Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of the Gospel in his sermon, highlighting that it is the power of God for salvation available to everyone who believes. He explains that salvation encompasses past, present, and future dimensions, urging believers to engage with the Gospel daily to experience God's power in their lives. Bickle also connects the need for personal renewal in faith with the anticipation of a coming great awakening, encouraging the congregation to actively seek the Holy Spirit's presence and power now. He stresses that the Gospel's truths should be the foundation of our identity in Christ, leading to a life of victory over sin and despair. Ultimately, he calls for a community that actively prays for healing and believes in God's promises, refusing to settle for anything less than the fullness of His benefits.

Well, this is one of my favorite themes here in Romans chapter 1, verse 16 and 17. I'm sure that many of you would agree that it's one of your favorite themes, but it's the most necessary truth that we need to be renewed in over and over and over again as the song goes. In Romans chapter 1, verse 16, for the gospel of Christ, it is the power of God. It's the power of God to salvation. It is for everyone who believes, for in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Now, the last number of weeks, Alan has been speaking on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and then last week, we spent three days before the Lord as a local church and as a ministry, a missions organization, standing before the Lord, asking Him for a greater measure of Holy Spirit. And so, I'm just wanting to connect with those themes, but emphasize my emphasis today, although I'm very committed and gripped by the reality of God wanting to release a historic visitation of the Spirit in our nation, a third great awakening. You know, we've mentioned several times that in the 1700s was the first great awakening. In the 1800s was the second great awakening in America, where, I mean, multitudes are swept into the kingdom in an unusual, dramatic, powerful fashion. But we haven't had a third great awakening in the last 200 years, I mean, 150 years or so. And I believe that the Lord has scheduled one to come to our nation, and we're contending for that with millions of intercessors across our nation. But while believing for a great historic intervention, we want to be fully engaged with the Holy Spirit's power now in the measure we're walking in. We want to see that measure increase, even while we're waiting for a historic national visitation. And the reason I say that is that I have found over the years that some groups, when they get really into contending for the national revival, they draw back from interacting with the Holy Spirit in the present tense. Then other groups that are really into the Holy Spirit's power right now, they've given up any hope of a great revival. They said, no, this is as good as it gets. And I don't think we have to choose one or the other. We're believing for a historic revival, a third great awakening far greater than the But we want to move in the power of God today, this afternoon, tomorrow. We're not waiting till later to operate in the power of God. And Paul the Apostle, let's read this verse again, he says the gospel of Christ is the power of God. What he means by that is by the gospel, by responding to God on the basis of gospel truth, the truths that are represented in the gospel, Jesus died for us, rose from the dead and we relate to him in faith and obedience. Those are the core gospel truths. When we respond to God in gospel truths, it releases the power of God in our experience even right now. It says it's the power of God into salvation. Now salvation has a past tense dimension to it. Of course, we were saved the day we were born again and we're forgiven and we have our citizenship in heaven. It happened instantaneously. We were born again in one moment. We were saved in the past tense, forgiven. Our citizenship is in heaven. That is an established past tense fact. But salvation has a present tense element as well. So though it's true we were saved, it's equally true we are being saved. And that is a reference to experiencing the power of God right now, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. So we were saved and we're being saved, that we're experiencing his power in our body, in our emotions, in our circumstances, in our relationships. But it's also true to talk about salvation in the future tense, we're going to be saved. And that speaks of the resurrected body living in the new Jerusalem in the age to come, etc. So when Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation, he's including past, present, and future. We were saved, we're being saved, we will be saved. All of it is based upon responding to God according to the gospel truths. And again, Jesus died, rose from the dead. We respond to him in confidence that he will give us freely the grace of God. And that response of faith puts us in a position to experience the power of God. Now he says that it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. I love the word everyone. Doesn't matter how broken, it doesn't matter how weak, it doesn't matter how steep you were in darkness, the gospel has a greater power than any darkness that you could ever be entrenched in. It is more powerful, it is for everyone, that nobody is outside of the reach of God's forgiveness, but more than that, they're not outside of the reach, their brokenness is not stronger than God's power, if they will relate to God on gospel terms. And he says it in one word here, he says believes. Now the word believes here is not just a one-time act of belief, of faith, the day we were born again. We believed in him that day, and we were born again, we were transferred to the kingdom of God from the kingdom of darkness, it says in Colossians 1. That was a one-time act, but this believing is an ongoing interaction with God where we're having confidence in gospel truths. Now the problem is, or the challenge, is that a lot of believers, they gave themselves to Jesus, they're born again, and they look back on the day, I believed in him, but today, in the present tense, they're not drawing with confidence upon those gospel promises. They're kind of content to go to heaven when they die, and just struggle along day by day in their darkness, in their lethargy, stuck in sin, condemnation, shame, hanging in there till they die. And I say no, that if we will believe in an ongoing interaction with the Lord in his promises day after day after day, Paul says that's the context of which the power of God is experienced. Well he says the same thing again in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, let's look at that verse. He says the message of the gospel to us who are being saved, now he puts that present tense, we're being saved, the message of the cross to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. In Romans he said the gospel of Christ, in Corinthians he said the message of the cross. What's the difference between the gospel of Christ and the message of the cross? None. It's exactly the same thing. He's saying the same truth in two different terms. And he's saying that, verse 18, the fact of what he did on the cross, and by implication the resurrection and the ascension, the fact of what he did, that's not enough, the fact of what he did, it's us believing in it that releases it into our life. He died, but if we don't receive it in an ongoing way, we will not enter into the experience of it in terms of our life and our emotions being transformed and the power of God actually being experienced in an everyday situation. I am so not content to just go to heaven when I die. I want to experience everything that God's made available to the human spirit in this age. I want to enter into the fullness of whatever time frame we're in, because I know there's a great historic divine appointment for our nation and the nations, I know that's around the corner, but I'm not going to wait until then. I want to enter into fullness today, Sunday. I want to walk in it Monday. I want to walk in it when I'm tired on Tuesday. I want to walk in it on Wednesday. I don't want to wait until later. And the Lord says, well, the gospel of Christ or the message of the cross, say it any way you want, if you'll relate to me with confidence in those truths, you will experience the power of God more and more and more. Now, this message is the message, of course, we've heard it over and over, but we need to constantly be renewed in this message. And the people that you're investing your time and energy into ministry, this is the message they need. Of course, this message has many implications. You know, in one sentence, it's who we are in Christ is what I'm talking about. Who we are in Christ. Let's look at paragraph B and develop that just a bit more. Paul is now using, he's saying the same truth, but using different language here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. That we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He's saying the same thing as the message of the cross or the gospel of Christ. The new creation, it's the same exact truth that he's talking about. He's just approaching it from a different angle. Let's look at it again. He says, if anyone is in Christ, there we go. If anyone is in Christ, it's the same idea, no matter how broken, no matter how bruised, no matter how addicted, you can't be disqualified based on how bad you were. His grace is bigger than your ability to sin. There's no bondage bigger, stronger than the power of God. But when we submit to God on gospel terms, that's the idea. The fact that that power is available doesn't mean that everyone enters into it that's in a household of faith. Many believers, they just look at the facts of the gospel and they go, praise God. But they're content to move on in their powerlessness, their despair, their condemnation, their fear. And they just kind of make peace with their brokenness. And I say, no, I don't want to make peace with my sin and brokenness. I want to say, there's more for me in Christ and there's more for you and the people that we're investing time and energy to minister to. We want to, we want them to be anchored in this message. Well Paul says, here's the message. It's this dramatic declaration. I mean, when I first read this years ago, I thought, surely Paul's exaggerating. I mean, not really. Are all things new really? I mean, honestly, they don't feel that new. He makes this declaration of truth from God's point of view. When God looks at the born again believer, he is a new creation. Not going to be. He is a new creation. He or she, the moment they're born again. Now in what sense are you a new creation? Well the human makeup is body, soul, and spirit. We got a physical body, we understand. We have a soul, that's our personality, mind, emotion, will. We have a personality, a soul, and we have a human spirit. One preacher said, we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. The true essence of who you are is who you are in your spirit. And our spirit is the most elusive part of our human makeup. Meaning, our body we can touch. Our personality, well we can observe it and, you know, understand parts of it. Some of it we still can't understand. But our spirit is invisible. We can't get a handful of it and measure it with our five senses. Paul said something happened in your spirit man. The day you were born again, your spirit man became the righteousness of God. It means it became the recipient of the righteousness of God. When it says here in verse 21, we are the righteousness of God, it means your spirit man received the very righteousness that God possesses. And because of that, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because if we wouldn't have received the righteousness, the Holy Spirit couldn't come and live in us. He couldn't dwell in darkness. He has to dwell where there's unity. So we received the gift of righteousness and then the first, the implication of that is, then we get the indwelling spirit. So Paul says, you may not know that your spirit man is radically different because our spirit was dead before we came to Christ. Spiritually dead. It wasn't non-existent. It was spiritually dead. Darkness was in our spirit. We're born again. We receive the righteousness of God. We receive the indwelling spirit. Though we can't measure it, we can't feel it, we can't discern it with our five senses, but we look at the word of God and the word of God says it's true. Whether your five senses can measure it and discern it doesn't make it true or not true. It's true because God said he did it. So I say, God, you said that's what happened to my inner man. That's, I believe you. And if that's true, I'm going to relate to you on the basis of who I am before you as a man that's a new creation, that I possess the righteousness of God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, which means I possess it, and I have the indwelling spirit. So I'm not going to relate to you mostly on the basis of what I lack or how I failed or what I don't have. I'm going to relate to you on the basis of who I am in your sight. I am a new creation. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I do have the indwelling spirit. I am part of the bride of Christ. I am a son of God. This is who I am. Of course, every one of these truths are truths we only know because they're in the word of God. When we try to measure our life, we look in the mirror and go, I don't see the bride of Christ in there. The Lord says, you're not going to get the information by your five senses. You're going to get the information from the word of God. But you're going to live by the word, not live by what you see. That's what it means to live by faith. That's what it means to believe in the gospel. It's an ongoing interaction of confidence in the gospel truths. It's not enough, again, I've already said it 10 times, but it's not enough to have believed back then, the day we were born again. I mean, that was important that we did. But the believing is an ongoing interaction where I draw on the truths of who I am, those gospel truths. I am the righteousness of Christ. I am a new creation. I have the indwelling spirit. I'm part of the bride of Christ. I'm in the family of God. And it goes on and on, these realities. Well, Paul says, old things passed away. You know, we need to stop in our relationship with the Lord and pause and say, Lord, thank you that the old things passed away. What passed away? Paragraph one I have here. You were under condemnation. I mean, if you would have died outside of Christ, you would have had to answer for all of your sins. That's called condemnation. You were under condemnation. That's passed away. You're no longer under condemnation. We're in a new position where the very righteousness of God has been given to us. And the indwelling spirit, our spirit man literally possesses the righteousness of God in the indwelling spirit. And God relates to us on that basis. But he wants us to respond to him on that basis as well. He sees us that way, but he wants us to see ourselves and respond to him on the basis of what the word of God says about us. Old things have passed away. The condemnation is gone. Paul said there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Romans 8, verse 1, that's a verse that we need to throw back at the devil every time he comes and tells us to give up and give in. We're worthless. We're failures. We're never going to make it. We need to say there is no condemnation. I stand before the Lord accepted and the Lord actually enjoys the relationship with me because of what Christ did, not because of what I did. And I'm not going to back away from that and let the devil rip me off. And we've got to stand together as a community and not let any of us, any among us kind of wallow in those truths and sink in the mud of condemnation and shame. We say, no, no. We want to lift you out of that by believing what the word of God says. That old thing has passed away. Well there's another old thing that passed away. There's actually a list of them. I'm just giving a little bit. When we were confronted with sin, when lust or darkness rose up in our emotions, we had no power over it. We had the power not to do it outwardly because if you do all your outward sins, they throw you in prison. So people can restrain outwardly. The powerlessness is in the idea they can't change their emotions. I mean they could stop, but the tornado on the inside of lust and anger and bitterness and hatred is burning. They don't have power over that. And they don't have power to stop the devil. When the devil attacks them, they have no authority with the devil because they're under the devil's authority. They're in his domain. Paul said that passed away. Old things are gone. You're not in the same position you were before you were born again. Now again, the only reason you know this, not because you look in the mirror and you can see it, not because you can measure it with your five senses, because the word of God declares it and we live by the word. That again is what it means that the power of God to everyone who believes, the believing is ongoing, confidence in those truths in an ongoing way is what the believing is about. Well I'm going to say the same thing in paragraph two, but I'm just going to say it in a positive way. Old things have passed away. Paul says this big word, all, like really? I mean I just remember my early days in the Lord. I looked at this verse and said, all things, Paul, how'd you sneak that into the Bible? How'd you get away with that? There's not a chance that's true. I look at my life, I go, in what sense are all things gone? Now again, he's talking about our spirit man and I didn't understand that. I was thinking my outward features or my struggles or sins, they're all, everything's different. I go, I feel kind of the same, I got a little more peace and a little bit more hope and I'm on the right trajectory, but you know, I'm still pretty messed up. I wouldn't say all things are new and Paul would say, well yeah, because you don't know about your spirit man, because you don't know enough in the word of God to know who you are in Christ. You received the gift of righteousness, so God's fully accepted you. I go, okay, that's a good new thing that's a new thing. Well, it's more than God's accepted you, He actually enjoys you. Most of us are accustomed to the idea that God's mostly mad or mostly sad when He relates to us, even as believers. You know, as believers, He's going, you do that one more time and I'm taking you to the woodshed. Like, okay, okay God, yes sir. Or He's saying, you know what, I'm not mad at you, but I'm just so sad, I'm always grieved when I, when you worship before me, I'm just grieving. And if you talk to some people, that's how they present God, is mostly mad and mostly sad when He relates to His people. But in our weakness, if we, if we fall in sin, but we really repent of it. I mean, we say, Lord, we're declaring war against this sin. The scripture says that sin is out of the conversation, it is removed as far as the east is from the west. It really is gone from the conversation. Now the devil wants to bring it up and keep it in the conversation, it's called shame and condemnation. He wants your failure constantly in the conversation you have with the Lord. But if that sin is repented of, you might stumble on it again. But I mean, we stand up and we say, I declare war on that, that is sin, I'm not okay with that. Lord, I'm committed to your leadership. The Lord says, I enjoy the relationship, even while you're growing through that process, because you're agreeing with me, even though you're stumbling. Now there's another guy that just camps in his sin and says, hey, glory to the grace of God. And that's called presumption. That's called deception, a distortion of the grace of God. Well the all things is more than we're enjoyed by God. I mean, that's, that's enough, you know, to enjoy. You enjoy me even while the relationship, even while I'm growing, yes, Mike, I enjoy interacting with you. I'm like, Lord, if that's true, even in my brokenness and weakness, yes, well, then I want to interact with you all the time. And that's what the devil knows. That's why he does not want that truth clear in the minds of people. He wants us always on probation, kind of any minute now about to get kicked out of the kingdom. That's how the devil wants us perceiving ourself before God, because then we never get confident. And if we're never confident, we never run to him with an open heart. We run from him and we negotiate and we try to make deals with God. If he'll give us one more chance. That's called religion. That's called condemnation. That's called distortion. But we have more than acceptance. The all things. We have the authority to use the name of Jesus. I mean, is this amazing? When a devil comes against us, we have the badge. We can use the name of Jesus and stop him before you were born again. Then you had no authority to stop him. Now you can stop him. A lot of believers don't. They just let the devil just run in and destroy their life and they kind of say, well, I'm just trusting the sovereignty of God and the God says, but in my sovereignty, I offered up my son on the cross. He died, paid the penalty. I gave you the indwelling spirit and his authority in my sovereignty. I want you to stand. So in partnership, we're standing against darkness. Well, no, Lord, I don't want to do all that. I'm just going to just trust you. He goes, no, I gave you the authority. You resist the devil and he flees. It's my power, but you have to stand. Well, it's more than the authority to use the name of Jesus. We have the indwelling Holy Spirit. I mean, this is amazing. By the indwelling Holy Spirit, you know, 1 Corinthians says that 1 Corinthians 6, he that's joined to the Lord is one spirit with God. Like what? Our spirit man and the Holy Spirit are together forever. And the only reason the Holy Spirit could dwell in us is because we have the gift of righteousness because the Holy Spirit couldn't dwell in us if there was darkness in our spirit. And with the Holy Spirit, I can commune with God by the Holy Spirit. I have power to feel his love and power to love him back. Power to love you in the overflow of loving him. Because really loving him and loving you is the same reality because if you love him, it always overflows. And I've heard people say, well, you know, I'm really into loving God, the first commandment, and you know, I haven't really got to the second. I go, that's impossible. If you interact with that man, that blazing, fiery man of love, you're going to love the people he loves. If you run into him, you'll love the people he loves. You can't, there's no, it's a, it's a hypothetical argument to separate those two. But not only do we commune with him by the spirit, we have power. So when lust rises up in our emotions, we could talk to the Holy Spirit and say, thank you, Holy Spirit for power over that lust. And this is a lot of believers never, never do this, that, that when anger rises up in your heart, if you will pause a second, turn your attention to the Holy Spirit who lives in your spirit and don't ask him for patience, say, thank you. Thank you for peace. Right now. I'm telling you, your emotions will shift in that moment. Very, very quick. Very, very fast. I mean, the anger will come back, but you live by that faith, by that ongoing interaction. When you get negative emotions, you talk right to the spirit. Thank him that he's in your midst. He has peace and power over that. You'll have a reprieve from that negative emotion. Again, that negative emotion will come back again and again, but you have an answer for it. We don't just grit our teeth and go through the fiery kind of circumstances. We interact with a person that has the power of supernatural peace. When we feel anger, we can touch peace, but we got to turn our attention to him and thank him for his presence and his powerful presence in our spirit, and your emotions will actually feel it. I remember some years ago when I first began to experience this, when anger would rise up, and I'd say, Holy Spirit, thank you for peace. Not give me peace. Thank you. It's in me. I talked right to him. My emotions would just kind of have this reprieve, and I went, wow, this is supernatural. I couldn't ever make that happen before. This is more than powerful, positive thinking, the power of positive thinking. This is a person inside of me. Now you got to draw on it regularly. That's called abiding in Christ. We're constantly in that ongoing believing interaction, but that releases the gospel power. When it says the gospel is the power of God, if you believe in an ongoing way, that power just incrementally, it's not always dynamic and just amazing, overwhelming, but it's just kind of this sense of the Lord's presence touching our heart, touching our circumstances here and there. We go, Lord, this is really happening. This is real. He goes, yeah, I'm really in you. I really give you peace. I really give you communion with God. Well, we have the ability to resist sin. We have the ability to resist sickness. We have the ability to resist Satan. These are the things that are new, that are in us. Let's look at paragraph C. This is kind of the passage I was really stirred up about. We won't get much further than this, but you know me, I don't, never trying to get done with the handouts, always to give you a little extra to bring home. But this is the part I'm really excited about. Just preparing for this message, Psalm 103, where King David, the man after God's own heart, he was determined that he was going to walk in everything that God had for him. Beloved, we are a people. I am not content to come up short in anything that he has for us for today. I don't mean just contending for tomorrow. I want to contend for tomorrow for a greater measure, for sure. But I want to enter into today's portion. I want to see the power of God today. I want a greater measure of it tomorrow, and then a greater measure the next tomorrow. I always want to see it increase. Look what David said. He said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget none of his benefits. In other words, don't neglect any of his benefits. That's the zeal, the tenacity that's in my heart to really communicate that we would have a renewed zeal to neglect none of his benefits as a spiritual family, as a local church, as a ministry, as a missionary organization that's a part of this local church as well. I will neglect none of your benefits. That's what David said. And he goes on. He lists a bit. For Psalm 103, you just go on and on. It's a long psalm, and there's so much in it. He goes, Number one, you forgive all my sins. You pardon all my iniquities. Iniquity and sin is the same thing. You forgive every single one of my sins. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. I am standing before you in the grace of God, and you accept me, Lord. You pardon all my iniquities. Whoa, that's a big statement. Beloved, refuse condemnation. Refuse it. The devil is a liar. He can get you to agree with condemnation if he can shift the conversation that you have with God into mostly how bad you are and what you don't have and how bad you're being treated and how bad you fail and how little you have. If he makes that the central conversation with you and the Lord, then he will keep you from growing in the grace of God. Now that is a little bit in our conversation, but that's the peripheral. The major conversation is who he is, who I am to him, what I have, what dwells in me now, the authority that's mine, and oh, yeah, Lord, and I lack this, and I failed here. That's the secondary part of the conversation, not the primary part of the conversation because he heals all of your diseases. We'll look at that in a moment. Verse 4. Oh, I love this. David said, God is the one, the Lord. He redeems my life from the pit. The other translation says from destruction. What that means is David says, God, when I've submitted to him in this ongoing believing, this ongoing believing relationship, he will make the destruction in my life work together for my good. He will redeem it. Now destruction happens in my life. I think of three sources. Number one, my own sin and bad mistakes, category one. Number two, people are malicious and mistreat me. Category three, the devil attacks me. And I said, well, which one of these? I mean, all of them create a destruction. The Lord says, you submit to me no matter how much you failed, no matter who's attacking you and mistreating you, no matter what the rage of Satan is, I'll turn the whole thing around and redeem it for your good. Now, David knew about this because David had some real, uh, grievous, uh, sins in his life. I mean, adultery and murder, plus, plus, plus. And David said, you know, I was in destruction and betrayal and people against him and the devil raging, but the Lord turned it all around and redeemed the situation because David submitted to the Lord that Romans 8, 28 truth. God makes all things work together for good. If you'll submit to him, if you'll enter into that ongoing believing, not the believing, you know, the day you're born again only, but today believing him for this, he says he crowns our life with loving kindness and compassion. David says, what David is saying here is the destruction, my own sin, the attack against me by people or the rage of Satan, whichever type of destruction it is. What David's saying is that's not the final word over my life. The final word over my life is God's leadership and he crowns me. The end of the day, his leadership has compassion in it and everything he's planning for me. And the enemy will come and say, the final word, the crowning word of your life is how bad you blew it, how bad you're mistreated, or how much the devil's attacked you. David says, no, no. The crowning word of my life, the leadership, the banner over my life is he leads me with compassion always in his mind. He's looking at my life going, Mike, compassion. You may not understand it, but I'm leading you with compassion in every way. David said, that's the crown. That's the place that I rule from with the confidence that compassion is unfolding in God's plan. And he goes, he satisfies your years with good things. He will give you all the good things that are necessary to fulfill the will of God in your life. Now some people have a list of good things over here and God has a list of good things over here and it's not always the same list. So the qualifier is, he'll satisfy you with good things that will enable you, enrich you, equip you to fulfill the will of God in your life. Those are the good things. And your youth will be renewed like an eagle. I mean, like an eagle. You know, so many people, believers, they've been going for so many, for so many years and burnout is kind of the, the big thing. That's kind of the one word that kind of everybody can relate to, burnout. Well how so? Burned out. And that's kind of, that word kind of means they're drawing back, they're disappointed, they're hurt, they're condemned, they've been mistreated, they're disappointed, obstacles. There's a hundred things that are that bad are burnout. But what David is saying is, I can be renewed. I don't have to give up and give in. I can get renewed in my spirit no matter what the conflict is and I can have that vigor of my youth. He was using that imagery of a youthful vigor, but he was talking about his spiritual life. I can regain that back. Now every one of these promises are statements that need to be in our mouths when we talk to God. Now when David, look at verse 2 of Psalm 103, he goes, bless the Lord. I want to change the terminology, say thank you God for this. Instead of bless you, say thank you. When the enemy comes and says, you're finished, say no. Bless the Lord, thank you. You, you forgive all my sins. When the enemy attacks our body, thank you Lord, you heal all my diseases. When the enemy says, your life is destroyed, thank you Lord. You can turn everything for good. These phrases need to be in our mouth in our conversation with God. It's not a, just a kind of a worship song, we sing it through once on a Sunday, hey we got that one. No, this is the ongoing dialogue. This is the confession of our faith before the Lord. David carried these themes in his conversation with the Lord. Now look at paragraph E for just a moment here. Says the Lord who heals all of our diseases. Now Jesus purchased our healing on the cross. And it's God's nature to heal as revealed through the ministry of Jesus. Look what it says, for this purpose the Son of God was manifest that he would destroy the works of the devil. Then in Acts chapter 10, the apostle Peter was given a commentary. He said Jesus went about doing good. He was healing everyone oppressed by the devil. The devil oppresses people with sickness. I don't mean that every type of sickness is a direct demonic oppression, but there's demonic oppression and attack in the midst of it. Some people break natural laws and their body gets sick and the devil can say, hey, I wasn't like touching him, I should have been, but that wasn't me right there, that was him breaking God's laws and then coming up on the consequences of it. But the devil's always involves one way or the other, you know, either directly or indirectly. But what my point is here, it's not always a direct demon causing every time that you catch a cold. Sometimes you need to pay attention to the natural laws. Okay, I've talked to myself. Okay, Mark chapter 16, let's move on. Now it is God's nature to heal and all of our diseases are healed. Now what that means is, and there's, you know, there's confusion about this point in the body of Christ. I understand it. I've walked in the tension of it for years and I don't say I have it down perfectly, but all of our diseases are healed in the big picture of redemption. Every believer will have a perfectly healed, resurrected body for billions and billions and billions of years. There is no question that Jesus's death did not purchase total and final healing for every believer forever. That is clear. Now, where the tension is, is that Jesus on the earth, when his glory was manifested, three and a half years, he says, when my glory is manifest, I'm healing every disease in this age when the glory of God is an open manifestation. And it was in his healing ministry. Now there's moments where we see his glory being manifested in an unusual way. And maybe everybody's healed in that season. And outside of that, we have a healing here and another one there and another one here and another one there. And we can't quite tell exactly how it's going to work. In one group, they kind of make peace with people being sick and they go, well, you're going to get healed in the resurrection, so let's just stay sick between now and then and just take our chances and go to the doctor, which I appreciate doctors, go to the doctor and trust the sovereignty of God. And I don't think that's the right position. We just give up and just live with sickness and take shots and trust the sovereignty of God. No, we want to be aggressive about healing because Jesus revealed he's a healing God. He heals us forever. And when his glory was manifest openly and fully, everyone was healed that got to touch the glory of God in that arena. We know it's in his heart. So Jesus says, well, let me make it real clear. Mark chapter 16. He goes, these signs will follow those who believe those that stay engaged with me, believe you. Remember, staying engaged, ongoing interaction, not a one time believing the day you were born again. Only he says, here's what they'll do. They'll lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover. So are the where, where, where I have concluded some many years ago actually, is that I don't know who's going to get healed in this age. I know everybody was going to be healed physically forever, but I believe it's our kingdom responsibility to lay hands on the sick, everyone that's sick, that comes in our sphere, that asked for healing, that wants it. We are to lay hands on them and we're in an ongoing confidence that God is a healing God and God wants to heal. And if they're on their deathbed and they're still, I mean the last moments we still should be asking for healing. There's never a moment we should just say, well, you know, it's too late. No. You know, I had a, I said, I had, I have five sisters. We had a brother who was paralyzed for 33 years and we had hundreds of healing services, probably hundreds and many more prophecies. But apart from that, we prayed for him all the time, many, many, many, many, many thousands of times and right before he died, I mean days before he died in the hospital with tubes all over him, I said, I'm going to believe you to get out of the hospital and get healed. I am never going to concede you're dying paralyzed till you die. But then when, if you do die, I'm not going to say the Bible's a liar. I don't know what happened. I don't want as a community for us to be the people who know all the reasons why it didn't happen because the groups that know all the reasons, it typically boils down to somebody did this wrong and he did that wrong. Then they're all pointing fingers. I don't, I don't, I'm not into that at all. I've watched that for 40 years and when groups do that, they typically at the end of the day, 10 years later, they back completely away from healing. I want to go super hard for healing, believe for healing time after time when they die and they're not healed. We don't need answers. We say, I don't have the answer. That's just where it's at. But I'm going to pray for the next guy here for healing and if they're on their deathbed, I'm going to pray for healing. Now I'm going to pray for Wes Adams, who's been paralyzed 50 plus years for healing and if he doesn't get healed, well, I'm not even going to talk that way, I'm going to pray for his healing. I don't care what condition he's in. If he's got breath, I'm going for your healing, Wes. I'm going for Bob Sorge's healing of his voice. I'm going for everybody in our midst that we pray for, but we don't need to have the answer. Like when my brother died, they said, what happened? I said, I don't need that answer. All I know is if you're sick, I'll pray for you right now. I'm not negotiating the word of God because I can't figure it all out. Now here's what Jesus said here, verse 18. He goes, I'll lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. Now what we wish this passage said, you'll lay hands on the sick and there'll be miracles. Because healing is progressive. Miracles are instantaneous. I like miracles. I like one prayer, instant drama, wow. That's how I like it. The Lord says, yeah, I do that. I give miracles and you never know when. That's why you're always engaged with expectation. Now the problem with expectation, you can get bruised because you're expecting it doesn't happen. Our hearts get bruised. The Lord says, I'll help you with that. But don't ever draw back on expectation. Always go into every single prayer time with expectation and if the person dies at the end of the story and the healing is not progressive, because right here it says they'll recover. That's progressive. Little by little, we may pray, it may be a hundred prayers for brother Bill, it may be a thousand prayers. Lord, which is it? The Lord says, I'm not going to tell you. You just pray the next time for Bill. Well, Lord, no, no, no, no, no. You just pray the next time for him. You pray with anticipation. You pray with confidence I'm a healing God. You pray with confidence. Bill's going to be healed forever for sure. But I heal lots of people now. That's my nature. And when my glory is manifest, they always get healed when my glory is fully manifest even in this realm. But your glory is kind of manifest. Lord says, just go with all of your heart and believe for healing. Now again, the healing here is progressive. It's little by little. We may again pray a hundred times, a thousand times, and they might just get an incremental sometimes three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, two steps back. The Lord says, you don't need to measure that. You just keep laying hands on them. Now there's a community dimension to this commandment of the Lord. Meaning I've been healed in my private faith and just dialogue with the Lord. Heal me and he healed me. A number of times I haven't been healed too, but I've been healed that way. But the Lord says, I give more when the church prays for the church. I actually, as a father, would rather two guys pray for you when you get healed and you go, wow. And they go, wow. Then you hug each other. Then you go, wow. He goes, I really like all that. I want to use the two and I want you to, those two bonded to each other and to you in the healing process. And they may pray for you a hundred times, but I want you to take your hands out of your pocket and I want you to lay them on them. And that's why as a community, you know, I've asked our leaders and this is something I will by the grace of God will never ever back away from that when we gather like a meetings like this, I want our leaders every time minus that one time we're in an emergency to come up here for five minutes because it's a very practical leadership statement and pastoral care to take five minutes, take our hand out of our pocket and pray for somebody. I want a community where the leaders lead in praying for people because we expect it. Now here's the problem. You know, I've talked to leaders. Some would say I'm busy. I go, nah, I get busy. I'm busy too. And sometimes you're too busy for that. And that works. But I said, mostly we lack anticipation and we, we don't want to face the fact that we might be disappointed. But as a, as a spiritual family, I'd rather rise above that and say, let's just take the risk of feeling the bruise of not seeing it. Let's keep doing it time and time again. We are a Holy Spirit, prophetic, believe for God, for the power of God community. That's who we are. And we don't have to measure what's happening all the time. But if our leaders lead in that way, I'm asking our worship team, our worship leaders, our IHOPU leaders, our district pastors, all of our department heads, anyone that's in leadership in this local church or this, this ministry or this missions organization, always minus the one time where you're kidding me, Bobby, if you don't come right now, blah, blah, blah, then go. I mean, there's those times you can't, I want you to say, oh, I don't feel like it, but beloved, the authority isn't in how you feel. You may feel tired, but the Holy Spirit's not tired. And you lay hands on him and it's not your, it's not who you are, it's who he is. We have his authority. And I tell people, I said, I don't care how bad you feel, how tired you feel, I've seen remarkable things. We had a guy, just the early service, he had a terrible burning in his feet, his nerves were injured for years, and he came up afterwards and said, I'm totally, all the, it's all gone. What happened? He was shocked. He goes, it really happened. It just, just now, it just happened. It's gone. And it's been hurting me for X amount of time. And so you never know, but I'm going to believe God all the time. Now when we pray for people, I'll end with this. Don't have confidence in your personality. Don't have confidence in the volume of your voice. Don't have confidence in shaking the demon out of them. Don't have confidence in the last three days, like I'm not prayed up, I really had a bad three days. That's, that's fine. If you had a good three days, it wouldn't help anymore, I promise you. It's the authority of Jesus. Your three good days isn't going to make that sickness go away. I've seen people get abused in prayer lines. I mean, three guys get on this poor lady and shake the devil out of her and, you know, send her to the hospital afterwards, nearly, I mean, screaming, hollering, spitting on her. Hey guys, it's not you. Well, if you're really serious, you'll scream and spit. No, no, you can whisper and the authority is Jesus. You can be tired in a bad mood and have a horrible week and your hands still be used in power. I, well, I'm really going to end with this story. I was at a meeting some years ago, it was like 50,000 people, it was a huge meeting, like down at, like the Kansas City Convention Center, but all, everything was full. They had screens everywhere, it was over in Italy, and that guy taught on marriage seminar and then they had him stand up and said, okay, we're going to have this older guy, he's in his eighties, he's going to pray for you. And the guy didn't stand up, he was tired, about 85, and he was sitting in the chair and he whispered and he goes, there's 50,000 people, I mean, this giant facility. And it was a marriage, there's good principles on marriage, but there wasn't any power of God, faith, atmosphere, it was pretty, like, really, we're going to have a ministry time right now, really? And, you know, it was noisy and distracting and everything and, and the guy sits down and he goes, Jesus, release your power. He goes, Lord, release your power. He was sitting down and I thought, I don't think God, I'm not, can God hear you? Lord, release your power. And 50,000 people, I'm making up this number, I don't really know, 2, 3, 4, 5,000 demons were coming down, I mean, four guys there, two rows there, the power of God, people falling down on the floor, quaking and shaking and demons coming out of them. He goes, in the name of Jesus, I command these demons to leave, I went, I have never seen anything like this at all. I said, boy, I sure wouldn't his personality and his ministry style. And I got to have dinner with that guy and he says, no, I just have confidence in Jesus. He goes, it's not me, I don't even think about me. I go straight to who I am in Christ and I claim his authority. And I, I saw, this went on for like a half hour of demonstration of power and a large number of people, I've never seen anything like it. And the guy muttered and I said, really, it's not about your personality? He goes, no, I promise you, it's not. I just realigned my heart with him and I just whispered the prayer and the power of God was released. Amen. Let's stand. God, like anybody that's sick in your body, you like prayer. And again, I want us to do this, well, we do it every week, but I want a greater anticipation. I don't want us kind of, well, no, forget none of his benefits. He's a healing God. I want all of our leaders engaged. I mean, two minutes, I mean, two, pray for two people. That's good enough. You don't have to stay here for an hour. I want to give a leadership statement to this body. We are a people that are leading in the things of the spirit. And say little phrases over them. And every now and then the phrases will end in prophetic. You don't even have to know it, but they'll be the very phrase they asked the Lord that morning. We'll prophesy. And again, all of our leaders and all of our ministry team, even pray for two people that feel free to leave. But we want to do this every single time we gather as a rule. All I want is you. All I need is found on me. Father, we believe you for healing. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I have the Holy Spirit. I am a new creation in Christ. I do lay hands on the sick and they recover. I believe you for miracles. I do prophesy. Even when I'm tired and I don't know it. Again, pray different verses over them that come to your heart. And some of them will be prophetic words that you don't even know they're prophetic. Father, I ask you for healing power in this room. Manifest your glory. Lord, I speak the truth. I reveal the sickness in the name of Jesus. Jesus, you said we would lay hands on the sick and they would recover progressively. As yet to fail me. Your love, Lord, yet to fail me. I can trust you. We trust you, Lord. We trust your word that I am a new creation in Christ. That it is in your name. We stand believing for everything. We're asking you anything that you favor. Lord, I ask you to stir up this community with a greater anticipation for your power. Lord, we refuse to settle for less. Anything you've provided, we want to walk in. The scripture said anyone who believes, anyone who qualifies, the Lord says you. I will use you. Lord, we ask you for the wave of your glory to break across this room. Lord, even as you heal people in the first service, do it again right now. We move. Release your healing. Release your power. Take up our salvation. I will drink of your blood. We say yes to your salvation. Come and say thank you. All of your benefits. We say whatever your word says, we believe. Lord, let your will be done. Release your glory in this room right now. All over the room, Lord. Release your glory, I ask. We hold on to all of it. We walk in. I'm going to have some of you in the room. A bunch of you start stacking the chairs six high. Just keep your stacks randomly all in the room. We're going to have tables spread out tomorrow. Stay engaged and they'll get to your chair later. But if you're just fellowshipping, go ahead and stack a few chairs.