Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of experiencing the love of God as a transformative power in our lives, urging believers to pray for a deeper intimacy with God through the apostolic prayer found in Ephesians 3:14-19. He outlines a threefold love: receiving love from God, reciprocating that love back to Him, and allowing that love to overflow to others. Bickle encourages believers to pursue a vibrant spiritual life, warning against a sterile, emotionless Christianity that prioritizes mandates over heart encounters with God. He stresses that true fulfillment and strength come from being rooted and grounded in God's love, leading to a life filled with the fullness of God. Ultimately, he calls for a tenacious pursuit of God's presence to experience the joy and pleasure of His love.

Father we come to you and we ask you in the name of Jesus to release the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the Word of God. Lord, we want to live in the center of your heart. We want to be in the center of your being and we thank you for this in the name of Jesus. Amen. 3 Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 to 19. This is one of the great prayers in the Word of God, and we pray it all the time here at IHOP. Ephesians 3 and Ephesians 1 are probably the two most prayed prayers in this place, but it's Ephesians 3 as are all the apostolic prayers or the prayers of the Apostles. That's what I mean by an apostolic prayer. One of the prayers in the Bible written by one of the Apostles. It is brilliant theology. It is a brilliant encouragement and hope and so I'm sharing this prayer, but more as a theological statement of passion for Jesus and intimacy with God. It just so happens to be one of the most dynamic intercessory prayers in the Bible. So what I'm encouraging you to do is to learn a little bit of the theology of it as it encourages you in your personal life to grow in intimacy with God and then turn it into prayer for your own heart. Ephesians 3 isn't just something you pray at a prayer meeting for revival in the city or for a nation. It's a prayer you pray for your own heart. I've prayed Ephesians 3 for me privately many more times than I've prayed it publicly for revival for the city. And so I want to encourage you to make this a personal a personal prayer. I call it the anointing to love. God wants to release an anointing in the realm of the love of God. An anointing to feel the love of God. There's a threefold love presented in the scripture. A threefold love and the and the sequence is important. The sequence is important. First, we feel love from God and I want to underline the word feel. We don't go by feelings, but feelings empower us and change us. One of the great glorious dimensions of being human is we're created with the emotions, the capacity for love. Angels, nowhere in the bible does it describe angels as having the capacity for love. They are described as having emotions. They have joy. Animals have emotions. They have anger and maybe the little puppy gets all, you know, whatever. I don't know what you'd call that but uh Animals have emotions. Angels have motions, but there's no uh, uh, uh, there's uh, no expression like the human capacity for love. They They they they don't have the same measure God put in the human soul. But it takes an anointing. It takes the supernatural work of the spirit for this capacity to be experienced at its fullness in this age as well as in the age to come. Because obviously in the age to come our emotional capacities have a are much larger. And so when we talk about fullness of our emotional capacities as humans uh in the billions and billions and billions of years that capacity is so dynamic and so wonderful. Our capacity for love in this age has a certain has a much uh, uh smaller measure, but there is a fullness of that that we're after. We want to reach, we want to experience all that God will give the human heart in this age. But all that God gives us in this age is not the fullness of all that he'll give us in our experience as humans because most of our time as humans we spend in the age to come. And and uh, this prayer actually affects uh, I mean, I mean it points to the endless ocean of God's being that is impossible to exhaust even in the age to come and that's why i'm mentioning the two ages. But it takes the activity of the spirit for the emotional capacity that we God gave us to reach its fullness in this age. It takes God's power for that to happen. But anyway, the scripture uh sets forth a threefold anointing. I mean a threefold love which takes the anointing to activate it and to sustain it and to bring it to its full measure. First, it's to feel love from God, to feel it. Number two, to feel love back to God, to reciprocate it. Which is very different. It's a different reality. I mean, it's a different expression of the grace of God to give it back than it is to receive it. It's a different feeling. It's a different touch. It's a different uh, it touches us in a different way. To be loved is one thing. To love passionately is another thing. But the Lord wants us to receive it. Then he wants us to express it back to or return it back to him. And then the third capacity of love is an overflow to humans, to others. Whether they're believers or unbelievers. It's the overflow of love to other people. And I'm not talking about the nobility of love, how it's noble and God rewards it and how it's right. Those are all very uh, important subjects. But I want to talk about the pleasure of love. Not just the rightness of it, the nobility of it, the righteousness of loving. We put a lot of energy on the fact that we are supposed to love. I'm talking about now about the pleasure and exhilaration in the human spirit when any of those three dimensions are released in our experience. It is exhilarating to love. Of course, you know that. I love being loved. It's a great deal. When God, when I feel God's love, I love it. And so do you. And the Lord's cry to us is, I want you to experience it, to feel it, for it to to touch you, to exhilarate you, how I feel about you. I have a, I have a volcanic explosion of desire in my being for you. And I want you to experience it and to feel it and to know how I feel when I look at you. And it takes God to feel God's love. It takes God to love God. What I mean by that, it takes the anointing of the spirit. And what Paul is praying in this prayer is that the saints at Ephesus, because he's praying, he's praying for believers here, that they would experience love. The power of God, the surges of God on their spirit that bring them into a a conscious experience that they're loved. And it takes the power of God for that to happen. Sometimes we think of the power of God as just, you know, it heals the sick. It's something that touches bodies or circumstances or a miracle happens. The greatest, some of the greatest dimensions of God's power are experienced inside the human heart. And what Paul, we're going to read this in a minute, is going to describe is that it takes a dynamic, a dynamo experience in God to feel love. People say it all the time. I don't feel God's love. It's because it takes God's power to feel it. It's an encounter. It's a surge of power. That's probably not the best way to say it, but it's an expression of the power of God for you to feel loved. And when you feel loved, even a little bit, that is the power of God working inside of you. That's not your soulish. It's not your, your, your natural, uh, sentiment. It's not a demon. It is the operation of supernatural power when you feel God likes you. That is supernatural for that to happen. The other, uh, I mean the world religions, the large world religions, they do not have a dimension where the people feel loved supernaturally by God. It is a supernatural dimension. It's one of the great, it's one of the great expressions of the new covenant, God living in us. Uh, the, the, uh, new covenant, the essence of the new covenant and the core of it, I mean, the core of the new covenant is God lives in us, letting us feel what he feels. And when you're worshiping God and you, and you feel God's love for you, beloved, I'm telling you that is an operation of the power of God. That is a supernatural work in you. And that some believers just take that for granted. They go, well, you know, I just want it more. What they're saying is I want to live supernaturally more, more consistently. But it's one thing to, uh, feel love. It's another thing, I mean, to feel loved. It's another thing to feel love in a reciprocal way. It's not enough to be loved. If you were only loved, you would be blessed, but you would not be fully blessed. You were created to be passionate. You were created to give yourself back and you will never come to the full pleasure of your experience as a human, except you have the power to give yourself back. And when you feel those tenderizing emotions, I love you, God, the Lord smiles because he feels it. You feel it and he feels it and then it's inevitable that it overflows to other people. I've had, uh, folks talk about this. Uh, it's purely hypothetical. It's not real at all. They've talked about uh, love for God And then, uh, they say yeah, but what about love for people if you love if God loves you and you feel it and you love God you cannot You cannot help but overflow towards other people Because the reality is a tenderized spirit by the holy spirit When when you feel God's love your spirit's being tenderized That callousness and defilement of sin and that rusty crusty thing on our spirits That is due to darkness That is is being uh, there's a breakthrough of that and we feel God loves us and a little bit later We feel love back and it's a moment later We feel love for others and I don't mean a moment is in a minute But just a little bit of time because the tenderized spirit is the supernatural work of God And so when somebody says, you know, so-and-so loves God, but they don't love people I go No, they don't they don't love God if they've touched the river of that tenderness. They love on all three dimensions. They They don't even have to try it's there They feel it from him. They feel it to him and they look at other people and they have tender feelings towards others They absolutely do because the river knows no distinction that river of tenderness when it touches your spirit and so, uh, uh Don't let somebody give you uh, some kind of false, uh, hypothetical Uh, uh because it's totally non-biblical idea that if you pray a lot you love God But what about people as though you can separate that river? Nor let don't let anybody talk about somebody Uh who uh, well, they're just so loving but they don't really know God, but they're so loving they they might have goodwill They might have certain sentiments, but love is a supernatural operation of God I must say they don't they're not doing good things for people but love in its pure definition only flows Through that tenderizing of our spirit by the holy spirit There there are not people operating in love as the bible calls it that are not that are not first recipients of that love from God through Jesus Christ The scripture says 1st john 419. We love because he first loved us because we first experienced it from him Okay, so paul's uh prayer here he's praying for the saints at ephesus he's praying for christians Now why is paul praying for christians because he knows if he prays More is going to happen If we pray for the church of kansas city or the church in israel or the church And uh baghdad. It doesn't matter what city we if we pray they will experience love in a supernatural dimension more Paul is praying it because he knows for a fact more Supernatural activity will touch the spirit of the ephesian believers And so he's praying it and the reason i'm sharing it is that the lord is inviting us into this river of love And yet so many believers are so content to live with a sterile dull shut down inner man They are so content many believers are content To live just in carnal dark desires without a vibrant tenderized spirit and it is your inheritance It is your destiny in this age the age to come to have a vibrant tenderized spirit that feels love And to receive it and feels love in terms of giving it and that is where the greatest pleasure the greatest pleasure I i've used this, uh, uh, uh, Not argument, but this logic On many occasions when i've talked to people about why I want to walk with god hard and I I want to walk with god real hard and and I like to It throws them off a little bit and I do it a little bit because it's fun to do that But at the same time, but it's really true though I go the reason I want to fast and pray i've said this a number of times over the years I go the reason I I really want to fast and pray And and give myself in a focused way to god is because I love pleasure so much Okay, they look at that they go what I go no, no for real I am so addicted to pleasure That I don't want to go do that other thing because that that is so minimal and it shuts our spirit down to true pleasure the pleasure of darkness Is significantly less exhilarating than an exhilarated human spirit under the anointing And once you get a vision for that Once you get a vision for that giving yourself to an evening that invites darkness and diminishes your senses And diminishes your tenderized spirit You say I never want to give myself to that again never because I can't feel i'm sluggish i'm dull The feeling is gone And not that we have the feelings all day every day I don't believe that that that that is how it works that there it's an unbroken, you know, ecstasy of feelings But i'm going to say this the bible presents christianity In the new covenant with god living on in the inside with feelings Of being loved and loving far greater than most christians contend for in their own life Most christians are so easily satisfied with Introductory experiences with almost no tenderizing no sense of pleasure and they just stuff themselves They gorge themselves with the dull and the dim dark pleasures That then keep them from experiencing the exhilarating ones that are far more intense And so I want to present to you Uh fasting and prayer is a way i'll say it in a strange way and then i'll Uh, you say biblically To fill that holy spirit buzz. I mean to feel that I love the feeling of god on my spirit I love that feeling And it's sanctified selfishness It's just raw selfishness, but it's blessed of god. God likes it I I don't fully get why we get paid so well for going after this because it's so awesome to get in the middle of this And then the lord says I tell you what i'll do. I'll just pay you real well. I'll Reward you forever For a drinking of the river of pleasure. That's what david called it in psalm 38 I mean psalm 36 verse 8. He called it the river of thy pleasures He said let me drink from the river of thy pleasure That's fasting and prayer in the word with a radical life of obedience and self-denial. That's where the river of pleasure That's where we drink it and feel it It it's it's odd. I I you know, I guess it'd just be the reason it's It's hard, uh for some folks to get because on the front end we pursue it before We pursue it and we take the word As true without having experienced then we start pursuing it before we've experienced it But once you've experienced it a little bit it's far more costly to live in darkness without experiencing it, you know I mentioned that sunday morning Or one of the meetings recently is that they talk a lot about the cost of discipleship But somebody needs to write a book on the cost of non-discipleship Living in dark desires as a christian, which is the common way that most christians live is way more costly Than living in bright desires Staying in a dulled Dimmed Rusty crusty state is far more costly. It's costly in terms of money It's costly in terms of lost opportunity and it's costly in terms of pure pleasure. It's costly on every single front And so we need uh, we need a clear theology on how much it costs not to be a disciple not just oh not just Uh exaggerating the cost of being a disciple and it cost But beloved, I mean what what is the what are we really? paying the price to get out of satan's clutches and dark desires and And a lost life and lost destiny. I mean How much are we you know, how much are we really sacrificing to say no to that? I mean for real It's the river of his pleasures. It's a very very dynamic place In god and it's it's within the reach of every single believer every believer in this room. This thing is in your reach It's in your reach But we're hope we have to be wholehearted to get it. We have to go out. We have to have tenacity to go after it And uh, it's real and paul's setting this before them and he's praying not only does paul pray that it would be released for others We can pray that it would be released in our own lives. I I want to challenge you to make ephesians 3 a prayer For your own in your own sanctified selfishness for your own life just for you to get lost in that river That's psalm 36 8 river when david said let me drink at the river of your pleasure. Let me get lost in this reality now this pleasure is not uh does not have is not uh, so great that you don't have Uh challenges that you don't have times or you don't feel it. I don't want to present it as an unbroken life of pleasure but the spirit of god touching our human spirit, which is to be the rule of our life not You know not once Or twice a year, you know at the end of a great conference. It is supposed to be the rule of our lives Where we feel the presence of god And that is not some You know high and lofty goal that you know only a few monks in a monastery back in the 1200s could experience Beloved this is like real today in our culture for now for anybody who wants it But we can't uh, we can't pursue it we cannot pursue it on our terms we have to pursue this on his terms But it is there and paul's paul's beckoning the church at ephesus to get lost in that river go for it You guys go for it. Now paul's going to give a four a five stage progression and of thought and these five, uh, uh This five, I don't want to say five stages. I don't like to exactly say it that way Uh, I although I I guess I will stage one two three just for communication sake But it's not like you get out of first grade and then you go to second grade All five of these stages you experience a little bit together But but but they're they're there is an intended Progression to understand and to pursue it according to this progression And and that will make sense. I trust in a few moments, but it's not like well, where are you at in the progression? I'm still at stage one. Well on stage one, you're still experiencing some of two three and four, but uh, But this thing grows and builds over the years in our lives Okay Uh, let's read it ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 For this reason it's about the reason before, uh, verse 12 and 13 as well as uh The reasons ahead of verse 14. So this reason reaches backwards and forwards For this reason I bow my knee to the father He says i'm gonna pray and here's my purpose Again, the word the phrase for this reason is also reaching back in the first 13 verses But uh, but it's it's reaching forward as well. It gives us a focus of prayer From whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named and here here it is. Number one stage one He says I pray That god would grant you according to the riches of his glory That god would grant you strength With might that god would give you divine might surges of holy spirit power That the power would touch that your your inner man, which is the heart And to make it uh, uh Real practical the heart's more than this, but this I want to make it real practice When you when you read this put in your mind the emotions Emotions Heart's more than the emotions, but the the emotions let's put that it's practical. It's a biblical idea. That's what it means It means more than the emotions, but that's a good. Uh, it's a real good practical beginning So paul prays verse 16 that god would strengthen you In other words divine might on the emotions. Wow Now beloved I want to ask you do you pray that for yourself? You need to I pray that for myself uh with without any, uh Boldly, I was going to say without any conscience meaning. Uh, it seems so greedy for the glory, you know, uh Go for it with uh Without any shame. I mean go for the thing unashamed I go I want to feel god by the power of god with my spirit to buzz with the power of god on it Again buzz is not the exact theological word, but I think you know what I mean And that's what paul's praying. He's praying that the church the saints at ephesus They would feel exhilarated in their spirit with god's power Do you pray that for your children? Do you pray that for your family? Do you pray for your friends? Do you pray for the church? And the answer is yes, yes, yes and remember your leaders so pray this for me say lord just Buzz mike over the top with your power in the inner man So people say what do you want to pray for? I always go ephesians 3 16 or ephesians 1 17 Uh, that's the other one's revelation. I want tons of revelation. I want the the holy spirit power on my spirit I go if I get those two everything else will work So when people ask me what I want for prayer, that's what that's what I always ask well, that's what I always tell them Okay, number two. He says, uh, why he goes now you're going to notice the word that Paul says I pray that this happens so that this happens so that the next thing happens. There's four Connecting phrases that that gives the sequence and it creates the logic of the passage. It's four so that's And in these five stages And and paul says I pray that you'd be strengthened with might so that verse 17 christ would dwell in your hearts Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith And there would be a insert in the place of the word dwell That there would be a manifest presence of christ a manifest presence on the heart It takes the power of god to tenderize us before we feel the manifest presence It takes the power of god for us to feel god So christ would dwell in our hearts. He would a word he would move in our hearts Because the word dwell would be to abide or to live and I think of the word as you know of god moving Uh in our hearts and again for the word hearts put emotions that god would manifest his presence in our emotions Much of christianity today is an emotionless. It's an emotionless religion It's it's often presented I mean by really good guys as mostly a mandate to action Let's build the church take it to the streets go to the nations have a buy it's a mandate. It's action oriented mandates is how much of christianity is presented today And though there are mandates very important mandates to disciple the nations But the core reality of our faith is that christ would dwell. He would move with power on the emotions That is absolutely central to our faith Jesus didn't die and raise from the dead for us so we could be active in ministry He died so that our hearts could connect in this age and the age to come forever at the deepest levels He died for our hearts and our our work our mandate our core Our ministry is taking what's in our heart and helping others experience it But what's happened is we've ended up with this near emotionless christianity that's mandate-driven That's active driven Separated from the heart encounter for which christianity was devised in the mind of god. Not only but foundationally for the heart encounter with god and humans And the mandate flows out of the encounter the mandates are critical, but the mandates come after the encounter And the reason so many believers are so burnt out is because they're mandate driven instead of encounter driven And so their hearts wear out Long before their strength does their hearts get bruised and bitter and disappointed and rejected and feeling left out And their hearts don't feel strength on it. And so when our hearts get worn out when our hearts are toxic We lose our strength We we actually lose our our physical strength when our hearts are toxic We don't have the energy to to uh to uh to do the ministries anyway Well, what's wrong with so and so i've heard it a thousand times. I've been in ministry 30 years I've heard this thousands that well, he's just real burnt out. He's got a toxic heart And he's got a whole list of people he's blaming he or she are blaming their burnout but what's happened is they put their mandates Ahead of their heart encounter and they had they didn't cultivate supernatural strength at the heart level They consumed themselves on what they were supposed to do and they did it and it went good for a little while But they didn't have strength at the heart level beloved It's it's vicious out there in a dark world filled with demons and evil people And even good people who are not fully sanctified Well, she died of sheep bite, you know they Yeah If our hearts are not supernaturally empowered Between us and god I take the rejection the Disappointment the delays the setbacks the hassles the people talking mad glad and sad at all strange combinations about you Your heart will absolutely die and people think they're burnt out their hearts are toxic and then The activity puts them into the place where they just get worn out and they don't have strength in their butt They don't have energy anymore. That's called burnout and most people have five or ten people that did it to them But what what who really did it to them? Is is uh in one sense, of course They did it to themselves in in the other sense because they got an open bible they could read it themselves But the church is presented in the west in the 20th century at 21st century It's a mandate driven a mandate driven christianity that people are being called to rather than a heart Encounter that has mandates flowing out of it. It is not what the apostles preached And it is toxic. It is dangerous I I hear people all the time just because you know, we're doing ihop and they're thinking. Yeah, what about what about what about I said I will assure you this and the 10 and 20 year time frame the people That develop encounter will have far more effectiveness and staying power in 20 years Than the people who run out of the gate and don't develop it and sustain it They may run out of the gate without it, but they will they'll be licking their wounds and limping so much sooner and out of energy Before this race is over The only way to do it, right? Of course, it's the fun way too is at the heart and counter level And it's the only way that it can be sustained for 20 and 40 years because we're we're wanting to see disciples That can stay steady for 40 and 50 years not just You know get out on a ministry activity for 18 months and see how many you know Bells they can ring and cans they can shake and you know how much Uh noise they can make a lot of noise going on in the body of christ But beloved we can't impart in our ministry what we do not have and the only thing that will deliver Them is the heart encounter with jesus We can't deliver we can't impart it if we don't have it And so, uh, I don't want to sound boastful in this next statement, you know part of if you admit That you're boastful or something then you kind of could get away with more. But anyway, I don't want to sound boastful here. But uh I i've uh, and i'm saying this for the 20 somethings is that Uh when I was younger I was easily intimidated by a bold presentation, you know, a man of god would come along Well young man, what about abc and you know, you always think oh no, what about what about? And uh having done this 30 years I am positive That the activity oriented ministry driven paradigm of christianity is not the biblical one Because I run into leaders all the time. They go. Yeah, but yeah, but well, yeah, but I don't even necessarily answer him but I have the I smile because I have an Unshakable confidence in the word of god that this is an excellent way forward the way of encounter and when I was younger, I didn't I would kind of lose my my, uh confidence and wasn't sure and yeah, what about what about and and uh, uh, So much guilt manipulation to every type of ministry activity imaginable Uh till we end up burnt out and again I am absolutely confident in my spirit and as I stand before all kinds of leaders because again with the ihop You know, uh testimony going forth. Yeah, you know, you know, hi mike. How you doing? Hey, yeah, what about this? You know every 20 25 types of ministries. Yeah, what about? And so it's become a quite a uh, a regular part of my conversation with other leaders in the body of christ and uh And I don't necessarily again. I don't necessarily give the answers, but i'm i'm completely unmoved Inside from my confidence, uh in terms of the knowledge. This is the way of the lord having strength and power christ dwelling at the heart Beloved that is your primary mandate. You get that you get that You will become a far more effective servant of other men and women You get that you will be a far more reliable Steady minister of the gospel when you get an empowered heart Because when all the different cycles of life come you will stay steady in it because you have something happening on the inside you stay steady So that's so first verse 16 He prays for strength divine might Through the spirit in the inner man. Wow, that's again. This is Uh the power of god touching the heart the holy spirit touching the emotions inner man and then the result of it is Is the manifestation of christ on the emotions? So our spirits get strengthened And I don't know exactly, uh that we can discern all the strengthening of the spirit We can discern the the presence of god on our emotions We when christ dwells in our heart We can tell we can feel that instantly because our emotions are so alive with it But there is a strength of god. You are receiving strength that sometimes it's like the the x-ray machine You know, the person's under the x-ray machine and they tell them hey, you know watch it Because you know the x-ray machine is doing this But if you you don't know it if you're under it too long, it can damage you Meaning it has its impact without you always being able to detect it when it's happening You put yourself with an open spirit in the presence of god with fasting and prayer in the word You may not feel the strengthening happening, but beloved those, uh using the x-ray analogy Those rays of impact are hitting your spirit In stage one and eventually and it's not too long a time stage two is going to happen verse 17 You're going to have the manifest dwelling of christ on your heart Now it's interesting that paul is praying For christians for christ to live in christian's heart now We've heard you know unbelievers need to pray to have christ come into their heart Well, here's paul praying for christ to come into the heart of christians You think oh, wait a second paul, you know paul never Uh, you know went to a billy graham crusade, you know that Wait, you pray for christians for christ to come in their heart. I mean for non-christians not christians And I think it's good for christians to do that. I think billy's done well to do that invite christ in your heart but the life in the spirit The life in the spirit is inviting christ into your heart in manifestation This is a prayer. I mean, it's good to pray for christian unbelievers, but this is a prayer for christians. I pray dwell in my heart Manifest yourself your life and your power in my emotions I don't want to live a emotionless shallow burnt out christian experience in ministry yuck But beloved let me tell you this That is the common way And that is the automatic way. God's people go if they don't in a determined way go this way This is only experienced by a tenacious pursuit And we don't have to apologize for any of our intensity in this We don't have to apologize for any of it. We want christ to dwell in our heart in a greater way Yeah, but what about others what about others You get the man that died for the nations moving on your emotions You're gonna want to go out and give your life as a martyr before the thing is over You're running into the lion of the tribe of judah. Someone says what about the lost you're running into the greatest evangelist moving and breathing On your emotions stirring them up. I go. Don't worry if they're running into jesus. They're in good hands in terms of ministry They're they're running into the man who was willing to die for the cause and to give himself totally for the lost You get that man breathing on your spirit You're not going to draw back from serving. You'll be so tender. You'll have so much energy to give yourself to other people But you'll actually be able to sustain it not for 18 months not for three years You'll be able to sustain it for 40 years 50 years. You'll be able to stay steady with energy through the decades That's stage two christ filling in the hearts now verse 17 he gives stage three He says so that Well, what could be more? Oh, no. No, I forgot a phrase christ filling your hearts through faith. Let's look at the word through faith Sometimes the word faith. Oh, by the way has several dimensions to it Sometimes the word faith would mean Would mean uh something that's at a distance that we're not experiencing it and we're at a distance claiming by faith by faith i'm asking for For god to release healing into my body. So we're we don't have the the experience our body's sick We don't have the experience of of being healed. We don't feel the healing so we're saying by faith We're asking for healing to be released So it's it's it's the sort of thing which we don't have it And we're claiming it and believing for it. That's a biblical dimension of faith The important thing is to focus that on the right things because some people are claiming things that the lord says Where'd you get that idea from? So, you know, so it's a biblical idea, but it needs to be focused, right? but In this context, there's other dimensions of faith when it says christ filling your heart through faith. It's talking you put the word confidence Put the word confidence because faith and confidence are synonymous as well it said Christ manifests his spirit on your emotions In context are you having confidence before god? Which is the point of verse 12 of ephesians 3 Paul said in in verse 12, he says that you have confident bold access God wants weak and broken believers to understand The heart of god Weak and broken believers where they have confidence Before god even in their weakness Now i'm talking to sincere believers. I'm talking to believers that are weak Believers that are stumbling believers that trip over an area. It's called sin That are coming short in other areas where they're just not living in the fullness of the discipline of the fullness of the resolve And I wouldn't use the word sin for that, but I would call that immaturity and weakness I'm talking about immature believers When they do stumble they stand up and they war against the thing They stumbled in they they don't look at their stumblings. They oh, well, so what they look at and they go No, they're at war with everything that makes them stumble. There's a sincerity in their spirit Beloved We have every reason from the word of god to be confident Before god even in our weakness if that's true. Some people have taken this confidence in god message We are confident with god even in our weakness We are lovely before god even our weakness as a way to give them comfort while they're pursuing intensely pursuing compromise That is a deception. That is not the gospel. That is a deception. I'm going to go synth over the weekend Come back push delete and claim confidence in god and get a few injections from the book of song of solomon You know feel good about my sin and myself over the weekend. That is deception The message of confidence in god is not a way to prop up sustained carnality To make us feel good about darkness. It's a way when we we fall in it. We go. I hate I don't want to do this Lord I choose to war against this And then the lord says I want you to have confidence anyway put the word confidence there Christ dwells in your heart. It's critical in context to confidence Because if you have confidence That he loves you and wants you and he paid the price you will run to him instead of from him If you have confidence, you won't just run to him. You'll run to him with an open spirit See some folks will run to him They'll run up and say oh lord i'm yours, but they're spirits guard of their they're negotiating with god If you forgive me one more time, I swear i'll never ask for anything hard ever again This is the last time I promise I double swear promise this time. Oh god, and they're negotiating with god for his favor Because their their spirit has been injured and closed by their sin Throw all that away don't negotiate and don't run away from god like I blew it so bad i'll never get I'll never have a second chance Which is his pride Uh condemnation at the end of the day is pride because condemnation says my sin is stronger than god's mercy and god's heart I can do something Stronger than who god is And I can even repent but it's still stronger nor says no you can't you absolutely cannot my heart is stronger In my love than your heart is in your sin you repent i'll take you back We need confidence body of christ is uh has a tremendous Deficiency in the area of confidence, but the word faith there is the idea of confidence Okay, now we're going to go to the third stage being rooted and grounded in love now notice that's stage three And this being rooted and grounded in love is talking about uh, because you might have had uh intermittent or occasional experiences of christ dwelling moving on your emotions at the 17a but here in 17b It's rooted. It's the sustained rule of your life. There's a consistency It becomes the way of your heart and to to where uh This is what you're grounded in and instead of being an occasional breakthrough The lack of the presence is the occasional thing instead of the breakthrough in the presence And god and then that love again, it's threefold It's love you feel it from him. You feel it to him and you feel it for it overflows to others It's a three the love is always threefold because it because the the way that love works this human spirit is tenderized by the power of god Beloved when we become rooted and grounded it's consistent When we can become rooted and grounded in love That means if the breakthrough in the ministry isn't for 10 years. You're steady It means if all the people ripped you off and said bad things about you the people you're closest to you're steady you're rooted You're grounded. It is gone from an occasional renewal an occasional inspiration an occasional breakthrough after a Season of death of consecration dedication. It has become the way of your heart It's become something you're grounded and rooted in and that is a good thing. That's stage three now notice That praying for it is stage one What a lot of folks want to do is get right into the rooting and grounding the consistency of it And the end of where their hearts tenderize they feel the pleasure of god's presence again Not 100 all the time because there are times where the devil attacks And the devil sends one of those flaming missiles and there's a sense of which we're kind of we're struck by it Even though we are deflecting them there are times the enemy strikes and we we lose our bearings for a moment There are times even in obedience where god hides his face Because of obedience not because of disobedience. It's what they uh, the some they they used to i'm in the in the in the medieval, uh, Times the uh, they called it the dark night of the soul when in obedience the lord hid his face So i'm not saying it's a hundred percent But it's a hundred percent this rooted and grounded, but that's what most folks are aiming for is the rooted and grounded He says and then when you're rooted and grounded in love look look look look what's happening when you're rooted and grounded in love when this Consistency, it's uh, it's it's deeply established. The root system is in place because root Rooted means it's time you've been there for a while. There's a root system that's developed Some folks want to come in to the message of the love of God and the bride of Christ and they want to forget the idea of developing a root system. They just want it all. Today, there is a rootedness. There is time to develop a root system in this. But there's also grounded. There's a foundation. It's the same idea but a different analogy. You put the foundation, the building. And the way that they say when they build the big 100-story skyscrapers, I don't know the real number, but it's something like this. They go 10 or 15 stories down before they ever go up. When they're building the biggest skyscrapers, you may go at some seeming like way into the process, millions of dollars, months and months of work, and you go and there's a 10-story hole. You go, No, no, sir, I ordered a skyscraper, not a hole. Beloved, when we build this skyscraper in the ocean of the love of God, we get grounded. We dig the hole. It goes underground long before it comes above the ground. So whether it's the building analogy of being grounded, building a deep foundation, and only architects really fully appreciate a foundation. When they're building a foundation, the people come, you know, let's go see the new house. Oh, man, there's a hole. I don't want to see that, but an architect goes, Wow, look at that muddle. That's awesome. But what Paul's saying is there are the foundation times. It's the work you're doing underground that nobody sees or the same principle, a different analogy. It's the agricultural one. It's go develop a root system. Now, here's what happens when you're in this third stage of being rooted and grounded. There's a consistency. There's a depth of your root system. There's a depth of the building. The winds are not going to blow it over. The sun is going to come on that plant and not dry it out. The winds are going to come and not blow the house down. It's solid. It's steady. Oh, I love that. Steady. One of the greatest things you could be is steady. It's called faithful. But just steady. They're all mad at you. You didn't get any credit. They took your money. They didn't treat you right. They didn't do da-da-da-da-da-da-da. God's not breaking through. You are steady with that as you are the breakthrough. That's the third stage. That's awesome. It's not just it's good. It is a pleasurable way to live is what Paul describes it through the Scripture. It is a powerful way to live on the inside. But the point is this is the inheritance of every believer if they want it. Now, in this third stage, you're able to comprehend. You're at the beginning of the ocean now, the vast ocean of God's love. You're ankle deep in the ocean. You may be going out there a little bit more, and you're now able. You're able to see things about the love of God you could not see in your early stages. In our early stages, we look so hard and see so little. In the deeper, in the root system gets in place, the foundations in place, the consistency is there. The person sees so much more. The ability, it's like the rich get richer. The more you see, the more you see. The spirit of revelation begets the spirit of revelation. It's what Psalm 42 talks about. Deep calls into deep. You go deep, and it catapults you to more depth. The rich get richer. Jesus said it that way in Mark chapter 4. He said to him who has, even more shall be given. But to him who does not have, even what he has shall be taken away. And so it's, they're rooted, and now they're able to see with a whole, a far greater capacity to see the love of God. If you think the love of God ravished them in stage 1 and 2, they are undone in stage 3 at the love of God. And so they, in this, able to comprehend with all the saints. And so he goes on in verse 19, he says, so that they would know, or the idea is to know, to supernaturally know, to experience. This know the love of Christ, put the word experience. It's the word, it's that word for intimacy of personal experience. It is a personal encounter in the affections of God. Instead of the word love, put the word affections. Put the word affections here. The affections of Christ Jesus in this 4th stage. This comprehending and loving is in, it comes out of the 3rd, it's the technically the 4th stage in terms of this progression, in the so that, so that, so that. Is that you know and experience the affections of Christ Jesus, and it passes human knowledge that's unaided by the Holy Spirit. This knowledge cannot be had, except you put yourself in the way of the Holy Spirit. Oh, I love what they were singing today. What was the exact language of it? God is the center. You were singing it, Misty. What are you looking back there for? How did you say, how did you go, Julie? Oh, I want to live in the center of God. Just when you were doing it, I was just loving it over there. You just kept saying it over and over. I go, yes, that's what this is about, living in the center of God. Or just, you know, whatever that means, it's awesome. But, you know, we may be like way on the peripheral, and it seems like the center to us. You know, like, you know, we're in like a thousand miles deep over our heads, and the Lord says, no, that's still the shores of God. You know, like, okay, well, it seems like the center to me. It's big. Beloved, this thing passes knowledge. Why am I saying it passes knowledge? I mean, why am I pressing this? You can't just read a book and walk away. You can only get the knowledge by encountering the Holy Spirit. This knowledge is given by God. It takes God to have this. Meaning we can't live adversarial with the Spirit and have these things. What do I mean by live adversarial for the Spirit? Come to IHOP, go, glory to God, hallelujah, sing on the team or do this or that, the other, and go and live the rest of our life in a way adversarial to the Holy Spirit and somehow it works. This thing is past human knowledge. No human intellect will put this together. This thing is given graciously by the Spirit to the inner man, this knowing, this encounter. We desperately need friendship and full abandonment to the Spirit. We don't want to do the Spirit at IHOP and then go live a little bit in darkness because we kind of get away with it and then come back and do our IHOP life. That means IHOP is miserable. And there's been many over the years who have done that. I wouldn't guess the percent. I don't know if it's 10% or 50%. I don't know, I don't know, but plenty. They come to their IHOP world and it's just simply illogical. They do IHOP world, which they need God for it to work, to be pleasurable, to be invigorating, but they do IHOP world for whatever reasons. They got a dozen reasons why they do it. They want to be able to travel or they want to be able to teach or they have a dozen reasons, whatever. They do IHOP world. And then those other hours of the week, they just go and live in carnality. Then they come back and do IHOP. That is the guaranteed way for IHOP to be miserable all the time and the guaranteed way for the other world to be miserable all the time too. Do just enough IHOP to be miserable out there in the other way and just enough the other way to be miserable at IHOP. Instead of IHOP going, oh, two-hour session. Oh, another hour to go. Oh, God, I love you. Why are we singing the Spirit? It's such a drag to live in darkness from 5 o'clock to midnight the night before then come into the morning prayer meeting. What a total drag to live that way. You're facing lethargy and dullness all the time with no breakthrough. Forget it. This thing passes knowledge. It's only given by the Holy Spirit. Your love for God, your love for God, your desire for God is God's gift to you. The way you love God is God's gift to you. Then it goes on. The last stage, I'll just end with this. Julie can come on up here. It says, and then you'll be filled with the fullness of God. Beloved, we all aim to have our fullness of God, our full destiny, but the full destiny is stage 5. You can have a ministry with never entering into your full destiny. My guess is most ministries grow a little bit or whatever, but they never enter their full destiny. The full destiny is step 5, not step 1. It's not like go to Bible school, get out, kind of endure ministry for 10 years, then you're in your full destiny. That's not how it works. A lot of folks think if they put their time in, they'll one day show up in their full destiny. There are more burnt out men and women of God at the year 20, 30, and 40 in ministry, burnt out, and I mean totally disillusioned. The idea that they're going to just kind of put their time in for 10 or 20 years and they'll end up in fullness is an absolute, it's not the truth. That's such a great disappointment. We end up in our full destiny in this age, and of course our full destiny is in the age to come, but let's talk about the full destiny in this age. That's the fifth step of this progression. Only spiritually minded men and women enter into the full destiny, not just people that hang in the system. You know, I'll stay in the system long enough, and if I'm worship leader here long enough, I'll be the head worship leader. If I'm in the denomination long enough, I'll be one of the leaders of the denomination. If I'm in the Bible school long enough, I'll be a teacher in the Bible school. Beloved, that's not how it works. We encounter God in reality. We throw ourselves into God in reality, and that's how we enter into our fullness, because God puts us on the rock. You know, I'll say this so many times in the weeks to come, the only person that could stop David was David. Saul can't stop David. Saul can cause David to have a headache for seven or eight years, but Saul can't stop David from the throne. The devil can't stop David from the throne. The only person that can stop David is David. The only person that can stop your destiny, it's not the people who recognize you or don't or open doors or shut doors. That doesn't matter at all. The only thing between you and your full destiny is you and God. God will get you in that chariot and usher you right to the place that he appointed for you. Whether any man ever puts his hand to help whatsoever, you will get in that chariot, speaking figuratively, and God will usher you to that place if you live right in the Holy Spirit when no one's looking. Amen. Let's stand. Let's go after this. Let's get a vision for strength in our spirits.