Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgent need for forerunners who embody the message and lifestyle of the book of Joel, calling for a deep commitment to God through prayer and fasting. He highlights the paradox of the coming 'day of the Lord,' which will bring both unprecedented revival and severe judgment, urging believers to prepare themselves spiritually. Bickle stresses that true preparation involves turning to God with all one's heart, as this is essential for enduring the challenges ahead. He warns against complacency in faith, reminding listeners that mere attendance in church does not equate to a genuine relationship with God. Ultimately, he calls for a radical love for God that fuels effective spiritual warfare and prepares the church for the coming days.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus. Lord, I ask you to raise up forerunners in this place from all over this nation and even nations of the world that are visiting this conference. And I ask you, Lord, that the message of the book of Joel would be burned into the hearts of many, many young people in the name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, I mentioned today that God has called IHOP, our little IHOP ministry here, to the message of the book of Joel and the lifestyle of the book of Joel. And so that's a personal thing. The book of Joel is personal to us as a little missions base with 400 staff members. It's just a little group. We believe one day the Lord's going to increase it a lot. But in our little world here, the book of Joel is very important. The message and the lifestyle are two different things. Another point I want to make is that I believe the Holy Spirit is raising up forerunners all over the earth, unrelated to anything we're doing here, sovereignly raising up young people who will be forerunners that have the message and the lifestyle of Joel. The mandate that we have here related to the book of Joel, I believe that mandate, many groups have it around the world. It is essential that we study the book of Joel. It's only three chapters. It's not a difficult book to understand. If you do a little bit of the groundwork, do a little bit of homework on it, it really just unfolds quite simply. I believe it's an easy book to follow. Okay, Joel chapter 2 verse 11, here's the central theme of the book. The central theme is Joel chapter 2 verse 11. In the middle of the verse, it says, For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can endure it? I'm going to read that verse again. Joel chapter 2 verse 11. I'm at the, it's, I'm in the middle of the verse, reading to the end. For the day of the Lord is great. Number one, it's great. The day of the Lord, number two, it is very terrible. It's a paradox. On one hand, it's glorious. It's great. The greatest revival ever seen in history is going to be released across the nations of the earth. It is a glorious day. It is great. But on the other extreme, I mean to the total opposite end of the spectrum, it is a very terrible, terrifying day because God is going to shake the nations of the earth with His judgments that are most clearly described in the book of Revelation. They're not only described in Revelation, but they're the most clearly described. You find them in the book of Isaiah and all through the Old Testament, but particularly the book of Revelation. Here's the question of the hour. Here's the question of the hour, and it troubles me because so few people are wrestling with this question right now. Here's the question of the hour. Who can endure the paradox of the glory beyond the book of Acts and the judgments in the book of Revelation? Who can endure this time frame right before the second coming of Christ? That's the question of the hour. And when Joel says by the Holy Spirit, who can endure it, another way to say it, who can operate in the favor of God and in the anointing of the Holy Spirit in the hour of the greatest revival and in the hour of the greatest judgments ever seen in history? That question must be answered. You want to answer it for your own life. You don't want the greatest revival to break across the earth and the greatest judgments, which is a paradox, and for you to be unequipped, uninformed, and unconnected to God in that hour. That would be one of the greatest tragedies I can imagine for a God-fearing believer to be going, I didn't even know a great revival was coming. No one ever told me. Well, it's in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. My church never talks about it. Well, don't you ever read the Bible? Well, if they bring it up on Sunday, I read that one verse, that's it. No, that's not a good enough answer. You need to know a great revival is coming because you need to be equipped to stand with God in the anointing in the greatest hour the body of Christ has ever seen. It is yet coming, the great, the glorious day of the Lord. Let's go to the other side of the question. How are you going to respond to God in the very terrible day of the Lord when the judgments of God break across the earth? No one ever told me the judgments of God were coming. My youth group never talked about it. My college group, we like to be positive. We don't do the negative. We take those verses and ignore them. That's not a good enough answer because the revival and the judgment are coming and you and I do not get to vote on it. It's coming. You and I have one basic response, one basic responsibility, or we get one vote is what I'm trying to say. Whether you're going to be prepared for it or not, that's the only vote you get. You and I do not get to vote if it's coming. We only get to vote if we're going to participate in it in a way connected to God in the anointing. Now what is the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord, I don't want to give a big long teaching. It's a very exciting subject because it's the main subject of the book of Joel. The day of the Lord is a short time frame. It's a short time frame. It's happened a few times through history and it happens especially in the events culminating at the second coming. It's a short time frame. How short? I don't know, a couple years. Two years? Ten years? A couple years. I don't know, a handful of years. It's different every time. It's a short time frame when God manifests his power and his zeal in an unusual way. And he manifests his power against his enemies. And he manifests his power to vindicate his people. Let's go through that again. What's the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord is a very important, unique time frame. There's been several of them through history. The prophets of Israel talk about it. But the big day of the Lord is, speaks of the events, the several years before the second coming of Christ is when the day of the Lord begins. It's when God manifests openly for the world to see his power and his zeal against his enemies and for his people. Now if you're one of his people, it's a great day. If you're one of his enemies, it's a terrible day. But here's the problem, and I'm not trying to be helpful here, not negative. The problem is, many people who name the name of Jesus are not really walking with God, and they will show themselves as enemies of what God's doing in that day. So don't think because you go to church, and don't think because you lead the youth group, it's a done deal. Doesn't work that way. Because what Americans call Christians, and what God calls Christians, are worlds apart. And what matters, what matters, is that when the Holy Spirit begins to move, that you are found to be working together in wholeheartedness with God, and not as enemy, because many people who say Jesus, pass the salt, they will end up in the camp of the enemies of God before it's over. Because it's not about waving the Christian flag, showing up for an hour on Sunday, going to the youth group a little bit, it's something profoundly more powerful than that, and more real. And that's good news. Aren't you glad it's more than that? Wouldn't that be horrible if that's what this thing was about? The day of the Lord is coming. The day of the Lord is coming, and the most relevant, the most relevant question is, who will endure it? Who is prepared to operate in revelation, and the anointing of the Spirit, to where they're working closely in intimacy with God, instead of being run over by the judgments of God? Beloved, nobody can answer that question for you. Only you, in the Word of God, and the Lord can answer that question. It's not enough for me to answer that question for me. I'm a forerunner. I want to be able to answer, what does it take to be ready, to endure, to prepare? In other words, you could put there, who is prepared for that day? Who is sufficiently connected with God, and operating in the Spirit, to, for that day to be good news? That's another way to say that. As a forerunner, and many of you are forerunners, we want to answer that question to the larger body of Christ, and to the unbelievers across the nation of the world. It is our mandate to declare the day of the Lord is coming. It is our mandate to tell them how to be prepared for the day of the Lord. And that day is, I'm convinced, it's several decades out. And if you're maybe 20, you think, well, I'm only a couple decades old. Beloved, that is going to go so fast. We need to get a root system. We need to get a secret, private history in God. You need to know God, and 10 years will come and go in a minute. You want to know in 10 years from now, here's what you want. You want to have a spirit of prayer on your life in the next 10 years. An anointing of prayer. Maybe you go, I like prayer. The idea, meaning I buy prayer books, is what I mean by I like prayer. America buys and reads books on prayer, but America as a nation does not pray. I'm talking about the church. Buying a book on prayer is not what I'm talking about. Going to a prayer conference is not what I'm talking about. Preaching at a prayer conference is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an anointing to pray. It's a big difference. So in the next 10 years, I'll give you a couple personal goals for your life. I have a plan for your life. It's biblical, because it's a biblical plan. It's biblical ideas. You want in the next 10 years to have a growing active intimacy with God for real in your heart when no one's looking, where you feel the power of God on your heart. That's what you want in the next 10 years. You said 10 years, I want it before the end of the year. I love that heart, but it takes a while to grow that root system, but you hang on to that anyway. Try to get it before New Year's Eve's over. Okay, I like that. You want to have an anointing of prayer, an authority of prayer upon your life where your spirit is tenderized and has power on it when you pray and worship. Say, what does that mean? Well, let's not go into that right now. That means a lot. You want to understand, at least in an introductory way, the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation, and the book of Joel, at least, at least in the next 10 years. You want to get a foundation in your life in the Word of God, just Genesis to Revelation, just a basic Christian foundation. I am, I am saddened by how many Christians are content to walk with God 10, 20, 30 years and not know the Bible and say, well, my pastor knows it. Beloved, your pastor won't help you at all when you stand before God on the last day. Hopefully all of our pastors will be there. No, I'm serious. The Church of America is being led by so much that is not spiritual and biblical and on fire for Jesus Christ. I'm not trying to be negative. I'm trying to shake us up that being a little bit more on fire than the dead Christians we sat next to on Sunday morning means nothing before the rage of Satan when he comes against your life. I don't want to be more on fire than the guy over there. I want to be able to speak and angels and demons move, and I want to stand before God and have him to see my life as worthy when I stand before him on that day. I mean, we're worthy by the blood of Jesus. What I mean by worthy, that he looks at my life and sees that I had given myself to him fully. He's not going to ask me, hey Mike, were you more on fire than brother Bill? Well, I was always the most fiery guy at the prayer meeting. The Lord says I wasn't at most of those prayer meetings. Most of those related to something other than me. Now again, I'm not trying to be negative. What I'm trying to do is to shake your mind, your mindset, because being a little bit better than old brother so-and-so means nothing, nothing, zero. You want to walk with God in truth and in reality. Well, there's a bunch of other things you want in 10 years, but I'm going to move on. Now, here's the answer. Joel chapter 2 verse 11. Who can endure it? Who can be prepared? Who can flow in the anointing? He says, Joel says, well, I'm glad you asked. Now, therefore, verse 12. Where does the therefore, what is the therefore, therefore? It's to answer the question of verse 11. Therefore, it brings you back one verse to the preceding thought. You want to endure the day of the Lord? Therefore, turn to me with all of your heart. Turn to me with fasting. Beloved, I don't believe in fasting. I believe in Jesus. I don't have confidence in fasting. I mean, I'm a Jesus fanatic, not a fasting fanatic, but I do know this. Fasting enlarges our capacity to receive more and to receive it faster. Fasting does not earn us anything. Fasting enlarges our capacity to receive and it accelerates the amount we receive. We get more faster when we seek God and we add fasting. There is a grace of fasting, and the grace of that is a grace of prayer. There's an anointing to do it that's available to every believer who can't live without it. And what I mean is, by everybody who can't live without it, I'm thinking of my early days. I said, Lord, I hate prayer and fasting. There was four things, I've said this for 25 years, four things I did not like. I did not like Bible study, I did not like fasting, I did not like prayer, and I did not like witnessing. But I liked everything else. I liked — someone goes, what did you like? I liked God, I really did, and I liked meetings. I could go to meetings eight nights a week. I loved meetings and I love God. I didn't like Bible study, it was too confusing. I didn't like fasting, I got too hungry. I didn't like prayer, it was too boring. And witnessing was just, well, every now and then it was fun, but mostly — I did it, but I did it with kind of a bah humbug, you know, OK, I'll do it. Every now and then it was exciting, it really was. A few times I got surprised by the Lord, I went, wow, I think I might like this. But then the next three times it went flat and I didn't like it. And I started hearing in my 20s from men of God, there is an anointing for fasting and prayer. And I said, I had never heard of such a thing. And I began to read biographies. I began to read stories of men and women who had a grace of fasting and prayer. And I actually — actually, I suffered reading those books. I suffered. Because I hated fasting and prayer, kind of didn't really want to be good at it. I said, I really don't really want to be good at it, but just in case, I'm going to read this biography. Then I would read the biography and I would suffer. I would read it about this guy that prayed under the anointing and power and I went, oh, I hate it. I got to get this, I got to get this. I said, Lord, I tell you what, Lord, I'll make a deal with you. I'm willing to be willing. But I kept reading the books and showing up around people who were after it. And lo and behold, all of a sudden it started growing. It started — my heart started changing. And I went, beloved, if it could happen to me, it could happen to anybody. Now maybe you've been to a few meetings, you go, you're the IHOP guy. You're supposed to love prayer. Well, I love it now, but I didn't for years. And I understand when young people join us and they go, I want to go hard for God, but oh, the prayer thing. I go, you're talking to the right guy. Do I understand? But I said, let me give you some hope. It can work for you because it's not about how good you are. It is about your hunger, if you're willing to be made willing. It's about Jesus's zeal to have a church that has power for fasting and prayer. So the Lord will do it. The Lord will surprise you. Turn to me with all of your heart with fasting. The church in America does not like the fasting idea. Let me tell you something that was very important for you to understand this. There — it is a non-biblical concept to present wholeheartedness separated and devoid of fasting. For the last 20 years or 200 years, I don't know how long, for many years, the common way is to present grace and dedication with no — with absolutely no reference to fasting. Fasting is right in the center of the Sermon on the Mount by the lips of Jesus. And having, uh, received this a little bit over the last 10 or 20 years or whatever the — I don't even know the number, doesn't matter the number — is — here's what I found out — it is essential. I — I grow so much faster and receive so much more when I have regular seasons of fasting in my life. Joel says, from God, who can endure the day of the Lord? By turning to me with fasting. You cannot eliminate Joel's answer without violating the answer that God Himself gave the end-time church to get prepared for the Second Coming. If you get rid of, turn to me with all of your heart, and you get rid of fasting, beloved, you get rid of the answer that enables you and those that are with you to endure with full preparation the coming of the Lord. Well, there's two great things on the horizon. There's the greatest revival ever seen in the — and I wish I could take hours. I got a bunch of it in the notes, in the Joel syllabus, but it's more, far more than the syllabus. There are so many passages in the Bible promising a great revival in the generation the Lord returns, and if you got just a little bit of insight, you can look across the horizon of the nations, and there is a move of God. The troops are — the army of God's waking up. They're shaking off lethargy. There's thousands, thousands and thousands prophesying with dreams and visions in a way they never did, millions. There's a new prayer movement that is raising up. They had a thing in May 3rd last, uh, last year a few months ago in Africa. Forty million, forty million gathered in stadiums on the same day all over Africa. Forty million fasting in prayer across the Africa. Beloved, that's unheard of. That's glorious. It's, it's happening. There, here's what Elijah said in 1 Kings 18. If you, if you want to look it up later, Elijah, he looked out there and his, he said, uh, or he asked his servant, he goes, what do you see? And Elijah the prophet, he said, I see a man's hand. I mean, I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. And what I mean by that is way out on the horizon — I don't want to tell the whole story about 1 Kings 18 — but out on the horizon, Elijah saw a cloud about this big around. And it was coming. It was growing. It was on the horizon. And it grew and grew. And it became a, a, a awesome thunderstorm. Here's what I'm trying to say. On the horizon of the nations, there is a cloud. A revival is so clear on the horizon of history. It is mounting up right now. That cloud is getting bigger and bigger. And the church is getting in alignment. Intercessors are signing up and saying, yes, to the grace of God, I'm in, Lord! People are shaking off sin. Power is coming on the church. That cloud is growing and growing. But there's another cloud on the horizon. Sin is increasing so rapidly. And the cloud of judgment is mounting up. And there is going to be a crash of these two realities in the same time frame. Somebody says, no, wait a second. Is it going to be better or worse? Both. Both. The light will get lighter. The dark will get darker. The wheat and the tares will meet, will mature together, Jesus said in Matthew 13. The wheat, the good, the revival, the tares, the bad, the sin and judgment, it is going to mature together. It will have the greatest paradox imaginable. It will be so dramatic. There will be more people in deeper sin and more people in deeper love for Jesus under the anointing than any time in history. And the battle, the clash of those two kingdoms will be the most dramatic thing imaginable. And many who are naming the name of Jesus will be, who are not, do not have a foundation, they are not rooted, they will be swept into the darkness. And many that are in the darkness will be powerfully converted and they will come to the light. Beloved, I believe we're going to see a billion new converts. But alongside of a billion new converts, I mean a billion plus, we're going to see a great falling away. We're going to see what the Bible describes in the generation the Lord returns, multitudes denying the Lord as sin increases and the judgments of God break in. And you know what God's solution is? Not his only solution, there's about 20 points to his solution, but one of his points, he's raising up forerunners and intercessors who have a prophetic anointing who are preparing the body of Christ for what's coming, the great and the terrible day of the Lord, the season of God's power breaking out. And he says, how do you get ready for it? He says, verse 12, turn to me with fasting. Well, my college group doesn't do fasting. Well, get them into it. Well, they don't want to get into it. Well, then you do it. Well, I can't do it if they don't do it. Well, then get with people that do it. You gotta walk this way. Jesus is speaking through Joel. The only way you can endure and be prepared and operate in the anointing is through verse 12 and 13. This is non-negotiable. The Lord's not asking the Americans to ratify this policy. This policy is solid in heaven and nobody's going to change it. I know you know that. There's a lifestyle that Joel's talking, there's a Joel lifestyle, there's a Joel message. All of your heart. The anointing to receive the love of God. The anointing to love him back. The anointing to overflow in love to others. Let me say that again. There's an anointing, the power of God, to feel the love of God to receive it. Oh, I love, I love to feel the love of God. Oh, it's, it takes God to love God. You know that, don't you? It takes the power of God for you to love God. But God's power is willing to touch you if you will line up with it. There's an anointing to love. There's a supernatural enabling where I can feel the love of God and oh, I love to be loved. That's my favorite thing in life, being loved. It's my favorite thing. I love to be loved. Oh, it feels so good. But that's not the only thing I like. I love to love back. We were created to be exhilarated with love. But it takes an anointing to love God back. It's not just the work of man. It's the anointing of the Spirit. And then the love that we receive and we give back to God, it always overflows to people. It's impossible to stop it if it's real. There's an anointing to love. The key phrase of this conference, I believe, is the phrase, turn to me with all of your heart. Turn to me with all of your heart. This is the absolute necessary reality that the church in America must buy into. Beloved, there's no substitute for it. None. Zero. There's nothing you can do to substitute for turning to God with all of your heart. Well, my girlfriend loves God with all of her heart and we're going to get married. That's not going to help you out. Well, it probably will. It'll probably keep some demons and some judgment off your house. It's probably a good deal on your house. But at the end of the day, you're still in trouble. My children are real on fire. That's not going to help you out, except if they're going to pray for you. My parents are on fire. That's not going to help you out. You have to turn with all of your heart. No substitute. Nobody can do it for you. I tell you what. I will go on a missions trip and give the Lord a hundred thousand dollars. He goes, no. That will not substitute. I tell you what. I will do more, something worse. I will be a missionary for one year, the worst country of the earth. Or she says, I don't, that's not what I want from you. I want you to turn with all of your heart. There is no substitute for that. Nobody can do it for you and no amount of religious activity can substitute for that reality. No. None. Nothing. That's the only way forward. Don't let anybody get you out of this with some theological argument in the grace of God. There is more garbage going around under the title of the grace of God that is deception and man's foolishness that has nothing to do with empowering people to love God with all their heart. They write a book. They put grace, grace, grace all over. They go, oh, that's grace. It's rubbish. Beloved, there is no grace that denies the call to go love God with all of your heart. That is not the grace of God. That's man's positive religious concoction. That is not the grace of God. The grace of God will freely forgive you so that you can love Him with all of your heart. There is no doctrine of grace where we get to live in sin and somehow show up okay. It doesn't work. It's not biblical. Don't let anybody give you some theological garbage that talks you out of wholeheartedness. You know why they want to do it? I've had people talk to me for years. Settle down. Mike, you're going to burn out. Well, it's 15, 15, 30, is that 35? Yeah, 35 years later, I'm not even close to burnout. I'm just starting to go strong. They've been telling me for 35 years, you're going to burn out. You're going too hard. You got to have some fun. You got to take some time off. You got to do this. You got to do that because you're going to be unhappy and burn out. My spirit is alive. I'm on fire and I'm ready to go. And it's 35 years later. On the front end, I thought they liked me. But what I understand now, they wanted the conviction of my life to be removed out of our friendship. They wanted me to stop it so they were not troubled. I thought they cared about me burning out. They wanted our friendship to be devoid of conviction when we were together. I didn't have enough sense not to talk about this stuff when I was with them. There's a whole lot of people concerned about you and they got Bible verses and what they really want is to talk you out of going hard so they get off the hook and there's no conviction in your friendship with them. They feel comfortable in their sin hanging out with you. Beloved, that is a shame if that happens to you and they use Bible verses. That's a deception. Don't be talked out of it. Don't be talked out of it. Turn to me with all of your heart. You know what Jesus called turn to me with all of your heart? He called it the great commandment in Matthew 22. He said this is the great commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Jesus commented on this sentence right here. He called it the great commandment. He added to this phrase a qualifying description. Joel said, I mean, turn to God with all your heart. And Jesus qualified it. Jesus described it. Jesus attributed a quality to it. He said, you know what Joel's talking about? And Moses, because Joel's actually quoting Moses, you know what they're talking about? They're talking about the thing greatest to me. It's I call it in heaven. We call that the great commandment. It's the great one. Why is it great? Why is turning to God with all of your heart or loving God with all your heart the great commandment? It's the commandment most important to God. It's great. It's great to God. There is no commandment greater than this commandment. And if you are somehow fearful by some hypothetical argument that if somebody loves God too much, they're going to end up not loving people or they're not going to be so earthly, heavenly minded, no earthly good, forget it. If they fall in love with God, their spirit will become so tenderized with humility and servanthood, they will become an infectious lover of the broken of society. It is the great commandment. Don't fear somebody loving God with all their heart. I've heard this over the years. Well, if you love God too much, what about people? I said, what are you talking about? If you love the man, you run into the man who died for humans, he's going to transform you into those values. Are you kidding? That's the safest place you could run is into that lion's heart. Well, if they pray too much, what about the nations? What about evangelism? I go, do you know who they're running into when they pray? Who? The great evangelist, the man that's running the great commission. That's who they're hanging out with in a prayer meeting. I go, don't worry about it. They're in good hands. Matter of fact, they're in a lot better hands with him than they are with you. Leave them alone. Which translates, if they pray too much, they will be not practically good for anything, which really translates, if they pray too much, there will be a spirit of conviction in our friendship, and I don't want that disturbing our friendship. Because if they pray, then that means they're going to want me to pray, and I don't want to live that way, so I'm concerned that they're doing too much. And if you're naive enough to buy into that, well, Lord, have mercy, and I don't want you to go buy into it. I want you to get free from that. That is just a man-pleasing spirit. You need to get free of it, get a little bit of discernment, and give yourself wholly to God. It's a great commandment. It's the great commandment. It's great to God. It's also the great commandment because it's great for you. There is no commandment that will give you more pleasure in your inner man than when God reveals God to the human spirit, we enter into the greatest pleasures the human spirit can touch. It's the great commandment. It's the wow commandment. It's the commandment that puts the wow in your spirit. It's the great one. It's the one that works. It's the great commandment for a dozen reasons. It's the great commandment because if you walk that one out, you will be great in heaven before God. Well, I don't want to be great in heaven. I just want a little cabin on the edge of glory. Well, good for you. I want to be great before God. It is not my ambition to be great before you because you don't get to vote when I step across the line in physical death. I unashamedly want to be great in the eyes of God. I want him to look at me. It is, now when a man or a woman is great in God's eyes, it doesn't mean God's, you know, we're greater than another person in some kind of achievement. It means God esteems our response to him as great. He values it and he calls it outstanding. He calls it great. And it's not enough for me to be on a little cabin on the edge of glory. I want God to say, my servant, Mike, come forward. I was like, oh, here we are. Son, you did well. Your choices, good, no, your choices were great. I loved your choices. Oh, yes, yes, yes, I did it. If you want a little cabin on the edge of glory and that's it, I'll tell you what it's like next to the throne because that's where I'm going. And I don't know if it's going to work. I may get there and the Lord may say, hey, Pee Wee, you tried hard, but you had so much confusion and stuff. You know what? I love you a lot. You're one of my buddies, but it's not like you were thinking, oh, no, then don't, you know, invite me in on your little cabin. I just got to have a little backup cloth just in case it didn't work out right. Now, I don't know how it works, but I know this, men and women can be great in God's sight because God causes, calls their response great. Not that God's awed by it, not that God's impressed in the sense because he's the one that gave us the anointing, but under the anointing, many men say no to the anointing and they live a minimal Christian life. And I want the Lord to look at me and I want the Lord to say, your choices were not good, they were great. I watched you for these many years, my son. And when the grace of God came near you, you took hold of it. You went after it. And I say that your choices were great. Beloved, that will be the greatest thing that God, that's the greatest thing God could ever tell you. And every one of us will stand there that one day and he will either will say it or he won't say it on that day. And there's not a thing you and I can do to make it different when that day shows up. You can't speak up for me. I can't speak up for you. Either he calls it great or he doesn't or he calls it something else. I don't know. I have no options in my life vision but to be great in God's sight. And I don't care what that costs me to go on that pathway. And beloved, I want you to unashamedly go after that. And don't think that that is some da-da-da-da whatever Jesus told us to seek to be great in heaven. Well, it's not just the great commandment because it's great to God because it's the one that he cares the most about. It's not just that it brings great pleasure to you on the earth. It's not just that it makes you great before heaven. And beloved, your greatness in this life is only measured by what is said to you on that day. God's not going to, you know, the Father's not going to look at Jesus when Billy Graham comes across and Jesus goes, Father, there's Billy Graham. Whoa. I mean, he spoke in stadiums. Whoa. I tell you in the conferences in heaven, they have billions. They don't have 100,000. They have billions. Well, Billy Graham got hooked up on satellite and they had 50 million. That's cool. They have billions in every conference in heaven. God's not going to look at Billy Graham and say, Billy, you're awesome because you were famous. He's going to say, Billy, let's talk not about how well you are known. I want to talk about the secret movements of your heart when you and I, did you give yourself to me? And that's all that Billy Graham will have going for him in the grace of God on that day. His forgiveness is free. His forgiveness is the blood of Jesus. But I'm talking about the Lord measuring our life in the grace of God after we're forgiven. God's not going to look at me and say, you spoke at big conferences or sold books. He's going to ask me if I loved him with all of my heart. And that's the measure of your greatness in mind is only there, has no, has nothing to do with how you act on a platform, anointed or not. It has, what happens at the secret place of your heart? It just so happens, this is the qualifier that gets us prepared for the awesome day of the Lord. It's the turning with all the heart. Well, it's more than that. It's great in the sense it's the most effective warfare. This is one of the most exciting concepts. And by the way, in the syllabus on Joel, I don't have any of this. This is just preacher stuff. This is, I'm not even doing Joel. I laid that aside about 25 minutes ago. But none of this is in the Joel thing. In Joel, I do it verse by verse right through it. I'm just having a ball right now is what I'm doing. I'm not even talking about Joel. But anyway, I'm trying to talk myself into wisdom. That's what I'm trying to do. I want to leave this, go home and say to my apartment, hotel, whatever. I'm going to say, I really believe it this time, Lord. Now, every time I preach something about the love of God, it gets me a deeper way. And I go, I really, really see it like never before. So, I love preaching on it. It's a great, because it touches the person who's singing it, speaking it, writing it, whatever. But you know what? One of my favorite things about the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all of your heart? It's this. It's the most effective form of spiritual warfare is lovesick worship. You know, the paradigm of warfare today, which I love. I mean, anybody who's going for it, they may do it a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left. But, you know, they write books. One guy says, they do it too much this way. The other guy writes a book. They do it too much that way. I say, oh, be quiet. They're doing it. Leave them alone. I mean, they're doing it. They're showing up at prayer meetings. And one guy's writing a book because he says too much this way. And the guy writes a book. They're coming to prayer meetings. Go after the millions who won't go to prayer meetings. Leave the other ones alone. People have asked me to take a position one way or the other. I go, are you kidding me? Those guys are in prayer meetings. It ain't broke. Don't fix it. Keep them going. They'll stumble into Jesus one way or the other. I'm not worried about it. They're in the right place for the right thing to happen. Anyway, having said all that, here's my point. There's a warfare paradigm going out and about these days. And I'm just excited that they're moving forward. But it's more this. It's kind of more my personality outside the grace of God. It's the louder you get and the more aggressive, the more effective it is. And I kind of like that. You know, devil come out or I'm coming in after you. I mean, that's kind of my personality. I like that kind of stuff. And so, it's like if you're then it's more powerful. But you know what the real truth is? And I don't know if anybody just says that. That'd be kind of dumb just to say it that way. But you know what the real truth is? And I could give you 50 verses. I'm not going to right now. The most dynamic, effective way to move Satan is by turning with all the heart by being a lovesick worshiper. There, that is the core reality. It's not the only thing. That is the core reality in the spiritual warfare reality in the grace of God. If we turn with all of our heart, the judgments of God can be lifted and the rage of Satan can be held back. And at the very core, it's turning with all of your heart in love. It's the great commandment. It is the great, the great way of spiritual warfare. Yes, warfare has more to it than that. But that is the core reality of effective warfare is to be lovesick worshipers before the bridegroom, king, and judge. Well, look what it says. Turn to me with all of your heart with fasting. And he says, if you do this, verse 13. If you do this, if you turn to God, know this. Know this. Look at verse 13. He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger. I love this phrase. He has great kindness. Is that fantastic? He has great kindness. He will relent from doing harm. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind. We talked about that a minute this morning. I have a bunch of it on the syllabus on this, on this verse. It's this. The Lord says this. You turn to me with red-hot love. You get a group of people, because it's a solemn, it's assembly. It's not just one believer. It's, as you read verse 15, it's a whole handful of people in Israel at that time. He says, you get a bunch of people. If one heart and one mind that turned to me with red-hot love, God says, you turn to me, I will turn to you in power. And I will take what was going to be judgment, I'm going to turn it around, and I'm going to make the disaster zone a revival center. I'm going to release blessing and power where judgment was on its way. And there's a number of examples in the Bible where judgment was that little, that cloud, that storm cloud on the horizon, and it came rushing in, and it decimated the nation. And there's examples where they cried out, we love you, we repent, we're yours, and the cloud turned, and it went away, because love, love for God was the key reality that God says, you've turned to me, I will now turn from you. Beloved, that's why the bridal paradigm, the reality of the bride of Christ, and the tenderized heart and love is critical to the end-time prayer movement. It's the spirit and the bride in intercession, come Jesus, it's the church with the bridal identity, come, I love you, you love me, come, I love you, you love me. It's the love reality of the end-time prayer movement that is going to bring Jesus to the earth at the second coming. It is the love dimension, radical love for Jesus that is the power dimension, regardless which model of warfare you use. One guy, you know, the four of them get in a room, they sit quiet, and I, they hum or something, we love you God, we love you God. You look at the room and go, what are they doing in there? They look like monks. I don't know what they're doing. They love God. They cry all the time, they've got their Bibles open, and they're real humble, and they love Jesus. Leave them alone. I love you God. I see a few little groups like that. I go, hey, I think it's working. Then you've got the other group, you know. That's the group, you know, that's my more personal. We donate our tonsils to the cause. Then you've got the other group, and they're coming and going and planning and coming and going and trips and buses and maps. Then you've got the other group, and they're figuring out where Satan is, and they're going to get him, and all this, you know what? Wherever there's love burning in the Spirit, the guys go, oh, we love you God. That thing is driving demons back. These guys over here planning Satan this, Satan that, we love you Jesus. It's driving demons back. These guys over here, my group, we're driving demons back. And these guys, it's all working, not because of the model, not because of the language, not, it's because of the love burning in the Spirit. It's verse 12. It's the love in the heart, and Jesus says, I will turn and leave blessing. We don't have to be so finicky, and so judgmental, and so opinionated. If humans are in love with God, warfare is happening. They hum it, sing it, scream it, write it, walk it. It's just like, if they got love burning in their spirit, that's what dislodges powers and principalities, is humans, under the grace of God, with love burning in them. Well, you know, I could just go on and on, because I'm just so excited right now, but it's 10 o'clock. I'm gonna stop, because I got tomorrow morning. I'll take it up from there. So, we're just gonna stop with that, okay? Amen. Let's stand. Let's stand. We're gonna worship a minute. It's just a minute, because we have Sarah Kelly coming, and we just want to sit at the feet of Jesus.