Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of anointed prayer in the context of revival, distinguishing it from general prayer by highlighting its unique, powerful moments inspired by the Holy Spirit. He reflects on historical revivals, particularly the First and Second Great Awakenings, and expresses a deep desire for a similar outpouring of God's presence in today's society. Bickle encourages believers to recognize and cooperate with these moments of heightened prayer, which can lead to profound societal transformation and a greater manifestation of God's power. He calls for a commitment to prayer and a collective effort to seek a dwelling place for God in their community, believing that revival is not just possible but imminent.

You would strengthen us. You would give us even a new beginning. Day after day, your mercies are new every day. And so we thank you for this plumb line season to line up with your heart in a new way in Jesus name. Amen. Well on Friday night, I talked about revival and it's the picture of revival from history. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit in this session, just a short review from Friday. But the thing I want to stress is the relationship of historic revival to the gift of anointed prayer. Now that's kind of a unusual phrase, the gift of anointed prayer. And what I'm distinguishing is this unusual operation of the Holy Spirit that that happens at moments at a time. I mean it may go for a few hours, but I mean it's not, doesn't go for weeks and weeks. This momentary short-term Holy Spirit times of inspiration, distinguishing that from just the general way in which the Holy Spirit helps us in the grace of God to pray. There are these strategic moments where the Spirit helps us in an unusual way, in a heightened way. And I call that the gift of anointed prayer. Because whenever the Spirit does this, there's always a noticeable, discernible manifestation of power that happens soon after. And again, the Spirit gives us these heightened, unusual grippings of the Spirit in prayer. He gives them to us. Suddenly, we don't know when they're going to happen, but in context to a a lifestyle of prayer of which there's a general grace. And so that's what I want to talk about, and it's connection to a revival, because that's what the Lord has called us to be a part of a, of His plan, together with with millions of ministries across the earth. I'm talking about this is His plan for the body of Christ, to labor together with Him to see a historic visitation of the Holy Spirit of revival. Now the thing I want to highlight in a few moments is the, the fact of this unusual grace of God that comes for short-term periods of time. So that we pass, so that we see the value of it, number one. And number two, we posture ourself to receive it, and then we cooperate with it in the right way when it comes. And that's a key phrase right there. We cooperate with the Spirit when He comes upon us in these brief moments. Again, they might happen for, for hours at, at a time. And it might happen a couple days in a row, but typically these moments of unusual grouping of the Lord, they're very short-term. They're typically minutes and hours, and sometimes a little bit longer, but not usually. When I look at the historical viewpoint of this, then I want to give a few examples in my own life where I've experienced this to encourage you to pay attention to it, to value it, and to cooperate with it in a right way when the Holy Spirit comes. Now here on the notes here, I have part one and two. Because these are the same notes I'm using from the session on Friday night. It's the same verses, some of the same principles that I'm using this morning as well. Now paragraph A, and we're on our way to Psalm 132. So if you want to open your Bible and look at that, get ready for that in just a moment. But, uh, paragraph A, what we're believing God for is to see Him bring revival to the church in our region, and then to save the lost, and then, out of the overflow of that, to impact every sphere of society with kingdom influence. To see the influence of the kingdom touch education, touch the marketplace and, and the realm of economics, for the inspiration of the kingdom to touch media, athletics, government, military. That's what the Lord's plan is. Now that's been happening over the years in the kingdom of God, but I believe that the Lord is going to increase that even more and more. Now when I talk about revival in the church, and our assignment, because we live here, is for our immediate region. But that's not our entire assignment. We want to see revival in the whole nation and all the nations of the earth. I mean, this is the Lord's agenda for the church across Asia and Africa and Europe and Latin America and the islands everywhere. This is His agenda. And so, but here in a, in a, in a local way, we want to see revival. Now there's many definitions of what revival means. To some people, revival means church growth. And that's, I'm not talking about church growth, although the church will grow dynamically. You know, sometimes you'll hear somebody talk about the ministry over there somewhere. They go, wow, they grew from 500 to 10,000. I mean from 5,000 to 10,000. It's revival. And a lot of times, church growth isn't at all revival. It's just a lot of church transfer, you know, from one church to another. And I appreciate church growth. But I'm talking about something more than that. Talking about something more than evangelistic meetings. You know, some churches say, wait, our revival starts Wednesday night, and for four nights in a row, they're going to have revival. That, that's good, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the charismatic movement, where millions of people receive the gift of tongues, and they were touched by the Spirit. I like that, but that's not revival. The charismatic renewal is not revival. I'm not talking about little renewal meetings and ministries that go on around the nation. We have some of it here, where people gather together, and we get renewed, and we get the joy of the Lord, and, and different things happen. I'm talking about something profoundly different than those kinds of things, though I value all of those things. When I'm talking about revival, the paradigm that I have is the book of Acts, and the revivals of history, and the particular ones I'm, I'm focusing on right now, is the first great awakening in America, which was in the 1700s, and the second great awakening in America, which was the 1800s. And I have the dates here on the handout. I won't go into them right now. But in the first great awakening, there was a major move of the Holy Spirit, where millions of people were ushered into the kingdom of God, in a very short amount of time, because the power of God was not just in the meetings, where the, where the believers gathered, the, the very presence of God was permeating the society. I mean, in the first great awakening, in the 1700s, here in America, it's the awakening of America. That, that's what we mean. It's, it's an American title. That's how we reference it, is that the, the presence of God would, would touch the bars. The presence of God would touch the theaters, would touch the marketplace, factories, and hundreds of people, I mean, with no preacher present, they would begin to tremble and weep, and, and begin to say, what does this mean? What's happening? And somebody would give the testimony from the revival going on down the road, and they, and many would get saved right there on the spot. Bars would empty. Warehouses, all the workers would stop in the factories, in the presence of God. They'd be, they'd be laying down before the Lord, crying out to the Lord. I'm talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about the Spirit permeating society, and, and for periods of times, for weeks and months at a time. Now, that's what we're believing God for, that kind of revival, but more than that. Because that's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But we're believing for signs and wonders, miracles and healings to be added to that. Because in the first great awakening in America, many people came to the Lord in great power, like I just described, but not many miracles of signs of healings and deliverances. Mostly, radical conversion of the heart by the sovereign release of the presence of the Spirit that would touch a hundred mile regions. I mean, would touch multitudes in all parts of society in a hundred mile radius type thing. Well, the same sort of thing happened in the second great awakening, which is in the 1800s. We've not had a great awakening in the 20th century. In America, in the 1900s, we have not seen that. We saw the Charismatic Renewal. We saw the Healing Revival that broke out some, in various places. We saw the Azusa Street Revival. The numbers of converts was small. I'm talking about where coast-to-coast, there's a pervading influence of the Spirit, where maybe 50 million people come to the Lord, according to the population that is current in our nation of over 300 million. That's the kind of revival we're talking about. And I don't mean where they tiptoe into the kingdom, and they get their sins forgiven, and they live almost like they're not forgiven. I'm talking about where they're gripped by God, and with their hearts rent, and cut asunder, and they are radical for God for many years after their conversion. That's the kind of thing we're believing God for. That's the kind of thing that the Holy Spirit has on His agenda. Now, that kind of revival, that historic visitation of the first great awakening, 1700s, second great awakening, 1800s, didn't happen in the 1900s. But a third great awakening is what we're believing God for. We're believing it for our own city and region, but we're believing it for the East Coast, the West Coast, the, you know, down South, up North, everywhere, and every nation of the earth. This is the Lord's agenda in this hour of history for the body of Christ in the earth, for the nations of the earth. We're excited about this. I mean, this is worth giving ourself to. This is worth going beyond business-as-usual Christianity. I mean, this is worth giving ourself wholly to. And that's what we're asking the Lord in this 21-day fast, to plumbline us again to what it is He called us to do and to be as a people right here in Kansas City. And the Lord's doing this same sort of thing in the cities around the earth. This is not something unique to us. I have here in paragraph 8 that the Lord spoke to Bob Jones, a man the Lord used prophetically. Most of you are familiar with him. He used him in a powerful way in the 80s in Kansas City, related to the prophetic destiny of the church in the city. He had a very powerful experience where the Lord showed him the day is coming when we would see 300,000 new converts in Kansas City. 300,000 new converts. And Paul Cain had the vision of the full stadiums. I mean, stadiums of people coming for three days and three nights in the glory of God on the stadium, permeating the city. Signs and wonders. I mean, more people on the outside of the stadium trying to get in than people on the inside of the stadium. And the meetings would go 24 hours a day. Beloved, that's the kind of revival we are contending for. Church growth? Oh, yes. It'll be church growth. Evangelistic meetings? Oh, yes, but much more than that. Renewal meetings? Far beyond. Charismatic renewal? Far beyond. This is what God is after. In December, 1984, Noel Alexander, a dear friend of mine and a fellow co-worker in the kingdom of God in this city for 30 years as an intercessor, one of the most committed men that I know in intercession. He prayed hours a day for decades. He has given himself to intercession. It was in December, 1984, that he had a very powerful prophetic dream where he saw 7,000 people a week coming to the Lord in Kansas City. Now, we're believing God that this will touch the whole church. I mean, a thousand congregations. Methodist, Baptist, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Assembly of God. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord is what we're talking about. 7,000 converts coming to the Lord powerfully. I mean, cut asunder. What I mean is their hearts are wide open and fully given to the Lord. I mean, giving themselves to the Lord in abandonment. He saw this, and this lasted for weeks on end as though there was no end to it. It went on and on, week after week after week, thousands and thousands, and the nets are so full that the nets are breaking. I mean, we can't contain all the converts. Beloved, that day is coming. Paragraph B, Psalm 132. Now, Psalm 132 is a foundational concept that the IHOP leadership team has said yes to, and we've built this ministry around this foundational concept. And this may be a familiar verse to you. It may be new, but I want to challenge you, if it's familiar, to re-sign up for it again. If it's new, then say, Lord, how, you know, I want to respond to this. And what it's talking about here in Psalm 132, the psalmist is reminding God of the vow that David made to the Lord. And David made a vow, and his vow was this. Lord, I will live in an extravagant commitment to you. And he describes that commitment in verse 2, 3, and 4. He said, I vow to the Lord. I'll not go to the chamber of my house. I'll not go to the comfort of my bed. I'll not give sleep to my eyes, until. And then in verse 5, he gives the goal, the focal point of this vow, until there's a dwelling place of God in my city. Of course, that was the city of Jerusalem that he was vowing this about, his commitment. So what David's doing, is he's not saying, I'll never sleep again. What he's saying is, I'm not going to live business as usual. I'm not going to just build my own house, and attend to my own ministry, and my own business. Yes, I will do those things. I will be responsible, but I am going to be gripped with something bigger than that. Something that demands my commitment beyond my own personal needs, and comforts, and finances, and house. And he describes it in verse 5. I want to see a dwelling place for God in this city. Now, what does David mean by a dwelling place? It's a place where on the earth, God's manifest presence is being released in an unusual way, and where people in that city are living in full agreement with God. So it's people, that's a dwelling place for God on the earth, speaks of people that are living in unity with the Holy Spirit, large numbers of people, and the Spirit releasing an unusual measure of His power, and of His conviction, and the people are living in awestruck with God. I mean, the people are living in the fear of the Lord. Multitudes, but they're not just awestruck. They love Him. They have affection. They tremble before His majesty, but they love Him dearly. The first commandment is in first place in their life. But more than that, they're awestruck, and they're affectionate, but they're obedient. They do something with it. They actually obey the Lord, no matter what the assignment is in their life, and they do it with gratitude. They do it with humility, and then in the midst of this kind of unity of godly people with power demonstrated, the Lord releases signs and wonders, and brings in a harvest. That's what we mean by an abiding dwelling place of God. Now in the general sense, the very presence of the church on the earth is the dwelling place of God. And in the ideal sense, Psalm 132 is talking about Jesus, the ultimate on His throne in Jerusalem at the second coming, the ultimate dwelling place that reverberates throughout the earth and fills the earth with the glory of God. But the principle that we're laying hold of, which will not be fulfilled in fullness till the Lord returns, but it will be fulfilled far beyond what we're walking in now. Not just the body of Christ, kind of living business as usual, but geographic regions where tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe more, are living for decades. I mean long periods of time, not just for a three months of renewal. They're living in unity with God, and the very presence of God is in that geographic region, and power and signs and wonders, prophetic wisdom, the wisdom of God is in their midst with a prophetic ministry as will be in a place beyond any time in history. That's what I mean by a dwelling place. And the Lord has stirred our hearts as a leadership team. We want this region, together with other ministries and other ministries, together, laboring together, we want it to be a dwelling place of God in the earth. And we want to believe that for the cities of the earth. It's not a Kansas City thing. It's a body of Christ thing, but we're not waiting for other places. We're pressing into it now, and that's part of the reason IHOP exists as a community. That's part of the reason. Paragraph C. Now there is a irrefutable spiritual law, and here's the law, wherever prayer goes forth consistently, this revival, historically seen in the first and second great awakening, it will be manifest. It is impossible for prayer to go forth night and day without revival eventually breaking forth in an unusual way. I am encouraged by the witness of Scripture and the witness of history, if night and day prayer goes forward, it's only a matter of time till revival breaks forth. And again, I don't mean church growth. I don't mean a renewal ministry. I don't mean the charismatic renewal. I'm talking about something like the first and second great awakening. And the Lord is raising up prayer ministries all over this nation, and of course the nations of the earth. I mean, they're in the East Coast, the West Coast, they're in the South, in the North, they're breaking out in college campuses. That in itself is a sign of what is soon to come. Now in the midst of this revival, I mean, I mean this prayer, there's a, there's a resurgence of prayer in the last ten years in our nation, in the whole earth actually. I mean, prayer ministries are growing dramatically in number all around the earth. That in itself is already a prophetic token, a statement about what's going to follow, the great revival that we're believing God for. But in this consistent prayer, there's a general grace of the Spirit in consistent prayer. We don't feel it that much, but I tell you the Lord's helping us in our prayer lives daily, our corporate prayer lives, even when we don't feel it, He's helping us. There's a general measure of grace that is sustaining us. Now we may not feel like it, we feel dull, and we feel bored sometimes in the prayer room. All we have to do is say, Lord lift the grace off totally, and then we would be in utter darkness in that prayer room and say, whoa, whoa, I guess that dullness wasn't as dull as I thought. So the reason I'm saying that, that while I want to emphasize the unusual measure of prayer that I'm calling the gift of anointed prayer, I don't want to minimize the general grace that we walk in day by day. I so value it. I'm so grateful for it. I don't have a future without that general grace. But it's in the midst of the general grace that we're walking in now that the unusual grace suddenly comes, and it breaks forth this anointed gripping of God in prayer, and then a power demonstration always follows this kind of thing. Let's look at paragraph D, John chapter 16, verse 8. Jesus said that He would send the Spirit, and the Spirit would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This is much more than the Spirit wrestling with a believer because we're living in compromise. Yes, that is conviction. Sometimes people say, well, I'm under conviction, and that's a right term. And what they mean is the Lord's dealing with them as a believer for compromise in their life. That is conviction. But Jesus is talking about the conviction that touches the world, the unbelieving society, and He has in His mind something vast. I mean something awesome that I just described in the first and second great awakening in our nation, but it will go beyond that. Where the Spirit, the manifest conviction of the Spirit is pervading society. I mean whole regions, a hundred miles, two hundred miles. I mean there's there's no exact science to the size of the region, but we're talking about more than just a church sanctuary. Now what does it mean He will convict? You could put the word is in the Spirit will convince them with power about their sin. He will convince them with power about the gift of righteousness that is theirs. He will convince them with power that eternal judgment is around the corner. They will see it and be horrified. They will be illumined by the power of the Spirit, convinced in large numbers. And I mean they will come in by the multitudes, by the multitude. So that's what we're believing God for. Paragraph E, I talked about this Friday night, that on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2 verse 37, we saw a down payment of this, this wholesale conviction. Where Peter gives about a two-minute sermon, quite short. The Spirit of God breaks into three thousand Jewish people right there. Those that had up to this time have not received Jesus. This is 50 days after the cross and resurrection and the, the tenor in Jerusalem was to say no to Jesus, that he was a criminal who was put to death. And they were not turning to the Lord. All the disciples of the Lord were hiding in caves and back in corners. And they were terrified and there's only 120. And so they come out because they've had this anointed prayer gathering and they come out. And the Spirit of God begins to move in power. And here they are, this 120. I mean, they've been terrified, hiding away. The city has written Jesus off, a two-minute sermon, and the Spirit is so convincing of the sin and guilt of those people, they cry out, we want freedom and deliverance from the guilt we justly deserve. Like, wow, where did that come from? Beloved, that's the Holy Spirit. We want the gift of righteousness. How do we receive it? Where does it come from? And they said, it comes in Jesus. What about the judgment to come? Oh, you can stand with assurance in that day. Anyway, when the Spirit breaks in in a convincing way, it is absolutely remarkable. Well, the most dramatic example I have here in Acts chapter 19, the most dramatic example of this was seen in Acts 19 in Asia, which would be modern-day Turkey today. And modern-day Turkey or Asia, the primary city was Ephesus. And that city doesn't exist today, but it was the third largest city in the world at that time. Ephesus would have been the New York City of the ancient world. It would have been an economic center filled with idols. It was one of the occult centers of the Roman Empire. They had more demon worship and idols and tremendous amount of money and commerce connected to occult idol worship. Paul the Apostle goes into this Gentile idolatrous occult economic center that's filled with darkness. I mean, that's a tenuous assignment to go into a city like that. It'd be like going into places in Turkey today and going in there, but it was even worse back then. And he begins to preach, him and a small apostolic company. He begins to preach and the power of God begins to move in such force. Look what it says. All who dwelt in Asia, that would be Asia Minor, that would be Turkey and the region around, everyone heard about the Word of the Lord. I mean, they didn't have internet. They didn't have buses, cars, trains, etc. I mean, word of mouth. It is pervading all of Asia Minor by word of mouth. Verse 20. The Word of the Lord grew so mightily. What does it mean the Word of the Lord grew? Doesn't mean somebody added to the Bible that, you know, we used to be, you know, 66 books in the Bible. Now it's 68. No, it didn't grow that way. The Word of the Lord grew in its influence and its hold on the people of Asia. From a small little apostolic company of Paul the Apostle and his team, small number, thousands and thousands were coming to the Word of the Lord, which means coming to Jesus. The Word grew in its influence. The Word was gripping them. And here's the Word that's just amazing. The Word prevailed. The Word prevailed in Asia. That means the Word of God was in such demonstration of power. Conviction was going everywhere. They were throwing away the idols. They were having bonfires, burning them. The city was in a riot because everything was turned upside down. Because the power of God through these weak men was going forth in such a pervasive way that the Holy Spirit uses the word. The Word prevailed in Ephesus. Can you imagine the Word of God prevailing in the third largest city of the earth, New York City, or whatever city it is? Imagine the Word of God conquering New York City. Beloved, that's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Paragraph F. Now, when we study the past revivals, and I drew attention on Friday night to the past revivals, then Saturday night, Wes Adams came and gave two sessions. He's a PhD in theology, intercessor for 40 years, a spiritual man, brilliant man, and he gave us two one-hour sessions last night of an overview of revival. And he talked about the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Hebrides revival, just the islands outside of Scotland, very famous revival, and he talked to us about the Welsh Revival in 1904. And in 1904, the Welsh Revival, just to mention that again, there was a young man, Evan Roberts. He's a teenager. And in Wales, the church is dead. The buildings are empty. Here's this young boy, 13, 14, 15, whatever. He's reading the accounts of revival from the past and reading his Bible. He begins to give himself the long hours of prayer, age 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and this goes on about a decade. He's got a few friends that join in with him, a few teenagers. And then when he's 26 years old, again, this prayer thing goes on about 10 years, and not much is happening. The Spirit of God begins to visit him with open visions and told him 100,000 people were coming into the kingdom suddenly. Now, I mean, there were not a hundred thousand believers in the land. The buildings were empty. The church was cold. Here's this young man. He's a coal miner. He has no degree, no education, has 10 years of prayer. Nobody even knows about it, but his two friends that were teenagers with him, and he begins to have these open visions. Then he just goes out and begins to speak in the minds. Jesus is the way of salvation. In six months, 100,000 people came to the Lord in Wales. 100,000. It was so dramatic, most of the bars closed. I mean, it went out of business. The judges were presented white gloves. It's a famous story, because there were no crimes for them to evaluate and judge. The policeman had nothing to do. I mean, the peace of God entered into an entire nation. I mean, it's a little nation, but that's a prototype of what happens, and that was 1904. Well, anyway, he was giving some examples of the revival, the history of revival. The reason I'm saying it is that, and I would encourage you to go to our website for Wes Adams, and see those two, just to stir your spirit up a little bit. And if you're not familiar with the first and second great awakening, and some of the other revivals I just mentioned, you want to read this material, because it's through the reading of the material your spirit gets stirred. I read this material in my early 20s, 20, 21, 22, 23. They gave me this literature about revival of these guys. I have their names mentioned here. I have a paragraph F. Some of the names and some of their dates, and I begin to read these men. Brainerd, David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, John Wesley, Charles Finney, and then guys like John G Lake. Begin to read their stories, and I mean, I'm 20, 21, 22, 23. I do this for years, actually. It puts in such a picture in my mind of what is possible. And I just became ruined. I said, I can't live without pursuing this with a company of people. I don't want a business-as-usual ministry. I don't want a conference ministry. I don't want to make a church. I want to see a dwelling place of God in whatever city I'm in. This is what I'm after. And so I begin to feed my spirit on this. Alan Hood was giving testimony last night that he was his early 20s, and he was given this literature as well. And he began to read it. He said, it radically changed my life. Not just to hear a snapshot of what happened, like I've just given you a minute ago in these cities or these time frames. Much more than a snapshot. I mean, Alan said, I devoured it. I read the books. I studied it, and he began to see himself different. He began to see his future different. Beloved, I have good news for you. The story of the history of revivals, it's one storyline to God. And it's our story. Yes, it's rooted two and three and four and five hundred years ago in our fathers, our spiritual fathers. It's rooted in their generations. It's our story. Because God's saying, what I did then, you don't think I won't do more in the days to come? I read their story and see my life in that story. I see my future. I see my children and grandchildren. We're in this story as it unfolds in the days ahead. My point is this, you want to be a student of revival. You really, really do want this. And it's not enough to hear a snapshot like I'm giving right now. The internet is filled with literature. A public domain, it's free. The books don't have copyrights anymore. Many of these stories, many, many books on each of these revivals, they're on the internet. Beloved, what a gift of God. You can begin to highlight some of these names. I mean, I encourage George Whitfield, John West again, Wes Adams talked about him last night. The stories are remarkable. Millions came to the Lord in an unusual demonstration of power. I mean, conviction, where the power of the presence was in the city and in the region. I mean, without miracles of healing. You add miracles of healing to conviction of the Spirit. Where is this thing going? I can tell you where it's going. It's going to full revival. Stadiums filled in the way that the Lord showed Paul Cain over and over in that open vision, where the stadiums were filled across the cities of the earth, and then they would go on night and day and the power of God and signs and wonders and miracles. Beloved, this is what needs to infect our holy imagination, so to speak. We need this moving us. We dream of our future differently based on the stories of what God did in the past. Well, I'm not going to talk about these guys. We talked about them Friday a little bit, and then Wes Adams did on Saturday. But I want to urge you, make this part of your diet, your spiritual diet, to read these stories. I mean, I'm reading them again. I've read them over and over for years, for 30 years. 35 years. I started when I was 20. I'm 56. I've been reading these for years and years. Same stories. I love them. They don't get old at all, and there's so many different versions of them. I mean, how inspiring. Paragraph G. I want to recommend two men, and we have their books in our bookstore, and they're on the internet. Ian Bounds and Leonard Ravenhill. Paragraph G. So I put that there on the notes so you could have those names. Ian Bounds. He died 1913. He wrote eight books on prayer, about a hundred pages apiece. They are classics. Almost everyone I know that's devoted to prayer has been inspired by Ian Bounds' books. These books are all on the internet. We got them on our website, free of charge, because again, they're public domain. Get them. We have one big volume, all eight books in one volume, in the bookstore if you want a hard copy. Say, now I want to carry it with me. Read Ian Bounds. The second man I want to highlight is Leonard Ravenhill. Leonard Ravenhill, who just went home to be at the Lord about 15 years ago, he was one of the most committed intercessors and preachers on prayer in America in the last, you know, generation. I mean, Leonard Ravenhill is a towering giant in terms of his commitment and the grace of God that was on him as he talked about prayer. Now, Leonard Ravenhill was inspired in a very powerful way by Ian Bounds. And when I read Leonard Ravenhill's books, he talks about Ian Bounds all the time. And just at the end of his life, he died in his 80s, at the end of his life, a few of us here, we became friends with him. We got to know him the last four or five years and had many, many times with him of long discussion. And he told us the behind-the-scenes stories of revivals and different things. And, I mean, what a man of God. It was when I was 18 years old, my youth leaders gave me Leonard Ravenhill's book. His classic is, Why Revival Terry's. I'm 18 years old. My Presbyterian youth pastor hands me this book, says, you got to read this book. I never heard of Leonard Ravenhill. He says, read it anyway. This little book, and again, we have in the bookstore, Why Revival Terry's. It's sold over a million copies. That book, I wouldn't say it inspired me. I would say on the front end, it tortured me. Because I was committed to live a life of prayer, but my prayer life was boring beyond measure. I mean, it was oppressed, dull, and boring. And so I hated prayer. The Lord would have told me when I was 18, I'd be in a prayer ministry full-time. I said, no way, wrong guy. Wrong guy. Anyway, just to kind of even the score, when I was 18 years old, I go, I hate prayer, but I'll trade off with you, God. I'll read Ravenhill and feel miserable about my prayerlessness. Is that a deal? If I feel miserable, will you be happy? Well, my theology was wrong. But anyway, that book, it would not let me let go. And Ravenhill was inspired by Ian Bounds. Anyway, I just want to give you those names. We got that literature. We got it on the website. Go after that and get that. Let's turn to page two. Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time on page two, but I want to give you a concept that we will develop more and more in the days ahead. And the idea is there is a thing the Bible calls the spirit of grace and supplication, Zechariah 12 10. The Lord says, I'm going to pour this out. It's a ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it's a special ministry within the grace of God. It's anointed prayer that the Holy Spirit is deeply involved with beyond the general grace He gives for just daily prayer. Whether we feel His presence or not, He's helping us. This is more than that. This is a, this is a manifest authority. This is a deep involvement, a conscious involvement with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is an intercessor just like Jesus is. And the Holy Spirit's interceding for the move of God. And when the spirit of prayer, it's called the spirit of supplication here, supplication and prayer, you can make it interchangeable terms. When the Spirit pours out the spirit of prayer, it's talking about those special moments. And again, it might last for hours. May go a day or two in a row. I'm not talking about something that goes on for years and years and years. I'm talking about those special moments when the manifest presence of God touches the intercessor. And there's an unusual, there's an unusual activity of the Spirit in prayer where we're interceding in a heightened partnership with the Spirit above and beyond the normal grace of prayer that the Spirit helps us with day by day. I call this the gift of anointed prayer. It always, it always breaks, has a manifestation of power afterwards, always. It's not the sort of thing you can fake. It always has a demonstration of power soon after. It's a, it's a supercharged moment in prayer. Paul talks about this. He describes it, paragraph B. He describes it in Romans 8 26. And Romans 8 26, this is, should be one of the key verses in the prayer movement in the earth. Romans 8 26. I'm ashamed having taught on prayer for 30 years. I have not taught more on this verse. I've taught on it over the years, but not near enough. Just this morning as I was reviewing this and praying over it at the 6 a.m. prayer meeting, I was going, Lord, why don't I talk about this every Sunday, like for five years straight? That's a little overdoing it, but my point is this. This verse, this principle is neglected and unknown to much in the body of Christ. It's unknown. They don't even know anything about it, and then if they do know a little bit, they neglect it. And then when the Spirit touches them, they don't know how to cooperate with it. They end up quenching it. Accidentally, they just move on and leave it behind, this gift of God working in them, because they don't understand it. My goal is to see the value of this truth. Not just to see the value of it, how awesome and how valuable it is, but then to know how to cooperate with this special operation of the Spirit in intercession when it comes. Let's read the verse. Verse 26. Paul said, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Now the weakness he's talking about is our weakness in prayer. It's more than that, but that's specifically what he's focusing in on. Now, everybody by nature is weak in prayer. The greatest prayer warrior by nature is weak in prayer. We need help. And again, there's a grace, a general grace to maintain a consistent prayer life, but many times in a consistent prayer life, we don't feel inspiration. We don't feel the Spirit's presence, but he's present. And I assure you, I assure you he is. All he'd have to do is be absent and you would know how present he is, even when you don't feel it. Well, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, Romans 8 26. Then Paul goes on to give the dilemma of our weakness. He goes, here's our problem. We don't know how to pray as we should. We don't know how. Now, I'm using the New American Standard. I have written there the NAS. That means New American Standard. It's reputed as one of the most accurate translations available today. It says, for we do not know how to pray. The King James, the New King James, the version I typically use, says we don't know what to pray. One translation says we don't know how to pray. The other one says we don't know what to pray. And of the popular translations, it's many of them choose we don't know what to pray and many of them choose we don't know how to pray. I believe the answer is in the combination of them together, but I like this word how. Because if you say we don't know what to pray, it just means we don't know what the theme is. But Paul's saying more than you don't know what theme to pray on. He's saying you don't know how to do it. You don't know how to get into that deeper partnership with the Spirit. You need an escort and the Spirit says I'll escort you into this partnership with myself. You need to be carried into it. You don't know how to get there. It's outside of the reach of your natural faculties and abilities. And so I like the word, I prefer the word, that we don't know how to pray. We don't know how to get into that realm. We don't know how to get into that dimension of this unusual partnership with the Spirit and intercession. And included in that is the subject of we don't know what to pray. We don't always know the theme. We don't know what the subject, we don't know how to make it happen, to get into a realm of the Spirit's manifest authority, and we don't always know the timing of it. And the Spirit says that's okay. I'm going to bless you in one of the greatest blessings that is given in the kingdom of God in this age. I'm going to intercede in you and through you in special occasions. I myself will take matters into my hands, your prayer life, and I will intercede through you. And it will be me, but it will be you. Which is it? Is it the Spirit or is it the believer? It's both. The Spirit is giving the impetus. The Spirit is igniting on the inside, but the believer is groaning in a way that's too deep for words. It's inarticulate. There are no words. The believer, he's not shouting. The believer's not praying his favorite Bible prayer. It's not praying in tongues. That's not what's happening. It's groans, and it's just as simple as sighs and groans, and your spirit is gripped. Now, I've read commentaries about this passage over the years, and a number of people say this groaning is the gift of tongues. It's not. It really is a very, very different operation of the Holy Spirit. I believe in praying in tongues. I believe in praying in tongues a lot, but it's praying in tongues that postures you for this gripping that's far different than praying in tongues. It really is a different thing entirely. So it's inarticulate. There are no words. Your spirit is moving. You're sighing. You're groaning. It's not real loud. You have weeping. I mean, you might have profuse weeping, but the guy next to you, unless he's kind of watching your body moving, you're crying, might not even know anything's happening. I don't know, and what I mean is you're not praying in tongues. You're not shouting. You're not wailing. It's not that sort of thing. Those are other dimensions of prayer. This is groaning. It's very deep. The Spirit brings us inward, not outward, and He's connecting with us. It's very powerful, very precious. Now, one of my desires is that we would understand this, so that we would not quench it when it's happening in our life, and so what I mean by not quenching it is that you don't want to, I have written here in paragraph B, when this groaning starts, stay focused on God. Stay focused on God. I'm talking about even God in your spirit, God the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Have a quiet spirit. Don't rev up. Go the other way. Get quiet and go inward, and what I mean is, in my early days, this touched me a time or two, and well, it has a number of times over the years, and I've responded in different ways, and I would break out in tongues, and the thing would lift. I go, oh, Holy Spirit, let's start over again, and then it's, wait, come back. I thought you liked tongues, and the Spirit goes, I do. That's not what I'm doing right now. Other times, I could feel this special inspiration, and I might be tempted to get out my favorite Bible verse, Ephesians 1 17, my prayer. Pray, Lord, release the spirit of revelation. Oh, it lifts. It's not a time to talk. It's not a time to take the direction. It's a time to be quiet, and the groanings will come forth. It's not a time, it's not the time to shout in prayer, make prophetic declarations. There's certainly a time to do that, for sure, to make prophetic declarations. This is not talking about the man that has the vision of hell, and he's crying out for lost souls. There's a time for that, but this is different. You're a very different thing, and the reason I say that is because, in the culture, in the body of Christ, in different parts of the body of Christ, the culture is such that, when the Spirit's moving, they get more emotionally fervent, because they think emotional fervency is always what the Spirit wants, and this is the opposite direction. You want to get quiet and follow His leadership. You want to go the other way. I'm just giving that as an FYI for those who say, I don't even know what you're talking about, and here you're telling me how not to quench it, and I don't even know what you're talking about. But I tell you, you're going to be experiencing this if this is new to you. It's like fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, and I don't want to get into that right now, but when you're fellowshipping with the Spirit, you don't get into rapid-fire prayer and prophetic declarations. You get quiet, and you go in, and you talk to the Holy Spirit. You dial down. You don't amp up. You go the other direction, and this groaning will increase, and it ebbs and flows. It goes for, you know, two, three, four, five, ten, fifteen minutes. It lifts for one, two, three, four minutes, and you've got the theme. You've got the focus in mind. It comes back again, and then it lifts, and it comes back again, and it lifts, and it comes back again. It could go on for a couple hours. I've had this experience for some hours, and it is something you cannot imitate. You cannot make it happen. You can't get five friends together in the back room and decide you're going to do it. It's not like that. It is sovereignly of the Spirit, and it comes when it comes, and lifts when it lifts, and it is a heightened, special operation of the Spirit above and beyond the grace of prayer. Just the normal grace that we have in our life, in our everyday life. Now, I'll give you a couple examples. There's many different focal points, I mean, many different themes, so to speak, that the Holy Spirit might use you in this. Now, on Friday night, I gave examples where this gripping of God, in groaning, again, it's gentle, I mean, the weeping, I'm profusely weeping, but again, the guy next to me doesn't hear a word that I'm doing. Now, I'm in a group prayer meeting, and I have five or six guys, it's some years ago, and I do this, and the next morning, it was a Saturday night, it's Sunday morning, I preached, and I saw the power of God manifest in a way I'd never seen up to that time in my life. It was unusual. Then, two months later, it happened again on a Saturday night. This groaning and gripping grabbed me. I didn't tell any of the guys in the prayer room. I didn't stand up and go, I'm groaning, everybody groan with me. No, I didn't do any of that. They didn't even know it. And the next morning on Sunday, I got up and spoke again, and the Spirit of the Lord was moving in our midst. Relative to my experience, those two times, I'd never seen anything like it up to that time. People, as I was preaching, a good portion of the congregation, there's about 500 people present, one or two hundred are gently weeping, their eyes are closed, and they're weeping and repenting and loving God, and they're not even listening to the sermon. Now, they're weeping because it was good, not weeping because it's the other way. I've had a little bit of that over the years, too, but this is a different thing. And ten times the amount of people got saved. Now, just so you get a perspective, when I had my little 500-member church, we outsaw one or two people every week. This time, both of these events, like 20 people came to the Lord in a dramatic way. And I said, Lord, what is this? And He was teaching me about this. And He was whispering in my heart, you want this. You really do want this. Learn about this and go after it. Well, on Friday night, I spent about a half hour describing the experiences that I just talked about the last three minutes. I'm not going to go into detail on them now. You can get the archive on the website if you want to know more about that. But it's not just praying for souls. I remember one time, I have about 20 nieces and nephews, all here in Kansas City. We've got a big family here in Kansas City. And so, one night, at three o'clock in the morning, I wake up wide awake. It's just, okay, what's going on? And I have the picture of one family member in my mind. And I just laid in bed. The Lord just blessed this person, this about 18 years old, on a Saturday night, three o'clock in the morning. You can imagine what might be happening. And I just said, bless them and protect them. And all of a sudden, I mean, just out of nowhere, I had no more expecting this. I begin, this groaning comes on me. So I go in the other room, just to give my wife a little grace there. And this, I begin to weep and groan. And I am sure of this, that a huge disaster was averted in the life of this family member. I remember one time praying, just praying for a church service. And as I'm praying for the church service, the mind of a Bible teacher that blessed me one time, that I heard him a few times from years ago, he comes to my mind. I pray for one or two minutes. I try to, when something comes to my mind like that, to at least give it 90 seconds to two minutes, at least. And so, it was random. This man's picture comes to my mind. I go, okay, Lord, just bless him wherever he's at, whatever he's doing. I don't know this guy. And suddenly, this travail and this intercession, this groaning comes on me. It lasts for an hour or two. I can't remember. And I felt very strong that he was on the verge of suicide. And that my intercession, not alone, but it mattered. And it shifted this in this man's life. Well, I've had it for souls. I mentioned that a minute ago. I had it in a healing anointing. I gave a story about in May 1983. I had this travailing intercession and healings and power broke out the next week in an unusual way. And that's another story for another time. I've had this for, I remember, just a little while ago, I was praying for one of the IHOP leaders, just in a general way. I was just saying, Lord, bless this one and put your spirit, touch this one and help. And all of a sudden, this gripping intercession went on for about three hours of weeping and groaning. I couldn't let go of it. And it shifted this person's life from a place of real difficulty to the beginning of a breakthrough. And so here's my point. Every time this happens, beloved, you want to go with it. You want to go with it. Now, when I think of prayer, I think of three, here's an analogy, I think of three modes of prayer. If I was teaching on prayer in another setting, I'd maybe have ten modes, who knows. But I'm thinking, just for an analogy's sake, I'm thinking of the analogy of an old warship back in the ancient world, you know, where it's got a hundred soldiers on it and they're on the sea, they're going to battle. And they're rowing. I mean, they're going strong, all hundred of them. This big battleship has got big sails on it. But it's a calm day. They're not getting much help from the breeze, from the wind, gentle breeze. And they're going to battle and they're going at a certain pace. I would liken that to my normal everyday prayer life. I'm working hard. I'm rowing the oars. A lot of work. We're going forward. A little bit of breeze. Not much, but a little breeze. That's my normal everyday prayer life. Then, suddenly these guys are oaring. This is a made-up story, by the way. And so, it's an analogy. They're rowing and all of a sudden a mighty wind breaks in and carries them. I mean, they are going ten times faster. The guys are still rowing, but not near so vigorous because they're going, wow, what's happening? They're going ten times. It's a mighty wind. I mean, it's coming 50, 80 miles an hour, pushing them. They're going so fast. That's what this kind of prayer is like. You're still in the place you're rowing. You don't row near as hard in that kind of setting. You lighten up and it carries you by a wind of its own. Now, I've known the third option where I'm rowing. Here we are going into battle. Rowing. There's a gentle breeze. Now the strong wind comes the opposite way. I mean, we're rowing hard and we're losing a mile rowing hard. That's called opposition. That's called resistance. Anybody know about that? Where I actually lose ground in the prayer time. I know about that too. I know about the heightened added forces resisting, and I know about the heightened added help of the Spirit helping mostly. We're in a calm situation rowing. That's how our normal everyday prayer life is. But when you least expect it, suddenly this mighty help, and it doesn't feel like a wind, that's not what I'm saying, but it comes from on high. Okay, let's go down to paragraph F. Now let's go to C. Just one minute on C and then real fast on F. I just want to point out something to you to bring this to a conclusion. Paragraph C. We need to posture ourselves to receive this unusual operation of the Spirit. And we posture ourselves by living in the normal grace of prayer steadily. We posture ourselves by keeping our mind focused in prayer. By watching our words and our eyes outside the prayer room. What we look at, what we say. That really matters. So that we come into the prayer room and we can engage with God. Paragraph D. Oh, I'm throwing another one in. I just saw it here. Allen Hood, he said this the other night. He had a short dream, and in the dream, the Lord showed him the IHOP prayer room and the IHOP prayer room was disengaged. Many of the people, they were sitting in the chair in the prayer room. The music was going on. They were enjoying it. They were doing all manner of things besides praying. And the Lord wasn't rebuking him, but He says, I have more for you. I really do have more for you than this. I didn't call them all here just to tap their feet, listen to music and do some email in the prayer room. I actually want them to pray. I have more for them. And then the Lord, I have it written there a little bit on it, but the Lord tells him in the dream, shows him in the dream that our community needed to read Ian Bounds. Again, I mentioned Ian Bounds a few minutes ago, the man that wrote the eight books on prayer that we have on our website. The one, the man that ignited Leonard Ravenhill in prayer. And Allen sees this message in the dream. The IHOP community, they need to read Ian Bounds. So we got it up on our website, and I just want to point that out to you. Okay, F. Now I'm saying F, this is just one little qualifier to end this, because this is important. Over the years, when I stir up the subject of gripping prayer, that's what I'm talking about, I'm being gripped by the Lord in prayer. Almost inevitably, it's happened a number of times over the years, I'm very familiar with it. It happens after a message like this. What happens is people sincerely get excited. They really get excited. So they do what they don't need to do. They go help out the Holy Spirit. And they say, Holy Spirit, if you're not going to give me travail and groan, I can do it without you. Watch. Now they don't really do that. They don't say that. They just do it. So five or six of them get together, and they're going to go for God, and they're going to see revival come. So they get in a little corner, and they start groaning and travailing. But it's not groaning. They scream. And the idea is, the image that they get, it's the woman having the baby, and she's screaming, the baby! And so they figure that must be what this verse is about. And so I've seen this over the years. I mean, just like clockwork. Whenever I stir this up, we have this. And maybe four or five of them be laying over in the corner, all holding their stomach, the baby! And I go, hey, what's going on? And they go, we're travailing right now. I said, oh really? I have a little conversation with them. They kind of stop, and never met a woman do that. And yeah, yeah, we're travailing. We're going to birth the spirit in this place. You want to join us? Here, just pull up a chair and scream with us. I go, no, no. This is not that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about getting a bunch of people laying on the floor, grabbing their stomachs, screaming. That's not what we're talking about and saying, the spirit is now birthing the revival. No. Again, I've seen this for 30 years, many times. And the classic verse, and I'm just saving you the the bunny trail. Don't even take that lap around the mountain. Just skip it. But the verse that people use, it's the same one every time. It's the classic one, Jeremiah 9 where Jeremiah said, call for the mourning women. Call for the skillful wailing women. Let them come. Let them make case. Wail for us, because judgment's coming to the land. They're getting kicked out of the land. So that's the verse they use. Again, I've had this conversation many times over the years. It's very common. But this verse is not talking about the anointing of intercession. It's talking about professional mourners where they said, hey, our son died. The funeral's on Thursday. We'll give you a couple hundred dollars. Bring your friends and scream for us. Would you? Because we want the neighborhood to know how sorry we are. So the ladies come. They go, what's his name? Okay, his name is this. They come for two hours. They scream. They get paid. They go home. They go, thank you. That's what Jeremiah's saying. He's saying judgment is so sure you better make, you better call the funeral parlor and make arrangements. He's saying this sarcastic to them. He's not telling them to get people together and try to have a baby and go through the motions of having a baby in a prayer room. That's not what he's talking about. And so he's saying sarcastically, go hire some people at the funeral parlor because the funeral for this nation is coming soon. It's a very bad thing he's saying. And well, these ones I've talked to over the years, you know, their idea is again, I had them in the 80s, had them in the 90s. We've had a few groups of this at IHOP in the last 10 years. Well, we're going to birth revival. If you'll let us do this, your spirit will come. I go, no. It's exactly opposite. This gets in the way of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated by five or six people helping God out. It does not work this way. And so the last verse I'm going to use is that Jesus ran into these wailing women one time because a young girl died. In Matthew 9, 23, Jesus came into the ruler's house and the noisy wailing people were there. I mean, they paid them a couple hundred dollars coming and screaming for us, okay? Verse 24, Jesus is going to raise that child from the dead. But he says, make room. The girl's not dead. She's sleeping. In other words, I'm going to raise her from the dead. Verse 25, the crowd was put outside. He said, wailers, go outside. You're not helping the Holy Spirit right now. Actually, I'm going to show you a demonstration of power, but I need you out of the room. My point is, I've shared this a few times over the years and this never is that helpful because I say, I mean, to some of the folks that are in that direction, I'm saying, no, no, you can't help the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, you're distracting what the Spirit is doing. Don't do that. When this thing hits you, it will have a life of its own. I mean, when this thing has hit me over the years and it's hit me many times, there's always a manifestation of power in someone's life or something that always and it happens quickly. There's a dramatic intervention and it's not a sort of thing I can invite five of you and we all start to do it at two o'clock today. It does not work that way. And the reason I'm saying that is that as the Lord begins to touch some of you, I don't want you being distracted and pulled aside. Let the waves come. Go inward. Stay with the Spirit. Dial down and just go with Him. I'm saying it so you can cooperate with the Lord. I'm also saying it so that as I stir this up, we don't do another round of people doing Jeremiah 9. And I just want us to be informed and schooled in this because this is our future. Our future is in the gift of anointed prayer being released here, there, here and there. More than less in the future. That's what we believe. But I tell you, beloved, blessed are the people in whom this grace is in their midst. Amen Amen and amen. Let's stand. Oh, we love your presence, Holy Spirit. Oh, we love your presence. We want this ministry, the Spirit in the IHOP community. I want it in my home. I want it in my office. It's not just in the prayer room. This thing will hit you at night in bed. It will hit you alone in the morning just sitting by yourself. Oh, it hit me on an airplane two years ago. And I tell you, the people around me, I was groaning. The lady comes, she goes, sir? And I wasn't making a scene at all. I was just kind of heaving and I went up for two hours on an airplane. I was praying and God was showing me the destiny of a city in Colorado Springs and a family. And I was being touched. And she goes, sir, are you okay? I go, yeah just fine, just doing good. And I was not making a noise that I knew of. But boy, it happened and it's effective. It's real. You never know what's going to happen. My point is, don't wait for a prayer meeting for this to happen. It can happen anywhere. Lord, we say yes to you. As a community, I just want you to close your eyes for just a moment. And we're saying to the Holy Spirit, we say yes to the vision to be a dwelling place of the Lord in this city. Lord, we say yes to it. I want to be a part of a people that are a dwelling place of God in this city. Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, everybody who names your name together, Lord, we want to see this city. And Lord, I'm saying to you right now, I want this heightened grace of the Spirit in my prayer life. Now, if you want prayer for anything right now, whether it's according to this message I preach, or if you have a personal need in your life, and you would like prayer for, I want to invite you just to go ahead and come on up to the lines up here. Anybody that wants prayer for anything. Those that come up first, always come up to the front line, because then we get a group behind you that can't get through. Do you need healing? If you're saying to the Lord, Lord, I want to be touched in this way. This is what I'm signing up for. And I'm asking the rest of the people in the room, the whole body of Christ is on the prayer team. I'm challenging the whole community, come up, pray for two people, 90 seconds a piece, for three minutes. Come up and everybody gets prayed for two or three times that way. As many of you in the room can pray for two people, 90 seconds a piece. Just take two or three minutes and do that. Holy Spirit, I ask you to release your power. Lord, release your glory for now. Come and release your power, I ask you. Lord, I ask you even now as we come before you, release your glory on us. Lord, I ask you for the light of your countenance to shine on this room. I ask you to release your glory even now, release your power. Show us your glory, your glory. Show us your power, show us your glory. We need your presence. Show us your glory, show us your power. Show us your glory, we need your presence. Show us your glory, show us your glory. We need your presence. Show us your glory, show us your power, show us your glory. We need your presence. Lord, we ask you for a third great awakening in our nation. We need to experience your power. Put your power on display. Put your power on display. Put your power on display. Put your power on display. Put your power on display. Give another great awakening. Put your power on display. Give another great awakening. Still your heart shall beat.