Mike Bickle reflects on the early days of his ministry, emphasizing the importance of sharing God's testimonies and the prophetic history that has unfolded. He highlights the significance of the 1983 Solemn Assembly, where prayer and prophetic words shaped the direction of their mission, including the call for a youth movement and the establishment of a 24-hour house of prayer. Bickle recounts personal experiences of divine encounters and prophetic confirmations that guided him and his community, urging listeners to remain steadfast in their faith and calling. He stresses the need for radical obedience to God's leading and the importance of sharing testimonies to inspire future generations.

Your goodness towards us and all the many things that you have done in the days gone by and all the promises you have given for the days yet to unfold. Lord, I ask you for all that are receiving and hearing this testimony here and other places, all that are saying yes to the Holy Spirit, I ask that you would strengthen them and their calling wherever it's at across the world or in this city. I ask you God to strengthen people whatever they're calling and their assignment is by this little testimony over these eight sessions and we thank you in Jesus name, amen. Well in Psalm 78 verse 2 to 7, I'll read it briefly, this is what I, the verse I think of when I think of the eight sessions that we're going to be covering on our prophetic history. The psalmist said in verse 2, I will open my mouth in a parable, that's interesting, he said in a parable I will utter dark sayings, that's like a parable as well. The sayings which our fathers told us, tell them to the generation to come, that's what we're doing right now, tell them his wonderful works. Verse 5, he established a testimony in Jacob. He commanded our fathers, this thing, to tell the children the story. He commanded the fathers, tell the children the story of the wonderful works of God. Verse 6, so that the generation to come may declare even to their children and what's the purpose? Verse 7, so that the fathers and the children and everyone in between they would set their hope in God, they would not forget the works of the Lord but they would keep his commandments. Now some of God's ways are parables and as we tell this prophetic story, there's many parables. In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus spoke in many parables. It says many things he said in parables. Now Jesus doesn't change. He still speaks today in parables. Now parables are a stumbling block but they're meant to be. They're meant to cause us to struggle. They're given on purpose. Truth is given in the form of a parable. Now parable has two purposes, to make truth easy and to make truth difficult. And you can read the notes, those that are following this through the DVDs, I want to encourage them to get the notes because there'll be more complete explanations of the story and what I'm saying in the notes. Paragraph C, 1st Timothy 1, Paul charged Timothy to fight the good fight of faith according to the prophecies because prophecy, it strengthens our resolve to obey God. It strengthens our focus in the things of God. Paragraph D, now there's a vast glorious storyline going on. The father's grand storyline of this generation and every ministry and every individual has their own particular little part of that story and I'm gonna tell our little part of the story and one of our purposes is that it would encourage other people in other places that have another assignment and they have a part in their, of the grand storyline. When I hear their story, it encourages me. When we tell our story, the goal is that it would encourage them so that as we hear one another's story, we get the more clear view of the big picture, the puzzle, that mysterious grand storyline of what God's doing. And so that's what we're hoping will happen. That as people hear this, that they wouldn't necessarily all say, hey I want to be a part of that, but they would say hey if God's doing that there, what will He do here? Roman numeral two. It's gonna take two minutes to give a little bit of my personal background. Now the reason I'm doing this, this is how I processed the information in 1982, 83, and 84. That's when the most dramatic experiences happened one after the other in those, in that three-year period. And so I want to give just a two-minute overview of where I came from and where I was at that point in time and how I processed the information through this particular lens. Paragraph A, I was born again in 71. I was a part of a Presbyterian church for five years, and I was radically anti-charismatic for five years. I mean radically. When I was asked to speak at a college campus or a high school Bible study, often I taught against the gift of tongues and why it was a heresy and an error. I was involved in my high school and college years in Campus Crusade for Christ and Navigators and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Paragraph B, my favorite Bible teacher for the last 30 years has been Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones from London. And my other favorite teachers were A.W. Tozer and John Stott and J.I. Packard and guys like Stuart Briscoe and Chuck Smith, and of course Leonard Ravenhill, guys like that. Now some of those names, those that are younger won't even know. But for those that are older, that's the framework of which I stumbled into this large kind of drama that was unfolding in my little life. I've always read biographies, and in my early days, in my teens and 20s, I was a biography fanatic. I read them many, many times, over and over and over. And I would encourage young people, read biographies, because they give you a picture of what God might do in your life. And of course my heroes were guys like J. Hudson Taylor and David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, Wesley and Whitfield and Finney and John G. Lake and Bernard of Clairvaux, which some of you won't know that name. But when you look at those heroes, all of them had a strong evangelistic anointing. My heroes were all evangelists. So when I met Bob Jones and the Lord started talking about the house of prayer, I heard it through the lens, in the background, in the paradigm of an evangelist. I heard every story through the lens of how people could get to know Jesus. Well, June 1982, the story picks up. I'm gonna pick it up there. I'm in St. Louis pastoring. A man named Augustine Acola, with a strong proven prophetic ministry who I'd never heard of, comes through town. And he gives me a prophecy. He said that he heard the audible voice of the Lord about my life. Now, of course, I had no way to interpret that. I'd never heard such a claim. And the long and the short of it was that God had a new direction. And in essence, he was sending me to Kansas City. That was a disturbing word. And I didn't know how to interpret a person who claimed he heard the audible voice of God. No one in my background had ever heard the audible voice of God. He gave me four words, two very important words, in October 1982. He said, when you go to Kansas City, which we went the next month in November, he said, I want to tell you four things. There's going to be thousands of young people gathered, from even around the world, over time. There will be a full manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in God's timing. He said, watch out, there'll be a false prophet in your midst in the early days. Which, by the way, we discovered it and discerned it, and so there's no mystery about that. And then he said a kind of a strange word. He said, there will be a resistance, a controversy. There will be people standing against you. And the Lord says, don't answer them. But the Lord himself will answer them. Roman numeral three. My first dramatic, life-changing encounter related to this movement was in Cairo, Egypt, in 1982. Now, we moved to Kansas City in November, so this is two months before we moved. I'm in Cairo, Egypt, in a hotel room, and I had a life-altering, dramatic experience, where the fear of the Lord fell on me in a, in a literal way. It's the only time, awake, I've ever experienced the fear of the Lord of that level, of that magnitude. And the Lord said, I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in the whole earth in one generation. Not this movement or that movement, but God himself, through all the thousands of movements and millions of ministries. He said, I am going to do this across the whole earth in one generation. And the, my spirit trembled and the fear of the Lord fell on me. And I give some of the details on the notes that I'm not going to go into. Paragraph B, and the Lord spoke clearly. What I call a four heart standards. These were four values the Lord cemented in me in Cairo, Egypt. Now, some people have misquoted us, I mean, in our myths, and said, these are our four values. I go, no, we have about 20 values. We don't have only four values, but these are the four that are the most neglected in church history. We have many more values besides these four. And the Lord insisted on these, that the work must be built on these four values. And everything is measured in terms of our faithfulness to believe God for the future. Are we holding the line on these four values in our individual lives and as a ministry? He said it would be built on night and day prayer. He said it would be built on holiness of heart. This is essential. On extravagant giving, offerings for the poor. And on the activity of the Holy Spirit, that we would have faith in what the Spirit is saying and what the Spirit is doing. And believe it or not, that's the most challenging of all. To take a stand on what the Spirit is saying and what the Spirit is doing. And I have some more notes on that here that you can read on your own. Well, when the Lord says, I'm going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity, the whole earth in one generation, my spirit trembles. The fear of the Lord comes on me. I've never had anything like this happen to me before. The Lord says, I'm inviting you to be a part of a work that will touch the ends of the earth. This was my first insight into this young adult movement that Bob Jones would articulate so clearly when I met him some months later. I didn't know anything about a young adult movement, but the Lord says, I will do it and I'm inviting you when you go to Kansas City to be involved in a work that will touch the ends of the earth. And I said yes. I was crying and weeping. Yes Lord, yes. He said, you've only said yes, you have not yet done it. I said, yes Lord. He says, many have said yes. I heard this crystal clear. Many have said yes, but they did not do it. And then he gives me one more word. He said, beware lest your brethren steal these things from your heart. And they were the four standards in reality. Those were the things. And in the 25 plus years since this experience, I have had constant challenges in my own weakness and by the brethren to lower those standards and to let go and to quit being intense about them. Even my own flesh and weakness challenges me just to back off. And the Lord says, you cannot back off of these realities. Beware lest your brethren steal these from your heart. And that's one of the main reasons God raised up Bob Jones, was that he took a stand on these four things and spoke over and over the Word of the Lord that confirmed that there was a move of God that was built on, that would be built on many values. But these four values, the most neglected values, would be paramount to this work. Roman numeral four. We moved to Kansas City in November 1982. We start our church. We have a little home meeting the week before the church starts, December 5th. And in this little home meeting, just about 50 of us, the week before the church starts, it was surprising, significant gathering, because the Lord redirected that gathering. And he spoke to us. It was unplanned. Prophetically, he broke in and said, you would be like a Gideon's army. And there was weeping. And we waited on the Lord. And a number of people, I would say a good percentage of them in the room, were weeping. There was a tenderizing that came in the room. And the Lord spoke about Gideon's army throughout the thing. And I was a little bit mystified by that. Some years later, it would make a lot more sense. Paragraph B, our first Sunday, or still on paragraph A, December 5th, 82, I spoke on Luke 18. Night and day prayer in Isaiah 62. Night and day prayer. And I remember some guys came up to me afterwards, and they said, I don't have a clue what you just said. And my, and I don't say this to be a strange, but I said, I was saying it as a testimony to God. I wasn't even saying it to make sense to the people. The brand-new church, a hundred people, most of them go, we don't even know what you're talking about. Night and day prayer. Justice and tell. Watchmen on the wall. We thought this was going to be a family church. And I said, no, I gave the message as a statement to the heavens of what I was putting my flag on the hill in Kansas City about. Paragraph C, I meet Bob Jones on March 7th. And we'll look at this in the next session more. The first encounter he had where the Lord sent him back from death in August 1975. We'll look at that at the next session in some detail. And the Lord, he died, had a death experience, stood before the Lord. The Lord says, go back. He says, I want you to touch some of the initial leaders of a youth movement I'm going to raise up in Kansas City to touch the ends of the earth. And so Bob came back. And when I first met him, that was one of the first things he told me. He goes, I came back from death to strengthen some young leaders for a purpose that would unfold over decades. And he said, there's so much you don't understand. And the Lord has set me at your side. And we'll talk about that more. Paragraph C, he told me on March 7th, I'm giving you a summary of a couple hour meeting, two or three hour meeting. He gave me so many dreams and visions in the first meeting of two, three hours. But the essence of it, he said, you're an intercessor. He said, you're a youth pastor. You're going to lead a worldwide youth movement of singers and musicians. You're going to be used in, he says, this whole movement will be used in power evangelism. That excited me. And you would mobilize people to pray for the nation of Israel. That I didn't understand that. And he said there would be an abundant grace on intercession and prophetic. He said, there's a banner over this movement that's yet to unfold. That they will have an abundant grace in prophetic and intercession. Now he said, are you a singer? I said, no. He said, are you a musician? I said, no. He said, do you ever pray for Israel? I said, no. He said, do you know about this youth movement? He goes, you know, you're a youth pastor. I said, no, I'm not a youth pastor. I used to be one. I'm not a youth pastor anymore. He says, yes, you are. He says, so you don't know anything that I'm talking about right now. I said, no. But it's funny now. But he, it wasn't so funny to him. He said this and he meant it. He said, the Lord told me you would be dull, but I did not think you would be this dull. And he said to me, he goes, at the first of spring, when the snow melts, they will accept me. Now the first of spring happens in two weeks from this initial meeting on March 7th. I said, the first of spring, when the snow melts, they will accept you. I go, who is, who are they? He said, you will accept me with your own lips around the communion table on the first day of spring when the snow melts. He said, let me explain this to you. Acts chapter 2, verse 17. He says, God pours out visions. I mean, pours out a spirit. He gives dreams and visions. He goes, let me explain the principle. And God will send signs in the heavens, comets, weather patterns are the kind of the lower realm of the signs of the heavens. The signs of the heavens are going to pick up far beyond that before the Lord returns. He says, and there'll be signs on the earth. He goes, what happens is the prophet will give you a vision. You won't be sure if the vision is true, but they will say, they will declare a sign in the heaven that God told him about. And then when that sign in the heaven that can't be manipulated by anybody, when that sign takes place, then you will go back and say, what was that vision again? Because the sign verified it. He says, I'm giving you a sign right now. There's going to be a snow that will come at the first of spring because it had been 60 and 70 degrees for about a week. And they were saying that the spring has already come. I says, I don't think it's going to snow. He had a winter coat on, on this day. It's been 60 and 70 throughout the week for about seven or eight days. And I said, you think it's going to snow? He says, I'm positive it will snow on the first day of spring. And I will sit across the table and you will accept me with your own lips. You will know the things that I'm telling you are true. Paragraph E, he went on to tell me in this meeting, as well as subsequent future meetings, some of these words I'm pulling together from three or four different conversations. He said, this movement will have an intercessory ministry like Harry S. Truman. And I, I couldn't understand Harry S. Truman. How did he get in this story? We're in Overland Park, what 15 or 20 minutes from here. And he said, that's where the church is for two years. He goes, we're going to move to Grandview next to Harry S. Truman. That was the, I had, again, that was such a random thing to say. He said, Harry S. Truman was the president and he stood for Israel. And I have some notes as to why that's important. I won't go into that right now. He said, but this movement, and not just IHOP, I'm talking about the movement is bigger than IHOP. The movement is bigger than our influence. It's the people that are saying yes to these values that were given in Cairo, these Cairo values. The movement's bigger than people who officially connect to us. It's God's movement. It's not our movement. Our part in the movement is a smaller part than the contribution of many others. He said, this movement will have an intercessory ministry like Harry S. Truman. And for those that don't understand the significance of Israel and the generation the Lord returns, again, you could just read a little bit on the notes, but I challenge you to study it. I knew nothing about this when he told me this. He goes, but you'll be next to him in Grandview. You'll be next to Harry S. Truman. It will be a sign and a wonder when you are next to him that this movement really is an intercessory movement and it will touch the nation of Israel like Harry S. Truman did. But Harry S. Truman touched it in a political way. This movement will touch it in a spiritual way. And I told him my one statement. I said, well, I don't know, you know, we're in a very upscale side of town, I said, over in Oven Park, I said, our people don't really shop over in Grandview. I don't really see us moving over there. And he said, you will, mark my word, and you will be next to Harry S. Truman, that you can be sure of. Paragraph F, most of you know, January 27th in 2008, we purchased the Harry S. Truman farm, 125 acres, exactly on the 50-year day that he sold it to a Jewish family, exactly 50 years to the day that Jewish family sold it to us. And of course, you know the story, God raised up a man that paid it off, and we received it debt-free on the 50-year day jubilee celebration. And we are now next to Harry S. Truman, as the word spoke 25 years ago. Bob's walking out the door, and he stops, and he says, let me tell you one more thing I almost forgot. He said, the Lord told me you like things one, two, three, four. He said, so I'm going to tell it to you, one, two, three, four. He says, number one, there's going to be thousands of young people gathered to this movement. Number two, there's going to be a full manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of the Lord's timing. Number three, he said, there'll be a false prophet in the midst, keep your eyes open. And number four, there will be a resistance, there will be a controversy, there will be a stand against you, even in this town, and you're not to answer it, but you're just to let the Lord answer it. He gave me the exact same four words that Augustine had given me about six months earlier, and they had never met each other, or neither of them knew the other person's ministry or words at all. So I walk out of the meeting, and that that jolts me, that perplexes me. I don't know what to do with that. How did he know the same four words that a man gave me in another city that were not public words at all? They were private words. Well, two weeks go by, and Art Katz comes in town, and he asked if we could meet, if he could meet with Bob Jones. And nine o'clock, one night, just kind of suddenly, because there was a change of plans throughout that day, wasn't planned, I called Bob Jones about between eight, nine, and nine. I says, can we meet? Because I don't know him yet. I, you know, I had that meeting with him, and was mystified by him, but he was interesting, but I was not at all convinced. So Art Katz says, could we meet with this prophet guy that I met earlier today? It was a Sunday morning meeting. Now it's a Sunday night. So I call up. I go, it's late. You know, it's almost nine o'clock at night. So I call up Bob, and Bob says, I've been waiting for you all day to call me. And so he came over to our house. There were six of us around the table. We met from nine, about ten, nine or ten o'clock at night till four in the morning. And Bob began to tell stories. And the Spirit of the Lord descended three or four times, and all six of us were weeping in the room. That happened three times or four. It was something remarkable. And Art Katz looks at him, and Bob had given him a couple of words, and Art Katz says, you are truly a prophet of God. A couple hours pass, and Bob says, let me tell you what the angel told me last night. And he told me the most intimate piece of information that any person could give me. He told me the sentence that I made a covenant before God to my father just before my father died. I spoke a specific sentence, very, very important to my life. My father died suddenly. We're the only two who know that sentence besides God. And he looked at me, and he said, the angel of the Lord visited me last night, and he said this, and he told me the sentence. That shook me. I began to weep. My wife Diane said, what? I've never heard this sentence. I says, nobody has ever heard this sentence. And I looked at Bob, and I said, you are surely, truly a prophet of God. No man could have known this. And Bob says, today is the first day of spring. He goes, look out the window. The snow had come just that one day, and it was melting. He says, I told you when I met you at the first of spring, when the snow melts, we would sit around the table, and you would accept me with your own mouth. You have done it just now. Paragraph G, August 13. It's three weeks later. We're meeting every night for prayer meetings, seven to ten every night. It's something the Lord's put in our heart from the beginning, because he said in Cairo, build it on night and day prayer. So he said three hours a night's the beginning. He said, literally build it on night and day prayer. Not that every church is gonna have it 24 hours. That's not what I'm saying at all. But together, connected with others in their area, the prayer will go up morning, noon, and night at least. And at one of the evening prayer meetings on a Wednesday night, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in the same level, not the same drama, but the same level of clarity that he spoke to me in Cairo, Egypt. I call it the internal audible voice of the Lord. I've heard that several times in the last 30 plus years. A small amount of times, where I heard the exact phrase from the Lord. And he spoke about Daniel 9 and Daniel 10 in this prayer meeting to me directly. And in Daniel 9 and Daniel 10, the angel Gabriel appeared, spoke to Daniel about the end times. There was a 21-day fast, and the Lord said, call a 21-day fast. It's related to Daniel 9, Daniel 10, the angel Gabriel, the end times. And he went on, and there was clarity in my heart. I won't go into all the details. It was a remarkable concept to me. It was so presumptuous to utter such a thing publicly, to announce this to a church, because I've only been in the church for four months, five months. I said, Lord, I can't even think of saying what you told me last night to people. Daniel 9 and 10, and the angel Gabriel started a 21-day fast, and we set the date May 7th to May 28th. So I've only now believed that Bob was from the Lord for a few weeks now. So I call him on the phone the next morning, and I said, Bob, I said, I really need to hear from God. He says, I've already heard. No, I said, no, no, no, you don't know what happens. He goes, oh yes, I do know what happened. He goes, come over. Whoa, that was it. Just a few seconds. Conversation. I didn't tell him. I was gonna ask you, I was gonna tell it to him and ask him for counsel. I had no idea how this was going to work. Put a couple guys in the car. I said, I need some witnesses. Something remarkable might happen. And I said, last night at the prayer meeting, God talked to me about Daniel chapter 9, the angel Gabriel, a 21-day fast start on May 7th, and I mean something that would end up leading to the return of the Lord one day. I don't know when. And these guys, their eyes were real big. They said, what? And I said, I'm not really asking you for counsel. I'm asking you to be a witness. We got to Bob's house, walked in. Bob said, sit down. He says, let me tell you. I hadn't said a word. He said, I saw the angel Gabriel. He said, give the young man Daniel chapter 9 and he will understand. I mean, it was like I lost my breath, and so did the two guys with me. It was stunning. And he said, and you're to begin on May 7th. And I went, this is inconceivable that a man has heard this. No, it was inconceivable to me. I mean, the snowstorm, that was pretty intense. The first of spring when the snow came, that was intense. And he told me the secret. I told my father that was really intense. But he saw Gabriel. He said, Daniel 9, and told him to tell me Daniel 9. I thought, and Bob said, it's more than that. He said, on May 7th when you start, there will come across the nations a comet, unpredicted by scientists, one that nobody can know about at this point in time, but it's coming. And that comet will come, and it will verify the truth that I have really seen Gabriel, and you're really supposed to do Daniel 9, and God's really gonna birth a youth movement of singers and musicians that will touch the ends of the earth. I said, I was so touched just by the fact he told me Daniel 9. So I call the fast, and it creates a bit of a stir in the city. Because I've been only been in the city five, six months. I'm 27 years old. I have no credibility with anybody, and I'm calling a fast comet, Gabriel, the Lord returned. I mean, that's intense. That's why I needed Bob Jones. I could never ever have had the courage or even the confidence to say such things. May 7th we gather. We got about a 700 seat sanctuary in our new little church. It's packed, people from all around the city. Bob Jones brings the newspaper on May 7th. It says, comet, unpredicted by scientists, comes across America. He goes, this is the comet I told you about three weeks ago. You can read a little bit of the details on that here in the notes. Well, we're in the 21-day fast, paragraph I, and the Lord gives us two main prophetic words that 25 years later, they're still very, very important to us. About 10 days into the fast, we have the solemn assembly. We call it the solemn assembly. We always refer to it. We met from 6 in the morning till 12 at night, 18 hours a day, and we cried out for the breaking end of God. Now, what was on my heart was revival for America. No, no, that's not revival for Kansas City, a little bit overflow to America. I was locked in, Lord, if our church, if we could see a thousand new converts, I mean, by the power of God, souls get saved, I would be the happiest guy. I'm happy. I told that to Bob. He says, it's, it's not, that's not even, you're not even thinking in the right direction. That's what it means. He made that clear to me. He goes, it's so much more than what you're thinking. So, in one of these prayer meetings, we had maybe a thousand people involved in it at various ways, this 21-day fast. About 500 more intense than the other 500. So, one day, about the 10th day into it, again, we're 6 a.m. to 12 at night, 18 hours a day, long days. Not, there wasn't a lot of the presence of God in the room, or it was a pretty oppressed, difficult time, to be really honest. But we had two high marks, maybe another one or two, but two main high marks. One day, I'm, I'm in the prayer room, and that, which is the church sanctuary, and I'm pacing back and forth, and the Lord puts in my spirit Psalm 27 for this one thing, all the days of my life, I'll gaze on the beauty of the Lord. Now, I don't pray that on the microphone. I pray on the microphone. It's 18 hours a day, so I pray on the microphone, I don't know, five or ten times a day. I didn't count, but, you know, you got to keep the thing going all day long. And I never pray that on the microphone, because I asked them on the microphone to pray revival prayers, and that seemed like a devotional prayer to me. So all day long, I had this unusual gripping, and I said this one thing, all the days of my life, this one thing, all the days of my life, this one thing, all the days of my life. I said it throughout the day. It was just like resting on my heart. I was so gripped by this prayer. Psalm 27 4. Bob Jones comes to me the next day, and he says, uh, let's go to the back room. He goes, I heard from the Lord the audible voice of the Lord, and he told me the answer's yes. I says, good. Actually, I said yes to what? He said to the prayer you prayed. I said, well, Bob, I prayed five or ten prayers yesterday on the microphone. He goes, I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the one the Lord gave you, and I'm not connecting. I'm not following. He said, Psalm 27 4, this one thing, all the days of my life. I said, oh, wow, yeah. I prayed that all day. He goes, I know. The Lord spoke to me. He said he put it in your heart, and the answer's yes. I said, good. I go, what's that mean? I'm gonna see his beauty? I love that. He goes, no. He goes, yes, you know, you'll see the Lord will touch you. That's, he said, this is talking about 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. That was the oddest phrase. He said, the Lord said 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. That's what he is saying yes to. That's what this 21 days is birthing. It's birthing a youth movement that will touch the ends of the earth. That will be 24 hours with singers and musicians that will mobilize people. Of course, many ministries will do this for the nation of Israel, and they'll have power evangelism, and you will be next to Harrius Truman. I said, 24-hour? I remember. I said, what would we do all day? No, I remember. I said, I don't even know what we would do. I'm an evangelist in my thinking. My heroes are evangelists. They're not, they're evangelists. Let's put it that way. All my heroes. And he says, I saw the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord said, if you get to 500, you will go to 5,000 overnight by a flood of the Spirit. I said, we get to 500 what? He said, full-time intercessors. I said, we will have 500 full-time intercessors? He goes, no, you'll have 5,000 full-time intercessors. I said, full-time like it's their job? He goes, yes. That's what I said. What will we do? He says, you will sort that out when you get there. He said, watch Mississippi. Watch Mississippi. That's a sign. I said, what does that mean? He goes, I do not know what that means. The angel, I saw him with my eyes. He said, watch Mississippi. He said, but here's the word. 5,000 people will come, relocate, find a new home in Kansas City by a flood of the Spirit. Watch Mississippi. Within the, within a week or so, he brought the newspaper in, and the article tells the story, 5,000 people moved overnight because of a flood hitting Jackson, Mississippi. He goes, this is what I was telling you about a week ago. The angel said, when this sign happens, you will know for sure, it may be decades from now before this 500 turns to 5,000, but one day you will know with certainty there's a flood of the Spirit coming, and there will be a sudden growth to 5,000, and that's critical for God's purposes for this youth movement. He says, but don't be too encouraged, because when you go to 5,000, there will be more conflict than you can imagine when that happens. He said, it will be glorious on one side, but it will bring more trouble and conflict that you've ever imagined in your life. The second word, and I'll give more details on this in a, in a, one of the following sessions. We're doing eight sessions. This is the first one. He promised a healing anointing by saying that there would be no disease known to man that would stand before this people. Now, so that you know this, that anointing of healing will be upon the body of Christ across the nations, those that are pressing into the Lord. I've heard some people through the 25 years, they stress the phrase, this people. Here's how they say it, no, no disease known to man will stand before this people, and here's how it's supposed to be. No disease known to man will stand before this people. The point is no disease will stand before the authority of Jesus on the end time church, and this anointing will be on many streams that say yes to the purposes of God with all their heart. Had some people say, I'm moving there because of that anointing. No, that anointing will be wherever there are people pressing into God. You don't have to move here for that. Paragraph J, at the end of the 21 days, Bob Jones stands up. Now, this is where things turn. Everything so far, it's like, wow. I mean, audible voice, Comet, Gabriel, Daniel 9, Mississippi flood predicted a week ahead of time. I mean, this same numbers, 5,000 people. I thought, this is really neat. Bob stands up at the end of the 21 day fast, and he said, I have good news, and I have bad news. We're all out there. I mean, we're wrung out. He said, here's the bad news. The revival is not coming right away, but rather there is a spiritual drought that's been on this nation for a long time, and that spiritual drought over America is going to continue for yet another season. He said, but God has a determined day where he will break the drought in this nation, the spiritual drought. I'm talking about the lack of the full revival. There's refreshing here and there in pockets of the body of Christ, and I honor that, and I want more from anywhere that God's moving because the Lord's moving in other places more than he's moving here, and I want to receive from him. But no matter where he's moving, nothing is compared to what God is saying he's going to do to the church in this nation and the nations of the earth. He said that we're in a spiritual drought. We have been for some time, for some many decades. He was describing that's been a prolonged condition, but he said, I want to tell you there is a moment in time where the drought will break in this nation, the spiritual drought I'm talking about, and there will be a outpouring of revival that will be dramatic. He said that's going to happen. He said, here's a sign. There'll be a three-month natural drought in this city. He said, thus says the Lord, there will be a three-month natural drought, and that natural drought is going to happen, and it's going to convince you what I'm telling you about the spiritual drought because there is an appointed day. He says this at the end of May. He goes, on August 23rd, he says this publicly with several hundred people listening, he goes on August 23rd, thus says the Lord, the rains will come. I thought that is bold. I mean that was bold. Well, you can look at the handout. The note, I mean there was a drought, the worst drought minus one year in recorded history in Kansas City for just three months plus a week, and on August 23rd, on a Tuesday night, we gathered. It's several months later because this is the end of May. He says in August, August we gather, and the rains came. I mean it was a downpour. It only rained about a third of an inch, but it all came down in 20-30 minutes. It came like a storm at seven o'clock. Right when we were meeting at seven o'clock, we were gathering before the Lord, and this downpour came that people had to stay in their cars. So the very time of the meeting, the thing comes at this torrential downpour for 10, 15, 20 minutes, however long it lasted. We were shouting. We were happy because what it meant to us that if this man heard with that kind of precision at the end of May that on August 23rd, precisely on that day, the rains would come in the midst of a drought, then it means if that sign happened in the heavens, then that means the vision and the dream is true as well. And the vision that the sign backed up was simply this. The revival is not coming yet, but be of good cheer. There is an appointed hour. There is a pointed hour that God will break the drought in this nation, and that could be said of the nations of the earth. Every nation has its own time calendar with God. And I don't know when that day is coming, but beloved, don't get used to business as usual because there is going to be a radical breaking in of God, and not just power demonstrations, but of a requirement of abandonment in our private lives to the Holy Spirit. I'm talking about obedience at a new level. Some folks get excited about the revival, but the revival has meaning to it. The Lord will be jealous for radical obedience in our inward life, our private lives. I have here in paragraph K, now between March and August, look at this. There's an unusual snow, a comet, a flood, a drought, and a rain. Five things this prophetic man says, and it doesn't look like any of them would happen before he said them. And he attached a vision or a word from the Lord with each one of them, and these five different signs in the heavens, five of them in about a six month period of time. I mean, it's never been like that since that six month period of time. I mean, that was a one-time deal, but Bob has told me through the years, you're going to see this kind of thing happen at a far greater level as we get closer to the coming of the Lord, the signs in the heavens. But these five things are not just good stories. They speak of great responsibility. They speak of being faithful and not backing away and staying true to the purpose. Let's go to November 7th, paragraph L. Bob Jones comes to me on November 7th. Now it's been six months now since this 21 day fast that began on May 7th where the comet came. It's been six months. It's been a pretty weary six months, but we did have the rain of August 23rd. We had that rain that came, predicted, so it gave our, it bolstered our confidence. But still, it's pretty rough. The prayer meetings are really dull. The church is dull. Nobody's excited. It's kind of like what happened in May in six months was already kind of a faint memory to some of the people. November 7th, Bob comes to me and he said, on November 15th, in eight days, you're going to have a revelation directly from the throne of God. He said, and when you have this revelation, you will never doubt again that this 21 day fast that started on May 7th was the birthing of an end-time move, a youth group of singers and musicians that would move and empower evangelism and all the things he said. He goes, you're doubting it right now. You'll never doubt again after November 15th. I said, a direct revelation from heaven? He said, yes. I said, then that means I'm going up or somebody's coming down? He said, exactly. I said, really? This is real? He goes, yes. Well, his credibility was so great the last six months. The things that God did through him and he uttered and they came to pass were so astounding. I was excited. Well, November 15th comes. The whole day passes. It's 1115 at night. Nothing has happened yet, but Bob's track record is astoundingly accurate. In that season, and I mean many things since then, many, many things. Some of the things that we'll look at in the next couple days, astounding accuracy. Not just that a man had an accurate prophetic ministry, but there was a message that went with the accurate prophecy. That's the part I care about is the meaning, the message behind the accurate sign. So it's 1115. Nothing's happening. It's November 15th. I got 45 minutes to go. I'm at my office. I'm gonna go ahead and wait till midnight and I'm thumbing through the mail and I look at a book that I'd never heard of this man, Howard Pittman. It's just a little 50 page book called Placebo. Somebody sends it to me. Some woman from out in Kansas said, here, read this. I thought, placebo? I didn't know what a placebo was. I said, what is this? And it said in the description, man has death experience. I thought, well, that's interesting. I got 45 minutes, 50 pages. I can do that in 45 minutes. So I'm just kind of scanning through it, reading. It's kind of interesting. And I get, and what happens, Howard Pittman, some of you, we have the book in our bookstore. You really want to get it. Howard Pittman, in August 1979, he has a death experience. Now this is four years before where I'm at here in November 15th, 83. Four years early, I'm reading about this man. He's a policeman from Louisiana. He has a death experience. He hemorrhages and bleeds and dies. His spirit goes before the Lord. I thought, how fascinating. He stands before the Lord and God gives him five messages. And you really want to read this little book, Placebo. And in this five messages, the Lord tells him, the church in the Western world is, is in the Laodicean, our, they are a Laodicean church, the church in the Western world. Makes it clear to him. That's not a popular message. He goes, I heard that. I was in the presence of God directly. The Lord told Howard to go back. He says, I'm sending you back. Howard had a very negative experience because the Lord rebuked him for his lifestyle. The Lord was not pleased with him and he asked for mercy to have another chance. And the Lord says, yes, but here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a five-point message. You're going to go back. And he was in pain over the rebuke he received. He says, I was literally right outside the city gates and the thunderous voice of God came over the walls of that city and he rebuked me several different times and it was painful. And then he healed my heart at that time and says, now go back. Speak this word. He said, there's going to be a Gideon army raised up in the end times. That got my attention. I thought, I like that. He goes, they would move in signs and wonders beyond what the early apostles did and even some beyond where Elijah operated in power. God would raise up a Gideon army. And at the very end of the book, there's several different editions so you might not end up with the right one. There's several different editions in the book. This is written in May 1980. It talks about the Lord said on May 7th, 1983. Now that's the day we started the fast. That's the day the comet came across the sky. May 7th, 1983. That was the day where the 21-day fast. That's the day that Bob Jones says God's going to talk to you about. May 7th, 1983. When you stand a direct revelation from heaven, he's going to confirm that that day was really an important day to him. So I'm reading this in the book. It says on May 7th, 1983. I'm going to summarize it, not quote it. He came to visit us two or three times and we talked many hours. I talked to him for an hour on the phone just a couple days ago. We were rehearsing it all again. But I'm reading this. It says on May 7th, the meaning of it. Again, I'm not a quote. There will be a heavenly sign in the sky. And on May 7th, 1983, the Lord is going to begin to recruit in earnest his Gideon army for the return of the Lord. I said May 7th. I looked at the book. I said this was written three years before May 7th, 1983. How did, what? He wrote this book in 1980. I go, how did he know what would happen on May 7th three years ahead of time? And Howard says, well the Lord made it clear to me. On May 7th, 1983, he was going to begin to recruit in earnest his Gideon army that would lead to the return of the Lord. And he said there would be a sign in the heavens. I said, what's the sign? He goes, I even, on this phone call, he goes, I don't know. You got, you know, you're the one that has more insight than I do. I never knew what the sign was. So I finished this. I am so excited. I look at the clock. It's like one or two minutes till 12. It is true. I heard from heaven on November 15th, two minutes till 12 or one minute till 12. I call up Bob Jones. Bob! He goes, did you go up or did somebody come down? I said, somebody came down. He goes, well that's just as good. It's the Word of the Lord. I go, a man had a death experience in 1979. And the Lord, throughout the entire experience, made it clear to him. He wrote a book on it the next year in 1980, that on May 7th, 1983, God was going to recruit his Gideon army. We are part of that Gideon army. This is the Word the Lord gave us. And Bob says, I told you, you would hear from heaven on this day. I said, this is impossible that this guy could get this. I said, it has to be real. Bob says, I think you have it. You've got it now. Roman number 5, 16 years goes by. It's January 1999. Again, we got more detail on the notes here. A man comes to me on a Sunday morning, January 24th, and he says Haggai chapter 1 verse 2. And let's read it. It says, this people says in their heart, the time has not yet come that the house of the Lord should be built. He looked at me and he said, do not say in your heart, from Haggai chapter 1 verse 2, do not say, he opened the Bible, pointed, he goes, do not say it's not time to build this 24 hour house of prayer. And I said, well, I don't think it's time. He said, yeah, but you're not supposed to say that. I said, well, it doesn't really work that way. I said, you know, I appreciate your sincerity. No, I don't think so. I mean, I was thinking of the, just the immense amount of work and labor. I said, no, no, no, no, no, in the future. For sure, we're going to do it. Because we had a sign on the wall for most of the 16 years that said 24 hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. We had on the wall and everybody saw it from, for years and years. And he said, it's time to build it. I said, I don't know. I don't like so. Then, I went on the, got on the airplane that day and went to Colorado Springs and there's a prophetic conference. And that Wednesday in Colorado Springs, a man named Kingsley Fletcher comes to me. I don't know him, heard of him, but I'd never met him. He comes up to me and I'm with a group of guys talking and he points his finger at me like this. And he's smiling and, you know, and I know he's prophetic. So, you know, he's doing that and I'm going, I'm smiling and he's just doing this. And he said, he closed his eyes, he goes, do not say in your heart, it's not time to build the house of the Lord. Haggai chapter 1 verse 2. And I went, whoa. Now, I don't say nothing because I'm not, I'm not, you know, I said, wait, it's gonna take more than this. But I said, this is an amazing thing. And I was just in consternation about, I thought, these guys don't know each other. They're, this is, this is too random, but still. So, I asked the Lord. Paragraph B, I said, I need three confirmations. And the Lord won't always honor these, but sometimes He does. I said, Lord, if you will provide a building for me that I don't, I won't mention this, I won't say a word to anyone that I'm looking for one. Just have somebody give me a building. Number two, I'm pastoring a 3,000 member church, so I need a senior pastor and I need one that all the leaders will be in perfect unity. I need a hundred percent unity. And I'm not gonna go recruit one. I'm gonna do nothing. And number three, I said, Lord, my partner, Noel Alexander, all the years, and we'll talk more about Noel, that we labored in prayer together. I said, tell Noel in a supernatural way. Just tell him. I said that in Colorado Springs. In the month of February, all three of them happened without me doing anything. Bob Hartley came to me and said, hey, I want to make available a building, the trailers. He goes, if you want prayer or training or just outreach, just whatever. Prayer meetings, whatever you want to do. I just want to make it available to you. I said, okay. That was the easy one of the three. I said, okay. If it happens, if I need it, I'll let you know. Thanks. Floyd McClung, a friend, brings him by my house unplanned in February, Friday night. Unplanned. He's sitting across me in the living room. Floyd's a powerful man of God. And I said, he said, well, I'm in a transition. I said, wow, because a man I have great respect for, mature in the Lord, mature in leadership. And I said, well, what's your transition? He goes, I'm going to build a church. I said, where? He goes, I don't know, but I believe it's going to be in a major city. I don't have one picked out. I said, what are your key ideas? It's not even on my mind yet. So I'm talking to him. I mean, I'm not connecting at this instantly as to what's going on. He said, well, I want a church that's built on, that loves missions, that loves prayer, that sell groups. And he listed a couple things. I go, wow, that's perfect. I go, where are you going? He goes, I don't know. I'm open to go anywhere. It became clear he was coming here and our leadership was in full unity. That has happened suddenly. So I did not ask him to come to my house. It happened that somebody brought him and just came by to say hi. And then on February 20th, Noel Alexander, I went to be with him to speak to his men's group on a Saturday morning. I got Ed Hackett. I said, Ed, I'm gonna go talk to Noel. I said, I got a private thing with me and God going on that nobody knows about, but I want to tell you about it. I'm thinking of starting the house of prayer. Of course, Ed went, wow, that's awesome. I go, no, no, no, let's not be excited yet. I said I'm going to, but it's looking ominous. It's looking like it's really gonna happen. Because it was, it made me nervous. I wasn't, it was exciting after I settled it, but it was a little bit for a while. I wasn't quite ready. I don't know that you're ever ready for a transition. So I said, and I told the Lord he has to tell Noel Alexander. I go, Noel hasn't, I haven't talked to Noel in a couple of years and he just randomly called me. I don't think this is it, but it is random. So I said, but I want you to be a witness. So we drove over there and so talked to Noel and Noel says, I got to tell you something. He goes, I was just in England and I was doing a conference and a man came to me. And I got, again, some of the details on the page here to where and who and when. And he said, a man came to me who I did not know and said he had the word of the Lord. He said, go home, call Mike Bickle and tell him it's time to build the 24-hour house of prayer. Noel said, you know, I wouldn't bother you with a prophecy because I went somewhere and somebody gave me a prophecy to give you. I wouldn't even bother you. But he goes, the next day I went to a city far away. They didn't know each other. A man I did not know came to me. After I got through preaching, it said, I have the word of the Lord. Go home and tell Mike Bickle it's time to build the house of prayer. So Noel said, I'm here to tell you it's time to build the house of prayer. I went, oh, I mean, it's February. I've only had the conditions out for less than 30 days. They've all been met. Well, the senior pastor one took a little while to lead, but it was looking pretty clear it was going to land and it did. I said, oh my goodness. Then here was the commitment I made to the Lord, the agreement. I'll end with this. And I say this just for some of you in your ministries in the future, whether you're part of IHOP or another place. Here's, I said, Lord, I got to be serious about this. Number one, here's my commitment. I'm not gonna travel to go recruit leaders. I'm not gonna get on the airplane and go recruit people. I'm not gonna do it. Number one. Number two, I'm not gonna go raise money. I'm just not gonna do it. And number three, I'm not gonna stress and strain to come up with creative ideas where we're supposed to move, how it's supposed to happen. I'm not even gonna think about it, to be honest. That's my, I'm not gonna do any of those three. I mean, I think it's important to have leadership meetings, but I said, I can't figure out how to get next to Harry S. Truman. I'm not even gonna try. And I said, but here's what I will do. I'll work long hours. I'll say really unpopular things. If you say things to me to say, I'll say them. I may grimace, but I'll say them. And I won't quit in the pressure of growth or the pressure of resistance or criticism. I won't quit. I go, so that's the deal. You send me leaders. You send me money. You give me great ideas. I'm not gonna do those three things. I work long, hard hours. I say unpopular things, and I don't quit. You do your part. I do my part. If that's the deal, I'll do it. And the reason that was important, I said, if I hop dives of starvation, I'm not gonna go raise money. I'm just not gonna ever do it. So I said, if you care about leaders, money, and divine ideas, send them. If you don't, then I'm innocent. But I'll do hard work. I'll say unpopular things, and I won't quit. And I felt the pleasure of the Lord. And he's honored that for ten years. Amen. So we're all here. We're all here tonight. I'll say one more thing. Then we're gonna have a Bob Jones video. And then Matt Gilman's gonna come up and lead worship. And we're gonna be back here tomorrow at nine o'clock in the morning to jump right into another session. And I'm gonna say one more thing. Just stay seated, if you would. I've had people over the years that have come to me, and they said, we saw that sign on the wall at 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David. We had that sign for nearly 16 years. Not exactly, but nearly. And people would say, what is that? And I, for years, you know, 10, 15 years, I would say, I really don't know. 24-hour prayer, this is, it is what it is. They said, what does it mean? I go, I don't really know. Singers, musicians, something. I said, I can't picture it in my brain. I just can't picture it. And so when IHOP started, started, and then it's, it began to get established, through the years, people would come to me, last couple years, four or five years, and they would say, wow, this is your dream. It's happening. Look, it's what Bob Jones said 25 years ago. It's what the angel of the Lord said. It's happening. Your dream's coming. And I said, no, it's not. They said, what do you mean? IHOP is full, and the Lord's blessed it economically, and there's leaders, excellent leaders, and people with humility, and good. I said, no. I said, IHOP is not my dream. I said, IHOP is my assignment. I said, the dream of my heart is what happens between my heart and Jesus. I go, nobody can touch the dream of my heart. What I dream about at night isn't a big IHOP. What I dream about at night is the anointing to connect with God's heart, in the deepest way that God will give the human spirit. I go, that's my dream. And if IHOP gets real big, my dream doesn't get helped at all. If IHOP disappears, my dream's not hurt at all. This is not my dream. This is my assignment. I appreciate it. I'll do it hard, but I'm not going to recruit leaders, raise money, or think all night about what to do. I'm going to connect with God. Amen. I'll end with that. Let's bring Bob Jones on the video, and then Matt Gilman, come on up.