The End-Time Prayer Movement and the Bridegroom God

Transcript: 10/13/11 INTRODUCTION We re in the prayer and prophetic conference, so I want to talk about the prayer movement that s exploding across the earth. In the last ten or twenty years, it s picking up speed so fast that it is, in itself, a phenomenon. If you re involved with the information, it s remarkable. I believe it s a sign of the times. Because the Bible makes it clear paragraph A that the greatest prayer movement in all of history will happen just before the Lord returns. The very fact that the amount of people in prayer ministries is increasing so radically right now is an encouragement that we re getting closer and closer to that day. Of course no one knows the day or the hour when the Lord will return. I believe in these decades ahead we re getting closer and closer to it. JESUS IS A BRIDEGROOM KING WHO ZEALOUSLY DESIRES HIS PEOPLE Paragraph B. Jesus is a bridegroom king. We re familiar with Jesus the King the King with power. We re not so familiar with the Bridegroom with desire. He not only has power; He has desire. The two of them flow together. He s using His power to rule over us, but it s His desire to relate to us. He doesn t just want to rule us; He isn t just interested in a kingdom workforce. He does want a kingdom workforce, but He has more on His heart than that. He wants partnership; He wants deep partnership with His people. We re more than a kingdom workforce; we re the beloved of His soul. We re His inheritance. We re His bride that the Father promised Him from ages past. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PRAYER MOVEMENT AND THE BRIDEGROOM KING Paragraph C. There is a significant relationship this is why I m stressing it between the prayer movement in the generation of the Lord s return that releases the great harvest and the revelation of Jesus as a bridegroom king. We all know there s a great harvest: that every tribe, nation, and tongue will hear the preaching of the gospel in power. But beloved, that harvest isn t going to happen in a vacuum. The harvest that will reach all the nations in power is the result of a prayer movement that releases the harvest. The point I want to emphasize here in paragraph C is this: there is a very significant relationship to the prayer movement that releases the harvest with the revelation of Jesus as a bridegroom king. He s not only a king with power, but a bridegroom with desire. It s essential that we emphasize, not just His kingship, but His nature as a bridegroom God. The Bible makes it clear that in the generation He returns, the Body of Christ globally will understand this revelation of Jesus. It s the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in the Church, in the identity of a bride, crying, Come, Lord Jesus. That s the prayer at which He splits the sky and comes to the earth when the Church in her bridal identity in intercession is saying, Come, Lord Jesus. Come for us, come to us, come near us in power. It s not just the workforce; it s not just the workers; it s the Church in her bridal identity. It s essential that as we work for the harvest, we strengthen the prayer movement in our city and in our region. In order to do that, it s also essential that we grow in our understanding of the Bridegroom King, His power and His desire. That dynamically affects the strength of the prayer movement, which then in fact affects the harvest in its power. Paragraph D. This is just my opinion; it s not a revelation, but I believe we re in the early days of the generation of the Lord s return. I believe that it s very possible that there are people on the earth today maybe it s the

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 2 kids, but I believe there are people alive on the earth today, very possibly, who will see the Lord s return with their own eyes. I don t know who. Maybe it s a little further down the road; maybe it s sooner. No one knows the day or the hour. Here s the point. I believe from the biblical signs of the times that we re approaching that time frame. It may be some decades down the road, but things are picking up. One thing that s picking up is the acceleration of the harvest, the winning of souls across the nation, the prayer movement, but the issue of this revelation of Jesus as the Bridegroom God isn t just something for ladies. This is a revelation for the entire Body of Christ. When men see themselves as the one that He cherishes we ll talk in a moment about how men are to understand this. When the Lord first began to talk to me about this, it really threw me off. I thought, I like Jesus the King, the Warrior-king. The Bridegroom, I don t know. It s biblical, so it has to be right and good, but I don t relate to it. The Lord began to really challenge me some years ago and said, You need to understand it, because it will touch your heart and transform your heart in a way you don t know. It s been over twenty years since the Lord began to challenge me in that. I certainly haven t arrived, but I ve experienced a whole lot more of the tenderizing of my heart by understanding the burning desire of Jesus heart for His people. Well, do you want to be involved in the prayer movement more? I urge you to grow in the revelation of the Bridegroom King. They re related. The prayer ministry and the Bride of Christ revelation are dynamically connected in the Scriptures, and they re connected to the harvest. I want to urge you if this is new, or if you re just beginning in this journey, to say, Lord show me. I want to pick up the pace. I need an acceleration in this. THE ETERNAL IDENTITY OF THE REDEEMED: A HOUSE OF PRAYER Paragraph E. Isaiah 56 is the famous verse where God says His house shall be called a house of prayer. It says this in verse 6: Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, And to love the name of the Lord... even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer (Isa. 56:6-7). Then He gives what I call the eternal identity of the redeemed: For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations (v. 7b). There are so many points we could focus on in this passage that I don t want to spend too much time here. However, this is a very exciting passage. Verse 6 describes the sons of the foreigners, the Gentiles. That s us! We re the sons of the foreigners. The reason this was such a dramatic prophecy is because the foreigners, the Gentiles, were idol-worshipers. They were demonized; they didn t know the God of Israel. God says, I will do a work so dynamic that even the children of these pagan people, and their children, generations down the road, will join themselves to the Lord. That s what you did the day you were born again. They will commit themselves to love the name of the Lord. Look at verse 7. He says He will make even them even us! to be joyful in the house of prayer. Instead of the word joyful, put the word enjoyable. This idea changed my life when I began to get a vision for enjoyable prayer. I had heard about counting the cost and gritting your teeth in prayer. I wasn t good at it and I didn t like it, but I was gritting my teeth, counting the cost, and I was enduring it but not that well. Then the Lord began to show me through this verse: Even you! You re a son of the foreigner; you re a Gentile. My plan is to cause you to enjoy prayer.

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 3 Enjoyable prayer! I said, Lord, I m interested. That s a bit of what I m talking about tonight: enjoyable prayer. Then He goes on and says, Here s why it s essential that you enjoy prayer: because My house is called a house of prayer. This isn t just a statement for this age. The people of God will be the house of prayer a million years from now with resurrected bodies. We will still be the house of prayer. That s what God will call us. I m talking about the whole Body of Christ in the age to come, with resurrected bodies. We will still be called by God a house of prayer. THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST IS THE HOUSE OF PRAYER What does this mean? Paragraph E. I have a very simple definition for being a house of prayer. When I say house of prayer, I don t mean a twenty-four/seven prayer ministry like we have here. The house of prayer of Kansas City isn t IHOP-KC. The house of prayer of Kansas City is a thousand congregations, the whole Body of Christ. That s the house of prayer. IHOP-KC is just a catalytic ministry that s to encourage people in prayer. The house of prayer is the whole Body of Christ, in every denomination, every congregation. I believe God is raising up catalytic ministries in cities that focus on prayer, but only to the intent that they would be a servant ministry to encourage others in prayer. Why? Because the real house of prayer is the whole Body of Christ. GOD RELEASES HIS POWER FOREVER THROUGH INTERCESSION What does it mean to be the house of prayer? My simple definition: God speaks and moves our heart. Then we speak the very thing back to Him and it moves His heart. Then He opens His hand and releases His resource into the earthly realm. Let me say that again. This is what it means to be the house of prayer. We will function this way even in the age to come. God speaks; He moves our heart. He says, I will give revival to your city. Your heart gets touched: Wow, that excites me. He speaks, I will cause your family to be saved. Wow! It moves you. You get excited. Then we speak the very word back: Lord, send revival. Lord, I want every member of my family saved. It moves His heart. Then He opens His hand and His resource. It s not just money, although money is a part of resource. It s the power of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, creative spirit, unity. There are many things that are God s resource. Did you know that in the age to come, things won t be automatic? We will still release the power of God through intercession. Jesus lives forever to make intercession. He speaks the plans of the Father and the Spirit releases them. Why does God release His power forever through intercession? Because He wants partnership with His people forever. Again, with a resurrected body in the age to come, you won t cease to pray; you ll pray much more

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 4 than you do now. He will speak and move you; you ll speak and move Him. He ll release His power, His wisdom, His manifold resource. This is the eternal identity of the people of God. WE WILL PRAY AND WORSHIP ON EARTH AS IT IS DONE IN HEAVEN Paragraph F. Jesus said, Pray, Thy kingdom come, on earth like it is in heaven (Mt. 6:10, paraphrased). One of the issues of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven is worship and prayer. We want to see prayer and worship on earth as it is in heaven. It won t be of the same measure and intensity of glory, but we, the Body of Christ, study the order of worship around the throne. In Revelation 4, I highlight three points. There are many points to highlight; I m only picking three out of twenty-five. What s the worship order around the throne? How does God want to be worshiped in heaven? That s the same way He wants to be worshiped on earth. Again, not to the same measure of glory, not to the same intensity, but the principles are the same. Number one. Again, I m only picking three out of twenty-five or more characteristics you can identify from the Bible about the order of worship around the throne. The worship is continual; it never stops. It s musical and God-centered. Again, I could add twenty-five more facets that are in the Bible. God wants continual worship, not in just one building, but from regions and cities. He s organizing it right now in your city and region. Maybe you live in a farm community in a rural area. God is visiting people who worship, and prayer will ascend from many congregations, but it will arise nonstop from that region. You re a part of that plan. Maybe that s a new idea to some of you. Maybe that s an old idea, but it s a biblical idea. It s continual. It s not just continual; it s musical. The worship around the throne is musical. One of the reasons is because the human spirit is musical, but God s Spirit is musical. You know, Jesus, fully God, fully Man, is an amazing singer. He s a great musician. You think, David, King David, was the great musician and singer of Israel! He was a prototype; he was a down payment. He was a picture of the greater David. Jesus is a really good songwriter, too. He has songs that are in His heart, I believe, and He has reserved the greatest songs for the generation He returns. He s going to give them to His Church. We re His own songs. WE WANT TO SEE OUR REGION FILLED WITH THE INCENSE OF WORSHIP Paragraph G. Again, as the Body of Christ, you want to find out what s happening in your area: Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, charismatic, independent, nondenominational, whatever; home group, Bible studies, marketplace find out where people are stirred to pray. Encourage one another. The goal isn t to get them all into your prayer meeting; the goal is to see the region filled with prayer. I ve been a part of a network of about 300 ministries and pastors in the Kansas City area through the whole twelve years of IHOP-KC, and I was a part of it when I was pastoring in Kansas City. When we started IHOP- KC twelve years ago, we remained a part of that network. I had the opportunity to speak to them, to give a message to them, maybe four or five times in the last twelve years. I say it every time. It throws off some of the pastors. Here is our rule at IHOP-KC; I give the same rule to you. Anyone can come to IHOP-KC and you can recruit anyone you want and take them back home. We re yours.

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 5 Their pastors say, What? I say, Yeah, you heard me. You can come to IHOP-KC, and if you like that worship leader, you can offer them a job. Recruit anyone. Because we want to fill the city with prayer. We don t want to keep them here. We want them to go wherever they go. I tell visitors, You can come here, and if you like Matt Gilman, offer him a job if you want. All I ask is that you treat him well. Recruit anyone you want. My point is this: we re not trying to build something in one building or in one acre. We want to see the region and our nation and the whole earth filled with the incense of worship. We want to do it with a million other ministries, all of us together, pulling the wagon up the hill, so to speak. Here s what happens paragraph G. When night-and-day prayer goes forth from a region, it changes the spiritual atmosphere of that region. Demons are driven back, angels are more active, and the Holy Spirit releases more Holy Spirit activity when prayer goes forth night and day. TWO HOUSES OF PRAYER WILL COLLIDE AT THE END OF THE AGE Top of page two. I want to urge you: take time, spend money encouraging young people in the place of prayer in their instruments. Music! It s one of the most prophetic things you can do. I m not a singer; I m not a musician; I m not a dancer. I do all those things; they just won t let me do them publically. I failed every audition at IHOP-KC. They said, Please Mike, just do Bible teaching. I m one of the main cheerleaders for young people, getting them finance and training them to be musicians. I m not even a musician. Why? I believe it s one of the most prophetic things I ve ever done in my life stirring young people to buy into this. Not just here: we have all kinds of camps and internships. Nine- to twelve-year olds come for a few weeks, teens come for a few weeks, college students come for a few weeks. We want to stir them up, give them the vision, send them back home, to have them committed to learn their instrument to lead in the house of prayer wherever their city is. Why? It s prophetic. This is one of the main things the Holy Spirit is doing globally. Maybe you don t even think about it. Well, the Lord brought you to this conference. Even if someone pulled you by the ear to get you here, I ll say the Lord did it. Maybe it s a new idea, but you ve got it now. Look at your area and say, Lord, how can I help sixteen-year olds and eighteen-year olds? How can I encourage them in music, in instruments? How can I finance it? Is there a soundboard I can buy someone? Can I help anyone do this? I urge you to ask that question. Music fills heaven and it will fill the earth. There is no time in history that has had more music on the planet than right now. Because of technology, the dark music and the kingdom of God music are exploding, and the only direction it can go is doubling and tripling. There are more musicians and singers on the earth right now than at any time in history. That s not an accident. The devil is trying to get them to do one thing; the Spirit is winning them to the other thing. The great collision before the Lord returns is the collision of two houses of prayer: the Jesus house of prayer and the kingdom of darkness house of prayer. We will be in full collision. That s the collision at the end of the age two houses of prayer. Paragraph I. David trained singers and musicians (1 Chron. 23:5). He had 4,000 full-time singers and musicians on his staff. What? David had 4,000 singers and musicians on his full-time staff. He was the first one to see it.

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 6 David was just a musician. He did his music thing. No. David had a revelation of the worship around the throne. That s why he did it not because he liked music; it was a revelation. When I began to see that, it changed some of the things I was doing with my ministry. I said, Wow. The great collision at the end of the age is two houses of prayer. We re both going to be filled with music. Music is powerful because music touches the human spirit deeper than anything. MUSIC GOES WAY BEYOND THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD Paragraph H. I went over that really fast. With music, you can have a stadium of 100,000 people. You get an anointed preacher, talk on the love of God, and, if they re anointed, some of the people will feel the power of the love of God for a few moments. Not all of them, but some of them will. If it s really anointed, they ll say, Whoa, I m being touched. You get a worship team anointed by the Spirit, and all 100,000 people will feel the same thing at the same time. It could go on for hours. That s the power of music. It goes way beyond the power of the spoken words in terms of touching the deepest part of the human spirit and unifying people. The way a stadium can be unified for hours is under anointed music: everyone singing to the same Man, singing the same song, when the power of God is on it. GOD COMMANDED DAVID TO COMMAND THE KINGS TO BUILD THE HOUSE OF PRAYER Back to paragraph I. David commanded the kings of Israel after him, the leaders of Israel. He said, You do this; you build night-and-day prayer with singers and musicians. You fund them (1 Chron. 29:1-5, paraphrased). He commanded them. Why? It says, Because it was the command of the Lord to David (2 Chron. 29:5, paraphrased). Was it David s command? Yes, it was, but it was more. It was God s command. God said, I command you, David, to command the leaders after you to do this. Why? There was something in God s heart that David saw. YOUR MAKER IS YOUR HUSBAND, THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH Paragraph J. Isaiah came along about 300 years after David. Isaiah was prophesying about the singing at the end of the age. Isaiah 54 is about the generation of the Lord s return. If you read it, you can apply it all through church history. It has its premier application in the context of the generation of the Lord s return. He said, Sing, O barren one (Isa. 54:1). Even before the breakthrough, sing while you re still barren. Spiritually he says, Israel, you re barren. You don t know your Messiah yet. Sing to God. Start singing. Break forth into singing. Revelation will increase. Power will come. Start crying out to God and you ll see the birthing will come. Now there are many Jewish people who know Jesus. There are thousands of them. The numbers are increasing dramatically like no other time in history. They ll be leading the charge; they ll know the Lord. Others will be doing it as well. Here is the key to singing: For your Maker, your Creator, is your Husband (Isa. 54:5, paraphrased). This was a shocking idea to Israel. What? Israel was accustomed to a transcendent King. He s transcendent, meaning He s infinitely superior to any other. He s God, and there s nothing like Him. How can the transcendent King with power be a bridegroom? It s not possible.

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 7 Isaiah was the first to say it along with his contemporary, Hosea. They were in the same generation. When they said the transcendent God, the Creator, the Maker with power, was a bridegroom with desire, this was shocking to Israel. No way! Not possible! Isaiah said, It s true. Hosea on the other side of town said, I heard the same thing, too. I bet they appreciated each other. That would have been a strange doctrine to be the only guy in history to know and proclaim. They were the first two. Here s the point I m making: the singing that would bring the birth of the promises was singing to a bridegroom God. He joined them together. The birthing, the great harvest, the promises, all come as a result of the singing and praying, but it s linked to the Bridegroom God. SINGING THAT REVEALS AND IMPARTS LOVE I ve written here, Singing before a bridegroom God is singing that reveals and imparts love. It s not just singing about demonstration of power. We do that, and that s biblical, but it s singing that reveals the heart of God in love, and it imparts it to the people who hear the song and sing the song. There s a new type, a new quality, coming into the mix of the worship movement. We re seeing the beginning of the beginning of it in this hour of history. Twenty years ago, you rarely heard a song about the Bridegroom. In twenty short years, they re popping up everywhere. In another twenty years, the number will far exceed anything we can imagine, because the Spirit is doing this. THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, COME! Roman numeral II. John prophesied one of the most significant prophesies of the end time-church. Paragraph A. Revelation 22:17 is one of the most informative and one of the most significant prophesies. There are so many facets and implications to these one or two sentences. It s remarkable. Much more is here than meets the eye at a casual glance. Here s the prophecy. Here s the final activity of the Spirit before Jesus returns. What will the Church be doing right before Jesus returns? What will the Spirit be doing? Because the good news is this: the Church will be doing and saying what the Spirit is doing and saying. They ll be in unity together for the first time in church history since the day of Pentecost. They were in unity for a short period of time in the book of Acts. I m talking about the Church and the Spirit. For 2,000 years, there has been disunity in many things. Beloved, before Jesus returns, the Spirit and the Church will be saying and doing the same thing together. That s power! Let s read verse 17. The Spirit and the bride say, Come! (Rev. 22:17). Both are crying, Come, Lord Jesus. And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (ibid). Let the thirsty come to Jesus. Then Jesus answers; He says, You re calling out to Me, and I m coming (Rev. 22:20, paraphrased). There are two things going on. The Spirit is calling people to the Bridegroom God, Jesus, and calling Jesus, the Bridegroom, to come to the people. Two things are happening in this verse.

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 8 THE SPIRIT WILL REVEAL THE IDENTITY OF THE REDEEMED AS A CHERISHED BRIDE Paragraph B. What s the Spirit saying in this passage? What s He saying? He s speaking to the Church in its identity as a bride. It doesn t say, The Spirit and the family, the Spirit and the army say come. We are the family of God, and we are the army of God. It doesn t say, The Spirit and the body say come. It says the Spirit and the Church in her identity as a cherished bride; she s the one who says come. Yes, we are the family of God, we are the army of God, we are the Body of Christ, we are the temple, we are the priesthood. All of these things are a part of our identity, but the Spirit has a certain focus right before the Lord returns. He is going to reveal the identity of the redeemed as a cherished bride. It s a brand-new revelation. It s in the Bible, Old and New Testament, but the Spirit has never emphasized it in a universal way, worldwide, until the hour, the generation, of the Lord s return. He s beginning to do this right now worldwide. It s a biblical truth in the Old and New Testaments, but the Spirit has never emphasized it universally. Now He is beginning to do so. As you re coming to a prayer and prophetic conference, one of the most prophetic things you can do is to begin to get on the journey to understand the Bridegroom God and build and encourage prayer ministries in your region. That s what He is doing. It s not the only thing He s doing, but that s one thing He is doing. Many fervent believers are unaware of this. Beloved, He s calling the Body of Christ into her identity as a cherished bride. What s the Spirit doing? Paragraph B. He s interceding for Jesus to come as a bridegroom God. The Spirit is saying, Come, Jesus! Come, Jesus! The Church is saying, Come, Lord Jesus! The Church is in intercession. If you read the passage carefully, the Church is in evangelism, calling the people of the earth to come to the Bridegroom God. THE CHURCH IN THE SPIRIT WILL CRY OUT IN UNITY Paragraph C. We haven t really taken time to develop it; I m just giving you a snapshot. I would like to spend an hour or two on this passage. That s in our Bride of Christ conference. I believe this is one of the most significant prophecies of the end-time church. John tells us how the Church will function as empowered by the Spirit. In other words, the Church and the Spirit are in unity. There s an empowering, because we re doing the same thing. It has never happened in history since the early chapters of the book of Acts. The Church is more than empowered by the Spirit; the Church is engaged in intercession worldwide. Jesus isn t coming in a vacuum; He s coming in answer to a global prayer movement. The Church is established in her bridal identity and effective in the harvest. WOMEN ARE SONS OF GOD AND MEN ARE THE BRIDE OF CHRIST Page three. Paragraph E. Men get troubled by this Bride of Christ thing because they misunderstand it. They think the bride is something that s intrinsically related to women. It s not. Women are sons of God. They don t have any problem with that. The women don t say, Well, we re girls, so how can we be sons of God? I ve never heard a woman say that. They have no trouble with being sons of God at all. Men are the Bride of Christ. They say, Ahh, I m not putting on a dress! It s not going to happen!

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 9 Well, you re not supposed to put on a dress. Sons of God is a phrase that describes a position of privilege. It s the same with the Bride of Christ: it s describing a position of privilege. As sons of God, we have access to God s throne, God s power. As the Bride of Christ, we have access to God s heart, God s desire, His emotions. We want both. We want His power and His desire His throne and His heart. We re both. THE BEAUTY OF GOD FASCINATES THE HUMAN SPIRIT Paragraph F. I ll be very brief on this. The implications of paragraph F are huge. I teach a Bride of Christ class and it takes the whole semester just to do paragraph F, because I m summarizing it right now. What is the message of the Bride of Christ, the Bridegroom message? Number one. It s the revelation of God s emotions. Did you know He has emotions for us? He has many emotions, and they re described in the Bible. It s exciting. It s the revelation of His beauty. King David said, This one thing: I gaze on Your beauty all the days of my life (Ps. 27:4, paraphrased). The beauty of God fascinates the human spirit. He has more than emotions and beauty; He has commitments to us Bridegroom commitments, to share His heart, His home, His throne, His secrets, His beauty, and on and on. He has made commitments to share many things with us. When we understand this, it shifts our emotional chemistry. It changes us to encounter these realities. THERE IS NOTHING SEXUAL ABOUT THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MESSAGE Then, last but not least, the message of the Bridegroom message is about our response of abandonment back to Him. There is a cry of abandonment between a husband and a wife that s different than that between a father and a son. I have two sons. I never told them to abandon and leave all and be with me. They would say, Dad, chill out. They did that mutually with their wives. There is an abandonment dimension of the Bridegroom message. That s a big subject. There s wholeheartedness. It s not just that God likes us: there s an abandonment of mutual love that s the central plank of this reality. It s important to say this; I say it every time to our students, particularly in the first semester. We must refuse all sensual overtones to the Bride of Christ message. It has nothing to do with Jesus being your boyfriend or your lover. It s always a very small number, two or three gals, who go on a date night with Jesus. I say, No, you re not going on date night with Jesus! He isn t your boyfriend. That s not what this is about. It s about Him opening His heart to you like He did the apostles the way He does all of us! He wants to show His heart for you. You don t go on dates with Him. They go home, put the candles on, put the music on, and they go on date night with Jesus. I say, Keep the music on. If you like the candles, keep them going. They won t hurt a thing. I m not a candle guy, but it s not a date. You re the son of God and the Bride of Christ, like men are. David, the great warrior king, was a lovesick worshiper of God. The great warrior-king was the great lover of God. When I say lover, I don t mean boyfriend. He loved Him. He abandoned himself to God. I m talking about

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 10 love in that sense. He gave himself to the God of Israel. Most of you understand that He isn t your boyfriend, but there s always that one young gal who needs to hear that. I ve had a few of them really mad at me. They say, In the name of Jesus I bind that! I m not accepting that! I say, He will never be your boyfriend, I promise you. That s not what He s into. He isn t going to do anything with you that He won t do to all the guys in the Body of Christ. No, this is heartbreaking! No, settle it! We don t want to live in fantasy. Fantasy never helps anything! Let s live in truth. Roman numeral III. Isaiah. I m just tipping you off to this. We re going to spend sixty seconds on it. Isaiah wrote more on the end-time prayer movement than anyone else in the Bible. It s remarkable how much Isaiah writes about the prayer movement, and I believe we re in the early days of that generation. It may go on for four, five, six, seven, eight decades. I don t know; I believe we re in the early days of that crescendoing time. It will come to a head. Isaiah wrote more about that time frame than any other man. We don t want to neglect Isaiah. I have some verses. When Isaiah talked about the prayer movement, it s relational. It s encountering a bridegroom God. It s musical. Isaiah has so many passages describing the music of the end-time prayer movement. Beloved, we need to get the young people in their instruments. We need to get them finances to help them. We need to get them lessons. We need to push them with all our energy into this direction. The prayer movement in Isaiah is continual. It goes night and day. It s global, it s a worldwide movement, and it s missional. It brings in the great harvest. CALL THEM HEPHZIBAH, FOR THE LORD DELIGHTS IN THEM! Paragraph C. This is a powerful passage: Isaiah 62:4-7. This is a verse that really marked my life in a powerful way. I had a dream of this verse. I read this verse many times and I couldn t connect it. It says, You shall be called Hephzibah, for the Lord delights in you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God shall rejoice over you. I set watchmen, intercessors on the wall, and they will go night and day (Isa. 62:4-6, paraphrased). For years I had read verse 6: God is setting watchmen on the wall night and day. I didn t connect verse 6 to verses 4-5. I preached on Isaiah 62:6 many times: God is raising up intercessors night and day. Then I had a very hard time motivating the intercessors. I wanted night-and-day intercessors if that s what God is doing. I had this dream a little over fifteen years ago. I was in this vast auditorium, on a platform. Some of you come to our annual conference in the last four days of the year. We have around 25,000 young adults come to Kansas City, old and young alike, though mostly college kids. Last year we had 25,000. It s the last four days of the year, it s a free conference, and they come from all over the world. It s our big event of the year. So in this dream over fifteen years ago I was in that auditorium, and the voice of the Lord cried out, Call them Hephzibah, for the Lord delights in them! So I said, Hephzibah, the Lord delights in you!

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 11 As I said this, the building could seat 40,000 and the place was full. This was a prophetic dream. The emotions of these people were being changed instantaneously. I was crying out, God likes you! He likes you! Hephzibah, He delights in you! He doesn t just use you. He doesn t just want to anoint you. He wants to be in partnership with you forever. He likes you now, not just once you mature. He actually likes you now! I was declaring this under the anointing in the dream. I woke up. I was startled by this. The power of God was touching me in a very powerful way. I said, Wow. Where is that passage? I knew it was in the prophets because I had read it before, but I had never really noticed it. Here is the strange thing. I started in Isaiah. There are sixteen prophets in the Old Testament. I went through each of them: Isaiah, one, two, three. I went through quickly, looking for Hephzibah. Isaiah 34, 35, 60, 61 When I got to Isaiah 62, I didn t read it. I turned the page over. I said, I ve preached Isaiah 62 so many times. I know it s not there, so I won t waste my time. I literally did this. I m looking for this verse. Isaiah 63, 64, 65; Jeremiah 1, 2, 3; Ezekiel 1, 2, 3; Hosea 1, 2, 3; Daniel, Micah, Obadiah, Jonah, Malachi. I was worn out. Half an hour had gone by. I said, Ahh! It s in the Bible, I know it! So I started over. I m a man; I don t ask for directions. Isaiah 1, 2, 3, 4 I was going fast. It took me an hour or longer to go through all sixteen. Isaiah 58, 59, 60, 61 to save time I skipped Isaiah 62, which is where it was, but I didn t know it. Jeremiah 1, 2, 3; Daniel 1, 2, 3, all the way to Malachi. I was exasperated, in the throes of total defeat. I looked it up in the concordance. That was a serious defeat. I looked in the concordance. It said, Hephzibah, Isaiah 62. True to my nature, I said, It s wrong. It can t be Isaiah 62. It can t be. That s the one chapter I ve preached so many times. It couldn t be. I opened up to Isaiah 62, and there it was: the verse before night-and-day prayer, in verse 6. That s always where I started, at the verse that says, God is a bridegroom and He likes you. Here s what I found out. Here s the key. We ve been going for twelve years here. People say, Our intercessors are burned out all the time. I understand that. It s not the one cure-all; I don t want to give a simple answer to a complex problem. I say, One thing I can tell you for sure, night-and-day prayer and it doesn t have to be twenty-four/seven, that s not my point. Regular, ongoing prayer in verse 6 will only happen if you do verses 4-5: if you understand that He likes you and He s the Bridegroom God. Beloved, it s essential that we connect these two together. I ll end with this. I told you I never finish the notes. I just want to pray for people. Let s stand. MINISTRY TIME I ll ask the Lord to touch people who are saying, I want to do intercession and build it in my city. I don t mean twenty-four/seven, but I want to do it. I want to be committed to the Bridegroom reality. I want to learn this and I want to build the prayer movement in my region because I love the harvest. I want to see souls saved. I believe that this will be one of the most prophetic things you ll encounter in your life, to do this. When the Lord called me to the Bride of Christ reality, my father was a professional boxer. I was raised in a boxer s

Transcript: 10/13/11 Page 12 home. He was a world champion. He travelled around the whole world as an amateur. I was raised in a boxer s home. All his friends were boxers, I was trained in boxing, and I loved it. I loved getting hit. That was awesome. At least my dad told me it was. It was kind of fun. When the Lord called me to the Bride of Christ I remember I said, I m the son of a boxer! I can t do this. I can t do Bride of Christ stuff, no. I mean, yes, You re the Lord, but eww! He told me in a dramatic way, which I won t go into, but it doesn t really matter. He said, I want you to lock into this. I said, Lord, I can t. Give this to the women s ministry. I ll back them up. This was in 1988. It was twenty-three years ago. He said, I want you to go deep in this. This pained me. I said, I ll do the warrior, King David, King Jesus, book of Romans, Revelation. I ll do those things. I m not doing the I love You, I love You. I mean, I do love Him, but I don t want to talk about it all day. He said, I want you to do this. He assured me that it would radically change my life. I started inching forward in 1988, 1989, 1990. I was really focused, but I didn t like it. All of a sudden, my heart started changing. I said, This moves me. This is powerful. It s twenty-three years later. I m still at the beginning of the beginning of the journey. The ocean of His heart of love is an endless ocean. He loves us so much more than we know. He has deep desire. Here s one thing I found out: the revelation of His desire, Hephzibah, I like you, is key to sustainable prayer, night-and-day prayer in your region. Without the message of the Bride of Christ, IHOP-KC couldn t be sustained. There isn t enough motivation to keep people crying out for the harvest by itself, without encountering the God who loves us and burns with desire, that tenderizes us while we labor for the harvest. I want to pray over you.