Mike Bickle shares a profound message about the journey of the church and the necessity of humility in the face of God's anointing. He emphasizes that as the Holy Spirit moves powerfully, there is a tendency for pride to arise, which can be countered by the 'thorn in the flesh' that keeps believers grounded. Bickle recounts personal experiences and prophetic words that call the church to rise up and proclaim the fullness of God's calling, particularly in the areas of worship, compassion, and prophetic intercession. He stresses the importance of unity and the need to confront the fear of man in order to fulfill God's purpose for the church. Ultimately, he calls for a collective response to God's invitation to embrace both the anointing and the accompanying humility.

Okay, 2nd Corinthians 12. My heart is, I don't know what it is. I'm, I feel a spirit of joy, I feel a spirit of trembling, I feel a spirit of sobriety, I feel, I feel like ten emotions at one time. Because I want to share with you, everybody grab a seat if possible, Tim, get them all in those, clear that aisle, thank you. Because I would like to share with you a journey that I've been on, that I think is important to the life of this church, certainly important to me personally. I began to share it last week and it began the week before. Some of this is repetitious from last week and I'll reference it again next week and the week after, undoubtedly. We are in a season where the Lord is speaking to us and requiring a response. And for you to be able to respond in a proper way, you have to have understanding. There's certainly a core, several hundred of you, have a lot more understanding of what I'm talking about than the others. And so it's a tension to be able to figure out what parts of the journey to share with you in this next period of time, because there's five hours worth of things to share with you. And so again, it will be a little repetitive the next couple weeks as I'm wanting our fellowship to come into a sense of unity and to understand what the Lord's saying to us at this time. I'm going to pray, Lord, I ask you again for the blessing of the Holy Spirit on the Word of God. Lord, I ask that you would call us forth to the place that you have ordained. And Lord, we want to say yes in our spirit to you, in the name of Jesus. I guess I'll start with 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12, a principle. I'm going to begin to read in verse 1. I'm reading from the New King James. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. This is Paul the Apostle speaking. He's going to reveal some visions and revelations that the Lord has given him. He said, I know a man in Christ. He's speaking actually about himself. He's speaking in humility, but he's referring to himself here, who 14 years ago, whether in the body or out, I do not know, but he was caught up to the third heaven. Summarizing a little bit. Verse 4, he was caught up into paradise. He heard inexpressible words which are not lawful to utter. Verse 7, and lest I be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now concerning these things, I pled or interceded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And the Lord said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore most gladly will I boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon me. Verse 10, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. I take pleasure in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake. The reason is because when I am weak, thy am strong. I'd like one of the ushers to ask them to, just a little bit, if you'd take that initiative to do that. Thank you. What is going on in this passage is that Paul the Apostle has had some marvelous experiences with the Lord. And whenever the Lord releases a certain measure of the activity of the Holy Spirit, the thing that happens, even in the most mature Apostle, the thing that takes place, the thing that's inevitable, is the tendency for the human heart to exalt itself in pride. I don't care if you're the most mature Apostle like Paul, when the blessing and the activity of the Holy Spirit is released, the human heart has an irresistible tent of proneness to exalt itself, unless the fruit of God holds it in check. And so what the Lord did is that He orchestrated, or allowed, verse 7, a thing that Paul called a thorn in the flesh. He said it was the messenger, he said Satan was the source of this, but God the Father had allowed this to take place. I need, again, this is throwing me off here, go back to where it was, yeah. Thank you, I'm sorry for that. That He talked about a thorn in the flesh, which was a messenger of Satan, that the Lord allowed because the Lord knew that Paul had a tendency to exalt himself. Now imagine a man like Paul having this tendency. So here's what happens, here's what I'm saying, that I believe that as the Lord pours out His Spirit across the world, and raises up a church filled with power, as He increases the activity of the anointing of the Lord, there is a God-orchestrated stigma that there is nothing that we can do to get this stigma out of the equation. Because God releases, or allows, Satan to be used on some occasion, the Lord allows this stigma to be alongside the blessing of God because of the universal temptation of the people of God who are being blessed by God to exalt themselves. I mean if Paul couldn't overcome it, if Paul himself could not keep himself humble without this help of this thorn, this messenger of Satan that buffeted him, where do we stand in our immaturity? The principle I'm saying is this, as the Lord pours out His Spirit worldwide, He has orchestrated a stigma that will go alongside of the anointing, so that the very vessels that are used in power will have to be, will be humbled, and it will sometimes involve humiliation. Paul said, therefore I am glad about this hassle that's coming against me because I know without the hassle I will exalt myself, and then I will have to be disciplined by the Lord Himself in a powerful way. So here seems to me the two options. We say yes to the anointing of God with a God-given stigma that we can't get rid of, that chafes against our respectability. I'm not talking about human foolishness. I mean, I'm not talking about the violation of divine wisdom. I'm talking about a God-orchestrated stigma. The second option is we live in the arena, we stay in the realm of respectability, we don't have to worry about the anointing and the stigma, because we've orchestrated our life such where we will not bear or confront these things in a way that causes our life to be disrupted. Whenever the activity of the Spirit moves in power, there will be a divine stigma. It is the indispensable principle throughout the entire New Testament. What is happening in the church today, certainly in my life, is I want the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but I don't want the stigma. I want the anointing, but I want to be assured of respectability. Every one of us by the nature of the sin of our own hearts say, I've never met a person who's afraid of pride in a real way. Yet it is the greatest danger in the human race, the greatest problem even in the church, is pride. I've never met a person who is seriously afraid of pride, and here's what I mean by it. For they would actually diligently seek the Lord with prayer and fasting and earnestness that they would be freed from pride. I see people diligently seek the Lord for more power, I see people diligently seek the Lord for breakthroughs in their life, but I've rarely met the man or woman that so fears pride and so takes the power this serious, they would actually seek the Lord for the freedom of it in their own life. The reason the very nature of pride is such that none of us think that we have it, and yet it is the number one universal problem in every one of our lives. It's subtle, it's hidden, but it's always working to deceive us. So we're constantly negotiating our lives, even as servants of the Lord, to position ourselves to receive respectability. Always. I am continually. What I have found, I thought was successful, but it ends up unsuccessful. I have come up with a way to where this negotiation and this repositioning ended up appearing to me as divine wisdom. That's how pride works. That in my mind, it's divine wisdom. But two weeks ago, as the old preacher says, I got busted. The Lord came alongside and says, what you think is divine wisdom, you are deceived by the hidden operation of pride in your own heart. It is, in fact, a divided heart and compromise. It is not divine wisdom. This is the dilemma that I found myself in two weeks ago. I shared a little bit about this last week. This is the dilemma that, as a church, we must answer this in a way that is responsible and that has integrity at the very depths of our heart. Let me give you just a snapshot of what happened two weeks ago during our conference. I told a little bit about it last week, I'll probably mention it again this week. It's important we have understanding together of these events so that we can respond together to them. I apologize to our visitors, because you're saying, hey, I just came here for a sermon, what's all of this? I really apologize, but there's family business to be done today. It's never convenient to do family business, but we're doing it today anyway. Five days ago, I mean, two weeks ago, at the beginning of our conference, we had a conference, two of them, that went nine days. The very beginning of it, five different people came to me from different parts of America who visited the conference and gave me a prophetic word. The prophetic word had two parts of it, each one of them. And it was different language every time, but it was undeniably the same message. It was this, lay aside your fear of man, some version of that. Arise and blow the trumpet in the way that God called you to originally. Now, I get so many prophetic words because of the reputation of this church and being in the prophetic over the years. When conference times come, I got to put on the armor of God. I get so many prophetic words, I just want to just quit. They just get stacked up. But anyway, they were all coming. First day here, they're all coming in envelopes, letters, you know, I meet somebody at the coffee pot, it must be a divine appointment, here's my prophetic word. I meet someone in the restroom, ah, it has to be the Lord. Just every move is a divine appointment, of course, from their point of view. And I get eight or ten of them per session, it seems like. That might be exaggerated, might be seven or eight, but it's so. My point is this, I took those prophetic words and really didn't take them to heart. I just was, I was on overload on the first day of prophetic words. But all of them said this. I did notice a certain trend. I said, huh. I actually was more than five, I quit counting at five on this thing, because there was a number of other ones on other themes. And I said, well, you know, you never know. And it's easy to despise the prophetic if you're in the midst of the prophetic. It really is, because there's an abundance of it. So then, Rich Nathan, as I shared last week, one of the leaders, national leaders of the vineyard, gave a message from 2 Samuel 6, very powerful, about David dancing before the Lord, the ark. A very well-known story in 2 Samuel 6 to most of you here. King David, the king of Israel, was dancing wildly before, in a great time of celebration. His wife, Michael, looked at it and she said, that's dumb for you to do that. Why are you carrying on this way, humiliating yourself? And David looked at her, and there's a whole lot of subplots going on in this story, but he says, I'm not afraid to be humiliated because of my celebration for God. In essence, he said, my dignity and what I look like is not of primary importance to me. Rich Nathan was saying that in the church today, there are too many people who are too concerned about their dignity and what they look like, and it hinders their obedience to God. The arrow went shooting through me in the front row. Of course, I had five words beforehand to back it up, and I said, this is talking to me. You know, I already figured out why it's Sam and Michael Sullivan and all the other guys, but no, this is me. So I came up here. The Spirit of the Lord touched me in a unique way, a way that, I don't know whether I'm embarrassed or glad to say this, but hasn't touched me like this in years, where I repented. I went before the Lord for 30 minutes, and the power of God was on my heart. A very unusual experience related to repentance. Maybe because I'm dull, I don't know, but it was profound to me, and the Lord was saying to me through his message, you can no longer be so preoccupied with what you look like in the position I've given you in this church, because you will surely, your judgment will be clouded, you will miss the will of God for this people if you don't humble yourself and repent of this. The Spirit of the Lord was touching me. So I got up and felt good about my repentance and my humility. It feels good sometimes to have a good cry, you know, when you're guilty and you like say it. I felt the Lord's approval. And the next day, Paul Cain calls me on the phone. He's in his hotel. I hadn't seen him yet. It's about day four of the conference, I guess. I hadn't, or three or four, maybe I'm losing the time here. And Paul Cain calls me. He goes, hey. He goes, I said, hey Paul, how you doing? I haven't seen you yet. You're in town. Praise God. And he says, I need to talk to you. And I said, sure. I come over and I go, how you doing? And he's very sad, very sober. He has a tear in his eye. And most of you know that Paul Cain is a prophetic man. He's 67 years old. Established strong in the prophetic ministry, especially in the history of this church. I'm meaning, we've especially received him in a very, very clear way as a man with a proven prophetic ministry. I said, how you doing, Paul? He says, I have the Word of the Lord for you. I'm just taking some of the humor out of the story and getting right to the point. I developed it more last week. He said, the Lord told me to tell you something. He goes, I would do anything in the world not to tell you what I'm going to tell you right now. But the Lord simply won't let me go. And I said, boy, this is getting serious. I said, what is it? He said, Mike, he said, I don't want to tell you, but I have to. He said, the Lord told me you have a divided heart and it's not okay with the Lord. Now, Paul's never talked to me this way. I said, whoa! Although I didn't really say that, but in my heart, and immediately I said, this isn't true. This can't be true. I mean, I realized I just had five words that week and repented the day before, but you know how the human heart is so tricky, it's so slippery. We are always, can come up with a reason why we're not guilty when the Lord's putting his finger on our heart. I said, man, I said, I don't understand that. He said, the issues he gave you in your early foundations. I go, yes. I'm committed to them. He said, there's a hesitancy. The Lord says in you, you think it's the wisdom of God, but the Lord says it's rooted in compromise, your hesitancy. I said, yeah, I do have a hesitancy. He goes, you're not faithful to trumpet the things God gave you years ago. He said, for this reason, you know, it will cause you turbulence in valuable relationships. I said, guilty, you're right. I was just grieved over this. So I go away, and two days go by later, and then Troy Robinson, another one of the national leaders in the vineyard, who spoke here two Sundays ago, and we appreciated it. He gets up, which is not his nature. He made jokes about it. He said, I'm touching this pulpit, therefore I'll have a prophetic unction on me, and we were all laughing about that. But he says, no, really, I'm bringing the Word of the Lord to you. He goes, I don't really do this sort of thing, but I am doing it. I'm speaking to you, I know in a way that's, that you guys would call prophetic. He says, I don't really use that word very much, but in your understanding, you would use that word. But I'm speaking the heart of God to you now. I said, oh, that's gonna be good, you know, because I knew that his specialty was leadership, and I was expecting seven steps to do better leadership and stuff, and we need that, want that. I just thought, that's gonna be, I thought, oh wow, this is a different hat. I wasn't expecting this hat. And most of you were here two weeks ago on Sunday when he gave, he says, I want to go to Judges 6, the message of Gideon. And he talked about Gideon, and most of you know the story of Gideon from Judges 6, you could read it later. Where Gideon, the nation of Israel, was for seven years under the oppression of the enemy, the Midianites. And there's these powerful principles of the people of God under oppression, under bondage, under compromise. And finally the time came for deliverance. And the Lord called Gideon to raise his voice. Now here's the problem with Gideon. He was scared to death. He was shaking like a leaf, you know, hiding away. And the Lord visits, says, you're the one that's gonna lift your voice fearlessly. He says, who me? You gotta be kidding. He was scared to death. He was running from his own shadow. And the Lord says, no, I'll give you the power to be courageous. And then Troy went on to say, he says, this church has the calling of Gideon. Incidentally, 10,000 churches in the earth have the calling of Gideon. We understand that. It's a, just a principle of people calling people forth to the fullness of God. It's not a unique calling in any group. God, that call is in the whole earth. And the church in the world is invited to participate. But we have been called into it in a way we cannot deny. He says, and then he began to speak in a way that really pierced my heart. He goes, I remember coming to some of the large meetings years ago, downtown in the municipal auditorium. I didn't know he came to any of those meetings. He said, I remember the call was so powerful in Kansas City. You called, you challenged the status quo. You called us to lose our lives joyfully, unapologetically. You called us into abandonment. And he says this, where is that voice? Now, I'm not, it's not a direct quote, but that was the essence. Where is the voice of this church? He said, the Lord is calling you to arise and stand and blow the trumpet again. He says, I'm speaking to you, I know from the heart of God. Now, I'm just undone right there on the, you know, five prophetic words. Rich, Nathan, Paul came, and now this. But here's what Rich, I mean, here's what Tri did not know. Is that the very first Sunday morning of this church, nearly 14 years ago, when we were meeting in a man's house named Al Wright's, the Sunday before we met in the building the first time, it was November 28th, 1982. We met in a house with 35 people. The next week, we met in our office building. I remember Kip Under over here, he was there, he's on the front row, I remember him. And a few of you were at that meeting, 35 of us. But what people don't necessarily know, is that I had a carefully prepared message, and the Lord had me set this message aside that morning, and I won't tell the reasons why, but it was powerful, and had me preach on the message of Gideon. I didn't really know the message of Gideon. I got up real early that morning, I was awakened, I believe, by the Lord. You never know when you just wake up out of a, you know, what it could have been. I was just scared, because it was our first Sunday. Who knows? But I assume it was the Lord. And I was drawn to the message of Gideon, and I laid aside my notes. It's one of the few times in the earth I was carefully prepared, because I had about eight weeks before that first sermon, you know, but without any meetings before. And so I get ready, and everything has changed now, to preach on Gideon. I don't even know the story of Gideon that well, and I'm kind of like, Lord, I want to do a good one. I want to look good my first Sunday. My goodness, you understand how my heart is. But anyway, I fumbled through a message on Gideon, being a little clumsy with the text. But I remember that morning how a spirit of weeping gently rested on the people. I began to weep, and most of the people in the room began to weep. And I remember the worship leader afterwards came to me and said, Wow, what was that? Is that how it always is going to be? I said, Yes, I think so. And I'm just being honest. We have come into our own now. I'm 27. I'm a mature something or other. Well, little was I to know that the wilderness hadn't even begun to begun yet. I thought we were through the wilderness. I said, Young man, you'll understand when you're my age. He was 20. Anyway, it was a unique thing. Just tender weeping was everywhere. And he said, What is this? I said, It is truly the calling, and it's the thing that God's called us to. Two years later, a Baptist man named Howard Pittman. Most of you, half of you know the story of Howard Pittman. Here's a man in his 50s or so. He's been a Baptist preacher 30 years. He does not believe in the gifts of the Spirit. He does not believe in the prophetic ministry. He does not believe in healing. He doesn't believe in anything supernatural in that regard. He has a death experience. He has some kind of ruptured something or other on the inside, and he bleeds to death. I don't remember the details because it was years ago. They're rushing to the hospital. His spirit leaves his body. He has a full death experience. He stands before the Lord. The angels brought him there, which is common in a death experience. He stands before the Lord, and the Lord tells him. He says, I want you to go back. He asks for his life back, and he doesn't see the Lord. He's outside the gates of the great city. The Lord commissions him. He says, Yes, you will go back, but I want you to tell them this is the Laodicean generation. I want you to tell them that I'm going to release the power of God in such a measure. He's hearing this face-to-face. He doesn't believe in the gifts of the Spirit. I'm going to release, John 14 12, greater works than even my son did. He said, I will raise up men and women that will do even greater works than my servant Elijah. Greater demonstrations of power. He said, and you will go back, and you will tell them this. Howard Pittman says, when I was standing there, he goes, because what is ever in your spirit is in your spirit. Even when you're before the Lord, it's still there. He said, I said to myself, I could not pull the thoughts back. I said, I don't believe in the supernatural ministry. He said, it just slipped out of my mind. He goes, and the Lord heard it. He said, it was terrifying though for him, and he said, you have been greatly mistaken. I am preparing the earth right now for a visitation to culminate the end of the ages. My son is prepared to come back. I will raise up a church in power, and you will go back, and here's one of the things he told him, you shall call forth the church as I called forth Gideon. And though the numbers may be small, like they were with Gideon, and though they will begin trembling and in fear, I will empower them, and I will raise up a mighty army before my son returns, and it will confront the powers of darkness, and they will prevail. Howard Pittman comes back, you know, he comes back, he sees his body in the, in the, what's, you know, the emergency room or the ICU. He enters back into it. Then, you know, the doctors go, oh we got him back, we got him back, but he was gone somewhere when all that was happening. He visits us two years later, and he says this, he goes, I want to tell you something very clearly, and there's lots of the story obviously I'm not telling. He says, the Lord has made it very clear to me that you, this church, is one of the many places that God is going to give the Spirit and the calling of Gideon to. You must rise up and blow the trumpet and overcome your fear, because the Lord is preparing his army in the earth, and you're part of the trumpet, you're part of the sword of the Lord. Again, a thousand, ten thousand churches in the earth will be a part of the sword of the Lord that are calling the people forth, even before the fullness of God's people say yes. We all cheered and clapped, and the few that were there two years early at the first service, don't you remember the first service? You know, we were all trying to be the first one to tell everyone about the first service, and everybody was excited, lots of adrenaline was flowing, and hyperness, and all that stuff, and anyway, we were excited. Twelve years later, five prophetic words at the beginning of two weeks ago, Rich Nathan, the spirit of conviction that comes on me after him, Paul Cain speaks a divided heart, and then Rich, and then Trey Robinson says, I want to speak to this church very directly. Rise up and let us hear your voice again. Where is the voice of this church that was heard in the nations years ago? Where is the voice where the status quo was challenged? And I'll tell you, I was sorely cut asunder by God. I was just miserable, because I knew what was going on. I knew the Word of the Lord's truth. That Sunday night, without claiming a lot of wisdom and putting it all together, I just got up and just spoke it. After we were hassled half the night through all the events that happened that night, the power goes out in the building, the lightning hit the dale, everything just goes wild. You know, it's 9.30, and finally, I'm kidding, I forget it. And Paul Cain looked at me, he says, don't you dare forget it. You lift your voice. And I spoke just extemporaneously, you know, trying to figure out how to say this thing in a way that's right, that's politically right, all the stuff that I'm getting a little bit rebuked for. You know, when you repent of something, it doesn't mean you're free from it, it just means you're starting the process of getting free. And so, anyway, then the Spirit of God touches. Lots of you were there two Sunday nights ago. For the next two hours plus, there's weeping, there's travail, the building is nearly full right up till midnight. The Spirit of the Lord is touching us, sobbing and wailing, and there's a wholesale repentance going on from people all over this nation. Most of our entire leadership was here, and we were saying, yes Lord, we want this to go forth. We want to take our stand in the purpose of God. Well, that gets you up-to-date a little bit to what's happening. Now I'm going to start again and tell you another story, and bring you up to, bring these two stories together. Back in September 1982, as I was traveling around the world, I had a 30 day trip around the world. I went east and came home west. I was doing a pastor's conference in Madras, India, and so I got one of those round-the-world ticket deals. And I had, it was September, I had just resigned the church in St. Louis. I had a month or two before Harvard, you know, till we start here. We started December 5th officially in the public building. So I had a couple months, and I said yes to this pastor's conference, because I wanted to go around the world. And I went to stop at key cities that the TWA stopped at, and go, and I, and here's what I did in each of these cities. I got, I had met nobody, nobody was expecting me. I got off, the first taxicab driver that came up to me said, you know, may I help you in broken English? And I said, yes. Where do you want to go? I said, I want to go to the most severe slum in this city. So that's interesting. And so the guy would bring me to the slum, and I would walk around for a couple hours, and I just said, God, break my heart. I just finished a very extensive time of fasting that summer, and my spirit was tender. I was wide open. Anything goes. I didn't care about anything then. Had nothing to protect, because I had nothing happening. You know, it's easy to protect nothing when nothing's happening. And I always just had a reckless and wild spirit, which some of that immaturity is not the Lord, is not of God's heart. Some of the fearless obedience is the Lord, but the youthful recklessness is not. There is a difference between fearless obedience and youthful recklessness. Those are not the same together, but they must be separated, and God's fire does tend to separate those things over the years. So I went, and my heart was broken for the poor, and I wept, and all, oh, it was awesome time in the Lord preparing to come to Kansas City, knowing that something was going to happen in Kansas City that would capture my heart in a very special way. Well, one of the nights in Cairo, Egypt in 1982, I'm all by myself in a little hotel room. Most of you heard the story many times, but you haven't heard it for a few years. That's part of the problem. And I was in that dingy little hotel room in Cairo, Egypt, and bugs crawling, and I hate bugs, and plus there's no air condition, and bugs, those are the two worst combinations I can come up with. I was in this little hotel room, and I was kneeling on the floor, because in those days I thought if he nailed it was better, you know, I was suffering, my knees were killing me, but I thought, you love it, God, don't you? He doesn't care about that stuff, but anyway, I was kneeling on that floor, and the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me in the most powerful divine communication that I'd ever had up to that time in my life. I was wide awake, I didn't hear it audibly, but I didn't, it's not impressions, and I hear a lot of people substitute impressions for what I'm getting ready to say. I thought about something very distinctly different, something that rarely had happened to me in 25 years of seeking the Lord. I heard the internal audible voice of the Lord with such clarity, I heard the exact words, the exact pauses, everything. It was not just the sense of, I've had lots of the senses of, but this was the direct voice of God came to me. And the Lord says, I suddenly, He says, I am going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity and the earth in one generation. Whoa! I mean, it came with power, with such clarity. The fear of the Lord, not in the general sense, as a tangible experience, the weight of God's glory. I'm sure it was just a teeny bit of it, but for my frame, it was very powerful. Came into the room, I sobbed and I trembled first. With the dread of God, it was a, it was not a wonderful experience, it was a dreadful experience. Maybe it went 30 minutes, maybe it went an hour, I have no way of knowing. And the Lord spoke to me, He says, I have invited you to be a part of this. I heard that crystal clear, and I, and that's, then I begin to weep, and I said, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord, help me, yes Lord, I'll do it. And then He said to me this, He says, many have said yes, but they, I mean, I have invited, no, I'm putting two things together. He says, you've, you've only said yes, but you've not yet done it. I thought, you know, okay. In other words, the purpose, the point is, the yes is not the doing. The yes is easy, the doing is another matter. But He said to me, and that was a warning right there, you've said yes, but you've not yet done it. And I thought, I didn't understand all that, but it's crystal clear, I remember to this day. Then He says, I've invited many who said yes, but they did not do it. And then He gave me one final sentence, like five sentences, tremendously clear. He said, beware lest your brethren steal this from your heart. And I preached that many, many times the first number of years, and I've always reinterpreted who the brethren were. You know, first the brethren were Bob Scott and Louis McGeorge, then the brethren was Sam and Michael, then the brethren, you know, I'm kidding. I believe it's the voice in the church for respectability. That's what I think the brethren is. I don't think it's any set of people. I believe it's the voice that says we cannot, lest we lose, go that direction. And so anyway, the Lord warned me, and terrifying experience. I come to Kansas City, and you know all the unusual things, many of you do, that happen in those first two years, what I call the years of promise, 83 and 84. Astounding supernatural activity, which was becoming, coming before the wilderness time, but the astounding promises that are absolutely the Word of God. The Word, God gives us promises to His vessels in weakness when they have their pride, and their brokenness, and their compromise. He knows all that when He gives it to them, and He plans to take them through the wilderness. He knows what He's going to do with the promise. We don't know. We think the promise, the next day it's going to happen. He knows what's the whole plan. And so He's not troubled by the immaturity when the promise comes, He just doesn't want us to be troubled when He deals with it. So, Bob Jones then came, and spoke this word. Bob Jones, most of you know, is a powerful prophetic man that I want to so honor what God has done through him in our past, absolutely astounding. I have deep love for Bob Jones to this day, and appreciation for who he is, and what he's done. But anyway, January 1984, Bob had been in our church nine months, marvelous things have taken place, which we'll skip. January 1984, Bob Jones comes, he says, I've seen it now a second time. He said, I first saw it in 1979, I've seen it again, there's a movement 35 miles southeast of LA. God has raised a banner over the movement, He's called it Worship and Compassion. I first saw it in 79 in May, or in June, or I don't care, I can't remember, just 79. He says, I've seen it again last night. I said, what? He goes, there's a movement that God's raising up that will touch the ends of the earth. God, he says, I don't know what they're called, but God calls them Worship and Compassion. Then he went on and said a bunch of things about this movement that proved to be very accurate. He says, God has called this ministry, this ministry in Kansas City, he said, he's put a banner over it, he's called it Prophetic Intercession. Prophetic Intercession. Now the words Worship and Compassion that were on the banner, which I call banner themes, just for lack of a better word, that's not a theological word, and every ministry didn't have some mystical name they have to go figure out or something. It's not a New Testament doctrine, that's not what we're doing, it just was a prophetic experience. So the Lord spoke over this, I mean this word Worship and Compassion, it speaks of 10 or 15 values and practices, it speaks of a whole package that went together in God. He says, but the Lord has raised the banner over this work and he's called it Prophetic Intercession. Of course there's a lot of activities, belief in the end-time revival, fasting, simplified lifestyles to give to the poor, holiness, there's lots of sub-themes to the banner of Prophetic Intercession, but they all go together. He said, this is the Lord's purpose. He wants to merge these two together. He says, neither of them is complete without the other. He says, the Worship and the Compassion will never get the job done without the Prophetic Intercession, and the Prophetic Intercession will never get the job done without the Worship and Compassion. They must all go together. I said, okay this is good. Bob had so many revelations and I, you know, it's good. So I didn't really know who they were or we'd meet them. Bob said we would. Six months later passes, 11 of us from here at the leadership team, we get on the plane and fly out there to John Wimber's conference in June 84. I believe it was their first main conference, maybe it wasn't, but I still understand that it was, where they did the MC 510 course, and they taught about signs and wonders, and John Wimber, never met him, never heard of him, on the platform, thousands of people were on the back row. We're all back there together and he says this, he goes, Worship and Compassion, over and over and over, and I looked at a few guys. I said, I sit next to Bob Scott and I said, this is like, like where is Anaheim anyway? I said, how far is LA from here? Some guy goes, ah 30-40 miles. I go southeast, northwest, I mean where? I don't really know my geography out here, and we found out it was 30-40 miles southeast of LA. I said, worshipping, I go, this is the place, and I like these people, this is a cool conference. We come back home, we tell Bob, we think we found him. The next year passes, it's, it's, it's, it's a, what's a confirmed time without number, this is the group, we're excited. I have one or two opportunities to go meet John Wimber, I turn him down, because I said, I know, one of my few acts of humility, I said, I know I will mess this up if I go meet him. I know I will mess this up, and we all laughed about it. I said, no really, I don't want to. I was offered that a couple times. I, I did meet him one time in a planning session when he came to our city with some others, and, but that wasn't a personal connection, it was just around a table, a bunch of people, and he said, okay, you guys are pastors here, are you coming to our conference, are you gonna help? You know, we were making our commitments to help his conference in August 85, but I don't count that, because it was not a real connection, or we didn't know each other, anything like that, we're just a handful of folks at a table. So the years go by, and finally, three and a half years, and we know who they are. They don't have a clue who we are in reality. I mean, they heard about some goofy people, but they didn't know we had a, we had a purpose together, is what I mean by in reality. They had no idea the Lord had something for us together. Well, three and a half years goes by, we're praying intermittently for the vineyard, at special times, we take special meetings and pray for them, when we heard good reports or bad reports, we get excited, spend a couple prayer meetings praying for them. So, then Bob calls me on the phone, he says, well, it's all gonna begin in three months. This is October 87, I said, what's that? He goes, I'm wide awake this morning, I heard the audible voice of God again. Bob is a prophet of the Lord, that hears, that does happen today. He says, they will call in three months, January 88, it all begins. I said, what begins? He goes, the merger of these four things. Good. Three months passes, our team, you know, we have fun about it, we think it's cool, we don't really know how it, it never happens like it says it will, so you never get excited when they say it will happen, but this actually happened exactly like it said, which you never know, because it always ends up different. So, you tend not to get excited anymore, when you hear the good news, because it always ends up different, you know, you got eggs, and all the flour, and the sugar, you think, oh, a cake, and it comes out like something with liver in it, you know, something like that, there's something totally different. Anyway, I'll say all the domestic analogies, my wife says, don't ever use them, you totally, you blow them every time. Okay, three months pass, John Wimber calls me on the phone, Saturday night at my house, eight, nine o'clock at night, hello, Mike Meckle, John Wimber here, yes, oh my goodness, he says, I know we met a couple years ago, remember me? I said, oh yeah, yeah, I know you. He goes, well, I, you know, I just, he says, the strangest thing happened, he says, the Spirit of the Lord told me directly to call you. I said, okay, and what? He said, oh, because that's what Bob said, he would call you in January. I mean, John Wimber is one of the most prominent leaders in the church in the Western world, that was a pretty big thing, he's going to call you January. I thought, well, we'll see. I mean, my point is, he has a lot of people to call, and it's not likely he's going to do this. He goes, the Spirit of God told me today to call you. He goes, I have a, our staff of about a hundred or so, whatever the number is, we're having a three-day staff retreat, he told me to give the whole three days to you. He says, I know we don't know each other, he goes, remember we met at that? I go, yeah. He says, but the Lord told me to give the morning, afternoon, and evening sessions to you, they're yours, will you come? I said, yes, I will come. I hang the phone up going, ay-yi-yi, what is this? So David Parker, Noel Alexander, and I get on the plane, we go there. I'm only smiling because David knows we were flying to LA, and we end up going to Las Vegas, because I read the distance from a long way. I said, yeah, that's the gate. It says Las something. We waited, the LA plane left. We got on the Las Vegas plane, and Noel and David looked at me, I said, it said Las something. It was a far distance. They said, make sure what gate it is, and I looked from a long way. I go, yeah, that's the gate. So we missed the flight, but if David wasn't here, I wouldn't have said that, but I know that he knows that I know that he knows that we missed the flight. So we were hours late. I mean, it was, it was horrible, but on the plane, I said, now David, didn't you, he says, don't even start that, you know, like I blamed it on him for losing, anyway. We got there. It was three days. The Lord touched us. There was a sense of joining, a tremendous sense of our heart, of responsiveness to them, and John spoke some tremendous statements of openness, and he says, boy, I like this, you know, we're gonna do more of this, and we were excited. Well, six months goes by. Nothing takes place. No problem. Bob Jones comes on June 5th. I remember the Sunday morning vividly. He says, has that John Wimber guy called you since you went there six months ago? I go, nope. He goes, well, he's calling you next week. I said, oh, he is? He says, yeah, I heard the audible voice again. He says, it was right the first time. It will be right this time. He's calling. He's gonna open a large door to the vineyard to you. He said, matter of fact, he's gonna open the door to 50,000 people in the vineyard, and he's gonna open the door to a million people that receive his ministry worldwide, and he's gonna do it immediately. The Lord says, you're to go through it, and you're to preach on prophetic intercession. You're to preach on the banner things that the God gave us. I said, okay, that's easy enough to tell. Next week, John Wimber calls, exactly on schedule. Hello, Mike. Oh, I'm so sorry I've been calling. I got a lot going on. I go, John, I understand. No problem. He goes, I'd like you to do something. I said, I'll do it. He said, well, let me tell you first. I said, John, I'll do it. He said, boy, you're easy, and I said to myself, well, yeah, if the Lord sets it up, it's easy, but I didn't say that part. We've laughed about that many times since then. That's why I'm making light of it now, and he's, I said, John, he said, I want, he invited me to do a number of things with him. I said, John, just for curiosity's sake, because I want to check those numbers of Bob Jones. I go, how big is the vineyard? I had no way of knowing. I knew there's a bunch of people that won conference, you know, a couple thousand, and I said, and although we've been to several conferences since then, and he said, oh, it's about 50,000. I said, okay. I said, how big is your ministry worldwide? He said, oh, I have no way of knowing. How would I know? I said, has anybody ever told you? He goes, yeah, several people told me a million. I said, you know, those are probably really the two accurate numbers. He goes, oh, well, that's an interesting question. I go, don't worry about it. I just was checking. I just wanted to know. He says, yeah, well, anyway, come on and meet me at the conference. So I went. I went with John, and a few months later, one of the trips he invited me to was to go to Scotland and then to go to England with him. In those days, I used to call Scotland and England the same. Now I don't, but anyway. So I went to Scotland with him, and he says, now tell me, tell me what's happening in Kansas City. He goes, I don't want you to minister with me at the conference. I just want to talk to you. We probably spent five to seven hours a day talking. Literally, he says, I'm not taking any appointments with anybody. Except for he had met with John Stott just at the beginning of that conference, for those of you that know him. He says, but I'm gonna, I want to hear what's going on. He goes, I hear all these bizarre reports. He goes, what's happening? He says, start from the beginning and tell me everything. I go, you really want to hear this? He goes, yes. I go, how much time you got? He goes, I got ten days. I go, okay, we'll do it. So I told it all to him for five days. Five to seven hours a day. Going over, staying up to one and two every morning, every lunchtime, every dinner. And he'd say, oh, I'm sorry, I got a session in a few minutes. We'll do this right when I get back after the session. So he'd go preach a session, come back at ten, we'd say, let's do it again now. Now, now, now, what did Bob Jones say then? And we would start the story where we left off. It was very dramatic, very, it was wonderful in terms of relationally. Well, he decides, he says, this was so moving. He says, I'm going to England to stay at a guy's house for a few days. David Pitches, the bishop that most of us know from the Anglican Church that was in South America. He says, I want you to tell the whole story to David Pitches. I go, the whole story? He goes, I got to hear it all again anyway. So we went down to England and told the whole story again. And John was so excited. John says, now I want Paul Cain to come visit me. I want to meet this guy. Okay? Good. So it's set up. The phone call's made ahead of time. Paul Cain's going to meet John Wimber a week after he gets back from the trip or something like that. I could have a couple days off. So John Wimber's heard about all these signs and wonders when prophets give words, comets show up, earthquakes happen, lights go out, thunder strikes, I mean, lightning strikes, you know, bizarre things. He goes, do you think, he's asking Jack Deere, he goes, do you think the Lord will give me a sign when this guy comes? So Jack Deere calls up Paul and says, okay, you're coming in a couple days. Paul, will the Lord give you any signs? Paul says, yeah. The Lord says, yes. This is so important, what is about to happen. He will give you a sign. John says, what's the sign? I'm skipping a lot of the stuff here. It comes down to this. He says, on the day that I show up, there'll be a local earthquake. And on the day that I leave, there'll be an international earthquake. And Paul, John says, what day are you showing up? Paul says, you pick the days. He says, I pick the days? And the earthquake hits? Now here, now John doesn't know all this, because Paul's telling all this to Jack Deere and Jack's telling John, John's calling back and all da da da. But what is going on, the Lord tells Paul, Cain, that when these four banner, I'm using the word banner themes, compassionate worship, prophetic and intercession, when they merge together, it will cause an explosion, both good and bad, it will cause an earthquake in the kingdom of God. And there will be a local earthquake in the natural and there will be a local earthquake in the spirit. But there will be an international earthquake in the spirit. There will be personalities and structures really stressed out by the merger of these four things. Just like there's an international earthquake that would take place. Well, Paul gets the word, Jeremiah 33 8. The Lord's going to give mercy. He's going to heal the vineyard of some things of their past. He's going to heal them and forgive them. Jeremiah 33 8. Paul Cain comes the day. He comes and the earthquake comes on that day at 3 38 in the morning. John Wimbers called me that afternoon. He said he came, the message of Jeremiah 3 38. He said, the earthquake came at 3 38 in the morning. He said, it happened. He says, I meet him in an hour. He goes, what do I do? He called me literally, he says, what do I do now? He says, the earthquake happened literally at 3 38. I go, just get low. That's all I know. Just get as low as you can get. And we've joked about that a number of times. I go, try fasting. He goes, I'm meeting him in an hour. I says, an hour is better than nothing. And we've joked about, that was just a joke. Anyway, so he meets Paul Cain and the day that Paul Cain leaves, the Soviet Armenia earthquake hits. The big earthquake known, one of the largest ones in the nation. And Paul spoke to me and many of us many times. He goes, as surely as those earthquakes came in the natural, there will be a local earthquake that this union will bring. It will be as disruptive as they could ever imagine. And it will cause disruption across the world where these things merge. So then, time goes on and what I call the honeymoon stage, 89 and 90 and oh, it was wonderful. And John Wimber stood up in 1990, August in front of the whole vineyard leadership, maybe a thousand pastors in Denver, Colorado. I believe it was August 89, could have been the late July. Was that August Gary? August 89. And John Wimber gets up and he announces to the leadership. He says, Vineyard One is dead. There's perplexity. We're all the prophetic guys. I mean, different guys are up. Bob Jones is there, John Paul, Dave Parker's sharing some, this guy, that guy, everybody's sharing some. I think even Charles Lynn got in a something. But anyway, and so he, John Wimber gets up. He says, the Lord has spoken that Vineyard One is dead. And Vineyard One meant worship and compassion without prophetic and intercession. Well, the earthquake began. There was all kinds of turbulence. Some were excited. Some were not mad or glad, just saying, we don't understand. Give us a little more clarity and maybe we'll be happy. You know, others were right out upset about that. Then the next year, things get very complicated because it's time in the perfect will of God for Metro Vineyard to go under divine discipline. The Lord says, now it's time for me, because of my love for you, to deal openly with your pride. So the Lord brings this church, me particularly, and this church, and other individuals. He disciplines us. He humiliates us that we would find humility in it. He didn't only humiliate us. He was tender along the way. But He spoke directly about our pride. He spoke about our abuse in the prophetic. He spoke about legalism that had crept into our foundation. Oh, it was a horrible time. Totally humiliating. This helps the earthquake syndrome better. People in the vineyard are saying, this ugly duckling is really messing things up, because we're getting blasted everywhere. And they're putting on the end of it, and John Wimber. So the vineyard is slimed by the presence of this church. But we've already been introduced. We're already with them in the sense of that year. Vineyard 1 is dead. It's been pronounced. Vineyard 2 is alive. We're here. We're going. The four are together. The four themes were discussed a number of times. Worship, compassion, prophetic intercession. And we're going. Then the next year, we get disciplined. And I mean, it gets weird. I tell you, it gets all kinds of confusion starts. It was so ugly for us, and many of you were here. And in the vineyard family, we were a heavy burden, and rightfully so, because of our brokenness and sin and immaturity and pride. Oh, man, if you want to get disciplined, ask the Lord to do it in private. It makes it easier. So then, a number of things begin to take place. There begins to be two different trends going forth in the vineyard. Well, no. Then we join the vineyard. We come under John Wimber's covering. We're in. Then it gets uglier after we're in. I mean, the tape from Ernie Gruen had gone out, but it got uglier in 90 and 91. I mean, the first tape, you know, was bad, but when it grew, and all the cult-watching groups then dissected it, and they gave their version, it got worse and worse in 90 and 91. Oh, it was really bah humbug. But I tell you, the discipline of the Lord yields the fruit of righteousness in due time, if you yield to it. Well, anyway, I've got to hurry up and finish this story. Then there begins to be two different sentiments in the vineyard. One sentiment says, worship, compassion, intercession. I mean, worship and compassion, intercession, prophetic, yes. The four of them, that's the only way that it will work. Another group says, man, that prophetic intercession stuff, the legalism and pride and goofiness, and they couldn't see the glory of the themes because of our own ugliness. They looked at us and threw out the themes in God. And those two trends begin to grow. Well, we're fully in the vineyard. We're submitted, committed, and under discipline, so we're in. And we're sitting at the back of the room because the Lord is disciplining us, and they are correcting us in all these kinds of things. So now, four, five, six years pass. I get quieter and quieter because I think it's the wisdom of God to come into a family that we bring reproach upon and to be silent. And I believe for a season that was right, probably two or three years. It was really right. You don't go into a place under discipline and talk loud. I did a little bit of it anyway, and that was just dumber to do that. And I had to yet repent of that. Well, then the next season goes, and the Lord then says, it becomes more difficult now to speak all the time. So I focused my ministry, which is my main calling, by the way, on the passion for Jesus, no question, calling the first commandment to first place in the lives of God's people. I put all of my eggs in that basket. I'm not going to touch the other issues. I'm going to go first commandment and let everybody else sort out the other stuff. All is going well. Things are pretty happy. Then two weeks ago, the Lord knocks on the door. Five people come and says, uh-uh, you have to proclaim the prophetic intercession. You have to. Because God has called this church like Gideon and many other churches. Again, this is not some solo deal. And God has called the vineyard to all four, not just to two. And I, the first five words, I didn't take too serious. You know, I mean, I thought they were nice, but, you know, and then rich. Then all of a sudden the sword pierces a little bit. I'm weeping. Okay, my dignity, my honor. The Lord's already got that one identified now. Now He's getting me ready for the big sword. Paul Cain, you have a divided heart. Oh, I'm broken. Try Robinson comes. Arise, MVF, and trumpet as did Gideon. Challenge the status quo. Where is your voice? I said, okay. And finally, just under the pressure of it, I broke. And that Sunday night in the midst of a light show here of electrical blowouts and everything else, I gave the message. And I, again, it was not real clear. I just said it from the heart without any ability to get it organized or anything. And then I had, I had three or I've had four prophetic dreams in that period where the Lord said, this must take place. So last week our leadership team met and we spent five days, 12 to 14 hours a day. Not all of us. All of us were together. Maybe three, two or three or four times for three or four or five hours. I can't remember. It all got lost, but I know I was doing it for 10 to 15 hours a day for five days with different ones with Sam and different ones of them. And we wrote a letter. It ended up being a 14 page letter. And in that letter, I know it's a book, but we didn't mean to. It started to be two and it got three. They got four. It got up to like 21. We got it down to 14. But anyway, I'm just kidding about that. But we documented the journey, what happened to us in that week. Then we documented the history of being brought, some of the things I just told you, being brought to the vineyard. We documented how vineyards said yes to all four and how it seems like vineyard might be some, no, no, many, many of the vineyards say yes to all four right now. I'd say the vast majority. But we are said that there's two voices that we hear and all we want you to do is make it clear because from this point on, we count it as sin and the fear of man for us not to trumpet the other two. It is from now on sin. We said we're not going to say it with the immaturity we said it last time. We're changing a lot because you've helped us, but we have to say it. So we want to know if we're saying it to you wrong, number one, we won't back up on the four issues. We want to go into dialogue and we have to know clearly where you stand because it's sin for us from now on. Do you want all four or do you want only two because we will not and we cannot preach these other two being insubordinate and rebellious if you don't want them. Now I have proof, I mean not proof, I don't mean it that way, reason to believe many, many of the vineyard leaders are excited about all four. So I feel, I don't know what's going to happen. I know there's lots of vineyard pastors, I mean at the top, that love the four. That's yes, of course, yes, the four work together. I know that whatever happens to us, we're going with all four. We're not going back to two. We're going for all four. And we think that there's a chance in the Lord, they will fully receive it and there's a chance in the Lord they'll tweak some of it and say, yeah, we like the heart of it, but you got to say it different. Okay, we can, we didn't, we're not claiming we said it right. And we think there's a chance in the Lord they're going to say, you know what, we love you, but this doesn't work. We don't know. But all I know is one thing is that to the best of our ability, we've been obedient. We want to stay in the vineyard our whole life. We want to be in the vineyard movement to the end. But only under the condition that all four of these are fully proclaimed with no hesitation, or at least we're able to do them and that they fully honor that. Amen. Let's stand.