Mike Bickle shares his journey from a non-Christian upbringing to discovering a vibrant relationship with Jesus, emphasizing the importance of community and the adventure of faith. He reflects on how God delights in us and the significance of sharing our testimonies, especially in a world filled with darkness. Bickle encourages young people to engage in on-fire youth groups, invest in others, and embrace the journey of growing in love and prayer. He highlights that the only thing we take into eternity is love, urging listeners to focus on their relationship with God and the impact they can have in their communities. Ultimately, he reassures that despite increasing darkness, God's glory and anointing will rise in this generation.

Now, so I'm going to go way back to when I was in my teen years, long time ago, almost 50 years ago, I grew up in a totally non-Christian family. I mean, I look at so many people today with godly parents, like, wow, me and my dad were really good friends, but he was completely non-Christian. He was an international champion in boxing, so he traveled around the world and won championships all around the world and was very well known in Kansas City, where I grew up. Every kid I met, when I, uh, they would introduce me to their dad. Hello, dad's my friend. I'm 10 years old, I'm 11. Mike Bickle. They go, Mike Bickle? Do you know Bobby Bickle? That's my dad. And the dads would always punch me because my dad was very well known and in the newspaper many times and, you know, and the poor kids would go, dad, why are you slugging my new friend? He goes, oh, he gets it. Come on, put it up there. Well, my dad, since we had this great friendship, that was really a one glorious thing. He took me to the bars with him on Friday and Saturday nights. So I grew up in the bars, but not because I was doing it behind my parents' back, because my parents took me to the bars and he trained me in boxing. And I remember how disappointed he was when I chose football. He said, football, that's a sissy's game. Come on. Well, anyway, that's a long story. I won't go into all that. But when I was a young guy and age 10, 12, 14, 15, like many of you, I loved adventure. I loved excitement. I hated boredom more than anything else in life. Boredom's the one thing I couldn't take. I didn't mind doing things wrong as long as they were exciting. Now, how many of you can identify you love adventure and you hate boredom? Raise your hand if that's you. Well, I did all kinds of things because I had fun when I was 10, 12, 14, 15. I broke into the school and got expelled. I played with fire and burned down a field and caused all kinds of trouble. I won't go into all the details. Played in the graveyard, dug up graves, played in the sewers. You know, I would climb, I would crawl in the sewers from one block to the others and dare every kid to do it. And my mom would be horrified. She goes, if you're in the sewer and it rains, you'll drown. I could never figure out why I would drown if I'm in the sewer because I'm down there, the rain couldn't get me. Well, I did a lot of things like that. I was one of the kids that the other people, kids in the neighborhood, they said, you can't play with the bickle boys. So when I meet young people and they're still in that rough time of life and they got bright eyes and adventure, I go, that's me. I get this kid. I like him. Now, I never dreamed I would be a preacher. I mean, that was the farthest thing from my mind when I was 15 years old that I would, if you'd have told me when I was 15, you'll be a preacher. You'll lead a prayer ministry. I would have said, you are absolutely crazy. Well, when I was 15, my two big goals in life, I wanted to play major college football. I love football. Matter of fact, yeah, I know I'm still, I'm in my sixties, but I still play football with our IHOPU students. Matter of fact, the other day with the ATC camp, I played football with them for an hour. And after the meeting, I'm going to go down to the camp and we're going to throw the football around. The old man's going to be with the young guys, but just give me mercy. Well, I wanted to play college football. That seemed so exciting when I was 15, that was one of my top goals. And I wanted to be a medical doctor. For some reason, I won't go into all that. That captured me to be a doctor because I wanted to help people. I wanted to have fun, but I wanted to help people. Well, it ended up some years later, I'm getting ahead of the story. I did end up making the football team at a major university, University of Missouri. Didn't ever score any touchdowns or play any games or anything, but I was on the team. I helped the varsity get better and I got accepted to med school. So the two dreams I had, the Lord helped me get in that direction, but he had different plans for my life that I had no idea of. I had no idea where he was going and the way that he was leading me. And the Lord's interested in the journey. We're interested in the destination. I mean, when I was 15, when I'm 20, when I'm 30, when I'm 40, I still, it's in my sixties, I want to know where it's going. And the Lord is more interested in the journey more than the destination. I'm more interested in the destination, but he's interested in the journey because he leads us in a way. So we grow in love. You know, we want to get things done and we want to accomplish things. We want to make an impact and the Lord likes that, but he wants us to grow in love. He goes, trust me, you're going to really, really be grateful to me when you stand before me on the last day that I insisted on a pathway where you grew in love. The reason, because you know, when you step across that line called physical death into the age to come, the only thing you will bring with you is love. It's the only thing you will bring with you from this age. And the Lord knows we're going to live billions and billions of years. And our trophies, our awards, our bank accounts, our popularity, or our lack of popularity will not matter in a few moments when we step across that line. The reason I say a few moments because King David said our lifetime is but a breath. It's a moment compared to billions of years. So I was always interested in destination. I mean, I want to achieve. I want to make impact. I want to get there to that place where big things happen. The Lord says, son, I mean, I didn't hear him say it, but he was going, those things are good and I'm going to help you, but I'm going to lead you in a way that you wouldn't necessarily agree with. But when you stand before me, you will really agree with it because I'm going to work it in a way. I'm going to work everything together for good for your life. You know that verse in Romans eight, where the Lord says he will work everything together for good in your life. I mean, our failures, our setbacks, our disappointments, the Lord says, I'll overrule all of them. And I will bring it to your good. That doesn't mean to your popularity. That doesn't necessarily mean to our comfort and ease in this age. Sometimes it has that element in it, a bit of it, but our hearts will grow in love. And beloved, when you step across that line and you'll be there for billions and billions of years, the only thing you will bring with you is love. Every act of love, every decision for love, every small deed. Jesus said, even if you give somebody a cup of cold water in my name, he goes, I won't ever forget it. The smallest unnoticed movement of your heart to love. He'll remember it. So therefore he's always leading us. So we get more of that. And our nature is to go, Lord, I appreciate that. That's good. I get it. But can't you make it a little easier and make me a little more famous and a little, you know, you know, you know, and the Lord says, oh, I love you. I'll do a little bit of that, but I'm going to really work on the other agenda. Well, I'm 15 years old. I'm in high school, my high school. I went to a big high school and our football coach came to me. I'm a sophomore and we have a championship team, the seniors, and they're all big. And, you know, some of them shave and, you know, we're a little, you know, sophomores just come into school. The coach Bickel come over here. Yes, coach. I was scared to death of the varsity football coach of a big school, the championship team and my little world that was big. He said, uh, Hey, cause he knew I grew up in a family. We'd had, uh, uh, uh, really a small amount of money. We had all kinds of financial problems and our family was on welfare a number of times. And we had seven kids in our family and nine years. And, you know, my dad being a boxer was great, but after he quit boxing, the money wasn't so good. And he had a lot of great stories, but not a lot of money. We had a lot of financial pressures and my coach knew that. And he was an on fire believer. Of course, I didn't know that. I didn't know what a believer was. And he came up to me and he said, Bickel come over here. And I was scared. Yes, coach. He goes, Hey, I want to pay your way to a sports camp, pay my way a freeway to sport. Now he didn't tell me it was a Christian sports camp. He told me there were famous pro football players. This is 1971. That was the year that Abe Lincoln was president. I think 1970. I mean, that was a long time ago. My eyes got real big. He named the pro football players. They're going to be there in person. Yes. Like, can I like touch him as well? I don't know, but you can talk to him. Yeah, I'll go. So I went home and told my dad, Hey, I'm going to this camp for five days. There's a couple thousand high school kids from all over the nation. You know, we got on the bus and we went to the camp over in Colorado, Estes Park, Colorado. And you know, there's maybe one or 2000 kids and how, wow, what is this? I've never seen anything like this. And the football player gets up is Roger Stolbach. He was like, he was the MVP of the Superbowl. I mean, he was like big, he got up one night and he talked to us and had the shock of my life. He said, Christianity, it's not a religion. I mean, if the pro, if the MVP of the Superbowl is right, I go, okay. I thought it was, I didn't know what it was. I went out Christian. He goes, Christianity is not a religion. It's relationship. He goes, you could know the God that created the stars. You could talk to it. He'll talk back to you. What's he talking about? And then he really got me. He says, it's an adventure. You know, he could talk about all the awards. He won the Heisman trophy. Some of you know what that is in college and number one football player in the nation won the MVP of the Superbowl. He goes, this is the adventure of a lifetime. I thought, what is he talking about? Now, some of you came to this camp, this conference, so to speak. And because somebody paid your way, that's how I went. I didn't have a clue. I had no idea. I was going to encounter a person. I'm talking about Jesus, not a religion, but a person who was far more adventuresome and far more interesting than I could ever imagine. So I went out into the field because they had all these sports fields that night and walked by myself and looked up at the stars. I said, God, if what that famous football player just said is true, I could know you. Really? This is an adventure, a relationship. I want to know you. And like one famous, uh, uh, leader said, John Wesley, my heart was strangely warm. I didn't see an angel or see lights, but it just felt real. I was so excited. I go, I think this is real. And it wasn't like dynamic, but it connected somehow. I went back home. Oh, I was excited. I want to tell everybody. Christianity is not a religion. It's a relationship with a man who's fully God. It's an adventure. It's exciting. It's dynamic. I didn't really know much about it, but I knew that much. At least that's what that one football player said. Now, remember the week before, I mean, not remember, let's go back to the week before the camp is over. I'm driving down in the bus from the Kansas city area. We all get on the bus. My dad drives me to the bus. He says, son, again, we're great friends. And he says, I love you. But he goes, you know, this camp is religious. I go, not really. He goes, I read the brochure. It's a religion camp. I don't care. As long as the football player there, I'm happy. He gave me a six pack of beer. He said, you're going to need this. So I was the kid at camp that your parents didn't want you to go to camp with. You're looking at him right here. Or I was the kid in the neighborhood. Your parents said, watch out for the Bickel boys. Those guys play in graveyards, start fires, break into schools. We broke into a few homes as well. A few other things got caught, got expelled, all kinds of trouble, but we had a lot of fun. I'm not saying those things are good. I'm just saying we had fun. So again, when, when I see a young guy that hasn't quite connected with why God made him, I look at him and I said, that's me right there. Hi God. No, you better than, you know, you right now. You know, I heard one man say, it's a famous quote, the two most important days in your life is the day you were born and the day you understand why you were born. Those are the two most important days of your life. The day you were born and the day that it becomes clear to you why you were born. And it became clear to me in that camp. I was born not to be a football player or a doctor. I might still play college football and be, go to med school. I mean, again, they both of those doors opened in the, in a couple of years ahead, but I found out the reason I was born. I found the reason to interact with the King of Kings, the most glorious, beautiful, interesting adventure, some powerful, powerful, kind man. Who's fully God who really liked me. I understood now why I was born to interact with that man, to partner with him and for the Holy spirit to use me to bring other people into relationship with him. Now, I never knew I was going to be a preacher that never crossed my mind until some years later. I mean, if you'd have told me that I said, I don't want to be a preacher. I want to be a football player and a doctor. That's what I want to do. Well, I came home from the camp on fire. I don't have a church. I don't even know about a church. They told me, go join a church. Like, well, I don't even know how you do that. How do you join a church? Again, I grew up in the bars. I thought Moses was a Catholic priest. I didn't know anything about the Bible, zero about the Bible for real. And so they said, join a church. He go, I don't even know what that means. Like they all look funny. These weird names, you know, Presbyterian, Lutheran Baptist. Those are weird names. When you're 15 and you don't know anything about him, I go, I don't have a clue what that is. They don't even sound interesting to me. Well, in a strange way, I won't go into the details. I stumbled into a Presbyterian church. Now here's the gift of God. I didn't know it had an on-fire youth group. Now when I was 15, I didn't even know there was such a thing as an on-fire youth group and a non-on-fire youth group. I never knew the difference. Now that I've been pastoring 40 years, a lot of youth groups are not on fire. And some of them are. What do I mean by on fire? I mean, we're still weak people, still fall and we stumble, but their heart is set on going deep with God. And I stumbled into this youth group and it was one of the greatest gifts of my life. At the time, I didn't know it. I thought it was normal. It was the only youth group I ever went to. The leaders, they were talking about being radical for God. Okay, I'm in. All the other people were. We read biographies. I really want to encourage you to read biographies, stories. Biographies, you know, is a story about someone's life. We read the stories of on-fire Christians, you know, from the 1400s, the 1800s, whatever. The men and women God used in powerful ways and how dedicated they were. This youth leader made us, well didn't make us, but he encouraged us and inspired us to read these stories. We'd read these stories and we had a picture of what maybe we could be one day. Radical for God. What I want to tell you by that is that whatever you do, I think one of the absolute number one issues in your life, in your high school years, college years, get in an on-fire youth group. Critical to do that. I don't mean just have a few friends that grew up in the church and were homeschooled. You know, someone says, well, he's a Christian, he was homeschooled, he grew up in the church. That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, I appreciate that. I'm talking about not a Christian background and their parents are Christian, but they're kind of like bored. I'm talking about find five or six people that are your age that are going to go for God. Again, they're weak. They don't get it all. They're not perfect. And I stumbled, I found those folks. Now here's what they told me to do. This is one of the other best things they ever told me. When I was 15, I didn't even know what a blessing it was to be in a fiery youth group, an on-fire youth group. And again, don't try to make it alone. Don't just go for the cool people. Go for the on-fire people. Now if they're cool and on fire, that's cool. That's good. Cool is not enough. Popular is not enough. On fire is what you want because you take a big bonfire with a bunch of logs in it. You take one log out that's totally on fire. You put that log over there. It will go out by itself. You keep that log in the fire. It will stay aflame. I didn't even know that. I just stumbled into the group and I look back 40 plus years later and go, God, thank you. What if I wouldn't I didn't know to join a group like this. And the Lord, I can imagine him smiling, saying I was leading you even back then. So when you go back home from here, be involved in an on-fire youth group. And if you're in one right now, I don't mean that it's, it's amazing and exciting. That's all I'm talking about. Because no matter what a group is, it's got people in it. Go to your leader, look them in the eyes and say, you know what? Thank you. That guy in Kansas city told me you are going to end up being one of the great gifts of my life. I'm only 15. I don't even know how amazing our group is, but when I'm 50, I'll look back and go, oh my goodness. I was a part of an on-fire youth group. You look them in the eye and tell him, tell him, thank you. They may not have the best this, that, or the other. But I tell you, if you're in a group like that, it's amazing gift. And if you're not in a group like that, you got to get in one. Well, here's what the group told me. They said, you got to give your testimony. I go, no, what do you mean? I don't even know what a testimony is. Let me give my test. Tell people that you have a relationship with Jesus. Okay. That sounds fair. Easy. They said, well, it won't be as easy as you think. So I'll go back into high school. You know, now I'm going to go into my, uh, junior year of high school. You know, I'm one of the main players on the varsity football team and main meanings. I'm scoring, you know, a lot and that kind of stuff. And a key player. I walk into the team and I tell him, I think it's cool. I met Jesus. Oh, they didn't like that. The cool guys on the football team said, what are you talking about? I don't know. No, really. That one famous football player said, it's not a religious relationship. And I'm in this youth group in the summer and they're on fire. I want you to come with me. You know, a whole lot of my friends on the football team, they didn't like this because I went to the same parties I went to the year before, but when I went to the parties, I told people, Hey, I met this man. He's God. It's amazing. And you're messing up our situation. You know, with this girl, you're messing up our situation with this. Shut up. So I, they didn't invite me to parties no more, but the Bible study people, they kept inviting me. So I went there. I didn't even realize that the simple act of being just saying a few sentences, I don't mean a big preach by simply declaring my story a little bit. I mean, the two sentence version, I met a man. It's a relationship, not a religion. It's an adventure. I'm in that simple sentence shifted so many things because my leader said, say that just tell, tell people that I said, okay. I didn't realize that in my football team, my varsity football team, that would, I would quit getting invited to the parties, but I got invited to other groups. You know, the, the Bible studies that people, I didn't even know, but I came to really bond with them because we had the same values changed my life because you get with godly friends. It will change the next number of years of your life. You don't have on fire friends, even if they grew up in the church, that's not what I'm talking about. Get ones that are going for God. I tell you, you look back when you're 25 and 35, it will, you'll look back and say, Lord, it changed my life that I got with the right people. Well, it was more than that. They told me more than just give my testimony a little bit. They told me I'm now I'm 16 and I'm 17. And my youth leaders came to me and said, Mike, come here, go invest in some young people. You know, when you're 16, young people are 12. You know, I thought I was old. I'm 16. I got a driver's license and everything. That was about it. But I, you know, it seemed like everything they said, go find three or four junior high kids start teaching them the Bible. I said, what? Like, I don't know the Bible. They said, that's okay. You'll be fine. Because I was in a little group with the youth leader. He met with me every week. They said, go do this with a group of 12 or 13 year olds. They said, invest in some people like we're investing with you. Just do it every week. Maybe get a Christian book. That's what we did. We got a Christian book in the bookstore. We all liked, we would read one chapter every week and we'd go to page one in the chapter. And I'd go around the circle, three, four people and say, make one comment on page one, something you like, something you don't like, or something that confuses you. Everybody made one comment on page one, make one comment on page two, make one comment on page three. And we did that with every chapter and all these 12 and 13 year olds are four or five, six of them. I am their leader. I don't know anything about the Bible, but they told me if you'll invest in some young people, it will change your life. And that changed my life as much as being in the youth group. I look back at my youth leaders. I said, thank you for telling me that now when I was 15 and 16, I didn't like the Bible. I loved the fact that existed, but I didn't like reading it. I didn't like prayer. I didn't like Bible study alone. I liked meetings, but I didn't like me and God in the Bible. That was so boring. So how am I going to teach these 12 year olds, you know, every week, again, we bought a Christian book and we just read one chapter a week and discussed it and got off the subject all the time. But these little 12 year old guys, they just started getting on fire for the Lord. Now that was started. I didn't know the difference between a disciple, an apostle, a gospel or an epistle. I didn't know what any of those words meant. And I said, do you really want me to teach these guys? Go? Yeah. Yeah. And they taught me this lesson. It's ready, fire, aim, ready, fire, then aim. What I mean by that, some people, they do ready, aim, get some training, ready, aim, get more training. I believe in training. We have a ministry school, ready, aim. They never fire. I mean, 20 years later, they're getting trained. This youth group said, go get four or five junior high kids, get a book from the Christian bookstore, go through it one chapter a week, start firing the gun, start taking care of some people. I don't even know how to do that. But in the process, and there were about 20 guys in the youth group, everyone had to go get a group. They said, team up in twos and go get a group of junior high kids. Changed my life. I want to challenge you. Look at that. That could really, really affect your life. I know we're not getting very far in the notes right now, but that's okay. I never finished the notes I hand out. Well, then I went to college. I went to university, Missouri, right down the road, again, made the football team. I'm excited. I'm going for it. But the thing I knew to do was get involved with on-fire Christians. Because at the university, now you're away from home. Of course, my parents weren't Christians. They were a little freaked out that I was doing all these Bible studies. They were saying, don't do so much of that. But most kids growing up in a Christian home, their parents want them to do that. When they go away to school, that's the time to escape. Beloved, when you go into colleagues, that's the time. I looked over the campus and there wasn't that many, but I found on-fire believers that were meeting and I met with them every week. And we talked about God and we had fun and we had all, we on ski trips, did all kinds of things. Then my youth leader, and I'm 18, 19 years old. I'm at the university. I want to be a medical doctor. That's where I'm going. That's, that's the direction I'm headed in. And the, and I want to go to the mission field. At this time, I'm a believer. I'm going to be a medical doctor and go far away to help the poor. They are somewhere far away. You know, hopefully die as a martyr, like in all the books I was reading. I mean, glad it didn't happen that way. But you know, when you're, you're reading those books, I was so excited. So they said, well, Mike, you got to develop a prayer life. I said, okay. Cause that, that was the main thing I didn't like. There were three things I didn't like. I didn't like Bible study, myself, Bible study, me in the Bible. I didn't like prayer and I hated fasting. If an angel would have appeared to me when I was 18, this didn't happen, but just say, yay. Oh, young man of God, angel. Oh my God. Again, this didn't happen. What if you will lead I hop one day, 24, seven prayer, fasting teams, Bible study. I would have collapsed of total despair. I would not have said, wow. I would have said, what did I do bad that I'm in the penalty box for the rest of my life? No, no, really. I liked mission trips. I like Bible studies where we talked and got to flirt. I mean, meet people afterwards. Okay. I said it right. The first time I liked all that, that was fun. I mean, I loved it. You know, tell the verse that I knew that nobody else knew. And they would say, Oh man, you're amazing. But they didn't really, they said, Oh man, you're proud. But I did figure that out a couple of years later. Well, I would go into my, at the university of Missouri, I'd go into my room. I lived with four guys in an apartment. I went into my room. I said, I'm a pray an hour a day. There you have it an hour a day, because that's what my leaders said to do the old guys. And that's what these books I was reading said to do. I said, okay, I'd never prayed an hour ever. So I go into my room, I brave the elements and I walk into the room nine o'clock every night. PM. I called it the hour of death. I mean, I did. My roommates would laugh at me. They were Christians too. And they didn't even try it. They go, why don't you just forget it? I go, no, no, no. I got it. If I'm going to like be deep in God, I got to figure this thing out. So I'd go in the prayer room and the office. I mean, my, uh, private room. I go, God, here I am. Thank you for arms and legs. Thank you that I have food because the people far away, they don't have food. Help me score touchdowns. Help me get the girl make good grades. Well, I never scored touchdowns. Didn't make that great of grades, but I did get the girl. That's one cool thing. 40 years later. But the point is I looked at my watch 58 minutes to go. I got to pray for an hour. God, thank you for arms and legs. Thank you for food. Thank you for stuff, you know, stars, water stuff, 57 minutes to go. Oh, it was, I had no idea that prayer could be enjoyable. I had not a thought. I was despairing about that because I love Jesus. I really did love him. I just didn't like Bible study and prayer and fasting, but I loved him and I loved excitement and I loved action. And I had no idea that he would show me more about himself where prayer would become enjoyable and it would change everything. And again, if he would have told me that one day I would lead a 24 hour prayer ministry with Bible study all over the place and fasting teams. We had a number of fasting teams. They fast one day a week. Not everybody, but a bunch do and a bunch don't. We don't make, I mean, we don't ask who does and who doesn't. We just, whoever does it, does it. I would have been utterly depressed if you would have told me that the reason because I had too much condemnation, too much failure in my life. I love God, but I kept stumbling in several areas. So when I came before God, I imagined he was always mad at me, always mad at me, or if not mad, at least sad. Like, you know, Mike, I love you, but you keep breaking my heart every day. Okay, God, let's get this over with quick. I don't want it to be this way. And then I found the discovery from the Bible that actually God delights in me, delights in the relationship. Not only when I'm free from everything, even in my struggle, even in the journey, he doesn't agree with the area I'm struggling with, but he likes the relationship. You know, me and my wife, we've been married 40 years, right at 40 years, just short of it. We have two sons. They're both in their 30s. And when they were 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, whatever, they would do things we didn't like the thing they did, but we delighted in the relationship. We like the relationship, but not that area. And then the Lord made it really clear. He goes, if you as a earthly parent can like the relationship, but not agree with that area, how much more can God like the relationship, even though he's putting his finger on an area he wants you to change? So don't confuse God correcting you with God rejecting you. Don't confuse God pointing out an area of your life that he's displeased with, with him being displeased with you as a person and your relationship with him. And when I discovered this, Misty mentioned it this morning and Dave mentioned it as well. When I discovered this, that God actually enjoyed me and delighted in the relationship. And I, a few other things as well. Then when I stumbled, I ran to him instead of running from him when I stumbled. And that began a whole new journey in my prayer life because then prayer, not only that, but a few other things I won't go into right now. I wrote a whole book this thick on how to grow in prayer. So I'm not going to try to give you all the principles right now, but that was a big one though, that he actually delighted in me. Well, I'm in college. Then something terrible happened playing college football on my way at a game at a college game. And I come back and I get the phone call. My brother, who's in high school in Kansas city, I'm away, broke his neck in a high school football game. I mean, I hear the news on the, I mean, the, on the phone, I am devastated. They said, they think he will be paralyzed the rest of his life. I am shocked. So I go home immediately, obviously, and it ends up he's 17 years old, a junior in high school. He really did break his neck and he was paralyzed for over 30 years now. And he died and he's with the Lord. I was only one year older than him. So we were best buddies, me and him and my dad, we had five sisters. And so we kind of, you know, had to stick together. Do you have five sisters? That is glorious. And that's a whole lot of moms all in one house that I'm gonna leave it there. It's a whole lot of loving and a whole lot of, Hey, have you thought about this anyway? I've said too much. Interesting. All five of my sisters and my brother have been involved in the ministry here for like 30 years. So it's been a glorious reality. They all got saved. They all, both my parents are with the Lord. Now they both got saved at the end and they were at the Lord. And so all my brothers and sisters came to the kingdom. We've all been here together and it's been, I loved it. But anyway, I have a paralyzed brother. So now I'm 18, 19 years old. And for a couple of years, I'm in and out of rehab centers with him, you know, for months at a time, I'm in and out of rehab centers for the next couple of years. I'd go for a month or two or three or whatever. And I'm looking at all these rehab centers, rehabilitation centers. It's all 20 year olds or 18 year olds who are paralyzed. They're like, you know, real famous rehab centers for young paralytics who in a diving accident or car wreck. And I'm around all of these 17, 18, 20 year olds in this rehab center. Like there were 80 patients, 88 patients. They're all young people. And I remember the despair. I remember all the, my life shifted in those seasons. And I was, I mean, it's very painful reality. And I, I start re asking the Lord far deeper questions because now being a successful football player, that's still cool, but that's not quite as important. I'm looking at all these people whose lives were suddenly changed by one accident. And I'm interfacing with them hours a day for many years, actually, in and out of these rehab centers with my paralyzed brother. And he was paralyzed for 30 plus years. And then, but on fire, on fire, I led him to the Lord and he really got on fire for the Lord. Then right after my brother broke his neck again, I'm 18 years old. Six months later, I'm 18. My father dies of a heart attack in his forties. So my poor mom has got seven kids that are age 19 to 10, seven kids at nine years. She doesn't have a job. She has no insurance. We're got a kind of a poor family anyway. I mean, we've been on in and out of welfare for years and a pretty broken down situation. And so now I start asking the Lord, what is life really about? And are you really good? And how come my mother has these seven kids and no money and my brother's paralyzed and my dad died and, and none of them are believers yet. And so I'm witnessing to all my family and the enemy's telling me, why don't you just give up and quit? God isn't good. And I'm not going to tell the whole story, but I just wanted you to know that I had those couple dark years in those early days, but my youth group in high school and college of on fire believers and getting a new idea that God actually delighted in me really made the difference. Plus a few other things. Well, let's look just real briefly at the notes. I have here Matthew chapter 24. Now in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is talking about the generation. The Lord returns. The reason I told you my story, I think some of you can relate to it, but the real reason is that I identified a few principles that are necessary. If you're going to be in context of a place of trouble or trouble in your life and those principles getting with on fire believers, giving your testimony, investing in a few others, instead of retreating and depression and self pity and sorrow, but actually go pour yourself into a few people, even a few two or three couple junior high kids. I didn't feel like doing any of that at the rehab centers. I would get four or five of the young people together, give them a Bible study. I didn't even know the Bible at that time. I mean, but I knew a couple of verses more than they did, but it was the giving. It was the pouring that actually saved me. I didn't even know that the pouring into them saved my heart. The being in an on fire youth group, though they were not the most popular kids, but they were the wisest. I don't mean the best grades in the school. They chose God. That's called wisdom. So they were not the most popular kids in the school, but they were the ones that chose God. And that saved my life. When I look back over understanding God, delighted in me, giving my testimony, I mean a little two or three sentence so that, because what a lot of Christians do, they try to be Christian in secret so they go to the social gathering. Nobody knows where they stand and they grit their teeth and try to avoid getting drunk or all the sexual activity or all the drugs. They just know I'm not in the mood tonight. No, no, I don't feel like it tonight. And they can't stand it. They can't stand up because they never tell the truth about who they're committed to. Again, I didn't even know that principle, but my leader said, just tell your friends, you got a relationship with him. Okay. And it took care of itself because then I didn't have to tell them every time a tempting situation came up. They already knew where I stood and I didn't do it because I was bold. It was kind of an accident. I did it because my leaders told me to, but the impact actually saved my life. I think of how many kids they love Jesus. They're not in a non-fire youth group. Not good. They don't ever tell. They never say where they are with Jesus, even with their Christian friends, the people who grew up homeschool kids, Christian school kids. Now they're 18. They never say their commitment to Jesus. They just think, well, they kind of know anyway, they never say with their mouth. They never invest in anybody else. And they're like an on fire log out of the fire and the fires going out month by month, year by year. And the devil picks them off and destroys their life. I don't mean they don't achieve anything in their life. They can still achieve many things, but they don't have that vibrant walk with God. So those are the principles I'm talking about. We'll look here in Matthew chapter 24 verse 10, Jesus is describing one generation in history. He said, look, many verse 10, many will be offended. Many will be betrayed. Many will hate one another. Verse 12 lawlessness means sin. Just put the word sin. There will increase and increase and increase. Immorality will be far more prevalent in the culture, not just immorality, but all kinds of sin and compromise. Look what verse 14 says. Jesus says he answers this increasing trouble generation. He goes, let me tell you the answer. And it's, it almost seems too simplistic. He says the gospel of the kingdom. He goes, that's the answer. Like what? That's pretty simple. Surely there's a bigger answer than that. He goes, the gospel of the kingdom. I'm going to raise up millions of people. He's saying in verse 14, they're going to give testimony in every nation of the earth, every school, every tribe, every university, I'm going to have some normal week and broken people like us in our flesh where we can broken in our humanity, but we're powerful in the grace of God. The Lord's going to anoint people like you and me. And we're going to give witness. We're going to give a witness. We're going to tell people about the gospel. And Jesus says, there's one generation in history. He's describing here. That's the generation that he returns. He goes in that generation, darkness will increase beyond any other time in history, but the anointing of the spirit on the church will increase beyond any time in history. So there's one hour in history where sin and darkness is the greatest level ever, but the power of God in the midst of youth groups, college campus groups, local churches will be the highest it's ever been in history. So when I look at the future, people go, Oh my, what's going to happen in the future? What? I mean, all the negative things going on. Is it going to get better or worse? I got good news for you. Jesus is the greatest source of hope of anyone in the world. His message and his leadership is the hope of the earth. That's where the nations are going to be transformed by encountering him and by his leadership and his word being declared and being manifest. There's going to be an unprecedented, which means unequaled. There's an unprecedented anointing in the generation where there's unprecedented darkness in the culture. And I believe it's just my opinion. We're in the early days of that generation. We might not be, it's not a prophecy. You know, in the Bible, a generation can be as long as a hundred years, read Genesis chapter 15, where the Lord talks about a generation that might be a hundred years. So I don't know how long a generation is. It's pretty long time can be shorter than that. We don't know, but there's one generation and it's possible that we're in the early days of that generation right now. Why would I even say that? Well, because if we're in the early days of that generation, hostility is going to increase. It says it right here in Matthew 10. I mean, Matthew four 24, verse 10, betrayal, hatred, sin. It's going to increase and increase and increase. And it's not going to go down. It's going to go up, but Jesus has an answer. He goes, I got a power that's greater than the darkness. It's called the gospel of the kingdom. I'm going to cause people to experience it. And when they share it, I'm going to release my power, even beyond what I did in the book of Acts. Beloved, I believe if we're in that early days of that generation, and we might not be, maybe it's a little bit later down the road. I don't know. But if we're in that generation in the early days of it, it's going to get darker and darker, but you don't need to be fearful because the power and the reality and the beauty of God is going to be more and more manifest. And your lives are going to have a greater and greater breakthrough available to you. So it will be a challenging generation, but it will be the most powerful generation in the anointing of the Holy spirit and all of history. Look at paragraph B. Now Isaiah talks about that generation. Look at Isaiah chapter 60 to 62 in these three, and we're only going to talk two, three verses and then be done. But Isaiah 60 to 62, he talks about that generation. He describes it with more detail than any other passage that I know in the whole old Testament. He describes that generation that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24, the passage we just looked at. Look what it says, Isaiah 60. He says, arise and shine, arise, shine. But verse two, he says, now know this darkness will cover the earth in the hour when the people of God arise and shine. He goes on to say it's more than darkness. Deep darkness will cover the earth. That's sin. That's a cult. That's immorality. It's going to increase and increase, but it goes, don't worry. The Lord will arise on his people. Don't worry. When the darkness increases, when the terrorism increases, when the immorality, the occult, the violence, the anointing of God, the glory of God will be manifest in a greater measure. There will be a breakthrough in that generation of power more than any other generation in history. Look what it says in verse five. Then you will see your heart will become radiant. Your heart will swell with joy. What the enemy is trying to do in your life right now. He's trying to shut your life down with depression because he knows darkness is increasing. He's trying to ensnare you in the darkness and fill you with lies about God, that God's boring. God's distant. You'll never get a breakthrough. It will never work for you. Those were the lies. The Lord, the enemy was telling me when my brother's in a totally paralyzed, we're in a rehab center. My father dies. My family spent out the devil's lying. And I said, no. And again, those simple principles I'm with on fire, young people, I'm investing in some younger people than me. I understand God delights in me. I didn't understand it that much, but I understood it a little bit. And a few other things like that. The enemy wants rejection to dominate your heart fear. He wants addiction. He wants pornography. He wants shame to shut your heart down. Because if you got shame, you run from Jesus instead of to Jesus. When you stumble in sin and the devil says, gotcha, you're running from him instead of to him. Gotcha. I lied to you about what he's like. You think he's only mad and sad at you. You don't know how he feels about you. And the devil wants to isolate us. So that burning log that on fire believer eventually gets all alone in isolation and the fire goes out. Here's what God's answer is. Paragraph C the spirit of the Lord is upon me. Jesus quoted this at his first coming. This is still the same passage in Isaiah. We're still this Isaiah 60, 61, 62. It's all there. Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon me, but that's going to be a promise for the end time church. The spirit of the Lord will be upon them in a way like no other time in history to anoint them. Beloved. There's a greater anointing. There's a greater breakthrough. The Lord has a plan for that hour of history. When you look at the news, it only says it's getting darker and darker and darker. The word of God says, Isaiah says, I tell you, it's going to get brighter and brighter to the people of God in terms of their spiritual lives. The hearts are going to be filled with joy, not shame. They're going to have power and confidence in their life. Look at verse seven. Instead of shame, you'll have double honor in your relationship with God and verse 11. Oh, I love verse 11. Look at it. Isaiah 61 verse 11, the Lord will cause righteousness to spring forth. There will be a revival. This means a revival. There will be a revival in every city of the earth. Righteousness, the power of God will spring forth. God says, I have a plan and I'm going to overpower the darkness. And if people say yes to me, they will find confidence and joy and radiance and breakthrough. And this is going to happen in every single nation of the earth. Look at paragraph D. There's one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, but it happens to be Isaiah. He says, then he's talking about that generation. The Lord returns. Your eyes will see the King and his beauty. There's a generation that will see the beauty of Christ Jesus beyond any other generation. It will be the beauty of God that will fascinate our hearts. That's why we call this conference, fascinate conference. It's linked to this promise because when you see his beauty, your heart is fascinated instead of bored. Like that famous football player told me back when I was 15, he goes, it's not a religion. It's a relationship. It's an adventure. And it is exciting. If you really give your heart to it, look at paragraph E, let's end with this. We're still in the same passage of Isaiah. It's describing that generation. I believe we're in the early days of it again. I might be wrong. Maybe it's a little bit further down the road, but I think it's possible. Some of you might see with your eyes, the return of the Lord. Maybe when you're 90, I don't know. Maybe you won't, maybe your children or grandchildren will. I don't know, but I know the darkness is increasing and I know that the glory is increasing globally. And I know it's going to get more and more intense and you're going to experience breakthroughs in your lives, your families in the days to come beyond anything you've imagined. Look at what it says. I want to end with this. I want to just tell you a quick story though. Isaiah 62, here's what the Lord says about that hour of history. And it's talking about the generation of the Lord returns. You will be called by a new name. Look at verse four. This is the name. God is going to name you. He is going to name you. My delight is in my relationship with you. Look at that. Look at Isaiah 62, for your new name before God. Here's what God names you. I like you. My delight is in you. Verse five, God will rejoice over you. The God of heaven delighting in me. I'm a mess. The Lord says, I don't agree with that area in that area, but I love the relationship I have with you. I love you. Verse six, I have appointed watchman watchman. You could put prayer warriors, intercessors, intercessors, a big, famous, fancy word for prayer warrior. Isaiah is prophesying. God is speaking. God says in that hour, I'm going to anoint. I'm going to appoint prayer warriors or watchman. Look what it says. He's going to establish night and day prayer meetings all over the earth. And I don't mean you gotta be involved full time. That's not what I'm saying, but we're in the hour of history where God is raising up night and day prayer in the cities of the earth. And I don't believe it will be night and day prayer all in one building. Like we're doing it in one building. That's not what God's telling most people, but it's like a hundred ministries together, working together, having night and day prayer in a city, that kind of thing. You don't need to do it in a building. And he says, this is going to happen until Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth. Now, when does Jerusalem become a praise in the earth at the second coming of Jesus? Right now, Jerusalem is filled with turmoil. Jerusalem has hostility, darkness. And Jesus says, I'm going to take a city filled with hostility and conflict and darkness. I'm going to completely reverse it by the power of God. And I'm going to connect it to night and day prayer. But he's going to do this in the cities of the earth, not just Jerusalem. Although Jerusalem is a special city, of course. Now I remember when I'm in my twenties, again, I'm in my sixties. Now the Lord spoke to me verse six, night and day prayer. Now by this time, I've already started liking prayer a little bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit. I get the vision for night and day prayer. But it was years later when I'm in my forties, years later, I have a dream. I'm going to tell you the dream. It's real short and I'm going to declare it over you. It was 1995. So 20 years ago, plus one night I have this dream in the, I'm standing on a platform and it's the platform. How many of you have been at our one thing conference downtown? We have like 20,000 young people, 15, 20, 25,000 one year young people from all over the world come. It's the last four days of December. We've done it like 10 or 15 years. So many times, well, 20 plus years ago, I'm in a dream. I'm on, I'm downtown in the big convention center with 25,000 people or some big number. I don't know. Place was thousands and I'm on the stage because this is going to matter to you right now. And I'm going to end with this. I'm going to have the worship team go ahead and come on up. And on this stage, I hear the audible voice of order. There's thousands of young people and right to my right, like this voice of thunder, the Lord says audibly in the dream, tell the young people, I'm just summarizing it, not word for word. Tell the young people this verse Isaiah 62, four, tell the young people, my delight is in them. Tell them my delight is in them. And so in that dream, I put my hand out. I said, God's delight is in you. And it shifted their emotions. They move from shame. They move from depression and fear and passivity and confusion. And they had confidence and vision and their heart was radiant. And the revelation of God delighting in them shifted in the, here was the shocking thing to me after the dream. I'm so excited. I find out that verse four, look at this passage. Just look at your notes for a second. Isaiah 62 verse four, my delight is in her. That's the key verse six night and day prayer. I tried to do verse six for 20 years without knowing verse four, the key to night and day prayer is knowing how the beauty of Jesus and his delight in you. When I discovered his delight in me more and more, and I discovered the beauty of God more and more prayer became easier and easier. So I tell young people, don't try to do night and day prayer verse six without doing verse four, grow in the revelation of the beauty of God and his delight in you and your prayer life will actually become enjoyable. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord. I'm going to invite people to come up. And you're saying, Lord, I need a breakthrough in my life to know that you're delighted. You're saying, I want to grow in prayer. I'm going to be in that generation where power is breaking forth greater than ever. I want to be a woman of prayer, even in my teen years, but I'm going to get involved in an on fire youth group. I'm going to give my testimony. I'm going to focus on growing in the revelation that God delights in me in a generation of chaos and sin. I want to be an answer. I'm going to be a witness of the gospel of the kingdom, my high school, my college, in the marketplace, in the medical profession, on the football team. Lord, I ask you right now, I ask you for the revelation is the light is in you. I will draw you to me. This is the Lord speaking in the book of Jeremiah. Just as she's singing, you just say, thank you, Lord. This is you talking to me. You're beautiful. You're beautiful. Jesus. I declare over you. His delight is in you. His delight is in you. That's what he told me. The dream to stay over you. His delight is in you. I break the power of shame, confusion, loss, addiction, rejection. The Lord says I'll draw you near to my heart. I'll show my loving kindness to you. The Lord says he moved my heart. This is the Lord speaking to you. The Lord says your love is beautiful. Your love is fair. Glory, glory, glory. Glory, glory, glory. Declare to him, say, Lord, I want to grow in the revelation. I want to see you. Ravish my heart. Fascinate me. Give you a humble to see his beauty. Even like King David, he was the warrior king who saw the beauty of the Lord. He was lovesick worshiper, the great warrior king of Israel. Lord, show them your beauty, even in this generation. glory, glory, glory. Yes, you are. Beauty, beauty, beautiful. Glory, glory, glory. Beloved, this is the generation where the Lord is going to increase the revelation of his beauty to his people. Why not you? Why not for your life? Lord, I want to see your beauty in this generation. Until you're gone, let me see your beauty. Let me see your faith. Beautiful. Beauty, beauty, beautiful. Glory, glory, glory. Yes, you are. Beautiful God. The God who delights in me. The beautiful God. Glory, glory, glory. Until you're gone, let me see your beauty. Let me see your faith. Take me into your arms. Let me see your beauty. Let me see your faith. Yes, you are. Open the eyes of our understanding. Let us see your beauty, Lord. Open our eyes to see. Holy Spirit, let us see what you see and feel what you feel when you look at Jesus. Open my eyes to behold. For I will release my glory, says the Lord. You will see the beauty that I possess. I will show you my glory. Reveal my goodness in you and through you. Show me your glory. Show me your glory. Eyes before my eyes. Show me your glory. Eyes before my eyes. Show me your glory. For I will pour out my glory in this hour. Eyes before my eyes. Show me your glory. As you hum before me, I will show you more. Eyes before my eyes. Show me your glory. This is a breakthrough generation. Show me your glory. This is Jacob. Jacob and Rachel. I will show them more than they can imagine. Oh, this is Jacob. Desperate for the blessing. Desperate for the blessing. Those who will seek your face. Those that will hunger for me. I will show them more. Until you bless me. Show me your face. It's all I really want. I will show you my glory. Tell me your name. Hunger for more. And I will show you more. Blessing. Bless us. With your name. Bless us with your face. Speak you Lord. I'm reaching for you now. Oh, I'm reaching for you. I am in your midst. I am in your midst to bless you. And to show you my heart more. Show me your glory. For I have plans for you. Trust my leadership. I will take you step by step. I will show you my glory. Little by little. Trust my leadership. Come after me. Show me your glory. Let your goodness. Pass before my eyes. Show me your glory. For I have plans for you. Trust my leadership. I will show you my glory. Pass before my eyes. Do not say in your heart. Lord, I am too broken. I am stuck in my sin. I've gone too far. I'll take a man like Jacob. I'll take a liar. I'll take a deceiver. I'll take a weak man. I revealed myself even to Jacob. A deceiver. And I showed him my mercy. I'll take a man filled with fear. And I'll give you a new name. A prince with me. Israel. Do not say I'm too broken. I'm too afraid. I'm too stuck. Give me Jacob. I'll make him Israel. For I will transform you. I will visit you. My mercy will see you through. Do not give up. Do not give in. But believe me for the breakthrough in your life. I'll give you a new name. I'll give you a new name. I'll tell you who you are. I will tell you who you are. I'll bless you. I'll take a broken man. I will bless you. I will visit you. I will take you as my own. For even you can have a breakthrough. It's not too late. A new beginning, a new start for you, a new commission, a new beginning, a new breakthrough I'll make you princes with neon hearts, you are my new name, you are my delight, I am your new name And you have a new name, you are my delight, you are my delight This is your new name, this is your name, this is what I call you The devil is a liar, the devil is a liar This is your new name, you are my delight You have a new name, you are my delight, you are my delight Don't you dare look back, as I change Jacob, the deceitful man I displayed my glory and so will you A crown in my hand, and the heavens will be opened Oh the heavens will be opened over you The angels of God ascend and descend Your eyes will begin to see it If you stumble into the house of God, then the heavens will be opened over you. When my eye is on you, and my hand is with you, I believe in you. I will rescue you, I will set your feet on the rock. You will sing. And I will use you, and I will draw close to you. You will be mine forevermore, close to my heart. You are mine. Out of darkness, into the light, into my kingdom forever, ever. Clean hands, pure hearts, you shall see me. Clean hands, pure hearts, come up here, come up here. I've cleansed your hands, I've cleansed your heart. You will rise to see me, I believe you every night. Come and sit in the heavenly room. Come and stand in the holy place. Come and stand in my council, the door is open. Come up here, and I will show you great and awesome things. God show me your glory. My goodness has before us. Show me your glory. My goodness has before us. Show me your glory. May your goodness has before us. Show me your glory. May your goodness has before us. Show me your glory. My goodness has before us. Show me your glory. My goodness has before us. Show me your glory. My goodness has before us. Call back the sin, wake up the saint Let every nation shout out your faith Jesus is coming soon Waiting for a group, we'll be changed Ready for you, every heart Longing for our King, we sing He is so come, Lord Jesus come He is so come, Lord Jesus come There will be justice, all will be new Your name forever, faithful and true Jesus is coming soon Like a bride, waiting for a groom We'll be church, ready for you Every heart, longing for our King, we sing He is so come, Lord Jesus come He is so come, Lord Jesus come So we wait, we wait for you God we wait, you're coming soon Watching and waiting, God we wait, you're coming soon Like a bride, waiting for a groom We'll be church, ready for you Every heart, longing for our King, we sing Like a bride, waiting for a groom We'll be church, ready for you Every heart, longing for our King, we sing He is so come, Lord Jesus come He is so come, Lord Jesus come So we wait, we wait for you God we wait, you're coming soon Watching and waiting, God we wait, you're coming soon With oil in our lips, God we wait, you're coming soon We will pray, we will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We will watch, we will pray We will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We are your church We are your church We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives We are your church We are your church We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives We will watch, we will pray We will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We will watch, we will pray We will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We are your church We are your church We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives We are your church We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives Combine us together in love Combine us together in love while we wait Combine us together in love while we wait When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We will watch, we will pray We will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We are your church We are your church We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives We are your church We take our place We are your bride Love makes us strong To lay down our lives Combine us together in love Combine us together in love Combine us together in love while we wait Combine us together in love Combine us together in love while we wait Combine us together in love When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We will watch when starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord In the end We set our hearts gone We set our hearts To be watching and waiting Oh to seek your kingdom first Above all else We take our place We will pray for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord We will watch, we will pray We will wait for that day When starlit oil is stored Hearts are burning, bridegroom Lord Until you come, I will sing Sing out my song of love Until you come, I will sing Sing out my song of love Until you come, I will sing Sing out my song of love Until you come, I will sing Sing out my song of love Glory to the righteous one