Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding Jesus as the Bridegroom, King, and Judge, highlighting that these three aspects of His character are crucial for the church in the end times. He explains that the unique dynamics leading up to Jesus' return will involve the greatest revival and the most severe judgments, all occurring simultaneously. Bickle encourages believers to deepen their understanding of Jesus' passionate desire for relationship with them, as well as His power and authority as King and His role as a righteous Judge. He stresses the importance of preparing the church to respond rightly to these revelations, especially in light of the increasing distortion of who Jesus is in the body of Christ today. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a restoration of the first commandment to love God wholeheartedly, as this will transform the way believers engage with Him and each other.

Page 213, page 213. We're going to do chapter 14 in this session. Then tonight we're going to do chapter 13. And then finish the rest tomorrow morning and afternoon. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus. For your glorious son. That he is a bridegroom, a king, and a judge. We ask you for living understanding of the glory of this man's heart. In the name of Jesus, amen. In this session I want to talk about the significance of Jesus as bridegroom, king, and judge. And I want to show you from the scripture where the Holy Spirit is going to bring those three revelations of Jesus together in a very strategic way. There are over 300 titles or character traits, I mean titles of God in the Bible. Titles and names. And all of them are true aspects of God's character. But there are three aspects of Jesus' character name that are very strategic and brought together. And I want you to identify this so that you can put them together strategically in your own thinking. So that you pursue these truths with greater zeal. And you communicate them to younger people in order to prepare them for the days ahead. Paragraph A. The years or the decades leading up to Jesus' return will see very unique dynamics being released across the earth. There will be positive and negative things in combination like never ever before in history. It will be the greatest revival in human history being released on the church. There will be the greatest expression of sin in the nations beyond any time in history. Satan's rage against the human race and particularly against the church will be beyond any time in history. And God's judgments being poured out on the earth, particularly the Antichrist kingdom, beyond any time in history. Think about that. The greatest revival, the most sin, the most attack of Satan, and the most severe judgments of God all happening on the earth at the same time. At the highest level of human history. These are all part of God's plan to transition the planet earth into the millennial kingdom. He will replace all the evil governments of the earth with new people. He will restore all the nations. He will restore the condition of the earth and the atmosphere and the animals. He will bring the church to the greatest place of maturity that the church has ever been in history. It will be the most unique generation in all of human history. And I believe that we're in the very early days of that generation. And it may go on for many decades. I don't know. But the Lord has a very specific plan to prepare the church to walk in victory with all of those unique dynamics. And the more understanding that we have of that plan, the more we will respond to it and the more we will walk in victory. At the very center of God's plan to equip the church to walk in victory in that hour, He is going to reveal the splendor and the glory of His Son beyond any time in history. He will reveal Him as a bridegroom with burning desire. A king with great power. And as a judge with zeal to intervene to confront everything that hinders love. Throughout human history, God has restrained His interventions into human affairs. Unless the people call and ask Him for intervention, He often restrains most of what's in His heart to do. He allows wicked men to walk in wickedness and He does not intervene at the level that He has in His heart to intervene. And He said in Isaiah 42 verse 14, I've restrained myself all of these years. But in the generation of His return, He manifests His zeal to confront everything that's wrong. It will be shocking how much zeal or surprising how much zeal that He has to intervene to make wrong things right. The Word of God and the Spirit of God both agree. That at the center of God's plan to equip the church to walk in victory, in context of the unique dynamics of the end of the age, the Word says Jesus will be revealed as bridegroom, king and judge. And the Spirit will emphasize this by confirming it with dreams and visions and drawing the heart of the people to the Word in a special way to those truths. Most believers are accustomed a little bit to Jesus the King with power. Most believers come into the kingdom with the idea that Jesus has power and they want to experience more of it. They are familiar with the idea that He is a King with power. But they're not familiar with Him as a bridegroom with desire. They know He has power to rule over them. But they're not sure that He has great desire to relate to them, not just rule over them. He's not just looking for a workforce, He's looking for relationship with His people. Yes, the body of Christ is the workforce of the kingdom of God. But when we have revelation of the bridegroom heart of desire and how much He longs for relationship with us, we work with a different spirit. Instead of working for Him at a distance, we work with Him near His heart, touching Him. He is a bridegroom at the very core of His being and personality. It isn't just a role that He plays, it's the very nature of His heart from eternity past. He is all-consuming love. In 1 John 4.16, John the Apostle broke out with this declaration, God is love. He is the fountain of consuming love from eternity past to eternity future. Love and desire is not something He does, it's something He is. Yes, as a king He has great power. But He uses His power to express His desire. What would the man who has all the power do with it? He pursues a bride and arranges a wedding with His great power. He doesn't use His power to crush us, He uses His power to win us and woo us to His heart. Yes, the body of Christ is the workforce of the kingdom. But when we work in relationship with a bridegroom king, we work with a different spirit. We don't just work for Him, we work with Him. We don't work at a distance begging Him for His favor, we work near His heart, confident of His love. That changes the way we work, it changes the way we pray, it changes the way we interpret our trials and tribulations, it changes the way that we interpret our opportunities for promotion or demotion. Look at paragraph C. He is a passionate bridegroom. And what I mean by the word passionate, He has deep desire, deep affection. It's not something He does occasionally, it's a part of Him in a deep way always. The way that we respond to Him moves His heart and He remembers it forever. Everything that He does, He does out of this fountain of deep desire. Of deep desire for His people. That's what I mean by the word passionate. Most believers that I know, they don't think of Jesus this way. They think of Him as powerful and a little bit distant, and they mostly beg Him to pay attention to them and be nice to them. They don't use the word beg, but they come with a begging spirit. But when we see the truth about His heart, we come with great hunger and great zeal, but we come with confidence and gratitude instead of fear and begging. That even in our weakness and our brokenness, we feel confident that He's smiling at us, that He enjoys us. What do I mean by the bridegroom message? I have here in paragraph C. The bridegroom message is about His emotions for us. That's a big subject. He has emotions of affection. He enjoys us. He delights in us. He longs to talk to us. He longs to be with us forever. He has zeal to protect us. He has great plans for us. That's what I mean by His emotions, subjects like this. But the bridegroom message is more than the fact that He has emotions for us. That's where the message begins. But He wants to reveal His eternal beauty to us, to fascinate our hearts. In Psalm 27 verse 4, King David said, I gaze on His beauty all the days of my life. He wants to exhilarate us with His love and affection, but He wants to fascinate us with His beauty. That's a big subject. But beloved, He wants more than a workforce. He wants us gazing on Him and being fascinated with Him, and Him enjoying that, and us enjoying Him enjoying us. But He wants to do more than reveal His beauty to us and fascinate us. He has very specific commitments in His heart that He's made to us. These are not just commitments to provide for us, but these are very affectionate-based commitments from His heart of tenderness to us. Forever, He's committed to share His heart with us. I'm talking about the secrets of His heart He gives to those that fear Him. He will tell us the secrets of His heart for billions of years. He will share His home with us, the New Jerusalem. He puts the name of the New Jerusalem on us, it says in Revelation 3 verse 12. It's unthinkable. He wants to share His throne with us. He says this in Revelation 3 verse 21. Now, He's the only one who sits on His throne in a unique way. But the authority of His throne He entrusts to us to express through us. He's made many commitments to us that change our understanding of Him if we understand these commitments. But the bridegroom message is not just about His emotions and His beauty and His commitments to us. The bridegroom message includes our response back to Him of wholeheartedness. It's the call to respond to Him in abandonment like He responded to us. To summarize it, He says, Love Me with all of your heart, all of your strength, all of your mind, all of your soul. Because I love you with all of my mind, all of my heart, and all of my strength. Can you imagine Jesus, fully God, loving you with all of His mind and all of His strength? Beloved, we have it made forever. We have it made. The message of the bridegroom will cause the first commandment to be restored to first place in the body of Christ. Page 214. He's not only a bridegroom. But He's a King. This part of His character and name we are most familiar with. But the truth is, we really aren't very familiar with His power. Conceptually, we agree that He's a King with power and He made the heavens and the earth. But we haven't experienced it in the way that we're going to in the days to come. He manifests His power by protecting us. By directing us. By providing for us. By healing our individual lives. Reviving the church. Transforming society. And restoring the earth itself. He shows His power in all of these ways, but He's going to show a far greater measure in the years ahead. Paragraph E. This is the most disturbing part of Jesus's name and character. He is a righteous judge. He's a zealous judge. He has great energy to intervene. Though He has restrained Himself through history, the day is coming where He will not restrain Himself. And when He removes everything that hinders love, it will look like the judgments in the book of Revelation. As a judge, He has a very strategic action plan in order to confront darkness. He's going to confront oppression and corruption in a way He's never done it in history. And He's going to drive evil off the planet. Now, Jesus the judge is the most uncomfortable and disturbing part of bridegroom, king, and judge. We're most familiar with the idea of king. The idea of bridegroom and desire is new to most people. But Jesus the judge is a subject that is disturbing that most don't even want to think about. And so there's much work the Holy Spirit is going to do to bring these three truths to full understanding in the body of Christ before the Lord returns. Or I will say to a mature understanding. Paragraph F. There's no contradiction in Jesus's character as bridegroom, king, and judge. There's no contradiction at all. He never suspends one attribute to exercise another. He never suspends His love, His passion as a bridegroom to show His zeal as a judge. But He uses His power to express His burning desire. Now, some people pick the favorite of the three. But we have to understand all three of them together in order to experience each one of them to the fullness. If we don't understand Him as bridegroom and judge, we won't really understand Him as much as king. Because who He is as a king is so deeply connected to who He is as a bridegroom and a judge. So we need all three of these truths together to understand each one of them in their fullness. Paragraph G. It says Jesus emphasizes bridegroom, king, and judge in His final message to the nation of Israel. In Matthew chapter 22, in His final message to the nation of Israel, He presents God, bridegroom, king, and judge. You can study it out yourself. In His final message to the apostles before the upper room, Matthew 25, He presents Himself bridegroom, king, and judge again. In the final revelation of the Word of God, Revelation 19 to 22, the final four chapters, the final way that the Word of God presents God, bridegroom, king, and judge. He's more than a Savior. He's more than a Redeemer. He's more than a provider. But in His final presentation of Himself in His ministry and even in the Word of God, bridegroom, king, and judge strategically brought together. Paragraph H. John the Baptist was the first person in the New Testament to bring together these truths. He taught the Messiah, bridegroom, king, and judge in Matthew 3 and John 3. In the Old Testament, the clearest presentation of the Gospel or rather the clearest presentation of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the kingdom of God at the end of the age, Isaiah 61, 62, 63, Isaiah presents the Messiah, bridegroom, king, and judge. Page 215. Paragraph I. These three truths are central to the forerunner ministry. And they're central to correcting the increasing distortion of the truth about who Jesus is in the body of Christ in this hour. In this hour of history, there's a great distortion of the truth of who Jesus is in the church. The church is getting more and more focused on things and less and less focused on God. The so many ministers are more focused on how to grow their church than they are on how to connect with God at the heart level. I like church growth. But if it's the main thing on your mind, you will get distorted and you will get off of the main things of the Bible. Many in the body of Christ, I need more money, I need more healing, I need more friends, I need a bigger ministry. That's the main thing that's on their mind when they think about God. And slowly over time, the truth about the glory of Jesus is increasingly more distorted in the church in this hour of history. The most neglected subject in the kingdom of God is the subject of God. God is actually the most neglected subject in the kingdom. The benefits are the main thing, but God has been placed back in the back of the list. But as we understand Jesus, bridegroom, king and judge, it corrects the increasing distortion about Jesus that's happening this hour in the church. Let's talk just a few minutes about the crisis of understanding Jesus the judge. Roman numeral two. There will be a great crisis on the earth related to misunderstanding God's judgments. As Jesus intervenes with his judgments in a greater way, more and more there's going to be confusion about it. Throughout history, his judgments have been restrained, so it hasn't been that big of an issue to most people. But as we grow closer to his coming, his judgments will be manifest more and more. Isaiah 24 verse 14 and 15, he said, I was restrained, but in that hour I won't be restrained. If people lack understanding of what's happening in the end times, judgments, they will become far more vulnerable to negative responses. If they don't understand the judgments and all the things that are happening in the end times, they will be more vulnerable to fear. They will be more vulnerable to be offended at God. They will be more vulnerable to be confused by his judgments when they happen. I thought he was a God of love. Why did he let this happen? They don't understand his judgments, they will be more vulnerable to compromise and even deception. They will be bewildered, confused. What's going on? Is God in control? Is he really God of love? Is he near me? Does he care? And these kind of ideas will cause great harm in the body of Christ if we don't answer them right. Many will need help to interpret his judgments in a right way. Because his judgments are released as an expression of his love and wisdom, but we have to be able to make sense of that to the people in the body of Christ. Understanding his judgments is a big subject of which we're not going into detail in this conference. And we have time to understand this in the years ahead, because still his judgments are greatly restrained in this hour. We have time to get deep understanding, but what I'm calling people to do is start the process of searching this out in the Bible. And don't wait 10 or 20 more years to start learning this. Because the Holy Spirit really is emphasizing bridegroom, king, and judge, and we need to respond by going deep in our understanding in all three of these facets of his heart. Paragraph B. The Holy Spirit's raising up forerunners. And these forerunners are getting prepared now to prepare people later. And what are they preparing the people to do? To respond rightly to the Lord in the midst of these unique dynamics of the great revival, the great sin, the great judgment, all at the same time. Because if the forerunners teach them what's happening and teach them to respond right, then they will agree with Jesus instead of resisting him and being offended at him. The Holy Spirit right now is calling some forerunners to a season of rigorous preparation. Diligent. He's calling them to draw back from so much activity to begin to search out these truths in the Word in a deep way, a focused way. He's not speaking this to everybody, but he's calling different individuals, slow down, get rid of some of the activity, focus on me in a very different way than you ever have before. He's calling them to go deep in the Scripture. With fasting and prayer. To walk in a new level of purity. To learn the message of Bridegroom, King and Judge in a far deeper way than they know it now. To learn the minister and the Holy Spirit's power in a more effective way. And because they love people so much, they're willing to draw back a little bit to give themselves to this intense season of preparation. Because if they will prepare themselves greater, they will be far more effective in preparing others. For this very unique hour of history that's approaching, the transition of the planet to the age to come. Page 216. I just want to tell a story or two. I'm just going to tell one story, paragraph B. It was how the Lord called me to begin the journey of encountering Jesus as the Bridegroom God. It was in 1988. So it was 23 years ago. I was in my office one morning. And I opened up a wedding card. And on the wedding card it had this verse, Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 6 and 7. And this is a passage where the Lord is inviting, is calling us. He's saying, it's a passage where the Lord's beckoning us to call on Him to be fire on our heart, to seal our heart with fire. So I read this wedding card between a man and a woman. And instantly the presence of the Holy Spirit came on me in a very unusual way that I had not experienced before. It was suddenly, it was instantly, the Spirit was resting on me. I thought, what's happening? This has never happened before. And it's only happened a couple times since that in the last 23 years. Maybe two or three other times since then. My point is, it was a very, very unique and rare experience in terms of my life. So I began to pray. I said, Jesus, seal my heart with your flame of love, your fire. And the presence of the Holy Spirit increased and I began to weep. So I pick up the telephone and I call the church receptionist. That's just down the hallway. I said, something strange is happening to me right now. Don't let anybody, no phone calls or nobody knock on the door, nothing. I said, I don't know what's happening, but something very unusual. And so I hung the phone up and began just to wait on the Lord. And it became more intense. Ten minutes later, the telephone rings. And I was so surprised. You know, it's amazing how you can be so close to the Lord and then one second later, you're in the flesh and you're frustrated. Here I am enjoying the Lord with great nearness. What? I asked you not to call. I admit, I'm a weak and sinful man. So I pick the phone up and I go, hello? And the receptionist said, I hate to disturb you. But Bob Jones is on the phone right now. And some of you know his name. He's a man the Lord has used prophetically in my life in the 80s. And he said, the receptionist said, Bob says he's heard the audible voice of the Lord right now to give you a message. He said, the receptionist said, I know you said don't interrupt, but if God has a message, I thought I should interrupt. Then later I said, that's good. Always interrupt if somebody has the audible voice of the Lord. That's good. But it wasn't, I didn't have that kind of response then because my heart was so tender and I was just so much under the presence of God, I couldn't even really talk to the receptionist. So I said, hello Bob? Bob says, I have a very short message for you. I only talked to him on the phone for like 60 seconds. Now remember, I'm kneeling on the ground. I have the wedding card, Song of Solomon 8.6 on it. I have my Bible, Song of Solomon 8.6. And I have tears falling down on my Bible and the pages wet. It was a very dramatic experience. It doesn't happen like that very often in my life. And I'm on the floor, I said, yes Bob? He said, I just heard the audible voice of the Lord for you. The Lord told me to call you right now. He spoke to me Song of Solomon chapter 8, verse 6 and 7. I just went, I didn't even say anything to Bob. He said, the Lord told me to tell you two things. He wants you to focus on this truth all the days of your ministry. You know, I was in my early 30s then. He said, for the rest of your ministry, focus on this truth. And the second thing the Lord told me to tell you, He's going to release grace on the body of Christ across the whole world to enter into the truth of this message. Not related to me preaching it, but sovereignly He would visit people all over the earth and He would call them to this message. And the Spirit would release the truth of the grace of this message to the body of Christ worldwide, He said, in the coming generation. And the message is the restoring of the first commandment to first place. That's the message this verse is talking about. The song of Solomon 8, 6 message is, walk in the first commandment and the grace of God is going to help the whole body of Christ do this if they want it. So Bob said all of this in like 60 seconds. I said, hello. He said, Mike, I've heard the audible voice of the Lord for you. He told me He's going to speak to you about Song of Solomon chapter 8, verse 6 and 7. You're to focus on this all the days of your life because it's really the first commandment message. And He's going to speak this message and release grace for it to people all over the world. Sovereignly He will visit them directly. And then Bob just hung up. I didn't even say, I don't even think I said five words to him. Because I was weeping and I was trembling, I just said, hello, yes, bye, click. That was it. And I just wept and wept in the presence of the Lord throughout that morning. So then I, after I kind of recovered, I called my wife, Diane. The most amazing thing just happened. The Lord spoke audibly and gave me direction for my life. This is the greatest thing that I could ever imagine. Song of Solomon 8.6, I told her the very short story. She was very excited. So now, I decided I should read Song of Solomon because I've never read it before. I figure if chapter 8, verse 6, even though that's about the first commandment, I figured I should study the whole book. And so I read all eight chapters. I saw flowers, perfume, body parts, perfume, jewelry, body parts. I was going, this is terrible. I mean this, I said, this is terrible. I read all eight chapters, and then at chapter 8, verse 6, I liked, but the whole rest of the book I did not like. So I told the Lord, I said, I can't do this. I'm the son of a boxer, a world champion boxer. I can't do perfume and body parts and jewelry and flowers. I said, Lord, give this to the women's ministry. Let me teach the life of David or the book of Romans, something like this. I was sincerely depressed in a very real way that day. This is not a joke. So I go home from that day after the office, I go home to my wife. She greets me. She is so excited. Tell me all about it again. I said, this is terrible. She says, what happened? I thought you were excited eight hours ago. I said, have you ever read Song of Solomon? She goes, it's awesome. I said, it's terrible. I can't do this. She said, I think the Lord will help you. I said, I don't even want Him to help me. I don't want to do this. But I decided since He created the world in Genesis 1, He had more power than me, so I better listen to Him. So I started reading it and reading commentaries and praying over it. And for about two full years, I didn't like it. It was like eating vegetables as a kid that I did not like that my mom made me eat. My mom said, this is good for you. You will learn to like it when you grow older. So I thought, if I stay with this, this is good for me. I will learn to like this as I grow older. And about the two year mark in the summer of 1990, because this experience happened in July 1988, it all began to change and it began to connect and touch my heart in a deep way. And I began to understand the spiritual message of the Song of Solomon, is that God is saying, I desire you, I delight in you, I want to ravish your heart, exhilarate you in love. Because the Song of Solomon has two different applications. First, it's a natural story about the beauty of married love, and it's a great love poem. But then it has a spiritual application of the glory of the love between Jesus and His church, and there's no sensual connotations in that at all. And then I began to deeply love this message, and it radically changed my life. And I've told the Lord many times, thank you, thank you for calling me to this, and for being so patient with me when I said no. Amen. Let's stand. I told the worship team to go home. I looked at them, I said, you're tired, go home. It's a command, I make you go home. They said, thank you. So we're just going to wait on the Lord for a few moments without any worship team, this is okay. Just open your heart before the Lord. You're saying, yes, Jesus. Bridegroom, King, and Judge, all three. I want to know you as Bridegroom, the God of desire. I want to know you as Bridegroom, God of desire. I want to love you with all of my heart and strength, like you love me with all of your heart and your strength. But I want to know you as Judge, too. I won't draw back on Jesus, the Judge, I will be faithful to know you as Judge. I want to be a forerunner that's prepared so I can prepare others to understand you, Bridegroom, King, and Judge. I would like to call the men to respond. I'm talking to men specifically. That the message of the Bridegroom God is new to you and you've never really taken hold of it before. I understand this so well because I struggled for two full years after the Lord called me to it. But I'm so grateful now that he insisted that I go there. And if you're a man and you're saying, I say yes to the Bridegroom God, it's new, but I'm willing to go deep in this. I would like you to come stand up here before the Lord. If this is a new doctrine to you, and you're saying yes to it right now, I want to go deep, I make a commitment, Lord. Just come stand on these lines. Because it's difficult for men to say yes to this. But David was the great warrior king of Israel. The great warrior king. But he was the lovesick worshipper of the God of Israel. God is raising up men like David that have a tender love for God, but they have a warrior's heart. So as men, you're saying, yes, Lord, I want to know you as the God of desire. Be patient with me. Help me. I don't even know where to start. I don't even feel this, but I want to feel it. And I commit myself to you right now to go on this journey. I'm a weak man, I need your help, but if you will help me, I will go on this journey. Now I would like any person in the room, man or woman, if you have already made this commitment, and this is something you're deeply committed to, I want you to come up here and pray for these brothers with me, and help me pray for them. Anyone in the room, male or female, that's been touched by this message in the years gone by. Come on up now. Because the Holy Spirit gives more when the church prays for the church. Just come stand in front of each one of them and just lay your hands on them. Don't stand behind them, actually stand in front of them. And you don't even have to pray out loud if you don't want. Say, Holy Spirit, release revelation of the fire of your love. Holy Spirit, reveal the God of desire to my brother here. And you can go and pray for several of them, you don't have to pray for the same one the whole time if you don't want. I'm going to put some worship music on. We're just going to continue for a few minutes, but keep the music just like that, perfect. Maybe even turn it up just a little bit. Lord, release your fire right now. I'm going to make sure every brother's prayed for. This is a very important moment in their life. Even if they don't feel anything, this is an important transaction with their heart and the heart of God. It will really touch them in the days to come. Holy Spirit, you said that you would release this grace around the whole world. I ask you to release it even now in this room. I ask that today, you would visit men and women all over Asia by dreams and visions and call them to this like you called me to it. I ask that you would raise up messengers in North Korea, in the underground church, that you would visit them and put your hand on their heart like fire and touch them even today. Lord, I ask you for young men and young women in North Korea, visit them in dreams and visions, tell them this message directly by your own voice. And when we meet them in the years to come, let us hear the testimony that you visited them with this truth. Just keep the music on for a minute, but you leave, can you leave?