With the International House of Prayer University back in school from their summer break, Mike Bickle felt the need to teach a message again from the first session in his “Abiding In Love Series” titled “Abiding In Love: The Ultimate Reality of The Kingdom.” It’s a really exciting time around the IHOP-KC Missions Base when school is back in session because of the amount of young people and students that descend upon the campus hungry to encounter God and to do His works.
This has been a very powerful series for me personally because I have been committed to looking primarily at John chapters 14-17 for the past 5 months of my Internship. When my family got to IHOP-KC in March of 2013 Mike was about 4-5 sessions into this series and I was being challenged each week to go after the subject of God’s passion and love for me. Mike is convinced that this is the strength of our passion for Jesus; chiefly, knowing His passion for us. Mike says of his book “Passion For Jesus”, which has sold thousands of copies over the years, that it should actually be titled “Jesus’ Passion For Us.” And the reason why he says this is because when we discover Jesus’ passion for us, we respond with passion towards Him.
It’s common to think that our passion for Jesus originates within us, as if it’s something that we work up and then maintain on our own over the years. But this idea, which is totally separated from Biblical thought, works against what the Bible says about loving God. The truth is, when we see Jesus’ passion for us, we are then empowered to respond with passion and love towards Him. This is why John the beloved said in 1st John 4:19 that “We love Him because He first loved us.”
And in this first session Mike drives home the reality that God has called us for a lifetime and even beyond into the age to come, the eternal age, to go after the mystery of John 15:9 which says “As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” The reason why I call it a mystery, is not because it’s mysterious, but because it’s a truth that totally challenges us and makes us ask two primary questions. Firstly, how could this be? And secondly, why? Here are some quotes from Mike’s message below;
“Love that is not shared and multiplied, is not love based on the very definition of love.”
“The command to love God with all of our heart does not begin with us. It is one expression of the ultimate reality of the kingdom that existed long before the creation of the world, namely God’s heart that burned with perfect love within the fellowship of the Godhead…”
“Though the Lord is powerful and has power, He is never once throughout the whole of the Bible referred to as Power. And the reason for that is because He uses His power for the sake of love.”
“Jesus closes John 15:9 with the command to abide in His love. This is a command, not a suggestion, that we live in, search out and pursue His great love for us. And this search isn’t for a season, an extended period or even a decade, but for a lifetime.”
“God doesn’t just heal people for the sake of healing and demonstrating His power. He does it to strengthen and call people into a greater experience of His love for them.”
“In John 15:9 we are told about Jesus’ love for us. But in John 17:23 we are told of the Father’s love for us, which means not only does Jesus love us deeply, but so also does the Father. And in fact, the Son’s love for us, is because of the Father’s love for us. And to this truth, the Holy Spirit bears witness through passages like Romans 5:5 and Romans 8:15-17.”
If you would like more information on this sermon including video and notes you can click HERE.