I want to tell you a story. Many years ago, I was part of a women’s ministry, and I was meeting regularly with these women, and one of the leaders just caught my attention. She walked into every meeting that we had like she was a princess. She had her shoulders back, she had her head up, and she always looked beautiful.

It was just so obvious, so one day I asked her, “Every time you come to these meetings and every time I see you, you always carry yourself like a princess. Why is that?”

We were all very interested to know, so she told us. Her story began with a mother who was so abusive and beat her so much that she would bleed and have cuts on her body. It was horrible, and it caused so many psychological problems in her that she lost the ability to walk. When that happened, many people told her to give up because life in a wheelchair was just so difficult at that time. She didn’t, and by the grace of God, He sent a Christian woman to pray for her and heal her so that she could walk again.

At the time, she was 21 years old, and God had given her back her ability to walk and her hope to live out the rest of her life, but she didn’t give her life to Him just yet. Sometime after her healing, she fell in love with a man. She didn’t marry him, but they lived together, and they had a daughter. In the beginning, things were pretty good, but then this man started to drink. He stopped going to work, he started cussing her out every day, and she started to feel so broken-hearted. She even had a calendar that she would use to check each day when he came home drunk. This day — came home drunk. Check! This day. Check! This day, this day. Soon, she was checking all the days on her calendar.

Finally, she was so hurt that she just said, “I don’t know what to do with this man.” Around this time, somebody invited her to church, and she accepted the invitation, and she soon gave her life to Jesus. She went right back home and told this man she was living with, “I am not married to you, so I cannot sleep with you anymore,” and she moved to another room of the house. Jesus was already changing her, but she still didn’t know what she was going to do with this horrible man. How was that situation going to change?

As she kept praying, the Holy Spirit gave her a strategy. The Holy Spirit said, “Tonight, when he comes home, your weapon is love. I want you to dress in your best dress. I want you to make his favorite food. When he comes to that door, I want you to open the door and say, ‘Oh, my love, you’ve come home.’”

She did exactly what the Holy Spirit told her to do. This man came in late, as usual. He was drunk, he was ugly, and he smelled, but she presented herself like a princess, lovely and gracious and with all this delicious food ready, and that night, there was no change. He just came back drunk again the next day.

She carried out this strategy for two years, always presenting herself to him like a princess, always welcoming him with love, and after two years, he finally got saved. He married her, he adopted their daughter, he got a job, and he quit drinking.

Now, I have a question for you. Do you think any criticism, anger, or attitude of “I hate you! I’m leaving you!” would have ever changed that man? No. No, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Do you see what changed him? It was the weapon of unconditional love that had been shed abroad in her heart by the Holy Ghost.

I want to tell you today that this love is a weapon that no enemy can resist. The Bible says that love never fails. Never fails. I’m talking to you about the most powerful weapon that you and I have against the enemy and any of his assaults.

Proverbs 25:15 tells us how powerful love is. It says:

“By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.”

A gentle tongue, the Bible says, a tongue that is quiet, patient, and filled with love, not criticism. Proverbs 15:1 says that a soft answer turns away wrath. When a person comes at you with angry words and you don’t give back that same anger, criticism, and hate — that same attitude that says “I’m going to get even with you,” or “I’m going to guard my heart from you,” — then wrath will have to bow. Wrath will have to take second place to a soft answer, and where does that soft answer come from? It comes from a strong position of love.

God’s gifts just get better the more we learn about them, because this love is not just for other people to change. When we have it on the inside of us, we can’t help but change! 1 John 4:18 says:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

It says that love is so powerful that it will cast out fear, rebuke fear, and cause fear to run from us. I have studied this idea of casting out before, and when it says love “casts out” fear, it’s referencing a disciplinary action. It’s like a bad dog is trying to bite you, but you say, “No! You don’t!” You start coming against that dog, and that dog goes off in fear because it’s been disciplined. Well, perfect love disciplines and stands in complete authority over fear.

You might be looking at all these incredible things that love can do and reading my friend’s story and thinking, “I don’t know that I have that kind of love. I don’t know that I could love someone like that for two years.” If you’re thinking that, then you need to understand that it’s not true. God has given us the very love that He loved Jesus with. John 3:16 says:

“For God so loved the world, this love that He gave His only begotten Son”

That is love, this unstoppable, undefeatable love that came out of God so that He had to send Jesus to save, heal, and deliver us. That love is in each and every one of us, not as a junior-size love but in the exact same measure!

This love is more than just a weapon, though. Ephesians 3:17 says that we are rooted and grounded in love. Think about the root system of trees for a moment. Do you know that there are 10 trees in the world that have the deepest root system, and these trees are very difficult for even cyclones and storms to blow over. Why? Because they’re rooted. They’re grounded. That’s what I’m talking to you about.

When we are like those trees, rooted in love, it doesn’t matter what storms the enemy may throw at us. It doesn’t matter what difficult people might try to push us over. By God’s power and by the Holy Ghost, we can give mercy. We can give them what they don’t deserve. Does God give us what we deserve? No, He doesn’t. He gives us mercy. In fact, the Bible says His mercies are new every morning. I’m telling you, friend, it’s time for us to use this love of God that’s in us and meditate on it, to think about it, read about it, and study it. Let’s get rooted and grounded in this love!

What a powerful weapon this is that can defeat every enemy and never break or waver, that can keep us steady even in the storm! We can win the battle, not by getting angry and bitter at other people but by loving them unconditionally. That’s so opposite from the world, but remember that love never fails. Friend, no foe can stand up against the power of love. You have a weapon that will defeat the enemy. It will defeat fear. It will defeat hate. It will defeat betrayal. It will defeat denial. It will defeat someone falsely accusing you. Do you know why this love is so powerful? How can any weapon be so powerful and perfect? Well, I’m going to tell you because it’s really simple.

God is love.