Mike Bickle - Passion for Jesus: Cultivating Extravagant Love for God

MIKE BICKLE

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PASSION FOR JESUS 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 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 KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

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

Scripture quotations marked NKJV 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 TLB are from The Living Bible. Copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Bill Johnson
Interior design by Terry Clifton
Copyright 1993, 2007 by Mike Bickle
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Bickle, Mike.
Passion for Jesus / Mike Bickle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59979-060-2 (trade paper : alk. paper) 1. God
(Christianity)--Worship and love. 2. Devotion. 3. Jesus Christ. I.
Title.
BV4817.B49 2007
248.4--dc22

2006037759

E-Book ISBN: 978-1-59979-511-9

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F irst, I want to express my deepest appreciation to Jane Joseph and Susan Van Leeuwen for their many hours of laborious toil at the computer. Blessed are these bond servants of Jesus who will surely be called great in the Lords kingdom.

Also, much thanks to Judy Doyle and Walter Walker, whose invaluable writing skills and profound insights have significantly molded this book. What a delight to work with such gifted yet humble people.

Last but not least, to Stephen Strang, who first envisioned a book that would focus on inspiring in peoples hearts a holy passion for Jesus. Im thankful for the sweet times of fellowship with him around this subject that resulted in the direction to write this book.

CONTENTS

by Jack Deere

J esus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds (Matt. 22:37). Actually doing this commandment is the key to all of life.

When the church loves God, it releases the power of God on Earth. The church will never love one another or the world until it first loves God. In light of this I am continually amazed at how little attention the church gives to this greatest of all commandments.

Christians demonstrate a consistent tendency to put almost any good thing ahead of loving God. Some of us make Bible study more important than loving God. Some of us pursue doctrinal purity more than we pursue the man Christ Jesus. Others put various forms of ministry like evangelism or caring for the poor ahead of the Lord Jesus. In some cases these good things even become a substitute for God.

Please do not misunderstand me. All of these things should be done. I do not believe that we can love the Bible or ministries too much. Rather we can love God too little in comparison with these things.

In my opinion, the greatest danger facing the church today does not come from without the church but from within. It is neither the New Age nor secular humanism that is crippling the effectiveness of the church today. It is the lack of love for Godthe lukewarmness of the churchthat is its greatest enemy today. A lukewarm, loveless version of Christianity may succeed in propagating a little religion here and there, but it will never capture the heart of a dying world.

What does it mean to love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds? Some have tried to define loving God as obeying God. Obedience is surely part of loving God, but we all know that you can obey someone without really loving that person. Love is not only obedience, but it is also passion. Obedience without passion for God is not love; it is only discipline. And if discipline is all we have, in the end discipline will fail us. But a man in love, a woman in love, will never give up (Song of Sol. 8:67).

Passion for Jesus will conquer a thousand sins in our lives. But how do we get passion, and how do we cultivate it? Why and how do serious Christians lose their passion for God? How do they find it again? All of these questions and many more are addressed in this book not only with skill, but also with a refreshing honesty.

Mike Bickles book Passion for Jesus is filled with wonderful insights into the greatest of all commandments. These insights were not derived from an academic study of Scripture, but rather from the pursuit of a person. Mike has spent his adult life attempting, above all else, to acquire a consuming passion for the Son of God.

Anyone who knows Mike Bickle knows that insofar as he is consciously able, he has subordinated everything in his life to this one goal: acquiring and promulgating passion for the glorious Person who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And therein lies the power of this book.

JACK DEERE, THD
AUTHOR AND PASTOR
FORT WORTH, TEXAS

N o one can come face-to-face with what God is like and ever be the same. Seeing the truth about His personality touches the depths of our emotions, which leads us to spiritual wholeness and maturity. Beholding the glory of who He is and what He has done renews our minds, strengthens us, and transforms us.

In John 8:32 Jesus tells us that we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. We long to be freeemotionally and spiritually. Yet Jesus says that freedom comes with knowing the truth. And we must start where Jesus says to start.

Since knowing the truth sets us free, then what we know has a great impact on our emotional makeup. Thus, the way to our emotions is through our minds.

What truths must we know to be free?

First and most important, who is God? What is He like? What kind of personality does He have? Our ideas about Godwho He is and what He is likecome naturally through our relationships with earthly authority figures. When these are distorted, so are our ideas about God.

I believe the greatest problem in the church is that we have an entirely inadequate and distorted idea of Gods heart. We can experience short-term renewal through prayer and ministry. But to achieve long-term renewal and freedom, we must change our ideas about who God is.

In your most private thoughts, what do you believe Gods personality is like? Your entire spiritual future is related to how you answer this question in the secret place of your heart, because inaccurate ideas of God will have a negative emotional impact on you.