Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgent call for the church to understand its role in the end times, as outlined in the book of Joel. He stresses that the church is not to expect an imminent rapture but to prepare for a significant revival and judgment that will occur simultaneously. Bickle highlights the importance of prayer and intercession, asserting that the church has the power to change the course of history through its relationship with God. He warns against the deception of complacency regarding the end times and encourages believers to embrace their mandate to influence the world positively. The sermon serves as a rallying cry for the church to engage wholeheartedly in prayer and action to fulfill God's purposes in this critical hour.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus. Lord, I thank you for these 10,000 mostly young people that have gathered before your presence because they care about your heart. They care about the things that burn your heart, the things that excite your heart. They want to be wholehearted, and Lord, I ask you tonight that you would inspire us and prepare us for tomorrow, for this solemn assembly, this 12 hours or whatever that we're gonna be before you continually crying out to you and waiting in your presence. We bless you in the name of Jesus, amen. I'm gonna go over some of the material that we've already covered, but just repetition. I don't think it hurts anything. The Lord's raising up a company of people, and it's not only young adults. We say young adults so much here, but it truly is mostly young adults worldwide. There's millions, and the Lord's raising them up to walk out the message of the book of Joel and the lifestyle of the book of Joel. The message and the lifestyle, and I'm gonna add one more thing, there's a ministry mandate to change history that is in this book, the book of Joel. There's a message, there's a lifestyle, and there's a mandate to change the course of history, and it's in this simple three-chapter book. And that's so powerful because the book in the Old Testament that has the most information about the end times, about — and you really care about the end times, even if you don't know that you do, you really do. Because the end times, there's about a hundred chapters. That's not an exact number, but there's many, many, many chapters in the Bible that describe the unique activity, the unique activity of the Holy Spirit in the generation the Lord returns. Beloved, we want to know what the Lord's doing in that final generation because I believe we're in it. We want to understand what the Lord's doing, and we want to understand what God has said the devil will be doing, and that we're supposed to resist it, and we're supposed to come against it in God's way. It's critical for our own lives, the lives of our children and our neighbors, our families, it's critical that the church understands what the Spirit is saying in this hour of history. The end times isn't just like, well, you know, that groups into the end times, I'm really into the here and now. Beloved, if you're in the generation the Lord returns, the end times is the here and it's the now. There is nothing more relevant than to know what God's thinking about the generation you're living in. And if this is the final generation, and I am absolutely convinced — there's people alive in this room that will see the appearing of the Lord, absolutely convinced of it, then we must take these subjects very serious. It's not kind of a side kind of hobby for some theologians. And I'm going to say something that might seem a little strong, but I don't mean it to be, but it's necessary to say it. I want to say it in humility, but it needs to be said. One of the greatest, one of the most damaging deceptions in the body of Christ today is the pre-tribulation rapture. The idea that we're going to be raptured any minute is a serious deception that is injuring the body of Christ. And why I say that, because many, many godly men and women teach it, and they're godly and they're anointed and they're sincere and they'll be honored before the Lord in heaven because of their life in God, but that is a deception. I make no bones about it. Now, the reason it's important that you know that, that the church is going to be here when the trouble breaks out, and the church is going to set the course of history under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in this hour. We're not gone and far away. And the reason that the end times mostly is kind of a little hobby for a few people over on the side is because people think we're not going to be here, so what does it really matter? And that is a massive deception that has consequences that have a great, great serious impact because we are going to be here and we have to know what God says about this hour. If we're going to be gone any minute, why bother with the end times? And that's the mindset that has been even unintentionally passed down several generations. There's a lot of people sitting in this room that have received that mindset from their teachers, and their teachers don't even have a real strong opinion about when the rapture is. They just have heard from their teachers, and they heard from their teachers, well we can't really know anyway, and we're going to be taken up any minute, so what difference does it make? And so the whole body of Christ — not the whole body of Christ, the majority — is very content being ignorant and untaught about what God says about this hour of history. And beloved, this is the most significant hour of history in all of human history. Jesus said more about the final generation than He did His own generation. There will be more people alive on the earth, there will be more people alive on the earth in the span of one lifetime, in the final 75 years before the Lord returns, there will be more people alive on the earth than all of human history added up together. There will be more people living than there are people that died. And when the great harvest comes in, and a billion plus come in, there will be more of God's family on earth than God's family in heaven. And it's that time frame that Jesus spoke more about this time frame than His own. Isaiah spoke more about this hour than His own. Joel did. And all the prophets straight through, they told us more about the final generation than their own generation. Yet the body of Christ is just kind of bebopping around, just kind of like, well, we're going to be gone any day. No, you're not going to be gone any day. You need to get prepared through the God-ordained way described in the Word of God to go forth in victory, in power, in triumph, and make a difference in the greatest hour of revival and crisis and judgment the world has ever known. And you just need to get rid of that notion that you're going to be gone any minute. If you're gone any minute, that's bad news, if you're gone any minute, because it's an accident or it's a negative thing. And you need to get rid of the idea that you can't understand the end times. God wrote in the Bible about the end times. And remember, the Bible was written for the people of God across the earth, not just the nation of Israel. God understood His church would fill the, would be in all nations. The Bible is written mostly, most of human history has been illiterate. They are not scholars. It's just common, poor, illiterate people of the earth. And the Bible means what it says. It says what it means. It can be understood by people with no education. You don't have to go away and learn Greek and Hebrew to understand the end times. It's meant for people like you and me to understand. And we need to get rid of the idea that it doesn't matter anyway. You better believe it matters. It's what God's doing in the generation of your life, in the life of your children, and you can understand this. It is, it is understandable. So, the book of Isaiah has more on the end times than any book in the Old Testament. Isaiah in the Old Testament is what Revelation is, the book of Revelation to the New Testament. Isaiah in the Old Testament is like the book of Revelation in the New Testament. But Joel comes along and gives us three short chapters. Hey, I'm gonna talk to the sound guy. Where's the sound guy at? Sound man. I'm still kind of in a tunnel. Somehow it changed. It's stressing me out a little bit up here. I figured I'd tell you or I'd just lose my voice in the next 30 minutes. But yeah, yeah, just work on it a little bit. Thank you. So, yeah, that's better. Good. It's more comfortable. Now I can feel it right here. So, the book of Joel, the book of Joel is a three-chapter synopsis of, and this is not a hundred percent true, but of the book of Revelation, I mean of the book of Isaiah. You know, I love Isaiah. I study it. I study it a lot and it's like, wow, it's heavy. It gives real in-depth themes. But the Lord was so kind. He says something like this. I imagine something like this. It's not like exactly said it, but hey, you guys, I'll give you the summary of the book of Isaiah in three chapters. It's called the book of Joel. Here it is. Many of the main subjects are given to you. One, two, three. And so I call the book of Joel cliff notes on the book of Isaiah. Or I say this not in a negative way, but Isaiah for dummies. You know, it's just that I'm thinking of the popular title. And Joel can get you right to the main points, right to the main points. So I really urge you to look at this book to conclude you're going to be here when it unfolds. Conclude it is understandable and you can understand it and your children can too. And start understanding what the message is and then living the lifestyle and then beginning to walk out the divine mandate to change history, which is spoken in the book of Joel. Okay, we're going to start again where we've started the last three sessions on it. Chapter two, verse 11. Because chapter two, verse 11 is the main theme of the book of Joel. It's the day of the Lord. Look at it. Verse 11, right in the middle. It says for the day of the Lord is great and the day of the Lord is very terrible. Who can endure it? Now the day of the Lord is a special time frame and I have the syllabus on it. I'm not trying to sell syllabus. That's not my point. My point is I have pages written on it. So I'm going to be very brief now. And if you care more about it, then you can study it more in detail. So I'm not going to say it in a real you know, make every important point about the subject of the day of the Lord that needs to be made. I'm just going to give the briefest overview of it. The day of the Lord is the time when God manifests His power in an unusual way. It's more than that, but that's a core idea. When God manifests His power in an unusual way against His enemies to destroy them and to vindicate and to bless and to empower His people. So there's two dimensions of the day of the Lord. There's the great dimension when God vindicates and anoints His people and there's the very terrible part of the day of the Lord. There's two parts of it and they happen simultaneously many times. When God anoints and vindicates and honors His people is the great day and the terrible day is when God goes to war openly with His enemies. And the number one enemy that God is going to war with openly, what I mean by openly, I mean that His judgments will be seen by all the nations. When God goes to war, open war against His number one enemy, which is sin, that's called the judgment of God covering the earth. The book of Revelation is the clearest statement in the New Testament, like Isaiah in the Old Testament, of the day of the Lord. It's what it's going to look like, it's what it's going to look like for the righteous when God vindicates them with power and what it's going to look like for the enemies of God when God strikes them with His judgments as seen all through the prophets and the book of Revelation in the New Testament. Now, Joel gives us the question of the hour. I've said this every session, but I just wanted to really be fixing your mind. Here's the question of the hour, who can endure this? What man, what woman, what boy, what girl can flow in the anointing and the favor of God in the hour of the day of the Lord? And again, the day of the Lord, the Lord normally restrains His power, and the Lord normally restrains His power in revival, and normally He restrains His power in judgment. And every now and then a revival breaks out that makes, you know, history, and every now and then there's a historic judgment that breaks out that troubles the whole earth. But mostly, God restrains. He doesn't hold back His power entirely, of course, but He restrains it. But there's those special time frames, and beloved, we are right at the verge of a day of the Lord time frame. And I'm going to be a little bit liberal in my definition here, and I'm more specific in the syllabus. But over this, over the several decades, over several decades before Jesus appears, the day of the Lord activities are building up and mounting up. The revival will get stronger and stronger, and the judgments will get stronger and stronger, and the main question that must be answered, what people can endure this dynamic of revival and judgment? Who can operate in the favor of God and in the anointing of the Spirit in the most dramatic season of human history? And of course, the question is answered in verse 12 to 17. And we've spent two sessions. I always get to turn to God with all your heart, and we don't get any further. But that's the important one. I'm not going to go on that tonight, because I want to give a little bit of overview of the book. Chapter 2, verse 12 to 17, is the response that God gives us to the people that can endure. I want to make you a promise. If you don't embrace verse 12 to 17 in your lifestyle, you will not endure the revival and the judgments that are coming. Joel 2, verse 12 to 17 is not Mike Bickle's opinion, it's God's mission statement, part of it for the end-time church, to how they are going to participate and cooperate with God in the greatest revival and the greatest hour of judgment that will operate simultaneously together. Critical stuff. Now, what happens is most Christians that kind of get excited about the future, which is not very many, most Christians in the West, the Western world, never think about the future of the church. They think about the future of their job, they think about their retirement, but they don't think about what's going to be happening in the church in 40 years. And if they do, some do, most don't, you know what they focus on? They focus on only one half of the day of the Lord, the great. They think of the revival. That's awesome. Beloved, we need more Christians thinking about the great revival coming, because it changes our living today when we think about the revival tomorrow. But it's not enough to only think about the great part of the day of the Lord, we have to think about the very terrible part of the day of the Lord. It's not either-or, it's both-and. There's the greatest revival and the greatest judgments, and we, the body of Christ, we are going to be the vessels under the anointing that God uses, I'm talking about the body of Christ worldwide, to loose the revival and to loose the judgments and to stop the judgments. Moses is the picture. Moses prayed and released the judgments on Egypt, then Moses prayed and stopped the judgments on Egypt. And the end time church that walks through this lifestyle of verse 12 to 17, they will do both of these. They will release the revival and they will release the judgments of God, and they will release them and they will stop them. Beloved, I want to say this, that the worst days for America and the best days for America are yet in the future. That's a sober thought, it's a glorious thought. The worst days for Israel and the best days for Israel are yet in the future. The worst days for the nations of the world and the best days for the nations of the world are yet in the future, and they will happen simultaneously, overlapping in the same time frames. The powerful dimension of both different kingdoms will come in full collision with each other. So here's what I'm asking you to do, do not throw away one half of the day of the Lord message and only focus on the positive end. We must be faithful to both dimensions of the day of the Lord message. We must study them both, because here's why. When Jesus releases His judgments, all He's doing — no, that's not totally true, I'm making too broad of a statement. When Jesus releases His judgments, one of the primary things He's doing, one of the primary things He's doing is He's removing the things that hinder love. The bridegroom who releases His judgment is the bridegroom who releases the revival. It's the same God, motivated by the same love, releasing revival and releasing judgment. It's not a contradiction. Some people have this idea that God in His goodness releases revival and then God in a bad mood releases judgment. No, the judgment of God is as much of the goodness of God as the revival is. We get this idea of Jesus, the bridegroom, we can brag on Him to the nations. He's beautiful, He's kind, He's generous, He's got a glad heart, He's very enthralling, He's very exhilarating. But Jesus the judge is kind of like, you know, the drunk uncle we have to hide in the corner, you know, at the family reunions in case the neighbors come over. The Jesus the judge, we go, well, because of our own unrenewed mind, because of our own carnal thinking, we kind of hide Jesus the judge away, a little bit embarrassed, because, well, after all, Jesus doesn't understand as much about love as we do. So He's a little overzealous with this book of Revelation stuff, so let's tuck Him away in the closet when the neighbors come over, lock the door, smile, show the bridegroom God, isn't everything wonderful, and then when everyone leaves, we let Him out, and we're a little bit embarrassed by Jesus the judge, because we don't understand it is the exact manifestation of love as revival is. And we have to get our thinking cleared up. Our thinking is very confused. The great and terrible day is one manifestation, is two manifestations of the one heart of God. Okay, now look, let's look at the ministry mandate. We looked at a little bit of the lifestyle. Let's look at the ministry mandate here in verse 13. We saw this yesterday for a minute. It says, return to the Lord. Now it says, rend your heart, not your garment, return to the Lord. Why? Because He's gracious, He's merciful, slow to anger, and He is of great kindness. And here's the part that I'm focusing on. He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him. Now this is our mandate to change history, because we have a dynamic relationship with the God of history. Jesus is the King of kings. He's the God of history. He's the King of the nations. Says in Isaiah chapter 40, the nations are a drop in the bucket to Him. If all the nations gather together in unity to resist Him, He goes, they are as nothing in their military power against me. That's what Isaiah chapter 40 says. When Isaiah 40 says the nations are as nothing, he doesn't mean they're not important. He means as a military opponent to His will, they can get all their, all of their weapons and all of their money and a billion soldiers together from the whole earth if they could. And Jesus said, they don't have any ability to resist me at all. None whatsoever. They are nothing before me in their ability to stop me. Jesus is the King of the nations. Now as the King of the nations, He has a great plan for the nations. We are related to Him by marriage. We are His bride. And He says this, you come to me, you live in agreement with me, the judgment that the nations deserve, or let's just take the geographic area that you live in. Let's just make it personal. Although we pray for other parts of the earth, not just the geographic area we live in. But let's just limit it to that. Jesus says, you cry out to me as the people of God, and I will turn away judgment many times, many times. He goes, it's in my heart to turn the judgment away and release blessing, to release revival instead. And there's only one group of people on the planet that can partner with the King of kings to bring blessing in the geographic areas of the planet, and that is the born-again body of Christ. There is no other group. And when a nation is in trouble, more times than not, and it's not a hundred percent true, it'd be too big of a statement, but this is an important statement. I'll make it about America. It's really true about America. America in judgment, under judgment, and there's, there is the beginning of God's judgments rumbling on our land right now. It's not a question about it. But the problem is, like the verse I said the other day, I, 1 Kings 18, Elijah saw the storm way out at a distance like the cloud the size of a man's hand. And I want to tell you this, I believe this with all my heart, there is a storm cloud on the horizon coming straight for America right now from heaven. There's a revival cloud too. Both of them are on the horizon and they're moving quickly to our nation, but of course to the Lord quickly could mean a decade or two, but that's a moment to the Lord. Now here's what's happening. The born-again community in the nations of the earth, and this is true of most nations, this statement I'm going to say, the judgment of God on the nation is more related to the compromise of the church than it even is the society itself. It's not always — that's not a perfectly balanced statement, but there's, that's, there's an important truth to be said in that. I don't want to take 45 minutes and lay out the eight or ten components of God's judgment on a nation right now, but what I want to say is this, when judgment is touching our nation now, it is a dynamic statement about the redeemed community being disconnected from the King of Kings. Because if he wakes up the church and the church stands in the gap, the church stands in her place, in her destiny of government, then God will shift the direction of America when the church takes her stand. Very important point, this next one. God's government of the planet is the prayer room. The government of the nations of the earth is not in Washington, it's not in London, it's not in Tokyo. The government of the planet is the prayer room. But here's the problem. Here's the problem. The people of God are not in the prayer rooms functioning in their governmental position. Most of the courtrooms in the Spirit are empty, powerless, and broken with compromise. And so God's government, God's judgment crashes down, waiting for men and women. Ezekiel 22, it's a very famous chapter. You want to note this, Ezekiel 22 verse 30, very powerful passage. Ezekiel 22 verse 30, I want you to write that down, young adults. The Lord told Isaiah, he goes, I searched all over for a man, for a woman, to stand in the gap. Talking about intercession, Ezekiel 22 30, one of the main passages about changing history. He says, I searched for a man, I searched for a woman who would stand in the gap between my grace and power and the sin of the nation. And if they would stand in the gap, he said, I would turn judgment away from the land. But he goes, I found nobody that would do it. Beloved, we must stand in the gap. The governmental place of planet Earth is the prayer rooms in the body of Christ, but they're empty, they're defiled by compromise, they're confused with deceptions, and they're not on fire, they're not in fasting and prayer, they don't have revelation about their position, they don't have revelation about the end times, because they don't believe it's relevant, they believe those hundred chapters have nothing to do with them. Beloved, we've got to get into the governmental role, the prayer rooms, and direct history under the leadership of Jesus. It's a fact. We have to get in there. God's looking for people who will stand in the gap. So he looks, he goes, who knows? Now here's what's really going on here, he goes, who knows? The Lord may relent. Now it sounds like, well, it seems like the Lord's not 100% committed here. There's a bit of a mystery. Who knows? I don't like that, who knows? But the Lord's smiling in heaven going, hey, you take one step towards me, I will take 10 steps towards you. It is in my heart to give mercy. And there's a reason why the language is who knows, I don't want to go into it right now, but it's for our purposes I want to say this. This passage, Joel chapter 2, verse 13 and 14, and there's many, many, many others in the prophets, is a very, very clear promise and statement that God will answer our prayers and he will release blessing. Now, how far are we from Zephaniah? I forgot where it's at. Okay, now it's too far away. Okay, I'll just quote it to you. It's a little dinky little book. Zephaniah chapter 2, verse 3. It's one of my favorite passages. Zephaniah chapter 2, write this down, verse 3. It says this, God says, I want you to seek me. He says, I want you to cry out to me with righteousness. He goes, it may be. Here it is, Zephaniah 2, 3. I love it, I love it, I love it. Zephaniah 2, 3. He says, if you seek me, like Joel, because Zephaniah and Joel, by the way, were prophesying at the same time, they were contemporary prophets in Jerusalem. He says, if you seek me and and you do the whole thing of with all of your heart, he says, he says, here's what's going to happen. He goes, perhaps you will be hidden in the day of his anger. You will be hidden. I call that passage, pockets of mercy. Beloved, if we seek the Lord in our geographic region, we can be hidden, we can be hidden from the anger, the judgment of the Lord that is breaking out at the right and the left. If we seek the Lord, he will hide, hide individuals, families, and he will hide entire geographic regions and even nations. He will hide them and protect them from the wrath that's coming. Zephaniah chapter 2, verse 3. It goes with Joel chapter 2, verse 14. Perhaps you will be hidden. It leaves the same element of mystery, but I want to jump ahead and not develop that passage right now. I want to say this, for where we're standing, we have a firm confidence that we can, through fasting and prayer, redirect the course of this nation. We can redirect the course of regions within this nation, as well as regions within other nations of the world. Because, beloved, the government, the government of the planet is in the prayer rooms. It really is. It really is. I wish I could spend an hour on that subject. It's a very dynamic truth about our lives and destinies. And we cannot just kind of leak away all of our life and destiny and compromise in darkness and have the prayer rooms empty. We must be in our position of government in the prayer rooms. And the prayer rooms in the nations, they're a lot more full than they were 10 and 20 years ago, but they're still substantially full. And the ones that are full are still substantially weak because of the lack of revelation and the lack of, and the lack of wholeheartedness. There's compromise in the majority of the intercessors that I know. We need revelation and wholeheartedness, and we need to be in the place of prayer. Okay, God's going to release pockets of mercy. Here's what a pocket of mercy is. How big is a pocket of mercy? It may be your house, maybe one house on the neighborhood. A pocket of mercy may be an entire city. You know, there's verses in Amos, and oh, there's just lots of them. And again, in the syllabus, I give all kinds of illustrations from Amos, Isaiah, from Exodus, where pockets of mercy came forth, where God's judgment broke out and one city had rain on it, and the other city did not have rain on it because of the judgment of God and because of the grace of God. And God told the prophet, I will rain on one city, I will send drought to the next city, I will send fire on one city, I will protect the other city. It's all, not all, but mostly in the balance of the prayer movement within that region. I've, I'm taking it as a personal part of my life mission, not only me for sure, but certainly I'm taking it personal to see to it, with as many intercessors as I can walk in unity, that this whole region is going to be a pocket of mercy, a city of refuge, of outstanding revival, and a place where the judgments of God, we miss them entirely or we minimize them significantly because of prayer and fasting. Now, how big is a pocket of mercy? Again, it may be a house, a family, maybe a neighborhood, maybe a city. A pocket of mercy may be 500 miles by 500 miles. A pocket of mercy may be a cluster of nations, we don't know. The Lord says something like this, they aren't, doesn't say it, I mean his heart in the scriptures is, you just come to me, you fast and pray and live wholehearted, you live in unity with me, and you trust me for how big the pocket of mercy is. You come to me and do your part and I'll do my part. Now, there's a very dynamic relationship that the praying church has with the sovereignty of God. Because a lot of folks are confused by the sovereignty of God, and I am one of them, because God is so big and my brain is so little, if you think you're not confused, I promise you, you is confused if you don't know you are. If any time little peanut can comprehend the ancient of days and he thinks he's got it, he is totally confused. So, if the sovereignty of God confuses you, well praise God you're at least in the right spirit. He's big, we're little. I read these books on these guys that got this thing so figured out, I go, give me a break. We can't even figure out how to keep 10 or 15 stars in their orbit and God holds billions of them at the fingertips. I go, let's not go too heavy on how much we understand God's sovereignty. Let's be little guys before the big God. But anyway, there's a dynamic tension in the sovereignty of God and the praying church. And here's, here's something like this, something like this. There are major, let's look at a history as big mountains. There are major objectives that God is committed to, big events that are going to happen and nobody's going to stop them. Jesus is coming back. He's setting up his earthly kingdom for a thousand years on the earth. The nation of Israel is going to be judged to the very core of their being and then released in the greatest revival, surpassing anything ever seen in history. That is a fact. That won't be stopped. Many other issues of history are going to take place. They're, they're, they're in the Bible. They're mountain peaks of history. They will not be stopped or altered. But your and mine quality of life in the natural and the spirit can be greatly enhanced or greatly diminished according to our response to God in prayer. I will say that again. Our quality of life in the natural, I'm talking about our health, finances, peace in our nation, relationships, our quality of life in the natural and our quality of life in the spirit. I'm talking about a spirit of power on the church, signs and wonders, authority, power, all of these things. Our quality of life in the spirit and our quality of life in the natural can, can be greatly affected even while God is accomplishing his mountain objectives in history. There's many, many movable parts that, that we can determine under his sovereignty while he's accomplishing his big purposes that nobody will alter. So someone says, is it the free will of man or is it the sovereignty of God? I says both to a significant degree without any collision whatsoever in God's mind. God says, I'm going to do things in the nations of the earth. My son's coming. Let me just make up a conversation. Mike, you in Kansas City, you can have a whole greater quality in the spirit of the church. You can have a spirit of power, signs, wonders, healings, miracles, my presence, intimacy, holiness, or you can have a very diminished life in the spirit. You guys get to determine some of the quality of life you have. And it's not just in the spirit. You get to determine some of the quality of life you have in the natural in your city and in your nation. Beloved, we're not just giving America over to the politicians. We are going to take our stand for our cities, for our nations, we're going to take — I mean, for our regions and the nations. Who knows what God might do? Who knows? But I want to say this as well. Here's what we're praying for, and this is a very disturbing idea. We're praying for God's will to be done, and God's will is not near as much Republican and Democrat as we think it is. So we're praying God's will will be done, and that might plummet us into a whole different direction than we have on our family planning for the future. Because you know what God's will is? God's will is that life comes out of the cross. He rejoices in the cross of Christ Jesus, and when Peter stood before Jesus, and Jesus said, I'm going to the cross, and Peter, one of his best buddies, said, no, no, no, and Jesus said, Satan, be quiet. Let me tell you that whole nations, the cross will be exalted in nations. I don't just mean the cross he died on, the cross that gave us forgiveness of Jesus on the, on the cross, that we will bear our cross as individuals and nations in our relationship with Jesus for life to come forth. And God is voting on the way of the cross, and we're voting on the way of American culture, and they are not the same thing. So we say, oh God, we will shift history. The Lord says, remember, I'm the God who loves the cross. You're shifting it into my will. Oh, I thought we were going to end up with more TV channels. That's what I was thinking by shifting history. Bigger highways, lower interest rates on credit cards, more shopping malls, more days off. The Lord says, no, my will is the cross. I rejoice in the cross. And again, the ultimate cross is Jesus on the cross, but beloved, Paul embraced the fellowship of sufferings, he walked out the cross, he gloried in that lifestyle, and all of the believers, the true disciples, they will bear their cross, they will embrace it and walk it out, and therein is where the power of the resurrection is. So when we talk about changing America, most people I hear say that are still profoundly American and not near as much kingdom of God in their thinking. And we must know this, the king of kings will not be manipulated by enthusiastic Americans. We can get together in the biggest rallies in the earth, and the Lord says, I am not moved. I know what is brilliant, I know what is kind, I know what is true, and when my church prays, that is what I'm going to release into the nations. But we're talking about a God who sent his son to the cross. And the great tribulation, the great tribulation which is real, there's a dimension of it where the church will embrace the cross, and there's a church dimension of it where there's an outrage of Satan that we must resist. There's several dimensions in the hour that's coming, but just like Peter said, I don't like this cross thing, and Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan. There's more theology going around the body of Christ in the western world than is anti-cross, and I have one sentence for it, get thee behind me, Satan. We're following the path of discipleship and the path of Jesus Christ. Now you say, what's that really mean? I don't know, fool it. All I know is I'm coming before this outrageously loving God who's really powerful, who cannot be manipulated, and he wants me to partner with him, and I'm coming smiling and trembling because we think we're saying to Jesus, come here, kitty, kitty, kitty, and he is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and when he comes, he will devour everything in his path. He is not this little manipulated little guy that's going, please give me one more chance, church, please. He is a fiery, mighty king, and the nation will obey him whether they vote on it or not, and so when I talk about praying for America, I'm not pro a ton of things. I'm pro-Jesus, righteousness, solemn assemblies, and humility, and holiness, and whatever else comes in that vein, and I know that the right wing, the left wing, the whole bird is sick. I'm telling you, the whole bird is sick, and what I mean by that, what I mean by that, I do not have confidence in almost anything that's just testifying with a little Jesus flag on it. I go, if it's not solemn assembly lifestyle, sermon on the mount lifestyle, that politician is lobbying for my votes, and I may even give it to him, but I don't put my confidence there. It is only going to be related to the sermon on the mount lifestyles and a solemn assembly spiritual culture in the church, and politicians that line up with that are lining up for the real stuff. I'm not saying the other ones are irrelevant, but I'm saying I don't have confidence in the other stuff. I'm not for it or against it. Most of it just bores me. I just say, well, whatever. I'm going to get in the prayer room and make a difference by the way the Word of God says. The Word of God says we will change it through fasting and prayer and righteousness and crying out, and that is the primary method of which we will change nations. Now, our nation is in trouble and our nation has blessing. We're in a great — we're in a real fix. Here's why. We have more covenant promises for the United States. There is more indication of God's desire to raise up America as a light to nations, which has been in many ways, but the light has gone out long ago, and we are polluting the nations with all kinds of things. But there are more covenant promises in the history of this nation that have the sovereignty of God touch, and those promises, they need to be called out in prayer and fasting. Lou Engle wrote a most excellent book called Digging the Wells of Salvation. We find the covenant that God has made with geographic areas of the land and our nation as a whole. We line up with the works of God, the evidences of His grace in the past, and we plow and we believe and we do repentance and God heals the land. So that's the good part. We got promises like many, many, many promises. The bad part is we got this really, really heavy, heavy thing over us that's called abortion. It's serious. It is really serious. Abortion. This — we — abortion — I've done a bit of studying, I'm sure some of you have, on blood guilt. On what — how God views the land when there's innocent blood that's been spilled. And God has tremendous amount of zeal to answer innocent blood with blood. And we have two options when there's innocent blood. We either repent and get the nation to turn and we take the blood of Jesus and the Lord will accept that, or we refuse God's way and our own blood answers for it, but it will be answered by blood. So America, we have 50 million babies in the last 30 years. Round numbers, 31 years, a little bit more than that, whatever. But 50 million babies, and that blood is crying out to God. And though we have covenants on one side, we have this blood guilt on the other side, and I'm looking at this and I know God just a little bit, but enough to know I am scared by the blood guilt mounting up to heaven in this nation. If you have even a little bit of understanding of God, I have just a little bit of understanding of God, I look up and I'm telling you, this man Jesus, fully God, fully man, he will not, not be manipulated by any man or any anything. Any network of ministries, churches, billionaires, politicians, movie stars, he is unmoved by anything besides humility and crying out to him in righteousness. And he's looking at the blood that's mounting in our nation and oh my gosh, I'm telling you, if you've got an ounce of discernment whatsoever and your spirit, your spirit is trembling right now. We are reaching the peak of something. And this George W. Bush four years thing, I don't, again, I don't have confidence in presidents and political parties. I have confidence in Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle and solemn assemblies under his leadership. That's what I have confidence in. But I do appreciate many things God's doing. I don't ever know what a man is or isn't, and I don't know or it's none of my business really. But I know this, God has given us a four-year window through George W. Bush to cry out for his favor on this issue of abortion. And there is going to be a Joel, I'm still not getting very far on Joel, like always. I mean, I was really, I told Dwayne, I'm going through the whole book, we're going to give it the layout, and man, it didn't even get a thing done here. But anyway, that's what syllabus are for.