Mike Bickle Song of Songs Transcript - II

This is a part 1 of a transcript that Mike Bickle taught on The Song of Songs at IHOP dated 2/16/07.

Session 2: Encountering Jesus in the Greatest Prophetic Song

This second class, we are looking at encountering Jesus in the greatest prophetic song in redemptive history. Session three we will get right into the book, but I just wanted to lay the foundation in session one, and session two to give a little overview of what is going on in the book.

Roman numeral I—the greatest prophetic song—the Song of Solomon is the greatest song in redemptive history—in my opinion—and just by the fact that the Bible calls it the Song of Songs, or several translations call it the Song of all Songs.

Solomon was a prophetic, prolific and gifted songwriter; he wrote over a 1000 songs, the Bible indicates. The Holy Spirit inspired him to call this song (depending how it is translated and the translation you have) the Song of all Songs, or the Song of Songs. The Holy Spirit gave this book the highest honor because I believe there is no greater song. I believe when we get into the Eternal City, we will find that every phrase points to multitudes of their own songs in their own right. The phrase song of song expresses the ultimate superlative. Jesus is called the King of Kings that is the ultimate superlative; He is called the Lord of Lords, and in the Temple is the Holy of Holies. This is the Song of Songs; it is in the same category of being the ultimate superlative. It is been inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to us with that kind of meaning.

In Revelation 15:2-3, the end-time saints are standing before the sea of glass, and they are pictured as being victorious in love, as they are victorious over the Antichrist. Now some of them will face martyrdom. Their bodies will be struck down, but their love will not fail, they will overcome in love, and they will be victorious in love. Others, their bodies will be protected; but either way, the end-time church will be victorious in love.

THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE SONG OF THE LAMB

When they stand before the Lord in victory, over the Antichrist, and over all the schemes of darkness, they sing two songs: the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb—the song of Jesus. Now the song of Moses is clearly in the Bible, in Exodus 15, and Deuteronomy 32, that is the two places where we have the song of Moses.

I have it here on the notes, and those who are listening by television or the Internet you can get these notes on our website at ihop.org. Jesus has a song that the saints sing on the sea of glass like Crystal, it is called the Lamb’s Song. Now nobody knows that song as Moses’ song was recorded in the Bible. Jesus’ song is surely the greatest song.

I have a theory, I cannot prove it, and I am not adamant about it, but I like it. I think
it is possible that the Lamb’s song and the greatest Song of all Songs might be the
same song around the throne because we know the Holy Spirit is the author of this
song. Now I would not preach that like a doctrine, it has just been my little personal theory that I enjoy. Every time I say it, it makes me smile. This does not mean it is right but still I like it, and I have said it for many years now—twenty years nearly — and not said it quietly.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS KINDLING GLOBAL INTEREST IN THIS SONG

There is a great interest that the Holy Spirit is kindling in the earth around this eight-chapter love song. It is unquestionable, having been focused on it for nearly twenty years, I have watched the interest increase, particularly in the last ten years and particularly in seminars, worship songs, and the language. The bridal language of wholehearted love for God is clearly escalating across the globe in the Body of Christ. Many attest to this, it is not just my own personal observation. It is an observation that those who have been in the ministry for a long time; many can see a marked increase as it is obvious.

The Holy Spirit is raising up old and young, male and female, to sing it, proclaim it, to write about it, and to pray it. The Song of Solomon is experiencing a tremendous upsurge of attentiveness in the Body of Christ. Now those of you who that are songwriters, and we have many songwriters here, I want to give you practical advice on song writing from the Song of Solomon.

PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR SONGWRITERS
Some people take the exact language of the Song of Solomon and they put it into music. I would interpret it. I have encouraged people for again nearly these near twenty years to interpret it then put the interpretation into your song, rather than the exact language. Some say, “No I am going to be loyal to God and the Word” and they are singing, “Your neck is like the tower of David”, and everyone’s like “Wow, that is heavy.”

“Your teeth are like shorn sheep, that have come up from the washing” I would just go ahead and interpret it. So do not feel an undo loyalty and say “No I am going, I am going down with the ship. I know nobody will pay attention to my song but I am sticking with loyalty to God.” Some have that attitude.

I love their loyalty, but the symbolism does not edify people if they do not know what it means. It is the meaning that edifying. So I would take a small portion, maybe a couple phrases, and ask the Holy Spirit to develop language around the truth of those couple phrases.

This is the longest song in the Bible. It is in concentrated form, I mean it is really concentrated together—it is very dense. It is intense. I would not try to take ten verses and make one song out of it, and expect the people to understand it. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight two or three concepts, or phrases, and then to unpack it in your heart, so to speak.

The Holy Spirit is calling prophetic singers and songwriters to arise around the book of the Song of Solomon. Also God is calling Writers, again we are watching it, as people write seminars books. The Lord is calling a number of you, one of the reasons you are taking this class, He is enlisting you to be focused. It is not the only thing you will do.

The Lord has called me to be focused on this book, but it is by no means the only thing that I do, but it impacts everything that I do (not in the strictest sense of course). I am saying that the lens of the Song of Solomon, once you get it established in your heart, it will affect the way you preach the book of Revelation, the gospel of John, or understand the book of Romans, the book of Acts, and Isaiah.

FOUR DISTINCTIVES OF THE SONG OF SOLOMON
Roman numeral II, there are four distinctives in the Song of Solomon, and there are others that you can add to it. There are four distinct things that I have seen in the Song of Solomon, having studied it the last twenty years.

We are to love God with all of our heart. That is the basic command of scripture in this life that is the basic mandate we have in this life: To love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our strength, and with all of our mind because God loves us with all of His heart, and He loves us with all of His strength. I cannot get over that. It is supposed to be that way; we are not supposed to get over this. I cannot
get over the fact that God loves us with all of His strength and with all His mind.

That is the primary mandate in life: to love God with all of our strength. The
inevitable of that primary mandate is the overflow of loving our neighbor in the
same way. Loving our neighbor like ourselves. Now when we love God with all of
our heart, I think of our heart as a diamond, there are many facets in our heart.
There are many awesome dimensions to the human heart.
We do not understand them all in this age. I believe that in the age to come, a billion
years from now, we will still be understanding the vast mysterious capacity of the
human spirit. There is so much mystery, capacity, facets and dimensions to the deep
feelings that are in the human experience that will go on forever and ever and ever.
Well, there are aspects of the diamond of our heart that our best and most touched,
by the Holy poetic affection of God’s heart. I want to say that again. There are
many facets in the human heart; we are to love God with all of our heart, not part
of our heart—not just the part that we are most familiar with because we grew up
in a certain culture.

REVELATION OF HIS HEART AND HOLY PASSION FOR US IS LIKE A
DIAMOND
There are facets of our spirit, like a many faceted diamond. There is a dimension of
our heart that is best and most touched by the revelation of the holy affection of the burning desire of God, and He has a poetic dimension to it.

When God speaks to us in His own poetry about His Burning desire it touches a part of our heart that nothing else can touch. I want to love God with all of my heart and with every facet of my capacity in this age and the age to come. The
Song of Solomon emphasizes the emotional and the passionate side of our God, andour experience in redemption. Our own affections and emotions are stirred, as we understand His.

THE WHY BEHIND THE WHAT
The Song of Solomon gives us the why behind the what. The book of Romans tells us what God did, what Jesus did on the cross, and it certainly tells us why as well. The book of Romans is filled with the revelation of the love of God. When you think of the book of Romans in just a general sense, it tells us the legal practical side of our salvation. It tells us what God did. It is very dynamic. It has been one of my favorite books for many years. The Book of Romans, I highly recommend it, as a favorite. You can have a bunch of favorites.

I want to understand the why God did what He did, not only what He did, but why He did it. We know God created everything in Genesis one, but why did He create? We know Jesus went to the cross, why did He go to the cross?

He was burning with desire for human beings, that is why He created us, and that is why He accomplished redemption. The Song of Solomon gives us the why behind the what, as do other portions of scripture as well. We have very deep and diverse emotions, why? Because God does. We have deep emotions, because God has deep emotions, we are made in His image.

EMOTIONAL SIDE OF JESUS’ ACTIVITY
Paragraph B, four distinctives I have found. Now all of these distinctives are found
throughout the Word of God. They are not unique as truths to the Song of
Solomon. The uniqueness is not the truths themselves but it is the concentration, it is
line upon line, it is His hard-hitting line upon line passion of God.

The uniqueness is in the focus and concentration of them, not the fact of them.
Every truth in the Song of Solomon is established in a number of places in the
Bible. If you have an idea, an interpretation of the Song of Solomon, and it is not
deeply rooted in the book of Romans, and in the book of John, and in the New
Testament, do not believe in that idea that you have.

It must be rooted in the whole of the Canon of Scriptures of the revelation that God
gave us through His Word. So the truths themselves are not unique, but what is
unique about the book is the focus and concentration of these particular truths.
There is nothing like it in the Bible, this kind of concentration.

FIRST: REVELATION OF JESUS’ PASSION AND ENJOYMENT OF HIS
PEOPLE
Number one: Jesus’ affection—His enjoyment of His people—He is declaring His
enjoyment. It is a significant shout from Heaven to the human heart. “I enjoy you, I
enjoy you, I long for you, I want you, I enjoy you.” Line after line God is shouting
from Heaven this truth to our spirit.
I need my spirit filled with this revelation.

SECOND: REVELATION OF THE BEAUTY OF JESUS AS
BRIDEGROOM KING
The second is the beauty of Jesus. The maiden or the Bride on a number of
occasions is awestruck and overwhelmed by His beauty. “You are handsome”, she
says, “You are beautiful,” she declares out of her experience with Jesus that her
heart is fascinated with His beauty.
Now, we find the beauty of Jesus throughout the whole Bible, but there is a focus
on it in the Song of Solomon.

THREE: REVELATION OF THE BEAUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO
JESUS
Number three: the individual, the beauty of the individual believer. Even in our
weakness, we are beautiful to God. There is no place where is says it more focused
and in a concentrated way as the Song of Solomon, the beauty of the individual
believer even in our weakness.

If you want to know what you look like to God, not just your legal standing, if your
want you legal standing, which you do, read Romans study it, Colossians, Ephesians,
Galatians. Get a real firm foundation on who we are in Christ, and the legal side of
our redemption. The innocent one became guilty so that the guilty ones could
become innocent before God, and nothing could uproot this or disturb this. We have
security forever before Him. Satan cannot come in and disrupt this. To the person
who loves the Lord, no power can get in-between them and God. That is the legal
dimension of our salvation, but if you want to know what you look like to God
emotionally and what He feels, study the Song of Solomon. Of coarse the whole
Bible, I am a Bible guy, not just into the Song of Solomon. I want us to be loyal
from Genesis to Revelation. We are people of the Bible.

FOURTH: GROW IN LOVE AND MATURE PARTNERSHIP WITH JESUS
The fourth, distinctive is the call for partnership, the emotional side of the
partnership—how God feels, and how we feel when we are laboring with Him—not just the work itself, the feeling behind the work. In the book of Acts, we find the
partnership of the Bride, the Church, with the Holy Spirit.

Now and then we get a little glimpse into how Holy Spirit feels, and every now and
then we get a glimpse into how the Saints feel. They are filled with joy that happens
a couple times in the book of Acts. The Song of Solomon focus on how we feel and
how God feels in the partnership.

The Church needs to be equipped in this book, because of the significant increase of
the rise of emotional brokenness and sexual brokenness that is emerging in the
earth. Brokenness has been around from the beginning, from the days of Adam
and Eve, there has been emotional brokenness all the way through. There is an
increased; there is an acceleration of emotional wounding, sexual perversion or
brokenness. I believe the revelation of God’s heart will touch the human sprit in
these areas like nothing else can.

The Song of Solomon is like a Holy laser beam shining down upon the human heart
revealing the passion of God. It is like a bright Holy laser beam, it is just this
concentrated unrelenting message of how God feels touching the human Spirit. I am
just wanting to give you a vision for this Song because it is not enough to go
through a course, I want to see many of you become, all of you become life-long
students of the heart of God through the Song of Solomon.

Years from now you are still studying the Song of Solomon with energy and with
passion. It is not a book that you studied way back when, but is something that you
are alive with in your spirit, month-by-month, year-by-year.

THE THREE-FOLD INHERITANCE (PSALM 2:11-12)
The threefold inheritance that Jesus receives from His people: Psalms 2:11-12 is one
of the most excellent descriptions of the Bride of Christ in the Bible. It is how the
Bride relates to Jesus. David said it; David was quoting Jesus who was speaking to
the Father.

David is eavesdropping into a conversation within the Godhead, within the Trinity,
between the Father and the Son. The Father says, “Ask of me”, to Jesus, “I will
give you the nations, I will give you the inheritance”—the inheritance is the nations.
Now the inheritance of Jesus is not just the real estate of the nations, it is not that He
owns the property; He owns the people and the property. Mostly it is the people,
but He owns the property to fully.

Then He says in verse 10—King David interprets it—David develops some of the
details of Jesus’ inheritance. He says, “Be wise oh King”—and here is what you
do—“serve the Lord with fear.” Number one: “rejoice with trembling”—and
number two—“kiss the Son” (Ps. 2:10-11).

DAVID SHOWED US THREE SIDES OF REDEMPTION
Paragraph B: David showed us the three sides of our redemption. We are to tremble
and have the fear of God, as the fear and trembling are the same reality. We see the
eternal majesty of Jesus. I tell you there is nothing like the fear of the Lord on the
human spirit, it is clean and it endures forever. The fear of the Lord on our spirit is a
wonderful reality.

It is not only that we tremble, we rejoice. We see who we are in Christ; we see the
legal benefits of the cross, we see our authority in Christ. We rejoice with great
gladness. Not only do we tremble and rejoice, but we kiss the Son. This is the
language that King David uses, figurative language. It is talking about the heart
experiencing the deep things of God’s heart. We love Him with all of our heart; we
have holy affections that result in obedience and faithfulness in small things. A
person that says, “Oh I love God, but it does not translate into obedience.”

LOVE HAS TO TRANSLATE INTO OBEDIENCE TO BE LOVE
Love has to translate into obedience for it to be love. Now it may take awhile before
it matures to full obedience, but it is longing and fighting for obedience each step of
the way. I do not have, I do not accept the definition of love that is emotional that is
not grounded and rooted in people trying to obey God and walk in purity. We
fail—yes—come up short—yes—but get right back up declaring war on that sin
and pushing delete.

He has forgiven us so we get right back up in the pursuit of trying to seek to obey
him with all of our heart. The person who is casual about their sin, and then they
claim, “Oh, I love God and I got all these holy affections,” I have no confidence in
that kind of Christianity.

This kissing of the Son is talking about Holy affections. It is this, it the emotional
giving of our self to God, and receiving His heart for us leads us into the pursuit of
holiness and obeying the Lord. As we touch this dimension of kissing we touch the
passionate side of our redemption, the emotional side. In fact we have deep stirring
and longings for God.

HOLY KISS OF OBEDIENCE AND THE PURSUIT OF HOLINESS
Some people take the kissing metaphor into bizarre places. When I think of the
romance of the Gospel, I think of Paul and Silas in Acts 16 in prison and they are
singing to God, rejoicing, full of confidence in God. Now, beloved, that is the
romance of the Gospel in the human spirit. It is not trying to dance and kiss Jesus in
a mystical way. I have seen people do that.

I go, “Stop it! Stop it!” they go “I am just…” “No you are being weird!” If you
end up in prison and you sing love songs to God with confidence when they are hitting you with rods, believe me you have touched the Holy romance of the
gospel—when something has got a hold of your spirit.

THREE BOOKS WHICH FOCUS ON THE THREE SIDES OF
REDEMPTION
The three books that focus on these different sides of redemption, and of course we
could add other books as well. Revelation touches the eternal side, and we tremble.
The book of Romans touches the legal side, and we rejoice. Song of Solomon
touches the passionate side, and it empowers us to love; we kiss the Son, in that
sense.

Martin Luther who is one of the great men of God in history. 1517 is the date that
they historians talk about the reformation beginning, and he was the one that
pronounced to the nations that we are justified by faith in God’s sight. This was a
fantastic reformation of the Church, but the reformation had a tremendous
weakness in it. There were many, many weaknesses, and it had a couple very
glorious strengths, but it had many weaknesses, like every move of God does. It was
awesome, move, activity of the Holy Spirit in Martin Luther. They were nearly
devoid of the emotion passionate side of the faith.

WE NEED ALL THREE OF A HEART WHICH TREMBLES, REJOICES
AND KISSES
Other groups that is all they have, and they are not rooted and grounded in the legal
realities of Christ redemption, of what he did on the cross. We do not have to pick
trembling, rejoicing, or kissing, we want all three of them. We want the fear of God,
we want a heart of rejoicing, and we want a heart filled with affection and love for
God. That is what we want.

TURNING THE SONG INTO AN AFFECTIONATE DIALOGUE WITH
JESUS
Roman numeral IV: turning the Song into this experience of affection. It is not
enough that God is calling us to it, the last few minutes I have been talking about,
validating, and wanting to give you a frame work to think that the affectionate part
of our faith is a Biblical and valid part of our faith.

We do not want it to become the whole of our faith, but neither do we want to
cower under the criticism of people that have no revelation of this part of God’s
heart. There is lots of criticism about it, and we under the fear of man we cower in it
and throw it away so we can get into the safety the zone.

Beloved, our walk with God is too glorious, too dynamic and you only have one
time on the earth, so you want to experience trembling, rejoicing and kissing. You
want all three dimensions of Jesus’ inheritance. You want to give yourself to Him in
that way because His inheritance is not just a trembling Bride, it is not just a

WE WANT THE FULL INHERITENCE JESUS DIED FOR
The inheritance Jesus died for has all three dimensions in it: It has the affection, it
has the fear of God, and it has the rejoicing of faith. So now we say in our heart,
“We are going to go after this. We want this Lord.” How are we going to do it?
This is really important, and is part of the notes. Again, those that are listening to
this by TV, you can get these notes on the website.

This is a very important part right here, turning the Song of Solomon into an
affectionate prayer dialogue with Jesus. I cannot stress this part right here enough.
Believing in the importance of the Song of Solomon is not enough; we have to go
actually do something at the heart level. The water has to but turned into wine, so to
speak, on the inside of our spirit.

There has to be a supernatural transformation of the Word of God touching our
emotions on the inside. We must engage in long and loving meditation on the Song
of Solomon with a hungry and honest heart before God. If you buy that sentence, it
will change you life. If you determine that you are going to engage in long and
loving meditation on the Word of God—the whole Word of God—but I am talking
about this portion of it tonight, but not only the Song of Solomon by any means.

LANGUAGE OF THE SONG MUST GET INTO OUR PRAYER AND
THOUGHT LIFE
If we are to receive the full benefit of the Song, if we are to receive the full benefit
we have to turn it into an ongoing affectionate prayer dialogue with our heart and
God’s heart. I want to give you the simplest one, two, three on how to do that. If
that is new to you, it is very simple.

It is not enough to only study this Song. We have to take it to the next step. We
have to study it, and it has to get into the, the language of this song has to get into
the language of our heart. It has to get into our prayer life and our thought life.
Knowing this song and teaching it is not good enough. It will not transform my
emotions unless the language of this Song gets into the language of my prayer life
and the language of my thought life.

Then, it really changes things on the inside of my spirit. Some approach the song as
purely an academic exercise. Again, I mentioned I have over one hundred and fifty
commentaries on it. I love to study it from an intellectual point of view. I love new
ideas on it, I like this guy, I was reading a whole bunch of them the other day just
having a ball. Just loving the different thoughts, did not believe in half of what I
read, but I just loved the research of it. I was just having a great time. You know I was thinking, “Yes this is good…no, no no. Ohhh! This is a good one. Ohh! I
wonder where this is going, no that is disappointing. Oh, yeah that is a good idea.” I mean you are just reading all these different books. So I am not at all minimizing or
putting down an academic or research orientation to the Word of God. It cannot be
only that, though it is so fun to research the Bible. It is exciting.

MORE THEN HEAD KNOWLEDGE, HEART TRANSFORMATION
Informing our intellect is very important, but it is only a starting point. If I can tell
you concepts about the Song of Songs does not mean that it is alive in my heart.

You know when you go to the most famous restaurant; no body goes to the most
famous restaurant to study the menu. You know finally here they are in the great
city, in the great restaurant they have waited all these years, and they are there.
They are just like, “Oh! The menu is awesome, look at this menu.” The guy comes
up and wants to take your order, you say, “No! No! This menu, do you have any
other menus to compare it to.”

A menu is only helpful if it helps us get you the meal. The Bible is the menu—it is
not the meal—and you have to ingest it into your heart. It has to be a dialogue in
your heart with God or it does not change us. It is like food, you can have that, you
can even order it, if that food sits on the table you will die of starvation and
weakness.

YOU HAVE TO ORDER FROM THE MENU AND INGEST THE WORD
OF GOD
It has to be ingested physically; we have to take it in. We take it in one by one
sentence; it becomes a prayer dialogue with God, an affectionate prayer dialogue.
We have a conversation with Him—not one—an ongoing conversation. I do not
mean that it is unbroken, every minute of every day.

It is not enough to be a connoisseur of the Song of Solomon. Over the years we
have had few connoisseurs. They love Song of Solomon, they even love the
structures of the different books, but that is not enough. We want to connect with
God, that is what this whole thing is about, right? I have about ten phrases, I do not
know the real number, never counted them, in the Song of Solomon that are deeply
personal to me.

What I did in the early days is when I started learning how to pray this book, I
would take phrases, I would just put a phrase or two on a post card. I had maybe
twenty of thirty of them; I was just kind of experimenting, because every phrase will
not touch everybody the same way. There are ten or twenty phrases in this book
that have your name on them, I mean the whole book can touch you, but there is
ten our twenty phrases that are yours.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF HOW TO RECEIVE FULL BENEFIT OF
SONG
I mean you, they will resonate in your spirit in a very direct way. So I would take
them, I would drive wherever I was going, and I would just pray them. I would take
one of them, and just pray it. You know that famous one, “Father let Him, let Him
kiss me with the kisses of His word.” I would just say that, slow, not like
“alkjhhakdjfhadiowereof.”I was not doing it fast, like rapid-fire machine gun. I was
not trying to get to a thousand, that is not what I was doing. I would just drive,
whatever errand, I would just say it, slow, just over and over. Or that one is Song of Solomon 2:5: “Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples.” So I
would turn this into prayer dialogue: “Spirit, sustain me refresh me”. I would just
whisper it, “Sustain me, sustain me Spirit”

I would not even say it that quickly. I would much slower than that actually. I would just drive, keep my eyes open, but I would just say those and just go through the post cards. I loved it! I encourage you to take ten or twenty phrases and find out which ones are yours. As you read through the notes, we will have notes for each of the twenty-four sessions, take the notes and study them. If the book is new to you, find phrases in the notes, different Bible verses with the meanings of them, and then make that part of your language with God.

Highlight a couple phrases through out the weeks that are really yours. But do
something; do not just tell your friend that it is your favorite one, do not just
underline it, actually say it back to God often. Not repetitiously in a row, I am just
talking about just lock into those phew. Just make them part of the way you talk to
God, when you are now pacing in the prayer room and there are phrases to just say
slowly over and over. I do not mean over and over quickly. Just through the years,
through the months and years, say some of the same phrases. This Song is a
springboard to launch us into the depths of God’s love, it really is a springboard. It
is more than an intellectual exercise.

ENCOUNTERING JESUS: PRAY-READING THE SONG OF SOLOMON
Roman numeral V, encountering Jesus by journaling and prayer reading the Song of
Solomon. It is what I call pray reading it or prayer reading it.

Paragraph A. I define two general categories of truth when I think of meditating on
the Bible. This is so general, but I think it will help get your thoughts organized. The
first categories of truth, very general, are the Bible verses that exhort us to believe
something. God says, “I love you”, He wants us to believe it. “You are the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”—we are supposed to believe it. “The
Kingdom is eternal”—we are supposed to believe it—things about ourselves, about
God, about the Kingdom.

There is also a second category of exhortations that we are supposed to obey, “Bridle your tongue. Guard your tongue. Guard your eyes. Give your money. Serve in the last place. Do not complain.” I mean those are really specific guidelines of obedience. So some tell us to believe things, some truths, and some truths exhort us to obey. Let us break it down.

PRAY-READ SCRIPTURES TO BELIEVE GOD’S WORD
Paragraph B. When I think of these, of believing, things I am supposed to believe
about myself, about God, about the Kingdom, about you. There are things that we
believe about each other in the Bible. Like one thing about you, you ravish God’s
heart, and God wants me to believe that about you. You do not want me to just
believe that about me, He wants me to believe that about you.

The number one way we believe is we pray-read the Scripture: First, we thank, as
simple as this is, we thank God for a particular truth. We take the truth and turn it
into dialogue by simply thanking Jesus for it in a simple way. As simple as that is, I
have a theory I have a guess that most believers rarely stop, when they are reading
the Bible, and take a phrase and actually thank God.

WE THANK GOD FOR A PARTICULAR TRUTH IN A PASSAGE
They are in the general sense thankful, but they never actually say it, I mean just
almost never. I have found that if you pause, and just thank God for what the
Scripture says. I gave a couple examples in paragraph A. Jesus says, “You have
ravished my heart” (Song 4:9). We just pause for a second saying, “Thank You that
I ravish Your heart.” It will blow your mind what that will do to you over the years,
as simple as that is.

As the man, as the preacher says, “It is profoundly simple, but simply profound.” If
you pause and just say, “Thank You that You love me,” the Spirit will start moving
on your heart. I do not mean that every time you say it, you will have an explosion
(I will not exaggerate that), but it will really touch you.

The passage in Song 4:10 Jesus is talking and says (paraphrased): “Your love is
better than wine, the wine of this world.” To stop and say, “Thank you that You
esteem my love this much.” Oh my, that will really touch you. Do not just read it
underline it and sing it, let a friend actually tell, “Thank you, my love is better than
the wine of this world to You. Cool, thanks, wow, really, thank you.” You do not
have to be corny like I was, but I mean you might be if you are corny like me, then
it is the real, it is the real deal.



WE ASK FOR UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRUTH AS WE BELIEVE
MORE
Ok, number two, we move on from saying thank you, as simple as this is—I beg
thee to do this—I have a theory that few people actually do this. The second thing,
top of page four, the same two truths, “You have ravished my heart…” and that
Jesus says “Your love is better than wine” (Song 4:9-10).

Ask Him for understanding. Just stop for one moment and say, “Your word says
that I ravish your heart, show me more, explain that to me more. Thank you that I
ravish your Heart,” that is the first point, “Show me more, give me revelation.” Or
the this simple phrase, Jesus says, “Your love is better than wine”, we stop and we
say “Thank you,” for it, but then we take it to the next we do not just say “Thank
you”,

“Give me the Spirit of Revelation because I want to know this, I want to feel the
power of this in my spirit. I want to know more.” So when I thank Him for it, and
then ask Him for more revelation, and I do not do it for a week or month, but I do
this over months and years, my whole spirit feels the wait of the words significantly
better. Prayer meetings are exciting.” Instead of just enduring two hours till lunch,
“Oh yeah it is a fast day,” you realize you have a few more hours and think, “Oh
man!” Instead of doing this, you actually talk to God, you have a whole Bible full of
dialogue material and conversation material. Read it and thank Him for the things
He says which are true, about Himself, you, His Kingdom, and others, and then ask
Him for more revelation and the Spirit will begin to move on your heart.

WE PRAY-READ SCRIPTURES WITH TRUTHS TO OBEY GOD’S
WORD
Paragraph C: Let us go to the second big category—category of truth to obey
God’s Word— number one, we commit to obey God’s Word. We stop and commit.
We do not just read and underline it, we go “Yes.” Rather, we pause, we take that
particular truth, we turn it into a simple dialogue with God—like the passage that
the Bride is to rise up and leave the comfort zone and go with Him—we actually
respond by committing to do it.

Then, secondly we ask Him for help. We do these two things: We ask, we thank,
and we commit to do it. The Lord says, ”Bridal your tongue,” the Lord says, “Use
your words, have purity in your speech.” You stop and say not just, “Oh that is
heavy, rather you actually turn it into a dialogue and you say, “Lord I commit, I
resolve in my spirit to obey you with my speech,” and you take it to the next step
ask Him to help you.

As simple as that is, that affection with, throw some “I love You’s” in there. You do
this with the truths that exhort us to believe and the truths that exhort us to obey.
You thank Him and ask Him for revelation of the truths that exhort us to believe.
You commit to obey and ask for help in the truths that exhort us to obey, throw
some “I love you’s” in, some sighs and pray in your prayer language.

Say, “I love You” quietly, and then journal Your thoughts. I have the last point
here. Journal your thoughts, it is critical that you write down the thoughts that He
gives you. Capture them, and say them back to Him. I tell you over time it will be
shocking if you have never done this, throw some fasting in to speed the process up.
You know it is like this great feast you are salting with a little bit of fasting. I am
telling you, it will accelerate in your spirit your ability to feel the Song of Solomon.

Amen, we are going to end with that, let us stand.

MINISTRY TIME
Here we are, Lord. I am going to ask people who you know for sure, not you want
it to be true, but you know it in your spirit that one of your primary focuses in your
ministry, whether it is one on one or songwriting, or maybe you are writing for the
internet someday. Maybe you are not a preacher. You know, the people who are
going to change the world the most in terms of influence, I think, are going to be
people who are writing on the internet. They are going to touch more millions of
people than we can imagine.

We are thinking mostly about the guy or the gal who sings on the microphone. I
think we might be shocked. Some of the most profound things in history yet to
come are going to be things that someone writes, and then it goes around the whole
world.

You just have no idea what role you might have. It does not matter. As long as you
love Him, it is all the same. My point is do not just determine that you are never
going to impact more than three people in front of you, and I am sure that most of
you do not have that mindset anyway.
Whether you are speaking, singing, or writing, if you know that the Song of
Solomon is a primary, not the only, but one of the top two or three messages in
your life, I would like for you to come stand up here if you know this.

The goal is not to try to make you know that right now. That is not the point, but
some of you know, and I want to affirm it. You know that you know, and you are
going to go for this book.
I do not mean my version of it, but you are going to study it from all different
angles. You and the Lord are going to search it out. You are going to search it out
for years.

Just talk to the Lord: “Lord, here I am. I am going for this. Others of you are
saying, “Just give me one whisper, and I am in.”

I realize that, but you have not had the whisper yet. So Lord, I am asking You
across the room to release that whisper to their spirit. Call them to You. Lord, those
who are before You, I just ask for You to release Your power.

We wait on You. Come, Holy Spirit. Release Your power right now. Come wind of
God. Come and touch them right now. Some of them are feeling the Spirit swirling
around your head. Raise your hand right now, if you are feeling that. We will have
people pray for you.

The Lord wants us to focus on that because He wants to give living understanding,
and He says, “I want this one. This one needs prayer tonight.” So even some of
you who are standing there, three or four of you gather around them. The Lord is
highlighting this right now. Gather around them.

Lord, I ask You for living understanding. The reason the Lord highlights people and
says, “This one needs prayer tonight,” does not mean that they are more spiritual
or sensitive. He says, “This one needs prayer tonight.”

Those of you who lead ministry time, I just open myself to the Lord, and the Holy
Spirit gives me manifestations. This happens to thousands of people. This is not
unique to me. This is how it works. I pay attention to manifestations that are
happening to me because the Lord is what He is saying, in essence, is, “I am not
doing it for you. I am doing it for them.”

I just felt like a wind, a very subtle one swirling around my head. That is how come
I know what He is doing. He is highlighting this. Other times I feel burning in my
hands or in my chest. I feel all different kinds of ones—many people do, I mean,
thousands and thousands do.

It is not a unique thing: I know many people who do, and if you wait for a few
minutes, often you will pick up things. That is how you get words of knowledge.
The Lord will make even a part of your body hurt. He is highlighting that He is
pointing that out for another person.

Now if you hurt your foot today and your foot hurts, do not say, “I have a word of
knowledge.” No, you hurt your foot. You sprained your ankle. So do not get
confused about it.
So even when you are standing in front of people just open your heart. Do not try
to make it happen, just pay attention, and you will be surprised. Thoughts will come
to your mind, fire will come and your hands will get hot.

Do not just think, “Wow, my hands are hot.” Look at the person and say, “Are
your hands hot?” “Yeah, how did you know?” It is a word of knowledge, and the
Lord is leading you through this.

Anyone feel that swirl of wind around your head across the room? And it is not the
fans. Are the fans on? Ok, but I mean, it was clear that it was the Holy Spirit.

Anyone else in the room? Over there. Go ahead and raise your hands. If some of
you would turn around and pray for them.

It is happening. I am feeling it again right now, so I know it is happening across the
room. Lord, I just ask that Your Holy Spirit would blow. You do not have to be up
front for the Holy Spirit to touch you. Lord, I ask for the wind of Your Spirit to
blow across this room right now. Lord, we want to pray for those You are
highlighting. We want to lock into what You are doing.

When the Church prays for the Church God gives more. That is just a law of the
Scripture. When the Church prays for the Church God gives more and more
happens. So Lord I am asking right now. I am not trying to make anything happen.
Holy Spirit, You are here. I ask You for living understanding right now. Break in
upon them with living understanding. I am asking You to take the scales off of their
eyes at whatever level they are on. We all do not see clearly. None of us sees clearly.
Lord, lift the scales up. Give them a new set of lenses. Let them see to the next
dimension, to the next measure of understanding.

I pray for anyone in the room who wants that. I ask for the next measure in Jesus’
name. Release it. We will wait a few more minutes. Lord, release Your fire. Release
Your glory upon them across this room. Just open your heart and say, “Lord, I will
do anything tonight. I will pray for anybody.” Just open your eyes and look around.
You will feel stirrings to pray for this one or that one. It is supernaturally natural.
Just keep it really natural and simple.

Now Lord, break in with Your power. I am asking You for messengers of the
passion of Your heart—singers, dancers, writers, musicians, prophets, evangelists
who evangelize from this place. Lord, I ask for evangelists who speak on the love of
God, the passionate Bridegroom.

Now Lord, release Your fire, Your glory across this room. More, Lord. Let’s stay
locked in. The presence of the Lord is here. If we give Him time, He will do more.
Now Lord, break in with Your power, fire, fire. Lord, touch Jonathan. Touch
Jonathan. Make Jonathan like John the Apostle, like the Apostle of the Lord. Make
him one who loves the Lord. Jonathan, you are going to be known as the man who
loves the Lord. It is how people will know you.

You are going to be the one who lays his head on the Lord’s breast. John 21, John
was the one who laid his head on the Lord’s breast. He was the one disciple whom
the Lord loved. The Lord gives you that verse. You already got it. You already
know it is real. I am just saying it because it has already been given. I just speak it
over you. It is real, Jonathan. It is real. Go for it. He is going to make you like John
the Apostle. He is going to make you a man with that kind of heart.

I am going to get a few people to come and pray for Jonathan, some of you from
the Night Watch. The Lord is on him right now. Others of you speak the things that
I said, and speak other things besides. Just speak it again over him, the same words.
Just say them again.

John 21—you lay your head on My breast. I have made a way for you, Jonathan.
You are the disciple whom the Lord lives. Many people can have that verse. They
can have it, but the Lord is highlighting that to His servant right now.

Has He given you that verse recently? A couple years ago. Now, Lord, release it.
Confirm it. Bring him back to that day. Everything you told him on that day, bring
it back to him. Renew it as when you met him on that day.

Song of Songs Transcript - III
Mike Bickle Song of Songs Notes - II
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