The Fire of God in Holy Romance
(c) Mike Bickle

There is nothing more compelling or attractive than desire that goes above and beyond. Hollywood has made billions of dollars from the craving of the human heart to experience deep, abiding love. The love stories through the ages are very similar. They are the stories of the man who sells all to win the love of his lady. People flock to the theater to see the same story line over and over. Why? Because something in us longs for love that knows no boundaries, love that knows no sacrifice in pursuit of the one it loves. Shakespeare's timeless classic Romeo and Juliet touches the deep chord within. It cries out that life itself is only worthwhile if the heart burns with love. There is no sacrifice too great when the heart is set on fire.

Fiery, Jealous Desire

In Deuteronomy 4:24 it is evident that Moses understands the burning God here: "For the Lord your God is a consuming Fire, a jealous God." God's Fire of is an overflow, a subdepartment of His Fire of burning desire for His people. It is a manifestation of passion that removes everything that hinders love. Does sin hinder love? God will judge it in fiery passion to free His Bride. Do enemies assault the people of God? Judgment will come upon the devil and his forces as God is stirred with fiery passion to protect His Beloved. God will judge his enemies because of fiery love. His Heart will be increasingly stirred with fiery jealousy, and He will strike His enemies to protect and avenge His Bride.

God's Fiery Emotions

Understanding God's desire for human beings is very important now because His judgments are about to be loosed across the globe, for the passion of God's love and the Fire of His vengeance are one emotion. This consuming Fire - His pleasure, His desire, His burning love - will burn up all that hinders love. His burning holiness is an expression of His fiery love. In Exodus 20:5, God adds another dimension and says: For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

Psalm 36:8 is one of my favorite verses. Here David talks about drinking from the river of God's pleasure - touching the very Being of God. David understood that God is a fountain of passionate spiritual desire, and he was tapping into it. "They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them to drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light." Psalm 36:8-9 He also touches on the subject of holy lovesickness. David has this unquenchable longing, and nothing can satisfy him. No military victory or earthly experience in the human arena can satisfy the depths of his longing for God. David comes forth as one of the first theologians of Holy Romance. In Psalm 16, David articulates the theology of God's pleasure for His people that burns in His Heart and the pleasure that He imparts to people in His embrace. "You will show me the path of life; In Your Presence is fullness of joy: at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11 Today's weary Church needs a vision of the pleasure of seeing His beauty. We need a vision of the Holy Romance that will empower us to meet the end time challenges of both the judgment and harvest.

When the river touched those intercessors in the upper room, it turned men and women who were weak and cowardly into people from another realm. Such men and women walk in the reality of the age to come. Carnal pleasures such as money and other earthly desires will be seen in an entirely different perspective. Now that the river of Fire has touched them, these people redefine reward, success and pleasure. They feel differently about everything. They will still be humans, and therefore they will continue to struggle with sin and weakness occasionally. But although their human struggles have not been removed as they will be in the final resurrection, a drastic change has taken place. These individuals will never be the same.

Seeking pleasure is a primary pursuit of individuals today. But where does deep, lasting and superior pleasure come from, and how can it be found? The answer is actually very simple. It comes from the throne of God, from God Himself, and it's found in the river of His Fire. It's found in God's burning desire and passion for you. When you experience the answer yourself, when you discover the deep, lasting and superior pleasure of that river, it's delightful waters will sustain you through absolutely anything. Then when the world is colliding with all of the judgments of God, the great harvest and the victorious Church, your heart will be supernaturally buoyed up with power. But if you neglect to become immersed in the river of Fire, God will still bring His entire Church into the stability of experiencing His pleasures, but you will be left unprepared for the wild ride of the last generation. This wild ride of glory and of pain will be unprecedented in human history.

Those people who make up the Bride of Christ will find their greatest pleasure in God. They will find their glory in the resurrection, not in great buildings. They will live as people from a different world, a people lost in the passion of Holy Romance.

The theology of Holy Romance must be laid down for believers. Many people have a yes in their spirits, but too many are leaving the exploration of this theology to someone else. However, this theology must be worked through by today's believers, by you and by me, and not by someone else. The subject of pursuing and experiencing spiritual pleasure is vast, and it has many tensions and paradoxes.

Divine And Worldly Pleasures

When we experience and discover the ways of superior pleasures, we redefine reward, success and pleasure. We live as people from another world because that's precisely what we are. The world has the wrong answer for how to experience pleasure. It's answer is inferior; worldly pleasures cannot truly satisfy us. The pleasures of the world leave us painfully craving for more. History and religion have taught the Church that it is wrong to experience any kind of pleasure. They tell the Church to grit her teeth, try harder and endure. But when the Church complies, she only becomes molded into religious self-determination. The true gospel brings people into the Romance of God. This is a term that I use, and I believe it's permissible to use it although it is not a biblical term. The word Trinity is also not a Biblical term, but it is certainly a biblical concept. I call this generation the "Bridegroom Generation" because I believe that the realities of the Bridegroom will be uniquely manifested in the very last generation. The Church's revelation of the Bridegroom will far surpass the degree of revelation she has received throughout her history. This revelation will include the beauty of the Lord, which will be seen in great measure, the identity of the Bride and the power to walk in the 1st commandment and therefore in the 2nd commandment.

The Disruption of the Lovesick

Lovesick, captured people live differently. This holy lovesickness is serious, and it's implications will create a massive disruption wherever the lovesick Bride goes. Your lovesickness for the Bridegroom and your identity as the Bride will drive you into activities that will enrage others. You will disturb the status quo. You will threaten religion. Why? Because lovesick people cannot be bribed or bought off. They are not driven by a political spirit, and therefore they are not afraid of losing anything. Lovesick people have no price tags. You cannot control people who have no fear. In fact, you could offer them their pick of all the political positions in society and in the Church world, and they would remain unmoved. One part of the globe will follow them because nothing is more attractive than a heart on Fire for the Son of God. Unsaved multitudes will come into the harvest when they see lovesickness burning brightly in human beings. The people to be harvested will at first look at the Church and say, "We want something to die for!" As a lovesick contingency emerges worldwide, those who are on Fire for the Son of God will bring in the harvest, and the explosive power of this ingathering of souls will awaken the Church. The Fire they see in us will draw a portion of the world's people, and they will love it. They will be intrigued, mystified and wooed by it. They will follow it and give themselves to it. They will become lovesick themselves.

I really like the heart of Mary of Bethany. She was not an apostle. She was never famous, never wrote a book, never did a conference and never said much. Her passionate love was in secret -- she just loved the Lord ferociously in secret. She took all she had, her earthly treasure -- an alabaster box filled with spikenard, worth thirty thousand dollars -- and she lavishly, extravagantly poured it upon the One she loved.

In His mercy, God will reward forever those who consider Him gold. Job 22:23-26 - who are overwhelmed by the precious Savior's unfathomable value. God just looks for ways to bless us. He honors us disproportionately and beyond measure just because we choose Him over the sin that will result in judgment. It is unbelievable that He responds in this way just because we see who He is.

O Lord, let the burning Heart of the uncreated God touch us! Let us swim in it; let us get lost in it. Let it make us people of another age -- let us burn like bright righteousness so that unbelievers will come in by the multitudes. Give us passion, O Lord. Give us courage to stand for the Holy Romance, for the beauty and the pleasure of the Bride and the Bridegroom. Give us the power to seek it. It takes God to love God. Burning and jealous God, come and burn in us!

MIKE BICKLE is the director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri, a 24-hour-a-day prayer ministry. He is also the author of Passion for Jesus, The Pleasures of Enjoying God, and Growing in the Prophetic (Creation House). Visit his ministry on the Web at www.fotb.com

Valentine's Day With Jesus

Valentine’s Day With Jesus

Jesus does not send perfume

To linger in the air

Instead He sends salvation, sweet

To show how much He cares.

He doesn’t bring me candy hearts

In boxes of delight

Instead He always lets me know

I’m precious in His sight.

He doesn’t pass out pretty cards

Trimmed in shades of red

Instead He gave His life for me

His precious blood was shed.

He doesn’t hand out fancy gifts

Like we would send to mother

Instead He sends a message clear

To always love each other.

He doesn’t give me teddy bears

That whimper, “please be mine”

Instead He gave His heart to me

I wear it all the time.

He doesn’t give me roses, pink

For all the world to see

Instead He gave eternal life

That’s good enough for me!

[c] 2004 Marilyn Ferguson

Seekers of God
God looks down from heaven on the sons of men if there
are any who understand, any who seek God.

Psalm 53:2     Are you a man or woman who is a seeker of God? The Lord delights in seeing those children of His who fully understand the meaning of life and why there is only one thing worth seeking....God Himself.
     I can always tell when I have not been seeking God. The cares of this life, the urgent over the important, and the petty irritations - these are the symptoms of a life that has not been in the presence of God. Do we understand, really understand? That is the question God raises to each of us today. If we understand, then why do we spend day after day toiling and fretting over what doesn't matter? Can we ser proper boundaries in our lives that don't allow our time with Him to be continually stolen away? It is a challenge in a world that screams "activity."
 Do you have a consistent time of seeking Him in your life? Are you committed to developing that intimacy with your Lord that He so desires? If not, ask Him today to help you. This is the longing of His heart. Ask Him to make it the longing of your heart. Then you will demonstrate to Him that you understand, and you will be a seeker of God.

Today God Is First (c) Os Hillman; 6/30/2004

Desperate Hunger
(c) Rhonda Hughey

"AMEN" the pastor declares as the morning worship service concludes, and the worship leader finishes playing the final song. It was a very nice service, filled with a variety of interesting activities; a special drama presentation, an update on a missionary family serving overseas, the children's special song, and the upcoming fundraiser for the new youth center.

You watch people chat while making their way to the door. Then you notice a woman who doesn't seem in any hurry to leave. Isn't that the young mother who was recently divorced? Then you look at the people leaving a little more closely: the teenager with a blank, empty look on his face, the well dressed man who is bravely facing a recent diagnosis of inoperable cancer, an elderly woman with kind but sad eyes. You wonder about deeper issues that are invisible, the addictions, emotional bondages, fear of the future, loneliness, families being torn by conflict. But you couldn't see that of course when people carried those burdens into the service, and then quietly carried them back out. Something tugs on your heart.

"What's wrong?" you think to yourself. "This was a normal service, nothing unusual, the worship was uplifting, the sermon was encouraging." And there was the prayer time when you felt a moment of peace. You hope that somehow the peace will last a bit further into this week, at least past your Monday morning meeting. Reality begins to seep into your mind and your thoughts race ahead to the coming week...

You take one more look at the people leaving the sanctuary, but something is wrong, you can't quite put your finger on it. You feel a longing in your heart for something more. You wonder if there is something missing, or maybe Someone...

The Silent Cry for 'One Thing'

A widespread cry is growing in the hearts of believers for a real, tangible encounter with God. They want, like Moses, to see Him face to face. They don't want only to read about Him, talk about Him, and pay homage to Him on Sunday mornings. This strong undercurrent in our nation manifests as a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo of the institutional church. Many people who have attended church faithfully for years are now wandering around disconnected from any connectedness to the Body of Christ. Researcher George Barna estimates that more than ten million born-again believers in the United States are now considered "unchurched." People have become disillusioned and jaded, many are unwilling to return to the local church in its current condition.

What are people longing for? I believe it's the presence of God in the midst of His people, the manifestation of His nearness, and an awareness of His love that is both real and relevant. We desperately need the tangible presence of Jesus both in the church and in our communities!

How do we gauge whether or not His presence is among us? Do we just assume He is present? This is a fair question. How do we know? Can we know? Should we even ask the question? I'm not referring to the omnipresence of God but to His manifest presence. Do we believe Jesus is present because we wish Him to be there? Or is there discernible evidence when He is present and when He is absent?

God is looking for people with a heart like David, who declared: "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Ps. 27:4, NKJ).

Desperate Hunger

People who are desperate for God's presence move beyond convenience and personal comfort. They have gotten hold of something in their spirit, and they cannot let go. Jesus is not a religious concept - He is reality. If God intended for Jesus to be simply a religious concept, He wouldn't have found it necessary to send Him to the earth in human flesh. The very fact that Jesus came to live among people is a clear example of His desire to be with us in a way that we can both understand and pursue.

An initial hunger and thirst comes with the gift of salvation, but after the spiritual honeymoon is over we must intentionally cultivate our spiritual passion. Recognizing that we may have grown cold in our love toward Him, our first prayer must be to ask Him to increase our spiritual appetite. Jesus warns us that in the last days the love of many would grow cold. We must commit to our pursuit of His presence and accept His invitation for real relationship and intimacy.

Jesus issues an invitation in Revelation chapter 3. Writing to the church of Laodicea, he challenges their lukewarmness by saying, "You say 'I am rich; I have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked" (Rev 3:17). 

His counsel to the compromised church is: "buy from Me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich; white clothes that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Rev. 3:18).

How do we buy this gold from Jesus? What type of currency allows us to buy pure gold in exchange for our "wretched" condition? The answer is hunger. Desperate hunger is the currency of heaven. Hunger is what causes us to empty ourselves of compromise and creates holy dissatisfaction that drives us to our knees and makes us depend on God.

We cannot be hungry for God if we are being satisfied with other things. Because the church constantly "nibbles" on "junk food" from the world, we have lost our appetite for God! We never feel the pain of hunger for Him; we are starving for lack of His presence without even knowing it. In order to make room for Him in our lives, we must empty our hearts and lay down our own agendas. Before we can be filled, we must be empty!

The best way to get "empty" is to cultivate a life of spiritual hunger and remove all traces of self-satisfaction. The greater the capacity on the inside of us, the more desperate our hunger will be for God. We have settled for so much less than He wants to give us of Himself!

Our relationship with Him cannot simply be added to our life like an appendage. He is not a lucky charm we carry in our pocket to protect us from bad things or bring us good fortune. He is God! He doesn't fit into our little boxes and our self-centered agendas. God wants to fill us to overflowing with who He is - to conform us to the image of His Son - and then pour us out into the lives of the people in our communities. In all too many churches today we are confronted with the reality of Isaiah 64:7: "there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You."

The lack of desperate longing for God has brought us to our present condition. The stale quality of our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Jesus waits to be seriously wanted and invited, in response we must trade our complacency for abandonment. He promises that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. Let us ask the Lord to "salt our hearts" and cause a fresh hunger and thirst to overtake us. He will give us as much of Himself as we ask for!

USE ME, LORD

Use me, Lord, and let me serve
In every way I can.
Let me channel love and hope,
According to Your plan.
Show me the way, lead me to where
There is a plea for help and care.
Then let me be the light and means
To be the answer to a prayer.
Use my talents and my strengths
That I might serve You best
By sharing all You've given me,
For which I'm truly blessed.
Use me Lord, give me the words
To comfort and console.
Then guide me with each step I take
To touch the heart of some dear soul.
For I have much that I can give
And I offer willingly
To be Your vessel while I serve...
Dear precious Lord, use me.
(c) Patience Allison Hartbauer

JESUS LOVES  YOU

WHAT IS LOVE?   IT IS GENTLENESS,  KINDNESS, AND BEAUTIFUL AS A DOVE. IT IS JESUS AGAPE LOVE!

WHEN DID JESUS PROVE HIS LOVE?  WHEN HE PRAYED IN THE GARDEN,  "NOT MY WILL BUT THY WILL" IT WAS BECAUSE JESUS KNEW ALL OUR SINS WOULD BE PARDONED, SO HE ASKED FOR GODS WILL IN THE GARDEN.

BEFORE THEY NAILED HIM TO THAT OLD RUGGED CROSS, THEY  BEAT STRIPES ON HIS BACK AND PUT A CROWN OF THORNS ON HIS HEAD, AND THIS IS ALL OUR PRECIOUS JESUS SAID..."FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO!"  

THANK YOU JESUS FOR ALL THE SUFFERING YOU WENT THROUGH FOR THE WORLD, FOR YOU AND ME.  

JESUS TOOK OUR PLACE.  HE DIDN'T HAVE TO SUFFER AND DIE! BUT JESUS' LOVE PAVED OUR WAY TO OUR HEAVENLY HOME IN THE SKY.       

THIS TRUE STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING!

JESUS DIED BUT IN THREE  DAYS  CAME BACK AGAIN  TO  GO AND PREPARE FOR US A HEAVENLY HOME, TO HEAL AND FREE US FROM ALL SIN!  

JESUS IS COMING BACK TO TAKE US TO HIS HEAVENLY HOME! NO MORE SICKNESS, OR TRIALS WILL EVER BE KNOWN IN JESUS ETERNAL HOME.   SO WE HAVE HEAVEN TO GAIN   WITHOUT SIN, TRIALS, AND PAIN,  

AND IT ALL COMES IN JESUS PRECIOUS NAME. MASTER WE GIVE YOU ALL THE GLORY AND THE PRAISE! IN JESUS NAME WE HAVE VICTORY TO CLAIM!  

(c) DOROTHY  ROGERS

My Hope Is In Thee

Isn't it good to know that we can put our hope in our God and know that we are safe and secure in Him? Nothing can separate us from His love! Oh hallelujah! What better security could we hope for?

My Hope Is In Thee

I cast myself at Your feet Lord in total submission to You,

For You've poured out Your Spirit upon me and given me faith and hope anew!

You've lifted all my cares and my worries and cast them out of my sight;

You've given me peace and lasting assurance and turned my darkness to light!

All the doubts and the fears, they have left me for my trust is placed   firmly in You;

You're the light of my life which fills my whole being and overflows   with love for You each day anew!

The joy that You bring is eternal for You are my Lord and my King;

In worship and praise, I lift up my voice and to You, a new song I now sing!

One day I will meet You in glory where forever with You I will be;

My eyes are fixed upon You Lord for I'm longing to be at home with  Thee!

You are my Savior and Redeemer and I owe everything to You;

You're the light in the darkness which brings hope shining through!

(c) Helen Johnson

God Loves You  And so do I!

GOD'S BURNING HEART
(c) Mike Bickle

The love God imparts to us for Him is the same burning desire the Father has for the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we were created to receive it! Let us pray for an impartation of His fiery divine love.

Being filled with holy affection for God brings us to the highest height known in the created order, where we are exhilarated and lovesick for God. Oh, the glory of possessing fiery affections! The capacity to feel deeply and love God passionately is one of the greatest expressions of being created in His image and the very thing that separates us from the rest of His creation.

By God's grace, we will emerge as voluntary lovers, the crowning glory of creation, the Bride of Christ. We will be a bride far below the transcendent God in glory yet one exalted beyond the angelic host in intimacy with Jesus.

Our bridal position is the highest in all created order; but it is never to be confused with being equal to God. Cult groups often blur this distinction. We will be equally yoked in love because it is God's own love that is given to us for Jesus.

Our destiny is to enter into the "fellowship of the burning heart." The three Persons of the Trinity have burning hearts of love for one another, and the redeemed are beckoned into this fellowship with God's heart.

How? The Holy Spirit releases in us the capacity to love and know God far beyond the ability the angels have been given. That is one of the most dynamic dimensions of the grace of God for the redeemed: that our hearts burn with love and are fascinated with the knowledge of God. The disciples on the road to Emmaus exclaimed, "Did not our hearts burn within us?" (Luke 24: 32, NKJV).

Jesus knows how to spur the human heart to the hot desire of extravagant, fiery bridegroom love. When we have a revelation of our Messiah as a bridegroom, God transforms our spiritual identity into one of a cherished, lovesick bride. The bridal identity brings us to a unique understanding of ourselves; and it is this revelation that ushers us into the fellowship of the burning hearts.

The Holy Spirit will use this revelation of Jesus to restore the first commandment to first place in the church. Imagine how glorious life in the church will be when He has accomplished this!

Our labors of love in fulfilling the great commission will look different then, when they are carried out with a fiery heart. And when we acknowledge that we carry a primary reward within us -a lovesick heart fascinated with the beauty of Christ Jesus.

Our primary reward in this life is our ability to feel God's love. In fact, the anointing to experience God's love as it comes from Him and flows back to Him is the primary anointing related to the Bridegroom God.

The Father ordained that His Son would have an inheritance - an eternal partner, a Bride, a people who are equally yoked to Him in love and who serve Him with extravagant obedience. The Bride will stand before Him on the last day as a voluntary lover of God, loving Jesus with the very substance of God's imparted love burning like fire within her. The inheritance the Father promised Jesus is all the nations of the earth (see Ps. 2:7 - 8 ). He will entirely possess His people in the nations. But He will fully rule only when He possesses the affection and adoration of the human heart. Then His church will obey Him out of a fascinated, exhilarated, romanced heart, a heart that is overflowing in gladness with His leadership and that receives a growing impartation of fiery divine love.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

God's Word tells us that if we are to receive of Him, then we must seek Him and His word fervently. Any thing that is truly worth having must be sought after.    

Things that are just given to us can at times seem important but something which we have to diligently search for always seems to have added value for when we have worked long and hard to find it and truly sought after it, when we finally find it, we realize that it has so much more value.    

The same thing can be said of God's Word and those precious nuggets of wisdom which we find throughout His Word, can have so much meaning for us. They always seem to appear when we need them the most and after we have been seeking for the answer or solution and we realize we need to hear from God and what He has to say about it, His Words can make all the difference in some of the decisions we have to make.    

What is so wonderful is that, He tells us that when we seek Him and His Word earnestly and prayerfully He will give us the answer that we need.  He will not leave us hanging, still wondering what we should do or where we should go for the solution! He not only gives us the answer but we can have the assurance that it is the right one.  

His Word tells us, when we ask for bread, He will not give us a stone!    

If we don't get the answer right away, we cannot give up! He is a faithful and loving God and He will always come through for us. We will not only receive the answer we are looking for but will receive all of these wonderful nuggets of wisdom and knowledge which are far more precious than gold! Amen?...

A Heart for God (c) Helen Johnson

Seeking God

Let your ears be receptive and your hearts rejoice, As you listen carefully for His  Majesty's voice. Seek Him earnestly and diligently in humbleness and true humility; This is when you will be able to discern prophetic ability. You will know the truth when in Him you seek earnestly; Your eyes will be open to His truths in true simplicity. When you seek for God's wisdom and knowledge you will find; He will renew your spirit, your heart and your mind. His hidden mysteries to you He will unfold; You will rise to new heights of His wisdom and glories untold! Our God is faithful and His Word is true; We can have the assurance that  what He says He will do! He knows our hearts, our thoughts  and our minds; When we seek Him in humble sincerity His truths we will find!  

(c) Helen Johnson

I Will Always Love You Jesus!