Mike Bickle explores Isaiah 63 and 64, emphasizing the duality of Jesus as the Warrior King and the lament of Israel over their spiritual barrenness. He highlights Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah's return to deliver Jerusalem from its enemies, portraying Him as a powerful figure who will execute judgment and establish righteousness. Despite the promises of glory, Bickle addresses the painful reality of Israel's sin and weakness, leading to a communal lament for mercy and intervention. The sermon encourages believers to recognize God's deep emotional connection with His people and to persist in prayer for revival and transformation. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper understanding of God's character, combining His love with His righteous judgment.

Thank you, Bo Perkins, and Isaiah 63 and 64. Have your Bible open there or ready to look at your own translation. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for this glorious passage that you have described the coming of your Son and how His power will touch our heart and our lives. And Lord, we thank you for the revelation of your Son and we ask you to touch us even now in Jesus' name. Amen. Just an overview of Isaiah 63 and 64. Paragraph A. Isaiah prophesied of the coming of the Messiah. And he prophesies Him, which we know it's Jesus. Isaiah didn't know it was Jesus. But he described Him as a warrior king who was marching into Jerusalem to save Jerusalem. And specifically because Jerusalem in that hour will be surrounded by enemy nations seeking to destroy her. And Jesus will actually march into that context. It's a military conflict. And He will come as the captain of the armies of heaven, the Lord of hosts. That means the captain of the armies of heaven. And He will deliver Israel. And He will then establish His throne and then the whole world He will transform. Now this passage in Isaiah 63 verse 1 to 6 is my favorite Old Testament passage of the second coming of Christ. And it's interesting that Jesus the warrior king, it goes together with my other passage that I love, second coming passage, Isaiah 42 verse 10 to 13, where the Messiah is a warrior who cries out with zeal but He does it in response to the global worship movement. They're worshiping in every city and every island and every mountaintop of the earth and then Jesus arouses His zeal like a man of war and He comes. It's Isaiah 42. Isaiah 63 tells us what He does when He gets here as a man of war. So you have to put the two passages together. To summarize it, He's going to when He returns to Jerusalem, He's going to kill the Antichrist armies that are laying siege to the city of Jerusalem from Zechariah chapter 12. Now put it all together here in this next sentence. Isaiah sees the anointed one. Remember back in chapter 61 verse 63 here, so two chapters earlier. The anointed one, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to proclaim good news. So the anointed one of chapter 61 is now the warrior king of chapter 63. But in between is the most glorious passages that we covered of God releasing His glory into Jerusalem. So the anointed one functions as a warrior king and He releases the glory of God back to the city of Jerusalem in that context. Well this is such a glorious story. As Isaiah went through it, chapter 60, 61, 62, 63 with the coming of the Lord. That left Isaiah and the nation of Israel saying, yeah, that's awesome. But how come we are so barren and we're so powerless? If we have such awesome promises with certainty, why are we so weak? Why is the enemy attacking us and winning? Why are we so barren? And so this is an unusual combination of scripture where we see the heights of glory but then we see people in the here and now in the pain of their weakness and failure in light of promises of such glory. Now all of us can relate to that, can't we? That's why 63 and 64 are so pertinent. So He offers a lament. It's a communal prayer where all the righteous, the crying out, oh God, help us. Our nation is in sin. We are just coming out of our own compromise. Help us. We want to be your people. Now paragraph B, a lament is a type of prayer in scripture. It expresses the great pain, the sorrow, the regret over how bad things are. I mean, sin has increased over the years in their life. Now they're repenting of it, but the people around them, the people of God, aren't repenting of it. So sin is still growing. The enemy is attacking and God is so silent. He apparently doesn't seem to care. And that's the context of this prayer. Paragraph C. So Isaiah is praying for mercy. Lord, please have mercy on our weakness and brokenness and barrenness. And intervene in power. Now he was praying that for his own day. But even more applicable, more significant was for a future day. Because in Isaiah's day, things were bad several times. He had a very long prophetic ministry. And there were decades where things were not so good. And there were some high points with the reign of King Hezekiah specifically, a righteous king. But what Isaiah was doing, he was praying for the people of his day. I'm just letting you know the context so you can make sense of this prayer. Because how could Isaiah be praying it? Well, he is actually foreseeing in the future. Great devastation coming to Israel and he is giving a voice to them in that day. Now he's praying for his own day, but he's saying, Israel, and all the people of God, which through Jesus is Jews and Gentiles, he's saying, when things are going tough, when it seems like God doesn't care, where the enemy seems to be prevailing, I'm offering you a prayer that I am praying for my own day, Isaiah would say, but it's also an anointed prayer that you can take hold of. I'm giving voice to how you will feel in that day yourself. So paragraph D, he's lamenting in light of seeing future generations of negative circumstances for whole generations. And he gives prayer to a voice that many have felt for 2700 years since he wrote this prayer. I mean, he wrote it 700 years B.C. Now the hour that this will have the greatest significance will be the generation the Lord returns. Because Israel will have its most difficult hour ever in the years preceding leading up to the coming of the Messiah, the warrior king. And then they will experience their greatest glory ever. So this prayer is significant all through history, but it's going to have its greatest significance yet in the future. I mean, in the sense of more people are going to be praying it than any time in history. Because people who love God but have been stuck in compromise that are repenting and lamenting the enemy's inroads into their life and their nation, and they're wanting to cast it off and get a new beginning and see the glory of God break in. That's the context. Paragraph E. This lament expresses a common misperception. There's negative things that are being expressed in here, and I'll give you the verses, chapter 63 verse 15 and 17 where as they're lamenting, many of these people that love God, but the enemy has had strongholds and inroads strongholds and inroads into their life, and they're wanting to break free of it into a new place of obedience to God but they feel like the Lord has lost interest in them. He's silent. He's not paying attention. And that's what this prayer is so poignant in that sense that it's so graphic and we can all relate to it. Paragraph 2. Now we can apply the principles in this lament to our personal lives as we're crying for a greater breakthrough of the Spirit for our city or nation, whatever, for our family where you may be seeking God but other members of your family aren't, or you're seeking God but not fully in the way you should, so you're going for it, but you still need fresh obedience and a fresh place of commitment, but your family's even in a worse place than you are. That's how Isaiah, I believe, felt about the nation. Or maybe you're praying for your ministry, you're praying for your own heart, a breakthrough of your own heart. So this is a very practical prayer. Paragraph F. I want to give a quick outline so you get the big picture context, because if you get the big picture of these eight chapters, then it's one fantastic story. Some people, when they look at Isaiah, they read Isaiah and they think, oh, Isaiah's too complicated. It's not. It really isn't. These last eight chapters of Isaiah are exciting and thrilling and gripping, and so I want our spiritual family here to have confidence they can understand it. I'm going to give just a sentence for each of these sections. It starts in chapter 59 with the warrior king. The reason I'm saying it, this revelation of the warrior king is like bookends to the glorious chapter 60, 61, 62. It's bookends on each side. So first, the warrior king is seen. You can read that later. Then chapter 60-62, the great high point of the glory of God coming to Jerusalem. I mean, nothing is more intense, in a good sense, for Jerusalem and Israel than Isaiah 60-62. And remember, the principle is whatever God does in that city, He will do in like kind, but in lesser measure, to other cities of the earth at the time of His coming, but even He will do it in like kind, but of lesser measure, to cities of the earth now, in lesser measure, but the same kind of activity He will do. So we don't read Isaiah 60-62 and just say, well, that's for the age to come, so who really cares? No, the Lord's saying, that's the kind of God I am. If I'll do that then in fullness, I will do it in your city in part, even now. Well then, chapter 63, which I'm going to get to in just a moment, is the warrior again. The warrior king bookends both ends of chapter 60-61-62. There's a deep connection. And the reason I want to say it, we're not going to have a time to compare the two, but you want to put the two together, it's the same Jesus, with a different angle and a different face to Jesus the warrior. Well, chapter 63, 7 to 64-11, that's the lament that we've been talking about. Where they confess the sin and they pray for the breakthrough. So you can read the rest of that later, the rest of this. But at the very end of this paragraph, Isaiah 65-66, God answers the lament. God says, I know you feel weak and barren and powerless, like I don't care, like I'm not listening, like I'm silent, like I'm gone, but I've got good news for you. He says in chapter 65-66, I'm totally paying attention, I'm fully engaged at the heart level, and I have a plan that is beyond anything you can imagine. Just be patient and keep pressing in. That's the answer. Top of page 2. So I gave you a whole lot here in the introduction, but I just have zeal that you would say in your heart, I can understand these last 8 chapters. They're not too hard, they're for me. Put your name on them. Say, I'm going to live in these chapters. Top of page 2. Okay, now we're going to look at, we're going to go right to the warrior king, and then go to, for a few moments, on the lament. Jesus, the warrior king. Now again, this is my favorite second coming chapter, and it's the, it's what he does on the earthly side. Remember from chapter 42-13, the worldwide worship movement, singing love songs to God across the earth to Jesus, and it stirs his zeal like a man of war and he says, okay, I'm coming! We find that in chapter 42. But we don't know what he does so much, but chapter 63 fills in some of the blanks. So Isaiah has just described the glory of God on the city of Jerusalem. The exaltation of Jerusalem, and so suddenly he sees the man, fully God, fully man, who's going to make it all come to pass. He sees this awesome man, and at first, he doesn't, I'm assuming, he does not know who he is. But he's so unusual, because of the way he's dressed, and by the power of his, he's marching to Jerusalem, but in great power. And every step he takes, the power of God is coming forth from this man, and Isaiah's saying, your clothing is so unusual, his royal attire. And your power, it's never seen anything like it before. Who are you? Well, he's the man responsible to bringing the glory of God to Jerusalem when he gets to that city. It's a very dramatic description, a prophetic oracle. But in order to bring the glory to Jerusalem, he has to be in the city, number one, because he is the fountain of that glory. But, he has to remove the enemies surrounding the city, because Zechariah 12 and 14 tell us that there's a great siege around the city of Jerusalem in the final years before Jesus returns, and he's going to remove that siege of the enemy, of the Gentile nations. All nations will gather around that city to destroy the Jewish people. Well, Isaiah sees this man in this unusual clothing, this powerful walking, traveling in such power, and it is the captain of the Lord of hosts, of the armies of heaven. It's the same man Joshua saw. Remember back in Joshua 5 when Joshua said, who are you? And he says, I'm captain. And Joshua said, are you for us or against us? He goes, I'm taking over Joshua, and Joshua bows down and worships. Isaiah sees the same man, literally the same man. Paragraph 8. Now Isaiah is going to ask two questions. In verse 1, he's going to say, who are you? In verse 2, he's going to say, why are your garments red? And Jesus is going to answer each of those questions. And the answer Jesus gives is glorious and terrifying. So Isaiah begins in verse 1. Who is this man coming up from Eden? Your garments look like they're dyed with red dye. We find out in a minute it's not red dye. You're coming up from Basra. You're a man that's glorious in your apparel. Your clothing is supernatural. His clothing isn't just royal attire. It's more. It's glorious. It has the glory of God in it we know from many other passages. Isaiah is saying, I've never seen a man dressed this way and I've never seen a man walk this way because he's traveling in such power. Every step you take, the power of God is breaking out. Now we find that in Habakkuk 3 that as Jesus marches into the city of Jerusalem, the power of God is being released in his march. And then this mysterious man speaks up. It's I. I'm the Messiah in essence. I'm the anointed one you saw back in chapter 61. The Spirit of the Lord's on me. I'm anointed. I'm that man. And I'm gonna speak about righteousness and justice and salvation. I'm gonna tell you some things in a moment that are all about righteousness and salvation. It may look, because in verse 3 to 6 Jesus is gonna say some things, it may look like it's all about judgment, but Jesus says, no, it's all about righteousness and the release of salvation. Now he's marching up. He's on the ground and he's marching up from Edom. Now Edom in the ancient world is modern day Jordan today. So it's the nation just south and east of Israel. That's the actual land. So we could say he's marching through Jordan on his way to Jerusalem. And he's coming up from Basra. Now Basra was the capital of Edom in the ancient world. We don't know what city Basra is now, but here's the point. When Jesus returns, we don't know where he touches down on the earth. But his feet get touched down on the earth. And some people have the mistaken idea that when he touches down, he touches down at the Mount of Olives. And I understand that idea. It's very popular. A lot of people preach it. But at a closer observation, that's not where it says he touches down. But he touches down somewhere outside of Israel, marches into the land, gets to the Mount of Olives and splits it in order to deliver the captives of Israel that are hiding in context to the Mount of Olives. I won't go to that right now. But when you read Zechariah 14, it doesn't say he comes from the sky and touches it. But when he goes to the Mount of Olives, the captives of Israel, like when they were backed up to the Red Sea in the days of Moses, and he divided the Red Sea, this time Jesus is shifting and dividing the mountain so the captives can be liberated. You read Zechariah 14. He splits the mount to liberate the captives of Israel. So he touches down somewhere. We don't know where. But we know he marches up from the south, the area of, he goes through the land of the nation of Jordan from the ancient place of Basra. We don't know where that city is today. And his clothing is supernatural. It's royal, but it's more than royal. And he's traveling in great strength. Habakkuk 3 and many other passages will describe that. And he's going to say something that relates to bringing righteousness to the earth and driving oppression and injustice off the planet. Now he's going to describe a very chilling account, or he's going to give a very chilling account of a battle, the battle around the city of Jerusalem. Now there's one thing that seems out of place. With his royal clothing, the supernatural royal clothing and this power, why are your clothes stained? I mean, with someone as powerful as you, why would your clothing be stained? I mean, surely, you know you have spots on your garments, and why don't you clean them? And why couldn't you have kept it from happening? I mean, you're so powerful. So it seems a little bit out of place. And so let's look at paragraph B. Isaiah, or Isaiah's asking the question, or he's asking the question for someone else, but I assume it's him asking it. He says, I have a question. I know you're coming all related to righteousness and salvation. Everything you're going to do is to make righteousness go forth. But why is your apparel, or put the word clothing, why is it red? It looks like your garments are like somebody that's been treading in the wine press. He goes, it's odd, because in ancient Israel, a very common picture was at the time of the harvest. Most, I mean, most of you are familiar with this picture. They would gather the vintage, the harvest of the grapes. They would put them in a big wine press. Let's just say, hypothetically, the size of this platform, this stage. And that would be a big one, but they could be that big. They'd fill it up, you know, it's 2 or 3 feet, 4 feet deep, full of grapes, or whatever. 2 or 3 feet deep. And they would have people get inside of it, and they would stomp on the grapes in order so the juice would come out of the grapes, and then they would drain the juice off, and they would make their wine. But the people that are inside of the wine press stomping on the grapes, grape juice is all over their garments. I mean, it's indiscriminately splashed all over them. It's not like laid out in a beautiful pattern. I mean, grape juice is all over them. And Isaiah said, you look, something's out of place. You look like you've been stomping in the wine press. You've got red all over you. I mean, everywhere. And it's, you know, not some beautiful pattern. It's weird. You know, go clean up, and then let's talk later, or something. I don't think he said that. And Jesus answers. He goes, well, you've said it right. What it looks like I did, I just did. I have trodden the wine press. You're right. I've trodden it in my anger. I've trampled, and he goes on to describe in verse 6, the nations. In my anger. Because the wine press is all of these nations that have gathered around Jerusalem. All the kings of the earth have gathered to one area. The first time in history, all the kings of the earth, and all their armies have gathered at the same place at the same time. And they think they're gathering there to get rid of the Jews and to take over Jerusalem. But Jesus has called them there, because it's his wine press, and he's going to trample them and kill them all. So they're gathering to Jerusalem to take over the city. That's why the devil sends them there. God sends them there, because both send them there, but for different motives. Jesus gathers them, because he calls it his wine press. It's a very dramatic moment. And he goes on, he says, I've trodden them in my anger. Actually, you're right. Their blood is on my garments. I've stained my robes. And they said, now wait a second. Jesus' supernatural garments have the blood of natural people on them? Yes. They will. And someone says, how long will they be on there? I don't know. That'd be conjecture. Maybe a short amount of time. Maybe longer. I don't know. But what Jesus is saying by this, he goes, I'm coming as the greater David. The great warrior king of Israel. David was the warrior king. I'm far more powerful than David. And the reason this blood is on me, I'm not waving my hand from the sky. I'm up close and personal in the battle with them, for real. I mean, this thing has a supernatural dimension, this battle, but it has a very natural dimension as well. But a bigger point that Jesus is saying besides just I'm up close and personal, he's saying, I'm not ashamed of the blood I spill, but I wear it like a badge. And they say, what's that mean? Well, a lot of the body of Christ is embarrassed by God's judgments, but God isn't. We take the love of Jesus and we take the judgment of God, because we don't understand that they're the same thing, because his judgments remove everything that hinders love. We think his judgment is opposite of love, so we talk about the love of Jesus, and then we kind of hide the Jesus the judge in the back room when the neighbors come over. And Jesus says, don't do that. I am not ashamed of my judgments. My judgments are all about righteousness and salvation. If there's no judgment, there is no glory that comes on Jerusalem. Back in chapter 60, 61, and 62, it's one subject. He goes, I'm going to tell you, he told him back in verse 1, I'm going to talk about righteousness. This is all about righteousness. This isn't about I went on a mad spree and just let them have it because I couldn't take it anymore. He goes, no. I'm operating in perfect demonstration of love. Everything I do, I do for love. So this is literal. There's several verses in the Bible when you put them all together, it's unmistakable that it's to be understood literal. A lot of commentators will make it figurative because they don't have any grid for the natural dynamics in context to the supernatural dynamics of the return of the Lord. They see him coming from heaven, he waves his hand, everybody is, all the bad people, they don't, you know, I've talked to people, they don't know where the bad people go, they just evaporate or something. They don't. He comes down and he executes them for real. And then they're buried and they have to be moved from the land. I mean, it's really natural. There's natural dynamics in this while there's the full dimension of the supernatural. Paragraph 1, John the apostle, he sold the Isaiah 63, Jesus in red. It's what I call this, the Jesus in red. He sold this vision, directly Isaiah 63, in context of the battle for Jerusalem. Number one, Jesus will gather, first he'll gather all the kings of the earth. Again, they think they're being gathered on their own agenda. Jesus is gathering them for Jesus' agenda to kill them, because he's going to replace the governments of the earth in one day. I mean, who would have thought of bringing global transformation, getting every single king, all of their cabinet members, all of their armies, in one city at one time, motivated by their own greed, and kill them all at once. Like, what? That's exactly what the Bible says. And then he's going to put new leaders in, and start the transformation process. He's going to replace all the evil governments at the same time. Never have all the kings of the earth and all their armies gathered in one place, but they go in two. And the Bible calls it God's winepress. There's probably five or six verses that refer to this as God's winepress. From Joel chapter 3 to several of them. Okay, you can read Revelation 19 on your own, if that's a new idea to you. Joel chapter 3, it's right here we have it. I will gather all the nations in verse 2. I'll bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is the area of Jerusalem. Now, in essence, I'm going to kill them there. It says I'll kill them in several other verses. It's real straightforward. And the winepress, God's winepress of wrath, will be full. Now, John gave more details to this winepress in Revelation 14. He saw the angel. He threw all the bad people into that winepress. He gathered them. I'm talking about the political leaders, the commanders of armies and the armies. Billions of people still are back home. Now, this is often called the Battle of Armageddon, but it's more biblically accurate to call it the Battle for Jerusalem. Because Armageddon is the staging area up north. That's where the armies gather and get organized and mobilized. But the actual battle itself is not Armageddon. The battle is around the city of Jerusalem some miles north. I don't know how many miles. 60, 70 miles north. Or maybe it's even a little bit more than that. Maybe 100 miles north. Armageddon's up in the north. That's the staging area where all the nations gather. But the battle is Jerusalem. And John sees it here in great detail. He says in Revelation 14, verse 28, he said, the wine press is trampled outside the city. Now the city is Jerusalem. He goes, God is gathering all these leaders, all the commanders, all their cabinets, they're all together, and He's going to destroy them all at the same time and blood's going to flow about 4 feet deep for about 200 miles. Some commentators say that can't possibly be true. I'm just going with the Bible. I mean start with Genesis 1 before there's a heaven and the earth. And Jesus says, let there be. And all of a sudden, I mean, if you could do that, this is easy. And so there will be, for 200 miles, there will be blood flowing. Now you know the terrain of Israel's up, down, up, down. So it's not like the plains of Kansas, 4 feet, 200 miles, evenly distributed. The terrain is very up and down. And you find in Ezekiel 38 on the time of the battle, there's a great storm, a hell storm, and flooding rains. So it's not like pure blood 4 feet deep, but the whole land is flooded while the blood is flowing. So it's blood mixed with flooding rains all together, all over the land for 200 miles, for real. This is actual. And then there's going to be a great clean up time after that, which Jesus calls the birds. And they come and they eat all the carcasses. They actually do that. This is how He's thought through everything. Paragraph C. Now the Lord explains it. The Lord's talking to Isaiah. He said, I'm going to tell you why I have to do this. Because it's the day of vengeance has come. But also the year of redemption. Now notice it's a day versus a year. The point being the hour of vengeance is a very short amount of time. I mean it happens for a couple days or longer, whatever, but it's a very short period of time. We don't know. Very brief called the day of vengeance. Very short period where this gathering around Jerusalem happens and then Jesus executes them and replaces all the leaders of the earth. But it's called the year of redemption. Now we know it goes on forever. But the point being it's a long period of time. But the important part here is that His vengeance and His salvation or redemption are exactly the same thing. They're not opposites. They're not contradiction. You know one guy says, well I'm really into the salvation but not the judgment. That's impossible. You just don't understand the Bible if you separate those two. They are one reality. The reason there's vengeance, because there's salvation. The reason there's salvation, that makes vengeance has to happen. So Jesus describes why He has to come with such fury. The anointed one, back from chapter 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, I'm the anointed one, is coming to comfort Israel in this great cleansing of the enemies off the land. Let's go to paragraph D verse 5. Now this is Jesus still speaking. He says, I looked but there was no one to help me. I wondered there was no one to uphold me. There was no one to stand with me. And what I believe this means is there were no other national governments that would side with Jesus to destroy the rest of these governments. All the governments came in unity together. He couldn't find another king and another government that would agree with His judgments to exterminate the other ones. He said I couldn't find anybody with enough discernment and commitment and power to help me. So I did it myself. My own arm did it. He will cleanse the nations without the help of any other government helping Him. Now we know, but it's just fun to say Jesus is the only hope of the nations. The United Nations will never ever get rid of the bad nations. Because the United Nations is made up of bad leaders trying to get rid of bad leaders. And I'm not picking on them. It's because humans are sinful. All of us are. There is nobody to cleanse the nations except for Jesus. And that's what this is saying. Verse 5, I looked there was no other government, no other king, no alliance, no coalition that would stand with me. And I wondered there was no one to uphold me. So my own arm did it. And he said I didn't need anybody to stand with me. My own fury sustained me. My own anger against injustice fueled me. I didn't need any help or any encouragement. When I saw the injustice and I saw the wickedness, my anger against injustice was all the sustaining motivation I needed. I love my people and they are destroying my people and destroying the others who were not even the people of God because Jesus hates injustice no matter what. Verse 6, so because of my fury and nobody would help me, he repeats it again. What he said earlier in verse 2, he goes I trodden down the peoples. Now the word peoples, you ought to put the word nations in there. Same word. I myself trodden the nations. So it went from, he's marching through Edom in verse 1, which is Jordan. He's trampling one nation but before the end of the conversation that's back in verse 2 and 3 but by the end of the conversation, verse 6 he says I'm going to tread all the nations. There won't be one standing when I'm done. Because he hates injustice that much. Now paragraph E, we're not going to go through this but I just want to note it. I connect the warrior which is Jesus in 59 with the warrior of 63. The two pictures of the warrior king. They again are like bookends to that glorious Isaiah 60, 61, 62. And look at Isaiah 59, the very end, verse 20. The redeemer, he's coming to Zion. The place of the word Zion. But Jerusalem he's on his way to Jerusalem and he's going to convert the nation of Israel. To those that will repent of their sins, he's coming for them. So after this Isaiah 59 mighty warrior, then the glorious Isaiah 60, 61 and 62. At the end of that we see the warrior again. Now let's go to the top of page 3. Now I'll give a very kind of a short testimony. I'll give the short version. I gave a longer version several times. A personal testimony before we look at top of page 3. Back in 1997 September I had a supernatural encounter with the Lord related to Isaiah 63. Because Isaiah 63 was always kind of interesting. And I'd read it every now and then and just kind of like, wow, that's intense. You're going to have blood all over yourself and you're going to trample the nations. I love it! Do what you have to do! But you know, I'd just kind of read it for a minute or two and go on. And one day again I'm just telling the brief version of the story. I was at our morning prayer meeting. It was on a Wednesday morning. And the Spirit of the Lord was resting on me in the most unusual way for several hours. I don't know that I've ever had that happen besides maybe once or twice in 40 years of walking with the Lord. Maybe two or three times total. Some unusual where the Spirit was resting on me like wind and fire. It was like I felt wind gently but clearly and I looked and saw if there were any vents or anything. I don't know what was going on here. And burning fire all over me. Every part of my body was on fire. My chest, my stomach, my face, my arms were on fire. I'm going, what is going on here? And I'm very aware it's the Holy Spirit but I don't really quite have grid for what's happening. It was not a experience I was familiar with. And I'm reading Isaiah 63. As I'm reading it I'm reading this and I'm asking what Isaiah is saying. Why are your garments red? Because that's what it says in verse 2. Why are your garments red? I was saying that to the Lord. Because I said if you're the king you should be wearing white garments. You're a king. And then in verse 3 he says I tread the nations, the winepress alone. I tread it alone. And the Lord began to speak to me that no government of the earth will stand with Him. Nobody will agree with His judgments. Nobody would agree with Him executing all the leaders of the earth. I mean just I mean imagine, you're going to imagine preaching this. One day a Jewish man is going to gather all the leaders of the United Nations and he's going to supernaturally execute all of them. Right. Christians don't believe that. Though that's what Jesus says. So maybe we say it a little softer version. We won't call it the United Nations because that organization may not even exist but it's just all the kings of the earth. And I was going through this and and I felt, I mean not felt, the Lord spoke to me very clearly and says, will you agree with me? Nobody will stand with me. He didn't mean no individual person. He meant not a government but as one of many I'm sure the Lord is giving this invitation to. He goes, will you agree with me? Will you stand with me as an individual? Will you not be embarrassed of my judgments that cause love to fill the earth? Because it's really popular to talk about the blessing and never popular to talk about the judgment. And I was saying yes and the fire of the Lord and the wind of the Spirit was on me. I said yes. I said I will preach the Jesus in red. Yes. I will do this. I was weeping. The Spirit was on me. This went on for a couple hours. It was so intense and a guy came up to me, Terry Bennett, tapped me on the shoulder and said I really hate to interrupt you because you're obviously being touched by the Lord. I was weeping and had been there for a couple hours. I was like yeah, can we do this later? Is what I was thinking. And he said I have to tell you something right now. He said I saw an open vision. I've been sitting there for a couple hours watching you. He goes an angel poured something over you and it was like wind and fire. I saw fire all over you with wind blowing around you. So now I'm listening to him. I don't say anything because I'm just so ruined emotionally just out of sorts and I'm not really into a conversation right then. But I just looked at him and he said the Lord told me he's going to reveal. Now my Bible is not open at this time. So now I came over took a peek at my Bible and gave me a little fake prophecy. Seen plenty of that over the years. But anyway he came up to me and said the Lord told me he's going to reveal himself to you as the Jesus in red from Isaiah 63. And he said and he wants you to study that passage and he wants you to stand with him in that passage. He said I'm going to leave now. I'm sorry for interrupting you. That was such a dramatic moment. You know I didn't have the wherewithal to even tell him for some time. You know it was like Terry that was quite remarkable. So I'm really connected to this passage and it's part of the mandate of the IHOP part of our mandate as our spiritual family part of our assignment to have night and day prayer and evangelism but to preach on Jesus as bridegroom, king and judge. Because there's no contradiction between Jesus the judge and Jesus the bridegroom. The bridegroom has power, has desire the king has power he is a bridegroom with desire he's a king with power but he's a judge with zeal to confront everything that hinders love. So he has great zeal and he calls it fury here. I'm sustained by my fury. Well let's we got two pages here. I'll just kind of give you a snapshot of it instead of go through it. Two pages of notes here in Isaiah 63 to 64 because you can read this on your own and you can make sense of it. Paragraph A now what Isaiah is writing this prayer and again he's praying for his own day undoubtedly he's praying for the compromise. His own heart is wrenched by the state of Israel in his day but if he knows prophetically by his own prophecies it's going to get far more intense in the future, far more worse far worse and so he's praying for Israel in his day he's praying for his beloved nation in the future. He's oh God have mercy even in that day I don't know when but in that day have mercy and when the great warrior king comes that he saw a number of times in the book of Isaiah oh God show your mercy and wherever your people are stuck in compromise even a little bit of compromise that's minimizing the power of God in their life and the connection with God or they're stuck in great compromise liberate them and free them so Isaiah is praying but he records the prayer so now it's our prayer too and again it's a prayer from somebody who's on fire for God lamenting because all the people around in the cities in the nations the majority are not walking with God or the intercessor is saying even in my own life there's unsettled issues so I'm not just praying for others I'm praying for me as well as them so there's the both connections starts in paragraph B and verse 7 to 9 you want to highlight verse 7 to 9 because 7 to 9 is one of the greatest Old Testament revelations of the love of God some people say God is not of God of love in the Old Testament one of the greatest passages of love in the Bible is Isaiah 63 verse 7 to 9 so he starts off with that so even when we see sin in our nation or in the church or sin in our own life and family we start off by verse 7 mentioning or you could put the word remembering or recalling we start off with God the prayer starts off with a God focus we don't start off like we normally would by our powerlessness or our great need a lot of people begin their prayer oh God I need power and I need money and I need help and that's okay I've done plenty of those but Isaiah is saying let's start with God first and let's tell God who God is and how good He's been to us and let's get the conversation founded on truth and it really does change the way we pray if we anchor it in the way Isaiah did so this is a model intercession by the way Isaiah 63 and 64 he has just seen the glory of God in Jerusalem in Isaiah 60 61 62 he just saw the glory of the great warrior king coming to remove all the enemies and now he's saying okay with such glory how come we have such weakness but he starts off verse 7 8 and 9 I will remind you God of your loving kindness of your great goodness of your great mercy of the multitude of your loving kindness and here's the principle whatever loving kindness God has done in the past He will do it again because if God did it in the past He doesn't ever change if He did it in the past then it's like a window into His heart that's the kind of personality He has so anytime God has acted in the past it's like we got it we can see it you love you forgive this way you give so generously because it's in the word and if you did it once that's how you'll always do it so we start by recalling that in our own life again we're praying for our heart our family our own ministry but we're praying for our city for our nation we're praying for Israel we start with God not with our powerlessness and with our need in verse 8 and 9 Isaiah said reminding God God you called us your people I'm going to tell you what you said about us because I look at us we're broken we're a mess we're filled with compromise because my city is filled with compromise and I know it's going to be many times in the generations ahead but you called us your people beloved that's where we start this is called the gracious election and what I mean by that he chose us before we chose him we had to choose him some people say God chose us so that's it no we have to respond and say yes but he initiates it he starts it he wooed us and he wowed us long before we said yes but he goes I knew what I was getting into like the song goes I like that song Misty sings he knew what he was getting into when he chose you and called your name that's grace so Isaiah is saying surely we're yours you knew the mess we were but you wanted us that tells us about you there's no one that wants a people that's a mess you're not shocked by who we are then verse 9 which is just remarkable that God actually Jesus feels the pain we feel he says in all their affliction he was afflicted and the angel of his presence that's a Old Testament description of Jesus Jesus appeared a number of times in the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord's presence it wasn't an angel it's the uncreated second person of the Trinity Jesus himself before the incarnation he saved them in love he pitied them he bore them he carried them all the day he goes you had pain when we had pain beloved you have pain in your life you have pain over your I'm talking about even spiritual you're looking at your city you're looking at your nation you're looking at Israel you're looking at your family you have pain and the Lord says know this I have pain with your pain I'm not a distant observer of your life I am deeply participating with you he feels deep emotions for us he has delight in us and he has pain with us he participates in our affliction beloved this is the kind of God he is so we start verse 7 to 9 with the love of God then verse 10 the tragedy of tragedies in the midst of all of this love and this deep participation of God's heart with our heart with his people verse 10 they rebelled they said no we'd rather sin than have you with your power and your love and your deep participation with us we'd rather have our sin and the Lord was grieved put the word in there he was saddened the happy God is sad over the response of his people the New Testament calls it in Ephesians 4 verse 30 the spirit's greed uses the same word the same description Isaiah is a Hebrew and Ephesians is a Greek word but the God that's so happy that has so much delight in his people can become sad with his people and he's not sad at our failure he's sad at our persistent lack of response when he woos us because we fail and we repent and he's still with us and he enjoys the relationship but when we fail and he woos us and we say I don't want to be bothered with your wooing that hurts his heart it actually hurts him he's sad and he said the most horrible thing Isaiah said he goes you know how dangerous it is to be in a relationship with a God who loves you this deep and you tell him no then the God that is your savior now becomes your enemy and now he's committed to fight against you to stop your sinful agendas because he's the God of holiness he won't let sin prosper and because he loves you he's going to fight against your own sinful agendas to wake you up to recover you but if he won't if you won't say yes he's at least going to stop your sinful agenda because he's committed to holiness can you imagine the God who loves you the God who gives his power and covenant relationship becomes grieved and then becomes an enemy of the very people that he loves someone says well praise God that's Old Testament well don't go there too quick because Revelation 2 Jesus actually references this idea and tells them at the church there at Pergamos and he says tell them they don't stop their immorality I will fight them myself with my sword what you don't fight people he goes of course I fight them I fight them because I love them I am going to do what I can do in my wisdom to wake them up because I'm not giving up on them so therefore I'm going to wake them up and I will use my sword to wake them up they'll repent then I won't do that but I will fight against them because I'm not giving up on them beloved it's good to know there's somebody that will fight for you but that someone's really powerful and if you don't yield that's bad news because he's more than state champion I mean he's way beyond that he will fight against us verse 11 now what Isaiah he's giving this prayer to Israel for future generations so it's Israel praying the prayer too all the way through Isaiah's praying it for his generation and he's praying it for future generations and he's offering the model prayer for us to use generations after him verse 11 he says well Israel's in rebellion but there's a time when he Israel will remember the days of power back in the days of Moses and the remembrance of the God of miracles and power will provoke them like we can go back to Moses where's the God of Moses we can say where's the God of Elijah or we can go back to the book of Acts where's the God of Peter James and John we can go a number of places when we remember that's a biblical principle to remember I tell you this warrior king who's coming he has that power right now he's not just going to have it when he gets here the power's his now we remember his power and we remember how he showed it or manifested it through Moses through Peter James and John but he's going to since it's Old Testament Isaiah's he's going to describe the power in Moses' day and the remembrance of the power of the days of old will make the people of God go where is the God who brought him up out of the sea where is the God of Moses we want you God to release your power he wants us to contend for the fullness of his presence and power he doesn't want us to give up and give in and just go with whatever's happening he wants us to remember and determine never to be content without pressing in for the fullness of God's power in our generation somebody says well I've been doing it for five or ten years it hasn't come so do it five or ten more there is no good option we contend for fullness or we give up and become content in bareness I don't want to be content in bareness I am going to by the grace of God I am going to remember the God of Moses and the God of Paul the God of Elijah and I'm going to say where are the more dramatic manifestations of your power and the Lord says good good keep telling me remind me this is what I want you to do ok let's look at paragraph F then now he moves over to the lament itself his complaint really starts here in verse 15 to 19 this is where the painful complaint begins God verse 15 would you look down from heaven and see where are your zeal and your strength put the word miracles where's the yearning of your heart here's the idea because we're in a place of compromise and a place of bareness and the enemy is is attacking us at every level have you changed the way you feel about us this is this is a very common feeling and Isaiah could envision a time where even the people of God would say have you given up on us do you don't yearn for us anymore and God says I don't agree with that I don't agree with where many people take that prayer because when many people say where's the yearning of your heart where's your zeal there the tone or the context which they're praying it is that you have given up on us and the Lord says I disagree with that because when he answers this prayer in chapter 65 and 66 he tells them I haven't given up on you I am totally focused on you I am talking to you I have plans for you yes you feel like I'm far away I'm trying to get you to seek me on my terms my way I have much to say to you let's go to top of page four now this is one of the great terrifying prayers verse 17 why have you made us stray from your ways and why have you hardened our heart Israel's complaining I'm in paragraph H God your part responsible for why we're in such a mess versus no don't don't go there if you would move in power we would be obedient and that's a logical statement except for the generation God showed the greatest power in ever even beyond the book of Acts far beyond the book of Acts with the generation of Moses and the whole generation was rebellious against God and they had power beyond anything we've ever seen in history far beyond the book of Acts was the book of Exodus well if you would show your miracles then we wouldn't be stuck and God says that no I'm not I disagree with that well you're sovereign you are at least part responsible aren't you well there's two sides to hardening in the Bible God only hardens people as a judgment if they harden themselves God never hardens a person who doesn't choose sin disregard him after a season of conviction then God hardens him he says okay I will let you have the sin you chose I'll let you have it in a bigger measure than you were bargaining for but he only hardens people who persist in hardening themselves and it's a judgment he allows sin to dominate them because they refused to repent of it when he was wooing them they can still repent of it it just takes a little bit more determination now let's look at Roman numeral 4 now the great second coming prayer this verse that we prayed in the prayer room for revival it's okay to pray for revival it's not a revival prayer in the classic sense it's a second coming prayer when it says oh that you would run the heavens they're talking about the warrior king of chapter 63 verse 1 to 6 the one with the blood stained garments would you come down and get blood on your garments and liberate our city they're actually praying for the second coming of they don't know it's the second coming but they're praying for the Messiah to come to Jerusalem that's what they're praying right here it's okay that we say oh run the heavens and come down and what we mean is we want a visitation of the spirit that's a verse that's been used for 2,000 years that way but that's not what it means in its context there Isaiah is praying for the warrior king of chapter 63 verse 1 to 6 with the blood stained garments would you finally break in and trample all the wicked nations that are destroying us and fill our city with glory would you come down that the mountains would shake in other words he's saying we want the Moses level miracles plus some when he says the mountains shake they're saying we want Moses plus some the mountains meaning the mountains shook in Exodus 19 at Sinai when they all gathered around the mount Sinai the whole mountain shook and Isaiah said we want that plus more as fire burns brushwood as fire causes water to boil we want you to confront your adversaries which are Israel's adversaries that those that siege gathered around them now how does fire burn brushwood easily and quickly is the point in other words real fast and real easy like fire burns hay we want you to consume your enemies which happen to be our enemies too verse 3 we want to see the awesome things the mount Sinai Moses stuff paragraph B now he goes on I'll just go another moment or two because we're out of time but we've got to give you these 5 principles in paragraph B and then the paragraph right after that 5 words 1 2 3 4 5 look in the middle verse 4 no man has ok let's read the whole thing so you can follow it since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear nor has any eye nobody has seen a god who acts for the one who waits for him you meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness and you meet the person that remembers you in your ways that's 3 right there god acts for the person who waits god wants people to wait on him it's a prayer life verse 5 god will meet he will encounter people who will rejoice in doing righteousness like oh I got obey god I don't want to and I'm going to try to cut a corner Isaiah says don't go that way rejoice in wholehearted obedience and remember god in his ways in other words walk in the ways of god don't try to beat the system paragraph A the next one let's look at verse 7 and there's no one who calls on your name and who stirs himself to take hold of you so those are the issues those are the 5 I just wanted to bring together and I'm going to end with that let's go through them again verse 5 I mean verse 4 god acts for people who wait on him are you waiting on him is that part of your lifestyle what's a miracle he exchanges our weak waiting for his divine action he acts if we wait my waiting is so fragile I mean we're so prone to distraction our waiting on god is so weak I know but I just want it I demand it verse 5 the second point he'll meet he'll encounter you instead of the word meet put encounter if you rejoice in doing righteousness if you're not trying to cut corners not doing righteousness just as long as people are looking at you but you actually rejoice in it number 3 you remember god in his ways you're doing the ways of god for god and in his sight you're not doing the ways of god so people will applaud you you're remembering god in doing them you're doing them before his eyes that's the third thing verse 7 you call on his name that's the fourth thing you stir yourself up to take hold of him now he wants us to stir ourselves up in the natural my mind naturally gravitates to distraction it gravitates to fleshing us it gravitates to 10 more things that are bad we have to stir ourselves up to take hold of him and to take hold of him means to press in it doesn't mean I'm going to do everything in my power to get up get in the car go to the prayer room and sit there no we're going to take hold of god not just sit in a chair that doesn't mean you have to like scream and shout at god you don't have to do that you can but taking hold of god means at the heart level you're engaging and it takes energy to engage it takes energy to stir yourself up to take hold of him you can do it totally quiet engage from the heart level that's what god wants this is what he's after amen let's end with that