The Fellowship of the Burning Hearts

After Jesus spoke to the disciples on the road of Emmaus, they described their encounter with Him saying, “Did not our heart burn within us?” (Luke 24:32).

It takes God to love God. God the Father desires to impart His own love into the heart of His redeemed. This was the climactic cry of Jesus in the high priestly prayer in John 17.

I [Jesus] have declared to them Your name . . . that the love with which You loved Me may be in them. (John 17:26)

Jesus cried out, “Father, put in them the love wherein You love Me!” Jesus knew the power of the fiery love in the Father. God is a consuming fire of burning desire for the Persons in the Trinity. This is the very essence of Father’s love for Jesus that is imparted to us for God. We were created to receive this supernatural love for Jesus—a fiery love that comes directly from the Father by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). This dimension of the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God is the very pinnacle of the gospel. You, my dear readers, will be those that receive an impartation of fiery divine love. This issue of holy affection brings us to the highest heights known in the created order, where we’re exhilarated and lovesick for Jesus. Oh, the glory of possessing fiery affections!

The capacity to feel deeply and love Jesus passionately is one of the great expressions of being created in God’s image and of receiving the gift of His salvation. The very thing that separates us from the rest of creation is the capacity to burn with such deep desires in the heart for Jesus. Out of the grace of God and all the dealings of the earth, God’s people will emerge as voluntary lovers of Jesus, the crowning glory of creation, the Bride of Christ—a bride far below the transcendent God in glory yet one exalted beyond the angelic host in intimacy with Jesus. Our bridal position is the highest in all created order yet it is never to be confused with being equal to God. Cult groups blur this vital distinction. We will be equally yoked in love because it is Father’s own love that is given to us for Jesus (John 17:26).

Our destiny is to enter into the “fellowship of the burning heart.” The three Persons of the Trinity have burning hearts of love for one another. It is almost beyond comprehension that the redeemed are beckoned into this fellowship with God’s heart. The Holy Spirit releases in us the capacity to love and know God far beyond the privilege of the angels. That is one of the most dynamic dimensions of the grace of God for the redeemed: our hearts burn with love and are fascinated with knowledge of God.

Jesus woos His people with this divine love imparted to us. He knows how to stir the human heart to the hot desire of extravagant fiery bridegroom love. The Holy Spirit’s emphasis of a revelation of our Messiah as a Bridegroom God transforms our spiritual identity into one of a cherished, lovesick Bride. The bridal identity brings us to a unique understanding of ourselves. This is the revelation that ushers us into the fellowship of the burning hearts. The emotional implications are vast. The Holy Spirit will use this revelation of Jesus to establish the first commandment to first place in the Church before Jesus’ returns. Seeing Jesus as our heavenly Bridegroom sets our hearts on fire. We live with a new reality within our own hearts.

Imagine how glorious life in the Church will be as the fire of the Holy Spirit establishes the first commandment to its rightful place. Our labors of love in fulfilling the Great Commission will look different with a fiery heart.

We carry our primary reward in us—a lovesick heart fascinated with the beauty of Christ Jesus. Our primary reward in this life is this ability to feel God’s love for us and to feel love for Him. The anointing to experience God’s love from Him and back to Him is the primary anointing related to cultivating an intimate relationship with Jesus, the Bridegroom God.

The Father has ordained to give His Son an inheritance; an eternal partner, one who is equally yoked to Him in love; a people who serve Him with extravagant obedience. But there is something more than this. We will stand before Him on the last day as voluntary lovers of Jesus. The Bride will love Jesus with the very substance of God’s imparted love burning like fire within her.

Jesus’ inheritance is described in Psalm 2, as Jesus possessing the nations (2:9). In other words, Jesus will entirely possess His people in the nations. He alone fully possesses the affection of the human heart. He will only fully rule the nations of the earth as He possesses the very adoration of the human heart. Their hearts are connected to a primary reward, which is to live overflowing in the experience of the love of God—to experience love from Him and then love back to Him; and then overflowing with love for people. Jesus’ Church will extravagantly obey Him out of a fascinated, exhilarated heart, a heart that’s overflowing in gladness with His leadership—the romanced heart, the fascinated heart, the heart exhilarated, the heart that receives a growing impartation of fiery divine love. This will increase more and more in the days ahead.

What stirs your heart to want to love Jesus more?

For more from Mike Bickle, we recommend the Passion for Jesus playlist on MikeBickle.org, a teaching series on how loving Jesus changes our lives and gives us power to stand in the end times. Watch here >>

Mike Bickle

position

• Founder, IHOPKC

Mike Bickle is the founder of the International House of Prayer, an evangelical missions organization based on 24/7 prayer with worship. He is also the founder of International House of Prayer University, which includes full-time ministry, music, and media schools.

Mike’s teaching emphasizes growing in passion for Jesus through intimacy with God, doing evangelism and missions work from the place of night-and-day prayer, and the end times. He is the author of several books, including Growing in Prayer, Passion for Jesus, God’s Answer to the Growing Crisis, Growing in the Prophetic, and Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man.  Mike and his wife, Diane, have two married sons and six grandchildren.