Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of encountering Jesus in the past, present, and future, arguing that our identity and how we live are shaped by our relationship with Him across these time frames. He highlights that while healing from past wounds is crucial, equal attention must be given to our present intimacy with God and our future vision, as neglecting any of these can lead to a locked heart. Bickle warns against the dangers of defining our worth based on past experiences or external validation, urging believers to find their identity in God's love and purpose. He encourages a proactive approach to spiritual growth, emphasizing that our beliefs about the future significantly influence our present actions and emotional well-being. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a balanced focus on healing, intimacy, and vision to live a vibrant and fulfilling Christian life.

In the name of Jesus for your word, we ask you to release blessing on the word, even now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Tonight I want to talk about encountering Jesus. Finding grace in the past and the present and the future. This is a message I prepared to share at a, those that are with us this weekend with the Inner Healing Conference that Andy is conducting. And I felt like the subject was appropriate for our larger spiritual family here. So I went ahead and just used the notes and added a few more things to them, adapted them to this group as well. And so I'm talking, I wrote them for a group of people who their main focus is healing the wounds of the heart. And so some of the notes are focused on that, so you'll notice as we're going through that. Okay, A, the premise is that the issues that determine who we are, my premise statement in this message here, is that the issues that determine who we are and how we live are found, the real issues that determine this are found in where we seek our identity and how we relate to Jesus in our past, our present, and as we think about our future. All three time frames, and that's my premise point, shape us and all three time frames unlock our heart if we relate to Jesus in a proper way or our heart is locked if we neglect to relate to him in a proper way in these three time frames. And the reason I'm saying that, the reason that's important is because often those that are really focused on the healing of the heart focus on unlocking the heart related to past issues. And they don't always, some do, but not all of them focus so much on present issues. And many of them do not consider the future. And my premise is though the past is very, very important to settle those issues to unlock our hearts. Now I'm talking about the inner healing movement worldwide, not any particular ministry. I'm just talking about the literature, the widespread literature you find in the body of Christ on this subject and just in the secular arena as well. So I'm not talking about any particular ministries in the church when I give these kind of broad stroke definitions. But typically when people aim for the healing of the heart, they typically aim at negative issues in the past that have locked, that have led to the locking of people's hearts. And that's a very important thing. But I believe that we have to have an equal energy for the present and the future in encountering Jesus in those ways. And that's my premise statement. Roman numeral two, encountering Jesus related to our past. A, our past can affect us in a very negative way. Most of us have issues, if not all of us, in our past that have shaped us and marked our heart. And the signs of that marking negatively are still with us today. Very important, very important. Most people recognize that. I remember some years ago, maybe I'm thinking about 30 years ago, when the subject of the healing of the heart was just beginning to become a focus in the body of Christ. I remember it was just brand new in ministry. Just as it was just being established and they were writing books and having debates as a young pastor. And I remember hearing the older pastors debate about whether it was good or bad. And the issue of looking backwards was controversial. Today it's pretty established that there are real negative experiences of yesterday that mark us and can chain us to the past. A, our past affects us or can affect us negatively. Those trained in the social sciences, I'm thinking of psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, those kinds of sciences, often emphasize that what we are today is a result of how we have been conditioned in the past. And again, everybody would agree with that. In other words, that we are mostly a product of our environment. The secular social science says that. We are mostly a product of our environment and our past. I don't agree with that statement. I believe our past and our environment does mark us and shape us, but I don't believe we're mostly a product of it. I would disagree with them on that point. And of course, everybody has a slightly different view of that. There's not just one agreed upon position in the social sciences. They emphasize how our past has shaped us and molded us to be the people we are today. And they conclude, many of them, not all of them, that people are simply trapped because of their past. And there's something that can be a bit hopeless in this. But of course, the message of the grace of God in Christ Jesus changes everything. B, they claim that the past controls us and who we are, and thus, it controls what we're going to be in the future. I'm talking about in this age. I'm not talking about the eternal future, but in our future in the decades to come type deal. It is true. We are partially the product of what has happened to us. And there's a number of believers that don't ever get in touch with that. And they carry baggage today because of yesterday. And because they're unaware of it, I think it's important to say that not everybody is clear that there is present baggage and pain and turmoil related to unresolved issues in our heart and in our mind from the past. Seems pretty obvious, but there are still some who resist that notion. B, it is true that we are partially the product of what has happened to us. Yet, if this is taken to an extreme, then it relieves us of the responsibility of our own negative responses. Some people go to extreme with this, and they're so focused on who did it to them yesterday that they do not take responsibility for their negative responses along the journey that started yesterday. And therefore, they're never going to get free. We can't get free by blame-shifting. We get free by taking responsibility for our responses and by the power of what Jesus did at the cross. And we can get free whether those that were responsible for contributing to our pain in the past ever own it. We can still get free because of the magnitude of what Jesus did. It's important to say that all of us are both victims and agents of our problems. Meaning all of us have had somebody that did something wrong to us, and so we've been victimized. We were mistreated outside of our control by others. We're victims, but all of us are also agents. We participate in our problem by negative responses. So we're victims and we're agents. It sounds like I'm talking to an inner healing crowd, doesn't it? That's why I wrote this forward. But I think it's important for all of us to understand this. Okay, number one, some of the issues related to the past. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us, and I'm not going to focus on the past. There's so much literature on that in the body of Christ today. Actually, I'm going to focus mostly on the future. That's the burden that's on my heart tonight, or the focus. Let's say it that way. The Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us places where we are chained to the past, and being chained to the past one way is by bitterness. Somebody did something wrong to you. Bitterness keeps you chained to the power of that experience. But there's something more than bitterness. It's shame. Shame is different than bitterness. Shame is often based in confusion as to who did it and why, and how responsible you were, and what does God think. There's a lot of shame that continues because of confused thinking about past events. Again, there's volumes of material on these subjects that are in the body of Christ. They're very, very helpful today. Number two, the Holy Spirit also wants to reveal to us wrong paradigms, wrong pictures in our mind or ideas of God, of ourself, and others, especially those that are significant to us. When we have wrong views of who they are and who we are, the Holy Spirit needs to correct those paradigms to help free us today. Big subject. I don't want to go into that. Number three, the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us where we have misinterpreted Christ's events and disappointments by lies because the devil has lied to us, and we misinterpret those Christ's events in a way that accuses God. Where was God, and why did this happen, and how did it happen? And we misinterpret the whole of it, and our mind is bound by lies. And so, therefore, we continue in a pain, and we continue in the present tense in all kinds of negative traffic in our soul related to these subjects. Again, I don't want to minimize them, but that's not the real focus that I want to look at tonight, but I did want to mention them. I did want to, in our pursuit of having our hearts fully alive, we do need to look backwards. I don't want to limit it looking backwards to negative. Our past can affect us in a very positive way, too, when we look backwards. I'm not going to go into that, but I wanted to mention that. Romans 3, the top of page 3. Encountering Jesus in the present. Encountering Jesus in the present. We want to encounter Him related to our past, but we also want to encounter Him in our present. And one thing I've heard over the years in pastoral ministry is how I hear the testimony. It's very common, and it's very wonderful, where people talk about, my heart was locked up until I addressed the issue and found the grace of God related to a past issue, and now my heart is unlocked. But I would like to say with the same focus that our hearts are locked because of our lack of present encounter with intimacy with God. And as stifling as negative events are in the past that lock us, to neglect an active intimacy with the Lord leaves our hearts in a far greater vulnerability and an inevitable spiritual dullness and defilement gets a hold of our spirits in the present tense. Unrelated to trauma. And that if we do not actively pursue intimacy with Jesus in the present tense, we end up getting our hearts locked by defilement and by dullness which looks and feels different than a locked heart from traumas of yesterday. But it's still a locked heart. One of my burdens here as the director of the missions base, we talk so much about intimacy with Jesus that it's easy for people to substitute language on the subject. They can hear the language, they can say the language, and then substitute language to be content without actually feeling the power of it on a regular basis. And I say that with jealousy, with Shepard's jealousy. I'm not mad at anybody, but I have energy because I want them to feel the power of active intimacy, not just to have rhetoric, IHOP rhetoric, terminology about it, but their spirits are not exhilarated. They aren't really living fascinated. They have a phrase for it, but they don't know the power of it on a regular basis. I don't mean all day, every day, but on a regular basis. This is really available to us. And if we don't engage in that, we end up inevitably with an added, an increased defilement and dullness on our spirit that we pick up new problems of defilement and dullness. We pick up more of it just by living day by day. If I quit pressing into the Lord today and just lived on whatever I've experienced from yesterday, from today backwards, the dullness and defilement would begin again like weeds would begin to lay hold of my heart in a very, very short amount of time. Brand new weeds. Weeds with new growth on them. Weeds that are not there right now. They would crop up immediately in the vacuum of an energetic active intimacy in the present tense. Those weeds will spring up overnight in anyone's heart and begin to choke the life out of them, the spiritual life. So as I was sharing with this wonderful group of, there's about 300, 400 of them, and I think most of them are already on track with this. I didn't have a sense that I was giving any correction or adjustment because they're really into this, actually, this particular group. But I was saying we need an equal energy. We need an equal energy for active intimacy as we do for a recovery of past trauma and being the victim of terrible, terrible events at the hands of perpetrators in our past. We need an equal energy to feel exhilarated today. That's not optional. Being exhilarated in our spirit is not kind of an optional thing that if you like that, if that kind of sounds right, go for it, which, of course, to this group it would sound right, or you and me here. It's not an optional thing that kind of enhances our life. It is life and death. That's the point I was making. Without it, you will be defiled by new weeds cropping up, new growth, new problems will start, and they're already starting. Every day there's a new crop of weeds wanting to grow in our hearts. And to focus on yesterday and to be ambivalent about the growth pattern of weeds in our heart right now is to get locked again, but to be locked by dullness and by bitterness instead of locked by pain and trauma of the past. But our spirit is still shut down. Our heart is still not fully alive. And I received a lot of blessing about that, meaning, I'm saying that to say that I wasn't bringing a correction to them. They were saying, yeah, yeah, you're preaching to the choir. We're all for that. But I want this group here to be aware of that as well. We think of encountering Jesus and living exhilarated and fascinating as optional that enhances our life. Beloved, it's not optional to enhance our life. It is, if it does not happen, defilement will rush in immediately. And spiritual dullness. It is life and death to maintain this vitality in our spirit. See, the foundation of intimacy, I've talked about it so much that I'm not going to go through all the notes. So I'll skip a number of the paragraphs here, but I just put them in there for you. The foundation of intimacy begins in seeing our identity in Jesus. Very common statement, but very, very important one. I mean, most of the people in this room could make that statement with understanding and with feeling and conviction. Very, very important. As foundational and fundamental as it is, we cannot ever graduate from that reality. Our identity, I'm still in paragraph C, is the way we define ourselves. In other words, it's the way we determine and measure our value and our importance and our success. The way you determine why you're valuable is one of the most important things about the way you think. Why are you valuable? Why are you? What determines if you're successful or if you're important? In our natural fallen minds, we automatically have a wrong answer. We are important, valuable, because of what we do before men. That is our darkened understanding, our automatic default button, so to speak. Our automatic mindset is we are successful if what we do is esteemed successful before people. And all the forces of darkness are wanting to hold us into that lie. And the truth of the truth, I'm talking about, I don't mean it's a nice truth, it is the ultimate truth, you are only successful to the degree that you are successful in God's eyes. You are only valuable to the degree that you are valuable in God's eyes. Our success, our value, our importance is rooted in what God says about us. Now we all know that. But it takes a labor, it takes a war to stay in that reality because just the natural onslaught of darkness is to find our value and our sense of success because of what we accomplish in the arena of other people. We have to continually reject the lies. And to feel important, to feel successful, to feel valuable is a stunning feeling. And you were created by God to need that feeling to function right. If you do not feel valuable, successful and important, then something in you, a very negative process is working on the inside of you. And none of us by nature feel successful, important or valuable. And none of us by nature understand that from God. We work with the word and the spirit and we cultivate this reality. But when we feel successful, when my spirit feels, when I feel that I'm important in a way that cannot be threatened and taken away, when I feel successful in a way that cannot be taken away by anybody, I am powerful on the inside. And when I feel that my success is in the arena of what I accomplish in the eyes of people, that means it could be taken away at any time. Just any bad set of circumstances could happen and whatever you're doing that seems to be valuable and important in the eyes of men today, I'm talking about in ministry, in the marketplace, in relationships, it can be gone in a moment. And so there's an intrinsic fear of loss and a fear of rejection that is always assaulting our minds. And the Lord would say to us, I don't want you living and camping in that place where you're getting your sense of success from how good you're doing in your ministries, your relationships, your business, your marketplace realities, etc. I want you feeling successful, the power of it, because of what I say to you about your success. And I tell you, the Lord calls me successful and you successful not related to the size of crowds or how good it goes when you're on a platform or how much money you make or how many people like you. He calls me successful based on the fact that He has passion for me and I have opened my spirit by faith and received it in Christ Jesus and I'm seeking to walk in meekness. The whole of my success can be determined and established in those two realities. That I have received His love, I become a recipient, because if I reject it, we end up in the lake of fire. We are not successful even though God was passionate. God's passion for us is not enough to make it successful. We have to receive it, become recipients of it, and say yes to it, and then give ourselves back to Him. And to the degree that we do that, we are profoundly important and valuable and successful in His kingdom. You may not have any following. You may not be able to do anything on a platform. That's irrelevant. God is not going to talk to me when I stand before Him about how big my conferences were. He's going to only talk to me about how much I received of His word and how much I walked in meekness. That's all He wants to talk to me about. Say, hey, how did I do down there? He says, let's look at it. He's going to go straight to the heart issues. No, not my heart issues. How about that one sermon? Well, you know, I really enjoyed that sermon, but that's not what we're talking about, Mike. I'm talking about how you did on the earth. Well, isn't that sermon part of how I did on the earth? It's a very, very peripheral part of how you did on the earth. I want to talk about, Mike, how you received what I said about you and how you incorporated it and responded back in a responsive love back to me. And how you grew in meekness and how you pursued a life of obedience before me. And I think many, many people are going to be shocked when they stand before the Lord. Many are going to be shocked because the Lord is going to say things of such, that's going to be so powerful and positive to their life. And they're going to be shocked. They're going to go, no one even knew me. And the Lord says, that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about who knew you. We're talking about you giving yourself to me in the secret place. We're not talking about how well known you were. Well, I was never even anointed in any way. I could figure out, and the Lord says, that's not what we're talking about. Well done, good and faithful servant. You're going, you're kidding. You know, I heard those sermons my whole life. I just thought they were too good to be true because I don't feel like I got any big gifts or any big anything. And mostly, and I'm going to get off of this because I'm spending too much time on this. But mostly, the people with big gifts, the very gifting becomes the thing that distracts them from developing the thing that makes them great. It is absolutely true. And the Lord in His kindness, the Lord in His kindness withholds many big opportunities from people because He's positive. Those opportunities will cause a diminishing of their greatness, and they will regret it at the end. And of course, the natural unrenewed mind says, oh, give me a chance. Give me a moment of fame and glory. Just let me be the decisive factor in that. But it doesn't work that way because when we stand before the Lord and we have billions and billions of years to go, we are marked by our choices and responses on the earth. The Lord says, no, I love you way too much, and you would be way too reckless for present honor in the eyes of man, and you would give up so much that you care about that you just don't know about right now, that you care about. This active intimacy is critical. It's our identity before the Lord. E. Our identity must be established in our relationship to God or in our intimacy with God. And our intimacy with God is more than just feeling His heart. That's certainly a core part of it, but it's more than that. Our intimacy with God also includes our response back to God, being a lover of God, not just being loved by Him. It starts with feeling and believing in His love for us. And I like to say the word feeling. God doesn't love us because we feel it. He loves us even if we don't. And if we don't feel it, we still need to contend for it. We still need to speak the word of God against the lies that are entering our minds. The devil lies to us, says God's not even thinking about you, God's disgusted with you, He's mostly mad and He's mostly sad when He looks at you, and we speak the word of God and say that is not true, and we resist those lies, and we're constantly contending for this truth to grow in our spirits. We contend the same way that Jesus did. When the devil came to Jesus, he said it is written, and he spoke the word. He spoke the word of God to those lies. And the enemy comes and says you're worthless because your life doesn't, you don't have honor in the eyes of men, and so it says you don't have a crowd, you don't have a following, your marketplace didn't work, your relationships are broken, everybody thinks you're off the wall, and I'm a total failure. That is an absolute lie that you're a total failure if all those things are true. And we say I'm not a total failure. John 15 verse 9, He loves me, Jesus loves me in the way the Father loves Him. It is written, God loves me the way God loves God. John 15, 9, and it is written, I am not going there. His love is forever, He's crowned me with His glory because of His passion for me. I am great, and I am valuable before Him. It is written, and we speak the word of God to those lies, and we contend with those lies, and we little by little, we drive them out. Of course those lies, they take root again, then we drive them out, then they rush back in, we drive them out, and we just work that muscle all the time. And so we don't always feel the power of His passion for us, we contend for it. That's what we're laboring for. When the word of God gains entrance in our heart, we feel the truth of it more. I don't mean we ever feel it 100% every day, but we feel it more often. We don't have to feel it, but beloved, I love feeling loved. It's a total buzz. I love feeling loved. Anybody else? We're built to. I love feeling successful. I love feeling great. I want to be great. I want to be successful. I want to be important. I want to be loved. I love all those things, because I was built by God to crave them and love them, and He has an answer for every one of them. But it has to be found in the right place. And if I try to get that, those needs, those genuine desires, those cravings in my spirit, those God-ordained cravings, if I try to get those things fulfilled in the arena of people, I will live in perpetual rejection and depression all the time. I want to be important. So if the crowds are big, I feel important, but I'm always worried the crowds may be bad next month. I remember talking to a beauty queen type lady, whatever, she won the contest. I don't know what her title was, but she won some giant one, had all these pictures and crowns and stuff. And I said, wow, what was it like? And she said, real honest, and she had all these magazine covers on her wall. She had like 25 covers, what do you call it, magazine covers all framed, and she had won all these things. And I said, well, what? Of course, I got my mind set, so I already know that isn't going to really make anything happen for her for real at the heart level. But I was just curious if she knew that. And I said, she loved the Lord, and I said, well, that's pretty interesting last 10 years, you've been out and about. What was it like? She goes, surprising. She goes, most of us that won were so afraid we were going to lose tomorrow. We could never enjoy winning today. She goes, we were so afraid that tomorrow we would get a pimple. And then we lose. You can't win in this world if you get a pimple on the wrong day. You lose that day. She said, so in all of our victories, she actually said that to me. She's really candid, very honest. She says, and so in all my victories, I couldn't really enjoy them very much, even though I, you know, maybe the Lord did it for me. I can't figure all that out. She says, but I was always afraid tomorrow I was not going to be the most of these categories. And I said, well, one thing you can be sure of, you won't be tomorrow. That way, you can absolutely take that to the bank. I said, you don't have to be nervous about it. You won't. And she said, yeah, I know. I go, there you go. Did that make it easier? Just settle it? I go, so if this is, and actually she had a good mind on her, and I go, if this is where your success is, you're a pimple away from being a failure. But if you have success in a whole other place, it's okay if you get these, all these plaques, or, you know, cover things on the wall there, but that isn't, that's not why you're stunning. You are stunning, because God is exhilarated and lovesick over you. You are stunning, and forever you will be stunning. And though, you know, the Lord might have put you in this, he might not have, I have no idea. I said, I don't have any opinion, but this has nothing to do with why you're stunning. She goes, I like this. She goes, that makes me feel so secure. I feel security, because she goes, in my world, security almost doesn't exist. It's so rare. There are such champions of natural beauty, but such, so experienced and familiar with fear of rejection, day in and day out. There is no rest from the fear of rejection. That's what she told me. Something, it's not an exact quote, but it was that idea. She goes, in my world, there is no rest from the fear of losing and rejection. It's horrible. That could be said in so many arenas. It could be said in the mega church arena. It could be said in the mega business arena. It could be said in the mega sports arena. It could be said in every arena. That's not unique to beauty queens. It's true of every arena. It's true of, you know, being the coolest mom in the neighborhood. That all the kids, you know, you got the biggest Cub Scout thing, whatever. You know, you could be the coolest mom in the PTA. It doesn't matter what the arena is. It's your arena, and if that's where you come alive because you score in that arena, I'm telling you, you're already condemned to live years in the spirit of fear and rejection. Because those arenas, I don't care who you are. They come and they go. I remember I used to say all the time to our staff. I said, hey, man, things are going good. People say, hey, how's it going? I go, well, we're in a momentum. Our staff, you know, things are growing, and there's a sense of unity and peace. And I'd say, you know, we're in a real momentum right now, but I says, don't worry about it. It's going to get bad in a minute. I said, what? I said, no, it's going to get bad in a minute for sure. And the momentum is going to be gone, and we go, oh, what's going on? I said, and then I'll say the same thing, and I did through the years. Things are bad, and no sense. The church feels real dead and boring, and I mean, churches are like everything else. They go through rhythms, and I go, hey, don't worry about it. In a minute, we're going to have momentum. We really are. In a minute, it's going to be all different. I said, just, I don't want to ride from, you know, the crest of the wave one after the other. I just want to stay steady all the way through it. When things are all growing and good, go like, oh, you know, whatever. It won't always go this. In a minute, it'll be opposite, and when it's the opposite, in a minute, it's going to be good. I said, I don't even want to get my bearings at that level. I don't want to, Ephesians 4 calls that being tossed to and fro by every wind and wave that comes. And so many of God's people are tossed. They're tossed by every wave that comes. Every new opinion, every, if the meetings go good, while they're on the top of the wave, the meeting goes bad, they're at the bottom of the wave, and they're tossed. And God has such a better way for you and I to live than to be tossed by winds and waves. And so, you know, I hope sometimes it'll go real good, and sometimes real bad, and sometimes real good, and because God allows the pruning and the devil's always raging, and we always, as human beings, make enough bad decisions to get ourselves right in the middle of the fire. I've got three things working for me and against me. I've got the devil hating me, I've got God desiring meekness in me, and I've got my own stupidity to bring to the table. And the Lord's overseeing it all, and He goes, I just want meekness in you, and I'm totally committed to you. And it's the old preacher said God's not out to hurt our pride, He's out to kill it. But, beloved, we can live with an active intimacy. We can live with a feeling of being successful. That's a powerful feeling when all the crowds are down, and whatever arena you're in, and all the awards are gone, you can still feel alive and successful inside, all by yourself in the room. And that's one of the beauties of IHOP, that a person at the, you know, at the end of the night, 8 p.m. set, right now, Saturday night, most of the people are down here, the others have been, you know, got everything going all week, and conferences, and this and that, there's a small number, but the angels are there, and God is there, and their greatness will never be greater than it is that moment. I mean, if a million people, and all the stadiums, and all the TV networks get together, they are no greater than what is happening in an empty room, as they're there before the Lord saying, I love you, playing guitar to an empty room. Their greatness is never enhanced one whit more when all the TV stations are there and the stadiums are full. And if we tap into that, we can live not only steady, but we live with a happy, free spirit right through all the seasons of life. We don't get nearly so prone to be intoxicated by the good moments, but we don't get depressed, but we get depressed by the bad moments. And what happens is, you know, it's the kid in the high school football team. You know, it's the guy running the business. It's the person running the ministry. It's the neighborhood deal. It doesn't matter what age or arena. One day, it's all going good, and the guy gets intoxicated. He gets so enamored with it, he just loses his way at the heart level with God, even as a believer. I mean, he still loves God, but he's too busy now to spend time with God because the doors are opening, and everybody wants his autograph. And he's just, oh, but the Lord did it. It's like, I've said this to many a friend, and I've said it to myself, but I've said it to many a friend with tenderness and with gentleness. I've said, you're intoxicated. This is dangerous. You got too many open doors, so now it doesn't make sense to spend hours with God now. You don't have time. I go, that's, that's really bad. T minus 10. T minus 9. T minus 8. An explosion is coming because God cares about your true greatness, not your intoxication right now. He cares about your true greatness, and it's not found in this little swirl of popularity that's hit you for a moment here. Maybe it'll last for a couple years, but it'll be gone in a minute. But it goes the other way, too. Everything's broke. Nobody's cooperating. Everything you touch, nobody cares about anything you're saying. You're the only one there holding the cause, you know, standing for the cause. You're the only one. You know, everybody else has left you. You are, and you get terribly depressed. And the Lord could say, you are, you are equally successful here as you were back when you were intoxicated. Because it's all because of what's happening at the heart level. Well, I'm just kind of assuming several of you were sent here to hear that last 15 minutes that was completely off target, but I don't mind being one of the Lord's arrows. I just hope you got it. So if you think the person next to you needed that message, just point to him right now. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Okay, let's go to top of page four, which is Roman numeral four, encountering Jesus in the future. Encountering Jesus in the future. You can read the rest of those notes if they interest you, because there's a number of categories of intimacy more than just the feeling of God at the heart level. Roman numeral four, encountering Jesus first in the past, now in the present, now in the future. What we believe about our future and what we believe about the comm... No, what we believe about our future and the commitments that we make to it dynamically influence our present tense. I'm going to say this again. What you believe about your future is number one, and the commitments you make to what you believe about your future, that's a different thing, dynamically affect the way you, your heart operates right now. What we believe about where we're going forms us and how we live right now. I'll give you a well-known verse, Proverbs 29, verse 18, where there is no vision, where there is no revelation or vision, most of us are familiar with there is no vision, the people perish. That's the King James. It's the new King James, says it, like most of the translations, where there is no revelation, you can put the word vision, where there is no clear plan from God in your heart. The people cast off restraint. The King James says they perish. Here it says they cast off restraint, same thing, meaning they live undisciplined. When a person has no vision, they have no clarity about where they're going, most of them live without restraints on their time and money and on their words. They don't have restraint on their time and money today, because they don't have a picture of where they're going tomorrow. They cast restraint off. They waste their time and money today. They spend their appetites in wrong ways today. They don't have restraint. They speak in ways today because they don't have restraint, because they don't have a picture in their mind as to where they're going. And that picture includes where we're going in 5 or 10 years, 50 years, 500 years, and 5,000 years. The Lord wants us to have a picture in our mind about a number of time frames. A picture doesn't have to be totally accurate. But there needs to be a picture in our mind as to what we're going for. And when we go for something, that picture's clear. It dynamically forms the way you spend time and money right now, today, tonight. What you do after this meeting tonight. You can go here, be it not here, go and worship the Lord at IHOP with Misty's team, and they just kind of really go for it on Friday nights. That team there, you know, it's a lot going on. You can go over to the Friday night forerunners and Evangelism Outreach. You can go home and rest. You can go home and study. You can go be with a friend at the coffee shop or any number of things. But one thing's for sure. Whatever you do is related to your picture of the future. Most people that I talk to do not have a clear picture in their mind about their future. And that's why they live in ambivalence and without restraint today. The people in this city that will waste their evening tonight are people that don't have a picture about what they can be tomorrow. So five hours or three hours before they go to sleep, does it matter to them? Three-hour units don't matter if you don't have a picture of going anywhere. A three-hour period of time is a massive investment of time to a person that has a picture of going somewhere. You know, I've said this sometimes. I say it tongue-in-cheek. I've said this for years. At first, I said it joking. I'm being serious, but they hurt a few people's feelings. I had to say, I'm going to say a joke now. Because I so love the little phrase that I have to keep saying it. But people come and say, Hey, are you busy? And I love to say, I've said this for 20 years, everybody with a vision is busy. And that's true. What they meant is, am I too busy to talk to them right now? I go, I don't have an hour. I don't ever have an hour where I'm not wanting to get something done. I don't mean achieve something. I might want to rest. I want to get something done because I want to have strength to give myself later. My downtime is so that I can have better uptime. You need downtime. I was getting on one of the IHOP staff today because I felt like they needed some downtime because their hours are so extreme. I said, if you don't have some downtime, I don't mean, I'm not talking about carnal entertainment. I'm talking about some downtime. You won't be able to respond for your uptime. So I believe in downtime. So what I mean about, I don't want to waste an hour. I don't believe resting is wasting an hour. I don't believe that's... And I love to rest related to having strength to do my vision. And my vision is not mostly about how big IHOP is. My vision is mostly about how big my heart can be before the Lord returns. And how full I can get of the word of God. And how full I can get of revelation. And how full I can get of meekness and love. And sometimes, some of that relates to what happens in IHOP and the size of it and the direction of it. So the guy, I've said this for many years. Hey, are you busy? I go, everybody with the vision is busy. I heard a few people say this. I go, no, I love it. I'm impressed with it. I love that. And they go, you're mad at me. I go, no, no. I didn't mean that. So now I say, can I say a joke before I give you the real answer? What you really mean is can I talk to you? Yes, I can talk to you. Now, can I say my thing now? A few years of pastoring, you know, kind of kills the whole thing, but it's still. But I want to say it to you. Everybody with a vision is busy, of course. I'm going somewhere. Of course I'm going somewhere. Can I stop for a moment and talk to you? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but I'm always going somewhere in my heart. Even if I'm going home to rest so I can go somewhere tomorrow morning. It's all connected in my mind. You get a person with a revelation. You get a person with a vision. They really measure one hour increments of their time. Throwing away hours, just idly throwing away hours with no connection in their mind to it mattering to who they are, clearly shouts they have no clear plan as to where they're going. I don't mean just a plan, I mean a picture even more general than a plan. When I meet young people, sit down, one of the first things I talk to young people is I want to figure out, I want them to get a picture of their future. You can put all these kinds of guidelines and rules on them and when you look the other way, they'll do opposite because they're humans. You give them a picture of what they can be. You don't need rules then. The picture will govern them. And that's something I believed in for many, many years. The way to get a leader more effective in leading, there are times when you can point out this and that and the other and I'm talking about leading in terms of the use of their time. Give them a more clear picture of what they can be before God of which it's expressed in their leadership that's what they can be before God and then they're alive. They want to saturate their being with God so they can do that. It says in Lamentations 1, verse 9 She did not consider her destiny that's Israel therefore her collapse was awesome. When we don't consider our destiny there's only one option collapse in the present tense. Ambivalence. B. The absence of commitment to the future brings an identity crisis in the present. We said it again. If you don't have a picture of your future it doesn't have to be the right one. It just has to be in the right direction. And what I mean by the right direction is that when I talk about our future I'm not talking about mostly how big your business or your ministry can be. I'm talking about mostly how big your heart can be. In my years in the Lord and somebody gave this to me long ago so I certainly don't take credit for it. Most of my vision has been related to my internal life. Most of my life vision is internal. Over the years people say oh you got a big vision. You want to see this that either. And I think no that's not my main vision. My main vision is not what's on that paper. My big vision is mostly internal. Because I profoundly believe that's the only thing I'm going to bring with me in the next step when I meet the Lord that's going to go on for billions of years. I can only bring that with me. I'm definitely not bringing this building with me. I'm not bringing our mailing list with me. I'm not bringing my reputation with me. I'm bringing nothing. That's kind of good actually. But I'm not bringing anything except for what grew in my heart. As IHOP is growing I have visitors come and friends from years. And they go hey man I remember you saying this way back in the 80s. You were going to do this thing one of these days. This 24-7 thing. Because the Lord spoke in 83 been saying it since then. Got a big sign on the building. 24 hour prayer in the Spirit Tabernacle of David. People would say in 83, 4, 5, 6, 7. What's that? I go I don't know. I'm not sure what it is. So now it's 2005. It's 20 years later whatever. So I hear friends come through town. They go hey. This must be awesome. Your dream's coming true. I said yeah. It is. It is awesome and my dream's coming true. But IHOP is not my dream. IHOP is my assignment. I love doing IHOP. It's hard but I love it. My dream is not IHOP but my dream now that you mention it is coming true. What are you talking about? I says my heart is getting filled with the Word of God. I feel the weight of His presence on me way more than I used to. Yes. It is awesome. My dream is coming true. But it's not IHOP. That's not my dream. IHOP is my assignment and I want to do it as under the Lord with diligence but I tell you IHOP having 5,000 people and touching the nations is not my primary dream of my life. If it is that would wear me out beyond measure because I would be I would have joy or depression related to that and I don't have joy or depression related to how good IHOP is going. I'm connected at a whole different level inside of my heart as to what determines my joy and depression. I'm not saying I'm immune to having joy or depression related to that. That is not primarily. I am not buying in to that distracting lie. I want to live far more powerful than going high or low according to IHOP touching the nations or not and IHOP will touch the nations because the Lord wants it to. If we're faithful in our weakness it will touch the nations and I believe that's going to happen. But that's definitely not my dream and I've said that a hundred times in the six years when people come by. Boy, your dream's coming true and I gotta quit being ornery because they're trying to be positive like, Mike, give them a break. But I just sometimes can't resist to say what's true and I go, yeah, my dream is coming true but it's not that and they just always look at me funny like, what are you talking about? I go, you know what? You got a dream too. And if your dream is mostly how the size of your platform you're in big trouble. If your dream is mostly the size of your heart you are really in the right direction. And I do have a vision for my impact in this age. It's just a secondary thing. I do have a vision. It's important to have a vision for that but when I'm talking about planning, getting a vision for your future I'm not mostly talking about will your church be 400 or will your business be 4 million. I'm not talking about that per se though there is a dimension to have a vision of that but that must be secondary if you're gonna have a vibrant heart. And then our vision goes way beyond. I'm saying this because it's powerful in my heart. I'm not trying to throw you off or be melodramatic because it's powerful and it's biblical. I think many, many, many times about my role after the Lord returns. That is a giant point to my mind this afternoon. I don't mean just this afternoon I mean just during the day. I care intensely about what role I will have with the Lord after He returns. That is not a pipe dream that's kind of like well, whatever. I'm not trying to be melodramatic or mystical. That is a profoundly biblical concept but it's a profoundly concrete way of thinking that motivates me. And I tell you you tap into that your heart moves at a very different level than if you don't tap into that. I'm trying to be helpful to you. I'm not trying to you know, again, be mystical. C. What are your future goals for your spiritual development? And we can ask the same thing. Future goals for your impact on people your family maybe it's the marketplace maybe it's the neighborhood maybe it's a ministry of some way I think it is important to have goals for those as well just have them a little looser that's all. Carry them a little lighter. D. Viktor Frankl a famous psychologist from Vienna who was in the Nazi concentration camp he's got a well-known story. And he survived several concentration camps and afterwards in his work in Europe as a psychologist he analyzed the Holocaust survivors he was one. He analyzed he had two broad categories. The people that were emotionally stable and those that were not in response to their crisis. The predominant factor here's what he said he rejected Freud because Freud was the predominant view which said basically that you are today because of what happened to you yesterday. That was the that you're mostly today what happened to you yesterday. And he rejected that because of his Holocaust experience and his research with the Holocaust survivors he found out that the predominant thing that made people stable was not what they went through before the Holocaust in their childhood it was not what they went through in the Holocaust it's what they believed about their future after the Holocaust and during it. He goes that was the key that made them stable. Even I'm talking about just unbelievers even. Just I'm talking about psychologically what you believe about your tomorrow and your commitment to it dynamically forms your emotions and it forms your whole picture of today. And most people that I know I don't know about most probably most but large numbers say that way are very ambivalent about their future. And it locks their heart today as much as not paying attention to crisis in our past can lock your heart today as much as not being involved in active intimacy can lock your heart today not having a picture of your future locks our heart today. Amen. Let's stand. We'll just end with that.