Mike Bickle emphasizes the critical importance of understanding the messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, as they provide essential insights for the church to prepare for the second coming of Christ. He explains that these chapters reveal Jesus' heart and action plan for cleansing the earth of evil, and they serve as a guide for the prayer and prophetic movements to mature. Bickle warns that neglecting these teachings can lead to peril, as they are foundational for the church to operate in power and unity during the end times. He encourages believers to dwell together in intimacy with God, aligning with His agenda to be entrusted with the authority to bind and loose as described in the scriptures. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a prepared bride that is ready to engage in the spiritual battles ahead, emphasizing the need for a deep understanding of God's eternal perspective.

Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus, right now, for a spirit of grace and impartation in this room and those that are joining us all around the world with GodTV. Lord, I ask you for the spirit of grace to even now prepare our hearts to hear and receive. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, tonight we're going to look at Revelation chapter 2 and 3. Now, this is a passage of Scripture that's often neglected, but we neglect it at great peril, because it's what Jesus defines as necessary for his people to reach the highest ideals that are in his heart for the church in this age. The book of Revelation, the theme of it is the second coming of Christ, and the second coming of Christ, in the most positive sense, truly is the perfect storm. It's not a storm against the righteous, and the devil will strike the righteous, but he will not prevail. It's a storm against the Antichrist and his worldwide empire, and it's a perfect storm against Satan and his dominion on the earth and his time on the earth. And God is raising up an ark. He's raising up a people all over the earth who dwell together in the secret place on his terms. It's a Psalm 91 ark. There will be safety for the people of God, spiritual, physical, there'll be power, the miracles in the book of Acts, and the miracles in the book of Exodus. Now think of Exodus with Moses. Think of the book of Acts with the 12 apostles. The miracles of Acts, the miracles of Exodus, are going to be combined and multiplied on a global level and loosed and released through the end-time praying church. That is what the Great Tribulation is. See when I say that, the miracles released, people normally go, wow! But they think of the miracles in a vacuum. The book of Revelation is mostly about the miracles of Moses and the miracles of the book of Acts multiplied, striking the kingdom of darkness, loosed by the praying church. So the storm is mounting. As the prayer movement gets more mature, the storm will get become more intense, because the prayer movement is what's releasing the storm. And the storm, the activity from heaven striking against the kingdom of darkness, and the prayer movement on the earth are running parallel in connection and in relationship with one another. Revelation chapter two and three is the place, it's the human context, Jesus described it, where the saints gather on his terms according to his agenda and they mature so they can be entrusted with power to release the judgments in the book of Revelation as well as the revival in the book of Revelation. It's a two-fold thing that's happening. So Revelation chapter two and three, I believe, is one of the key passages for the prayer movement and the prophetic movement to mature. What's happening all around the world is the prayer movement is trying to mature and gain momentum, as is the prophetic movement, separated from a context of people who dwell according to Revelation chapter one, two, and three. This is the hiding place. This is the ark. This is Noah's ark in the eschatological sense or the end-time sense. This is where the shadow of the Lord, the hiding place of the Lord is, is in this dwelling together near him in unity with him and unity with one another on his terms. So when I see the prayer movement and I see the prophetic movement, which ultimately will be one movement, but now they're typically very different personalities and different ministries with different focus, but that's all going to come together. Rarely do I find any of them focused on Revelation chapter two and three and that's the context for the maturity of these movements to take place. Do a little review from the message earlier on Revelation one, the book of Revelation. I mean the message of it. Revelation chapter one, verse one, the whole book is called the unveiling of Jesus. The whole book, the 22 chapters, is titled by the Holy Spirit, the Revelation or the unveiling of this man's heart, this man's power, and this man's action plan to cleanse the planet of evil. That's what the book of Revelation is. It's insight into a man's heart. Now this man is fully God, but he's also fully man and the mystery of the two will be fully manifest like no time in history or it will come to the highest manifestation up to that point in history, is a better way to say it, in the generate in those final years before the Lord returns and then the Lord himself appearing. And this book gives us insight into that man's mind. What is action plan? Lord, how are you going to change the planet? And what's this perfect storm going to be like? And how are we going to be a part of releasing it? He says good. You want to know my heart, my plans? You want to know my power? Study it. I gave it to you personally. It's called the book of Revelation. It's the unveiling of Jesus. Paragraph B, Revelation 1-7. The theme of the book is he's coming. He's coming. He's coming to take leadership of the planet. He's coming to drive all the evil government off the planet and to establish love and righteousness through his power and through his grace. And that's what the great tribulation is about. That's what the end time revival is about, is the great transition to drive evil off the planet. The victory that Jesus won on the cross 2,000 years ago over Satan, complete victory, is going to be openly manifest on the earth, but it's going to be released through the praying church. Now it's not a strange idea that God's power was released through Moses in prayer. That's a normal idea. It's not a strange idea that the book of Acts was the acts of the Holy Spirit released through men and women who prayed. But it's a strange idea that the miracles of Acts and the miracles of Exodus, which is the book of Revelation, would be released in the same way that Acts and Exodus are released through people under the leadership of Jesus, crying out and releasing the things that he once released. Well he's coming and it is a perfect storm, but it's going to leave the world in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Paragraph C. Jesus will only come, I want to say this strong, he will only come in context to a prepared bride. Revelation 19, 7, the bride is prepared. And just pause for a moment those that are joining us with God TV. We have these notes. It's called why we must understand the churches, the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3. They're on the internet, ihop.org, right there. If you want to follow along, we have a couple pages. We're not going to finish them all tonight, but I like to leave you with all the verses and the ideas, so you can look at them later. Get back to the notes here. That's ihop.org. If you would, right there on the on the home page, you'll be able to find, it's called why we must understand the message to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Because it's the safety place, it's the ark, it's the Noah's ark in the time of the storm, it's the place of power, the place of safety, the place of intimacy. We must be prepared, and the Lord has done everything to give us insight, but we have to give ourselves to that which he has given us. We have to study this. We have to ask for insight. We have to give ourselves to these portions of the scripture. Anyway, the Lord's not coming any minute. I know many preachers say it. It's just absolutely not true. He's coming for a prepared bride, and beloved, it doesn't take much discernment at all to look at the body of Christ, not just in the West, in the whole world, and say, we are not a prepared bride in sync with the Holy Spirit, entrusted with greater works than these. Revelation 2 and 3 is the place where the Lord connects us to his word, to his character, to his heart, intimacy, and righteousness, and meekness, and wisdom. It's the place we get connected to him. We get connected together. It's not a one-man show. It's the whole body of Christ moving in the Psalm 91 anointing, which is the Revelation 2 and 3 context on the earth. It's critical. It's an issue, it's an issue of life and death to get this clear. But the anointing that he's going to release is the Matthew, verse 18, verse 19, chapter 18, verse 19, binding and loosing. Whatever you bind will be bound. Whatever you loose will be loosed. Whatever. There's going to be an anointing to bring this to fullness. The anointing to bind and loose is the same thing as John 14, 12, greater works than these. Now we've prayed that prayer for years, 2,000 years. The saints have said, Lord, what about this? It's literal. It's real. We've had little tokens of it, important tokens through history. But beloved, the greater works than these are really going to happen before the Lord returns. And it is the miracles of Acts, the miracles of Exodus as described in the book of Revelation, loosed through the praying church. It's greater works than these. It's the anointing to bind and loose. It is the great tribulation released by the praying church, who's a prepared bride, who's doing it for all of the right reasons, doing it for love. That love would be established on the planet and forever we will dwell in his presence. The end of the book of Revelation, as we said, last night, the spirit of the bride says, come. The church isn't just suddenly gone. The church, Jesus comes in answer to a global concerts of prayers, a global prayer movement. Jesus isn't coming in a vacuum. He's coming in a continuum. He's coming in answer to a global cry by a prepared bride that's on the earth. And there's a continuum. It's not a sudden vacuum. It's a building of a scenario. And there's a crescendo that's building through the book of Revelation. And it is with the eye of the storm is the glory himself, the man, Christ, Jesus, fully God and fully man. But he's not coming till we know who he is, the bridegroom king, till we know who we are, a prepared bride, until we're in unity, confronting darkness together, because he doesn't want to come and take over the planet as an end in itself. By himself, he wants to do it as an expression of his bride and bridegroom relationship with the redeemed. He wants to do it with us, with us, like he did it with Moses, like he did it in the book of Acts, with his people, not in spite of his people. Lord says, come, Lord come. He says, no, I can't. You're not ready. I don't mean not ready to be raptured. You're not ready to be entrusted with the anointing to loose the judgments of the book of Exodus. You're not ready to loose the anointing in the book of Acts. You're not ready to loose the great tribulation. You don't even know about it. You don't know why I want to do it. You don't know what I feel about it. You don't know how important it is. You don't know how essential humility and righteousness and intimacy is to my heart. That's the only context I will release this. And you're not ready. You're not ready to release the great tribulation upon the powers of darkness. And it must be according to my plan and a continuum of purpose that's unfolding for 2,000 years, even before, but it's building in a crescendo in the final decades before the Lord returns. Look at Isaiah, uh, Revelation 4, I mean, Revelation 8, verse 4, the prayers of the saints ascend. And what happens? The fire falls on the cities of the earth. Beloved, does the prayer movement release the fire or stop the fire? And as we said last night, it's both. Revelation chapter 8, verse 4, the prayers of the saints ascend. And the answer is the fire of God is released. It's the anointing. It's the anointing to operate in binding and loosing at the greater works than these at that level, at that place. And it is expressed in the great tribulation judgments and in the great harvest where they're coming from all nations and all tribes and tongues. They're coming in power to the lamb of God. I'm talking about in this age, they're coming in power and the harvest is coming in before the second coming, but it's going to be the fruit of a praying prophetic church. Lord entrust us with the greater works of these power. Lord says, if I trust you with that power, you'll be able to call fire down from heaven. And when James and John touched a little power, they went back in Luke 9, verse 55, they wanted to call fire down from heaven because they had a wrong spirit. If, if I give you that kind of an anointing and your spirit is wrong, you'll use the power for all the wrong reasons. Because I'm not going to do it. There's only one reason or there's a primary reason. It's a better way to say it. The God's giving the church, this anointing, this revelation chapter two and three church, it's in order to establish meekness and righteousness and truth on the earth. Psalm 45 verse three talks about the great tribulation. Jesus goes forth to establish meekness and righteousness in truth. Psalm 45 verse three, it's called love. And he looked at John and Luke chapter nine, verse 55 said, you, you don't know what kind of spirit you have. You want the power to lose fire so you can establish your own agenda. No, John. And it's 60 years later and John sees an anointing to release fire on the earth, entrusted to the people of God. But the saints are dwelling together according to revelation two and three. This isn't the apostles giving teaching about the church, which is good. It's anointing. It's from the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus himself describing the church that he's coming back for. I tell you, I love these chapters. I don't get them. I mean, I stare at them. I go, Lord, I only get whispers. He says, stay with it. You'll get more. Stay with it. I'm not doing it. I mean, a little bit I'm reaching for it. Stay with it. I hop. We're not very far. Stay with it. Stay locked in. This is the church after my heart. I'm after, Revelation chapter two and three. It's the one I described. It's the one where the people will be safe. Psalm 91, in the ark, like Noah, in the time of the storm. It's the place where I can entrust power to them. And they won't use it with the wrong spirit. Let's go to Roman, let's go to Roman numeral two. The outline of the book of Revelation. Revelation one, Jesus gives the clearest picture of who he is in the whole Bible. There's no chapter of the Bible where he says more with greater depth and clarity and precision about himself than Revelation one. Revelation two and three, he gives the clearest picture of what he wants. Of the preparation necessary to operate in the anointing to bind and loose the great tribulation and the great revival. That's the place that describes, I mean this is the chapter that describes what he wants. It's the clearest description. And then you can read the rest of the outline on your own. Let's go to Revelation, I mean Roman numeral three. The letter to the seven churches. And I won't cover all this. You get the notes on the internet. By the way, I've given a 12 series teaching on the seven churches. Took 12 Saturday nights and went through them one by one. We didn't get very deep, you know. And 12 hours, you can't go that far. It is magnificent what is in Revelation two and three about what's on God's attention. What's his intention to build the church as the preparation and the context to loose the greater works than these anointing. So again, bind and loose. He's loosing, the end time church will loose the revival and will bind darkness. Loose the judgment and bind the plans of the evil one. So we're binding and loosing on both sides. I want to encourage you to dive into Revelation two and three. I'm at the beginning of the beginning, but I'm exhilarated in my spirit over where this is going in Jesus's mind. You know, I read it, I go, Lord, you have a lot more thoughts about these chapters. He goes, yes, I do. It's not like I didn't hear the conversation, but I imagine it was, yes, a lot more thoughts. I gave you hints. If you have a hungry heart, you follow these passages. I will speak to you and I will unfold what's in my heart in these two chapters. Again, I call the book of Revelation, the eschatological book of Acts. Eschatological means the end times, study the end times. Moses had his book of Acts and Exodus. The apostles had their book of Acts. There's another book of Acts that is in God's plan before the second coming. And it's going to combine the miracles of Moses and the apostles on a global level, multiplied and combined on a global level. Paragraph B, the letters, these seven letters show what kind of church Jesus is building. They show what his agenda is. They show how he defines love. They show what he calls a relevant ministry and a relevant church. I'm not trying to be mean or arrogant or have a wrong spirit, but there's this tremendous preoccupation with relevance. I mean, we want to be, we want to be preoccupied being relevant, but beloved big relevance, a whole lot more than cool technology, having coffee in your church services and kind of having open dialogue about anything you think and everybody accepts everybody. There's a whole lot more about being relevant than people getting together and doing what comes to their mind. Revelation two and three is the clearest description of what relevance is in ministry. It's not real popular, but it's going to release the power of God. It's going to be the place of safety and provision, and it's going to have the Lord's pleasure on it. And the Lord's going to visit it in power. And I don't care how long it takes. I have set my heart and I challenge you to do the same. I am going to be with the people building a church, according to revelation two and three, a people dwelling in those realities together. We're clearly not there, but we're aiming for it. And that's all that we can do is aim and pursue it. We haven't grown very much, but we're going after it hard. When I look at the prayer movement and the prophetic movement today, and I talk to leaders all around different places, they come and go and we visit, and just what I hear is being said. It's not just what's said, it's what isn't said. The prayer movement, though it's sincere and very dear to God, it's so young. We are so young. It's the three-year-old driving the tricycle, asking if they can run the government. The Lord says, no, not yet. Don't you love me? Yes. And then we can use government terminology. No, not yet, not yet. And the prayer movement, the prophetic movement, the relevance movements, all the movements are mostly preoccupied with getting more money, having more influence in the ministry, and having life more comfortable. And that's mostly where the movements are going in different terminology. How to get more money, how to have a little more influence in your ministry or your marketplace endeavor, and how to be more comfortable in the process. When I read the book of Revelation, those are not the primary themes on God's heart. Those are in the Bible. But beloved, we're entering a season of history where the Spirit is speaking to the church to get the church ready. And what is relevant is Revelation chapter 1, 2, and 3. That's the gathering place that the Lord is going to visit. I want a seeker-sensitive church. I want a church that the Holy Spirit is seeking, the Father is seeking it, the Trinity seeks it, they visit it, and they stay there. That's the kind of church I'm looking for. I'm looking for the Trinity, a church that they want to be a part of in power. So people have asked me, what do you think about the seeker-sensitive movement? I totally appreciate figuring out ways to communicate better. I like that. I go, I am seeker-sensitive. I am aiming at the Trinity to show up and camp in our midst long term. But, I mean, I'm serious, but he says the Lord would say, like he said to Moses in Exodus 33, Exodus 33, verse 3, after the fire on the mountain and the glory of God, Moses said, I want you to go up with me. I won't go if you don't go up. We all know the passage. And the Lord said a very unusual thing, and it's true today as it was then. He said, no, Moses, I won't go up. I'll send an angel. And no, I want you to go up, I want you to go up. And the Lord said, no, if I go up, Exodus 33, verse 3, I will destroy you as a nation. Because if I go up with you, I come as myself. I come in power, and I'm zealous for righteousness. I'm zealous for humility. Our God is a humble God. His humility is eternal and infinite. He dwells in humility, righteousness, because if I come in your midst, I will be myself. He goes, I'll send an angel. And Moses said, no, no. And every year you hear the verse quoted a lot, come up, come up. When the Lord showed up a little bit at Acts 2, when they lied at the communion table, they were struck dead. Ananias and Sapphira. The reason the glory isn't greater, because too much of the leadership seriously would be struck dead. And in his mercy, he says, you don't know who I am. I'm not religious rhetoric. I'm not a cool banner. I'm not a title of a conference. I am God. And I am serious about myself. And if I come up, you have all the religious revival rhetoric, all that you want. But if he comes, probably a lot of us in this room would be in serious trouble. I'm talking about, it would be trouble if he came. For us, he said, you don't really want me. You want things exciting. You want your ministry bigger. You want some more money. You want things to be more comfortable. You don't really want me. You don't know me. He gives us a sneak peek of who he is in Revelation 1. Then he gives us a hint of what he wants, the dwelling that's safe to dwell with. It's Revelation 2 and 3. And that's the place where he dwells in safety with his people without consuming them. And it's the place where he can release the greater works of these anointing, the binding and loosing anointing, the power of the end time revival and the great tribulation in the hands of the praying church. He says, you really want me. You really do. Yes. And we do. But I love him. I love him. He loves me. But I want to tell you this. He terrifies me. And he might say, you don't know the half of it, young man. He terrifies me. Oh, I feel his presence and I get tender and I love him and he loves me and I love him and he loves me. And then I remember and I go, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I love you. Oh, I love you. You terrify me. It's called the fear of the Lord. It's the only place that love is safe. It can't ever change in the fear of the Lord. Let's go to top of page two. Now, we're just going to go a few minutes on just a little overview. My point isn't to break down these two chapters. It's to give just a, you know, take this 45, 50 minutes and just give you a snapshot so that you're hungry for these chapters. Again, I'm not trying to sell a product. That's not what's on my mind. I have all the notes on the Internet. You go get the notes. They're free. They're up there. They're free. They're up there. I got five, six, 10 page handouts on each one of the churches, 12 of them. If you're saying, hey, I just want to peek at this a little bit. So this is what this is about, stirring your interest to go after these two chapters. Okay, five ways to apply these seven letters. Number one, individually, obviously. And there's a lot to say about each one of these. Number two, corporately. The most power is in a corporate gatherings who dwell together with the Lord on His terms. Psalm 132, the dwelling place of the Lord. The psalmist talks about the place where God dwells openly, Psalm 132. And in Psalm 133, it's the place where the commanded blessing is. So Psalm 132 and 133. It's the dwelling place of the Lord, but it's where the commanded blessing is. Beloved, there is a commanded blessing, which is the greater works than these anointing, the binding and loosing anointing. I'm saying the same thing in different ways. That's the commanded blessing. If we live together in the body of Christ on God's terms with His agenda, long term, I tell you, there's a corporate commanded blessing, and this is what we're going for. But then you've got to plug your ears up, because there's a lot of noisy clanging cymbals. There's a lot of gonging sounds in the Charismatic Church that is totally other than the book of Revelation, Jesus, the book of Revelation, Church of chapter 2 and 3, and the book of Revelation version of the Acts of the Apostles and Prophets of the end time. And you want to put your finger in your ear of all the gonging clanging noises that are taking people off the message of what's on the Holy Spirit's mind. And you kind of get, if you're not careful, you think, well, I must be off, because all the big guys are saying it's about having more money, more influence, bigger ministry, in other words, more people listening to them, and more comfort. I must be off. No, you're not off. Go for the book of Revelation. It's a whole lot more on God's heart than what I'm hearing. It's just filling the, the atmosphere of the body of Christ, the, the airwaves and, and the churches. I go, Lord, my ears are hurting. He says, you don't know half what I feel. When I looked at the Laodicean church, which is the church in America, my stomach was so sick. I wanted to vomit them out of my mouth. They are not repulsive to me as people. I love them, but they hurt my stomach when I look at them because I have passion for them. I have so much potential. I've called them too. I'm committed to them. I've given all the resource and they can't keep a sustained gaze in my direction. And it hurts my stomach. Revelation three, that's called, I will vomit them out of my mouth. That, if you read it wrong, you think it means he's, he's repulsed at him. He's not. He's in pain over the lost opportunity of relationship and power and impact on his terms. And so I look at my little bit of pain and the Lord says, you don't have half the knowledge of what I feel when I look at the church in America. I love the church in America, but let me say this. The church in America is profoundly off the mark of the messaging of what the Holy Spirit is saying profoundly, not a little bit profoundly. There are exceptions. Maybe there's a couple thousand ministries out there. I don't know. There's 400,000 churches. There could be a couple thousand. There may be 10 or 20,000. I don't know that are on message. I don't know. The Lord doesn't tell me that kind of stuff, but I know that the vast majority is profoundly off the message of the Holy Spirit and the charismatic church is leading the way of the confusion and the clanging, clanging, a gonging symbols that they're calling love. The Lord wants it on his terms in his way, corporately. It's a way to apply it. Historically, there really were seven churches 2,000 years ago, and it was written to them universally. The church, this message, seven messages have been applied for 2,000 years to every single church that will take it. But eschatologically, again, that means the end times there. That is the primary thing on his heart when he gave this message. Yes, he loved all the other groups through history, but beloved, there were clearly not, I don't know the number, but clearly less than a hundred thousand believers among those seven churches. And there's a, they say a billion believers, and I believe another billion coming into harvest. There, we're approaching the time with the greatest numbers and the greatest crisis of history. And Jesus is preparing his people to dwell together with him and with one another in safety and in the joy of the Holy Spirit and in power to loose his purposes, to bind to loose them. This, these two chapters are for the church in this hour. Make no, no, have no confusion about it. It is for us. It was meant for us. Yes, it was meant for all those other arenas too, but he was thinking of the billion each step of the way that he was speaking this. John might not have understood it, but he did, Jesus did. He was thinking of us and our children and grandchildren, studying the seven letters. There's common elements. So we go through the, oh, different commentators approach it mostly the same way. They use the terminology, but it's mostly the same kind of approach. As again, we've covered this in 12 sessions. And at each one, we looked at the historical context. We looked at the city itself and the church. What was happening in that city? Just the natural information, because we want to know the challenges they were facing politically, economically, spiritually, because when we understand the challenges they're facing, you can be sure those same challenges are happening in various parts around the body of Christ. The Lord strategically selected these seven because he was prophetically projecting the need that him putting his light on these seven would give a prophetic picture of what it means to be prepared and all that was on his heart for the church and in which the events of the book of Revelation would happen in their lifetime. And it wasn't the church 2,000 years ago. It's the church of the days to come. B, Jesus gave an affirmation to the churches. He told them what they valued, what he valued in their progress. He told them what they were doing that was, that touched his heart in a positive sense. He affirmed them. Then he rebuked them. Beloved, correction is not rejection. I get corrected by the Lord regularly. I mean, more than I'm counting on, you know. I'm like, oh, oh, ouch. We didn't expect that, Lord. And it doesn't always come from the Holy Spirit. It comes often through his people. But it's true. It's true words. But correction is not rejection. The Lord says, I'm correcting you because I am committed to you. Beloved, we're in trouble when he stops correcting us. He tells them what they must not do. And the main compromises that he pointed out, there were three main compromises, but there's more, but three main ones, and they're all over the church, across the nations, and certainly in our America and our nation. Passivity. It's compromise number one. The neglect of the first commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. Beloved, the Holy Spirit is going to restore the first commandment to first place in a prepared bride. The reason that the greater works to these anointing can be released to the bride, because the bride loves Jesus more than she loves power and influence. So she's safe with power. The first commandment is the safety of the end time church. It will be restored to first place. But the Lord told three of the churches, you're passive. You have lost your love. You're dead. You're spiritually lethargic. That's very, very prevalent in the church in America. Number two compromise was immorality. That's very prevalent. And number three was idolatry, which is very prevalent because there's two different streams of thought about idolatry in the Bible. It's witchcraft. It's demon worship. That's going to emerge in a global way through the Antichrist system. Satan worship is going to grow so fast. But we're going to be unmoved. We're going to be unmoved by it. But Paul said it several times that idolatry is covetousness. He said it several times. I have it in the notes there, Ephesians, Colossians. And covetousness is stifling the church in America. When I look at the church in America, I look at passivity. The first commandment's way down the list. It's not first. Immorality is rife everywhere. And covetousness is probably the primary stronghold in the church in America. Beloved, you can be poor and be covetous. Covetousness is when our money is our primary or right at the top of our list. Concern and dream of our heart is our money. It's the main dream of our heart or right at the top. Some rich people aren't covetous and a lot of poor people are covetous. Those, the three problems that he addressed and he did more besides, those are the three to lock into. He says you got to confront those. So as we build a, our community here, those are three things. Spend a lot of time trying to get the first commandment first, confronting immorality and talking openly about this issue called covetousness. Jesus wants these things out of the way in his relationship with his people. That's the only place for safety. Then paragraph D, the next category of thoughts that, a way to study these seven chapters, I mean these seven messages, he exhorts them to respond. He tells them what he wants. He says this is what I want you to do. I want you to do more of this and I'm warning you, don't let go of this and that. The next thing he does, paragraph E, each of the seven churches, he gives them a promise of eternal rewards. It's an incentive. Now they're not all for the age to come. Some of the promises had to do with this age. Most of them were anchored in the age to come. Beloved, the theology, the doctrine, the reality of eternal rewards is not pie in the sky. It's very important to Jesus in his teaching to the seven churches. Matter of fact, the two places in the Bible where eternal rewards are taught, not just the most, I've never calculated the numbers, so what I'm saying might be off, but I would say 10 times more than any other place is Revelation 2 and 3, where Jesus is talking about the church after his own heart and the Sermon on the Mount, where he talks about the constitution of the kingdom. In both of those passages, the issue of eternal rewards is spoken over and over and over. I believe those two passages together probably are 10 times the amount of any other passage teaching on eternal rewards. So Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, eternal rewards is front and center. The church that is going to release the power and the judgments, that's going to be a prepared bride, eternal rewards. Much of the church, again, I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying it to stir you up. Most people I talk to have almost zero awareness of anything about eternal rewards, about the city, Revelation 21, we're in the city, it's going to be awesome, you know, gold, the pearls, stuff like that. You got anything else to say? No, that's going to be awesome. Beloved Jesus gave profound detail, and the body of Christ, and I'm talking about our nation right now, and I'm sure it's true around the world, is almost totally illiterate about what Jesus said about these subjects. So do we just throw our hands up and quit? No, I don't know much about those subjects, but I decided a little while back, I said, I'm going to start learning. This is what, this is what you think is important. I don't get it, but if you think it's important, I'm going to commit to get it. And then in each of these, he gave revelation of himself in a very specific way that would meet the need of the challenge of that church. Let's go top of page three. Revelation chapter two and three, Jesus gave 16 specific descriptions of his heart and his glory. 16. He gave 18 in revelation one, and he gave 16 in revelation two, and a lot of, 10 of them overlap, 10 of them overlap. I don't want to go through that right now. My real point isn't to try to break it down because I don't know that much about them, but I tell you one thing, I'm staring at them sometimes like, you know, the deer in the headlights. I'm staring and I don't know that much about them, but I'm committed to learn these things. I've got the 18 and the 16 listed. Got a few ideas and a few Bible verses. Got the throne of grace and the Holy Spirit. I go, will you teach me Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit's answer would be, if you're interested, for real, I will. Because without these descriptions, without revelation of this Jesus, we're going to end up getting off course. This is the Jesus that will motivate us and energize us and direct us. Beloved, again, when I look at the church in our nation, the 18 descriptions of chapter one, the 16 descriptions of chapter two and three, again, 10 of them are combined together, 24 distinct descriptions. You hear about half of them in the church and half of them are almost entirely ignored. But we got to, we got to encounter this Jesus for our heart to be enthralled in intimacy, to be protected, to be directed into truth and to be energized in righteousness. This is the Jesus we need to encounter. I just said, Lord, I don't know much, but I'm going after it. Holy Spirit, will you give this to me? And he says, again, I didn't hear him, but I know his, what he would say. It would be something like, if you really want it, I will give you, I will break these down to you. I will give you more than you can handle. But it's going to take time. You're going to have to turn a few things off. You're going to have to dial a few things down to have time for the Holy Spirit to talk to you about Jesus. The kingdom of God. The most neglected reality in the kingdom of God is God. The kingdom of God, if you, if you were not really catching what was going on, you would think it's money, honor and comfort. It's righteousness, peace and joy. And I hear, I mean, just all over everywhere through the, I check in here and there, more comfort, more comfort, more honor, more money, more comfort. Feel good while you're sinning. Feel good while you're sinning. Don't worry about it. You deserve a good day. Money, comfort, everything bad will turn good. I promise you. So into this ministry, comfort, money, money, comfort, honor. You, you, you, you. You hear almost everything in the body of Christ and the kingdom of God, except for God. The most missing element in the charismatic church is God. Not things, not cool meetings, not exciting stories. I'm talking about God encountering the heart and us coming into agreement with him. Now, again, a few thousand groups out there, maybe 10 or 20,000. I don't know that are really locked in, but there's a couple of hundred thousand that aren't. And it's really none of my business to know who is and who isn't. All I know is I'm not very impressed with where I'm at, but I'm troubled. And I think if I'm a true shepherd, I should trouble you with what is troubling me about my life. I am troubling you because I care about you, but I'm not troubling you with that, which you ought to be doing. I'm troubling you with that, with which I ought to be doing, and I'm finding a hard time getting it, but I'm going for it. And I want you troubled as well. I'm contending for your greatness. If we get troubled about the right things, we end up great in God's sight on his terms, maybe not in man's sight. Roman numeral seven, this very powerful statement. He who has ears, let him hear. Five implications, and I'm sure there's more, but these are just five that I think of. Now, first thing, Jesus is the only one in the New Testament who said this, gave this exhortation. That's the first thing. The second thing, it's the exhortation he gave me. The most. When you meet Jesus, if you get a chance to ask him this question, you say, Lord, what was the number one teaching you gave in the Bible? I mean, with your own lips, he would tell you, I have the data. It's just simple math. He that has ears, let him hear. That's the teaching I emphasize the most. What does it mean? It means, first, it's extremely important subject to his heart. Next, he's saying there's more than meets the eye. I've only whispered, I've given you an acorn, I've given you a seed. There's a tree behind this truth if you want it. There's more than meets the eye. Next, it will take the help of the Holy Spirit to get it. When he says, he that has an ear, let him hear, he goes, you better cry out for help. You won't get this on your own. Interesting, is in the book of Revelation, he says it eight times. And in the gospel, he says it eight times. Eight each time. Each of the eight times in the book of Revelation, each of them, it's tied to eternity and eternal destiny. I mean, it's an amazing thing. He says, if you want to catch something, you really need to catch. It's this realm of eternity. Study my, every time he gave one of the eternal rewards, he said, there's more than meets the eye. It will take the Holy Spirit to get it. It's more important to me and to you than you might think it is. Eight times. So, I look at these eternal rewards, there's 22 of them in Revelation 2 and 3, 22 distinct ones. I go, okay, he that has ears to hear, there's more than meets the eye. This is an acorn. There's a tree behind this. Yes. Okay. Okay. It's only a sentence. I whispered, but there's a shout behind the whisper. Come after me. Ask for help. Stay with it. It's a truth that you won't naturally take hold of without help. Beloved, I want to encourage you to take these eight statements in the book of Revelation and the eight in the gospels and give yourself to those statements. The end time church that operates in the greater work anointing, the prepared bride that's binding and loosing the things that are on God's heart, which is the great revival and the great tribulation. Those are the two things that he's releasing because, believe it or not, they are the same subject. They're two sides of one coin. It's called the great and the terrible day of the Lord. One side is great. One side is terrible. But it's the one day of the Lord. It's one subject. I go, Lord, I want to, I want to get locked into this stuff. He goes, okay, you got a Bible. You got the Holy Spirit. You got the throne of grace. Come after me. You got 24 hours a day. Go for it. Well, I got a lot of things to do. I, you know, the body of Christ in America, they just play so much. Just preoccupied with playing and resting. So afraid of burnout. He's lived continually in stress and strife in the fear of being burned out someday. Just throw away the fear. Just get rid of half the entertainment, maybe way more than half the recreation, the right to play. Give yourself the fasting and prayer sustained hours in his presence. You do it at least 10 years before you come up for air and figure out you'll have a lot more energy than you ever had being captured with your right to play. Well, that's how he talks to me. Again, I'm just telling you what he tells me. Let's go to page four. No, I'm really, that's what I'm telling you. I am not telling you how to do it. I'm telling you about my anguish and my affliction, but my sustained hope to go in this direction. I'm going for this with a company of people. A lot of folks will be mad, glad, and sad, but there's only one man whose vote counts at the end of the day, and he's at the right hand of the father right now. I really mean that. A lot of guys will get disturbed by this, but nobody gets to vote on where you're going but one man. And I would be doing everything to live in his favor. No matter who gets mad and how big their database is and how much they say about you, just go for the man at the right hand of the father. Okay, top of page four. It's coming to the last few minutes here. He talks about the angel to the church. Very significant. The angel to the church. I got a few notes there and a lot more on the other sessions, but I'm just going to say it for time's sake. The word angel is the word messenger. In the Bible, many times, Old and New Testament, it's either an angelic messenger or a human messenger. And I'm convinced he's talking about a human messenger here. I can give you the reasons, but we're not going to do that tonight. So he's talking to the apostolic leader, and he's, John's giving the message, and here's what this apostolic leaders and the apostolic leadership team, this is their mandate, to guard the message that is given to them. Beloved, the way we guard the message is by proclaiming it fearlessly, regularly, consistently, and fearlessly. Tenderly, yes, but consistently and fearlessly. We don't have to bolster up our courage to be bold, so we got to be mean along it to give ourselves courage to be bold. We can be tender and bold and consistent. And this apostolic leader, their responsibility was not to allow the message to get distorted or to get lost. And I look at these seven messages, and I'm saying, Lord, I'm a leader of a ministry. My mandate is to make sure the seven messages are proclaimed regularly, boldly, tenderly, and they're not diluted. And I hear the sound across the nation, the whisper. I mean, it's, it's guys and gals really doing with all their heart. I mean, it's a shout to them, but I'm saying it's, it's not much in terms of the whole body of Christ. The numbers are small. It could be some thousands. I don't know, but there's tens of thousands that aren't going this direction. My point isn't to figure out who is and who isn't. That's a complete distraction. My point of even saying the small numbers, a small percent is so you're not dismayed when people are mad at you. That's the only reason I'm saying it. My goal isn't to get a little martyr complex team and like, Hey, we got the truth. Nobody else does. Let's huddle it together and just kind of glory in being misunderstood. No, I'm only talking about what's not happening out there so that you're bolstered up in your resolve to not get off course and off message. When the, when the response comes back, you're off the wall. Say, well, okay, I knew that. I knew that's what people would think. That's okay. I'm ready. I'm girded for that. The apostolic messengers are not, their mandate from heaven is to not let the message get lost. Don't let the message get lost. A number of you are leaders. Others of you are going to be leaders. I tell you, bury yourself in revelation one, two, and three, proclaim it, proclaim it, proclaim it, proclaim it. Be a faithful messenger. Again, I look across America. I rarely hear a hint of anything in revelation one, two, or three coming from the pulpits. I don't have that access to that many pulpits, but I do hear a bunch of them, small percent, but still a large number, just a real small percent. And I go, Lord, if this is even a token of where our nation is, we're in big trouble. And I believe that we are without a turnaround, but there's a perfect storm being planned in heaven to invade darkness. But beloved, wherever darkness is in the church, that storm is going to shake the church because the storm is coming against darkness. And if it's in our midst, that storm will hit our midst to wake us up. Roman numeral nine, the issue of the promises, the eternal rewards. We cannot get ready. We cannot get ready for the end time purpose of God without our hearts anchored in eternity. Impossible. You think, well, how do I do it? Because there's hardly a whisper about eternity anywhere. How am I going to do it? Well, we just got to figure out how to do it. Holy Spirit will show us. Beloved, without being anchored in an eternal perspective, I mean with, I don't mean just a kind of pie in the sky. Eternity is the big time. Okay. Okay. I'm talking about finding out what the Bible says about it in concrete, material, detailed ways and feeding your spirit on it. Not just a vague sense of eternity is important because beloved, if you don't think rightly of heaven, you won't think of heaven. There's enough in the Bible. Just this people don't spend time chewing on it and feeding the spirit on it. But we've got to do that because we'll never be stay sermon on the Mount people, revelation chapter two and three churches. We won't have the courage and the resolve to stay the course in meekness and righteousness without an eternal perspective. We won't be able to bear persecution without eternal perspective. We won't understand the judgments of God without eternal perspective. And we have to understand them because we've got to make sense of them to the nations. If we're offended, when we talk about them, the people will be offended too. We've got to make sense of where the judgments of God are removing everything that hinders love. His judgments and his love are one subject. His judgments are to remove everything that's hindered love, but you can't get to that conviction without your feet anchored in the age to come. If you're anchored in this age, it doesn't make sense doesn't seem like love. You get your feet anchored in the age to come from the Bible. Again, I'm not just talking about just kind of a general pie in the sky thinking about it's going to be neat one day when it's all over. No, it's never going to be all over. It's just beginning. Beloved, you'll hear the guys on the, on the TV. They interview them. They say, oh the end of the world. No, the end of the world will never happen. We believe in the end of the age, which the age is an administration of how the earth is governed. It's going to change. There's a new age. The earth is never going to, we don't believe in the end of the world. Never. Someone guy asked me, aren't you really into the end of the world? I go, no, absolutely not. I said, we're just 6,000 years into it. We have billions and billions and billions of years. We're still at the basement levels of human history. We haven't even got to floor one yet. We don't even have a million years behind us yet of human history. We have billions to go. No, the world's going to go on. We don't believe in the end of the world. We believe in the end of the age, which means the administration of how the earth is governed. We've got to get anchored as to what's going to be happening in our real lives on the earth with physical material bodies resurrected. Resurrected. But beloved, you read John 21, when Jesus came in a resurrected body, he ate fish, they hugged him and they touched him. We will have physical material resurrected glorious bodies on a material physical earth with the glory of God living forever with ministries and jobs and government. And we've got to get our feet anchored in that. And then we can bear all kinds of things in this administration, this age. It's not a small thing that Jesus emphasized eternity so many times. Top of page five, the 22 eternal rewards. And again, not trying to draw attention to my stuff, but get it anywhere you can. I don't care where you get it. Just get it. But I got some stuff on the internet working on this. And again, our copyrights, the right to copy, you can have it, you can put your name on it, you can duplicate it, change it, anything you want. It is yours. Run with it, do something, improve it. You get some good ideas, they'll kick them back to me because I want all the good ideas you can get. The Holy Spirit will give you. Okay, let's just end with that. Okay. Let's stand. Lord, here we are. Here we are in your presence. Here we are in your presence. Lord, I want to be a people. I want to be among a people. They're building a church after your heart. Revelation two and three, encountering you in your glory. Revelation one, committed with understanding and discernment to your plan to cleanse the planet, the book of Revelation. Lord, amen. In my weakness and my brokenness, I'm in, I'm in. Help me be tender, be nice. But I say yes. And the Lord says, I will be tender. I will forgive you day by day. My tender mercies will be on you. I will help you, but you have to go after this. Now, some of you, the Lord's calling you to be messengers of this kind of reality. It's just called the Word of God, but not the American culture Word of God. I'm talking about the Bible Word of God, not the American culture version. And if you're saying in your heart, I think I'm called to this. I think I'm called to really lock into this. Intimacy with God, Sermon on the Mount, Book of Revelation, getting the church prepared as a bride. I want to be one of those messengers that guards this message. I don't lose it through neglect or watered down. And if you have a leadership calling on you, whether it's in the, on a worship team, with the children's church, in the marketplace, it doesn't matter what, where the calling is, leadership calling. And you're saying, I want to make this a primary focus in my life, in the next decade or tell all the rest of my life. And you're saying, I want, it's a new thing, but I'm going for it. I'm going for it. If it's new to you, the last few months or so, I want you to come forward and stand before the Lord and say, Lord, this is new, but I'm going for it. I know I'm called to leadership somewhere in the marketplace or education, media, house of prayer, whatever, but this is new. Last few months, maybe it's been stirring here. Maybe just since you've been here, but you're talking to him. I tell you, you make these decisions. You may not feel a lot right now. When you make these decisions, you don't have to feel a lot right now. You make these decisions. They will change the course of the next two or three decades of your life. They will change what you study, what you do with your free time, what you do with your fasting days. It will change what you do with your money. It will change the people you hang out with, the books you read, the prayer meetings you go to. This decision will change your life massively, whether you feel anything while you're making it. Now, Holy Spirit, I ask you right now, seal the heart. Seal the heart. We want to be Revelation chapter two and three church builders. We want to be church builders after your own heart. We want to be church builders, apostolic, eschatological church builders, building churches according to the end time pattern. We want to be a prayer movement, a prophetic movement. Lord, we want to be a part of the eschatological book of Acts. We want to see the Moses book of Acts joined, multiplied on a global level. We want to loose it in the prayer ministry and in prophecy together with the whole body of Christ to the earth. Lord, we want to do it. That's what you're saying. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit mikebickle.com.