Mike Bickle introduces the Book of Joel, emphasizing its theme of the 'Day of the Lord' and the necessity for believers to respond appropriately to impending crises. He encourages attendees to read Joel multiple times and engage in discussions to deepen their understanding of its messages, particularly the call to repentance and the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit. Bickle highlights the dual nature of the Day of the Lord, which encompasses both revival and judgment, urging listeners to rend their hearts and seek God's favor through prayer and fasting. He asserts that the Book of Joel serves as a prophetic guide for the end times, equipping believers to navigate the challenges ahead with clarity and faith.

physically or you're taking or you're involved by the internet or the e-school That bring your Bibles because we're not we don't have all the verses I'm going to cover on the notes most of them, but sometimes I'll stop and we'll look at a another passage and Number two read the book of Joel through several times It's only three chapters, but if you become familiar with it a little bit as we're unfolding it line by line you'll make more sense if you get the whole storyline of the book and And then I want to encourage you to bring the notes bring the notes every week So you can write on them and make your own notation and then meet with a friend and discuss debate discuss share ask each other questions The notes and what's presented in this class because as you do that you will grow sharper in your understanding because there's Controversial things in this book you want to meet with somebody a couple friends and say what do you think about that? And I don't get what that means and if that means that then what does this mean? And so I just want to encourage you just in an informal way because I know some of you and many of you are in small groups But to discuss this so you'll sharpen your understanding with it Well, the theme of the book of Joel is the day of the Lord and we're gonna look at that at the second class But the theme of this our first class here and we'll take a break and then have a second class We'll have two classes each single of Friday afternoon but the theme of the book is the day of the Lord and How to rightly respond to it. That's the key how to rightly respond. I Mean if it's only the day of the Lord then it leaves us Just kind of with an interesting theological discussion But the point of it is because the day of the Lord is coming. This is how we respond and how we live Joel chapter 2 if you would look at it Verse 12, here's the key passage of the entire book of Joel This is how we respond Joel chapter 2 verse 12. Here's the theme the underlying theme of the entire book is Joel chapter 12 verse 2 I mean Joel chapter 2 verse 12 now therefore Turn to me with all of your heart. In other words, it's a call to the first commandment This is another way of saying Love me with all of your heart. You could put in verse 12 the first commandment if you wanted to now therefore Verse 12 in light of everything. I'm teaching you on the day of the Lord Joel was saying in light of all these new insights exciting dimensions of the outpouring of the Spirit and Terrifying dimensions of the judgment of God Because as we will say over and over through this Course the day the Lord has the positive the greatest revival ever seen in history is yet to come But the day the Lord has the negative the most severe judgments in history are yet to come So the greatest revival and the most severe judgments The greatest positive and the greatest negatives are yet ahead of the human race They're yet ahead of this hour of history and I believe that there are people alive on the earth right now And I'm talking about very possibly you That you will see these positives and you will see these negatives Possibly within your lifetime or the lifetime of your children or grandchildren. I Believe that this is that pertinent of a subject and so whether you see this in your life, though, I believe you will your children or grandchildren Must understand these and respond to the Lord in the way that the Lord says verse 12 now therefore in light of all this teaching Turn with all of your heart With fasting with weeping with mourning verse 13 tear your heart rend means tear Tear your heart not your garments because in the ancient world what they would do in ancient Israel They would tear their garments to show their grief Joel said don't tear your shirt to say I'm in so much pain over my sin tear your heart not your shirt Because it was a kind of a traditional thing to do to tear your garment to show how serious you were About how much you hated how much you failed or something like that or how much? How worried you are about the judgment of God they would tear their garment. Oh, no, we're in big trouble It says rend your heart Not your garment Then it goes on in verse 28 Go all the way to verse 28 and we'll connect all this at a later time Verse 28 and it shall happen. It shall come to pass afterwards. I Will pour out my spirit and we're going to show you in some, you know several classes down the road here We're going to show you where verse 28. It shall come to pass afterwards He's talking about after the prayer and fasting of verse 12 and 13 Well, it's actually verse 12 to 17 I just kind of did an abbreviated version when he says verse 28. It shall come to pass afterwards He's saying after you did the fasting of prayer of verse 12 to 17 then I Will pour out my spirit. So that's the underlying premise of the book of Joel the day of the Lord's coming Rend your heart Return with all of your heart to love him with fasting and prayer Then verse 28, I will pour my spirit out. I will release an increase of the activity of the Holy Spirit That's kind of the overall premise of the entire book Now the book of Joel has been often referred to as a mini book of Revelation It's three chapters and it covers many of the main broad themes of the book of Revelation and So in three chapters you can get the whole thing all the positive and the negative at least the main positives and negatives of the end time drama the scenario that God is Going to release you're going to be able to see both of them here in the book of Joel Now paragraph a we're not going to do all the notes We'll skip around a bit and skip sometimes entire pages. So you I'm gonna encourage you to read it on your own in your own time I've been paragraph a I've been asked. Why is it so important to study the book of Joel? Because again, it's a mini book of Revelation. You know, I'm on page nine. I'm sorry page nine on Session notes number one session notes number one We'll typically cover one session notes per class and sometimes we'll do two session notes in one class. We'll combine two and one But we're here on page nine That The the purpose of studying this book this little three chapter mini book of Revelation is to equip forerunners to prepare the unprepared That's the point in one sentence to equip forerunners and Forerunners are messengers forerunners are people who say a specific message and here's the message It's the message related to the unique Dynamics of the generation of the Lord returning. I have that paragraph beat the unique dynamics. What do I mean by the unique dynamics? You'll hear that term often there's the greatest positives of history the greatest revival and the Greatest negatives of history the greatest judgment and the greatest attack of Satan which are different which is different than judgment They are all coming to the earth at the same time and it will create a very unique Environment on the planet and the biggest problem on the planet will be confusion People will be confused. What is God? What is the devil? What is coming next? How are we supposed to respond? What are we supposed to do and confusion and fear will be a very will be a very common Response and those final decades leading up to the coming of the Lord, but forerunners they are messengers They give clarity to the others who don't have clarity I mean on on these very important Themes that are described here in the book of Joel The book of Joel I have at the end of paragraph B is an instruction manual. It's a forerunner quote instruction manual It's designed God designed it so we would know How to respond and how to interpret the great glory and the great crisis that I believe is just around the corner It could be several decades could be a little bit longer than that, but maybe it's not so long We don't know nobody knows the day of the hour Roman numeral two still on page nine an overview of Joel's message Joel chapter 1 There's an agricultural crisis an agricultural crisis and he tells them how to respond That's the point of Joel chapter 1 an agricultural crisis, which is an economic crisis. It's the same thing I mean one leads to the other every time What are we supposed to do when an economic and a agricultural crisis happens Joel chapter 1? Joel chapter 2 Verse 1 to 11. It's not an agricultural crisis. It's far more serious. It's a military crisis Because a Foreign army the Babylonians were invading the nation of Israel that or the prophet Joel was saying they're coming they're coming There's coming a military invasion. If you think the crisis of chapter 1 the agricultural crisis was severe You haven't seen anything like the crisis that's coming and it is a military crisis paragraph see The heart of the book which we looked at just a moment ago the response that God requires in order to release protection in order to release the blessing of the Spirit's power and presence and in order to release deliverance deliverance from our enemies This is the response God wants let there be no mistake The nation's are confused. What are we supposed to do? Even the church is confused The Lord says be confused no more. It is clear What I want you to do. I want you to come into unity with me if you come into unity with me and You get me on your side or better yet you get on the Lord's side then there's no enemy that can that can defeat you But if you do not have the favor of the Lord in a time of crisis Then you have no way to deliver yourself. That's the meaning of this Now when crisis there's economic crisis in our nation right now And there's probably going to be an agricultural crisis not far away with all the droughts and different things happening And there is an agricultural crisis in some areas But almost nobody is praying and fasting and doing what Joel said and the Lord's and heaven going. I'm waiting I'm waiting I've told you what I want the crisis will get more severe I want you to come into agreement with me and I want you to call on my favor and my favor will come and Make all the difference of the world paragraph D Joel chapter 2 verse 18 to 31. That's this a great one. It's the breakthrough It's the breakthrough of blessing and it's agricultural political spiritual This is where the breakthrough and God's breakthroughs, which we can read in the other prophets They are summarized here and most of the main Breakthroughs that are coming in the future are right here in Joel chapter 2. It's again It's in condensed summarized form, but most of the main ones are there Then Jonah Joel chapter 3 God punishes the enemy now This is what Israel was waiting for he punishes the enemy and he vindicates his own people I don't have that on the notes. You can write that in if you want he vindicates his people and he punishes the enemy and What Joel 3 is talking about ultimately is the great enemy of Israel. That's the Antichrist at the end of the age So that's what's going on here Now I'm gonna give you four points that aren't on the notes and I'll reference these many times throughout this Course, there are four causes of trouble Four sources of trouble. I mentioned this all the time. So I'm the most classes I give I'll throw this out there So you might just you know, jot this down the back of your Bible and just learn this. It's quite simple But it's a it's important just to get it clear your mind source of trouble number one Satan's rage Satan attacks humans. He has rage his anger source of trouble number two man's sin Our sin causes us trouble even without the devil raging against us We could cause so much trouble for our life in our country just by sinning even if the devil isn't involved number three Creation's grown and that's in Romans chapter 8 Paul says creation is groaning There's the accumulation of sin That's building in its impact on the created order. That's why there's hurricanes and volcanoes and all these convulsions in history Because creation is groaning because man has sent There is an identification of what human beings do on the earth and the earth itself. My point is this Sometimes there's a great earthquake or there's a hurricane and somebody says is it the people that live there? Are they the ones that caused it? Sometimes it is related to the people that live there But other times it's related to the fact that creation is groaning. We live in a fallen world Because of our sin there's an accumulated impact on the globe and there's hurricanes and storms and the groan of creation is part of the trouble and then number four the most serious of all I say for last is God's zeal God's zeal or you can say his love The fact that God loves us so much. He won't allow us to continue Without confronting us if we're Lee living in a path of destruction and rebellion towards him And so he intervenes in order to get our attention That's why he intervenes to get our attention because he's zealous. He's zealous for righteousness. He disciplines. He judges He confronts wrong because he cares if he did not care he would not confront So there's four sources of problems Satan is raging Man is sinning Creation is groaning and God has zeal in his heart God has passion so those four together You those four together are the source of why there's troubles in the world Now each troubled does not have all four involved and we don't always know which of The four are involved to which degree is this man's sin God's judgment or is this Satan's rage? Or is this just the groan of creation? We don't know the Spirit will help us as time goes on But whenever there's a there's trouble in the earth, it goes to those four, but here's what the message of Joel is saying regardless which of those four Even if all four are involved the response is the same You turn to God with all of your heart cry out for mercy Cry out for intervention the favor of God comes and the bad things stop the Lord says no matter which of the four it is The answer is in my favor being released to you. I can settle all four of them So people debate which one is it? Is it mostly the people who sinned? Down when the big earthquake hit or the big hurricane hit did they sin or was it not their sin Satan raging? Or was it really God's seal to get their attention or was it creation groaning? And again, all four of them are often involved for different motives. There's different reasons But they are involved together but God says if you cannot finally separate them Which it's a challenge to do know this Joel 2 verse 12 to 17 the heart of the book if you turn to me with all of your heart you'll get favor You get my favor in your midst doesn't matter what storm you're in if Jesus is in the boat. You're safe. I Mean the whole sea can be in a storm if he's in the boat, you're safe If Jesus is out walking on the water, you're safe on the water not in the boat. You're safe in his favor Wherever he is in his favor, that's the place of safety. That's the message of the book of Joel Okay, we're going to go through a couple premises here now a Roman numeral two, I mean Roman numeral three here the several premises that are necessary to understand the book the message of the book of Joel premise number one is That acts two on the day of Pentecost When the spirit was poured out Peter was actually referring to Joel 2 and interpreting Joel 2 on the day of Pentecost when the Point of the spirit happened Peter said what we're doing here on the day of Pentecost is what Joel talked about And it wasn't just that the spirit was moving. There was a model in Joel chapter 2 that they were following in Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost When they gathered here in paragraph a Acts 1 14 They all continued in with one accord in prayer supplication They're doing the coming to the Lord praying and fasting turning to God with all their heart They're actually doing Joel chapter 2 verse 12 right there in Acts 1 14 They're doing the first part of Joel 2 and then they're crying out to God Jesus told him in Luke 2449 I don't have that verse in the notes Luke 2449. He said go to a prayer meeting He said Terry in Jerusalem to Terry means to wait to wait in the prayer meeting in that context go in Jerusalem and wait Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit. Now that is a reference also to Joel chapter 2 So these 120 intercessors there's 120 of them. They are doing Joel 2 the first part They're in the house of prayer so to speak they're calling out for the outpouring of the Spirit and they go they wait ten long days and Then suddenly the wind the fire and the wine Those three elements break in now interesting Joel said you'd have dreams and visions. He didn't even mention wind fire and wine because when Joel said if you're praying fast and turn to me and the spirits poured out you get dreams and visions Joel wasn't Limiting it to dreams and visions. He means you're going to get dynamic Holy Spirit activity of which dreams and visions are guaranteed They're promised but there you're not limited to those manifestations of the Spirit, but the realm of the Holy Spirit The realm of the Spirit will increase in your midst. That's what Joel was saying So here in Acts chapter 2 they get the wind they get the fire. They get the wine. They don't get dreams and visions I mean nobody fell asleep and had a dream that none of that's happening But the Spirit is breaking out and what they're doing here in Acts chapter 1 or check chapter 2 They are actually doing the model of Joel chapter 2 They're in a prayer meeting with fasting crying out for the Spirit Asking for the negative to be lifted the positive to be released and that's exactly what happened now the reason we care about that Not just so we can say well Peter you did it, right? Because the met the application is the Joel to model and the acts to model Which the same as the Joel to model they are the model we are supposed to embrace as people in the kingdom of God Prayer and fasting is not supposed to be some weird radical thing that a few wild people do You know in houses of prayer the prayer and fasting is the model of how the kingdom works from Joel 2 and Acts chapter 2 It's a normal part of the kingdom Okay top of page 10 Top of page 10 paragraph B Acts 2 Peter says I'm paragraph B. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel So Peter is telling them Joel 2 a portion of it is being fulfilled right in your midst because We have embraced the model in other words We've done what God told Joel to do in a time of trouble and also in a time of blessing He told us what to do. We're doing it and the answer is being released right here in our midst Peter paragraph B drew a connection between continual prayer and The release of the Holy Spirit. He drew the connection paragraph D now Some people will tell you the book Joel 2 was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2 They're saying Peter did it it's done. No Peter only had a small down payment of a much bigger promise a much bigger promise because in Joel 2 the promise wasn't that 120 people in one city would get touched by the spirit that wasn't the promise the promises the spirit would be poured out on a global level all the people of God across the earth Would have dreams and visions and the it would prepare the people of God for the greatest crisis that would come in human history That's the message of the book of Joel that the anointing of the Spirit isn't just to make meetings better It prepares us for the greatest harvest the opportunity of history and for the greatest crisis that we could be Connected to the Lord be in faith not in fear We would be in a place of confidence and power when the greatest crisis would happen We would be part of the answer not part of the problem That was that was core to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel chapter 2 Some people think of the outpouring of the Spirit as mostly to make a meeting better Kind of makes things a little more lively and it does make meetings more lively But there's a bigger reason that God pours his spirit out. It's for the harvest You read here in the notes I won't develop it But he says in verse 21 that whoever calls on the Lord will be saved the outpouring of the Spirit is for the sake of the harvest for the sake of the purifying of the body and for the sake of Partnering with the Lord in power and faith in love in the great crisis That's what the outpouring is for It's not just to make a minute a ministry a little more famous and a little more lively God's pouring a spirit out for a specific reason and that's what's laid out here Okay, let's go to the middle of page 11 middle page 11 the second premise and the again The first premise was what Joel had I mean what Peter had was just a down payment Don't let some theologian tell you well, it's all been fulfilled back in the old days No, Joel only had the outpouring of the Spirit on 120 people in one city I mean Peter did 120 people in one city. God didn't talk about 120 people one city. He said the whole globe Everybody who calls on the name of the Lord would have dreams and visions Everybody would operate in power. Everybody would globally and so it wasn't fulfilled in Acts chapter 2 It was all I mean not in its complete way. It was only a down payment fulfillment is in a limited sense Okay, the second premise is that the ultimate fulfillment the biggest fulfillment the greatest fulfillment the greatest fulfillment of the of the of the prophecies of Job or Joe Joel or yet future paragraph a Joel was written for the people of his own day. Yes I mean the book was written for the people were blessed in that day But God had a far bigger audience that he was giving this prophetic message to he was giving it for the generation That the Lord would return where a billion or two billion people could be equipped by the message of the book of Joel Now obviously it was a blessing in his day and it was a blessing throughout Church history But the bigger reason God gave this message was for the one or two billion in the generation The Lord returns that they would understand what was happening Paragraph C. I Believe the book of Joel has its greatest and its most complete fulfillment in yet, even the future. I Mean, I'm looking forward to the day that every born-again believer has visions and dreams Everyone operates in power not a few guys here and there everybody all flesh When it says my spirit will be poured out on all flesh It means every individual that's born again that calls on the name of the Lord they will operate in anointed ministry Beloved it is your inheritance to operate in the anointing of the Holy Spirit Let's go to top of page 12 Now I'm not going to spend time on on this, but I just want to highlight it to you Because I want this is him an important point to understanding that Joel's prophecies are yet for the future is that Dating of the book of Joel the dating of the book of Joel is important I believe and and many scholars believe this. This is not an isolated opinion. This is a opinion that is Widespread many commentators though others will debate it, but I believe it's the most convincing paragraph a view is this it's that this book was written a Decade or two or three? Well, I don't know 10 20 30 years that part isn't that important Right before the great Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem In paragraph B. I want you to circle paragraph B Because this may be new information to you. You may say I don't I don't know this day Well, this is the one date in the Old Testament. You have to learn I Mean it's good if you learn about three, but this if you only have Room on your emotional and mental hard drive for one date This is the date 586 BC say 586 BC I'm gonna ask I'm gonna quiz you in a few minutes on it. Say it again 586 BC The this is one of the most significant days in Israel's history and Many Jews today around the earth know about 586 BC. I'm talking about secular Jews It's that big of a date in their history the most devastating thing happened to the to the city of Jerusalem in the land of Israel Nebuchadnezzar and His Babylonian army now, you know Babylon ancient Babylon is today modern-day. What? Iraq yes, it's Iraq modern-day Iraq Babylon So it was like the king of Iraq. So they're right next door They marched over to Jerusalem and they took most of the nation captive and marched them back to Iraq to Babylon and put them in prison camps I Mean it was almost like the Holocaust. It wasn't that severe where they killed them all systematically, but it was the most Devastating thing that happened to the Jewish people in the Old Testament 586 BC What Joel was telling them? One two, three decades ahead of time it's coming it's coming It's coming and the nation of Israel said Oh Joel quit being so fanatical Quit being so intense chill out. It's not coming. He said it's coming it's coming and it came and the point of it is God is using this as an example to the nation's even in this hour of history He's saying trouble is around the corner and most of my people are not paying attention to me Just like in Joel the book of Joel The same story is being replayed again right now in modern times beloved something far worse far worse than The King Nebuchadnezzar, that's his name say Nebuchadnezzar. Most of you know that name Nebuchadnezzar. That's a strange name Don't don't name your kid Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, which is the nation of Iraq Persia is the nation of Iran So we have Babylon and Persia Iraq and Iran same nations the same geographic area So when you read in the old, you know in the Old Testament when you see Persia just think Iran when you see Babylon think Iraq because the same drama the same demons are still at war today over the same geographic area for real It's the same conflict, but this problem that came to the city of Jerusalem From Nebuchadnezzar and and for Babylon is going to be greatly I mean a far greater problem is coming to Jerusalem a few years down the road Jerusalem is going to have great great attack against her far worse than Nebuchadnezzar and the book of Joel was so that Jerusalem could be ready and Not only is it going to happen in Jerusalem? There's going to be trouble like what Babylon did to Jerusalem the same kind of trouble is going to be happening to the Gentile nations through the Antichrist Military invasion of nations of the earth and he's telling them you only have one hope Fasting and prayer and calling on my favor. That's your only hope is my favor you believing me Crying out to me and my invisible hand delivering you that's your only hope and that's what the book of Joel is all about Okay, let's go to middle of page 14 skip a few pages Premise number three now, this is a tough one God uses evil leaders to do his work Nebuchadnezzar was an evil man and God says you will do Because you will discipline my people and wake them up then Nebuchadnezzar. I will use you I will even help you and Then after I use you to discipline my people then I will judge you and give you the justice you deserve But at first I'm going to use you in power Now this throws off people but this is a this is a Foundational message throughout the Old Testament prophets without this piece of information We won't be able to interpret what's happening in the future because what's going to happen is there are going to be Nations and men that are raised up that are evil but God is actually using them to discipline other nations and then he will discipline them at the end and We might say wow That's pretty intense. I don't know if I like that The Lord says I'm really smart. I'm really loving. I have lots of power. Trust me. That is the best way to do it Okay. Now what we're going to do. We're gonna you got your notes there and If you would go to page 32 in your notes I know some of you just have the one the one set of notes. So you're kind of stuck here, but if you have the syllabus Go to page 32 or be the session notes three Page 32 because I'm going to do I develop this more in the third session notes But I just want to talk about it right now for just a moment this idea of wicked leaders Okay, here we are in the middle page 32 middle page 32, I know I got three off there We're going to come right back to where we were in a minute. So The middle page 32 I have verses here Quite a few of them. I just want you to see them We're not going to go through them all but I just want you to see them with your eye The idea is it's Roman numeral 7 God will raise up evil leaders to judge sinful nations During the day of the Lord judgments at the end of the age The Antichrist is actually going to be used by God to discipline ungodly nations and then he will destroy the Antichrist He will not violate the Antichrist freewill. He will operate in his own wickedness, but the Lord will say I have need of A person like you I'm not going to make you wicked But I'm going to use the choices you've made for your own wickedness I'm going to use you to discipline nations to wake them up to righteousness Paragraph B At the foundation of his great evil Empire It's a great paradox because God is the one raising up the Antichrist It's clear from the Bible. God raises him up. Now the devil's involved and sinful men are involved. Remember those four things God's involved the devil's involved in simple men The people who follow him will be responsible for following him because of their own sin The devil is raising up the Antichrist, but so is God They're raising it there They're responding to him with totally different motives God's motive is very different from the devil's and very different from man's But nonetheless God is raising up the Antichrist That is an unthinkable thought to many people because they don't know the foundational Bible principles and it's clear here in the book of Joel Look at top of page 33 Now if you don't again if you don't have those notes in front of you you can They're on the internet and again those with the e-school they could go get it off the internet right now and look at it It's top of page 33 Look at this paragraph e The scripture says to Pharaoh Romans 9 17 or you can just look at Romans 9 17 You want the scripture says to Pharaoh? I have raised you up that I might show my power in you that my name may be declared in all the earth now Pharaoh was a really evil man and Pharaoh was a very oppressive man a very evil and a very oppressive man He was beating and oppressing the people of God and God says I raised you up Now the devil could say as well. Hey Pharaoh I've been involved in your career advancement as well and Pharaoh in his own arrogance and pride and sin his own sin advanced his career But when it's all said and done God says Pharaoh you only became rich and famous because I put you in that position Because I had need for you to be in that position The idea that God raised up Pharaoh now to us Pharaoh that's not a big deal because we think of Pharaoh we saw the Moses movie and Pharaoh didn't seem that mean See like a pretty nice guy, you know that kind of had an ego problem. No Pharaoh was a demonic evil dude. Trust me. He was serious trouble in that day If you ran into Pharaoh you would say that guy's got a bad spirit. Trust me paragraph F God raised up Sennacherib. Okay. Now, let's say that word Sennacherib Now that's a funny name. That's an Assyrian name the Assyrians attacked Israel that was the other big date, but I'm not gonna push that date on you I'm not gonna push 721 on you say 721. You got it the two big crisis 721 and 586 but 586 was by far the biggest Sennacherib was an evil man. Look what God says He called him the rod of my anger the staff in Whose hand is my indignation God says I am using this evil Sennacherib the king of Assyria He's a rod in my hand. I am using him against you Israel You can bind the devil all that you want, but I am the one causing Sennacherib to have triumph over you Your only answer Israel to getting Sennacherib Because he came and invaded and caused great trouble about 200 years earlier fasting in prayer the favor of God is your only chance now when Isaiah said the king of Assyria God's using him the people of Israel were so mad at him when he said that They said how dare you say that God is using that wicked king of Assyria How dare you the the nation of Assyria is close to not entirely but close to Syria today It's it's an overlap because the nation's the boundaries aren't exactly even but that's gives you the ballpark I mean to say that an evil king is being used by God and raised up by God like how dare you The nation of Israel were very mad at Isaiah when he said that they go we don't like that you said that we bind you in the name of Jesus and Isaiah said doesn't matter you could bind me and Sennacherib neither of them are gonna work because God has raised him up Your answer is to cry out to God and then you get his favor that everything changes Paragraph G. Look at this Jeremiah 25 9 Nebuchadnezzar That's the bad guy that didn't that came and destroyed Jerusalem the king of Babylon. Look what God calls him. He is my servant He's my servant like God. You can't call a Demonized man your servant. You just can't God says watch I will He's my servant. I raised him up, but have no fear look at verse 12 right here in Jeremiah 25 verse 12 When he is disciplined Israel for 70 years, I Will punish him and his nation severely I will take care of him, but only after I've used him The reason I'm saying this this is what's gonna happen to the Antichrist God's going to actually raise up the Antichrist as is the devil as are the wickedness of men Men are going to put him in power because they want him to be in power until they figure out who he is Look at Jeremiah 27 6 again. I have a whole bunch of verses here. I Nebuchadnezzar my servant again Nebuchadnezzar is a wicked man. This is unthinkable God. You can't call him your servant. You could call him like The little creep or something, but you can't call him. You can't say my servant say the little Demon guy or something. You can't say he's your servant and God says he is my servant My hand is on him my I'm using him My power is why he is succeeding because of my power on his life But I will judge him severely because I haven't forced him to do any evil But I've given him power and he's done evil, but he's serving my purposes by disciplining my people Let's go to one more verse I mean we could go on and on on this but it's in a very important doctrine because it's a very offensive doctrine to the humanistic mindset that's even in the church and the humanistic mindset is just basically we want everything easier and everything bads the devil and That's the devil is responsible for a lot, but he's not responsible for everything One of the biggest problems that Israel has isn't the devil the devil is a problem It isn't even Israel sin. That's a big problem Israel's problem is God loves them and won't let go of them. That's their big problem He won't let go of them because of his zeal his doing his love for them. He says Israel. I will wake you up No matter what it cost. I won't violate your free will but I will wake you up It's the love that God has for Israel That's going to ultimately allow all this trouble because that's the trouble is the only thing that will wake them up And God says I won't allow you to go Forever without waking up spiritually. I just won't allow it So it's like I remember talking to some leaders in Israel. I said Yeah, the devil buying the devil and all the bad guys and all the sin in Israel There's a lot of sin in Israel a lot of sin all around Israel I said the big problem is God loves Israel and Israel doesn't love God. That's the big problem Because God's not going to be quiet, and that's right, but that's the problem with even believers God loves them and they don't all love God Not in the way they used to and he goes I'm not letting go you I am going to get you in a corner and Talk eye-to-eye with you, and you'll be glad when it's over Now here's the offense Look at Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 5 man. I'm spending too much time on this Look at Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 5 This is such a dramatic passage Habakkuk 1 verse 5 Look among the nations and watch this is God speaking Be utterly astounded God's telling the prophet at Habakkuk. He goes look around and see I'm going to show you the most dramatic surprising Mind-blowing thing that you can think of look around the nations and see the most startling thing And I'm going to show you something more startling be utterly astounded when I show it to you, okay? I will work a work in your day Which you would not believe it even if I tell you in advance and Habakkuk's well try me He goes think of the most Out no not outstanding the most astonishing thing you can think of and I'm going to tell you I'm going to do something that will Astonish you more Okay, verse 6. I am raising up The the Chaldeans which are the Babylonians. That's just another name for Babylon. I am raising up the Babylonians a Terrible and dreadful nation and he goes on to say to wake up my beloved Israel And Habakkuk saying no way he goes. Yes Be utterly astounded I am going to raise up a terrible and evil man and a terrible and evil nation to wake up nations Be astounded my reason why am I going into this? Joel as we're going to see as we look at the other sessions is going to develop this and This big problem is going to face the body of Christ before the Lord returns What are we going to make of the idea that this man is going to come the Antichrist to world power? He won't dominate every nation by the way, but he'll have more power than any man has ever had over the nations He won't he won't successfully defeat every nation But he will go further far beyond where Adolf Hitler went far beyond Adolf Hitler in terms of the power he amasses but it'll never be complete and people will be saying what do we make of this and God saying I'm using it and this was a very confusing thought and That's established in the Old Testament prophets that this is really going to happen Okay, we're going to go to the top of page 34 top of page 34 I Realize I'm getting ahead of myself I'm still in our first class and I'm getting way over in the session notes number three Top of page 34 look at paragraph K. I have about five or six verses Where all of them I'm not going to go through them top of page 34 on the notes And if you don't have your notes in front of you right now, just jot that down If you want to look them up later, I have a bunch of verses where the scriptures clear that God raises up the Antichrist Again, the devil's totally involved and the sin of man is totally involved Look at Revelation 6 1 the lamb opened the seal Jesus opened the seal and released the rider on the white horse the Antichrist Jesus releases him. No, Jesus Not him not wrong door. Oh, no, don't let him out Jesus said yes, I will let him out in the name of Jesus. I bind you from letting him out You don't let him out. I take authority over letting him out. You can't bind Jesus by the name of Jesus No, I'm serious Jesus lets him out This is like, ah What's going on? He says I have total control over him. I know what's happening Trust me. I'm reason my reasoning is rooted in eternity not in time. I know what I'm doing then on These other passages you could read them yourself and it shows how the authority was given to the Antichrist From God God's the only one that could give a man authority over the nations The devil didn't give him the authority the devil didn't have the authority God granted authority to the Antichrist will grant it to him. Okay, let's go all the way back to page 15 now back We're gonna just make another point or two Then we're gonna take a break Okay, the fourth premise top of page 15 the fourth premises as we're studying the book of Joel we have Theological crisis we have problems Questions we have to answer Here's why when the end time plan develops fully the nation's will be angry at God not happy with God The nation's will be angry and there will be believers angry at God as the thing as the his plan unfolds Jesus warned the people in Matthew 11 6. He goes don't be offended at me Don't be offended at me because Jesus was about to let John the Baptist die and the disciples of John the Baptist you read Matthew 11 on your own the disciples of John the Baptist came to him and Said hey, are you the Messiah and Jesus did all the miracles and they go? Yay John's in prison. Everything's good You're the Messiah and Jesus looked him in the eye and said don't be offended at me Well, why would we be offended at you? John's in prison. You have all the power. It seems like a slam-dunk Everything's fine. You got power you like John John's in prison. He's our leader get him out of prison and Jesus Let him die in prison and he said I warn you don't be offended at me Not only by what I do. Don't be offended by what I don't do and at the end of the age and The generation Lord returns and I believe we're in those early days there are things that Jesus will do and he won't do that will offend our humanistic mindset and Forerunners have to answer some of the theological Problems that people have when they're the confusion begins to come into fear What's going on? What do we go do? How do we make sense of this God's raising up forerunners to get clarity and the book of Joel is a great little mini forerunner book to give Clarity to people in the coming great coming revival as well as the great crisis that's yet ahead Okay, let's I'm gonna skip the three questions that I go. I said there's three difficult questions We'll be looking at them at other times. So I'm gonna skip them right now Let's look at the top of page 16 the fifth premise the end of the age forerunner ministry again paragraph a when trouble comes When the Antichrist is raised up when the rage of Satan has happened when the judgment of God is even coming on the Antichrist and the nations are in turmoil and there's a great outpouring of the spirit there will be Significant confusion and the end time forerunners They will be making sense of what's happening to the people. Let's read premise number six. We'll end with this And we'll take a 10-minute break We need to be immersed not I say I have it here in the notes in the book of Joel That's not exactly it we need to be immersed in the message of the book of Joel because it's not Joel or Revelation or Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jeremiah? They all have the same message We need to be immersed in the message of what is going to happen the unique Dynamics and that generation the Lord returns we need to be immersed in it in Ezekiel chapter 3 The Lord's look at this Analogy we refer to this sometimes this analogy it says in Ezekiel 3 He said to me son of man eat this scroll and Then go speak the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth. He caused me to eat the scroll And he said to me son of man feed your belly and your stomach on this scroll now The scroll is the message he's so the Lord speaks to the prophet Isaiah he goes I want you to devour this message and it was a message of judgment and it was a message of deliverance and Ezekiel said I ate the message and it was sweet because he was feeding on the message of deliverance So what God tells Ezekiel? He said I want you to take this message I don't want you just to kind of underline the key verses. I want you to devour it I want you to eat the scroll. I want you to think on it study it Memorize some of it learn it break it down discuss it with your friends pray it through That's what it means to eat the scroll Completely devour this message Don't be kind of well, I heard somewhere in Joel that some bad guy did something but he got in trouble anyway So it's gonna be okay or something like that. That's not eating the scroll We want to actually grasp this message not just to have a general idea that the message exists But to actually comprehend it Now look at here what it says it in in Revelations chapter 10 He says I went to the angel and Said to him now, this is John This is John having the same experience Where he eats the scroll just like Ezekiel did God gave John a proof a strong prophetic message And he told John I want you to do what Ezekiel did. I want you to eat it I want you to consume it and John ate the scroll and he said it's bitter and it's sweet You can read it on your own. This in time message is both bitter and sweet John ate it. He goes Wow great in time revival. We win awesome but he goes when I ate it it made my stomach sour because there's going to be pain and death and Destruction the message is sweet and the message is bitter. It's both But we must devour it so that we understand it We know it's more than again just knowing it exists, but we actually comprehend it so I'm gonna leave you with that this is just kind of introducing the book of Joel kind of give you some foundational premises to get started on it and The next session we'll do some more overview and then we'll begin to get verse by verse and it's starting next week So we're gonna take about a 10 minute break right now. So we'll call you back in about 10 minutes Let's go ahead and put the clock up to where it has the countdown of the 10 minutes And go ahead and get the notes if you don't have the notes we have them in various places if for some reason you're sitting there with no notes go ahead and