Mike Bickle emphasizes the profound love and commitment of Jesus towards His bride, the Church, highlighting her glorious destiny and victory over sin and oppression. He encourages believers to anchor their identity in Christ, recognizing their chosen status and the eternal glory that awaits them. Bickle stresses the importance of engaging with the Word of God, not just reading it, but speaking it back to God to experience true transformation. He paints a picture of the Church as a glorious entity, free from blemish, and encourages believers to anticipate their wedding day with Christ, where they will fully experience His glory. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper understanding of one's identity in Christ and the significance of being set apart for His purpose.

Now, Paul, paragraph A, is emphasizing the great love, the victory that we have received, the destiny that we have before Him. And he's describing the bride's glory, her victory over every oppressing power, sin on the inside, sin on the outside. He's describing her status before Him forever, her position, her function in the glory of God, her purity. That's what he wants them to get, a solid, firm foundation of confidence that this is the her destiny that nobody can steal from you. You can endure difficult seasons if you're sure victory is inevitable and final. And it is, it really is. But again, most believers are not anchored in this inevitable and final and full victory that's theirs forever. So therefore, they just are tossed to and fro in despair and all kinds of failure syndromes and condemnation and shame because they can't get a grip on who they really are to Him and who they are in His heart, in His mind. Because they mostly have the idea of getting forgiveness, getting out of hell, and then maybe having a little work assignment, maybe down here they're supposed to do a little something, they can't figure out what it is, and that's it. And then they just stumble in condemnation and that kind of describes their spiritual life. And that's just a disastrous way to live because we're so wealthy, the plan is so full and so final and so sure that has your name on it. Paragraph B, Paul said Jesus gave Himself. What He did, you know the story, so I won't go into it, it's unthinkable what He did. Unthinkable. The uncreated God became human. We're talking about the God that created in Genesis 1 became human. He gave Himself. He invested Himself in us. He is committed. We talk about be committed to the Lord. Let me tell you, the commitment that He has made so far outstrips any of the commitment that we will ever make back to Him. He is deeply invested in your destiny. He's deeply invested in who you are, in His purpose and in His plan. He gave Himself. Paragraph C, the ultimate is in two words here, a glorious church. We're gonna live in the state of the glory of God forever. Now this is victory over all sin. This is victory over the devil. This is leadership over the nations, but it's more than that. It's nearness to the heart of God and it's engulfed in the glory of God forever with the resurrected body. When Jesus comes back, His church from all of history will be in, it's because it's talking about the time of His return when this all comes to full view and everybody sees it and there's none of it at that time is as partial or by faith, but it's all fully apprehended and released. He calls it the glorious church. The church that's filled with the power and the glory of God. Now here's what Jesus prayed in John 17. He said, the glory which you gave me. He's talking to the Father. He says, I've given it to them. Jesus has already ordained the glory of God would be given to you forever. My prayer tonight is that that pierces your heart, that breaks through even a ray of that light will set your inward life in a different direction. Even a ray of that sunshine, of that light of revelation will set you on a different path with different goals. Jesus said that the glory which you gave me I've given to them. Verse 24, Father I desire that they also whom you gave me they may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. The reason Jesus died is that we could be with Him where He is. Not that we could see His glory. To behold the glory doesn't mean just observe it from a distance. To behold the glory means to encounter it and to experience it. And this is where we're going. This is what this thing is about. He has a plan for you. He's taking you somewhere so glorious under His leadership. Matter of fact, He's giving you the leadership of the earth. In the age to come, the leadership of all the nations of the earth will be under the Saints. That's what He has destined for you. That's where we're going. Let's go to paragraph D. Well, He died. He gave Himself to us to sanctify us. Now to sanctify us, most of you know, it's the word to separate us. It means He called us. He chose us. He picked us. Maybe you've never been picked in the court of man. You know, maybe when they, you know, they lined up and, you know, in grade school and picked the teams, you were never picked. Maybe you were never picked for anything. I know people that have said that. No one ever wanted me for anything on any team anywhere ever. But let me have, I have good news for you. You've been picked. You have been picked for real. That's what sanctified means. He puts you in a special category. He set you apart. He said, this one, this one is mine. This one I set apart for me and for my service and for my heart. That's what He's called us to do, to encounter Him. So He put us in that, that position where we are picked by Him. We're in the most unique position of any of created order. Of all the angels, of all of created order, you are in the most unique and exalted position in Jesus's plan. So you're picked. Paragraph E. Well, you have to be more than picked. You have to be equipped. He removes everything that hinders us from our eternal destiny. As a free gift, He is removing, He is committed. He already has removed the penalty of sin from us, but we still feel the defilement of our sin and our emotions. We have dark emotions and dark thoughts and our spirit feels dull and we feel bored and we feel disconnected. Let me tell you, forever, you, everything that gets in the way of your connectedness with Him will be removed forever. When it says cleansed, it's talking about all the wrong ideas will be out of your mind, all the wrong feelings, all the shame, just all the emotions that get in the way now that we're so familiar with. That's what the word cleanse entails. Paragraph F. Now, He does this in this age as well as the age to come, by the washing of the water by the Word. Now, this is very important. Don't, I mean, it's very simple, but it's still very important. That there is no going forward in this age, well, the age to come, it's, you know, we're helped dynamically just by the resurrection and all those things, those kinds of, the dimension of glory, but there's no going forward without the Word. It's the Word of God. It's the reading of the Word, but not just reading it. Reading it's not enough. You can read the Word and backslide. You can read the Word an hour a day and backslide. The Word doesn't wash you because you read it. The Word washes you when you speak it back to Him. When you, and I don't mean word for word speak it back to Him, I mean when the ideas of the Word strike your heart, like even these very phrases here, these principles, and you speak it back, Jesus, you have separated me to live in your glory forever. Thank you. I just spoke the Word back to Him. That's how the Word washes you. You can hear it, and that's good. It can affect you. If you hear the Word, it will affect you a little bit. You read it, it will affect you a little bit, but it will dynamically wash you if you speak the Word back to Him. That's why in a worship time, you want to do more than just enjoy the music and kind of tap your foot and go like, boy, that's good music. I like that. You kind of high-five your friends and stuff. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but you don't want an hour worship service to go by because without actually saying the truths back to God, because that's the only time it marks you, is when you say it back to God. That's why it's important that you actually say the words to Him. You don't have to say all the words, all the lyrics, but you want to actually talk to Him in worship, not just enjoy music and enjoy the atmosphere of everybody else enjoying Him. Because the worship atmosphere is enjoyable, but that will not change you by itself. It might kind of put a little water on the garden a little bit, but it doesn't really touch you and wash you until the Word gets into your mouth back to Him. Again, you don't have to say it word for word, but when I thank the Lord for truths and I commit myself to Him and I ask Him for living understanding and revelation, then those truths wash my spirit. And one of the most enjoyable ways to do that is in a worship setting, because the music's good, you got people like Corey up here singing, and it's fun to sing with them, and their voices are beautiful, and it's an optimum environment to actually speak back to the Lord. But a lot of believers, they just kind of listen to the music and just kind of tap their foot, and they don't actually engage their spirit, so they don't get washed in these optimum opportunities for their spirit to get washed. I'm talking now to some of the IHOP staff and interns, etc. You don't want to go to the prayer room when they're singing the Word and do video games. Even though you could kind of get away with it, you know, get the earphone thing and sneak away. You actually want to speak those words back to God, but not just the words that people are singing. I like to open my Bible and just read through it. You know, I have encouraged people to say, I don't know where to read. I say, if you don't know where to read, I did this for a few years because somebody told me to when I was about 20 years old, and I tried it, and it worked. They said, read 10 chapters a day, 10 chapters a day, and you'll go through the whole New Testament once a month. And so, I did that for a year or two, I think probably a couple years, because I didn't read the Bible because I didn't know where to start. The guy goes, good, just start where you left off yesterday. As simple as that is, I never thought about it. And then I got the vision to read the Bible once a month. I mean just the New Testament, but you get through the whole New Testament to read 10 chapters, 10 chapters a day, six days a week. You got one day to miss it and still catch up on the days that you missed, you know. So, I read it every day because some days I didn't do enough, so I kind of caught up on those days. So, don't get the idea that you could go up in a ministry time and somebody lay hands on you, and all your problems get taken care of. I do believe in people laying hands on you and getting help. I really do. But I call that getting a jumpstart. You get, you get jumpstarted, you get a boost. But you don't get washed in a substantial way if the Word doesn't get in your own mouth speaking it to God. You can whisper it. You don't have to say it loud. You can whisper it really soft, but you need to say it back to Him, and it will radically change you. Paragraph G. Paul goes on and says, well, it's, it's not just that you're going to glory, and you're chosen, and all the hindrances are removed. Jesus Himself is going to be the one who presents you to Himself. Now, that's an, that's an odd idea. Because normally, I'm in paragraph I-H here, the norm is that somebody else would present a bride to a bridegroom, a father or close relative, and it would typically be the one who is deeply invested in the bride's life and helping prepare the wedding, and even the provisions of her life. It was somebody invested in the bride that would present the bride, and typically, traditionally, it would be the father, because he's the most invested. But Paul takes this from a different perspective, that Jesus is the most invested person in you. And He's the one who knows what He wants from you, and how to prepare you. And He's the one who understands the human dilemma. Because though He's God, and understands it because He's God, and He knows everything, but He's man, so He experienced it. So, between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Jesus experiences what we went through. And so, the Father ordained that He would be the one that would prepare and present the bride, even to Himself, on that day. And I have more about that in a couple paragraphs here. I'm going to go ahead and skip. Go to top of page 3. Now, Jesus is thinking about the wedding day. Do you know, He's thinking about our wedding day. It's our wedding day, all of us. It's the day we, where the, the wedding is consummated, and the great celebration happens before the Father. The resurrection. You know, He thinks about your wedding day more than you do. Many believers never think about their wedding day, not their big wedding day. They think about their temporary wedding day. That's good that they do that. But I want you to know, He actually thinks and plans, has plans for that day beyond anything you and I can imagine. It's real to Him. Let's go to top of page 3. A glorious church, without spot or wrinkle. Paragraph A. Jesus thought through everything in preparing us for that day. That He not only will present us a glorious church, He went on, He said, there's going to be no spot, no wrinkle, we would be holy, and there would be no blemish. These are the highlights that the Holy Spirit gave Paul about the great wedding day. Let's look at just a few of them. And again, the idea is to familiarize you with this passage, so you can take it into your own personal prayer time, whether you're in the prayer room or just personal time at home or wherever. You can actually speak these words, these phrases, back to the Lord. These Bible phrases, back to the Lord with some understanding of what it, some of them mean, if this passage is new to you. Because I want you to be able to picture yourself, to picture yourself in this drama and to talk to the Lord about it, even now, not just waiting until that time. But you actually begin to engage in it even now. So when we're presented as glorious, without any spot or wrinkle, we're holy and there's no blemish. Paragraph B. To be holy means, some people have this real negative idea of holy. Holy means basically to be in agreement with God. That's what holy really is. It equips us to enjoy life together with God. That's what holy really does. It brings us into agreement so we can enjoy our relationship with Him. Because when we live in compromise in this age, our spirit feels defiled and God still loves us. And He still forgives us, but we can't feel the pleasure of it. And there's nothing more miserable than a compromising believer. They have too much of God to enjoy sin and too much sin to enjoy God. I mean, just the rank-and-believers, they don't have conviction. They enjoy their darkness only for an hour and then they wake up with a headache, but they enjoy it for the hour. The believer is miserable playing with darkness and the very darkness that they're dabbling with keeps them from enjoying God. I mean, it's the most miserable place there is, is to be a compromising believer. Too much of God to enjoy sin, too much of sin to enjoy God. Holiness puts us in a position where we can actually enjoy the process. I don't mean it's easy on the outside, but our spirit can be vibrant even if the circumstances are difficult. Paragraph C, Paul said that we will be without spot. Now, without spot is a reference to our garments. Revelation 19, you can look at the verse there, talks about on the last day at the wedding, at the great wedding day, where the whole body of Christ stands before the Lord at the great wedding celebration and each of us will have garments. Now, all of us will have the gift of righteousness, the robe of righteousness that we all get because we're born again. We all have that kind of standard-issued garment of righteousness. Everybody has that as a free gift. But then in addition to that, each believer will have garments related to their life and their obedience here on the earth. Here in Revelation 19, verse 8, talking about the last day, to her it will be granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen, the garments, they are the righteous acts of the saints, which means you will have garments on the wedding day and beyond the wedding day, not just for that day, you'll have them forever, that are the fruit of your righteous choices here in times of temptation and your righteous choices in times of serving and reaching out to other people. God remembers all of it and you will have garments related to it. Well, here's what Paul is saying, that right now we get, we stumble, we fall in the mud, so to speak, because of compromise and darkness and failure and Paul is promising us there will be no spot on our garments at all. Our garments will be spotless in that day. That means there will be no more struggle, it will be over and you will have victory forever, no spot whatsoever. Paragraph D, there will be no wrinkles. Now the wrinkles have to do with our skin. All the Jesus will remove in the resurrection, all the aging, there will be no disease, no decay, there will be no wrinkles forever, none. You will live forever in perpetual youth and health and beauty forever. That's actually what that means. No wrinkles. That's a big subject. Paragraph E, there will be no blemish, no blemishes at all. Jesus will remove all the spiritual and the physical blemishes. Now, the word blemish was a familiar term in the Old Testament because they had to offer the animals to the Lord, the animal sacrifices. They could have no blemish on them at all, no physical blemish. And when we are presented to the Lord by the Lord Himself, we will have no blemish. You will have eternal beauty. I mean, I don't know, I've not, I don't really know that much about angels, but I got a theory that says there's only beautiful angels up there. My point is, is in the resurrection, everybody will have beauty and glory beyond anything they can imagine. Now, Jesus has planned all of this for you. We get so fixed on what our plan is for the next 10 and 20 years, and I believe we should focus on that. But not to the exclusion of the big plan. You know, there is another plan besides what's going to happen in the next 10 or 20 years. There's a far bigger plan that Jesus has for you, and I'm in no way minimizing the plan He has for you now, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, whatever, how many years you have on the earth before the Lord returns, or before you meet the Lord. Whatever that plan is, I assure you, He has a far bigger plan that will excite you way more, and these are beginning statements. Meaning, these statements, what the Holy Spirit's doing, He says, you meditate on these, and I will unfold the implications of each one of these. I mean, even these simple statements, no spot, no wrinkle, no blemish, there are massive implications behind each one of these little phrases. This is not the fullness of the concept here in this phrase. Well, Roman numeral four, what I'm going to do, I'm not going to, I'll look at this just a little bit, a little bit, and then I'm just going to kind of, let me just do it, instead of telling you what I'm going to do. I'm planning of doing this, but not doing it. I'm having a discussion with myself. Yes, Mike, that's a good idea. Well, no, don't do it there, I'll do it later. Okay, that's a great idea. Okay, but don't tell them. Okay, don't tell them next time. Let's look at paragraph B. I'll mention this point, and then I'm just going to advertise the rest of the ideas to you, just have you look at them on your own, but I will look at paragraph B. I just don't want to lose that one. Then it says this, Ephesians 529, no one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. Now, what this passage is talking about, everybody knows what it means to nourish and cherish their own body, their own flesh. Now, think about how you cherish your flesh, your body, your physical body. I mean, if you are so sensitive to your physical body, everybody is, that if somebody just even kind of just whispers just a little, I'm just, breathe, you can tell you're that sensitive. You're sensitive to anything that touches you, hot, cold, an air, whether you're hungry, whether you're comfortable, whether you're tired, whether you have energy, you're so sensitive to your body to nourish it, to give it rest when it's tired, to give it food, to reposition yourself if something's hurting the way you're sitting. You're so sensitive to your body. And we, by nature, cherish it. We pamper our bodies. We give our bodies what they want. And, of course, we don't take that to an extreme. That's called lack of discipline. But I'm talking about within the boundaries of just normal life, every person nourishes and cherishes their body. Here's what Paul is saying. Jesus is actually more sensitive and more alert and more aware to what your needs are in your body in time, but even in eternity, than you will ever be. And you are so sensitive, but yet he's even more sensitive. And it's not just that he will nourish us, that he will give us what we need, physically, emotionally, spiritually. He'll feed us the things we need. He also cherishes us. There is a dimension of affection and warmth and tenderness in the way that he does it. He's not just sensitive to our needs, like we are, but even more. And he actually meets them, but he actually has affection while he's doing it, and tenderness and gentleness along the way. So that's the point I wanted to make. That's where I was debating myself a minute ago. The rest of this, I'm just gonna leave it to you on your own. And it's talking about the subject of our unity with Jesus. Our unity with him now, but in the resurrection. And it's where the great mystery is. Paul called it the great mystery of God. The oneness that we have with him. And I don't want to go into that right now, but I want to leave it with you, and have you look at it. But again, my point in this message tonight was not so much to break it all down, but was to stir up your appetite for Ephesians 5. It's too big for one setting, and there's marvelous and deep ideas that are here. And so what I want to do, I want to point out and say, note to self, Ephesians 5 has your name on it. It's one of the ultimate statements about your destiny. And if you would take time to go there, you will not be disappointed. That I assure you. Amen. Let's stand. Let's have our worship team come back up. Let's just worship the Lord for a few minutes, and just see how the Lord leads us, in terms of identifying where to go in ministry time. Lord, we just come before you. We just ask you, Lord, to speak to our spirit about who we are to you. Lord, I ask you to unpack this glorious passage. Lord, we want to feel the weight of how you feel about us, and what you plan for us. Lord, we ask you, I ask you even to mark people's spirits, even now, as we wait before you. Come, Holy Spirit, release your power. Come and mark our spirits, even now, I ask. I can't understand this work of grace. Perfect God, take my place. I can't understand this work of grace. Perfect God, take my place. I can't understand this work of grace. Perfect God, take my place. The stars, they don't believe you. The waves can't move you. The mountains in their slender, they cannot steal your heart. Oh, this God who is holy, perfect in beauty, awesome in glory, is ravished by my heart. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. I can't understand this work of grace. How perfect God, come take my place. I can't understand this work of grace. How perfect God, come take my place. The stars, they don't believe you. The waves can't move you. The mountains in their slender, they cannot steal your heart. Oh, this God who is holy, perfect in beauty, awesome in glory, is ravished by my heart. The stars, they don't believe you. The waves can't move you. The mountains in their slender, they cannot steal your heart. Oh, this God, this God who is holy, perfect in beauty, awesome in glory, is ravished by my heart. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Somehow my weakness, somehow my weakness is overwhelming. Somehow my weak love has stolen away your heart. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. I believe you delight in me. I believe you delight in me. Jesus, Jesus. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. Jesus, I believe you delight in me. Jesus, Jesus. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you delight in me. Jesus, Jesus. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, you say, I am loved. Though I'm torn, you say, I am beautiful. Though I'm torn, you say, I am loved. You say. You're maturing. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. You're maturing. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. We are your pride. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. We are your pride. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. We are your pride. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. We are your pride. We are your own. We are your pride. We are your own. King Jesus. We are your pride. We are your own. We are your pride. We are your own. We are your pride. We are your own. We are your own. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I am your own. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. I believe you delight in me. I believe, I believe you delight in me. I believe you're maturing me. I believe, I believe you're maturing me. You know the scripture says that Jesus died, he gave himself, that he would sanctify us. I mention that tonight that that means that you're chosen, you're set apart. Now I know that we all know that we're special before the Lord. But some of you have never, I mean some of you have a hindrance and the enemy is trying to keep you from experiencing and feeling the power of that. And in your heart you said you know I know it's true but I don't feel the power of that. But I have been set apart, there's this destiny, I mean I know it's true. But it's like water that comes and it just flows right off and it doesn't sink in. I'd like you to, if you'd like prayer for that, a breakthrough on this idea that you are chosen, you have been set apart, you have a destiny in God that is so sure and so final and so full. But you want to feel the power of that, if you would like prayer for that I want you to come and stand up on these lines. It's almost like the truth of that bounces right off of you. Because the enemy does not want you to feel the truth of that. Some of you feel like a failure, some of you don't. It's not necessarily you feel like a failure but some of you do. You think I don't have anything going for me, I know I'm saved but that doesn't feel that great right now. And the enemy wants to hinder this and the Lord wants to give you a breakthrough. I'm going to invite anyone in the room that wants to pray to come on up. We're going to lay hands on them, we're going to ask for the Lord to break in on this. We're going to ask the Lord just to come and strike like a lightning strike and break the power of this resistance off your heart. I also felt even as Mike was talking about marriage, I feel there's husbands in this room tonight. And this breakthrough at the heart level is critical for your marriage, even for leading your wife. You're looking for breakthrough in your marriage and the Lord says I want a breakthrough in your heart. You're trying to get your wife to break through and the Lord says I'm trying to break through to you so you can lead your wife. As I feel there's husbands that this is actually an act of leadership in your family. Coming to receive prayer and humble yourself and say I need a breakthrough at the heart level. So if that's you, you come up too. Holy Spirit we ask you now just release lightning and thunder to come and touch their spirit. I ask that you would sovereignly break in and touch. The Lord says I delight in you. I have chosen you. I died for you to set you apart. You are special to me. In the name of Jesus I have chosen you. You are dear to my heart. You are special to me. I've chosen even you. I have a purpose for you. My perfect one, I have a purpose for you. Lord release your power. Release your power Lord. For I have set you apart. I have sanctified you to myself. Forever you are mine. I have a purpose for you forever. Even you.