Cultivating the Oil of Intimacy with the Bridegroom God | Mike Bickle

amen well tonight i want to cover a familiar passage the parable of the 10 virgins as we're talking about cultivating what the oil of intimacy with the bridegroom god the oil of intimacy is is a phrase that i've used over the years and i i like that phrase because that's what the parable's about getting oil but before we look at that i want to give you just a quick snapshot of the larger context because matthew chapter 24 and 25 is one message and the parable of the of the ten virgins is is towards the end of that message and if you jump in at the end you miss so many of the details of that parable if you don't catch the context now most of you know matthew 24 and 25 is jesus's primary teaching on the end times he gives more information there than any other place and again to grasp the flow of it we get that we we understand the parable far better paragraph a jesus identified a few signs of the times then he taught four parables of how he wants his people to respond to those signs of the times matthew chapter i mean paragraph b matthew 24 and 25 was his final public teaching or his final teaching before he went to the upper room in the last supper so think of the significance of this passage it's his final teaching before the last supper and in it he reveals himself as bridegroom king and judge we've gone over that a bunch of times though over the over the weeks he's a a king with power but a bridegroom with desire desire for relationship but he's a judge with zeal zeal to confront and remove everything that hinders love it's significant that that was jesus's final presentation of himself before the upper room bridegroom king and judge and look at the end of paragraph b the final presentation of jesus in the scripture book of revelation last four chapters it's the same bridegroom king and judge and so this isn't a small idea this is a very significant that in our thinking that we don't separate these dimensions of him but we see them as one reality of of our savior the lord jesus paragraph c just keep this in mind and most of you know it well that in the end times in the generation of the lord returns it will be the greatest revival and the greatest pressure it won't be one or the other it will be both of them operating at the same time across the earth the greatest revival as well as the greatest pressure and so in matthew chapter 24 here jesus highlights the resistance and the resistance is real it's gonna there's never gonna be a time where the body of christ is more resisted than the time of the greatest revival they go together so paragraph d it will be the most difficult time but it will be the most glorious time and the most significant three and a half years of human history look what it says in verse 21 it will be a tribulation it will be trouble never seen at that level in human history but after it the son of man will appear in the clouds and he'll gather all of his people to himself but where jesus is taking this teaching because he knows in matthew 24 the parables he's going to teach in just a moment and what he's going to be saying is that you're going to need oil and oil isn't just you know to help our personal quiet time with the lord i mean it is and i don't want to say just but this teaching of getting oil is in a far bigger and more serious context than just having a little bit more lively devotional time although that to me is in itself is a grand thing is it in itself but what he's saying is my beloved people you're not going to be able to thrive in the greatest revival and the greatest pressure without this oil it's not just something that will be helpful it will be an issue of life and death paragraph roman numeral two well he gave the signs of the times first in matthew 24 then he gives four parables now i'm just gonna give you a minute on each one because i want you to see the context but here i want to say this these four parables they are four prophetic holy spirit emphasis in the inside in the end time church don't read these parables you go that's neat these parables will be a holy spirit emphasis globally to the body of christ so if you want a relevant ministry and you're alive in that hour of history i think we're in the early days of that generation but if you want a relevant ministry and a message in that hour of history go after these four parables because they're not random teachings jesus says these four will be relevant holy spirit emphasis and anointed messages in that hour of history well the first parable a it's the parable of the fig tree we're not going to read it but in this parable he's really saying the signs of the times that i just gave you because he gave 22 of them actually he says you need to you need to take time to understand them and recognize them that's what that parable means then he warned the people of course it's just his apostles there he warns them with a very sober warning he goes you really need to know the signs that he warns him he says but most people won't take time to learn them that's an alarming sober warning so the parable of the fig tree that will be a major holy spirit emphasis in the generation the lord returns but at the end of that parable verse 42 he gave what is the most emphasized exhortation jesus gave to the end time church you know i if you step back and think about it say he knows the depth of the glory and he knows the depth of the trouble that's coming in that hour of history if he knows all of this so clearly what would he say to his people to prepare them and it's remarkable in its simplicity because the exhortation he gave the most i mean by far the most to the end time church is this simple word watch or he says watch and pray and i've thought a few times lord surely there's more you could add to this and it's like he's saying you do the watching and praying and you'll be positioned positioned in a right place to thrive under the pressure that's coming and to be a useful relevant participant in the great end time revival he says in verse 42 watch then verse 43 he talks about the thief and what this means again i don't want to break down all these parables he's saying to believers if you don't watch there's a a a uh you're in a vulnerable place of suffering loss because the thief isn't just the one that comes suddenly that's part of the of the imagery of the thief but a thief is one that comes and causes you to suffer loss and when he talks about watch because of the thief dynamic he means yeah will be sudden but yeah many people my own people will suffer loss because they won't be ready in that day look at verse 44 verse 44 now again he's ending the parable of the fig tree this is one of the most significant statements he goes if you do watch you will be ready now we look at that and they go that's you know we want to be ready this is the number one focus of the church in that generation is to be ready according to jesus because it's like jesus is reaching forward two thousand plus years because at the marriage supper of the lamb where the billions of believers are gathered together there's one description they were ready jesus is using the same exact word reaching into the future the same idea and he's saying you want to be part of that group when i look across the nations right now the church has and i don't say this in a uh uh despairing or a critical way but just being sober there is such a laodicean spirit of superficiality on the church right now and i look at that as a shepherd of the body and i go lord the greatest revival in history it's going to reach all nations but it's not just great in its numbers it's going to be the greatest revival in history in its spiritual depth because it's going to have a billion plus believers ready fulfilling what he says here in verse 44. right now i mean it's not ready to be saved that's not what we're talking about because there'll be a lot of people are ready to die and be saved and make it to heaven that's not what it means being ready means being in a a a relationship of mutual response of wholehearted love to the lord that's what he means by being ready not talking about being saved when you die so praise god i guess i was ready i was still saved no he's talking about something far greater than that he's talking about there's going to be one generation of time where it will be the la the revival of the largest magnitude it will reach every nation of the world that's never happened so it will be a unique revival in that way but it will be unique in another way because all the great revivals of history that i'm aware of they led people to jesus but mostly didn't take them into great depth like a million got saved but 10 years later the million were not spiritually deep in any way that was recognizable in history but the great revival it's a bridegroom revival it's not just a revival where a million or a billion will get saved that will happen but they will enter into the revelation of the bridegroom god and in that they will see themselves differently and the readiness is the wholehearted mutual love between the body the bride and the bridegroom and so jesus is looking ahead and he goes being ready is the paramount issue and this idea of the oil is connected to this great revival because remember it's not just a billion souls coming in they're going to come into a spiritual depth that no revival has ever seen in history and that's a new idea because it's not just a salvation revival it's a what i call a bridegroom revival the bridegroom will be revealed in it and it will make that revival completely unique from any other revival in history paragraph b in luke chapter 21 now understand this that the matthew 24 25 message that sermon that message matthew luke 21 is is luke's version of it so it's the same message but luke adds a point or two that matthew doesn't have it's the same sermon the same occasion and luke talks about the necessity of watching and praying because people's look at verse 34 their hearts will be weighed down but he's talking about believers now believers all over the earth they will be confronted with problems with temptations with persecutions where jesus said the weighing down of your heart will be one of the great concerns therefore watch and pray many will be weighed down with fears others with lust others with dullness and he says watch and pray so you can escape not meaning he's not about escaping the idea of facing the pressure but you won't be held captive to the pressure the pressure won't trap you and the pressure won't bring you down and you won't be weighed down by the pressure you'll escape being snared by the pressures of the earth but he comes back to the idea of watch and wait top of page two now again the reason i'm laying this foundation because the parable of the ten virgins is a call to watch and wait but if you take it out of its larger context you think he's only talking about having a little bit more lively personal prayer time a couple times a week and he's talking about something far more dramatic and far more urgent than that when you see the parable in its context paragraph c he says watch and pray those are the two words he uses in this end time message now to watch means the the exhortation is to inform your mind you're actually to watch the signs of the times unfolding you're actually to watch them that's what it watch means watch and pray is to engage your heart so he said the two things you need to do inform your mind and engage your heart paragraph one now watching they're watching the 22 signs of the times they're familiar with them and they're asking the holy spirit for kind of uh updated information as the clock moves forward as the urgency increases they're acclimating to the situation that's before them the great revival is mounting up and the pressure's mounting up and they're realigning and acclimating little by little because that's the most effective way to acclimate so watch be an anointed observer and don't be shocked by the sudden greatness of the power in the church or the sudden greatness of the pressure and the temptations and the culture don't be shocked by either but be kind of moving forward adjusting and realigning to the new evolving situation in the globe and in the church then when he says pray he's not talking so much about growing and understanding but he's talking about growing right now of course prayer does help your understanding growing in strength your heart engaging with the lord well the second parable what he says in this one this is going to be a big holy spirit emphasis he said there's going to be two types of leaders who confess christ there's going to be those that are wise and the others that are captured by disappointment and bitterness and they show themselves to be evil they were not evil in the moment they progressed with negative responses over time that's a big emphasis of the spirit we're not going to look at that but i just want you to see that there was the wise among people that confessed to follow christ there's going to be a company that will be as uh of of uh negative heart responses because the bitterness will bring them over the years to a negative response they couldn't have imagined so jesus is warning them of that but they were true believers on the front end paragraph e then the third paragraph bull is the one we're looking at tonight which is the the context she's telling the wise ones it's not enough just to choose good and avoid the bitterness now that you're wise you got to keep a heart connect with me not just avoid the stumbling block of bitterness and disappointment of the parable just before this he goes now you got to do more than that because people with a good heart that choose to stay free of the bitterness if they don't stay connected to me they still will suffer loss that's the parable we're on tonight and then the fourth parable the real message of them of this parable is the ability to see the value of our ministry and laborers when they're small and difficult because the enemy always wants to come and tell us when our labors are small the fruit is small the impact is small we just want to say well who wants to bother with it and the message of this parable is when it's small and even when it's difficult it's important to god and don't buy the devil's lies because this this parable as well there's going to be a holy spirit emphasis in the end time church that what is small but is faithful to god is valuable to god and it will be seen to be have a great reward in the age to come so you put the four parables together and i just leave you with the notes on that because you think okay the four i don't have them all yet i want to encourage you to see the four as one continuum of a message preparing the church in the face of what's coming so let's look at the one that we're really focused on tonight the third parable roman numeral three it's the parable of the ten virgins now the parable of of the ten virgins is to prioritize staying connected with god's heart because the parable before the issue was don't yield to bitterness and become the evil leader but stay true and be the faithful diligent wise one but now that you've chosen that path you got to choose yet more issues to maintain that place before the lord and it's this idea of oil of staying connected well let's read it verse matthew chapter 25 verse 1-2 now i want you to notice four important words in verse one he says then that's the first important word the kingdom of god will be comparable or likened to ten virgins they all took lamps and they went out to meet the bridegroom five of them were wise five of them were foolish now they all started wise they started they were the group from the parable before they all are virgins paragraph b so in this parable they're all born again and we looked at this last week in in second corinthians 11 that one of the glorious truths of the gospel is that no matter how much sin and defilement we've walked in jesus gives us his own righteousness as a free gift and he views us in his sight by his own righteousness as chaste virgins before him it's the most marvelous new beginning and the grace of god in the gift of righteousness is something that keeps us confident in his presence day by day he views us as chaste virgins even in our brokenness and weakness this is a remarkable insight i mean a remarkable fruit of of jesus's death on the cross so first all ten of these are born again believers that's the part i want you to get they're ten virgins number two paragraph c they all had lamps now a lamp meant they were bringing light to other people the lamp meant they were carrying it on the dark path they were bringing lights to others so they all had functional ministries so they're born again believers and they've got a light shining ministry 10 for 10. things are good the the paragraph d the next word they went out to meet the bridegroom all 10 of them had introductory understanding of jesus the bridegroom all 10 of them went to the bridegroom conference they took the bridegroom class they wrote bridegroom blogs they sang bridegroom songs they all went to me ten for ten because the tragedy of the story isn't that they were completely uninformed they were actually in the flow and they got out of the flow that's the tragedy that he's warning them in this psalm i mean in this uh uh passage here again this is the third parable going back to the second parable the issue would how would they face disappointment setbacks would they be bitter or would they be faithful and diligent they chose diligent now he says now i've got another thing before you will you stay connected not just diligent because there's a lot of really good people in the body of christ they're really diligent but their ministry activity and their ministry influence outgrows their heart connect and their hearts get broken and dulled and injured in the process because what they do externally is greater than what they're experiencing internally and and we're going to find out in a moment he's saying don't let your ministry activity and your sphere and your open doors of ministry get larger than your heart connect and when it does draw back strengthen your heart doesn't mean stop everything but draw back on some of your activity strengthen the heart connect and then go forward again now it's interesting paragraph e he uses the word then look at verse one up in paragraph a just to look at the verses then the kingdom will be and the question is when is then what do you mean then well this is an end time passage that's why it's important when you read chapter 25 verse 1 then then points back to the chapter before the whole end time scenario and the signs of the times and the great revival the gospel of the kingdom to all nations and the persecution and the tribulation and all of these things then jesus says when all of those things are happening then the kingdom will be like believers encountering the bridegroom god now for 2 000 years the kingdom hasn't been like believers encountering the bridegroom god the kingdom has been believers encountering the savior believers encountering the healer believers in count encountering the king with some power and provision but over two thousand years of history the spirit has never emphasized jesus as a bridegroom i mean a little girl a group here and there has seen that over the years but it's never been universally emphasized until the generation the lord returns so he goes then the kingdom will have a bridegroom emphasis at that hour of history and that is yet ahead of us but i believe we're in the early days and this bridegroom emphasis that is only for one generation is beginning to emerge and become uh recognizable around the world 10 and 20 and 30 years ago because i was looking for it 30 years ago i was wanting to understand the bride of christ it was 1988 when the lord first spoke to me about the bride of christ and i didn't like the subject i didn't like the idea and he and he spoke strongly to engage in it and my real fleshly answer is i don't want to i mean i will but i'd rather do life of david life of paul book of acts you know book of romans that stuff i don't want to do this other stuff and i started searching around the earth with my research team i've told the story before i couldn't hardly find any information on the bride of christ and i was a little bit despairing i thought how am i gonna i don't know anything about it and i'm not even that interested to be honest lord but you made it so clear i'm gonna go ahead and do it because you're gonna win this one anyway so i might as well just go for it but 30 years ago i couldn't hardly find anything and i've been watching carefully and in the last 10 years i mean there's a recognizable beginning the emergence of a global emphasis of the spirit on this topic jesus yes savior forever healer yes king forever fantastic he never is not those but there's a new dimension the bridegroom because we see here in revelation 22 the only time in history right before jesus returns the church will see herself as a cherished bride before a beautiful bridegroom first time ever in history as in the generation of the lord returns but the reason because the last revival will not just be a large one the only time a revival reached every nations first time ever it was its scope its numbers scope every nation numbers a billion plus i'm convinced but the end time revival will be more than that it will be a bridegroom revival not just a soul's getting saved bodies getting healed revival that will be happening beyond any time of history but there's another storyline that is unfolding and the lord is saying i'm going to raise up messengers you know the many ways that messengers give the message some will do it through social media some will do through song some will do it through blogs some of you teaching one-on-one disciple discipleship raising children and teaching them in the home all of those are part of the messenger ministry there's many many ways the messengers but the the unique thing about the end time revival is that the messengers have to be established experientially in the reality of the bridegroom god because it's a bridegroom revival and so it's not enough to say you can get your sins forgiven i mean that again is a message that is glorious and and uh uh in itself and it's never less than that but when the where we're going the spirit says no i want you to bring him past forgiveness into this interchange with the savior as the bridegroom king because it's a bridegroom revival not just a normal revival of the last 2000 years of church history because the goal of the end revival is to produce a ready bride and that's the key word jesus uses it twice here in matthew 24 and 25 and then he uses it at the marriage supper of the lamb they are ready and they are ready to be equally yoked in love is what the ready means doesn't mean they just didn't lose their salvation and you know died and still were saved they're equally yoked in love jesus is coming back for an equally yoked bride that's his partner not somebody that is on the very edges of the kingdom that you know by the grace of god he goes well you still made it well praise god at least i was ready no that's not what ready means top of page 3. so in this parable this is why i i take this parable very very seriously he's warning paragraph a that the wise though they have been faced with bitterness and they're not going to respond and become the evil one of the parable before they've settled that they're not going that direction but the next challenge is the wise can become foolish because remember all 10 of them had ministries and they were encountering the bridegroom all of them started in the right place but five of them neglected to keep the active interchange of their heart with the bridegroom and they lost the oil five kept the interaction and five lost it they presumed on their past experiences and said hey you know i know all this i'm good but their heart is no longer moving in the same tenderness it did a year ago or five years ago and many believers when that happens they net they don't stop to recognize it that is a spiritual crisis of a great magnitude but if not understood it's a greater i mean then it becomes a crisis of great magnitude if it's not understood it's what i'm trying to say well let's read verse two five of these ten messengers these are leaders in the kingdom they're messengers you know different spheres of leadership they have lamps they have ministries they're bringing to other people five of them were wise five of them were foolish and in verse three and four this is so profoundly simple but as the preacher said simply profound as well jesus defines wisdom in the most simple direct way and he's talking to the end time ministries in the face of a global climate of trouble lost persecution martyrdom demon activity but also in a church environment of the great revival history he's talking to people in that hour and he says let me tell you people alive then here's the issue if you cultivate oil you're wise if you don't cold avoid cultivated oil you got everything else you're foolish simple there it is he didn't talk about how educated how much money they had how well their networking was how good their social media savvy was he said you get oils you're wise you get so busy you lose your oil you're foolish you're still saved but you're foolish but even there it can progress to a very dangerous spot before beyond that but that's we'll get that in a few moments he said look at verse three the foolish took their lamps their ministries but they didn't take oil they said i got my ministry in front of me and the lord might say hey what about the oil i'm good the doors are opening my ministry's in front of me i got my lamp but i'm not really focused on the oil but verse four the other five the wise ones they said no we want oil to be our focus first and then we're gonna take our lamp they didn't throw their lamps away but they said we're going to prioritize oil and that's what his definition of wisdom is paragraph b now oil in this parable is real simple just speak to the presence of the anointing of the holy spirit flowing in them and through them but it's not just god flowing through you in power so people are touched in ministry it's moving your heart is what he's talking about in this particular parable the oil is really uh connected with the heart being moved and tenderized paragraph c i just gave you four phrases you could put 10 or 20 of them here just to kind of give you a sense of what the oil means the oil means when our heart is tenderized by the spirit i don't mean all day every day but those moments when we have tenderizing the oil speaks of our our desire for the lord is enlarging maybe not dramatically but little by little and sometimes it's three steps forward two steps backwards but the needle's moving forward it's not just a steady you know upward progression it doesn't always work that way but when you look back over the months and the years your desire is enlarging number three your understanding is growing number four your zeal to be obedient in private is growing and again you can put 10 more lines on that i mean definitions of that but the oil in this isn't the oil of power when i lay hands on the sick and the guy raises from the dead that's ministry and that's good that's awesome but this oil here he's talking about a heart connection a heart tenderizing you know when when i look at this uh paragraph d well let's look at paragraph d i've already said this but it kind of just says it again the foolish they took their lamp but they didn't take oil they this describes the ministry they they were virgins they had lamps and they had a good beginning with the bridegroom i mean they were not uninformed and they were not without any experience at all they had initial fundamental introductory experience with intimacy with god but they pursued more ministry activity before acquiring the oil of uh intimacy and like i said before when our ministry activity or our sphere of influence gets bigger than our heart engagement we're going down the wrong path i want to say that again when our sphere of influence because the problem or the challenge is a better way to say it when the anointing of the spirit or the favor of god's touching you doors open but if you go through all the doors your influence gets bigger than your heart engagement then you start actually losing the oil it's a really uh interesting paradox the more favor the more open doors the more open doors the more likely you're gonna lose oil i'll tell a very personal example the lord spoke this verse to me and i'm i'm so grateful it's kind of weird to share it because i'm kind of the hero of my story here but it's so dear to me and i just want forget my part of it i want a couple of you out there go hey i'm going to do that it was in 1988 when the lord in a surprising way took me in my ministry here and set me one of the most prominent ministries in the western world john wimber had thousands of people uh seven six seven eight thousand leaders at his conferences and and he invited me to travel with him around the world to every meeting i mean 99 98 of them i probably hadn't missed one i don't know about but and he's through a certain way met me i'm about my early 30s he goes the lord showed me you're supposed to go with me and i stood with him on the main platform to the largest conferences of leaders all around the world i mean many countries well europe and australia new zealand south africa you know just all over everywhere and thousands of leaders and he said the lord told me where to do this and for three years i was invited to every single conference he probably went to one or two or three every single month i mean it was it was exciting worrisome and i remember at the three-year mark i remember when i was sitting in the van in denver colorado and i was so grieved in my heart and the holy spirit gave me this word it saved my life i didn't really grasp it matthew chapter 25 verse three goes you are becoming the foolish one that has no oil and the lord began to confront me when's the last time you wept in your private prayer time just over the word because that would happen i don't want to exaggerate it but not every day but almost every day for a couple years before that i would have moments of tenderness where i would experience the love of god not every day but most days it really did happen and that was my memory but it hadn't happened for some months and he brings this to me and says when's the last time your heart was tenderized when's the last time you opened a bible in private and shed tears of love for me and i was in this van and and i said months i i don't my heart's not moved like it was oh my gosh i didn't even know it i was having such fun and it was enjoyable it was invigorating interesting great people i hadn't thought about it which is i'm humiliated i'm embarrassed to say and the lord spoke it to me so john i remember he gets in the van like john i looked i said i gotta tell you something he goes yeah sure i go i want to be released from all of our future conferences he goes okay it's a little bit random where did that come from and because i was in the pain of feeling this stinging rebuke from the lord this private thing that i didn't measure my words very good i i looked at him i go i'm in the throes of pain and so i go john i'm backslidden and what he thinks i i'm saying is i'm involved in some scandal he goes oh my god what did you do i go no no it's not what i did it's what i'm not doing he goes what do you mean i said john i'm seriously backslidden and i was i said i haven't felt my heart tenderized in a prayer meeting in months i said i haven't wept over that sounds so righteous i realize that it's kind of like it's a weird story to tell and he looked and he goes oh he goes oh that's oh that's neat i go no no no no no no i'm not talking about being neat right now i am in trouble with god and if i stay in this path it will be bad in a year or two or three and he goes well i really respect that and he goes i free you and i just canceled every one of my conferences i had many more planned for the next year all around the world and i went back home and my leadership team said what happened you guys get a fight i go no no i said i'm backslidden and i said but so are you guys to be totally honest i go no really really if if backslid if it means when we get quiet before the lord and our heart doesn't move that's what backslidden looks like to me i go i don't want to live that way and i didn't realize not that this is the biggest point that my whole uh involvement in ihop in the future was in the balance on that decision when i look back later i go huh because not that ihop is the big point but it's like i didn't even really think much about ihop at 91 but it's like the lord was saying if you didn't get back in the right trajectory you could never ever it would be an endurance ihop would be endurance it would be painful to sit before god unmoved day by day and i know some people do it they sit in the prayer room and it's like torture to them because their heart's not moved there's not a spark of revelation about the lord there's no tenderness they like the music but they're going this is torture i say hang in there it will lift it will turn around so i look at this verse and it's quite personal to me and i i'm only tell the story i'm not trying to be some great guy in the story but i want someone out there to go sometime in the future you know what that's where i'm living i'm in that same place i just never called it backslidden and i never thought of it as being rebuked and the lord was rebuking me but tenderly he was rebuking me to woo me because he says i love you but you're off right now you have to get back paragraph e the wise they took their oil first and their lamps second when you read verse four carefully they made it the first priority now i want to be honest about it that since 1991 i've lost my way several times since then but in smaller measures praise the lord but i have and the lord is but back in that van in that day in 1991 i remember i set my heart i said lord if you will whisper this to me i'll try to respond quickly and probably every i don't know every year or two or i don't really know the amount but i find myself overly involved in the leadership dimension of ministry and my heart getting dull and i've experienced that quite a few times since 91 and i go i am never going to get to the place i was in 91 by the grace of god i'm going to put the brakes on shut some things off turn turn some opportunities away because the the longer i stay in ministry like many that i mean i'm in my 60s i just have way more open doors in my 60s than my 30s that's just how life works i think for most people if you do it long enough but the open doors become the very challenge some of them you go through but the lord is saying i want you to weigh every open door through the lens of oil on your heart plus a few other things i don't want to go into all that but paragraph one under e jesus connects being wise i've already said this to taking time to encounter the bridegroom that is such a simple statement but it's such a radical one if you will take this at face value that you will evaluate not just i'm taking ministry whether it's business opportunities networking opportunities ways that expand your sphere of influence if you would look at them and say thank you lord for your favor but i'm gonna decide them through the lens of the amount of oil in my heart it will change your decision-making mechanisms i want to challenge you and some of you already do that paragraph 5 verse 5. just continuing in the para in the parable verse five while the bridegroom delayed of course church history it's two thousand years plus they all slept but verse six at the midnight hour of history the cry is heard behold the bridegroom is coming go out to meet him verse 7 all the virgins rose and they trimmed their lamps they cut the charred top off of the of the wick because it affects how the the lamp works it's a standard thing they would do but i want you to notice notice there's a three-fold cry at the midnight hour of history now i'm adding the midnight hour of history because the whole matthew 24 25 is about the end times according to jesus so i'm taking the liberty to add at midnight of the parable because it is the midnight hour in context that jesus is talking to the end times the generation of his return there's a threefold cry in verse six the cry was heard first he's coming there's a cry going out in the earth and it's you hear it more and more in the last 10 years than the 10 years before it it's the beginning it's a faint cry but the christ building in the nations he's coming and he's coming he's coming in two ways first he's coming in waves of revival that are renewing the church and winning the lost then he's going to come in the sky in inflaming fire in the glory of god he's coming first in waves of revival that are intensifying but beloved the waves of revival is not the normal charles finney first second great awakening of history where just you know thousands get saved and that's the end of it no this is a bridegroom revival it's the multitude saved but they're brought into spiritual depth in a way unique any time in history he's coming the waves of revival are beginning to break out across the world and you're hearing the sound of prophetic voices proclaiming get ready get ready he's coming but paragraph see there's another message it's not only he is coming the one that's coming is a bridegroom he's not just a king with power he's coming and he wants this mutually yoked equally yoked heart he's a bridegroom who wants a loyal bride he has intense desire but he demands a response that's the one who's coming he's not coming to stamp our passports so a billion people go to heaven when they die and that's the story line he's coming as a god of intense desire for wholeheartedness he's giving his all he's requiring his all he's not just coming it's a bridegroom who's coming is the second part of the message but the third part of the message paragraph d go out to meet him and that's what i'm talking about right now go out to meet him means shift your lifestyle and your schedule so you have time to interact with him because you're not going to get oil on the run we get oil it's very intentional and deliberate get up and begin to engage him meaning get up step away from the business's usual lifestyle i love the testimony of the mary of bethany earlier become a dimension of your life intentional about the mary of bethany interchange go out and meet him this is not at ministry activity this is a rising from your business's usual life to interact with him taking your own initiative to do that paragraph e it says they all slept look at verse five that while the bridegroom delayed they all slept now sleeping in this parable is not bad sleeping in other parables means they're spiritually sleeping it's not bad because the good the wise and the foolish were sleeping the sleeping here is talking about cultivating the oil in context of the natural processes of life meaning that we've got to there's a rhythm of life there's a dimension of the natural dimensions of life that has a certain rigor to it that has a certain routine to it that has a certain mundaneness to just everyday life he says you're gonna get oil but in that context i'm not gonna i'm not gonna uh cause the human processes to be all lifted i'm not gonna take you out of the realm of humanity because these wise ones even had the natural processes of life that they were engaged in but in the midst of that and the rigors and the routines the wise ones determined to get oil top of page four verse eight the foolish now the foolish started good they knew better than to get in this condition but the tragedy is that they wake up too late and they do suffer loss and that's the reference i made back in matthew 24 verse 43 i talk about the thief the thing doesn't just come suddenly the thief comes to cause you to suffer loss these five foolish ones suffered loss you'll see here in verse eight the wise said to the fully said to the wise hey can you give us your oil our ministries are diminishing our light is going out can you give us your oil verse 9 and the wise virgins answered no it doesn't work that way go into the god-ordained processes and acquire your own oils what they're saying here he says go and buy your own oil now let's look at paragraph a for a moment here the foolish ministries recognized the great mistake that they neglected oil while they were running in their ministries now men and women have done that all through history they have neglected oil all through history but in the bridegroom revival where spiritual depth is the center theme of that revival you want to be a voice not an echo you want to call people into an interaction with a bridegroom god because you have an interaction you won't be able to memorize a little paragraph or a song and then it works because bringing people into a greater understanding and encounter the bridegroom means that you're doing it in your private life like like the phrase that the lord gave me some years ago i want you to be a voice not an echo don't just echo concepts you got to have something in your private history you're interacting with and you're talking out of it you're not giving memorized little statements you're giving heartfelt movements of your interaction with the bridegroom a lot of ministry lamps as we get closer to the lord's return the darkness is going to get darker the occult activity the lust and perversion of the internet pornography perversion where it's going in the next 20 30 years is unthinkable the persecution the rage against the church the outpouring of the spirit all of these things are mounting up and i and i mean this is obvious that it it's going to require spiritual vitality to thrive as an individual but to thrive as a messenger as well and i don't mean having a big crowd that's not what thriving means is you might your your influence may be three people but you're moving them to god when you talk to them let's talk about the size of your influence i'm talking about the depth of the movement of their heart because you've touched them and the holy spirit's used you this is a self-evident thing but i just want to say it paragraph a christian self-help pop psychology sermons are not going to meek meet the need of the hour of a demonized culture with persecution and martyrdom and lust at a whole other level just kind of pop psychology gee whiz things are gonna get better that's never going to meet the need of the crisis of the nations and many in the body of christ will say you know what i appreciated that back when but now that just has nothing that is nothing for me right now i've got to know how to touch god right now there's a new there's a new story developing in the earth and i need to be a part of that and i love your little popular little pop psychology stuff but this is not helping me right now those lamps i want to just prophesy to you they're going out and i'm not against any of them i'm just saying as the the depth of darkness and the pain and the cry for reality is going to be so much greater in the decades coming than in the decades in the past paragraph b they said give us your oil in other words hey could you bolster our ministry a little bit hey why don't we join together hey let's partner and we'll use your oil and we'll build the crowd back up and the wise paragraphy said no they understood their limitation they said i cannot give you my spiritual history our spiritual preparation is not transferable i mean i believe in laying hands on people and people getting something in the grace of god but i can't get somebody else's spiritual history it's day by day conversation by conversation with the lord they go no you gotta buy oil paragraph c and that sounds like an odd word by because we think i've earned it and jesus understands the grace of god really well that's not what he wasn't confused he was using popular language and he used the same language in the book of revelation he said go buy gold he didn't mean earn it he meant invest your way yourself in the god-ordained way but in a costly investment throw yourself into it all the way don't stand on the edges and wonder where it's at jump in all the way is what it's saying paragraph d and while they went to buy these five foolish virgins they they go we got to go get some oil now while they're coming this is a great tragedy while they're trying to build a history in god they're trying to get the oil they should have been getting for years before the bridegroom comes now again in the analogy of the i i think the application is parable he comes in waves of revival first that are increasing then he comes in the sky in fire at the second coming and i believe this has both applications to it look at verse 10 there's those that fantastic phrase i can't fathom anything more important than this and those who were ready beloved that's not only the number one goal of your personal life to be responsive a full responsiveness to god that's not only your personal goal that's god's goal for human history for the end of history the redeemed would stand ready at the marriage supper of the lamb responsive in this mutual wholehearted love equally yoked dimension love to the lord this responsiveness well the five that we're ready i just can't think of anything more important than that i want you to take that phrase those are ready put your name on it say this is my new life goal right here i am going to be responsive i'm not going to be in the hour even when the revivals begin to increase a lot of folks say well when their bible's all increased i'll just get in the flow and the lord says yeah but i would have liked you to be a vessel to impart bridegroom revelation but you never interacted with it and it's a bridegroom revival this is the bridegroom generation this isn't the hour to be disconnected to this reality because the revival the ultimate one coming that the lord returns at the back at the end of it is a bridegroom revival of radical first commandment in first place kind of interaction so he went in these five went in with him verse 10 and they're celebrating the wedding and again whether they're celebrating it in the revival the waves of revival building up to the final wedding the kind of the pre-celebration of it before that last day i think it you can apply it both days and then the door was shut the door of opportunity to participate was shut verse 11 the five foolish ones they came hey hey wait remember verse one we used to go out and meet you we know the bridegroom we went to that conference we taught the class are you kidding we know this open up the door of opportunity use me in the great bridegroom revival or allow me at the wedding supper of the lamb those are two different applications that that are quite different from each other but i think both of them have a relevant application here in verse 12 he says no i don't know you in the bridegroom revelation i don't we don't talk this language you don't refer to me we don't have a history in this and that's what i'm releasing in the earth right now yes you can receive from others but i would have that you would have been one imparting it not only because you always want to be receiving it but i would have had it that you would have been imparting it and had a history ready to speak out of the overflow of your life and not hear devoid of oil in the great hour when i'm shifting history paragraph e the bridegroom came i'm saying it again but i just want you to get it and i'll bring this to a close just a moment here because i want you to get the worship team get ready to come on up is that uh the bridegroom came again there's the waves of revival that are crescendoing and getting bigger and bigger we're just at the very beginning of that but we're going to look in the decades ahead these revival waves but they're going to be bridegroom centered revivals not just get saved and then go on your with your life business as usual now it was typical paragraph one and two here it was typical in the ancient world for a wedding feast to continue for seven nights you know in the west we have the wedding and then an hour later you have the one or two or three or hour whatever you do afterwards but in the ancient world they had the wedding and they would have night one a feast night two a feast night three of feasts so in the first night the closest ones to the bride and bridegroom were invited and so the first evening the door is shut the door shut he goes i don't know you this way i don't know you this way evening number two wave number two wave number three i mean there's again the analogy there were seven nights i don't want to overdo the details of the analogy here but i think there's going to be multiple building crescendoing opportunities but i want to be in whatever way that's happening in my generation paragraph i'm going to end with paragraph f here says i don't know you i believe there's two applications to this the first one is the loss of usefulness in the revivals that i've been referring to most but the second application is the loss of salvation look at number two i think it's i mean because people debate is this loss of salvation or loss of opportunity to be used in that hour of history as a voice because they're not just an echo of voice and i think it could be both because i think that the darkness and the intensity that increases that without an active increase of intimacy if we're not going forward over the years people regress and i think some can actually back all the way and regress to where they're completely out of it entirely and so i i i see the theological point of views of this i don't know anything well which is it i said i could be both because i've seen on fire believers get bitter and over uh five years and ten years they deny the faith the trajectory of negativity takes over and they don't even want the lord at the end and i think in the environment of hostility and darkness if we're not moving forward i understand why this really could be not just loss of opportunity that's enough that's tragic enough for me it could be loss of salvation and jesus ends with his advice again paragraph a he goes watch he goes watch and pray he goes if you do that it's so easy everyone can do it it's so simple that so many don't do it and it gives the same exhortation literally in every end time passage watch and pray this is the way to stay up to pace with what the lord's doing in your life well amen and amen let's stand before the lord

Channel: Mike Bickle Official

Views: 97,886

Rating: 4.890625 out of 5

Keywords: Mike Bickle, IHOPKC, Intimacy, Fancis Chan, John Piper, Prayer Room, End Times, Misty Edwards, Lou Engle, Equip Project

Id: AnZHTO9mR90

Length: 63min 29sec (3809 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 27 2020