Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding and keeping the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, particularly through the acronym ARK, which stands for Agreement, Revelation, and Keeping. He explains that the name of Jesus serves as a strong tower and a source of safety in times of trouble, urging believers to draw near to God and seek a deeper understanding of His character through prayer. Bickle highlights the importance of responding in faith and obedience to the truths revealed about Jesus, as well as the necessity of proclaiming and praying for the fulfillment of these prophecies. He encourages believers to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus by engaging with His descriptions and promises, ultimately leading to spiritual strength and clarity in times of conflict.

Okay, go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 1, Revelation 1 Father we ask you to release your blessing on the hearing of your word tonight in the name of Jesus. Amen Now tonight I'm gonna give you an acronym ARK, A-R-K. I have three prayer list acronyms For those that are new with us. I have one called fellowship, which is ten letters of the word fellowship and that's Ten prayers, you can get it on the website if you want it, for your personal spiritual life And I want to encourage you. I'm a prayer list guy I believe in prayer list because they help keep you focused. Then I have one called trust It's the five letters of trust for fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit And that's on the website and then this one ARK. It's three prayer focuses in Terms of these 30 descriptions how to apply them How to worship Jesus and encounter him in these 30 descriptions and so we'll get to the acronym in a moment But I give just a little bit of review paragraph a You can't say this too many times. The book of Revelation is called the revelation of Jesus There's no book in the Bible. I mean the book every book of the Bible reveals Jesus I mean, it's all about Jesus, but there's only one book that is titled the unveiling of Jesus revelation and unveiling is the same word and in chapter 1 to 3 Jesus is Revealing himself through his appearance. He's communicating facets of his heart in his ministry and By names that are given to him and names that he and descriptions that he gives himself with his own lips paragraph B I'm using the Acronym ARK because it's three points of prayer three prayer focal points but the name of Jesus is the ark of safety in the coming storm as Noah's ark Was a place of safety in the storm in that day It's the name of the Lord will be the ark of safety and it will be the ark of his presence So I'm using the word ark in both ways the ark of his glory Proverbs chapter 18 verse 10 Proverbs 18 verse 10 the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous Run to it and they are safe Encountering the name of the Lord is A strong tower it will bring safety to your Spiritual life and actually your physical life because you only ran into a strong tower when you were being pursued by the enemy And the devil is going to release his greatest Attack against the church well against the nation's as well, but there is a strong tower That we can run into and we can find safety for our spiritual life Physical and spiritual safety is related to the name to the to the name of the Lord because When we encounter his name, which is his character facets of Truth about him. That's what his name is There's 300 names or descriptions of Jesus in the Old and New Testament combined 300 But his name is his character or it's a description of what his heart or his ministry is like Now when we encounter his name the reason this is so important or facets of his character our spirit is calm and Strong and when our spirit is calm and strong in the midst of trouble We respond very differently than if our spirit is in a panic Many believers get into a situation and they get into a panic mode and they make wrong decisions But if our spirit is strong and calm We will make good decisions. We will reach for We will reach in faith to the power of God instead of retreat in fear and in panic and confusion. It really matters The condition of our spirit in the hour of increased conflict None, of course that is true today. It's not just in the increased conflict of the book of Revelation Context this is true today John 17 verse 11 Jesus prayed father keep them through your name in other words father When you reveal your name to them, their spirit is strong. Their spirit is clear. Their spirit is focused and When the Lord reveals his name, it's not just it calms us on the inside So we relate to God right instead of in a frenzy in a panic and we retreat from the enemy But we stand strong with confidence and connection to God also the name of the Lord reveals his power So Jesus said it's through your name. It's through the name of God that the people of God are kept My point being these 30 descriptions are the subject of are really the issue of life and death These are this the way the 30 ways Jesus described himself And again, it doesn't get any higher than Jesus describing Jesus Psalm 91 this is a favorite He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High in other words the person that's near God's heart, that's the secret place That's the place of encounter of encountering God's heart or you can say God's name God's heart and God's name is the same concept the one that lives or dwells in The secret place the place of encountering God's heart They will abide under the shadow of the Almighty and they will say of the Lord in the time of trouble They will say you're my safety. You're my refuge so instead of the time of trouble Again being in a panic in a frenzy. They say to the Lord because they're close to him You are my protection. You're my refuge Now when it's talks about abiding under the shadow of the Lord What that is talking about is the place of nearness if somebody gets close enough to you to be in your shadow more times than not they could touch you they're that close a Person a mile away from you is not in your shadow. So to be in someone's shadow talks about proximity. You have to be close To be in someone's shadow. So it's talking about nearness to God, but it's also talking about refreshing because the shadow Is a is a metaphor of refreshing in a time where the Sun is scorching and hot It's a time of of just strength and refreshing So the shadow of the Lord is near him and the shadow of the Lord is enjoying his presence That's what refreshed in our spirit by his presence verse 14 The man or the woman that lives in the secret place near God's heart. That's what the secret place is is near God's heart Here's what God says because this guy has set his love on me now This is God talking because this man or this woman who lives in the secret place lives near me Because they set their love upon me the Lord takes it very personal because I see what you've done You determined to set your mind and your heart on me in love because that's a choice That's a choice we make every day to set our love on him God said I'll deliver this one and I will set this one on high in other words in a place of of my favor I will set this one in a place of nearness to my heart because He has known my name and the point I'm putting here. Is that setting your love on Jesus and knowing his name is Connected as the same thing The Lord says because they know my name I see that they have set their love upon me as we continue in this course and As you're continuing in your pursuit Of knowing these descriptions of Jesus it will take a rigorous Resetting of your love upon him to be near him because all the powers And the and the world and of the devil will try to drive you from the secret place from the place of encounter with his heart And it's only because well the spirit will be wooing you and me He'll be wooing us But there is a place we have to set our love to know his name and that means to know the deeper things about his Heart that's what it means to know his name paragraph C I'm just setting the context will For why it's important to understand these 30 descriptions Because these are again the descriptions Jesus gave to prepare the church in the hour when the events of the book of Revelation unfold now those Descriptions and the power of knowing him are effective for 2,000 years of church history But there's no time in history where the where the weather where they will be more Desperately needed than the hour of the great revival and the great conflict that's coming Revelation 22 verse 7 Jesus said I'm coming quickly, and then he gives a promise He goes you're blessed if you keep and that's the operative word keep the words of the prophecy In other words the book of Revelation you have to keep it the words of the prophecy you're blessed there is a special blessing for the Believer that keeps the words of the prophecy so whatever we else we know When we study the book of Revelation we want to know what it means to keep the words of the prophecy Because there's a special blessing. It's mentioned several times twice actually in the book of Revelation The blitz in chapter 1 verse 3 and here in chapter 22 7 there is a blessing upon anybody that will keep the prophecy verse 9 the angel repeats the idea verse 7 Jesus is talking verse 9 and angels talking and he tells John I'm your fellow servant, and I'm a Fellow servant of yours and of those who keep the words of the book Says any believer that will keep these words Says they are they he's he's us. He's relating them to John the angel is Now we paragraph see we keep the words of the prophecy of the book of Revelation It's a very specific prophecy The 22 chapters of the book of Revelation is very specific prophecy we keep it three different ways Number one and that's what we're looking at throughout this entire course is the first way that's what this acronym of ARC is about We keep the the prophecy by responding in faith and obedience to the truths about Jesus's name that are revealed in the book when we Understand the truths about Jesus in the book and we respond in faith and obedience We are keeping the words of the prophecy That's one way second way. We keep the prophecy is that we proclaim it and We pray the release of it of course you you could proclaim it for years But there's only one time in history you pray the release of it, and that's in the final three and a half years But the Lord's raising up a people that will actually proclaim it and pray it That's a second aspect of keeping the prophecy Engaging with the battle plan in a very specific way, but there's a third way By refusing all the compromise that the book warns us about We refuse compromise by enduring persecution not Caving in and yielding to the enemy and by resisting temptation not yielding to the enemy So we keep the book three ways By responding in a very specific way in faith and obedience to the revelation of Jesus from our heart By proclaiming the message and praying it through and by resisting the compromise that comes from either persecution or temptation and we resist Yielding to the enemy in those two ways those are the three ways we keep the book Now the Saints can keep it Partially throughout church history, but there's a particular way It's kept in those final years where they're where there's a people and there's one generation that actually engages the battle plan and releases it on a global level and As a people we want to keep the prophecy in all three ways Paragraph D ARC the acronym Revelation 19 verse 10 the angel told John worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy now foundational to worship and And foundational to the spirit of prophecy We want to worship right we want to excel in worship, and we want to excel in the spirit of prophecy Foundational to worship and operating in the spirit of prophecy in a really mature way is Understanding the testimony of Jesus and The testimony of Jesus simply put is whatever is on his heart. That's his testimony It's what he is. It's what's on his heart and what's on his plans what he's doing It's what he's feeling and it's what he's doing at any given time That's his testimony. His testimony isn't only what he did in the past His testimony involves what he did in the past in the redemption and creation His testimony is what he's doing right now in the present tense and his testimony is what he plans to do in the future and so Having understanding of his testimony is foundational to mature worship and operating in the spirit of prophecy So there's nothing that Reveals more precisely his testimony what he's like then these descriptions that he gives with his own mouth or by the appearing in glory some of the things he actually says and some of the the descriptions are Are the Truths that are made known when he appears in glory It's what he looks like his eyes are like fire his face is like the Sun it gives us deep insight into what his heart is like Okay, number one a arc a RK a We take these 30 descriptions and we make Declarations of agreement a is for agreement to who Jesus is. It's a bit. In other words. We agree with this testimony In each one of these 30 descriptions and as the weeks unfold we'll identify how to do this Arc prayer guide if you will this prayer this prayer tool in each one of the 30 Descriptions we will have a practical way to apply it But what I give you is only one of many ways to pray this this arc prayer list Or prayer guide with these 30 different descriptions. You'll see in a minute There's many different ways. You can do this. You can agree with who he is. Like for instance, it's very simple When Jesus is just in Revelation 1 5 it says that he's the faithful witness there is Power that touches your heart the presence of God when you simply look at Jesus and and declare it with agreement You are the faithful witness You are the firstborn from the dead you are the ruler of the kings of the earth I agree with you. I declare it in your presence. I tell you Not every time but more times than not you will sense the Spirit of God touching your heart even a little bit Now I think many believers have never ever Brought their heart before the Lord and actually declared these 30 truths back to him That's at the core of worship is agreement with who he is Like around the throne. They say you are holy you are good You are worthy. They just declare with agreement who God is with affection and with Thanksgiving Be I mean number two the second letter are We're not only going to agree. You are the faithful witness Or these 30 descriptions we're going to go to the next step. We're going to ask for revelation We're gonna say Lord show me yourself as the one who is the faithful witness. Tell me about yourself reveal more to me Beloved if you ask him Persistently, he will tell you more about himself in that way Anything you pray for in the will of God persistently in faith. You will receive it and the reason Many believers, I'm not saying this negatively. I'm actually trying to make a positive point They don't understand much about Jesus as the firstborn from the dead. They've never asked Jesus Show me your glory as the firstborn from the dead talk to me It's not like that day. You're gonna well you might but it's not always does it work that way normally, it doesn't where that very day you have a big breakthrough of information and Revelation but over the weeks and months and years You will have distinct increase of understanding if you will ask him for revelation of it So what this our prayer guide is doing. It's a prayer focus. It's helping you be focused to make these three Interactions with your heart with Jesus according to these 30 descriptions Then K is to keep the prophecy and the way you keep the prophecy The prophecy related to his name and so these are not events. These are Because the revealing of Jesus and that's his testimony. That's what prophecy is all about is unveiling his heart And so we keep the prophecy by Responding in a very specific way in faith and obedience to the truth That he reveals in each one of those descriptions We're gonna break it down week by week and show you how to do this But if you respond at the heart level to the truth represented by the descriptions beloved You are keeping the prophecy in that dimension Now there's more to keep with the prophecy than responding to the truth of Jesus's name and his description But that's a very foundational and vital way to keep the prophecy If you don't do that, you won't keep the prophecy in the other two ways And of course the great blessing in the book of Revelation is to keep the prophecy so we respond to the specific truths By committing ourself we respond by saying I commit myself to obey you and believe you in these ways So we respond by committing ourself to obedience in very specific ways and Part of this K that's keeping the prophecy. We ask for help We ask for help like when we say you are a faithful witness We declare it with agreement. You are the faithful witness And then we'll say Lord reveal yourself to me in this way And then we say Lord I commit by the power of the Holy Spirit to be faithful To stand for the truth regardless what it costs me Help me Holy Spirit, but we commit ourself and we ask for help each of these 30 descriptions there are Many different ways you can apply this arc prayer focus Is the Holy Spirit's very creative, but this will give you a focus to go after I? Mean to come before the Lord to worship him according to these descriptions the top of page two top of page two Now I'm gonna give you one of the most important Two Bible verses that the Lord's ever given me in this in this teaching here Perfect time to do it right here. We're looking at the 30 descriptions of Jesus Proverbs chapter 2 and in a few minutes, we're gonna look at John chapter 5 verse 39 and 40. It's on the next page Proverbs chapter 2 I'm gonna just tell you a little story about it because the reason I'm telling you the story Isn't so you know my story is so that it becomes your story. That's the only reason I'm telling it so you can go Hey, I'm gonna do that. I'm going after that. That's not just for him. That's for me. That's the point of telling a testimony It was a long time ago It was in the fall of 1974 How many of you could remember the fall of 1974? Thank you? The numbers are less and less as the years go by I Was in college University of Missouri and I was my youth leaders as 19 years old. They gave me a book by A. W. Tozer called the knowledge of the holy I Like that response Because I have pushed that book for 35 years. It's almost 34 years almost 35 They told me that and so I love that I hop is really going up. It's a very small little book about 75 80 pages My youth leaders told me If you read this book, it'll change your life Never heard of a W Tozer. I Read knowledge of the holy Seemed boring to be totally honest. I love Jesus. I was really strong after Jesus was 17 18 19 years old I was going hard after him. I had a Bible study at the University of Missouri that I taught every every Thursday night and I decided Not this wasn't a great idea But I decided since this book was that important to my leaders, I really trusted them I announced to this Bible study that I started I Am going to teach the knowledge of God. I Have never read the book yet But I was so impressed by my leaders who told me how important it was that I it was now my favorite book Having never read it yet It was my fate all this book is awesome People really Oh change your life I hadn't actually read it yet, but I was by faith excited and it ends up ends up I was right, but We won't go to details there So I'm teaching it week by week, which means I'm memorizing it And I don't mean in the technical sense. I mean every like paragraph. I wrote it out and memorized my preaching notes so I didn't memorize the chapter literally line by line, but thought by thought and I would get up and and I would have 20 pages of notes that took me 40 hours. I mean took me forever to give a message and I never preached with less than 40 20 pages of notes Now some of you your goal is No notes is the proof that you are really connected to God. Well, nobody told me that back then and I remember my first sermon. This is true scared to death at a church. I was preaching I Had 17 minutes Not a joke and 16 pages of notes Not because I had that much to say because I was paralyzed with fear. I said hello My name is I looked down and said Mike Bickle It's true. I said I am very look down glad to be here. I Had 17 minutes and 16 pages and I finished the 16 pages and still had another minute to go True story So I'm at the University of Missouri And I'm teaching a W Tozer and I was you know 20 pages for a little chapter and I'm basically reading it to them I don't know and then you know, someone asked me a question. What does that mean? I don't know what it means I have no idea what it means. I just read the book like three days ago that I mean the chapter I Don't know. What do you think? It means the guy goes, what do you mean? You don't know I go I don't know. I don't know Tozer already died. I don't have a clue. I don't know what it means true true statement So as in the fall of 1979 I was in great turmoil over how great this book was according to my leaders and I really trusted them and how boring the book was to me and how Utterly horrible my preaching of it was it was just work You know, I've had dead meetings and I've had oppressed meetings anybody ever done a teaching that wasn't dead. It was oppressed Because I had no connection with it I was totally doing it in the power of the testimony of my leader who told me it was awesome and Frankly, I didn't know what else to preach either. I had no other messages When I was 19 years old, I preached all of my messages straight from books I Did that for some years after that too, not just I was 19 And that's how I learned the Bible actually just by studying other people's stuff and saying that that's why I'm so adamant About my copyrights the right to copy because I owe so much to so many for so many years It's true. It's not humility. It's debt. It's debt. God and I know the truth The guys don't most of them were dead but me and God know the truth I Remember one man said you need to preach your own stuff. I Said that's great. I don't have any of my own stuff I said I have none not I have nothing to say except for I love God, but I don't have a clue what to say after that True that's true. I'm not I Mean I had truth. The truth was I loved him. That was true. I could say I love him. I'm going for him But I you know, I didn't know I didn't have that much. I didn't know the Bible So I didn't know much more else what to say beyond that So I Was having my our Bibles Prayer time every day and and mostly hating it the University, Missouri. I remember 1974 in my dormitory Now we have a our Bible study that the one I'm leading at the University. We go on a ski retreat and so about 50 people we all get in vans and we go to Colorado ski retreat in January and So I am desperate pain over the subject of I cannot connect with the subject of the knowledge of God But they tell me it's a critical subject but I again I'm pained over this and I the pain is real and That's us and that's spiritual reality when you have pain over where you're not in God That's actually a sign that the reality of the spirits touching you And I know you go like well, I'd rather have the other signs of the breakthrough, but I tell you the pain is legitimate It's it's the stirring of the spirit in you. It is the work of the spirit. I Didn't even know that back then So it's January and I would have my Bible study my prayer time. I'd open the Bible and do whatever and Again, I didn't like it at all. The Bible is very confusing to me and prayer was very very boring But I was committed to it and So it's the early morning before the ski I mean, we're there before we're gonna go out and go skiing, you know an hour later. And so a guy Sees me in the in the main room where the fireplace was You know a little before the we were all to leave and he says hey He goes could you help me? He goes I've never had a prayer time. I've only been a believer three months and could you help me? Like what do you do when you open your Bible and suddenly under the pressure of the adoration of a young believer? I was 19. He was 19, but I'd been saved like Three full years and he thought I was like way deep in God, you know for real and under the pressure of his Adulation I kicked into a well, here's what you do when you really want to touch with God I all of a sudden become a near expert And The guy named Bill Gothard some of you know Bill Gothard He taught this principle and I did this for years he said whatever Day of the month it is Read that proverb 31 Proverbs 31 days. So whatever day it is, you know on the 18th, I read Proverbs 18 I did that for years and I recommend it. It's great. So the guy goes Where should we start? I said what's today? He goes January 2nd great. We'll start January on Proverbs 2 So we're there by the fireplace and he's all excited He's got his notepad out and I'm gonna teach him to pray. He did. I mean my prayer time is horrible but I mean here I am, you know, and he wants to know and hey, I got answers and Here we are So I read Proverbs chapter go. Let's do Proverbs 2. I said verse 1. I said if I Said now here in my vast understanding I said If there's an if in a minute, there's gonna be a then He goes Wow No, he did. He was he was Wow. Wow Because this is great, you know, and he wrote down if there's an if there will be a then I go This is a condition. I Mean, this is not even funny. I mean, this is real. I Said if there's good, it's a condition is gonna be a promise if you receive my words treasure my commandments And incline your ear to wisdom verse 3 if I go oh There's another if there's two I know this promise is gonna be huge If you cry for discernment lift your voice for understanding Verse 4 I couldn't believe it. I go if I go. Oh my goodness. I've never seen three ifs in a row Of course I didn't know the Bible at all so but He was touched by this, but I I don't think I've ever seen three if since then 34 years later I said man, this is big if you search for his silver. I mean seek for a silver search for his treasure Then I go. Ah, here's the promise and I'm in the teaching mode and this guy is really impressed And he's going man, this is how it works I go yes, this is how it works And I said then you will understand the fear of the Lord and I couldn't believe the next sentence Then you will find the knowledge of God And I look at that because I am in pain September October November December, I can't find the knowledge of God. That's all I'm in pain about And I said, oh my goodness And I begin to tear up And he said is something wrong. I go I Really need to be alone right now. I Said I mean really I do I said I don't Know this Bible verse So he left and I said God This is my life. This is my passion. This is what I live for and I can't connect I go what do these three ifs mean? And you know you look at it just real casual. There's five conditions actually and a promise Condition number one If You receive my words. In other words, you set your heart to obey him. Here's the reason I'm going to give these five conditions there's no point in Memorizing these 30 descriptions. There's no there's no point and even doing this arc prayer focus If these five conditions are not behind it, that's the reason I'm giving this It's not the information It's the encounter with God in the information that's important If you receive my words very simple you have to receive that means a spirit of obedience In other words, it's the opposite of rejecting his words You don't receive his words because you believe him you receive your words because you commit to agree with him in your lifestyle His Fingers on you on an area and you don't respond. You're not receiving his word. You're resisting it That's spirit of obedience By the way prayer is no substitute for obedience meaning you can't live in deliberate disobedience and Add more prayer time and throw in a fasting day It's true you can't live with a little bit of immorality But you're gonna like kind of you know Increase your prayer time and add more fasting and somehow we'll sort out. No. No prayer is no substitute. You have to receive his words Because if the spirits quenched He's the only one that could tell you about Jesus his dear friend Jesus if he's quenched you're not gonna go anywhere It's gonna be dead information And I've quenched the spirit many times I know that feeling it's a horrible feeling and we all understand it Paragraph B treasure the words that's meditate on them and The way we treasure them. They're they're dear to us We take the Bible and we turn the Word of God into dialogue with God In other words, we take the Bible and we use it as conversation material and we pray it back to him And that's really what this arc prayer focus is about it's it's taking it and we're declaring a group a or we're agreeing or We're asking for more insight about these Particular facets of his of his character and then K. We're committing to respond and to ask for help See it says if you incline your heart To wisdom now, this is an important one You have to have a teachable spirit in an open heart Meaning and it all of us will be Challenged at this. There's several key times in my life This has been a really important point when you're reading the word you can't approach the word with a biased to what it means and People do this particularly in the realm of their moral life And I don't mean just sexual I've just talked about in the realm of their character They will determine a certain character a Certain way to talk or to act or to even attitude is okay they determine it and they read the Bible to find Bible verses to back them up and What the proverb says is you have to apply your heart you have to open your heart and come under the discipline of the word not resist its real meaning to Justify what you want it to mean you have to apply your heart open your heart and say I Lay down my bias. I laid down what I wanted to mean and I accept what it means It means not to do this and to do this paragraph D Simple you cry for understanding you lift your voice say Lord. Give me more and as simple as that is Many believers don't do that They love Jesus, but they don't actually pause to actually say give me more insight And then the acronym ARK are is doing that we're asking for revelation We must actually focus in on These 30 descriptions and actually ask show me your glory in this This particular way show me who you are as the faithful witness and he will again not necessarily that day he might but over the weeks and months You'll increase an insight paragraph II The fifth condition Search for it as hidden treasure search for it Pursue it diligently. It's not enough to go to a Bible class. It's not enough To just kind of get the information we have to search for it as though it was treasure that was hidden But it was within reach, but it was going to take some rigorous effort to go after it It's within reach, but it's not easy to get Because the Lord only wants to give the deeper things of his heart to the people who can't live without them He gives his salvation for free But he gives the deep things of his heart to the people who can't live without the deep things of his heart He gives the deep things based on hunger Because the deep things of his heart are too dear to him to just throw out to people who don't care So there's a time in your life and many of you have already decided this but then you re-decide it over and over I mean you recommit. You determine you will pay whatever price it takes To grow in depth in the Word of God and of God's heart It says in Proverbs 25 It's the glory of God to conceal or hide a matter It's the glory of a king to search it out God says it's my glory to hide The deep things. It's a kingly spirit to come after me come after me now Search me out. If you want me you can have me I'm talking about two believers. I bet about Searching foot, you know to receive the gift of salvation your forgiveness your sins. That's free I'm talking about going deep. God says it's my glory to hide myself The reason it's my glory because when I hide myself love comes to the surface And the seeker who has to come after me and they can't take no for an answer Love comes to the surface and God is glorified in that So if you've said Lord you're hiding yourself and You maybe that was a complaint the Lord might answer back. That's biblical It is my glory to do this, but it's your glory to search it out because here I am Don't give up don't give God a three-month or a three-year contract Say give him ten years with the idea. You're gonna give him your whole life. I'm not even I'm not gonna I'm not gonna draw back based on how good it feels or how well I'm doing I'm gonna do this thing solid without coming up for air what I mean by coming up for air Determining whether it's working. I want to challenge you give ten full years Before you figure out if it's working in other words, you don't want a lot of folks go three months six months It's not working which means they don't feel it or the insights not Increasing and so they want to quit the Lord says no. No, you can't quit. It's treasure It's within reach stay with it No matter what it cost you no matter how many years and no matter how many hours you come after me and how much you miss out From other people's point of view because you will miss out of many things From man's point of view if you go after this hidden treasure, but you will get what those men can never lay hold of Takes hours. It takes time. It takes rigor. It takes quitting and starting back up quitting and starting back up And then God promises if you do this, you will discover the knowledge of God Paragraph a H The question the ultimate question for the end time church is the question of who Jesus is. I Like Jesus and The answer the end of the book of Revelation Jesus is revealed as bridegroom King and judge That's the final revelation of Jesus in the scripture He's bridegroom King and judge with a particular focus on Jesus the bridegroom The book of Revelation is actually the storyline to cause a bride to become mature in love The Storyline of the book of Revelation is not just driving the evil one off the planet driving the usurper of the planet It is also partnering with his people So they mature in love the storyline of the book of Revelation is the storyline of the love of God The book of Revelation is all about love. I Remember I was talking to a good friend some years ago And I said I was really studying the book of Revelation and this woman a dear friend she goes You study the book of Revelation she said I thought you were the Song of Solomon guy Because I taught it for some years, you know before that and I said I am she goes. Well, how do you? How do you figure are you Song of Solomon a book of Revelation? I said it's the same storyline the bride Doesn't mature at the end of the book of Acts or the book of Romans the bride Matures at the end of the book of Revelation. I said it's the same storyline from a different angle on the diamond It's the same storyline She's really I've never heard such a thought The Song of Solomon and the book of Revelation is the same story Now if you don't understand who he is at these 30 descriptions the book of Revelation He looks like a cruel tyrant Who's wanting to flex his muscles and prove his boss? He has to have his way and he's going to use his power to get his way What the book of Revelation is about he wants a people to respond in love That's what the storyline really is in the book of Revelation because love demands a free will and And With the free will there's risk Because with real free will which is necessary for love with real free will you get love but you have the huge potential for permanent rebellion and If there is permanent rebellion judgment must remove the rebellion off the planet So the book of Revelation really is the storyline of love But you no one can know it without knowing the testimony of the man who's leading the story Top of page 3 Roman numeral 3 I'm going to skip this what I'm saying in this this was actually the second Powerful passage the Lord touched me the same thing still 1975 it was the Proverbs 2 was January and this was in the summer 1975 where the Lord showed me in verse 40 He goes you could search the Bible all day long. You can have Bible study like the Pharisees in John 5 39 They searched the Bible Verse 40, but they don't come to Jesus. They don't talk to Jesus when they search the Bible they get Bible information, but they don't have connect with God's heart when they search the Bible and This was riveting to me. These are the two lightning-bolt Experiences in my young years in the Lord both of them happened in 1975 if I would do the five conditions of Proverbs 5 I mean Proverbs 2 and if I would actually come to Jesus when I studied not just get Bible information But I would talk to him About it as I was going I would turn my Bible study into conversation My the Bible would become dialogue. It would be conversation material between my heart and God's heart Beloved that will change everything Because instead of just saying you're faithful witness and studying the commentaries and figuring out what the commentaries say about a faithful witness Which I recommend that We talked to him Jesus. You are the faithful witness Jesus Reveal yourself to me this way. You're talking to him using a Bible verse Jesus. I want to be faithful I don't matter what it costs me like you. I love you I want to show you my love and being faithful as a witness You're talking to a man you come to him using the Bible That radically changed my life. It was like a lightning bolt What I mean is it arrested my attention was such I had such focus I remember the place of the day of both of these Bible verses and for many years. I don't know that there was any one great passage that stuck out besides these two from those early years they stuck out in a major way and it began my spiritual journey of Paying whatever cost it that was necessary to go deep and to talk to God while I was becoming a man of the word Because I wasn't a man of the word at all. I Love Jesus and I love meetings. I didn't like the Bible. I hated prayer and I hated fasting. I Love to go to meetings, but I didn't want to be alone with God. It's like ah, well what? What do you where are you at? But when I begin to talk to him, I didn't feel that much but I understood Jesus said you search for me But you got to come to me when you search the scriptures Okay Roman numeral for praying the descriptions of Jesus according to the acronym ARC. There's 30 net descriptions Now some of these descriptions are names or their titles others they're not titles But their truths that we discern because of the way Jesus appeared like for instance I mean the way he appeared had a message in it. It was communicating a message on purpose. He appeared in the priest car a garment He had the long robe and the The girdle around his breast that was golden of the high priest So Jesus didn't say I'm a high priest, but he appeared as what he had eyes like fire He had an eyes that could see through everything the eyes of fire means several different things But we know that he has the anointing of a prophet He can see into the the center of all things like fire can penetrate to the center of metal His words were like a sword we know he had the power of God on his mouth We know he had a prophet anointing just by that So each one of these descriptions are either direct title or they are a description that reveals his heart in an intentional way paragraph B So when we agree with him You're gonna find there's several ways in these 30 descriptions that you will agree with him some of the Statements number one under B. I say I call them the you are Declarations you are the faithful witness. You are the firstborn you are the ruler of the kings of the earth So some of these 30 you are is the way you'll say it Others when you agree you have you have a sword You have the keys of hell and death you have the keys of David you have the keys of the kingdom That's how you agree with him. You tell him what he has or the third is just Your I don't know how else to say it your face is like the Sun your eyes are like fire And I say these statements of agreement to him in each one of the 30 They're one of those three categories and I'm just helping you get your mind around it By the way, just to help you out a little bit. I Have a these 30 descriptions on the internet That's up there right now and I have agreement then I have the next one our Revelation and then K keeping the prophecy in other words how to respond to it in your personal life and I have it's six pages And it's all blank and I have it all laid out According to each one of the descriptions so you can download it and as you pray it you can write what comes to you I Mean you could make it yourself in ten minutes, but I'm just saving you a step So I take the 30 descriptions and I put this ARK under each one of them and give you an inch to write what comes to you and You know at first you'll be it'll be a struggle. You'll be you are the firstborn of the dead Well, there you have it Lord You are the firstborn of the dead Hey, it's not that's it and that's okay the Lord smiling us. Come on. Come on Then go heavy on the ARK. Tell me what it means. Tell me what it means. Tell me what it means Tell me what it means. Show me what it means. Give me revelation. He said there you go and Then you'll be a little bit Weak on the K because you don't know what it means yet. So you don't want to do with the K. You just go There you have it But then you go to the next one and you do the you do the a the agreement You have eyes like fire, ooh It feels great. You have eyes like fire. Oh, I love your eyes Your eyes are like fire and you're talking to him You will feel a little bit not always but when you talk to him about him the spirit of the Holy Spirit I mean he gets involved when you talk to Jesus about Jesus the Holy Spirit says I'm there This is what I love He came to glorify Jesus and if you will lock into Jesus Using Jesus's own descriptions to talk to Jesus. You can be sure the Holy Spirit will be there More than he's not there That's if you're doing these five conditions though Because if you're you know living in deliberate disobedience in an area to of your life and you want to say I'm gonna go after This the Holy Spirit says no, we got to be an agreement if I'm gonna be your teacher You don't have to have a breakthrough. You don't have to be mature, but you have to be decided you're gonna war against that area I mean today there's you know, there's just a You know Epidemic levels in the body of Christ of immorality drunkenness bitterness Slander grieving God with speech and the Holy Spirit saying you gotta line up with me if you want me to Exhilarate you with Jesus. We got to be on talking and agreement terms together So whatever he puts his finger on you have to say no to it You have to or you cannot go forward in this process It's true of all of us But he puts his finger on it because he loves us and he wants to give us life Okay, II You're gonna linger You're not gonna be in a hurry now Maybe on the front end because these 30 you don't know what to say But that's what this course is about is teaching you how to keep the prophecy in this regard But at the end of the day the course is a jumpstart I'm just kind of giving you a little jumpstart if you don't do it with your own heart with God and write it down yourself Your own phrases you won't grow in it It would just be a great idea from the spring of 2009 where you thought about those 30 descriptions you want That's why I'm giving you these six pages about an inch or two for every one of the 30 descriptions to write So that you could go for this You can you can start because there's no way to learn how to pray better than praying saying it Not just reading books on prayer by actually saying you are the faithful witness You start saying it all of a sudden you'll you won't even know you'll accidentally say something and it will be annoying to just say Wow, I felt the Lord's presence write that phrase down Paragraph F journal take time to journal Journal Linger in journal go slow talk soft Don't do rapid-fire worship You're the faithful witness. You're the first one the dead. You're the rulers the cave there's you got a fire You got a sword coming out of your mouth. I love you. You walk among the candlesticks. You got a garments We're down to your feet glory to God boy. I felt that you don't want to do that You want to slow down? You want it to I'm a fast hard talker But I tell you when you're talking to God you want to go slower and softer You want to breathe and have gaps gas gaps in your conversation and feel the Holy Spirit. There you go. I know about gasps But the Lord wanted me to learn about gaps And I really mean this you want to slow down your internal Movement, you don't want to be going you will go the opposite way. You'll feel much much more This was new to me some years ago Because I thought the harder the louder the faster the better and you don't feel near as much if you draw back and you take a breath and you Holy Spirit So I stress linger in journal in this devotional type approach to before God paragraph G The most anointed teacher is the Holy Spirit. He lives in you He'll teach you everything now, I'm gonna say something I'm gonna kind of throw you off when I say it, but it's true of every one of you But I'll say just to get your attention But it's true of you as well my favorite teacher in the body of Christ is me and You are your favorite teacher and what I mean by that There's an anointing in you and if you will dial down Get out your paper or whatever and you will talk to Jesus about Jesus You will begin to get phrases that will come when you say them. You'll have you'll feel it and write the phrase down because the Holy Spirit It's like a tailor-made teacher He will teach you in a tailor-made way according to your own heart in a way Nobody else will teach you what you and the Holy Spirit the distance you will go in God will be far greater than any man Will teach you Now a man might give you information on this or that and I appreciate getting information For men and women from other people. I appreciate getting information. I I love it But in terms of my heart being getting revelation Nobody gives me more revelation than my own mouth when I'm whispering prayers and writing it I just go like where does that come from? The Holy Spirit is abiding in you and he will teach you if you give him a chance to do it Yeah, but you're not gonna do it in five minutes on the run you really have to do these things Write it down linger talk to Jesus about Jesus That's the key and the Holy Spirit start giving you phrases and I don't mean I just get 50 phrases every time I do it sometimes I get none, but I try to always have my little notepad there just in case a Phrase a phrase with a little feeling on it to me is worth gold That's gold and I have notebooks and notebooks and notebooks and now you know It's files and folders on my laptop of information of phrases over the years and I go back and I use the same ones over And over and those phrases grow and expand when I say them not every time sometimes It's dead as could be and then the next time it's alive and then I think oh, I can't wait till the next time It's dead. I don't know he the wind the spirit blows and you don't know for sure Top of page four just do this real quick. I'm just giving you three examples And I write them down, but we're gonna do all of these all 30 of them and give you I get I'm gonna jumpstart You can if some of it feels right to you some of the phrases I give you use it But you're gonna get a lot more phrases over the next year or two if you do it yourself You'll get a lot more Jesus the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead the ruler of the kings of the earth Okay So paragraph a the faithful witness first you identify a core truth. There's several core truths There's several of them about Jesus being a faithful witness, but lock into one core truth He spoke I'll say to him you spoke the truth regardless what it cost you you spoke the truth I mean as a 30 year old young man in Israel in a hostile environment You spoke no matter what it cost you and it cost you not just your life much persecution before you died I go. I love you as the man who is a faithful witness. I love you as a speaker of truth I trust you and I'd like to talk to him about who he is as the faithful witness And I have some phrases here just little phrases. I love this about you. I like to say that I love this about you Then I can rely on everything you say you don't lie ever you know you write down you don't lie ever that's how you build your prayer list and Say that day by day or whatever. You sound like you'll do this list every single day Revelation show me yourself show me your glory as a faithful witness very simple But this will actually grow a little bit that the way you pray it You'll get little different angles of praying it just the spirit would just give you phrases here and there and you're not even that aware The spirit gave it to you. Here's how here's what I mean by the spirit gives you a phrase when you say it You feel it you feel this presence a little bit Now that didn't come from the devil that didn't come from your flesh When I say something to God and I feel it a little bit I go. Wow. Thank you, and I write it down I mean, I don't always say wow. Thank you, but I'm aware I write it down not that it's even profound But I felt it so that's the Holy Spirit saying Mike the way you're built you and me will go far with this phrase Write it down. Don't throw it away. Don't be too busy for it value the anointing that operates in your life write down what moves you and say it again because it's the Holy Spirit saying this is the way you're built and this is how we Will operate together when you go after Jesus Write them down by all means and use them over and over and over again I'm using phrases 35 years later still using them. They're not even close to being worn out. They're still alive Phrases like I love you is a faithful witness. I mean, it's I Mean it didn't have to be some real dramatic statement Then keep the prophecy. In other words now you're gonna apply it I'm gonna speak the truth regardless what it costs me. I'm gonna obey you in this Or you could say you could use a trust it's either trust or obey you can use obey I'm gonna obey you but I'm gonna speak the truth or you could do trust I will trust whatever you say because I know you are a faithful witness you tell the truth. I will believe you so you can go faith or obedience on many of these and you'll have phrases for each one of them and Then ask the Lord to help you paragraph B Jesus is the firstborn from the dead what that means one of the core truths again. There's several core truths It means he's preeminent over all that's what the first board. It means he's the one that gets the premier inheritance That's what the phrase means and we'll look at that in a couple weeks So I say to him agree. You are the firstborn. I say I love it that you get all the glory I love your preeminence. I love this about you, but it truly I don't say it that loud. I'm excited cuz you're here I'll say it I'll say Lord. I Love that the father gave you the preeminence I Love it. I love that you have this you are the firstborn and you'll fill the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit loves it when you go after Jesus in the way Jesus describes himself Then revelation tell me more teach me more. What does this mean? Give me more insights and three I tell him Lord, I want to serve you Jesus. I want to serve you in this way I want to minister in a way that draws people to you not to me because you're the firstborn. You're the preeminent not me I want to live in secret humility and secret sacrifice that makes people Hunger for you not to be by me And I'll talk to him like that. That's how you can apply the prophecy to yourself. There's a half a dozen I mean, there's many ways you can apply it. That's one. I Love what Paul said second Corinthians 4 Paul said we don't preach ourselves, but Jesus Because we don't draw people to be fascinated with our spiritual life We draw people to have confidence that they can have a spiritual life of their own that's connected to the Lord We want to tell our stories I believe in storytelling, but we want to tell stories so that people have confidence They can go after God in the same way not so that they're left in awe About how dedicated you are or how much revelation you have that is not Jesus the firstborn he's preeminent You are preeminent. I'm not pre of the prophet is not preeminent. Jesus is so this is how we apply it again There's a there's a dozen ways to apply it or more than that You are the ruler of the kings of the earth One of the core truths and there's several core truths to every one of these descriptions All the kings will submit to you. I love this one. You are the king every king will bow Every ruler will yield to you in the end. Oh, I love this about you. Thank you father That's one way you can agree. There's several there's plenty of sentences different than that you can say Paragraph three I want to submit to you as king. I want to follow your leadership. That's obedience Or you can say I'm gonna call people in authority to obey you now that will get you in trouble Because people in authority have power to for consequences. I say Lord you're the king over the rulers. I will take a stand Even though they don't like it and I'll give myself to you talk to the Holy Spirit and you'll get little phrases and write them down Paragraph D will end with this obviously that the great Privilege beloved a lot of you are 20 21 22 Think of this think of your life right now think of the privilege in the next 10 or 20 30 years For you many of you to teach other people how to talk to Jesus according to his own descriptions What if there were a million of us teaching a hundred million how to talk to Jesus in the way that Jesus revealed himself? I Mean what a privilege for I mean, what a great privilege that I could do this to you. What a great joy But you could do this not done to be a microphone. You could do it one-on-one one on three You could you could connect with the Lord and teach these things to other people Okay, again, I got this. I'm gonna show you this the final thing The outline I think we got it there are the notes because I want you to go get it off the Internet Okay, I'll be here in a second. Let's all stand. They'll get a pop it up in a second Is that a different file We want to go after the Lord these five things Beloved we need a vision a clear vision. Why can't you go hard after God? Why can't you be deep in God? You said well, I'm 20 years old when I was 20 years old again The Bible was so boring and confusing This is what I have like a Jesus is the faithful witness and I have agreement revelation and prophecy Keep the prophecy in about an inch between each one of them for all 30 of the words It's just a big handout. It's all it is for you fill in the blanks. That's it I just want you to see that say, okay, I'm gonna go get it and make it better It won't take a lot of creativity to make it better, but you can do that but do it I urge you to get it so you can write on it For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit Mike Bickle calm