Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of walking in the Spirit and nourishing our spirit through God's Word, as outlined in Galatians 5. He explains that believers are called to liberty but must actively engage with the Holy Spirit to overcome the internal war between the flesh and the Spirit. Bickle highlights the importance of a vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit, which is essential for maintaining spiritual vitality and resisting sinful desires. He encourages believers to cultivate this relationship through prayer, meditation on Scripture, and obedience to God's commands, asserting that true freedom comes from living in the Spirit.

Father, we thank you for the Word of God, and we ask you to bless the hearing and the speaking of your Word. Lord, we ask you, Holy Spirit, for your activity on the human heart and on the mind, even now. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. I wanna talk about walking in the Spirit and feeding our spirit on the Word of God as part of walking in the Spirit. I'm gonna read Galatians 5, verse 13. For you have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. Verse 16, I say then, Paul's gonna give a summary of how to walk in liberty. He says, walk in the Spirit. And if you walk in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. What a powerful statement. He's giving a commandment with a promise. He goes, if you walk in the Spirit, and I'm gonna hopefully break it down in a simple way. This is a commandment, and it has a very powerful promise. You won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. You won't walk out sinful desires. Then he says in verse 17, a very important revelation that I think that we lose sight of easily. I know I do. Paul talks about the violent nature of the war inside of us. Beloved, it is violent. He says it two ways. Number one, he says the flesh, it lusts, or the word that's translated in several other translations, it wars against the Spirit. Our fleshly desires are in war on the inside of us. It's not a domestic, calm, peaceful tug of war. It is a violent warring of our flesh against the mandate of the Holy Spirit in our life. But it doesn't stop there. The Spirit is warring back against the flesh. The Spirit says, I will war back. I will take a stand, but you have to engage with me. I will only do this in a way that brings freedom and liberty in your life if you're engaging with me in the process, and that's what I want to talk about tonight. He goes on, verse 18. If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Verse 25, if you live in the Spirit, also walk in the Spirit. Paragraph eight, in verse 13, the Spirit's agenda is to grant us liberty on the inside. The Holy Spirit is committed to giving us liberty from the flesh, from the dominion of the flesh in our life. Now, when he talks about being liberated from the power and dominion of the works of the flesh, the flesh, it includes the physical pleasures that we're aware of, and there's a number of different physical pleasures that are related to fleshly sinful desires, but the flesh also involves fleshly emotional desires, pride, bitterness, anger. And I want to say this, that bitterness and pride is ever much as powerful as sensuality and gluttony and addiction to alcohol and other things. Pride is powerful. Defensiveness, it is fierce. It will war against the Spirit's work in us. Our flesh will, our pride will, as well as the physical dimensions as well. Now, the passage in 2 Corinthians 3, it says, now the Lord is the Spirit. You know, the Spirit is God. God, the Holy Spirit, is fully God. This isn't just a nice influence that serves God. He is God, fully God. And where the Spirit of the Lord is moving, where the Spirit of the Lord is received, that's what it means. Not just where the Spirit of the Lord is just present, where the Spirit of the Lord is present, and there's unity, and there's an engaging from the inner man. Liberty is the fruit of when the Spirit is received. Paragraph B, verse 17, Paul describes the violent war every believer faces. And we face this war our entire life, but there's a real person on the inside of us that will come to our aid if we will engage with this person. The flesh is waging a full-scale war against the Spirit's mandate. There's a violent clash of power. Beloved, there's a violent clash of power going on on the inside of us. Peter says, I beg you, abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. There's a war going on. Let's look at the passage in Romans 7. Romans 7, the next one down. Paul talks about this. He said, I find then that there's a law, and the word law means a principle. There's a principle operating inside of us, even as believers. And the principle is this, that there is evil that's working inside of us. Now, I know this isn't new to any of us. It's working inside of the person who wills, who desires to do good, which is born-again believers. We wanna do good, but there's a principle of evil that's operating in us. And Paul testified. He goes, I delight in the law of God. I love the word of God. I delight in the law of God. He goes, I love God's word. I love God's ways. Verse 23, but there's another principle. It's working in my members, and the members is our mind, emotion, our will, our body, soul, spirit. Our members is not just our physical sensations. Our members is our thought processes, our emotional reactions. It's mind, emotion, and will, body, soul, and spirit. That's what our members. Paul said, I find there's another law. There's a principle. It's warring against my mind. It's bringing me into captivity to the law or a active principle of sin, which is in working in my members. Verse 24, Paul says, oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me? Beloved, we all understand this anguish. We all understand this dilemma. Who will deliver me? And verse 25, Paul says, I thank God it's through Jesus, but it's not an automatic deliverance. We're born again, so therefore we're freed from this law. It is through a ongoing encounter. It's a present tense encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, who is Lord also. The Lord is the spirit and he brings liberty on the inside of our experience, of our inner man. So when it says, I thank God through Jesus, it's talking about through encountering the presence of Jesus by an active relationship with the Holy Spirit. And that's what we're gonna get to in just a moment. Paragraph C, this war is not gonna just go away. You're not gonna go to a prayer line. And I know you know this, I'm not trying to be condescending. We're not gonna go to a prayer line, have somebody pray for us and the war goes away. This war will not ever go away while we're in the flesh. We can have victory and dominion in the war. But the point that Paul's making is that that victory and dominion is only going to operate in as much as there is a present tense, a present tense fellowshipping and communion with the spirit. That war today, I will not be aided in that war today because of my vitality with the spirit three months ago. I have to have a vital relationship with the Holy Spirit, which is within the reach of every believer. I'm not talking about something so awesome that nobody can do it. I'm talking about something that weak and broken people can attain to. I have to experience an active power of the Holy Spirit right now on the present tense. A real conscious, deliberate interaction with the Holy Spirit today in my inner man. It's like an airplane. When an airplane's flying, the law of aerodynamics is working. The engine's going and it's exerting a certain amount of energy and the engines are going and that energy is stronger than the law of gravity. You turn that engine off, the law of gravity, you will see its power instantaneously. The law of gravity never ceases. Our victory over lust in this age is not about the law of gravity disappearing. It's by introducing a greater law while the law of gravity is still present all the time. You could talk to the pilot and say, pilot, this airplane's been going for hours. You know, I have confidence in it. I don't think you need the engine anymore. This plane's got a great track record. It's never wrecked. It's never crashed. Turn the engine off. Obviously, the law of gravity would instantaneously have dominion because the law of gravity never ever ceases to exist. It's just the law of a thermodynamics is superior to it. And our interaction with the Spirit is parallel to the law of thermodynamics. We have to have a present interaction with the Spirit tonight, tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or the law of sin will gain the dominion in our daily walk. It's, I mean, it's common. I was gonna say tragic, but it's so common how many believers really underestimate and devalue their present tense relationship with the Holy Spirit. It's like, well, you know, I get about my, you know, I'm going about my business in the kingdom. I've got my ministry going. I got my family going. I got my business going. I've got all these good things going. Beloved, the pilot cannot get so busy that he turns the engine off. There is nothing that can replace an interaction with the Spirit in the present tense in our life. And yet so many believers do not value or focus on that dimension of their daily life. Great, a lot of pain about the principle of evil taking dominion in their experience. Everybody understands it. Whether it's physical pleasures that are outside the will of God, or whether it's emotional desires of bitterness, defensiveness, pride that is outside the will of God, that law kicks into dominion instantaneously. Now it says in 1 John 4, verse 4, he who is in you is greater than he that is in the world. We all know the verse. The one that's in you, the Spirit is greater in power than the devil. But beloved, this will only be to our benefit if we have a vital, a vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's presence in us is not enough to get us victory. We have to be interacting with the Spirit that's in us. So it's greater is he that is in us than the one that's in the world. But if we're not interacting with him, the one that's in the world, the devil gets the upper hand in the daily conflict, the war, it's a real war. Paragraph D, Paul commands us. It's a very important command. It's essential. I cannot exaggerate the importance of this command, so neglected but so central to the Christian life. Walk in the Spirit. Paul doesn't just say, deny the lust of the flesh. There is a dimension where we have to do that. Nobody can do it for us and nothing will substitute for that but denying the lust of the flesh is not enough by itself. There is a proactive fellowship. There's a proactive relationship with the Holy Spirit. We have to have in place or denying the lust of the flesh will not be effective. Many put their attention on denying the flesh. They try harder. Others put their attention on trying to recover after the crisis, after the plane wreck. They put their energy on the fact that God's loving and God will forgive them. They say, you know what? That plane's going down. I'm going to have a crash. I got to find all the Bible verses on how God still loves me when I crash. A lot of believers, they spend most of their energy managing the crash, finding ways to stand in confidence before God after the crash. Others do everything in their power to, and this is good, to make quality decisions to stay out of the situation that excites the lust of their flesh. They go, if I do this or go here, it's going to excite, it's going to stir it up. I got to stay in right places. That's a biblical principle, by the way. But beloved, the most effective of all is to cultivate the Spirit's relationship in your inner man. That's what Paul puts his focus on. He goes, walk in the Spirit. And he says, I promise you, you will have dominion over fleshly desires and fleshly activities. That law of gravity won't disappear, but you'll have a dominion over it as the rule of your life. I'm not talking about 100% victory 100% of the time, but the rule of your life is that you will have dominion over that present law of sin that's operating in you. Paragraph E, we can only find liberty. Now I'm going to say the word only. We can only find liberty from sinful fleshly desires by maintaining this vibrant relationship. In my own personal life, I have to put more focus on that point than the other points. And the same with you. Paul uses three verbs to describe a dynamic, interactive relationship with the Spirit. He uses three different verbs I want to draw attention to in this passage. Number one, in verse 16, he tells us to walk in the Spirit. Verse 18, he tells us to be led by the Spirit. And in verse 25, he tells us to live in the Spirit or to live by the Spirit. And that's the third one is the one I want to put most of my attention on. But I want to highlight these three verbs to you. These are three facets of what I'm calling the diamond of our relationship with the Spirit. And each of these three facets are distinct, but they all overlap. It's one relationship with the Spirit, but there's three different facets of it on this diamond. It's one diamond. It's one Holy Spirit relationship with us, with you, with each believer. But as we pay attention to these three areas, this is where our victory over the flesh is gonna happen. Again, not just fleshly desires, but I include that physical desires. I strongly include that. And beloved, when you think about fleshly physical desires, don't limit it to sexual, sensual. There's addictions to alcohol and drugs, legal and illegal. There's dimensions, there's eating disorders. There's all, there's a number of different categories of physical urges that are out of the will of God. It's the law of gravity that's operating with many expressions of it using this parallel. We need a higher law, but God has provided it, but God will not make that law work automatic. And what I find is most common in the body of Christ is that law is available to the people of God, but the people of God do not interact with the Spirit in a way to activate that law in their life. Let's go to paragraph G, to walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit means, it means that we walk in the Spirit's values. A couple of verses later right there, we're not gonna point it out, but verse 19 to 22, right there in context, in the same paragraph, Paul outlines the Spirit's values. And walking in the Spirit means, the word walk in Paul's letters in the New Testament is always talking about the choices, our behavior choices in everyday life. It's behavior choices. Now, you don't need much talking on that. We know that we have to say no to the things that grieve the Holy Spirit. We have to say yes to the things that the Holy Spirit values, but there is a place to make choice. There is a place to make a choice. Paragraph H, I'm gonna move past this decision-making, the making of quality choices, but we do have to make them. Nobody can make them for us, and nothing else can take the place of those choices. But it's the whole three facets of this diamond that's gonna cause us to walk in victory over the flesh, not just one. Because each one of them, each one of walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit and living in the Spirit are all dependent on each other in our one experience with the Holy Spirit. Paragraph H, Paul tells the Galatians to be led by the Spirit. I shouldn't pay particular attention to this one, but it's the next one that I'm most focused on. To be led by the Spirit is to follow the Spirit's leadership, being watchful to the Holy Spirit's promptings in our life, where we dial down inside enough to where we're aware, not 100% aware, but we decide that we wanna be more aware of the Holy Spirit's leadership, especially in our spiritual life, in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds. And the reason I say especially in our spiritual life because some people are, they're religious and they want the Holy Spirit's leadership and all the natural details of their life and what they're really doing. They wanna know which shirt the Holy Spirit wants them to wear. They wanna know which restaurant to go to every time, which to go right or left at every, you know, they only can maintain that for a couple of days or a week or two. You know, over 50 years, they only tried a couple of times. But what that does is, you know, there's a time where that's a one here and a one there, a rare exception where that matters. But I don't wanna trivialize the Holy Spirit's leadership in our life to those kinds of things. The Holy Spirit's leadership in our life can be expressed on those things, one here, one there. You know, I know the guy, what kind of toothpaste do I buy? I said, you know, you need to be much more concerned with the words that you speak and the Holy Spirit's leadership in your life in that area, the thoughts that you think and the places that you go that are out of the will of God, not if you should go right or left at this intersection or wait for one more block, then go left. You know, I go, that's, again, I've, you know, ran into people over the years that get excited about that. And what they're doing is trivializing this dynamic reality that is critical to their life. The Holy Spirit's leadership to be led by the Spirit doesn't mean just which ministry trip you go on or what car you buy. Being led by the Spirit means coming under the leadership of the Spirit in a daily way in our inward life, that we take a step back, we quiet ourselves, and we begin to become aware of the Spirit's promptings. And more times than not, in my life at least, it's the Spirit, it's not more, the Holy Spirit's leadership in my life is more evident in telling me what not to do more often than what to do. I'm getting ready to say this, and I get a check, and half the time I say it anyway. I'm gonna do this or posture myself this way, I get a check, don't do that. I find much of the Holy Spirit's leadership is giving me warnings, those words, those thoughts, putting your eyes, putting your body, putting your words, putting your mind in that direction will injure your spirit a little bit. And it's not like one conversation, I mean, sometimes one conversation has disastrous impact, but our spirit gets injured in just little portions, little portions, our relationship with the Spirit gets injured, and therefore, our own, the vitality of our own human spirit gets diminished and injured, little by little, by ignoring the Spirit's leadership. Now, the Spirit does tell us positive things, do this, but more times than often, He's telling me more what not to do, more times than not. And I guess different personalities would have it, maybe your personality set should be just the opposite. I'm reading a paragraph H, we honor the Spirit's leadership instead of ignore it in the small decisions of our spiritual life. This is a massive statement that I just, of importance, what I just told you. In the small decisions of our inner life, not just the major one, I am not going to get drunk tonight, not just major events. If the only time a person pays attention to the Holy Spirit is in blatant immorality or drunkenness or blatant lies, what's gonna happen? They're gonna fall prey to it more times than not, because you can't come under the Spirit's leadership just in the crisis, the big event, the big decision here and there, because if that's the only time you're aware of it, you're not equipped to obey the Spirit's leadership. We get equipped to obey the Spirit's leadership in those bigger decisions, those bigger moments of temptation by becoming aware and by cultivating the value of the Spirit's leadership in the little decisions throughout the day. It takes a while to tune our inner man in that direction. And I've found that I go for seasons where I'm more tuned into that and other seasons, I'm less tuned into that. And when I'm less tuned into it, which I have many seasons been less tuned into it, it injures my spirit. It really does, it injures my relationship with the Spirit. And then when the bigger decision comes, I'm less equipped to follow his leadership in it. Some, many, I would say, really only pay attention to the Spirit's leadership on bigger issues. And that's why they constantly are falling prey to the lust of the flesh. They explode in the argument. I mean, they just, it's the one moment and they just lose it all and they just vent their anger and they just go for it and they're like, ah! And you can't just one day stop the big explosion, the one day, the one day when it really matters if we're not paying attention to his leadership being led by the Spirit is talking about the small decisions in our inner man. We cultivate the Spirit's leadership in what we say. We cultivate an awareness of his leadership, what we look at, how much time we give to feed our spirit. Beloved, that's a major one, that's not small. The Holy Spirit wants leadership over our lives and how much time we feed our spirit. Thank the Holy Spirit, I'll give you leadership. I won't do a big act of immorality. A big lie, a big steal or a big drunk or a big bitterness. I won't do a big one. Beloved, we will never be able to maintain our inner life by only thinking of the big ones. The Holy Spirit wants leadership on how we spend our money. These are super important issues to have a vital relationship, a healthy relationship with the Spirit. And without it, we don't have a chance. We don't have a chance to overcome the lust of the flesh. Without the engine, I don't care how good that pilot is, that plane is not gonna overcome gravity if the engine is not working properly. I'm gonna continue in paragraph H. The one who has a minimal fellowship with the Spirit will, the one with minimal fellowship with the Spirit, they will walk in lust regularly if they have minimal fellowship with the Spirit. Romans 7, the passage we started with at the beginning, there's a law, there's a principle of evil in us. Beloved, it's present in every one of us. We will lose that war if we don't have a vital relationship with the Spirit. We must refuse the lie. I want you to pay attention to this. We must refuse the lie that the Spirit is not Lord. Therefore, His promptings are optional. That is devious. That is subtle, but that's devious as though the Spirit of God's promptings are optional. He's different. You know, it's the Holy Spirit. He's only giving us options. He is God. The Holy Spirit is Lord. Now, I'm not talking the distinctions within the Godhead with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm talking about in relationship to the rest of God's order. He's God. He is to be obeyed. He has ideas about what you look at, how you spend time and money. He is God. We need a revelation that the Holy Spirit is God and not just a helpful influence who every now and then speaks up a little bit louder than we want Him to, or sometimes we do want Him to. Paragraph I. To live in the Spirit, Paul said, verse 25, or to live by the Spirit. Paul says we live in the Spirit or we live by the Spirit. This is the one I wanna focus on most. Though I'm not gonna say a whole lot because it's the normal principles I say so often, but I just wanna tie the common principles of feeding our spirit in the Word with this concept because I want you to see walking in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, living in the Spirit is a three-facet diamond that is critical to be in place if you're going to overcome the dominion of the lust of the flesh. The lust will still be there, but it doesn't have to have dominion in our everyday walk. It doesn't have to have the upper hand as the rule of our life. Paragraph I. To live in the Spirit or to live by the Spirit is to be empowered by the Spirit's life as we are fed by the Spirit's food, which is the Word of God. We are not going to be empowered by His life if we're not fed by the Spirit's food. As our physical body needs food, our spirit needs food to have life. The food is the Word of God. It's not only the Word of God, but that's the one I wanna focus on. That is the most important thing, but not the only thing. There's other dimensions of how our spirit is built up. Even the ministry of others. There's the Holy Spirit's grace in trials. I mean, there's all kinds of things that contribute to our spirit being built up. I'm not wanting to reduce it to one thing, but the one thing that is most known, feeding our spirit on the Word of God is the thing I believe is most neglected. It is the most or worst, we're so aware of it, but it does not happen nearly enough. The pilot is absolutely certain that the engines have to be on. But using the analogy, it's the pilot that says, oh, I keep getting busy and forgetting about the engines and the fuel. Beloved, a collision is inevitable if we don't feed our spirit and live, live by the spirit. I don't mean just live in eternity one day after we die. I'm talking about living at three o'clock in the afternoon and six o'clock in the evening and midnight, living on the inside by a release of the spirit's life, a present tense release, an impulse of the spirit's life. It's called the quickening of the spirit. You've heard the phrase. The spirit giving us life in the present tense, not just in the generic sense that we're gonna have a resurrected body. Talk about where I'm renewed in my inner man a little bit, a little bit. I'm not talking about the most awesome renewal that you know, that I don't wanna exaggerate. I'm talking about the little incremental renewals throughout a day, critical to living in the spirit, which then living in the spirit, being led by the spirit, walking in the spirit, go together to become the condition of not, if we do it, then if we bring these three elements together, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh emotionally or physically as the norm of our life. Not saying that you'll never make a wrong choice or react in a wrong way, but it won't be the rule of your life. It'll be the rare exception. Says in paragraph I in the second sentence, it matters, it matters, it matters. How much time in our schedule we give to feed our spirit? It matters. Doesn't matter to most people, but in their thinking, they haven't connected with that idea, but it matters on the vitality of their spirit. Well, how much time is enough time? Nobody can answer that question for you. It's different for each person, even in each season of their life. How much fuel does the pilot need in the engine when he's 30,000 feet in the air? I don't know how much fuel he needs, but I know one thing for sure, it needs to be enough. Nobody can tell you that answer, but what you wanna do is by hearing these principles, you want a urgency. You wanna say there's a principle of evil that's warring against me. It's warring against me. It's warring against me. I should do something about this instead of just do crash management of sinning or venting, constantly venting or acting out in some way that brings chaos to my life. One who has an undernourished spirit, I'm still in paragraph I, will walk in lust. One that has an undernourished spirit will walk in lust. Talking about it in a major way. And lust isn't just, again, it's not just an expression of immorality. They'll walk in pride and bitterness and defensiveness and all kinds of emotional and or physical dimensions of lust. Our authority is found in our inner life with the spirit. Beloved, our authority is found in our inner life with the spirit and nothing can substitute for that inner life and that inner vitality. Nothing can substitute for this. Paragraph J, as we pursue the three facets of this diamond, then what Paul says is we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. Look at that verse in Ephesians 4. Be renewed in the spirit of our mind. The spirit of our mind is more than just having right thoughts. The spirit of our mind is the whole atmosphere of our inner man. The spirit of our mind is talking about the whole condition on the inside of us, our emotions, our decision-making. It's not just our thinking as an isolated from our emotions and our decision-making. Being renewed in the spirit of our mind is what we need. Paul says in Romans 12, the next verse, he said that's how you're gonna get transformed. Your emotions are gonna be different if the spirit of your mind is renewed. So we get real busy. We get busy at IHOP. We get busy in life. We get busy, too busy to renew the spirit of our mind. Beloved, there isn't transformation. The airplane's out of fuel. The engine's running well, but the airplane is out of fuel. Is the engine okay? The spirit says, I'm here, but I'm not engaged with them. I am waiting. I was engaged with them a month ago or a year ago, but I'm not engaged today. Beloved, I don't care how good a track record that airplane has. It has to have fuel in this moment, not just a track record of fuel on the last trip. We all understand that. I feel an urgency in my own life, and I feel urgency about the spiritual family that we're up to date in our experience with the Holy Spirit. Nobody can do it for you. Nobody can lay hands on you and give this to you. Paragraph K, John 1, 5. Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And the word comprehended in the New King James in another translation, and this is what it means. It says it in the margin. The darkness does not overpower it. When light shines, when we feed our spirit on light, darkness cannot overpower light. Greater is he that is in you than he is in the world. Light is more powerful than darkness. Here's how many people approach their struggle against lust. They're like a person going into a dark room. They open the window, they get a bucket, and they start taking a bucket of darkness and try to pour it out the window. They go get another bucket of darkness, and I know that's absurd, and they go pour it out the window. The other guy comes in, says, what are you doing? Says, I'm trying to pour the darkness out. It's really a bummer, I can't see nothing. He turns the light switch on, and darkness is instantly expelled, it's driven out. When light enters, darkness leaves. Put the energy on getting light to enter more than energy on getting the darkness to go away. Because when the light shines, the darkness cannot overpower it. When we're engaged with the spirit, the spirit is far more powerful than the devil, but we have to be engaged with him. The engines on the airplane are far more powerful than the law of gravity, but they've gotta be on with fuel in them. The capacity of the engine's far more powerful. Paragraph L, we declare war on everything that quenches the spirit, and therefore we declare a war on everything that quenches our spirit, because if the Holy Spirit's quenched, our human spirit is quenched as well. And many people are so accustomed to living with a quenched spirit. They're so accustomed to living with a dull spirit that they think it's normal. We do not want to make peace with living with a quenched spirit. It is not our inheritance, it is not our destiny in this age to live with a dull, barren, quenched spirit, though many are so familiar with it, they're so accustomed to it, they've given up hope of living different than that on the inside, and that is not our lot in life, to live with a quenched spirit. And I tell you, if our spirit's quenched, because the Holy Spirit is, when the Holy Spirit is, our spirit is, because it's mostly because of the little issues of ignoring His leadership, and they build. And it's by starving our spirit, and then we inevitably make the wrong choices then. Paragraph M, we resolve in our heart, we resolve to fill our heart with the Word, because we know the voice of the Spirit, the voice of the Word is stronger than the voice of the flesh, it really is. The light is stronger than the darkness, the spirit is stronger than the devil, the voice of the Word is stronger than the voice of our flesh, but we've got to strengthen it, and we gotta feed our spirit with it. Roman numeral two, our inheritance is to have a fully alive heart. We looked at this the other day, so I'll be brief on this. Most of you are here, some of you are just visiting. Our inheritance, here it is, Hebrews 10. God made a covenant, He made a promise. Here's the promise, He goes, I'm gonna put my laws, my Word, I'm gonna put my laws into your heart. Beloved, when God puts His laws, His Word into our heart, that means our emotions feel the power of the Word, His laws, His Word. When the spirit writes the Word on our heart, it means our emotions feel it, we love it. Our emotions are strengthened, we have godly desires, we love the things we used to hate, and we hate the things we used to love, because our emotions are awakened under the power of the Word. God promises, I will put my Word in your emotions if you will engage yourself with me over time. Fantastic. It's not just that, He's gonna put His Word into our minds. He's gonna give us living understanding. We may not understand every point of every verse, but we're gonna get the kind of understanding we need to succeed in our assignment in this life. I don't need to understand the whole Word. I mean, a billion years from now, I'll still be learning the Word. I don't have the idea, I'm gonna understand the whole Word, the whole Scripture. I need to have understanding to succeed in my assignment in this age. Lord, I can only, in the span of one lifetime, I can only work my way on getting less than 1% of all that you have to say through your Word. I'm in your Word, it's so big, it's eternal. But I need living understanding. Will you give me the equipping of understanding for me to succeed in my mandate, that I can be great in my life choices before you? Yes, I will give that to you, Mike. That's what you want. Beloved, we need living understanding. Paragraph B, let's read Matthew 4 at the bottom of the PowerPoint. We know the passage well. Jesus said to Satan, when Satan was tempting him, man shall not live by bread alone, he shall not live by bread alone, but man shall live by every word from the mouth of God. Beloved, our spirit lives, our spirit lives. We are alive in the Spirit because the Word of God touches us with the Holy Spirit working with it. I want our spirit to live. I want my heart to be alive. I want your heart to be alive. I want my heart healthy. I want my heart vital. I want my heart to live by the words that come from God's mouth. And the written Word of God is the holy transcript of God's heart. You wanna know what God's heart's like? He says, I've put it, I've put a revelation of my heart in that book. It's the transcript of God's heart. Oh, I want my spirit to live. I wanna live not just by natural bread, it's important, but I wanna live by the Word. I want my spirit alive. So many believers are in the spiritual ICU unit. They have no appetite. When a person's in the ICU unit, often they don't have physical appetite for food. And many believers live spiritually in the ICU unit with no appetite for the Word or for a little bit for His presence, but not an appetite for the Word. Well, it's confusing, this and that. You don't have to understand the whole Word, but you will understand the Word that will make you successful in your assignment in this life. God promises to write the Word on your mind. Paragraph C, prayer and fasting and meditation of the Word and obedience, they position our heart. I've said this over and over. We don't earn God's power or favor by reading the Word. That's not like that. It's that analogy. It's the frozen pound of hamburger, frozen. Put it in front of the bonfire. A minute later, try to cut that hamburger and you're not gonna get anywhere. It's as frozen a minute later as it was. Over time, that heart will begin to thaw out. It'll begin to melt and get tender. Well, what we want, say forget that bonfire, let's go straight to the microwave. Well, it just doesn't work that way. You put your cold heart in front of me. You put the Word in your heart and you come before me and you will little by little become tenderized because the power of the Word is stronger than the power of your heart. It really is. The voice of the Word is stronger than the voice of lust. It really is. But the voice, we gotta find the voice of the Word. We gotta get it in us. We gotta get in contact with it. We gotta get the Word alive in us. Holy Spirit's willing to do it, but He won't do it for us. He'll do it with us, but not for us. He won't say, do what you do, and you know what? I'm just gonna inject you with the Word. He will do it with us. Roman numeral three. This is a lot from just a couple weeks ago. I went through this. So I'll be real brief on this, but I just wanted to remind you again of this. I wanna encourage you to get this off the internet. If these are new ideas to you. I added a few phrases from last week, from a couple weeks ago when I went through this, so update it. Just a little phrase here or there and a couple more examples. And those of you that have the notes, I'm getting to the end of them, but on the web, I have a couple more pages of Bible verses that I put language on how to pray that Bible verse. And this is the most simple way, but I put a few Bible verses of what to say to God in your heart. And then you take it from there, but just kind of get you jump-started. So I got a couple pages of Bible verses with some hints on what to say to God with them and how to meditate on them. So you can get those off the internet if that interests you. It says in John five, you search the scripture. For in the scriptures, you think you have life. He says, no, the scriptures talk about me. The scriptures point to me. They're a holy transcript of my soul. And he tells the Pharisees, you're not willing to come to me. You're not willing to enter into a living dialogue with my heart. He goes, my word is telling you what's in my heart. So when you read my word, it gives you language for your heart. Beloved, the word gives us the language of our heart to have a deep friendship with God. That's what the word is. Jesus told the Pharisees, he goes, you study the Bible all day long. These Orthodox rabbinic Judaism study night and day, you know, 12 hours a day, but they murdered Jesus. They killed him. They were of their father, the devil, though they did Bible study. I love Bible study. That's why we have a Bible school. I love Bible study. I believe in it. I love it. But Bible study will not transform our hearts. What happens is we have to take the word and turn it into a dialogue. If the word does not create a dialogue in us, it won't transform us at the end. It can still help us in other ways, giving us some understanding to avoid some mistakes in ministry and life. But beloved, it's not enough just to have intellectual knowledge. I want the word to enter in, to create an ongoing dialogue of vitality with the spirit. And then I can walk in the spirit, live under his leadership, live in the spirit. Then I can overcome the lust of the flesh as a habit of life. Because the engine's on. The engine's on and it's full of gas. And the law of gravity is still operating, but there's a higher law that supersedes it that takes a... Whatever, it's more powerful. Let's say it that way. Preeminence, that's the word. Paragraph A, it's not enough to study the word. We've got to give our heart to God. We have to receive from him and give and receive. It's two ways. We have to receive his thoughts. And I describe it and I talked about it a couple of weeks ago, but I've got it laid out because we really won't have a time. We're getting near the end of this, but you can read it. We allow the word to create, I'm still in paragraph A, an active dialogue. It gives us the conversation material. I remember when I began to pray an hour a day. I was 18 years old. I read these books and my leader said, hour a day. Great. Okay, I'm the man of God. I'm an hour a day. This is the university. Nine o'clock at night, the hour of death. 10 till nine, I began to break out in sweat. Oh no, the horrible hour, the prison sentence is coming in 10 minutes. I would do anything. I would witness, I would serve. I would confess sin. I would do anything besides that hour. And you know, I didn't know what to do. God help me. Thank you for arms and legs. Help me score touchdowns on the college football team. Give me a cute girlfriend to be my wife and make me rich and famous and all for your glory, of course. Didn't score any touchdowns, but I did get the girl. Okay. Then when I found this fantastic, fantastic discovery, it was fantastic. I mean, because I'd pray that prayer and I'd look at my clock and you've heard the story. 59 more minutes. Oh man, 59 minutes. God, you're Lord, you're awesome, but you're so boring, but you must not be, it must be me. I didn't know what to do. 58 minutes. I just stared to burn another minute down to 57 now. If you'd have told me back then I'd be leading at 24 hour prayer movement, I would have said you have totally got the wrong guy. But I discovered the greatest discovery in life. One of them, that the Bible became my conversation material. Get the Bible, read a phrase or two, say it back to God. I go, I can do this because now I know what to say. Beloved, the Bible, when you understand it is your conversation material. Prayer is very, very different than in your personal prayer life. It's not just going down a list. It's talking, it's interacting from the word. It's changed your whole prayer life. Paragraph B. No, I have to say back to paragraph A. The middle, we must actually speak the word back to God. We have to speak it against Satan. Many people don't speak the word back to God. They read the word, they underline it, and they tell their friend, or two or three, hey, this one verse really touched me. They don't actually talk to God about what touched them. They talk to people, but only mostly even then, just a time or two, and then they move on. Beloved, the word is to give us, create a dialogue. It's to give us the material to talk to God. It has to get into the language of our heart. And then we have to talk to the devil. We have to speak the word to the devil. When condemnation, or lost, or the attack of the enemy, we speak the word back. Most believers don't speak the word to God or to the devil, and their spirits languish in oppression that is not necessary for them to languish in. We have to speak the word back to God in a living, I mean, a dialogue. It'll be living, and it will go on. It'll get better and better and stronger and stronger. It's not enough to underline, use all the IHOP colors, you know, orange, pink, yellow, blue, all the colors. You can tell it in your small group. You can write it on the email, but you haven't talked it back to God yet, and it won't be alive in you until you do. Then it has to get into your lips, into your language to speak it against the devil, or it's not gonna be powerful in the way that God wants it to. So you're not gonna have a full potential of it. Paragraph B, there's two broad categories of truth. First, the scriptures that exhort us to believe something. God loves you, God forgives you, God heals you, protects you, provides. It's things we're supposed to believe. Second category, these are broad categories, categories that focus on exhorting us to obey. Brighten your tongue, serve one another, humble yourself. Let's go to paragraph C. Well, we take these two categories. Now we wanna get into an active dialogue with God in these two categories. We've got a big, thick Bible. We've got lots of conversation material. We have lots of need. God has lots of time. He says, let's do it now. So paragraph C, on these truths, we gotta pray them back. We gotta dialogue them back that exhort us to believe something. Number one, let's just say, we're supposed to believe God loves you. Something simple. God loves you. I will tell you this from personal experience. You will never, ever have the, I mean, the full impact of God loving you till you start telling God about God loving you. It's one thing to preach it. It's one thing to sing about it. It's one thing to tell people about, unless you're singing to God, but I mean, sing to people about what's all is good. You can write books on it, but when you start telling God about God loving you, it will do something. The lights, the fireworks will begin. A lot of people never tell God about God loving them. That's the power of those verses. So what, this is an outline. This is not perfect, but I'm just saying it's tried and tested. I've been using this outline for 30 years. I was 20 years old. I started writing down these things and tried to figure this thing out of what I'm supposed to do in this boring thing called prayer. Literally, it's 30 years later. I'm using the same phrases. What I would do, God loves me, first thing. See, number one, I thank him. Simple declarations. I thank you that you love me. I thank you, actually telling you, I thank you that you will guide me, protect me. I thank you, and then secondly, reveal it to me. Tell me more about it. Tell me more. And we pause. Thank you that you love me. Thank you that you've forgiven me. Thank you, you've given me the gift of righteousness. Thank you that you will heal me, direct me. All these things we're supposed to believe. Thank you. One at a time, don't give a list. I'm saying I just take them one at a time. And then the next thing I say, tell me more about it. Then I pray the spirit a little bit, then I'm quiet. Then I say it again, thank you. Thank you that you love me. Thank you that your heart is ravished. Pause. Pause. Say it again. Thank you that you love me. Pause, quiet. I like this, Lord. Pause. Tell me about it. Pause. Can't do rapid fire devotional prayer. Pause. Grown sigh. Pray the spirit for a minute. Not rapid fire, just, mm, thank you. Do that three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 minutes. I'm telling you, that's when the fireworks start. I don't mean the first day, not the first day. Might get on a marathon pace. Tell the Lord you're gonna do this for 10 years and you're not gonna consider quitting this thing you've done 10 years. Don't do it for the summer. Like put God on probation. I'm gonna pray, read the word. I'll give you three months. Either you better show up or I'm out of here. Don't do that. Say, Lord, I'm going a full 10 years before I start considering whether it doesn't work. I assure you it will work. Let's go to paragraph D. Scriptures, these aren't, the second category is not believe God's scriptures. They're obey God's scriptures. Bridle your tongue. Spend your time right. I mean, it's gotta be, it's gotta get down to the bridling the tongue, what your eyes are. You know, the famous verse, Job 31.1. Job said to me to cover with my eyes. That's gotta be one of the key verses that is on your obey God list. So you say, let's do the one with the eyes or the lips. You say, first, we commit, we resolve. We make declarations. I commit, I say, yes, I will covenant with my eyes to only look on thing. I will not look on anything that incites wrong things in me. So we make a cover, we make resolve, we make declarations. Lord, I will only look on things. I will not look on things that pull my heart in a wrong way. Pause. Lord, I resolve. Sigh, groan, ugh. That's a good groan. I mean, it's a ugh groan. Second thing you do, number two, help me, help me. Help me. Go back to the first thing. I commit. Yes. Quiet, pause, pause. Yes. Brain and spirit moment or two, not rapid fire. Help me. Three, four, five minutes goes away. Things start moving on the inside. Telling you it's real. Paragraph F, linger, dialogue slow, take time. Don't get in a hurry. Be quiet. Say it for small phrases. Picture the throne of God. G, journal. I don't mean every thought, write a key phrase. Write a key phrase. Have your Bible open, have a notebook, just a key phrase or your laptop, just a key phrase that comes. You say, Lord, I commit to only look at the things that will enhance my relationship with you. You might say it just a different way one time. You might just put a phrase. You just write it out or type it out. Then you use that phrase the next time. Paragraph Roman numeral four. This is just on the internet. I got a couple examples. You know, one of the great classic verses that is used around IHOP, which you can't get any better than this one. John 17, 26. We take it. I just give you a few little ways how to pray it, just using this little model. Jesus is talking. He says, I have declared to them your name. He's talking to the Father. And he promises, he makes a promise. We're supposed to believe it. I will declare it. Jesus promised. That's something you're supposed to believe. So that the love, Father, which you have for me will be awakened in them. You know, it goes with the next verse. Love the Lord your God. So pause. Jesus, thank you. You're going to declare the Father's personality. Ah. Pause, thank you. Now you're gonna ask him, reveal it. And go back to thank you. Reveal. You promised. Then we move over to the other thing, the love. That's an obedience. Lord, I want to love you. I commit to love you. Talk quiet. Help me, Lord. Help me love you. You're gazing on the throne. You're talking quiet. Pause. Reveal yourself. Jesus, reveal the Father. Help me. I want to know the Father. Paragraph B. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro across the earth. He promises to show himself strong. He goes, I promise I will show myself strong to the people whose heart is loyal. So there's a promise to believe. He's gonna show himself strong. But there's a obedience. You gotta be loyal. So we turn it into dialogue. Father, your eyes go to and fro. You wanna show yourself strong to me and through me. Thank you. Thank you. Pause. Lord, reveal, release it. Reveal your power, release it. I want to see your strength in me. We switch over to the obedience one now because that first part's a believe God verse, I mean phrase. I set my heart to be loyal to you, Holy Spirit. I'm gonna have the worship team just come up. I set my heart to be loyal to you, Holy Spirit. Set your heart, resolve. I wanna be loyal. I wanna be loyal to you. I wanna be loyal with my time. This isn't a promo, but I have sacred trust. I tell that to the Lord. I wanna be loyal to you on my fasting days. I wanna be loyal to you. I don't wanna do it for your guy's sake. I wanna do it for the, I wanna be loyal to the Lord. I wanna be loyal to what I've committed my heart to before you. Help me be loyal. I wanna be loyal with my money. Holy Spirit, help me, et cetera. You take each one of these passages. Look at the next one. John 14, I'm just letting the worship team get, you guys can stand, just stand for a moment. We're gonna, John 14, you just need to start whenever you start. Jesus said this, look at this one. What a, this is fantastic. These are some of my favorite ones. I just put them up there because they were just, I love to use these over and over and over. Jesus said, he that has my commandments, he that keeps them. So that's a obedience one. Then he gives us a faith one. He goes, and the person that does this will be loved by my Father. I will love him, I will manifest myself. There's three obedient, I mean, there's three things to believe. The Father will love me, Jesus will love me. And they'll manifest himself to me. So I go, Father, oh, you said you would manifest yourself. You promised, you promised. Thank you, do it, do it. I wanna keep your word. Now I'm switching over to the obedience part. I commit to keep your word. I commit to obey you, pause. I commit to obey you, pause. Help me, help me. Switch back over, manifest yourself to me. Thank you, thank you. You said you would manifest yourself, but quiet, pausing. I'm waiting on you, I'm gonna keep going.