Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of cultivating the anointing of God's threefold love as a pathway to experiencing the fullness of God. He explains that true strength in our spirit, which allows Christ to dwell in our hearts, is achieved through prayer and a fasted lifestyle. Bickle warns that many believers remain stuck in a dull spirit, failing to pursue their full destiny due to a lack of commitment to this spiritual journey. He outlines a four-step progression that leads to a deeper understanding and experience of God's love, urging believers to seek a genuine relationship with God on His terms. Ultimately, he stresses that the fullness of God is attainable for all who earnestly pursue it through prayer and obedience.

To bless the hearing of your word. Lord, I ask for the reality of importation, the very substance of your life to touch our spirit with strength and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we looked a little bit on this last week, Cultivating the Anointing of God's Threefold Love, Ephesians chapter 3. Another title, there's probably 10 different titles that I thought of for this prayer. It's one of the most prominent prayers in the, prominent meaning in our world, I'll personalize it. It's one that we've used as, along with Ephesians, one more than any other prayer in the Bible and it's just a very important prayer in Paul's epistles, but you could call it the pathway to the fullness of God. That's another title you could call it because the only way into fullness is the supernatural power to operate in threefold, this threefold love I'm going to talk about for just a moment because it's not so much the threefold love that I'm talking about because that's pretty simple, the concept, but it's the pathway into that. The chariot we get in, so to speak, using a word picture, is this lifestyle, this fasted lifestyle, exhilarated in our spirit with love and we end up in verse 19 in the fullness of God, the full destiny of God for our lives. So let's go ahead and read the passage. Most of you that have been around here for a while, you've heard it so many times in the prayer room, but we're going to read it anyway. Paul says, I bow my knees to the Father. Now as we're reading it, I want you to pay attention to four times Paul uses the word that or the idea, so that. There's a logical unfolding of a progression here that's very clear to Paul that he intends for us to understand. He says, I bow my knees and I pray to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And here's the prayer. And here's the number one that so that God would grant to you strength. Now you can read it all yourself. I'm just going to hit the highlight words. Paul says, I'm praying that God would grant to you strength through might, with the might of God, through the spirit of God, touching the inner man. What a powerful phrase. We're going to break that down in a few minutes. So Paul says, first, I pray that God would release strength on your spirit. Now, the question is, why do you want strength on your spirit? And Paul gives an unusual answer. We might say we want strength in our spirit so we can heal the sick. That'd be a, that's a great thing. Paul here, he focuses in on, he says, the reason you want strength on your spirit is so Jesus could dwell in your heart. So why do you want Jesus to dwell in your heart? So that you will be rooted and grounded in love. And you could only be rooted and grounded in love if he's dwelling in your heart. And that's only going to happen if you have strength in your spirit. And that's only going to happen through prayer. There's a very clear progression. Now, these are strange ideas to us because most of us maybe have ideas about what these terms and these realities point to, but they don't quite fit Paul's theology. Because we think, well, Jesus dwells in our heart today. We're born again. And in a sense, I think it's okay to say that. But Paul's talking something very, very, very specific and different than that. Let's go through it again. He says, verse 14, I pray, I bow my knees, I pray. He's praying for the church at Ephesus so that they have strength in their spirit. The Holy Spirit is energizing their human spirit. And beloved, that mostly happens through prayer, not only, but mostly. That's why the church is so weak today, because the window in which the spirit moves through to strengthen the human spirit is prayer. And there's so little prayer, and there's so little inviting the spirit's strength to the inner life. The spirit has plenty of power, but he says, I will not come except I'm invited. And the Father's prescribed way of invitation is a life of prayer and the word with fasting. That is the invitation that God the Father's ordained. That's how we invite the spirit to give us strength. Someone may say, I don't want to do it. I want to get spirit the other way. That is the God ordained way in which the spirit is invited effective, effectively. The effectual invitation is through prayer and the spirit moves on that. He, he sees that and he goes and he opens a window of power and touches the human spirit. Again, why do we want the human spirit strong? So the Christ dwells, he's moving in power on the emotions. Why do we want that? So that our emotions are transformed to where our emotions, Christ is, is, is moving on them, inspiring us. We are actually transformed with impartation. And the substance of that reality is now a part of our character long-term. Why, why do we need that? Verse 19, he gives the final of that at the end of verse 19, so that you could be filled up to the fullness so that you can have your destiny in fullness. Now what happens, you know, when first, when we talk about destiny, there's so many, it's such a relative term because we have a destiny in this life that we want to reach fullness of, but our full destiny in this life isn't the fullness of our destiny in the age to come. But let's, let's talk about the word fullness in the relative sense of our earthly life. Most believers want the fullness of their destiny. They want the end of verse 19. It's, it's, I don't think it's a, a profound statement or observation to say by far, the vast majority never do enter into their destiny. Certainly not the fullness of it. Maybe they touch the, the edges of it. Most believers, it's my opinion, never enter their destiny because the wet, the pathway to destiny is clearly these four steps right here. And there is no, there is no shortcut. There is no skipping these and showing up in our destiny in another way. Now a person may end up with a big mailing list, a big conference ministry, a mega church. That doesn't mean they've entered into the fullness of God for their life. I'm not talking about the ability to get a crowd. I'm talking about the ability to enter into the fullness of what God invited you to when you're, when he understood you were going to come to the earth. God had a plan for you. God has a plan for me. And there's a fullness that we are contending for. We're we're contending means fighting for it. We're laboring for this. And that fullness doesn't just come automatically. It's not guaranteed at all. Matter of fact, I think the vast majority of the body of Christ in history has never touched their personal fullness. And I believe that's, that's tragic. And there is more and more talk about fullness, but there is no pathway to fullness except the way Paul prescribes here. And so preaching on fullness is positive and it's heartwarming, but it's delusional. If it's devoid of this pathway, it's just a, it's just a smoke. It's it's a cloud. It's a, it's a pipe dream that never ever has reality in the person's life. And I I'm sure that most of us in this room are in agreement. I do not want to stand before the Lord coming up short of my fullness, my full destiny. Although I believe again, strongly, and I want to shake up a little bit by this, the vast majority of Christians, I believe in history have come up short of the fullness. So the re the point isn't to be negative to say, Oh, isn't that terrible? The point is to say, if the vast majority have not entered into it, then why would we think that we would easily or automatically just stumbled into it? We won't, we will contend for it. We will be focused, diligent, go after it. We will have to war against many distractions to stay focused on this thing. And that's what Paul's talking about here. Okay. And, and this fullness is found in the power of this threefold love because this threefold love is the only way forward to it because it's the only place that's in agreement with God because agreement with God is the only way that we're going to enter into our full destiny. So let's break this down a little bit. It's very, very practical, very challenging. This, uh, you know, this is one of those, you know, come at your own risk. I mean to Ephesians three, because if you read it carefully, you break it down and take it seriously. Your life will be ruined. If you take this passage serious. I mean, it's, it absolutely will ruin us if we take it serious because we have to give up on our destiny or we have to change our lifestyle radically. We've got to go one way or the other. Just say, you know what? We're not going to get our destiny. I'm not even going to go for it. There's no way I'm going to live this kind of life in the spirit. I don't want to, the price is too high, or you're going to say, I am not giving up on my destiny. No. Then you look at this. He said, I'm going for it. This is the Jesus called it the narrow way that few find. And Paul outlines in four steps, the narrow way here. And you could put different language on the narrow way, but this is the narrow way this passage. It troubles me, excites me because I know it's attainable. It's attainable verse 18. He says, uh, uh, you know, uh, that you could comprehend this with all the saints, with all the saints, this is attainable. This is not just for the, you know, the, the super saints or whatever that means it's for all the saints. So I'm encouraged, but it's like, Lord, this is like serious because we can't live carnal and go through the stepway. We cannot live. I mean, we fake our friends out, but we cannot, we cannot fake out the Holy spirit. We cannot live, uh, uh, you know, wrestling and, uh, uh, resisting the spirit when no one's looking and then end up in this pathway. It doesn't work that way. Okay. Roman numeral one, Roman numeral one, the main theme of the apostolic prayer of Ephesians three. Again, there's a different, there's a dozen ways to say the main thing. Paul's prayer is very significant, very dynamic revelation. He's praying at its most elementary way. We're starting on, we're starting at step one and two here. We're not, he's actually praying. They would enter into their fullness. I mean, the ultimate theme is, is the end of verse 19. They would enter into their fullness of which for those that have been around, we've been talking a little bit about this, the next verse down. I mean, after verse, uh, 2021 is the, uh, the, uh, doxology, the praise, the next verse, chapter four, verse one, he talks about therefore walk worthy. He's describing how to walk worthy of our calling in chapter three, because in chapter four, verse one, he says, therefore pointing back to chapter three, he goes, that's the way to walk worthy. That's the way to walk in agreement with God's heart. That's the way to enter into your destiny. So Paul's praying that the saints at Ephesus would feel exhilarated. He wants them exhilarated with God's affections. He wants the power of God moving on their spirit, awakening them to the love of God. Now we think about that as like, wow, that's so fun. And I think that's a great way to think of it, but it's more than fun. It's necessary to refashion our spirit to take the next step and the next step and the next step. So we get fullness. It is exhilarating. It's pleasurable. It's, it's a fascinating idea, but I want to throw in another idea. It's absolutely necessary to equip the inner man for the next step of the journey. Man or woman with a dull spirit gets shut down at step one. And most believers stay at step one. They stay at the prayer of the Bible, looking at it and they never, ever get past the dull spirit, the lethargic, dull spirit that doesn't feel the presence of God. Almost all believers that I know most of that by far in the high nineties percent, they never get past the dull spirit ever. I mean, 10, 20, 30 years later, they're still stuck with the dull spirit stage, which is not really step one. It's pre-step one. So this being exhilarated with the divine affections is such an exciting concept, but I want you to know it's more than exciting. It's necessary to equip the inner man for step two for stage two, but it's an end in itself. I like it because I like it, even if it didn't get me to the next stage. But the reason I'm saying that, because people think, well, if it's just about me being exhilarated, you know what? I think I'll be carnal tonight and wait to be exhilarated by God tomorrow. And they, you know, they, if it's only about them feeling the pleasure of it, then they, they kind of opt out tonight. Cause you know, it's not that bad, not feeling exhilarated, but many have not calculated the fact it is mandatory to equip their soul for the next stage. It's more than exhilarating is mandatory. It's necessary. It has to be done. It has to be done. The surgeon has to go to med school. They have to go to med school. They can't just say, you know, I'm going right from high school to surgery. They can't do it. It doesn't work that way. Well, the guy says, well, I love study. So it works for me. You say, well, it's more than that. You actually have to learn it. And so this is a very necessary reality that isn't optional. Like if you're in a good mood or bad mood one night, you're going to press into God or not press in and just decide, well, you know, I can get away with another couple of days without feeling God I've done it these years anyway, what's what's a few more days. And we want to think about a different, we want to think about the pleasure dimension, but we want to think about the absolute critical necessity of moving on to the next stage in God is required that we enter into this, this element of our spirit being exhilarated by God. So Paul's praying that the saints at Ephesus feel exhilarated with God's affection. He's praying for them that this would happen by the power of God. But, but he wanted, he wanted them to know this was a necessary foundation, not just a pleasurable experience. It was a critical foundation for their future. If they were going to enter into their destiny in verse 19, Paul is echoing the prayer of David. It's one of my favorite prayers of David. Psalm 36, eight. I've talked on last week. David said, uh, let me drink. He's talking to the, to the Lord. Let me drink of the river of your pleasure. In other words, let your Holy spirit touch my inner man and exhilarate me with you. I'm at, I put the word exhilarated in the river of his pleasure in the, uh, it says in the text to drink, but David meant let me experience it and let my spirit fill the power of God. That's what he meant. Oh, it's, it's, it's awesome that that which is mandatory is exhilarating. But if it's only exhilarating, it becomes optional. If we kind of feel we're desperate for a little exhilaration, but if we're kind of okay without it today, we could put it off for weeks and weeks always turn into years. And most people's lives, what they put off for a week or two, normally it's a month. And then they look back, it's three years, it's five years. So Paul's praying for believers in this prayer to experience love is the qualifier to the fullness of God in their life. Now, many believers, again, they're content to live without power at the heart level. Many believers, if they can get a lively ministry and get a little bit of a crowd, they don't mind if their spirit is lethargic, beloved, our inner man is the, is one of the, uh, great, I mean, is the greatest place of our inheritance is in our inner man. When God, when we contact God, it's our destiny to feel God. I mean, to feel God substantially. I don't mean, uh, a hundred percent of the time every day, but substantially to feel the power of God in our spirit, to feel God moving on our heart. And, and, and we've kind of relegated that to super saints that we read biographies on and get excited about beloved. This is for everybody, but we have to do it God's way. We have to approach this God's way. I am not content to have my heart dull and shut down and to read the word and not feel the power of it. I mean, sometimes that happens, but I, I, uh, am not happy for that to go on for days and days at a time. B this prayers, a significant theological statement of all, but said that at a half a dozen times already, it's a, it's Paul's theology. It's the pathway to fullness. It's the way forward. But the problem is if you don't do it, you're really stuck pre step one, where most believers are dead, lethargic spirit, loving sin, yielding to it. If they think they won't get caught living without the grace of God on their spirit, crying at the altar, hoping one day to have a ministry, maybe they can fill up a room, but it didn't have any power impartation. It doesn't change anybody for any substantive time. And the Lord says, I have so much more for you than that. What are you doing? This prayer is a significant theological statement of how to cultivate passion for Jesus. It's a theological statement of how to cultivate real active intimacy. I'm talking about active intimacy. That's two way where God's heart moves and we feel it. Our heart moves and God feels it. Our hearts moved by what God says. God's heart is moved by what we say. That's the biblical pattern for pursuing the way to feel loved by God. That that's at a very fundamental level. And I could say it the other way, it's, it gives the biblical pattern for pursuing the way to pursue the full destiny for your life on earth as well as in heaven. But we're focusing in on the earthly. So a lot of folks are saying, you know, I'm not worried about the destiny thing right now. I just like to feel God's love. How do you do it? This, this verse is the prescription. Others say, you know, I want to feel God's love, but I want to go all the way. I will, I want no regret at the end of my life. I want no regret. The thing I fear most in life is regret to stand before God when the Lord look and say, your life is over. You can't do it again. No, you didn't do what I told you. Oh, that would be the most horrifying thing. Any human being can experience is the regret on that moment, that hour they stand before God. Beloved. I pray that that's your greatest fear in life is regret. It will shape and form the way you spend your life in 15 minute increments. It really will. Maybe not a hundred percent of the time, but it will change the way you look at an hour in the afternoon. If you fear regret, I don't mean that we're, we're, uh, you know, kind of panic stricken to go earn God's love. That's not what I mean. God loves us for free, but I'm talking about our soul fashioned informed in the power of the loved where we walk it out to the fullness. See, Paul presents a four fold progress, uh, progression in Christian experience. And we can see this fourfold progression in the four times he uses the word that, because it's a, it's designating four stages that one, one stage, uh, uh, develops based on the foundation of the stage previous to it. One stage depends on the stage before it. Now, now having said that, I want to say that it's not so strict that you're, you know, you only do stage one and you never, ever touch any of your destiny until you get to stage four. It doesn't work that way. We're in one sense, we're living in a little bit of all four of the stages, a little bit of it, but in a substantial way, we have to have one stage in order to enter the second one in a substantial way. And, and again, most believers are, uh, are stalled out at pre-step one. And again, I'm not trying to be mean to the body of Christ, but I want us to know that that reality alerts me. It alerts me to be cautious with my life. If most don't do it, then I must be overly vigilant. I mean, not overly, I must be overtly vigilant in my spirit and fight for this thing because most don't get past just pre-step stage one, which is this, that dull spirit. Roman numeral two, let's look at the foundation just ever so brief of the threefold love of God, because this plays into it in stage three in a very dynamic way. And it's not just a clever idea that they all three flow together. It is a, it is a demand in the spirit for reality. It's not just a clever layout of kind of theological ideas. Cause it just, it is kind of a nice little thought, but it is a requirement of the spirit that stalls us out at stage three from our destiny in stage four, our full destiny. And the key word is full. You can have a little bit of your destiny from, from day one, you can walk in a little bit of your mandate from day one. I mean, there's so many guys living in so much compromise and hidden sin, still under a little bit of anointing. And, but it kind of surprised them because they got a big crowd and people were getting touched, but the Lord would say how much more I would have done if you would have been cooperating with that kind of sovereign call, it would have been tenfold anything that you had in your carnal, uh, compromising state. So, uh, you know, a guy doesn't want to look at a fact he's got a little bit going on and be content because the Lord might say, I would have given far, far more than that. So Roman numeral two, the threefold love presented in scripture, which is, uh, it again, it's stage three, but, uh, the, I'm giving it to you before we get there. The scripture sets forth a threefold dimension of love. It's love from God. God loves us. We feel that God loves us at stage one, love back to God. It's reciprocal. We give it back to God, and then it overflows to others. That is the threefold dimension of the love of God. Now, important to say all three dimensions are, are the source of the love is God himself in all three dimensions. It is a supernatural work in the heart. It is a supernatural work. It takes God for you to feel God. Most believers don't feel the presence of God. Most that I know. I mean, I don't mean most in the whole world. I don't know, but the most I know they say, I don't feel God's presence. Hardly ever. It takes God to feel God, but you know, and they might be tempted to blame God and the horses. No, I didn't work that way. It takes my participation, but you have to seek the things of the spirit before I'm going to release that to you. You don't have to earn it, but you have to be sincere in every area of your life to seek the spirit life, to feel the spirit feelings. And so many believers that join I hop, go to Bible school, go on the mission field, and they've got a couple of areas of their life that they're not obeying God in. And then they say, God, why it takes God to feel God. What's the deal. He goes, I only give that feeling in a consistent way to the people, not that are mature, but the people who are giving themselves to the spirit life. Cause folks like I, I don't want the spirit life, but I want the spirit feelings. And the Lord says, no, how dare you? How dare you say that you want my, the feeling of my presence, but you don't want the way of my spirit. And most folks have never done the math that they don't live in their private life. There's many areas that are grieving the spirit. They're not again, I'm not talking about immaturity. I'm there saying, no, I'm going to live in a little bit of immorality. I'm going to live in a little bit of deceit. I'm going to live in a little bit of bitterness. I'm going to stay with my covetousness. I'm going to live a carnal life, but I want to feel the spirit. And the Holy spirit says, no, I give the feelings of the spirit to the people who are pursuing a spirit life. And many believers end up accusing God of failure. Well, I tried and you never did your part. And the Lord says, you never sought a spirit life ever in every area of your life. And that's the requirement. And so what I'm saying is if it takes God to feel God, the point of that, is it just that we'll leave it on God's shoulders and hope he shows up the leader. The point of that, if it takes God to feel God is we got to get in unity with God because there's no other way to feel God's presence, but God approving and releasing it. He holds the keys and he holds it back. And he goes, I am not going to release my presence on your heart. The feeling of my love, because the feel the presence of God is eventually to feel exhilarated in his presence. And so again, there's many, they're just thinking, man, I want the feeling, but I don't want the life. And the spirit says, I won't take you on those terms. No, I will not take you on those terms. What do you mean? No, the preacher said you'd take me no matter what. That's a lie. He will not take you on any terms, but his terms. He won't take you on your denominational terms. He won't take you on the terms of your favorite preacher, your favorite author, or your Bible school. He only takes you on the terms. The word of God says, and he goes, you seek a spirit life. You'll have a spirit feeling in your heart. Well, I am 95% of my life. It's only that one area. The Lord says that one area is too many. The issue of obedience is always the last 2%. Beloved, I'm telling you a very critical point in your life. The issue of obedience and feeling power at the heart level is the final 2%. And I'm not talking about having perpetual victory. I'm talking about warring in truth to agree with God, warring against that last 2% in truth, not necessarily getting a victory every time, but warring with truth against it. You mean to tell me if I come with 98% of the areas of my life in agreement, there's one I'm hanging onto. It is an absolute shutdown of the spirit, your heart. Absolutely. That's what I'm telling you. And the Bible makes it really clear how dare you God. And the Lord says, I am King. I am God. You come to me and I receive you only on my terms, not on the terms of your denomination or your favorite preacher. That seems mean. No, it's not mean because the spirit life is the life of power and glory. It's awesome. But God is not going to be cheated by man and conned by man. He's not going to be. And he's really good at understanding man. Men have been trying to con God from the beginning is I will not be conned or dealt with, or give it a slight of hands by any man on the earth. I am God. And I've offered you my spirit on my terms. And there are no other terms. There is not life in God on our terms. There's only life in God on his terms. And the reason I feel heavy about this, I think this is a critical message for IHOP joining IHOP staff, quitting your job, going to a few prayer meetings is, is miles away from saying no to that last two or 3% in our life and agreeing with God and living a life in the spirit. It's not enough to hang out with a few fiery people and then live most of our, you know, the secret places quenching the spirit. It's like, uh, uh, I heard a preacher say this. I'm not, it's about the book Benny Hinn wrote, and it's, it's no negative about Benny Hinn, but it said this, uh, Benny Hinn wrote a best like book said, good morning, Holy spirit. And the idea, you woke up and said, good morning, Holy spirit, you know, and you were going to walk with him. And that's a phenomenal concept. But the Lord spoke to this one prophetic man. He says, here's what the Lord wants people to say is good morning, unquenched Holy spirit, not just good morning, Holy spirit, good morning, ungrieved Holy spirit. Okay. The spirit's been poured out. It says here in a, it's poured out in our heart. I mean, the love of God is poured out in the heart by the Holy spirit. But again, you know, we, we'll read the love of God's poured out in the heart by the Holy spirit. We might say, oh, okay. It takes the Holy spirit to make us feel the love of God. That makes sense. Okay. And what the, what Paul is really saying is the Holy spirit holds the keys to the love of God, touching you. The Holy spirit holds them in his hands. He goes, I'm not releasing it until you give yourself to me. So it's not just the Holy spirit has the power. He has the authority to refuse any heart that refuses him. And so the fact that the spirit has the power to pour love in the heart is glorious, but I want to tell you, he won't pour it on your heart. If you say no to him in one area, one area, I'm telling one area will do it. Won't send you to hell. I trust. Don't take my word for you, but you know, see someone go, well, Bickel said, well, Lord, that whoa, what was that about? But I'll tell you this one area in your life that you say no to will cause your heart to be shut down and you won't feel the presence of God. Maybe that rare moment, but you'll live with a stale burden, dull spirit. And I know many believers ago, 10, 20, 30 years, and they are just, they're all mystified about the secret of touching God. I go the secret. It's easy. Holy spirit's got the keys. He state championing wrestler. He re he wins every time. He's not going to negotiate. That's it. Say yes. And you get the, you get the feeling and the power for his presence on your heart. Say no argue the next 20 years and go dull. There is no other secret. It's just that simple. Okay. Look at D look at D the first is the first of the three, love is to feel God's love, right? To feel it, to feel his affections. He, to feel it from him to you. Oh, this is awesome. I can't think of anything more powerful. And when I look over the 30 years of my life, a walk of the Lord or however many years since 1972, I've lost track. But, uh, the years that I've given myself to the Lord, the, the greatest treasure in my life over decades is to feel that he likes me to feel it. Not all the time, every day, all day. It makes your spirit powerful. It makes your spirit happy. It makes your spirit bold. You don't have to make sure everybody's happy to make your future, right? Because the sovereign God, he likes you. You feel it even a little bit. I'm not claiming I feel it enough or a lot, but I have felt it a certain degree. My point isn't to give the measure of how much I felt. My point is to say a little bit of it is dynamic, dynamic, and no man, no man, no human spirit, man, or woman can live right without that feeling on their spirit. I don't mean live godly. They can't, they, they, they live broken. They can have billions. They wake up in fear. They wake up in oppression. They wake up with an angry spirit. They wake up discontent billions, but their spirit has got a, uh, an angst in it. It's got a twist and a turn in it. No human can live proper. They can't live with a happy spirit without this on them. You know, the great athletes, you know, they win the, this, that, and the guy, you know, owns all of this city and that city. And the great musician, the secular guy that's out there and you know, a billion records and their spirit is just, it's angry, depressed, fearful, defiled. It's heavy. And they're going, I can't get rid of that thing inside of me. No human can have this thing, right? Besides the spirit, give it to them. It's such, it's not even a secret. It's just blatantly true and obvious in the scripture. And to feel loved is to feel love is the destiny of every one of you in this room. God has promised it for every one of you, but on his terms, not on your terms and not on the terms of your denomination or of on your favorite preacher. And he says, if there's one area, you tell me, no one area. You tell me, no, the deal's off and the deal's off. I don't mean that you're going to go to hell. That's not what I mean by the deals off. What I mean is that the experience of God at the heart level is not going to happen. And there's just no point in trying to dabble with some immorality, some drunkenness, some drugs, some covetousness and bitterness, some slandering. As long as you don't get caught, that will defile your spirit and the spirit of God will be quenched. And unless that's repented of and resisted, there is no lively heart for you until you settle that issue doesn't happen. But if you do settle it, your heart is alive. And I don't mean you feel it all in the, in the moment I'm talking about feelings tonight, but I mean, your heart begins to feel the power and it builds over the years and it's every single human being can have it. You can have the most messed up past and God will forgive you in one day and says, if you'll be in agreement, you'll start it soon. Even, even soon. It's not like you wait 10 years, but he's the Lord. He's the Lord man. He's the boss. There's nobody. He won't negotiate with anybody and he won't give it on anybody's terms, but his own. And we need to be clear about it. We need to be clear about that. The second dimension of the love of God is not a feeling love from God, which is really exciting. It's feeling love back to him and beloved. I don't know. You know, I don't know which is more, you know, the guy says, what's your favorite, you know, your heart, your liver or your kidney or brain. I think you need them all, but I don't know. I think this is, they're both my favorite. I love to feel love for God. I love tender feelings, but I'm telling you they're supernatural. You can't make them happen. You can't buy them. You can't create them. You can't fake them. You can't conjure them up. Some meetings try to do it. You can't conjure them up and feel them. And in the real, they're given by the person who has all the keys to the deal. It's the Holy spirit. He can't be tricked or conned. He holds the keys to the whole deal called a tender heart. Now, the reason I call this second, because first John, right? Got it right there. We love him because he first loved us. We only love him and the overflow of the tenderizing of him, loving us to love God passionately. I mean, to be lovesick is the greatest way to live, but being lovesick for him is a very different, uh, dimension than him being lovesick for you and you feeling it. Those are two dimensions that are different. And I love being loved. I love the feeling. I love to be in prayer or not just, you don't have to be in the act of prayer, just did my leg and just doing anything and just feel God's pleasure. I love that feeling, but I love feeling loyalty back. We call it love, but, but maybe, you know, people have different ideas of what love is. I love feeling that all of my strength in truth is loyal back to God. That's a great feeling on the inside. You can have all kinds of rough things and relationships and circumstances and your body can feel horrible, but if you feel loved and you feel the power that you're loyal in return with all your strength, not that you're not that you don't fail, but, but when you fail, you rise up, you push delete your war against it. You feel loyal to God. Oh, that's a powerful feeling. You're invincible on the inside, but my burden, and I mean, I'm pained about it. There's so few Christians ever live that way because they get stalled out way at the early processes. F the third one is the third love. God is to feel it for others. It whether believers or unbelievers, that tenderizing feeling, just tenderized emotions are dynamic. Okay. Let's look at Roman numeral three stage one. I spent most of the time saying everything now I can say real quick. So stage one, there's four stages. Paul said, I bow my knee. I pray. So you can, we can pray for the church of Kansas city. We can pray for IHOP. We can pray for the one thing conference. We can pray for a Lou Engle in Washington, DC. We can pray for all the saints, you know, the church in Singapore and Baghdad and Israel. We can do what we, if we pray, God will give strength to people's spirits. A window of grace will open up a little bit. If we don't pray the window of grace will not open to the same degree. God has a certain amount of grace. He gives automatically, but he gives more grace. James four, six says there is a greater grace. I should have put that on the text. I mean, on the handout, James four, six, it's a really important one. There is a greater grace. In other words, there is a, there is a window that can be open to a greater degree if you want it. So if I pray a feeble week prayer right here for IHOP Lord, I ask you, I bow my knee. I don't really bow my knee. I pace. And then when I sit, my legs wiggle. Okay. So I don't really bow that much. I pace and wiggle, but it's the same concept. If I pray that God would grant, I don't have to yell or scream. If I pray that God would grant strength to the inner man of the people of IHOP, the window of grace will open up a little bit for the people of IHOP. I don't mean if I pray anybody, I mean, pick anybody, any believer it's walking with God. My point is the window opens greater if people pray. Now here's the, here's the logic of this. Here's sanctified selfishness. Just think of yourself for a minute. Let's just forget that the church in the city and IHOP pray this for you. Pray for your own heart. I have prayed this prayer. Again, it's sanctified selfishness. I'm admitting it. I prayed this Ephesians 1, 17 and Ephesians 3, 16 more for me than I ever have. I've prayed it. However, many times over the years, I don't know. I've prayed it more for me than I have for them. I go, here's what I want. I want strength in my inner man. I want it. Lord says, you ask with sincerity, I'll open the window and more strength will come more. Holy spirit power will touch your spirit. Okay. Verse, I mean, a Paul's praying for divine strengthening. Now here's, this is a very important point. This first one, because this is where people get stalled out right here. Of course they got to do with a sincere heart. I mean, they got to be going a whole heart for God. Again, I don't mean that they got to have victory in every area, but they got to be warring against every area they're stumbling. And they got to be fighting against it in truth. Paul is praying a for divine strengthening in our mind, emotion, and will. Here's it here. It is to prepare us to persevere. And what I mean is this is a, this is a, for those that are maybe new with the, with the scriptures, this is maybe a new idea, but it's a, it's a very strong biblical concept. There is an initial let's follow this here. The paragraph, there is an initial strengthening of our minds. If God didn't strengthen your mind a little bit, nothing in the word would make sense because it says the God of this world, the devil blinds the minds. The fact that you understand 10% of what you read or what is preached is because there's strength on your spirit a little bit. The second Corinthians four, four Satan blinds the minds. He's very powerful. I mean, his demonic energy blinds confuses and puts layers of rust and crust on the mind, so to speak. And they can't perceive the simple ideas. If there's a demonic blinding of the mind, they read it and they go, I don't get it. I can't feel it and I don't get it. There is a blinding of the mind from Satan against them. So let's not hit that so hard. Let's go the other direction and say, you understand only 10 or 20% beloved. That's a little bit of the power of God touching your spirit. That's not because you have superior intellect. There is God's grace. It's already touched you probably because some family member or a friend or somebody's prayed for you on the front end. I believe what John Wesley said, God does nothing except in answer to prayer. So we pray Lord bless. I hop, you know, you can yawn Lord bless. I hop doesn't matter all the form and figure and style and volume. It's if your heart and there will be a little bit more of the spirit of strength on the mind of the people in this ministry. I promise you, there'll be a little bit more. If we uttered in a room, I guarantee it, but there's an initial, there's an initial introductory understanding of the mind to God's affections because Paul's going to really take it to the point that they would understand God's affections because the affections, the burning heart of God, people go, I don't get this. God loves me thing because it takes power on your mind to understand it. That's why I've heard it for 10 or 15 years. I don't get the bridal paradigm thing. I've heard it a few times. I don't get it. I go, you're not going to get it because you're smart or not smart. You're going to get it because a little bit of power touches your mind and illumines you. And you know what, if you ask for it, it happens. And it's called Ephesians three 16. It's your inner man is your mind, emotions, and will your outer man is your, you know, your muscles, your blood, your bones, and all that stuff. You know, your inner man is your mind, emotions, and will. There is an initial strengthening of the heart that releases introductory feelings. You know, a person has been in the Lord. I feel a little bit, they understand a little bit and they feel a little bit and there's a little bit of strengthening of the will. They're a little bit inspired to press on a little bit inspired. So they understand a little bit, they feel a little bit and they understood and they're inspired to press on beloved. You are at the beginning of stage one. There's a little bit of strength on your inner man. Now seize it and go to stage two. Don't bail out there. Don't bail out at stage one. But again, the most believers I know, they don't get to stage one. Hardly, barely, just barely. They just mostly live with a dull spirit. Okay. Now be well, no, let's read the Galatians verse because this is important. Paul, the apostle says this don't be deceived because the reason he says don't be deceived because the next principle is very deceptive. He says, don't be tricked by this because this is a very tricky principle. He says, God will not be mocked. In other words, God won't be charged by an angry Christian. You didn't keep your word. God will not be mocked and found a liar. He won't be charged and found that he was guilty of the charge. He won't be mocked in this. Nobody will stand before him on the last day and charge him that he didn't do this a hundred percent. Like he said, he would, he won't be mocked. I love this. Whatever a man sows, whatever he reaps, whatever it's the, it's the idea of the farmer, the farmer goes out. I'm just making up the date. June 1st, he plants the seed. No farmer on June 2nd expects the corn to be there. Well, I planted it yesterday. Where's the corn? Maybe the sun's not working. Maybe God, you're not doing your part. Where's the, how come the corn's not there? I did. I know I planted. I was right here yesterday. I did it. Nobody imagines that or nobody plants corn and goes, you know, a few months later, however long it takes and says, where's the rice? If you plant corn, you get corn. Nobody in the natural plants and two things, they don't expect it to harvest immediately. They expect it to harvest some months, a season down the road. They don't expect immediate harvest. No farmer does. And neither do they expect a different harvest than the seed they planted. Nobody expects that in the natural to plant and have an immediate harvest, immediate impact. And neither do they expect it to be a different than the seed they planted. He goes, that principle, God will not be, uh, mocked. Don't be tricked by this. If you sow verse eight to the flesh, you sow anger, pride, immorality, drunkenness, covetousness, uh, boastfulness, laziness, selfishness. You sow that crop. It won't hit you. June 1st, June 2nd. He goes, you will reap that crop of corruption. Your soul will be depressed, heavy. You won't feel God. You'll be completely. The word of God will be shut down and dead to you the whole bit. He says it won't happen immediately. It'll take a while before the crop comes up, but it will be the crop exactly like you sowed. He says, don't be tricked. There's no way to trick God. I mean, you'll never fake God out. Holy spirit's the only one with the keys to make our heart alive. He said, but let's go the other way. He says, don't, don't just, the guy goes, ah, verse eight. I did that for years. The Lord says, you know what? Starting, starting right now, right now, this very minute, you can turn it around and begin the good part of verse eight tonight. God says, I am so kind. I don't care if you resisted me for the last 20 years or five years or whatever. I will give you a new beginning with a brand new crop starting at five minutes after nine, right now, the second it starts right now, if you want it, you go, you're kidding. He goes, yeah, I will delete the whole deal and start over again, but it's going to be a while before the news crop comes, but I will give you the crop of the soju. So the seed you sowed says, God will not be mocked. He won't be found there. Not one human being, billions of human beings will stand before the judgment. Not one human being will be able to tell God he didn't do this exactly a hundred percent in their life. He said, I will not be mocked. He goes, if you sow to the spirit, you will reap life. I don't read the word everlasting and trip. It doesn't mean you'll just die. You'll live after you die. It means your spirit will be alive. You'll have life. It's the Zoe of God, the life of God. If you sow to the spirit prayer, fasting, humility, confession. I mean, you're, you're in an argument and you look at the guy and you say, I was wrong. You're right. I am sorry you went. And even if you were not, they were more wrong than you, humility, prayer, servanthood, kindness, money, fasting prayer, because you sow to the spirit. He goes, I promise you, you will have life moving on your spirit in this age and the age to come. And I promise you, God is not mocked. I mean, the greatest murderer pervert in the earth can change their mind tonight and begin to feel the life of God soon, not in the full measure, take them all to mature, but they begin to feel the power of God in their spirit. If they go a hundred percent starting tonight, it's fantastic. I've watched so many believers for so many years, trying to beat this system. They keep one or two areas locked away that they're going to try to trick the Holy spirit on, but they don't know the Holy spirit's got the key. And he goes, I'm not, I'm not changing the deal. I will not give it to you. The presence of God on your terms. And they spend 10, 20, 30, 40 years. So many do this and they think, well, I tried Christianity. It didn't really work. So what on earth you didn't try Christianity. You tried Christian dogma without ever touching God. You didn't ever try Christianity. Christianity is fail-proof. The true thing. Absolutely. God is not mocked works every time. Now B and we're going to end with B. We're going to end with this. The, uh, because there's the other principles we can go on and on. And Ephesians three is one of those I hit all the time. Anyway, on set on Friday night. So you'll hear it a half a dozen times before if you're new here, we'll pull up the old handout and go through it again. But be here, uh, in another passage, Paul defines more precisely what it means to have strength on your spirit and strength on your spirit. He defines in Colossians one as strength that brings patience and the word patients in most translations is the word perseverance or steadfastness. It takes strength on your spirit, not to quit the course. The lifestyle we've called, we're called to fasting, praying, humility, servanthood, sowing finances, believing in faith. It takes power on your spirit to sign up for it and to stay signed up. And I don't mean signed up for a program. I don't mean a program. That's, that's not even important to me. The program I'm talking about wherever God's, whatever, wherever God has you, whatever city of the earth you're in to keep your spirit signed up for this, wherever you are in the earth and whatever assignment. So I'm not talking about a Bible school program, that kind of deal. It takes power on your spirit to have perseverance because Paul's writing to Ephesians and Colossians at the same time. And he uses the exact same phrase. He writes Ephesians and he writes Colossians. He stays in prison. He's in prison in Rome when he's writing it. And, uh, he writes these right one right after the other. And he uses the exact same language. Here's the point I'm making. Here's the point I'm making is that I pray constantly. This is, uh, one of my little, uh, you know, it's a young person says, what are some of the things you do? I said, I'll tell you exactly some of the things I do verse Ephesians 3 16. I asked God for spirit power on my inner man. I want my mind to understand more. I want my emotions to feel more and I want my will strengthened. So I don't quit with tenacity. Now I ended up in a good place. Here's why I hope this didn't sound boastful, but I, uh, I attribute it to God is that the Lord against my will called me to prayer. You know, when I was 23 years old, he told me to do this. I mentioned that earlier. I didn't even have any sense to know that was a good calling. I thought it was like weird. I thought, I don't know how to do that. And here's why I ended up in a good place is I'm called to prayer. So I don't know what to do. I don't know how to pray. I don't like prayer. And I pick these verses. I picked this, uh, 15 apostolic prayers. There's about 25, but 15 main ones wrote them on a piece of paper, begin to pray them every day, beginning every day at every prayer meeting. I mean all the daily prayer meetings since may 79. And I was praying the prayers without any knowledge or feeling or any common sense whatsoever. That was guaranteeing me. I was going to get the download. And so I go some years later, I went, Oh Lord, I've kind of, you know, been going after this thing hard for these years. And how come I keep going hard after it? And, uh, I don't really ask that question, but, uh, I'm, I'm, it's kind of a made up conversation here. And the Lord might answer, you know what? You prayed those prayers. You didn't even know what they meant. And I only prayed them because they're the only ones I could find. I didn't pray them because they were my favorite ones. There's only 15 of them. I did prayer meetings every day and I ran out of them. I mean, the fifth, I, I, I beat them to death. I mean, the same 15, they're worn out. They seem like, and, uh, but they're not, they're still alive. And I can imagine the Lord saying, son, without even knowing it, you landed good because you ended up with an occupation that guaranteed you a download. And so those of you that are saying yes to the grace of prayer, you're already setting up your situation for five and 10 years from now. I didn't figure any of that out, but I've been praying this prayer for years. Not because I liked the prayer because I was in prayer meetings and didn't know what else to do. So I picked it. And now after some years, I begin to understand it. I went, am I still going to get paid for all those hours of prayer on that verse? In other words, am I going to get the reward of it? And the Lord's answers? Yes. You mean I'm going to get strengthened by spirit for all the, are you kidding? All that counts. Even if I didn't get it, like it or understand it, it all counts. Oh, good. Good. I'm telling you, you want strength in your spirit. Start with verse 16. Pray it every day. I don't, I mean, for the first number of years, I didn't feel a thing ever when I prayed that thing never seemed, it seemed like a strange terminology to me. I really didn't think what on earth, why didn't Paul make it simple? What on earth is this? So let's, let's go to the top of page one. I just want to read verse 14 to 19 again at the top of the page, just to end it with this. So I felt like the Holy Spirit took me on a little bunny trail here to hit the issue of obedience because that wasn't on my heart tonight. It wasn't the issue. I mean, it wasn't, that's why I just kind of got off course here. The point he was, he was focusing on, I could feel it because I would get off of it and I'd feel that stirring is that it's the last 2% that's keeping the presence of God from touching your heart. It's like I've joined IHOP. I'm two fasting days a week. I read my Bible all day long. I do this. I give to the poor. I'm in the healing teams. I'm, I'm serving people. I'm doing this. I just do pornography. I mean, honestly, there's, there's a hundred people in this room, very possibly that are a dabbling in pornography at least. So I'm not saying that like some great horrific, oh no, bah humbug, aren't you the worst? That's not my point. Most, uh, many, many, many, many Christians doing pornography on the side after their prayer and fasting day. And so I'm not saying that to mock anybody or to slam anybody. I'm saying this, I'm just giving you the answer. There's just, there's no way it's going to work. It's impossible. It will not work. We must shut the door, whatever you call it, shut the door of, of the issue of the issue. Another person it's bitterness and they just slandered is that one guy that did that one thing five years ago. And they just, whenever that name's mentioned, they go, you know, that brother, I'm really concerned about him. And he is, they're just poison in their spirit. And the Lord says, no, you got to stop that. That's as absolutely debilitating as pornography is the other guy. He absolutely refuses to give any of his money to God. I mean, he'll fast pray only pornography to blesses everybody, but he's has a covetous spirit that's based in fear. He just won't. He is the Lord of his money. The Lord says, no, you're not. I am well, you're the Lord of everything. I'll do fasting and prayer and everything, but you're not touching my, well, a little bit, but not fully. He goes, no, I will lead your money or you will not enjoy my presence. Well, yes, I will. You wait and see. I'm just going to read books that back up that I can spend my money the way I want and deny God. Now, as long as I pray him fast, I can kind of balance it out. The Holy Spirit says, no, you can't. No, you can't. You want my presence. I got the keys. I unlock it. I won't unlock it on your terms only on mine. And I, and it was as well. I come to you. He says, I reject you coming with that offer. I reject it. No, I won't take you. You won't know. I won't take you. You must come my way. I'm God. You're a little guy. I'm God. Yeah. But that church preaches grace, like you're God, but you don't really care that much. He goes, I'm God. And I care. It's a lie. And I feel like that's where the Holy spirit took me off path front from this. So, but I'm happy with that, but because I need to hear it for me and you need to hear it for you. We all need to hear that again, but let's just finish with the, you know, that just read the verse again. I bow my knee to the verse 16. So that he'll grant you pray. A window of strength will open a little bit. It's initial. It's only initial. You get strength on your spirit a little bit. You get perseverance a little bit to stay with it. Beloved lock into verse 16. I mean, really lock into that for you and the people you love for 17. What happens with, do you get a little bit of strength in your spirit? So that the next, that Jesus, you feel him on your emotions in a substantial way. He's moving and living and breathing and you feel him. And I mean, I'm just quoting another verse in a, in a wrong way, but he's, he's moving on you when it says dwells, just have the idea he's moving freely and you're feeling the movements of his heart and your heart. Oh, that's powerful for Christ to dwell in our hearts. This isn't being born again. They're talking about for Jesus to release what he's feeling in your heart, not just the pain of what he's feeling, but the pain to the exhilaration. You feel his presence in a substantial way, but beloved that comes only after verse 16. Then after that, you get rooted in grounded in a consistent way. And the threefold love of God, you get tenderized and then your capacities in God, in large, you are able to comprehend with new capacities. Your whole, uh, your bandwidth in the spirit multiplies dynamically that's under the phrase, able to comprehend your capacity enlarges greatly. And then you would know verse 19, you experience, you experience realms of power beyond human comprehension that no human, uh, well, there's a lot to that. Uh, it's beyond just human intellect. It takes God to give it to you, but it's bigger and better than you ever bargained for. Then in that context, you enter into your destiny. The destiny at the end of verse 19 is the end of that process. It's not reading a book on your destiny, giving it to your friends. So now you're going to have your destiny, lots of destiny books going around that doesn't want to do anything for you apart from those four steps right there in terms of the fullness of God. At the end of the day, God's not going to be cheated. He's going to have his people. God's people have tried for decades, I've been for centuries to somehow have God without hassling with God. That's really true. We want God, but we don't want to hassle with him. We want God, but we want to, we want to be us and do it our way, but we want God. And the Lord says, no, at the end of the day, you're going to have me on my terms and I'm going to be delighted. And so are you.