Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound invitation from Jesus in Song of Solomon 8:5-7, where He urges the bride to set Him as a seal upon her heart, symbolizing a deep, mature love that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. This seal of fire represents a progressive impartation of God's love that begins at the new birth and continues throughout life, culminating in eternal intimacy with God. Bickle highlights that this divine love is as strong as death and cannot be extinguished by any trials or tribulations, encouraging believers to earnestly seek this supernatural love through prayer and faith. He calls for a passionate pursuit of God's presence, asserting that true love for God will overflow into love for others. Ultimately, the sermon serves as a reminder of the transformative power of God's love in the life of the believer.

Well, tonight we're gonna continue in our series on the studies of the Song of Solomon, and we're looking at session 23 out of a total of 24 in this series, and we're looking at Song of Solomon chapter five, I mean, chapter eight, verse five to seven. Now, this is the high point of the entire book, where Jesus invites the people of God, the bride of Christ, in context. He says, set me, he's calling her to invite him to come and touch her heart. He says, set me, he goes, call upon me to release the seal of fire upon your heart. He said, this seal that I will release upon your heart, its flames are the very flame of God's fire. And so Jesus is standing before his church as the fully God, fully man bridegroom who wants to release and impart supernatural fire upon the people who ask for it and who contend for it and who believe God for it. Now, that's the high point of the book is this invitation of Jesus. It's more than an invitation, it's an urgent exhortation. Call upon me to put the seal of fire upon your heart is what he's saying. But it's an invitation of God, it's an exhortation of God with a promise involved that he will come and release fire upon our heart that no waters of darkness can extinguish. Now, this is, again, spoken in the prophetic language of love. This is the high point in the Song of Solomon, to receive the seal of fire. Now, this fiery seal is progressive. It's not a one-time deal. This seal of fire actually begins on the day we're born again when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. First, Ephesians 1, verse 13, I have it later on in the notes. And if you want the notes, they're available on the website. Anybody can have them. But in Ephesians 1, verse 13, it tells us that the Holy Spirit himself is the seal upon our hearts. But what the Holy Spirit wants to do is progressively release the power of his presence so that our mind and emotions are progressively influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit and tenderized and illuminated, our understanding is. Now, this is not only the high point of this great love song, this eight-chapter love song, it's the high point of the new covenant. I mean, this is what the new covenant is all about, that the fire of God's love would be imparted to us, and this seal begins at the new birth and continues on through our life in this age, and then into its fullness in the age to come. But the point of this passage is that in this life, if we will cry out for it, if we will believe God for it, if we will focus on it, if we will contend for it, God has much more of the impartation of supernatural love that he will give the human heart if we would make it an object of an intentional focus of our faith, an object that we pursue. Now, in this eight-chapter love song, what happens is the bride of Christ, she begins as the Shulamite maiden, and over time, she matures in her love for the king, and she becomes the mature bride by the end of the song. She starts off in chapter one crying out for the kisses of God's word. In chapter one, verse two, she says, "'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his word, "'for the mouth of God is where the word of God proceeds.'" She says, "'I want to know the kisses of your word.'" And that's where the journey begins. Well, the journey ends beyond anything she could have ever imagined with a supernatural seal of divine fire touching her heart. Beloved, above and beyond anything we can ask or think, we ask for a little bit of intimacy with God, we ask for his word to come to us, a living understanding, but God has intended all along to seal our heart with supernatural fire, a fire that begins in this age, that grows substantially in this age to those that believe God for it and pursue it, and then it goes on to fullness in the age to come. Paragraph C in the notes, just a quick review from session one. We're on session 23, but going back to session one, for those that are new with us in this class, for the first time on the Song of Solomon, I think it's important to give this qualifier, that the Song of Solomon is an eight-chapter love song and it can be interpreted in two ways, and both of them are biblical and both of them are wholesome. The first way to interpret this love song is in the natural way, the way in which Solomon wrote it originally. It's the way that he intended it to be understood. He was writing a love song to a Shulamite maiden that went on to be his bride, and this eight-chapter love song is a very excellent and quality book that is extolling and honoring the beauty of married love, and the Holy Spirit uses this love song in that way to strengthen God's view of marriage and God's view of love in the context of marriage, but that's not the limitation of this song. This eight-chapter love song is not exhausted by the natural interpretation. There's a spiritual interpretation. It's not King Solomon and the Shulamite bride, King Solomite. Maybe you can name your next dog the Solomite or something like that, the Shulamite. But it's not King Solomon and his Shulamite bride, but it's King Jesus and the bride of Christ, and it's revealing the principles that enhance our relationship to King Jesus. Now, in 3,000 years since this song was first written by Solomon, the majority of the commentators throughout all of church history have used the spiritual interpretation, but that's not to minimize the natural interpretation because that is honored and blessed by the Holy Spirit as well. Paragraph D, to be sure, this is speaking of Jesus, is that when Jesus met the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he said that he opened all of the scriptures, each of the books of the 39 books of the Old Testament, and he spoke about himself from all of the scriptures. Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit who inspires the word of God, and he said, this you can be sure of. He will take what is mine, he will take of my glory, and he will give it to you, and he will glorify me in all that he does. And you can be sure, paragraph F, that the word of God lasts forever. Now, marriage only lasts in this lifetime. When Jesus was talking about the resurrection, he said in Matthew 22, he said, in the resurrection, there won't be marriage as we know it now. However, the word of God will exist for billions and billions and billions of years. We will be reading the Song of Solomon, and for billions of years, it's not possible that one book of the Bible is irrelevant, reminding us of that time way back on Earth. No, this book will have an eternal relevance of inspiring love for Jesus and magnifying him. We will sing this song throughout all the ages. Paragraph G, the context for understanding our pursuit of this fiery love. The context is the knowledge that God the Father has promised his son an inheritance. The Father promised Jesus an inheritance, and that inheritance is an eternal companion who loves Jesus in the way that Jesus loves her. He promised her a companion that they would be equally yoked together in love. Now, part of Jesus's inheritance is that all of creation would obey him. Every demon in hell obeys Jesus by virtue of the fact they were sent to hell. They were sent at his word. Every unbeliever in the lake of fire will go there in obedience to Jesus. Every living creature will obey Jesus. That's mandatory, that's a settled issue. But there's more that God wants for his son than mandatory obedience. He wants voluntary lovers. He will not force anybody to love Jesus. Everybody will obey him. Everybody will bow their knee. Every single tongue will confess he is Lord, and they will obey him. But only those that say yes and choose to will love him. But what was in the heart of the Father is that he would bring forth voluntary lovers. Now, Jesus prayed for these voluntary lovers in John chapter 17, verse 26. Known as the high priestly prayer, he's praying to the Father right before he would go to the cross. And he said, Father, I've declared your name to them. And what's the end result of it? He said this, so that the love with which you loved me would be supernaturally imparted into them. Now, that is a most remarkable prayer. Because you can be sure Jesus prayed this in the will of God, it will come to pass. What is it that Jesus prayed? That the love with which the Father loves Jesus would be supernaturally imparted into human beings. Beloved, this is remarkable. You and I, you and I have every reason to believe with confidence that the same quality of love that the Father has for his Son, it will be supernaturally imparted to us in part in this age and in fullness in the age to come. But Jesus is praying for his eternal companion. He's praying for his inheritance. Oh, that she would love me with the love wherein you love me, the love with which you love me. Father, the way you love me, impart it to her supernaturally. That's the context of believing for this seal of fiery love. Paragraph I, it takes God to love God. What I mean by that, it takes the power of God for weak and broken human beings to love God. We cannot love God by the force of our own determination. Yes, we must decide. Love by its very nature cannot be forced. It must be a free will decision to love him, or it's not love. But even though we make the decision to love him, even under the inspiration of the grace of God, to grow in mature love, to love God like God loves God, to love Jesus like the Father loves him, there is no way by determination we could ever experience that. We need the Holy Spirit's help. And that's what this promise, that he would put the seal of fire on our heart. He says, I will help you by the Holy Spirit, even in this age that Jesus would help us to love him by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I call it the anointing to love God. And of course, every time anyone, I mean, that has this anointing to love God, it always, always overflows in loving people, to loving others. It is impossible for this love to tenderize our spirit and not flow like a river to other people, believers and unbelievers alike. Now, the Holy Spirit, he is the all-consuming fire. The all-consuming fire that we sing about is a person. He is the living flame of love. As described by some of the different people through church history, spoke of Jesus as the living flame of love, Saint John of the Cross particularly. But it's a phrase that you've heard through the years. The living flame of love is a person. He is the Holy Spirit. He's been poured out into the human heart by God. And the Holy Spirit wants to bring our mind and emotions under the influence and the inspiration of this supernatural love. Jesus, or John the Baptist was speaking, and he's talked about Jesus. He goes, Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. But not only that, you're to understand that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will impart supernatural fire to your heart. Beloved, we wanna be baptized in fire, the very fire of God's love, the living flame of love himself. And I don't want just the down payment the day I'm born again. I want it to fill my mind and emotions. I wanna feel the inspiration of it in this age to the full degree that God will give the human spirit in this age. Beloved, we don't wanna just do it a little bit better than we used to, or a little bit more than the group down the road does it. We want all that God will give the human spirit in this age. That must be our vision, for the Holy Spirit to pour love into our heart. Top of page two. And again, if you'd like the notes, they're available on the website. You can follow along with them. You can read the verses more carefully on your own time. In the upper room, the 120 intercessors are praying in the upper room. And suddenly, like a mighty rushing wind, the Holy Spirit breaks in and he rests upon each one of them as fire. Beloved, that was a token of what's coming in the days ahead. I'm believing before the Lord returns that the Holy Spirit, it says this, there appeared unto them tongues of fire. They saw the fire with their eyes. Can you imagine looking around at a prayer meeting and brother, you got fire on you. The guy goes, boy, it feels like something's on me. I mean, what if you saw the fire on them? It says it appeared to them. And the fire rested on each one of them. This is only a down payment. I believe that the church before the Lord returns will experience that fire. But even beyond that, and of course, that's our focus is what we can have in this age. But this fire is going to be in us and on us forever and ever and ever and ever. We were created for love. It is our destiny. It is our inheritance to be swept up in the power of the grace of God to have hearts radiant in love. Paragraph K is that Jesus, he tells us in Mark 12, verse 30, we shall love the Lord our God with all of our heart. He said, you'll love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. He points out four areas. And by the way, this is not only an instruction, it is a prophecy. He didn't say you ought to, he says you shall. He was prophesying to the people of God from the promise God gave Moses in Deuteronomy 30, verse six. God said, in that day, they will love the Lord their God with all their heart because God will circumcise their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was actually quoting a promise when he was prophesying over the people of God. It is a commandment, but it's more than a commandment, it's a promise. But beloved, this commandment that we would love God with all of our heart and all of our strength, the reason God gives us this commandment because this is the way he loves us. I mean, can you imagine that he loves us with all of his strength, all of his mind, he loves you. I mean, you look up at the stars. And the science says today that there are over a hundred million galaxies in the known universe. And some say a much larger number. A hundred million galaxies of which the Milky Way galaxy is one, it's one of the smaller ones. You look up to the stars and we only see a portion of the Milky Way galaxy. It's one of a hundred million galaxies. He's really smart. His power. Beloved, God loves you with all of his mind. With that vast mind, he loves you and he says, I want you to love me with all of your mind because that's how I love you. All of my strength is focused in loving you. You cannot exaggerate the love that God has for the people that say yes to him in the grace of God. Well, this seal of fire of Song of Solomon 8.6 is the same truth, it's the same reality as the first commandment, as loving God with all of our heart. The seal of fire is God's promise to enable us to walk in a supernatural dimension, the anointing to love God with all of our heart because it takes God to love God. John chapter 17 is another passage that talks about the seal of fire. Now it doesn't mention the seal of fire from Song of Solomon, but it's the same idea, it's the same truth that we would be supernaturally unified with God's heart. To be unified with God's heart and his emotions or to love him with all of our heart is the same thing, it's the same reality. So whether it's love the Lord your God with all of your heart or whether it's in the way that the Father and the Son are one, we will be unified with Jesus in the way that he's unified with the Father. And then we will be unified with one another in the overflow of that reality. Well, let's not focus right now on the overflow dimension that you and I will be one. Let's before we have this unity of heart and mind, we experience it with him and then it overflows in our relationship with one another. Let's think about that, that you and I would be one with God, what does it mean to be one? It means that our mind and our emotions would be in full agreement with his mind and his emotion. Does it mean that somehow we lose our individuality and we're merged into God some way like some of the cults and the Eastern religions confuse truth. Us being one with God means that by the anointing of the Spirit, our thinking and our emotions will be in agreement with his. He will have more thoughts and more capacity than we have but in as much as our capacity, it will be in unity with him. And then when we relate to one another because we're unified in our thinking and in our feelings, if I'm unified with God in my thinkings and feelings and you are, then we have unity with one another. Now that unity, here's the part that's staggering if you read John 17, 21 and 22. That unity with God's heart and God's mind is available in this age while unbelievers can witness it and then become converted. This isn't just something that happens in the age to come. Now obviously the fullness of it does. This is remarkable. Jesus is praying that we would enter into a oneness of mind and heart with the Father and the Son in such a remarkable degree that unbelievers would witness it. It says it two times in verse 21 and verse 23 that the unbelievers will see it and they will know that Jesus was sent from God. Now it's gonna happen in the age to come but it's gonna happen to this age. There's only been the smallest release of this kind of the glory of God. In John 17, 22, he says it's gonna happen by the glory of God. It's gonna happen by the supernatural dimension of the Holy Spirit. I appreciate unity meetings. I go to them when all the leaders get together in the city and get together and have unity meetings. I think they're important. I really do. I'm not in any way minimizing that but beloved, the unity we're after though I believe in working for it now but the unity we're believing for only comes when the glory of God is manifest and then the people's hearts are tenderized and their minds are illumined with living understanding of the word. That's where the unity comes when he gives his glory to his people. And I believe we have a measure of his glory right now. And we need to walk in unity right now by the measure of the glory that we have and we need to work for unity. That's a biblical reality. But it's more than that. There's a great incoming of God. This prayer will be fulfilled in a dramatic substantial way in this age while unbelievers can still see it. And then in the age to come. Well, I look at 2000 years of church history. Certainly you see this unity in Acts chapter two. You see it in Acts chapter four but you don't see much of it since and little tokens of it here and there but this is going to be a global reality in the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now this is the same thing as the seal of fire to be one with God's heart means that our mind and our emotions are a unity with his. Paragraph M Mark chapter 11 verse 23. The great passage that's used in what is commonly referred to as the faith movement that's been well known and growing for about the last four or five decades. The faith movement where Mark 11 23 becomes a really one of the key verses that if we believe and do not doubt mighty things will happen. Well, beloved, the faith movement believing the word of God and taking our stand is not limited to external things. We need to operate in the spirit of faith to see a supernatural release of God in the inner man as well. The faith movement is not only about the outer man or the external life. We can believe in the prayer of faith for a supernatural dimension of the anointing of love to touch our heart. And that's what Jesus was saying through Solomon. Song of Solomon 860 goes set me as the seal. Believe me, press into me, call upon me. Urgently contend with all of your heart until I release the seal of fire upon your heart. And he will not do it without us crying out for it. Now you don't have to use the term, the seal of fire. We can call it Lord, I wanna love you the way that your father loves you, John 17 26. Or you can say, I wanna love you with all my heart. Or you can just say, I wanna be holy. I mean, he understands it any term that you use. Or you can say, Lord, I wanna be one with your heart as the father and the son are one. I wanna be one with you. I mean, that is a huge statement. I wanna be one with you, Jesus, like you and your father. Like, that's kind of hard to choke that one out. Well, Jesus says, it's more than the fact that John 17 21, you'll be one with me. John 17 26, a few verses later, he says, you will love me like the father loves me. It's not just you'll have the same, what's really the same thing. It's the same reality. But it's not just we'll have the same mindset. We will love Jesus like the father loves Jesus. Beloved, I wanna use my faith now. And I wanna use the word of God to believe God for this kind of release in my inner man, not only to believe God for things in our circumstances to change. I wanna keep doing, I wanna do that too. But let's not limit our faith to external things. I want everything that God will give the human spirit in this age. Matthew chapter 11, verse 12. Jesus said, the kingdom of God suffers violent and the violent take it by force. There is a violent resolve. There is a violent calling out for him to set his seal upon our heart. He says, set me as a seal, call out to me, ask me, invite me, beckon me to come. Beloved, there is a spiritual violence. And he says, if you do this, the violent will take it by force, the kingdom and the kingdom promises. I can't think of any kingdom promise more dynamic than the anointing to love God because that will overflow into every single area of our life. You get the anointing to love God at a greater level, you will love people, you will be effective in ministry, your circumstances will be touched in the wake of that increased anointing in our heart. We cry out, Lord, I want more. And the Lord says, I want more. I want more because I have more for you. Take spiritual violence, the violent take it by force. Part of my focus in this class is that you would have a fierce determination, you are gonna walk in the anointing of love. Whether you use the first commandment, you shall love the Lord your God, that may be the verse you use. You may use Psalm 886, I want you to be the seal of fire. That's good to use that verse too. You may use John 17, verse 21. I wanna be one with your heart, Jesus, like the Father is, or John 17, 26. I want to love you with the love wherein your Father does. You're praying the same prayer in any one of those directions. Beloved, do you have a violent pursuit after this? And the violent pursuit, so you know, it's not some mysterious formula. It's the everyday, day in and day out, the praying, the dimension of fasting that should be a part of our lifestyle, of faith and obedience and serving and blessing our enemies. It's Matthew chapter six, blessing and serving and giving and praying and fasting. It's the normal activities of the kingdom. Some people say, oh, we do this, I want the secret, mysterious answer, the key. No, the answer is so simple. It's that coming to Jesus by meditating on the word and believing him and obeying him. I mean, it's very, very simple to understand what to do. It's the normal things everybody knows to do, but we have to do them with a violent resolution, not a casual kind of, well, I'll do them in the days I feel good. Jesus said, if you get violent about this, which means resolved, you can have it, the kingdom promises. You'll take them by the force of your dedication and your resolve and your tenacity of faith. You will refuse to be denied. You refuse to be denied, and that's that you take these promises by force, by refusing to be denied, refusing to back up upon them. Well, let's look at some of the language itself of this glorious exhortation of Jesus and the promise that goes with it, and then the proverb that magnifies the love of God that is at the end of it. Song of Solomon chapter eight. It just takes a few moments to go through the details of it. It's really setting the context of it to understand that I think is important. And here are the notes I've got. There'll be a few paragraphs we won't cover, so you can read more on your own if you want to. So Jesus starts off. I mean, Jesus is speaking. He says, set me, Song of Solomon chapter eight, verse six, as the seal upon your heart. Call upon me to release the seal of fire. It's the seal upon your arm. That speaks of ministry. The heart speaks of our inner life. The arm speaks of our works. And he goes on to say, for this love, this love, this seal of love, God's love, it is as strong as death. He says, it's God's jealousy, and it's as cruel or as demanding as the grave is. But he says, let me explain this love, this divine love and this divine jealousy. It's the flame of God. It's not human love. It's not human jealousy. It's a supernatural love, a supernatural jealousy. It's the flame of God himself, a most vehement flame, is what this translation says, the New King James. But other translations say, the New American Standard, it's the very flame of God. That's what the Hebrew word means, of a most vehement flame, or you can translate it, it is the flame of God himself that God is going to seal our heart with. Then he goes on to give a promise. First, he describes it. He calls us to beseech him and to pursue him for this. He calls us to press into him for a greater increase of the seal. Because remember, the seal's progressive. It grows in terms of the manifestation of God's grace that influences our heart and our emotion more and more as we press into this. I mean, we receive the seal in its down payment form, Ephesians 1, 13, the day we're born again. It's called the seal of the Holy Spirit. Now he goes on in verse seven and gives the promise. He goes, the waters of sin, the waters of pressure, of pain, of disappointment, they can't quench this love. They can't, they can't put it out. Nor can the floods of persecution. It can't drown it. And then he goes on and he gives a proverb of love. He says, if a man would give the wealth of all of his house for love, he would utterly despise it. And what that means is that if a person for the sake of love gave everything, they would utterly despise the recognition that they did something noble. They would say, no, I did nothing outstanding. It's for love. Because beloved, the reward of a lover is the power itself to love. The highest reward of a lover is the ability to love. And so he said that when you give yourself all the wealth of your house for this cause, you will not be disappointed. You won't be at the end burnt out and jaded and angry. I gave all of this and look where it got me. He says, oh no. When they magnify and extol the virtues of your commitment, you'll say, don't, don't, don't say I gave so much. No, for love's sake. They would utterly despise the recognition they did something above and beyond, something extraordinary. Because the true lover, when their heart is in love, that is the reward itself, not the accolades of men. Well, he goes on, let's break this down a little bit. It says, for this love is as strong as death, paragraph B. It's as strong as death. Now, what does that mean? Well, death in the natural realm is comprehensive, meaning everything that has life according to the natural order dies, whether it's a plant, an animal, or a human being. According to the natural order of things, not talking about the rapture and things like that, the natural order of things, every single thing that has life dies in the natural realm. It's comprehensive. Nothing in the natural can escape the grasp of death. And so what Jesus is saying to us through the word of God is as prevailing and comprehensive as death is in the natural realm, so the power of the love of God, if you will yield to it, the power of the love of God, if you will follow its inspiration, it's that demanding and comprehensive in the spirit realm. Now, of course, death is negative, and God's love is positive, and so Jesus is comparing to the most comprehensive thing in the natural realm is death. There's nothing more comprehensive than that. Nobody escapes death, or no plant, no animal, nothing. And he said, but my love is the same way in the spirit realm. If you say yes to it, it will demand more. And you say yes, it will demand yet more. And you will say yes, and my love will demand yet more. It will keep speaking and asking for more till it consumes every single area of your life, because, beloved, if you say yes to the light that you have, the Holy Spirit will give you more light. You say yes to that, it'll give you more light, and the more light we receive, the more supernatural ability we have to walk in love. Now, somebody may say, oh, man, if I say yes, he's gonna ask for more. But that sounds like heavy. The more I say yes, the more he wants. But what he tells us here in this proverb, this proverb of love at the end of verse seven, he says you won't despise it, because you are made for love. You are never more true to who you are than when you walk in love. You were made for light. Death and darkness and selfishness depresses us and breaks us down. Life and love in the Holy Spirit makes our, it causes us to enjoy life fully. You were created for love. And what Jesus is saying is I will ask for more. But as you understand it, you will rejoice in it. The reason we resist the higher demands of the Holy Spirit is because we don't have all the information. With the limited information we have, the idea that God would ask more and more, it seems like no, I don't wanna get into a relationship with him. Or he asks for more. I mean, he wants my time. He wants what I look at with my eyes, my words, my money. The more I say yes, the more he asks for. It's like, wow, that seems like a heavy relationship. But he says, no, no, no, you won't despise it. You won't despise the giving of yourself. You will only despise that you would be given accolades that you did something remarkable by receiving my love. That's the only thing you'll despise. Because when you get all the information and when you experience this love, your spirit will be radiant on the inside. Well, he goes on to say that God's jealousy is as cruel as the grave. And it's the same idea that it's as strong as death. Being as strong as death, meaning death is comprehensive. Being as cruel as the grave, and some translations use different words than cruel, it's the same thing. It gets as strong as the grave. The jealousy of God is as demanding and comprehensive in the spirit as the grave is in the natural. It doesn't leave anything out of its grasp. You say yes to love, God will ask for more and more and more, but you will enter more into a radiant heart. You will live, walk more into how you were created to be. Peter said it best in 1 Peter 1.8. He called it joy unspeakable and full of glory. Loving God and obeying him will not bring death. It will bring unspeakable joy in our inner man. That's what he's talking about there. Paragraph C, Jesus as a jealous God, because when he's saying, sent me as a seal, he goes, I don't mean just sent me as the savior to seal you, I've already forgiven you. Not just as the healer, I've healed you. Not just as your master, I'm giving you directions. Ask me to come near you as the jealous bridegroom God and see what happens. When I come near you as the jealous bridegroom God, I will require everything from you in the spirit like death does in the natural. But beloved, the more that we say yes, the more light and the more light we get, the more ability we have to walk in the Holy Spirit. Exodus 34 verse 14, when he spoke to Moses, he says, Moses, be sure of this, I'm a jealous God. And beloved, a jealous lover in this age sets us back. But when the jealous lover is pure, infinitely pure in loving, for him to consume us means that his infinite joy and love and light touches our spirit. That is good that he is jealous. It is good that he wants more and more. I mean, normally a king with his power, I mean, the natural thing that a king would do is I don't want more from you, just kind of stay out of my way. He goes, no, I want deep interaction. I want all of your thoughts. I want to be that close to you. What an honor that he even requires this of us. You couldn't find another person in the world that would be this interested in you. So instead of like, Lord, what are you doing? He goes, I'm interested in you in a way that nobody else is. Nothing about you bores me. I am interested in your thoughts. I am interested in your time and your money in a way that even the person that loves you most could never maintain this kind of interest. He wants to reveal himself as the bridegroom God, not just a savior who forgives us. He has more to say to us than forgiveness, though I love forgiveness. He loves more to say than healing or provider. He's more than a provider. He is the jealous bridegroom God. I love the song that we sing. He will not relent till he has it all. Beloved, that's a powerful reality. When we give him some, he wants more, and he wants more, and he wants more. Roman numeral three, Jesus said, set me as a seal. It's flames or a flame of fire. Now, it's a seal of fire. Now, what Solomon, who wrote this love song, he would have been familiar with the king's seal would have been a wax seal. But this isn't a wax seal. The king would put his documents in a container, then he would put an encasement of wax around the container. Then the king would put his signet ring on it to guarantee the contents of what was in that container. So when a person received a sealed document, it was a wax seal with the king's signet ring, his signature, then what he was saying is, all the armies of my kingdom will back up what's in that waxed, sealed container. He says, it's not a seal of wax. It's a seal of fire. And the entire power of my kingdom will back up the promises of what that seal is about. All the power of God will back it up. Well, the enemy raises up opposition. He wants to send water to put the flame out. But, you know, naturally, according to nature, according to nature, water always puts out fire. But this isn't according to nature. This is supernatural. This fire will put out all the water. The water of sin and temptation. It is not a matter what kind of addiction or pain or sin or perversion or the depths of darkness. That water cannot put out supernatural fire. If you will yield to that fire, it will overcome the power of immorality, the power of addictions, the power of bitterness. The fire can't be put out by darkness. It's a supernatural fire. Now it says in Revelation 12 that in the end times, Satan is going to vomit out of hell a flood of trouble against the people of God. But it actually uses the word he will flood them with persecution and the end time church will have a fire burning in them that is more powerful than the floods of darkness. Whether it's the perversion that is increasing so rapidly or the bitterness and the anger or the addictions or all the different things that are happening or the flood of persecution itself. I tell you, thus says the Lord, there is a fire that is supernatural that water can't put out. Now we have to call upon the Lord for it. Romans number four, Jesus calls her to set him as a seal. We must invite him. By the very definition of love, we must voluntarily respond. If this was something else, Jesus might give it to us automatically. But by the very definition of love, it can't be forced. He waits on us to take our stand, to believe him and to call upon him for an increase of this. In the matters of the heart, in the matters of the heart, the Holy Spirit will not violate our free will. He allow us to come on our own. Now some people, they'll look at their Bibles and different translations of the Bibles has a different outlines. They'll pay a scholar, a different translation and this scholar will create the outline. And so the outline, it says that the bride is talking here. Well, again, those aren't inspired. They paid a guy a few X amount of money and he put the outline in that part of the Bible and there you have it, it's his opinion. And so don't go by the outline of the Bible translator, go by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now I've got about 150 at last count a couple of years back, over 150 commentaries on the Song of Solomon. I have a passion about the Song of Solomon. And many scholars, scholarly commentaries, many of them are just popular kind of real practical, but I've got quite a number of scholarly ones. And many of the scholarly commentaries will point out that the pronouns in this passage cannot be, you cannot be certain on it. So some think it's the bride calling out to Jesus and others think it's Jesus speaking. And I believe that's the right way, Jesus is speaking. Beloved, it's theologically impossible that the bride is saying to Jesus, put me on your heart, please love me. Don't let the fire go out. Jesus doesn't need us to ask him to love us. His love is eternal, it's infinite. This is Jesus speaking. It's not the bride beckoning Jesus to love her. It's Jesus saying, set me as the seal and you'll be surprised at the level and the quality of what I will give to you. My own story, just real quick, just in closing. It was in July, 1988, near 20 years ago. I was in my office and I had read a wedding invitation and it had this verse on it, set me as a seal upon your heart. And I thought, what a great verse. And so I opened my Bible, the Song of Solomon chapter eight, I read it. And as I began to read it, the presence of the Holy Spirit began to be manifest in a very unusual way, in terms of intensity. So much so that I called the receptionist and I said, no matter who calls, no matter what happens, please don't interrupt me for an hour or so, whatever, just for some time. I said, the Lord's touching me in a very unusual way right now. And in 30 years of ministry, I've only done that one time ever. I mean, it was that distinct, it was that out of the ordinary that I would make this phone call. And I was praying and I was praying actually John 17, 26. I was saying, Lord, the love, because it was been my life verse for many years. So I just applied it. Jesus, the love wherein the Father loves you, release the love of God in my heart. I just turned it right into John 17, 26. Release the love of God. And I began to weep and the presence of God was on me in such an unusual way. It was 10 minutes later. The phone rings. I can't believe the phone rings. I'm under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the ecstasy of divine love. And in less than one second, I'm mad and I'm in the flesh. Now I know none of you can relate to that. The seal hadn't taken place. The water put it out for just that one moment. And I was, this was such an awesome moment. I'm again, I've never ever in 30 years called the receptionist and said, please, something is so unusual happening right now. Don't let anybody even, you know, don't interrupt in any way. So the receptionist says, you know, I really apologize. You said something real special is happening, but Bob Jones is on the line. And most of you know, Bob Jones, a man that had spoken prophetically to me many times with profound accuracy. And he goes, he's on the line. And he says, he only has one minute, but he heard the audible voice of God for you. The receptionist says, I was kind of in a jam. I mean, don't God's visiting you, but the audible voice of God, he goes, I just kind of figured you would want to know. I go, always, it was the audible voice of God. Always let it in. Good, good choice. Good choice. Bless you. Bless you. I got the fire back, you know. I said, Bob, he says, I literally have 60 seconds. He goes, they're out in the driveway with a car running. I have to go to the airport and I'm running late. But the most remarkable thing just happened. What? He said, I heard the audible voice of the Lord. I mean, awake with my ear, I heard it, not my inner kind of, I had a thought, I heard it. I heard the audible voice of God. And he said, and the Lord said this audibly, Song of Solomon chapter eight, verse six and seven. I'm on my knees with Song of Solomon chapter eight. Looking at it with the phone, I go, yes. I didn't say yes, to be honest. I just said, hello, Bob. And I said, thank you. Those are the only two phrases I said in the entire 60 second conversation. He said, hello. He gave it and I said, thank you and hung up. That was it. I was so overwhelmed. He said, Song of Solomon chapter eight, verse six. I heard it audibly. The Lord told me two things. He told me to tell you that the focus of your ministry, all of your days is to be focused on this reality. And he will help you and he will anoint you. And he will be with you in this. I'm thinking, wow, that's intense. And he goes, and secondly, he told me that this promise, he is gonna release it, unrelated to the promise to me. He's gonna do it sovereignly across the earth. He is gonna release this anointing of Song of Solomon eight, six upon the body of Christ across all the nations. This is, he's gonna release it in this coming generation. Now here's the strange part. He said, Mike, he says, he's talking to me. He goes, I just heard this. I haven't even looked the verse up. I don't even know what it is. He goes, I hope it makes sense. I'm sure it does. And I said, thank you. That's all I said was hello and thank you in 60 seconds. And I was the power of God. The presence of God was on me. I just began to weep. You know, he came back a week later. He says, did that verse make any sense to you? I go, oh, you have no idea. I was so excited. I called my wife. After that left, the sense of it lifted a little while. I said, the Lord spoke audibly. I said, it's the most amazing reality. She goes, wow. So I go, that's early in the morning. I go home late that night and she's all excited. Hey, the audible voice of God, aren't you excited? I go, well, not really. She goes, well, how could that be? I go, I've never read the Song of Solomon until today. I may have read it a little bit here and there, but I said, I don't know. I don't know if I can do this book. Because I didn't have any, I couldn't connect with it. I had to commission before I had any understanding of it at all. And of course, the Lord changed that around over the years. But beloved, the Lord has made clear to me that this is my focal point of ministry, that it's not the only thing I will do, but it's my focal point to reveal the Bridegroom God and to call the Bride of Christ to the first commandment, to walk in the anointing of love. They will always overflow in love to the people if they love God in a supernatural way. There's people in this room. You have the same calling. There are people that are watching this class by television, by internet, and you have the same calling as well. And John 3, 29 gives us a biblical term for that calling. John the Baptist had it. It's called a friend of the Bridegroom. It's a ministry that focuses on revealing the Bridegroom God and preparing the bride to respond in wholehearted love. And there, I just believe there are thousands or millions, I don't know the number, all around the world that God will be sovereignly has already been visiting and He will in the days to come. And some of them will even be, this will be clarified in their own life by this very testimony. That God is calling you to be a friend of the Bridegroom like John the Baptist, the forerunner to prepare for the second coming. And in that, you are gonna proclaim the realities of Jesus, the Bridegroom God. But you're gonna have to go deep in that message if you're gonna proclaim it. You may proclaim it through song, through intercession. You may proclaim it through writing, through poems, through drama, through theater, through evangelism, through one-on-one discipleship in the children's ministry. There's many ways you can prepare that. You don't have to have a teaching ministry in the traditional sense. What is the message? To call people to the Bridegroom God. And secondly, to call the people to believe God for the seal of fire to be released in their heart. And they don't have to use that term. They can say the anointing to love in the first commandment. I wanna have you stand right now if you would. I'm gonna ask the worship team if they'll come up. Those, I'm gonna invite any of you that says, in this room, you say, I know that's my calling. And when the Lord spoke this to me and said through Bob Jones, the audible voice of the Lord, tell him this is his focus. I am convinced it's not only my single focus. It is the premier focus of the IHOP movement. It's a movement focus, not just an individual one. These are the marching orders. This is the promise of the anointing of the grace of God to make this message known. And it's not necessarily just the Song of Solomon. It's the reality for which the Song of Solomon represents. You don't have to say it through the Song of Solomon language, but the principles are clear. It's the first commandment. It's calling forth the Bride of Christ. Calling forth the Bride of Christ to respond in wholehearted love by believing God for the anointing of love to increase in their life. And those of you in this room, you say, I know this is my life focus. It's not the only thing I will do, but whether I do evangelism, discipleship, worship, intercession, writing, dramas, plays, whatever, I know this is my premier focus. I wanna invite you to come and stand before the Lord if that is your focus right. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit mikebickle.com.