Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgent call of the Spirit and the Bride for Jesus to come, highlighting the need for the church to align with the Spirit's voice and identity as the Bride of Christ. He explains that this global unity will lead to a powerful movement of healing, justice, and revival, as the church embraces its role in intercession and evangelism. Bickle encourages believers to deepen their relationship with Jesus as the Bridegroom, actively participating in the two-fold cry for Jesus to come to His people and for people to come to Jesus. He stresses the importance of not only understanding this message but also living it out through prayer and action, ultimately preparing the church for the return of Christ.

Kind of the Christian magazines to find out what's popular, and then they do it. And I'm not against what's popular, but what I'm for is what the Spirit's saying, what the Spirit's doing. That's what we want to put our time and our energy and our study into. Our study of the Word. Well what John is saying, in essence, is that there's one time in history, in all of church history, where the church worldwide will be doing and saying what the Spirit is doing and saying. I'm not talking about a small number in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, you know, a little bit of time afterwards. I'm talking about the church worldwide will be saying and doing what the Spirit is saying and doing. They will be in unity on a global level for the first time in history. So the question is, number one, what is the Spirit saying? Again, not the popular trends of the day, not what even draws a crowd. You hear people say, there's so many thousands coming, God must be manifesting His favor. I said, do not equate crowds and the favor of God and the Spirit of truth. Sometimes there will be crowds, but crowds do not mean that. There's something weighty on God's heart, the Spirit's heart. What is He saying? Well this prophecy tells us. He's revealing the church's identity as Jesus' bride. Because you'll notice it's not the Spirit in the family of God saying, come Lord Jesus. It's not the Spirit in the army. It's not the Spirit in the priesthood. It's the Spirit and the church in a bridal identity. Now we are the family of God forever. We're the body of Christ forever. Those truths have been emphasized throughout church history, but never has the Spirit universally emphasized the identity of the church as a cherished bride. Never has He emphasized it. It's been in the Bible the whole time, but it's never been pressed by the Spirit on a global level. While there's a time right before the Lord returns, and I believe it's those decades leading up to His return, He is going to emphasize, He is going to speak clearly about the identity of the church as a cherished bride. My point is, what should you be putting your attention on in your personal life as well as in your ministry? You want to grow in this truth. Not only this truth, but at least this truth. Because it's what the Spirit will be saying. Now in order to reveal the church as a bride, first the Spirit is going to reveal Jesus as a bridegroom. The way that you will understand you're a cherished bride is by seeing who He is and His nature as the bridegroom God. We discover our identity in the face of Jesus. We can't find out who we are by looking into even our passions and desires. We find the most truth about who we are in the face of another. And as the bridegroom God, we understand who we are before Him. Now it's not enough to just use the term bride and bridegroom. You want to go deep. The Spirit is speaking this. And I believe He's whispering it right now on a global level, but it's going to come to a shout before the Lord returns. And again, it's not enough to have the rhetoric, a few phrases. You want the living reality of this in your life because this is what the Spirit is saying to the end-time church. Paragraph two, what is He doing? Well, the Spirit is saying, come Lord Jesus. He's interceding for Jesus to come in power to the earth. Did you know in Romans chapter 8, verse 26, the Spirit intercedes through us? The Spirit is praying, not just the church. Well, the church is as well. But the Spirit is doing more than praying, calling Jesus to come. The Spirit is also calling the people to come to Jesus. We're going to point out two things, that there's a two-fold come, cry for come. There's a cry for Jesus to come to the people, to the earth, and a cry for the people to come to Jesus. There's a two-fold cry. We'll develop that in a few moments. But the Spirit's doing something on, in addition to this, He's manifesting the power of Jesus as the cry for Jesus to come and the cry for people to come to Jesus goes forth. He's manifesting the power of Jesus as well. Paragraph B, just to sum it up. This prophecy reveals how the church will function in being anointed by the Spirit, because the church is going to be in unity with the Spirit. And so the Spirit and the bride saying and doing the same thing means the church is flowing in the power of the Spirit, in the reality of the Spirit. It's going to be the greatest healing movement in history. It's going to be the greatest revival, the greatest justice movement in history, because the Spirit and the church will be in such unity, there will be a manifestation of power like no time in history. So the first thing, how the church will function, anointed with the Spirit because they're in unity with the Spirit. Number two, just summarizing, the church will be established in her bridal identity. Number three, the church will be engaged in intercession. I mean the Spirit is, but so will the church. Number four, the church will be effective in the harvest. Because as I said a moment ago, when the Spirit and the bride say, come, they say it in two directions. Come, Jesus, to your people, and come, people, to Jesus. It's a two-fold cry, come, it goes in two directions. So what's happening here is John is combining several ideas together. And the reason I'm saying this to you, because we want to intentionally combine these ideas together in our life and in our ministry. He combines the idea of power with the idea, the truth of bridal identity and bridal revelation. But he combines that with continual prayer, and he combines that with evangelism, calling people to the bridegroom God. Now, what happens is the body of Christ often picks one of these subjects. But I'm saying to you as an individual, in your own life, you want all of these subjects in your life, and you want to be involved in a ministry that is focused on all of these, as the Lord sends you out to the cities and the nations of the earth in the years to come, many of you. Now, some people, they want to move in power. They're really into healing. Others want to move in power. They're really into justice. Healing the sick isn't their big thing, justice is. Other people, revival in the church. Other people, transformation of society. Those are all dimensions of power. We can have all of those. We can go for all of those. Other people, they say, well, I'm not really into the power. I'm into the bridegroom God. They want to sit in a room and just them and Jesus, and that's awesome, actually. But that isn't the whole story. It's not just them and Jesus. It's not just them cherished by Jesus, but I cannot minimize the value of that life focus. Because we're supposed to move in power, too. Supposed to move in the Spirit. Well, other people are really into prayer, but they're not into intimacy, or they're not into power, but they're into prayer. I know a number of guys. They're real focused on prayer meetings. They don't heal the sick. They don't do the intimacy thing. I've had people say, do we have to do that bridegroom thing if we want to do some kind of house of prayer? I go, you don't have to, but you get to. Some movements, they cry out to the people, come to Jesus, the missions movements. But they're not into prayer, some of them. They're not into intimacy. They're not into power. My point is, we want to intentionally combine all of these points of emphasis into our life and into our ministry focus, and we want to put our time, we want to put our energy, our attention into these in a specific way. That's why I'm teaching on this, what I think is arguably the most significant prophecy for the end time church. Paragraph D, now this is for the first time visitors. I say this so many times, that women are sons of God, men are the bride of Christ. My point is, being sons of God, being the bride of Christ transcends gender. It's bigger than an issue of gender. It describes a position of privilege before God. As sons of God, we have access to His throne. As the bride of Christ, we have access to His heart. As sons of God, we move in power. The bride of Christ, we encounter His emotions and His desire. Men and women are called to both of these realities and these positions of privilege before God. Paragraph E, now again, I have this in several of the sessions here in this class on our bridegroom God. I'm just going to mention again, for those that are just here for the first time. Paragraph E, the bridegroom message. People say, what is the bridegroom message? I want to preach the bridegroom message or the bride message, whichever way you want to say it. Number one, it's about Jesus' emotion, His desire for us. Number two, which is a different issue, it's about His beauty. The revelation of His beauty, there's so much in the Bible that says He's going to reveal His beauty and fascinate our heart. Number three, it's more than His emotions and His beauty, it's His commitments to us. He has made very deliberate and specific commitments to share His heart with us forever, to share His home with us, to share His throne, His secrets, to share, to literally impart His beauty to us forever. But that's not enough. Jesus is part of the message. There is a, there's another part of the bridegroom message. It's our response of wholeheartedness, of commitment back to Him. And I have more on that. You can read it on your own. Top of page two. Well, let's look at the first cry, come, it's to Jesus. The second cry, come, is to the people to come to Jesus. First, Jesus, come to your people. And there's various manifestations throughout church history. Revival, whenever He comes to us in intimacy and power, but there's an ultimate coming, which is at the second coming. But the cry, come, Lord Jesus, involves all of them, not just the second coming. Well look at that. Paragraph eight. John describes the spirit and the bride, the church, crying, come, in two different ways. First, calling Jesus to come to His people in power. That's intercession, or you could even put the prayer of faith. We're asking Jesus to break in in power, in individual ways, in historic ways. I'm talking about in a nation, in a revival. And eventually it's a cry for the second coming itself, for Him to appear in the sky. But second, it's calling people who are thirsty to come to Jesus. So there's an intercession dimension, and there's a proclamation of dimension, but always there's a manifestation of power that is to go with it, a manifestation of power. Let's just read the larger context. Jesus says in verse seven, now you'll notice He says, I'm coming three times in this passage, because the larger context is verse seven to 20. He says, Behold, I'm coming quickly. Verse 12, He says it again, I'm coming quickly. Then verse 16, He said, I, Jesus, He identifies Him as the one that's talking, I've sent my angel to testify of these things to you. Then verse 17, I believe John is speaking in verse 17. He records the activity of the Holy Spirit in the generation the Lord returns. But again, this is applied through history, but it has its fullness in the generation the Lord returns. Now notice, we'll break this down in a few moments. There are four very important, distinct phrases in verse 17. Number one, the Spirit of the Bride say, Come, and we'll look at each one of them. Number two, let him who hears the message, let him that hears the revelation, let him participate in crying, Come. After he hears it, let him become deeply involved in the reality of it, that he would intercede and he would proclaim it. He would be deeply involved in the cry, Come. The third point, let him who thirsts, or the person that desires. Their desire has been kindled for the Bridegroom God, let them come to Him. Their desire has been stirred up by the people who say, Come, by the message. The message awakens desire. And then the fourth part, whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. And then Jesus ends this with, I'm coming, it's the third time He says it. He says it in verse 7, verse 12, and verse 20, I'm coming. And then John breaks out in the spirit of intercession, he said, Break it now, Lord, break it now. In a few moments, we're going to ask the Holy Spirit for Jesus to come and His manifest glory even in this room tonight. Now that's a partial fulfillment of this prophecy, but it is a fulfillment that's been available throughout church history. Paragraph B, the threefold application of this prayer. We can pray this prayer three ways. The Come, Lord Jesus prayer, and we'll look at it in a few moments, the Come, people to Jesus prayer, because that's a different prayer. First, we ask Jesus to come near us in intimacy. And it's a breakthrough in our heart, Come, Lord Jesus, in other words, touch my heart. I want a breakthrough in my heart, I want to see you, I want to encounter you as Bridegroom King and Judge. Number two, come to us in revival. Now again, there's many measures of this throughout history, there's, you know, there's the healing movement is an expression of this, the justice movement is an expression of this, the missions movement is an expression of this, come to us. And then ultimately, the cry, come for us, come for us in the sky. Now this is the prayer that we pray, the church will pray in those final hours before the Lord returns. We don't actually ask Him right now in intercession, we could tell Him we long for His coming, but we don't pray Jesus appear tonight, because that's not, He's not going to appear tonight. We can ask Him to touch our hearts, break into our region of our nation with healing and power and justice, evangelism. We can long for His coming, we can declare our longing and our desire for it. But there will be a time where the church, particularly in the last three and a half years of this age, the church will actually begin to pray for His appearing in the sky, and they'll do it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And when they ask Him to come, they're also asking Him to transition the earth to the age to come. Now, when Jesus comes in the sky, He transitions the earth to the age to come. Can you imagine how significant that is? And He replaces all of the governments of the earth with new people, with saints. He removes all the evil governments of the earth, and He replaces them with new people. That's what the cry, come Lord Jesus, is a part of as well. Remove the Antichrist, and replace all the governments of the earth, and transition the earth to the age to come. Transition the earth into that new realm that you've promised. Now let's look at paragraph C. Now, this is one of the prayers for the coming of the Lord, Isaiah 64. Now we pray it in our prayer room all the time, but we don't really pray it in context, which is okay. We pray it in its secondary meaning. It's Isaiah 64, verse 1 to 3. Isaiah recorded it. Oh, that you would rid the heavens, that you would come down. He's actually praying for the second coming of the Messiah in this verse. Now we pray it, we mean break into our hearts in intimacy, come to us in revival. Come near us in intimacy, come to us in revival. But this is actually, this is actually the prayer of Revelation chapter 22, verse 17. This is what John is talking about actually, is that He would come, and He would break it in power. Let's read that verse again, Isaiah 61, verse 4. Oh, that you would rid the heavens, that you would come down from the sky, that you, Jesus, would come down, that mountains would shake. This is literal, because when Jesus comes, the seventh bowl, which is the final judgment, all the mountains of the earth shake because of earthquakes, shake here. This is literal. Verse 2, come and make your name known to your adversaries. Well, in the hour of the second coming, the premier adversary is the Antichrist empire worldwide. This is literally a prayer that Jesus would confront it in judgment. He said that the nations may tremble at your presence. You know what the nations are doing in this hour? In Revelation 16, they're all gathering to assemble at Armageddon to destroy the city of Jerusalem and take it over completely. But Isaiah said, when that happens, do something so awesome that all the nations would tremble at who you are when you appear, and the Lord's going to do it. But this is literally what John is tapping into. He's tapping into this reality right here. Look at paragraph D. The truth that Jesus will come back to earth, that He will come. Because ultimately, it means He comes back to earth, though we pray this prayer through church history at its various levels of manifestation, like again, for revival or for intimacy in our own individual way. Paragraph D, the truth that Jesus will come back to earth is a very important decree and prayer and proclamation even to the people of the nations of the earth. And I have two verses there where the messengers are to tell the faint-hearted, the fearful people of the earth, He's coming. These messengers are praying, come, and they're also proclaiming it to the people. So you'll notice there in Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 40 that the point of the messengers, I mean their point of focus is to call out, is speak to the fearful ones. You can read that on your own. Okay, let's look at paragraph E. Now, when we cry, come Lord Jesus, we cry, come Lord Jesus, we can do it in two ways. There's a two-fold expression. When we worship Him, we are beckoning Him to come by our love. We can say, come Lord Jesus, without saying the word come. By honoring who He is and magnifying His great supremacy and declaring our love, we are beckoning Him to come. Or we could do it in a direct way, intercession. We're asking Him to release justice. We're asking Him to release the great harvest. Turn to page three. Now let's change to the next focus. The Spirit of the Bride are also going to say, come to the people. First, we say, Jesus, come to the people. Second, we say, people, come to Jesus. Although we do them in the same time frame. It's not like we do one for a year and then we do the other. We do both of them together. Paragraph A. John made four distinct statements in verse 17. Each one, very significant, and here's, I want to kind of alert you to this. Each one of these statements have many implications that go beyond a superficial reading. So you want to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, teach me what each one of these phrases mean in their fullness. Because you can be sure of this. This most significant prophecy may be the most significant. Again, arguably it is, in my opinion. But certainly one of the most. You can be sure that though the Spirit just gives the hint, you can be sure there's much behind the surface on each one of these phrases. So I want to take a second right now, Holy Spirit, I ask you, teach us. I'm going to make it personal. You can repeat it in your own heart to the Lord. Teach me, Holy Spirit, teach me what these four phrases mean for my life and for my ministry focus in Jesus' name. Now when we call people to Jesus, we're calling them to the bridegroom, king, and judge. We're calling them to those three faces of Jesus that are emphasized in the final four chapters of the book of Revelation. John has just laid out, Revelation 19 to 22, he's laid out Jesus, the ultimate presentation of Jesus as bridegroom, king, and judge, and then he calls on that Jesus to come and break in power in the earth. Now when we call people to Jesus, we call believers to Jesus. Matter of fact, that's what this class is doing. I'm taking fiery, committed believers and calling you to come to Jesus as the bridegroom God. That's what the point of this class on Jesus our bridegroom. So I'm doing part of this. That's why I'm having this class, because of this Bible verse. So we call people to encounter Jesus, discipleship, maturity in the Lord. But it's not just to encounter him generally, but as bridegroom, king, and judge. But then we do more than that. We call unbelievers to the harvest, but there's something different here. We call them to the harvest, I mean to come to Jesus to be saved, but we're preaching not just the Jesus who delivers from hell, yes we always preach that Jesus, that's in the Bible, but we preach the bridegroom king who delivers them from hell. Before the Lord returns, I will assure you this, the church will be calling the lost to the kingdom through the perspective of the bridegroom and the wedding. Mostly today, and I'm not critical of this, mostly today, the lost are called to get set free from hell and to make their life a little better right now by the blessing of God. And both of those are true, but they're not the main truth of the good news. The good news isn't that we escaped something bad, that is good news. The good news is we're called to someone good. And then we're called to be involved with him forever, with a destiny and a dignity. That's the primary message that I believe we're going to see before the Lord returns. Now a lot of evangelists, and everybody's an evangelist in some ways, in that since everybody heals the sick, everybody evangelizes, everybody prophesies, there are those that are called to evangelism as their primary focus, but everyone evangelizes. But most people, they don't know how to talk about Jesus as a bridegroom to an unbeliever. It's kind of weird, and the reason they don't, because they haven't connected or made sense of it in their own life, that's why they can't make sense of it to somebody else. If you went and said, go lead someone to the Lord, but talk about the bridegroom God, you know, the guy might blush. Say, well I'd rather skip that point, just go on the fire insurance doctor, get him out of hell, let's start there. Again, I'm preaching, to get people out of hell is a biblical way to preach. Now let's look at these four phrases, carefully. The Spirit and the Bride say, come, I put them here in the text again so you'd have them right in front of you, even though we read them on page one. The Spirit and the Bride, they say, come. Let him who hears say, come. Let him who thirsts actually do the coming. And let him who desires, desire and thirst you could use interchangeably. Let them take of the water of life freely. Well let's look at this, phrase by phrase, and again, you need more than just the simple beginning, it's only the beginning point, there's much more to these four phrases than what I have in this little handout here. Statement number one, the Spirit and the Bride say, come. John is telling us God's primary agenda for the end time church, in one phrase. That his, not his only agenda, but his primary agenda for the end time church is that the church would encounter Jesus as the Bridegroom God, in other words, the first commandment would be restored to first place in their life. And the nations would be called to Jesus. So the primary agenda is to get the church into a spirit of prayer from a bridal perspective and to get the people, the church, into a spirit of evangelism and power through a bridal perspective. That's the first agenda. So John lays it out real clear, and the reason he lays it out so clear, so that we can focus on what the Spirit is focused on. Again, a lot of people aren't focused on this, they love Jesus, they're not even aware that his main point in the end time church is to get the church into a spirit of prayer from a bridal paradigm and get the church into the spirit of missions and harvest through the bridal paradigm. Both of those, intercession for Jesus to break in and evangelism and missions and justice for people to come to Jesus, but both of them through a bridal paradigm. Spirit of prayer with missions in a bridal paradigm with power. We don't need to pick between those, we bring them all together. That's what he's saying right here. Paragraph one. Now Jesus' last message, he goes to the city of Jerusalem, his very final message to the nation of Israel, to the people of God in general, before he would go to the cross, is recorded in Matthew 22. And in this message, Jesus gave a new paradigm of the kingdom of God and a new way to present the gospel. Now, for 2,000 years, again, the Spirit has not emphasized this. Some of the most successful in terms of numbers of evangelists in history, many of them, I've read some of their writings, you can hardly even find a whisper of the idea of Jesus as a bridegroom. I mean, through the mid-century, you know, the Middle Ages, Reformation, great revivals of history, but Jesus documented this in his final public message. He spoke of the gospel message being rooted in a wedding that was yet to come. Look what he says, Matthew 22, verse 2 to 10. He's calling the nation of Israel, but he's also giving a model for the message that's going to win the nation of Israel and even the nations of the earth. Verse 2, he says this, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is like a king who arranged a marriage for his sons. That's the father, he's arranging a marriage, that's Revelation 19. Verse 3, so the father sent out his servants to call unbelievers to invite them to a wedding. Now, when God sent out his servants, it wasn't to tell people how to escape hell. Again, that is biblical, to preach on hell. I'm not down on that, I believe in that strongly. But I want you to see something, the fresh thing that Jesus is saying. He's inviting them, the gospel message invites them to participate in the beauty and the dignity and the glory of the love feast, the wedding feast, of being part of Jesus' bride forever. That's infinitely more powerful if it's clearly stated and people believe it by the Spirit than just getting out of trouble. They're actually invited in to the partnership with a man filled with glory who loves them beyond anything they can imagine. Verse 4, Jesus said this, tell those who are invited, come to the wedding. So the message, the message that they're to give is come to a wedding. Verse 9, go to the highways and as many as you find, any unbelievers, again, invite them to a wedding. Verse 10, those servants went out, they gathered together anybody, the good people and the bad people, and the wedding hall was filled, that's a prophetic hint of the great harvest the gospel preached in all the nations of the earth, the wedding hall will be filled, I assure you of that. Jesus must have smiled when he said that. But notice, verse 2, the gospel, the king arranging a wedding for his son. Verse 3, the message, invite them to a wedding. Verse 4, tell them, come to a wedding. Verse 9, invite them to a wedding. Jesus is preaching prophetically. He understands the Spirit is not going to emphasize this for the 2,000 years, but he knows the Spirit will emphasize this in the generation he returns and it will be a significant part of the agenda and the purpose of God for the church to reach the harvest in the earth. But not just to get people to say yes to Jesus, Jesus has more on his mind than getting people to say yes to him in the initial way. He wants to see the first commandment restored to first place, he's coming for a church that loves him in the midst of the greatest generation of sin, there will be people who love him more than they desire sin. They will have more love than lust. Love will overpower their heart more than lust. That's what the bridal paradigm will do in the final generation, because lust will abound across the earth. Love will move them even more than the threats and the persecutions of the Antichrist. They will be victorious in love even before the threats and the persecutions of the Antichrist. Even the offense and confusion that some will have in the midst of the judgments of God, God will have a people, Jesus will have a people that love him beyond all the negative emotions that many in the nations have. Look at the middle of page 3, number 2, the spirit and the praying church working together, the praying bride, will result in the most effective harvest, the greatest justice movement, the greatest healing movement, the greatest missions movement in history will be the spirit and the praying bride. In other words, the praying church in a bridal paradigm, established in the revelation of who she is, cherished by Jesus. Now the spirit is responsible to convict the world, send righteousness and judgment, but the bride is responsible to give a faithful witness to who Jesus is, as the bridegroom, king and judge. Look at this next sentence, this is important. Without the praying bride's witness, the spirit is voiceless. Without the praying, without the spirit's power, the bride is powerless. Now the spirit can speak directly through dreams and visions, he does that, so that's not the, in the fullest sense, an accurate sense, but the voice of the spirit, in terms of the natural realm, is through the lips of the church. Without the witness of the church, of the bride, the spirit is voiceless, but without the power of the spirit, the church is powerless. The two of them must come back together, must come together. Let's look at statement number two. Statement number two is, let him who hears, say come. That's the next statement, let him who hears, say come. So, John says, when you hear this message, get involved with it, become an intercessor that prays, Lord Jesus come, as the bridegroom, king and judge, and become a messenger. When you hear it, don't ignore it, and don't resist it, but rather enter in to the great drama and make it part of your lifestyle to say come. You say come in intercession, and you say come in proclamation. Now we can proclaim in many ways. We can proclaim in the arts, in song, in drama, in writing, one-on-one discipleship. I mean, a mom can homeschool her children and give witness to who Jesus is. So when I say proclaim, don't think you have to get a microphone on a stage, that's not what I mean. But here's what happens. Many people, when they do hear, they go, amazing, but they don't actually get involved. They don't, they remain a spectator. They don't become one of the messengers and the intercessors and those demonstrating the power of Jesus as a bridegroom, king and judge. I mean, preaching the message and asking the Holy Spirit to release power on it. What John is saying is, he's calling the church, as they progressively become enlightened, he's calling them to the glory of the privilege, yes responsibility, but the privilege of evangelizing the lost to Jesus as a bridegroom and reviving the church and moving in power. So, many of you, you know the spirit of the bride, you know statement one, the agenda of the spirit is to get the bride to pray, come Lord Jesus, and to testify to others, come to Jesus, but have you gone to step two? Are you actually saying it with your lips now? I don't mean underlining it in your notes. Are you actually saying it? That's step two, get involved, become an intercessor, become a messenger and as a messenger, you're calling the church to wholehearted love and you're calling the lost to come to the bridegroom king. Number one, the measure of our hearing to the degree that we really hear this, that will be the measure of our participation with the spirit. The point being, if we don't really hear it, we won't participate in a deep way. I want to, I say this positive, I don't mean to say this like I'm putting anyone down, but the rhetoric of IHOP, bridegroom God, is not enough, that will not move your heart or equip you. Knowing the IHOP slogans and even singing them is not enough, you must enter into this reality at the heart level. So what John is saying here, in essence, he's saying focus on hearing, because if you hear, that's what will activate you to say it, in prayer and say it in witnessing to believers and unbelievers alike of the glory of the drama of the bridegroom king returning to the earth. Much of the church is not aware a bridegroom is coming to the earth. They need to hear it, the church does, in the way that the lost. It's the same message, but the church is, much of the church is unaware of this glorious reality of who's coming and who they are to him. And when they understand who's coming, he's not just a God with power, he's a bridegroom with desire, not just a king with power, and they are the object of his desire. It will shift the way they carry their heart and the way they face temptation, the way they face difficulty, setbacks, disappointments. The church must hear this message and everyone who hears it must say it. So that a billion people are proclaiming it and filling the earth. Now what John's really doing here, he's focusing on the need for hearing. Paragraph two, the most repeated exhortation of Jesus, in the whole Bible, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus spoke on the need to cultivate hearing or the spirit of revelation is what that means. He spoke on that point more than any one point in the entire Bible. He said that principle more often than any other principle, in terms of just an actual phrase I mean. Okay, so what do we do? We know the agenda, that statement one, the Spirit of the Bridegroom goes, say come. We're hearing a little bit, but we got to do something with what we hear. We have to say it. We can't ignore it. We can't resist it. We can't just write it off. We have to say it. Well, we say, well, I want to say it more clear. I know I'm not comfortable saying it. Then the focal point is on hearing it more clearly, cultivating the spirit of revelation. In other words, take time, take time and energy and focus on this in your own personal life. Okay, statement number three, paragraph D. Paragraph D says, let him who thirsts come. That's the third statement. And again, the word thirst, you could put the word desires. To the person that thirsts, that desires, let them come. Now he's taking it to another level. Because statement two was, become a messenger and become an intercessor. But statement three is, it's not enough just to tell other people, because you have new understanding, you need to focus on getting a deeper encounter. You yourself must come to him. And the coming is not a one-time coming. Because you can get the message, the general message clear and say, hey, I've got it. And then you can put all your time on telling people, and then you cease to keep coming. Because the word come here is in that continual present tense, keep on coming, keep on coming, keep on coming is the idea here. What John is talking about is the need to continually and personally encounter Jesus, not just as king in power, but as bridegroom with desire. Do not be content in praying that Jesus will come in the various ways, nor content in saying he's a bridegroom to the church or the lost. You must drink regularly and come yourself on a regular basis. Now the way that you come to him, in the most practical sense, is simply talking to him. If you will talk to him, you will come to him. That's how coming to him, that's what it means in essence. It involves more than that, but if you talk to him, all the other things will fall into line. What happens, we get so busy working for him, that throughout the day we don't talk to him very much. I'm talking about little phrases throughout the day, as simple as that is. John is saying, don't be content with statement two, saying the bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom desires you, actually encounter him. Come yourself on a regular basis and you drink, you talk to him, not just as God, not just as the savior or the healer, talk to him as a bridegroom. Many people talk to God, to Jesus, as a counselor. Jesus, help me figure this out, which is good, I do that a lot. A lot of people talk to Jesus as a healer. Heal me, heal me, heal me, fix me, fix me, heal me, that's good too, I've done plenty of that. Many talk to God, to Jesus as a forgiver, a savior. Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, that's probably the prayer I've prayed most in 35 years. Let the reader understand. But John's saying something more. He says, come to him, not just as savior, healer, provider, counselor, director. Come to him as bridegroom. I mean daily. Now the imagery of drinking refers to assimilating the water. That's a very, it's like breathing. Whether it's breathing or drinking, it's an excellent example, here's why. You can't drink, in order to drink and to live, you have to drink small but regular portions. Like some guy could come up and say, you know, I'm so busy, just give me three months worth of a drink. Come on, just load me up. 100 gallons, give it all to me in one shot, so I don't have to bother with drinking, because I have so much to do. Or give me a month's supply of air. I'm going to take the deepest breath and just let me run for a month on it. Breathing and drinking only work small portions regularly through the day. That is why this is a very, very key analogy or imagery that's being used here. You can't go on a week retreat and drink enough of Jesus to run for three months, any more than you can drink for a week of water and not drink water for three months. You have to drink it throughout the day, every single day. Small portions all through the day, just like breathing, breathing even more. You can't store up your intimacy with Jesus at the bridegroom conference, and just kind of not do intimacy for a while, because you've got a big supply. No, you have to come regularly. Now you'll read in the notes there, that the problem in Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins, is that the people who were speaking about the bridegroom ran out of oil. The people who heard about the bridegroom, that's message one, they begin to say it, that's message two, they did not continue to come to him as a bridegroom, and they ran out of oil, and they lost the anointing in their life, and their heart got disconnected. John is saying something so significant here. He's saying you must do more than understand God's end time purpose, part one. You must do more than say it and pray it. You have to encounter it. Set your heart to encounter it. Determine. Now, as simple as that is, many people, they love the message. I mean, it excites them. They underline it a hundred times, they wear a hole through their paper, they underline it so many times. But they don't actually think of putting it on their schedule, to actually spend time to study it out. They're just hoping one day they just go deep. You won't go deep one day in this subject. You must come to him, you must set your heart to come to him, to encounter him as a bridegroom God on a regular basis. Not once or twice a year, regularly talk to him. Not just as a king with power, but as a bridegroom with desire. Top of page four. Now, the fourth statement, he takes it up a notch. He said, okay, you want a desire, now take the water. It's one thing to set your heart to come to him, and you make those attempts. And you determine you're going to come regularly. Now, John says by the spirit of prophecy, take it. You must take it now. It's the word take that's critical. Jesus, paragraph one, he's the one who developed, or he's the one who stated what it means to take the kingdom. To take the kingdom is not a small or casual thing. He defined taking the kingdom requires spiritual violence. Here's my point. The deeper benefits of the kingdom. You can desire them. You can set your heart to come and drink. But you must know there will be times you will be resisted by the devil. There will be times you'll feel spiritual barrenness. There will be times where you have failure and you'll feel condemnation. And the word is telling us, no, you must resist those and take the kingdom by force. You must press in. You must not give up. You must not give in. You must exert the effort that's involved in taking the kingdom by force. Now, when you fail, the verse makes it clear, you receive the water freely. It's offered to you freely. But in this age, there is a effort we make to position our heart. Jesus called it spiritual violence. And the reason he called it spiritual violence, paragraph three here, because it violently confronts our pride and our selfishness. It violently reorders our priorities. It disrupts our pursuit of worldly pleasures and the status quo. Jesus said, if you want the kingdom, take it. Many things come automatically. Forgiveness. But the deep things come by determination and sticking with it. Follow through. The devil will come against you. You're not backing down. Your own failure will hit you in the face. Confess it. Push delete. Let go of it. Get back in the race within the hour. Full blast. Your spiritual barrenness and spiritual boredom will hit you. You look at it in the face and say, I'm not backing down to you. I am pressing on. I'm taking this thing. And when I fail, I will rejoice the fact that it's free and that I'm not disqualified and there's nothing I can do to lose this as I continue to press in towards the Lord. But the point I'm making is this. It's more than knowing the message. That's statement one. It's more than saying the message in a prayer room or proclaiming it to somebody one-on-one or one-on-a-thousand. It's more than being a messenger and an intercessor. Number three, it's more than setting your heart to come. I mean determining you're going to drink daily, regularly. It's taking it by force. It's refusing to back down when you fail, when you're resisted, when you're bored, when it's barren. You won't back down because you have the confidence it's the will of God for your life. Very significant what he says here. I'm just going to give just a real brief kind of the overview of what's in the rest of the notes so you can look at it yourself. Bottom of page four, paragraph A, Jesus gives four essential revelations about Himself in verse 16 that equips the believer to walk out verse 17. You cannot separate verse 16 from verse 17. That's a key point. We don't have time to go through it tonight. But I want you to understand this. The key to walking out those four things in verse 17, part of it is found in the revelation of Jesus in verse 16. Jesus says in verse 16, let's read it. I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the bright and the morning star. Those are actually four different statements about who He is with implications of what He's going to do that affect your life and affect the earth. I want to encourage you to read that on your own. Those four facets of Jesus will feed and equip your spirit to walk out the four truths and the four even exhortations, imperatives of verse 17. Okay, let's look at all the way to page six. I'll give you one more little snapshot. Then we're going to ask the Lord to come and touch you. The Song of Solomon, in a symbolic way, states this Revelation 22, 17 prayer in the language of love. It's the Bride of Song of Solomon. Verse 13. You who dwell in the gardens. He's talking to the bride. He's talking to the church in her bridal identity, dwelling in the garden of God, in nearness to God. You can read that on your own. The companions, the people are listening to your voice. Whether it's the church or the lost, if you touch reality, if you dwell in those gardens and you get near the heart of God, the people will listen to you because you won't be an echo, you will be a voice. You will resonate inside your spirit with truth because you have living understanding. The people will listen to your voice, both believers and unbelievers. And then the Lord says to her, to the church in the bridal reality, let me hear it. I want to hear your voice. Speak to me. So she breaks out in verse 14. And she says, come quickly. She prays Revelation 22, 17 through the language of Song of Solomon. The Lord says, I want to hear your voice. She goes, okay. Come quickly in the urgency of love. The fullness of love. And what this verse is suggesting, there will be people crying, come Lord Jesus, because of the crisis in the earth, and that's a biblical point of view. But there will be others that are crying, come Lord Jesus, through the urgency of love even more than the fear of the crisis. Because they will say, come Jesus, my beloved, the one I love. It will be more than a cry to fix the earth. But it will be an urgency based on the desire for the fullness of love. She will cry out, be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain of spices. And if you know the Song of Solomon, like a gazelle, that means come quickly. Come in haste. I'm urgent for you to come now. Love is compelling me to be near you, to see love fill the planet, to see the people love you in the earth. Worthy is the Lamb to receive the reward of His sufferings. That's the spirit of come quickly. Not only do we want to experience the fullness of love, we want Him to be loved by all the nations on the planet because He's worthy. It says, come like a young stag. Not only come quickly, but come in power. You can read that on your own. Come in power, Lord Jesus. Don't just come fast, come in power. That's what that means through that love poetry, the Song of Solomon. And the mountain of spices, what a graphic picture of the New Jerusalem. The abundance of the fragrances of God, of Jesus fill the city. And it's a reference in that romantic language of Song of Solomon to the New Jerusalem. Come from the mountain of spices. Come quickly, the one I love. You can read that a little bit more on your own. But the reason I added it was just to give you just even a different look at the diamond of this truth, a different facet of the diamond of these truths of Revelation 22, 17. Amen. Let's stand. Well, you've all heard. I'm going to go through those four things again. And I want you to close your eyes if you would, just so you're not distracted. You've all heard point one, the spirit of the bride say come. You know that's the agenda of God, that you're clear about that. Point one is clear. Point two. Will you start saying it? Will you say it to Jesus and will you say it to people about Jesus? Point three. Again, I want all of you to close your eyes just for a moment, just so you're not distracted. Point three. Will you do more than say it? Will you come to him regularly throughout the day and talk to him? Not just as a God of power, as a God of desire. Talk to him through the language of desire. Come to him as a bridegroom. Come to him as a bride. And not only will you set your heart to come, will you take the kingdom? Will you refuse to give up? Will you refuse to back down when you fail? Will you repent, push, delete, and stand again hard and go after it? When you're resisted by the devil, when you're disappointed, when you feel barren and spiritually dull, will you stay with it? Will you take the kingdom and the confidence of grace and not back down? And you're saying in your heart, yes Lord, I want to do this. Beloved, this is what the spirit wants the church focused on. It's true. This is, again, one of the most significant prophecies. If not the most significant prophecy for the end time church, this is what we need to be doing in our lives right now. In this hour of history. So Lord, we say come. Come to us right now in power. Come to us in power, Holy Spirit. Reveal Jesus as a bridegroom to us in power right now. Lord, release your presence even now. Release your glory even now, Lord. Do you desire it? Thirsty, do you desire it? But you have to actually come. Not just think about it, actually talk to Jesus. Lord, come near me tonight. Come to us tonight in power. Revival, touch our city, our nation. Oh, we long for you to come in the sky. We long for your appearing. We love your appearing. Come, Lord Jesus. That we would fully experience your love, and the nations would love you fully in heaven. And all who are thirsty. And all who are hungry. Can count to a thousand. And dip your heart in the streams of life. Here we are, Lord. We say yes. We will take. We will take. We will not be denied. We will not be refused. We say come, Lord Jesus. Spirit of the bride, say come together. Come, Lord Jesus. Jesus, come. Here we are, Lord. You are mine and I am yours, Jesus. Come to the fountain, dip your heart in the streams of life, the pain and the sorrow will be washed away, will be washed away. Here we are Lord. Let's deep cries out to Jesus. Christ your presence Lord, Christ your presence Lord, we lift our voices right now, lift your voice to him right now, if you want him to touch you lift your voice. Make this room a chamber of encounter. We ask you for more right now Lord, we ask you for more of your spirit Lord, wave after wave of your spirit, freedom to hearts, healing to bodies, this is your desire, this is your desire Jesus. Come to the waters, come you who are thirsty, come and drink, come and drink, come receive freely. Christ your presence Lord right now, wave after wave after wave after wave of your presence in the church, your presence is increasing even now, your presence is increasing. Christ your presence right now, it is fresh encounter with your love all over this room, fresh encounter with your love all over this room. More, we wait on you, all over the room just get into position, say here I am Lord, come draw near to me right now. You see what the Lord wants to do, he wants to set hearts free, he wants to set bodies free. Holy Spirit you have the leadership in this next portion of tonight, release your power Lord, release your wind Lord, release the wind, release the fire. Don't look at me, look at him, right now ask him to touch you right now. We welcome you Holy Spirit. Fire!