EXTREME TIMES REQUIRE EXTREME MEASURES MIKE BICKLE Transcript: 05/23/02. Extreme Times Require Extreme Measures, Part 1

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1 Transcript: 05/23/02 INTRODUCTION Before the Lord returns there s going to be a season of such turmoil on the planet. Most of the church in the Western world has us escaping the turmoil, so it s kind of an irrelevant verse because, We ll be taken up, and, well the poor men who are left here Or else they ve spiritualized and explained it away: It happened allegorically in 70 AD, and it s over. They ve spiritualized it to the point where it s no longer a real issue for believers in the world right now. I can t think of anything well, I can probably think of a few things. Not many things are more tragic than the church in the Western world living in almost total disconnection with the words of God Himself, talking about a period of time at the end of natural history that would be the most horrible time in terms of tribulation. Yet I believe alongside that there will be a breaking forth of the power of God in the Church, and a great harvest, and signs and wonders. I believe there will be a drama unfolding that s second to nothing else we can imagine. Now I pay a lot of attention to the church in the Western world. Of course I care about the Church in the whole world, but I m mostly familiar with the church in Europe and America and in places like that. I look at what the conferences are about and what the books are being written on, and what s capturing the attention of the leadership, and so much of the leadership is captured with figuring out a way to have their 200-member church grow to 400. They re almost consumed with that idea: how to get a bigger car, a little better lifestyle, get a few more friends. There s a storm on the horizon about to hit planet earth that has a negative and a positive side. It s like no other time in history. Go back and look at history: there were some pretty intense times which Jesus knew about beforehand, and even so, He said, What I m talking about is more intense than any of those times. I think that it s even more tragic, because there are people alive today on the earth who can remember that in a six-year period of time, suddenly, suddenly Nazism rose up and in six years fifty million human beings were killed in World War II. Most people were as unprepared for that in the Church. They barely had a clue that a storm was in the horizon. Between Stalin and Hitler of course Stalin s period was a little longer, but it just took that one six-year period of time fifty million human lives were cut short. I want to tell you this, and I believe it with every ounce of my being: something more intense is on the horizon, something more intense. There are many people still alive on the earth who remember that period of time. I can scarcely imagine why the leadership of the church in the Western world is almost completely disconnected with statements like, For there is coming a time of great tribulation, such as never has been since the beginning of time, nor ever will be again (Mt. 24:21, paraphrased). Again, one group of theologians explains it away: It happened sometime in history, or symbolically, or allegorically. Basically it s irrelevant for us today. Or they have us escaping it so that it s irrelevant. The sleepy, passive, lethargic, disconnected, living-in-the-fear-of-man church leadership, caught up in the political spirit, is keeping the Church dizzied and unprepared for what s about to come on the horizon.

2 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 2 I m not mad at anyone about it. I m feeling such energy in my spirit this last five or ten years: something is about to break in. It may be five years; it may be ten or twenty. Beloved, if it s twenty years, thirty years, it s a moment away. There s a great drama about to break through. I m not just concerned with the seven years, or three and a half years, in which it culminates; I m concerned about the entire generation. THE WINDS IN THE PERIPHERY OF HIS COMING ARE ALREADY BLOWING Here s how I picture the Day of the Lord. It s like this great hurricane coming out in the sea from far away. If the coming of the Lord, the appearing in the sky is at the very center of that hurricane, before the center gets there, there s all kinds of increased activity. The whirlwind is going to hit long before the center gets there. There s supernatural activity; it s already building. The Lord Himself may not come for some time, I don t know, but the whirlwind, the winds in the peripheral of His coming, are already blowing right now. I look through the Christian magazines and I say, Lord, please! Of course that s the cry of an intercessor, Get some people getting connected to this! Lord, do this! Because, beloved, what happened with Nazi Germany in a six-year period of time, World War II, left most of the Church so utterly shocked and unprepared. Multitudes of people in Germany came under the pressure and yielded to the political climate. They denounced their history in their faith and were completely taken by surprise by what happened. Beloved, that s just a small foreshadowing. As horrific as that time period was, and I can t fathom how horrible that was, there s something more severe, more diabolical, more powerful on the horizon; but the Lord is preparing to answer it as well. My point is not, Is it going to be worse or better? It s the fact that so much of the Church seems completely disconnected with it. THE DARKEST HOUR IN HUMAN HISTORY What s happening here is that Jesus is actually quoting Daniel 12:1 not word for word, but He captures the idea. The prophet Daniel lived around 600 BC. He was the first person whom the angel of the Lord visited and warned, There s a period of time coming at the end of natural history, and it will be the most troublesome time of all of human history (Dan. 12:1, paraphrased). There are multitudes of descriptions. Especially in Isaiah 24 to 27, there are actually quite a few descriptions of this period of time. Maybe it sounds like, Well, I have the truth, and no one else does. I don t feel like that at all. I feel like God has voices throughout the nations. He has people over here and over there and they re speaking it, but the numbers need to increase dramatically. OUR PRIMARY REWARD NEEDS TO BE THE LORD HIMSELF We need to get connected with the reality of what s on the horizon. It may be, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years before things pick up their momentum, but it s surely going to happen. I don t know; it could be suddenly. I tell you, life isn t always going to be like it is now. We re finding our primary reward in our ministries, or in our businesses, or we re finding it in our relationships. Our primary reward needs to be the Lord Himself. The Lord is jealous to have a people to whom He s their exceeding great reward, as He spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15. He says, I m your exceeding great reward, Abraham. You will be rich and famous across the earth, but I myself am your exceeding great reward, not your inheritance (Gen. 15:1, paraphrased). There s a tremendous preoccupation of how to have a more effective ministry, a more effective business, a more effective

3 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 3 this, a more effective that. I actually believe in that, I really do, but I believe in it in its place, in a secondary way. MURDER AND PERVERSION WILL ESCALATE BEYOND ANY TIME IN HISTORY Sin is escalating. There s going to be such an escalation of sin. It s staggering to my mind what has happened in ten years to the Internet. What has happened in ten years to the Internet isn t even comparable to the next ten years. The technology is increasing so rapidly, what s going to be happening ten years from today in the realm of perversion on the Internet is unthinkable the limits and the boundaries of where God is going to let human beings go. They ll be starting it at ages so young, and the access will be global. We know that the Internet is global now, but the numbers are going to be so much greater in ten years. I was talking to one technology expert, and he says, Where they re going, they ll have a cheap, little watch, and the poor villagers will own them, and they ll be able to tap in and see about anything or hear about anything that they want anywhere in the earth. Believe me, perversion will be on those little watches all over the villages of the earth. I m thinking, Lord, this is really, really, really, getting serious. It s more than just sin increasing in the realm of technology. Revelation 9:21 lays the four battle plans, the tracks in which the enemy will operate under the sovereignty of God: murder, immorality, theft, and sorcery. Murder is going to reach heights beyond anything in history. Again, think about the level of murder in that six-year period of World War II, or the Stalin regime: murder was even more intense in his roughly thirty-year reign of terror. Mao Tse-Tung was beyond anything that we could imagine, with the level of murder in China. Murder is going to reach its highest numbers ever before the Lord returns. THE EARTH SHALL REEL TO AND FRO LIKE A DRUNKARD, AND TOTTER LIKE A HUT Look at what murder will do to the planet in Isaiah 24. You need to read the whole chapter, but Isaiah says, Sin is going to be so great in that hour that it will break and burden the whole globe (Isa. 24:1-6, paraphrased). Sin is going to crush the globe. It will become so utterly sinful in its expression. Murder is going to reach proportions that we have never known before. When you think of Stalin and Hitler and men like that, murder is going to surpass even them. Immorality is going to reach heights never known. Beloved, sorcery is on a rise. Demonic activity with murder, immorality, and theft there are so many dimensions to theft. I was watching a documentary once on World War II and they said that one of the great motivations, maybe not of Hitler his was probably at a higher level, and a very focused motivation related to Satan himself about the murder of the Jewish race but many in the Nazi regime weren t against Jewish people; they just wanted their stuff. It was theft. They said to themselves, You know, I kind of like some of those people, but I want their house; I want their stuff. Theft was one of the greatest motivations of the Holocaust a few levels down. They were stealing. It was a very enlightening documentary. I said, Wow, I never knew that that could have been a motivation for thousands of the little puppets under Hitler. Theft is going to reach levels unknown. When theft, immorality, sorcery, and murder reach these levels, the very atmosphere of the planet, the spiritual atmosphere of planet earth, will be different than we can even imagine.

4 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 4 A WICKED WORLD LEADER WITH A WORLDWIDE GOVERNMENT There s a world leader being raised up under the Lord s plan. You find it in Daniel 7 and Daniel 8. He s called the man of lawlessness, the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3). He s going to have a worldwide government. It s not figurative; it s real (Rev. 13:1-8). He s going to have a worldwide government, a worldwide worship movement, and he s going to murder people who name the name of Jesus. Something is happening with him right now. I don t know: I don t pretend to understand, exactly who, what, when and where. Any way you look at it, whether it s five years, ten years, or fifty years, it s a moment away right now. You read the prophets, and when the Babylonian invasion was just twenty or thirty years away, the prophets were talking about it like it was coming tomorrow, because twenty years is here in a minute. I don t know the exact time, but beloved, we re in the time frame where these things are really going to face people alive on the earth right now maybe some of those who are younger more than those who are older, or maybe not. I don t know. In this time frame, one-third of the human race will be killed (Rev. 9:15). One-third of the human race will be killed in a period of time. Can you fathom what one-third of your city would look like? The numbers are so staggering. Zechariah 13:8 says two-thirds of the Jewish race will be killed at this time, partly owing to the onslaught of Satan s rage. There s a difference between satanic rage and divine wrath, but sometimes there s an overlap in particular events. Satanic rage and divine wrath are two very different things. Two-thirds of the Jewish race will be killed at the coming of the Lord. But right now the leadership of God s people is trying to figure out how to grow from 200 to 400. Beloved, there s a storm on the horizon, and the answer is night-and-day prayer. The answer is communion with God, the grace of fasting, the spirit of prayer, the revelation of the Word of God. God is raising up forerunners. He s raising up men and women who have just a little I don t want to overstate this just a small amount of revelation, a small amount of heart connection with this reality. They re one short step ahead of others in the Church. They re supposed to turn around saying, Church, it s coming! It s coming! It s coming! It s coming! Get your lives rearranged! Begin to prioritize yourself in a new way in God. They re the very voice of the forerunner, the gift of God to the endtime church, those vessels that will be speaking it just a brief moment before it happens. It may be a decade or two or three, but it s just a moment either way. Beloved, I want to pour all of my strength and energy into understanding this personally so that I can proclaim it in equipping young and old alike to begin to throw their life into this reality. It s the worst time in history to be a believer and to be distracted by other things. Of course, it s never good to be distracted, but this is the worst time in history to be a born-again believer and caught up in all kinds of distractions and these terrible definitions of the grace of God that lead to living sloppy lives in the name of grace, where our spirits are lethargic and dead, but we re claiming grace. It s not just that it s a heresy; it s so tragic, because they won t be delivered when the things begin to happen. I don t care how many friends can pat them on the back, and they can all do their things and step over all of these lines that their buddies are stepping over, because they all say, Grace, grace, grace! I don t want to be religious. I don t want to be religious! And their souls are so lethargic and spiritually dead, disconnected from revelation, so consumed with themselves and their own lives. The church couldn t be more unprepared in the Western world than it is right now. I hope I don t sound angry, because I m not. I have energy, but I m convinced that the Lord is going to make this thing work. I m convinced. I don t feel a burden like, There are a few over there, a few over here, and Lord if we don t, no one

5 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 5 will. I don t feel any of that. I feel that He s the sovereign God, and we re just little men, and it s already taken care of. He wants us with passion and energy giving ourselves to this thing. I don t feel panicked; I don t feel mad at the Church. I m not looking at the others thinking, Why don t they get with it? It s not about that. I feel burdened because I care intensely. THE BOWLS OF INTERCESSION ARE FULL BEFORE THE LORD RETURNS Revelation 5:8 says that when they re around the throne, they have a harp in one hand and a bowl full of prayers in the other hand. Of course we use that phrase a lot when we talk about the harp and bowl. The harps speak of worship and the bowls of intercession. The point I want to make is that the bowls of intercession are full before the Lord returns. The Church will be a house of prayer. It will work. I believe that there s going to be a great falling away of people who confess the name of Jesus. There are many places in Scripture that make this clear. But there s going to be a great ingathering as well. I believe that millions will say under pressure, You know, I wasn t as into that thing as I thought I was a few years back. They ll renounce it. The pressure is going to be too great. They ll love their life more than they understand the revelation of Jesus. But I believe there s going to be a great ingathering, and these people are going to be lovesick worshipers. In Revelation 15, when they re standing on the sea of glass, they ve come victorious. They ve triumphed. They were killed, they were martyred, but they were victorious in love, standing with a heart fiery in love and victory in love! Yes, they were killed, but they say, We didn t care, we were lovesick on the earth! We loved Him! It s interesting that they died, but they were called victorious by the Holy Spirit; they were victorious in love. SEEKING FULLNESS OF WHAT GOD WILL GIVE THE HUMAN HEART IN THIS AGE Well, I believe the bowls will be full before the Lord returns. The house of prayer will be built. The house of prayer isn t a little side ministry, like what we re doing here in Kansas City. I love what we re doing, but it s just a little side ministry. The church of Kansas City is so gigantic, and we re so little. The house of prayer is the Church. We re just a little, catalytic prayer ministry, trying to throw a little gas on the fire of the whole church in our area with little prayer meetings like ours. Our commitment is to see the whole Church caught up in the spirit of prayer. The house of prayer is the Body of Christ not little side ministries. I believe that the Church will function as a house of prayer before the Lord returns. My burden is real, but I have a note of victory, I have a note of confidence that God will have a people who will press into this thing with such ardor, such commitment, such a radical abandonment. It s not all negative. It s not just the wrath of God breaking in. It s not just satanic rage; those are two different things. It s not just an apostasy of people falling away and a world leader with a false worship movement, and a false government, escalated sin, and occultism and murder. Those things are real not to mention economic problems beyond anything that we can even mention. The Lord is going to see that every prop is kicked out. IN THE END, EVERYONE WILL BE LIVING THE FASTED LIFESTYLE We call people to the fasted lifestyle. If you do the fasted lifestyle now, voluntarily, there s a heart expansion in the grace of God; our capacity expands. At the end everyone will live the fasted lifestyle. It s true. In World War II, the entire continent, all of Europe was living the fasted lifestyle, whether they liked it or not. A fasted

6 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 6 lifestyle as a reality is already determined for the planet. If people ahead of time do it in love, in the grace of God, there s a whole expansion of our heart in understanding. Our capacity to receive increases so dynamically. I don t want to do it because it s inevitable anyway. I want to do it because I want everything that God will give the human heart. Whatever God will give the human heart in this age, in this period of time, we want it. We re going after it. A PRIVILEGE GOD GIVES THE REDEEMED THAT TRANSCENDS GENDER I believe at the end of the age, the Church in prayer will cry out to Him, Come (Rev. 22:17)! They ll cry out, Come! to the lost. The come! is in two directions. It s the Spirit and the bride. It s not the Spirit and the army; not the Spirit and the kingdom; not the Spirit and the family; not the Spirit and the body; not the Spirit and the temple. It s the Spirit and the bride. Yes, all of those other dimensions of our spiritual identity are in place, but the Holy Spirit will emphasize the bridal identity, crying out, Come! that way to the Lord, and crying out to the lost, Come, drink freely of the water (Rev. 22:17b, paraphrased). I believe that the unfolding of the revelation of the Bride of Christ, the passion of His heart, the Bride of Christ message is something that transcends gender. It s not about being male or female. I believe that God has called women to be sons of God. Men and women are sons of God; we re heirs. Men and women are a part of the Bride of Christ. It s an invitation to intimacy with God s heart. It describes a position of privilege beyond anything we can even imagine. Men and women are sons, and men and women are the bride. It s a privilege God gives the redeemed that transcends gender. I believe this is one of the great things that s about to break forth. We believe this with all of our hearts, and we want it. We want to see everyone believe for this. Look at Zechariah 10. Of course it s spoken particularly over the house of Israel, but it s something in the Holy Spirit that I believe the redeemed can t live without. He s going to release the spirit of grace and supplication, the spirit of prayer, authority in prayer. Beloved, I m not interested in doing what we do just to fill up a building. I m interested in having prayer meetings where angels and demons move when we say our prayers and sing our songs. PRESSING IN FOR THE MANTLE OF AUTHORITY IN THE HOUSE OF PRAYER We re calling our staff to these fasting teams. Again, I mentioned that we have fasting teams seven days a week. We have maybe thirty, or forty, or fifty on every fasting team. Most of our staff has joined up to two teams a week. They do the Tuesday fast and then they pick another day. They re saying yes to the grace of fasting. I told them, Listen, I believe we re sincere in the house of prayer. We said yes to prayer. We re sincere and we re even faithful, a little; we actually show up and do it. We ve been going twenty-four/seven for nearly three years. I said, Our sincerity and our faithfulness is good, but we don t have authority. I said, There s not authority on the house of prayer right now. There s sincerity, and God loves it, and I love it. I believe that the sincerity is noteworthy. The faithfulness is noteworthy. I said, I m not in this for sincerity and faithfulness at the end of the day. I m in it to operate in authority, and we don t really have authority. IF YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT IT, YOU LL GO WITHOUT IT In Acts 19, the demons said, Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you men (Acts 19:15, paraphrased)? I don t think the demons are too troubled by most of the prayer meetings happening in the earth today, at least in the Western world. Things are really picking up in some of the other parts of the earth. Again, my point is not to say how bad our prayer meetings are; that s not my point. My point is Zechariah 12:10: there s a spirit of prayer in the heart of God that He s promised the redeemed. Again, Zechariah 12 is

7 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 7 specifically focused on Israel. God has it in His heart for His people. If you can t live without it, you can enter into it. If you can t live without the spirit of prayer, authority, and anointing in prayer, you can have it. If you can live without it, maybe you ll go without it. I can t live without it. I made radical changes in my life in order to give myself to this. My point is not, Gee, aren t I something? I did it, why don t you? My point isn t that you should quit your job and go do the house of prayer. My point is that we need the desperation to enter into this, the promise of the spirit of prayer in Zechariah 12:10 and fifteen other verses where God promises that prayer will be anointed. I said, I can t live without this! Everything else makes my stomach sour to think of giving my time to it until I operate in the anointing of prayer. We pray for the sick: they come sick and they go away sick. Every now and then it s a little different, but that s how it normally is. We pray for the demonized: they come in demonized, and they leave demonized. We pray for revival: the altars stay empty, the church stays barren. I say, Lord, no. The Lord says, If you mean no, I ll give you your heart s desire if you mean it. The rarest thing, the rarest and most powerful thing, I believe in all the human race right now on the earth, is the spirit of prayer, the anointing of prayer. It s the rarest and the most priceless thing that a man or a woman, a boy or a girl can speak on the earth, and demons and angels move like they did in the days of Daniel. Beloved, I believe this is within the reach of the Western church in the grace of God if they can t live without it. I believe that great miracles are going to happen. I believe that stadiums are going to be filled. We ll see such a harvest of unbelievers coming into the kingdom. I want to cry, Come! to Him, that way. I want to cry, Come! to the world that way, in a bridal identity. I believe they ll come. BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION, SOUND AN ALARM IN MY HOLY MOUNTAIN! Let s go to the book of Joel for just a few minutes. I will be doing two seminars; I think they re tomorrow afternoon. I ll be looking at the book of Joel in these two seminars. Look at Joel 2. I don t want to give an overview of the different views of it, and this, that, and the other. I love the book of Joel, and I love the commentaries. I find the different views very interesting. I just love to underline them, write them, talk about them, and feel them, think them, etc. I can t do that right now. I just want to give a moment on Joel. Joel 2:1: Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sound an alarm (Joel 2:1, paraphrased). Beloved, there was a great tragedy. There was a locust plague and an army was coming. I ve read the different views, but I believe that both the locust plague and the literal army are actually talking specifically about the Babylonian invasion that was coming sometime down the way. It was foreshadowed by the great locust plague in chapter 1, and the locust plagues here in chapter 2 as well. I believe that there s a great army. It s all speaking of a far greater, hostile assault of the people of God at the end of the age. All of these are pictures of a great drama at the end. Sound an alarm! YOU CAN T MUSTER UP AN ALARM WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT Here s my problem; there s an alarm that has gone off in the spirit. There s an alarm in the Holy Spirit, but the people of God aren t hearing the alarm. The forerunners are hearing the alarm. The very fact that in your spirit you re saying You know, I believe the seasons are changing on the earth, is actually a token of the fact that the Lord is calling you and preparing you. It s a beginning, and it takes the Holy Spirit to impart this alarm. I ve

8 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 8 talked to some of my friends until I m blue in the face, and they can t muster up an ounce of an alarm to save their life. All they re worried about is what s going to happen in the next three years to their ministry. You can t muster up an ounce of alarm in them. There s an alarm sounding in the spirit. God wants it sounding from the Church, to the Church and to the world. The alarm is almost completely non-existent in the Western world right now in the Church. There s a little here and a little there. It will increase, though. God is going to raise up forerunners. He s going to raise up those who have just a small amount of understanding about the alarm, both in its positive and negative aspects. The purpose of this preparation ministry is to make the issues clear, to define the issues clearly, so that we know what to pursue and we know what to believe with clarity. The waters are so muddy; they re just so confusing, and we need to have clarity. LIVING IN THE MIDST OF A PEOPLE WHO HAVE CLARITY WITHOUT DOUBTING I love what the Holy Spirit said to Peter when He visited him with a vision in Acts 10:20 about Cornelius and his household being saved. He said one very, very critical phrase in Acts 10:20. The Holy Spirit told Peter, Do this without doubting (Acts 10:20, paraphrased). I love that phrase, Without doubting. There was a clarity in Peter s spirit about what was before him. I m saying, God, I want to be a man in the midst of a people who have clarity without doubting. The great tragedy of 9/11, of September 11, the World Trade Center disaster, was of course the tragedy of the families and the people touched, and all of the global and economic ramifications. There were many different dimensions of pain, and I don t want to minimize those in the slightest. Even the pain that comes to humans that s initiated by God in His wrath: still we hurt, and we have anguish over real humans in pain. Even as lost sheep, we hurt; we weep over them. We re not thinking, Well, there you go! We tried to tell you. And you still didn t get it? Real humans are really going to be touched in a way beyond any time in history, and it s a terrifying pain. The greatest tragedy, I think, of 9-11 is that there s not a spirit of prayer upon the leadership of the church. The great tragedy in America isn t the increase of terrorism. It s not an unstable economy; it s not even liberalism here or there, and the increase of abortion, and this, that, and the other. Here or there, and the increase of abortion, and this and that and the other. The greatest tragedy in America is the church being led by leaders without the spirit of prayer on them. Beloved, if there are just 5,000 or 10,000 leaders with an unction, an anointing, for the spirit of prayer, this thing will spread to so many so fast. The heavens will open; the power of God will break out, and millions can come into the wake of that overflow. WHERE ARE THE VOICES THAT SPEAK FROM AN OVERFLOW OF OIL IN THE HEART? I look at 9/11, and I heard the wrangling on TV, the wrangling of God s servants. One man says it s this, and another says it s that. They all want to make sure that their mailing list gets built up and that they get invited back. I m thinking, Oh, God! This is hurting me! Where is a voice that s standing in the councils of heaven talking to our nation right now? There was so much concern about getting re-invited, and being nice, and being known as compassionate and tender as the man that really understood. Where are those who stand in the council of heaven? Read Jeremiah 23:18. I said, God, there s no word coming from Your Church right now. A little here, a little there it s exaggerated to say none, but it was so little. The clarity was almost non-existent. It was almost as tragic as the lack of the spirit of prayer.

9 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 9 The prayer rooms are empty and the ones that are full, like, our little prayer room, don t have any authority on them. I said, God? The Lord says, I will move, but I want you to come to Me; I want you to sound an alarm. FASTING: A GOD-ORDAINED REALITY THAT EXPANDS OUR CAPACITY TO RECEIVE We gathered our staff together and said, You know, we ve been doing twenty-four/seven prayer, but we have to do 365-day fasting. We ll break into teams. I gave the call out, and we believe that we need to do this in the grace of God. Again, like I said, most of our team signed up for two teams a week. I said, For Americans, that s almost a sign of the second coming. We re just weak, prone to discouragement, prone to being disoriented, prone to get mad at someone who bumps into us wrong. We re like everyone else. And it s not like fasting twists God s arm and makes something happen. Fasting is a God-ordained reality in the grace of God where you can receive more. Your capacity is expanded in the grace of God. I said, Lord, I don t know. This isn t good, and that s not good, and whatever. He said, There s an alarm (cf. Joel 2:1). He said, There s an alarm, and I want you to go to Joel 2:12. Just do the simple thing that I told you to do. Rend your heart and fast and pray and leave it to Me. You just come. You lean into My strength by embracing voluntary weakness. Fasting is weakness. For a bunch of rich, smart, Americans, fasting and prayer is the greatest misuse of our talents and strengths and abilities. Sitting in a room telling God what He tells us to tell Him? He already knows! Why am I sitting in a room telling You what You tell me to tell You while skipping dinner? Why am I doing this? I m intelligent, I m charming, I have opportunities, I have technology. I have friends and connections. I don t have to tell You what You tell me to tell You and be hungry. I have stuff to offer You. I m different from the other men. The Lord says, I want you to embrace voluntary weakness. Lean into My strength and then trust Me. Rend your heart. Whatever I say to get rid of, get rid of and just lean into Me. Just lock in and don t back out, and you ll be safe. That doesn t mean that you won t be martyred, but you ll be safe. Your heart will grow in the love of God. I mean that. Safe to me doesn t mean that you won t die. Safe means your heart expands. That wasn t supposed to be a joke. I mean for real, safe doesn t mean that you won t die. Jesus said, Nothing will harm you, and even if they kill you, they can t harm you. In Matthew 10, He said, They ll kill you, but they can t touch your soul. Not one head of your hair will perish, even if they kill you (Mt. 10:27-31, paraphrased). OK, how does that work, Lord? Our hearts expand in power and love. GOD ANSWERS HIS PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF HUNGER There s an alarm. Look at this; it s simple, so pathetically simple that we can t get it. Verse 12. Therefore... turn to Me (Joel 2:12). The therefore is there because of the alarm. He says, Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning (ibid). Beloved, turning with all the heart includes the grace of fasting. It s not an earning thing. I don t have time to go into all that right now. I ll talk about it in one of the sessions, I think on Sunday morning. I ll talk about fasting as being energized by intimacy with God grace-empowered fasting. I don t believe that we ll convince God

10 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 10 by our superior dedication. He s not going to say, Well, in that case, they re so dedicated, even I can t turn them down. I don t think it s about religious self-determination; it s about people who disavow their own strength and lean into the strength of God by embracing the weakness of prayer and fasting. Only weak people fast and pray. You don t fast and pray if you have strength. Only weak people bother with that. It s really true. The minute we can pull it off without prayer and fasting, the prayer room is empty. We re not going to pull this off without the grace of prayer and fasting. He tells them to turn with three things: with all their hearts, with fasting, and with prayer. He says, Lean into Me with all your heart, with fasting and with prayer. Why? He tells us in verse 13: Because I m a very, very merciful God with great kindness. I have more kindness then you could imagine. I m so inclined to visit you if you ll lean into Me fully (Joel 2:13). Beloved, whatever we can live without, we will go without. God answers His people according to the law of hunger. Hunger means you can t live without it. If you can live without it in the grace of God, you ll go without it. In Matthew 17, the father comes with the little child and says, Your disciples couldn t cure my little, epileptic child here. He says, I brought him to your disciples here, and they couldn t cure him (Mt. 17:15-16, paraphrased). Beloved, they come to our churches; they come to the house of prayer, our little thing here. They come as epileptics, and they leave epileptic. They re not being cured. Jesus said, This type comes out only by prayer and fasting (Mt. 17:21, paraphrased). Only weak people can do this in the grace of God. Of course, there s a lot more to that passage than I have time to go into. The part that I m pointing out here in verse 12 is that the answer is so easy! It s so easy, it s offensive. There s no mystery. You don t need an education, you don t need money, you don t need a ton of friends, you don t have to be gifted on a platform, you don t have to do anything. Anyone can do fasting. It takes no special human abilities to do this. God says, I m giving it to the whole human race, I m giving you My offer. There s an alarm. Now come to Me. Lean into My strength. MASSIVE, CONTINUAL, NIGHT-AND-DAY PRAYER AND FASTING Beloved, here s what I believe the Lord wants: massive, continual, night-and-day prayer and fasting until the second coming. I believe He wants massive, continual, fasting and prayer until the second coming. Not for a month; not taking a month out in September. I m talking about continual, massive, global, fasting and prayer until the second coming. That s what He s calling for. As for me and my little house, we re going for it. I said, Guys, all that other stuff is overrated anyway. Let s just do it. Let s just do it. Why should we do the house of prayer for three more years with so little anointing on us? Let s just go all the way. Let s just rend our hearts and fast and pray night and day. Let s just do it. Pray for the sick, feed the poor, and preach Jesus on the streets. Let s just do it. Then when someone gets a small amount of breakthrough, let s send them out and tell them to go and get some other people to break through. Extreme times require extreme measures. These are extreme times. These are extreme times.

11 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 11 BECOMING A HISTORY-MAKER, A SPEAKER OF TRUTH, IN THE FASTED LIFESTYLE Here s what fasting does. There s kind of a neat phrase going around: History-makers. There s a famous song in England about history-makers. It s a great song! I was just at a big young adult s conference last week in Germany, and they were singing, History-maker. I was there and I said, This is massively true, that statement. They had a big banner that read, History-makers. You know it s kind of a neat tee-shirt and a neat this and a neat that, but it s absolutely, profoundly true if we want it to be. When we fast and pray and rend our hearts, things shift in the realm of the spirit; things shift in the spirit realm. They really do shift. GOD S COMPASSION OVERFLOWS TOWARDS THOSE WHO REND THEIR HEARTS Look here in verse 13. If you do this thing, if you rend your heart, etc., there s a manifestation of great kindness. There s a breaking forth of the compassion of God. Great kindness breaks forth. Beloved, I want to throw my whole being into this thing. It enlarges our capacity to experience God in a greater way. There s what seems like a paradox to some, or even an oxymoron, a contradiction. We re talking on one end about intimacy, and the lovesick worshipers are crying, We love you! and the tenderness is in our hearts. Then we look at the other, and the spiritual violence of going after this thing with radical lifestyles and believing God for everything that His Word says. Spiritual violence flows out of, is energized by, the tenderness of the lovesick experience with God. I believe that when we go into spiritual violence without intimacy, it ends up in frustration. ZEAL WITHOUT LOVE WILL BURN YOU OUT IN A MOMENT Again, I don t want to sound like a know-it-all, but I ve been leading prayer meetings literally near-daily, over 90 percent of the time, for twenty-three years. On many of those days I ve led two or three prayer meetings a day for two hours at a time, for twenty-three years. I ve watched intercessors come and go. We ve had more twenty-one day fasts over the years, fasting for this and that, etc. I ve watched them in the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s; I ve watched them come, and I ve watched them go. I ve noticed one thing: there s a spiritual violence that s not rooted and energized by intimacy, and the frustration that comes at the three- to five-year mark, the burnout, is intense. They re challenging, they re radical, they re going, but their primary reward is the breakthrough for their ministry. Their spiritual violence is being rooted and motivated by the breakthrough of their own ministry. But when they re founded in intimacy, when the breakthrough doesn t come in the time, or in the place, they were expecting, they carry the great reward on the inside: communion with God. We re energized to go through the changing seasons. The pay is the same. I mean, I was just telling one of our staff today: he said, You know, the meeting was bad ; and I said, It doesn t matter whether it was good or bad. At the end of the day, the pay is the same. We do our part: we show up with a whole heart. We give ourselves in the way that the Scripture says, and we leave it with Him! I m happy, I m doing what I m supposed to do, and I leave the rest with Him! The breakthrough is coming, though! I don t have to get all frustrated if it s delayed, or if it breaks out in Chicago, or New York; it s not about me getting the breakthrough so that I end up rich and famous. It s so that the kingdom has breakthrough, and I m alive on the inside no matter where it breaks out.

12 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 12 Spiritual violence must be rooted in intimacy, or it ends up in frustration. You get those people at the ten-year mark and the twenty-year mark. I have a lot of friends who were at every prayer meeting in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s. They went to everything; they didn t miss a thing, they were so radical. They re so burnt out today, they re burned stones, like Nehemiah talked about. They say, I ve been there; I ve done that. You couldn t get them to a prayer meeting to save their life. They did it for three to five years and it didn t work. They got disappointed, they got bitter, and they got angry, because it was all about them and their breakthrough in their ministry. Now you couldn t talk them into a prayer meeting, or a twenty-one day fast, or a two-day fast, or a gathering. They say, No, I tried that. I say, Not the way that this is going to be sustained. GOD IS GOING TO BEAUTIFY THE HEART OF HIS PEOPLE I ll end with this. I want to say this; God is going to beautify the heart of His people. He s going to beautify us. He s going to give us beauty for ashes. There are many verses where God talks about releasing beauty. Of course, He s going to really give beauty in the resurrection, physical beauty. I think we ll be so good-looking in heaven, we ll say, Whoa, man! Look at that smile! Your hair is awesome! Those eyes, wow! Your teeth are perfect! Cool! I think everyone is going to be really cool-looking in Heaven. There s a beauty in the resurrection, and that shining body that s pretty stunning, but there s even a beauty that is released in this age in our soul. Our souls can be so alive. I m saying, Lord, I want to carry my heart in a different way. IF I HAD KNOWN I WAS A KING, I NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN A THIEF In Luke 21:26, Jesus said, In the last days they will faint for fear (Lk. 21:26). The earth and a lot of the Church will be so filled with fear, they ll be fainting from fear at every angel: the money fears, the relational fears, the ministry fears, the are they going to kill me? fears, the plague fears, the terrorist fears, the martyrdom fears. Believers and unbelievers alike, they ll be living in fear. I said, I want to carry my heart in a new way, in a stunning new way in the beauty of God. Beloved, I want to be amongst those who are going for it. As we give ourselves to this wholeheartedly, we can know who we are; we can know who we are. There s nothing more powerful than to see a man or a woman who actually knows who they are. There s so much emotional resource wasted and expended because people are so desperate to find out who they are. It s so rare to find a man or a woman who knows who they are. Imagine the amount of energy in the Church that s expended on the leaders who don t know who they are, just going in circles, dizzy, hacking away at everything around them because they don t know who they are. There s something so powerful about knowing the awesome gift of greatness we have in Christ Jesus. Beloved, it s the gift of greatness: we re the beloved of our God forever. I mean, Jesus said to that thief on the cross, You will be with Me in Paradise (Lk. 23:43). He stepped over the line and looked around and said, My goodness, I didn t know I was a king. If I had known I was a king, I never would have been a thief! Of course I m not saying that it really happened exactly this way, but bear with me. He said, If I had known that all of this was true, I would have lived totally differently.

13 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 13 Beloved, God wants a people who know who they are. There s something so powerful and beautiful about knowing who we are. There s something else. I mean, this is what God wants of us. He wants us so given. We re going for everything that God will give the human heart. That s what God is raising up in the Church. When I say we, I don t mean us here. I mean we as in the millions who are doing this across the earth. We re doing this. There are millions who aren t, but there are millions who are. It s more than that. We know what we want. I know what I want, and I hope that that doesn t sound boastful. I know what I want. I want everything that God will give the human heart. I know exactly what I want in life. That s one of the great gifts that I enjoy in the grace of God. I m not trying to get more entertainment, more recreation, more stuff. I m not trying to get more time off to play. I know exactly what I want in life, exactly. That s a gift in God. God wants all of His people to know what they want. THE DREAM OF OUR HEART CAN T FAIL, BECAUSE IT S NOT BORN OF FLESH I want the fullness of what God will give the human being. I ll expend every ounce of my strength to go after it. I want to employ the full measure of my strength in prayer and fasting. I know what I want, and I know how to get it. I m not unsure how to get this thing. I know exactly. It s so simple that it s offensive. I know exactly where to get this thing. I want to get together with a whole group of people I don t mean in just one place; I mean worldwide that s bearing witness, that s fellowshipping in the spirit one with another in deep camaraderie. It s already happening in Asia and Africa. Some of those people are so radically committed. I want to give the full measure of my strength. I don t want to do as little as I can so that I can still be a part of a revival. I want to give the full measure of my strength to be a man of fasting and prayer until the second coming. I don t mean I want to do this, and if revival breaks out and we double and triple in size, then say, Well, that was a neat season. No! No! If we get 100,000 converts, I want 300,000. If we get 300,000, let s go for the other cities, until the second coming, until the end. That s something that God wants us to have. Beloved, the dream in our heart as the people of God can t fail, because it s not born of flesh. It s not born of the will of man. It s born in God. It can t fail! We re a people who can know who we are. We can know exactly what we want. We can know exactly how to get it and we can have a dream that s unfailing. We don t have to live dizzy like all of the middle-class Americans, dizzied in the pursuit of all these goals, and waves, and climbing the ladder, and the ministry, and this and that. They re just so exhausted and dizzied because they don t know what they want or who they are or how to get it. It s so simple, what we re about. God is sounding the alarm. The most profound part of the whole thing is that we can enjoy the present tense every step of the way. I don t mean there s not pain in the present tense, but we can have joy now, not just one of these days. We can enjoy God when the meeting is bad. We can enjoy our communion with God right through the steps and the tragedy. I don t mean there s joy without pain, but there can be an enjoyment. We don t have to wait until later for the good stuff to start happening on the inside. Amen. Let s stand. MINISTRY TIME We need to burn some bridges tonight. We need to burn some bridges. We need to put our hand to the plow and not look back (Lk. 9:62). We need to settle it. There s an alarm! We ll be involved in it! We ll sound it! There s an answer: fasting and prayer with all of your heart! We re in! We re going all the way.

14 Transcript: 05/23/02 Page 14 Let s just forget the other! Let s just go! Well, I have a dream of this, or, I have a dream of that! Well, get rid of it! Delete it! Let s go! Let s go, not for a season, but until the second coming. Let s go until the end! Let s just settle it, and it s easy then. It s so uncomplicated that way. There are different people in this room right now and the Lord is saying, I want you to be settled on some issues. Don t just go to a conference, buy the tapes, and tell your friends that you went. Beloved, He wants you to be this. Not just for the sake of others, but because it s the way to live! This is the way to live! I don t want the bare minimum. I want to go to the full measure of my strength in these things. If I can do a little more, I want to do more. Not because I have to, but because this is how I want to spend my life and my strength until the last day I m alive on the earth. I ll stand before the Lord and I know that He s going to say, That was wise. Good, I helped you to think that through. I ll say, Yes, thank You, Lord. Thank You. He ll say, Hey, son, a small amount of wisdom entered your heart. I m the One who gave that to you. Oh, I know, Lord. Thank You, thank You. I want to call people to come forward who are saying, You know, I just need to settle the issues. What am I doing? It s not about just having a little breakthrough in your ministry, growing a little in security, trying to get a little more time for this and a little more time for that. Forget all that. Let s just go and do it! God is calling you to really realign your lives. If you feel that tug I mean a real realignment; I m not giving specifics, because it s different for every person if you feel like the Lord is saying, This is a season to make radical lifestyle changes I don t mean to improve the old suburban lifestyle a little by adding a prayer meeting every week; I m talking about a radical remake of the way you live on the earth. There s an alarm! God desires voices in the wilderness. I want you to come down if that s you. You re saying, You know, this is the time. I need to do this. I want you to come and stand before the Lord here. Beloved, God wants you to know who you are. He wants you to know what you want in life. God doesn t want you to live the next ten years not knowing what you want or how to get it. He wants you to know clearly who you are and what you want. It s so powerful to live that way. It s so uncomplicated. But I m weak. I m weak, too. I m prone to discouragement. All of us at IHOP-KC are prone to discouragement; that s how we re made. This thing is for weak and broken humans, even Americans. It s not just for the Nigerians; it s for the Americans, too. Lord, I m Yours! I m Yours, O God! Help me in my weakness!