Love the Heartbeat of God for Revival: God Loving Us, Responding to His Love, and Giving His Love Away

By Dr. Jo Anna Watson

The end times are upon us and since God is more concerned about redemption than judgment He is calling all people, especially the church, to return to Him in first love. We have been given a commandment to love God with all of our mind, soul, will, and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves. Unfortunately, such love is lacking. Many are crying out for revival, but unless there is a turning back to God with sincere repentance, there will be no substance for the fires of revival to be ignited during these end times. Gods love, as does all love, demands a response and He is waiting for your response. When love is returned wholeheartedly, who knows if God will rend the heavens and come down in power, thus ushering in a revival that will blaze through our churches and nations bringing the much needed healing to our lands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490834887

Dr. Jo Anna Watson

Dr. Jo Anna Watson, an ordained minister and an ambassador of love for Christ to the nations, preaches and teaches an end time message with power and authority. Jo carries the fragrance of Jesus into every place she goes, touching hearts with God’s love, truth and glory; thus bringing hope and spiritual, emotional and physical healing to many. Jo is a wholehearted follower of God who has fully embraced a faith-walk of adventure and trust in the Lord as she says, “Yes” to His cry to first, “Be” in His presence, then to “Go” with His presence. As a priest unto the Lord, she regularly spends time in prayer and worship, fasting and intercession, living a set-apart lifestyle before the Lord in preparation for revival that will usher in the great harvest.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 Dr. Jo Anna Watson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version of the Bible Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society©. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked CJB are taken from The Complete Jewish Bible Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631 All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic mechanical, recording or otherwise, without a prior permission of the Author or Publisher.

Credit to Matthew Dermody for the original cover concept design

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3489-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3490-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3488-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014907583

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/08/2015

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Endorsements

Introduction

PART ONE

THE QUEST FOR REVIVAL

A Call Back to the Heart of God

The Revivalist

And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come!

GOD’S LOVE FOR HUMANITY

GOD’S LOVE FOR ISRAEL-HIS COVENANT PEOPLE

The Call to Covenant

The Call to Cross Over

God Calls Moses and Reveals Himself as Lord!

The Call to Possess and Occupy

The Messianic Christian Church is Arising

GOD’S ULTIMATE EXPRESSION OF LOVE

The Divine Exchange

Love Demands a Response

PART TWO

HUMANITIES RESPONSE TO GOD’S LOVE

The Commandment to Love!

A Man After God’s Heart

The Choice For Love

A Matter of the Heart

A HEART OF OBEDIENCE

Obedience Requires Willingness

The Obedience of Jesus

Obedience of Faith

Benefits and Challenges to Obedience

Obedience Brings Freedom

Consequences of Disobedience

Radical Obedience

No Substitutes For Obedience

PURSUING HOLINESS

What is Holiness?

Challenges to Pursuing Holiness

LIVING A CONSECRATED LIFESTYLE

Challenges to the Set Apart Lifestyle

A PASSION FOR HIS PRESENCE

Mary of Bethany

It’s My Turn Now!

It’s Your Turn Now!

Enlarged Hearts for Love

Our Alabaster Box

RETURNING TO FIRST LOVE

Wasted for Love

PART THREE

GIVING GOD’S LOVE AWAY

The Art of Loving Others

No Taking Offenses

Unconditional Love

LOVING THROUGH FORGIVENESS

Dealing with Bitterroot Judgments

LOVING THROUGH INTERCESSION

For Such a Time as This

Today’s Prayer Movements

Apostle Paul’s Intercession

Conclusion

About The Author

Bibliography

Other Reference Materials

DEDICATION

To God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus our Messiah, who has unconditionally and extravagantly loved me. To Holy Spirit, who dwells within me and empowers me to see beyond what I can see, and continuously reveals more of the knowledge of God and His everlasting love each day. To the next generation: may you walk in confidence and humility, being fully persuaded in the extravagant intentionality of God’s love and mercy for you.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to my dear friend Cindy. Thank you for being my champion to the call of God on my life. Your continuous encouragement, support and tireless proofreading of my writings over the years have not been in vain. Above all, your consistent emails and intercession for me has been invaluable.

Thank you my dear friend Evelyn. Your help in handling my administrational needs has been invaluable as I spend so much time abroad. I thank you for your encouragement as I serve the Lord as His ambassador. I also thank and appreciate you so much for setting aside a place in your home for me, when I am in America.

Thank you Celeste who has remained a faithful friend for over 50 years. You are the sister I never had. I love you and thank you for always making room for me in your home and in your life. God bless you to know how wide, how deep, how high and how long is God’s everlasting and extravagant love for you.

To my two adult daughters and grandchildren, I love you deeply. No matter where you live or where I live, as I serve my Lord, Jesus Christ, know that you are close to my heart and you are always in my prayers.

ENDORSEMENTS

Love is a gift from God. He always initiates love towards us. We love Him because He first loved us!

As we walk with Him, love is our highest motivation towards people. It matters not how other people behave towards us. It matters how we show up in Christ towards them. God is love. Therefore, the only way we can properly represent Him is to let His love become the most real experience of our life. An authentic believer is filled with love and that expression of God’s nature is the catalyst for everything we do in the Kingdom.

I recommend Jo Anna’s book to you wholeheartedly. It will change your thinking, perception and language, which are all the main ingredients of transformation. More importantly it will open you up for a heart encounter with the Lover of your soul.

Graham Cooke

Author, speaker

www.brilliantperspectives.com

This book has so many revolutionary insights. It will not leave its readers the same. The fact that you perfectly linked revival to love, both for fellow human beings and for God, as well as to the need for us to be holy and obedient to God makes this book a splendid work in bringing out the whole truth of the various components, which constitute real revival. As both a journalist and a revival preacher, who has interacted with various writings on revival, I find your book outstanding.

Moses Mulondo

Ugandan Christian journalist and Founding leader of Uganda Revival Network

A book you don’t want to rush through. Dr. Jo Anna with patience, determination, a great wealth of knowledge and wisdom explores details of an intense twin love – God for man and man for God. Without compromise she attempts to clear up wells that have been polluted for long for which revival lingers. You are bound to encounter intriguing information you absolutely knew nothing about. Thank you Dr. Jo Anna for this eye opener.

Okweda Francis,

Director, Everest Gauge Uganda

Author, Pride in Contrast to Humility and The Nature of Love

INTRODUCTION

Love is the driving force and motivation behind everything God is and everything God does. God is good because He is love and He does good because love always does good (c.f. 1 Cor. 13, Acts 10:38). It was and is Yahweh’s love for humanity that motivated Him to send His only begotten Son to dwell among us. Even today, the Gospel of Jesus, the anointed One, is a message of love. That’s why it is good news! Yahweh gave us a command, in both the Old and New Covenants, to love Him with our whole heart, will, mind and strength. However Jesus added a second commandment in the New Covenant that we are also to love others as ourselves. I believe God is longing for a people who will love Him wholeheartedly and who are compelled by love, to give His love away.

In order for us to love God’s way, we must have an understanding of His extravagant and everlasting love for all humanity. It is through Jesus, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, that the depth of the Father’s intentional love toward us is manifested. It is only through revelation given by the Holy Spirit that we are able to receive His love, love Him back with the same depth of love with which He loves us, and then give His love away by loving others.

The depth of revelation associated with this kind of love only comes through a serious pursuit of the knowledge of God as Father, through His Son Jesus, our Messiah, and by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit within us. It is God’s extravagant love for humanity that sets the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob apart from all other ‘religions.’ Since God is love, He created us for love, and He has given all humanity the choice for love.

I believe in this hour, the Lord is calling us back to first love. If we choose to return to first love, by intentionally pursuing the knowledge of God, and wholeheartedly loving Him in return, who knows! God may rend the heavens and come down in power, thus ushering in a revival that will blaze through our nations, bringing much needed healing!

Over the years I have read many books, besides the Bible, in my quest to grow in the knowledge and revelation of God. Some of what I have read in other books I most likely have forgotten, while much has been safely stored away waiting for the right moment to be released. So it is with much love, passion, and conviction that I release what the Lord has stirred up in my heart regarding His heartbeat of love, especially now, in this end time generation. I invite you to join me on a journey into God’s heartbeat of love for humanity!

PART ONE

THE QUEST FOR REVIVAL

Change, change, change! People everywhere are crying out for change. Many people are dissatisfied and losing hope with the way things seem to be going both outside and inside the church. A couple of years ago I received the following e-mail from my nephew, an engineering honor roll student. As I read it, I realized that the pressure is on for the church and America to wake up now and return to her Biblical foundational roots, or it may be too late:

Hey Aunt Jo, so I am feeling quite uneasy over the events that have transpired in the last twenty-four hours. I am getting the inclination that we are near the end of the world. I know you know a lot about religion, so you must know the many dates that coincide with this year, but I’m not sure if you are in the know about the Nostradamus effect. If you are, then you know what I’m worried about. If you aren’t, then I suggest you look into it. Thanks.

Since I have been living in Uganda, I was not aware of the Nostradamus effect, so I did a Web search. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, explained that it’s an American sensationalist television series detailing various apocalyptic prophecies.¹ The History Channel also aired an eleven-part series detailing the Nostradamus effect, which can be found on YouTube.² Considering the current world events and the prophecies in the Bible, it seems reasonable to believe that we have entered into what is called the end times.

The end times is the period leading up to the return of Jesus as described in the Bible, specifically in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation. Unfortunately the study of End Times and Biblical Prophecy is not taught in most churches today. The lack of such teaching may be contributing to why so many are losing hope. Isn’t the role of the church to be a light and an encouragement to those around us?

Only when the church - all professing Believers in Jesus our Messiah - is properly educated and equipped, will Believers be prepared to stand strong in love, and not lose hope. It is apparent to me, and others, that the church today has not lived up to her responsibility of being that light and source of encouragement. In order to be a light and source of encouragement the church must be prepared and equipped to walk in unity and maturity in love (c.f. Eph. 4). Only then, can we be strong witnesses for Jesus, carrying His glory and the message of the Kingdom of God into every place. Today more than ever, the church must be properly prepared and equipped in order to be victorious in power, as we draw near to the end of this age and the return of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ our Messiah.

Consequently, it is my conviction that the only way to look at end times is from a Biblical perspective. The problem however, seems to be that our nation as well as others, have lost their Biblical perspective. The prophet Isaiah says, Darkness is covering the earth and deep darkness the people (Isa. 60:2) and Jesus says, Lawlessness is abounding and the love of many is growing cold (Matt. 24:12). These words describe precisely what is happening in our nations today.

So let’s take a closer look at the word ‘darkness’ and see how it relates to the times in which we are now living. As described by a number of sources darkness means the absence of light, wickedness, absence of moral or spiritual values, evil, sins, obscurity, a state of being intellectually clouded, ignorance, and lacking brightness. Putting it in a Biblical perspective we learn that …God is light; in Him is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness we lie, and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7 NIV). Then Jesus says a few chapters later I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father (light) except through Me (truth) (John 16:4 NIV) (Brackets mine).

We read in Hosea 4 that people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Darkness then, is the absences of God (light) and Jesus (truth). If there is no light or absolute truth, then as a result of the Adamic nature, wickedness abounds and people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. When wickedness abounds, the love of many grows cold, resulting in hardness of heart.

Proverbs 3 tells us not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge God in all our ways and He will direct our paths. Is it possible that ignorance and hardness of heart are actually a lack of love for God, His ways and His truths? Today, even in the church, many are actively set against God’s Biblical and moral principles, thus leaning on their own understanding. It is therefore, not surprising that many are disillusioned and losing hope.

In Matthew 24, Jesus responds to His disciples’ question of what will be the signs of the times of His return. Jesus continues to describe the signs of the times and says …see that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Jesus concludes in Matthew 24:13-14, He who endures to the end shall be saved. And the Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and the end will come. It is quite possible that the question my nephew is ultimately asking, and possibly many others, is how do we endure to the end?

A Call Back to the Heart of God

It has been said that as the church goes, so does the nation. In other words, when a nation loses its Biblical perspective and no longer trusts in God, His Word, and His Kingdom rule, His blessings upon that nation will be lifted. As a result, many intercessors worldwide have been crying out for revival as a catalyst to bring forth the change that is desperately needed in our nations. In 2011 a book The Harbinger was released.³ This book authored by Jonathan Cahn, describes nine judgments recorded in Isaiah 9:10 that befell Israel and have also fallen upon America. These judgments may very possibly determine America’s future.

This book, a New York Times best seller is a wake up call not only to America and other nations, but also to the church. Isn’t it time for those who believe in Jesus as Messiah, (Savior), Redeemer and Restorer, return to the life-giving message of the Gospel? When Jesus returns He will judge all wickedness. Since this age is coming to an end, the question we all must ask ourselves is: are we ready for these end times, which are fast approaching?

I am fully persuaded that returning to the whole message of the Gospel; the church’s Biblical and Hebraic foundational roots; and the Second Coming of Jesus; that Christians will be revived to walk in wholehearted love, radiant righteousness and voluntary obedience. I believe that it is this kind of love that will usher in the power of God, as seen in the early first-century Messianic Christian Church to return so we can overcome and stand strong!

It is the only message that brings God’s glory (His weighty presence) into a situation that has the power to change lives, communities, and nations. It is this message that properly prepares and equips people to be rightly related to God and His Kingdom authority. When we are rightly related to God, we will be able to stand strong during these difficult times, as we look forward to Jesus’ return. It is God’s heart for all humanity to return to Him in voluntary love. Such voluntary love brings us into right relationship with God, as it was before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

The book of Acts, especially the second chapter, clearly gives evidence that the Jewish disciples were wholeheartedly in love with and absolutely loyal to Jesus. Once the power of the Holy Spirit came upon and in them at Pentecost, they were set ablaze with fire and zealously turned their world upside down. I believe this actually ushered in the Messianic Christian Church.

Pentecost is one of the three feasts whereby Jews were required, by God, to journey to Jerusalem to celebrate His feast together. As a result of this gathering the city of Jerusalem was populated with thousands of visiting Jews. It was at this time that the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, changing the entire atmosphere.

The disciples were now filled with the glory of God’s presence, supernaturally filling them with divine love. This divine love combined with the glory of God, not only empowered them, but also compelled them to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the crowds that had gathered. The fire of the Holy Spirit was so strong on Peter that through his preaching the lives of 3,000 Jews were changed forever. As a result of the overflow of this divine love, a desire to share with and bless each other was stirred up within them.