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For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”– John 3:16-17

In December of 1999, my life was forever changed when I had a profound encounter with the Father, an experience I call a baptism of love. I went from living as an orphan striving for love to living as a beloved son, secure in love.

I remember being deeply impacted by Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But after my encounter with love, I began to see things differently. It’s not just sinners in the hands of an angry God, but it’s sinners in the hands of a loving Father, perfectly revealed through Jesus Christ.

At the Cross, we discover something powerful: the God revealed in Jesus would rather die in the name of love than kill in the name of freedom. We humans may kill for freedom, but in the name of love, we suffer and we forgive. God’s answer to the brokenness of the world is self-giving, sacrificial love. God saves the world through His self-sacrificing love.

Some may ask, “But what about God’s wrath? What about His rage?” The wrath that burned in the heart of the Father was not directed at His Son, rather, it was aimed at sin itself. My encounter with Papa God’s love and the Spirit of Adoption transformed my theology of the Cross.

There are many metaphors used to understand the mystery of the atonement, or the “at-one-ment” between God and humanity. Here are a few:

1. Sacrificial: Rooted in the Jewish temple system, where Jesus becomes the Lamb sacrificed for our sins. Because of His sacrifice at Calvary, we receive forgiveness, mercy, and oneness with the Father.

2. Commercial: Drawn from the first-century slave market, where Jesus becomes the ransom for many. He buys us out of slavery to sin and into the glorious freedom of being God’s children.

3. Military: In this picture of the battlefield, Christ becomes our victor. Through His righteous life and death, He defeats the enemy and breaks the power of accusation forever.

4. Legal: Based in the courtroom. Christ takes our guilty verdict upon Himself so we can be declared “not guilty.” We receive and enjoy unmerited pardon by grace through faith.

5. Political: The Cross reconciles not only us to God, but us to one another. Through His blood, Jesus tears down every dividing wall. Between Jew and Gentile, between nations and peoples.

6. Adoption: This view changed my life. The Cross is a beautiful picture of adoptive love, intimate and relational. We are welcomed into the family of the Trinity as sons and daughters. (I want to thank Dr. Mark Stibbe for giving me language to express this revelation.)

The Cross reveals a Christ-like God, a loving Father who wants His family back. It is the perfection of consent: Christ rules by love, not coercion. He only said what the Father told Him to say, and only did what He saw the Father doing.

As Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does” (John 5:19-20).

There is complete agreement and mutual love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus also said, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:22-23). And the Holy Spirit? “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears” (John 16:13).

In six hours, one Friday, you will find a truth greater than all your pain, all your loss, and all your sorrow. The Cross reveals that the reign of God is not through domination, but through kenotic (self-emptying) love.

Christ rules over sin, sickness, addiction, depression, fear, anxiety, and shame, not with a sword, but with the cruciform power of love. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).

So come to the Cross. Receive everything Jesus paid for.

Blessed Easter,
Dr. Leif Hetland

What is the most breathtaking sight you’ve ever seen? Maybe you love the mountains—how they reach into the clouds and tower over beautiful river valleys below. Maybe you’re a beach person—you can’t resist a colorful sunset over a peaceful sea. Perhaps you’re captivated by the mystery of life—seeing a newborn baby gaze into its mother’s and father’s eyes.

Whatever that picture is for you, there is love behind it. Creation is a reflection of God’s glory and an expression of His love. The beautiful sights, the captivating sounds, the sweet tastes and smells, the tender touches—all of these wonderful things come from the heart of the Father as gifts to His beloved sons and daughters, made in His image.

But God did more than paint beautiful scenes. He created a setting for something deeper. He created human beings to look like Him, to live like Him, and to love like Him. He blessed them and told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and take dominion over it. (See Genesis 1:26–28.) In this landscape of love, the relationships of the first family were meant to reflect divine values. Their hearts were meant to align with each other’s hearts. There would be no insecurity, animosity, competition, or emotional wounds.

We know this is not how it turned out, of course. But for a moment, just imagine if it had. What if our world truly reflected the love and glory of God? What if everyone loved one another as perfectly as Jesus has loved us? If there was no jealousy, no rivalry—only support, selflessness, and the pursuit of God’s purposes? But we mistrusted His love. We have all opted for self over selflessness. We have eaten from the wrong trees. And now, we live in a world where pain, division, and brokenness are everyday realities.

Yet Jesus came to show us a different way. He lived the life we were meant to live—one of perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect trust in the Father. He walked among the broken and brought healing. He saw the outcast and called them family. He did not seek His own glory, but humbled Himself to serve.

Living like Jesus means returning to the love we were created for. It means choosing selflessness over self-promotion, trust over fear, and grace over judgment. It means seeing the world through the eyes of the Father, loving as He loves, and giving as He gives. To live like Jesus, we must see ourselves through the Father’s eyes. This requires revelation. The world has told us who we are, our mistakes have defined us, and our failures have weighed us down. But God’s thoughts of us existed long before any of those things. He saw us before time began and called us good. Even with His full knowledge of every regret, mistake, and flaw, He still saw a true you, a perfect design, a redeemed purpose. Your journey did not begin when you were born or even when you were conceived. Your story started in the heart of the Father before time itself. Yes, sin and brokenness have taken our journeys in painful directions, but they do not define us. They are intrusions, not identity. If we truly want to know who we are, we must look back at the love before time.

Go back for a minute to those breathtaking scenes—the mountains, the sea, the beauty of creation. All of that love and divine creativity is also reflected in you. When God spoke over creation and said it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), He was thinking of you. You were designed to fit into the glory of the garden, to live in communion with Him. Sin distorted this, but it did not erase God’s original intent.

This is why we need restoration. The Gospel is not only about the forgiveness of sins; it is about being restored to the image of God. It is about returning to who we were always meant to be. The love that formed us before time is also the love that will hold us to the end. From start to finish, God’s love is calling us back into our true selves—His beloved sons and daughters.
When the first human beings opted out of love—just as the deceiver had done before them—God did not stop loving them. He removed them from the garden, not out of anger, but out of love. If they had eaten from the tree of life while still under sin’s curse, they would have been trapped in an eternal state of brokenness. Instead, God set in motion a greater plan: a new tree of life.

That tree was the cross.

Jesus, in His perfect love, became the way back to the Father. He took on our rebellion, our wounds, and our sorrows. He showed us what it means to truly live—not for ourselves, but for others, for the Kingdom, for the glory of God.
Living like Jesus means embracing this reality. It means surrendering our need for control and allowing God’s love to transform us. It means trusting that we were created for something greater than selfish ambition, insecurity, or fear. We were made to reflect the heart of God. So who are you? Who were you before the weight of the world told you otherwise?
The answer is found in Jesus. To live like Him is to live as you were always meant to. In love. In truth. In the fullness of the Father’s heart.

This blog is an excerpt from Leif Hetland’s latest book, The Love Awakening. Grab your copy today! 

About 18 years ago, I was sitting in a green room with Bill Johnson at the Rock Church in Castle Rock, Colorado. My life felt like a whirlwind—I was trying to juggle God, family, ministry, mission, and wisdom, all at once. In the midst of it, I turned to Bill and asked, How do you do it? How do you put God first, then family, then church, all while traveling so much?

Bill looked at me and said, Leif, I don’t see it that way. Everything I do is unto the Lord. He went on to explain that whether he was sitting in the presence of Jesus or simply going to a movie with his son, both were deeply spiritual acts. His perspective was clear—every moment, every action was done as worship to God.

That day, something shifted in me. I reorganized my life and decided to be fully present, wherever I was, in the presence of God.

Stopping for the one, being fully present wherever I am—that’s what I’m learning. Just recently, I was on a Zoom call, and I reminded myself to be fully there, seeing each person as the most important one in that moment.

I’ve come to realize that hurry is one of the greatest enemies of love. When we’re always rushing to the next thing, caught up in dreams and visions of what’s ahead, we risk missing the miracle moments—the simple awareness of His nearness and the power of bringing His presence by being present.

We live in a culture filled with distractions—phones ringing, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. Before we know it, we’re pulled in so many directions, losing sight of what truly matters: being present.

For the past seven months, I’ve been on a journey of going lower and slower, cultivating a deeper awareness of Jesus with me. Whether in the grocery store, in the car, or at the airport, I’m learning to carry His presence into every moment, wherever I’m meant to be.

Many people have never heard of a baptism of love. Christians have talked a lot about a baptism of repentance and baptism in water. Over the last century, the idea of a baptism in the Spirit has reemerged and become increasingly recognized.

But a baptism of love? Where is that in Scripture?

It is there. The seed of a woman, the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us, the perfect image of God who grew up as a Son, experienced a baptism of love.

I think one reason many people have not recognized this baptism is that it is part of the story of Jesus’s baptism where water and the Spirit are easier to see. So let’s go back to that story of how the seed of love was revealed together with His whole heavenly family one day.

At the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River. This is a familiar story, and right away we recognize the baptism in water. It is plain to see because that was what John had been doing—baptizing people in the waters of the Jordan River.

It is just as easy to recognize the baptism in the Spirit there, even if not everyone describes it that way. The Spirit appeared right after Jesus came out of the water when the dove came down and rested on Him, and He comes in on different occasions in Acts in the experience of many people who received Him.

As far as most people think about it, the baptism of Jesus has just those two elements—the water and the Spirit. Many Christians even debate whether a simultaneous baptism of water and the Spirit, as Jesus experienced, is normal for everyone who comes to faith in Him. How these things happen in sequence can be a little controversial, but a water baptism and a Spirit baptism are both biblical (Mt. 3:11; Acts 1:5, 11:16). Not many people would disagree with that.

But another aspect of baptism comes right after Jesus came out of the water and the Spirit descended upon Him. We see the water and the dove as part of the baptism, but many people consider the Father’s words to be a commentary on what was happening—something spoken about the event rather than as a third aspect of the event itself.

When the Father spoke over Jesus, He was not just commenting on what happened. He was continuing the baptism experience. He was immersing the Son in the Father’s love.

This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17).

This is an identity statement. It is the ultimate assurance that the Son would never need to build a tower for His own purposes and try to make a name for Himself.

Look at all that this statement includes:

• My—belonging to the Father
• Beloved—fully accepted, affirmed, loved
• Son—a member of the divine family, where love flourished before time began

These were the words I heard from the Father as I lay on the floor being washed in waves and waves of his love. I had already been baptized in water many years before. A few years after that, I had a dramatic baptism in the Spirit and had ministered in His power, seeing people saved, healed, and delivered in many places around the world. These were both part of my experience. But my baptism in love did something different.

Something deep inside me changed when love moved in. I knew my Papa delighted in me. I knew I was His happy thought. I felt His pleasure. I could look into His face and see Him smile. I could call out to Him, “Papa!”

I began seeing myself the way this loving Father saw me. I began seeing other people the way the Father saw them.

Papa God’s perfect love took away all my fear. I was no longer afraid of rejection and no longer felt insecure. I did not feel as if I needed to strive for approval or affirmation anymore. I did not have a need to make a name for myself.

I come from a very stoic people. Norwegians typically do not go around hugging people. But I started to hug people everywhere—all over the world.

I had received love. I wanted to become love. And I wanted to release love any way I could.

This was not the end of my journey of love, of course. In many ways, this was just the beginning. Everything began to change. My wife and family noticed the change. They asked me what happened to me. My wife told me that even though I had been baptized in the Spirit and seen signs and wonders, this was very different. “This has changed you more than anything I have ever seen in your life, ” she told me. I think she was very happy about it. The Father’s love completely transformed me.

This blog is an excerpt from Leif Hetland’s latest book, The Love Awakening. Grab your copy today!