Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of understanding the glory of Jesus as the Son of Man, urging believers to seek a deeper revelation of His magnificence beyond His roles as healer, forgiver, and provider. He highlights the necessity of positioning our hearts to receive more of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, who desires to guide us into a greater knowledge of Christ. Bickle encourages believers to pursue a personal relationship with Jesus, emphasizing that true transformation comes from knowing God and being obsessed with His excellence. He draws from Paul's dedication and the prophetic vision of Daniel to illustrate the significance of Jesus' identity and His eternal reign. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a commitment to long and loving meditation on the Word to deepen our understanding of God.

Turn to Daniel chapter 7, if you want to follow along in your Bible. We have these on the notes, but I always like people to have their Bible right there ready to go. Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus, and we ask you to reveal the glory of your Son tonight. Lord, magnify your Son in our hearts. We ask for a revelation of the magnificence of Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to receive a revelation of the magnificence of Jesus. He's not just a healer, He is a healer. He's not just a forgiver, I love forgiveness. He's not just a provider. He's not just one that gives us direction. I love those dimensions of Jesus' ministry to my life and to the body of Christ. But He's more than that. He is magnificent, and I believe the Holy Spirit worldwide is wanting to give a revelation of the magnificence of Jesus, who He is in His personhood. Not just what He does for us, though what He does for us is an expression of who He is. I mean, again, I love forgiveness, His mercy. I love healing. I love provision. But He's so much more than that. In Philippians chapter 3, verse 8, Paul gives us a unique insight into Paul's own motivation, what moved him. Now, there's not many passages where we get to see what moved Paul in a deeply personal way. But here in Philippians 3, verse 8, he tells us. He pulls the curtain back of his heart, tells us what motivated him most. He says in verse 8, Philippians 3, verse 8, I count all things loss. Why? Because I want to experience the excellency of Jesus. Or I put the word in there, the magnificence of Jesus. That He would become our magnificent obsession. That we would be obsessed with His excellence. That we would feel the power of it. That we would be energized by this revelation of the knowledge of Jesus. Let's read the passage again. Again, one of the most insightful passages about what motivated Paul. He said, I count everything loss. I will give up anything to position my heart to receive more. We don't earn anything. But we can position our heart to receive more. That's why there's a lot of believers that have more in God than other believers. They're not loved more, but they position themselves to receive more because they're hungrier. Paul says, I'll give up anything. I'll remove anything that gets in the way. Because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. That the knowledge of that man would touch my heart in power. I've prayed a certain prayer for many years. I pray, Lord, if I could see what Paul saw, then I could be dedicated like he's dedicated. If I could see what he saw about Jesus, I could have the same dedication. Because Paul's dedication came out of his insight. A lot of people talk about Paul that he was just so zealous. Well, there's a lot of zealous people in their natural personality, but they don't follow through in obedience to God. What makes us motivated to press in against all the obstacles is the knowledge of the glory of Jesus. We want to experience more of the power of it. And so we press in, positioning ourselves to receive more. We could see what Paul saw. We could live like he lived. I don't mean we would have the same ministry. We wouldn't have the same impact. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about we could have the same kind of dedication. Paragraph B, there's no aspect of the grace of God that more powerfully transforms the human heart than when God reveals God by the Holy Spirit to the human spirit. I'll say that again. Nothing more powerfully transforms our emotions than when God reveals God to the human spirit. It takes God to know God. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to experience the revelation of God. But it's the inheritance of every believer to be obsessed with Jesus if they want to be. It's up to them. But the Holy Spirit is waiting with great desire to be our escort into the greater dimensions of the knowledge of Jesus, the experiences of Him. John chapter 16, verse 13. Jesus said the Holy Spirit, He will guide you. I put the word in there, He will escort you. I mean, what a remarkable escort into the knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit. The picture I have in my mind, He takes me by the hand and He says, I want to escort you up that glorious mountain called the knowledge of God. I'll take you as far as you want to go. Jesus said, John 16, verse 13, the Spirit will guide you. He will escort you. Verse 14, I love this promise. Here's what Jesus said about the ministry of the Spirit. He will take what is mine and He will speak it to your heart. I mean, I can't imagine a promise more glorious in this age than the Spirit speaking to my heart about Jesus, the deep things of Jesus. You know, we talk a lot about faith teaching, the body of Christ does. You know, and we typically, when we think of receiving faith teaching or teaching that builds our faith, mostly people limit that to faith for physical healing. Because it's biblical that physical healing and faith are response, they are connected. There's other dimensions involved in receiving physical healing, but our faith is very important. Other people talk about faith teaching to receive money, and that's a biblical teaching. Now, the important thing is that we use the money for the right things, but that's another subject for another day. But we need faith teaching about the Holy Spirit's desire to teach us more about Jesus. Look at verse 14 again, John 16, verse 14. The Holy Spirit, this is Jesus speaking, He will take what is mine, He will personally preach it to your heart. I mean, we have the greatest teacher on the earth, the Holy Spirit. He lives in us. Beloved, the Holy Spirit knows more about Jesus than we can imagine. He knows so much about Jesus, and He is a really good communicator. But He only communicates to the degree that we're hungry. He will talk to us, but to the measure we talk to Him. It's a remarkable spiritual principle, meaning it's a very significant one is what I mean. That as a rule, there are exceptions. As a rule, the Holy Spirit will only talk to you to the degree that you start the conversation. Now He's not limited to that, but that's the rule of how He relates to us in this age. We talk to Him about any subject we want. He knows everything about everything. We talk to Him about Jesus, He'll talk back. If we start the conversation, He will stay in it as long as we keep it going. We quit the conversation, He'll say, OK, I'll back away right now. You start that up again, I'll talk to you more about Jesus. And the reason so many believers know so little about Jesus is because they talk so little to the Holy Spirit about Him. Again, regardless of the subject, you can talk about your family, you can talk about your heart, you can talk about your money, you can talk about your healing, talk about your ministry, talk about the future. He will keep talking to you to the degree that you keep the conversation going. And I don't mean you'll hear sentences. I mean you might, one here and one there, but I mean He will inspire ideas. He will continue to give us insight. But when we stop the conversation, which because of our weakness, we stop it so quick, and the Holy Spirit would say, I had so much more to say, but I won't force feed you. I will only feed you based on your hunger for that subject. If you're hungry for it, I'll give you more. If you're content for now, OK, I won't force feed you. I won't force the conversation. Now having said that, every now and then the Holy Spirit begins the conversation. And typically that's bad news. Not always. But if He starts the conversation, often He's saying something that I say, ouch! So you don't want to wait until He starts it. Sometimes it's not like that. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. For those that are joining us with God TV, we have these notes on our website right now. It's called Knowing God, the Glory of Jesus. From Revelation 1 to 3, you go to the website right now and get them and follow along with us. IHOP.org 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the Spirit searches the deep things of God. What a statement! Now how can God the Holy Spirit, who's fully God, search out God the Father and the Son? I mean, if He's fully God, He knows everything. What is there to search? I mean, that's an unusual word. I don't understand how that all works. There's a whole lot I don't understand, particularly about these subjects. But the word I use is the Holy Spirit discerns the deep things of the Father's heart and the Son's heart. I don't know if that's exactly what Paul meant, but I just don't know what to do with God searching God. I just don't know what to do with that concept. So I think of the Spirit has discerned the deep things of the Father and of the Son, their heart. Why? Verse 12, to reveal them to us. Beloved, the Holy Spirit knows the deep things about Jesus, and He was given to speak them, to preach them, if you will, to our hearts, to the degree that we want to talk about them. We'll study them, pray about them, ask the Spirit for wisdom and understanding about Jesus. He has much to say about Him. A prayer that I've prayed through the years, another one. I've got a few of them here in the notes. I said, Holy Spirit, let me see what you see and feel what you feel about Jesus. I mean, the Holy Spirit sees a lot about Jesus, and He doesn't just see, He feels a lot. So in my weakness, in my brokenness, in my flesh, I go, I can't see or feel any of it without help. But let me see what you see, Holy Spirit, about Jesus, and let me feel what you feel. Now, just a little bit will go a long way. And over the years, the Holy Spirit's answered that prayer a little bit. And I see more and feel more. But my capacity is so small, and His capacity is so large, that if He gave me too much, it would like blow all my circuits, you know, like plugging 110 volts into a million, however that works, you know. I just know everything would blow up. Paragraph D, Ephesians 3.8, Paul describes his preaching ministry, Ephesians 3.8. He goes, To me, grace was given. Now, the word grace here, in this context, means the anointing of the Spirit. That's the, that's the concept. The empowering. The enabling. Paul's not talking about forgiveness right now when he says, grace was given to me, that I would preach. He's talking about an enabling, an anointing of the Spirit. Because grace involves forgiveness, and grace involves empowering. There's two dimensions of the grace of God. And we want to experience both of them. But look what he says. I was given grace, or I was anointed for a very specific purpose. To do what? To preach the unsearchable riches of the man Christ Jesus. Now Jesus is fully God, and He's fully man. But Paul received the anointing of the Spirit to make known the unsearchable riches of a man. That's why he was anointed. Now sometimes, we long for the anointing so we can have a big ministry. Or so the meetings will be more exciting. Or the home group, or the Bible study. Or people will finally pay attention to you. We all have a ministry, and we all have a teaching ministry. Whether most of the teaching in the body of Christ is done to twos and threes, or tens and twenties. Some teaching is done to crowds. Most of my teaching, I've been teaching the Bible on a weekly basis for 40 years. I just had my 40 year anniversary a few months ago of teaching a weekly Bible study. Started when I was 16 years old, I'm 56 now. My youth pastor told me, start teaching a Bible study. I only had 10 show up, I taught it every week, and never stopped. And even to this day, when I look over 40 years, most of my teaching ministry is to twos and threes. Yes, I have weekend services, but that's just a little bit of my teaching ministry. I would go as far to say most people in the body of Christ, their teaching ministry is twos and threes, tens and twenties. So don't think of this verse and only think of, well, when they finally give me a microphone and a full auditorium, then I'll be in the ministry. No, you're in the ministry if you're talking to your family. You're in the ministry if you're talking to people at work. I believe that the most significant ministry in the earth is mothers discipling their children. I believe that's the most significant discipleship ministry in the whole world today. I really believe this. It's done in twos and threes, sometimes tens and twenties. But we all have a teaching ministry, whether we know it or not. But here's the point I'm really making. The reason the Lord wants to enhance our teaching ministry is to make known the riches of a man. But I can't make known those riches to you if I don't experience them and seek them for me in my private life. So I talk to a lot of students that are Bible school. I say, okay, some of you are going to have large teaching ministries. A lot of you are going to have small ones. But I want you to contend for getting a greater anointing to make known the riches of this man, not just to attract a crowd, but to convince people of the beauty of Christ Jesus. Now, in the kingdom of God, we talk about many subjects. And that's biblical. We should. We talk about ministry skills. That's biblical. We teach on ministry skills. How to evangelize. How to pray for the sick. A lot of ministry skills. A lot of people talk about relationship skills. That's biblical. Leadership principles. That's biblical to teach leadership principles. Economic principles. That's important. There's a lot in the Bible on economic principles. Here's my point. The most neglected subject in the kingdom of God is God. I mean it. Preaching on God. Not just the benefits. I'm talking about the being of God. The most important subject in the kingdom of God is God. Not just what He provided, but who He is. And again, what He did for us flows out of who He is. You can't separate those two. But neither is it enough to know what He did without growing an understanding as to who He is. But that's taxing. That's challenging. That's difficult material. That's rigorous ground to cover. Because we can do a lot of things on the run, but you can't go deep in God on the run. We have to stop, unplug some things, turn off some things, shut some things down. And it's this sentence I love to say, long and loving meditation on the Lord. We study it. We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us. We say these things back to Jesus. We don't feel it. We don't understand very much of it, but we stay with it. And over the months and years it grows. The subject of God. Well, the Holy Spirit, He wants God to be the central theme of the kingdom of God. And I believe that He's raising up people that He's anointing to preach the riches of God. I remember I read a book years ago, 1985, over 25 years ago, called The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper. I think it was maybe his first book. He's one of the clearest voices in the body of Christ today from my point of view. And that was the first book I read of his. I think it was his first. He's probably got 25 of them by now. I don't know. But it's called The Supremacy of God in Preaching. It was in my 20s, late 20s. I read that. I said, now that is what I'm trying to say. It articulated clearly the desire that was in my heart. I wanted to touch God and make God known. I believe in the practical life skills, teaching them. I mean at the church. But I want to say this, there is nothing more practical than a believer understanding God. Because it changes the way they process pressure. It changes the way they process disappointment. How they process the future. When we have more understanding of God, we process good and bad very differently. We process prosperity in a different way. We process promotion differently when we understand God. So when people say, well let's be practical, I love to answer, there's nothing more practical in the kingdom of God than knowing God. Nothing more practical. Because it will change the way our emotions respond to the bad, the pressures, the negatives, as well as the positives. And if we respond rightly to those, beloved, we will prosper in our spirit. Let's look at Romans 2 here on the notes. And again, those that are just joining us with God TV, you can get these notes at ihop.org called Knowing God, the Glory of Jesus. Well I want to talk about Jesus as the Son of Man. This is a most significant revelation. I don't mean my revelation of it, that's not what I mean. I mean the revelation in the scripture of Jesus as the Son of Man. Jesus quoted, or referred to Himself in this title 85 times, 85 times. That's many more times than any other title that He used. I mean it's significantly more than the other titles, like I am the Shepherd, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Vine. He had many titles about Himself. But when He referred to Himself as the Son of Man 85 times, I haven't really done the math, but it's 10 or 20 times more than all the other ones. What does this mean? Well Daniel was the one that had a heavenly vision of Jesus as the Son of Man. And we find that vision in Daniel chapter 7. Now every time Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, the 85 times, He was always referring to the Daniel 7 vision, always. You say, that's a little dogmatic. The reason I know He was, that's the only prophecy in the Old Testament about Jesus as the Son of Man is one. It wasn't five of them, there's one. And Jesus anchored so much of His messianic ministry, His ministry as Messiah, He anchored it to one vision, Daniel 7. Now there's many prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament that refer to Jesus. I mean He's the only Messiah, they had to refer to Jesus. But for some reason, He really anchored His identity into Daniel 7, 85 times. Now one reason I'm telling you, I'm telling you for a couple reasons, I want to stir you up tonight without going into detail of Daniel 7, I want to stir you up tonight to make a mental note to yourself, I got, I must study Daniel 7. I must study this vision. If it's the vision Jesus referred to the most about Himself, I love Him, I want to know it. So that's kind of a little takeaway point, we're not going to really go into the vision much, make a couple little comments. The second reason I'm mentioning Daniel 7, because Jesus, we'll look at it in a few moments, He appeared to John the Apostle on the island of Patmos in Revelation 1, I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. And when He stood before John, in Revelation 1, He revealed Himself as the Son of Man that was the Daniel 7 Son of Man. So why is that important? Well we put Daniel 7 together with the four Gospels, where He referred to Himself as the Son of Man, then we put the, the full revelation of Jesus as the Son of Man in Revelation 1, we put them all together and we get a more complete portrait of what Jesus wants us to know about Himself as the Son of Man. Now I believe Daniel was a little perplexed. Now Daniel is, he's about 600 years B.C., just ballpark, 600 years B.C., that's close enough, 555, right in there, he's a prophet to Israel and he has this open vision. I believe he's very, very perplexed by what he sees. Let's read it here in Daniel 7 verse 9, he sees the Ancient of Days, now that's a revelation of the Father. He sees the Father, Daniel 7 verse 9, in His eternal nature. The Ancient of Days, the Eternal One. So, the Father's garments were white, like wool, and the Father's hair was white, I mean like wool like snow, both of those, in other words, bright white. So John is seeing a vision of the Father, this is very rare, he doesn't see the Father's face directly, because no man has seen the Father. But he sees dimensions, he, I'm sure it's not so clear because Jesus said no man's seen the Father, and He meant face to face, directly. But Daniel, through the glory of God, can make out some of the features of the Father, which is the most remarkable reality for a human being in this age, to see the Father even a little bit, even a bit at the side. Well, the Father has garments that are white and hair that's white, that speaks of the Father's eternal nature, His absolute purity, and His infinite wisdom. It says more than that, but that's enough to get started. The Father, white hair, absolute purity, eternal nature, infinite wisdom. So, so far, everything's okay, I mean Daniel's overwhelmed, but verse 13, it goes to another level, this is what perplexes him, in my opinion. I keep watching, verse 13, this massive, awesome vision, one like the Son of Man is coming on clouds, and He comes up real close to the Ancient of Days. Now, why is this troublesome? Because he sees a human next to the Father. You can't get a human up there. It is the rarest thing that a man has a partial vision of the Father, but he sees a human, a Son of Man, a human being, not next to Him in the vision, but next to the Father up in heaven. He goes, I can imagine, how did He get there, who is this man, what is this about, and He's not just in heaven, He comes near to God. Beloved, the Old Testament, you come near to God, you get struck dead. And I imagine Daniel's going, you know, what meaneth thou this, you know, like, no, he's going, a human is next to God. I mean, the God of the burning bush, the one that Moses said, you'll die if you see Him. And He's so close to Him. That's got to be a bit perplexing. Well, it doesn't end there. Verse 14, all of the kingdoms of the earth are given to this man. Now, it was a clear revelation that the Messiah would be the Son of David, He would be an offspring of David, and He would inherit the leadership of Israel. He would be the king over Israel, no question. But Daniel sees something far more than that. He's not just the king of Israel, he's the king of every single nation of the earth, and not for one generation, like David was king, and his son was king, and his son was king, he's king forever, it's a permanent position forever. So Daniel's, okay, you're human, you're next to God, that doesn't work, you're in heaven, I don't know how you got there. You're given the dominion over every nation, not just Israel, that's a little intense, and your term is eternal, you never ever run out, your sentence never runs out of ruling the earth. Who are you? That's what I believe that Daniel is very perplexed by, what man is this? How could this be a mere offspring of David, a human, because he's clearly seeing the Messiah. Well it doesn't end there. Verse 27, this Messiah, messianic figure, this Son of Man, this human with so much power, look what it says in verse 27, He shares it with His people forever. This must have absolutely excited Daniel, that the one, this man that has everything, He must be God or God-like somehow, Daniel was wrestling through, because in the Old Testament, they didn't have a clear theology of the Messiah being fully God and fully man. I mean, Jesus made it clear, but before Jesus came, that was a stretch. How could you be fully God and fully, what? Paul said, that's a mystery, that's a great mystery, that God became human while retaining His deity forever, but anyway, Daniel looks at this, but this man, not only has great power and is next to God, seemingly is God or something close to it, I mean, I don't know what Daniel's thinking. Verse 27, He shares His prominence and His glory of what He's inherited in the earth, He shares it with people, He's kind. He loves these people, He wants to rule with them. I mean, this is a strange idea. He loves them. Well, we find out later, the people He shares the kingdoms of the world with is His beloved bride, His eternal companion forever. We don't fully have that picture in the Old Testament. We have hints of it, particularly in the book of Isaiah, but this is amazing revelation. Top of page 2, and as always, we're not going to get through all the notes, it's not even my intention to, it's to leave you with something to go search out on your own. Top of page 2, now the two primary chapters that define Jesus as the Son of Man, there's two main chapters, now there's a lot of verses in the Gospel, like one verse or two verses clustered together, but in terms of chapters, there's two main ones. Daniel 7, we get a sneak preview of the Son of Man. And Revelation 1, where Jesus appears in person and He gives the revelation to John in a far greater measure. Starts off, Revelation chapter 1, verse 5. Now verse 5 is the summary verse. Verse 5 is so amazing. Verse 5 is the summary verse of the glory and destiny of Jesus as a man. Now every facet isn't contained in verse 5, but verse 5 is the summary verse of the Jesus that's revealed throughout the book of Revelation. It's His unique destiny as a man. Now we know Jesus is God, but His destiny as a man on the earth is described here. Now we got a snapshot of it in Daniel 7, His destiny on the earth. He's going to rule over all the nations. But here, and I'm not going to break this down, though I have notes on the internet, if you want more on this subject, verse 5, He's the faithful witness. There's so much to that. He's the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. Those three phrases, there is a volume of information in all three of them. They describe His destiny, His human destiny on the earth, and His authority over the realm of the resurrection forever. Those three things. I'm not going to break those down right now, but again, if you're stirred up by that and you say, okay, go study it on your own. There's a lot of information just on the internet. And if you want to know a few things I think about it, just go to the website and it's all there for free. You can download it and our copyright is the right to copy. You can copy anything you want. You can not just copy it, you can change it and put your name on it. Put your mother's name on it. It's yours. Do anything with it you want. You better tell her first. If you put her name on it, take my name off. She may be mad at me, okay. Verse 13. Now here's Jesus standing before John and here's what He's saying in essence, John, I'm filling in the blanks of what I showed Daniel. I'm going to give you more than Daniel received and I'm filling in the blanks, John, what I showed you during my life, my earthly ministry, because John was with Jesus those three and a half years. He says, I'm going to show you more than you saw in my earthly ministry, which is revealed in the gospels. I'm going to give you more. So, again, we put together Daniel 7, the revelation of the Son of Man in the gospels, and the Revelation 1. Put them all together and we get a more complete portrait. Verse 13. It sounds like Daniel here. I saw one like the Son of Man. That's like almost word for word out of Daniel 7. It's supposed to be parallel to Daniel 7. You're supposed to understand that. Well this is different. John sees the clothing of the Son of Man. Daniel didn't, but John does. He has a garment down to the feet. Clearly, this speaks of the fact he's the sympathetic high priest. I don't want to go into the details of all of these, but each one of these descriptions have a lot more information from Genesis to Revelation if we want it. It's like the Holy Spirit gave us a hint, and he said, if you want more, the Bible's filled with much more information to bring together for every one of these phrases. Verse 14. Wow, this looks like the Father. This man, Jesus, his hair and his head were white like wool, like snow. Jesus has the same eternal nature, the same absolute purity, the same infinite wisdom of his Father. And, of course, John knew that, but what a startling or just a moving vision. He looks like the Father in his nature. Now John knew that, but there's a lot of implications for each one of these. His eyes are like fire. And I believe that his eyes, like burning fire, speak more about his desire for his people than judgment. Because fire relates to judgment, but here's the larger context. God's judgments are released to remove everything that hinders love. The reason his judgments exist, because his holiness and his love exists. Some people think God's a consuming fire, meaning he's just the eternal ball of judgment. No. God is an eternal fire, is a consuming love forever. And for the short duration of 6,000 years of human history, his judgments break forth in the natural. But for a God who's billions and billions and billions of years, eternal past, eternal future, his judgments in natural history only show up for a moment of time. My point is this. God as a consuming flame is much more than just a ball of judgment. He is consuming desire. He's love. When he looked at the upper room, he looked down on the upper room, fire fell on all the disciples in the upper room. That wasn't judgment. That was what he feels about them being manifest. Well there's a lot on that. Again we've got a few handouts on the website on that. God like fire, his feet were like fine brass, his voice like many waters, he had in his right hand seven stars, his countenance was like the sun, John fell like a dead man when he saw him. And there's so much more here. My point isn't to break down Daniel 1. My point is to just stir you up with hunger for Daniel, I mean for Revelation 1. I don't want to just break it down, it would take a long time and I don't know that much about it. But it would still take a long time, phrase by phrase. I want to stir you up to the goldmine of Revelation 1. Paragraph C, I summarize Revelation 1, 2, and 3 because it's one vision. It's one vision that happens over three chapters. It's the same vision. John records the vision. Here's paragraph C is one of the parts I want to emphasize most in these notes. In this vision of John 1, 2, and 3, I mean Revelation 1, 2, and 3, John highlights thirty descriptions about Jesus. His majesty and his ministry. He highlights thirty descriptions, again, eyes like fire, face like the sun, those are two more. And he highlights eighteen eternal rewards. Now here's my point. Just mark paragraph C if you're following along on the notes because that's the point I want to emphasize most. These thirty descriptions and these eighteen rewards communicate specific aspects about Jesus as the Son of Man. Paragraph D, these thirty descriptions, I have an appendix on the website where I list them all. Paragraph E, here's the point I want you to catch. John was only giving the most abbreviated statement. He goes, eyes like fire, okay, eyes like fire. No, what the Holy Spirit is saying, I have much to tell you about his eyes like fire and it's in the Bible that I will use. Each phrase is a hint. Each phrase, I kind of, the phrase I say, it's the title of a book in heaven. Each phrase has so much information in the Bible to fill it out. Each one of these thirty phrases is like a menu. It's like just an item on the menu that the Holy Spirit wants to feed his church in this generation. Now let's go to the top of page three. Now for those of you that want to, you say, okay, I'm stirred up a little bit. My curiosity has awakened. Some of you, you said, I've been studying that for years and this is just a confirmation. Others of you, this is a new idea. I took last year and I'm taking this year too, 2011, 2012, I teach every Friday night besides when we have a conference, which is about every other week, but in theory I teach every Friday night and I'm, 2011 and 12, I'm going through each one of these descriptions and I plan to do it for another couple of years, literally every Friday night. We don't have a conference or a special event, which we have a lot, and I put it on Paul White, next Friday night I'll be teaching on Jesus the first and the last, I mean Jesus the faithful witness. The point is this, I'm searching out, which you can do the same, but if you want somebody to help you out a little bit on it, I'll give you some material. We search out what the Spirit has said about each one of these thirty descriptions, Old and New Testament, and how it applies to Jesus in our life in a particular way, and I want to tell you, it has been the most exhilarating experience to me as a Bible teacher every Friday night to spend the week on this, praying it back to God, and again I don't know that much on it, I know a lot more than I used to know, but I still don't know very much, because there's so much more to know. Beloved, it is a gold mine. Revelation 1 is a gold mine of divine information. And again the Spirit says, take every phrase, search it out, Genesis to Revelation, and I will exhilarate and fascinate your heart with things about Jesus. Let me see, let's go, Roman numeral 3, the end of page 3, searching with all of our heart. Proverbs 2 tells us this, if you will seek for her as silver, and the her is the knowledge of God, we'll find that in a moment, if you will search for the knowledge of God like silver, if you will search out these 30 descriptions, like hidden treasure, God promises, verse 5 of Proverbs 2, you will find the knowledge of God. You will discover it, little by little, it's not like one day you don't have it, the next day you do, it's not like that. We discover the knowledge of God throughout our entire life. And then when we get a resurrected body in the age to come, and we discover the knowledge of God forever. A billion years from now, I will still be learning these 30 descriptions. And so will you. We search it out. And it takes time in the Word. Now everybody doesn't have the same amount of time that other people do, but whatever time you have in the will of God, in every season of your life, that time allotment is probably different. Because in some seasons of your life, your assignment in God requires more time on various things. But most people, there are some that this is not true of, most people have an element of free time they can decide what to do with. And if you will take that free time, and I challenge our students, turn some things off, turn some things away, shut the door, and give yourself to long and loving meditation on the Word. Take these 30 descriptions, search them out, if you don't know where to start, again I'll give you a little jump start with some of the handouts I have, but again I'm confessing I don't know that much about these. He's bigger than we think. No matter how much I grow, in my understanding, I go from a fraction of 1% to a little bigger fraction of 1% of the information. He's big. Our hearts and our minds are little, but I like going from one fraction of a percent to another one. It exhilarates me. It's the most exciting way to live. He is fascinating. Beloved, I want to be obsessed with this man. I don't want to just be forgiven, my passport stamped so my entrance into heaven is guaranteed. Get a couple physical healings, a little bit of money, a little bit of anointing and ministry, and then live spiritually bored for 40 years. That's how a lot of people are content to live, spiritually, a little healing, a little money, a little bit of direction, a little blessing here and there, and they live mostly spiritually bored with Jesus. They love Him, but they don't talk to Him. They love Him, but information about Him and the Word is boring. I understand. I lived like that for some years. But I have good news for you. For folk like us, and I didn't like the Bible at all my first couple years. I love Jesus, but I didn't like prayer and I didn't like the Bible at all. I mean, it's not a joke. I didn't at all. My youth leaders were concerned. They set me down. This is true. Right when I was about to go to college, they said, Bickle, if you don't start taking prayer and the Bible more seriously, you're going to have a lot of problems. I love meetings. I could go to meetings seven nights a week. And I love ministry trips. I could go to ministry trips 52 weeks a year. But just the role Bible, God, and prayer, ugh! It was so boring. I told God, I love you. It's just boring talking to you, but you know, don't take that personally. Beloved, I mean, I loved Him intensely. I mean, I was known among the young people, my college years and my high school, college years as radical for the Lord because I really cared about Him, but not Bible and prayer. I didn't like that at all. I like meetings. If an angel would have appeared to me, which he didn't, and said, yay, oh boy of God, you know, would have told me that back then, you will lead 24-hour prayer one day, that would have been more bitter than death to me if I would have heard that in my young years. I mean it. If the Lord would not have hidden IHOP for me, and if I would have known that when I was 18, I would have just quit right there. I'm just total discouragement. Like, what? 24-hour prayer with Bible school, teaching night and day, Bible study. I'd go, ah, ministry trips, yes, not Bible study and prayer. Not me. I'm an activist. I can't do that. And I only take that minute or two to tell you that because a guy who loves Jesus, didn't like the Bible and prayer, he changed me, and I'm telling you, he can change you. I tell our interns, they go, yeah, whatever, you're leader of IHOP, you're supposed to like prayer. I go, no. No, no, you don't get it. It was a miracle. I was the one guy I was sure this would never work for. I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating either. I knew I would love him, but not Bible and prayer, and to think that one day I would be here doing this, oh God, thank you for hiding it from me. I would have quit of discouragement. But I want to tell you, there is a correlation between the amount of time we spend and the amount of knowledge of God that increases in us. There is a correlation. It doesn't matter. You're not earning the love of God by spending time on the earth. You're feeding your hunger. There's a difference. I remember one time, I was at a ministry trip, and we had two conferences back to back. And all the leaders were at both conferences. We had a day off, and all the leaders, the five leaders were all going out to dinner on the one day off. And I decided to stay in the apartment, or the hotel I mean, and just spend the evening with the Lord. And the guy said to me, one of the leaders said, you know, the Lord won't mind if you go to this dinner with us and just have some fun and relax. He won't mind. I said, I know. He's so gracious. He won't mind at all. I said, I'm the one that will mind, because I'm dying of hunger right now. I said, I'm not doing it to make God love me. He already likes me. He won't mind at all. I'm the one that minds. I can't live with my spirit feeling empty right now. I have to touch it some more again. He goes, oh, OK. It's a different idea. I said, I don't have an opinion about you. I can't live without having time like this with God. It says in Proverbs 25, it's the glory of God to hide a matter. Proverbs 25, verse 2. Proverbs 25, 2. It's the glory of God to hide a matter. But it's the glory of a king to search it out. Beloved, we need a kingly spirit that will search out the deep things of God in the Bible. I don't even mean to give sermons. I mean to just magnify the beauty of who he is and just to relish it and to enjoy it. That's enough in itself. And more times than not, you'll end up sharing it with somebody. But I don't study it just to share it. I study it to feel the power of it so I can enjoy him. Greatest pleasure the human spirit can have is to enjoy God revealing God to our spirit. There's no pleasure more powerful to the human frame than when God reveals God to the human spirit. It exhilarates our spirit. Paragraph 4. I mean, page 4. I'm just going to be brief on this and I'm going to respond to the Lord. I just want to give you just a moment on this acronym, A-R-K. Paragraph C. I use this acronym A-R-K. And you can use any way you want to. You can do it any way you want. But I take each of the 30 descriptions of God and A, I agree with it. I go before his presence and I agree with it. I say, Jesus, I agree you are the faithful witness. And I agree with thanksgiving and with affection. Jesus, you have eyes like fire. Some people have never, ever told Jesus the truth about him from Revelation 1. They've never said to him, Jesus, your feet are like British bronze. And the understanding of it. And I find that when we simply say it back to him, I say, I agree with him and with affection and gratitude, I thank you. You are the firstborn from the dead. And I quiet my spirit and say that to him. Then R, I say, give me more revelation. Holy Spirit, teach me. Teach me about Jesus as the firstborn from the dead. I want to know him in this way. And then K, Jesus spoke in the book of Revelation, and the notes are here. He said, in the book of Revelation, he said, blessed are those that keep the prophecy. In other words, those, the end of paragraph C, that respond to the revelation of Jesus in a personal way, in their personal life. They keep the prophecy. In other words, their actions and their attitudes, they change them in light of these revelations of Jesus. So I will say, and I got a lot of examples written. I'll let you read them on your own. But I will say something. I'll just take one of the 30 descriptions. Jesus, you are ruler of the kings of the earth. Verse 5, Revelation 1. So I'll quiet my spirit. I'll do it a lot of times in the prayer room, the music going on. Sometimes I'll do it at home. Sometimes I'll be driving somewhere. And I love to say these things to him. I love to tell him, thank you. I agree with you, you are the ruler of the kings of the earth. Not always, but sometimes I just feel, I love the power of that. I go, ooh, that felt good. I love saying that. When it's the Holy Spirit touching me a little bit, just a little bit. But I agree with that. And I put, I love you. I put affection and gratitude, thank you. You're the ruler of the kings of the earth. I do this with all 30 of them. Then R, I go, Holy Spirit, I almost know nothing about Jesus as the ruler of the kings of the earth. I mean, I got a few Bible verses down. But I don't really know it. Would you declare him as king of the earth to my heart? The Holy Spirit might say something like, I thought you'd never ask. He wouldn't say that because he knows everything. But I was waiting for you to ask. How's that? And you can ask him one time, or you can ask him that, show me Jesus as the ruler of the kings of the earth. You can ask him that 10,000 more times, and he will answer you to the degree you ask him. Our problem is, we're satisfied too quickly. We ask him once, you know, one time in October, and then it's three years later. We've never ever brought the subject up again. The Holy Spirit might say something like, I was just waiting for you to keep asking about it. I have lots to tell. You asked me once in October, you haven't said it again in three years. I thought you were hungry for it. And then, K, I keep the prophecy using Jesus's word, blessed are those that keep the prophecy, meaning I apply it. You're the ruler of the kings of the earth, so I commit myself, I go, I commit myself to obey your authority. It's a very simple statement. I commit myself to obey you as king. I commit myself to tell people about you as king. I'm going to do something about it in my attitudes and actions. Very simple. Now I have, because with, you know, with electronics, you just have all kinds of lists and stuff. I have all these listed on the internet, but I got a page for each one of them. I got a file and a folder in my laptop for every one of these. And I love to go in the prayer room, and I just declare these one by one. I tell him who he is. He already knows who he is, but when I tell him, it touches me, and it grows in me. I study it out, commentaries and different other people. I ask the spirit to teach me, and I get some of that teaching from other people the spirit has spoken to. I search it out from anyone. Anybody that can tell me about those 30 things, I will take it from anywhere. I just want to know more about these 30 descriptions. And then I commit my life to them, and I tell you, let a few years go by, and these things will start taking root in you, and you will live with a vibrant heart and exhilarated spirit. Amen. We'll end with that. Let's stand. Jesus, the Son of Man, most glorious. I'm not content where I'm at. I am grateful for everything He's given me, but I am miserable to get more. I don't want just more money. I do want more money. I don't want just bigger anointing. I do want a bigger anointing. I want bigger everything. But what I really want is more of this. And I am willing to turn things down. I've turned down many opportunities of blessing to come and go and to meet people and financial opportunities, ministry, because I want to spend my time searching this out. And I can't be on the run and search this out, so I have to turn things down. I'm not saying that like I'm a hotshot. I'm saying you will have to turn good things away to make time for this. You won't get this on the run. You'll get this if you're hungry for it. A kingly spirit. So let's respond to the Lord. I'm going to lead you in prayer for just a moment. As Missy's team is setting up here. Jesus, I want to know you. Just whisper this, your own words to Him. Just your own way, I want to know you. I don't even hardly know you. I do love you. But I hardly know you. You're a stranger to me, though I do love you. I mean, John felt like a dead man when he saw Him. It's like John says, I don't even know this about you. Hardly. So Jesus, I ask you, teach me. Holy Spirit, declare Jesus to me. I am not content to know a little bit more than the guy next to me. I want to know you. I want you to give me everything you will give the human spirit in this age. Whatever you will give the human spirit in this age, I want it. Whatever measure that is. I want more. Just talk to Him for a few moments. As we go forward in worship, instead of having people pray for people, I'm trusting that the majority of you, you want to talk to the Lord right now. If you want to come up front, you can. Feel free to do that or stay in your chair. Either way, just take a few minutes and let's just respond. Say, Lord, I want to be yours. I don't want to just be committed. I want to know the deep things of your heart. Don't give up in a decade. Stay with it year by year, decade by decade. You say, well, I'm 80. Well, beloved, better start now than never. If you're 80, start now. Start today. Feel free to come up or stay in your chair either way you want.