Mary of Bethany: Sitting Before an Audience of One | EGS Classic | Misty Edwards

[Music] well i just have a very i have a very simple thing on my heart tonight and as i was kind of preparing and asking the lord what was on his heart i just felt like putting a mirror in front of us and it was like the lord was saying who are you you know how we're always saying who do you say that he is who do you say that jesus is and i kept hearing the phrase who do you say that you are ihop who are you who are you you know if you look in the secular media and they would say they would call us christians or they would call us the the uh the uh extreme right you know they have all kinds of titles for us in the secular media if you look at the christian media they would say we're charismatic and we're crazy if you look at the charismatic media they might say something different there are so many things about ihop about the house of prayer maybe your family would say one thing maybe in this room we would say 10 different things but i'm looking up to heaven and i'm saying who do you say that we are who does heaven declare us to be today right now and we know that we are a house of prayer but what does it mean to be a house of prayer what does it really mean to be a place of prayer in the old testament it was called the place of meeting the tabernacle of meeting the house of prayer is where god and man collide it's where the heart of man and the heart of god come together in the place of meeting the lord is still to this day searching to and fro and he's looking for a resting place he's looking for people who don't strive against him who aren't wrestling against him who don't have you know a hundred different agendas that are outside of his own agenda and he's looking for a place where he can rest the house of prayer is his resting place but before we can be a corporate resting place we have to become an individual resting place the lord wants us as individuals to become a house of prayer a tabernacle a tent of meeting do you know that your very frame was made for the presence of god body soul and spirit the way that you were designed you were created as a tabernacle you were created as a place of prayer for the spirit of god you all know that your body soul and your spirit whenever you how many of you would call yourself born again believer yes we've been born again when you when you signed up for christianity when you said yes to the blood of jesus and you received the forgiveness for your sin you were born in the spirit and that desert of your spirit was flooded with the uncreated god the uncreated god lives on the inside of you do you know that it says in the scripture that the fullness of god dwells in your inner man that whenever you said yes to him he invaded you like he did the tabernacle of old when the glory of the lord would fill the temple of old and the priests would fall out under the presence and they would all cry glory and they would shout for glory and they couldn't even stand in the presence or when the presence that came on the mountain with the children of israel and it shook the mountain and the trumpets were going and the children of israel were screaming and running away they couldn't even they were so terrorized by the presence they didn't even know what to do with themselves that presence moved in to your spirit the day that you were born again you have the uncreated god living on the inside of you you have everything that you need for life and godliness for power the fullness do you know that you're never going to get more of god than you have now living on the inside of you when you were born again you received the fullness the very seed of god the very essence of god his very presence is living in you and you are the house of prayer you are the tent of meeting you are the tabernacle when we come together as individuals who are filled with the glory of god then corporately he begins to break out among us and one day he's going to fill this room in a manifest way that we can see it with our eyes and the world will see it and it'll go into the streets and the highways and the byways we see a little bit of that now but for the most part in this hour it's happening on the inside of you but here's the thing the manifestation of that spirit inside of you happens in your soul which is your mind your will and your emotions and though you have the fullness of christ dwelling inside you your mind has to be renewed do you know close your eyes just for a second that is your soul hello soul that is where you live that's the soul okay open your eyes the spirit of god it says is like in your belly like right here you know if you ever you could get that gut feeling or that the spirit if you ever feel the spirit of god the presence of god like in your belly the lord wants us to learn to fellowship with the spirit it's that paul prayed that christ would dwell in our hearts through faith and that we would be strengthened by the spirit of god with divine might and energy on the inside he was talking to believers when he said that that's not about salvation he's not saying i pray for you christians that you just keep getting saved over and over again that jesus keeps moving into your heart no he's saying i'm praying that the fullness of the spirit that is in you would rise up and take over your mind your emotions your heart your desires your will this is where the battle is this is where the fight is it's in the arena of the soul he is aft which is the same thing in this in this context i'm using it interchangeably with heart the lord is after your heart he is literally living on the inside of you and he wants to invade your heart you are a sacred space you are the most sacred space in all of the created order of all of heaven of all of earth of every piece of property of every landmark your soul your heart is the most sacred piece of real estate yet we highly and criminally underestimate the power of our mind the power of our heart how many of you ever feel like you're just at the mercy of your mind you're just kind of at the mercy of your imagination are you at the mercy of your emotions and you just feel like you're kind of being led around by some wild stallion that's leading you where you don't want to go did anybody does anybody know that feeling you're like i don't even know how i got here you just kind of feel out of control emotionally or in your imagination and you just feel like you're always at the mercy of your mind well the psalmist would talk to his soul and he says listen oh so whenever you're in the depths of despair i am not at your mercy listen o soul why are you downcast put your hope in god and he would speak to his soul and the lord wants us to take control of our inner life i'm telling you you will not walk in the fullness of the power of god in your ministry on your words in your worship in your relationships and your finances until you learn to control your inner life a man who can control his spirit is stronger than a man who can conquer a city is what the proverb says but so few will fight this fight so few will fight the fight that's from the inside out but the spirit of god is literally living on the inside of us and he is waging war on our behalf against our lust against the pride of life against the things that hinder us from being a tabernacle a place where god can rest but there is a place in the spirit it says we labor to enter into rest it takes work to get there to get the reins of our mind to get the reins of our emotions and all of our lust and our our desires and our preoccupation with ourself to pull all those reins and say no we're going to go drink from the water of faith we're going to drink from the water of the spirit i'm not going to live like somebody of this world under the sun life under the sun is a vanity in a chasing the wind but by the power of the holy spirit who lives inside of us he has given us the capacity to live transcendent to live untouchable unmovable rooted and grounded unshakable unstoppable there is a power that's indestructible living on the inside of you but you have to access it he's a person you have to talk to him you know we're not waiting around for something to fall down from the sky the father already poured out the spirit he poured out the spirit on pentecost he poured out the spirit already now there's going to be different measures of different manifestations but we're not waiting around for for something to fall down from the sky the person of the holy spirit is the greatest treasure of heaven on this side of time because he is what gives us access to jesus he gives us access to the father he makes us one with that holy pulsating heart that's been burning from eternity past that same spirit that is in in jesus you know if you're i i've said this many times let's say your best friend is standing in front of you and going you know what i'm going to move away to a far away country there's no internet there's no phone we're not going to be able to talk but don't worry because i'll put my spirit in you and will actually be closer because you'll know what i'm thinking what i'm feeling what i'm doing and we'll be together all the time you would think what you would think that is insane that's what jesus did though and when he said to the 12 disciples he's they're sitting there and he goes he said actually i'm gonna go the father's gonna give you the spirit and it's gonna usher in a whole new dispensation until i return to the earth and the spirit is gonna be in my stead so to speak the spirit is gonna become the teacher the guide the spirit we have underestimated the power of the spirit and we have relegated him to charismania he is a teacher he is a friend he is a comforter and he's closer than a brother and he's living on the inside of you the lord wants us to learn to become a house of prayer to become one with that burning holy fire that lives on the inside of us one of the primary things that keep us from fellowshipping with the holy spirit i believe is anxiety or just distraction do you know what i mean how many of you have ever gone into the prayer let's just take the prayer room for a minute we won't even talk about our private lives yet let's just talk about the prayer room so this is what typically happens when i go to the prayer room i know the theology that the holy spirit is living inside of me i have the doctrine that i want to fellowship with him i have my bible you know i have experience with god and yet when i go in to do my prayer time this is typically what happens i go in it takes me a good three to five minutes to find the seat that i want i find the seat then i unpack my bag you know i make sure i have a book on both sides so nobody sits right next to me that's the trick you know that one and then i get my water bottle out and i'm all situated and then i'm i'm ready to encounter the lord and then suddenly it's like the rapid pacer is right next to me you know going like a hundred miles an hour and i'm i'm like my equilibrium is going i'm getting dizzy so i close my eyes really tight i can still feel the wind you know whispering this way my my eyes are tightly shut and so i'm like i'm just gonna focus i'm just gonna focus just press in the frenzy of the prayer room kind of it just starts getting at you and then suddenly someone starts singing loudly in tongues really off key on this side so then i dig into my bag and i get my earplugs and i'm jamming my earplugs in and my spirit is just getting agitated and agitated and i'm just like i'm gonna touch god i'm gonna touch god so then i'm like oh so then i just start rocking like maybe that will make everything just stop so i'm rocking rocking rocking rapid pacer over here tongue screamer over here and i'm just like oh i want to touch god i want to touch god so then i'm like maybe if i just sing along so then i just start trying to worship and all of a sudden i'm just singing loud i'm i'm looking around the room and then and then oh my gosh there there he is you know and i wonder did he notice you you know this so then you start trying to look really spiritual and suddenly your hands are up and your eyes are closed and you're just in a frenzy like frenzy frenzy frenzy frenzy and two hours have gone by and you just walk out of the prayer room like what was that you know what i'm talking about it's like a frenzy in there sometimes and i just i feel like the lord sometimes looks at that little room and he's like just shh stop stop everything because we get in such a frenzy we get so anxious and all worked up inside i get worked up over all kinds of things you know that's just one scenario or the sound is off and i'm just aggravated because the sound is off it's too loud or it's too soft or whatever i just get aggravated and so so easily agitated or when i finally do lock in now finally i'm calm the music's good pacer set down tongue talker got quiet guy left the room you can calm down now and then finally i lock in and i'm talking to the lord but then just guilt just hits me or shame and so i spend the next hour just repenting just going down my checklist of i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry and i throw in a few helps in there and and then i'm done and that's that's our prayer life that's our prayer room and i look at us and the lord loves us but the lord wants so much more for us he wants us to actually be with him to actually dwell with him to live with him to rest with him to abide with him to minister to him and to be ministered to by him he wants to minister to us and he wants us to minister to him he is the audience it's not us up on the stage putting on a show and this is the audience no he is the audience he is the congregation he is the one that we're worshiping he's the one that walks in the room when you're sitting in the chair he wants us to become fascinated and a locked gaze on him and the only way that we can do that is if we learn to fellowship with the holy spirit but sometimes you gotta dial down you gotta chill calm down we're so anxious the lord said do not worry another thing that gets us in our prayer life is we're worried we sit down and work instantly we're thinking about money we're thinking about our future we're thinking about is it going to work did i make the right choice we just get so full of worry worry worry and you just get that knot in your stomach and jesus is the command he said do not worry about money he said it with kindness he goes why are you worried about money i mean how much how much of our prayer life is spent about money if we're really honest he goes don't worry about money is not life more than this is not life more than food and clothing and what you eat and where you live it's not life more than this let's let's be together let's let let's be together for a little while i'm gonna take care of you you do i'm gonna show you the way don't worry paul the apostle said be anxious for nothing be anxious for nothing but with everything with thanksgiving make your request known he says don't be anxious now it's not like when you feel all that frenzy and all that anxiety that you can just be like stop just stop and it's gone it takes work to enter into it takes a labor to enter into rest but if we don't learn to rest he cannot rest with us he wants us he wants to be with us i feel like such a sweetness in the lord's heart over the house of prayer over the last couple weeks as i've just been walking through the room and just praying about who the lord has brought to this place i feel like he just has this kind look on his face and he just is like i want to be with you i want to be with you i've given you everything it takes to be with me i've given you my spirit i've given you my word i've brought you to a place where it's good to be with me you're not even you're not frowned upon for being in my presence now let's do it let's be together let's be together turn with me to luke chapter 10 verse 38. it's a story that you all know very well it's one that it's a picture that it's a story of mary of bethany and mary of bethany was probably the story back when i started the house of prayer way back then that got me my attention the most because when i was 19 you know the house of prayer had just started and it was small there was nobody in the room i mean i did the night watch and usually there was maybe one person in the room with maybe asleep in the back you know and it was usually someone that just walked in off the street and they just needed a place to be so they're asleep in the back and it was just all night long singing to jesus and over and over i would just feel like i am wasting my life i could have changed the world i wanted to be a lawyer i wanted to make impact i wanted to do something extreme and extravagant and i was just wasting my life but over and over this picture of this woman that jesus so highly spoke of would come back to my mind over and over again and if for you guys if mary bethany is too feminine of a picture it's john the beloved it's david it's the same posture the posture of the apostle sitting at the feet of jesus verse 38 says now it happened as they went that jesus entered a certain village and he went into the house of martha she had a sister called mary who also sat at the feet of jesus and heard his word but martha was distracted with much serving and she said to jesus she said why do you not care that my sister isn't helping me and jesus looks at her and she and he says to her martha you are worried and troubled about so many things but one thing is needed and mary has chosen the good part we know this story so well and we call ourselves the people of one thing we have the one thing internship we have the one thing conference we have the one thing music and we have the one thing songs but are we really a people of one thing when the lord puts a mirror in front of us are we really in the posture of mary of bethany are we in that posture of john the beloved leaning over on his heart listening attentive this isn't a passive posture when you're it says that she was listening to his words do you know i don't know about you but i'm a little bit 80d and for me to listen to somebody i have to be a ten you know i have to like focus i can't listen to somebody and then have a hundred other things going on i get really distracted so so i this is my typical i'm just gonna be honest with you this is how i am a lot of times i come to listen to the lord i have the bible open i have my laptop open which if you're like me you should not do you should not do so i have my laptop open literally five minutes i'm attentive to his word and i check my email five more minutes attentive to his word i go to twitter i go to facebook then i'm back on twitter then i'm back on facebook and then i check out that youtube clip and then i check out the news because i need to know the news and then i'm back on my email and then i'm five more minutes in the word over and over and something's happening in this generation i've even read some studies on it to our brains how many of you have noticed that your brain is different now that you know you jump from one thing to another to another even long meditation on anything is actually getting harder and i'm making a little bit of a joke of it but i'm actually really concerned about this because i found in the early days of ihop before i had computer before i had social networking before i was i was all discombobulated on the inside i was able to sit for long hours and loving meditation and read the bible or read you know books the mystics and the different saints that i just i fell in love with in the early days but something's happening in my brain and the thing that i want to challenge us today is that sacred space of your soul to fight for it i want to beg us to fight for it do not let it go so easily there is much much involved to tending the garden of your life from things as practical as what you eat how you sleep who you hang out with how you spend your time your money your lips the way you talk i mean i cannot tell you how much of the fire of god i have let out of my heart because i won't shut up i just talk talk talk talk and i'm so funny and i just go on and on and on and on and i'm on and on and on and the lord is like if you would just keep your mouth quiet and be quiet i'm trying to start a fire but every time i get the thing going you let it all out we have to take our hearts seriously because this is the thing that he takes seriously this is the thing that he died for this is the thing he's fighting for and we will not become a corporate house of prayer until we become individual houses of prayer you don't encounter god corporately for the most part there are there are exceptions you encounter god individually individually we're looking at one man we're looking at him through the eyes of the spirit and this is actually what makes us one this makes us one body because we're all doing the same thing but we i can't do it for you mike bickle can't do it for me i can't just sit in a room and be carried along we have to fight for it we have to become the house of prayer god calls us a house of prayer from heaven but are we are we fulfilling that mandate in our hearts when we're in the prayer room as we come and go you know life of prayer is far more than just what we do sitting in that chair it says that mary chose the good part and the main difference i believe between mary and martha was not that martha was a servant you know that's how you typically hear that preached martha was a servant and she she was doing work and mary sat and did nothing the thing that jesus addressed was her heart was her heart again it's the issue of being easily bothered i mean just the simple things of being bothered and anxious it says that the cares of life and the desire for other things it sneaks in and it robs you of that position but the lord says one thing is needed if jesus himself we're talking about the uncreated god in the flesh jesus said one thing is needed one he didn't say one of many he said one thing is needed and it will never be taken away from her it will never be taken away from her there is a gaze that is eternal it's perpetual it will never go out your body will grow old you will die but there is a gaze there is a locked gaze a heart to heart a face-to-face encounter with the living god that will never be taken away and it will never end he wants us to learn to fellowship with his spirit to be calm is that the psalmist says that he calmed and he quieted his soul he was calm on the inside in order to listen to someone speak you have to be silent you have to be quiet you know prayer is a two-way dialogue prayer is not just us standing in front of him asking making our decrees known that is an element of prayer for sure there is an element of intercession where we're standing in front of him and we're making our requests known and we're prophesying and we're changing the atmosphere and then there is a flip side to that where we're quiet and we listen and we press our ear to the floor of heaven and we're listening jeremiah says that we stand in his counsel we mark we perceive his word we take it seriously mary of bethany was a student of the spirit student of jesus jesus isn't here in the in the flesh so the spirit is in his place we sit at his feet we take him seriously we mark we perceive his word we let we listen to him we want to be friends of the bridegroom right we want to be a real voice not just an echo and rhetoric and just vain repetition that goes on and on and on but the only way that we're ever going to be a voice is if we learn to listen john the baptist heard the voice of the bridegroom we got to listen we listen by abiding in the spirit jesus said that we have to abide in him we have to remain in him we have to stay in him he said abide in me and i will abide in you and he said abide in my word his word it's not that mysterious it's not some ethereal it it's not some ethereal room that you're trying to get in it's just a renewing of your mind it's as simple as that putting truth in your mind over and over and over again and he said abide in my love those are the three things he said to abide and abide in me abide in my word abide in my love how simple how simple is this thing called christianity that we've been invited to yet we complicate it so profoundly anybody can do it almost no one ever will but anybody can he said abide in me rest live in me i like how mike bickle says in john 15 that every time the word abide is there replace it with the word talk to it's as simple as that talk to me i'll talk to you he says you won't walk in the spirit any more than you talk to the spirit it's as simple as that talk to me and i'll talk to you now our hearing is foggy it's not it's you can't just trust everything that you hear you have to go through the bible with other people in fellowship with other people but there is a there is a conversation sometimes it's a picture it's an impression it's just a it's a it's a little glimmer it's a little lead it's just this this is he has such a poetic way you know god is the poet of all poets he doesn't necessarily just audibly speak every time you listen i i wish he would sometimes i'm like why don't you just talk out loud this would be a lot easier and and then i think he would reply actually no i'm talking all the time in the tapestry of life and the trees themselves are declaring my faithfulness and the sun is saying that i'm here and the whole world is screaming my song i couldn't be any louder misty you just need to get the wax out of your ears he's like listen interact with me see me talk to me and i'll talk to you and it's a perpetual returning perpetual returning it's not a one-time filling it's over and over we go back and we abide in the vine we abide in the vine do you know he said apart from me you can do nothing that's pretty intense apart from me you can do nothing say nothing nothing you cannot bear fruit on your own i don't care how talented you are i don't care care how gifted you are what's born in the flesh remains in the flesh and the flesh isn't necessarily all bad but it's not of the spirit and is not eternal you can do nothing apart from him we are utterly totally i mean completely dependent upon him and the good news is he set it up that way because he's relational and my fear for ihop is that we become professionals that we become professional prayer people professional intercessors professional musicians professional worshipers we know how to get the room going we know how to do the stuff i mean we know if we do that certain beat in the room gets alive and then everybody kind of screams and maybe it was the lord and everybody's jumping and you can't really tell what's the holy spirit and why it's just good music we know how to make it work we know the rhetoric we know the language we know if we raise our voice a certain way certain kind of people are going to shout and suddenly that's fine the lord i mean that's just fun that's just that's just humans it's fun it's not bad but it's not the fullness i don't want to name that we're alive i don't want to name that we're the house of prayer i want to be the house of prayer i want to be the house of prayer oh that jesus would not stand in our midst and say you had a name that you were alive but you were dead on the inside and you didn't even know it you know it says that a a branch that doesn't bear fruit the father cuts off and throws throws to the side and it takes a while for a branch to dry up to even realize it's not connected to the vine and the lord says be the house of prayer don't have a name that you're alive don't just have rhetoric don't just know how to work the machine let's be the house of prayer we are a corporate mary of bethany that's what we are that's why god says that we are the corporate john the beloved a corporate john the baptist in the wilderness hearing the voice of the bridegroom we are a corporate mary of bethany and then later on just a few chapters down you see that you see her again at his feet and she's pouring out her whole life energy her whole life source her future she's utterly wasting it an extravagant devotion at his feet because he's worthy because he's beautiful there's more than just sitting sitting in a room and receiving from him he wants us to minister to him it says of the priesthood that they ministered to god oh that phrase just makes me want to cry that we could minister to god that that he actually lets us touch him his heart in such a way that he calls it ministry he is the audience he is the congregation he is the heart that we're singing to he is the one that we want to move with our song with our prayer with our silence with our heart he wants to be ihop's congregation and he wants us to look at him and minister to him what does it mean to minister to god to bless him to move his heart that is stunning to me that we can minister to the heart of god he has angels that are countless he has all the nations he has all of creation he has everything that he could possibly want he has a son has a spirit he has he's fully happy in and of himself and yet he opens up himself and he lets us minister to him to touch his heart to move him it's real oh if we could only believe how real this is it would change everything so what who cares what they say about you what difference does it make you're ministering to god to god his eye is on you when you're sitting on the fifth row the tenth row the back row in that room it's not the stage isn't ministering to you you are ministering to god your heart is ministering to god when you take the reigns of your soul and it says if you love him you'll obey his commandments when you live a life that's holy devoted and you walk out his commandments when you take the reigns of your mind and your heart and you fight the fight of faith on the inside and he sees the struggle he sees it all he sees the whole frenzy and the whole whirlwind that you're living in but you don't give up you don't give in and you keep looking back do you know so few and all of the earth and all of history have ever looked back it's a few billion but that's not very many maybe a few million have ever kept it steady so few you are the favorite you are the only it's the truth when you remain in the place of prayer not not a summer not a year but decades after decades after decades do you know how this moves the heart of god do you know how this ministers to his heart and then we do that corporately all around the world as the song erupts and we minister to his heart globally and we usher in his return and it becomes a whole different order but right now it's your heart ministering to his heart in the posture of mary of bethany and then she breaks her her future at his feet and she wastes her life and all that she is at his feet i cannot tell you how many times over the last 13 years i have felt like i am wasting my life how many of you sit in the prayer room sometimes and you're like okay somebody remind me why i did this you know what i'm talking about i'm not making very good money or any money i'm losing money this isn't really working i don't feel that much you know i didn't get the position i wanted why am i here but the lord looked at her extravagant devotion and he said a memorial would be built of her and that it would never be taken away from her the lord wants to make us like a corporate mary of bethany like that corporate john the beloved where we are listening because he wants friendship he wants us that's the end of the story this is why we are saved we're not just saved so that we work and there's so much that we're going to do we bring a lot of other people into that locked gaze we bring a lot of other people to the wedding we go to the highways and to the byways and we go and we do good works and that spirit that's living inside of us breaks out of us and we heal the sick and we raise the dead and we do the works of god but at the end of the day all the works of god are about bringing a larger number of people to the locked gaze to love him to the exchange that's why we evangelize that's why we heal the sick that's why we want to to go spread the gospel to the ends of the earth so that people love him and interact with him and listen to him and talk to him and have friendship with him have relationship with him he is a bridegroom he is a bridegroom you know what i i had this encounter probably two years ago and in this i i was in my room this was just two years ago and i was asking the question i was saying lord i mean i was really frustrated and i was saying lord are you really a bridegroom are you sure that you're a bridegroom and that i'm didn't just put my angle on you because i'm a girl and i love love and girls love love so did i do this i don't want to come at you with an angle are you or are you not and this is after this is after 10 years of hearing the bridal paradigm or 12 years of hearing the bridal paradigm and preaching it and singing it and i'm like lord are you really a bridegroom do you really and what i mean by that do you really burn with passionate desire and fiery desire for people do you really want to be one with us that's what i mean by a break room do you really have a heart that you want to bring us into a union with you that will last forever are you really this way are you really this passionate and i was praying john 17 and i was saying oh do you really feel this way about me i need to know i don't want to stand before you and say but mike bickle said or alan hood said or shelley hundley said i want to know for myself are you like this and in my mind's eye i just started seeing the lord at like at the foot of my my chair where i was sitting and it was just you know how sometimes when you're praying you just get a mental image or a mental vision i was just picturing the lord praying john 17 over me i was just weeping you know i had a little tenderness on my heart and just oh just playing that in my head you know father i desire that she would be with me where i am that she would behold my glory when suddenly there was a presence and you have for you have to know me to appreciate this actually because i don't actually believe in this stuff so i'm just gonna i just will say that because i don't i don't buy it usually that's my personality so this is huge that this happened to me suddenly there is a presence right here i'm not kidding it is a strong presence right here my heart stops i am terrified i cannot open my eyes it is scary there is a presence right here so close i could feel like touching my cheek i could not open my eyes and i just turn like this and my eyes tightly shut and when i turn like this something like electricity hit my face and my head started flopping like this and i was just i was in all by myself in my room totally the something an angel or something blew on me an answer to my prayer and my body my frame could not contain even an ounce of the love that jesus has for us it couldn't even contain it my frame couldn't contain it my body itself couldn't take the the energy of the fire he is a bridegroom he is an all-consuming fire he doesn't look like fire he doesn't put on fire he is an all-consuming fire and he has been an all-consuming fire from eternity past and he will be an all-consuming fire forever and forever and forever and forever and the holy spirit has been given to you to pour that fire into the sacred space of your heart if you will make a way for him he wants to become one with you he wants to baptize you with his fire on your heart that when you close your eyes you don't just want to love him you love him you don't just reach to love him you feel it it's real he wants to baptize you with fire and he wants to put that fire on your hands and that fire on your lips he wants to baptize you until you are one with his holy pulsating heart that's been radiating like a jasper like a sardius stone radiating radiating in appearance he's alive he's a living flame he is the living flame of love he is love it says that he is fire he is light he is love and he is spirit when it says the lord is those four times he is light he is love he is fire he is spirit and he is living on the inside of you and he wants to take over you and he wants to baptize you with love and so you become a burning and shining lamp like mary of bethany like john the baptist like john the beloved like the apostles of old that you would be rooted and grounded in love unshakable unmovable and then in that same posture where mary of bethany is washing the feet of jesus he says to ihop in kansas city to ihop in grandview he says now turn and wash the feet of grandview in the same posture as we're sitting at his feet and we're receiving i feel this is a prophetic word from the lord he wants us to wash the feet of grandview in acts of extravagant service to the poor to the people that can't help you go to the nursing homes go to the day care centers there's tons of daycare centers in grandview that need godly workers in them the schools and he says wash the feet of grandview then come back sit in my feet receive listen to me talk to me let's interact then go wash the feet of grandview then come back into the prayer room let's interact and then go wash the feet of grandview staying in this posture of of humility and meekness love is humility and meekness and servanthood he doesn't want a bunch of bravado forerunners just shouting no he wants friends of the bridegroom he wants friends of the bridegroom like like saint francis he wants friends of the bridegroom who know his heart who aren't out to build their own name who pour their lives out at his feet and then wash the feet of grandview wash the feet of whoever you're around you cannot love him unless you love your brother it's impossible to separate the two you cannot love him unless you love others and by loving others you will love him it's circular it goes around and around you cannot separate the two you can't lock yourself in the prayer room and just stay there for decades and decades you gotta go out a little serve get back go back to the prayer room go wash the feet of grandview back into the prayer room always staying in the posture of humility quietness it says and peter that a gentle and a quiet spirit is precious to god it's what makes a person beautiful and i'm not talking about a personality we are forerunners who are going to proclaim we're going to prophesy and we're going to declare but if we don't live lifestyles of friendship with god in meekness and gentleness and servanthood and selflessness then what have we become he wants us to look like him the longer we sit and we gaze at him we take on the the persona of the lamb and we take on that servanthood it's not about us or our ministries or our name it's about his glory and he wants to have a memorial in grand view that poured out a corporate mary of bethany that poured out lives of extravagant devotion on his feet listening to his word like john the baptist the forerunner like jeremiah said the prophets would do marking and perceiving his word proclaiming and preparing his way and washing the feet of grandview let's wash the feet of grandview let's wash the feet of kansas city and then let's go back into the prayer room you don't have to choose one or the other you don't necessarily have to get on a bus and go across the world let's just stay humble and meek and gentle and quiet and then when the lord says speak you speak when the lord says proclaim you proclaim but let's be friends of the bridegroom let's be friends of the lamb let's be friends of the bridegroom in servanthood in humility the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience gentleness self-control the fruit of that burning fire in your life is not that you're gonna be a fiery frenzy the fruit is love joy peace patience kindness gentleness self-control and the gifts are gonna be the prophetic and teaching and power and and some people are louder i'm not talking about a personality type i'm talking about the quietness of our hearts he wants us to learn to be quiet on the inside to not be easily bothered to not be easily distracted to get rid of anything to fight for the sacred space within that we could lock into him listen to him minister to him and then wash the feet of grandview

Channel: International House of Prayer

Views: 13,857

Rating: 4.9460373 out of 5

Keywords: IHOPKC, International, House, of, Prayer, misty edwards, mary of bethany, audience of one, sitting before, Encounter god service, EGS Classic, bible study, worship, prayer, Mike Bickle, Christianity, series, ihopkc service, Passion for Jesus, praise, practical, egs

Id: 3PC1LX9FrG8

Length: 47min 59sec (2879 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021