Copyright © 2015 Leif Hetland

All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781942306375

ISBN-13:

DEDICATION

To my baby girl, Katherine Nichole, who is God’s amazing love–gift to her family and to the world. May you forever live a life of transforming love!

CONTENTS

Endorsements

“Only four days after I turned 18 the attacks of 9-11 occurred and I figured it was my time to go and defend my country. After enlisting in the Marine Corps and graduating from the school of infantry I found myself fighting in western Iraq in the city of Ramadi. While on a combat patrol my squad was hit with an IED that detonated 3 feet away from me. The blast crushed the right side of my fore head, sent shrapnel through my right eye into my brain, and left me totally blind in my left eye. I awoke out of a coma one month later in a naval hospital with no idea as to what happened or where I was. All I knew was that I could no longer see and life as I knew it no longer existed. I later learned that I was expected to die and whenever I was transported a body bag was kept with me. Due to the traumatic brain injury I wasn’t expected to walk, talk, or function as a normal person.

However, God proved those assumptions to be wrong even though I never deserved it. At that time I had turned away from God much like the prodigal son but even my disobedience couldn’t stop God from loving me enough to save me. He did too many miracles to go into detail, but through my ordeal the Father held me, comforted me, and always made what seem to be an impossibility work out.

Fast forward a few years and I was at one of Leif’s conferences and the love of God showed up and rocked me yet again. He showed me my identity as a beloved son with whom He is well pleased. Out of that identity I truly realized how much He loved me and not only me but also the Muslims who had tried to kill me. You can only give away that which you have received. In this case it was the love of the Father. This book will take you on a similar journey to find and experience the love of a Father that never fails. It will challenge you and cause you to look at God not through the lens of religion but through the lens of relationship and love. If we are to advance the Kingdom we need to start seeing the darkest places on earth not as things to be feared but rather places that need a touch from a Loving Father. So keep your heart and mind open and be ready to be Transformed By Love.”

Jason & Kelsi Murray

Iraq Wounded Vet

Castle Rock, CO

“I have been privileged to be a son in the faith to Leif for 7 years now. He has lived and become this message found within the pages of this book. Very rarely will you read a book with such insight, historicity, and biblical revelation like Transformed By Love. As a diligent student, Leif has studied the lives of people who have encountered such great Love. What he has discovered will change your life forever! I highly recommend the man and this message. Get ready to receive a fresh revelation of what Love can do!”

Tariq Shah

Augusta, NY

“It is God’s ultimate plan to love and show love to all people through people. God’s makes each of us the star in his story to bring about love to everyone.”

Angie Lee

Duluth, GA

“The revelation of how important our individual lives really are to Him is life changing. Leif explains this in a revelatory manner. It is the greatest love story there ever was and after reading this book, you will come to realize that you are part of that story.”

Marty Broom

Horseshoe Bend, ID

“Leif Hetland is known as the ambassador of love for good reason. He walks in a deep revelation of the God kind of love-that God is love and to truly be like him we must become love. Leif shares how Love is an unstoppable force backed by the authority of Heaven that begins with an encounter and causes us to see and affect the world the way the Lord intended. This is a must-read for all who truly want to be transformed into love!”

KC Craichy

CEO - Living Fuel, Author - The Super Health Diet.

Orlando, FL

“This book is so impactful to the person that is struggling with self image and that needs a healing in both the spiritual and natural part of the soul. I feel like this book will set many free to experience the love of the father.”

Joanne Baker

Houston, DE

“Leif is a global prophetic voice who walks in signs, wonders and miracles but greater than that he is a true son of God. I have been honored to have Leif as a voice of a father, mentor and friend in my life. He overflows with the transforming love of God that only comes from allowing the Father to transform the deep places inside him. This book is more than just a great read, it is a blueprint for world transformation.”

Scott Thompson

Jesus Culture Team

Founder of Transcendent Life Ministries

Tyrone, GA

“Leif Hetland’s book, Transformed By Love, is an adventure into an encounter of God’s unconditional empowering love. God wants us to have an encounter, so that we become an encounter, so that others can have an encounter - this is God’s strategy for world transformation. This book will equip, empower, and activate you into an encounter of God’s love that will transform you, so that you can transform the world around you.”

Kevin Dedmon

Author of “The Ultimate Treasure Hunt: Supernatural Encounter for Supernatural Evangelism”

Redding, CA

“In certain regions of the world - places more known for violence, places more known for hatred of freedom, places in political upheaval, places ripe with misdirected theocracy, Leif Hetland is known as “The Ambassador of Love.” One does not receive such recognition in dark environments unless one lives and loves with abandonment. Leif’s latest book, Transformed By Love, inspires as we see what’s possible when a person is truly transformed by love. It challenges as it calls us to love others, regardless of any situation, thus others are transformed by love. Read slowly. Digest what God speaks to you. Courageously obey Him. When you are done, you will be more like Jesus.”

Lance Bane

Pastor Gateway Christian Fellowship

West Haven, CT

“Transformed by Love is a book that touches the heart, expends our vision and gives a deep revelation about Father’s love and the whole purpose of Christianity.”

Mathilde Oord

Sandnes, Norway

“We talk about love, but have barely scratched the surface of what it really means. Leif goes a level deeper, beyond mere sentiment or theory, to a reality that can be life changing if we allow it to be.”

Ann Jennerjahn

Rockville Centre, NY

“The ultimate motivation for Leif is love, love for God and for others but love is not just a feeling or an emotion it looks like Jesus. He said in John 15:13 greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. As I stop & ponder that statement it is a very sobering thought. Leif sees the Lord’s hand in his life in such a way that all of his life’s experiences of love, joy, sorrows, hardships & training have resulted in advancing the Gospel to the lost. Christ’s love knows no boundaries.”

Larry Ihle

CEO of Dexterity Dental Arts Inc.

Lakeville, MN

“As a pastor and leader I get to here a lot of messages spoken, many of them great. A lot more seldom I get to meet people who are a message. People who trough their own journey of revelation, faith, pain and process has seen the message they carry become their life. Leif Hetland is one of those rare people. As I over the last few years have had the privilege to both travel with Leif and have him visit us, I’ve seen how he carries the message of Love wherever he go, whoever is watching. He doesn’t need a stage to share, it leaks out anywhere. He has become a good friend and great inspiration, and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather read a book from on the subject of transforming love. Highly recommended!”

Egil Elling

Pastor IMI Kirken Church

Stavanger, Norway

“As a former Muslim, I remember the first encounter I had with Father God that transformed my life. In 2005 at a Leif Hetland conference, Jesus showed up and made it clear that he loves me. Leif was talking about the Fathers love, and how the Father transforms your heart and mind. In this book, he takes what Jesus says and makes it real by sharing stories from the Bible of real men and women that have encountered God. Leif breaks the stories down in a tangible way that anyone can relate to. I encourage you to do the exercises at the end of each chapter, and this book will transform you. I pray that you will encounter the Fathers love, mercy, and grace.”

Tesir Alhussaini

Ankeny, IA

“Honest, moving, intensely personal, and potentially life changing. These are just a few of the words and phrases that come to mind in recommending this book. Leif has personally encountered God’s love in such a way that it compels him to go to some of the darkest places on earth and let his light shine. If you read this book with an open heart it will bring you to your knees as it did me, and will open you up to another dimension of the love that truly transforms!”

Andrew Leakey B.A. (Theology)

Team Leader and Director of In:courage UK

Poole, England

“Leif Hetland stands among the most authentic, transparent, lovers of God (and people!) whom I’ve ever heard. His life is a living testimony of God’s Transforming Love, and this book was born out of the revelation God has given him.”

Lennie Changeux

Parker, CO

“When I have met Leif Hetland, God’s love pours out of him with every hug and smile. Leif gives simple and practical ways for this love to be released in ones life.”

Dr. David Zaritzky

Elder & Leader of the Healing Ministry of Grace Church

High Point, N.C.

“It would be difficult to overstate the impact that Leif and his message of God’s transforming love have made upon our church and upon my family. I can’t imagine anyone more qualified to write about the transforming power of God’s love than Leif. This book reflects his heart to bring others into the same intense experience of God’s love that so transformed his own life. Thank you Leif for putting your heart into print so that many more will be transformed by His love.”

Chuck Hagy

Pastor of Journey

Howard, OH

“Books that reflect their author’s authentic message carry the power to impart life. Transformed By Love is just that. It’s a joy to watch my friend, Leif Hetland, become the message – a man changing the world with the power of love.”

Steve Hale

Senior Leader at Bethel Atlanta

Atlanta, GA

“Transformed By Love is not just a book written by Leif Hetland, but an overflow of a life that has been changed by love. As my “Papa Leif”, he has taught me more about love than I can adequately communicate, but thankfully he’s captured it in this book. If you want to be changed by the love of God and change the world, this is the book for you.”

Phillip and Marsha Clemons

Pastors at The Ark Ministries

Florence, AL

Forward

In the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” two touching scenes brought me to tears. The first was when Private Ryan, finally found, knelt before the man who was dying in front him. He had led the team that had gone through many near-death struggles to find Ryan, protect him and get him home to his mom, who had lost all her other sons in battle. The last words of the dying hero were in answer to the question that had to do with how the young private could ever live up to the honor he had been paid by his dying benefactors. Two brief words comprised the answer, “Earn it.”

The next touching scene takes us to a cemetery years after the war is over and Private Ryan, now an old man, approaching the grave of his benefactor, almost falling on the grave but righting himself, turned to his family and asked, “Have I been a good man?” In other words, “Have I loved well enough to be worth dying for?”

This book had to be written and Leif Hetland was the one to write it. Many can speak of love with great emotion and describe, in passionate tones, its power and worth. To be honest I get more out of a few seconds of a clear-cut demonstration of love than from a whole series of sermons on the subject. Leif was the one to write this volume on this grand theme, not because of his studies on love or because he can stir the emotions of his hearers (which he can) but because he speaks and lives and loves with intentionality and relentlessness. And his life speaks more loudly than his voice. He has learned to love unconditionally and stubbornly refuses to allow anything or anybody to steal his love.

Leif is a long-standing son who models to me and all who watch him the power of pure and relentless love. He loves everyone but seems to wind up loving most the last, the lowest, the least and the lost. He has made the choice and will not turn back. This same message you read here will appear in months to come with more love sightings, more miracles of changed lives and a clearer path for us to walk in step together to prove that “Love never fails, always wins we can do it too!”

Thanks, Leif for practicing what you preach! It looks good on you.

Jack Taylor

Dimensions Ministries

Melbourne, Florida

Introduction

I have long considered myself a student of the love of God. I have traveled all across the world, seen many kinds of peoples, and many kinds of cultures. The one constant, the one thing that crosses all barriers, translates in all languages, and overcomes all resistance, is the love of God.

His love covers a multitude of sin. His love is patient. His love is kind. His love is the final authority over all mankind. His love is the completion of our salvation. His love is the reason. His love is our hope. His love is always pointed at us.

I share this book as a declaration of love. It is a testament of how passionate His love is for His people, how hungry He is to release His love, and how far His love is willing to go. I hope that, in reading this book, you find yourself in a deeper place of connection with His love, inspired to share His love with others, and ready to embrace His love as it begins to cover every part of the earth.

I have included personal application activities at the end of each chapter. These are not arbitrary exercises, but tools to begin stretching your capacity to experience the love of God. It is my sincere hope that you take these lessons of love out of the book and into your life. I believe that we are in a season of unprecedented potential harvest. All we need are the eyes to see what God has laid out before us. I have designed every personal application to train your body and soul to recognize the love of God in your life and in the lives of others.

Finally, I hope that you will not read this book alone. Your heavenly Father is with you and always has been. He is ready to speak His words of love directly to your heart, more clearly and profoundly than the hand of any writer could. Be listening to Him. He is ready to begin transforming your life with His love, so that you can partner with Him and transform the world.

PART ONE

LOVE TRANSFORMS US

“If we want God’s love to transform the world, then we must first let it transform us.”

CHAPTER ONE

THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE