Mike Bickle emphasizes understanding God's feelings towards us, highlighting that God loves and enjoys us despite our weaknesses and failures. He explains that our perception of God's emotions can often be clouded by feelings of condemnation or presumption, which can hinder our relationship with Him. Bickle outlines seven principles that clarify how God interacts with us, including the importance of recognizing His enjoyment of us even in our immaturity and the distinction between His love and approval. He encourages believers to align their hearts with God, assuring them that His enjoyment is not contingent on their performance but rather on their sincere desire to obey Him.

This morning I want to talk about understanding from the scripture how God feels about us in the different ways that we respond to Him, how He responds to us. Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus. We ask You for understanding of this essential area of Your heart and our life, and we ask You for the Spirit of Revelation. In Jesus' name, Amen. 1 John 3, verse 1, it says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. We are exhorted to behold, or to study it, or to think much about the quality of love the Father has for us. And so this is a practical mandate that God has given every one of us. I want to ask you, of course, the answer is yes, or nearly yes, but do you behold, do you study, consider, think through the details of the manner or the quality of the love that the Father has for you? And that's what we're doing this morning. And as always, I have more on the handout that we're going to cover. I have seven principles. We're not going to look at all of them, but I've written them out just so you can read them on your own. Now the reason this is so practical, it's obvious, but I'll say it anyway. 1 John 4, 19, we love God more when we understand He loves us. When we behold the manner of love, and we study it, and we grasp it, it actually awakens love in our own heart back to Him. Paragraph B, God has different emotions related to how we respond to Him. Now, many believers are confused about how God's feeling about them. They don't know if He's mad, if He's glad, or if He's sad. They're thinking, you know, and their average default button of a normal human being is that God's mad or He's sad. Not very many people assume He's happy. Now, as sincere believers, we don't want to think He's mad at us in an attempt to walk in humility, because a lot of folks think that's humility. Because if God's mad and they're worms, then that's the definition of humility. But if you're walking in sincerity with Him, even though you're weak and stumbling in areas, He is still delighted over you. But if He's delighted over you, but you think He's mad at you, that's called condemnation. Condemnation always injures or hinders our ability to respond back to God in love. Condemnation is not humility. It's actually a hindrance to our love. But there are others to the other extreme. When they, you know, they get this message, and they just get on automatic pilot, hey, He's glad no matter what I'm doing. And He might be grieved at an area of their life. He loves them and enjoys them. But He's also has grief in His heart about an area of persistent resistance to His leadership. And if we think He's glad about everything we're doing, and here's the issue. It's not that we're stumbling. Everyone stumbles. But there's a persistent area of resistance to His leadership. And we think it's just everything's great. That's called presumption. Paragraph C, the standard foundational passage that is 101 Christianity. We never outgrow it. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. Now, this is a confession of our faith. We must hold the line on this, because the devil will challenge this to the most seasoned believer. If you are in Christ as a gift, you are a new creation. Look at this. All things passed away. The judgment against you has passed away. All things are new. I mean, this is staggering, the implications of this. There's many implications to it. But I'm talking right now about God's emotions towards you. And you're standing before Him. All things are new. And this is, again, a truth the devil will challenge constantly. And we have to do what Jesus did. We have to say, it is written to the devil. And we drive him away by a, it is written, and we quote phrases from this passage to him. Verse 19. God does not impute our transgressions to us. What a remarkable reality. He is not counting sin against you. He is not counting. Imputing means counting. Verse 21. Why? Because He, the Father, made Him who knew no sin, the Son, the Father made Jesus to be sin on our behalf, so that we become the righteousness of God. We have received the righteousness of God, and we stand before God because of Jesus, and there's nothing hindering God's enjoyment of us. There's no penalty between us and Him that's hindering the relationship of God fully opening His heart. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Now, we receive this righteousness because of what Jesus did, not because of what we do. However, our responsive attitude, our attitude shift, is what I'm focusing on. Because paragraph D, even though salvation is a gift, we receive it by faith, but as we change our attitude to line up and say yes to God. It's not an issue of how good our follow-through is. The major issue, I mean our follow-through does matter, but the primary or the first issue is the changing of the attitude of our heart from I'm not going to care about your leadership, or I'm just going to neglect it, to I really do want to obey your leadership. I really do, and when that attitude is set in that direction, that place of agreement, that's called repentance. Roman numeral two, spiritual immaturity is not the same thing as rebellion. Now again, this is Christianity 101, but I believe that there are those that are new in our midst that need to hear this, and the others, we just need to be reminded. Immaturity, spiritual immaturity, our inability to follow through in the way we want, the way that we've set our heart to, that's what spiritual immaturity is. It's the inability to follow through to the degree that we've set our heart to. Our love is set, but our follow-through is not where we want it to be. That's called spiritual immaturity. It bothers us, and that's good. Spiritual immaturity is not rebellion. It's not the same thing. Now, sometimes the immature believer, sincere yet immature, I like to say, the immature believer and the rebellious person do the same thing in terms of their outward actions. If somebody's looking at them from a distance, they go, they look exactly the same, but the difference is the heart response is really different. When the sincere believer stumbles, they show their sincerity by quickly agreeing with the Holy Spirit, by coming into quick repentance, quick agreement, because agreement and repentance is really the same thing, and they show their sincerity by renewing their war against the issue they just stumbled in. That's how they show their sincerity. So when I stumble, the way that I show my sincerity to the Lord, I confess it, I admit it, and I sign up immediately to war against the issue that I stumbled in. If we do that, our sincerity is in place. Now, if the Holy Spirit's pulling on our heart and we are persistently refusing Him, now I'm going to talk about the wrestling match. We all know about the wrestling match where the Holy Spirit starts tugging our heart and we say, we don't think that's you. We think that's just the spirit of religion trying to get me to stop something, and then the Holy Spirit says, it's me. We all know about that wrestling match, but once the wrestling match is clear, what's going on, we must respond to the Holy Spirit's leadership. We obviously understand that, but when we fail and we line back up with it, that's where our sincerity is made manifest. Paragraph B, we can be genuine lovers of God that have a willing spirit that seeks to obey Him and yet still stumble. Jesus told Peter, He said in Matthew 26, 41, He said, your spirit's willing, but your flesh is stumbling. You're weak in your flesh, and so there's a tension that our flesh is weak, and they stumbled that very night. They denied the Lord. That's what this is in context to. He said, but the Lord told Peter, I want you to understand, I see the cry of your spirit. He says, but do you see how weak your flesh is? He goes, I don't. I think Peter didn't fully understand the power of the cry of his spirit the way that God saw it, and I don't think he really grasped how weak his flesh was, but when our flesh is proven as weak, the devil comes and says, you're just a hopeless hypocrite, but the truth is, many of you have a very willing spirit. Your spirit is crying out to say yes to the Lord even though you've stumbled. Now, weak love is not false love. Our weak love for the Lord is not false because it's weak. It's just that. It's weak, but it can still be genuine though it's weak. Now, we set our heart. We set our intention to obey, and the setting of our intention to obey is not the same thing as the attainment of the obedience. I'm just saying the same thing again that I didn't say in the last few minutes. The setting of the intention to obey is where the battle is raged initially. We set our heart before the Lord in honesty with the intention to obey, and over time, the attainment of that obedience comes. The attainment. But the thing we need to understand is that the Lord is enjoying us each step of the journey when our heart is set with the intention to obey. So we set our heart with the intention. I really want to obey you in these areas that you've highlighted, Holy Spirit. I want to obey you, and yet the attainment is not there in the way we want it, and even years go by, and the attainment is not fully there in the way we want it. But we can have the confidence that God is enjoying us while we are reaching for more attainment. He doesn't begin to enjoy us after we attain. He's actually enjoying us through the process of attaining. Now, David was the classic picture of this in paragraph C. David was a, I mean, it's almost confusing when you first start reading the life of David, because David seemed to commit far more serious sins than Saul did. Now, Saul was the wicked king that was persecuting David, and David actually, when you lay it all out, he seemed to be doing, to be committing more sin than Saul was, but he had God's favor way beyond Saul, and Saul lost the favor of God. And, you know, when I first began to read that some years ago, I was a little bit perplexed. I thought, you know, if I had to pick, it looked like Saul has a little bit better track record in reality. But the difference is that when David sinned, his heart was wounded because he grieved God's heart. His heart was wounded because the relationship was hindered with God. David repented because he wanted the relationship restored, not because he was trying to just avoid consequences. Saul repented outwardly because he got caught because the consequences were mounting up. Now, it's nothing wrong with repenting because the consequences, but David didn't wait for consequences. His heart was wounded because he grieved God's heart when he got into a pattern of sin. Paragraph D, both the sheep and the swine get stuck in the mud. And in the Old Testament, the sheep were clean animals and the pigs were unclean animals. But both get stuck in the mud. But the difference is the sheep, they're struggling, they're kicking to get out of the mud. And so the shepherd comes and picks them up and delivers them out of the mud. And the sheep say, you know, note to self, I'm going to try to avoid that mud hole. You get, when the pigs get out of the mud and you let them go, they go right back to the mud. They're planning on escaping from the shepherd, so to speak, to go back to the mud, the minute they get a chance. But both animals are stuck in the mud. And so there are many who love Jesus, their feet are truly stuck in the mud, but the Lord has a tender heart towards them and they have set the intention of their heart to obey the Lord. Okay, let's look at top of page 2. Top of page 2. Principle number 1, and these are just quite obvious and just kind of real straightforward. God loves and blesses unbelievers. That's obvious. People that have no regard for Him and they're rebelling towards Him, He loves them. The famous verse, for God so loved the world. It says in Matthew chapter 5 that He makes the sun rise even on the evil and He causes the sun and the rain to come on the wicked. He blesses them. So point 1, God loves and blesses unbelievers, but He does not enjoy them and He does not approve of them. So the love of God is not the same thing as God's approval or God enjoying them. Principle 2, God has different emotions towards believers. He actually enjoys believers. He enjoys us. He enjoys more than love. It's love plus enjoyment because He loves the unbeliever. But He actually enjoys you from the time of your salvation, when you've committed your heart to Him. So even in our immaturity, He still enjoys us on the journey. Now one of my favorite verses, I suspect it's probably the favorite verse of many of you here or on the, you know, on that top 10, John 15 verse 9. I don't know how anything could be more dramatic than this. Jesus said, as the Father loved me, I also have loved you. That the Father feels the way the Father feels about Jesus. The way the Father feels about Jesus is the way Jesus feels about you. Now the context of this passage was at the Last Supper and He warned them, this very night you will betray Me. So He's talking to weak and broken young apostles. He's talking to a group of young men that are going to betray Him that very night. And He says, I want you to know that I feel the same about you that the Father feels about Me and you will deny Me tonight. But I've seen your heart. Your spirit is willing, Peter. I see the cry in your spirit to live before Me with all your heart. And I want you to know how I feel about you. Now one of the reasons that the Lord told him this, Peter and the whole team, this apostolic group, was to help them recover from their failure. He was wanting to help them recover from the failure of their condemnation. He's saying, you're going to stumble tonight, but I want you to know how I feel about you. Beloved, if we know how He feels about us and we stumble, then we run to Him instead of from Him. But if we don't know how He feels and we stumble, we do what Adam did. Adam tried to, I mean Adam came up with the fig leaf. He tried to hide himself from God and create his own covering. He ran from God to hide from God because he didn't know how God felt. Now this passage, John 15 verse 9, is the ultimate statement of our worth. I mean that Jesus feels about me like the Father feels about Him. I have it made. I mean if this is true and it is, I have it made. But so do you. Beloved, I want to tell you He feels about you, Jesus, in the way the Father feels about Him. And you may stumble today just like they did. Paragraph B, we are lovely to God even in our weakness. The famous verse, at least in our little world here, that we've quoted through the years is Song of Solomon 1 5, the confession of the bride at the beginning of her journey. She stumbles in her confession right at the very beginning. Chapter 1 verse 5, I am dark of heart, but I know I am lovely to God. And of course, through the New Testament revelation, because of Jesus in the gift of righteousness. I am dark of heart, but I am lovely to you. We are lovely to God even in our immaturity. That from the moment, and that's the key phrase, the moment we line up our heart with Him, we repent, I mean we stumble. The moment we repent and we say, Lord, that was sin and I'm against it. I'm declaring war on it. His joy towards us, He wants us, I'll say it this way, He wants us to experience the joy that He has towards us. And He wants us to feel what He feels. Because it's not we line up our heart and then a month later, after a little bit of self-imposed spiritual probation, then God says, okay, okay, it's been a month. I've seen you over there. You've been, you know, really uncomfortable sitting there for a month. I'm going to let you out of the penalty box. We're back together. No. From the moment we line our heart up, He loves us the whole time. But from the moment we line our heart up with Him, He begins to enjoy us in the way that He wants, no matter what level of maturity we're in, when our heart is lined up with Him. The lining up of our heart is actually the beginning of the victory. We often think of the victory as happening when we fully attain to the victory in the area outwardly that we've been struggling with. When we get the full outward attainment, that's when there's the victory. But the victory actually begins when in our heart we say, we agree with the Holy Spirit. We say, we did sin and we're lining up to obey now. That is when victory begins. That's when the seeds of victory are sown in our spirit. Now, Jesus enjoys us. This is one of the fundamental needs every human heart has. We must have the assurance of His enjoyment of us. If we don't, even in our weakness, if we lack that assurance, we run from Him, not to Him, when we stumble. And we all stumble. If you stumble but you have the assurance that He enjoys you, you run to Him with your spirit open. If you stumble and you don't have that assurance, you run away again like Adam did to hide under some fig tree to create your own covering before the Lord. And what happens called condemnation? We put ourselves in spiritual probation thinking if we sit it out a while in the sweat box, then the Lord somehow will even the score. That's absolute false. Now, one of the reasons that the Lord enjoys us, that He has joy over us, is because of the nature of His personality. I mean, one reason is because God put our sin upon Jesus. He paid the price for it. But another reason is because of the nature of God's personality. It says about Jesus in Hebrews 1, verse 9, that God anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness more than any other man. He says more than all your companions. Jesus had more gladness than any man that's ever walked the earth. He had the happiest, freest spirit. His personality is filled with gladness. Now, we often think that God is mad or sad when He's related to us. Matter of fact, as I said earlier, some have equated that with humility. That if they can conjure up, which doesn't take much effort, the idea that God's mad at them or sad at them, then it just makes them feel more humble before God. But, beloved, let me tell you this. That when God put the penalty of our sin upon Jesus, you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And then when you repented, when you lined up initially and received this gift of salvation, He began to enjoy you. And as you've walked out that agreement and you've stumbled, as we have stumbled, and we've lined back up in agreement, His enjoyment of us continues even in our weakness. Because we've agreed even before we've attained to it. Look at the famous story in Luke chapter 15, paragraph D. Luke 15, verse 4 and 5. Jesus is talking about the Father's heart. He says, what man having a hundred sheep does not leave the 99 and go after the one? In verse 5, you know the story well. But here's the part I want to focus on. When He finds the lost one, He lays the sheep on His shoulders and He's not threatening the sheep. He's actually rejoicing. Now that sheep has been found, but that sheep is not cleaned up yet. He puts Him on His shoulders. He's walking the sheep back to the flock. And the Lord is rejoicing over us while He's carrying us back to the path. We imagine that He catches us. He corners us. The divine ambush, the wrestling match, He wins. And then He's threatening us throughout the next period of our journey with Him. The truth is, He puts us on His shoulders and He's rejoicing, but that's not enough. Verse 6. Then He gets His friends together and He says, be glad with Me. When you stumble, the Lord's attitude, and you're saying, Lord I'm yours. The Lord says, I enjoy you. I see the stumble. I'm going to carry you. And I'm going to tell My friends, those that are listening to My heart, I'm going to tell them how I feel about you. And so the Lord wants a people, not who are blind to sin, but when there's genuine repentance, we enter into the joy of the Lord towards one another. The other, those that are struggling, because we're all, we all get a turn at that, you know. We're all in different, different sides of the table, in different relationships. One time I'm the guy rejoicing over you, and the next time I'm the one needing to be rejoiced over. Well Jesus talked about the hundred, I mean the 99 and the one sheep in paragraph E. Now He's talking the same chapter, Luke chapter 15. Now He's talking about the prodigal. We know the story. It says in Luke 15, verse 18. Now notice the prodigal says, I've sinned. The prodigal at the, at the heart level agrees with God. Okay, you're right. I'm wrong. And it's not just I'm wrong. I'm going to line up. I'm not just admitting I'm wrong. I'm doing more than admitting I'm wrong. I'm making a decision. I'm going to accept your leadership in this area. Now all the prodigal has done has lined up, come into agreement at the heart level. He hasn't cleaned anything up. He hasn't paid off any debts. There's no restitution yet. He's only changed his attitude. Verse 20. Now Jesus is telling the story because He's revealing what God's personality is like. That's the point of the story, is to reveal the personality of God. Verse 20. The Father arose, I mean the Son arose and came to His Father. And when the Son was a great way off, the Father saw Him. And the Father says, when I see you, even as a great way off, even before you've cleaned up anything, you've changed your attitude. I feel compassion. I run towards you. I put my arms around you and I kiss you. That is how I feel towards you when you're making your way back. I don't put you in the back seat and frown at you for a month and then see how it goes later. And then verse 22, this is remarkable. Give Him the best robe now. Of course the other, the older brother said, now? Why don't we see if it plays out? He goes, I've seen the change of His heart. Now give Him favor. Beloved, we receive the enjoyment and the favor of God, God's enjoyment of us, the moment we line back up with His leadership. Even before the attainment takes place. Now why is this? Paragraph F. Because God delights in mercy. Micah 7. He delights. He loves it. Mercy is one of the things He enjoys most. Giving mercy to us. He loves what it does to us when we understand it. When I receive mercy, I go, oh I love you, I love you. And the Lord says something like, oh I love it when you respond this way. When you receive mercy, oh Jesus, thank you, I love you. And the Lord says, oh I love how that moves you. He delights in giving us mercy. Paragraph H. We can stand with confidence. We can stand with confidence that we have a new beginning. No matter what you did this morning, last night, yesterday, last week, you can stand with confidence you have a new beginning. If you will repent and line back up with Him, He says between, emotionally between us, my enjoyment of you is in place. So relationally, I'm talking about the emotional dynamics between His heart and our heart. He enjoys us from that moment. It says in Lamentations 3, His compassions won't fail. He gives them new every single day. No matter what you did yesterday, their mercies are new every single morning. He gives them new to you. Now so what we do, we can, I love to say it, we repent and we push delete. We repent of what we did an hour ago. We receive His mercies. We push delete, meaning we're not going to allow condemnation to get in the way of receiving God's enjoyment because God's enjoying us. And the knowledge of it makes us run to Him instead of from Him. We push delete. Now just one little FYI, pushing delete on the guilt that gets in the way emotionally in our, in our connection with God's heart is not the same thing as pushing delete on the issue in your life. Meaning, you know, I've talked to people over the years and they have a get forgiven and they go, I'm not going to deal with the struggle. I'm not going to figure out the causes of that struggle. I just push delete. So I'm not talking about failing to find out the reasons you have this pattern in your life. I mean, I mean, we want to search those things out. But emotionally in God's, before God, we push delete and receive His enjoyment, the knowledge of His enjoyment right away. Top of page three. Principle three. So God loves us. God enjoys us. God's love is not the same thing as His full approval. God loves you and me and enjoys us. That doesn't mean He approves everything I'm doing. He enjoys me because I'm lining up with Him. But He says, there's areas that I still don't approve of, but I still enjoy you. But I'm still going to put my finger on it and I'm still going to corner you and wrestle you down because I see your willing spirit. I see the yes in your spirit. I enjoy you, but don't think all is well because I enjoy you. Because I have more than enjoyment. I have zeal for you and I have a plan for you. So some folks have camped out at principle two that God enjoys them, even in their weakness. But that's not quite the end of the story. Because the Lord says, I do enjoy you. Just like a father and mother will enjoy their four-year-old, that doesn't mean mom and dad agree with everything the four-year-old's doing. Though the enjoyment is secure and in place. So some get the revelation that God enjoys them in their weakness and they just assume all is well. The Lord says, no, no. My zeal towards you is in place. Paragraph A. His enjoying us does not mean He approves everything we're doing. Or He overlooks the areas we have need of transformation in. Matter of fact, He told the Laodiceans, He said, as many as I love, those are the ones I'm rebuking. So the love of God is in place, but the rebuke is still there. The area needing alignment is still there. He goes, matter of fact, I chasten you because I love you. My love is not somewhere now in question where I haven't suspended my love and my enjoyment because I'm pinpointing an area that I don't approve of. Paragraph B. God smiles over our life as a sincere believer, talking about two sincere believers, in the general sense, while He's still focusing on a particular area of your life. God doesn't define your, the whole of your life by the area that He's highlighting that needs change. God sees the cry of your spirit and says, you love me. You want me. I see that. I enjoy my relationship with you. But what happens is that we get, that the enemy comes and accuses us and says that God is defining the whole of our life by the one area that He's putting His finger on. And again, it's the analogy of the father and, and the child. The little four-year-old, the father loves the little four-year-old. However, he is pointing out areas of change in their life. But it doesn't, it's not the same thing as saying the father is not enjoying that four-year-old at that time. So we can enjoy the sense of God's pleasure over our life, while He's really targeting one or two areas in a really even painful, invasive way. The areas of our immaturity, paragraph B, do not define our entire relationship with God. The areas in my life that the Holy Spirit's focusing on do not define the whole of my life. What defines me is the fact that He has passion for me. The fact that I've received the gift of righteousness. The fact that I have a willing spirit. I'm crying. The cry of my spirit is, I want to be yours. That's what defines me with Him. And Him pointing out and highlighting a particular area is not the definition of all that we are to Him. And sometimes even parents do that. They'll get in one area of conflict with a child and they begin to define. I'm saying this is bad. They may define their relationship with their child. I'm just so mad at you. I just don't want to see you anymore. I don't even want to talk to you anymore. The relationship is defined by one area of conflict and struggle. Paragraph C. When God looks at the areas that He does not approve of, He still suffers long with us. It says in 1 Corinthians 13, love suffers long. Love bears. Well there's nobody who's more loving than Jesus. He's the fountain of love. He bears long with me. And that's not a burden to Him to bear with me. He says, I love you. It's my nature to be glad and to bear long. Romans chapter 2. Paul tells us, he goes, don't despise God's goodness. Don't despise it or think less of it. Don't you know it's to woo you to repent. The fact that God suffers long with you, you're supposed to connect with that fact and go, wow, I want to be in your presence. I love you. You have been bearing with me without canceling me out, without writing off the relationship. And that knowledge of God bearing with you when an issue's out of place in your life, that He bears with you, is meant to woo you to wholeheartedness or to repentance. But what happens is we get condemnation and guilt. We know the area. We run from God. We close our spirit and we don't even want to think about Him or talk about it because we have so much pain, because we do love Him, but we're not walking right. And the Lord says, no, I'm bearing with you. It is my joy to bear with you. Now, do you know what long suffering means? It means to suffer long. He says that my heart feels this throughout the journey, but I love you. So I'm keeping my hand on you and I'm pulling you to myself. I want the, I want the relationship with you. Now we get into this revelation of God's patience, but don't misunderstand His enjoyment of it and His patience, again, is not the same thing as His full approval. Even with Jezebel, Revelation 2, He gave her time to repent. The Lord says, I'll give you time because I love you. I really want you to stay in a healthy relationship with me. I'm wrestling with you. I'm corning you in. I'm giving you time to make sense of this. I mean, when I read these things and think about Jesus, I just think, I just love you so much, Jesus. I mean, you are so kind. You are so good to be this way towards us. And the reason I'm giving this very simple principles is so that our spirits are bolstered in confidence, even in our weakness to run to Him, not to run from Him. Roman numeral six, principle four, God's discipline. Now the Lord puts His finger on it. He says, I'm going to discipline you. I enjoy you. You're responding to me. But there's areas that are not lining up. My enjoyment is not in question. Now my zeal is coming into play. I enjoy you. There's no question of my enjoyment. But my zeal is also part of my emotions. And I'm zealous that we can have full relationship. And every, and all the hindrances in our relationship would be out of the way. So God disciplines us. But correction is not rejection. God's correction is not rejection. Matter of fact, paragraph A in Proverbs chapter 3, verse 12, it's the proof of His love. He says, Whom the Lord loves, this is the one He corrects. He corrects us in the same way a father does, who delights in the children that he's correcting. He corrects us because He delights in us. He corrects us because He enjoys us. And because there's an area that He doesn't agree with in our life. An area that is not in approval. But the whole of our life, the general tenor of our life, He enjoys the relationship with us. He doesn't make the one area the whole of the relationship. But neither does He ignore the area. So He enjoys us, but His zeal touches that area of our life. Paragraph C. Now just to give you courage, God does not discipline us to the degree we deserve. Nor does He change the way He feels about us while He's disciplining us. Look what it says in Psalm 103. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. He's not punished us according to what our iniquities deserve. The discipline that I deserve is far more severe than the discipline I get. He says, No, I want to make it as soft as possible. But I want the response from you. I want that area, I want the root system dealt with in that area of your life. Paragraph D. To be disciplined by God means He cares about us. It actually means He's not giving up on us. The trouble is, is when He doesn't discipline us, that means He's given a person over. The Lord's disciplining you. It doesn't mean He's mad. It means He's committed. When the discipline is not there, that's when you need to be concerned. But I trust that will never be an issue with any of us in this room. Top of page four. Principle number five. God can love us, but He can also be grieved instead of enjoyed. He can be grieved at us. He loves us, but there's persistent unresponsiveness to His leadership. And He says, I'm not talking about an area. I'm not talking about two areas. I'm talking about the, the tenor of one's life is just a neglect of His leadership. A neglect of concern and attentiveness to what He's saying to us. He says, I love you, but my heart is grieved. Now, His grief is not the same as His anger. Grief means He feels pain. He's had times of enjoyment in the relationship. He always loves us. The times of enjoyment have been there, but He wants them consistently. And His heart has pain more than, more than the enjoyment. Because the general tenor of one's life is unresponsiveness to the Holy Spirit. I'm talking about a sincere believer. I'm talking about somebody who generally the, the heart, their heart cries, hey, I want to walk with God. But when, when the details of their life are clear, it's, it's, it's clear that the tenor of their heart, the whole cry of their heart is not going in that direction. The Lord, I love you. I do. Try to read the Word a little bit. Try to do this, a little bit of that. But basically, my life is mine, and I want you to be an addendum to it. Now, some people can argue that someone like that probably isn't even saved. And others could argue, well, they are saved, but barely. I mean, I don't know exactly. Nobody knows where those lines are. But I know that wherever there's persistent resistance, the heart, the Lord's heart is pained. It's grieved means pained. He's pained over it. And when He told the Laodiceans, I will vomit you out of my mouth. He was talking to the Laodiceans because of their lukewarmness. The tenor of their life was unresponsiveness to Him. Though they had a, a, a genuine confession of being born-again believers. They, they were not false believers. They were true believers. But the general tone and tenor of their walk with God was, it was passive towards the Lord. He said, I would vomit you out of my mouth. And some would read that. He says, I'm just sick and tired of you. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, my heart is sick. He says, my stomach feels pain when I look at you because I love you. It's, it's the pain of loss of a hindered relationship. It's not that, it's not disgust. Some would see vomit as, I saw something, and it disgusted me, so I vomited. This is a different thing. This is, my heart is pained. I'm sick in my stomach. I'm hurting over it. That's what he's saying. Ephesians 4 calls it grieving or paining. It's to create, it's, it's to do that which causes pain to the Holy Spirit's heart. Because the relationship is real, and because He's committed to the relationship, and because He wants the relationship, that's why the pain is there. He doesn't talk this way to unbelievers. He has different descriptions towards unbelievers. He loves them, but He's angry at them. Or He loves them. Well, there's different ones. I don't want to go through the, there's several different descriptions of how God feels towards unbelievers that He loves. He loves them, but He has other emotions. He does not enjoy them. But He doesn't have the pain of loss of relationship or relationship diminished like He does in a genuine believer's life who has a general tenor of unresponsiveness to the specifics of the Holy Spirit's leadership. I mean, they love the Lord in the general way, but their time, their money, their habits, their, He does not, in the specifics of their life, they're not responding to Him in many areas, and He feels pain about them. But He loves them. It says in Jeremiah chapter 12, talking to Israel, that He was going to allow them to go into a time of severe discipline, the Babylonian captivity. We're talking about the whole nation was going to go to a prison camp. And He says this, Jeremiah 12, verse 7, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies to wake her up. But notice, though there, I mean, this is the most dramatic discipline of a nation in the Old Testament, the Babylonian captivity. The nation goes into prison camps and work camps for 70 years. And God says, I want you to know I'm sending you there to wake you up, but you remain the dearly beloved of my soul. I love you tenderly. I don't enjoy the relationship, but I'm committed to it. And I feel deep feelings for you. I have grief over you, and I have deep affection for you. I don't have the enjoyment that I had in the early days. I want that enjoyment back, but I'm committed to you. Principle six, spiritual disciplines. Now this is how, now we're responding by being, by having spiritual discipline. Okay, we're lining up. Now we're going to do everything God says. We're going to put our hearts before Him. It's important to know our spiritual discipline does not earn us God's enjoyment. What, the reason God enjoys us, because the penalty has been paid by Jesus, and we've received the gift of righteousness, and because of God's personality, because He is a God of joy, a God of gladness. He's happy in His spirit, in His relationships. His capacity to enjoy is infinite, to enjoy relationship. He doesn't enjoy me because I fast and pray more. Now that may prepare me to be more useful, but He enjoys me the same if I'm, if I'm rigorous in my discipline. I may not be as prepared to be as used by Him, but the enjoyment factor is not an issue. So we don't go into times of, of a diligent, heightened discipline in order to gain enjoyment from God. I mean, to win His approval, His enjoyment. Matter of fact, we go into the more intensified times of obedience. I mean, of seeking the Lord in the spiritual disciplines. Prayer and fasting and waiting on the Lord and obedience and humility. Well, obedience is, is for every season. But I'm talking about these more intensified times. We do it because He enjoys us, not to get Him to enjoy us. I don't go into the prayer room to motivate Him to enjoy me. I go into it because He does enjoy me, because of who He is, because of what He did on the cross, and because there is an answer. There is a sincere intention of my heart to obey Him. Again, I don't follow through in the way I want, but the intention is there. And because of those three things, the gift of righteousness, He paid the price. He removed the hindrance out of the way. Because of the nature of His own personality, His capacity to enjoy relationship is so great. And because I've said yes to Him, He says, I enjoy you. Not because you're fasting and praying more. Again, I may be, you may be more prepared. I may be able to use you more, but I don't enjoy you anymore. The spiritual disciplines help us to line up, to posture ourself to receive the grace of God in a greater way. Again, that we would be more useful to Him. That our relationship would be more mature, but the enjoyment does not increase. That's not the issue. The reason this is so critical is because if we have the assurance of His enjoyment in our life, we have that assurance from the day we're born again, and through the struggles and the failures, and the seasons when we're more disciplined than other seasons, if we have the constant of this, of the assurance of enjoyment, our spirit is alive and we have, we have the opportunity of full recovery and full responsiveness to Him, if the enjoyment factor is there. If we know that we're enjoying to Him, we are in the place to be able to be fully responsive. And I look over the years of my life, it was my youth leaders that gave me this understanding. It was the prodigal son, Luke 15. I remember, I was 16, 17, 18 years old. It's one of my youth pastors, it's one of the verses, passages he talked about often. And he made the point over and over, God likes you, God likes you even when you're stumbling. It took me a while to get a hold of it, but when I got a hold of this, you know, just in those years that followed, and I tell the story in my book Passion for Jesus, I break this principle down in a lot of detail. If this is something you're saying, I gotta, I gotta get some more on this subject, because this is the point of contention. But when I had the assurance that He enjoyed me, you know, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, all through the years when I had more responsive times or less responsive times to the Lord, when I had the assurance of His enjoyment, I've had an ability to have a steadiness in my life. And anybody else will, that has that assurance of enjoyment, this is a critical foundation, critical. You know, I've looked often, looked back at some of the young men and women that I was close to in those early days in the youth group. A lot of them aren't walking with the Lord. They go, what was the difference? It's not only that my heart was more set, it's not just that. I felt God liked me when I stumbled, and they felt God didn't like them when they stumbled. They ran from Him, I ran to Him. That is the essential difference. I mean, there's other factors as well, but that is the core difference right there. This is critical that we have this in the foundation of every believer. Principle seven, we'll end with this. I made all seven, I didn't expect it. The two minutes, I could do it. Our spiritual maturity allows us to receive more, but not to be loved more. When we mature spiritually, now the disciplines is the activity that we do to, that's number six. But number seven, the actual attainment is there. The maturity is in place. God does not enjoy me more. God does not love me more when I mature more. We can talk at a whole, at another level. He could communicate His heart a whole other level. I could be more useful at a whole other level. But the, but I'm not loved more. You will never be loved more in a million years than you are right now. If you're sincerely walking with the Lord, and I mean, you got the areas that you're struggling in, but you're agreeing with the Lord on those areas. You're saying, yes, Lord. I say yes to these areas. Beloved, you won't even be enjoyed more a billion years from now than you are right now. Now, you may be used more in a billion years, of course you will. But you will not be loved more. Maturity enables us to be more useful. And I give a few reasons why. One of the big reasons why maturity helps us to be useful, doesn't earn us favor. Not even, it's not the proof of His favor. Because the more we're used, the more we're attacked by the enemy. The more God gives us, the more the counterattack comes against us. And actually our maturity is our protection. And the Lord says, if I give you more, the Lord would say to me, if I give you more, if I give you a lot more than I give you now, the attack will double and triple. And your maturity level must be equal to what I give you, so you can withstand the attack. There's other reasons as well. But that's a key one. So even the Lord's withholding of certain areas of increase is not because of love. It's because, it's because He loves us. As He's withholding it, He says you can't imagine the attack that will come. You can't imagine the pressures that will come with the increase. And your maturity has to be there. But it's not an issue that He loves us more. It's actually the withholding is the proof that He does love us. Amen. Let's stand. Now there's all of us in the room. We want more of this, of course. I want more of this. I mean it just does my heart well, just preparing these notes. I was going, oh I love this stuff. I love you Jesus. I love it that you're this way. Aren't you glad it's this way? I mean this is like cool, isn't it? Forever we're living with this man. Forever. And with the Father and the Spirit. I want to invite any of you to come up. You're saying, you know, I need to get realigned with this. Meaning this assurance of God's enjoyment over my life. Somehow I've lost the connection with it. I, I know this truth. Or maybe it's a new truth. Or maybe you've known it. You say, I've just lost my connection with it. And you know, I know it's right. And I want the Holy Spirit to touch me. Now again, we, in our spirit, we have to war against everything the Holy Spirit is saying war against. And on our speech, and our attitudes, and our time, and our money. If the Holy Spirit say do it different. And we're not, we're not getting a breakthrough in all those areas. But we're warring. We're contending. We're reaching for obedience. That's a critical part of the enjoyment. Is the reaching of our spirit. But anyway, if you're saying, yes, yes, this is how I want to live. But I want a breakthrough on this assurance of God's enjoyment. I want to invite you to come forward. Stand on these lines.