Sometimes it takes time and spiritual growth to learn how to put God’s love to work for you. We don’t grow up spiritually overnight.

You can’t put an adult head on a baby’s body, and sometimes it takes time to mature in love.

My brother Dub was a good example of that. It took him time to mature in love because of his upbringing. Dub was always big for his age. By the time he was six¬teen, he was 6 foot 4 inches tall.

But Dub grew up with a chip on his shoulder because he’d been orphaned and kicked from pillar to post. He wouldn’t take anything from anyone.

In fact, when he was a seventeen-year-old boy, I saw him whip four grown men.

But then Dub got saved. And, really, if you’d known where he’d come from, you would have known that something miraculous happened to him to change his nature.

But even though there was a dramatic change on the inside, sometimes he still had a hard time keeping his flesh under. He had to learn to mature in love, and really, he came a long way from his younger days.

But one time, for example, Dub was out in California, and he went into a little coffee shop. He was sitting at the counter, and he ordered something to eat.

When the waitress brought it to him, he bowed his head to pray before he ate. After he prayed, the fellow sitting next to Dub asked him where he was from. Dub said that he was from Oklahoma.

Then the man asked, “Do you know Oral Roberts?”
Dub said, “Well, I don’t know him personally, but I’ve shaken his hand.”

Well,” the fellow replied, “He’s a so-and-so,” and he called him a name.

Then the fellow asked, “Do you know Kenneth Copeland?”

“Yes,” Dub said. “I know him personally.”

“Well,” the fellow replied, “he’s another so-and-so.”

Then the fellow said, “Do you know Kenneth Hagin?”
Dub replied, “Yes, I do.”

The fellow said, “He’s another so-and-so.”

When the fellow said that, Dub knocked him off the counter stool. Then he picked him up and carried him outside.

The owner of the restaurant called the police, and when they got there, Dub was holding the fellow up against the building praying for him.

The police officer said, “What’s the matter?”

Dub said, “This man said my brother was a so-and-so. By saying that, he was calling my mother a dirty name too. No one talks that way about my family!”

The policeman said to the fellow, “Did you do that?”

The man said, “Yes.”

The policeman said, “Why, you ought to have better sense!” Then he asked Dub, “Who is your brother?”
Dub said, “Kenneth Hagin.” The police officer said, “Oh! I’ve read his books and listened to his tapes.”

Then he turned to the other fel¬low and said, “What’s the matter with you!”

The fellow said, “Well, I guess maybe I did do wrong.”

My brother Dub told the fellow, “If you want help, here’s my card. Come and see me.”

The man came to see Dub the next day and got saved!

Now I don’t advocate getting people saved that way, but I just told you that to show you that sometimes it can take time to learn to keep the flesh under and to mature in love.

But Dub came a long way from his younger years. It took him a while, but he grew in love. The Lord had worked Dub over on the inside and made him a new creature, but then Dub had to learn what to do with the outward natural man.

It took him some time to learn to put on Christ on the outward man (Rom. 13:14) and to mature in the God-kind of love.

But it’s no use laughing at Dub, because the Lord is still teaching some of us how to bring the outward man subject too!

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Kenneth E. Hagin