Here are reports from others about the Love of God Project's progress.
At the Messiah's Immersion we find:
Transformative and Empowering experience
Intimate self disclosure of Father's heart
Theological content concerning God and His Son's identity and relationship
Revelatory experience in the heavens opening and the Spirit appearing like a dove
What a pattern.
posted by David @ 11:55 AM
2 comments
Bob Gladstone,
I listened to the 4th CD and am going back through them. You really do hit your stride in the last session! Wonderful material! Whole thing is excellent, relevant, revelatory, and critical for this hour. … I'm now reading your manual (bits at a time) and love that also. It's touching my life…
Michael Lubonovic, Student Ministries Director, Faculty FIRE
I just wanted to write to tell you that I finished the Love Of God (Manual) yesterday. I can't thank God enough for this material. I've been walking with God for a little over 10 years. I've been earnestly pursuing the reality of the love of God in my life for about the past 6 years. He has been faithfully building a foundation of this reality in my life as I have sought Him. I must say that He is using this material to continue that work in my life. I just started to read it through again for the purpose of really chewing on it and interacting with it more.
... I have been taking my time to go through the manual again. This time I'm making notes, answering the questions at the end of each chapter, and journaling. It has been very good for me. Thank you, again, for the material!!!
“Seth” attended a seminar
Seeing it in print helped both to reinforce and expand on the word you brought to our congregation. It seems we have much to unlearn! Reading through the manuscript I was struck by how much wrong doctrine I have unquestioningly absorbed, to the detriment of my closeness with God. How different He looks when illuminated by the truth of the His Word, rather than obscured by false interpretation.
posted by David @ 9:26 AM
0 comments
From The Seed of Abraham,
Rabbi Barry and Toni Feinman
The Love of God Seminar is a paradigm bomb!
From
Matthew Barnhart, Senior Pastor
I can't thank you guys enough for coming down on Saturday. Elita and I were discussing afterward and we both felt it was our favorite church retreat ever, if such a comparison is valid. I know from talking to many others in the church that they were also very blessed by your visit to us. I think for many of us, myself included, your Spirit-filled teaching about the Love of God really helped correct some misconceptions we have and opened up our hearts and minds for a fuller revelation of God's love that will hopefully continue in our midst. We will keep the Love of God project in prayer as we really believe that God wants to spread these truths about the reality and depth of His love more widely to His people.
From MorningStar,
Tom Hardiman, Director, MorningStar Fellowship of Ministries,
I have looked at the Manual … It is very good. I spoke to the regional roundtable in Cincinatti about this project. I think this is very foundational and important for individuals to understand. I have talked with my interns about this. Your teaching is foundational in a profound way
posted by David @ 9:10 AM
3 comments
From
Bob Gladstone,
I listened to the 4th CD and am going back through them. You really do hit your stride in the last session! Wonderful material! Whole thing is excellent, relevant, revelatory, and critical for this hour. … I'm now reading your manual (bits at a time) and love that also. It's touching my life…
Scott Volk, Co-pastor,
After participating in David Harwood’s seminar that we hosted at our church, I left with a renewed passion for a deeper revelation of God’s love for me. The Love of God Seminar and The Love of God Manual are tools that should be made available to every church in
... By the way, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the manual!
Beth Wier, Academic Dean,
Of course, I had attended the seminar the last time you taught it here, but I felt like I got as much, if not more, out of it the second time around! I was again really impressed by the teaching on agape. It's just amazing that we have such a misunderstanding of how that word is used in the text. I also found the handouts really helpful in terms of the way the material was presented and as a guide to follow along with during the seminar. I got a copy of the Love of God manual as well, and I'm looking forward to diving in even more into this rich material! :) Thanks so much!
Students from F.I.R.E. Seminar 2006
Student
It was great. I really appreciated that the seminar focused on our relationship with the Father and His heart towards us. Seen from my perspective, it had a healthy balance between God's holiness and His goodness, and I was reminded about the motivation God has for loving us.
Student
I always appreciate it when people come against the "mystical" definition of agape, since this view is so prevalent, destructive, and ridiculous.
Student
I really appreciated the emphasis on God as an emotional being. The idea of God as the great stoic is very common, and we can easily begin to relate to God in these terms. We oftentimes struggle with the idea that we are really created in God's image, and we try to distance God's nature from ours too much, out of an unnecessary fear of demeaning God.
Student
The idea of viewing the so called "bridal paradigm" from God's perspective was very enlightening. The emphasis in church circles I have been in has always been on the experience of the church as Christ's bride, and not on God's pursuit of mankind. Also, you didn't mention this directly, but one thing I have come to see as lacking in our understanding of being the "bride" of Christ is that the emphasis is almost entirely placed on the church being enraptured / ravished / captivated by God in the Song of Solomon type sense. But people seem to fail to remember that the main OT expression of an excellent wife is found not in Song of Solomon, but Proverbs 31. Here we find not only a captivated woman, but a very industrious, capable, hard working, faithful wife. And of course it is both types aspects, not one or the other. You hinted at the importance of this when you mentioned that God's love should not make us become lazy with holiness and service, as we just bask in God's presence and selfishly experience his "love" all day long, while the world is dying outside, and we could care less. This abuse of the love of God is all too common.
posted by David @ 9:09 AM
0 comments
From Israel 2006
Eitan Shishkoff, Tents of Mercy,
I simply love the message you carry in your heart and fiber about the love of God. There is no more important message for us to absorb into our being. Our people were advantaged by your time with us. Of course it needs to be repeated over and over. Please pray for me that I will convey His love with all my being to every member of our flocks.
Eddie Santoro, Revive
Pastor
David Lazarus, Beit Immanuel, Joffa
The Lord has given you some wonderful insights and I was personally, and continue to be, challenged and instructed by this understanding of God's love. … For me personally the teaching is tremendous. … The Lord has given you some wonderful insights and I was personally and continue to be challenged and instructed by this understanding of God’s love. I can also say that many in our fellowship were similarly touched. I am so thankful for the way people responded and took hold of this message. I believe that we will see fruits from this over the long term. It is the kind of thing that you need to come back to and revisit continually.
The Maoz prayer letter
…these principles are life-changing, and we have been greatly blessed in experiencing this very in-depth teaching which comes from a place of revelation…
posted by David @ 9:08 AM
0 comments
Course Evaluations from 2004
Amy Joy Banuchi
“The love of God class should be a requirement for FIRE. It is so needed. I’m grateful to Pastor Harwood for taking an interest in my life – he would at times ask me how I was doing – it meant a lot to me.”
Nelson Banuchi
“Again, great class, great insights; should be a FIRE class for all 1st trimester students on a regular basis. Clears up a lot of nonsense about what God’s love really is. It should be a required FIRE class!!”
Matt Davis
“Very powerful and life changing class!”
Albert Fiol
“Life-changing, revelatory necessary in season. The instructor's passion for this subject was contagious. I'm forever grateful.”
Nathan Hall
“The best class of the trimester. It was easy, yet it’s the class I learned the most in. I wish he was teaching it again! It was about impartation and experience, not stale book and teaching. WOW”
Lesley Hilton
“Hallelujah. A much-needed course. I am so glad we had this. I feel like we are really going to need this course for our lives in ministry. Knowing the love of God has been elevated in my life to the level of a commandment, or at least it’s a lot more important to me than it was. We got a deep feast of the love of God from this experience. I am so glad someone majored in this in order to give it to the Body.”
Freda King
“This class has had the greatest impact on my personal relationship and interaction with the Lord. The truth of His love (as it was taught and received) is now the foundation of my life and anything the Lord chooses for me in life will flow through this. I was searching for this truth and would have gone anywhere to receive. If for no other, you taught for me. Thank you. The class was taught with authority that experience gives. It was thorough. Handouts especially helpful. Again, something to me that had changed my life forever. Please know that your planting into our hearts has ever and will continue to be fruitful. Thank you. Also Is there a love of God part 2? (smile) Blessings.”
David Leitao
“This course caught me completely off guard! I was challenged to rethink the love of God and to meditate and be captivated by it. This an all in sum message for believers that I feel needs much more effort to grasp and walk in than we typically make effort. Please continue this course at FIRE!”
Michelle Mutanhu
“Class was awesome, messed up my theology. Personally I think it should be a required class for every FIRE student preferably in their 1st trimester.”
Kasia Mysliwiec
“Revolutionary! It’s something that I needed in order to set my foundation straight. I think this class is crucial for every believer, especially for those called to minister. Again, it’s foundational and transforming. It’s liberating because it focuses on the interior life of a believer. I also appreciated the heart of the teacher and his passion for us to get it. This class should be a requirement for every 1st year student at the school of ministry.”
“WOW! My eyes are opened – so much about my understanding of Jesus, my life, love of God has been clearly and effectively changed renewed and awakened. It was like spiritual food, this class was the best yet. The love of God revelation and “fresh bread” were presented to us weekly. (Personal ministry time, lead by the Spirit, was awesome too.)”
2 ½ months later:
"I was extremely impacted through this course. I thought the teaching was not only well grounded and insightful, but breathed on by the Spirit. The assignments that were given along with the course (agape definition, journal entries) were very helpful. I believe that this course is very foundational, and would be beneficial for many lives.
I see the fruit of this course in my life already. I feel that my relationship with the Lord has a depth and meaning that was not there prior. I am much more aware of the Love of God in my life. I believe I walk in more freedom with the restoration of my soul that is taking place, by growing in the knowledge and experience of the Love of God. I expect the fruit to continue to grow.
I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to be in the course."
Ann-Marie Vaccaro
“Quite an impartation. God, let it stick and continue to grow in me. I appreciate the times we prayed – I saw a picture of a “wedge” being driven in – and I believe God did this in my heart.”
posted by David @ 8:58 AM
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