Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of cultivating a culture of grace, drawing from Zechariah 4:6-10. He recounts personal prophetic experiences that highlight the importance of grace in overcoming obstacles, both internal and external, in the journey of faith. Bickle explains that grace is not just a response to crises but a lifestyle that should permeate our thoughts, speech, and relationships. He encourages believers to speak grace over their lives and others, fostering a community that reflects God's kindness and wisdom. Ultimately, he calls for a shift in perspective, urging individuals to see the virtues in others and to embrace a grace-filled mindset.

Just to mark our hearts. God, I ask you for Holy Spirit understanding of your heart even now. I ask you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the spirit of power to touch us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, if you don't have one of these handouts, go ahead and raise your hand up high if your table didn't get it. Okay, this table up here, keep that hand up there, we'll get it right to you. Keep your hand up high, a handful of you. I'm going to talk from Zechariah chapter 4, but I want to approach it in a way that is not usually approached. The reason Zechariah 4 is important to me is that the Lord highlighted this passage in a very unusual way. When I think of all 40 years of ministry, there's no other passage that the Lord has over and over and over highlighted in a prophetic way, in a way that he confirmed it in a powerful way. I want to tell you just a couple of them just to kind of get your attention at the level where my attention has been grasped by the importance of this passage. And then again, I'll give you a snapshot on it. Won't cover all the material here, some of it just so you can read it and kind of figure out the context, but I want to apply it in a way that's not usually emphasized. It was in 1984, 1984, 32 years ago. We just moved to Kansas City, and I was new with the prophetic ministry, and I had a very profound, one of my first really profound spiritual dreams. And in this dream, I'm in a particular building, and in that building the Lord speaks. I'll give the summary of it. And he says, declare Zechariah chapter 4. And I knew the building was about the building of the house of prayer many years in the future. The building of the house of prayer wasn't for, you know, 15 years later in 1999. But in this dream, I saw we were building the house of prayer, and the Lord spoke two passages that would be critical to building Zechariah 4 and Ephesians 4. I woke up from the dream. I've just given you a few details. It's a little more elaborate than that. I was just amazed because I'd never had a prophetic dream of that kind of level. The Spirit of the Lord was resting on me as I awake. I'm going, wow, what was that? I'm new to all of this. I got in the car and met a prophetic guy that was in town named Augustine. Some of you remember his name. And as we're driving, he said, tell me the dream you had today. And I looked at him because I hadn't told anybody the dream. And I was a little confused, actually. I go, well, what do you mean? He goes, the Lord showed me that he gave you a supernatural dream this morning about your future. I said, he did? I said, this is remarkable to me. He says, why don't I tell you what it was before you tell me? Now, Bob Jones had done that once or twice before. So that was an entirely new idea, but still once or twice only, and he did it once or twice afterwards as well. So maybe four or five times in my life, this has happened where I had a dream and somebody told me the dream before I told him I had one. When that happens, you want to pay extra attention. So I looked at him. I said, okay. He said, the Lord told you he was going to establish you in this particular building. And he named the building. I said, that's exactly right. And then he's going to unfold his purposes, et cetera, et cetera. And I said, yeah, how did you know? I was in that very building this morning in my dream. How could this be? He goes, well, the Lord has got a purpose and he's going to establish that. Well, because we, I was so excited. I mean, wow. I said, let's go to Bob Jones's house right now. So we turned around and went the other direction to Bob, knocked on the door early one morning, Bob, hello, what's up? I said, Bob, I said, I have, I got one. I even got one. Now I had a dream and Augustine told me the dream. So we laid it all out to Bob about this particular building and Zachariah chapter four. And again, Ephesians four. I'll, I'll mention that at another time, because that's really important as well. The mobilizing of the body into a new Testament community. That's what Ephesians four represents, but Zachariah four is about the prayer ministry itself, but it's more than the prayer ministry. That's what I'm going to develop today. So I asked, we tell Bob and Bob goes, you know, I don't know. I don't know, but I'll tell you what the Lord tells me. Bob called me the next day. He goes, you know, that building you were in, in your dream yesterday with Zachariah chapter four, he goes, yeah. He said, I don't know what's going to happen, but eight days from now, the Lord is going to confirm it in a way that's going to be impossible to deny. I've said in eight days, he goes, yeah, because I heard that from the Lord in the dream last night. Okay. Day one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Nothing happens. I'm out in the front yard playing soccer with our two boys. They're about three years old and five years old at that time. Diane comes and says, there's a guy on the telephone from California. He says, it's important. It's an emergency. He called up the phone directory and got our number. He says, he needs to talk to you right now. You don't want to take a minute. This is eight days after I had this encounter. So I go talk on the telephone. Hello. He says, is this Mike Bickle? He goes, yeah. He goes, this is so-and-so I go, okay. He goes, I'm in Los Angeles. He says, I'm sitting around a table with a group of men of God. He says, it's somebody brought up your name. I know I don't really, I don't know you, but I know I just heard a little bit about what you're doing in Kansas city. He goes, aren't you praying every night with a group of young people? I said, yeah, I go, you know, where's this conversation going? What's this about? He goes, well, I built a building in Kansas city and the Lord told me that he's going to connect you to that building in a dramatic way. That was the very building I saw in the dream eight days earlier with Zachariah four. He says, I am at the table here in Los Angeles. They're talking about you, a group of pastors. He goes, I begin to weep and I got on the phone. I'm out in the parking lot. The food is on the table there in the restaurant. I want to tell you, the Lord is going to establish you in that building and he's going to fulfill his purposes and the Lord's going to do this. And that's the, that was it. I never talked to him after that again. So of course, Bob Jones calls me on the phone and says, Hey, it's day eight. Did you hear anything about that building? Did you hear anything about Zachariah four? I go strangest thing. I mean, that's the oddest thing I've ever, it's ever happened. He goes, well, it's going to happen. He goes, whatever you do, make sure you pay attention to that building and pay attention to Zachariah chapter four. This is really key to you. I knew Zachariah four a little bit, not very much. I go, I don't really get what Zachariah four is about really. Well, that was 1984. I'm alerted. So now I'm really paying attention to it. And two or three times people would come to me. I never told the story publicly, only told the story very, very small amount of people. And over the next six or seven years, people would come to me. I wouldn't say regularly that's exaggerated, but every year or two, somebody would come to me or some number like that, maybe a little bit more and give me a dream about Zachariah four. I go, what is Zachariah four? Why is this so critical? Well, it's January 1990. So it's, you know, six years after this dream, I'm in Kansas city and I'm flying to San Antonio to do a conference. Paul Kane is at the conference. He's one of the speakers at it. So I catch a 6 0 AM flight to go to San Antonio to get there by noon. And then six o'clock in the morning, I'm in the airplane. The airplane's about empty. And the strangest thing I read, I've never read Zachariah four, even in all those years, except for maybe for 10 minutes or five minutes, the Lord stirs me about Zachariah four. And I read Zachariah four for like six straight hours, five straight hours. I can't stop. Never done that before. Since I'm reading Zachariah four on this day in January, January 1st, 1990. And I remember I'm so gripped by it. I get out of the airplane, go to the hotel room. Paul Kane says, Oh, good. You made it because you're going to, I was going to be ministering later that day at the conference. He goes, come in here quick. He goes, the Holy spirit visited me this morning. And he told me he's going to visit you related to Zachariah chapter four. He goes, do you know anything about Zachariah chapter four? He goes, the Lord shows me it's going to be one of the most important passages in your life. This is going to be your future is going to be built around this. He goes, I don't even know what Zachariah four is. Do you? I just read it for five hours. I said, wow, I said, this is perplexing. I said, Paul, six years ago, I had a dream and a prophetic guy saw it. And eight days later, a man confirmed it from California, the very man who built the building and paid for it, et cetera. So I'm mystified. Nothing happens. 1990. It goes on because the Lord's way is he'll give you statements over years. And I've learned now it's over decades. And those statements are meant to be pondered and savored and meditated on so that in the hour, when they're most necessary, you knew that they, that someone just didn't come up with a verse on the spot, but God has given a history building the importance of that passage and the truths that are related to that passage. Well, it's 10 years later, 2011 years later, 2001. Me and Paul Cain are in Italy at the big Catholic charismatic conference. And there's a man. He was the most well-known prophet in the land named father Mateo. I've told stories about him. He's about 90. I think that he was real old man that moved strong in the prophetic. I told the story once that we're at this big cares, this very charismatic conference is very one 50,000 charismatic Catholics are at it. And a man one morning that, uh, probably a morning or two before I'm, I'm meeting with him. He speaks on marriage and it's a good message on marriage and father Mateo's about 90 or something, 80, 90. He's up on the platform and they give him the microphone. He just sits down 50,000 people teaching on marriage. And the, and the altar call is, do you want a better marriage? So they give it to the priest and the priest mutters, you know, he just mutters this prayer and all over the room, demons start coming out of people and power encounters are all of the room. I go, I've never seen anything like this before. And I said, what is this? They said, that's father Mateo. The Lord is on him and with him in the most remarkable way. He's a man of the spirit. So a couple of days later, they said, would you like to meet him? I said, yeah, sure. I would love to meet him. So I meet him and make a long story short, get to spend an hour or two with him. He lays hands and praise don't fall for me. He says, I have one word for you. Zachariah chapter four, the Lord says, this one's very important for you. Don't forget it. A couple more dreams over the years. So what's so important about Zachariah four and the building of the house of prayer? Well, let's look at the handout here again, just a little bit of, of, uh, of, uh, context to it. Paragraph a Zachariah is received two visions, Zachariah three and four in the same night. Well, he's received more than that, but for here, he sees these two visions. They go together is the important part. And every one of us needs to be aware of these two visions, Zachariah three and Zachariah four. They really pertain to you, to your family, to this hour of history, to the house of prayer. The Lord's emphasize this passage to me today. I mean, this last few weeks, that's why I'm bringing this to your attention. Paragraph B the Lord highlights the two main obstacles that Joshua Zerubbabel are going to face in building the house of prayer in their generation. Number one obstacle is their own personal sin and failures. Zachariah chapter three, but Zachariah chapter four, the emphasis of the vision is their deficiencies in leadership, not moral, not sinful, but just their deficiencies. Things aren't going well. The money's not there. The people aren't cooperating and responding to the Lord's purpose. Now, the reason this is so important is Zachariah and Zerubbabel. They've been building the house of prayer for 16 years. And at the 16 year mark, everything stalls out or it's been stalled for 16 years, going really hard. I mean, for 16 years is what I mean. They're going hard the whole time, but at the year, at the 16 year mark, it comes to a time of the Lord and the Lord says, I'm going to release supernatural power. That's the message of Zachariah four. We know the passage. Well, paragraph B under Roman numeral two, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. We know this passage. Well, it's one of the most quoted passages in the Bible of the old Testament. I mean, not by power, not by might, but by the Holy spirit. What are you? Oh, great mountain before Zerubbabel. He's building the house of Zerubbabel is the governor. He's the leader. He's the one task with bringing the temple, which they called the house of prayer to establish it in that generation. Cause it hadn't been established. It says, Oh, Zerubbabel, the great mountain of obstacles that are before you, the great mountain of obstacles that are before you, it's going to be removed entirely. And it's going to become like a plane and Zerubbabel you shall bring forth the capstone. The capstone was the dedication stone when the project was completed, but you're going to bring it forth with shouts. Here's the key of grace, grace. So let's look at the context here. They've come out of Babylonian captivity 16 years earlier. They went back to Jerusalem. The Lord told him to build the house of prayer. 50,000 people are all excited. Supernatural events take place. Daniel sees the angel Gabriel Cyrus, the anointing of the spirit hit Cyrus and he sends them back. And Cyrus was used by the Lord at that hour. And I mean, they had a phenomenal beginning. 50,000 people came back from Babylon, Babylonian captivity, March 700 miles through the desert, got back to Jerusalem to build the house of prayer, to build the temple, to sing night and day before his presence, to offer the sacrifices. It's the most glorious day 16 years later. I mean, they are stalled out completely. Gabriel and Daniel didn't move them. The anointing of the Cyrus story did not move them. They were stuck. It was like a mountain of obstacles were before them. Even with this rich history in God, a mountain of obstacles. Look at paragraph one, the mountain, the Samaritans, that's the people when they were in captivity for 70 years, the Samaritans moved into their houses and took them over. And when they, the Jews came back 70 years later, the Samaritans goes, Hey, we've been here 70 years go somewhere else. So they came back and they had no homes. They had no place to live. And the Samaritans really didn't like them. They were opposing them at every step. Wow. Opposition from the unbelievers. Well, 16 years into it, Israel came into all kinds of strife with one another and they stumbled into compromise. Here they are the remnant with the Daniel Gabriel encounter 16 years earlier, the Cyrus experience, they're fighting amongst each other and they're living in spiritual compromise. Well, they had economic problems that were beyond measure with a drought and a food shortage. And on top of that, the rubble from when Nebuchadnezzar came and took them captive 16, I mean, many years earlier, he destroyed the temple and in Jerusalem, it was still a heap of rubble. Just imagine the convention center downstairs, uh, downtown, a heap of rubble. It was all rock. The entire Solomon's temple was still there. All the rocks broken and torn down on top of each other. And there's a mountain, no money. The people of God are in strife and compromise. The people around are attacking them. And there's a heap of rock in the city that hadn't been moved yet. Zerubbabel says, you know what? I don't know. This is not going like it was supposed to go. Look at paragraph B again. The word of the Lord came to Zerubbabel. And I can say that the word of the Lord has come to me these 30 years over and over on this verse, the Lord established it years ago so that it would something we would pay more close attention to in the hour when we needed it, like no other time, which is not this hour, by the way, we're going to need this passage far more in the years to come. He says, it's not by might, not by power. In other words, God told Zerubbabel to do something that was inherently impossible to do. Now, when the Lord spoke this verse to me originally in that prophetic dream, said Zechariah four, the building of the house of prayer, I just thought it was a good biblical precedent for the house of prayer. But what the Lord is really saying is it's inherently impossible to do this. You're not going to do this by motivating people with stories. You're not going to do this by just gifted people with good personalities that are sincere with God. It's impossible besides a Holy spirit intervention. Not in Christ grass that eight, 17 years ago, when we started IHOP there's mountains, there's economic opposition in Israel's day. There was relational opposition. There were the Samaritans, the unbelievers, the hostile government of the Persians was against them, empowering the Samaritans. They had a drought economic crisis in the nation. And here's what he tells him. Verse seven, Zerubbabel, that mountain, every obstacle will be moved and it will become a flat plane. There will be no obstacle at the end of the story. It will all be removed. Zerubbabel is a little challenged by that because 16 years later and nothing has changed. He said, but here's how it's going to happen with shouts of grace, shouts of grace. Now, normally when we hear this teaching and I've heard it over the years by different ones and gave it over the years, a number of times shouts of grace typically is focused on the prayer of faith for power and supernatural resource to be released. That's typically what it means. Grace, grace, which means the bad stuff goes away and God supernaturally provides and imparts and does glorious things. But grace, grace, isn't only the prayer of faith to remove obstacles. The declaration of grace, grace is a lifestyle that we're to speak grace, grace. That's the lifestyle of the kingdom when it's in the midst of its greatest crisis of human history, which is coming around the corner. Grace, grace is the way we talk to him, the way we think, the way we talk to one another. It's not only in the face of an unusual obstacle it moves, but grace, grace is how we communicate in our marriages, in our lives, in our families. It's that that causes the mountain, the storm in our own heart to be diminished before the storm or the mountain on the outside is diminished. When I hear people talk about this passage, they're always talking about the external mountain or storm speaking to the storm, but the Lord has stirred my heart on this. He says, no, you don't just speak grace outwardly to the storms and the mountain. You speak grace to the storms in your own personal life, in your own heart. It's the language of grace, but it's more than a few simple words. It's a whole orientation to life that is rooted in grace, that thanks grace, that speaks grace, that contends for grace on the inside in our personal life, while we're waiting for the big issues on the outside to change as well. Mostly, we don't emphasize the grace, grace as a lifestyle internally. Paragraph C, the Lord told Zerubbabel, verse 9, you're going to see it come to pass. The grace, grace lifestyle, the grace, grace prayer faith combined together. Grace, grace is the way we speak over one another. The grace, grace is how we talk in our homes. He says, you're going to see it come to pass. Verse 10, because he tells Zerubbabel, don't despise the day of small beginnings because the small beginnings is that he was at the 16 year mark and it wasn't close to being done. And he had more opposition at the 16 year mark than he did at the beginning. And he says, Lord, I'm despising. I'm looking at the small things and I'm losing energy because it's small. And the Lord gives Zachariah the first installment of grace. He says, let me tell you a grace perspective, Zachariah, our Zerubbabel, the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the small thing you've done. You despise it, but God rejoices in it. That's the first installment of the grace, grace to Zerubbabel. You're to shift the way you think. You're the shift the way you talk. God is rejoicing over what you're despising. You're complaining and you're quitting Zerubbabel. God's rejoicing. You only see small things and mountains. God sees the finished product. His hand is with you. He says he rejoices. Excuse me to see the plumb line in your hand. You know what the plumb line, the plumb line is a tool you use when the work is just beginning. It's like he rejoices to see the shovel in your hand. You're digging the foundation. He rejoices to see that the plumb line isn't the carpets. Plumb line is not the curtains. The plumb line is not the thing you do at the end of the building. He says, you're at the beginning. It's little, it's difficult. God likes it, but you despise it. All you see is mountains. He sees the finished product. Top of page two. It says about Jesus. Grace is upon his lips. The famous verse that we quote often in Psalm 45. Grace is on your lips. Therefore, God's blessed you. There's another way to read this. Grace is on his lips. Therefore, the blessing of God is released in him and through him. Because it's grace. It's a grace mindset that has to be intentionally cultivated. It's not automatic to anybody where we see what we naturally despise, what we naturally complain and accuse, but we see it differently through God's eyes. Because back in chapter three, we're in chapter four right now, Satan was accusing the leadership, but God was rebuking the accusation. So men saw accusation and men despised the mountains. God saw the finished work and God rebuked the accusation. And he's telling Zerubbabel, you got to start by seeing what God sees. Not just speak the word of faith at the moment of crisis and the storm leaves. It's a lifestyle. It's the way you live and carry your heart each step of the way. And that's what God was saying about IHOP 30 years ago. IHOP, you will only build this thing through grace, grace, not just in a crisis, but every step along the way, you must cultivate a grace mindset. Grace was on the lips of Jesus. Now notice paragraph A, this is probably a really key thing to grasp. Paragraph A, just coming to the last few minutes here, when Jesus spoke grace on his lips, it meant number one, he spoke kindness, graciously. Number two, when Jesus spoke with grace on his lip, he spoke wisdom or spiritual understanding. And number three, when Jesus spoke with grace, he spoke with power. Often people read this verse and only see the power. They only see Jesus speaking against obstacles and oppression and breaking the power. That is the most dramatic and the most kind of observable to all. It's very dramatic. Luke chapter 4, look at this. All three of these are brought together in Luke 4. Verse 22, they marveled that his words were gracious. Gracious words is a critical foundation to grace for wisdom and grace for power. There's a progression here. There's a connection here. We would like to skip gracious words and go right into grace to calm storms and move mountains. Paragraph B, we see the story how Jesus spoke, the well-known story, I won't read it, where he spoke to the storm. Now in the storm, they all thought it was over. They were perishing. Jesus said, no, you're looking at it like Zerubbabel looked at it. All you see is a mountain and he tells the apostles, all you see is a storm. I want to speak my father's word and shift the situation. Now that's the most, one of the most powerful declarations of Jesus speaking with grace. I mean, raising Lazarus from the dead is a really powerful one as well. Paragraph C, there's a big storm on the horizon. It's called the eschatological storm at the end of the age. And there's a storm that's rising in our nation and a storm raising up in the nations of the earth. There's a big storm that's on the horizon. There's only one answer for the storm, the one who is fairer than the sons of man and him speaking grace, grace, but him speaking it through his people before he comes in the sky to appear. A lot of folks are thinking about the storm and they want power and authority to rebuke the storm on the outside. But the Lord is saying by the same principle, you got to rebuke the storm on the inside, not just fear. You speak words of grace begins at our marriages. It has to begin in our marriages, the little family life, familiar relationships, the frustrations, the annoyances, the deficiencies speaking other than grace. And the Lord says, no, no, you got to speak grace there in the smaller storms to prepare yourself for the larger storms. And the Lord releases pop quizzes all over the kingdom, getting people to learn how to exercise the speaking of grace in the context of relationships, their family, their life, their body, their health, speak grace. Those are smaller storms compared to the biggest catalogical storms that are coming, but the Lord's not going to wave his hand and have the body just pop up out of nowhere with authority to speak grace, but they've never done it consistently in their private life. And it's not only the word of power and the word of faith to move an obstacle. Yes, it is that, and I love that it is that, but it starts by gracious speech. That's where Jesus was anchored in gracious speech, because to live in gracious speech, you have to stop. It's not natural to anyone, particularly in real familiar relationships, you know, in a political arena to be politically correct. Yes. But in our real familiar relationships, you got to stop. You got to intentionally align your mind, your mind to how God sees the virtue in those people in that situation, and not to be captivated only by the thing that troubles you or the annoyance. We get troubled by the annoyance. The annoyance captures the narrative of our heart concerning that person in that situation. And the Lord says, that's not grace. You're not speaking grace. You're just letting the storm take over on the inside. And the Lord's saying the way that the I hop, not just us. I hopped the hat, the prayer ministry and the earth is built is speaking grace. Every step along the way, beginning in marriages so much so that in first Peter, verse seven, Peter tells the man, he goes, your prayers won't work. If you don't talk to your wife kindly, he goes, your prayers will be hindered because speaking grace in the, in private conversations and speaking, speaking grace before the throne of God is one reality. We'd like to whisper in private and have power in public. And the Lord says, it's one conversation. It's one grace reality. You're living it. He says, man, you don't speak right to your wives. You won't have power with God. When you speak paragraph D that's why this Jesus was so kind to give us this bless. Those that bug you. What's this curse you, but this let's downgrade it. Bless those that bug you. I'm talking about the people. Some of them at the table right there. I mean, the people you work close to with people you live close with bless those that bug you pray for those that are manipulating you. They're using you on purpose. The reason Jesus says this, I lost you on the table. The reason Jesus gave this very helpful, because when I do this, I don't like this because it pulls me against the current of my natural fleshly mindset. I have to realign with how God sees that guy. That's really bugging me. That guy has 10 virtues, but that one deficiency is dominated my perspective of that person. Lord says, no, no, no. You got to do it. Like I do it. You got to see what I see. You got to line up with me now. Bless him like Lord. Sort of not that much. Bless him in the millennium Lord, because it lines you up because when you get lined up at that level, you're in the grace mindset. And when you think, when you speak grace, you have to think grace. I mean, you can't speak it without eventually lining up mentally. And when we speak it in the small storms in our private life and relationships, we're prepared to speak it in the big storms in the coming days. Paragraphy look at Proverbs 31, the virtuous woman, the law of kindness is on her lips. Well, actually two of the things, wisdom and kindness, two of the things that define gracious speech graces on his lip. It is wisdom, but it all begins with kindness. You know, you get a guy that has wisdom, but not kindness. He's condescending and he's smug. He's a know-it-all there's people out there. They got insight, but they don't have kindness. And boy, the condescending attitude of how they talk is so difficult to hear their wisdom. If a man has power without kindness, that's called oppression. That's called control. Jesus is now I'm going to anchor the whole thing in kindness. Your wisdom will fall out of it and the power will fall out of it. And my kingdom will be built. I believe God's coming back for an end time bride. That's a virtuous woman. The law of kindness is in her home with her children in a relationship. And I tell you that all around you are weak people that got a thing or two that bug you, but they all got 10 or 15 virtues that are real too. The Lord says, I want you to speak grace, grace. I hop. I want you to speak grace, grace. I've told you over and over. I've helped you to see the importance of grace grace over this movement, but it's not just in a crisis to move a mountain and to quell, to stop a storm. It's day by day by day. And I say, Lord, I'm in, I want to do grace, grace. Amen. I'm going to pray over you. Father, I ask you right now, God, I speak grace over our hearts, Lord, the way that we naturally whisper about somebody that bothers us, Lord, we want to say no to this. Lord, I personally want to repent and I want to Excel in speaking the law of kindness on my lips. I want to see resisting people, trouble making people through your eyes. And I want to see your vert, the virtues that you see. I want to line up with you, God. I want grace, grace, grace to be established in this community that we could speak grace Lord in this hour and in the age to come in the days to come in the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen.