Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of contending for the breakthrough of God's power in our lives and communities, urging believers to fight against spiritual powerlessness and to pursue a lifestyle of purity and doctrinal integrity. He draws from Jude 3, calling for earnest contention for the faith and highlights the importance of prayer, fasting, and unwavering commitment to God's vision for revival. Bickle shares personal anecdotes and historical examples of revivalists like John G. Lake to inspire faithfulness in small beginnings and the pursuit of greater works as promised by Jesus. He encourages the church to raise its vision and not settle for mediocrity in spiritual experiences.

Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, and I ask you to release the fire of the Holy Spirit, even now, Lord, as we're asking you to touch our hearts and to inspire our spirits. In Jesus' name, Amen. I want to talk about contending, or the word contending means fighting for the breakthrough of God's power in our lives and contending for the breakthrough of God's power in our cities or geographic areas, the nation, what, just whatever sphere the Lord's put on your heart. It says in Jude, verse 3, this is the apostle Jude, the Lord's, the Lord Jesus' brother. He says, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly, to contend earnestly, to fight earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints or for the faith or for the experience in the spirit that was originally given to the early apostles. Paragraph A, the definition of contend is to fight for something. In other words, Jude is calling them to live with holy dissatisfaction concerning powerlessness and barrenness in our lives. This is the call as it's speaking to us here in our day. We refuse to accept the state of affairs of powerlessness that's in the western church right now. We're going to contend earnestly. We're going to take a stand, and I don't mean just publicly take a stand. I'm talking about pressing in in our lives. We're going to get a vision for what it is that God wants to release, and we're going to change our lives, and we're going to agree with it, and we're going to give ourselves to it with all of our heart. B, the apostle Jude exhorted the believers under his leadership to fight earnestly, to walk in the faith, or here's what it means to contend for the faith, to walk in the quality of life in the spirit that was originally given to the early apostles. He says, hey, he goes, let's look just a few decades back because it's a little bit later on. He goes, let's enter into the thing that was originally birthed by the 12 apostles. Now, I have three ways in which we need to contend for apostolic Christianity or which is New Testament Christianity. We're going to look at the third one, but all three of them are important today. Number one, we contend for New Testament doctrine. The body of Christ today across our land, there's more churches that are getting off center from the main and plain teachings of the word of God. We got to contend for the faith in terms of doctrinal purity. This is very important. That's not our focus tonight. Number two, we're going to contend for a lifestyle of purity, a certain lifestyle. There's a New Testament lifestyle that is very rare today in our nation, and we need to contend for it. We need to fight for it. We need to give our lives to it. We need to call people to it. That's what we're trying to do here at IHOP. We're wanting to contend. We're wanting to press in and fight in our own lives and then to call others to a New Testament lifestyle, and it's very different than the church, than the lifestyle of the average western church member. It's very different from the New Testament lifestyle. We got to contend for that, and then we got to contend, and that's my focus tonight, for New Testament power. We got to see power in our ministries. Now in this contending for power, we're going to look at five different things, and we probably won't cover them all tonight, but just I just wanted to lay them out there, in our pursuit of power, and pursuing power is important to do. First of all, we've got to establish a clear vision to walk in the power of God by feeding our spirit on what God did in the book of Acts, and we got to feed our spirit on what God did to revival movements throughout history. We need to know the history of revival. I don't mean technically all the dates, but some of the broad strokes events of the great revival movements, and feed our spirit on it, because we need to settle it that God never changes in what He did in the early church, and what He did through history. He wants to do again, but He wants to do it at a greater degree of power. Well, we got to build our faith. We got to get a clear vision. We got to feed our spirit on this constantly. For some 30 years, I have been an avid reader of biographies, and revival stories, and I feed my spirit on the lives of the men and women that broke through it, whatever level, and then it builds my faith, and I say, if they can, I can, in the grace of God. Number two, it's not enough just to get a clear vision. We got to get a, we got to set our lives around fasting and prayer. We've got to be diligent about the power, about fasting and prayer. We got to understand, have revelation of the power of fasting and prayer. C, in order to contend for this power of ministry, we got to live lives without compromise. We got to get rid of the dark shadows in our lives. We got to live lives of righteousness in our pursuit of this. D, we have to be faithful in the day of small beginning, the days of smallness, when it's a little bit of power, just a little bit of this, a little, it's a little bit of the move of God, where not much is happening. We need to be faithful and diligent when not much is happening. Tell the people we need to pray for the sick near every time we gather. And if we don't see many people get healed, take your hand out of your pocket, put it on their head and pray for them every time. And when you least expect it, the power of God breaks through. You might not feel it, and they may not feel it, but they get instantaneously healed or progressively healed. And we stay steady, and the Lord watches men and women that are faithful in the prayer room, faithful in praying for the sick, faithful in doing the works of the kingdom without much power. And suddenly God doubles and triples and multiplies the power of which they were faithful with. It's a very important principle. Some of you know the name of John Wimber. He went on to be with the Lord a few years back, and he led a movement called the Vineyard Movement. And it was based in Southern California, and it was a movement that really focused on physical healing. And he became one of the most well-known vessels of the Lord that the Lord used for physical healing. Tremendous dramatic healings took place through his hands and through his ministries for a number of years. Tremendous blind eyes opening, paralyzed limbs healed, terminal diseases instantly healed. And he told the story for a number of years. He said God began to arrest him on the He preached on healing for maybe two or three years. He said it seemed like every meeting, every Sunday he preached on healing. I'm sure it wasn't 100% that way, but nearly. He said, and he goes, actually, he goes, it seemed like it got worse. He goes, the people I prayed for, they seemed like they became more sick after I prayed for them. And he said, he'd always say that, people would laugh. And he goes, no, I'm absolutely serious. He goes, it got worse many times. He goes, we didn't have one healing for two or three years. He goes, I prayed for him every meeting and I preached on it near every meeting. Went right through the gospels time and time again. And suddenly, suddenly there was a turn, a turning of the corner, so to speak, in God. And the healings begin to break out and large crowds begin to gather and power begin to enter their meetings. And a lot of folks would say, hey, we want to have the kind of anointing that you have. And some people just entered right into it. But one thing that John said, he goes, I don't know what God's going to do for each one of you individually, but I know this for a fact, most of you are going to be called to be faithful in the day of small beginnings. When the healing anointing seems like it's non-existent. And I tell him, I don't care how barren and sterile it gets sometimes, we're going to pray for people every meeting. We're just going to do it. It just doesn't matter. And just our faithfulness, the Lord will watch it and the Lord will give, He will multiply that which we do faithfully with small power. Our prayer meetings, our worship sets. Doesn't seem like there's much power on it, but the Lord's watching. And He says, I'm watching. I'm watching. You just keep doing it. And I'm watching your faithfulness. And I'm thinking to those in the One Thing seminar this weekend. And you're back home and you're leading prayer meetings. Some of the prayer meetings are two and three and four people. Beloved, you don't need a large group of human beings. The multitudes of angels are in those prayer meetings. Just stay steady. I mean for real, stay steady in those prayer meetings. I remember one time, it was a couple of years, 1980s, somewhere in the 80s, late 80s. We had prayer meetings for 16 years at the church I was pastoring. We had prayer meetings 16 years for four, five, six hours every day. We did them every morning, every afternoon, and every evening for near 16 years. And the most of prayer meetings are 10 or 12 people. And they're pretty boring and pretty, you know, because the Lord told us he was going to birth IHOP. We didn't know it'd be 16 years later. We had the big sign, you know, 24-hour prayer in the spirit of Tabernacle of David, because the Lord spoke it audibly. He said, this is what you're going to do. And I was in 83, and then so 84, we thought maybe it'll start then. And in 85 and 86, we thought, hey, we might as well do prayer meetings while we're waiting to be anointed in prayer someday. I said, that makes good sense. So we start them every morning, every afternoon, every evening, you know, five, six hours a day, whatever. You know, an hour or two in the morning, hour or two in the afternoon, a couple of two, three hours in the evening. And they were just not much. I mean, you know, I mean, you could fall asleep in them. But the Lord liked them. The Lord liked them. He looked at them. I had no idea we'd do that for 16 years before IHOP started. Lots of folks say, hey, IHOP started, you've been going six years. And I'm thinking of the years before the IHOP started, because all of that's one continuum before the Lord, because the Lord wants people to stay steady. Now, as long as you say, I mean, and just as soon as you say that, the Lord visits some 16-year-old group, starts a prayer meeting, and the first week the power of God hits them, it's their first prayer meeting, you know, so don't get God in a box, because the rule is steadiness with small beginnings, but the Lord breaks that rule whenever he wants to. As a matter of fact, he'll have some group just plowing, you know, he'll have us over on this side of town going for, you know, 16 years plus the six years of IHOP, there'll be some youth group on the other side of town about the power of God will break out in their first meeting. But in the Lord, it's one reality, so let's not get our eyes on where the breakout comes, because as long as it, the breakout does come. But anyway, it was in the 80s, late 80s, maybe 88, I was at a meeting, Saturday morning meeting, and I was, we had about 10 that would come to, I'd go every Saturday morning, about 10 early in the morning, and about 10 people was normally coming. I remember there's only a car, two cars there, and I got there a minute early, and I went walking up to the door, and right from about here to that, you know, stand there from the door, just a few feet from it, I heard this super loud noise like Handel's Messiah, you know, it was like this bursting noise, and I was not happy, because I saw the two cars, and I said there's two young guys in there playing on the sound system, and they didn't expect me to come early. And so I opened the door, and I pulled the door open, because they're going to blow the sound system, I pulled the door open, and it's completely quiet. I hold the door, and I go, huh, I shut the door, I take a step back, take a step forward, very scientific, I open the door again, nothing. I walk in, I go, okay, and there's only two guys, and they're down praying at the front, they're not back in the sound booth. I think they're tricking me. I know these guys, I don't know how they're doing it, and I went out and said, hey, how you guys doing? And the one guy had tears in his eyes, some bad news about his mother, and they were praying, and I go, no, this is serious, they're not tricking me. I go, huh. Nah, somebody's tricking me. And it took me a few minutes to figure out I actually heard the angelic choirs. I mean, it was the full Handel's Messiah plus some. I mean, oh, I mean, wow, it was so loud, and I, and it hits me when I see these guys, I look around, and I go, you know, this is the real deal. Whoa. So, I sit in the chair, and I am so excited. We get our 10 who show up. I tell you, in those days, when we got 10 at a prayer meeting, I was so jazzed. You know, I'd be tempted to put it in the newsletter. 10 showed up at the prayer meeting. People come to IHOP and see 50 or 100 or a couple hundred in a meeting. They go, oh, it's so hard back home. I go, all I knew was 10-member prayer meetings for 15 years. That's all I, or even a few more years than that. And I said, so anyway, I thought, oh, this is going to be exciting, sitting in the chair. I think the power of God is going to break in the room. And it's a, goes on as business as usual, a typical unanointed, a boring prayer meeting. I tell folks, I go, I've had more unanointed prayer per Kappa of any man I know. I'm a pro at unanointed prayer meetings. We've had plenty of them at IHOP too. And so, okay, I think, huh, I'm looking around and nothing's happening. And, you know, it's about an hour and a half into it. I go, oh, of course it hit me. It hit me. The man of God hasn't prayed. When I get up there, that's when the power of God's going to come. I go, of course, of course, because I just thought the meeting was going to be really powerful. So I kind of walked up there and grabbed the microphone. I thought, here it comes. And I prayed. And it was pretty, uh, you know, my words just feel probably hit the ground. How many of you know about prayers like that? Just really a hard one. So many times I know that so well. And I sat down in the chair and I said, well, I guess it wasn't the man of God. That, that theory didn't work. And I'm sitting in the chair and then everybody, the meeting's over and everybody goes home. I'm sitting there for about 10 minutes. I'm going, I am completely bewildered as to what's going on. I mean, I heard angelic choirs loud, strong. I mean, for a few moments, I'm sitting there. I go, Lord, I don't understand. I thought it was going to be a breakthrough of power. And the, and when I say that the Lord put this in my heart, I don't mean he spoke to me, but the wisdom became crystal clear. I knew it was from him. It was just a wisdom. This is what happens every time you gather with 10 people in a prayer room. Every time the angelic choirs are breaking out in celebration, joining together with you. I began to think about the wisdom of, of, you know, Kansas city is 1.5 million people. How many people at that hour in Kansas city were praying? Maybe there's a 10 or 20 prayer groups around the city, Matt Saturday morning prayer group, who knows, but even, you know, there are probably five or 10 members of peace, maybe 50 or a hundred of us out of 1.5 million people. And the word that came to me is God calls it wisdom. There's only one or 200 of you may be praying right now. It's the wisdom of God and the angels are excited. And then the next hour or two, you know, when I wasn't praying, maybe there's another couple of groups started, maybe a little ones and twos, God calls it wisdom. And then the next hour, probably a few more people are praying and the Lord's watching and the angels are excited and they're, and they're enthusiastic. And the Lord just allowed that veil to be lifted for one moment. And I got to hear the joy and the enthusiasm of the angels at an unannointed, small Saturday morning prayer room. Beloved. I want to tell you, you may be praying back home. You may be in the, I'm talking now the IHOP folks and our hardest prayer meeting, you know, the 4.00 AM Sunday morning one, or the six, well, no, 4.00 AM is pretty good. The 6.00 AM Sunday morning one or the 8.00 AM because all the folks who get ready to come to the meeting here and whatever time it may be the smallest crowd beloved, there are angels gathering in that room and they are excited and the throne of God and who you have access to it. We need to be faithful in the day of small beginnings because those days are big before God, even though they're little in our esteem. Well, I didn't mean to get off on a certain, you know, I'm because that's the point I'm supposed to hit a little bit later, but I just got excited about that. And then he, we need to be willing to bear the reproach. There's a lot of reproach. There's a stigma on the anointing. There's a reproach on the, before the breakthrough. I tell you so many people back home, they think you're crazy with the things you're doing. I'm talking about you that are visiting this week. And those of you that are on the staff and the Bible school, they think you're doing what with your life, with all of your abilities, with all of your personality, you're doing what you're going to pray and fast. There's a stigma before the breakthrough and there's a stigma after the breakthrough. And the Lord requires that we stand and we bear that stigma. There's a reproach on both ends. That's all part of contending for the power of God. So let's look at it again. Three, a, we got to get a clear vision. B, we got to do the breakthrough of fasting and prayer. We got to go after it. We got to live. We got to have our lives in agreement. C, we got to stay steady when there's no power, seemingly no power. When the numbers are real small, we have to stay steady. And then E, we have to bear the reproach before it. People mocking and rolling their eyes that you're wasting your time and your life. And there's a stigma on after the breakthrough as well. Actually, the stigma is worse after the breakthrough. There's a God orchestrated stigma on the anointing and even people in the church, they don't, they want, they want their version of Christianity, not God's version of Christianity. And God's version of Christianity makes the church mad actually. There's a stigma on it. And God wants the men and women that he releases power. He wants them in it for real, not for show. And that stigma separates those that are in it for show and those that are in it for real. Let's go to Roman numeral two. Now we're going to go through these five things. Again, we're talking about contending for the power of God. We got to get a clear vision. We got to feed our spirit on what God did in the book of Acts. Beloved, we need to be reading the book of Acts regularly, not reading it as a history record, reading it as a prophecy of what God wants to do in the church right now. Whatever God did in the book of Acts, he wants to do it again well throughout history, but particularly in the generation of the Lord returns the book of Acts. Yeah. I mean, it is a historical record, but it's been, we're supposed to read it as an invitation to what we're to believe God for in our cities. But then there's the great revival movements through history. And these are just some of my favorites. Uh, these by no means a comprehensive list, John G Lake. I'm gonna talk about him a most anointed, uh, people in history in signs and wonders and miracles. Phenomenal. Charles Finney, probably the most powerful evangelist in terms of raw power of God in America's history. He'd tell, he gives the report in 1857, the great New York city revival. Uh, and Charles Finney preached with such power that, that men would ride under the, with guilt and the, and the, and the conviction of the spirit, unrepentant man. And they would be, they would fall off their seats and writhing in agony thousands at a time under the powerful apostolic preaching of Charles Finney, powerful preaching, uh, George Whitfield. I don't have him on there, but he was a man that operated like that to a David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, where weak men spoke and the auction of God came in large numbers came under like the arrow of God struck their spirit and thousands were saved. I mean, they were saved, like, uh, they were radically saved and radically, uh, walking with God days. I mean, immediately after their conversion, it wasn't one of those they got saved in five years later, they settled things. They, they were radical conversions because it was a revival spirits, a power spirit, a power of conviction. Beloved, we, we got to get a vision for anointed apostolic preaching to be restored in the church and in our lives and in our pulpits. It's one thing that we pray about here at IHOP. We want conviction on the word all over the Kansas city area and in whatever city God focuses on. Mark chapter four, Jesus is speaking. He says, take heed what you hear, take heed, pay attention to what you listen to to determine what your vision is in God. That's what it's talking about. Be very careful what you hear, what you buy into is what he's saying. Be careful what you buy into as the measure of what your vision is in God. Beloved, the church today, our vision is so low. We are satisfied so easily. We're satisfied with unanointed preaching, unanointed worship, unanointed prayer meetings and powerless prayer lines and empty altars. We're, we're, we're satisfied as long as the church is growing a little bit and we're kind of one of the church a little bit of momentum and honor in the town. Wow. It's exciting. Your church. I hear you built a big building was so what I appreciate building big, big buildings that that's nice. I'm not against that, but we need power. I mean, we need to kind of power Charles Finney again, 1857. He talked about 500,000 converts came to the Lord in eight weeks in New York city, 560,000 a week under his preaching, the greatest revival in America's history. Charles Finney was the evangelist 60,000 people a week, no microphones, no, uh, uh, you know, they, they, you know, transportation systems in 1857, we're not very good. They got to the meetings, power came on. And I mean, thousands at a time just came under the power, simple preaching power came on them. Miracles. Fetty didn't have miracles except for the apostolic preaching. That is a miracle. Anyway, take heed what you hear. In other words, take heed. What you buy into is God's vision, because here's why with the measure that you use with the same measure, the talk about vision that, that you use that, that you employ, you're going to, you're going to go after it. You're going to use it. It will be measured to you. But in other words, I'm going for signs and wonders and miracles, and I'm going to go after it. I'm going to, I'm going to employ myself to go after this. And the Lord says, that's the measure I will give to you. You, you determine the measure. You read the word of God. You survey the mighty deeds of God through history. And then you determine the size of the measuring cup you're going to get the hottest biography, the most anointed man or woman. And that's what I'm going to do. Praise God. That's what I'm signing up for. It's not about like signing up and getting a poster. That means are you going to use it? You're going to throw your life into seeking that vision. If you like the testimony of the power of God, but you don't actually change the way you spend time and money, you don't change the way you pray and fast. You just like the story of so-and-so's power. You're not using that. You're not hearing it yet. Being excited by the story of a powerful man of God is not the same thing as buying into it for your life. Jesus said of you with the measure that you use, whatever measure you go after, whatever measure you are locked into means you're going to throw your life into it. You're going to put your time, your money, your energy, and you're not going to be refused. You're going to go after it. The Lord says, that's the measure I will give to you. And to you who hear, to those of you that buy into what God's saying, God says more will be given. And to the person who has, to the person who operates in this, and the person who goes after this, the Lord says to him, more will be given. I will multiply it. Beloved, it is critical back in verse 24. It is critical that you take heed, that you be careful to what you listen to, what you buy into. Because if you buy into the American version of Christianity, the church growth is kind of like the optimum of what God will do. You'll be satisfied if your church grows from a hundred to a thousand or a thousand to five thousand. That absolutely means nothing in terms of the big picture. Well, that's a little exaggerated. I appreciate the Lord's doing it. It doesn't mean more than nothing. But what I'm saying is God has so much more than church. God wants that. The day's coming where like with Finney's giving 60,000 new converts in a week. Not 5,000 member church growth, 60,000 converts in one event. Power. Acts chapter 19, the next passage. Now verse 11, now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from his body to the sick. And diseases left the sick people. Now look at that verse 11, unusual miracles are extraordinary miracles. In other words, all the miracles are extraordinary and unusual, but these were, the magnitude of them were beyond what was even normal among the apostles. It was so outstanding that the handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from Paul's body. They would bring it, Paul would pray for the handkerchief and they would go put it on the sick person and they'd put it on him and the disease would leave the sick person on the other side of town. They would take the handkerchief, lay it on a demonized man and the demon would go out when they laid the handkerchief on the man. Beloved God wants to do this again. This isn't the end of the story here. This is the introduction of the story. This isn't the end of it in Acts chapter in the book of Acts. Verse 13, and some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took upon themselves to call him the name of Jesus. They said, Hey, this is, this is cool. We're going to use the name of Jesus. And we're going to go over to evil spirits and say in the name of Jesus, we exercise you or we, we kick you out by the Jesus that Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of Sceva who did this and the evil spirit spoke back to these seven sons. And they said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, the man leapt on these seven men, overpowered them, prevailed, beat the tar out of them. They fled out of the house naked and wounded. One man leapt on them with supernatural demonic power and just absolutely beat them up and tore their clothes off and all seven of them go running out of the house naked. Verse 17, this became known to all in Ephesus, the third largest city of the ancient world. It was like the New York city of their day, the entire city of mighty city. Fear fell on the entire city. Fear fell on the city. Jesus's name was magnified. Verse 20, and the word of God grew mightily and prevailed in the major city of Ephesus. Again, third largest city of the earth. The word of God prevailed in New York city is what that would be saying. And the word of God growing mighty and prevailing in a city means a multitude of people got converted by the power of God. I mean, when there's power happening, that's what we're looking for. Back in verse 15, it says the evil spirit said, Jesus, I know Paul, I know. Now, obviously, the demons know Jesus. What I find remarkable is that they knew Paul. They knew Paul. I remember one time hearing a preacher named Leonard Ravenhill. How many of you ever heard of Leonard Ravenhill? One of the great, there you go. Most of you. One of the great, I mean, preachers on prayer and intercessors. I mean, a faithful intercessor for years. I went to a meeting and I heard him. And this fiery man, he's with the Lord right now. I mean, he spent 60, 70 years going after God in prayer. Spent his whole life seeking this. And this one meeting, he was preaching and he said, he goes, I was at this big meeting and they, no, I was at this place and they showed John Wesley statue. He says, and there it is in England. And Leonard Ravenhill is from England. And, and the band said, Leonard Ravenhill, wouldn't you like to have your statue one day here in England? He says, no, I wouldn't. He says, you wouldn't. He goes, no. He goes, well, what would you like? He says, I would like to have my letter, my name and 15 foot bold red letters, Ravenhill. I'd let, like it to be known in hell. That's where I want my name known. It says 15 foot bold letters, Ravenhill. He goes, that's what I want. I don't care about statues on the earth. I want to be known in hell. I remember I was about 20 years old. I was scared the daylights out of me when I heard that. He meant it. And it, uh, and this is the verse, obviously he was referring to. He goes, I Paul, I know beloved, we need to live lives. We don't have to worry about getting on the, you know, the famous shows or the preaching circuits. We need to have lives that we move angels and demons. We need to be known in the spirit. The idea of getting a whole bunch of ministries networked together and getting big conferences and dah, dah, dah, dah, whatever we, you know, getting known before man getting the big, you know, uh, uh, worship deal. You know, some of our musicians, they want to get networked to get the big or the big book gets out and people know them or they'll, Hey, they want you on the TV show. Beloved. We don't need to get our reputation established. We'd need to be known in the room of the spirit. We need to speak words and sing songs that move angels and demons. And until angels and demons moved by our songs and our sermons and our prayers, all the other stuff is just a waste of energy. It really is most of it. Not, not a hundred percent, but there's a whole, there's a whole lot of networking and coming and going that spends our energy and wears us out. And beloved, we need to grow mighty not before men to where angels and demons move when we sing and pray and preach, we need to be known in hell. The next passage, Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he shall do in greater works than these shall he do that has not happened yet. Greater works than the greater works than these shall he do. This has not happened yet. Maybe, uh, an occasional, uh, breakout of the power of God were extraordinary miracles that even went beyond the ones recorded that Jesus did. But beloved, this is a, there's going to be a release of this. That's that, that, that is widespread. And this is in the generational Lord returns. This is still an unfulfilled prophecy. I had a, a man who I came to, uh, became friends with named Howard Pittman. Some of you know the story of Howard Pittman. It's a 1979. He was a, uh, a Louisiana police officer. And he was a street preacher on the weekends and did a gospel work type thing. And, and he had a death experience in 1979 and his spirit went down that death tunnel. And he stood before God. He got the shock of his life when he stood before God and God was, God was unhappy with him. God was displeased with his life. He was saved, but the Lord, as he was encountering the Lord outside of the walls of the city of that literal city, he said, I didn't see the Lord, but he said his voice came over the wall like thunder, like power. And the Lord, uh, let it, let me know that he was displeased with my hypocrisy and my superficiality. And my, I was in this thing. I was, I had a name of being a good Christian man. And yet I had all kinds of areas of compromise in my life. And the, and the Lord's voice came over the wall of the city and told him, I'm displeased with you. He says, it struck him like with power and it rocked him. And he says, I want you to go back and I want you to tell them this. And he told him several things. And if you want to hear that, it's only about a 50 page booklet. He tells the story. I got to know him pretty well. After I read that back in the early eighties, he came to visit us, came to town several times. And, and so it's, it's an amazing story, a very authentic, humble man of God. Uh, his story is, uh, as you get to know him, absolutely believable. And he came back and, but the Lord, I'm gonna highlight one thing. The Lord told him several things when he stood before him, when he rebuked him and they said, go back and I want you to tell them this. I want you to tell them that I'm going to raise up my servants who will fulfill the promise I gave to my son greater works than these shall they do in his name. And they're good. It's going to happen before my son returns. It says there will be even be those that will do miracles greater than my servant Elijah did. And Howard Pittman said, you know, he was a, a Baptist. Uh, uh, and he said, I didn't believe in the power of God. I believe in miracles. He said, he goes, it's amazing. He goes, your spirit man is so, so transparent to God when you're standing up there in that heavenly realm. He goes it like the idea slipped out of me. I don't believe in miracles. Miracles are for the day. He said that I did just slipped out of my being. I go, Oh no, because he says that's the first thing that hit me because I don't believe in miracles. And he says, and the voice like thunder hit me again. It goes, it like it rocked me. He says, you're greatly in air. I will do greater works than these before my son returns. And he came back and he says, I'm a, I'm a man. He just confessed all of his sins, his hypocrisy everywhere. He had talked to him. He was such an open book. He said, I am so trembling. I'm going to meet the Lord face to face in a short amount of time. And I'm going to get a, I want to get a testimony that I'm doing right. And he goes, I don't want any pretense because he had so much hypocrisy, you know, always looking to make a, a good showing about how dedicated he was. And the Lord says, he was utterly displeased with the falseness of that and tell them I'm going to release greater works than these. The next passage, Paul, the apostle. Uh, no, no, it's go back. Yeah, there you go. Verse 31, first Corinthians 12, verse 31, earnestly desire the best gifts. We are to earnestly, earnestly go after the best gifts, earnestly go after them. Now there's a, uh, a common preacher statement. It's a wrong one. I've said it over the years. I quit saying it some years ago. It's kind of real cool. It's really neat to say it, but it's completely false. And here's what it is. Seek his face, not his hand. That is a completely false statement. We don't choose between God's face and God's hand. We seek both of them. We don't pick between them. It's like saying who you're going to worship God, the father or God, the son, you get to worship both of them. Now what that statement, the truth of that statement is seek his face first, then seek his hand. The idea that we don't seek the power of God because we're only seeking the face of God is a completely false idea in the word of God. We seek the face of God intimacy first, but not only we seek the greater gifts. That's a biblical mandate. One of the biggest problems I think, uh, or a missing elements of the church today is we're not seeking the gifts of the Holy spirit and we're not to seek them only. We're to earnestly seek them and we seek them by fasting and prayer and we seek them by being faithful with a little bit of power or, I mean, just don't even call it power. We're faithful with just a little bit of whatever, you know, it's a little bit of power, but you know, but more times than not, there's nothing there. That's how we seek the spiritual gifts. We study them. We fast and pray. We contend for them in the prayer room. We lay hands on the sick when nothing's happening. We stay faithful. We stay steady. That's how we seek the greater gifts. And what happens is that this kind of doctrine in the land is that we seek his face and not his hand. That gang's not even seeking his face. They're not seeking anything, but more honor and more money and more pleasure and more comfort. We need to seek his face, but beloved, we need a, a full clear vision to seek the hand of God to break through in power. Seek earnestly the gifts. You seek it through prayer. These five things I put on earlier on the thing, we get a vision for it. We fast and pray for it. We live holy lives. We're faithful to small beginnings, and we are faithful to bear the reproach before and after the breakthrough of power. We seek it. I'm going to read a couple stories to you. How many of you have heard of John G. Lake? Go ahead and raise your hand. Oh, good. Lots of you. Those of you that haven't heard of him, you've got a treat coming here. And you get all these books in our bookstore, I hope. I mean, there's lots of times we run out of them, but if not, get on the internet and get these. There's four or five of these little booklets. They're about 150, 100 pages each. Or they got one, they put them all together. It's about 300, 400 pages. And so that's maybe the one to get. But John G. Lake, he died about 1930, something like that. He was, as far as I can tell, the most anointed man in church history and miracles. In 1905, 1910, 1920 is when he was in the season of the greatest power. The Lord used him, his hands, to heal 500,000 people in five years in South Africa. Many of them with terminal diseases, 500,000. And this has been validated and witnessed by many men of God. I mean, he was a tremendous subject of interest, concern, and controversy in his day. You do miracles, people will hate you. The church will hate you if you do miracles, and the church will love you. Andrew Murray, one of the most respected men of God in South Africa's history. I think Andrew Murray died 1920s or 30s. I'm not sure. He wrote, what, 50 books on prayer and humility. Andrew Murray is a household name. Andrew Murray was an elderly man at that time, and he gave the report of John G. Lake as the most respected believer in South Africa, leader. He said, never has a man had power in all of history equal to the early apostles than John G. Lake. That was his statement of John G. Lake, and he witnessed his power ministry many, many times. Because many people were standing against John G. Lake, and Andrew Murray stood up and goes, I've never seen anything of this magnitude. Okay, I'm going to read just a few stories on him, and you can, it may not even go further than this. I might just read a few stories and might just end with that, who knows. But, okay, I'm reading John G. Lake, Apostle to Africa. He was only in Africa five years. He said, here, eight years after God revealed, these are just sermons he's giving that they transcribed. His sermons were published all over the world, so this is just a transcribed sermon. Eight years after God revealed Jesus the healer to me, he said, I'd been practicing the ministry of healing during that eight years. It seemed like there was answers to prayer on a daily basis, but those answers to prayer over that eight years created within me a more intense longing for intimacy with God, and I had a greater longing for the consciousness of God in my life. And shortly after this, my ministry, my entrance to the ministry of healing, I began to ask God, I rededicated myself to God, and an anointing of the Spirit came on me. Waves of glory passed over my being. I was lifted into a new realm of God's presence and power, and after this, this is after the eight-year time, answers to prayer became more powerful than ever before. I felt I was on the very borderline of the great spiritual realm and breakthrough, but I was unable to fully break through at this time, so I set aside hours each day. I would dedicate to God in meditation on the Word in prayer. Now, he's been in healing for eight years, and he's had this experience where waves of glory passed over and miracles begin to increase, and he said, that's not enough. He began to spend, he said, I've set, I knew I was on the borderline of a breakthrough beyond anything I could imagine, so I set aside hours a day that I would give myself to God in meditation and prayer. A number of months passed. The Spirit of God spoke to me one morning. He says, be patient in prayer, and in the autumn, I will answer you. So some months go by. He goes, at this time, I was engaged as a manager of agents of a life insurance company. Now, he lived in Chicago, and he was one of the wealthiest men in Chicago in 1905, 1906. He made what would have been comparable today to several million dollars a year, one of the most successful insurance men in America and one of the wealthiest men in Chicago in his day, but he has this, so he's fully involved in business, but he prays for the sick in the evenings and does his business during the day and began to give himself to hours, several hours a day of extra of prayer and meditation because he wanted to break through all the way. Now, this is a businessman, because I was engaged in a life insurance company at that time, and I've read the other parts of his story to, you know, hear the magnitude of what he did in his business. During the period of which I speak, I preach practically every night, then after the services, I was in the habit of joining a circle of my friends. We were determined to pray through to God. We wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost like the early apostles did. I said, Oh God, if you will baptize me in the spirit like they had power, nothing will stand between me and a hundredfold obedience. I prayed for nine more months until the autumn. I was ready to throw up my hands and quit and said, Lord, maybe that full anointing is for others. It's not for me. I did not blame God. Then one night, a gentleman by the name of Pierce came and says, Mr. Lake, I've been wishing for a long time. You'd come over and we'd spend the night in prayer together asking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I've been praying for a whole year for it, and I haven't received it. I was so hungry to pray. I told the man, yes, I'll do it. We began to pray. It wasn't five minutes until the light of God shone around me in glory. I found myself in the center of an arc of light. It was 10 feet in diameter, the widest light in all the universe had shown on me and through me. Then a voice began to speak to me out of the light. There was no form, but only a voice. And God began to speak to me about areas of my life where there'd been compromises. He says, when the Lord comes, he'll touch depths in your soul you've never touched before. Do you know that after that time I was baptized in the spirit, things opened up a depth of conviction in my life that I'd never, ever known before. When God gets up close, his light shines brightly on the inside. Shortly after this experience, another brother invited me to accompany him to pray for a lady who was sick. And we went to her home, and we found the lady in a wheelchair, and she had, her joints were set with inflammatory rheumatism. And she had been in that condition for 10 years. All her joints were aflame. While my friend was talking to her and preparing to pray for her, I sat deep in my chair on the opposite side of the room. My spirit began to cry out to God with a yearning too deep for words. He had just been touched by the spirit a couple nights ago. He goes, and I was under a shower of the, it was like a warm tropical shower falling on me. It was actually falling through me on my spirit. The awe of God settled over me. I'd never known God at this level. Some moments passed. I don't know how many. The spirit said to me, it's in the autumn. I've seen your tears. I've heard your prayers. You are now baptized in the spirit. And in that moment, currents of power began to rush through my being from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. Shocks of power increased so rapid in such intensity. The currents of power would pass through me. They would seem to rush through my body. And on feet to the floor, my body violently shook under the power of this. At that moment, I observed my friends motioned me to lay my hands on the sick woman. I arose. I couldn't walk. I was trembling. So violently, I couldn't walk across the room. But I leaned over and at once, that power, that holy current of power passed through my being. And my friend said, let's pray for her. I laid hands on her and a flash of dynamic power went through my person, through that sick woman. It hit her, went through her and touched my friend. And all of them were thrown to the floor with violent power. Her crippled hands were instantly opened. Her joints were free, her clutched hands open and everything began to work. And my friend said, John, I believe you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. Shortly after my baptism of the spirit, a great tenderness for mankind began to be awakened in my soul. One morning, I went to breakfast. I had disappeared. And all I had was a desire to pray. It was at dinner time. I still had no interest to eat. And I went on. It went on for three days. And now I was on the sixth day. Prayer flowed through my soul like a stream. I couldn't hardly cease praying. And on the night of the sixth day, in the act of washing my hands, the spirit said to me again, go pray yet another time. So I knelt and the spirit said, how long have you been praying to cast out demons? I said, Lord, for a long time. And the spirit said, from this day forward, you will cast out demons. I arose from that moment and praise the Lord. The following night at the service, a gentleman came to me. He pointed at the large red motto on the walls that said, in my name, they shall cast out devils. This man came to me. He goes, do you believe that motto on the wall? I said, I certainly do. He says, you better not answer hastily because I've been all around the land seeking for someone who believes in that verse. He continued. I'll tell you why. Two and a half years ago, my brother was the manager of a of a large elevator. He became violently insane, some kind of factory. And he was committed to an asylum. And he's in that asylum even to this day. The physicians examined him and they, all of his body and brain were apparently normal. Nobody could account for his insanity. He's been there two and a half years. So on Sunday, in the midst of the service, that man, I said, bring him. And that Sunday, a couple of days later, the man comes with his brother and his mother and an attendant from the asylum institution. I stopped preaching. I got a half a dozen people and I said, hey, join me for prayer, for deliverance. I stepped down from the platform, laid my hands on that man's head. I commanded in one word, devil come out in the name of Jesus. The lightning of God went through me like a flash of lightning and the evil spirit was cast out. In one moment, the man raised his head and was completely made sane. Then he was instantly discharged from the institution. I've seen hundreds of insane people delivered instantly with one word. I'm going to go to one of the other booklets. I love this stuff. Now he's telling a little bit of the same story, but different facets of it. He's talking about in the early days, the ministry of healing was open to me and I ministered for 10 years in the power of God. And hundreds of people were healed by the power of God during those 10 years. I could feel the conscious flow of the Holy Spirit through my hands. After 10 years of praying for the sick and seeing miracles, I think I became the hungriest man for God that ever lived. I had such a hunger in my soul. I would leave my offices in Chicago. I would walk down the street and I would weep out and cry, oh God, I must have more. Now he has this powerful healing anointing. I had people, they would stop and look at me and stare on the streets of Chicago. The yearning passion of my soul was so great. I demanded to know God in a greater way in power. My friends would say, Mr. Lake, you have a beautiful baptism of the Holy Spirit. Why are you so miserable? And I would tell them, yes, it was nice as far as things go, but it was not answering the cry in my heart. I was growing into a larger understanding of God. I demanded a greater entrance to his power. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into God, his power, his love, his presence. Then one day an old man strolled into my office. He sat down. In that next half hour, that man revealed more of God to my heart than I've ever known a man to do. When he left my office, I said, God bless that old gray head. That man knows more of God than any man I've ever met in my life. By the grace of God, I said, if that is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues does, I'm going to get a hold of it. Oh, the wonder of God to begin to work in my heart. Remember, he's been 10 years in the healing ministry and power. I went into fasting and prayer, waiting on God for nine months. This is the same story that from the other, when the Lord told him to wait until the autumn and the Lord would answer him. One day, the glory of God came in a new manifestation, a new coming of God in my life. The phenomenon had passed, but the glory of it remained in my soul. I found that I began to move in a varied range of the gifts of the spirit. I spoke in tongues by the power of God. It flew, it flowed through me with such force. Healings were of a much more powerful order. My nature was so sensitized. I could lay hands on any man or any woman. I could tell which organ was diseased to what extent. And when they went to the hospital to be tested, the physicians were surprised that I had such clarity about the disease. I want to talk to you with the utmost frankness and say to you, tongues have been, this is very important, tongues have been to me the making of my ministry. That is the particular communication when God reveals himself to my soul. I speak the truth that I speak to you day by day in my ministry, I get when I'm in the word speaking in tongues. It's by that kind of, that type of communication, which happens many times at night, I will climb out of bed, take a pen and pencil, and I will write and God will unfold things in my spirit and power. In 1908, when I was preaching in Pretoria, South Africa, one night, the power of God came over me and such streams of liquid glory, the power flowed consciously off my hands like streams of electricity. I could point my finger at a man and the stream of God would strike him 10 feet away. One night, a man stood up and interrupted my meeting. I pointed my finger and I said, sit down. He fell and struck and he laid dead. It's seemingly for over three hours. When he became normal, they asked him what happened. He said, something struck and went straight through me. I thought someone shot me. It was two o'clock in the morning. One night I'd been ministered to 65 sick people who were brought in and the streams of God were flowing with such power through my hands. People fell with such violence that I began to be troubled at the violence of which they were falling. I would hold my hand several feet from their head and they would fall in the heaps upon the floor. That was the outward manifestation. That's what the people saw. Beloved, something transpired in my soul that made my soul like the very heart of Jesus. Oh, there was a tenderness in my soul for broken men. It was so wonderful. I wept over men and their sins. During that period, I'd walked on the aisle. When men would come within 10 feet of me, they would fall under the power of God and topple on top of each other. A preacher who had sinned, as he looked at me, he fell prostrate and was saved and baptized in the spirit. He rose up from that meeting and stirred the nation with the power of God. Within 18 months, God raised up over 100 churches in South Africa from my tabernacle. The multitudes of those of those 100 churches were saved, healed, and baptized in the spirit under my own preaching. So he birthed 100 churches in 18 months. He goes on, he says, I continued in the ministry of healing. I saw hundreds of thousands of people healed. He saw 500,000 is what he didn't say, but the others documented 500,000 healings in five years. The power of God was flowing through me, but my heart kept saying, Oh God, I still want more. I yearn for even more. The cry of my soul for a greater consciousness of God, a yearning for more of Christ Jesus. I'll never forget Spokane, Washington. A lot of you know that's where he went from Johannesburg to Spokane. He says, for the first six months I was there, God satisfied the cry of my heart. He came and opened up my soul and I reached a new depth in God and a new new flow of power. I belove it. I tell you, pray through, pray through for your church, pray through for your ministry. God will come in time with greater power than your eyes have ever beheld. Don't quit. In those early days, I would abandon my soul to fasting and prayer. I would disregard everything in the world and I would seek to enter into Jesus Christ with a whole new fervency in life and depth. In Spokane, the testimony, there were a hundred thousand healings in Spokane in five years. Five hundred thousand in Africa and a hundred thousand, same five-year period, but a hundred thousand documented healings in 1920s in Spokane, Washington. In South Africa, in a single night, a fever epidemic broke over the country for 300 miles. Men were found dead in their beds besides their wife and children lying in bed next to them dead. All families, whole families were stricken. In one month, one-fourth of the entire population died. We had no one to organize an army to dig graves. We needed an army of men just to make caskets. I had a man in my company who was anointed to pray as I've never seen anyone anointed to pray. For days, he remained under a thorn tree. I would pass by in the morning. I would hear him groan in prayer. I would return in the evening. He continued in prayer. Many times, I would prepare a meal and carry it over to him and arouse him long enough to get him to eat. I'd say, brother, how are you doing? Are you getting through? He says, not yet, not yet, but it's coming. Then on the next day, I came by and he said, Mr. Lake, I feel today that if you would help me in prayer, my spirit would break through to God and we would drive this disease from the land. I went down and knelt down beside him and joined my heart with his in prayer. We lifted our voice to God. As we prayed, the spirit began to overwhelm us. Suddenly, I found that I was no longer kneeling under the tree, but I was moving in the spirit. I was gradually moving from the tree. I was 50 feet away. My eyes opened and I witnessed such a scene as I'd never witnessed before. I saw a multitude of demons like a vast flock of sheep. The spirit had come upon my friend. As my friend prayed, these demons rushed ahead of me. I was cursing that army of demons. They were driven out of their place. The next morning, we woke. The epidemic of fever was completely gone. God destroyed Satan. One more story. Oh, by the way, these books are, all they are just full of these stories, book, just page after page. I just read them over and over and over. He says, a request came to me in the mail for an insane, uh, for the son of an insane son, and a mother gave him a letter. And she said, as far as I can tell, my son has a devil. Brother Lake, will you come and pray for him? We went and found the boy. He had been mad. He had been fully insane from his birth. He was like a wild animal. He would not wear any clothes. He would smash himself with anything that came near him. We couldn't even give him a dish, but at the very center of the enclosure of, uh, of cement, there was a large stone hollowed out. They would put food in that hollowed out cement and let him eat it like an animal. We tried to catch him. He was like a wild lion. We jumped right over my head when I tried to grab him. Finally, his father's son, you're never going to catch him. And I said, well, I've been somewhat of an athlete in my youth. So, you know, there's still those issues, even in those anointed guys. He says, I told my friend, you get on one side, I'll get on the other side and we'll catch him. The father and mother were skeptical, but beloved, this all sounds strange. I know, but I'll never forget the afternoon. We, we were there. I'll never forget this. As long as I live, I looked across to that young man and I looked in his eyes and the lightning flash of faith broke through. And I knew if I got my hands on him, the devil would come out of him. We landed. I got on one side, my friend on the other, and we laid hands on him. I looked at him right in the eyes and I commanded him to the devil to come out. And in two minutes, the insane boy was completely sane for the first moment of his life. Beloved, this, I tell you, God has so much more for us than he wants, but our problem is I'm going to go back and remind you of the verse we started with in Matthew and Mark chapter four, where Jesus said, take heed to what you listen to. I want to charge you to listen to these stories. I want to charge you to listen to the book of Acts. I'm in the gospels too, but you think, well, that's Jesus. Well, if that, you know, it's too hard to believe Jesus, a man anointed by the spirit, fully God, but under the anointing is a man is a picture of what God wants to anoint his church with his ministry of Jesus beloved. When Howard Pittman went to heaven, we don't need a man going to heaven to back this up. We had a man come from heaven. Jesus said it himself. He said, greater works than these were you do when Howard Pittman stood before God in heaven, he said, you go tell them I am yet to fulfill that prophecy. And I will release greater works than these before my son returns. Let's go to the top of page two. I'll just go through this real quick. Top of page two, Roman number three. We know the story. Verse 15, Lord have mercy on my son. He's an epileptic. He suffers severely. I brought him to your disciples. They could not cure him. This is the number one sentence that the world is saying to God. I brought my son to your disciples and your disciples can't cure my son. That's that is the main statement that the world can say right now. Jesus answered and I healed. He healed him in verse 17 and 18 verse 19. The disciples came to him privately and said, why couldn't we do it? Verse 21, you can read the text. You know it well. Anyway, this kind does not go out except I want to add the word sustained fasting and prayer. Beloved, God is waiting for his people to take their stand in the covenant with him of fasting and prayer and not to lose our way because a few years go by and the breakthrough doesn't come. Verse 12, the next passage. The kingdom of God suffers violence, which means the word suffer. You could put the word allows violence. The kingdom of God permits violence and violence means violent obedience. Violent fasting and prayer is what it's talking about. The spiritual violence about spiritual violence, not physical. And it's talking about a resolute heart of radical pressing into God. We're not talking about, you know, going to a prayer meeting once a day and just kind of like check it in. And if it doesn't work, well, let's move on. The kingdom of God, instead of the word suffers, put the word permits or rewards. The kingdom of God rewards violent people, spiritually violent people, and the spiritually violent, the people with holy resolution, like John G Lakin, they will take the kingdom by the force of their pressing into God. Beloved, I got good news. The kingdom of God permits violently committed people to go further if they want to. I want to say this to you. The kingdom of God suffers that it permits that the kingdom of God rewards spiritual violence. You can take ground if you'll stay with it. Yeah, we'll just end with that. Father, we thank you. Lord, we ask you make us violent men and women. Lord, we want to be careful what we listen to. We want to be careful what we listen to. Mark four, the passage we started with Jesus said, be careful, take heed what you buy into. It's not that our vision is too high. Our vision is way too low. Take heed that you don't settle for a low vision. Take heed that you don't buy into a level one or two when God has a level 10 vision for you. Take heed that you listen to the right vision. The church in America is selling us short, telling us it's thus far no more beloved. Don't buy into this thing. Whatever measure you bring to God and you use it, not that you just that you rejoice in, but whatever measure you use. In other words, you adapt your life to it. That's the measure God will give you.