Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound love of Jesus Christ for humanity, as described in Revelation 1:5. He explains that this love is not only about cleansing and exalting believers but also about the intimate relationship God desires with them. Bickle highlights that understanding this love empowers believers to overcome shame and engage in partnership with God, reinforcing their identity as His beloved. He encourages the congregation to abide in this truth, reminding them that God's love is unconditional and transformative, and that they are cherished as His favorites.

Okay, turn to Revelation chapter one, just a quick announcement again, the church and Israel in the end times conference next weekend, it's Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday, the staff, I mean, the students and interns will be a part of it, and the staff is welcome to come, but you need to bring your staff badges because we've got five, six, 700 people from out of town, and they're paying for the conference, they're registering, but if you're on the staff, we figure you give a whole lot to this place, so any meeting you want to come to, I'm all for it, so, but bring your name badge so that we know who's who. So that's next Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Myself, Alan Hood, Wes Hall, and Asher will be teaching more than us, but we're giving just mostly focused on teachings on the end times, which we haven't done that much teaching on the end times the last year or two, so we need kind of a new, fresh look to be invigorated in that subject. Let's pray. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus. Oh, for the glory of your son. We love him. We love him with all of our heart. Our love is weak, but we do love him. We ask you that you would make our love stronger and stronger by seeing how he loves us. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're continuing. This would be session six in this course I'm doing on Jesus, Our Magnificent Obsession, part two. And whenever we have a conference, which is about every other week, I pause, but I'm ready to jump right back in the week after. And tonight we're looking at this phrase, this description of the 30 descriptions of Jesus, to him who loves us. One of the most striking statements in the whole Bible, when we understand who it is that loves us and the measure of which his love has committed himself to. I mean, because of love, he has committed himself to the most extreme manifestations of his love, costly love for him, and then love that exalts us to a measure that's really impossible for us to grasp in this age, how high we've been exalted and how fully we have been cleansed. Well, paragraph A, let's look at a quick review. In Revelation one to three, John shares a vision highlighting 30 descriptions of Jesus and 18 eternal rewards. Now, each one of these 30 descriptions and 18 rewards, they communicate a very specific insight about Jesus. I mean, it doesn't get any better than Jesus revealing Jesus, Revelation one to three. Now, these insights are necessary to equip us to overcome compromise. People struggle with compromise. I tell them, feed on the revelation of Jesus. It will strengthen your heart. It equips us to endure persecution without quitting, because it makes sense to endure when we see more clearly who he is. And it equips us to engage in partnership in a deeper way. We have more confidence to engage with him because we know how deeply he wants us to be a part of what he's doing. So we take all this guilt and shame and the accusations of the enemy, and we say no. And we take our own lethargy and fatigue or laziness, and we say no, he really wants us involved with him in partnership, so no to shame and no to lethargy. We're gonna rise up and be engaged with him because he cares so deeply about us being engaged with him. Well, in Revelation chapter one, verse five to six, in our last session, we looked at the three titles in verse five. We looked at it briefly, just one short session. Each one of them deserve a lot more time, which we'll get to, by the grace of God. The good thing about these Friday nights, they just keep on going year after year after year, so eventually we're gonna get to all of these because we're gonna camp here in Revelation one to three for maybe a year or two. But these three titles, they summarize in a most glorious way Jesus's human destiny as the Son of Man. They don't talk about who he is as God. They talk about who he is in his humanity, his perfect humanity and his glorified humanity as the Son of Man. He's the faithful witness. He's the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. Now these three descriptions or titles of who he is in his perfect glorified humanity, those are actually the qualifiers to understand the next phrase, to him who loved us. How far does love go? Verse five and six give us insight. Number one, he cleanses us. Two extremes. Number one, on the one extreme, he cleanses us. He removes everything that disqualifies us to have perfect communion with God. Every possible disqualifier has been moved out of the way forever. He cleanses us. How clean? We are as clean as he is by the gift of his righteousness. Beloved, that's extreme. We don't wanna ever get too familiar with that expression of his love. He cleansed us. He removed everything that disqualifies us and he gave us a position of purity and righteousness that is equal to his own because it is his own righteousness that he gave us. It can't be improved upon. Well, the second extreme, he exalts us. We're priests and kings. He not only removes everything that disqualifies, he imparts everything necessary to govern with him forever. Beloved, we're part of the ruling class in the new Jerusalem forever. The aristocracy of the new Jerusalem are believers. We're the ruling class forever. So we see in these two statements, the two extremes. And he did it by his own blood. And the idea is at the most dramatic personal cost to him, it cost him so much to exalt us so high and to make us so clean. This cost of love by his own blood, it's beyond our comprehension. I will say it this way. It's beyond exaggeration how dynamic this is, that God became human. And not only did he become human, but he became human forever. When Jesus rose from the dead, he could not take the robes of humanity and lay them aside and say, father, that was intense. Away with this humanity, beloved. He will be human forever. That is so intense when you're the uncreated God who never had a beginning or an end. This story will never grow old. It grows old to believers now because we don't grasp it. But in the resurrection with perfect, well, I mean, with a supernatural capacity to understand, the story will never grow old, ever. It will never become familiar to us forever and ever with freshness. We will declare the worth of the lamb who shed his blood because we will see more clearly how clean and how dramatic being cleansed really is and how high we've been exalted and at the personal cost to Jesus to bring this manifestation of love to us. Now, one other little point, I mean, one other point I wanna make is that to him who loved us, who is the him who loved us? It's the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. In other words, this striking statement with these three titles is qualifying the measure of love. We're not talking about the love of a broken, needy man who's hoping that by investing his love, somebody would finally love him back. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about a broken, needy man hoping that somebody would finally love him. We're talking about the most powerful, the most awesome man that has ever walked the earth and will ever live. He is the one that cleanses us, exalts us at his own personal dramatic cost. That's what John is saying here in Revelation chapter one. Paragraph B, there are so many facets to the diamond of his love, not just the extreme that he washed us and exalted us, those are two extremes, but I like to put the, not opposites, but the different emphasis of the fact that he's a king with power, but he's also a bridegroom with desire. Beloved, he's a king with power, but he's a bridegroom with desire, meaning because he's a bridegroom with desire, he uses his power to bring us near to himself so that he can share his power with us forever. We're gonna rule with him forever, and it was his idea, not our idea. We didn't convince him, he convinced us. I mean, no king freely gives his power away, but if that king with power is also a bridegroom with desire then he gives his power away to the one that he loves. He anoints us to do his work, but he also anoints us to receive his love and to return his love. So that's another example of the extremity of his love. I mean, first, he cleanses us and then exalts us. That's one extreme tension. Second, he's a bridegroom and a king, very different. Third, I'll just leave it with this, he loves like a lion and like a lamb, meaning his love has the fierceness of a lion and the tenderness of the lamb, the two extremes, and there's no contradiction. He's the only one, the only man who is as bold and fierce as a lion, as tender as a lamb with no contradiction, and he never ever suspends one attribute while he's exercising another. He's a lion and a lamb at the same time. I find that really hard to be intense and tender in the same 60 seconds. There's no area, I have written here in paragraph B, of Jesus' supremacy that more expresses or we mostly more experience than when his love is manifest. I mean, the great glory of God's plan is that he would make Jesus supreme above all, openly declared for all to see, every demon in hell will see his full supremacy over all things, but I want to say this, there's no area of his supremacy that more greatly expresses or allows us to experience that supremacy than when love is manifest. Again, the description we're looking at tonight, to him who loved us, I mean, what a striking statement. A goldmine of truth, that one statement that we will still be discovering in the age to come, millions of years from now. Paragraph C, now this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, and I'm sure it's yours too, even if you don't know it yet. It is one of your favorite verses, I assure you. Paragraph C, the clearest and the strongest statement that elaborates on what it means that he is the one who loved us, was given by the very lips of Jesus before he died. There's no statement that surpasses in the quality and the intensity of description of his love than his own words, most dramatic. It's most dramatic when we understand who is saying it, the faithful witness himself. The statement is this, that God loves us in the way that God loves God. Beloved, think about that. I've been saying that sentence for several decades, and I barely even understand the beginning of the beginning of what the implications of that really is. Jesus said it, John chapter 15, verse nine. He said, in the same way that the Father loves me, in the same way, he's declaring the most dramatic truth I can imagine. In the same way, he's saying, in essence, that the Father loves me the same intensity, the same quality, the same measure. That is how I feel about you. And these 12 disciples around the table, they could not have even begun to grasp the weight of what that sentence means in its fullness. Beloved, how much does the Father love the Son? Think about it. How much does the Father delight in the Son? How does God feel about the Son? Well, I have good news. That is the way Jesus feels about you. Then he gave them an exhortation at the end of that dramatic declaration. The declaration is, I love you like the Father loves me. Then he exhorts them, abide in that love, which means stay focused on this. Don't get distracted from this truth. Abide in it means dwell in it, live in it. Be saturated with this truth. Beloved, we, and I include myself, we are too easily distracted and we're too easily made familiar with the truth, God loves you. Jesus said, I charge you, abide in this, dwell in it. Don't ever graduate from this focus. Live in the awareness of this, study it out. Say it back to God. Ask the Spirit to teach you more. Never ever graduate from this truth. That's what he's saying. Then he goes on in verse 11. He says, I told you these two statements, the declaration about how I feel about you, and secondly, the exhortation never to lose sight of it, to stay focused on it in your spiritual life. I told you these things for this reason, that my joy would be released in you. The joy of the Holy Spirit is not just a momentary experience for 20 minutes where we feel that extra heightened sense of joy, although I certainly appreciate that, but the joy of the Spirit is far beyond that. It's anchored in two things. Well, there's a few more things in the passage if we really broke it down. It's anchored in the declaration of how Jesus feels about us and in our commitment to stay focused on that truth, to abide in it. Now, a lot of believers, and I'm not putting anybody down. It's real common. I understand it. I've experienced it. They have a dull spirit. They feel disconnected from the love of God. Real common in the church today. A lot of believers live mostly depressed, hanging on for heaven. It's real common, but Jesus said, verse 11, I told you this declaration, and I urge you to live in it, to abide in it, to not lose sight of it. Think on it, study it, pray it, talk about it, write on it, sing it, say it over and over to me and saying, Lord, thank you that you love me. Those simple things like that. And Jesus said, if you will do that, there's a supernatural power that's stronger than dullness and stronger than lethargy and stronger than depression. It's called joy. And again, so that you're focused in the right place. I'm not talking about the joy that you only get if somebody lays hands on you. I'm talking about the joy that awakened in our hearts because of these things that were spoken, and we buy them, we go after them, and we refuse to move on and leave them behind. In our focus. And again, I like it when somebody lays hands on me and I get an impartation of God. But you have to know that whatever impartation you receive from the Lord, when a person lays hands on you, it's a catalyst, it's a jumpstart that you would be focused on maintaining what you experienced for a short moment of time. And somebody says, I received joy in that prayer time. I say, you might have it for 20 minutes, you might have it for two days. But I assure you this, if you don't participate in that in an active way in your own life, that joy will be gone in a few hours or a few days. It's only to jumpstart you, it's only to get your attention, it's only a catalyst that you would change the way you live, that you would drink from the well, from the word on a regular basis. Beloved, this is the ultimate statement of our worth. I'm gonna make it personal. Jesus likes me as much as the Father likes Him. Beloved, I have it made by that one statement. I mean, things may get real bad between now and when I meet the Lord, but I tell you, I have it made no matter what. No matter what happens in money, physical problems, relational difficulties, for billions of years, I will enjoy in a greater fullness than I ever will in this age, the fact He likes me as much as God likes God. I have it made, but I have good news. So do you. We're gonna see in a few moments, John took this verse and built his life on it. Now, I don't know what the story is, but the other guys did not emphasize this truth like John did. I can picture John. He heard that truth. He said, I'm going with this thing. You find in the Gospel of John, we'll look at it later at the end of the handout, if we get to it. Five times, John calls himself the disciple that God loves. I mean, it was so dear and real to him. He said, Peter and the disciple that God loves was running to the tomb. And just so you know, there's still a little touch of his boyhood. And he said, and the one who God loves outran Peter. Like, I go, why did you put that in there? I mean, John, you're 90 years old. I mean, settle it. What's that about? You outran him? He got that, snuck that in somewhere? And it might not be about his athletic ability. It might be because of his zeal to see Jesus. So I'm not giving the benefit of the doubt, but I've always said, John, come on. Five times, John takes this truth and he talks about himself. He goes, you know, talking about the women and the one who God loves. Like, and who might that be? Oh, me. Or are you the only one he loves? No, oh no. But some of the others, they're not running with it. I'm running with it, man. This is who I am forever. I'm the one God loves. Settle the question. The issue's over. Beloved, every single believer has the right, because of the blood of Jesus, to see themselves as the disciple God loves. I like to put the word here, you're God's favorite. But because of his infinite love, he can have a billion favorites and not have any diminished love for any one of them or diminished attention. So John's his favorite and all the others, I'm gonna walk in this thing. I remember when this first touched me some years ago, I began to regularly confess in my personal prayer time, I mean it, it became a joke with people, but I do it very, very seriously. It became like a high five joke and a bumper sticker and a T-shirt, and that's probably okay, but it's not a joke, it's real. I would present myself to the Lord, I'd say, here I am, Lord, the one that you love, it's me again. I've said that statement multitudes of times over the last 20 years. Lord, it's me again, the one you really love, it's me. The idea is that he would smile. I picture him smiling, oh, it's Mike again, it's Mike, he's back, good, good. Again, that's cute, but it's not a game, I mean it. Here I am, Lord, the one you love, it's me again. And I picture the Lord saying, good, good. Next time, even come sooner in your attention to me. And tonight, when we respond to the Lord, I'm gonna urge you to declare to the Lord, maybe the first time ever. Some of you, you just can't hardly say it, because some people are raised in such a twisted view of what humility is, that I'm the low one. Well, you are the low one, but you're also the one that is his favorite. Those are not contradictory. You can be low in your service of man and still be his favorite one. But you know what humility is, it's agreement with God. That's what humility is. If he says he loves me as much as the Father loves him, I tell you, good enough for me, I'm going with it. Now, the remarkable thing is that Jesus spoke this at the Last Supper, which means within several hours, all of them are going to deny him, and he knows it. He told all of them right after this, you'll all deny me. Matthew 26, verse 31, he said, every one of you, like an hour or two later, whatever, you'll all deny me. So Jesus did not make this statement with some kind of false illusion of how mature they were. He said, I love you the way the Father loves me, and a little while later, and you'll all deny me tonight, but that doesn't change what I told you. Matter of fact, what I told you about loving you will be your recovery if you have enough understanding to take it. That is what will cause you to recover. Let's look at paragraph one. To abide means to stay focused on it. Not this weekend, not a seminar on the bride of Christ, not one class on the love of God. What I'm talking about, decade after decade after decade, live in this. Go deep in it. Don't ever graduate from this truth. Now, John says it differently in 1 John 3. He says, behold, the quality of love God has for you. Behold it, meaning focus on it, experience it, meditate on it. Doesn't mean just underline it in yellow in your Bible and move on or buy a Christmas card that says it. He means experience this thing. Behold it. Jude verse 21 says keep yourself in the love of God because see, God can love you and me, and it never diminishes how he feels about us, but our inability to experience it has something to do with us. He loves us. He goes, my end, the love is consistent. Your end, you have to keep yourself in the love of God, and there's several things that are involved in that, but one of them is keep focused on it, study on it, pray it, ask the Spirit to teach you. Thank Jesus for the truth of it. Surrender to it. What I mean by surrender to it, when God says, I love you, don't get into that religious humility, which is false humility. No, God, I'm so bad. My sin is even greater than your love. What arrogance. Honestly, that is arrogance, that my sin could actually be more powerful than his being is. Settle it. It's not. Your sin isn't even close to more powerful than who he is. So just repent of your religious pride. Throw your pride out the window and say, thank you, your Lord, I take it. Don't negotiate. Lord, I tell you what, if you forgive me this one more time, because this is a big one, what I promise, the reason I know about this, I did this for a bunch of times in my early years. You forgive me this one more time, here's what I will do, and the Lord's answer is, I don't want any of your bargains. I want you to come with nothing to offer me, and me with everything to offer you, and that's the relationship forever. You just say yes to me, that's all I want is your yes. Don't negotiate, don't resist it, surrender to it. And don't live under some false delusion that putting yourself for three weeks or three months in kind of a self-initiated spiritual probation, where if you suffer three weeks, you pay the debt, so now you can have confidence with God. No probation. Repent of your sin, declare a war on it, receive forgiveness, push, delete, and stand before God within the hour, Lord, here I am, your beloved one, your favorite one, it's me again, the one that you love. Within the hour, be back in the first class citizen confidence before God. No probation, no kind of dragging your head around for three, four months, three, four weeks kind of proving to God that you really do deserve forgiveness because I'm so sad, that ought to mean something. Lord says, I appreciate that you're sad about your sin, but don't draw back on your confidence because your confidence before me is based on who I am and what I did, not on who you are and what you did. Paragraph two, Jesus said, my joy to be in you. Beloved, if we stay with this, it will change the way we feel emotionally. So many believers want to feel satisfied and they want emotional transformation outside of abiding in these truths. Again, they'll buy the postcard, the poster, underline it in their Bible, say it three times and move on, but that's not gonna transform you. You have to abide in it. Now, practically speaking, because we may not get very far, on this handout, but I wanna give you D, which is real practical, why would you abide in this truth? I mean, fight for it, search it out, read books on it, sing songs about it, ask the Spirit to teach you, declare it to Jesus, speak it to your friends, journal it, think on it often, why? Well, number one, he said to, he said abide in it. That's good enough right there. He said to do it and he's real smart. Honestly, he's real smart, he said, you do that. It will emotionally, it will transform you emotionally if you abide in it, if you stay with it. Not for a week, not for a month, stay with it. But some of the specifics, paragraph D, it gives us confidence with God. Beloved, I can't think of anything more important than confidence in our spirit before God, that we have confidence, that even in our weakness, we can stand with the confidence of a first-class citizen, if you'll let me use that term, that we stand with confidence that he likes us, he's receiving us. We're not guarding our heart in fear, kind of going, oh God, just one more time, please. Oh, just let me finish my argument. That that's what the prodigal son did. He came back and said, Dad, Dad, I'll do this, I'll do that, I'll go serve, I won't ask for nothing. And the Lord says, be quiet. I don't want your negotiation. I want your confidence. I want you to believe in who I am and what I did for you. Beloved, when I find a believer with confidence in their spirit, and that confidence grows over time. It's not like you have it or you don't. You have it and it grows in measures. It increases over weeks and months and years. If you have confidence, you run to him instead of from him when you fail. If you don't have confidence, you run from him. If you have confidence, you run to him because he is the one that likes you the most, even when you fail, change your life. When I look back over my 40 years of walking with the Lord, I remember, I'm 56, I was 16, 17 years old, we had a youth group on fire for God. We were reading all the biographies of the missionaries and we were gonna go do this stuff, all of us. I mean, hundreds of us. When I look back over 40 years, the ones that stayed consistent, had confidence in the love of God when they failed, the ones that lost their way are the ones that did not have confidence. It came down not only to this, but this was the critical issue. There's several other things, but this is the big one. The ones that had confidence, when they failed, they ran to him. The ones that did not have this clarity, even in the beginning days of being in our youth, they ran from him to go hide. That's what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. He ran, he hid, and he made a fig leaf. Don't go make a religious fig leaf to hide under, some arrangement where God will kind of give you a little time out so you can pay the debt. This truth reveals our value and dignity in God's eyes. I tell you, we're gonna get the shock of our life. When we stand before the Lord in the age to come, we are gonna be consumed with his supremacy and his worth. Worthy is the lamb, we'll be so captured by his supremacy and his worth. We're gonna get the shock of our life when he tells us how much we are worth to him. You are worth everything, Jesus. You say, yes, I receive it. Do you know how much you're worth to me? We'll go, no, no, Lord, it's not about me. It's about you, and Jesus will say, you can't, you gotta understand. When you said yes to me, we're in it together forever. We're in deep. I mean, there's no mistake. He's the only worthy lamb. But what will shock us is the value and the dignity that he gives us that we have in his eyes and how much we're actually worth to him is beyond anything we can imagine. That's what this truth gives us. It empowers us to walk in partnership. When we understand the truth of the love of God, it not only gives us the confidence to press into partnership, but it gives us the zeal to do it, meaning it's not just, I know he loves me, so I'll work together with him, but it's more than that. He wants me working together with him, so when I'm lazy, tired, distracted, fatigued, I'm gonna still do it because he really wants me in partnership with him. Beloved, it's not just that he enables you to work with him, he wants you to. When I'm tired and I don't feel like it, I mean, there are times to rest. I believe in rest. I believe that's an important part of the cycle of God's wisdom, but sometimes when I just don't feel like it, it's the truth that touches my heart. But Mike, I want you partnering with me in this. I'm gonna touch that guy. I want you to be there with me because I want you there. Well, Lord, I was thinking maybe in a week I will go help that guy. And I was just, no, no, no, I'll do it with another, but I want you with me in it. Beloved, it changes our life. It gives us a sense of relevance. I mean, we may not do anything in ministry that anybody ever notices. You may never ever impact anybody that creates the awareness to other people. You may never be recognized, but I want to tell you this. When you understand the love of God, your obedience, even if it's unnoticed by everybody and it's in secret, it moves him. Beloved, when I know what I'm doing alone moves him, it moves me. It makes everything relevant. Every hour of every day has meaning because if I say yes to him, it moves him because of the way he feels about me. He's not just stamping our passport. He's in a dynamic relationship forever. And so this truth motivates us in a deep way. Let's turn to page two. As I'm almost out of time, but again, that's the point of the notes. One of the most profound yet simple statements in the Bible, God is love. Beloved, this is profound. It's his personality. It's what he likes. It's what he's like. Love isn't something he does. I mean, he does acts of love. It's who he is. It's effortless. The reason he loves so intense because he is love. The reason he so values partnership with us, he is love. And love wants to share love. I enjoy one of the songs we sing, somebody sings it, love loves to love. I thought, that's profound. Jesus loves love. He really does love love. He loves loving and he loves being loved. It's who he is. He has no other option. He would deny himself if he was not this way. But the reason this matters, this changes our whole view of how we see our relationship and how we see the work of the kingdom. We're not grinning our teeth, paying a price, and then one day he'll anoint us and we'll be famous. I've heard preachers say that. Just pay the price. I mean, that brother paid the price in prayer and fasting and look, he's anointed. It's not about paying the price and then one day you're famous. No, I hate that concept. It's about entering into the love dynamic. And we pray and fast and we want to experience more of him and be a vessel that others experience more with him. Not we pay the price to finally we have a big meeting filled with healings and everybody comes and talks about us. There's nothing about that at all. I want to pay the price to resist the things in my flesh that keep me from experiencing more love. It's about love. I love love. I want to do things that make me experience it more because it's who we're made to be. Our spirit is made in his image. God is love. He has deep desires. He's a God filled with desire. Now, desire implies want, but it's not lack. God lacks nothing, but he still wants something. He wants what he cannot have by his own decree. He cannot have your love until you give it to him voluntarily. He won't take it. He said by the very definition of love, I won't take your love from you. So he desires and he wants. He doesn't lack. He's fully satisfied in the fullness of the fellowship of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is completely satisfied. So there's not a need. There's not a lack, but there is a desire because love that is really love demands that others enter into the glory of that triune love. The Father, Son, and Spirit enjoy love in such perfection and fullness. The very fact of being loved, they said others must enter into the enjoyment of what we have. That's what love does. God is no stoic, filled with power at a safe distance, wanting everybody just to admire his power. Now, we will admire his power forever, but that doesn't satisfy him. He wants more than to be admired for his power. He wants deep interaction with us forever. He's not a stoic God. He's not at a safe distance. So we don't disturb him, but his love is so condescending. He bowed so low. He came so far. He took us and he brought us so near and then exalted us so high that we would be with him governing the earth forever. That's what love is. Oh, yes, we will admire his power forever. We will be awestruck with it, but he goes, oh, there's more. I love that you're awestruck of my power, but I want more from you than that. I want deep, confident, affectionate, grateful love with me forever and forever and forever. That's what satisfies my heart in my relationship with you. Beloved, a million years from now, we'll discover more about the love of God, but the good news is it won't be new to God. It will just be new to our experience. He loves me as much now as he will a million years from now. I will just experience it more then. It doesn't change. He doesn't increase his love. Why? Because his love is infinite in measure and eternal in duration, meaning his love is infinite in measure. It's an infinite measure and it lasts forever, which means he loves effortlessly. It's who he is. He doesn't like think, okay, I'm gonna meet with that one group tomorrow. I gotta kind of really get focused. They're, you know, tough ones, and so I'm gonna really have to put my best foot forward with patience. No, he doesn't gird himself to kind of rise up to love. No, love is what he does effortlessly, and he does it eternally in full intensity. It never increases, ever, because if love increased, that means that God grew in love. He has infinite love. It can't decrease. It can't decrease. Now, a million years from now, I will have new discoveries, but the love won't be new. My experience of it will be new, but I don't wanna wait till I get a resurrected body to begin to be excited by this truth. I want the confidence now. I want the exhilaration now in the little that I can have it, but a little bit of this goes a long way. The key is to abide in it, to study it, to speak it, to ask the Spirit to guide you into it. He'll guide you into all the truth, especially love. He loves love, but he might say, you've never asked me to. I'm waiting on you to make it the priority of your life, to enter into this in a greater way. Paragraph H, it's impossible for God not to love in fullness. He can't ever, he can't ever suspend one part of his character to exercise another part. He's fully love, 100% love 100% of the time. Even his judgment is an expression of love. Even his anger and his judgment never ever diminishes his love. He doesn't have anger instead of love. He has anger as an expression of love because in his anger, he's removing everything that hinders love. He didn't change moods. He can't change moods. It's impossible. He is love. That's why he has anger, because he's love. Let's look at paragraph J. John gives us insight. I'm gonna say it this way, into how God's love impacts our emotions. Let's read the same verse we looked at a moment ago. God is love. Now John applies it to our emotional life. He goes, let me explain how it works. He goes, there's no fear, and the idea is fear of God rejecting you. That's the idea. There's no fear when perfect love, perfect love means mature understanding of love. That's what he's talking about here. He goes, when your understanding of love matures, it will drive fear out of the relationship, and it will replace it with confidence. You'll have confidence instead of insecurity with God. When you grow in love, because here's why. He says fear involves torment, and the idea is it's the torment of being rejected by God. Beloved, there's nothing more horrifying than the fear that God is about to write us off. We've gone too far. There is no hope. It is over. That is torment. Now what John's saying is the fear involves torment, meaning the fear of being rejected by God involves torment, but what he wants us to know. As we mature in love because we abide in it, we stay with it, it drives fear out of the relationship. Can you imagine our walk with God with no fear in it at all? But not presumption either. I know some people that are presumptuous, meaning they're real casual about their life of obedience towards the Lord, and they take the love of God verses, and they throw away the obedience verses, and they end up with a presumptuous view of love. This is in context the message of the love of God to people not that are fully walking in obedience, but are seeking to. That's the issue, they're seeking to. When we fail, which we all do, we call it failure. We don't blame shift, blame it on somebody else. My friends made me do it. We don't explain it away. Well, was it really sin? You know, everybody's doing that today in the grace of God. I mean, all the other groups are doing it. No, we don't explain it away. We don't blame shift it. We say, Father, we sinned. Jesus, we sinned, that's it. But you know what, I'm declaring war on it, and I'm receiving your forgiveness, and we're right back in there in a place of confidence within the hour. I mean, within minutes. Paragraph K. Well, let's go back to the verse in J. I gotta read this. We love God because he first loved us. That's the principle right there. We love him for one reason. We discovered that he loved us first. When God wants to awaken love in you and me, he reveals his love to us. When God wants to awaken love, I say, Lord, I wanna love you with all my heart. He goes, okay, then study my love for you. You can put a number of words there. God, we love him because he first loved us, or which means we understood his love, therefore it awakened love back to God. That's what that means. You could put another word in here. We pursue God because we understand that he pursues us. When I study God's pursuit after me, it makes me pursue him. You could put the word dedication in there. We are dedicated to God because we first understood he's dedicated to us. So when I want my dedication to increase, I study his dedication to me. Makes me grateful. It touches my spirit, all of us. I go, Lord, you pursue me, you want me, you desire me. You desire God because you first know he desired you. You know what? I love this. This is who I am. What am I doing? Wandering around in compromise. You love me, you desire me. You pursue me, you're dedicated to me. I want to respond to those ways to you. Paragraph K, the commandment, love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. You know why you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength? Because he loves you with all of his heart, soul, and strength. All of his heart, he loves you. And when I look at this great commandment, the way that I seek to love him with all my heart is to study and understand more how he loves me with all of his heart. Because I'll only love him in response to the revelation of his love for me. I want to love God with all of my mind. Well, the answer is study out how God loves you with all of his mind. Can you imagine Jesus loving you with all of his mind? I mean, look at the stars, look at the sky, and go, you are so smart. You love me with the force of all of your mind. Yes, I do. What am I doing compromising, living in confusion, spinning in circles, living in darkness? The God of Genesis 1 loves me with all of his mind. What am I doing? Buying all these lies from the devil. Nevermind, nobody loves me, my life's not worth nothing, I don't know where I'm going. You may not know where your ministry is, but beloved, I can tell you the central reality of your life, you're loved by him, and he wants you to respond back. You land that, everything else will be secondary to that one issue. The dream of my heart is entering into this. It's not my ministry, it's not IHOP, as I've told you before. My dream isn't my ministry, my dream is the anointing to enter in to knowing his love with all of his heart for me, and then me responding back. That's the dream of my heart. If IHOP goes away, my dream does not go away. If IHOP gets real big, my dream is not helped at all. If IHOP gets real little, my dream is not hurt at all. My ministry can't touch my dream. My dream is to search out and receive that he loves me with all of his mind and strength, and then me to return it back to him. That's the dream of my heart. Beloved, anybody can do that. You don't need an education, you don't need gifting, you don't need money, you don't need to be beautiful, you don't need to be popular, you don't need to have any kind of status in society. Any human heart can grow in the knowledge that he loves you with all of his mind, and then you love him with all of your mind. Any human can succeed at the highest level of success. That's the definition of success. It's true. Let's look at page three. Paragraph M, you know that one guy or girl, if ever I finally got married, if ever I was beautiful, if I only had money, if I only had an opportunity, then, then what? Then I would, fill in the blank, but it's not gonna make you more successful, because your success is rooted in you receiving love and returning it to him. That's the core definition of your success. Don't wait until you get more of something before you start that. When I figured that out some years ago, it liberated my life. I didn't have to live in the tyranny of having a big famous ministry or the right people liking me or networking. I could be free from that. I go, you know what? I'm already winning. I'm winning big time. I'm winning huge. He loves me with all of his mind, and I'm trying to respond back, and I'm caught into that vortex and swirl of that dynamic. That's where I'm living on the inside. That's where I wanna go. If I end up with a big or a little ministry or no ministry, that's your business, God, but I'm gonna get lost into that vortex, that swirl to be captured into it. Paragraph M, Paul, he talked about the vastness. He said, it's wide, it's long, it's deep, it's high. You can just look a little bit on those notes there. It's wide. I tell you, God's love, every person, every personality, he wants you. Every status of life, rank in society, the poorest of the poor. He goes, you're the one I want. My love's wide, it's real wide. It encompasses you. It's long. Oh, I've sinned so big when God says, my love outreaches your sin. I can go beyond it, and my love will stay steady. It'll last forever. My love's long. It's deep. I went so low because of love, and I brought you with me, and you're going so high. Do you know who you are to me? Let's look at Roman numeral two. Just gonna race through this, just two or three points to make so you can make sense of the notes. Roman numeral two, Jesus is the Father's beloved. He tells him two times. Both times are very strategic. The first time, he bends over the balcony of heaven, if you'll let me use that illustration. He says, my beloved son, Jesus was about to go into the temptation in the wilderness to face Satan face-to-face as a man. The Father bent over the balcony of heaven. He says, Jesus, you're my boy. I love you, and Jesus said, thank you, Father, and he walked into the temptation with that energizing his heart. And three and a half years later, right before the cross, the two greatest testings of his life, the Father says, Jesus, you're mine. You're my boy. You're the one I love. You know you're the one I love. Thank you, Father, I know that. But it energized him, and he went to the Garden of Gethsemane and went to the cross, the two times. Beloved, if Jesus was strengthened by those two statements of the love he knew so well, how will you and I be strengthened by the revelation of our belovedness to God? Top of page four, every believer is God's beloved. I could write 20, 30 verses, 40 verses. I don't know, read, get Beloved in the New Testament. It's everywhere. We're called the beloved. The Father calls you his beloved. We have to settle it. We have to, this is the place where the power of disillusionment is broken in our life. I'm the beloved of God. Paragraph C, to live in this reality, it will change our emotions. D, as I already mentioned this, five times, John said, I'm applying John 15, 9. I'm applying this idea that God loves me like God loves God. I'm the one he loves. I don't know if the other guys are running with it, but I'm running with it. This is who I am. This is how I see myself. Beloved, this will change your life. Paragraph E, Jeremiah, the Lord appeared to him. Look at 31.3. The Lord appeared to Jeremiah. The ancient God appeared, the God of old. Said, yes, Jeremiah, this young, single man, prophesying, the whole nation was mad at him. He had no friends, no support. He's all by himself, and God says, yes, which means Jeremiah was asking questions. Like, where are you? Am I doing right? Is this, I can't feel your presence. What are you doing? He goes, yes. To those 10 questions, yes, Jeremiah. He goes, I've loved you. With eternal love, Jeremiah. He goes, I'm drawing you. You are the one I love, but nobody's with me. Jeremiah had no support in the nation. I mean, very, very little support. The whole nation turned on him. The Lord says, I love you with eternal love. This is not just a New Testament truth like some say. Beloved, this is Old Testament. Paragraph F, Daniel, the angel appears, Gabriel. Daniel's 82 years old, or 81, 82. Gabriel comes, gives him the shock of his life. Daniel, you're beloved by God. It's not just a New Testament truth. Two years later, Daniel 10, it was two years after Daniel 9. Now he's like 84. Not Gabriel, another angel. Another angel heard the same message from God. Daniel, you're greatly beloved. How do you know? I heard it when God told Gabriel, and he told me to tell it to you twice. He said, say it twice to him this time. God really thinks about me this way. Yes, and he told me to say it twice, and there we have it. Verse 11 and verse 18. Of course, David. I mean, David had greater revelation of this than anybody. Now, you gotta know when Psalm 18 happened. When he wrote this, he goes, he delivered me because he delighted in me. You have to know when this happened. This happened right after David escaped with victory out of the city of Ziklag. First Samuel 30. What I mean by this, David's 30 years old. The amazing thing is that for 16 months, you gotta go read the story. First Samuel 27 to 30. For 16 months, David was in Ziklag, and he was in disobedience to the Lord in Ziklag. The Lord says, I don't want you in Ziklag, because it was compromised because David was afraid. He was afraid of King Saul, so he was hiding over in Ziklag in the enemy territory. That was the Philistine city. God says, get over to Saul and to your own nation, Israel. Cross the state line. Get over there and let me protect you. He goes, I'm too afraid. Stay in Israel. He told him. David went over to Philistine, Ziklag, hid. God says, I'm telling you, get back over there. And David sinned a number of times in Ziklag. I've preached on it a few times because it encouraged me. Because 16 months later, he finally leaves Ziklag. He gets victory right off the bat, and somebody interviews him. You know, the CNN lady came and said, now, why did God deliver you? I mean, they tell me you were 16 months over there afraid. That's why you were living on the other side of the state line. You were afraid to live in your own country because the jealous king was trying to kill you, your own king. And David says, I'll tell you why I got victory, because God likes me. I can imagine David's key guys around saying, what, David, we've watched you for 16 months. You've been not, you've not been doing that good. David says, yeah, I know, but I know him, and I repented. He delivered me, he likes me. That's why he delivered me, end of statement. Lady says, okay, you want me to write this? He likes me. Final statement, the end time prayer movement. Most of you know the testimony I had November 95. I heard in a dream, the audible voice of God. I'm in a massive auditorium. It's the Kansas City Convention Center. 30, 40,000 young people. This is four years before IHOP started. Thousands of young people in that big auditorium. And I hear the audible voice of God speak. He says, call them Hephzibah. Tell them I delight in them. And I heard this thunderous voice coming from the right side of the building, the thunderous voice of God. And on the microphone, 30, 40,000 young people. The place was jammed. I mean, we've never had it fully open yet. It's bigger than the one thing that we've had before. I mean, it's still bigger, that building, but it was jammed. And I said to all these young people, Hephzibah, he delights in you, he delights in you. And their emotions changed. And I was so captured in this prophetic dream that they were transformed under this revelation. Thousands of them, I mean, they were jammed in there from broken backgrounds, and they were living in compromise. They couldn't connect to God. Some were sincere. Some had just given up. And I said, Hephzibah, God delights in you. And their whole being was energized by the power of God by this revelation. I picture the Lord like Adam was in the Garden of Eden after he sinned. And the Lord says, Adam, where art thou, Adam? And of course, the Lord knew where Adam was. The issue, Adam didn't know where Adam was. No, that's true. And I picture the Lord crying out over this generation, Hephzibah, where are you, my young people? Do you know who you are to me? You don't have to run that way. Run towards me. Hephzibah, come back to me. That's the vision, that's the picture I have in my mind. When God looks at this whole generation of the body of Christ, I mean across the world, not just the Western world, the whole world, he's crying out with that tender wooing, Hephzibah, return with all of your heart, not half-hearted, come to me. Do you know who you are to me? I like you, come to me. Amen. Let's stand. I'm gonna pray this over you. Hephzibah, beloved, he likes you, even you, even in your weakness. He likes you. Hephzibah, just focus on the throne of God right now. That Revelation 4 scene, but by the way, there's a rainbow around the throne filled with mercy. The rainbow of mercy's there. That's where we come every time we come before the Lord. Here, I declare over you the word of the Lord. Hephzibah, he likes you. Hephzibah, he likes you. You don't need shame, you don't need pornography, you don't need compromise. You don't need those other things. He wants you, he likes you. Hephzibah, I break the power of lies and accusation by that decree, Hephzibah. I wanna lead you in prayer, just as the music's, the worship's getting ready to lead us. I want you to take your arguments with the Lord, like, Lord, I've sinned a lot, and I don't know, and maybe you're mad, maybe I've gone too far. I want you to put those arguments in your hands, so to speak, and I want you to say, Lord, I break my agreement with these lies. I break my agreement. They're lies. They are lies. You want me. I haven't gone too far. It's not too late. You want me now, tonight, first class citizen. Not on probation, you want me tonight, first class with confidence. I break my agreement with lies that make me draw back. Just take 20, 30 seconds and say that to him in your own way. I break my agreement with these lies. I break my agreement with them. I believe your word. I believe what David said, you delight in me, you'll deliver me. I believe what Jeremiah said, I'm not alone, for you love me with everlasting love. I believe what John said, I'm the disciple God loves. Now, I want you to say this. This'll be hard for some of you. Just whisper it in your own way. Say, Lord, here I am. Just do that prayer, that one that I've shared. I pray this all the time. It's me again. It's the one you really like. It's the one you love. Here I am, Lord, your favorite one, it's me. Your favorite one, it's me. I see the smile. Just picture him smiling, say, yes. Hephzibah, oh, I wondered where you went. Not that God wonders, you know what I mean? Hephzibah, I wanted you to come sooner. It's me, Lord. It's the one you love. If you would like prayer for that. You say, man, there's just something resisting me. I know this is true, but I just, this thing, it's like it's bouncing off. I say it and it's like it bounces right off of me. I need a breakthrough tonight. I'm desperate. I want you to come stand up on these lines. I mean, we all want a breakthrough, but I mean, you're saying, no, I'm hurting about this. Beloved, I've had this, then I've lost it, then I've had it. The key is abide in it. Stay focused on it, abide in it. Live in it. And I forget and I get involved in other subjects, which is good, but I get too involved. And I gotta get back to this. I always have to keep this one burning on the oven, so to speak. This is the one truth we can't let go of, ever, while we're studying other ones. Never, you have to abide in this one. It's the only truth, he said, you must abide in this one. Lord, here I am. It's me, Lord. I want you to say those words again in your own way. It's me again. I'm the one you love. It's me again. I know you're smiling. I break my agreement with lies. I don't, I say no to them. I'm gonna go with the word. Your word says it, I believe it. Oh, it's me. You so like me and I so like you. Efseba, why did it take you so long? Don't stay away so long. What I mean is your confidence. Don't lack confidence so long next time. Restore it right away, Efseba. Restore it right away. I'm gonna ask a bunch of you if you just come, just so you're agreeing with them. And the Lord will release his grace. Some of the folks, they'll be touched in a powerful way. Others, you're agreeing with them. You're saying, I'm a believer. I agree with your confession tonight. Lord, I ask you for the spirit of power to come. It's time to give your friendship. Yes, Lord Jesus. Lord, we ask you to release your glory. Yes, Lord. Lord, I ask you to release the fire of your love. It's extravagant, your friendship, it's so intense. Say this to the Lord. Say, Lord, you delivered me because you delighted me. Even though I've been in sickbed for 16 months. You delivered me because you delighted me, Lord. Lord, you deliver me because you delight me. I am your beloved, Jesus. Lord, you're a lover for me. It's not based on my performance. Lord, we say no to lies right now. Lies. I believe that you love me. I believe that you love me. That you enjoy me. I choose to believe you. I choose to believe your word. I choose to believe your word. Lord, I'll let you wash me with the water of your word. Tonight, wash me with your water. Lord, I'm gonna let you love me. And I'll let you love me. It's me again, the one you love. It's me again, the one you love. It's me. Here I am Lord, it's me again. The one you love. Oh, the one that you love. It's me again, the one you love. It's me again. The one you love, it's me again. The one you love, it's me, it's me again. The one you love, it's me again. The one you love, Jesus. Oh, my beloved son, my beloved daughter in whom I am pleased, Lord, it's me again, the one that you love. Here I am, the one that you love. Strengthen my heart, Lord. Your favorite one. Remind me what you say about me again. It's me again, Lord. I move your heart. It's me again. Here I am. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. It's me again. The one you love. It's me again. The one you love. It's me. This is the truth, this is the truth, this is his word. I can feel his smile. It's me, here I am. It's me, it's me. Hard to believe it, this is who I am. For I am the apple of your eye. I'm cherished in your sight. You've called me headstiver. Me a daughter. Oh, you want me so near you. I am your treasure. I am your treasure. You've given me honor, you've given me love. Oh, who is like the worthy lamb of you, Jesus? That I may be with you where you desire, says the woman. You hold me close to you. You've seated me with you in heavenly places. I will draw you near to me. I hear you saying to your father, Father, I desire them. Oh, I desire you. But you must say yes. You must come nearer to me. Me, you, me, and you are you according to my will. Oh, I will draw you. Call me. You must make time. You must come with your heart and your mind. You have to respond. I have so much to give you. Just say yes. Just say yes. I will draw you a cord of love and kindness. Just say yes. Just say yes. I will draw you a cord of love and kindness. Just say yes. Just say yes. I will draw you a cord of love and kindness. Just say yes. Just say yes. I will draw you a cord of love and kindness. Just say yes. Just say yes. I will draw you a cord of love and kindness. Just say yes. I desire you. Says the Lord in me. I desire you. I respond and say it's me again. It's me again. I am. The one you love. Draw closer for I do love you. It's me again. The one you love. For I love you like the Father loves me. It's me again. The one you love. The way that the Father loves me. It's me again. This is how I love you. The one you love. It's me again. You are the disciple whom I offer You are the one I love It's me again Will you receive this? The one you love It's me again The one you love I say yes, I say yes This pleases my heart I say yes, I say yes Hephzibah, this pleases my heart Draw me with loving kindness Oh, that you would have confidence I say yes, I say yes Hephzibah, draw near to me Draw me with loving kindness I say yes, I say yes Don't stay away again Draw me with loving kindness Hephzibah, come hear me I say yes, I say yes Draw me with loving kindness I say yes, I say yes Draw me with loving kindness