Mike Bickle - The Pleasure of Loving God: A Call to Accept Gods All-Encompassing Love for You

THE
PLEASURES
OF LOVING GOD

MIKE BICKLE

THE PLEASURES OF LOVING GOD by Mike Bickle
Published by Charisma House
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973. 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Copyright 2000 by Mike Bickle
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-108365
ISBN-13: 978-0-88419-662-4
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-59979-641-3

DEDICATION

I want to dedicate this book to my dear son, Luke, and his wonderful wife, Ricci, who are currently on the mission field in Mexico. May they experience the pleasures of loving God as they serve the orphans in Mexico. I thank Luke for his tireless zeal to help lead the prayer meetings (midnight to 6:00 A.M.) each night in the early months of birthing the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I remember the times I came there in the middle of the night without Luke knowing. Hiding in a back room, I so enjoyed listening through the walls to Luke crying out to God for revival in the nations. What a joy that was to my heart. Proverbs 10:1 says, A wise son makes a glad father. Thank you, Luke, for making my heart glad as I enjoy your devotion to Jesus and your dedication to the House of Prayer. Thank you, Ricci, for being the genuine woman of God that you are.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I appreciate Amelia Fuller for the countless hours of her time and for her energy that she freely dedicated to transcribe the sermons from which this book was developed. I am inspired by her tears in the prayer rooms and her labor at the computer. Thank you, Deborah Perkins, for the hours you spent merging and editing transcriptions. Your devotion to Jesus is remarkable, and your genuine desire to serve in a secret place is rare and inspiring. I am grateful to Renee DeLoriea for working with skill and spiritual depth to turn the transcripts into a real book. Renee, you were a joy to work with. It is refreshing to see professional abilities used by the Holy Spirit in the way that yours are. Peg deAlminanas insightful and skillful editing was invaluable. You were brilliant. Thank you.

CONTENTS

BY TOMMY TENNEY

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER

O N SEPTEMBER 19, 1999, we began a twenty-four-a-day intercessory worship ministry in Kansas City. We are training singers, musicians and intercessors to flow in the prophetic anointing in an interactive way. Ideally, we have between ten and fifteen singers on each worship team. Central to our model is praying (singing) the Scriptures, using the New Testament apostolic prayers, the hymns of Revelation, the Psalms and the Song of Solomon.

We have three types of prayer meetings:

Intercessory worship in which we engage in spiritual warfare for revival

Devotional prayer meetings that provide an anointed atmosphere to sit at the feet of Jesus

Worship from the Word meetings, which are comprised of singing the Psalms, the Song of Solomon and the hymns of Revelation in a corporate antiphonal way. We are in the early development of antiphonal choirs.

Our vision is to train and send out teams to plant Houses of Prayer throughout the earth. Currently we have approximately one hundred people who have raised their own support as interces-sory missionaries. Another one hundred fifty are in the process of relocating to Kansas City for training. We also have groups of visitors that come and usually stay up to a week in accommodations that we make available at very low costs.Throughout the week we conduct One-Day Seminars designed to train our visitors.

For more information about our present structure, principles, One-Day Seminars, training programs, short-term housing or ministry resources, visit our website at www.ihopkc.com.

M Y FRIEND MIKE Bickle really is a God chaserand his life proves it! Thats why the message of this book will resonate in the hearts of God chasers everywhere.

When a father holds and plays with his children, who derives pleasure from the encounter? The children think that they do, but the dad knows that he does! So it is with God. God enjoys the encounter of our worship, and we receive the pleasure of His presence in return. In this powerful book, Mike Bickle illustrates the truth of that principle and shows us how to rekindle passionate love for God and rediscover His pleasure at our presence.

In The Pleasures of Loving God, Mike Bickle shares his heart in an open, refreshing way. He reveals how, as the son of a tough boxer, his own identity was redefined as a lover of God. He learned that God enjoys being with himand he wants you to know that God enjoys being with you, too!

Whether plunging to the depths of divine intimacy or the heights of holy passion, this book often echoes my own ponderings. In my recent writings, it occurred to me that when passion is restored, the joy of presence returns. Now I am freshly reminded by Mike Bickle that at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).

If you want to raise the spiritual temperature of your heart, if you want to hasten the pace of your chase, if your soul is thirsty and longs to know God more, then this book is for you. Thank you, Mike, for reminding us of The Pleasures of Loving God.

TOMMY TENNEY
AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS BEST-SELLING BOOKS, INCLUDING
THE GOD CHASERS AND GODS SECRET TO GREATNESS

O N OCCASION PEOPLE have asked me the question, What is the key to living a happy life?

I tell them what I believe to be the secret to happiness and enjoying life. Actually, it is not a secret at all. The truth is that those who live for Jesus can enjoy life when we begin to see that God actually likes us! That God enjoys and likes us even in our weakness is an idea that some find difficult to accept.

I am really beginning to believe that I am one of Gods favorites! Now, that may sound arrogant to you until you understand that God has millions of favorites. Through the lens of the passion of His own heart and the gift of righteousness, God sees us as those He loves even as He loves His own Son. (See John 15:9; 17:23.) This fact makes us Gods favorites. As I grow in my understanding as one of Gods favorite people, and as I grasp the living reality that He really likes me, then I have a key foundational reality that helps me to enjoy life.

The essence of this book is a challenge for the bride of Christ, the church, to mature in voluntary love for Jesus and thus for one another. The Father wants a bride for His Son whose love will endure in times of testing.

One of my favorite books in the Bible is the Song of Solomon. My testimony is that of being a spiritually dull man whom God has empowered to love Him. Yes, I love Him imperfectly, but I love Him more than I ever imagined possible in my earlier days. I know much about struggle and failure. But I also know about being embraced by God's tenderness and mercy.