Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of worshiping God in spirit and truth, as outlined in John 4:22-23. He explains that true worship requires a genuine heart engagement and a relationship with the Holy Spirit, which is essential for acceptable worship. Bickle also highlights the importance of understanding God's character and our identity in Him, as worshiping in truth involves having the right ideas about God and ourselves. He warns against living with a quenched spirit due to disobedience and encourages believers to pursue a lifestyle of sincere worship and obedience. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper commitment to worshiping God on His terms, which leads to a more profound encounter with Him.

Let's pray. Father we come before you in the name of Jesus and we ask you to speak to our spirits To draw our heart after you Lord Draw our hearts together After your heart in the name of Jesus we ask you amen. I want to talk about worshiping God in spirit and in truth John chapter 4 verse 22 and 23 is a very well-known passage When Jesus is speaking and he says True worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth and the father is seeking He's seeking such to worship him This is who that this is what the father's looking for his eyes go across the earth God is spirit Jesus said and Those who worship him they must that's the key word They must worship him in the way that he determines and that is in spirit and truth Jesus Says in the next passage talking about King David the Lord sought for a man after his own heart But it's the idea that God is searching for people after his heart that will worship him the way that he prescribes Because the the heart of man is very religious So we have many ideas of how to worship God But God says Jesus said if you worship my father, you must worship him in spirit of truth This is the kind of worship. He's looking for so it's important that we understand Some of what's being said here by the Lord Says in the next passage 2nd Chronicles 16 verse 9 That the eyes of the Lord they run to and fro across the whole earth God's eyes are searching the whole earth and he's looking to show himself strong. He wants to release his anointing on Behalf of the people whose heart is totally his who are loyal to him paragraph a Jesus highlights the two primary requirements in worshiping or seeking or encountering God Now when Jesus said these those that worship God must worship him this way you could add the word Those that seek God must seek him in spirit and truth Or you could say those who encounter God must encounter him in spirit and truth You you can substitute the word worship with seeking or encountering because it's not just the the the ultimate Expressions of worship, but it's the whole journey of worship and seeking God must be in spirit and truth If we are to be successful if we're really to do it the way that God requires We must worship God. I have here at the end of paragraph a we must worship God on his terms not on our terms And we have to understand his terms and when I think of worshiping God on our terms typically it's not just with compromise That's not what I mean. Mostly we have wrong ideas. We have wrong paradigms of what God's after or what God's like and God wants us to worship him according to the paradigms that he establishes in his word Roman numeral to The first issue is to worship God in spirit and there were this is just an introductory statement about it I'm gonna give two aspects of Worshiping God in spirit and then we're gonna look at two aspects of worshiping God in truth Worshiping God in spirit when we worship him in spirit. We worship him by the aid of the Holy Spirit We must cooperate with the spirit We must cultivate a friendship with the spirit and being careful not to quench him or to resist him Because the Holy Spirit is our only escort in To acceptable worship without the help of the Holy Spirit. We cannot worship God This is a point that seems really elementary But it's a point that is often overlooked is that we run to a worship service in a church or a conference and the worship service will not benefit us if we're living crosswise with the Holy Spirit and What we're doing in our relationship with the Holy Spirit is Dynamically related to what happens in the worship time We can't worship is more than singing songs. The Lord didn't say have good music with worship with biblical lyrics He said worship me by this in spirit It's gonna require it's gonna require an active participation of the Spirit for you to be able to do this You can't do it unaided And that doesn't mean you always have to feel the power of the Spirit and fill his anointing But unless the Spirit helps us, we can't do this thing. Look at look at number one underneath this There is a supernatural element to worship that we cannot produce on our own and Without that supernatural element We can't worship the way God requires worship because remember Jesus said you must worship this way. It's not an option It's not just the best way. It's the only way to worship. It's the only way We can't go forward when the Spirit is quenched in our life we are helpless to encounter God without his help Therefore we must prize and watch and guard the promptings of the Spirit on our heart The Holy Spirit gives us many Subtle and ends from subtle to strong promptings on our heart and we have to prize them. We have to guard them We have to watch them. We have to pay attention to them if we are going to worship or seek God or encounter God Because we have we can only do it on God's terms now Don't think of just worshiping God in spirit think of seeking him or encountering because it's really all the same subject paragraph 2 We cannot feel God's presence so we can't feel the power of the word without a healthy relationship with the Spirit I Can't emphasize that enough. It's so obvious. I mean, we all know it all of us, you know would agree with that However, the way we live the way we talk what we do with our eyes Is it makes a different statement so many times then then this basic principle that we all agree with? Paragraph B We have to worship God it says we have to worship God in spirit or with our spirit With our human spirit or from the heart is what I'm talking about Romans chapter 1 verse 9 Paul the Apostles spoke about this concept. He goes for God as my witness I serve him with my spirit and what he means is I serve him with with my heart engaged I serve him with the genuineness of a heart response and Often we think of Worship is mostly singing the songs or the type of songs or the type of music or the do we do it long? Do we do it short? Do we wait on the Holy Spirit or whatever? But there's a dimension where our heart must be engaged. This is what Paul's this is what Jesus is saying It's not enough to go through the mechanics of seeking God We have to be engaged at the heart level with him. We have to worship him with our spirit or with our heart And we're not just engaged in the 30 minutes or the hour of the worship service In order to worship God in spirit our heart. Our spirit must be engaged with God as a lifestyle Our spirit must be engaged with God as a lifestyle Not just for the 30 or the 60 minute session where the music is is is going forward Paragraph C. We must have sincere intentions to obey God without hypocrisy There now I would say something about hypocrisy hypocrisy is not saying one thing and doing another that's a common definition of hypocrisy I don't think that's a that's the best definition Hypocrisy isn't that you say one thing and do another Because everybody says one thing and does another if you say love one another beloved unless you're perfect in love You're doing less than what you're saying So hypocrisy isn't that we come up short hypocrisy is that we say something and we don't seek to do it The seeking of it is what makes it genuine not the attaining I fall so short of so many things that I'm reaching for in proclaiming, but I am genuinely seeking them so therefore we aren't hypocrites if we're genuine in our pursuit of that a Hypocrite is somebody who says one thing but it doesn't seek to do it in the secret place of their heart but Seeking God as I as I have here is Different than attaining to mature obedience. We're far from attaining to perfect obedience all of us are but the seeking of it Is what it means to to be genuine to worship from your spirit or with your spirit is to seek God genuinely Now there's no substitute whatsoever for pursuing a hundred percent obedience Beloved this is a really really important point There is no substitute from pursuing a hundred percent obedience a hundred percent obedience I use the analogy of you know, the little boy gets a You know, he gets a train a train set for Christmas, you know, and he says hey I want to make this thing work and he plugs in the train set He's got a little train and the whole power of the Kansas City power and light company you know is behind that little boys train as he's plugged it in, you know, and he says and Daddy the train won't work and you can have a you know Just a little piece of metal on the track somewhere. You don't see it short circusing short circuiting it one little piece of metal on The track you have a little bobby pin on the track and the power of the whole Kansas City power and light company Cannot move that little train Because of one little issue on the tracks that short circuits it If there's one issue in our life I'm not saying that we're falling short in because there's many issues One issue that we are comfortable to live in obedience where we say in our heart I'm not gonna deal with that issue right now I'm gonna go this way. I assure you this you cannot Feel the power of the Holy Spirit in the word You will not feel his presence in your inward dialogue in communion with the Lord One and he might let you do that for a minute or two for you know A little bit of a short season and probably not even I mean the Lord you don't lose his favor You don't you're not kicked out of the kingdom, but we cannot worship God. We cannot seek him We cannot encounter him except we do it in spirit with the genuineness of a heart engaged now again There are issues in our life. We're not attaining to But beloved we need to be declaring war for real on every issue. I'm talking about our speech needs to be bridled This of course, that's the last bastion of a victory is this is our speech a hundred percent under control And I don't know anybody whose speeches is entirely bridled but our tongue But I assure you this if we don't care about that if we're not pursuing it We cannot worship God in spirit. Our eyes must be bridled Job is the one that said I make a covenant with my eyes That I won't look on the things that pull my heart in the wrong direction It is essential that we make this covenant with our eyes We may not keep it a hundred percent But when we blow it we must call it sin and we must declare war on it We can't just say well, you know boys will be boys and I'm gonna just do this for a season No that that's impossible and seek or encounter or worship God in the spirit. It can't can't happen Jesus said the kind of worship God seeking is those that do it in spirit of truth and you must do it You know Jesus he took it up a notch first He introduced it by saying God is seeking people that worship this way and then he made it a little more emphatic He was it's more than that. God's seeking it. It's the only way to seek the Lord Some people are comfortable with With financial unfaithfulness, they're comfortable with not bringing their money under the Lordship of Jesus or their time And then they get so accustomed to a dull spirit The body of Christ in our nation as a whole is so accustomed to living with a quenched spirit So accustomed to living with a dull spirit because it's now I'm not gonna bring my time under your leadership I'm gonna do with my time what I want and I'll give you a little bit of time, you know I'll read the word a little bit here and there and do what I want to do and then you know I'll go to church on Sunday most of time and I'll give a little bit of money here and there and I'm gonna look at What I look and talk the way I want to talk and you know and not get too far out there beloved I'll assure you this you will live with a quenched and dull spirit all the days of your life even as a believer There are no exceptions. The Lord says you Jesus said you must worship in spirit It must be with your spirit or you cannot seek the Lord in a way that's going to be effective in a way That's gonna have breakthrough at the heart level The sooner we settle this Then we know that we're playing a game that can't be won Well, I mean we can't fake out the Holy Spirit We can fake out the leadership of the church or in the marketplace or even fake out your home a little bit and Live a little bit dual life on the side. You cannot fake out the Holy Spirit It is an absolute waste of time to go through the motions of being a prophetic in time prophetic Believer hot for God passion for Jesus and have a couple areas that we're comfortable with living in disobedience and compromise It's an absolute waste of time to go through the motions All that we do is we get accustomed to a dull spirit and we think it's normal Adult spirit is not normal for a born-again believer It's you know, 99% of the body of Christ lives with it But it is not a biblical norm to live for decades with a dull spirit before God Let's look at Roman numeral chapter 3. I mean Roman numeral 3 the top of page 2 Let's move to the next dimension the first one's worshiping in spirit we look at two aspects now We look at the second dimension worshiping in truth this is just as important and some people would focus on the on the spirit part their relationship to the Holy Spirit and the genuineness of a heart response of Really being engaged as a lifestyle. I mean being engaged as a lifestyle not just engaged during the 60-minute worship time You know where we sing I'm talking about engaged as a lifestyle But this is an entirely different subject now worshiping in truth Worshiping according to truth and This takes this takes effort this takes work to worship in truth Because it means worshiping with the right ideas about God Number one and secondly worshiping with the right ideas about who we are in God This isn't just Something that makes our life a little bit better if we think right about God our life is a little bit better if we think Right about who we are in God our life's a little bit better beloved You cannot seek God in an effective way if you don't begin to think rightly about who God is and who you are in God This isn't just you know, the privilege of a few radical believers that finally figure this out. This is absolutely Christianity 101 you cannot worship God except we worship him with right ideas to a Right ideas about him, and I don't mean we'll ever have perfectly right ideas about him But I'm talking about in the most general sense. We have to think rightly about God, which is the key to thinking rightly about ourselves Many believers I know and are trying to be fervent They're trying to do the first dimension to worship God in spirit. They're trying to live right with God integrity they have wholly wrong ideas who I totally wrong ideas about God and Totally wrong ideas about how God views them and they come before God with shame and they come before God with condemnation They don't have confidence and their spirit is wilted in that kind of spiritual environment in that paradigm. They can't sustain a Confident perseverance in God's presence because they're not worshiping according to truth They're sincere which is the first dimension, but they're not truthful They're not accurate, which is the second dimension. And again, I'm not saying a hundred percent accurate None of us are a hundred per none of us see it clear a hundred percent. I'm just talking about even in the most elementary ways This first issue worshiping according to the truth of who God is God is a father Jesus is a bridegroom King and judge We come to God based on the revelation of his personality, which is what something we put so much emphasis on Around here with our interns in our new students in the Bible school We just train them constantly on on the knowledge of God the knowledge of God the knowledge of God You know why they can't worship God, which means they can't seek him they can't encounter him if they don't do it according to truth and and and and I'd say as high as 90% of the people who come and For training or come a part of us have Significantly wrong ideas about who God is and who they are in God Significantly wrong ideas and many of have been serving the Lord, you know, if they're young, you know four five ten years and the older ones two or three four or five decades and they're Completely unfounded on these elementary issues. Now. I'm not saying that as a put-down to anybody I'm saying that's the state of the body of Christ in our nation And my point of that isn't to make a big point about how negative it is My point is to say it is normal for us to be raised in that spiritual environment. That's the point I'm making It's normative in this hour of the body of Christ in America to have wrong ideas about God Which is mostly just no ideas about God Because God's hardly ever talked about You know again the things of God, you know How to get more things and bigger ministry and more friends and more money and more comforts talked about but God himself has not talked about much and There's a great there's a great famine in the land on just the knowledge of God and so when they come Again, my point isn't that bah humbug aren't you messed up? You know, you should know better No, it's not that it's saying that there's a famine in the land in our nation About the knowledge of God and we need to be sober about it and say, you know what? Probably I'm a product of that famine as well. I probably need to really get locked into this subject and focused on it Beloved I assure you Jesus was right You can't encounter or seek him in a right way unless you do it according to truth. You have to work on Getting rid of the wrong ideas about God and replacing them with right ideas about God and that takes work that takes time That takes a focus. That's an intentional thing. You're not gonna wake up one day with right ideas about God We it takes time We have to turn the TV off and say no to some of the entertainment recreation some of the social events We have to say no to some of the increase in our ministry and the increase in our marketplace We have to downsize some of the things in our life to make some time to get right ideas in our brain Right ideas won't come automatically. It takes time to get right ideas and the devil is committed To stopping you from getting right ideas about God in your mind Well, we've talked so much about that. I'm gonna go on to be that's what this whole conference is about You can read more the paragraph later if you want paragraph B The next thing is we have to worship him with the truth of who we are in God and beloved We'll never see ourself right till we see him, right? We only change the way we view ourself when we change the way we view him the lady prayed the prayer Lord I want to love my neighbor as I love myself and the Lord spoke to her and shocked her and says that's the problem You do love your neighbor the way you love yourself you hate yourself. That's why you hate your neighbor. That's absolutely true That we will only we will only have a view of our neighbor According to the way we view ourself. The Word of God says love your neighbor as you love yourself You will never love yourself until you have the revelation that God loves you and you'll never have that until we have a right revelation of as to who God is Again I'm talking about even the most general way We are sons of God before the Father and we are the bride of Christ before the Son And we're clothed in the in the garments of righteousness the point of this the point of knowing this and You know most of you have heard plenty of teaching on this through the years And if not, you need to really really get established in this. Here's the point This is what gives us confidence in our weakness to stand before God and to sustain this lifestyle of seeking Him The one reason that many people do not seek the Lord isn't the insincerity of the first dimension worshiping God in spirit Because that's talking about insincerity or lack of connectedness at the heart level with God is they just have wrong ideas Do you know how hard it is to worship God that you think is mad at you all the time? To open your spirit and to read the word before a God who's frowning at you looking for a Looking for a reason to you know to take his hammer and crash you and crash down on you And you're like he's just looking for a reason to just prove to you why you're so off Beloved you cannot sustain a lifestyle of seeking God with those ideas You will do anything in your power to get away from seeking God who wants to encounter that information day after day after day on purpose We get enough of it in life But the Lord's heart is very different It says here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 That if anyone if anyone is in Christ and you know the passage I know your new creation this is bold This is radical. This is this is a bold statement from heaven. This is powerful. Oh Things have passed away God's God's argument against you his legal argument his legal case against you is settled It's passed away. This is this is talking about our standing before him legally and Meaning there's only two positions before God. We are legally accepted in his presence or we are rejected There's not a third option. It's one or the other and we have it a hundred percent We're either a hundred percent accepted in his presence or we're a hundred percent rejected in his presence There's no middle ground you have the gift of righteousness and you're fully accepted in his presence Or you do not have the gift of righteousness and you are fully rejected in his presence He's wooing you to come to him, but only through Christ Jesus There is no other way as the humanitarian gospel is Increasing in the midst of those who named the name of Jesus There is no other way to God because it's an issue of justice Only one man paid the price and this kind of new zeal I mean, there's a there's in its emerging You're gonna hear more and more about it bringing all the religions together And you know, how can you tell me that this isn't you know, your way is the only way you know I would say to all the other religions of the world if you produce a perfect man who has never sinned who bears the wrath Of God for you, then there is a second way Find that perfect man Who is this prophet you're talking about if he is not perfect and I'm in his entire life and took the wrath of God For you, then he is not a way into God's presence. It's an issue of justice It's not an issue of God's love. It's an issue of justice It says here in verse 19 that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself I love this not Imputing sin against us. He is not counting our sin against us. He is not counting our sin against us This is fantastic. This is in his this is This is legal. This is God says you're I allow you entrance into my presence Verse 21 He he for he the father made him who knew no sin the son to be sin for us beloved I perfect man became Sin for us. This is beyond Exaggeration. I can't even fathom the implications of this of this reality. It is so big The innocent one took the role of the guilty one so that the guilty ones become innocent in God's presence. It's fantastic Beloved we can stand with boldness and we can seek him even our weakness knowing that we have a hearing we have favor We have God's smile on us as we're coming to him We have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus Paul said it in Romans 6 verse 13. This is very important. He said when you present yourself to God If you're gonna worship him if you're gonna seek him If you're gonna see God you have to do it as those that are alive from the dead and he's talking about legally here He says when you when you present yourself to God, you cannot present yourself in your condemnation You have to present yourself as a person who has been granted the status of life as a free gift Many people know this intellectually, but when they present themselves to God when they seek God they present themselves as dead in their sins and Paul said no when you present yourself, you have to present yourself as made alive By the free gift of God you have to stand there when the devil comes to you and speaks different say it is written I am justified by faith. It is written. He who knew no sin became sin on my behalf I am the righteousness of Christ Jesus. We declare this to the lies of the enemy We don't present ourself as dead. We don't present ourself as condemned We present ourself as accepted as made alive by a free gift This is powerful it but it's not just wow, that makes me feel good It does make me feel good. And I and the true is Wow is still true, but But my point is you cannot worship God except you worship him in truth If you worship him another way, it will not be effective. There are so many sincere believers I undoubtedly a number in this room. You are so big on the dimension the first dimension of sincerity You will worship God in spirit, but you are so Unestablished in this issue of truth and you're saying I'm seeking God. It's not working. My heart is continually stuck I'm not breaking through you can't get the breakthrough except its spirit and truth Some people will go heavy on the truth. They study the bridegroom King and judge they study the father heart They study the new creation realities and they are but they're real real weak on worshiping in spirit They don't engage themselves with God as a lifestyle with truthfulness from their inner man I mean insincerity from the inner man, so we can't choose one or the other we have to do spirit and truth If we're gonna worship God Let's do number one under this our Standing before God's favor with acceptance is based on what Jesus did for us Not it's not what we do before him God's righteousness cannot be improved upon Did you know a billion years from now? You won't have a righteousness superior to the one that you received the day you were born again your righteousness a Million years into the resurrection will not be improved one degree from the righteousness you possess this very moment It cannot be improved upon It's not it's not some of God's righteousness. It's God's righteousness. The cloak the garment is on you our Standing our acceptance before God is not based on our diligence or our spiritual maturity We have no need to bargain with God when we approach him if we've repented if we're genuine we don't need to bargain God I promise I'll never do this one again. If you forgive me one more time That that's just that's religious foolishness We don't think we're gonna bring before God an argument. That's going to increase or Strengthen the righteousness of Christ. We don't have a hope to produce something. That's gonna make God smile and say yes You're welcome into my presence however, number two, I want to say this very important our diligence and maturity definitely our Diligence the spiritual maturity definitely impact our quality of life and ministry our diligence matters Our diligence doesn't make God accept us But our diligent diligence greatly impacts the quality of our life in this age and the age to come But it doesn't change the fact that we're accepted or not paragraph D God can God can smile over our life in a general sense while he contends with this in a particular issue that issue that we're struggling with that issue that is not settled that issue of Weakness and sin in our life that is not finished does not define our whole life God looks at the whole of our life and says welcome. You are my beloved However, I'm still wrestling with that issue in your life I'm still contending with you and I will still discipline you because of that issue But my it's not an issue of me rejecting you in my presence So God's acceptance does not mean he will not be displeased with an issue God's acceptance doesn't mean he won't discipline us in an issue But he doesn't discipline us because he's rejected us. He's disciplined us because he's accepted us Let's look at at Roman numeral four top of page three This is our inheritance This is one thing that I want to see you leave this conference with and some of you already have it But some of you don't this this confidence Roman numeral four it is the assurance that your inheritance is to be fully alive Your inheritance is to have your mind and your heart alive in God that is your inheritance that is within your reach That is within your reach as a believer to be alive in God to be fully alive in the boundaries of what God means In this age, which is obviously lesser than what we'll have in the age to come But God has so much more to give us than we're walking in Hebrews chapter 10 This is the covenant. This is the promise. We looked at this yesterday. This is the covenant. I will put my word into their heart. I This is my promise My word will be put into their mind. I Myself will write my word on their heart and on their mind to for paragraph a God promises to write to empower our emotions so we could feel the power of the word we can feel desire for righteousness God's desire is not that we would love to sin so bad and we grit our teeth we hold on we're gonna try to make it One day two days. Oh my gosh, I might live 70 more years. This is never gonna work The Lord says I want to I want to write my my word on your heart. I want your emotions I want you to feel love for the things that I approve of the things that are called righteousness I want you to love righteousness and you can't you can't make your emotions do that. God will write on your heart He will put new desires in us We will begin to love the things we used to hate and will begin to hate the things we used to love I mean, there's a reversal. It's progressive, but the reversal happens It's not just that God promises to write on our on our heart. He writes. He promises to write on our mind He will give us living understanding He will give us understanding and I believe in Bible school. We have one But you don't have to go to Bible school to get living understanding. You don't have to get a degree from a seminary The men that God called forth as Apostles were these young 20 year old fishermen for uneducated fishermen But they ended up with living understanding This is within the this is the covenant promise of every believer to have living understanding of the word But if they would feed their spirit on the word But it's not enough just to feed their spirit on the word. We have to feed our spirit according to spirit and truth We have to do it God's way. See some people read the word, but they don't live a lifestyle in spirit and truth And you know, they they may go to a Bible school and study for four years and get a degree that Jesus didn't say you can worship me or seek me any way you want He didn't say go to seminary and you know what we'll call it even He said you have to worship me in spirit and truth when you're in seminary you have to study and seek me in spirit and truth when you're seeking me and That spirit and truth part is often Neglected or cast to the side and people are happy to just to worship according to the religious traditions of that charismatic Church Beloved we have to worship God on his terms and seek him on his terms or it's ineffective I don't mean that he he says I I will not receive you because most people are seeking the Lord I mean born-again believers in terms different than this They were saved and born-again But they can't enter into that lifestyle of encounter because that's what worship is about It's living in a lifestyle of encounter not a you know, one lively experience at a conference or at a key mountaintop experience It's a lifestyle of encounter is what worship means. I want a lifestyle of encounter paragraph B God promises to write his word on our heart and our mind our heart is by nature stony It's by nature cold our spirit is by nature dull But you know what? It's easy for God to write on the heart In Exodus 31 God wrote with his finger of God upon the stone stone tablets And this was meant to be a picture of what God was going to do in the New Covenant writing on tablets of flesh the the human heart God wrote with his finger You know, I saw the Charlton Heston movie Ten Commandments and the finger had fire on it, you know I used to say God's finger of fire and then someone said where's that verse on fire some years ago? And I said, I look for it everywhere. Oh, that was Charlton Heston movie. Okay, I Knew I got it from somewhere and so I can't prove it's biblical, but I still think it's a finger of fire. I still do No God writes his finger he writes on our heart he writes on our mind which means he's awakens our dull understanding I love this. This is fantastic Everyone has access to this Down in Luke 24 the Apostle. I mean the disciples on the road of Emmaus Jesus talked to them. They said didn't our heart burn did our hearts burn? When he opened our understanding he he set their heart on fire they had their heart was awakened when it says didn't our heart burn they were awakened with desire and Their mind was open their understanding was opened but it was when Jesus spoke the scripture to them and God wants to awaken our hearts and to open our understanding. He wants to do to us what he did to the disciples there in Luke chapter 24 Paragraph C. We are to live By feeding on God's Word, let's let's read the verse there Matthew 4 for Jesus said man should not live by bread alone But man shall live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth Beloved this I want you to catch the weight of this. This is what Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy He's the famous passage in Deuteronomy 8 Jesus is quoting it to the devil the devil's coming to him tempting him and he says I will live By every word that comes from God's mouth. Here's the point our heart only Lives our heart only lives. It's only alive. It's only healthy when it's connected to the Word of God So so many people are trying to be spiritually vibrant Disconnected to feeding their spirit on the Word of God on a regular basis Somewhere people have gotten the idea. I'm talking about in the charismatic church in America. I'm not talking about the other groups I'm talking about the ones that are going for this where they got the idea that they could be spiritually alive without having a healthy Diet in the Word of God on a regular basis The Word of God is is a sort of thing The Bibles are kind of got dust on and they're laid at the table and we want the Spirit we want exciting meetings beloved The heart cannot be alive except it feed regularly on the Word of God Jesus said we live by the words that come from God's mouth It's the Word of God is the basis of the health of our heart. I Mentioned this yesterday That so many are living in a spiritual ICU and when I when a person's in the intensive care unit at the hospital their physical appetite is diminished and They're they're they're physical app because they're sick and many people they think it's normal to have a very diminished appetite for the word They read the word it's boring. It's confusing. It doesn't matter. They think that's normal because 90% plus of the kingdom of God lives that way This is not our inheritance to live with no appetite for the Word of God or at least a diminished one We need to be people that are ravenously hungry for the Word of God and beloved that will be awakened as we get out of ICU unit When the guy gets healthy, he's walking about he goes man My appetites returned one of the number one signs of a quenched spirit is a very diminished appetite for the Word of God Now I read open the word and there's still many passages I go, I don't have a clue what that's saying and I look at it. I mean you can still be Baffled by what it means and look and confused by it and I don't get it and many times not feel the power of it But beloved it's not our inheritance to camp out there. We want to say no I am going to live my heart is gonna live and I'm gonna feed it on the Word of God in on a regular basis paragraph D prayer and fasting meditation obedience These things position our heart to receive freely receive freely our heart is is we don't earn we don't earn a Vibrant heart by these things some people think if they pray and fast more they earn it. No. No, you can't earn it But you can position your heart to receive it and it's the analogy that I use so so often I mentioned it last night It's the you know, the the frozen pound of hamburger, you know, you got that frozen and if we put it in front of a bonfire Not immediately, but in time it will fall out and you know that the guy says, okay. I got this frozen hamburger I want to cut it and because I want to I want to cook it and we're good on that fast problem here again. And so And we're gonna cut that thing and they put that knife in a minute later that hamburger it's frozen it won't go anywhere Well, they go. Okay. We'll put it in front of the fire. We'll come back a minute or two later a minute later Still hard another minute later so hard. It's not gonna be tender for a minute or two. It's gonna take some time And we put our cold heart in front of the bonfire of God We do it by spending time in the Word and in prayer and beloved I want to urge you I want to urge you to take a day a week of fasting I want to urge you we urge everyone at I hope to to to do two days a week of fasting two days a week of fasting unless somebody has a medical complications is it's physically healthy for you and anybody and everyone can do it and Thousands and thousands of Saints through history have done that We don't make anybody do it But we urge them to do it I say I urge you to take at least a day a week of fasting and two is much better two is much better because fasting increases our our capacity to receive from the Word of God Fasting is is a is Christianity 101 fasting in our lifestyle The grace of fasting is a critical part of the fasted lifestyle And you don't have to go on long fast and let us the Lord calls you on him But that regular lifestyle of fasting feeding your spirit on the Word of God The guy says my ministry is too big. I got too many responsibilities. I say good downsize your ministry what? Down size my ministry I said is your biggest goal in life to have a big ministry or a big heart Put some energy on the size of your heart downsize your ministry downsize your job If you have to downsize your house work less hours get a smaller place. I Says you downsize the outward stuff so you can upsize your inward stuff. I Mean, I'm for real. I Try to I have a real strong Limitations on what I'll do and where I'll go and what I'll take on in ministry I have many many more opportunities in ministry than I take many more than I take and I want my Lifestyle downsize not because I'm humble because I want time for my heart to grow I can't grow my heart can't grow if my ministry is real big and all my Paraphernalia around my life is real big and you know It takes a lot of time to get the money to buy it and it takes a lot of time to fix it It takes a lot of time to protect it and then it takes a lot of time to use it I just got got rid of it, you know, or never got it in the first place skipped about five steps I don't have to take time to buy it fix it protect it or use it. Just get rid of it or never get it because I We are people we care about the size of our heart and I say Lord if you want my ministry to grow that's your business, but I'm not going to go You know here and there and all around to make it happen if you want to happen you make it happen But I'm staying in a place where my heart is gonna grow and grow and grow and grow and they come here God bless them if they don't well, I'll send him a tape Because I found when I traveled a bit some some years ago My heart got weaker and weaker as my ministry got bigger and bigger. I remember looking at John Wimber a man I traveled with for three years and I remember after we went to these large Conferences all around the Western world and he was really famous and he was just taking me along with him I remember talking to him at three years and I said we had a bunch more conferences a bunch more coming that's good English and Scheduled and and I looked at him. I said John I was in the van I remember I said I gotta I gotta cancel out and I said why I said I'm backsliding and he laughed He was that's great. I go. No. No, I'm serious. I'm backsliding And he goes you're serious. I go. Yeah, I guess what did you do? He thought I did some some event I go. No. No, I didn't do I didn't do something. It's what I'm not doing. I said my heart I don't feel the power of his word when I read it in silence I don't have tears in my prayer life like I've had for years. I go. I can't live this way I have to slow down. I've got to downsize. I've got to get back to the place where my heart feels the Word of God He goes you're for real, aren't you? I said I need to be released from these conferences I said I and he said yeah, I bless you and and and I said Lord I trust but by the grace of God I'm never going to get in a place in life where what I run with my hands or what I possess Takes more time where that then I can afford to to have my heart grow in the things of God Let's look at Roman numeral 5 Roman numeral 5 Encountering God by pray reading the Word Jesus said in John 5 he says to the Pharisees. He says you search the scriptures Or you have Bible study you study the Bible John 5 39 because in them you think you have life He says what you don't know are the scriptures are only talking about me. That's what they're taught. The scriptures are pointing to me He goes but you're unwilling to come to me You're unwilling to to enter into a dialogue at the heart level with me through the Word of God beloved The Word of God isn't just Bible study for first sermons or for books The Word of God is given to create a heart dialogue with Jesus's heart When the Word comes in our heart it is to awaken a conversation in our heart in his heart That is one of the most powerful personal applications of the Word It says of Mary of Bethany. She said at the feet of Jesus and she heard his word She didn't just listen her heart responded she encountered the Word of God Mary of Bethany sitting there and beloved. It's more than Bible study. We want to actually enter into a heart dialogue with the Lord paragraph a How do we hear God's Word in spirit and truth like Mary did? Because it's got to be in spirit and truth. It's not enough to study. We have to give our heart to God We have to receive from him. We have to give our heart and receive from him We must allow the word to create an active dialogue in our heart with God that the Word of God produces the Conversational material for you and God to talk about we must speak the word back to God We must speak the word against the devil many people are happy to study the word But they never speak it back to God in their prayer life. They study it They'll they'll they'll think of they'll speak it to themselves of time or two to kind of think it through out loud You know, then they'll tell a friend then they're done with it Beloved Bible study isn't so you can get it clear. So you can tell somebody Bible study is to get it clear. So you can have an ongoing dialogue We the things we learn we talk to God about that We we enter and we use them against the devil's assault on our heart. We speak the word to the enemy And I want to say it again most most believers They learn the Bible they tell they tell their insight two or three times and they move on and they that's it As though that's the point of the insight The insight is to create a heart dialogue with God. That's why he gives it to us And then there's many other applications that we have with it paragraph B top of page 4 There's two ways to focus our mind when we're seeking God or worshiping God or encountering God I'm using the language of John 4 24 to those that seek God those that encounter God We focus our mind on God on his throne. We looked at that last night It's it's the God of the Jasper Sardius God of glory with the rainbow around his throne on the sea blast like crystal with the flight of the seven Torches flaming fire. We're standing before him and and we get a clarity of the God. We're talking to in our mind I mean, it's not that clear But I mean we we we focus our mind and we talk to him as a person in the presence of his holy angels We're talking to him The second place we focus our mind is God in our spirit God the Holy Spirit lives in our spirit I Think of it as a as a bright and and brilliant light in my inner man Paul talked about fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. We fellowship with him. We talked to him Paul Jesus talked about out of your belly will flow rivers of living water The day you were born again, the Spirit came to live in you. You have a dynamic Reality in your spirit called God the Holy Spirit And I don't just focus my mind externally to talk to God. I quiet my soul and I speak To the Holy Spirit. I talked about spirit. I wait on him. I legal touch me living flame of love touch me and I speak to him I dialed down and and and and I feel his Presence and I talked to him and it and it's a different kind of a touch and dynamic on my heart in those two postures And I recommend both of them as a lifestyle I Have a series called fellowshiping with the Holy Spirit six or eight Messages on it if that's if you're intrigued by that you go what you went too fast on that point That was my main point there, you know, you might have thought that I mean It's a main point of interest to you. You can check that out if you want in the bookstore paragraph C When we bring the Word of God before God in dialogue We want to we want to turn the word in paragraph C. We want to turn it into conversation into dialogue We want to linger. We don't want to get in in in a hurry We have to linger when we talk to God in these ways. We speak slowly and As we speak to God and I'm gonna tell you how to do this in a real practical way in a minute Just take you a minute. Take me a minute to tell you this But as we speak we we say I love you through through throughout the process. We're talking to him We're declaring his word and we declare our love we pray in our spirit with our spirit We pray in tongues And if you don't have the gift of tongues in a devotional prayer language Every person could receive the devotional prayer language Not everybody has the gift of tongues to in the public assembly but everybody can receive it and I pray with my spirit or I speak the I love you's or I speak the word back to God in the way, I'm gonna describe in a minute and sometimes I'm just quiet. I linger this presence It takes time and I encourage you to write down your thoughts Because as you write them down your thoughts grow It's an amazing thing. I'll speak something to the Lord and Then as I speak it to him As I say something is something as simple as Lord, I love you and Lord I ask you to awaken my heart in love and I give myself to you as I speak it I'll say another little phrase or two and and it will strike my heart And I'll write that phrase down so that I use it again and I'll go back to my my writing, you know And I'll pray that that phrase and it just increases and increases. I really encourage you to to take a pen I don't mean write every prayer. I just write just a thought here and there just a Intermittent thought here and there in my prayer times with the Lord I almost always almost always have a notepad and I may only pick up a couple little phrases But I love to capture those phrases paragraph D There's two categories of truth Related to praying to pray reading the word is the what is what I call it to pray read it first There are scriptures that focus on exhorting us to believe God for something for instance Scriptures that declare God loves us. God forgives us. God leads us. He protects us. He provides for us We are to believe these their their exhortations to believe these ideas There's a second type of scripture their exhortations to obey, you know The command to bridle our tongue to serve one another humble ourself. These are commandments to obey something. Those are two broad categories of scripture paragraph II We dialogue with God by praying back truths that exhort us to believe We also do this in spiritual warfare. We speak these truths back to the enemy to Again people's get the Bible they get a truth. They speak it once or twice to their friends Then they're all but done with it and and and the real power of it I mean I love It's right to speak it to our friend The real power is to keep it in our in our running conversation in our dialogue with God and to use it against the enemy It is written when we declare the lies He's attacking our mind with we speak the Word of God back to the to the lies of the enemy Well, how do we pray back truths that exhort us to believe God? number one First we thank him. We turn the truths into simple declarations of thanksgiving or simple declarations of trust. For example God says I love you in the Word the Bible says God loves you God loves his people Instead of going Wow and just underlining it. We actually stop and we say thank you Thank you that you love me. We actually say it back to him. Thank you that you have forgiven me Not just he's forgiven me underline it in red, you know in red, you know highlight it in yellow and tell your friend He's forgiven me. That's good But you haven't done with it yet what you need to do with it It needs to get into your language with God. Have you actually told God on an ongoing ongoing basis? Thank you that you love me that you forgive me you provide very thank you. We declare simple declarations of thanksgiving I tell you it will move your heart powerfully over time Secondly We don't just end with thank you we take it to the next step we ask him to reveal more of it So father, thank you that you love me. We do it quietly. We pause You know, you don't want to be kind of rapid-fire prayer. You know, you want to your spirit quiet. Thank you You forgiven me and it's according to to to whatever verse you're you're that you happen to be reading at that time So it's not I don't mean you just make a list to go down Thank you that you forgive me that you love me to guide me protect me. I don't mean that I'm talking about whatever the verse happens to be if it's an exhortation to believe God Thank him for what that verse says pause and thank him for it and then ask him to reveal more of that like Lord Show me Show me more about the way you've forgiven me and how much let me feel let me feel the power of it ask God to let us feel the power of it and And so then paragraph F Now we go to the next type of truth truths that exhort us to obey God Number one, it's a truth that maybe you know says bridle your speech It says country says don't slander one another it says do not complain. Do not grumble That's when we can all you know that that one works every time We commit ourselves To God I love what the Puritans Used to use a phrase that they called it sweet resolution I gave myself in sweet you could just read their their journals. I remember Reading for many years the diary of David Brainerd and I really encouraged the diary of David Brainerd in the 1700s This is great intercessor that was so connected to the Lord's heart And he would say I spent a day in fasting and prayer and I gave myself in sweet Resolutions to obey God with my speech and I committed myself that I will obey him in this area and the sweetness of God Touched my soul as I resolved in my heart yet another time to obey him in this area We we make simple declarations of resolve to obey him You know, when's the last time you read a Bible verse that do not grumble give money humble yourself Encourage one another serve one another and you actually read the verses and not just underlined it and told your friend about it But you actually said the verse back to God as a declaration of commitment father, I Will by the grace of God I set my heart. I set my heart to have a bridal tongue I set my heart that I will make a covenant with my eyes I will not look on anything that pulls my heart to the right or left from purity Job 31 verse 1 Number 2 it's not enough to I mean we want to go beyond committing ourselves. We want to ask the Lord to empower us now When's the last time you asked the Lord after you said I'm not good Lord I want to set my heart not to grumble. I ask you I ask you to empower me now empower me not to grumble Beloved if we don't ask the Lord these things the passages on grumbling will just kind of be we read it and we move on Those passages are to create a living Dialogue in our heart that is sustained that's worshiping in spirit and truth. It's living in spirit and We take time as I mentioned we linger in his presence We throw I love yous in Intermittently we declare our love for him and we take time and we journal a couple little thoughts I'll say my final thing. I'm gonna have the worship team come up. I Read ten chapters of the New Testament Every day if you read ten chapters of the New Testament a day Six days a week. You'll read the New Testament once a month This is something I was 20 years older When the guy came through town and said read ten chapters a day That's okay. I don't know what else to do. I don't you know, I don't know exactly what to do here So I started ten chapters a day a lot of people don't read the Bible because they don't know where to start start where you left off yesterday No, there's ten chapters a day they just took the took the mystery away I went, okay, I'll just start and You know in six days a week So, you know if you miss a day or you get caught up and I stayed with it and I got so excited about this I began to tell all the young people we had this whole group of young people in hundreds of us We read ten chapters a day and then then the guy came and he started reading 20 chapters a day And I was a youth pastor at the time so I had I had the time to do it and I determined it for a year Near nearly a year. I read 20 chapters a day and it's so Galvanized my heart it riveted me in a whole new direction in God and I began to create this dialogue in my heart I didn't speed read it took some time to do that. But beloved I Don't know that many of you will have time to do 20 chapters a day for a year But read the New Testament twice Through every month for a year would change your life Reading it once a month for a year once you do it for a year. You'll do it for five years You'll do it for ten years Well, you'll find out I don't have time. I gotta get rid of this TV show. I get rid of that I can't go to there. I can't watch this. I can't go here. I gotta say no to that I can't make it. Whoa, I gotta skip things but beloved your heart will get bigger and bigger and bigger. Let's stand