wow, I can be sanctified and separated, I am called out of the darkness into the light, into the kingdom of the Son of Your Love! I can be born again! I can be free! Nothing has to change over here [regarding his life’s pain]; I would like for it to, but I find myself in You, Lord! I’ve been looking in the wrong places!”

Isn’t that simple?! When you preach like that it makes some people mad because it costs jobs: a lot of people make a living counseling because of this kind of stuff. And I thought love was free. [He indicates that he doesn’t charge a fee for coming to preach the gospel]

Freely receive, freely give. I don’t have an anointing that’s for sale…

The gospel tells you you’re free!

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This is the third part of a series of my partial transcript/excerpts of a two hour-long video of Dan Mohler posted on YouTube entitled  “Being Transformed into the Image of Jesus Christ, Part 1 of 4“ – modified somewhat for readability (segment 33:54 – 43:10).