Mike Bickle emphasizes the paramount importance of loving God as the first and great commandment, urging believers to embrace this commandment with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. He explains that this commandment reveals God's ultimate purpose for creation and redemption, which is to establish a loving relationship with His people. Bickle challenges the church to prioritize this commandment, asserting that true love for God naturally overflows into love for others. He highlights that loving God is not merely a sentiment but requires obedience to His Word, and that this love is foundational for a vibrant Christian life. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a radical commitment to loving God, which will transform both individual lives and the broader church community.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus, and Lord, we ask you for a spirit of impartation even now upon the speaking and the hearing of your word, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 22, verse 37, it says, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind. Now the gospel of Mark adds and all of your strength, adds a fourth distinction there. But the part, and we'll look at that a lot throughout the course, those four distinctions that are all complementary to one another, but they do have some very definite distinctions. But here's the part I want to focus on tonight. Jesus said this is the first commandment, the one that is first priority to God, first priority in the kingdom, it's the first emphasis of the Holy Spirit, and he said it's the great commandment. It's the commandment that has the greatest impact on God's heart, the greatest impact on your heart, the greatest impact on the people that we minister to. So Jesus gives this commentary on the great commandment. Now he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5, which we'll look at many times throughout the course. But the important point tonight I want to highlight is that Jesus is giving his own commentary on this passage that he's quoting from Moses. Of course he's the one that gave it to Moses, but he's adding something that Moses didn't receive. He said it's the first commandment. It's the great commandment. These, this commentary from heaven has been greatly overlooked and dismissed by the body of Christ through history. But what we are committed to do as individual believers, and even as a spiritual family, we want to take those two words, first and great, and push them to the full extreme of the grace of God, their meaning for our life and for this generation. I want to challenge you in your ministry and in your personal life that you're going to push these two words to the full extreme, in the grace of God, of what God intended them to mean. So instead of reducing them and dismissing them, it's kind of casual statements, we're going to honor these two descriptive statements of the great commandment, of the first commandment. Now this commandment reflects paragraph A, God's ultimate purpose for creation, his eternal purpose. From before the foundation of the world God had a plan in his heart. Before the world was created he had a why behind the what. We know what happened. He created the heavens and the earth. This commandment tells us why God did what he did. We know what he did on the cross. He accomplished redemption. This verse tells us why he accomplished redemption. So it gives us the why behind the what of creation and redemption. In a sentence God wanted to establish a family for himself. He wanted to raise up faithful children, sons and daughters that would be loyal to him in love, and he also wanted to raise up an equally yoked bride for his son that would be his eternal companion. The father promised his son an inheritance, and that inheritance is a people that he would totally possess. Jesus's inheritance involves more than real estate. It's more than he owns the nations, and it's more than government. It's more than the fact that he controls the nations. He does own all the real estate of the earth. It's been deeded to him by the father. We, we see a, a insight into that from Revelation chapter 5 that the scroll was given to the son, the title deed of the earth. So we know the inheritance of the nations. He owns all the land. We know that he controls all the governments, but to inherit the nations and to totally possess them means more than that. That he would possess the heart of the people in all the nations of the earth. The father said in Psalm chapter 2, I'll give you the nations, total control over the government, and I'll give you the ends of the earth, the very people, and you will possess them in entirety, is the idea here. Jesus's inheritance involves the mandatory obedience of all of creation. Philippians chapter 2, Paul gives us insight that the father promised, Paul's actually quoting, I don't have this on the notes, he's quoting Isaiah 45 verse 23, where the father promised the son in the Old Testament, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Every knee, every tongue. Every demon in hell will bow their knee in obedience. Every unbeliever when assigned eternal judgment will go there in obedience to the word by the, to the word of Jesus. Obedience of all creation is mandatory. But there's more. God wants more than mandatory obedience. He wants voluntary love. The inheritance of a king is the obedience of all the nations. But the inheritance of a bridegroom is the voluntary love of all the people in the nations. So as a king, he receives an inheritance, every knee will bow. But as a bridegroom, he receives an inheritance, every heart in your kingdom will love you. All of the redeemed will love you, not automated, not forced, not programmed, but it will be voluntary love. They will choose to love you because they will see your worth and they will want you. Paragraph B. The very core of the bridegroom's inheritance. Again, it's different than Jesus is the king, he possesses the nations. But as a bridegroom, he possesses the heart of the people of the nations. The very core of the bridegroom's inheritance is the fact that the people would be equally yoked to him in love. Now we're going to spend time on this in one of the sessions and really break it down. This idea of being equally yoked in these four ways. All the heart, all the mind, all the soul and all the strength. Now the reason, the reason the Father wants the people to love Jesus this way and the reason Jesus wants it, because this is how God loves us. This is the most remarkable thing. I can't, I can't even imagine this and that's biblical because it presses beyond human comprehension. Ephesians 3 18 says it's beyond the comprehension of the human mind without the aid of the Holy Spirit and without the time frame of eternity to unpack it. Even by the Holy Spirit we only get a little bit of it, but for the ages forever and ever and ever we will continue to understand this. Ephesians 3 verse 18 and 19. That God loves us. Can you imagine? God loves us with all of his mind. How vast is God's mind? He loves us with all of his heart, all of his strength. Imagine the strength of God. Now that will take the supernatural power of God to do this, of course. It takes God to love God. Fundamental principle of Scripture. It takes the power of God for us to love God. God knows that. So Romans 5 5. God has promised us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to empower us to love. He would pour love into our heart. Now this would involve several different dimensions of love we'll look at in a minute. He will pour love into our heart I like to think of the love of God as four dimensions to the love of God. Number one, the revelation that God loves us. That's dimension number one. That God loves us. He, God, so the Holy Spirit pours that knowledge into our heart. Number two, the ability to love God back. It's the second dimension. Number three is the ability to love ourself in the love of God. By the love of God. You know, Jesus said you will love your neighbor as you love yourself. And the reason so many don't love their neighbor well is because they don't love themselves well. You will never love your neighbor in greater quality than you love yourself in the great of God. Now that's an opposite concept of promoting our carnality. I'm going to talk about that, that because we are to deny that dimension of ourself, our carnal loves. But we are to see who we are in God's eyes and to agree with it instead of dismiss it. And as we love ourselves in the grace of God, we will then in the overflow love others which is the fourth dimension. So we love, we first, the Holy Spirit pours out revelation that God loves us. That's one. Then awakens our heart to love God back. That's two. Then it overflows and we love ourselves in the, in the overflow of our exchange with God's heart. And then we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This is all supernatural. Takes the operation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the greatest gift and work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life is to pour love into the heart in these four ways. Paragraph C. Now right before Jesus went to the cross, in the upper room, he prays what is called the high priestly prayer. And this is the crescendo statement. John 17. The great prayer of Jesus. Here it is. Jesus praying for the saints. For 26 verses. There's nothing like it in the Bible. Jesus praying for his bride. And the final verse, the volcanic explosion of which this prayer ends and then Jesus goes to the garden after this. Jesus ends it. Father, I have declared your name to them for this reason. That the love with which you loved me would be in them. They would love me in the quality that you love me in the same measure. Beloved, there, this is inconceivable except the grace of God. Before this, before God's finished working in us, which he'll continue on forever, so that's a more accurate way to say that that God's work will continue in us forever. We will love Jesus in the way the Father loves Jesus. Beloved, that's equally yoked in love. Paragraph D. So God's purpose, which is going to come to a crescendo in the generation the Lord returns, all over the nations, throughout history God has been selecting and training a bride. But this program of God, this plan of God is going to come to a, to a crescendo. It's going to come to a place of maturity before the Lord returns. Beloved, I'm talking about people in their natural bodies before the resurrection. It says in Revelation 19, the marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride, we're talking about the bride on the earth, not the bride with, in the resurrected bodies. The bride has responded in a way, there's a generation that responds in a way where they are prepared, they are a prepared bride for a worthy son. What a grand plan! The Father has a worthy son and he's raising up a prepared bride, a ready bride. So I can assure you in the generation the Lord returns, in the generation of which the bride is made ready by voluntary love, by the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit will restore the first commandment to first place. Beloved, that's what's on the Holy Spirit's agenda in this time in history. Though right now, at this moment, there's not such a large percent of the body of Christ that is focused on this agenda, but before the Lord returns, this will be the premier agenda of the Holy Spirit worldwide. So as forerunners, what you're saying in your heart is, Lord, I want to, I want to do that which you are going to be universally emphasizing worldwide in a minute from now. And of course with the Lord a minute might be a decade or two. I want to lay hold of now. That's what a forerunner does. I'm going to lay hold of now that which will be universally emphasized by the Spirit a minute from now. Decade or two or three, who knows? Maybe a little bit longer, maybe a little bit shorter. But forerunners get a hold of it one short step ahead of the universal emphasis of it, of the Holy Spirit on the, to the body of Christ worldwide. You can be sure of one thing. The Church will be a prepared bride before the Second Coming. For those that have ears to hear. For those that have ears to hear. And, and, and number six, verse five, the, where Jesus is quoting this passage from, says, hear O Israel. The Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God. Hear O Israel. To he that has ears to hear. So Jesus is really actually interpreting that. Hear O Israel. Pay attention. He says, let me tell you, let me give you a hint. It's more than important. It's the first and the greatest of all the commandments. He's commenting on the, on the call to hear and to pay attention. Paragraph E, there I mentioned the fourfold love. So that we know the, we, I'm laying a groundwork in our understanding to understand the first commandment. Because the first commandment, the first commandment is not in any way, does it undermine the first expression of this, of this first dimension and the second dimension of this love, revelation of God's love for us, and then an impartation of love, of love back to God by the Holy Spirit. It will overflow in love for ourself and love for our neighbor, both believers and unbelievers. Now why do we love being loved so much? I mean, we love to be loved. There's something about us. We love it. How many of you love to be loved? Well it's more than that. You love to love. There's nothing more exhilarating than loving and being loved. Beloved, that's our inheritance forever and ever and ever. The reason we love it so much, both receiving it and being exhilarated and giving ourself to it, is because we were created that way in the image of God, God is love. We are created in His image. Paragraph F, foundational to this course, I'll mention it a few times, but I just want to save you any wasted time with different folks in different places, because I've heard this debate over the years. It is absolutely a worthless debate and it's the debate that goes like this. Which is more important, the first commandment or the second commandment? I've heard people say, well you guys are into the first commandment, we're into the second commandment. I say that's inconceivable. You can't separate these commandments. Everyone who loves God with all their heart will always love people. I don't mean they won't fail. Their hearts will be inflamed. They will love people far more. It is inconceivable to be into the first commandment and not overflow in an outlet to the second commandment. It's, it's, it's a theoretical argument. I've heard it a little bit over the years. It's only argued by people that are pursuing neither. Seriously. Because if you're pursuing the second commandment, you will come up so bankrupt in your inability to sustain it. You need a fresh supply of encounter of love from God and love back to God to supply you and love for yourself to supply you in that fourth dimension. It's a, it's a theoretical debate. I've seen people sit around tables and argue and I go, guys, say no more. Which is more important, your heart, your liver, your kidney? Honestly, you can, you need them all. Who do you love most, the Father, the Son, or the Spirit? You don't, you don't answer that. No, honestly, you don't even go there. Which is more important, the first commandment, the second commandment? The first comes in sequence. Because the first is what empowers us for the second. It's inconceivable to love God without loving what God loves. And that's His people. You will always love believers and unbelievers if you love God. Always, always. Because to love God is to run straight into that burning heart. And then you love what He loves. Paragraph G. Here's the point of this first session. It's really the point of the whole course, the 12-session course on the first commandment. But particularly, it's the focus of this session to show the wisdom and the beauty. It's wisdom, number one, but it's beauty, number two, of continually realigning our heart and our ministry and our life to the first commandment. Beloved, I have to do this regularly. I don't mean every year or two. I mean every couple weeks for real. I don't do it every day. That would be exaggerated if I said that. I want to be practical. But every few weeks I have to stop and go, it's already starting to pull away from this focus. IHOP exists for the first commandment and the great commandment. That's the first reason we exist as a ministry. It's the first reason in God's mind every little home Bible study exists. Now it may not be in the person's mind, but it is in God's mind. It's the first reason for every ministry. It's the first reason for every person. And when we come into agreement with that, it radically changes our life. But here's what we're doing as a spiritual family. We are going to consciously, regularly realign our heart with the revelation this is the supreme commandment. We're not going to apologize for it. We're not going to apologize for our intensity and focus after it because we're going to have confidence this is what God wants. I've ran into ministries for years that want me to back away from this. Maybe they feel bad about themselves. I don't know. I don't, I don't have, pretend to have insight on why. But people just get nervous about people locked into the first commandment. What about, what about, what about, what about? Heard so many what abouts over the years. And the final statement is Jesus defined it as the first and the great. And on His authority you can be sure when we stand before God He will back up those words. By the very fact of the definition of love as being voluntary. He says I will only renew it in you if you renew it. If you want to realign your heart, I will renew love in you. I won't force you because as a king he will force everyone to obey. The Father will force everyone to obey Jesus. But as a bridegroom the Father will woo us to love by showing the loveliness of Jesus. But this is something we see the nobility in the wisdom of it. Top of page two. Roman numeral two. And these notes are always on the internet. Most of you are aware of that. And again our copyright is the right to copy. You can use these notes to make your own notes. Word for word. Change them. Anything you want. And they're yours. Run with them. I mean the truth is I got about a third of this. You're going to see some of it. Some of you that were here in the teen conference from from Misty Edwards session. I was back there taking notes and she was talking to the teens. It was so good. I just said I'm just putting this straight into my handout. So you can take it from me. I took it from her. She took it from the Lord and from others. Anyway my point is run with this stuff. Run with it. If it touches your heart run with it. Get it in your songs. Get it in your lyrics. Get it in your handouts. Get it in your journal. Get it. By all means get it. Roman numeral two. Loving God on God's terms. This is massive. Massive. We'll talk more about probably all of these points throughout the 12 sessions in this course called the first commandment. Jesus defined loving God as being deeply rooted in the spirit of obedience to the Word of God. This is critical. Look at right there in John 14. Verse 15. If you love me, Jesus is speaking, you'll keep my commandments. Verse 21. He that has my commandments and keeps them, it's he who loves me. Verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Now what could be confusing about that statement? It could not be more clear. Three times in a couple verses. And of course from Genesis to Revelation he makes it clear. But it is strange how nebulous and how blurred many are, even within the body of Christ, on this definition. There's no such thing. It does not exist as loving God without seeking to obey His Word. It's a deception. It's a religious figment of someone's imagination. It's religious sentiment. It's not reality. The Holy Spirit will not bear witness to it on the last day, the judgment seat. God requires more than singing to him about love, or writing poems about love. He requires more than sentimental feelings about a God that we make in our own image. See we're made in His image. But the religious culture is making a God in man's image and then worshiping that golden calf. And because there's a unholy momentum in the nations of more and more believers, or people who name the name of Jesus, making a God after their own image, the image of a fallen culture, and calling that Christianity, then defining love according to worshiping that God of their own imagination. I call it the, kind of the God of the commercial Christmas tree. Not against Christmas trees, but there's kind of a, kind of a commercial spirit in the culture of humanism about the Jesus of Christmas. Now the true Jesus of Christmas is good, but I'm talking about in that figurative sense of, of just a fallen culture. We must love God in a spirit of obedience. That doesn't mean our obedience is mature. Doesn't mean our obedience doesn't fail. My obedience fails all the time. I'm not talking about perfect obedience. I'm talking about the setting of the heart to obey the Word. Not obey just the Spirit, according to your imagination. I'm talking about obey the Spirit according to the written Word of God. Most specific, the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The clearest definition of love in the Bible. There it is. Three chapters. Paragraph B. We must love God on His terms, not ours. The reason I'm stressing this, because the Holy Spirit's going to restore the first commandment to first place, because the first commandment was in first place for a moment in the early church. I don't know how long, maybe some years. I don't know. But the, one of the core issues of conflict, one of the core issues of conflict will be, even within the people who name the name of Jesus, will be the definition of love. Do we love on God's terms, or do we love on the terms of a humanistic culture that has no reference to obedience to the Word of God, except for the verses they like? Jesus wants to take total control of your life because of love. He doesn't want to just forgive you. He wants to control you utterly. And that's where your safety is, and that's where your glory is, is that control. And He wants to control you because, for purposes of love. That's where He's taking the church. A lot of people, they define love, liberty, and freedom according to the fallen, perverse culture in our nation. The culture, the Western culture, the secular culture is so seeped into the church, the church is now defining love and freedom according to how the culture does, and using Bible verses to back it up. That is not the love He's restoring. He's, He's restoring the love that He defines. It's obedience to the Word. It's our glory. It's our freedom. The yoke of Jesus is our freedom. Being love slave, slaves to this man who's fully God and fully man, that's our liberty, that's our freedom, and that's the easy yoke. God is not a hippie. He loves hippies. He loves them. But He isn't one. Why am I saying that? It's amazing how much of the definitions of love and liberty in the church is coming from the hippie culture. Even by young people that weren't even alive when the hippie culture was happening. They've got this kind of laid-back, chill-out approach to love. Beloved, love in the New Testament is hot pursuit, radical abandonment, total sacrifice, and self-denial. That's the love. It's not, there's no hippie culture in the language of the apostles, nor in the language of the Godhead towards the earth. God loves us with a fierce determination. He gave everything. He gave it all, Jesus did. He laid down His riches to become man, to come after us. So I want to just expose this cool hippie culture, false paradigm of grace and liberty, because the Holy Spirit is wanting to restore the first commandment, the true first commandment, according to the Word of God. And it is our liberty, it's our freedom, it's our greatness, it's our exhilaration. And as a people we're going hard after this with no apology to anyone. And the Lord's smiling. We don't do it that good, but we're going hard. We'll stumble, stumble, stumble, stumble. We'll get back up, call sin, sin, repent of it, push, delete, and run hard into the heart of God. Romans number three. Loving God is the first commandment. It's what God wants first. Make no mistake about it, it's what He wants first. He wants it first in your life, He wants it first in the nations, He wants it first in the prayer room, He wants it first in your ministry. People are all confused about what the newest trend in ministry is. What does God want? I tell you for sure, from the lips of Jesus, He's defining Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5. Hear, O Israel. He says, let me tell you what you're meant to hear. Here's what you're meant to hear, O Israel, that the first commandment is first and it's the greatest. It's not the first option. It's the first commandment and it's our liberty. Jesus makes it clear that cultivating love for Him is the first priority on His mind. Beloved, never, never apologize for developing your love for God, as though you owe an excuse to the multitudes of hyperactive people who have no focus on the love of God, who name the name of Jesus. You don't have to apologize for your intensity, because they don't want to do it. You don't have to put them down. You don't have to criticize them. But don't get drawn into a debate. Jesus said this is first. Be clear about it. Be settled. Go hard after it. Paragraph B. God has everything, but He's searching for something. Isn't that strange? He has everything, but He's searching for something. Not that He needs it, but He wants it. There's something He wants. He's totally complete and happy within the fellowship of the Godhead. The Father, Son, the Holy Spirit are infinitely and eternally happy in the fellowship of one another. He doesn't want it out of need. He wants it because He's the God of desire. He's a God of desire. He wants it. Many people, what they want, they pursue it, and then they don't want it anymore. Relationships included. They want it. I mean, they can't live without it, and they get the relationship. They don't want it anymore. But with God, what He wants, He wants more and more, forever and forever. He never loses that which He wants and desires. It remains perfect and infinite forever. He's searching for something. The eyes of the Lord are going to and fro across the earth. He's searching, it says in 2 Chronicles 16. His eyes are searching. He wants something, but He has everything. He wants something first, something more than anything else. What is, in one sentence, He's after your heart. Quoting one of Misty's songs, He's after your heart. He's after your heart. That's what He wants. He's after your heart. Not your money. Your heart. Not your talent. Your heart. He'll use your money and your talent as the expression of your love for Him and His for you and your love for other people. He doesn't want you to live in compromise. Then offer Him your time and your money and your talent. Say, hey, I'll bargain with you. I'm going to live in sin. I'm going to live in some compromise, but I'll do IHOP for a year or two, balance out the scale. I'll even do two fasting teams if you let me do a little pornography, a little immorality, a little bit of drunkenness. I'll do two fasting teams to balance out. He goes, I don't want your singing. That's not what I want. I want your heart. I want you to sing because I love your heart. Don't give your heart away and then give me your singing. I want your heart. I'm after your heart. That's what He's after. Most important question, or one of the most important questions to ask God, the question of the hour. It's always the question of the hour. What are you looking for God? What is it you're after? Beloved, when we find what He's looking for, we will find what we're looking for. It's love. I'm telling you, it's love. Now the heart of the bride asks for this. The heart of a slave or the heart of a hireling doesn't ask this question. But the heart of obedience that's motivated by love is asking, what is it you want? What is it you want? Paragraph C. Since loving God with all of our heart is the first priority to God, it must be the first reason we lead a worship team. It must be the reason we have evangelism team. It must be the reason you lead a prophecy team or you work with the children. It must be the reason you want to lead a Bible study to get people to love God. Not to see how big the Bible study will get, how many people will listen to your song. It can't be about how much you sell or how many people listen to you. It must be about the first thing on God's mind if we're going to truth and line up with wisdom. The guy says, I want to make a CD. Why? Well if I get a CD, more people will know about me. I hit my website. I'll get more people. I have more influence, more money, more this, more that. And those things aren't intrinsically bad. But keep going. Why else? Why else a CD? Well this and that. Why else? Why else? Well I don't know. That seems like God's blessing, favor on me. It's about people loving God. Not about bigger crowds listening to you. I'm happy for IHOP to get real big. I'm happy for IHOP to be small. I want IHOP to be the size it's supposed to be. But I'm clear about one thing. Though we get off regularly, we must exist for the first reason to raise up people who love God with all of their heart. That must be why we exist at every level. Numerical growth is good. I like numerical growth. But that's not the point. People say, boy, that church down the road, they're growing so big, it must be the favor of God. I go, that's kind of a cool little statement, but it's a little naive. It's not my business why another ministry grows or doesn't grow. God doesn't ask me. I don't ask Him. It's none of my business. But the idea that something grows, therefore it's got to be right, is like, where is your brain at? We're living in a secular, humanistic, man-pleasing culture. You please man, you will grow. You please God, you may grow. You may not grow, but your heart will grow. That's what we're after. That's what we're after. If we grow, we grow outwardly. But one thing's for sure, our hearts will grow. We're going after this. End of paragraph C. I'm asking the Holy Spirit tonight to mark, to mark you, to mark you, so that this thing gets a hold of you. You say, that's why my heart, that's why I'm alive on the earth right now, and it's why I have a ministry. It's why I sing. It's why I write. It's why I plan. It's why I mow lawns. It's why I do everything. It's first. This is it. Lord, Holy Spirit, mark us now. Mark us. Never let us be cured. Ruin us with this priority of God. Ruin us with this priority of God. Beloved, I don't want us to get ruined. Some people say, I'm going to IHOP and I got ruined. And what they mean is, I sit there and hear good music and great coffee and cool people, and I don't want to do nothing with nobody else. No, that's not, we don't want to ruin you in that way. I want to ruin you by you becoming addicted to love. Receiving it and giving it. Not addicted to good music and disconnecting from people. Not disconnected from hard work in the mundane. Beloved, the more I love, the more loyal I am to God in the mundane and the difficulty. Being ruined doesn't mean I don't have to do boring church services no more. No, we're not ruined. No, if you're ruined, you may be involved in many boring church services because your heart's energized with love and the Lord may assign you to a ministry that's a little bit boring right now. But you're ruined because you're addicted to love. And you can connect with that love whether you're in a prison cell, pulling weeds under a hot sun, far away, or working 12 hours a day down at Walmart. If your heart's connected with love, you're ruined. That's how you're ruined. So some folks say, you know, I've heard it. I'm going to IHOP and I'm ruined. I go, what do you mean? Oh, the music is unreal. Okay, good. Anything else? Oh yeah. Boy, the teaching is great. Bible school teaching, of course. And all their classes. Good. That's good. I like that. That's not really the definition for being ruined. Good music, good teaching in the Bible school. Why else? Cool people. Okay. Okay. Still, you haven't hit it. That sounds like abdication. That sounds like bailing out. What are you ruined for? And if it's, I feel his love a little bit and I'm abandoned to be a lover of God. I'm going to show it to people with all my heart. I go, ah, now that's what we're ruined. We can never go back to living without love being number one. The first thing. That's what being ruined's about. That's what radical's being about. Being radical is not about doing an exotic ministry trip for three months. Being radical is not doing something unusual for a year. Being radical is staying with love in the midst of difficulty and mundaneness for decades. Now, that's radical. It's not out doing somebody and doing something exotic. That's not what radical is. Some people, you know, they do the one-upsmanship on a radical summer. Radical means something extreme and that's cool if that's the culture's definition. But when I say radical, I'm talking about you live for love from the inside out where nobody's looking and you're feeling it, maybe just a little bit, and you're reaching for it and maybe the connect's not there, but you're reaching and you're addicted to live radical for decades and decades, not for a three-month term, you know, at IHOP or somewhere else at a ministry trip. God's after our hearts. Paragraph D. Many are searching to know God's will. They say, hey, I want to know God's will. I go, what do you mean? Mostly they mean, I want to know my ministry assignment. That's okay. That's a good question. But I could tell you what God's first issue of the will of God in your life is that you would grow in love on the inside. Positive. I'm looking for God's will. I say, well, about 80% of God's will is shouting right at you. Now, that other 20% where you're supposed to do it and who you're supposed to to do the ministry with, maybe, you know, that it's going to take you a little while to sort that out. But 80% of it is staring you right in the face. You don't need to give up on the 80% because you're in so much anguish searching for the 20% of the will of God, which is your ministry assignment. I've seen more people sit five and ten years searching for a ministry assignment, not knowing the will of God, when 80% of the will of God was that they would grow in love and feel his love, connect with his love, and go after love. Like, I know God's will for your life. You do? Is it a prophecy? I go, yeah, straight from the Bible. The first and the great commandment, I assure you that's the first issue that God's after in your life. Oh, come on. No, absolutely that's what it's about. He's after your heart. Paragraph E. Christianity is an encounter with a person. Christianity is an ongoing encounter with love. Now, the love may be minimal or feeling of it. Beloved, don't undermine or minimize the power of a little bit of love, feeling it. A little bit goes a long way. I value the little increments of love I feel. Guy comes and says, hey, I'm going to have fierce dedication, determination, radical commitments to righteousness. Man, we got a noble cause. We're going to change the city, the university, the nation. We got a noble cause, a radical commitment, a fierce determination. Beloved, that will not hold you steady for five years. Hold you steady for a year or two. If you got a bunch of folks in agreement, you can keep this, the engine, steam of the engine going. But if you're not encountering this, the subtle, continual, even small wooings of love on your heart, you will never stay steady for five years. Been a pastor for over 30 years. Seen many people on fire for five years. Very few people have I ever seen sustain their zeal for over 10 years. There's so many radical people in the early 70s. I met the Lord in 1971. We were all in high school. There were so many radicals. And in college, a whole nother group of radicals. And I started pastoring a whole nother group of radicals. And I look back over 30 years, and very few of them have ever stayed steady for 10 years. The reason, they were fiercely dedicated. They had a cause. They had a mission. But they were not encountering a person. And therefore the, the small, subtle, incremental, every now and then stirrings of love did not touch them. That wasn't the focus of their heart. Changing something was the focus of their heart. Or building their network. Or learning stuff. I go, I want to change things, build a network, and learn stuff. I think all that stuff's great stuff. But beloved, if you don't feel that, those just subtle, occasional stirrings of love, where you feel love from him, you feel love to him, it overflows a little bit to yourself, and a little bit to people. You will never stay in a radical posture of dedication. You may for five years. You may even stay for 10 years. Some guys are just plain old strong-minded. You won't stay long. You won't go for decades. It will take love. Because the mission will wear you out without being renewed in love along the journey. And this renewing is small. It's a little here. It's a little there. It's every day or two, or you know, there's no way to measure it. Some days more. Some days less. Some weeks more. Some weeks less. Those little stirrings of inspiration on the heart about love. But boy they really add up. They add up over time. Top of page three. The great commandment, and we won't finish all this, and we're going to come to a close in just a few minutes actually. But I always will typically give you more notes than we'll cover. It's not only the first commandment. It's the great one. It's the great one. Oh I love this. Jesus is interpreting the Shema Israel. Hear oh Israel. He's saying I'm telling you what I want you to hear. If you love God it's great. It makes a great impact on God's heart. It makes a great impact on your heart. It makes a great impact on the people you touch. It makes a great impact on your destiny in eternity. It has the greatest pleasure. The greatest reward. It is the great one in every single way. You can put 10 more categories of greatness. I challenge you to do that. Stretch this thing out to its full limits in the grace of God. What it means that it's the greatest. It's the great commandment. It's what Jesus calls the greatest. What we call the greatest typically is what is the biggest externally. What Jesus calls the greatest is what's the biggest internally. Some of the greatest people in history in the Bible had very little impact. I like making an impact on people. But let me tell you the greatest thing about my life and your life it's amazing. It's glorious. I can impact God. What? The Genesis 1 God. He can impact me and I can impact him and it lasts forever. Now some of that may overflow and I might impact you and I want to impact you. But I am not going to sell out the most glorious and the greatest dimension of the grace of God in my life that I can impact God and he can impact me. I'm not going to sell that out to network till I'm completely worn out and exhausted and backslidden. See so many friends over the years in ministry, they're so addicted to growth of their ministry. They're so addicted to get more people to listen to them. They will sell out the greatest thing about their life to get a crowd over the years. They'll network endlessly to get 10 more people at their event. I go why don't we not do some of that's okay but why don't we not do that so hard. Let's use our strength our energy to beloved. I can say things so can you and God feels them and he remembers them forever. Oh my goodness. You can't touch a person that lives like that. They're untouchable. You can criticize them. You can lock them away. You can take everything away from you. Ignore them. You can treat them wrong and their heart is exhilarated in love. You can't touch a person like that. You may beat them up. You may mistreat them. You can slander them but you'll never diminish the brightness of their spirit. Can't touch them. They're untouchable because they've entered into the greatest dimension of their life. It's the great commandment. It's what the commandment that makes them great. It's the commandment that greatly impacts God. It's the commandment that greatly impacts them. See me being impacted or you being impacted and you being great are two different dimensions of greatness. It greatly impacts you but if you go after this you could be one of the great people in God's eyes in history. The great people of history are not the people that have the big crowds. They might be. The great people in history are the people have the great hearts, the big hearts, the big love. Go after it. He's after your heart. Paragraph B. The greatest calling is to move God's heart, to impact God's heart. Beloved I want to impact you. I want to impact people but I'm not going to give up my inheritance to impact God to try to impact a few more people. I'm going to take my chances in the grace of God and go after Him and let Him inspire me and let the brightness of my spirit impact far more people over time. Again you touch the first commandment you will become far more steady in the second commandment and far greater impact. People don't just need more of you. They need the brightness of the Spirit in you. You know some ideas, some people, I'll just a little bit risky to say this but I said this once at a group of homeschooling moms years ago because we had so many homeschooling moms in our church. I mean hundreds of them and I said now this is a little risky but you need to hear it. I said no listen moms. I said some of you you're into homeschooling and your premise is and there's a certain truth to it but taken to an illogical conclusion it backfires. More of you will guarantee your child's righteousness when they grow up. If you're ever present in omniscient and omnipresent they will somehow turn out righteous. I go why don't you back away a little bit, spend a little time with Jesus, get a bright spirit. What they need is a bright mom not just an omnipresent mom because these moms that really love the Lord all just so many of them in this particular setting they are so worn out and frazzled, martyrdom complex. We're pouring it out to the full degree. I go why don't you give a little SU, sit it at the Lord's feet. It's the great commandment. It's the first commandment. Even you can't bail your family out without God breathing through you. Why don't you be in his presence and bring brightness to your kids. Your children need you for sure but they need brightness in your spirit. You know that we had some hiccups over that meeting. But it's true and some people they approach all the relationships more of them must be the answer to that person. Well there's truth. More of you sometimes is an answer to a measure but more of you with the bright spirit is far more effective than just plain old worldview. What the body of Christ and the nations are going to need is time closer to the Lord's return. It's people with authority and brightness, not just people with humanistic sentiment. We need bright spirits that have encountered God in our, in the secret place of our heart. Jesus called loving God the greatest lifestyle. He said it's the great commandment which means it is the great lifestyle. It's the greatest ministry. I may touch millions of people my ministry. My great ministry isn't tv and conferences. The greatest ministry I can have is by giving myself to the first commandment. That is the great commandment. That's the great definition of life. That's the most radical extreme lifestyle. The most noble and the greatest ministry you can have is that. And out of there you can do whatever he whispers in your heart to do. Paragraph C. Do you know the way you move him? Do you know the way you move him? Do you know how greatly loving him moves him? Every time you repent of sin, even though you stumble in it, you say, Lord I call it sin because I love you. I say no to this and you might stumble again. But you really call it sin. You really repent of it. It moves him. Every movement of your heart moves him. Sitting before him with a heart of love. I don't mean a heart of escapism. There's a lot of escapism going on in the body of Christ. I don't mean just in prayer rooms. Just all over. Escapism in all kinds of ways. Escapism through false definitions of grace. They're just escaping reality with false doctrines of grace. There's people in the prayer rooms escaping. We're not interested in escaping. We're interested in encountering. You can sit before him and move him. You can give a person a cup of cold water. I have the verses there. You can give someone a cup of cold water. You can love somebody. An unrecognized act of service that nobody ever gives you credit for. It moves him. Hebrews 6.10. It moves him. He said, I will never forget the love you showed me when you helped them. Never, never will I forget the love you gave to me when you gave that person that money or you helped him in that love deed. Beloved, we move him and that's what makes our life great and powerful. You could be one of the greatest people of history, honestly. You may never be famous, never be known, never be recognized. Nobody may ever know you at IHOP, but just two or three people. But you might end up one of the great people before God, if you will go after this. Beloved, the sky is the limit in the grace of God in that, using that figurative speech. Paragraph D. So many are so captivated about just getting more people to hear them. If you could disconnect, some of you, some of you, you're not into this at all. Just disconnect from the addiction of just getting more people to hear you and know that God hears you. God hears you. Yeah, I know. I'll get to that later. No. God hears you. I want to make an impact. You are. If you would just sit down for a minute. When you tell him you love him, you're moving him. Wow, that's, that's neat. But you know, wait, wait, wait. You're moving God. Beloved, if you get a hold of that, nobody can touch you, meaning derail you. The first commandment, top of page four, the revelation of the supremacy of the first commandment. That's all I'm going to say. We're not even going to go into it. I just want to say the title and end with that in a minute. I love that. I just need it to be said. I just, that was my favorite part. I'm not joking. The supremacy of the first commandment. What if, and I believe it to be true, a people here, I'm talking about all over the earth too, though, any group that wants it, what if an entire people got a hold of the supremacy, the greatness, they saw it like God saw it, this commandment, what would it do to the atmosphere of that spiritual family? Amen. Let's stand. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to mark us. We will be ruined. I don't mean just ruined for an exciting ministry, big conferences, great music, cool people. That's not what I mean by ruined. I mean ruined because we've got the vision for the small little increments of God's Spirit to touch us, little by little, day by day, year by year, decade by decade. We're ruined for love. We're ruined. We're going after it. Even big ministry cannot derail us from this focus. We're ruined. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit MikeBickle.com.