Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of humility in experiencing the greater power of the Holy Spirit, as outlined in 1 Timothy 1:18. He warns against building ministries on prophetic words alone, advocating instead for a foundation rooted in Jesus and Scripture. Bickle highlights that true manifestations of the Spirit's power will be accompanied by a commitment to humility, as pride can lead to the downfall of ministries. He draws parallels with Joseph's dungeon, illustrating that ministries promoting humility will thrive, while those that do not will face divine removal. Ultimately, he calls for a generation to pursue authentic expressions of faith without manipulation or exaggeration.

At 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 18, Paul makes it clear that prophetic words are given to help us fight the fight of faith and not give up in our perseverance. We don't build our ministry on prophetic words. We build our ministry upon Jesus and our relationship with Him and the written Word of God. But the Lord gives prophetic words in order to strengthen our resolve and perseverance, not to quit in our obedience, not to give up in pressing hard after the Lord. In this fourth session in the eight-part series of describing some of the prophetic testimonies the Lord has given us over the years, I'm going to focus on the heart response of humility that God requires. Now this is not a small issue. He requires it for any people that are going to experience the greater measure of the Holy Spirit's power. Now some folks are content with the introductory measure of God's power, and it seems like there's all kinds of things people get away with operating in that beginning introductory level. But the Word of God makes it very clear, the Bible does, that in the generation the Lord returns, there's going to be a manifestation of the Spirit's power that goes beyond the book of Acts. The Word of God makes that clear, and the Lord has been gracious to give us as a spiritual family several very dramatic prophetic encounters to just emphasize that which the Bible says clearly. There's a greater works than these measure of the Spirit that's coming. But He's been gracious to emphasize that realm is only going to be released to the people that walk in humility and promote humility in their ministries. It's not just that they're sort of humble, but they're zealous about promoting humility and context to the release of the Spirit's power. Because historically when a man or a woman has a ministry with a little bit more power than the majority, they often, they get easily intoxicated with it, and they get into a spirit of pride. Well the Lord's going to bring the church far beyond a little bit of power that's been manifest in a few unique ministries in history, and He's going to give a measure never seen before. And He's gracious enough in these early days to say, cultivate humility. Position yourself to be champions for humility and don't neglect this issue. Well Jesus said, learn from me. I'm humble. I will show you the way to move in power, yet to maintain humility and to promote humility in the context of power. Jesus went on to say that it's the meek, it's the humble that will inherit in context the great promises of God in essence. Now this is a very important truth. I have great zeal for this subject, because I'm believing God for the fullness of the Spirit and the young people that God is raising up. I mean I haven't given up on the old guys, but I am contending for a full measure of power on the generation the Lord is raising up. That twenty something crowd and that two-year-old something crowd, that whole generation. Therefore if I love them, I will press them for humility. Now humility expresses itself, I'm talking about in terms of the power of God, in not drawing attention to ourself at all. The Holy Spirit wants a spiritual family where when we gather together or when we move in power or where we minister, we don't do anything that causes people to stop and look at us and wonder what we're doing and why we're doing it. It's very common today for people to have a little bit of power and a good measure of being eccentric. And they do weird things that are just so unnecessary to do that make people look at them and some go, wow you're really anointed, and others say you really need some help. We got a 12-step program for people like you. Humility also, it's not just about not drawing attention to ourself, though that's important, it's the willingness to bear the stigma that goes with the greater dimensions of the Spirit's power. There is a stigma that goes with it. It's like the preacher said, God's not out to hurt your pride, he's out to kill it. That's a cute phrase, but it's real. And the greater the measure of power, the more the Lord insists on humility. We're so used to such a little realm of power in the body of Christ, I mean in our own body of Christ, that we look at a guy's a little bit of power, they got big ministries, but little power, and they're not humble, so why do we have to be humble? And the Holy Spirit's saying, you don't want to look at them as your model, look at my son. The Father would say, he is the model for moving in humility with power. Paragraph B, the Holy Spirit wants to release power to draw attention to Jesus, not to draw attention to the vessels that he's using. And again, in these early days when there's just a small measure being manifest, even though that small measure is being called a great measure, we'll see one day looking back, it's still really a very small measure. Most powerful ministries in the earth are barely a small measure compared to what's coming. But the greater the measure, the more zealous the Spirit will be about humility and Jesus being exalted, and not the vessel being exalted. I believe that one of the key expressions of Christianity, the Lord said, I will change the expression of Christianity. One of those dimensions said, he will have a spiritual family. I'm talking about all over the earth, many, many, many places. They won't reject the Spirit's ministry, they won't exaggerate the Spirit's ministry, they have a love for the authentic leadership of the Holy Spirit. That's what I'm contending for, the authentic, genuine ministry of the Holy Spirit. It seems like there's two big camps in the body of Christ, I'm sure there's more camps than that. The camp that is really, I'm not interested at all, very cynical, they were raised in a context where no. Now we got the camp that believes in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but so many of them are eccentric. And so there's a lot of folks in the middle going, I don't think no ministry of the power ministry is right, but the eccentric, is there any other option? I have good news for you, there is a third option, genuineness in the Holy Spirit's ministry. Without any exaggeration whatsoever, we don't have any need to help the Holy Spirit out by kind of jump-starting the crowd to get them in the flow. Spirit says, I'm really good at this, I don't need your help, I don't need people dynamics to make this thing happen, I'm really powerful. See Genesis chapter 1, nobody was jump-starting the crowd, and I brought order to earth that was formless and void. The reason I say that, we're the crowd that believes in the Spirit. Now some folks in our midst probably don't, or they're burned out and cynical, but the majority we believe in, so we don't need so much exhortation that says, hey get with it, believe. Most of you move from around the earth to come to this place in order to pray and fast to contend for the fullness. I don't need to spend so much time convincing you God wants to give fullness. I don't want us to be the crowd that says, well we love the Spirit, so let's just be goofy and hypey, and let's be content like other groups, and the Holy Spirit saying, no don't do that. I want a new expression of Christianity in the midst of my people. The Holy Spirit, paragraph C, is raising up friends of the bridegroom. Now John the Baptist in John 3 29, he says, I'm a friend of the bridegroom, and here's one of the key characteristics of a friend of the bridegroom, they don't draw attention to themselves. They decrease. They're interested in people being captured with the bridegroom king, not with how anointed they are, or with their antics, or their people dynamics, etc., that kind of jumpstart a crowd. Because I know people that are really good at that. I've sat with leaders after meetings for years. They say, I could tell you how to jumpstart that crowd, and get them going, and what they mean to get them manifesting, and then we got a story about how he had power. And I've said over the years, by the grace of God, gonna say it all my years, I'm not interested in jumpstarting a crowd. So they can carry on, so that I could take pictures of them, and tell the story about how powerful I am. Not interested at all. And I'm really zealous about none of that happening in our midst, for two reasons. I love the Holy Spirit. I love His ministry. I'm zealous for Him. And second, I know that it will take us out of the position for the Lord to release the fullness of what He's promised us. Because we can fake people out, but you can't fake the Holy Spirit out. And He's looking for genuineness and humility. And I mean the humility that doesn't just draw attention to ourselves. The humility that where the Spirit's not doing anything unique, that's observable, we're at peace with it. And we don't say, well if you're not moving, I'll get the people moving anyway. Watch this. The Holy Spirit would say, no, don't do that. Be loyal to me. Bear the times where I'm not doing what I did yesterday in your ministry. Just bear it. Love me. Be loyal to me. Paul said, we preach Jesus. We don't preach ourself. Our story isn't about how anointed we are. Our story is about how anointed He is. Now who I'm really talking to is the 20 year olds. Because though you have a ministry now, you're gonna be 30 in a minute, and a 40 a half a minute after that, and 50 a fourth of a minute after that. You're gonna be 30, 40, 50 in a moment. And you're gonna have ministries, all different types of ministries, and I want you in these early days of your spiritual journey to determine, I am going for the authentic. I'm not going to be manipulated, and I'm not going to manipulate. I'm gonna preach Jesus. I'm not gonna preach how anointed I am and tell all the stories about how awesome my ministry is when I blew the room up. That's not what I'm gonna do. I want 20 year olds to set their heart. Say, I'm gonna do this thing for the bridegroom style. And if you do that, then as a shepherd, I have done well in this regard, if you're convinced with that kind of approach to ministry and power in the days to come. Well, let's look at Acts chapter 2. Your Bibles are open there. Acts 2, if you want to follow along, because I'm gonna look at some other verses that aren't here on the handout. What the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost, it's a pattern for the ministry that he's going to release in the generation the Lord returns. Now, he said tokens of this all through history, but I'm telling you in that hour, there will be unique dynamics in the generation the Lord returns, and there will be a unique manifestation of power, there will be unique embracing of humility, but there'll be many unique dynamics in that generation. And we look at Acts chapter 2 to see where the Spirit in the broad strokes is going to be visiting his church in power. Now, what he did on the day of Pentecost is a picture of what he's going to do all over the earth. Says in verse 2, suddenly there was a sound from heaven of a mighty rushing wind. So there's the wind dimension of the Spirit. The Bible doesn't make it real clear what each of these are exactly. So there's a whole dimension that's unknown. Verse 3, then the fire of God, look at this, set on each one of them. Can you imagine the fire of God sitting on each one? I mean, they looked across the room and they saw the fire of God on the other guy. I mean, what is that? I mean, I have felt the fire of God, the heat of the Lord on me some pretty intense times, but I've never had a guy say, I see the fire on you, at least nobody that I believed. That people tell me all kinds of things. I go, whatever. Verse 4, they were filled with the Spirit. Then in verse 13 to 15, there's this real strange dimension of the Spirit that we refer to. It's not a biblical term, by the way. The wine of the Spirit. There is no biblical term, the wine of the Spirit. But it's hard to talk about. Don't be drunk as you suppose the new wine in the book of Acts. It's hard to say that whole paragraph every time you're trying to say something. And so, if somebody uses the term wine of the Spirit, which I do, then we need to acknowledge it's not a biblical term, but there is a dimension of the Spirit that is biblical. And it's implied right here in verse 13 and 15. They're full of new wine, and the unbelievers said they looked drunk. Now, some people say, well, that was because they're speaking in tongues. No, no, it wasn't because they're speaking in tongues, because in verse 7, when they spoke in tongues, the unbelievers marveled, because they understood the language crystal clear. It was their own language. I believe it's verse 12, they marveled again, or they were amazed. They were not mocking that part. There was something going on. Now, don't lock this in, like some folks have, because this is a big dimension of the Spirit. It doesn't just mean we have meetings and people stumble around and laugh real loud, or they fall down in shopping malls, and that's where it's kind of been reduced to. And I want to encourage you, don't reduce this amazing dimension of the Spirit to that. Whether the Spirit's moving or not, we can all fall over each other, you know, in the lobbies, or in the malls, or the airports, or in the hotel rooms, or, and kind of make a big show of things. Nobody gets saved. Nobody is healed. It's just a big fleshly display, because when they did it, 3,000 people were saved. The blind were walking, the lame were, I mean, the blind were walking, they were, but they were seeing too. Guarantee they were walking. And you say, boy, you got energy on this point. I do. The reason is that I want a spiritual family, and we have one, by the way, that is committed to the authentic. And I want all the 20-year-olds that are here being trained to be so marked with it in their year two or three they're here, or a few months, that they never ever get cured of that commitment. So that's the energy I have, because I want the Spirit to be honored, Jesus to be glorified. And the fake stuff doesn't help the kingdom at all, doesn't glorify Jesus. What it does, I have found out, because I've watched this dimension of the Spirit for over 40 years. I'm 57 years old. The first meetings that I, that I was in, I was 16. There was a revival down the road here in Kansas City, 13 weeks in a row, every night, and people were doing the wildest things. I was a 16-year-old with real big wide eyes looking at everything. And I've watched it for 40 years. And I love the move of the Spirit, and I love whenever the Spirit orchestrates something that's out of the box, that is not even respectable at all, but when it's genuine, I'm committed to that. But when guys see it once, and then they imitate it the next time, that's what I don't want to do. Because what happens is that people, they become cynical. I'm talking about the body of Christ. I know more cynical believers about the ministry of the Spirit because of the way that people fake the ministry of the Spirit. I know more cynical believers who love Jesus, and they love the Spirit, but they don't want anything to do with prophecy, because so many people that prophesy throw in the hamburger helper. They manipulate, they have the information ahead of time, they put a little spin on it. Then after some years you find that out, people go, I don't want anything to do with this at all. Now I'm saying, Lord, I want us, and many others, I don't mean us four or no more, I want to I want to be different. I don't want to be either against it, or eccentric, or hypey, or so insecure that I'll do anything just to get a group of people to say, wow aren't you anointed. I want to go the other way, Jesus, I want to be loyal to you. I want to raise up of loyal people, because I believe that when we fake the Holy Spirit stuff, and we manipulate people in the name of the Holy Spirit, that is a lower dimension of taking God's name in vain. It really is. It's claiming something of the Spirit. The Spirit says, that's not me at all. I don't know why you're doing that in the meeting. Or the guy or gal on the platform manipulating it, and the Spirit says, I'm not doing that. Why are you promoting that? And why are you calling it me? You're taking my name in vain. The fire of the Spirit, again it's more than this. I think the wind of the Spirit speaks of, here paragraph B, the dramatic realm of miracles. Hebrews 1, the angels are called the winds of God. And I, in several translations, it's, he makes his angels the winds. Or one translation says the Spirit. He makes them spirits. Well I'm saying it wrong. He makes them a flame of fires, what the verse says. But it refers to the angels as winds or as spirits. And my point is, I believe the wind is a big area, far beyond what we understand. But one just little token idea, is supernatural miracles that angelic ministries are involved in, that are so diverse, you couldn't categorize them in one or two areas. That's what I, that's my opinion of what the wind speaks of. The fire speaks of the impartation of the love of God, the purity of God, the zeal of God. In Luke chapter 24, verse 32, the disciples on the road of Emmaus, their hearts burned like fire, the revelation of God was on them. Right here in Acts chapter 2, verse 37, 3,000 people are pierced, like the sword of God is piercing them, because the word of God is going forth in such conviction. I believe that's the fire of the Spirit. I believe it's the love of God. I believe there's a number of things. Now I have a strange definition of wine here. You look at it and go, what? I believe the wine, it's not limited to this at all. This is my observation over 40 years. That it empowers the heart over bitterness. Now what I mean by that, is over bitterness in context of persecution. And why that is an observation, I can't prove that biblically. There is no biblical definition to what these three are, conclusive biblical definitions. In 30 years, I have had three encounters where the Spirit came on me instantly, and I was overtaken with laughter. And I mean, I just had joy and laughter breaking out of me, and it happened with a one-second notice. I mean, nobody revved me up, nobody warmed me up. I didn't get in the crowd, and kind of get excited, and what, none of that. And all three times, they were in context to somebody coming at me with a railing accusation. And I couldn't figure out what happened. The first time, a pastor in a citywide meeting, he was railing me on the front row for something. He said, what was it? It was something I preached. And it really upset him. What I preached was that apostles that have more power, should have more sacrifice and more humility. That really troubled him, because he thought he was an apostle, and he thought, didn't think that worked for him. So he rebuked me, and right there in the front row, this incredible laughter broke out of me. It was horrible, because everybody's looking at me. I don't know what's happening. I cover my face, and I bury my head. He thinks I'm really upset. I am bursting with laughter. Afterwards, people came up and said, Mike, that was really intense. And boy, we apologize. I thought it was intense, but not like you thought. I had my hand on my face, and my body was shaking. I go, please, Lord, stop. And no one saw it, and I went out in the parking lot and screamed. That happened two other occasions, not in exactly the same way I was rebuked publicly by a pastor, but I was rebuked always by leaders. One of them was one of the largest ministries in the city I was in, and he came with a railing rebuke at me, and laughter broke out at me again. It's happened three times, and I didn't know what was going on. And as I've looked back over the years, I've talked to a few others that have had that. It was one here, one there. It was not a ministry culture where every meeting I went where a pastor was, I started laughing. It wasn't something I learned, and I did every time. I said, Lord, what was that? And he said, Lord, my conclusion, I was delivering you from bitterness in that persecution, that rejection. It happened three major times. Those are the three times that that holy laughter broke out in me. And I know some others that have had it. Now, I know, because again, I've watched it for 40 years, some really close friends where this spirit of that kind of made them intoxicated looking. They were not drunk, but they were funny looking, and I know them well. I could give a number of stories, and what God was doing was healing their heart of a severe wound, and it wasn't something that happened every day, and every time they went to a worship service, they did it. It was a one here, one there kind of event, but it delivered their heart from pain. The other thing I have witnessed, that that kind of verse 13 to 15, not drunk as you suppose, it's in verse 16, Peter says, this is that. He wasn't just talking about the tongues. He was talking about the verse before. I'm talking verse 16. He was talking about verse 15, they're not drunk as you suppose. Then in verse 19, he calls it a sign, because there's only two things that happened that the people saw they were speaking, not in devotional tongues as we know it, they were speaking in a foreign language where the unbelievers understood it, and they were stumbling around a bit. Peter said those two things, verse 19, this is that. They are signs of a, the spirit is validating what's going on today. Now I've had a couple experiences as well, I won't go into them, where the spirit came on me and I shook violently. And I know a few others that have had, I mean quite a few over 40 years, and again it wasn't a new ministry culture, where every time we got together we did it, and we could see you could shake the loudest and the hardest and fall the, you know, da da da da. It wasn't that. But God was validating something happening on that day, it was the new covenant was being manifest in Israel. And it was a one-time event, I'm not limited to one, that's not my point, but my point is, it's not a ministry culture. I've seen many ministries where the authentic happens, this wine of the Spirit, they turn it into a ministry culture where everybody's supposed to do it, and it was meant to be a sign and a wonder in various individuals. One here, one there, and it turned into a ministry culture. Roman Numeral 3, Bob Jones had a very dramatic vision. I call it the vision of Joseph's dungeon. Now this happened in April 1984, but the context here in paragraph A, we went on the fast in May 83, the 21-day fast, and God said the 24-hour prayer with worship and musicians and singers would take place. He gave a number of promises. So May, June, July, August, September, for the next nine months, I mean, day and night, nearly, I don't know about, I don't know, really day and night, but lots, I would say, Lord, when is this going to happen? When is this going to happen? When is this going to happen? When is this spiritual drought going to break that you've talked about? I mean, the spiritual drought doesn't mean the kingdom is not growing and advancing. It is. It has been for years. But we're talking about a book of Acts level of growth and increase, is what we're talking about. I said, Lord, when is that? That to me is when the drought is broken, when it's the book of Acts level of the manifest presence on a regular basis. And in April 94, after nine months of asking the question, look at top of page two, there was a Saturday morning. I remember like it was yesterday. I'm wide awake, getting ready to go to the Saturday morning prayer meeting, and the Lord spoke audibly like thunder. It was the most dramatic experience like that. Again, I've had two, three or so experiences, but nothing of this category. He spoke like thunder. And it was like the voice came from 20 miles away, and it was like the voice came out of my belly. It came two directions, and like crashed over me, and it was so loud. I don't even know how to make sense of that. So if I know the Holy Spirit lives in me, and I know the Holy Spirit's everywhere else, and maybe, maybe He speaks in stereo, and I don't know it. I don't get how it worked, but it was, it was terrifying. I mean, it's funny now just to listen to it, but it wasn't. And He simply said a message. He said a sentence. He goes, I have a message for you. Call Bob Jones. I can't believe that's what He said, but I, I was so shaken by the volume, and the fear of the Lord. I have a message for you. That's why I'm so serious about this subject, because God cared enough about me, and this spiritual family, to say this audibly like thunder. But that also means, when I stand before Him, He's gonna say, did you do that message? To other people, He may not say it in the same way, but He'll say, did you bring that forth? With those young people, I told you audibly to do it. And we'll see in a minute, it was the message about humility, in context of the power of the Spirit. No rejection, no resisting of it, but no faking it, no exaggerating it, no hyping it, no manipulating, none of that, either direction. That's what He was saying. And He means it. When I stand before the Lord, He will ask me about that, and this spiritual family. So either nothing can back me off of this subject. I've had a few guys going, boy, you're so intense on this. I go, you haven't seen the half of it yet. I will be more intense as the power increases, because I will be in serious trouble. Besides, I really love Him. I don't want to stay out of trouble, but I do want to stay out of trouble. I love Him. I want truth in our midst. And I don't care what the groups down the road do. That's not our model. Jesus is our model. Not the group down the road that gets away with all that stuff. He said, I have a message for you. Call Bob Jones. Fear of the Lord comes on me. A couple hours later, I talked to Bob. And Bob said, I had the most dramatic encounter, and the Lord told me to tell you. I said, I believe you 100%. I didn't even tell him what I heard. That's the only time I've heard the audible voice like that. I've heard the audible voice one other time, but it was nothing dramatic like that. This was so dramatic. I said, yes, I seriously believe you saw something, and you're supposed to tell me. What is it? He goes, get ready. It's a serious word. What Bob had saw in an open vision. He said, it was like, it was not a dream. It was not a mental picture. He goes, it was something of the highest level of encounter that he's had. And I won't go into that. We'll just leave those areas undefined. And he said, I saw in a parable form Joseph's dungeon in Genesis chapter 40. Now in Genesis 40, you can read the story. Although what Bob saw in that technicolor vision experience had a parable dimension. And all that Bob saw, every detail of what he saw, is not recorded in Genesis 40. But the parable is the message God wanted to use. And God says, I'm gonna borrow Genesis 40 to give you a picture from the scripture of what I'm saying. Well, Joseph, as you know, in Genesis 40, he's in a dungeon. But there's two other men in the dungeon. One was a baker, and one was a cupbearer. Now here it says the chief butler in the New King James, but NIV and ESV and several others called him the cupbearer. Now in the parabolic vision, what the Lord told him, he said, Bob, these two men, again the Lord wasn't commenting on the story of Genesis 40, as far as we know. Maybe the Lord was. He said, these two men are in prison, because they're accused of poisoning the king's family. I mean, if you're the baker, and you put poison in the bread and serve it to the king's family, you kill the king's family. You get killed for that. That's why a baker is in prison. Not because he was in a bad mood one day. It's because he was trying to poison the king and his family. There's all kinds of court intrigues. So it might have really happened that way in Genesis 40. I don't know, but the vision of it, that was the point. The cupbearer, well the cupbearer serves wine to the king and his family. He was also accused of putting poison in the wine. So both of them were accused, but as it happens in this vision, the baker was guilty. He really was trying to poison the family, and the cupbearer was innocent. And in the Genesis 40 story, the baker is put to death, the cupbearer is released to go back to serve the king's family again, or the Pharaoh's family. But the Lord was using the terminology of the vision of King. Paragraph D. What does this mean? The Lord spoke this to Bob. I haven't written on the notes a bit here. He said, the poison that was in the bread, because again, the Lord told him this is a parable of two different ministries. That's how the Lord was applying it in this one situation. And the Lord was saying, they represent two ministries in the body of Christ right now, and many of the ministries are like the baker. They're bread. They're teaching ministry. They're singing ministry. They're writing ministry. They're acting ministry. They're evangelistic ministry, whatever. The ministry that they have, where they share the Word, they have poison in their bread and what they're sharing. And the poison is this. It doesn't promote humility in those that hear it. And the Lord said, any ministry that does not promote humility in their teaching, singing, dancing, you know, whatever it is, writing, the Lord says there's poison in that delivery of the Word. And they said, I'm going to deal with the ministries across this nation in my timing, and in the Genesis 40 story, the baker was killed, but in the parable, the Lord says, I'm going to remove their ministry from them because they're damaging my family, the king's family. They don't even know it. Paragraph E. The Lord told Bob, in my own timing, I'm going to remove them. Which again, Genesis 40, the baker was put to death. But in our context, the Lord says, I'm going to take my hand off their ministry. I don't want them defiling my family. Some of them are really big ministries. Some of them are really little ministries. But it's a man-pleasing, make everybody happy, don't call anybody to deny themselves. It doesn't push people to humility. It doesn't empower humility. And the Lord says, there's coming a day where I'm going to remove my hand on those ministries, and they're going to come to nothing. Now this is the message that the Lord is, I hear audibly, I have a message for you. Call Bob Jones, and Bob Jones says, whatever you do, Mike. Again, this is way back in 84, almost 30 years ago. Whatever you do, whatever you do in terms of Holy Spirit ministry, your teaching ministry, your personal counsel, your selecting of leaders, your selecting of worship leaders, make sure you get people that promote humility. Because if you don't, you will be contributing to the lack of humility from the platform ministries. I said, Lord, I'm going to do this. I've made a few people upset at me over the years. And I don't want people upset at me. But there's somebody else that will be unhappy with me, and so I'm going with him. By the way, he's the king. This is not a joke to him at all. Now here's the very surprising thing. The end of paragraph E. The Lord told Bob, I'm going to use the wine to refill the hearts of the body of Christ. He said in 1984, in 10 years. 1984, 10 years. 1984, 10 years. In 1994, I'm going to begin to pour wine out, and I'm going to bless people, but I'm going to use it to reveal whether there's humility or lack of humility in my body of Christ internationally. He goes, one group, they will resist, because it makes them look foolish. The other group, they will exaggerate, because it makes them look anointed. The Lord says, I'm going to pour it out, because I'm going to test the body of Christ. Because I'm about to pour out fire and wind down the road, but I'm going to give a global testing of the body of Christ on the subject of humility. I'm going to bring it to the surface, and I'm going to use the wine. Thousands exaggerate the wine to look good, and thousands reject the wine so they will look good and not look foolish. And the Lord says, their heart will come to the surface, and I will use wine. Tell Mike that's a message he must pay attention to. So he tells me this. He goes, okay, wine's coming in 10 years. What's wine look like? He goes, I don't know. God's going to bless a lot of people, but there's another agenda. He's preparing the church for the fire and the wind, the far greater dimension, and he's going to use the wine. Don't reject it. Don't exaggerate it. Don't hype it. Don't manipulate people. Don't cower in fear, because it makes you look bad by the conservative folks. He says, you just better obey the Spirit. Be fully open to it, but don't you ever lift your finger to make more happen than the Holy Spirit's doing. I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Lord. Yes, I am committed. He gave me 10 years to think on this. I told the story many times, and so I worked the muscle. So 10 years later, 1994, in Toronto, the wine of the Spirit, a whole lot of people bah humbug. It made them look foolish. I don't want something that makes me look undignified, but a whole lot of other people, wow, it makes us look anointed to our crowd, so we're going to prop it up even when it's not real. The Lord warned me many times. We had a number of seasons of it in our church life, several times, where the wine came out, and I was zealous. We're not resisting it. We'll look foolish, and we're not going to hype it or manipulate. We're not going to talk people into it at all. So I had this policy. I go, here's what I really care about. I've developed over the years. I go, I don't want to jump-start the room ever. I don't want to describe what it is. That's what a lot of ministries do. They first describe it, so all the young people, they go, okay, that's what it looks like to be anointed, and that's what it looks like to make the leader think I'm anointed. Okay, good. So they describe it first. Then they model it. They put everybody on the stage and show them what they're supposed to do. Then they reward it. They say, hey, young man, you're amazing. You're anointed, and the young man gets the badge. I'm anointed. Isn't this amazing? The Lord looks at, not all, not everyone who does that is doing this, but many times. There are exceptions. The Lord says, manipulation, manipulation, manipulation, hype, exaggeration, taking my name in vain. This is not about Jesus being exalted. This is about you. No. Now, I've watched this over the years, had many conversations with it. I said, oh Lord, help me. I don't want to, I don't want to fake it. I want to draw back because there's an undignified dimension to this category. This category is not just about stumbling around. That's only one little part of it. This category, undoubtedly, as we approach the hour of the Lord's return, these decades ahead, it's going to get far more strange. But again, it's not a ministry culture. It's not like this group does this when we gather. The Lord has a moment for this to happen in this guy's life. Maybe it only happened once in their life. Maybe it happened ten times in the next 30 years, but it's not a culture of what they do every time they gather. Maybe he'll visit a whole congregation like in Acts 2. He might do that a time or two, but the point of it isn't to build a reputation and to network around the world so everybody knows that we do it. One group thinks we're off the wall. The other group says, hey, that's what I want to be a part of. And the Lord says, forget all of that. Just exalt Jesus and do what's authentic. When it comes, it comes. When it doesn't, it doesn't. Don't jump-start it. Don't describe it. Don't model it. Don't reward people for doing it so that you look anointed. Don't do any of that. Teach them to lock into my spirit. Paragraph F. So the Lord showed Bob. He was going to bless the body with the wine, and he did. But he was going to test the body with the wine, which he did. But most people didn't know about the test. They didn't know the Lord was watching them, determining what would happen the ten years after that and the twenty years after. Lord, when the Lord does this, he's measuring a spiritual family to how they respond. Some people only see the blessing. They don't see the measuring of the Lord. He was so gracious. He spoke to me audibly. I have a message for you. I'm gonna measure you by this one day. You better hear the message, because if you want the fire and the wind dimension and loyalty to me, you need to walk in humility in the wine dimension. Don't resist it. Don't manipulate it. Don't exaggerate it. Don't promote it. Just let God be God whenever he wants. And I said, okay, Lord. Now at the end of paragraph F, the Lord tells Bob, this will begin in ten years. Tells him this audibly in this open vision. So he tells me it's gonna start in ten years. I said, okay. Ten years. You know, I was 28 years old at the time. I only had my driver's license ten years or so. Ten years. Man, that's a whole another lifetime. Ten years. I'll be almost 40. I'll be out of the game by then. There's no point in ten years. He said, well, it'll be ten years. Paragraph G. The Lord doesn't want us to get our identity and wisdom. Like one group gets their identity and wisdom. They have this misapplied loyalty to the Word. So they go, the Word says, and they wipe out, they dismiss everything that has the Holy Spirit power in it. And they say, I'm wise and conservative. The Lord says, don't get your identity from that. The other group gets their identity in being more sensitive and more powerful. He says, don't get your identity in that either. Get your identity in me. Not in how conservative and cautious you are. Not how anointed and sensitive. Don't get your identity with your friends in either one of those camps. Get it in me. Paragraph H. I've already said it. But the strange part, or the new part, not strange, that the wine would bless, that was obvious. Acts 2, it blesses. But it would be a testing to prepare for the next dimensions that would come later. That's why, again, I'm so zealous for this point. Some folks think the more people manifest, the closer we are getting to a awesome breakthrough. I go, not if it's not real. It's actually setting us back. It's not helping anything by pretending the Spirit's moving when He's not. He's so smart. He gets what we're doing. I want an atmosphere of loyalty to the integrity, authenticity, and humility. That's what prepares us for what's coming. Paragraph I. The Lord said audibly to Bob Jones that very morning. He showed him Joseph Dungeon. But I see the ten years as having two applications at least. It may have ten. I mean, the Lord has so many applications. You think you get it? Then another few years go by, you go, oh! 1984, when the word came ten years later, was the international release of wine from Toronto. But there was another ten-year period. Here at the House of Prayer, we have our ten-year anniversary. And right after that, the wine comes. And the Lord's saying, I am blessing you. But this isn't mostly about establishing the earth. It's mostly about me testing you to see what you do with it. Because I'm preparing a people that won't be disloyal to my spirit. And again, in the charismatic crowd, we're disloyal by hyping it and by exaggerating and lying. In the non-charismatic crowd, they're disloyal by rejecting the whole thing. Now some charismatics are so, so cynical. They go, I can't even stand this stuff anymore. I mean, I can't even bear it. Someone says, are we charismatic or not charismatic? I don't even like that term. We're trying to be biblical, and I don't like all the other terms. Let's look at the top of page three. Now I'll just make another couple quick points and bring this to an end in a few minutes. Paragraph K. I've said it, but I just want you to get it. One, two, three. I believe that the Lord is testing, by the release of wine, three different groups of people. And undoubtedly, we have all three groups in our midst. But mostly, we have the group that really loves it. That's why you, so many of you, made such radical life changes to be in the midst of a people that are contending for the fullness. Group number one, the Lord says, I want you humble. The Lord says, I'm using you in it. All the folks around are writing you off, and you're tempted to draw back in the fear of man or to kind of cower away. The Lord says, don't do it. Bear the reproach. Now some people misapply that, and they go, the goofier I can get and the more enemies I can make, the happier God is. He goes, no, I actually want you to just agree with me. I want you to do my thing. Don't do your thing. The next group, they exaggerate it. They create their identity around it about how annoyed they are. The Lord says, don't. Be humble. The next group, they resist it because they're not familiar. The Lord says, become teachable. Become a learner. Paragraph L, we must never ever draw back from the stigma. There is a God-orchestrated stigma on the greater dimensions of the Spirit's ministry, which we're not in those greater dimensions. We're way before that. So I'm not looking at that thing. That's us. We're way not there. But we want to be there. Here's what the Lord told Paul, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. The Lord said, Paul, I mean, here's Paul, very anointed apostle, wrote half the New Testament. I mean, good guy, right? Dedicated? Bore persecution? I mean, he wrote the Bible, went to prison, took beatings, radically committed to seeking God, fasting, prayer. I mean, the guy knew no bounds. And God says, here's your problem, Paul. You have a tendency to get exalted when the greater dimension of power comes your way. Now, if Paul has a tendency to get exalted, when there's a greater dimension of power, where are we going to be if he had that tendency? Well, we'll be the same. So the Lord says, don't worry. I love you. I'll protect you. I'll create a God-orchestrated stigma to keep you from exalting yourself. Yes, it's the devil, but I'm going to give him a little room. So you're preoccupied with me and humility, not with how superior you are in the anointing. Now, none of our people are in this category. I'm not in it. You're not in it. I don't know anybody in this category, but this is where the end-time church is going. And I want a culture that has decades of humility in our history in God. I don't want to try to get the night before the revival and have a cram all night test, you know, study to get humble between now and tomorrow. That's all crazy concept. Anyway, but you know what I mean. I want a history of decades of being faithful to the Spirit. Paragraph M. This testimony in Elijah's life has inspired me for many years. What happened in Acts, I mean 1 Kings 18, there was a challenge between the false prophets of Bill and Elijah. They said, who's the real God? Elijah said, let's do it. The God that answers with fire is the real God. They go, good! Because they had a whole dimension of the demonic, they were sure they could make it happen. So what they did, these prophets of Bill, look at here, verse 28, they cut themselves. They did all these rituals. They screamed and hollered and prophesied and they got into a frenzy, thinking their false God would answer. Didn't work. Elijah comes, he goes, no frenzy, because it was the next chapter where Elijah, the Holy Spirit says, I'm leading you by the still small voice. That's 1 Kings 19, the next chapter. No frenzy. Goes up to the altar. It's a wooden altar. He goes, instead of cutting myself, screaming, hollering and frothing in frenzy, I'm going to do the opposite. He goes, go pour water on the wood. I go, pour water on it. He says, I'm going to make it difficult on the Lord. Quote, unquote. So they doused the wood with water. Elijah took a few steps back. He said, Lord, you don't need my help to get the fire going. Boom! The thing was consumed with fire. And though this story is about false gods and demons, there is a truth. We don't have to whip the crowd up to get the Spirit moving. We don't have to. I've seen the Spirit move in dramatic ways. I mean, dramatic ways, where there wasn't an ounce of whipping the crowd up, preparing them. Of course, that's always under the guise of getting them in faith. Getting them in faith is code for telling them how we want them to act when we say, fire. That's what getting them in faith often means. Teach them what they're supposed to do. Model it a little bit. Then when we say, fire, you better do it, because we've set this whole thing up. When they say, let's get them in faith, that's code for that. Not always. There are exceptions. Again, I've seen this so many places for decades. Watched it for 40 years. Most of it, it makes my stomach hurt. I go, Jesus, you deserve better than this. Holy Spirit, you're more beautiful than this. What are we doing? Now, I've seen some most remarkable things, where 1 Kings 19, the very next chapter, where God said, I give you the still small voice. That's where I'm speaking to you. I mean, the whisper. No prompting, no setting up the room, no describing what, you know, promoting, suggesting what you're supposed to do before you do it. None of that. And boom, I've seen the Spirit move in power with no human manipulation whatsoever. I tell you, it's exciting, because you know that's the real thing the Spirit's doing. I don't want to describe, I don't want to reduce the whine of the Spirit to learned behavior that I've seen so much. You know, I've used the phrase tongue-in-cheek over the years, auto-manifest. Where you give the key word, there's a couple key words, and they auto-manifest on demand. Manifest on demand. You can always get 10% of the room to do that, no matter what. Even after this message, I could, in 10 minutes, get some of you to auto-manifest if I said the right things for the next 10 minutes. If I started acting away and claimed an open vision, you'd be fully engaged, whether the Spirit was touching you or not. Maybe not 10%, I hope not, but typically 10% will. There's a thousand, you'll get a hundred. Hopefully here, if there's a thousand, you get one. Hopefully, hopefully none. So I don't really hope you would do that or think you would. I think you have better teaching than that, but we say the right things, and they go right into the, whoa, they chop, and they scoop, and they fall, and they laugh, and they scream. Then we stop, and we say the key words again, but they chop, and they scoop the Spirit, and they swim in the Spirit, and they do backstrokes, and it's foolishness. Serious foolishness. Again, only typically, I'm not believing that about here, but it's typically 10% or less that do that. So you can get them doing anything you want. The reason I'm saying that, 20-year-olds, when you're 30, when you're 40, when you're 50, don't be manipulated by it, and never be a manipulator, because your buddy down the road gets away with it. Don't go there. Say, I don't care if they can get a hundred kids doing it, so what? That's not where I'm going. I've got a vision for loyalty to Jesus that's bigger than that. Young people, don't do it so your few, three, or four, or ten, or twenty buddies, or the girl you have a crush on thinks you're anointed. Don't do that. She doesn't believe it anyway, not really. Well, yeah, she does, because she does it. She knows she doesn't believe you, because she knows it's not real, and she does it. Now, here's another reason why I care, besides zeal for the Holy Spirit, loyalty to Him, preparing the spiritual family. Many new believers are in a huge conflict, and I really care about this. Meaning, they're 20 years old, they come, they go, I want everything God has. I don't know what it looks like. Then, if they're in one of those groups where the auto-manifesting kicks into gear by the command code words, they go, okay, I'll try it. Whoa! They'll do it. They'll go home, and they'll go, I didn't feel right at all, but I don't want to miss God. So, I'll go to the next meeting, the code words, whoa! They'll, you know, again, chop, and swing, and backstroke, and laugh, and everything they need to do. They do that five or ten times. Again, I've watched this 40 years. Five, ten times. Something in their conscience gets defiled. They go, I can't do this. I'm only doing, I'm not doing it for attention. I'm trying to get in the way of the Spirit, because my ten buddies are in it, and they're in a serious conflict on the inside. The guy on the stage doesn't care, because the hundred people make him look anointed. That's what he's interested in, the photo op. That girl, that young guy is going, I'm hurting inside. I can't do this. It's not real. But now, they're not anointed. So, now they're relegated to the dull, hard-to-receive, can't throw in the Spirit, don't get it. They go, really? Is that the crowd I'm in now? How did that happen? I love Jesus. I don't want that conflict in our young people. I want them to be here about Jesus. No, it's not just here. I love this place. It's my spiritual family. We have a platform many places across the earth. Young people are tracking with us. I want them into reality and liberty. I don't want them into charismatic falsehood and craziness. They're following us. They're listening right now. Some of them are going, praise God, this makes sense. I'm not a dull, hard-to-receive, can't get it going person. I'm authentic. Praise God. That feels right to me. Again, don't be easily manipulated and don't ever be a manipulator, even if your buddies on the other side of town or the other side of the nation are doing it. Paragraph P, Paul said, don't quench the Spirit. Don't despise prophecy and test everything. Very important. Some people think you only quench the Spirit by saying no. Beloved, you quench the Spirit as much by faking it as you do by resisting it. Doesn't help the kingdom at all. It doesn't cause faith to rise in anybody. It makes people cynical of the Holy Spirit. He says, don't quench it on the negative side by resisting it. Don't quench it on the other negative side by faking it. Don't manipulate it. He says, don't despise prophecy. Now that's a strange exhortation. Don't despise prophecy in the book of Acts Church. Who would despise prophecy? I'll tell you what, there were so many prophecies that were not coming to pass that the people heard so many, they started displacing it. Because nobody would govern it, it creates cynicism where people despise the work of the Spirit then. So Paul said, I'll give you the answer. Don't fake it. Don't resist it. Verse 19, don't ignore it leadership or the whole group will be cynical over a couple years. You could only fake the manifestation stuff for a few years, then the next 30 years you will be cynical and almost unable to recover your faith in that area. I've seen it so, so many times. Paul said, here's the answer. Verse 21, have people that evaluate according to the Scripture the truth of what's happening. And that's what I'm wanting to give you a grid for right here. Because I love you. Top of page 4. Completely out of time. One of the other sessions I tell the story, paragraph A and B, of how God connected us to John Wimber. I'm just putting it here so you can see it again. And the eight one-hour sessions I have on the internet about the prophetic history, I tell this story for about a half hour. It is a remarkable story how God connected us with John Wimber, who in my opinion had the most balanced and influential healing ministry in the Western world for several decades. It was biblical, balanced, multitudes of people coming to it. He would have pastors meetings, because I went to a number of them, where he would have six, seven, eight thousand pastors. Not eight thousand people at the meeting. Eight thousand full-time pastors for four days, because they believed in his ministry. He did that in Germany, England, New Zealand, Australia. I mean the cities around the the world. The pastors were so captured, because it was so profoundly biblical. It was authentic. And Wimber's, one of his biggest points, was no hype allowed in this ministry. He was so opposite of so many of the other healing ministries, that the that the leadership in the Western world, they looked at him and took him very, very seriously. Paragraph C, John's big point, because when I traveled with him for three years, again I tell the story on one of the other sessions. It was a remarkable three-year period. I got on the platform, he had thousands of leaders. I'm about 33, 34, 35 years old. My, what I understand, you know, I've only seen healing ministries in the Pentecostal charismatic realm. So I get on stage and I go, whoa, whoa, whoa. He goes, be quiet. He goes, don't, don't, don't do that. You're not gonna shout the power down. The Holy Spirit's not hard of hearing. He goes, if you're trying to stir people up to get them to scream, then shout, and they'll shout. But he goes, that's not the Holy Spirit. Don't do that. He goes, dial down. Do the Elijah style. Go for the in, the still, small voice. Get quiet. He would be on a platform, five, ten thousand people out there. He would say, come Holy Spirit. He didn't explain to them what they were supposed to do. He would wait. I mean, it was horrible. He'd wait five minutes, nothing. I was so nervous for him. John, I'll go down to the front row and fall over. I'll do something to bail you out. He goes, I don't, I don't want to be bailed out. I don't need to be. It's not my deal to make it happen. Many meetings, I don't know about many, but a number, almost nothing happened. Other meetings, I mean, the power of God broke in, and he just would say, Lord, touch them. He goes, you know what to do. He would wait. He taught the people. Don't shake the power into them. Don't push them down. Don't scream at them. You scream, you'll get them screaming. You think the anointing's on them, because you scream, they'll scream. You hit the right drum beat and the right electric guitar and scream. You get anybody screaming. I mean that 10%. You get a room screaming with no problem. He said, I don't want any of that. I want no hamburger helper, none of it. He goes, don't shake the power in them. Don't shout the power in them. Don't do anything. He said, listen, get quiet, and just speak phrases over them. I said, okay. It was really weird at first, because, you know, I was kind of like shake the scream the power in them, you know, kind of guy a little bit. I tried it. It never worked, but I tried it. Paragraph G. He said, avoid. He loved this. Melodramatic ministry style. The eccentric melodramatic. Don't do anything that makes people look at you. He said, just put your hand on them and whisper over them. Don't do anything that makes them go, wow, you must be the man of God with power. Don't do any of that. No melodrama on our stages. And the last thing, paragraph A, one sentence. We're pursuing the fullness of the Spirit. And I'm not going to go through this paragraph, but beloved, for the groups pursuing the fullness of the Spirit, which there are tens of thousands in the earth, or maybe hundreds of thousands, hopefully hundreds of thousands, all over the earth are pursuing it. We have to have a spirit of honor to the body of Christ, because people get a little bit of, just a little bit, a few people fall down, a few people scream a little bit, a couple demons come out. I tell you, they are the man of God of power for the hour. The Lord says, don't go there. Be a servant. Honor the groups that, none of that's happening. Be a servant and learn from them. Don't just give to them, receive from them, and honor who they are. And I got a little bit on that there, because you can't pursue the Spirit without loving the body of Christ, even the ones that don't do what you do. It's not like, well, that poor old group down the road, they don't get it. I mean, they're as dull as can be. The Holy Spirit says, you just quenched the Holy Spirit right there. Don't talk that way, and they go move in power. It's not truth. Amen. Let's stand.