Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of Ephesians 3:14-19, highlighting the need for believers to pray for strength in their inner man to experience the fullness of God's presence and love. He explains that this prayer is a pathway to understanding the vastness of God's love, which surpasses knowledge, and encourages believers to seek a deeper relationship with God through prayer, obedience, and the Holy Spirit. Bickle outlines a four-stage progression in the Christian experience, urging the congregation to pursue strength and intimacy with God to fully comprehend His love and purpose for their lives.

...passage in the Word of God that describes the experience of a believer in the Spirit, the height of where God wants to take us, that describes it clearer, more precisely than Ephesians chapter 3. It's a passage that's a bit known at IHOP. We pray it all the time, but it's a passage that's probably not understood much, and I put myself in that category of not understanding. This passage is big. This passage is vast. This passage is bigger than. It's a little bit awkward, it's a little bit difficult to work your way through it on the front end, but once you kind of get the flow of it, it makes perfect sense and it's clear. But I want to alert you to the fact that this is the pinnacle of Christian experience in the Holy Spirit in this age. Father, I ask you to release your blessing on the Word of God. In Jesus' name, amen. In Ephesians 3, verse 14 to 19, Paul said, I bow my knees to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and the whole family on earth is named. Specifically, he prays, verse 16, that God would grant, according to the riches of His glory, that God would grant strength, the renewing of the Holy Spirit, the strength of God with might, through the power of the Holy Spirit, touching the inner man, or touching the heart, the inner man, it's more than the emotions, but it's what I'm kind of focusing on tonight, so that Jesus would dwell, His manifest presence would be released upon your inner man, so that you would be rooted, so that you, being rooted, or some translations say, having been rooted and grounded in love, in the threefold love of God, you're consistent in the threefold love of God. We'll talk about that in a minute, if that's a new concept to you. You would be able to go on in God, to comprehend, you go to the ocean of God's love, you would be empowered to comprehend, you have new capacities by the Holy Spirit, new abilities to comprehend what is the width, the length, the depth, and the height, and he says it again, instead of using the word comprehend, he rephrases it, he goes, rather to know or to experience, because to comprehend and to know is the same thing in Paul's language here, the affections or the love of Jesus which passes knowledge, meaning it's going to take through the unaided mind, you'll never ever grasp it, I'll never grasp it, but by a supernatural intervention of the Spirit, in an ongoing way, we can experience this reality, and the net result of this is that we would be filled with the fullness, we would enter into the full destiny of God in this age, and as well as our full destiny in the age to come. Now, if you're normal, you kind of lost your way about halfway in this, because it is a complicated prayer, and it's agreed upon by commentators that this is a prayer that takes a lot of work to, and a lot of precise thinking, but don't be intimidated by that, because once you get familiar with the layout of where Paul is going, I believe it becomes a very, very clear picture of where God, the Holy Spirit, wants to take an individual believer. I want to say it again, this is the heights, this is the mountaintop of Christian experience in this age, so I want to alert you to that, that I want you to say as you're reading this, and rereading it, and rereading it, you're saying, Lord, of all the passages, this is one of them I absolutely have to understand. I have to understand this with clarity, because I, not only does it bring us to the to the mountaintops, it gives us instructions on how to get there. This is Paul's brilliant theology of how to grow in passion, how to grow in the experience of God's passion for us, and our passion back to him. Well, last week, I kind of went on and on about how important Ephesians 1 is. Now, I'm going to go on and on, I've already done it, on how important Ephesians 3 is, and the two of them together is a one-two punch that you can't outdo. The prayer in Ephesians 1 and the prayer in Ephesians 3, there's a number of similarities, there are some distinctions, it's not my purpose tonight to compare them, but they're similar, yet some distinctions. But in all of thy getting, get understanding of these two prayers, and get faith to go after God according to these two prayers. Because prayers are not just, they don't just give us language, they give us vision of where God wants us to go. These prayers give us an understanding and a promise of where God will take the people who go after him with all their heart. Roman numeral one, the main theme of the apostolic prayer here in Ephesians 3, we're going to talk about the main theme of it. Paragraph A, this prayer is a significant theological statement of how to cultivate passion for Jesus and intimacy with God, or how to encounter the deepest things that God will give the human heart. When I add that phrase in there, this passage is a theological statement, it's a prophetic promise as well, of how to cultivate intimacy with Jesus, and how to encounter the deepest things that God will give the human heart. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the passage, I quote this passage all the time, those of you who've been around for a while, you know by heart nearly, because this passage has captured my imagination, and the Holy Spirit, and I trust it has yours as well. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things, yes, the deep things of God, the deep things of God's heart. The Spirit is described as discerning or searching out the deep things of the Father's heart. The Holy Spirit has full access to God the Father's heart. Now, I don't understand all the intricacies of the mysteries of the Trinity, how three are one, but I know that the Spirit of God searches out or discerns the deep things of the Father's heart. Verse 12, now we've received the Spirit. Why? That we may know the things in God's heart that are freely given to us. Beloved, this is our mandate, this is our inheritance, you and I, we don't want to wait till the age to come, we want to experience, whatever you see the word know, put the word experience, we want to experience the deep things of the Father's heart in this age, not just the age to come. Paragraph B, Paul presents a four-fold progression here in this prayer, in the Christian experience, and we see that four-fold progression in that Paul uses the word that four times, and I have it boldly there, you can see it, designating the process or four different stages of Christian growth. Now, I'm not, I understand that you don't like do stage one in its entirety, and then you do stage two, it's not like you do first grade, you graduate from first grade, then you do second grade, never to go back to first grade again, it doesn't work that way in the Spirit. These stages are, that's not the best word, but there is clearly a progression, there's an emphasis where the Spirit is emphasizing the truths in the first stage, although these truths will be emphasized throughout our entire Christian life, but for lack of a better way to know how to say it, I'm calling them four stages, but to think of them as you complete one in its entirety before you go to the second one, and you never go back to one you completed, is not a true understanding of how our life in the Spirit works. But let's look at this, let's go back to the page one on the PowerPoint, let's look at the prayer again, at the very top, yeah, look at, it says this, verse 16, that, no, Paul prays, verse 14 and 15, he's praying, verse 16, that, that's number one, God would give strength, that's prayer one, that God would give strength to people's spirits, or their inner man, and their inner man's their whole personality, mind, emotion, will, so prayer one, stage one, is to get strength, that's the stage that we need to focus on right now. Stage one is the burden of Paul's prayer, that's where the Ephesians were. Stage one is the real practical and pastoral reason that Paul gave this prayer, that he articulated it, because our need, my need and your need, is for stage one, that we would secure, we would receive strength from the Holy Spirit, touching our inner man, because we're praying for strength, we're getting it. Now, you know, there's a dynamic relationship to asking for strength, and the amount of strength you receive. The reason most believers don't have much strength in their spirit, because they really spend very little time asking, and the way God runs His kingdom, the government of His kingdom, that He gives to those that ask, and those that do not ask, do not receive, and there is a dynamic relationship to the amount of asking, with the amount of receiving. This is a greatly overlooked reality. Paul did not overlook it, he goes, you need strength, he goes, and if Paul prays for the Ephesians to get strength, they will get more strength, because he prayed for them, and you and I can get more strength in our experience, if we take time to pray it. It's one of the greatest prayers you can pray for the church, for a loved one, for your own life in ministry, for any endeavor that you're focusing on, ministry outreach, pray that strength would be released upon the people that you're praying for in that ministry, or that individual, that loved one. That's verse 16, for strength, that's the main purpose of which, that's the main practical thing to take away from this prayer. Now He's going to tell us where that strength is going to take us in the days to come. The first stage is the one that we're real focused on, stage two, three, and four, give us an idea, it gives us a vision, it gives us hope as to how far God will take us, if we get this strength. And when you understand how far we can go, if we get strength, beloved, we get motivated to seek God with fasting and prayer, and filling our lives with the word, to get this strength in our spirit, because there's no, uh, there's no secret how we get the strength. We get the strength through asking for it, praying, there's prayer and fasting, we get the strength by filling our mind with the word of God. Clearly, that's, that's, uh, just Bible 101, you all know that, and we get strength by pursuing a hundred-fold obedience. I don't know that we ever attain it. I don't know what level of obedience I've attained, I can't measure it, no one can measure the, the, the real attainment, I wouldn't even concern myself with measuring it. What is essentials that we pursue it? And if you will pursue a hundred-fold obedience, a hundred percent obedience, I mean, there's no issue that you just lie, that you just let lie fallow. There's no area, whether it's our speech, our money, our time, our eyes, what we look on, there's no issue that we will be at peace to live in compromise. That's called a spirit of a hundred-fold obedience. Whether you, I mean, I don't believe you'll ever attain it in this age, but, but that spirit, that yearning is critical, it's a critical thing, and that must be in place. Put that with prayer, with fasting, and the word of God, filling our mind with the word of God, and beloved, you are in the position of stage one to receive strength. And that's, again, the focus of Paul's, that's the practical pastoral exhortation, is for the, well, he's praying for him, but he's saying, he's not just saying I'm praying, he's not just telling them he's praying for him, he's telling them, hey, if I'm praying for you for this, guess what you should be praying for, for your life, for, is strength too. I mean, the, the logic, if Paul would spend this kind of energy praying that they would get strength, they would say, well, why don't we pray that we would get strength? Paul goes, there you go, that's part of what my exhortation is all about. Stage two, three, and four, give us the big picture. You know, we sing the song here, how far, how high will you let me go, how far, or how, you know, I get it all messed up. Where's Misty when I need her, okay? Anyway, that chorus that, that they've been singing for years, we've all been singing, some on the microphone, and some, they just ask you to go to the side, but you're still singing. How far will God let us go? That's stage two, three, and four, and I, I put as much energy on stage two, three, and four to understand it, because that's the goal, that's where I'm going, that's where I'm focused, that's where my eyes are locked into, going to those three, those three stages, not just the first stage, but stage two, three, and four. Verse 17, after we get strength, verse 17, what happens? Jesus dwells in our heart. Jesus is manifesting his power in our heart, he's manifesting his presence on the inside of us. We pray for strength, that we, that we could pursue him with a hundred percent obedience, and that's the part that's missing, I mean, Paul says it all through Ephesians, but that's the, the part of the logic of the equation here in the prayer that is understood by Paul's theology. We're praying for strength so that we could obey God and seek, seek him with, with, with all of our heart, that's the point. That's understood, that's assumed, and when we seek him with divine strength, with all of our heart, verse 17, the second stage, there's a breakthrough of God's presence that touches our spirit, there's a breakthrough of manifest presence on the inside, and the Ephesians had not had that breakthrough yet. And beloved, we have not had that breakthrough, there's a breakthrough of the manifest presence on the inside of our, of our being, called our inner man, and Jesus dwelling on the inside is the breakthrough of that power. He goes on stage three, so that, in the essence of stage three, they would be able to comprehend and they would be able to know, they could experience the vast ocean, the deep places of God's love. Paul would tell them, he says, you know, you know the love of being forgiven, you know the love of God providing for you in various ways, you know the love of some of the elementary principles of the work of the cross, but Paul's saying, I have a great, great surprise for you, there is an ocean of love, there is a power and a depth of God's affections that is outside of the realm of anything you've thought of, and God wants this realm to crash in upon you in power a little bit in this age and fully in the age to come. So he's holding it out there, he says, you're going to only experience that depth, the height and depth and length and width, you'll only get into that when the manifest presence of God is dwelling and, and there's a breakthrough on the inside, and we go, well we don't even have that part yet, and Paul says, well just stay steady, he says, you got, stay steady, there's a breakthrough in the heart, stage two, the Christ dwelling in the heart, but after that comes an ability, there's an ability when we have a breakthrough at the heart level, there's ability, there's a clothing with, with uh, in the grace of God to be able to comprehend God at a whole nother level. Beloved, you and I can't comprehend God except at the most fundamental elementary levels, because our inner man is too defiled with dark ideas and dark desires. And so we need strength, and in our strength we press into God with obedience and prayer and fasting and a hundred-fold obedience in our meekness and serving, and we're pressing, stage one, we're pressing, oh give me strength, oh God, I falter, I lose my resolve so easy, I get right in the middle of it and a little bit of pressure, a little bit of temptation, and I just become like putty, I collapse, I need strength. When we get the strength, stage two, there's a breaking in of the heart, a breaking of the spirit in the heart, but that breaking of the spirit, it's called a Christ dwelling in us, or in later on in verse 17, it's called being rooted and grounded in love, those are synonymous. Christ dwelling in us, or being rooted in love, it's an initial rooting in love, it's not the more than that comes later, it's that initial life of obedience and steadiness, grounded, we feel the love of God, we love God, we love people, there's a fundamental rooting and steadiness in love, but beloved, that only equips us to stand at the ocean of divine love, and the Lord says as you begin to encounter that steadiness and obedience, that steadiness of love, that breaking forth of my presence on the inside, then our defiled thinking and our defiled desires and the hindrances on the inside of us are dismantled as Christ's presence breaks through on the inside, and then we see a whole new vision of God. Beloved, we want to touch that in this age, way more than we are now, but in the age to come, when our capacities are purified and enlarged, we will be absolutely overwhelmed that we were in one inch of water, standing on the beach, and there was a vast ocean we cannot comprehend, and we will say, why did we ever look to the right or to the left, even for five minutes when we were on the earth, when the splendor and glory of the God of, of holy, transcendent, indescribably powerful emotions and affections focused upon us. We will say, what were we thinking, even five minutes was a waste of my life to go to the right or to the left. And then Paul goes on, he goes, that's stage three. Now beloved, we don't touch much of stage three in this age, but we can touch a lot more of it than we're touching right now. We can't, this is what Jesus said in Matthew 5, 8, he said, only the pure in heart can see God, that's the principle, only the pure in heart can see God. What Jesus was saying, he says, God, there's so much that God wants to show us, but darkened thinking and darkened desires, it's not like God cancels you out, it's just that he's saying it'd be something like this. He goes, you know, it's taking a billion volts and plugging it in to 110 unit or the other way around. And the thing, you know, the machine would just fry, you know, you just plug it in a billion volts. The Lord says, until your capacities are enlarged and purified, you can't see me. I mean, you can understand I've forgiven you. You can understand I provide a little money for you here and there. I gave you a few directions, landed you with a couple good jobs, got a few good friends in your life, healed you a couple times. That's about all you can see right now. And beloved, that's the outer edges of the love of God. That's the very, very beginning of the beginning. The God that loves us is glorious in his, in his, the amount of desire that he has, this mountain of, this ocean of love, this volcanic desire locked into us. Of course, that's what defines our value. It's in that reality, our greatness, our value, our pleasure, our destiny. It can only be understood fully in that place. And Jesus said that the pure in heart see God. And he goes, those with, with impure thoughts and impure desires, their, their capacity to comprehend is so minimized that they don't get the pleasure of that. And that's all of us in this room and the whole body of Christ. I'm not picking on any of us. We're, we're all in that place. We have to declare war on dark thinking and dark desires because it keeps us from connecting with the joy of our life and the love of our life. And then he goes on stage four at the once you begin to comprehend divine love at that, at that other level, he goes, then you enter into fullness because once you understand the love of God, God says, I can release my full purpose because now I can trust you that you won't go into darkness. When I give you the grandeur of all that I've called you to, it won't corrupt you. See, there was this, uh, uh, in the days of old, there was a glorious being called Lucifer, Ezekiel 28, and he had this high position of glory and beauty and it corrupted him. And the Lord's going to see to it that he has a people, the body of Christ. They are so overwhelmed with stage three that God can give them the glory and the grandeur of their position and his cosmic purposes. And it will not cause them in eternity to get off off course. Now we don't wait for eternity in the full sense. Some of these realities, some, uh, part of this principle is operating in our spirit. Even now, the more that I have strength for a hundred percent obedience. And again, the a hundred percent obedience is assumed. The more I have strength and I pray for that and I have a hundred percent obedience and I can stay steady with it, stay steady with it over the months and years. There's a breaking in of God's presence in my heart. That's stage two, the manifest presence. Christ dwells in the heart. And when Christ begins to dwell in my heart, it rearranges my capacity. I'm reordered on the inside. I can think and feel, and the smoke is out of my eyes and I can see the obvious with clarity. God loves me. Oh my, does he love me? I am the object of his focus. Oh, and we get lost in love and our identity and our joy and our treasure is the love of God. The height and length and depth, the ocean of divine love, this volcanic desire focused towards us and beloved. When that stage three touches us even a little bit in this age, then God, we get so captured with it. We get so lost in gratitude. We get so filled with pleasure that whatever our mandate is, whether it's honor or lots of honor, power, money, whatever the amounts over there that corrupt men typically and corrupt God's people, even that will not move us because of stage three were captured in the revelation of burning desire for us. And we have no need to strut when God gives us our fullness because we're already successful. The reason people get off in pride because it's their failed temp to be successful in the mandate. They're trying to be successful in the, in their being because of the mandate God gave them. And if their mandate is big, they get into pride. The Lord says, I'm going to make you so successful in the love of God. You're going to feel so powerful. When you know how I look at you, you're not going to have anything added to you. When I give you the nations under your authority, it won't, won't add anything to you. You're so absolutely satisfied in stage three, the ocean of my love, I can give you the fullness of what I've ordained for you. That's the big dilemma in our lives right now. God looks at stage four, even in the limited sense in this age, if God would give us the fullness of what he would like to give us in terms of power, the Holy spirit terms of honor terms of resources. Beloved, we would be so prone. All of us are so prone to get distracted and captured and taken away to the side because of God's using us and blessing us. And he goes, I don't want you to find your joy and your value and your success in the greatness of how I blessed you. I want you lost in love in stage three. I don't, I want you so lost in love that when I give you great things, it doesn't add anything to who you are. You're absolutely satisfied in me in the love of God before I gave any of it to you. Now, again, we never get that fully in this age, but beloved, we can touch dimensions of all four of these stages in this age. And it begins with God giving strength in our inner man. It begins with God giving strength in our inner man. It's in Luke chapter 22, verse 40. I don't have it on the notes that Jesus told the disciples in Luke 22, verse 40. And again, in 46, he said, guys, they're in the garden of Gethsemane. He goes, you better pray, or you're going to be swept away with temptation. And they fell asleep and they yielded to temptation. But I and you, we experience far more temptation than we need to. Because if our spirit is vibrant, because God won't just download power to us out of mercy. He goes, no, I'll save you out of my mercy, but I'm going to give you power in your spirit for strength to the degree you ask for it. Because my government, I'm getting my government of my entire kingdom is based upon this dynamic interaction with my people. If they rise up and ask and obey, I give more. And if they draw back in lethargy, distracted, I give less. It's a dynamic partnership. That's awesome on the front end. If you do it right, I'm on the upside, but it's really negative on the downside. If we lose our way and our passive, the Lord looks down and he's, and he might say something like this. I'm not going to change the way I govern my universe because the pain of living in sin and passivity and weakness will, will, will awaken you for yet another season of your life. The Lord could say something like, oh, I so, I so desire to give you so much more. Even now I would, that you would have much more power in your spirit than you have right now, but I'm not going to violate the perfect fundamental principle of my kingdom. I will give to those that ask and those that obey. If they ask, I give, if they fail to ask, I do not give. And the reason the Lord does that, he wants a dynamic relationship. And when he opens his hands, he wants a dynamic relationship with us. When he opens and closes his hands, he wants us to know that what we do matters with our days. Though the downside of this, as we go so long with so little, we go without so much that we don't have to go without. But the Lord would say, but think about that. I've I'm my whole kingdom. I run it. Well, I wouldn't say my whole kingdom, but substantial part of my kingdom. I run it in relationship with my people. I remember it's the early days. I said, Lord, what's this prayer deal? Why don't you just give me what I need? You know what I need? And the answer is, I'm not going to give you just simply what you need. I'm going to give you what you cry out for and what you hunger for. And it will cause your heart to be connected to my heart in a far deeper way over the generations. And then over the millenniums, billions of years, it will matter that I govern based on how you respond to me. I release my power based on how my people respond to me and beloved. So many of us, we are, we, we, we, we take the cry, the prayer for strength. We don't take it serious. I'm just talking about the whole body of Christ in general. I'm not picking on us in a particular way. I'm saying the me, you just the body of Christ in general. And when the disciples fell asleep in the garden, Jesus could have said something like, I really would have given you more if you would have asked, I would have given you more. Well, let's read the notes. I've already given the whole thing. So now I can just kind of point to a few little verses. Let's go to top of page two, the threefold love of God, the threefold love of God. Most of you are familiar with this. Number one, which is B God loves us. Number two, C we love God. Number three, D we overflow towards others. Whenever the Bible talks about the love of God, more times than not, it's talking about all three dimensions. When it says here in Romans five, five, uh, up in a, when it says the love of God's poured into our hearts, it means all three dimensions. It means the revelation that God loves us. That's poured into our hearts. The awakened passion that we love God back because our spirit gets tenderized, that's poured into our hearts. And then the overflow of love for others, believers and unbelievers are like just for humans. There's an overflow that's automatic when our spirit is tenderized. So when God pours love into our heart, the three dimensions touch us. Now there's, there's a certain sequence to this. We will never love God or love one another more than we know God loves us. It's the thing I've, I've, there's illustration I've said so often over the years, the lady prayed, Oh God, help me love my neighbors. I love myself. And the Lord told her that's the problem you do. You hate yourself. That's why you hate your neighbor. And we never, ever love God or love people more than we understand his passion for us. That's the message that so many around here say so often that I'm going to just leave that right now, but we can't hear it enough. That's the threefold love of God. Let's go to Roman numeral three, because when it talks about the love of God being released in our heart, it's talking about all three dimensions of it. Roman numeral three stage one, we're 16. I bow my knees to the father. I, and here's what I pray. Father, give them strength, might give might cause might to enter their spirit. Beloved. This is a prayer. You can pray for the, for your loved ones, believers or unbelievers on fire, believers are struggling believers. You and I need always in this age, a fresh supply of strength to touch our spirit, to strengthen our resolve to obey God and walk in love and meekness. This is the stage. Again, this is the whole point of why Paul's revealing this prayer. He's wanting them to lock in. That's the essence. That's the core prayer here is that they would, they would do what the disciples failed to do in the garden of Gethsemane and Luke 22, verse 40 and 46, when he said, pray, and you'll get, he said, pray that you'll, uh, uh, not be swept away by temptation. What you could, he could have said it the other way, pray that strength would enter your spirit. And they didn't see praying in the spirit does that for us, but actually asking Ephesians three 16, give me strength. I mean, strength, touch my mind, emotions, and will not just my will. It's not just resolved to say, no, I went to, I went strength in my emotions. I went to love. I went to love righteousness and hate wickedness. I want to love it. I want to feel it. I need strength in my emotions. I need strength in my mind. I need to know you love me. I need my mind anointed. So I know you love me. I need my will strengthened. So I have resolved. So when I get into discouragement on one end or something that's enticing on the other end, I have resolved and I don't just, you know, just, you know, melt. I don't just like putty just yield to the discouragement on one end or to the temptation on the other end, but there's iron in my soul by God, beloved, we need strength in our spirits. And that strength doesn't come just by going to church services. That strength doesn't come in by hanging around godly people. That strength comes directly related to asking him for it, filling your mind with the word of God. I always got to say, throw some fasting in and more than less and have a sincere attempt, a pursuit of a hundred fold obedience. If you're lying in an area about your finances, if your eyes are gazing on something that entices lust in your heart, if you're slandering a person that even deserves it, or you're wasting your time, a, a, a, a misuse of your time, I'm telling you, we cannot pursue God with less than a hundred percent and end up with strength. If most believers are accustomed to pursuing God with about 80 percent areas of their life, they got one or two areas. They're going, I'm going to get to that next year. And they end up with no strength in their spirit. The whole strength dimension goes out the window. If there's a deliberate issue that we refill the, that we refuse to seek to obey it. Now, all of us seek to obey and we come up short and the Lord says, I'll give you mercy, but I want you seeking to obey me. I'll do the money thing. I'll obey you on money. I'll do the time thing. I'll do even the eyes thing. I'll, I'll make a cover with my eyes, but I'm not going to do the tongue thing. When somebody bugs me, I'm going to talk a little bit about it, but to only my best friends. Lord says, why would you do that? And the whole strength dimension leaves you. Now your spirit will stay wobbly. That's not theological term. Your spirit will stay weak and anemic. You have to come after me. Okay. I'll do the, I'll do the speech thing, but I'm not going to do the Bible thing. I'm not going to read the Bible a lot. I'm just going to kind of think no, do the Bible thing. Okay. I'll do the Bible thing and the mouth thing, but I'm not going to do the fasting thing. Why would you go all the way and stop there? It's basically Matthew six. It's the first half of Matthew six. It's our time, our money, our service, and our, and the way that we speak to the people that annoy us or concern us, which is called our enemies. It's the people that concern us. Well, they're not really an enemy, so I don't have to bless them. They just concern me. That's all. I actually like them, but I'm concerned about them. So I talk only to my best friend. I don't tell other people, no bless and pray and bridle your tongue, bridle your eyes. So your money, right? Spend your time, right? And do a little bit of fasting and a little bit more than less. And I'm telling you, you're in line for strength to hit your spirit. It's, it's not complex how to get it be. Jesus told them how difficult it was for the rich to enter the kingdom. He told him, he says, I'm telling you assuredly verse 23, Matthew 19, verse 23. He goes, I assuredly, I tell you, it's hard for the rich man to enter the kingdom. Now we're all, we're thinking that, you know, poor Bill Gates, you know, and the other rich, famous guys, beloved, I, I, you know that in comparison to all of human history, almost everybody in the Western world are the rich. I even the people on welfare in the West are rich compared to all of history, not all of them on welfare, but certainly the vast majority, the whole West, you are the rich ones. Don't worry. Don't think about Bill Gates unless you want to pray for it. I am the rich one. We have more money, more time and more honor. And the Jesus said, if you got, if you're rich in time, money, honor, you know, put the five categories, whatever it will be hard for you to resist distraction so that you could enter my kingdom. It will be hard for you to overcome the distraction and you won't end up with strength in your spirit. One of the worst things that can happen to a person's ministry is that it grows because when it grows, they're so intoxicated with managing the growth and blessing God for how great they are now that they grew a little bit. So it's a few people paying attention to you and they lose their way in God because they're so intoxicated by getting a little bit of attention. Beloved, if we get rich and we already are, it is hard to stay focused on the kingdom when we get a little bit of prominence, a little bit of wealth, a little bit of honor, because what we do, the reason it's hard, it's not just because we love our money so much, it's because it takes so much time to manage our honor. It takes so much time to manage our money, our honor, and our possessions, and we end up with an anemic weak spirit because of the lack of the mismanagement of time. Our spirit gets weak. It's not just, some might read this and think, well, the reason it's hard for the rich because he can't turn away his riches, and that's the essence of it, but it means he doesn't use his time on in his relationship with God because he's managing his profile and his riches so much, and I don't care who you are. You can be the most well-established ministry in history. If our spirit is not strengthened regularly, we get off. It says in C here. Paul told them to, he said in Colossians chapter 1 verse 10, he said you need to increase the knowledge of God, strengthened with might. It's the same prayer. He said what? For perseverance, for perseverance. It's called patience here in the New King James, but it's the word perseverance. Beloved, you and I need strength to persevere because we're so apt. I am, you are, because we're humans. We're so apt to get distracted. We need patience. We need perseverance. We need steadiness and righteousness. We need steadiness in prayer. We need steadiness in fasting, and beloved, it takes time to pray and fast, and it takes strength to pray and fast. I found when I did more of this and that, whatever, I had less strength to pray and fast. I mean, I did good things, but I didn't have the same strength to pray and fast, and when my strength to pray and fast goes down, my spirit gets weakened, and Paul prayed in Colossians 1. He goes you need patience. You need perseverance so that you can stay the course in your relationship with God. Let's go to the top of page three. Stage two. Now the mystics, as they're called, the contemplatives of history through the Middle Ages, these men and women that would go, you know, have these very heavy-duty whatever. I'm sure some of them were greatly exaggerated, and some of them were really real. It's hard to tell which ones are which sometimes because there's a lot of exaggeration in church history, but I believe there's a true testimony too that comes out of church history. They would talk about these deep encounters of the nearness of God on their spirit, and that is verse 17, Jesus dwelling. The word dwelling is the key word in the promise part of this prayer. I mean, we just talked about in stage one is the exhortation part to go get strength, and stage two, three, and four is the promise part, and the key word is the word dwell. The word dwell. That's what the passage is built around, Jesus taking up residence, his manifest presence on our spirit, and beloved, that means our mind has revelation. Our emotions love righteousness and are steady under pressure, and our will is resolved. It's resolved for righteousness and against sin. Jesus is openly manifesting his power on the inside of us. That's called Jesus dwelling in the heart. Now, some people confuse this because, which is okay to use this language, we talk about unbelievers praying that Christ would come and enter their heart, and they would be saved and born again, and so therefore we read this verse, and we think it's a prayer for salvation. No, the Ephesians are already saved. He's not talking about salvation. He's talking about the manifest presence like the saints of old through history have talked about that is very rare that the Ephesians were not experiencing this at this point in time. It was something Paul walked in deeply in his life. Beloved, you and I need stage two. We need a breakthrough of power on the inside to where Jesus, his personality, his mind, emotion, and will impact our mind, emotion, and will, and that is a heavenly way to live, and this is within the reach of every single believer to have a vision to enter into this stage two dimension that he would dwell in our hearts. Look at a C, the passage, John 14, and he, Jesus, Jesus talks about him dwelling in our hearts, uh, right before at the upper room discord, right, right before he went to the cross. John, uh, 14, 15, 16, and 17 at the last supper, and he tells them in verse 21 to 23, really a very, very important promise. It's what Paul's praying in Ephesians 3, 17. He's praying the, the promise and the content of what Jesus says here in John 14, 21 to 23. Here's what Jesus said. He goes, if you have my commandments and you keep them, if you keep them, if you have the, but, but again, he's not saying this. I haven't added it. If you find the strength, that's Paul's emphasis in his prayer. If you find the strength to actually persevere in obedience, Jesus skips that part here. He, he makes that point many other times, but at this point he, he leaves that out. That's assumed that if we're going to keep his commandments, we're going to have to have a giant download of divine strength in our spirit. That's what the Ephesians 3 prayer, it's a, it parallels this promise in John 14. He goes, anyone that has my commandments and keeps them, that's the person that loves me with maturity. We can love him with sincerity before we've got all the areas of our lives established. Our love is sincere, but it's not mature. He's talking about mature love here. Our love is sincere long before it's mature, but he's going to give this ultimate mountaintop experience in a, in a promise form here. It's the very same thing Paul's talking about in the prayer we're looking at here in Ephesians 3. He says, if you keep them, he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and I will manifest myself to him. Now the promise here is that he is going to manifest himself. He's going to release the breakthrough of his power on that person's mind and heart, mind, emotion, and will. That's what Paul's talking about. Jesus dwelling in our hearts. It's him manifesting his power on our mind, emotions, and will. Beloved, do you know how much easier life is with the power of God inspiring our mind, emotions, and will? It inspires our thinking with living understanding. It inspires our emotions with fiery love and tenderness for God and love for righteousness. It inspires our will. We have resolved to stay steady, resolved to press through and to not get derailed to the right or the left, even when blessing comes or when adversity comes, we stay steady. Our will has been inspired by God. Wow. It's what we want. It's what we're in this thing for. That's why we're here. Now when Jesus says, my father, he says that, uh, let's read it again. Verse 21, he has my commandments and keeps them. And it's he who loves me in maturity is the idea. And it's he who loves me will be loved by, by my father. Now there's several, uh, uh, ways that you have to, I mean, there's several thoughts you have to have to, to, to get this straight. Number one, John 3 16, God, the father, so loves the whole world. It's not talking about the, the, uh, love that God has for believers and unbelievers. And he gave his son because God so loved the world. That's what I was talking about right here. It says that we'll be loved by my father. We're talking about the deep experience of Ephesians three 18, that we are going to experience the passion of God, the father's love. I mean, God loved us before we ever looked back to him in total rebellion. He loved us and came after us. It's not talking about the initial love that God has and the fundamental love that God has for everybody. And he offers his salvation. He's talking about entering into a dimension. That's very rare for believers of this age, where we are caught up in the experience and the encounter of the ocean of divine love. That's what Paul's talking about in Ephesians three 18 stage three. Again, stages isn't the best way to say it. That's just the best way I know how to say it, but it's, it's not exactly accurate. It's not like there, you know, there, there are these technical stages that you leave one before you go to another beloved. I want to know what it means to be lost in the father's love and to have Jesus manifesting his power on my spirit. Verse 23 says the same thing again. He just repeats it. He says, if anybody loves me, he will keep my word. My father will love him. He says it twice. It gets the same thing. My father will communicate, will bring you into the experience of his love that very few in this age have ever experienced. Jesus is saying in essence, what I'm telling you guys is so massive. Jesus could have said, he goes, this, there isn't anything bigger than what I'm telling you right now. I will come to you with my father. We will make our home. We will rest on you in the anointing. Your spirit will be vibrant in understanding in righteousness and tender love, and your will will have resolved for righteousness in it. He goes, but you have to keep my word. You say, okay, one problem. I don't have any strength to keep your word. Paul says, thank you for bringing that up. Oh God, Ephesians three 16, may you be strengthened with the might of God in the inner man. And so you got to put these two passages together to, to, to get the whole picture. Let's go to F the prayer of Matthew seven, Jesus said, ask it will be given. And he, and he develops the prayer and asking theme for a few more verses. Then in verse 13, it's all in context. He goes, enter the narrowed gate. And he goes on to verse 14. He goes, the narrow gate is difficult. Few find it beloved. The narrow gate of a hundred fold obedience is difficult. It's not just difficult for the rich, which is all of us. It is difficult. Do you have a revelation that the narrow gate is difficult and few ever enter into it? Now, when we get the revelation of that, what do we do? We go, you know what, since it's narrow and difficult and only few, I think I better spend my time asking for some strength here because we have a revelation. It is truly narrow. It is truly difficult and only few ever find strength to walk the narrow gate, the narrow road. Beloved, you and I are in profound need of strength and all of thy getting get strength. Let's go to top of page four, Roman numeral four, I mean five. Stage three, these new capacities in God, these new, the ability to comprehend or to know, that's stage three, to experience the vast ocean of God's love. Because remember, our understanding, our defiled thinking and defiled desires are minimized. The same measure of defilement has been reduced. And with a clear mind, with the smoke in our eyes gone, not a hundred percent, but with the smoke in our eyes is gone, and this stage three, I'm talking about in this age, we can see God, the pure in heart see God, and we are captured by the God we see. We go, I had no idea this was what we were dealing with. Why did I spend five minutes looking the other direction away from him? And then Roman numeral six, we'll just end with this. Worship team, come on up. Filled with the fullness, I've already mentioned that. The fullness in the age to come, and beloved, this does relate to our full destiny of the age to come, but the fullness in our in this age, if I get lost in love a little bit, then I will not get distracted by God's promise and prosperity in my life. If I get lost in love a little bit, then I can see my success and value lost in the love of God, and then I won't strive to find it in the ways that God blesses me. Because if God blesses you with more honor, more power, more money, we inevitably, it's the way of the human spirit to find our identity in the areas of our blessing, and then we lose our relationship with God because we've lost our way because of blessing. And the Lord says, I don't want that to happen to you. I got things I want to give you, but I'm not going to lose you because I'm going to annoy you with with money and honor and power. I'm not going to lose you, so I'm just going to withhold it. And Paul says, hey, you want to get on the pathway of this thing, get some strength with the strength. Stage one, you get a breakthrough stage two at the heart with a breakthrough. You get to see God with more clarity than you ever did. You get lost in love and we get lost in love. Then God can give you everything because it doesn't add anything to your sense of value or your sense of Amen. Let's stand. So let's pray. Ephesians three, pray it for