As I lay there in the nighttime, with the lights off … I saw how wrong I had been. I had been expecting Jesus to use me, as a Pentecostal, to shake the churches. I thought I would pound home the truth, tell them just where they were wrong, shake them in righteous indignation. But the Lord sais, no, that's not the way. "The revival will occur if you forgive. If you fight - nothing."
During that time the Lord sent me again and again into chapter 13 of the First Letter to the Corinthians, the most powerful words ever written about love. I read, and I prayed, and I thought. "Can this really be?"
Love is so important that it is beyond our understanding as ordinary human beings. It is more important than talking in tongues to God. More important than talking directly to God. It is more important than prophesying, than receiving a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom directly from God. It is more important than healing the sick, than moving mountains. "Can this really be?"
It is more important than selling all you have to feed the poor. It is more important than giving your life in the cause of social justice. It is more important than your devotional life, than your preaching ministry. All is meaningless without love. "Can this really be?"
In that room of green walls, white ceiling, bedsores, bedpans, and endless hours, the Lord spoke: "You must love those people you minister to. Don't ever minister to anyone unless you love him."
Source: David du Plessis - From "A Man Called Mr. Pentecost", as told to Bob Slosser, Ch. 18, p. 159