Mike Bickle emphasizes the vital role of forerunners in proclaiming the coming of Jesus, urging believers to prepare themselves and others for His return. He challenges listeners to critically engage with biblical teachings, ensuring they align with Scripture. Bickle believes that many in the audience may have a calling to be forerunners, tasked with sharing prophetic insights about the end times. He highlights the importance of prayer, fasting, and living a holy life as foundational commitments for those who wish to fulfill this calling. Ultimately, he encourages everyone to actively pursue their relationship with God and to share that journey with others.

Top of page 35 in the teaching notes, and again those that are joining us by the web stream, these notes are on the, on the website. This is one of the subjects that is most important to my particular ministry. I mean my first subject is to proclaim Jesus so people get saved and grow in the love of God. But apart from that general calling that every one of us have as our first calling, the raising up of forerunners, being a forerunner and raising up forerunners. Now I'm a little sad because this is the topic I want to spend the most time on, but I'm going to really skip this session and leave it, I don't know how many pages, leave it to you to study on your own. I'm only going to make a few points to kind of stir up your appetite for those of you that don't, you've never heard of the forerunner ministry, and yet at the same time you have that calling and you don't even know it. So I want to stir you up a little bit. But before I say that, I want to, I want to give you a challenge. And we give this challenge to our Bible school students and our interns on a regular basis. Here's the challenge. Don't receive anything from my ministry or any person on this platform that you don't see with your own eyes in your own Bible. I don't care how persuasive, how convincing anybody is in a pulpit, don't believe it till you see it with your eyes in your Bible. I teach our young people, in a spirit of humility, challenge everything we say. Don't challenge it with a bad spirit, challenge it with humility, but challenge it. If you want to be loyal to Jesus, and if you want to be faithful even in our midst when you're here, make sure what's being said, you can find it in the Bible. So we encourage our young people to be thinkers. I'm not looking for a bunch of people that are enthusiastic, run and jump off a cliff. I want people who think critically, who think deeply, who put a premium on understanding, not just on feeling. Now having said that, I love to feel. I love to feel the presence of God, but I want to think clearly from the biblical point of view. So whatever I say in this session and all the others, and if some of you come to the Bible school or you take it online, I challenge you to challenge everything we say. I love it. I have young people come to me and say, Mike, I can't see that in the Bible. I blow them a kiss, give them a $5 bill, and they say, I love that. That's not rebellion, that's a lover of truth. Paragraph A, just the first, just four or five minutes on this session, then I'm going to move on. I'm going to just grit my teeth and move on to the practical stuff, which is the next session that we'll develop the notes on. In my opinion, we are in the early days of the generation of the Lord's return. We're in the early days. I believe there are people in this room that will see the Lord's return in your lifetime. I don't know when, I don't know who. It might be the 20-year-olds, it might be the 2-year-olds. Nobody knows the day or the hour, but in this session, I put a little bit of time, which I'm not going to cover. Jesus gave prophetic signs that the generation that He would return in, those signs would be clear, and I've got good news for you. Many of those signs are unfolding and increasing on a global level for the first time together, increasing on a global level right now in these days. And I believe in the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, maybe longer, maybe shorter, those signs are going to come to a fullness and the Lord's going to return. If that is true, there will be very unique dynamics in your lifetime, if that is true, and you're one of those that see His return. The good will get really good, and the bad will get really bad in a way that's never been comparable in any time of history. Very dramatic, very powerful, very glorious, very dangerous, very unique in many ways. And the Lord's answer in mercy is to raise up forerunners ahead of time. I mean several decades ahead of time, who gain understanding of those unique dynamics from the Bible. And they begin to make them known to the people, to believers and unbelievers. They begin to preach from the Bible, the written word, this is what's going to happen, this is what's going to happen. So that when it happens, people are not confused or surprised. May not happen for a few decades, but they proclaim it faithfully. So when it does happen, believers and unbelievers alike will say, this is what we've heard about for many years. This makes more sense because they've been preaching it for years. I believe that many of these forerunners, and I believe there's millions, not billions, but I believe there's, you know, I don't know the number. It's more than thousands, but it's still a small percent. I believe everybody can have that calling if they want it. I don't believe it's a calling for some elite group. Anyone that wants to say yes to this, I believe they can have that calling. But I believe that the Lord's raising up a lot of folks, of people in their 20s, in their teens. In my opinion, they will be at the front of the line, 10, 20, 30, 40 years, the front line of God's purpose. Meaning, the unbelievers are in trouble, and they are giving answers, and they are manifesting power. And I believe God's raising up forerunners in streams, all the different streams, and all the different denominations in the body of Christ. This session gives details, gives definition. It's only an introductory session, but for those of you, as you just heard this last couple of minutes, you say in your heart, I think that's me. I don't even understand what it is, but I think it might be me. Or, you're saying, I know that's my calling. I've been aware of this for a couple years now. I want to urge you to read this, not in the conference, just when you go home, you know, in the next few weeks. Just take some time and study through this session some of the basic, basic ideas of what the forerunner ministry is. Now, with great pain, I'm done with this session. Ouch. I really want to go into it. But I'm going to move on. Turn to page 47. Now, I believe that forerunners, many of you are in this room, from many different streams in the body of Christ. It's not about being connected to IHOP. One guy said, so you think IHOP is leading the way with forerunners? I said, that is absolutely absurd. Meaning God's raising up forerunners at all the streams of the body of Christ because Jesus is preparing His church for His return. It's not you or them or us or them. It's the whole body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is calling into this awareness in the years to come. I believe these forerunners, some will be pastors. Some will be evangelists. Some will be media missionaries. Some will be in the arts. Some will be in the marketplace. Some will be homeschooling moms. I really believe this. That some of the most dynamic forerunners will be homeschooling moms training their children. Singers, musicians, writers, actors, many expressions. Technology will have many forerunners working in the field of technology. Turn to page 47 if you would. I have, so, you want to be a forerunner. So now I have here seven commitments that I believe are necessary to be prepared to prepare others. We have to be prepared if we're going to prepare. How can I prepare you if I don't prepare me first? Now these seven commitments are not comprehensive. Meaning there are other things involved besides these seven. But these seven commitments will give you a general road map. And if you, if you do these seven plus some other things the Lord shows you personally that are just biblical truths, I believe you will be in the path of being prepared to prepare others. So this is, I trust will be a practical session. And then we'll take a break. In the next session we're going to continue in this same, in this same chapter in the teaching notes. We're going to stay this session, take a break, and come back and finish this session after the break. So two sessions on this one set of notes here. Number one commitment, to pray daily. Now I'm going to skip this one because I'm going to cover this one in depth tomorrow. Tomorrow I want to talk about how people like you and me, who don't by nature like prayer. I told you yesterday, when God began to call me to prayer, I didn't like prayer at all. It was boring. The Bible was boring. Hated fasting. Witnessing. I did it. I did a lot of witnessing. I liked it sometimes. A lot of times I didn't. Sometimes I'd go, oh man, I have to witness. And other times I really liked it. So I was a mess. I love God. I didn't like prayer, fasting, Bible study, or witnessing. But like I said, I liked meetings. I love to go to meetings. Prayer is essential. The connect, the heart connect with God. I'm going to skip that one today because we're going to look at it and give some practical steps. Some of them are in the handout, I mean in the notes. But I'm going to cover some things that are, that are not in the notes that I think will be helpful for you in your development. Excuse me. Let's go to Roman number two. Fast weekly. Pray daily, fast weekly. Wes Martin did a superb job on teaching about fasting. It was superb. We embrace voluntary weakness that we could live by the strength of another. His name is Jesus. Fasting is important. I'm just going to comment a minute or two on this. Paragraph B, Matthew 6, verse 17. Jesus said, when you fast, your Father will reward you. When you fast, the Father will reward you. Paragraph C, the fact that God rewards fasting tells you how important fasting is. Would the Father reward something that was not important from His point of view? No, He wouldn't. Jesus said, when you fast, not if, but when. In other words, He was telling the apostles, this will be a regular part of your life. The idea that God rewards fasting tells us how important it is to God. Now some of those rewards are external. The power of God breaks forth in circumstances. But some of those rewards from God are internal. Your heart becomes tenderized. Now as I've taught about fasting over the years, most people are aware of some of the external rewards. Where the power of God breaks in and things change. But I run into people often, they never thought about the internal rewards that fasting changes them and tenderizes them. And enlarges their capacity to feel the presence of God and to receive understanding of God's heart. When I begin to understand that fasting changed me inside, I don't mean just made me a better person. That's not what I mean. That's a good point. I mean enlarged my capacity where I could feel God more. How many of you want to feel God more? I certainly do. I love to feel the presence of God. I love it. And I find when I'm fasting regularly, and over the years, the 40 years I've been walking with the Lord, I've had seasons where I fasted real regularly. I had seasons where I did not. And I had seasons where I was half and half. And I love what Wes said. Everybody who fasts blows it many times. That's really right. I tell people, push delete and jump right back in the race. Don't wallow around in how bad you blew it. Blew it, I'm signing back up. Push delete, never talk about it again. Jesus, you love me. I love you. I'm your favorite one. Here I am. Let's do it. That's the way to live. Forget yesterday's failures. Don't forget this morning's failures. Push delete. Move on with a heart engaged with Him and confidence that He enjoys you. Well, I've fasted again in the last 40 years. I'm an old guy. And so I got 40 years of this. But in my teen years, it was like, oh, I don't know. My leader started telling me, I don't know about this fasting thing. Then I dabbled with it, did it. Did it regularly, quit doing it. Did it regularly, quit doing it. Did it regularly but failed. So I got lots of seasons. And I want to tell you this, for sure. The seasons where I was consistent with fasting. I'm talking about not for a week or a month but meaning I would do my once a week, two days a week, that kind of thing. When I would stick with it for a number of years in a row. And sticking with it doesn't mean I do it 100%. It means I'm doing it about 80% of what I commit to. That's what I mean by stick with it. I do it for two or three years in a row. I can discern a marked, radically discernible difference of the tenderizing inside of me. And when I quit doing it, I get busy, I get tired. That tenderness, it doesn't go away all the way, but it diminishes. And I go, oh, man. I want that tenderizing. I get so addicted to feeling his presence, I can't live without it. I don't want to fast, but I want his presence. I want to feel it more. And when I fast, I get not just one time for one week in a row, not even one month in a row, but I stay with it a number of months, that tenderizing begins to happen. You ask Jesus for grace to fast, he will help you. I pray that prayer many times. Even when I'm in a real faithful season of fasting, meaning I'm doing it one, two, three times a week sometimes, going on for months and months and months, I still ask him each time, help me fast today. Help me. I don't take it for granted. I need help to fast. And I call on him, and he helps me. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it means the yes in my spirit is stronger than the no in my flesh. My flesh goes, no, no, no, stop it. You're killing yourself. But in my spirit, I go, that might be true, but the yes is bigger. That's what I mean by he helps me. The yes is bigger than the no. The no doesn't go away. I still want to break my fast every hour, but the yes is bigger. That's what I mean by help. The reason I say that, one guy says, if I get grace to fast, I won't be hungry. I said, I never had that kind of grace. If I get grace to fast, I won't be tired. Never had that either. If I get grace to fast, that means the temptation goes away. Never had that either. I've heard people talk about the grace of fasting, and I go, I don't know what planet you're living on, but I feel hungry, tired, and tempted through the fast. But the yes in my spirit is bigger than the no in my flesh, and I stay with it. And I don't normally feel tender while I'm fasting. I feel tender the days after, or even the, you know, as the weeks unfold, the tenderizing doesn't necessarily happen during the fast. Some people have the idea if they're fasting, they're feeling God. Rotten. Your body is in detox. You're like, how are you feeling? How's your fast going? I go, as normal. Rotten. Sometimes I get that swoosh of God that surprises me, but mostly I don't try to measure where I'm at at the fast. I quit doing that a long time ago. I try to measure it over one in two years to see that there's a new tenderizing in my spirit. That's what I care about. Some people think that fasting is what radical Christians do. I talk to some guys that would, you know, would visit us at IHOP, and they go, you guys are so radical. You do that fasting and prayer. And I go, that's not radical. That's normal Christianity. Read the Bible. That's not what fanatics do. That's what born-again believers do. They said, well, I'm a born-again believer. I said, I'm not going to comment about you. That's not my point. I'm saying that's Bible 101. That isn't like, you know, the real intense women of God and men of God, they do fasting, and all the rest of us just kind of hang out and watch them. No. This is Christianity 101. Young people come and they say, well, our church never taught fasting. I say, I don't want to comment on that. I don't want to comment about your church or your group. That's none of my business. Jesus taught it. That's all I care about. If it's in the Bible, I want to do it, and I want to teach it. End of story. Christianity 101. Now there are the qualifications of, if you're pregnant, if you're sick in your body, minors, we have worked out very carefully those important qualifications. We have those on our website, and I encourage people to pay attention to those. Top of page 49. I have seven types of fasts that are in the Bible. Seven types of fasts that are in the Bible. A, fast to experience the power of God in your ministry. That's the fast that most people think most about, and that's good. That's a good fast. I want a fast to flow in the power of God in a greater way. Now you can move in the power of God without fasting, because it's by the grace of God and the anointing of the Spirit. But if you fast, there will be a sensitivity in you, and the power will increase in your experience. Paragraph A is the type of fasting most people who fast are aware of. Paragraph B, Daniel fasted to get prophetic insight into the end time plan of God. Now that's a new one for some people. C, we fast to pray for the release of God's promise for your family, your city, your nation. This isn't different than just power in your own individual ministry. It's for the purposes of God in your city, your nation, your family. Fasting goes along with prayer, and more happens. D, fasting to stop a crisis. E, for protection. F, for direction. G, my favorite one, the one that Wes spent time on in the morning session, fasting to grow in intimacy with God. It's the internal reward He gives you where you feel His presence, you receive His love in a faster way in greater measures. Fasting doesn't earn you anything, it positions you to receive more and to receive it faster. It's still a free gift of God, you don't earn it by fasting, you put yourself in the way of a, of a catalytic increase. You receive more and you receive it faster. Paragraph H, at the end of paragraph H, we don't fast to motivate God. To love us, He loves us. We don't fast to move His heart in this, in this way, we fast to move our heart. I'm talking about this fast that's related to intimacy with God. Well, fasting is important. I encourage people that have, which is the vast majority, they, they, they, they don't have health problems. They don't have an eating disorder. I encourage them to fast one day a week. Someone says, till six o'clock? Or do we fast till the next morning? I encourage the next morning, but six o'clock, that night's a good beginning. But I encourage you to fast the whole, till the next day. Just give it a shot. But I encourage you also that this will not hurt your health if you're a normal, healthy person to do it two days a week. Many groups, through history, have done this two days a week. It won't hurt you. As a matter of fact, it'll make you healthier. You know, Wes Martin, he was kind of radical. He said, do them two days back to back. I go, intense. I like to slip a little eat day in between sometimes. There you go. I can see I won the vote there. But that back to back, man, that's, that's good. Again, you don't earn it, but more happens the more you do it. So, I was back there listening to Wes. I go, go, man of God, go. That's right. I've done that a number of times for some years. And then I slip a day in between, then I drop one day off, and oops, and then I get that day back on again. And you understand how that goes. Top of page 51. Top of page 51. Forerunners don't just pray daily, fast weekly, they live holy. They live holy. Now, when I talk about living holy, I like to talk about living fascinated in the pleasure of loving God. I wrote a book called The Pleasure of Loving God. Now, I've had comments through the years from that book. They go, the pleasure of loving God, I thought that was grit your teeth and pay the price. I go, there's sometimes you do grit your teeth and pay the price. There is a dimension of that. But that's not the only dimension. We can get in a place before the Lord where He begins to fascinate our spirit. And we feel pleasure in this exciting understanding. And I don't mean it has to be some bizarre new idea. Simple truths making a new impact on our heart. Jesus says, I love you, but it hits us in a new way. And we go, wait a second. The eternal God never was created, forever was God who created in Genesis 1. He became a human, was crushed by the wrath of God, and He likes me? I would go like, whoa. That's a simple idea. But that has layers and levels of impact on your spirit when that hits you. It's like there is nothing more exciting and mysterious than that point. He's the Genesis 1 God, Jesus. Jesus spoke and created the heavens and the earth. He was uncreated. Never was there a day He did not exist. He became human. Beloved, He didn't become human to die for us. And then He gets up to heaven and goes, whoa, that was intense. Here, Father, take that human thing. Take it back. That was too intense. When He put on the garments of humanity, He is human forever now. Billions and billions of years from now, He will be human. That is intense. Fully God, but human. The Father and the Spirit, they will never be human. And Jesus has a, there's a unique dimension of relating to us because He became human. That is fascinating what that means in reality. That's not the only part that's fascinating. I just, I can't get over that. Well, if you read the book of Revelation, forever we'll say worthy is the Lamb. We will never get over this. Never. A million years from now, we will be awestruck by what I just said. We'll have a lot more understanding than we do now. Paragraph A, holiness equips us to enjoy life with God. The reason I say that, some people have this approach to holiness that's negative. When they hear holiness, they go, oh no. Holiness. When I hear the word holiness, it is a call to what I call the superior pleasures of being fascinated by God. The call to holiness is a call to live equipped in agreement with God, feeling the presence of the power of God, because we're living in agreement with Him. And He empowers us to love Him more, to feel more, and to agree with Him more. That's called obedience. Now, we're not going to be able to spend much time on this one, holiness. I'm just giving a quick overview in this session on these seven commitments. But on page 73, don't look at it now, just note it. I have a teaching, a lengthy one, called the Revelation of Grace. And the Revelation of Grace is really the call to holiness. And in that teaching, Revelation of Grace, I take many of these ideas, I just expand them. Because we want to understand the Revelation of Grace. And we want to walk holy because that's where our spirit is liberated. We feel more, and it's exciting to live when we live holy. When we live in sin and compromise, it's not that God doesn't love us. And when we repent, He even enjoys us while we're growing. Isn't that exciting? He doesn't just enjoy you after you mature. He actually enjoys you while you're maturing. I love that. I love being enjoyed. But I don't want to just be enjoyed through the lens of forgiveness. I want the defilement and the dullness of sin out of my emotions. I don't want just the assurance that I sin, I repent. He says, I believe you. My blood covers you. I enjoy you. You're my man. I love you. Yes, I love you. But then I still feel defiled and dull. I don't want to live dull. I want to live bright in my spirit. I want to feel God. I want to feel God at night when I go to bed. I don't mean I feel God all day, every day. But I want to feel God in the mornings. I want to feel God's presence. And so, I don't want to just live constantly in forgiveness. Knowing that God enjoys me. I want that defiling thing out of my spirit. That power. Now, we will always struggle with sin. But as we mature, that defiling presence has less of a hold on us. And we feel more the brightness and the tenderness. And our spirit is excited. Beloved, I love living excited on the inside. And I don't mean just excited by my ministry. Like, oh, my ministry is growing. Isn't that exciting? Well, that's cool. That's not what excites me. My dream of life is not that IHOP would grow, my ministry. My dream is that my heart would grow and I would connect with Him. That's my dream, is that. You know, I've had people that, because we, it was back in 1983, when the Lord spoke audibly to do 24-hour prayer. I've said that through the years. Spoke audibly. 24-hour prayer, we put a sign on the wall. 24-hour prayer, you know, with singers and musicians. We're in the Tabernacle of David, is what that means. People for 16 years, they would come to our church. What's that sign? 24-hour prayer. I don't know. I think it means 24-hour prayer. They go, what are you going to do? And I go, I don't know. How are you going to do it? I don't know. What's it going to look like? I don't have a clue. For 16 years, really, I didn't. I just had that sign. And then, 12 years ago, IHOP started. 1999. Matter of fact, it was January, 12 years ago next month, is when we announced it and began to proclaim it. IHOP is beginning. And so, that was, so it's, so 12 years ago we started. But for 16 years, we waited. So, as the years have gone by, some of my friends from around the nation, they would come and visit IHOP and they would see the growth. And they would say, this is your dream. For 16 years, you dreamed about this, and it happens. And I said, IHOP is not my dream. IHOP is my assignment. I'm happy to do IHOP. Not always, but most of the time. I'm happy to do IHOP. IHOP is not my dream. They said, what do you mean? You talked about it for years. I go, this is not my dream. It's my assignment. My dream is the anointing to love God, to feel God, and the power to give myself. That's my dream. I said, IHOP can't touch my dream. I said, IHOP might grow real big. My dream is not helped at all by IHOP growing. IHOP may just fall apart. My dream won't be touched. Either way, nobody can touch my dream. Nobody can. It's between me and Him. That's what holiness is. The power to feel that. The power to close your eyes and be in a conscious communion with the transcendent God who's outside of time. I'm He's before and after anything that's ever happened. He's eternal. That's our dream. He loves us. He wants to bring our heart in unity with Him. Beloved, that's awesome. That's called holiness. That's not negative. That is really, really good. Someone says, well, I don't have to do holiness, grace of God. I go, you are so confused. Holiness is liberty on the inside. Well, when I talk about holiness, which I'm not going to go so far on it here because of time, but I want to note it to you just so you can kind of get your mind around it. I present two foundational principles, two foundational truths, and three principles. So I have summarized it in a very simple presentation. And I don't mean that holiness is simple in just the, I mean it's within the reach of everybody, but it's not so mysterious. It's not so confusing. Again, I can't really cover it, but in a couple more minutes right now, in page 73, I talk a little bit more about it. But I have some teaching series called The Revelation of Grace. Just check it out if this interests you where I develop these ideas more. Now, my idea isn't just that you would receive this. My vision is that you would tell people about this. I don't mean about my stuff, that it would get into your heart, into your mouth, and you would tell them from your heart how to live holy. One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is removing the confusion about how they can go forward at the heart level. If you help two or three or four or ten people in a small group ministry to go forward in holiness where their heart becomes liberated, I tell you, you have given them the greatest gift you can give them. I urge you to study this. Make it your own. Turn it into your own language and use these ideas and teach others. Teach them in twos and threes. Teach them in tens and twenties. You don't have to wait until you have a big public ministry. Start teaching people now. Invite three people over to your home and start working on these principles. You don't need anybody's permission. Just invite them over. Well, nobody told me to invite them over. I'm telling you right now, invite them over. While I'm waiting for permission, throw that broken idea out the window. You don't need permission. You've got an open Bible. You've got a powerful Holy Spirit. You've got a city with millions of people in. Go invite three of them to your house and start teaching them how to connect with God. You're in the ministry. Bring them into your dorm room. Start your ministry now. Don't wait for some leader to recognize you and go, Yay, says the Lord. Thou art called to the ministry. Yay, I finally have arrived. Forget all that. Just invite three people to your dorm room. Meet every Wednesday night. You're in the ministry. Don't wait for anybody to tell you to do it. Just start now. That's how I did it. I'm getting ahead of myself because that's a point about two or three way here. Holiness. Two foundational truths. Paragraph B, foundational truth number one. This is critical. Holiness, it does not work right without this principle. You don't have to say it like I say it. You can use different terms, different ideas, but it's the same truth. We must be preoccupied with what I call the superior pleasure of the revelation of God. The superior pleasure of the Gospel touching our heart. Now the idea of God and pleasure is a new idea to some people. Again, I wrote a whole book on it called The Pleasure of Loving God. And there's other books out in the market. John Piper has a book called The Pleasure of God, dynamic. I would encourage you to check that out. There's other books like that around the body of Christ. Become preoccupied with understanding how pleasure and the Holy Spirit and God relate to your heart. Don't think of holiness as negative. Think of holiness as exhilarating and liberating and exciting. Deliver that brightness of God on your inner man. Now this is a new idea to some. Did you know that God is the author of holiness? I said it wrong. That's a true statement. God is the author of pleasure is what I'm trying to say. Did you know that God is the author of pleasure? The devil did not create pleasure. He counterfeits pleasure. He didn't create it. The devil sees how effective pleasure is. So he gives a counterfeit because pleasure is so powerful and motivating people who touch it. So he gives the counterfeit. But the counterfeit is only real because the original, the authentic exists first. God is the author of pleasure. He created you to enjoy physical pleasure. The reason you feel physical pleasure is because you were created in the genius of God to have pleasure. You will have pleasure forever. There are a number of physical pleasures. There are mental pleasures. There are emotional pleasures. There are spiritual pleasures. Now the devil counterfeits each one of these to allure us away from connectedness with Jesus. You can't repent of your desire for pleasure. You can only repent of pursuing pleasure the wrong way. You were created by the God of pleasure to crave pleasure. The reason you love it is because God is filled with pleasure in His personality. And you're made in His image. You can't repent of your longing for pleasure. You can only repent of pursuing it in the wrong way. Because the devil has a counterfeit for all of these. The end of paragraph B, the greatest pleasure available to the human spirit is when God reveals God to the human spirit. Not just in this age. Surely in this age, but in the age to come, a million years from now. God will reveal God to you. The spirit will reveal the Father and the Son a million years from now. And you will go, oh, yes! You won't do exactly that, but oh, I love you, I love you. You will have new insights forever about God's heart. The reason the 24 elders of the living creatures, 24 hours around the throne, they go, holy, they never stop. You know why? Every time those four living creatures, they have wings that cover their eyes. They're called seraphim. They fly with two wings. And with wings they cover their eyes. They're before the throne of the Father, and their eyes are real big and focused, and they see the beauty of God. And they go, holy, and holy really means transcendent beauty. Transcendent beauty. Transcendent beauty. Utterly unique. Infinitely superior beauty. That's what holiness means in that context. I can't go into that now, but that's what it means. And they will see the beauty of God. They will cover their eyes, overwhelmed, like, oh! And then the power of that touches their being. It's kind of like they come up for air. And they open their wings, and they go, ah! Another revelation of beauty! And it overcomes them again, and they cover their eyes again. And some time passes. They all cover, they open their wings. They look at the Father. Another wave of beauty, ah! They cover, they do that forever. We're talking about a beautiful God, a fascinating God. We're not talking about boring God. You know, some people, I'm going to pay the price to endure boring God in prayer. I go, you've got the complete wrong God on the other side of your thinking. We could be, in the age to come, far away over in the New Jerusalem, on the New Earth, and we could say, hey, how's it going? Oh, man, I got so touched by the Holy Spirit today. You'll have a physical resurrected body. And you'll get new revelation of God, and we'll look up. And there around the throne, there's the Father. Those four living creatures, they'll be bowing down again. And we'll say, man, we're not even close to getting to the end of the knowledge of God. They're still, look at them! They haven't stopped! You know, millions of years, we'll look up, and they'll go, we have so much more in the ocean of God's beauty to learn. Beloved, we don't wait until the age to come to touch that beauty. That's within our reach now. And that's what fasting does. It helps us touch that. There is no, in my opinion, there's no successful, sustainable, consistent approach to holiness that is not interacting at the heart level with the beauty of God. Because the human spirit was created to be fascinated. And if we are bored, we are not fascinated. If we're bored, we're vulnerable to all kinds of sin. The devil wants us defiled, so we live bored. Because if we have a defiled spirit, and we don't feel the beauty, we don't feel the presence, we live bored, and we're vulnerable to every kind of distraction. He could throw our ways. I mean more, you know, just distractions that take your time, that aren't sinful, and other distractions that are sinful. A bored believer is very vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. We don't have to live bored. I am committed to living fascinated in my spirit. Not just until I meet the Lord, for billions and billions of years. And to think, I'm going to look at sinful pleasure, and grit my teeth, and go, Don't do it! Don't do it! Grit my teeth! Don't do it! Don't, don't, don't! I think I'm going to make it! That's how a lot of people approach holiness. The Holy Spirit wants to tap you on the shoulder, Hey! Turn around! Whoa! Change your focus. Beautiful God. A whole new perspective. And I don't mean you get it all at the beginning. Well, we never get it all. Billions of years later, those four living creatures will still be overwhelmed. They, billions of years later, those angels, those seraphim, still won't have it all. I mean, what a signpost to the people of God and the city forever. But anyway, we put our focus. We want revelation of Jesus. We want revelation of Jesus. So we're pursuing the pleasure and the fascination. And then the devil and the flesh touches on the shoulder. We turn around, we go, No! No! And we keep running this way. No! No! But a lot of people, all they have is sinful pleasure. And they go, Ah! I'm trying to sing! Ah! I did it again. They've got to turn the attention of their soul in other directions. You get preoccupied with another realm of beauty. You won't be near as vulnerable to the inferior pleasures. Because sin is pleasurable, but it's an inferior pleasure. The pleasure's real, but it's not the most powerful. But if it's the only pleasure you know, it is the most powerful to your life. I don't want this to be the only pleasure I know. If it is the only pleasure I know, sinful pleasure, it is the most powerful, it will dominate me. And I will be constantly saying, No! No! No! Giving in, repentance, getting forgiveness and feeling defiled. Giving in, giving in, repenting, getting forgiveness, feeling defiled. But there's another pleasure, and if I can touch the greater pleasure, I have power to resist the inferior pleasure. The inferior pleasure doesn't go away, but it loses its dominating power over our emotions. Well, that's foundation one. I love this subject, and this is a vast subject that I'm just touching on for just three or four minutes there. We've got to move on. Let's go to page 53. Page 53. And again, I urge you to study this more. I mean, this pains me to do this fast, but we only have a few sessions in this conference. My goal is to give you a vision of what you can study when you go home. You know, our leadership team, we feel a little squeamish about telling you about so many products our team was making. We go, We're advertising so many products. And we're doing that for a reason. There's a reason we're doing that at Shepherds. Because the money we make from our bookstore, we give it to the singers and musicians to support them. We don't want the money. We give almost everything away free on our website anyway, all the teachings. We give these advertisements because they're a menu. Not that you can get them all, but we want your taste buds to go, You know, one says, I'm not interested in that one. Ooh, Mark, I get that one. Ooh, yeah, no, yes, yes. We're giving you a taste tester, so to speak. We're trying to awaken your appetite so you get materials, and for the next 12 months you study them at home. And so, we feel a little apologetic that we're saying so many products to you, but we're so jealous that we have you only four days, and we want to stir you up to good stuff. So you have this big wish list, you know, like 18 teaching series, 21 books, and 42 CDs. I got it. That's what I want for Christmas next year. But don't wait until next year. And say, I'm not going to get them all, but you know what? At least they gave me a roadmap of some things that will inspire our hearts. And so, we have, again, we feel a little bit negative about telling you about so many products, but we're so jealous that you find them, and that you study them, and you are feeding your spirit on the right things. And again, we give all the money away. This is not about money to us. It's about your hearts. And so, I just wanted to put that point in. Top of page 53. I talked, there's two foundational truths. I only mentioned one. I'm skipping the other for time's sake. Three practical principles. I want you to get these three principles at least in your head. I want you to at least know they exist. Not that you're going to understand them. I have five minutes left in this session. Not that you're going to understand these three principles in five minutes if it's new to you, but at least we're advertising these three principles to you in the next few minutes. You're walking out of here going, I didn't get all that, but at least I know it exists. When I go home, I can look it up and see if it's really in the Bible. Always make sure it's in the Bible. Don't take my word for it. Don't believe it because it's on my notes. Make sure you see it in your Bible with your eyes. Then you go, whoa, those three principles really are in the Bible. Huh. What meaneth thou this? What do they mean now? Now that I know they exist, but now you've got a goal. You know the truths you're focused on. When I was younger, I always wanted to know some old guy, tell me what truth to focus on. You know, I was 20 years old. I loved Jesus. The Bible was boring. Prayer was boring. I loved meetings. Loved Jesus. I go, would somebody point out the good stuff to me? I don't know what to do. So, I am pointing out three principles to you. I call them the knowing principle, the resisting principle, and the pursuing principle. And they're all three found in what I believe to be the most dynamic chapter in the Bible on walking in freedom and liberty from sin or addictions or any kind of fears and phobias. Romans 6, though you might not understand it when you first read it at the beginning, you might go, I don't fully get all this, is the premier chapter in the Bible on how to walk free from sin, which another way of saying how to walk free in your spirit, how to feel God, how to walk free of addictions, phobias, how to walk in confidence. Romans 6 lays it out more clearly than any place in the Bible. Throughout this last summer at IHOP for, I don't know, maybe 10 or 15 weeks, I took them week by week, our staff, through the principles of Romans chapter 6, Romans 5, Romans 6, the revelation of grace, how to walk free in their spirit. We didn't even get close to done because I'm so long-winded, I just like to go on and on and on, but that's what I love when there's always next week and there's another staff meeting so I can tell them more. So these three principles, the knowing principle, there are truths, paragraph A, and I'm not going to even break it down here. If it grabs your spirit, again, check out the website, get the teaching CDs, they're free, and study them if it grabs your spirit. I'll just give you the summary in the next just two to three minutes here. We must know certain things. The knowing principle is the most neglected one. People are most committed to doing. Doing is important. Pursuing the right things, that's doing, is important. But knowing is fundamental. Most believers that I know really neglect this first principle, and because they neglect this first principle that's right here in Romans 6, the great chapter on walking in liberty, they never ever successfully do the right things. They try to do it, but they don't follow through because they don't know some very important truths. You must know who you are in Christ. You must know what you have received in Him. You must know at least some of the truth about the heart of God as a father and the heart of God as a bridegroom. You must know these fundamental things. There's much there. I have written here, we see ourself alive to God. That's what Paul said. See yourself alive to God. In other words, you must know what you look like before God. You must know what you look like before God. And so to see ourself alive to God, we see ourself enjoyed by God, we see ourself indwelt by the Spirit, empowered to use the name of Jesus, commissioned with a divine assignment, these are massive truths. I'm going to leave you with this on this first principle. You must know these things. Don't skip knowing and go right to doing. Because you will do, but you'll get burnt out by doing. And you will be defiled in your failure while you're doing the right things. It won't work. Paragraph B, there is the resisting principle. It's not enough to only know the right things about God and who you are in God. We must resist. We must resist sin. We must resist Satan. But this is very important. This last one, this is where many young people trip up. We must resist sin-provoking circumstances. Paul said, don't present yourself, your body, don't put yourself in settings that are going to stir sin up on the inside. So the guy says, oh I love God. I'm at the prayer meeting. I love you Jesus. I love you Jesus. He gets to the car and he goes, well the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God. He's talking about himself. He drives himself right to the wrong setting. They're all got a loose spirit. They're indulging in their alcohol. They're kind of flirting plus some, plus some, plus some. The guy goes, hey grace of God, grace of God, grace of God. He escapes. Nothing real bad happened. But now he has his confidence up that he's okay there. The devil goes, good. Now that you believe you can make it there, I got you. The devil's not going to get you the first time usually. He's going to get you the tenth time and destroy your life. He's going to build your confidence. You can be in those circumstances and not be defiled. And when your guard is down, he will come with a life destroying crisis of temptation and sin. Paul says don't present your body to situations that stir your sin up. Don't do it. Resist them. Well, that's a big subject. My point is this. It's not enough to know the right things. There is a resisting element and God won't do the resisting for you. Nobody can do it for you. But that's not enough either. Page three. I mean principle three, finally. There's a pursuing principle. And in this pursuing, it's the things that we do, it's doing, and it's being. Meaning we are cultivating, we're pursuing God, and we're pursuing people. We're pursuing the works of the kingdom. It's not just that we're resisting. We're actually pursuing God and active involvement in the building of His kingdom. Summary, paragraph D. In this pursuit of holiness, we must know truth, resist darkness, and pursue God and people. Many different ministries focus on knowing truth. But they don't say no to sin. Other groups, the holiness groups, they say no to sin, but they don't know who they are in God. Other groups, we're all active in ministry. We're doing works of justice. We're building houses of prayer. We're pursuing God, but they don't know who they are. They don't know that God is a bridegroom and a father. They don't know who they are in God. So they're riddled with guilt and they're never fascinated in their spirit because they don't know the God that they're wanting to pursue. They're in prayer meetings always repenting. Oh God, oh God, I'm trying to do this right. Paul says know the right things so that when you pursue, it impacts you different, but you also have to resist. Many groups pick one or two of these three at the expense of the other. We have to do all three of them. Roman numeral six, 20 seconds, do justly. I'm not going to cover that one, you know, only for this reason. Not because it's not important. Because this truth is being emphasized all over the body of Christ, which excites me. Excites me. We must do justly. The reason I'm not emphasizing it, a lot of people are grabbing a hold of this, but we need to do while we pursue and we know the truth and resist sin. So you know mostly about the do justly because that is main, I mean, front and center emphasized by the Holy Spirit in this hour of human history. And you're doing it. You're saying yes to it. Amen. Let's stand. Now we're going to take a break and we're going to come back and do the final two. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit MikeBickle.org.