The Power of God’s Love (Rev. Donna Burrows)
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Rev. Donna Burrows delivers a compelling message on God’s transforming love and the power of loving your enemies — rooted in Scripture and proven by extraordinary lives of faith.
Description
Power of God’s Love Overview
In this powerful message delivered on February 4, 2025, Rev. Donna Burrows opens with the beloved worship song “The Power of Your Love” to anchor a deep exploration of what it truly means to receive and extend God’s unconditional love. Drawing from Ephesians 3, Jeremiah 31:3, Luke 6:27-28, and Matthew 5:43-48, she challenges believers to move beyond head knowledge into a personal, heart-level revelation of the Father’s love — a love that is everlasting, unearned, and transforming. Rev. Burrows unpacks Jesus’s radical command to love our enemies, illustrating it through vivid stories of Stephen the martyr, Corrie ten Boom at Ravensbrück, David and King Saul, Joseph and his brothers, and the extraordinary courage of Sabina Wurmbrand. She presents seven tangible results of choosing to love our enemies: imitating God as His children, growing toward spiritual maturity, keeping our hearts tender, leaving vengeance to God, enabling our faith to work, opening doors to others’ salvation, and receiving a divine reward. The message is a pastoral call to depend on the Holy Spirit’s empowering to walk in agape love even in the face of hatred and persecution.
Power of God’s Love Outline
- 0:00 – Opening Worship and the Song That Started It All: Rev. Burrows introduces the message by recalling the worship song ‘The Power of Your Love,’ setting the emotional and spiritual tone for the entire sermon.
- 5:30 – Head Knowledge vs. Heart Revelation of God’s Love: She distinguishes between knowing about God’s love intellectually and receiving a personal revelation of it, referencing Ephesians 3 on the width, length, depth, and height of His love.
- 13:00 – Loving Your Enemies: The Command of Christ: Rev. Burrows expounds on Luke 6:27-28 and Matthew 5:43-48 in the Amplified translation, unpacking what it truly means to love, bless, and pray for those who hate and persecute us.
- 24:00 – Agape Love in Action: What It Really Looks Like: Drawing on Andrew Wommack’s definition of agape love, she explains that God’s love is a deliberate act of will — not based on feelings or the merit of others — and always seeks to do good.
- 33:00 – Seven Good Results of Loving Your Enemies: Rev. Burrows walks through seven biblical results of choosing to love enemies, rooted in examples from David, Joseph, Corrie ten Boom, and Sabina Wurmbrand.
- 43:00 – Corrie ten Boom, Sabina Wurmbrand, and Radical Forgiveness: Extended testimony section covering how two women of faith chose love over hate in the face of Nazi brutality, with Sabina’s encounter with the officer who murdered her family serving as a climactic illustration.
- 54:00 – Loving Enemies Leads to Salvation and Reward: Result six and seven are presented: loving enemies can lead them to receive Christ, and God promises a great reward to those who love without expecting anything in return, citing Proverbs 25:21-22 and Luke 6:35-36.
- 59:30 – Closing Exhortation and Prayer: Rev. Burrows calls the congregation to stand, affirms the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s empowering, and closes with a corporate prayer surrendering to love unconditionally until Christ returns.
Scripture References
Ephesians 3, Jeremiah 31:3, Luke 6:27-28, Luke 6:32-33, Luke 6:35-36, Matthew 5:43-48, 2 Timothy 3:12, Proverbs 11:30, Proverbs 25:21-22, Daniel 12:3
Key Takeaways
- Receiving a personal revelation of God’s love — not just head knowledge — is what transforms us from the inside out and grounds us in an unshakeable security as His children.
- Jesus commands us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who persecute us, because God’s agape love is an act of the will, not a feeling.
- Choosing to love our enemies makes us imitators of our heavenly Father and leads us toward spiritual maturity and wholeness, as Jesus declared in Matthew 5:48.
- Without faith you cannot walk in love, and without love you cannot walk by faith — the two are inseparable pillars of the Christian life.
- God’s unconditional love is not passive endurance of hardship; it is an active, aggressive pursuit of the good of others, even those who hate us.
- Loving enemies is one of the most powerful witnesses to unbelievers, as demonstrated by Sabina Wurmbrand, whose embrace of her family’s murderer led him to receive Christ.
- We must depend on the empowering of the Holy Spirit to walk in God’s love, because our flesh alone cannot sustain forgiveness and kindness in the face of hatred and persecution.
Power of God’s Love Notes
The Core Teaching of the Message
Rev. Donna Burrows anchors this sermon in the truth that God’s love is not merely something He does — it is what He is. Because He is love and He never changes, His love for us is everlasting, unconditional, and perfect. Quoting Jeremiah 31:3, she reminds believers that it was God’s loving kindness that drew each of us to repentance in the first place. When we grasp by personal revelation — not just theological understanding — that the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus, we gain a deep sense of security and boldness that empowers us to live out His mission in the world.
The Radical Command to Love Enemies
Reading Luke 6:27-28 in the Amplified Classic translation, Rev. Burrows unpacks the word ‘nobly’ — treating others in a manner befitting a child of the King of Kings. She draws a critical distinction: the legalistic Pharisees added ‘and hate your enemy’ to Scripture, but Jesus corrected that distortion in Matthew 5:43-48. God’s agape love, as defined through Andrew Wommack’s teaching, has nothing to do with feelings or the merit of the person being loved. It is a deliberate choice of the will that actively seeks the welfare of all people, regardless of how they treat us.
Three Lives That Demonstrate the Possible
Corrie ten Boom’s account at Ravensbrück — where she held back rage as her feverish sister Betsy was beaten, then simply returned the guard’s dropped baton — illustrates that love requires moment-by-moment surrender to God. Joseph’s story shows how refusing revenge preserved God’s plan to save a nation. And Sabina Wurmbrand’s wordless embrace of the SS officer responsible for her family’s murder, followed by the quiet words ‘the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness,’ led that man to receive Christ. These accounts share one thread: love chosen under extreme pressure becomes the most powerful testimony on earth.
Seven Results of Choosing Love Over Hate
Rev. Burrows identifies seven concrete fruits of loving our enemies: we imitate God as dear children; we grow toward spiritual maturity and wholeness; our hearts remain tender toward God and others; we leave vengeance in God’s hands, who repays justly; our faith is freed to work so that God’s purposes are fulfilled in our lives; we create the conditions for our enemies to encounter Christ and be saved; and we receive a great divine reward, as promised in Luke 6:35 and Proverbs 25:21-22. Each result is grounded in Scripture and illustrated through biblical and historical examples.
The Inseparable Link Between Faith and Love
Citing Kenneth Copeland, Rev. Burrows presents a statement that deserves meditation: without faith you cannot walk in love, and without love you cannot walk by faith. David exemplifies this truth. He trusted God’s justice so completely that he refused to touch God’s anointed, even when his men believed he was justified. His restraint was not weakness — it was faith in action, expressed through love. Later, after Saul’s death, David sought out Mephibosheth to show kindness to Saul’s household, actively pursuing good toward those who had been his enemies.
A Call to Holy Spirit Empowerment
Rev. Burrows closes with a pastoral exhortation: the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, but we must draw it up and let it flow out. We cannot love our enemies in our own strength — the flesh will always want to retaliate. That is why being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit is not optional for the believer who desires to live Godly. Second Timothy 3:12 promises that all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Our only sufficient response is to love unconditionally, trusting that God will use our obedience to change hearts, fulfill His purposes, and bring glory to His name.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Bible say about loving your enemies?
In Luke 6:27-28 and Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus commands His followers to love their enemies, bless those who curse them, do good to those who hate them, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute them. He makes clear that even sinners love those who love them back, but God’s children are called to a higher standard that reflects the character of their heavenly Father.
How can a Christian love someone who has truly hurt them?
Rev. Burrows teaches that loving an enemy is not possible in our own strength — it requires drawing on the love of God that has already been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as described in Romans 5:5. It is an act of the will, not a feeling, and it is empowered by staying filled with the Spirit and grounded in the revelation of how much the Father loves us.
What is agape love and why does it matter?
Agape is the Greek word for God’s unconditional love, described in this sermon as love that can only be known by the actions it produces. It is not based on emotion, natural affection, or the merit of the person being loved. It actively seeks the welfare of all people — believer and unbeliever alike — and works no harm to anyone, reflecting the very nature of God who is love.
What are the benefits of forgiving and loving your enemies?
This sermon outlines seven results: imitating God as His child, growing in spiritual maturity, keeping your heart tender, leaving vengeance to God’s righteous justice, enabling your faith to work in God’s plan, opening the door for your enemy to receive Christ, and receiving a great reward from God, as promised in Luke 6:35 and Proverbs 25:21-22.
What is the connection between faith and love in the Christian life?
As Kenneth Copeland stated and Rev. Burrows expounds, without faith you cannot walk in love, and without love you cannot walk by faith. The two are inseparable. David’s refusal to avenge himself on Saul demonstrates that loving an enemy requires trusting God completely to handle justice in His own time and way.
How does Corrie ten Boom’s story illustrate loving your enemies?
At the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Corrie ten Boom’s sister Betsy pleaded with her not to strike a guard who had beaten her. After the war, Corrie recognized a former camp guard at one of her meetings — a man who had since received Christ — and chose to extend her hand in forgiveness, saying ‘yes, I can forgive you.’ Her testimony shows that forgiveness is possible even in the most extreme circumstances, grounded in the forgiveness we ourselves have received.
Can loving your enemies actually lead them to salvation?
Yes — this sermon presents several examples, most powerfully that of Sabina Wurmbrand, who embraced the SS officer responsible for her family’s murder and quietly spoke words of forgiveness. That encounter broke his hardness and led him to receive Christ. Proverbs 11:30 says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and choosing love over retaliation can be the very act God uses to bring a lost soul to repentance.
Why did Jesus tell us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect?
In Matthew 5:48, within the same passage commanding love for enemies, Jesus calls His followers to be perfect — meaning mature and whole — just as the Father is perfect. Rev. Burrows explains this is not about sinless flawlessness but about growing into the fullness of God’s love, which does not discriminate. The Father sends rain on both the just and the unjust, and we are called to reflect that same impartial, unconditional goodness.
