Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of abiding in Christ as the foundation for a fruitful prayer life and personal transformation, drawing from John 15. He explains that true joy and lasting impact come from a deep, ongoing relationship with Jesus, where small acts of obedience are remembered by God for eternity. Bickle encourages believers to engage in conversation with Christ, apply His promises, and obey His leadership, highlighting that this relationship is essential for spiritual growth and fulfillment. He stresses that both our abiding in Christ and His abiding in us are crucial for experiencing the fullness of God's love and purpose in our lives.

And they asked him how to pray. And the answer that we typically go to in Jesus' answer is the Lord's Prayer. But the Lord's Prayer is the subject matter in which the Holy Spirit is leading the body of Christ in terms of prayer life. It's a number of very key subject matters. But John 15, what we're looking at tonight, is the foundation to the prayer life. John 15 is the foundation to a life of joy, to a life of inward transformation. John 15, as we'll see in a moment, is a life where we bear fruit that lasts forever. That's called eternal rewards. That the things that we do, as small as they are, they move God's heart and He remembers them forever. That's what eternal rewards are about. God remembering and esteeming the small acts of obedience that His people did in this age. There's no passage more important, in my opinion, on prayer, personal transformation, how to experience joy, how to have a relevant life than John chapter 15. Look at paragraph A. If you didn't get the notes, again, just raise your hand up real high, or I shall get it to you. If you want those, there might be a couple of you. And again, those that are joining us through God TV and the internet, you can get the notes right online right now. Paragraph A, John 15 is the high point in Scripture, the very pinnacle from a biblical point of view of personal transformation and of our personal relationship with the Lord. We'll look at verse 5, Jesus said, I'm the vine. In other words, I'm the source. I'm the source of the life. You're the branches, you're the expression to the life that I am, that I'm the source of. If you will abide in me, and in a very simple way, we're going to be a little bit more detailed than this. I like to put the word, talk to me, and make that interchangeable with abide in me, talk to me. Now, abiding in Christ is more than talking in Christ, but it begins there. And it's the core activity to abiding in Christ is talking to him. But let's just say it in the simplistic way right now, we'll give a more detail later. He that talks to me, I'll talk to him. And this man, this woman will bear fruit. Something will come forth in their life, their character, as well as their deeds. No matter how unnoticed by others, something will come forth that will move God, that he will esteem, that he will remember forever. Jesus said, this is the key to a life of relevance right here, bearing fruit, fruit that God calls his fruit, not the fruit that men call his fruit, but what God calls his fruit. And then it goes on in verse 16, and he says, I chose you that your fruit would remain. And the idea is it will remain forever. We have many other passages to back this up. The fruit remains forever in the heart of God. And the things that we do in obedience to the Holy Spirit, I don't mean dramatic acts. I'm talking about humbling ourself in our marriage, in our family, small acts of obedience, giving somebody a cup of cold water, all of these things, humility, purity, goodness, kindness, these things last forever. This is fruit that remains. This is Jesus's number one exhortation in the whole Bible, John 15. There's not another exhortation that I believe is of more significance in the ministry of Jesus than John 15. My point in that is that though all of us are aware that John 15's important, it's been my experience in interacting with others that very few people camp out and root their life in this passage, in these truths. They're aware of it, but it's kind of a teaching they heard years ago, and they agree with it, but they don't really think much about it. Well, beloved, this is the ultimate teaching of Jesus, John chapter 15. Not my version of it, but I mean the scripture itself. Paragraph B, Jesus chose that we bear fruit. It's his idea. It can't be stopped by devils. It can't be stopped by anybody in your life that doesn't like you or that's against you. This fruit bearing cannot be stopped because Jesus called it to come forth, and it would last forever. Beloved, this is a glorious reality for weak and broken people as such we are in our flesh. The fact that we could have a life that would have so much meaning forever based out of this interaction with the Lord is the most remarkable reality. I have here in paragraph B, and we're not going to cover all the notes, but again, I give the notes just to highlight some of the key principles, and you can take them home with you, and most of you know that our copyright's the right to copy, and what I mean by that is that you can not only copy this document on the internet, but you can put your name on it and change it and make your own Bible study and use as much of it as you want. As long as you believe it, it's yours to keep and it's yours to have. But our life becomes epic when we understand the implications of this passage and walk it out, knowing that He wants, He deeply longs to be engaged with us. I mean, that's what John 15's about. I want to talk to you and you talk to me, and things are going to come forth in you and through you that will last forever, that He's moved by what we do. He remembers it. Some people, they say, well, eternal rewards, fruit that lasts forever, and it only lasts forever because God esteems it forever. Whatever God esteems, He rewards. They go, I don't really, I've heard people say this for years, because I've taught on eternal rewards for years, it's one of my favorite subjects, they go, I'm not really into that, I'm just really into Jesus. And the reason that they're mistaken, that they're not into eternal rewards, they don't know that Jesus taught more on eternal rewards than any other person in the Bible, because He understood more about them than anybody else. Eternal rewards aren't about the Lord honoring us so we can strut in front of people in the resurrection. It's not about that. Eternal rewards are about Jesus expressing how He feels about the way you loved Him when you were on the earth. I mean, He has such wealth, He has such generosity, He goes, I want you to know how I feel about the humility that you walked in. That's what eternal rewards are about, Him expressing what He feels about the way you loved Him and the choices you made for righteousness that nobody else ever saw in the secret place of your life, the way that you bridled your speech, the way you spent your time and money, the way you helped somebody that nobody recognized you at all but the Lord's eyes were on you. That's what this is about. Now when we understand fruit bearing that lasts forever, that we can actually do it, it's within reach, it changes the way we view the small things in our life. It changes the way we view our life. Beloved, you don't have to be rich, famous, gifted, educated, beautiful, rich, none of those things in order to bear fruit forever, to have a very successful life in God's eyes. Maybe you have no education, no money, no gifting that you can find, no friends, you don't feel beautiful at all, the Lord says you can still bear fruit, I chose that you'd bear fruit, it would last forever, but you've got to do it My way by abiding in Me. That's why this teaching is critical for our life and it's not a one-time thing, you hear it once and you got it. Beloved, I need to bring my heart through John 15 over and over and over again that I'm renewed and washed by the truth in this amazing chapter. Paragraph C, the fruit is inward in our character and it's outward in our service or our ministry to others. Paragraph D, John 15 is the chapter on transforming union, it's our union with God that transforms us, transforms our deeds from insignificant small deeds to those that are remembered forever in God's sight. There's two elements to this transforming union, John chapter 15 verse 1 to 11. Element number 1, we abide in Christ, but element number 2 is often overlooked. He abides in us, there's two different things that Jesus is emphasizing here. And many people, they talk a little bit about abiding in Christ, but they don't talk so much about Christ abiding in them and that's a very significant reality for a life of prayer, for a life of transformation, for a life of operating in the prophetic and all the things that the Holy Spirit is stirring up the hearts of so many about. Paragraph E, abiding in Christ, let's look at the first element and we'll spend most of our time on that and we'll reference the second one, though it's equally important. The foundational activity for you growing in God, for me growing in God is abiding in Christ. Now, I'm not saying this to be a negative, this next thing, I want to alert you. This is the most significant activity for you and I growing in God, but it's probably the most neglected activity in the body of Christ, the whole kingdom of God. The issue of actively, consciously, intentionally cultivating an abiding life. But it's by far the most important, but my guess is the most neglected of all the different activities of the kingdom, there it is right there. Abiding in Christ involves three activities at least. You could add a few more categories, but this is an introductory beginning of this subject. Involves three very simple activities that overlap, but are not exactly the same thing. There are distinctions to all three of them. Number one is talking to Jesus. Number two, applying the promises of His word to our heart. And number three, obeying His leadership. Very simple, nothing mysterious about this. It's so simple anyone can do it, but it's so simple so many don't. But beloved, we're saying yes to the Lord. All over the earth God's raising up people to say, I want this abiding life. I want to go deep in this subject. Well it starts with talking with Jesus. That's the core activity of abiding in Christ. It doesn't end with that activity, but that's the core activity of abiding in Christ. Let's look at the first of the three activities. Number one, talking to Him. Now Christianity, the essence of Christianity, the essence of salvation is much more than escaping hell. We understand that. It's much more than having a relevant purpose in your life, a mission, a ministry. We want a ministry. I want to escape hell. I love escaping hell. That's a great idea to me. But the essence of Christianity is far more than escaping hell and far more than having a purpose, something to do for 50 years on the earth. It's more than having our circumstances blessed. Although some people, they reduce Christianity to these sorts of things. Christianity is an ongoing dialogue with a person and the ongoing conversation starts in this age and goes on forever. That's the core essence of salvation, an ongoing dialogue in love with the most glorious man that ever walked the earth, who's fully God and fully man. Abiding with Christ begins with talking with Jesus. He has much to say. However, catch this, He allows us to set the pace of the conversation. There's so much He wants to talk to you about, but He allows you and I to set the pace of the conversation. What I mean by that, if we start a conversation, He will continue it as long as we do. When we stop, He stops. He waits patiently. He says, I have more to tell you about that through the Holy Spirit. You want to talk about that some more? He has so much to tell us about our heart, our life, our future, our marriage, our family, our children, our money, our neighbors. He has many things. I don't mean little gossip points. He has many ways to tell us how we can relate better in all these arenas of our life. He's a teacher. He says, if you'll talk to me, I'll tell you a lot more about it. Then you know. He responds to the measure we desire to talk to Him. Abiding in Christ involves this ongoing conversation that has many 10 and 20 second exchanges. We talk to Him. I'm not saying that we hear anything that moment. Ten and 20 second little sound bites of conversation is at the very core of abiding in Christ. Now we'll never maintain the 10 and 20 second little conversational sound bites we have with Him if we don't have more extended times in prayer where we lock in for an hour or two or whatever the time is. I'm not putting a time on it. But more than just prayer on the run. Some guys I've heard over the years say, well, I just do prayer on the run. I go, if you'll do prayer in a focused, intentional way, you'll schedule it, you'll put things away, and you'll talk to God intentionally with your Bible open, talk to Him, you'll pray on the run far more regularly and far more consistently. Well the next thing that abiding in Christ is, it's not only talking to Jesus, it's applying His promises or applying His Word to your heart. Now many people talk to Jesus, but they don't apply the Word to their heart. And on the same way, some people apply the Word to their heart, but they don't talk much to Jesus. We don't want to do one or the other, we want to do both. The enemy comes, or just our un-renewed thinking, with the enemy participating in it, shame touches our mind and emotions, fear, rejection, many negative emotions rise up in us. And they challenge the truth about what God says, about loving us, about forgiving us, about guiding us, about providing for us, and fear rises up, shame rises up, guilt rises up, fear of rejection rises up, fear of being overlooked, left alone, isolated, these things rise up in us and our hearts begin to tremble and the Lord says, talk to me, apply my words to your own heart now. Don't just talk to me about others and intercession and things, like in the first issue, apply my Word, Romans 8, 1, there is no condemnation, speak my Word to those negative emotions. Speak the promises about God's provision. It says here in Romans chapter 10, I have the verse there, that it's by making confession of the Word that salvation, which means wholeness, deliverance comes to our heart. I know a lot of folks that are committed to number one, they'll talk to Jesus, but they won't under the pressure of fear, condemnation, all kinds of negative emotions, they will ride out the storm of the negativity and they're talking to Jesus about help, help, help, he says, claim my Word, talk to me about my Word, apply my Word to your heart, because that's part of the conversation. We need to confess the truth and resist the lies. The lie won't go away by itself. Many believers 10, 20, 30 years later are still under the lies of the condemnation, the lies that their life is worthless, nothing matters in their life, that God's forgotten them, they're still under the lie, because the lie doesn't go away just because it should go away. We confess the truth, we renounce the lie, we resist the lie, and that's talking to Jesus, but there's that extra dimension of applying the promises of the Word to our heart. Number three, cannot be minimized, is obeying his leadership. The third aspect, obeying his leadership, John chapter 14, Jesus said, he that keeps my commands, the person that obeys me, that's the man or woman that loves me. Now look what he says, he goes, I'll manifest, I'll release my grace in a discernible way on their heart and on their mind, that's what he's talking about. I'll manifest my presence in a way they can feel it, in a greater way than before. They will line up with the spirit of obedience. He says in verse 23, he says it again, John 14, this is the passage right before John 15. This is the foundation before the abiding in Christ passage that we're looking at right now. He says it again, he goes, if you love me, if you're real, you'll set your heart to obey my word. Then he says again, I will come to you, that's the same thing as we'll manifest the presence of God in your heart and your mind and in you and through you in a greater measure. Now it's very popular today to minimize obedience. It's very popular to magnify the freeness of forgiveness and to minimize the glory of obedience. But I want to tell you something, and I know you know it, you wouldn't be here, obedience is essential. The Holy Spirit is not minimizing obedience. There's a distorted grace message that's going around the earth that magnifies the freeness, which is so critical, that's the point we looked at about applying the promises, the freeness is real. But there's another dimension to the grace message, it's not only that it's free, it has to be responded to. There's a dimension in our life where we respond to it. We must love God on God's terms. We love God on God's terms, not on the humanistic definitions of what it means to love. It must be on His terms, and that's with the spirit of obedience. Our obedience is not mature, I'm not even talking about mature obedience, I'm talking about setting our heart to obey, and when we come up short, we call it what it is, we declare war on it, and we set our heart to obey in that issue. I'm talking about in bridling our speech, bridling our eyes, using our time and money, I don't mean just scandalous sins that are shocking, I'm talking about all the areas of our life we set our heart to live in a spirit of obedience, and our time, our money, our words, where we set our eyes, where we go, our faithfulness, when nobody appreciates us, we obey the Lord in those issues. Our obedience is an expression of our love to Him. He's moved by it, He takes it personally, He rewards it forever. It moves Him when we obey, when nobody else is honoring you, everyone's rejected you, you stay faithful in the small thing He told you to do, beloved, that moves His heart. Well, again, a lot of preachers today are apologizing about obedience, or worse than apologizing, they're just simply refusing to ever address it. The body of Christ is growing in this unholy confidence that it's okay whether they obey or not obey, beloved, it's a covenant relationship based on giving love with all of our strength. He loves us with all of His strength. He wants us to return with all of our heart and our strength. Our all is small compared to His, but He wants us to bring our all into the covenant relationship. It's a relationship. It's not a legal document, it is a legal document, beloved, it's a covenant relationship of love that we give our all to the relationship. That's what salvation is about. That's what the freeness is to produce in us, when understood rightly. Well, you can't minimize any of these three points in abiding Christ, and if you don't abide in Christ, the other things don't happen. Now, I'm not saying, looking at you saying, well, you know, we don't really produce. I'm talking about agreeing with Him, coming, bringing our heart into agreement with Him in these ways. And then the freeness of the gospel, we experience more and more of it in our mind and emotions. Look at top of page two. Our spiritual capacity to feel, to experience the love of God increases. God doesn't love you more when you obey, you experience it more, you feel it. You're inspired by it more. He doesn't love you more. He's not moved more in His heart towards you. You're moved in your heart in the relationship more. Jesus said this in Matthew chapter five. He said the pure in heart, in other words, the obedient, the people of the spirit of obedience, they will see God, they'll experience more. You can be a born again believer and never press into these issues and end up in the eternal city at the end of your life with no fruit, your life wasted, but you're in the kingdom. But Jesus said, why would you do that? You can experience God more, but it's about you lining up an agreement with your heart, with His heart. That's called the spirit of obedience. Here in Matthew eight, he called it purity, spirit of obedience, agreement with God's heart. It's all the same reality. We don't earn God's love by obedience, but we position ourself to receive and experience more of it. I want to experience everything that God will give the human spirit in this age. I don't want to just in the age to come stand there in the new Jerusalem with a new body and in the joy of the Lord and just say, wow, this is awesome. I want to bring a testimony of decades of love based in gratitude and I want to offer it to them. I loved you when I was on the earth in my weakness, in my brokenness, but here I give a life of love to you. I want to offer that to him as my free gift of love on that day. Next paragraph, Christ abides in us. This is the part that's often overlooked. He abides, not only that we abide in him, he abides in us. There's two aspects of this truth. We're going to be ever so brief on this. He abides in your spirit instantly. I mean, the moment you're born again, he abides in your spirit. That's an amazing reality, that he abides in your spirit. The day that you're born again, the Holy Spirit lives in your human spirit. But that's not what he's talking about here mostly. He's talking about, he wants to abide in your soul, your heart. Not just your spirit, man, but he wants your emotions in your mind to be renewed by the quickening of his grace. That's what he's talking about here. Look at the next paragraph, Ephesians chapter 3. Paul talked about Jesus dwelling in our heart. He's talking to the saints at Ephesus. Here in Ephesians 3, he's talking to believers. He's praying that Jesus would abide in their heart, would be formed in their heart. Well, I thought Jesus was already in them. The Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit, but our soul, which is often referenced by the term heart in the New Testament, our mind, emotions, will, the Holy Spirit wants to form Jesus in our personality, in our heart. You know the famous verse in Revelation chapter 3, where Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. We use that verse often for unbelievers. We tell unbelievers, do you want to invite Jesus into your heart? He stands at the door of your heart and he knocks. And that's okay to use that for unbelievers. The Lord doesn't mind. But he's not talking to unbelievers, he's talking to the church. He says, I want to impact your hearts. I dwell in your spirit. I want a greater activity of my spirit in your heart. I want you to experience dining with me, a deeper fellowship, renewed heart, renewed emotions. Look at the next paragraph, Christ abiding in our hearts. This again, often neglected subject, it's a fantastic promise. There's at least three activities that are involved in him abiding in us, us abiding in him. We talk to him, we apply his promises, we obey his leadership, but he wants to abide in us. Again, not in our spirit, man, that happens the moment we're born again. At the heart level, he's talking about Christ formed, Christ coming in, knocking on the door of our heart to enter in at the heart level, renewed emotions, renewed thinking is what this is about. I have three different activities here that he promises. When he abides in our heart, this means the Holy Spirit will teach us more about Jesus' heart, Jesus' word, Jesus' will. We will discern more the heart of God from the word. He will inspire us more. Beloved, I think one of the greatest needs in the body of Christ is this continual wooing and motivating of the Holy Spirit of our heart because the greatest, or not the greatest, the most common temptation of everybody, the devil uses the same temptation, is the temptation to believers to quit pressing in hard after God. Not to quit their faith, but to quit pressing in hard, draw back, and coast for a few years. I've heard it for 40 years of ministry, I've heard people say, I'm so burnt out, I can't do it anymore. And I go, well, your options are really bad. You can't do what anymore? I just can't do it. Well, what's the it you can't do? Well, I can't press into God in the way I go. Not pressing into God is a real bad option. I go, you don't want to go there, but this temptation to quit, to draw back, to accept a life of passivity, that mediocre kind of business as usual, walk with God. I don't want that. I want the fullness that God will give my heart. And the Holy Spirit will encourage us as we talk to Him, abide in Him, He says, I'll abide in you, I'll renew courage, I'll woo you, I'll motivate you, I'll help you sign up again and again and again. Talk to me and I'll talk to you. I will be your best recruit to sign you up a thousand times a thousand to not draw back in passivity and lose the heart or lose a vision for the fullness of God in your life. Well, let's go down to Roman numeral two. Let's talk about abiding in Christ again. I want to lock into this subject and I'm just going to kind of say it over and over, but give you some practical tools. How to talk to Him, because the whole thing begins with talking to me, abiding in me. Abiding in Christ is more than talking, but that's the essence. That's the core reality. He says, you abide in me, I'll abide in you. You talk to me, I'll talk to you. You reach towards me, you're going to feel my hand renewing your mind and your heart. Again, you're spirit man, you possess the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The day you're born again, you're one spirit with God. Our spirit being connected to the Holy Spirit is not the problem. It's our mind and emotions being renewed by the Word and by the Spirit. That's where the challenge is. Paragraph A, we're going to kind of say what we've already said. Talking with God is the core activity of abiding in Christ. Now when we read our Bible, the Bible is not just a book of facts, you know that. The Bible is meant to lead us into conversation with a person. The Bible is our conversation material. We take the Bible and we speak it back to Him. Now I'm going to give you a couple, one, two, three, very simple little tools that I've used for about 40 years. And I just can't, I don't know how to say it more simple than I said it many years ago. It's the most life-changing, significant activity of my life. I'm going to describe to you in about the next five minutes here. This simplicity of speaking the Word back to God. Paragraph B, talking to God. I call it pray reading the Word. If you will pray read the Word, not just read it and underline it, not just read it and tell it to a friend, read the Bible and talk to a person when you're reading the Bible. Have an ongoing dialogue while you're reading it. This will strengthen your abiding in Christ, I think second to nothing. Again, when I look back over 40 years, this is clearly the most significant activity that I do. I mean the Lord's activity is a whole other subject, but I'm talking about what I do. Of the hundred activities we might do in the kingdom, this is absolutely number one after 40 years. And I can't, I've never found anything more significant than this. Hosea said, when you return to the Lord, take words with you. Beloved, take Bible words with you. When you go to the Lord to give your heart to return, to renew your love, take words with you when you go. But paragraph C, there's two broad categories of truth. This is the broadest, most simple categories related to pray reading the Word. When I pray read the Word, I don't talk to Jesus about every verse. I look for two main categories. Number one, I look for promises to believe about the love of God, the forgiveness of God, the provision of God, the healing, et cetera, et cetera, the anointing. There are promises to believe. Number two, there's another category of scriptures. It's exhortations to obey. Now there's other categories besides those two, but these are the two I've identified and when I open my Bible, I'm looking for promises to believe, exhortations to obey. Exhortations about our time, our money, our words, our eyes, our deeds. Exhortations about not quitting. Exhortations about pressing into God. Those are exhortations to obey, top of page three. Let's look at the first one. Well, since we're here in John 15, this is one of my favorite verses, John 15 verse 9. It's just staggering, John 15 verse 9. I mean, I preach on this verse probably more than any one verse. This is staggering to me. I can't get over it and I know in the resurrection, I won't get over it either. This is, I can't even imagine this, but I love it. Jesus talking in the upper room. Here it is, John 15. It's right in the abide in Christ section. He says, I want to tell you this, I'm going to paraphrase it. With the same intensity that my father loves me, that's the intensity how I feel about you. I look at that, I go, what? If any other person would have said it, you know, you'd ask questions. This is the son of God. He goes, I want to tell you something. In the intensity that he feels about me, I feel that way about you. Then he told him an hour or two later, every one of you will deny me tonight, meaning he knew he was talking to immature leaders. Every one of you will deny me, but that's not going to change the way I feel about you. Matter of fact, he was equipping them by this passage to return after they failed, but that's a promise to believe. But this verse also has an exhortation to obey. He says, abide in that love. To abide in that love means study it. To abide in it means live in it, study it, focus on it, pray about it, go deep in it. Don't just kind of casually take this subject and move on. He says, I want you to go deep in this subject, search it out, talk to me about it, talk to others about it, camp out, abide in this truth. Some believers, they get excited by that truth for a weekend or maybe a summer, and a year later they don't abide, they don't stay locked into that truth, they move on. Now the Lord gives us many assignments over the course of years, but this is the one assignment we never, well there are several others as well, you can never move on from camping out on this truth, going deep in this truth. That's an exhortation to obey. Well what happens when we run into a passage that exhorts us that it's a promise to believe? We do two things. Number one, we thank the Lord for it. We actually stop for a moment and we take that very truth and we thank Him. Like I'll stop when I read that and I'll say, I just do this simple little principle that I have laid out here at the top of page three, I go, Jesus, thank you that you love me like the Father loves you. Now how many times in your life have you paused and thanked Him for loving you that way? I don't want an answer, but here's my point, you will stop at the most simple or the most common truth, pause, He forgives you, He'll direct you, He'll bless you, stop, Holy Spirit, talk to Jesus, talk to the Father, talk to the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, you say, Jesus, thank you. I tell you, Holy Spirit, thank you for the way that you, the way the Father, the way the Son, thank you the way you love me. I tell you, I don't always feel something, but often I feel, I just feel His joy. It's like, say that again to me, I like it when you say that to me, Mike. And I just feel my heart stirred, the simple little statement, thank you, Jesus, that you love me like the Father loves you. If you won't just go past that verse fast, you will actually stop and say thank you, not always, but more times than not, you will feel something. That's called abiding in Christ, this is one little part of abiding in Christ. Number two, I don't leave it there, I do one more thing. I say, tell me more about it, reveal more, say, tell me more, Holy Spirit, about how much Jesus loves me. And the Holy Spirit says, I just am waiting for you to ask, I have much more to tell you about the way He loves you, I thought you would never ask, well, the Holy Spirit knows everything, so He did know I'd ask, but anyway, beloved, if you ask and He'll tell you, you know, the Holy Spirit knows more about Jesus than you can imagine. And He's waiting for you to ask Him to tell you about Jesus, He says, I'll tell you a lot about Him, I know more about Jesus than you could ever imagine, and if you'll talk to me, I'll talk back to you, well, that's promises to believe. There's a second category of truth, it's exhortations to obey, paragraph E, let's look at the same passage, but let's look at the back end of the passage, if the Father loves me, that's the way I love you, here's the exhortation to obey, lock into this truth, don't move on, stay rooted and focused, go deep here. So what I do with an exhortation to obey, I don't do it every time, but I mean, there's a rule in my prayer times, I open my Bible, that's the conversation material, I have several prayer lists I go down, but I got a book full of conversational material, it makes the Bible so exciting, I say, Holy Spirit, number one, an exhortation to obey, I commit myself, I take a moment, instead of just saying, yeah, I stop and I say, I set my heart to obey this, to abide in love, I'm going to go deep on this subject, Holy Spirit, I'm going to search it out, I'm not going to ever graduate from this truth, I'm going to live in this truth all my days, number two, then I ask Him to help me, it's the same deal, so easy, help me, help me do this, and again, the Holy Spirit says, I will if you ask me, if you'll begin the conversation, I'll keep it going, I'll stay in the conversation as long as you stay in it, paragraph F, this is a real practical point, some people don't like this, but I tell you, again, I don't want to sound like I know it all, but 40 years later, I'm telling you this, I said this, somebody told me this when I was 18 years old, I'm 58 now, that's 40 years ago, I was 18 years old, they said, if you'll schedule time to read the Bible, you'll read it 10 times more than if you don't schedule time, I went, what? He goes, do you ever schedule time for the Bible? I go, no, you know, I was playing college football and had a girlfriend and trying to make good grades in school and going to ministries and outreaches and I didn't have time to schedule to read the Bible, I go, what? I don't know, I just kind of read it at the Bible study, you know, a little bit the next day for 10 minutes, I guess, if they asked me to give a testimony, I got to dig up something, some leader told me when I was 18 years old, you schedule the Bible, you schedule how much, I'm not telling you how much, whether it's 15 minutes, a half hour, an hour a day, three days a week, five days a week, whatever, you schedule it, he said, you'll read it 10 times more, I tried it, 40 years later, I've never stopped, I'm a satisfied customer, I don't always keep it, my schedule, but I keep it most of the time by the grace of God, if it's on my schedule, I consider it a sacred appointment before the Lord, I do break it sometimes, beloved, I look back and I thought that was one of the wisest things that a man of God ever told me, at first, I thought it was dumb, I thought this is brilliant, 40 years later, Roman number 3, fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, that's a biblical term, Paul used it in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14, he talked of the blessing of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, to fellowship with the Holy Spirit is identical to abide in Christ, it's a different term for the identical same truth of John 15, so I'm just going to say in a little different way, I'm going to give a couple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 points and then we're going to ask the Lord to touch us and we're going to engage in this just a little bit. Paragraph A, in prayer, we can focus our mind in 2 different directions, both of them are glorious, we focus our mind on our Father who art in heaven, Revelation 4, he sits on a mighty throne with an emerald rainbow around the throne and jasper and sardius light emanates out of his being, there's 24 elders, there's a river of fire breaking out of his throne, there's a sea of glass like crystal, there's the myriads of angels, the four living creatures, seven lamps that are burning anyway, Revelation 4, it's there. I love to go to Revelation 4 and I like to lock into my Father who art in heaven and the Bible gives us descriptions of the throne of God so we would actually use them to direct our mind. When I pray to the Father, I go to that scene, Revelation 4, I love it. But there's another place you direct your mind, you can, to God who dwells in your spirit, it's called God the Holy Spirit and Paul spoke about the blessing of fellowshipping with that person, it's his fellowship with the spirit. Paragraph B, our fellowship with that person, the Holy Spirit is as much God, equally God as the Father and the Son, three distinct persons in such perfect unity of essence, one God in three persons, the glory of the blessed trinity, the great mystery of three in one. Paragraph B, our fellowship with him, I'm saying the same thing I've said already five times, it includes talking. When we fellowship with the spirit, it's not only, it's really the same three identical subjects of abiding in Christ, we talk to him, we apply his promises to our heart and we obey his leadership, really the same thing. And out of that we follow his, his, his obeying his leadership isn't just about moral issues, it's about obeying his leadership in ministry, just obeying his leadership in whatever subject. Paragraph B, the Holy Spirit will not force us into conversation, but once he begins it, if we, if we started, he'll, he'll participate. Now he speaks in many ways, but through his word, through dreams and visions, in radical ways, dramatic ways sometimes, but often he gives us subtle impressions when we're reading the word or just sometimes when we're just going about life with the impression of the Lord. 1 Kings 19 called it the still small voice. Remember Elijah, the Lord said, the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, that subtle impression. Other times he talks to us by sensitizing our emotions to his nearness. Other times his, what he says is more pronounced in rare occasions, but there's a whole litany of ways he talks to us and that's not my point to go through that right now. You know, the 10 or 12 ways that he talks to us, but the point is that, that we value the subtle impressions. We value the sensitizing of our emotions. The Spirit says, I am talking, I'm moving on your mind and your emotions right now. It's not the devil and it's not your flesh. I'm moving on you right now. Those are precious. The promptings of the Holy Spirit are precious and valuable, more valuable than gold. You talk to the Spirit, he'll give you impressions. I mean, the impression might be God loves you. The impression might be you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It might be a simple Bible truth, but those impressions, I tell you, they are powerful because they renew us. It's called the washing of the water of the word and that's by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Paragraph C, now the core reality of the new birth is that the Holy Spirit lives in our spirit. Again, I distinguish our spirit from our soul. Our soul is our mind, emotion, will, our heart. He lives in our spirit. He wants to influence and renew our mind and emotions. The challenge is the renewed mind and emotions. He lives in our spirit fully, instantly, the moment you're born again. You won't have any more of God or the gift of righteousness a million years from now in your spirit, man, than the moment you're born again. It's fully, instantly, totally free and yours in one moment. But I'm not content with having God live in my spirit. I want my mind, emotions, and will influenced by him. I want him abiding in my heart, not just abiding in my spirit. And that's a critical distinction. Beloved, I have good news for you. The Holy of Holies is in your spirit. You know, Moses went on the mountain in Exodus 3 and he saw the burning bush. He looked at the burning bush and the bush was burning, but it wasn't consumed. He saw the consuming fire, the very essence of God himself. He saw God in that manifestation of fire and he bowed down and worshiped. Well, that fire is called in the Old Testament time by different Hebrew leaders, the Shekinah glory of God. And when Solomon built his temple about 500 years after Moses, that burning bush, not actually the burning bush, but that consuming fire, the glory of God, the Shekinah glory was in the Holy of Holies in that sacred little room. About 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet, the only place in the earth, the Shekinah glory, like the burning bush, the fire, the glory, whatever it looked like, it was awesome, was the only place on the earth that glory dwelt was in that room called the Holy of Holies of Solomon's temple. It was a small room, the most sacred place on planet earth. Beloved in the new covenant, the day you're born again, the Holy of Holies, the Shekinah glory, the burning bush. Again, that's not the best way to say it, but I'm just giving you a word picture. That person is in your spirit, man. He dwells in you. The Holy of Holies, it says King James, Jesus said, out of your belly will flow this river. The other translations say out of your heart or out of your innermost being and out of your heart is probably the most accurate term, but I love the King James out of your belly, in your spirit, man, there is a Holy of Holies, the burning bush, the glory of God, the Shekinah glory dwells in you and would dwell in you forever. What do you do about that glory of God dwelling in you? And it's not an it, it's not an essence, it's a person, the Holy Spirit fully God. Top of page four. Let's just bring this to an end in just a moment here. These are real simple little points here. They're so self-explanatory that you don't even have to spend time on them really, but I just want to give you these simple little ways to abide in Christ. The language of the mind is images. If I say pink elephant, what do you think about right now? You get an image. Well, the Bible says God is light. Many verses. He dwells in unapproachable light, like the glory, the Shekinah, the burning, consuming fire. There's different pictures of the true essence of God. So I think of the Shekinah glory that was in Solomon's temple or the burning bush dwelling in my spirit, a person. And when I talk to the Holy Spirit, I either put my attention on the Father on the throne, Revelation 4, I put my attention on the glory of God in my spirit, and I talk to him as a real person, my friend. I fellowship with him. Now, this is not the most accurate way to say it all, but I think of this like a, I have written here, like a bright, diamond-like, glorious, consuming fire, Shundi, Mahundi, Shekinah glory here. I don't, I don't really know how to say it accurately. I'm not good enough with language to say it right, but he's here. Paragraph 8, Paul said, if you walk in the spirit, that's the, that's where you'll find the ability to overcome lust in your heart. You know, a lot of guys and gals, lust rises in their heart, and lust isn't only sexual. Lust is, bitterness is rooted in lust, and covetousness, and lust for position, lust for things, all, jealousy, envy, lots of those things are rooted in lust of various kinds, and we can't overcome these negative emotions by gritting our teeth and overcoming lust. Like, lust, leave my emotions, leave. This time I mean it, go, emotion. Lust won't go that way. I've tried it. Paul said, but I get, I have a fail-proof way. If you walk in the spirit, if you'll be proactive in your friendship with the Holy Spirit, that's called abiding in Christ, walking in the spirit, fellowship with the spirit, he says, the lust emotion won't dominate you. If you fight the emotion by itself, it will dominate you. You engage with the spirit, you'll find power over that emotion. Not the emotion will always go away entirely, but it won't dominate your life, won't have the upper hand. A lot of people, they grit their teeth to get rid of lust, or they just fall and go and pray for forgiveness. Paul said, be proactive, walk in the spirit, but here's paragraph E, you'll only walk in the spirit to the measure you talk to the spirit. You won't walk in the spirit more than you talk to him. That's another way of saying abide in Christ. You won't obey him anymore, and you won't walk in him any more than you talk to him. How much do you talk to the spirit? You might say, well, actually, I never thought about it. Well, I tell you, this will change your life then. I don't mean necessarily in one week. This reality has radically shifted my inner man over the decades, and I have so much to grow in it. I'm just a baby in these things, but I've been doing these things for decades, and I'm sticking with it by the grace of God. And again, I have so much to grow. I'm not making a statement about how far I've attained. I'm making a statement that I'm a satisfied customer. This is the way forward. That's the only statement I'm making here. Paragraph F, my favorite prayer. I love this prayer. It's the prayer I use the most. I want to leave you with this. I ask the Holy Spirit. Here it is. I go, Holy Spirit, let me see and let me feel what you see and what you feel about, and I put a thousand different subjects in there. I talk to the Holy Spirit. The Shekinah glory, the burning bush, the consuming fire, that glorious diamond-like, I picture God, that, you know, the Jasper-like God. Again, those aren't perfect terms to describe this, but I say, Holy Spirit, let me see and what you've, let me see and feel what you see and feel about. I was driving here today. I said, the meeting tonight, I want to see and feel what you see and feel about this meeting. I'll talk to, my favorite subject, I have to admit, Holy Spirit, let me see and let me feel what you see and what you feel about Mike Bickle, about me. I want to know what you see and feel about me. I want to feel what you feel about me. Holy Spirit would say, I see a lot and I feel a lot about you. You want me to give it to you? Yeah, about my children, about my wife, about my neighbors, about America, about the church, about the economic crisis. Holy Spirit, let me see and feel what you see and feel about Jesus, about the Father, about the Bible, about the New Jerusalem, about the future, about the crisis, about the devil, everything. There's a thousand subjects you can put in there. I love this prayer. There's no end to it. I believe a million years from now, I'll still be talking to the Holy Spirit. Let me see and let me feel what you see and feel about this diamond-like city called the New Jerusalem that's descending to the earth. Well, paragraph four, I use this very, very simple acronym, TRUST. Five letters. When my mind's blank because I'm tired and I'm distracted, which is a lot of times, how many of you go to your prayer time? Here I am, the leader of the International House of Prayer, 24-hour prayer. I go to the prayer meeting, I can't think of anything to pray. Can you imagine that? I go, I'm taught on prayer, I can't think of a thing. That's why I have prayer lists. Literally, I go, oh yeah, revival. I knew I was committed. That's it. I look at my prayer list. I literally have a prayer list because I go in it brain-dead and tired and a long meeting and like, now what now? I'm in my prayer time. But I use this TRUST acronym regularly when I'm coming and going and laying on my couch, walking between meetings, going to my car, driving somewhere for 10 minutes, standing in line somewhere. I talk to the Holy Spirit with these five things. Or I do the let me see and let me feel about what you see and feel about this grocery store. Honestly, about somebody in it. Let me see and feel what you feel about it. My wife is here. She says, now when did you go to the grocery store? But that's another point for another time. Okay. She's not here tonight, so I'm just going to just keep moving. When you talk to the Holy Spirit, linger. Don't get in a hurry. Speak softly and slowly. Don't do rapid fire prayer when you talk to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, tell me what you think. The Holy Spirit will slow down. I mean, he can stay up with you, but you can't feel the power of it. Use short, simple phrases. Don't preach sermons. He's really smart. He already knows all the sermons. Then a whisper, occasionally whisper these intermittent statements of affections. I love your presence. I love your leadership. Intermittently throw in statements of love of the Father, the Son, of the Spirit, of his presence, of his leadership. Pray in the Spirit gently and intermittently. Again, this isn't a time when your fellowship with him to get into a rapid fire, shouting, screaming, super fast, super loud mode. It's dialed down, not rev up. It's exactly opposite when you're talking to him, and you'll feel, and impressions will come, and you'll be led, and not in some mysterious way. All of a sudden, a new idea will come, and you'll pray that idea, and the Spirit will touch you with it. Well, first thing I do, T, thank you. I turn my attention inward, and I simply say, thank you for your indwelling presence. I love to do that. I just love to picture that Shekinah glory, burning bush, diamond-like presence. Again, inadequate terms, and I go, thank you. I just stare into that glorious light, and I go, thank you. I just pause. I love your leadership. Pause. I pause a little bit longer, but I don't want to for time's sake. I go, thank you that you're here. Oh, I love it that you're here. Oh, I love it that you love me. Oh, this is good. This is good. You're here. T, thank Him. Acknowledge. Just talk to Him, and thank Him about His presence. Not real fast. Slow. I love your leadership. Take time. I have more on the Internet on this. I'm just giving you the quick one, two, three. Number two are, I ask Him for the revelation of His glory. Open my eyes to the realm of the glory of God. Let me see the Revelation 4, more understanding. Open my eyes to the realm of the angelic. Let me see the glory of Jesus like Paul did when he saw Him on Damascus Road. Let me see the glory of the Word. Just let me see the realm of your glory. Big subject. I love that one. You. I say, use me. Now, He uses us. Even if we don't ask Him, He still uses us, but He'll use us more if we'll bring Him into the conversation. If you'll dialogue, He'll use you more. It's not about He uses you or He doesn't. He'll use you at a greater measure. I ask Him, use me. And again, it's so simple. And I, again, I have more on this on the internet. This is just a one, two, three to kind of get you started. Ask, strengthen me. And what I mean is in my inner man. Right here, the verse in Ephesians 3, 16. When it goes on in the next phrase, it says that Christ dwells in the heart. That's the inner man, the heart, the emotions. Renew. I want to feel you. I want my mind inspired by you. I don't want to quit when I feel discouraged. I want the resolve and the courage to sign back up to go wholehearted and not to draw back like so many do. I don't want to go that direction. Lord, help me. And He says, you need my help to help you sign back up day after day. A lot of people don't ask the Holy Spirit. They just throw their hands up at a fit, get into depression, and tell their friends how depressed they are. The Holy Spirit says, I'll talk. Talk to me. Don't talk to them. Talk to me. I will actually help you if you will talk to me. I will strengthen you. Then T, worship team, go ahead and come on up. Teach me. Oh, there's a hundred subjects. I want to know the word of God, the will of God, the ways of God, and what creative wisdom. I want to know how to steward my money, my family, my marriage, my kids. I want to know how to have health in my body and my soul, how to use money, creative ideas, divine alliances, a thousand subjects. Give me new open doors. Teach me. Teach me. Teach me. Teach me. Beloved, the most amazing teacher lives inside of you, but many believers never talk to him, and he's the most amazing teacher. He's so kind. He's so tender, and he likes you so much, and he likes me. Amen. Let's stand.