Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of balancing gratitude for current miracles with a fervent desire for greater manifestations of God's power, urging believers to contend for a vision of fullness in healing and spiritual breakthroughs. He reflects on the miraculous healings witnessed in their ministry while expressing a deep longing for an unprecedented outpouring of God's Spirit, akin to the early church's experiences. Bickle encourages the congregation to remain faithful in the present, actively engage in prayer, and cultivate a spirit of urgency for the fullness of God's power, which he believes is essential for the body of Christ today.

Okay, we're talking about signs and wonders and I have a real burden as many of you do in this room about this subject. I mean a lot of feeling about it, glorious feelings and painful feelings because the glorious is where this is going and what we have seen. We have seen some really outstanding things in the last year in our healing rooms and I'm only saying that to say before the Lord actually that I'm grateful for the present. I don't want to be so in pursuit of the future that I don't like one of the ten lepers, the one came back and said, thank you. You know, we can get so locked in on tomorrow we forget to rejoice in the goodness of God today and so I say that we've had a lot of great things happen. I mean really, I've heard the testimonies, they're outstanding miracles of terminal diseases instantly healed and and restorative miracles and so I'm in no way in my pain and urgency to see more and that's where I'm at tonight. I'm just in anguish over this. I'm in anguish over what's not happening but I want to stop and maintain the right spirit and say, but Lord, look at what has happened and the Lord would say it is and I believe that we're grateful for the present but we're urgent and we're desperate for the fullness and we don't have to choose one or the other. They, we really can do operate in both. We can be grateful for today. We can take our hands out of our pockets and lay them on people. We feel nothing. I've done this for years. I feel nothing and the person standing there, I'm tired. I don't even want to be in the prayer line. Well, better yet, I need to be in the prayer line if you know what I mean and I take my hand out of my pocket and I say in the name of Jesus and lots of times nothing happens but I tell you a lot of times something does happen. Sometimes a little bit and occasionally a lot and I never know the moment before when it's going to happen. Never, never. When I often feel the least is when sometimes the most and sometimes it's the other way around. The Lord gives you those tip-offs but more times than not, it's just something happens like, Lord, I could make no connect with how I was feeling right now. So, I believe it's part of contending for the future is being faithful in the present. You know, we have this, we've got more people and we care about this that have a vision for the future. We care a lot about it but if our vision for the future makes us despise the present or makes us negligent in the present, two negatives. We despise the present. Ah, it's not even worth it or we're negligent. You know, I don't want to bother those healing eyes. So, little happens anyway and the Holy Spirit wants to correct us. I believe we can be faithful with one talent. We can be faithful in the day of small beginning. I never know when it's going to happen and the Lord does it just that way. I just never know when it's going to happen. And there's many reasons the Lord does it that way and then being grateful. So, we're grateful and we're faithful. We're grateful and we're faithful in the day of small beginnings but we're urgent for fullness. And normally, people pick one of those three responses and they don't do all three of them. We want to do all three. But in the, but in the, now I'm going the other extreme. I mean, I don't know the extreme, the other side. I am grateful and I want to be faithful. Though, this conference, I was in a flow and I said, I'm not leaving. I'm just, I saw those prayer lines and part of it was going to go. I go, no, stay focused, Mike. And I saw people falling and screaming. I go, oh, and I go, stay focused. So, I snuck out a few times. But, but beloved, the greater need in the body of Christ today is the vision for fullness. A vision, what I mean by vision for fullness and, and, and I would say first, I want to alert you. I'm trying, I don't want an elite spirit being communicated. I want to alert you. Most people that I know of that pray for the sick regularly do not have a vision for fullness. They do not have a vision for fullness. What do I mean by that? Is that when, when the spirit of God's moving, most healing ministries of which is every single member of the body of Christ is a healing ministry, just most don't know it. But those that we know as healing ministries, most of them that I know of, and I don't know that many, but I know some number of them. They are, they, they do want to see it increase for sure, but I'm not talking about increase. I'm talking about an exponential way beyond. I'm talking a vision of fullness. I don't, I'm not talking about double the anointing of Reinhard Bonnke. I'm talking about a hundred fold the anointing of Reinhard Bonnke. So I'm not talking about twice. I'm talking about a realm that's never ever been entered into. It was hinted at in the book of Acts, never entered into except for by Jesus himself. That's what I mean by a vision for fullness. And I believe that one of the great crisis, and I want to call it a crisis in the, in the healing ministry today, is that we are grateful for what's happening. And we do have a little bit of diligence in the faith in the present, but we've let go of the vision or never ever cultivated a vision for fullness. The idea that the unprecedented realm of God is going to break in with such power and dynamic. It's so clear in the word of God, many, many places I've spent 25 years finding the places in the Bible, not all of them rejoicing in it, preaching, arguing for presenting the case. And my point of saying that is I don't want to go through all the verses. Tonight isn't a prove it to you. It's biblical night. Though I love that. That's what I do. I love to prove it to you. It's biblical that the fullness is coming. That's not what I want to do tonight. There are so many passages and I have, you know, certain that are my favorite ones. It's like you do. I want to call you to it without proving it right now, because you believe it. You already got on the plane. You came here and registered. You know, I don't want to preach to the choir. You already believe it's going to happen. Great things are happening, but there's a difference between a casual kind of safe. Hey, it's going to get better tomorrow. I'm not talking about a kind of a optimistic, kind of a peppy spirit. Hey, it's going to get better tomorrow. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a, a realm so far beyond what we're walking in that as, as one guy said, when I was talking to him, he goes, well, you're getting me into unbelief now. He goes, I was with you. Now, now I'm starting to get into unbelief. I don't, I don't believe for that. And, and I believe that in midst of people like yourselves, we have to be definitive, clear about this idea that there's a vision for fullness. We, it's not the normal thing I'm talking about. And I'm, and I'm saying this again, vast majority of the healing ministries today do not have a vision for fullness. They have a vision for increase, but not for fullness. And my point isn't to look at them and say, aren't, isn't that bad? I'm just so grateful they're doing it. It's because so few of the body of Christ is praying for the sick. I'm just so grateful. So I don't look at that and say, isn't that bad? No, I just say, Oh Lord, thank you. Keep blessing them. But I am not going to let go of a vision for fullness because it's not spoken of much. And again, I could take a, as a number of you could in this room, plenty of time on the verses to prove it. There is a realm of fullness of power. I'm talking about fullness of power, fullness of more than power, but I'm only talking about power right now. Uh, Kevin mentioned this, uh, these, these 12 nights where I took an hour a night and took our staff, our 400 staff, and we got them all together in a room and jammed them in there. And, uh, I told 12, uh, evenings of one hour of just stories of prophetic events of angelic visitations of the audible voice of God, of things that happen that are so convincing to many people, meaning, uh, uh, they're so the way they unfolded are very, very, uh, arresting to our mind. It's like, huh? There's no way that could have just happened. And so I could take hours and tell stories. I don't know. I don't know. You talk about just the Bible verses. That's one set of hours, another set of hours, which is stories that I have experienced. And I could take a whole nother set of hours of stories. I've heard from others that I don't know firsthand, but I know the stories I've heard them. And we could go for, for literally hours and hours and hours bearing witness to the fact the fullness of power is coming. However, the vast majority of the people, the body of Christ don't have a vision for it. And the vast majority of the healing ministries, they see increase, but they don't see fullness. Why does this matter? It changes the way we approach the future dramatically, dramatically. It changes what I do on Monday is very different. If I believe in this idea, very different. And so believing in the fullness of power as a reality in the body of Christ before the second coming of Christ is a idea with such radical consequences to our lifestyle. And maybe I don't know really the real reason, but maybe that's one reason why people touch it and back off of it because it's a grand sermon. It's like you get them shouting, get them shouting and people get excited. But if you really buy into it, you have to change your life in a radical way. And maybe, maybe the implications of it, you know, I've seen those that preach it for a while starts dawning on the preachers and they go, oh my goodness, because see the fullness of the power. Again, I could give you just scripture after scripture and many of you could as well. I mean, it's a real fundamental concept. The fullness does not come just sovereignly in a vacuum. It comes in response to people, the body of Christ on the earth contending. That's the verse from Jude 3 that we haven't looked at yet. It's one verse. It's a Jude says verse 3 contending for the faith that was once delivered to us by the apostles and by the Lord himself. We got to fight for it. There's a contending, there's a fighting, there's a taking our stand number one, and then taking ground in the spirit. Number two, we take our stand, we agree from the word and from prophetic testimonies, our own and those that we trust, we agree it's real. So we take a stand in our soul. That's step one to fight. So instead of contend, you can put the word fight. We fight for this. We labor, we press for this experience of the faith that was delivered by the early apostles and by the Lord himself. We want to experience the book of acts faith. That's what verse three is talking about. Well, if we're going to experience it, it's necessary that we contend for it. We fight for it. We take a stand. We read the scripture. We review our own experiences in God. We review the experiences of people that we trust. And we say, yes, we take a stand. And the Lord says, okay, you've taken a stand in your soul. You've determined it's right. And it may take some people a year or two or three or four before they even take a stand in their own heart, that it's even right. And that's okay. If it takes time, there's there, there, there, there's many a good man or woman that I've shared this with. And they've said, you know, kind of like what mean a foul fish, you know, like what they look at this verse in that verse. And they look here and they hear it there. And they hear a few stories and they go, huh, this might be real. It takes a while before they take a stand in their own soul, before they determine it, before they put the flag on the hill that says, you know what? I'm going to die taking this hill. I'm going to go put the flag on the hill. I'm going to die taking this hill. There's nothing going to stop me from it. We take a stand in our soul, but then after we take a stand, we have to go take the ground now in the spirit, meaning believing in it and gathering together is critical. But now what do we do now that we believe and gather? And that's what I hop is all about. It's not the only thing we're about, but one of the reasons I hop exists in the mind of God, this, this little reality, and there's, or realities like this that are emerging up all over the world and different. They look different. They sound different. They have different names. It doesn't matter the reality of people gathering for this intensity of going for God. So what I'm talking about by I hop the reason we exist in the mind of God, not the only reason, but one reason is to contend together for a historic breakthrough that we can't get alone. We can go further together than we can alone. We can go further together than we can alone. And just the reality. You don't like it. I don't like it without you. I draw back and without me, you draw back without doing it together. We draw back. It just, it's, it's our, it's the nature of how we're built. We just draw back over time because the journey's long, but we got to contend for this. So some people come along and say, okay, okay. I believe it. I believe in this fullness thing. I've, I see it. I'm convinced, but they don't contend for it. It's just a phenomenal idea that they love. They read books on it. They talk about it, but they don't do anything radical beloved. I'm not talking about adding a prayer meeting a day to, to your schedule. That's not what I'm talking about contending. I'm talking about content. I'm talking about a lifestyle wrapped up in the conviction that we have an inheritance that requires a corporate response to break through. Now I realize I have a, a, uh, a fundamental understanding. I certainly need more that the Lord, it's his sovereignty. Everything comes from him through him or to, uh, from him, through him and back to him. Romans 11 verse 36, the whole idea of revival comes from God. It's through him. It's through the power of the spirit and sustained and the glory goes back to him. It's all about sovereignty, but in the middle of this sovereign outworking of plan, there's a lovesick God that wants relationship, and he wants to consume us in the process of birthing revival on the earth. The very process that he requires of us transforms us and connects us with him while being the agents loosing the thing he promised sovereignly. So it's not a matter of if we shout louder, we'll convince God. It's not a matter of if we have more energy, God gets convinced. That is not the issue. It's the issue that God says, the thing that I'm having is going to give is so glorious. If you are not consumed in relationship with me, the very glory you long for will consume and injure you. So I'm going to hold it back until you press in the pressing in does not earn it. The pressing in does not get God's attention. The pressing in creates a bonding and oneness in us so that when it is released, the very glory we've longed for doesn't come back and destroy the vessels that God used to birth it. Because history shows us history shows us without any mistake that the vast majority of the vessels that he has chosen to release unique distinction, uh, demonstrations of power and blessing often usually come back and become ruined by the very power they helped birth the options. I mean, when a person gets touched by whatever dimension of blessing, so many good things happen in the very options that come to them because they got so much blessing and favor and the whole world's turning their way. The options, that's what temptations is called options. The very pressure of all the open doors over 5, 10, 15, 20 years comes back and injures their life. And the Lord says, let's just do it this way. You're not going to talk me into it. I'm trying to talk you into, you're not going to earn it because I give it to you as freely as a gift. However, however, in as much as you're not going to talk me into it or earn it, neither are you going to get it without fully pressing into it either. Because by the pressing in our hearts become one and unified. And the very thing that I'm going to birth through you, I will protect you through the process of fasting and prayer for that day and for that hour. And so I find all kinds of theological, uh, things, theological errors. I don't know if that's the right way to say theological wrong things. Meaning we got the fullness of God, people, guys like us, and we've got a bunch that aren't grateful for the little, and they're not diligent in the present. They're so big into the fullness. They don't do that. Those are two big errors. Then we got the other group. Hey, glory to God. We're going to see the healing right now. We're going to press, but they're not pressing for fullness. We got the other group. They believe in the fullness, but they're so convinced in the sovereignty of the fullness. And they're so convinced that we can't earn it. They lay back in just easy street, not knowing that God has by his own zeal for relationship holds it back until we press in with all of our hearts, not to earn it and not to get God's attention, but to get ourself sufficiently connected in relationship to where the very thing that we long for does not destroy us or bring shame to his name. Once we're the vessels of his choosing and the Bible calls that in the apostolic, uh, uh, and the prayers of the apostles, it calls it second Thessalonians chapter one, verse 11, Lord count us worthy. Count us worthy. When you read, there's two or three verses that were that Paul's praying that we would be counted worthy to be used for power. We go counted worthy. Now I thought we got it as a gift that we're confusing ideas. What Paul is saying, look at our lives and count us prepared to bear the weight of the thing we're praying for count us ready and prepared and equipped to stay in unity with you while the glory is breaking out in our midst. And so one guy is so into sovereignty, as long as he studies it and likes it, he just thinks the revival is going to pop up from heaven. The other guy is so into, we can't earn it and we can't strive. He's just sitting back waiting for it to happen. The other guy is pressing so hard, but pressing into God without a conviction of sovereignty and without a conviction that the thing is given freely without knowing it's about relationship that God requires the pressing. So he's even pressing in, in a way that's going to burn him out. But beloved, there is an accurate and a biblical way to go after this thing. We're grateful for the day of small beginning. One out of a thousand get healed. One out of a hundred get healed. One out of what I don't, whatever the number. Thank you for one. I don't care what the one out of whatever. Thank you. Second response. We look at they're in the hay lines. We don't feel a thing. That's okay. We're going to be faithful in the present. We're going to be faithful in the present. Then we come over here. We're pressing in with a radical response of fasting and prayer, the God ordained way and the word of God. We're pressing it, but we have confidence in sovereignty. We so know that the word of the God who spoke in will not lie that we have a rest in our spirit while we're abandoning in ourself in it. So we have a rest of sovereignty at the same time. We have a confidence in love that in our brokenness and our weakness, there's not a chance we can earn it. We can't manipulate God, but at the same time we have a spiritual violence coming out of our confidence coming out of our reality of sovereignty. And that violence gives us to this lifestyle to go after this, knowing that the very violence of fasting and prayer going after it prepares us and equips us. So we're not injured by the thing that God so longs to give us. We have to go after this thing. And so I find, I find it, it's so glorious when I meet somebody that has these fundamental five or six things clearly in the foundation of in their spirit. And it's, I'm not wanting to be too corny here, but Kevin, where's Kevin? That's what I loved about you. When I met you, you had these realities. As I was talking to him some years ago, three, four, two, three, four years, whatever, whenever it was about the healing rooms, he had this, this gratitude for the little, this diligent in days of smallness, this confidence in sovereignty, this trusting in his weakness, it would still happen. And yet this violence to go after it, he had these kinds of ideas. And I said, you know what? I officially love you. As I talked to him, I go, these are all the things I love and cherish because any one of those will throw the thing off any one of those apps that will throw the thing off. So I've told you a few times, Kevin, but I really like how the Lord tools you just right. For my point of view, but beloved, we got to go after this thing. Again, the guys are breaking out in healing. And I remember one guy, he meant so well, but it was so totally wrong. I mean, one of the main guys on TV, and I had a chance to do a conference with him. And he says, I remember I heard it. I just went, I, it was okay because the Lord's with him and loves him. And he said, it doesn't get any better than this because a lot of good things are happening. He goes, it doesn't get any better than this. The revival is here. It doesn't get better than this. And I said, Lord, never, never will I allow by the grace of God, the enemy to steal the seed of the conviction of fullness out of my heart. I said, no, I'm going the opposite direction. I'm going to go get a bunch of people together. We are going to fast pray, declare the word night and day, day and night. We're going to press in hard. Yes. We're going to lean into sovereignty. We're going to have confidence and love in our weakness. We're going to be grateful for the day of small beginning. We're going to be diligent when they're very low power, but we are going to press and press and press into God because we are contending. We are contending verse three. Oh, what a word earnestly contending for the faith that the apostles preached the faith that Jesus preached. But beloved, it's going to go beyond what the early church experienced in power for real. It's going to go significantly beyond, and maybe that's a new idea to some people. I don't know if that's a new idea to some people, but, uh, it might be, but I'm talking about far, far beyond what happened in the book of acts. God's raising up a forerunner company of people all over the earth. Now, what I mean by forerunner company of people, I'm talking about power right now, but I'm going to slip into a couple other modes here. I'm not just only talking about power. There's a, when I think of a forerunner company of people, it's, it's a people with a John, the Baptist spirit on them sounds great in the preaching, but it's really a different issue in the living. Great sermon, great title series, great t-shirt, great conference brochure, but really comes to a radical lifestyle when it's walked out. I'm talking about the real deal. John the Baptist, Jesus called him the greatest man ever born of a woman that already is arresting. Isn't it? I mean, what I remember when I at first connected with my spirit by revelation, just a little bit, even to Matthew chapter 11, uh, verse 11, Jesus said, he's the greatest man ever born of a woman. I thought, you know what? I better listen to John the Baptist with a focused attentiveness, the greatest man and the implication being the, the choices John made the choice. Let's just look at it because it's just on my heart right here. Matthew chapter 11, Matthew 11. I'm desperate to be with a people with his spirit on them. And we have some people in our midst with this spirit on them, but I'm desperate to have an, a multitude of people gather in this place with this spirit, but not just here. My vision isn't so narrow. I just care about me and mine. I care about the fame of his name. I care about the glory of God in St. Louis and Chicago and the East coast and West coast and Asia and Africa. It's wherever there's a human spirit. I love the name of Jesus being magnified. You know, when someone said, yeah, you know, you could talk to this group or that group. I said, as long as they have a human spirit, that's all I care about. That's all. That's all that matters to me. If they're human, it doesn't matter where, who, what, when, what, you know, what their status is as long as I get a human spirit. And so when I'm focused on Kansas city, I'm focused on Kansas city, not because my joy or my delight is Kansas city. My joint delight is in the glory of God in the earth, all over the earth. But I know this, I know the principle of scripture and it's true in history that you don't get a multiplication until you get a breakthrough. There's a breakthrough here and a breakthrough there before there's a rapid multiplication. That's how it always is. The breakthrough comes and I'm asking the Lord to raise up. I don't care what the number is 10 or 20 cities in the earth, maybe 50. I don't care. Raise up some forerunner cities where a breakthrough happens. And then beloved, when the breakthrough happens in a city, it will fill the nation. It'll go all over. You need a breakthrough before you have a multiplication. And so I want to focus now what I'm doing here because I want to see it hot. Not because I don't trust sovereignty and they, you know, just going to whip up everybody. No, no, I want them leaning on sovereignty or they won't stay hot long. I mean, they won't stay fervent long. I want them trusting in God's love and their weakness, but I want them with a conviction that if we don't enter in, we don't, we don't press in as a people I'm talking about giving ourself to this in an abandoned way. We're not going to get the fullness of what God has promised us. It does take an, a radical response, a radical response. So I want to see a breakthrough in Kansas city, not for the sake of Kansas city per se. I love God touching Kansas city. I love Kansas city. That's I love the city God's put me in, but that's not mostly why I went to breakthrough here. I want to break through here because I know I will never see our labors or what we're doing bring a breakthrough anywhere else if we don't have it right in front of us. So I see a breakthrough here as the way to see a breakthrough there. Because when, when there's a breakthrough, then there's multiplication without a breakthrough. What we're multiplying is non-breakthrough Christianity. And that's not so horrible because non-breakthrough Christianity is about what's covering the earth. And you know, people are still getting saved and going to heaven. I mean, non-breakthrough Christianity is still getting people saved and it's getting some people to turn away from sin a little bit. And the church is so weak in sin and so we can compromise and so blinded without revelation. I mean, there's not much, a whole lot more happening than people getting out of hell. A little bit more, a little bit more. I'm talking about on the global scene and I'm talking about the, you know, the 500 million that are in the kingdom of God. There's a little bit more than people going to heaven. A little here, a little there. But breakthrough Christianity is very rare on the earth right now. I'm talking about a break, an experience of Christianity that I would call apostolic Christianity. It's the Christianity the apostles walked in. Where there's a clarity of understanding from heaven. There's a power, there's a vibrancy in their life. The new converts come in and they come into the power of God. The day they're born again, they're moving in an atmosphere of power. So I love spreading Christianity no matter what. I mean, it's good to spread the gospel. Absolutely end of the sentence. That's good. But I do understand the spread of non-breakthrough Christianity produces non-breakthrough Christianity everywhere our strength is spent. We spend our money, our time, our energy reproducing the scale of one to ten, this level one, that's bottom end, level one Christianity because that's all that we have and that's all we produce. And you know what? That's a whole lot better than nothing. But I have got this vision for level 10 Christianity. And I said, Lord, I've got to focus my energy and strength. I am so convinced from the scripture, from the prophetic experiences I've had, the prophetic experiences others have had that I believe in. I want to see a breakthrough for the one purpose of multiplying it. Not so that, you know, the, you know, the amount of transfiguration, we all stay up on this hill and, and what's, you know, what, what the Peter, James and John say in Matthew 17, the amount of transfiguration, let's stay on the hill here and just us four no more kind of deal. And Jesus said, no, no, it's not about that. It's about this thing filling the earth. But I, so I don't want to break through so we can write books about it. I want to break through so we can multiply in the earth, but I got a vision for breakthrough Christianity going to the earth, which is what I call apostolic Christianity, which is almost non-existent on the planet. Non-existent. I know there's a revival over here and over there, but even the quality of the revival, the quality, there's commitment, particularly in some parts in Asia, the commitment's high. I mean, they walk into martyrdom and abandonment, and I guess you don't get any better than high commitment. But commitment is high. But I want more than high commitment. I want clarity from heaven. I want, there is a revelation of the spirit of truth from the scripture. There is a revelation of truth. We are in the hour of the Lord's coming. God is appointed to raise up messengers. There is, there is a message he wants to proclaim that is not being sounded anywhere in the earth. And he's again, making up a number, appointing a million messengers. My point is, it's a lot. It's not, you know, you know, your five best friends are my five best friends. I'm talking about there's a million, but they're messengers. And those messengers are not anywhere in the earth. I mean, they might be one of them in some jungle somewhere. I am searching for them. And there is no sound of the thunder of God coming with an eschatological prophetic message with power and authority on it anywhere in the earth I can find. And I love this so much. I am searching it out with great vigor. I'm tempted to say, though I take my ignorance seriously enough that I'll hold back, but I'm tempted to say that voice isn't in the earth right now, but I'm still, uh, you know, got enough limitations of my knowledge and connectedness. It might be a little here and there, and I just don't know about it, but with energy, I'm searching for it everywhere. So I'm not talking about just 20 year olds getting saved, you know, in the underground church and willing to be martyred though. That's pretty high up the list to me. That's pretty cool. I mean, don't get a lot better than that, but it does get better than that. There's something more than that. There's a profound spirit of truth and there's a stewardship of the end time message where messengers with trumpets from with, with heavenly revelation with signs and wonders. Yes, we do have that spirit of dedication and martyrdom, but we have the kind of understanding to instruct nations as well. When I talk about the forerunner company, there's a, there's a company of people. I don't mean a group here in a group there. I'm just asking Lord, raise up 10, 20, 50, a hundred. I don't know the number. I don't care about the number, but I know it's a small number to start off with companies of believers all over the earth, wherever the, however, the big, the number, it will start small and then grow big later where they, where they gather together. And I know that we're invited to be one of those companies here and we're pressing into the spirit of revelation. We want not only the foundational messages of how to get saved. I love that. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the centerpiece. It's what, it's what we call the main and plane of scripture. Beloved, the fundamental mandate, the foundational mandate of every believer is the main and plane of scripture. Jesus Christ died. Jesus Christ buried, rose from the grave, ascended to the right hand of God, the father. That's the main and plane. We get saved by faith, by the grace of God and his atonement. And we begin to live lives of obedience. I mean, that's the main and plane that's, we're all called to that. But beloved, I know that we were called to something in addition to that. I don't mean to add to salvation because the salvation, there's only one gospel of any angel of God who preaches any gospel other than this, let him be accursed. I'm not talking about adding to that, but I'm talking about, there is a message from heaven for the earth related to this hour of time of, of, of, of history. It's the end time message. And that message must be discerned and proclaimed with clarity and authority with clarity and authority. It's not enough that people are just saying, I want to be saved. Those converts have to enter into the entire message. And there's more things than that too. We have to enter into a spirit of prayer, a spirit of prayer, this forerunner company. I'll just give you one, two, three. It'll make more sense before I start describing it. When I meet a forerunner company, I'm talking about something in addition to the main in the plane of scripture, which is our fundamental mandate. Everybody's mandate is the main and plane of scripture. I'm talking about that, but something in addition to it, I'm talking about, we have a forerunner mandate to press into the fullness, to press into that, which has never happened in history. And to do it by what the Bible, Jesus calls here in Matthew 11, verse 12, spiritual violence. I mean, radical lives that birth it, that birth it in the spirit, that release it in the spirit and transform us in the process and bind us together as a community of believers while we're birthing it in the spirit. It's a forerunner calling in that forerunner calling there. There's the anointing of the messenger. Forerunners are messengers. They're not just a heralds of the good news and that's it. We are messengers of the unique hour of which we live. Number two, we are intercessors. There's a spirit of prayer. Oh, there, there is a, uh, uh, this is a subject so grand and so glorious, the spirit of prayer. I've said this the last couple of Sundays, uh, to our, our family here that I hop, we are doing prayer, but there is not a spirit of prayer upon us, which is okay because we're doing our part. We are, we are what we're doing here. The Lord loves it. The Lord looks down and goes, you're my favorite. Of course, you know, he says that about you too, but I just like you guys so much, but beloved, I am not confused. I am not confusing God's delight over what we're doing and God's enjoyment over I hop with our, uh, level of maturity. We are a four-year-old driving a bicycle on training wheels, and we're just going in a little circle. Very few demons or angels are concerned at all with what we're doing at I hop. Maybe a couple of them, the smart ones and not that I don't know how that works, but maybe a couple of the more informed ones, I'd rather say it that way are peeking over saying she's growing. Should we worry? And maybe the other guys are going, not yet, not yet. And I'm going, they're growing. They're doing fasting every day. Now they're going 24 seven. They're growing. And I'm just kind of imagining that the hierarchy of hell is going well, just they'll get off. They'll get into some little this or little that, or they'll get into pride or immorality or money or something. Don't worry. They're going to be fine. Accusation will take care of them. They're growing. I don't think we're a threat yet, but I think some more informed demons are looking down and going, it is five years, you know, sooner or later they turn a corner because right now the authority in this place, I realize authority is purchased by the blood of Jesus and it's, and it's final and secure and given to us as a gift in that sense. But there's a breakthrough, a manifestation of it. There's not a lot of authority on a shot, but we're positioned for it. We are positioned for it. I know the scripture and I know history enough to know with what we're doing. We are positioned for a breakout of authority. Authority will first hit in the room of prayer. When the spirit of prayer is Zachariah 12, 10, there's a few verses on it. It's a, this glorious, I want to say in the, in a very positive sense, an outrageous, a glorious breaking in of God's prayers through us. When that authority of prayer called the spirit of prayer, it's, it's tenderness on us, but it's more than tenderness. It's the iron of God's The iron of authority through our prayers and our songs, demons and angels are moved by our purse. That authority is not in our midst, but it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. The forerunner community has a message. They're messengers. Number two, they're intercessors with the spirit of prayer. We don't really quite have a message. A couple of us are kind of bumping into it a little bit and we don't have a spirit of prayer yet. And thirdly, thirdly, the forerunners have a demonstration of power. Joe used the phrase last night. They're gatekeepers. They open the gates in the spirit. I mean, God does, we know sovereignly, but in our partnership with him, there are those vessels that stand in that place before God and his people and the gates open and the power, the deluge breaks in upon geographic areas. So I look at our little IHOP community, our message pretty weak, but you know what? It's better than it was a couple of years ago. I'm getting more clear myself. A few of you get more clear. We're getting more clear about the message. It's still pretty weak. There's not a lot of clarity or authority on it, but it's growing spirit of prayer. It's a little teeny bit every now and then for seven or eight minutes, I feel it in the room about once a month or so, but it used to be never. No, I mean, for real what I'm talking about. And just so you know, I've been around everywhere. I have never seen the spirit of prayer in a corporate prayer meeting and all the places I've been, except for a couple of times. I'm talking about something wholly other than just the whole room shouting. I'm talking about something that has a power and an electricity in it that moves angels and demons and changes history in the present tense. I'm not talking about something that 18 years from now, we figured out, Hey, probably something did happen. I'm talking about, it has instant impact and history changing, uh, breakthrough right there. I'm talking about the spirit of prayer, that most dynamic reality. God gives the human spirit. We don't have the message clear. Some, one of you said, man, I was going to come to your internship. You just talked me out of everything here. We don't have the authority of prayer yet. And we don't have demonstration of power. Just a little breakthrough here. A little of that would now remember when I'm talking about power, I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about the Reinhard Bonnke level of power. I'm talking about something a hundred fold that that's what I'm talking about. And I say Reinhard Bonnke is the most, uh, highest hero I have in the spirit, in the room of power. So I say that with the greatest admiration, but that is not where my vision is to go. It's significantly beyond that in terms of demonstration. And I know Reinhard Bonnke, we're not great friends, but I know him well enough to know he has a vision for something far more than he's operating in. He really does. He looks at his stuff at 2 million at his meetings, you know, and he says, well, I love it, but oh God, I want more than this. I go, oh, Reinhard, I love you. I double love you. That is a man with a vision. So I look at us and I go, God, we got a little baby message, hardly taking root. It's going to, we got a hardly a spirit of prayer shows up seven minutes once a month. Collectively, if we add it all together, maybe a little more than that, but not much more. Honestly, honestly, I know a little bit what I'm talking about on this point. And I see our power more than any place I've ever been involved in terms of ministry, but nothing like what we're going for. But the forerunner message is the messenger, the spirit of prayer on the intercessors and the power, the gatekeepers, the, the breaker anointing that opens up whole geographic areas to power. The Lord says, that's the calling I've given you. Now you can, you can, uh, I mean, many, many people, the Lord, I mean, let me say it all different. The Lord has given us the mandate to the main and the plane. And there, there is, that is a fantastic mandate. We preach Jesus and do acts of kindness. I mean, that is the main and plane. You never graduate from it ever, never. It's what everybody in the whole kingdom of God is called to. But beloved, the main in the plane is not the full measure of our mandate. We have a forerunner mandate. We are one of those early cities. And again, there might be 10, there might be 50, there may be a hundred, but I'm not talking about 10,000 cities. There's a few cities in the earth where God has given a company of people, a, not just an invitation, yay more than that. He's given them divine marching orders to come together and break out to break open that I'm quoting, uh, Micah chapter two, verse 12, uh, an anointing that's going to be on G I mean, that's on Jesus when he returns, it's a breaker anointing. It's this ability to break something open in this city that can be multiplied rapidly across the earth. I am not content with, with, with, uh, with, uh, uh, shipping across the earth, non breakthrough Christianity. Like we're doing a little bit right now. I I'm not against it, but it does not excite me. I want to find a company of people. I want to see the wet wood become dry wood and ignited with heaven, the body of Christ in the Western world. We are sincere. We are wet wood. We are not easily, we don't receive fire quickly. We repel fire at this level. I'm talking about I hop. I'm talking about your ministries. I'm talking about your local churches back home. We are mostly wet wood right now. We got to get together. We got to go after this thing. We got to contend for it. We got to have a vision for it. We got to stay the course. We got to be clear about what we're after. And we're going after this thing together. We're going to get the head, the message. We are messengers at the very center of our men. I hop mandate, not the only mandate at the center is to raise up messengers for the end times messengers. I'm not talking about Bible preachers. I'm not talking about Bible teachers. Yes, we're called to do that. Lots of million groups are called to do that. And so are we, I'm talking about prophetic day of the Lord messengers that will speak and angels and demons will move in geographic areas because they're speaking in the councils of the Lord. In that hour, we're called to raise up messengers. That's not, that's not all we're called to do, but that is, that's at the center of all that we're doing. Not the only thing, the center of what we're doing, but we're called to do more than raise up messengers, messengers with the spirit of prayer. Messengers, singers, musicians with a spirit of prayer on them. Our singers and musicians do not have a spirit of prayer on them. Our preachers don't, our intercessors don't, I don't, you don't, but we're going to get it. We're going to get it. I got a little bit of a lively little presentation and people feel a little inspired here and there. That is not a spirit of prayer, nor is it apostolic preaching. It's a little more lively than the guy over there, but believe it. Believe me, I am not confused with that, with apostolic preaching and prophetic preaching. It has not been granted to me yet, and I've rarely seen it anywhere on the earth, but I'm going after it. The Lord's whispered in my heart just some months ago, and he said, I want you to pull back and lock into IHOP. It's not mostly just about IHOP. Lock in and get something to give the earth. Get something that will change the destiny of nations. Get a message with power on it. Get the spirit of prayer on you. Raise up an army of worship leaders that have power on them when they sing the songs of Zion. I mean, I love what we do. I mean, again, it's the things I started with earlier at the very beginning. I am so grateful we got the best people on the earth. Sounds like I'm putting everyone down. I'm not. I told you, I started off real positive, said I have pain in my heart tonight, but the pain's not going to go away after a sermon. I have this pain. I've had it for months and months, some years, actually. It comes and goes, and it's on me again, heavy, and I can't get free of it, and I don't want to get healed from it either. I want a breakthrough. We have the best people on the earth. I mean, I love our people. They're pressing into God hard. I love it. I'm pressing to God hard, but I am not. I am not doing what I'm about right now. I mean, I'm doing the function. I'm preaching and praying, but there's a realm of power. There's a realm of power that I am so determined to get into, and I want to see a breakthrough of power in this house, and when that breakthrough of power comes, I'm talking about blind eyes are opening. The power of God angels are appearing. The spirit of prayer is on our new converts. They come in, and they're under the groanings and the unction of God in the very birth canal, so to speak. I mean, they're getting saved on Monday, and on Tuesday, they're under the unction of prophecy, and they're praying under the anointing. That's what I'm talking about, an environment. I'm talking about a spiritual environment birthed with a forerunner spirit on it, and I don't want to just transport across the earth non-breakthrough Christianity. I just, I don't want to spend my energy on it. I only got an ounce of energy like you do. We got this much energy, right? I am going to invest it in getting the deepest things God will give me in this time of history, because if I'm spent doing all these kinds of things, you know what? It takes energy to fast and pray. It takes energy to go deep. It takes energy to contend. You can't get a breakthrough without contending, and you can't contend when you're exhausted all the time. It takes focus. It takes all the strength of our lives to press in and go after something. Now, I realize that some of you might be going, what on earth? This guy, where's he coming from? I don't have, is my city a forerunner breakthrough city? I don't know. I don't know about all that. I know that I don't think, I think there's strategically a small number right now, and again, there might be 10 or 20 or 30 in our nation. There may be 10 or 20 if they're in the earth. I don't know, and in some ways, I don't care. It's none of my business. The Lord says, hey, little guy, just stay focused on what I told you to do. Just get one going right there in your little area. Don't try to measure it or figure it out everywhere else. Lock in, and I hear the Lord telling me something like this. If you get a breakthrough, the multiplication will have so many more zeros on it that you can ever do trying to organize wet wood. You get fire on the thing. You get fire on the thing, and angels and demons will move. You will birth into a new realm of power and beloved. That's what this thing is about. That's what you're about. That's what I'm about. Is that right? Well, I'm going to read one of my favorite guys in church history or just recent history, actually, but with church history too, John G. Lake. How many of you know of John? How many of you have never heard of John G. Lake? Okay, good. Just a couple of you. I won't take a lot of time on him. He's probably, I mean, describing him since most of you have heard of him. He died about 1930, 65 years old, so born, what, 1870, whatever, something like that. And the point of being modern times here in America had the greatest healing anointing that I have ever heard of, and I've been quite a student of the healing anointing. There's others, you know, there's the John Alexander Towey and the Marie Woodworth or there's a few of those that, you know, you have to put in nearly the same category. But John G. Lake, oh my goodness, you know, just absolutely astounding, verifiable, hid the fruits of his ministry from secular sources, talking about what he did. Some of the numbers, he saw 100,000, 100,000 documented healings. I'm talking about terminal cases. I mean, of extreme cases, 100,000 documented ones in five years in South Africa, 100,000 documented cases in five years and birthed hundreds and hundreds of churches in five years under the power of God. And his new converts were in the power of God because they were born in an atmosphere of revival, born in revival. We haven't had a revival in our nation. We have not had a revival in our nation. And I don't know how long, maybe since the 18, whatever, the second great awakening, depending on how you measure that 18, 30, 40, 50, right in there. We had Azusa Street. Now that wasn't really a revival. So Azusa Street was a stirring. It was a little stirring. I mean, yeah, maybe a million people got touched worldwide. What I mean by revival, I'm talking about when the power of God invades New York City like in 1857 and 500,000 converts in six weeks. That's what I'm talking about. I love what happened in Azusa Street. Trust me, 1904 in Azusa Street, that was, I mean, in Wales and then 1906 in Azusa Street. I love it. It was a worldwide stirring, but I'm talking about an invasion of power, an invasion of power. We've never had one. And even the great awakenings were an invasion of power on gospel preaching. And I love gospel preaching. It doesn't get better than gospel preaching, but there's more than gospel preaching. They get saved. Then I'm talking about, I'm talking about the prophetic counsel of God, the end time messenger, day of the Lord preaching. And I'm talking about the realm of power that chain that confronts the evil governments of the earth beyond individuals getting saved. That is certainly at the very center of what we care about, but it's not the limit of what we care about. We care about the reign of Jesus and his fame being manifest. But anyway, a couple of John G. Lake stories and I'll quit. I'm just kind of all stirred up. Tomorrow's Easter Sunday. And if you're at the conference and you're staying over, they'll tell you I never ever am even aware what the calendar is. I'm just, I do what I do. Like I called it, it ended up Christmas this Sunday, this year on Sunday. And I call it Christmas with John the Baptist. I'm not really a holiday guy. And I just preached on fasting and prayer on Christmas Sunday. I just said, call it Christmas with John the Baptist. So everything to me is resurrection Sunday. This is resurrection Sunday. So I'll probably be just, uh, I probably won't be giving flowers to all the mothers or anything like that, but I'll be doing this stuff tomorrow morning. So if this isn't where you're at, well then go ahead and get in the car and get home early because this I'm staying in the same. When I wake up, I'll still have this on my mind tomorrow morning. And I'll just throw in resurrection every now and then. And then everybody will say it was, uh, it worked. Okay. Because it is resurrection. That's all this thing's about. It's all this thing's about. I remember one Mother's Day. I totally spaced out about it. It was Mother's Day. I talked about the antichrist and the end of the age. And they told me it was Mother's Day. I said, no one told me, not one person told me it was Mother's Day. They were all there, you know, with the lady with the eight kids stood up and got the flower. And I thought, oh no, I go, no one told me this. I preached it anyway. I said to me, it's Sunday. We're all sitting here. Let's just go open our Bibles and go for it. I need to get a little more sensitive to the calendar. Okay. I'm not saying that's good. I'm just saying that's just how it is. Okay. Uh, look at this. I'm just going to read a little, how God sent John G Lake to Africa. Uh, John G Lake, he's talking about, he says that eight years had passed. I'm going to read about, uh, for about 10 minutes here. So just kind of get back in your, in your here stories mode here. And, oh, you really want to get these John G Lake books. I know Kevin talked about them. I I've read these books. I was just looking at the insert that said, uh, the one I have in my office, July 81 is when I first heard my first John G Lake book. And I've I mean, preaching, not on him, his stories, telling, relaying his stories, preaching on Jesus actually. Uh, but my point in telling you that is I've never grown weary of these stories. These stories it's 20 years plus later. And they touch me as they did in 81. When I first read them and the poor little church, when I, that I was leading, when I found these books, every Sunday, I talked John G Lake sermons. That's all I did. And it, but it birthed me into another reality. This guy's ministry. I'm saying all that to say, if you have not read these books, I beg they get these books. It, it, it really reset my spiritual genetics in 1981 about power. And then I found the Bible verses to go along with it. And I thought, oh my goodness, I'm set for life. I'm going to go for this, but you get ruined, right? Okay. John G Lake's telling his story. He goes, eight years had passed after God had revealed Jesus, the healer to me. And I had been practicing the ministry of healing and I'd seen, uh, answers to prayer on a daily basis. And every time I saw an answer to prayer, it created within me a greater longing to have more of the power of God. Shortly after my entrance into the healing of, to the ministry of healing, he says, uh, there was an anointing that came upon my life. A new one waves of the Holy spirit passed over me. Now you're going to find when you read his story, he has about 10 or 12 experiences where there's a great, uh, download of God in about 40 years of ministry. He has about 10, I don't know that real number, but some eight to 10 major experiences in 30 to 40 years. So he's not like one every day, but every couple of years, another break in comes that lifts them to another realm and God. And that's the, I believe in that. And I believe that whatever you have today, we're going for more tomorrow. If we empty a hospital today, I'm going to pray for an anointing that we can empty two hospitals in the same amount of time with that. We never, ever hit the fullness of what is available. We were going for fullness as a lifestyle. He said, uh, the waves of the Holy glory passed over my being. I was lifted into a new realm of the presence and power of God. And after this experience, new answers to prayer became more frequent and miracles of healing occurred in me of a greater magnitude. I found my, I found myself on the borderline of a great spiritual breakthrough. So he's had this wave of glory experience. He goes, I'm on the borderline land. Oh no. Borderland of a great spiritual breakthrough, but I was unable to enter in. My nature was not satisfied with the attainment of the power I was walking in. Finally, I said, I will set aside hours each day. I will dedicate to prayer. I will spend it in time of meditation on the word and prayer, and I will come before God. Months passed away. The Holy spirit spoke in my spirit and said, be patient my son until autumn. And I continued practice of practicing prayer and meditation hours a day. I was engaged. I was engaged as a manager of agents for life insurance company. This is early 1900s. He is making $50,000 in about 1905. One of the wealthiest insurance guys in America. Incredible wealth. I don't know what $50,000 a year would be in 1905, but a lot. And he, so he had this big company, but he was so pressed in his spirit for this other realm. He goes, in my zeal to have a breakthrough, I was preaching practically every night on healing. And after the services, and he worked all day, you know, probably went in late in the morning. That's how that works. Okay. After the services, I was in the habit of joining my friends after the preaching meetings. And we would determine to pray through to God that we could receive the full baptism of the spirit as the early apostles did in the book of Acts. I said, Oh God, if you will baptize me in the Holy spirit, if you give me power, nothing will be able to stand between me and a hundred fold, a hundred fold obedience. And I prayed and another nine months went by and there was no breakthrough. I was ready to throw up my hands and quit. And I was ready to say, Lord, it might be for others, but it's not for me. I didn't blame God, but I began to get weary in the journey. Then one night, a gentleman by the name of Mr. Pierce came over and said, Mr. Lake, I've been wishing for a long time. You could come over and we could spend a night together in prayer to get a breakthrough in the baptism of the Holy spirit is I've been praying a whole year for it. And so if you, and neither of us have been baptized yet in this measure, I was so hungry to pray. He says, I hadn't been there for five minutes. And then suddenly the light of God, like a glorious arc shown all around me, I found myself in the center of a, of an arc of light. It was 10 feet in diameter, the widest light in all the universe. Oh, how wide, how pure. And he goes on to say that it wasn't the release of power. God began to speak to him with conviction about areas of compromise in his life. So he has this, he sees it with his natural eyes, the glory of God breaks in and the Lord saying, I want you more dedicated than ever before. And he goes on later to describe because I've read his writings thoroughly that he saw the power of God in the unequipped people after years actually ruined their lives. The great power in their ministry hurt them years later because they didn't have the inward life in God to sustain it. So he tells a story that the first break, he had a couple experiences, you know, up to now healings are happening regularly. He's doing a hard prayer and fasting and going after God, the light of God appears and he gets more conviction than ever about the need for utter abandonment to God. God told him about all the little compromises in his life. And he said, Lord, uh, you know, I was hoping for powers. What is he saying here later on? I'm skipping a few paragraphs. Shortly after that experience, a brother invited me to come and pray for a lady who had inflammatory rheumatism. She'd had that condition for 10 years. And while me and my friend were conversing with his lady, my soul was crying out with such a deep yearning. It was even too deep for words. Suddenly it seemed that I had passed under a warm shower of, of a tropical rain. It was not falling just on me, but through me, it was touching my spirit. I didn't know what was happening. The awe of God came on me in a way I've never experienced. The Holy spirit says, I've heard your prayers. I've seen your tears. You are now baptized in the Holy spirit. Then currents of power begin to rush through my being from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. The shock of power increased in such rapidity and voltage. The currents of power that passed through me seemed like that. Uh, my whole body began to tremble. Like I was going to be thrown to the floor. The power was so great. I didn't think I could stand or, or, or, uh, stand up under it. And at the moment I observed, my friend began to motion to me, Hey, come pray for the lady. I rose to go to him though. I found it very difficult to walk. The moment my finger touched the woman currents of Holy power passed through my being hit that woman, a flash of dynamic power went through my person went right through her body. She was instantly healed. She flew to the ground and my friend, the rush of power, uh, hit the person, uh, with such violence. Then my friend said, praise God, John, I think you're baptized in the Holy spirit. The woman's crippled hand that had been crippled for 10 years, suddenly opened her hands over joints work instantly. Those were the outward manifestations, but, Oh, you could not know the thrill of what was going inside of my being. The presence of God was thrilling my heart. Even at this late date, meaning years later, writing, telling the story, he says the awe of that hour is still on my heart. My experience with Jesus was such that the well of water broke through into my being that night. Now remember he's been 10 years in the healing ministries had two or three breakthroughs. He's been seeking God hard, harder and harder. The never ceasing fountain has flowed through my spirit from that time, bringing, uh, salvation and healing and the baptism of the spirit to multitudes. But shortly after that baptism of the spirit, a great tenderness for, for all of mankind began to well up in my speed and my being. Then one morning I went down to breakfast after that and I found myself, my appetite had disappeared. All I found it was a desire to be alone, to pray. Prayer flowed through my being like a stream of water. I could not stop praying. And then it was six days later, this fast continued. I was in the act of washing my hands and the spirit spoke in me and he said, go pray yet again. So I quickly went and knelt and the spirit said, how long have you been praying to cast out demons? I said, Lord, a long time. Now he's been moving in power with great healings, but this ability to cast out demons at the same level that he had a heart, heart for was not quite happening yet. And the spirit said, from now on you will cast out devils. And I arose and I praised God. He'd been casting out demons. He's talking about a whole nother level. The following night a man came up to me to my meeting and looked at the big red letter motto on our wall that said, in my name you shall cast out devils. He said, sir, do you believe in that saying? And I said, yes, I do. He says, I've gone across the whole land seeking for anybody who really believed in this. He says, I do. He says, well, two and a half years ago my brother was a manager of a large elevator uh, uh, fact, uh, place in a, uh, skipping a phrase here. He, it was a warehouse and he suddenly, it was two and a half years ago, became violently insane. He was committed to an asylum and he's been there ever since. He had lost his mind. He says, will you come pray for him? Well, what happens, I'm skipping a paragraph or two, that the attendant of the institution and the family brought this insane man bound to the meeting because in, you know, in all those, uh, uh, constraints. I stopped preaching when I saw him walking up, uh, selected a half a dozen people, people of faith. And I said, Hey, join me to pray for this man. So we, I stepped down from the platform, laid my hands on commanded the devil to come out of him. And the spirit of God went through my being like a flash of lightning. I knew in my soul, the demon came out. And at that moment, the man raised his head and spoke intelligently to me. He spoke for the first time in two and a half years. A few days later, they discharged him from the institution. He says, uh, God verified his word to me from that time forward. I have seen hundreds of people delivered with one word from insane asylums, totally insane people delivered with one word. Okay. I'm going to read one or two more from this little book that I love these stories. These are the, I tell you, I can't, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm telling you, but you know what I'm really doing telling me, I'm just, the Lord's so stirring me saying to me, whispering in my heart, Mike, you know, you got a little lively, uh, presentation here, but you don't have power. You don't have so little power. You, I have so much. I want to give you, I have reviewing my prophetic history with the Lord. The thing that Kevin was talking about these stories. And I'm saying, Lord, I've got to enter into something. I I've got, it's now I just got to enter into something. I've got to figure out a way to spend my strength connecting with you in a deep way. There's a, there's, there's a hundred million people in the earth willing to do the level I'm doing now. A hundred million of them just let them go do it. I have going, I've got to enter into something in another level. I've got to enter into something at another level. And I know that you do as well. He's telling a story. He goes, I, when I was 16 years old, I met the Lord. I was saved from sin at age, uh, he said to my friends all told me, John, you're baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then at age 20, he talks about, uh, the revelation of holiness. And his friend said to him, you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. I had a beautiful anointing on my life when I was 20 years old. Then the minister ministry of healing opened up to me. Now this was, we just talked about in the last book and I ministered in the power of healing for 10 years. So now he's through his twenties. He's in his inner, his early thirties. He's the insurance man in Chicago, hundreds and hundreds of people were being healed by the power of God through these 10 years. I could feel the conscious flow of God in my soul. But remember a few minutes ago, he could feel that, but he still wanted to break through. He said at the end of that 10 years, I became the hungriest man of God. I think that ever lived that ever lived. There was such a hunger in my heart. I left my offices down in downtown Chicago. I would walk down the streets. My soul would break out. I would begin to cry and sob. Oh God. And people would stop and stare at me and wonder. It was the yearning of my heart. I was asking, I have to have a new measure. I know more. There's more than I can have. My friends would say, Mr. Lake, Mr. Lake, you're okay. You have a beautiful baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yes. Yes. I would tell them it's as nice as things go, but it's not answering the cry of my heart. Growing up in my soul was a demand for a greater entrance into the power of God. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into his love, his presence and power. Then one day, an old man strolled into my office. He sat down with me. And in the next half hour, that old man revealed more of the knowledge of God than I've ever known in my life. When he left, I said, God bless that old gray head. That man knows more of God than any man I've ever met. By the grace of God, if that's what the baptism of the Spirit with tongues does, I'm going to get it. Oh the wonder of God that took hold of my heart when that man left my office. I went into fasting and prayer. I went into extravagant times of waiting on God. And nine months went by. This is where we were in the last little booklet. And one day, the glory of God in a new manifestation. There was a new incoming of God. You know, we talked about the tropical rain and the lady with a rheumatism being healed. He says, a phenomenon came on me. The glory of God remained on my soul. Even after the phenomenon, the outward phenomenon, he's going to talk about here in a minute. He goes, I found, I begin to manifest in a varied range of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I spoke in tongues by the power of God. God flowed through me with new force. Healings were of a more powerful order. God lived in me. He manifested in me. There was a new revelation of God in my heart. He goes, my nature became so sensitized. I could lay hands on nearly any man or woman. I could tell what organ was diseased, to what extent, and what was needed. They brought it to physicians. They tested it, diagnosed it, and found out it was accurate. But I want to talk to you with the utmost frankness that the speaking in tongues has been to me the making of my ministry. I want to say it again. He said, speaking in tongues has been to me the making of my ministry. It was that peculiar communication with God where God began to reveal new depths to my soul. The very things I teach you today were given to me day by day in the ministry of speaking in tongues to God. By that time, the communication was mostly in the nighttime. Many a time, I'd climb out of my bed, get my pen and paper, and jot down the beautiful things as I would speak in tongues and pray. You just go on for hours, okay? He says, then in 1908, I was sent to Pretoria, South Africa. And one night, the power of God came on me in such power, it was like streams of liquid glory. Power flowed so consciously off of my hands. It was like streams of electricity. I could point my finger at a man, and the stream of God would strike him. One time, a man stood up at my meeting, and I pointed my finger and said, sit down. He fell as if struck. He lay for three hours. When he came forth, he says, what happened? Something struck through me like a shot, like an arrow. Well, at two o'clock that morning, after I'd ministered to 65 sick people, the streams of God were pouring out of my hands. People were falling with such violence, and they were getting healed. I held my hand a foot from their head, and they would crumble and fall. That was only the outward manifestation. Beloved, that's only what the people saw, but there was something so deep happening in my spirit. Oh, there was a tenderness. There was a newborn tenderness for God that was so wonderful. My heart wept and cried over men and sinned like never before. It was during that period of my life that men would walk down the aisles of the meetings. They would come within 10 feet of me. They would fall in heaps. The power of God would fall on them. They would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. In 18 months, over 100 new churches were born in the land. 18 months, 100 new churches. They said there were hundreds of thousands of converts saved in his meetings, in the John G. Lake meetings. They got the big John G. Lake meetings still in South Africa. I've had people that have been there before, but I've had others that says in certain parts they called them the John G. Lake Tabernacle, seating 5,000 and 8,000 people. The old wood frame buildings, some of them still exist. When John G. Lake, he's only there five years and built dozens of them, these 5,000 seat buildings. Now that's church growth in a whole from an apostolic paradigm, not from the paradigm where whatever. I don't want to go there. Okay, 18 months. No, I'm in the spirit here. I'll just get all annoyed. Okay, 18 months, God raised up 100 congregations in the land. Hundreds of churches were born out of them. The multitudes that were coming to the Lord and getting healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. I continued in the ministry of healing until I saw hundreds of thousands were healed during my time in South Africa. Hundreds of hundreds of thousands were healed, but 100,000 were documented as terminal or or very serious cases. 100,000 documented healings of terminal cases or very serious creative miracles and hundreds of thousands in five years. Beloved, this is not the fullness. Hundreds of thousands in five years is not the fullness. This is 1908 stuff. It's good. I'm talking about a stadium where 100,000 people get and the glory of God hits that stadium and every disease known to man, they're delivered in one moment and filled with the Holy Spirit in the midst of angelic choirs. We're talking about something a whole different order than John G Lake here. I continued in my ministry of healing and I saw hundreds of thousands. At that time, people kept saying I kept crying in my spirit. I must have more. I must have more. I must know you better. My heart yearned for God. There was a cry that grew in my spirit for a new depth in God. So beloved, I urge you. He's preaching here and I'm gonna just go to one more little part. He says pray through. Pray through for your church. Pray through for your life. Pray through for your work. Oh God will come. He may delay for a season. He will come with power beyond anything you ever imagined. He will come. He will come like waves of heavenly sweetness and power and love. Do not be satisfied till he comes. I would abandon my soul in those years with such cry of abandonment to God. I would discard everything in my life until I entered into Christ Jesus anew. One more little part here and then I'll okay yeah I'll do two more then okay but I'll end with two more because oh I feel good tonight but I'll feel tired tomorrow you know I get all because I do every Saturday night here and I get so going on Saturday nights and then Sunday mornings that alarm goes off and I do I bind it and loose it and doesn't work I still I go who invented Sunday morning meetings anyway I mean just these things cannot be right but anyway Jill what time did you get up this morning late right that's what I mean I mean you they you were flowing at 2 a.m. the bill everybody was whatever okay in South Africa he says uh some years ago in a single night a fever epidemic struck the country for 350 miles and we've heard of that uh bubonic plague that struck all through uh South Africa it hit for 350 miles I found men dead in their beds beside their wives their children were dead in their bed aside a living sibling whole families were struck dead overnight in one month one-fourth of the entire population of 300 miles died one-fourth died in one month this is this is real I mean this is uh I mean uh historically verifiable and then uh one-fourth of the entire population of the district I lived in both uh white and black men died together we had to organize an army for just to get men to make caskets and another army to dig graves I had a man in my company whom God anointed to pray with such power I never found anybody with such power to pray now here's the spirit of prayer I'm talking about for days he would go under this thorn tree and I would pass by in the morning I would hear his voice groaning and crying and traveling I would return in the evening he would still be there groaning under the power of God many times I would go get a meal and I'd bring it back to him and I would stir him from his prayer long enough and said brother you have to eat you have to eat are you getting through he said not yet but the power of God is on me and then one day he said Mr. Lake I think today if you will come and join me in prayer with your faith I think we're going to get through to God today and I went there I got on my knees and joined my brother and we lifted our voice to God and cried out and the spirit of God overwhelmed us in power he overwhelmed us with authority in prayer I found myself not kneeling under the tree anymore what he is in the natural but he's having an open vision but suddenly I was moving away from the tree I was like 50 yards of course what he's in is in a trance but it seems like it's in uh his natural experience he says and all of a sudden my eyes opened as I was moving and I witnessed such a scene I'd never witnessed before I saw a multitude of demons like a flock the spirit came upon this man who was interceding and I saw him and he rushed after them proclaiming the name of Jesus cursing this army of demons and driving them out of the land beloved we woke up the next morning the entire epidemic was gone and it was completely broken and the power of divine healing destroyed satan in that day okay last one then we're going to pray I have a worship team come up it says I got a letter in the mail from a woman concerning her insane son the woman said as far as I can tell my son has a demon so we got together and uh two guys got together and uh the brother said brother lake come and join me we went we found the man he had been insane he had been totally mad from his birth he was a wild animal he did not wear clothes he would smash himself and everybody else who came near him he you could not put a dish in the room he was like this from birth but in the center of the enclosure where he had was a large stone hollowed out where they would put food on it and they and they would untie him like an animal we tried we went in there and we tried to catch him he was like a wild lion he would jump right over us he says and finally we got him and beloved all this I know sounds strange to you he says this in the book but I never forget that afternoon as long as I live he says that young man I got him down I laid hands on him and the flash of God came over my soul and I knew that the devil would come out of him he says in two minutes the devil left and he was absolutely transformed of sound mind for the first time in his life after two minutes of prayer amen let's stand for more free downloads from mike bickle please visit mikebickle.com