Mike Bickle emphasizes the dual role of Jesus as both our Victorious King and Sympathetic High Priest, as depicted in Psalm 110. He explains how Jesus rules from heaven through His people, who volunteer freely to extend His authority on earth, especially in times of spiritual awakening. Bickle highlights the significance of Jesus' priesthood, which provides intercession and mercy for believers, empowering them to face the challenges of the world. He also discusses the prophetic nature of Psalm 110, revealing the complexities of Jesus' divine and human nature, and the ultimate victory He will achieve over His enemies at His second coming. The sermon calls for a radical commitment to holiness and intercession, encouraging believers to participate in God's plan for the nations.

We come to you in the name of Jesus and we ask you for living understanding of this significant prophetic psalm. We ask you for impartation. We ask you for living understanding of it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, this is the passage in the Old Testament that is most quoted in the New Testament. There's no passage even close to Psalm 2. It's far and above quoted more than any other passage in the New Testament. Let's read it. It's a Psalm of David and he's writing concerning his son, which obviously the son of David is the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Let's read it through and then we'll come back and break it down phrase by phrase. The Lord said to my Lord, this is David speaking, the Lord God the Father said to my Lord, which is God the Son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And then the Father or the Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion. And then the Father says to the Son, rule, he mandates him, rule in the midst of your enemies. In other words, this is before the second coming when the enemies of unrighteousness are flourishing in the nations. He's to rule now, not only after he returns, but this is a mandate for Jesus to rule before the second coming. That's the significance of that exhortation, that mandate. Then he goes on to tell him that how he's going to rule from the resurrection and exaltation to the second coming. How is he going to rule? How's it going to happen? Because he's in heaven with a resurrected body, but he's in heaven far away from the earth. Here's how he's going to rule down on the earth. Verse three, through his people. And his people will volunteer freely. One translation says, his people will freely volunteer and give themselves extravagantly to you. It's what the Father's promising him. He says, you'll rule by virtue of the fact that there will be a people throughout history, and there's always been a people throughout church history, who extravagantly volunteer their life to Jesus's leadership, to live under it. And of course in the generation the Lord returns, there will be a tremendous increase of the grace of God for these volunteers, who on the earth will be used by the Spirit to extend Jesus's rule from heaven. So verse three, he's, the Father's answering how it is that Jesus would rule in the midst of his enemies. He said, your people will be volunteers in the day of your power. And then he goes on to describe the people. They will be those that live in the beauties of holiness, and they will come forth from the womb of the morning. You will have the dew of your youth. And he's describing in verse three, different characteristics of those that would freely volunteer their loyalty to Jesus in the holy war, in which Jesus would extend his rod in the midst of his enemies. Verse four, now this passage, verse four is really significant. The Father says to Jesus, the Lord has sworn he'll not turn back. Jesus, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now the reason this is so significant in verse four, because when the youth of verse three who freely volunteer rise up to be the Lord's vehicles, his agents of power, the number one thing that they're going to need is an advocate before the Father, an intercessor, a priest who would cover them in tenderness and who would war for them in intercession against the works of darkness. So this group in verse three that wants to rise up and volunteer freely, the thing they will need most is to be covered in the tenderness of God in their weakness and to be supplied through supernatural heavenly intercession of which Jesus the priest provides for us. Beloved, I don't want to go forward in my zeal and devotion if I'm not going to be covered by mercy through a great high priest, nor do I want to go forward if I'm not covered by intercession of the great intercessor, because the works of the enemy are powerful. The schemes of darkness are difficult to understand, but with an intercessor behind us and great mercy covering us, we know that we can succeed. So verse four about the priesthood of Jesus is very significantly placed after verse three, the volunteers. But you're not to confuse the tender high priest with one who is ambivalent about sin and injustice in the nations, because this tender priest of verse four is a zealous king and warrior in verse five, six, and seven, because this this tender priest in verse four, verse five, Jesus is at the father's right hand. He will execute the kings in the day of the wrath of God. Now this is talking specifically, verse five and six and seven, about the final time frame related to the second coming of Christ. Jesus will execute the kings in the day of His wrath. When Jesus comes back, the kings that resisted Him will be rounded up and executed by the justice of God under Jesus's leadership. They're not going to vanish, meaning some people, they don't really think it through, but they, Jesus comes and they kind of, we're all get whisked away. No, when Jesus comes, we get transformed to a resurrected body so we can rule on the earth. We're not going away, we're getting retooled and refashioned to rule on the earth with a physical material body with the supernatural properties of the resurrection. But when Jesus comes, these wicked kings, they don't just disappear. He doesn't wave His hand over the nations and they all evaporate. He doesn't come back and millions of, of resistant evil men just suddenly die. No, they are rounded up. They are brought to justice and the kings of the nations that have resisted His leadership, they will be executed in an official judicial way under the leadership of Jesus at the, in the second coming events as the Lord is establishing His millennial kingdom upon the earth. Now this is, uh, odd to some folks because their idea of the second coming of Jesus is simply we're going to be whisked away to go play a harp on a cloud for a billion years somewhere far away and that's not what the second coming is about. The second coming is about a material, physical presence of Jesus on the earth, transforming all the nations of the earth and removing all that resists that transformation. He goes on, David, now David is probably really identifying with verse 5, 5, 6, and 7 because he's a king. He's a warrior king. He really understands it. I think up to, you know, verse 1, 2, 3, and 4, he's been a little mystified and perplexed by what he's hearing and what he's prophesying. But verse 5, 6, and 7, he goes, now I understand this. I've done this sort of thing. Verse 6, Jesus is talking about His great, great, great grandson, Jesus. He will judge among the nations. Now listen to this. Jesus will fill the places with dead bodies and He will execute the leaders of many nations, many countries. He will round them up under His leadership and He will have them executed just like the image we have. It's not exactly like, but the image that comes to mind is the Nuremberg war trials where the Nazi war criminals were tried and executed. But this will be on a global dimension. He will execute the heads of many countries. One guy says, what do you think that means? I says, I think it means He will execute the heads of many countries. It means exactly what it says. Then He shall drink of the brook by the wayside, therefore He shall lift up the head. Now I don't have that on the notes, this passage, just for time's sake on the notes that we're handing out, but I have a bit of, on the internet, on the notes that we put on the internet on that passage. That's a really significant verse, but we won't have time to get to that. Well, let's go ahead and look at this passage introduction, Roman numeral one. And again, we won't cover all the notes and we have more notes besides on the internet on this as well. This is a revelation. I'll go to the title of Psalm 110 of our victorious King, but it's not only a victorious King. The Messiah is a sympathetic high priest. The King is a priest and the priest is a King. Roman numeral one. Here's the introduction. Now remember to get, to really understand how perplexing and how dynamic and unprecedented this was, this is a thousand years before Christ. In other words, David had no grid for Jesus of Nazareth. He did. He had no thought that there was a man for three and a half years who lived in Nazareth, who had the 12 apostles. He has no thought of 12 apostles and in the breaking of the bread and all the miracles. This is before the gospels have been written a thousand years. So try to understand what David's perplexity. Now, I don't want to get too lost in David's drama, but personally, just as a, as, as a individual, I like to feel some of the challenge and the elation and the perplexity that the writers of scripture feel. I try to put myself in their position and to try to understand how new and how different what they heard from God was in that time. Now, David has heard two dialogues from within the Trinity. He's heard God, the Father and God, the Son talking here in Psalm 110. He had the same kind of experience in Psalm 2, where he heard the Father and the Son talking to each other about the human reign of the Messiah. Now, David knows the Messiah is coming and he knows the Messiah is going to be in his bloodline. He knows his, the Messiah is going to be a Jewish man. He knows this, but what David doesn't fully understand is that the Messiah is not just going to be a Jewish man. He's going to be the eternal God. Now, again, after the gospels, we understand this. We were raised in this, this understanding, but pre, pre, you know, 30 AD, this is a very difficult idea to grasp. Psalm 110, God is speaking to David, showing David about talking to him about one of his grandchildren. He's saying, one of your descendants, one of your great, great, great, great grandsons is actually going to be your Lord. He is your son, but he's also your Lord. He's your king. And David's thinking, this is interesting, because the senior would always be over the offspring, but this is different. And the second thing that David is challenged by, not only that the fact that his grandson, great, great grandson would be over him, this is completely contrary to David's way of thinking or just the natural mindset, his grandson would rule the earth from a heavenly throne. David says, now, I know the Messiah is going to rule the earth, but it's from the throne in Jerusalem. And that is true. Jesus at the second coming will rule the throne in Jerusalem. But what the father is telling Jesus is that David's grandson was going to subdue his enemies from a heavenly position through free volunteers. And David's thinking, well, why wouldn't he, number one, why wouldn't I be over my grandson? And number two, why wouldn't my grandson rule the nations from the earth? And how does he get to heaven to rule the nations? I mean, David's got a lot of questions to answer. I can imagine him going to his friends saying, oh my goodness, I heard from God today. What'd you, what'd you hear? Well, this is a really an odd one. My great, great, great grandson is going to be over me and he's going to rule the nations, but from heaven through people. It's good, David. Are you sure that you heard from God? I don't get it. He's going to rule the nations partially, not fully, but he's going to make a substantial impact upon the nations without even being down here through people that are his willing volunteers. Paragraph two, the two main themes in Psalm 110 is Jesus's eternal kingly ministry. He will be king forever with a physical, material, resurrected body on the earth, king forever, but that's not all he will be. He will also be a priest forever. Now this is the reason this is so important to note is that in the Old Testament, it was forbidden by God for the same man to be a king and a priest. God wanted there to be a division of the powers. He wanted the, the political powers and he wanted the power of the priesthood kept in a, in a balance with one another, but only in one man would they come together in fullness. This was a, another thing that perplexed David is how the joining of the two offices would take place in his great, great, great grandson. David is perplexed on many levels here. Now in Psalm 110, the father speaks two different oracles to Jesus. Now it says in verse one, the Lord says to my Lord, the word said is the word throughout the book of Psalms and, and in the, and the prophets declared an oracle and some translations actually say it, the Lord's oracle to the Lord, to, to, to David's Lord. And so the word said is actually the word translated several times in the Old Testament as the oracle of the Lord. So there's two oracles that the father is speaking to the son that David picks up on. The first one is in verse one related to the fact he's going to be a king. He's going to rule all the nations and all of his enemies will be defeated. The second oracle is in verse four, that he would be a priest and as a priest, he would help his own people in their relationship with God forever. So David hears these two dimensions of the Messiah's ministry and beloved, these are the two dimensions of Jesus's ministry that we need to know. We need to have confidence that we are relating to him in a way that can change nations. He is a king and he's ruling from heaven through people. We need confidence in this oracle that, that the father spoke to the son. He is a king and he will shift things in nations even now before the second coming. And the second thing that we need to have confidence in is the second oracle, that he is also a priest who will cover us in tenderness and he will also cover us in intercession. We're not left alone to our weakness. He has an answer for our weakness and he has provision for the attack against us from the enemy through intercession and through mercy. Paragraph C, I'll just sum up the psalm. You can see we're not going to get very far here. I'm taking too long on the introduction, but that's what notes are for because I can just give you the notes and you can read them on your own if you're interested. To sum up the psalm, paragraph C, I just kind of break it down real simple. David saw his great-great-grandson as a king that would conquer all of his enemies across the earth, but I mean, he would conquer his enemies in verse one or two while not being on the earth, while being in heaven through people who are connected to him. Very different concept. Secondly, that this king, this great-grandson would be assisted by God, the power of God, and by people who willingly choose to love him. That's what the message of verse three is. Verse four, that this king would be a high priest and therefore he would cover the people in mercy and in intercession. He would be tender to them and their weakness. But then finally, we are not to confuse this tender high priest with one who is ambivalent about injustice and unrighteousness. He is going to destroy everything that gets in the way of love. That's verse five, six, and seven. Okay, let's look at it again, paragraph D, a little bit differently. Verses one to three, and if you're new with psalm 110, you'll have to read this through a few times to kind of get used to it, but it's only seven verses. I mean, you can get your mind around it pretty easy. Just stay with it. Maybe get with a few friends and discuss this and debate a few points and and ask each other questions and challenge each other's understanding, and you'll grow in your understanding if you do that. Verse one to three describes Jesus's ministry through the church before the second coming, and verse five to seven is his ministry at the time of the second coming. I'm gonna say that again. Paragraph D, verse one to three is his ministry through the church against his enemies before the second coming. That's the part I want to emphasize. Now, not only was David a bit perplexed, but the leaders of the nation of Israel were perplexed by this whole reality of the Messiah being the son of David. Now they, the ones that Jesus is speaking to in Matthew 22, verse 43 to 45, Matthew 22, verse 43 to 45, paragraph E, it said Jesus is speaking to hard-hearted leaders and rebels, and he says in Matthew 22, 43, he says, I got a question for you. He goes, how then does David in the Spirit call him Lord? I'm gonna ask the power point if they'd go to put it on Matthew 22, the passage right, the next one. So I want everyone to be able to follow it. Jesus said to them, how then does David in the Spirit call the Messiah Lord, saying the Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Verse 45, if David calls him Lord, how is he the son of David? And what's going on here? It's, it's pretty simple once you understand it, but you know, if you're just kind of new with it, you think, what's going on here? The answer is that David, Jesus is David's grandson, therefore he's human. He's David's son, so he has to be a human. He has to be the son, you know, born of David's offspring. But if he's going to be David's Lord and he's going to reign from heaven, that means he has to be God. The answer, the way that David can call him a son and his Lord, is if he's both human and divine. That's the answer. And the reason Jesus gave them this, this question, because they were accusing him of heresy, because he claimed that he was God. And they said, you can't be God. And, and, and Jesus says, I can't? You can't. That's heresy. He says, well then how did David talk about a grandson that would rule from heaven? He has to be God. He's more than human. He's human, therefore he's David's son. He rules from heaven, and he's David's superior, therefore he's God. And that's what Jesus spoke to them, and they understood it. Because in, in context, they drew back silently, going, well David claimed the Messiah was going to be God. And they looked at each other, and they said, well that just throws our entire argument off, because their case against Jesus was he claimed deity, and that it was non-biblical. So David goes to Psalm 110, verse 1. He goes, David claimed his grandson would be God, or he couldn't rule from heaven if he wasn't God. How does a human get to the throne at the right hand of God? He can't, except that he's fully God and fully man. So Jesus could look at his accusers and say, I am David's son, but I am David's God as well. I know who I am, and David knew who I was as well. Let's go to page two. The king will be exalted in heaven. Let's read the passage. The Lord, now that's the Father, Yahweh. That's when, whenever you find the, the Lord in all capital letters, it's Jehovah or Yahweh. Jehovah or Yahweh. It's the covenant name for God. Whenever the, the, in the Bible, in the Old Testament, you find the Lord in smaller case, it's Adonai. It's the Hebrew word Adonai. So the Lord, Yahweh, says to my Lord, to my Adonai. So it's the Father is speaking to the Son, and it, again, and it's, it's David's grandson, great-great-grandson. And he said, I listened, and the Father told my great-great-grandson, sit at my right hand. And David's going, what? How could my great-great-grandson sit at your right hand, God? You're God. He would have to be God to sit at your right hand. I am confused. But that's not the only thing that God tells Jesus to do. Sit at my right hand. He goes, sit there until I make your enemies your footstool. Now this is, now to be the footstool means to be completely in submission. When an enemy was brought, when a king conquered another king, in, in the Joshua, in several places, it was the traditional thing that would happen when a king was conquered. They would lay on the ground, and the victorious king would come and put their heel on the neck of that conquered king. They would put their foot on them and make them their footstool. So the Father is telling the Son, I want you to stay in heaven. Listen to this. You're going to rule from heaven, and your enemies will be defeated on the earth. Now that's already a surprising idea, because why wouldn't Jesus defeat his enemies when he came to the earth the first time? Why is it that he doesn't rule the nations at his first coming? Because, you know, David's perplexed. He goes, I'm defeating the nations, and he's more powerful than me. Why is it that he can't defeat his enemies until he goes to heaven? Because Jesus did not defeat the nations, the political entities, at his first coming. He does it through the ascension, through the intercession of his people from the right hand of the Father throughout church history. This was a radical new insight. I don't believe David fully got it. I think he thought on this a thousand times. And here's what the Lord tells, the Father tells the Son. The Father says, I'm going to send the rod of your strength out of Zion, and you will rule from heaven on the earth. Because, see, the enemies of God aren't in heaven, so he's ruling in the midst of his enemies. This is pre-second coming, because after the second coming, Jesus's enemies are all vanquished. The devil's in prison, and then the lake of fire. He's going to rule his enemies before the second coming, but Jesus is in heaven. How is he going to do this? You read some commentaries, and they say, they say this is related to the Millennial Kingdom. Beloved, he doesn't have enemies on the earth during the Millennial Kingdom. He only has enemies now, before the second coming. This is a before the second coming mandate. The Father tells the Son, I want you to rule. And, beloved, our confidence in our intercession and our obedience is the Father wants Jesus to rule and make a change in the nations even now. That's our confidence. This is the oracle of God to the Son, and David is listening to it. It's a fantastic statement from the Father. I mean, as you can tell, there's levels of meaning to every one of these phrases, more than we can cover in, you know, a 40-45 minute time frame. Now, one of the things that paragraph B, that if David's grandson is at the right hand of the Father, how did he get there? David says, I'm not at the right hand of the Father. How did he get there? This implies that he's going to die and be raised from the dead. Not that David fully grasped it, but if he rules from heaven, that means he died and had to go up there. So, that's a perplexing thing for David as well. Now, paragraph C, Daniel also saw a human in heaven. Ezekiel saw a human king in heaven too. Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel saw a man at the heavenly throne. I mean, how does a man get into a heavenly throne? Men can't get up there. It doesn't work that way. He has to be fully God. Ezekiel 1 verse 26, he saw a man on a throne in heaven and all the nations handed over to him. And David, in essence, sees his own son, but he's at the heavenly throne. So, three of them have seen this perplexing reality. But what David sees that Daniel and Ezekiel do not see is that David sees that his grandson, the Messiah, would be ruling while he's in heaven and affecting the affairs of the earth through his people that are on the earth. Now, that was a unique insight that David saw that Ezekiel and Daniel did not see. Paragraph E, I've already said it, but my gift is repetition, so I'm going to say it again. The surprising information to David, this is very surprising to him, is that the Messiah does not begin his reign over the nations while he's on the earth. He only begins his reign over the nations after he leaves the earth. Now, David goes, I'm a king. I want to reign over Jerusalem and the nations around me now. But my great-grandson, who's far greater than I am, he doesn't rule until he's in heaven. And then he rules his enemies that are on the earth. And he goes, I don't get how that happens. That's a surprising piece of information. Well, the reason the father could say this to David, because the father knew the nations, particularly the nation of Israel, but the nations as well, would reject Jesus. But the father already had the plan in place that Jesus connected by the Holy Spirit to the people on the earth, the free volunteers on the earth. That's how the rod of strength would go forth into the nations while Jesus was still in heaven before the second coming. So he begins, the end of paragraph, he begins his reign from heaven. How? Through willing volunteer holy warriors that are still on the earth. Beloved, this is a very significant revelation. We are supposed to take Psalm 110 and be bolstered in our confidence that the, this is about the father and the son. The father and the son have a very dynamic relationship with one another. And the father says, you will rule. Your rod of power will go forth. And it's while you're in heaven, it's going to go forth, not wait until you get on the earth. Paragraph H, Psalm 2, this is the second Trinitarian dialogue where David heard the members of the Trinity of the Godhead talking to each other. Can you imagine the privilege of hearing the father and the son talk about world history? I mean, I mean, I can't fathom this. David, you got to hear the father and the son talk in a very personal way about their roles and their relationship and the unfolding of human history with victory and the punishment of, of sin and injustice. Wow, this is intense. This is so intense. Because he's not just, David's not just seeing the unfolding of history. Maybe like Isaiah, David heard of the intimate role and interplay between the first and second person of the Trinity, how they related to each other in the unfolding of this grand plan for the nations and the punishment of injustice and unrighteousness and the establishment of righteousness and justice in the land. And here's what David saw in this other conversation is what he heard. And we, it gives us tremendous insight into how the rod goes forth. What happens is that Jesus and the father are talking and the father says in verse 8 of Psalm 2, Jesus, ask me and I will give you nations, but it's based on your intercession. You have to ask me if you want me to give you the leadership over nations. You know, even Jesus, even now at the right hand of the father is in the place of intercession. He asked the father how much more his willing volunteers on the earth. The father says, that's how we rule the earth together. You ask me. Because the way that the Genesis 1 gives the pattern and Genesis 1, the father has the ideas. Genesis 1, the ideas were in the father's heart for the heavens and the earth. The authority and the plans are the father's. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, he speaks the ideas. I know what you're thinking, father. And the father says, but you have to declare it. If you don't declare it, it doesn't happen. The spirit is brooding over the face of the earth. The spirit saying, come on, Jesus, I'm waiting. I can't move till you say it. You know, and this isn't how it happened, but just for the sake of our understanding, I mean, Jesus, I mean, he couldn't have done it this way, but Jesus could have said to the spirit, we'll do it anyway. You know what the father wants. And the spirit would have said, I can't do what's in the father's heart until the Oracle is declared until it's spoken out loud. I have to wait. So he's brooding, brooding, brooding over the face of the earth. He, the Holy Spirit has the full power of God. The Holy Spirit doesn't lack power, but the Holy Spirit does not have the permission to release the power until the Oracle, the word of Jesus, which is the intercessory Oracle goes forth and the father's plan comes forth. Well, the same thing with ruling the nations. The father says, I, I have the plan, but you have to say it out loud and the people of, and the Holy Spirit will move when you say it. And you've got to get your people on the earth in agreement with you. And I will release my rod to remove all the hindrances. It says in verse eight, the father says, ask me and the nations will be yours. You will utterly possess them and you will break the unrighteousness in the nations with a rod of iron. But the breaking of the unrighteousness with a rod is dynamically linked to the asking in order to possess those nations in righteousness. So we know that what the father requires for the rod to go forth, he requires the son to ask him in Psalm two, but Psalm 110, we see a different dimension. It's the volunteers who are asking that are relating to Jesus on the throne and their agreement in intercession. And it's through them, the rod of his power goes forth. The top of page three. Well, Jesus's rod obviously is a symbol of authority. The rod is what Moses used. You know, when Moses released the plagues, Moses stretched out the rod and the plagues of Egypt started and Moses stretched out the rod and the plagues of Egypt stopped. They started with the rod went out and they stopped. So someone says, does the prayer movement release the end time judgments or does the prayer movement stop the end time judgments? And the answer is both. The prayer movement stops the judgment of God to create an optimum environment for righteousness to be established and the judgment of God and the prayer movement loses the judgment of God where the people harden themselves and will not turn to the Lord. It's the Moses-Pharaoh thing. He stretched his rod, the judgments were released, he stretched his rod, and the judgments were withheld. He goes to the Red Sea, he stretches the rod, he gets up to the Red Sea, and he says to Moses, Father, we're in trouble. And the father says, well, then stretch your rod out and divide the sea. Oh, oh. And if Moses would not have stretched his rod out, the sea would not have divided. I mean, this is, this is like intense. He says, you divide the sea. Me? All I have is a shepherd's rod. That's okay. Use it under my authority and the sea will divide. The same thing when they were in a war with the Amalekites in Exodus 17. He raised the rod up and they, and the nation of Israel were victorious. When the rod went down, the nation of Israel was defeated, the hands of Moses, the arms of Moses. Paragraph J, we release the rod through intercession and prophetic proclamations. It is so simple, but it will not, the rod won't go forward if we do not do our part. If Jesus doesn't intercede in heaven and if the body of Christ on the earth does not join him in intercession, if either side, Psalm 2, the heavenly intercession, Psalm 110, the earthly intercession, if either side comes up short, the rod does not go forth in the fullness. That's what's going on. That's why our mandate here at IHOP is so important in our weakness, in our brokenness, in our, just our proneness to, you know, just get tired and get distracted. And we're just humans. The Lord knows that. But we have to gather together, encourage each other. We've got to use our time, our energy, our strength, and we together extend the rod in our weak little prayer meetings. We just keep extending the rod because it's joining the intercession in heaven, joins the intercession on the earth. Again, Psalm 2 is the heavenly view of the intercession. Psalm 110 is the earthly view because Jesus extends the rod when the volunteers connect with the Lord. Paragraph Roman numeral 3. Now, this is the Father's plan. It's the people that God will raise up who will extravagantly serve Jesus or extravagantly love Him, love Him and to serve Him is synonymous. So, it goes forth. How's the rod going to go forth? And, Lou, I'm going to have you come up in a moment because on my paragraph K here, I have this phrase the Lord gave you that you're supposed to stretch forth God's wakening rod across the intercession. So, I just want you to get your heart ready to give a little thought on that in just a couple moments. We're not going to do the notes. We're going to finish in just a few moments here. We won't do all the notes here. But when God wants to stretch forth the rod, how does He do it? He does it through the people who are volunteers. Oh, I love this. They freely volunteer, several translations say, in the day of His power. What is the day of His power? It's the times in history when Jesus openly displays His power beyond the normal times. It's an unheightened, unprecedented display of power. At such times when the power of God is released like it happened in the book of Acts, at such times God awakens the youth and they become extravagant in their volunteer commitment to the Lord. The Lord does not have to force them. They volunteer their dedication above and beyond. That's not only the youth. God has His Daniels in His old age. He has His Annas and Simeons. But I tell you, it's the dew of His youth. It's the youth of the nations that will be extravagant in the day of His power. And history has borne that out. That's a historical fact. When the Spirit of God begins to move in a heightened way in history, it's always about 90 percent of the people that respond are the youth. And they respond in extravagance. Multitudes become extravagant lovers of God. They join the battle to extend the rod in the midst of the enemy when the power of God is released. And God strategically releases His power at key times in history to awaken this radical, extravagant response of the youth of the nations. And beloved, there is no time like the generation the Lord returns that He is going to awaken from the womb of the morning. A new dimension of the power of God will break forth. A new day, a new dawning, a new season will break forth in power and the youth of the nations will volunteer freely. They will be radicals. Nazarites, fasting prayer, Shulamites. I love how how Lou puts those together. Nazarites and Shulamites. And the result are forerunners. The John the Baptist generation. Radical commitment. The question isn't how much can I get away with and still be forgiven? The question is how far will you let me go in my dedication? Not what do I have to do to still be qualified? How far will you let me go? I tell you, beloved, in the day of God's power, God raises up people who volunteer extravagantly. The great deeds of devotion come out of the fires of revival. This is best seen in the book of Acts. Most of the book of Acts were youth movements. The movements through history are youth movements. But I tell you, if you're not in your teens or twenties, God's grace is available for all of us. But there's a heightened dimension of what happens in terms of response in the nations. When God releases the power of the Holy Spirit. Paragraph C. The Hebrew is cryptic in this. Because it says this, you have the due of your youth. And you can read several commentators and they will all agree with you. I mean, agree with that. There's several different ways to say this. David is saying, you have the due of your youth or your youth will be as the due. Jesus has, it's not talking about Jesus's youthfulness, it's talking about the youth that are the free volunteers. Some commentators talk, focus on Jesus has eternal youthfulness. That's not the context. Verse 3, the context of verse 3 is the quality of the volunteers that are on the earth that Jesus in heaven is extending his power through. It's speaking about the volunteers. Jesus will have the youth of the nations as the due of the morning. And the due in the morning, if you just check out how the due is used in the Bible, because it's the Bible we use to understand the Bible. The Bible explains the Bible symbolism. And the due in the Bible speaks of the abundance. When the due comes in the freshness of the morning, it's everywhere. I mean, it is like a blanket mass coverage of dudes spread out over large geographic areas. It's fresh and it's abundant. And the due of his youth, of the youth movement will be abundant, beloved. We're believing for hundreds of millions of radical young people and they will have a fresh, sparkling, clear spirit. They will find, they will be taught a way of righteousness that will be different than what the traditions have been teaching. They will come forth as numerous and as fresh as the due of the morning. Now it goes on to describe, just real briefly, that they will operate in the beauties of holiness. There's so much today, it makes my heart so sad. I mean, there's so many young people, they're preoccupied. The question of the hour is how can they search out an obscure Bible verse that proves it's okay for them to get drunk and have immorality in their life. They're searching out for little ways to, well, that's okay, I can go do this, I can go do that. And they get together and, I mean, it's a mindset across the nations of how far they can go in darkness and somehow claim legitimate Christianity. The volunteers that will raise up in the day of His power, they will have a revelation of the beauties of holiness. The cry of their spirit will be how deep they can go into light and to abandonment to God, not how far they can go on the edges of darkness. There is no, the future is about the due of the rising up and volunteer extravagance in the beauties of holiness, in the new womb of the morning, the new breaking forth of the new dimensions, the birthing of new dimensions of God's power and new seasons in God that are about to break forth out of the eternal councils of the Godhead. God has seasons planned for the planet where there's going to be, as the womb of the morning, new expressions. Suddenly there's going to be a birthing of new dimensions and new seasons in God and the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro across the earth. He's looking for those that would volunteer freely and these youth will be as numerous and as fresh as the dew of the morning. But they will be radically committed to the beauties of holiness and they will not have to, they will not have to apologize for it at all. We don't have to apologize for our intensity. It is our glory. It is our beauty that we're wholehearted for the Lord. You know, the group on the other end of town, they'll say, that's just religion. It's legalism. You can get away with a lot more darkness without getting in big trouble. Beloved, I'm not interested in that kind of logic. We're interested in the beauties of holiness. Roman numeral four. Well, here we are pursuing the beauties of holiness. What's the first thing we run into? Our weakness. Here's the youth of the nations. We're radical Nazarites. Well, how did it go last night? Oh, don't tell me. It was horrible. I did, I went there and I did it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. What'd you do? I don't want to say it. Well, I thought you were a radical Nazarite, Shulamite, end time messenger. I was. And just as the Lord calls forth this youth and the beauties of holiness, the father speaks up and he swears to Jesus. You are a priest. You will cover them forever. You will cover them and you will guide them and you will instruct them and you will be near to them and you will intercede for them. And as a priest, you will teach them and you will show them the way they won't be on their own. Beloved, this declaration that this swearing that Jesus would be a priest was not for Jesus' sake. It's for our sake. Jesus already knows it. The vow is so that you and I know it with certainty. We know how adamant God is, not just that Jesus would have power as a King, but he would have mercy and aid as a priest. It's not okay. It's not enough to have one without the other, particularly if you want to be one of the radical youth of the nations. Paragraph B, Isaiah 40, he gives strength. He gives power to the weak. He gives power to those that have no might. He increases strength. Here it is. Verse 30, even the youth, the youths shall faint. Even the youth shall get weary spiritually, physically, and the young men shall utterly fall. We're talking about sin. But if they wait on the Lord, because the Lord is a merciful high priest, because the Lord is there to train us as a priest, to intercede as a priest, if we will join him in the place of waiting, that our priesthood in coming before the Lord connects with his priesthood as the, as a, from the right hand of the Father. If we wait on the Lord, that's how we connect with his priesthood, then our strength will be renewed. We will mount up with wings like eagle. We will run and not be weary. We shall walk and not stumble in scandalous sin. It's what it's talking about when it says walk and not faint. What the Holy Spirit's saying is you can do this thing without falling off over into scandalous sin. I can keep you safe, because beloved, the nations are increasing in so much more sin. But it says here in verse 30, the youth shall faint and be weary. They'll lose their prayer life. They'll lose their vision. They'll walk in the ways of darkness even as radical, committed believers. They will utterly fail, but they come back to the Lord. They get into the place of waiting, because that's what gets them connected to the great high priest. The message of the tender mercy of the high priest must be spoken over and over and over again to the, to the intercessory, kingly generation that's crying out in prayer night and day. Hebrews 4, verse 14, sing this. We have a great high priest. Beloved, that word great, he is a powerful high priest. His sacrifice is greater than any sin you could ever commit. His intercession is more effective than all the schemes of Satan. He is a great and powerful high priest. He is bigger than your sin and your weakness. And not only is he more powerful than your sin and your weakness. Verse 15, he can sympathize with it. He has sympathy. He knows what we're going through. Verse 16, therefore come boldly. Therefore come boldly. We have a sympathetic high priest and he is our priest forever and forever. The devil does not have more power over us than our high priest does. I have far more confidence in Jesus's ability to lead me than I have in Satan's ability to deceive me. If I will get before him, he is a much better leader than Satan is a deceiver. But we have to give him opportunity. He's a great high priest. E, he's made the perfect sacrifice. There's no sin you've committed that can, that can disqualify you from your intercessory, kingly position of crying out and the rod going forth. If you will come before the Lord, there is no sin you can do that can cancel you out except for quitting. And he's there crying out for us. The father's right hand. He's saying, Lord, look at him. I tell you, the Lord is interceding for this little family right here. He really is. I'm confident. I'm not confident because of us. I'm confident because of him. And then Roman numeral five, we'll end with this and Luke, go ahead and come on up. I just want you just those thoughts that you had about, even if it's short or long, I mean, I hope it's long, but if you just, you know, sometimes he goes, I only got a phrase. Come on up. I want to hear that phrase. Let's just grab one of these mics here, right there. So, uh, Roman numeral five, when Jesus returns this tender great high priest, he will not tolerate the nations or, or the leadership, the Kings of the nations who said no to his offer of kindness and mercy. He will remove everything out of the way. Then he's on the earth with the rod. So he's in heaven releasing the rod, but there's a day he comes to the earth and releases the rod. And it's terrifying in that day for those who have said no to him. Amen. I'll speak to you and it speaks to you about extend the wakening rod. Just talk about that a minute. First of all, this is an incredible message. You should get so happy about this message. Just, just, I remember going through inner healing once and, and I was confessing all my sins to the inner healing guy. And, and suddenly I had a, a, a vision in which I saw that it's like a, the devil in the desert, the tempter. And suddenly, I mean, this is incredible. I saw Jesus go to war against him on my behalf. And it was a violent war. And I wept for half an hour. And I realized that the things that have been trying to come after me all my life, Jesus had been warring for me all along. I mean, this is really good news. So I'm just having this flashback. It was incredible. But here's the thing, folks, what, what is going on here? We have, we've got to get this, that it was in 1996 on a, on a, on a 40-day fast when we launched 24-7, 1996. And it's very key that it was at the launching of 24-7, something's coming out of this 24-7 movement. And it has to do with this governing rod. And in this season of time, I was sleeping in this house of prayer. Obviously, it wasn't that 24-7. We were doing our best. And I heard the audible voice of God in a dream. Sometimes it pays to sleep. Now, but not in the house of prayer. But and in this, in this dream, I heard the audible voice of God. It was the most thunderous voice. On one other occasion, I've heard the same thing. The first time, the first thunderous voice was this, America is receiving her apostles, prophets, and evangelists, but it has not yet seen her Nazarites. And I woke up and I said, I knew there was a new breed of consecrated lovers that were going to come. And they, they weren't going to be the big apostle names. They were going to be an army. That was like nothing. It's exactly that. In fact, Nazarites, it was number six, it said it was a freewill offering of the Nazarite. It was a voluntary offering. And it says in, in, in judges five, one of Deborah's war. What's those verses again? Numbers six, one. So this will be on my new handout. Okay. Numbers. Okay. It's this Nazarite thing. It's also judges five, an alternative translation where it says judges when the leaders led the people volunteered the Hebrew uses the word Nazir when the long hairs let down their locks, the people volunteered. It's when an army of Nazarite leaders rise, people begin to move with them in the day of battle. That's really it. It's David. It's Deborah's war. When war comes to the gates of America, God raises up the Nazir. I'm getting happy. No, no, no. Go for this. No, this is, this is real here. So I heard that audible voice and the voice during that thing in 1996, it says stretch forth a wakening rod over the earth. Will you do that? And I really didn't have any clue really what that meant, but I woke up and said, yes, sir. But when, and I, I, I never, I didn't understand it until the call came. And I just want to say that the call, I don't know if you know, the original name of the call in DC was called the dawning. And it was named, it was from this bet from the womb of the dawn, by you shall gather to these, the dude. And we prophesied that the youth army would arise. And in the darkest hour of the history of the earth, there would come an army. And when the sun rises, they would be like the covering the earth gathering till their Melchizedek King priests. And I will never forget going onto that mall at five 30 in the morning, six o'clock, the sun begins to rise. They said there are already like 200,000 kids that were there. And I thought, here's the dude they're gathering that army, this priestly intercessory army rising in the earth. Bobby Connors prophesied it in 1999, by the end of the year, 2000, this army would be rising in full force and gathering up to a half a million. He prophesied that in 1999, 400,000 gathered at the mall. I think he saw it. It's the beginnings of a great army, 1999, 24 seven rises up here. We're in the 24 seven, the massive gatherings of the armies of God. And it's about the rod of God being stretched out. I'll tell one more story, if that's okay. Two more, tell two more. This, see, no, really tell a couple more. I, we prayed that that would, that would be that army of Psalm 110. I just got this report. I ran into a guy in Dallas the other day, a young man who was 14 years old in that gathering in DC at the call in DC and had an open vision of a prayer movement that would come forth from him. It's called the burn. They're doing like 70 hours all over the place, 24 seven for 70 hours, and people are coming. It's just spontaneously exploding. He said 3000 gathered in Indonesia. They were praying on the same day. Nine young men from Australia had been captured by bringing in drugs into Indonesia. You don't do that. You get executed. They're having this burn and the mother of one of the kids flies in. Here's about this per meeting, finds the leader, this guy and said, and says, I don't believe in God, but would you pray that my son would be set free and not executed? And so they stretched out that rod out of that gathering and they called forth the rescuing of this one young man that next day, nine, eight were judged guilty. And that one was set free. When they spoke to that woman said, when your son gets set free, you must give your life to God. And he must as well, because you know, it's God. Both of them have given their lives to Christ. What we're saying about the rod out of this assembly of Zion is folks lives are being saved. That's why we can't dilly-dally around. We have got to be a people who are living on the Hill with the highest realm back to the message, living this kind of life, because what we're praying is affecting the whole destiny of nations. You can't, it's not just a nice Bible school. You're going to changing the world around the throne with this Melchizedek King on this throne. And finally, we held two gatherings, solemn assemblies in California night in 2003, 30,000 and 40,000 people gathered in LA and San Francisco, the calls, and we received dreams. There was a man governing California at the time and, and his name was Gray Davis. And he was signing every kind of hellish bill off. We were crying out to God. And I ran into a young man before the call San Francisco. And he said, I didn't know who he is. He said, Lou, I had a dream. And in the dream, I saw a stadium filled with people. And he said, Lou, I saw a platform where Kings would decree the word of the Lord. And he said, and I saw you in my dream, declaring the word of the Lord. And there was a man named Governor Gray Davis in the stands, and he didn't want to, but he had to submit to every word that you were speaking. After those calls started, something took place. It was called the recall. And California rose up and voted this man and impeached him out of office. We believe the prayer movement at that moment was crushing Kings in the day of battle, dealing with enemies who are resisting the will of God. If this is the truth, and we're in a sense, we're experimenting on these, we're trying to find out how these things work. Is the prayer movement stronger than the Supreme court for the ending of abortion? These are very real issues. When that runs, God is being stretched out of Zion folks. This is the ruling body of the universe. I was in Boston and I'll end here. I was in Boston two years ago, and I had the guys from 24 seven, Pete Griggs movement, red moon rising from Kansas city. They had a dream that they were meeting me in Boston and I didn't know it. They set up this meeting and we have this incredible meeting together in Boston, in Harvard, not knowing this, Cheryl Amabile had a dream that night that I was meeting with the 24 seven people in Boston. And I was moving to Kansas city with Pete Greg, which I think means with the 24 seven movement. And I was going to Kansas city, the governmental center of the earth of the nation. I don't say this. Some is some kind of just say, well, I believe what's going on here is sign and symbol of someone 10 that God is going to raise up his house of prayer in the earth. And that mountain will be up of every other mountain, the mountain over Hollywood, the how the movement of prayer will begin to dominate the heavens and bring changes and governments will shake under the prayer under this stretched out rod out of Zion. Therefore, who shall ascend this hill of the Lord? He with clean hands and a pure heart folks, we are ascending this hill clothed in the righteousness of Christ folks. Our prayers are going to change history. Oh, you're a part of the most incredible moment in history. Let's go ahead and stand.