Pursue Love – Rev. Donna Burrows

Pursue Gods Love Overview

In this powerful message from NTC Ministries, Rev. Donna Burrows unpacks the Spirit-led invitation to pursue a deeper, more personal revelation of God’s love. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 14:1, she explains that the command to pursue love is not merely about loving others, but about knowing and believing the love God has for each believer. Weaving together the Song of Solomon, Ephesians 3:17-19, and Matthew 24:12, Rev. Burrows paints a vivid picture of a love relationship with Christ that must be actively nurtured, guarded, and grown. She explores the four dimensions of God’s love — width, length, depth, and height — through the lens of Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, descent, and resurrection. Compelling illustrations include the apostle John’s unshakeable identity as the beloved disciple, the sinful woman who poured out a year’s wages in worship, and a sobering account of a missionary who refused healing because he could not believe God’s love extended to him. Rev. Burrows calls every believer to guard their heart, silence the enemy’s accusations with Scripture, open the door when Jesus knocks, and build a fortress of faith around their love relationship with God.

Pursue Gods Love Outline

• 0:00 – Opening: David and the Refuge of God’s Love: Rev. Burrows opens with Psalm 36:7, establishing the foundational truth that God desires His people to take complete refuge in His steadfast love in every circumstance of life.
• 5:30 – The Song of Solomon: A Picture of Intimate Love: The Song of Solomon is explored as an allegory of Christ’s covenant love with His bride. The Shulamite’s hesitation to open the door becomes a mirror for believers who delay responding to Jesus’ invitation in Revelation 3:20.
• 14:00 – Pursuing Love: 1 Corinthians 14:1 and Ephesians 3: Rev. Burrows shares the personal word the Lord gave her — pursue love — and connects it to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:17-19, calling believers to actively and eagerly take hold of the width, length, depth, and height of God’s love.
• 23:00 – The Four Dimensions of Christ’s Love: Each dimension is given vivid meaning: width as the outstretched arms on the cross, depth as the descent into hell, height as the resurrection and ascension, and length as the astounding journey from omnipotence to human frailty for our redemption.
• 33:00 – Guarding Against a Cold Heart: Matthew 24:12: Rev. Burrows addresses the end-times warning that lawlessness will cause the love of many to grow cold, urging believers to guard their affections diligently according to Proverbs 4:23 and to remain rooted in God’s love.
• 40:00 – Examples of Faith: The Sinful Woman and John the Beloved: The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet demonstrates extravagant pursuit of love, while John’s identity as the disciple Jesus loved illustrates how a revelation of God’s love empowers believers to face impossible trials without fear.
• 47:30 – The Missionary Who Would Not Receive: A sobering true account from Kenneth Hagin’s ministry reveals how wrong beliefs and the enemy’s accusations can prevent a believer from receiving what Jesus came to give, showing that doubt rooted in performance-based thinking blocks God’s love from manifesting.
• 54:00 – Practical Steps to Keep Yourself in God’s Love: Rev. Burrows offers practical exhortations: spend quality time in the Word, pray in the Holy Spirit, personalize scriptures, praise God daily, silence the enemy’s accusations with Scripture, and declare aloud, I am the one whom Jesus loves.
• 59:00 – Closing Prayer and Commission: Rev. Burrows closes with a corporate prayer asking God to give every believer a fresh revelation of His love, that they would be so filled with His presence that His love overflows to every heart and life they encounter.

Scripture References

Psalm 36:7, Song of Solomon 5, Revelation 3:20, 1 Corinthians 14:1, 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 3:17-19, John 17:3, Matthew 24:12, Proverbs 4:23, 2 Timothy 4:9-10, 1 John 2:15, 1 John 4:16, Jude 20-21, Proverbs 3:5-6, Ephesians 1:17, Psalm 63:3

Key Takeaways

• Pursuing love means first pursuing a deeper, experiential knowledge of God’s love for you personally, not merely loving others better.
• The four dimensions of Christ’s love — width, length, depth, and height — encompass His entire redemptive work from incarnation to ascension, revealing the staggering lengths He went to for your salvation.
• When the love of many grows cold because of lawlessness, believers must guard their affections diligently, keeping themselves rooted in God’s love as an act of spiritual warfare.
• Wrong beliefs and the enemy’s accusations about your unworthiness can actually prevent you from receiving healing, provision, and every blessing God has already provided through Christ’s finished work.
• Like the apostle John, declaring daily that you are the one whom Jesus loves is not arrogance but a Spirit-empowered weapon that silences condemnation and builds unshakeable confidence in God.
• God’s love for you never changes based on your performance; all your sins were forgiven two thousand years ago, and nothing can separate you from His everlasting love.
• Nurturing your love relationship with God through His Word, praise, thanksgiving, and praying in the Holy Spirit keeps your heart tender and your faith strong enough to withstand any storm.

Pursue Gods Love Notes

The Central Call to Pursue Love

Rev. Donna Burrows builds her message on the Spirit-impressed phrase pursue love, drawn from 1 Corinthians 14:1. She clarifies that this pursuit is not primarily about showing more love to others, though that flows naturally from it. The deeper call is to know and believe God’s love for the individual believer in a greater, fuller way. Drawing on Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:17-19, she emphasizes that comprehending the width, length, depth, and height of Christ’s love is an active, eager taking hold of truth, not a passive acknowledgment. The goal is to be filled with all the fullness of God.

Four Dimensions of Redemptive Love

Rev. Burrows meditates on each dimension of God’s love as revealed through Christ’s redemptive work. The width is seen in Christ’s outstretched arms on the cross, removing sin as far as the east is from the west. The depth is His descent into hell, where He stripped the enemy of the keys of death and the grave. The height encompasses both His resurrection and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to intercede. The length is perhaps the most staggering: the eternal Son of God willingly becoming a microscopic seed, entering time, experiencing hunger, pain, and mortality, all for our sake.

A Sobering Warning Against Growing Cold

Quoting Matthew 24:12, Rev. Burrows warns that one of the signs of the end times is that lawlessness will cause the love of many to grow cold. She connects this to the story of Demas in 2 Timothy 4:10, who forsook Paul having loved the present world. Proverbs 4:23 calls believers to guard their affections above all else, because those affections influence every area of life. The antidote is not fear but intentional, daily pursuit — staying in the Word, praying in the Spirit, and keeping affections set on things above rather than on the things of this world.

The Missionary Account: A Lesson in Receiving

One of the most penetrating illustrations in the message is a true account from Kenneth Hagin’s ministry. A dying missionary, sensing Jesus’ presence in the room, repeatedly raised his hands as if to receive healing, then let them fall, saying he could not receive. Jesus, visible only to Hagin, looked on with deep sadness and said, I came to heal him and he will not let me. Rev. Burrows uses this story to show how wrong beliefs — rooted in performance-based thinking and the enemy’s accusations — can prevent a believer from receiving what Christ has already provided. It is not a question of God’s willingness but of the believer’s confidence in His love.

Identity as the Beloved: John’s Example

The apostle John is held up as a model of someone who had received a powerful revelation of God’s love. He consistently identified himself not by name but as the disciple whom Jesus loved. This was not pride but settled confidence. That confidence allowed him to rest his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper, to stand near the cross when others fled, and ultimately to survive being thrown into boiling oil. Rev. Burrows invites every listener to adopt the same declaration: I am the one whom Jesus loves. Spoken aloud, it becomes a sword against condemnation and a shield that no accusation of the enemy can penetrate.

Practical Ways to Stay Rooted in Love

Rev. Burrows closes with concrete, actionable steps. She urges believers to read the Word until it speaks back to them through the Holy Spirit’s revelation. She encourages personalizing scriptures such as John 3:16 by inserting one’s own name. She recommends praying Paul’s prayer from Ephesians 1:17 for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. Praying in the Holy Spirit stirs up the love already deposited in the believer’s spirit and builds faith. Daily praise and thanksgiving keep the heart tender and the focus on God rather than on problems. Consistency in these practices builds an unshakeable fortress of love around the believer’s heart.

Frequently Asked Questions