Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the Anna anointing, a divine calling for persistent prayer and intercession that will rise among believers, both male and female, across the globe. He draws inspiration from the biblical figure Anna, who dedicated her life to prayer and fasting in the temple, and encourages the church to embrace this calling to combat the fainting spirit affecting prayer in the Western church. Bickle believes that as the International House of Prayer is established, it will ignite courage in intercessors and draw many back to a life of prayer, ultimately leading to a global revival. He stresses the importance of identity in prayer, asserting that knowing one's calling as an intercessor brings strength and resolve. The sermon calls for a new generation of prayer warriors to rise up, fueled by the fire of God, to fulfill their divine purpose.

Obviously a glass and related subjects, because I'm so in the flow of this, because I'm preaching it at 5 o'clock this evening, earlier tomorrow, that I'm just staying right with it. I'm just in an Anna flow right now. And so I just decided to share stuff that I won't be sharing at the services, because my heart's bursting with this. As today I was thinking of sticking with Ezekiel 1, but this Anna, this anointing for Anna, this is what actually the Ormbees are really doing. It's this Anna anointing that they're saying yes to in the name of Jesus, and others are saying yes to it. Luke 18, verse 1, we're going to begin with this. We're going to look at Anna for just a minute or two, just a few moments. I just want to stir your hearts, because Anna, the anointing that was upon Anna, is going to be an anointing widespread across the body of Christ. I don't mean the majority of the believers will operate under this anointing of grace. I don't mean the majority, but I mean out of a billion new converts in the harvest, there will be millions and millions. The percentage will be small, of a billion, but the numbers will be, there won't be just one here and one there. The Lord will raise up Annas across the earth, male and female. It's not a gender-based anointing, it's an anointing of the Spirit. And it happens to be that one of the strongest examples in the whole Word of God, it was a young single woman, she was about 24 or 25, when this grace of God began to get a hold of her. And it stayed on her for 60 years until she was 84. And Luke 2, we'll look at that in a few moments. At least 60 years, this grace was on her. And then a very different flavor, if you will, a very different manifestation of the grace of wholehearted prayer is Mary of Bethany. And I just want to talk a little bit about her, just a few moments. But I want to stir our hearts about this as it relates to the house of prayer. And the reason, I guess this is so long, because I'm announcing this weekend the completing, at least of the skeletal structure. I mean, when we complete this 24 hours a day, it will only have 50 to 100 at each meeting, is what I'm imagining. 50 to 100. 30 or 40. It's nothing like the 1 or 2,000 we will have at every meeting in the days to come. It's a skeletal structure, but it's enough to act as a catalyst to touch our city, to draw the intercessors out of the woodwork. I mean, there are intercessors all over Kansas City that are alone, that are isolated, that have given up. Some are alone and they haven't given up. Some are isolated and haven't given up. But many have given up. They've lost heart. And the very announcement of 24 hours a day, 30, 40, 50, 100 at each meeting, it will draw them back to life. And that's why we have to have this skeletal structure, so to speak, just a little bit at every meeting, because the announcement will release courage. The announcement will draw forth courage in the hearts of multitudes, and that's why it's important to do it as soon as possible. Not only will it release courage to the intercessors that have lost courage or are isolated or alone or burnt out, it's going to release courage to people all over the earth. The news of an actual 24-hour-a-day house of prayer with worship and intercession and that interactive model that we believe the Bible talks about, where the harp and the bow come together, that's not a going-to but an actual existing reality in Kansas City, it's going to touch people. There's several of these happening around the world right now, 24-hour-a-day house of prayer. I don't know about the music yet, but I believe in my heart that the Lord's raising them up, even as I speak. I mean, they're happening just as I'm talking to people, the Lord's grace is evidently stirring people. I don't mean my talking stirs them, I'm saying something different than that, but as I talk to them, it's evident that they've been stirred for this very vision and the fact the Lord's allowing us to be in the first installment. And I mean, what I mean by that, I don't mean the first one, but maybe the first 50 or 10 or 20 or 30 around the earth that's doing this is significant to us. But the announcement of it is going to create courage to people. I mean, some of you, when you heard the vision proclaimed, you cried. You've come and told me, I've seen some of the tears, and some of you have told me, just the statement of it sets your heart on fire. And that's what it does, that's how it works. Anyway, Jesus gave a parable in Luke 18 verse 1. And here's the purpose of the parable. This is why it's a very interesting and even a literal reality, that men ought always to pray and not lose heart, not faint, one version says. There's a fainting spirit that's upon the western church right now related to prayer. There's a fainting spirit, it's been on the church for decades, maybe centuries. But God's going to reverse this thing. God is going to cause there to be a new grace that sets the heart on fire in the grace of prayer. It's the parable of a widow, and I don't want to go into it, I'll talk a little bit about it tomorrow. But verse 3, here's the theme cry of the widow. She's crying for justice from the adversary. The cry of these intercessors, because my premise is there's going to be an Anna and a Mary and Bethany anointing. It looks different. It's a continual prayer, it's a burning heart of prayer anointing, if you want to just put a term. It's a burning heart of prayer, but Anna was intercessory in focus and Mary was extravagant worship in focus. Though the two come together in the tabernacle of David. Anyway, the heart cry of this millions worldwide, and a number of you in this room, this is who you are. This is your spiritual identity. As I speak this, it's going to give definition to your life and to your heart in a greater way. You're going to say, that's how I see myself. That's who I am. And when it really connects with you, this is who you are. I tell you, something goes off on the inside that's powerful. Strength and resolve is loosed in your inner man. I remember the time with this very passage when the Lord connected with me. In a very definitive way, that this was my calling for my life. Something powerful connected, I knew who I was. It was God used Luke 18 and Isaiah 62. It was this very passage. It was in May of 1979. It was a very dramatic time, it was a very life changing time. I was a 23 year old young man. And the Lord spoke those two passages to me in a series of several days. And it culminated in one day. And the Lord clearly said to me, made it clear, this is who you are. This is what your life is about. You will be a man of night and day prayer. This is who you are. I didn't know exactly what that would look like. But it connected that I was an intercessor first and a preacher second and a pastor third. And I made that clear in the first weeks when I started this church 16 years ago. I said, I come here to raise the church up because I've been commanded by the Lord. I am first and foremost an intercessor and a man of prayer. I am second, I'm a preacher. And thirdly, I said, oh God help me. I'm going to try to pastor a church. I said, this is not really who I am. I said that a number of times the first five or ten years. But my point is that that, my point is it connected with me when I was 23 years old through Luke 18. And when it did, the fireworks went off. Son, what I mean by the fireworks went off, it settled lots of issues. Lots of opportunities, potential ways to view my future life. As a young man, I just pushed delete. They were gone. And it's amazing the strength of heart you can have when about a hundred options are now out of your life, final. The power of a focused identity, the power on our heart of a focused identity, I don't think we fully understood it. Because I have, you know, many options I thought, you know, just the musings of a young man's mind. I might go do this, I might go here, I might, who knows. But when the Lord spoke this, I mean my world became very narrow and very focused. And you know what happened? I found strength of heart like I never had before. And I found a resolve in this identity not to go right and not to go left with many kinds of ministry opportunities because I knew who I was. I've had people tell me, well, you're unusually dedicated in those early days of your life. And I said, well, that's not exactly right. I had unusual perspective about who I was. I had an unusual clarity about my identity. That's the truth. Dedication is easy once you have identity clear. Trying to get people dedicated before identity is hard work. They'll get dedicated as long as the conference is in their memory of the one that turned them on, you know, real hot. But three weeks later, they're right back where they were. It's really difficult to set people on fire long term unless it flows out of a clear identity. And so dedication was not the thing that I think most about. I had a certain dedication, but what I had was a clarity of knowing who I was. And I don't just mean that God loved me. Oh, that for sure is powerful. Believe me, I don't ever undermine that. But I mean in terms of my life mission. I knew from God for sure, for permanent, I was called primarily as an intercessor on earth during my brief stay on planet earth. He said, I'll let you preach to the earth. I'll let you preach to stadiums. But that's not mostly what you are. You're mostly going to be a man of prayer. And God used this and it locked in. And I tell you something of strength and resolve and just yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, if that's that, that's that. And that's why I'm proclaiming this to you. And of course on Saturday nights we're going to really look at Anna and Mary Beth in a lot more detail. But I'm just on fire with this fact. We're starting in two months and we're organizing it right now. We're announcing it. So I'm just in this low right now. And here's what the intercessor cried out. Give me justice for my adversary. That's what the intercessor cried out. Jesus finished the work. And every sick person and every demon possessed person and every person in bondage to sin and every church that's spiritually bored with barrenness, which a lot of that's in this church, I just want to say, across the earth there's a lack of justice because Jesus has done the work. But God says he waits to hear the cry of the intercessors before he releases it. When I look at every sick person and every person that's died in this church, I say I want justice. He already came as a man. He bore the price. And the Lord says when I hear the sound of your cry and the conditions I've set forth in my word, and the conditions are corporate, corporate, not just isolated prayer, corporate, persistent night and day prayer. There's several other conditions, but that's a good beginning. He says when I hear that, the cry for justice, the lame walk, the blind see, the unbelievers have the fire of God draw them into the power of the gospel. When the adversary is resisted in intercession, then you will see it. It goes on in verse 7. I'm skipping so much of the message here, but that's okay. Jesus now he applies it. He says, verse 7, shall God not avenge his own elect? When he answers them, but God counts it as a legal way he gives them, he avenges them. He releases vengeance on sickness and sin and darkness and barrenness and demonic oppression. There's a vengeance that God looses based on the work of the cross when the intercessors cry out. He said, here's where he said, the ones who cry day and night, day and night to him, though he bears long with them. God has already warned us, and this was a passage I even knew in those days, I mean this phrase, God will bear long. There is a long suffering dimension in God's heart and in the intercessors. The Lord tells us on the front end, don't expect instant, massive breakthroughs in cities. There is a bearing that the intercessor and the Lord in his divine economy, it's already established. But I tell you that he will avenge speedily, speedily. And someone says, well he hasn't done speedily, and I say, where's the night and day prayer in the cities of the earth? There's not night and day prayer in Kansas City. So we can't charge God with not answering speedily because we haven't done the condition yet. It takes the grace of God to build the night and day prayer furnaces. But when God looses those, you know, his gift to a city has been increased. Every city in the earth that has a 24-hour prayer furnace burning, and especially with the prophetic spirit on musicians and singers, aiding the flow of intercession, I tell you, blessed is the city in whom night and day prayer has been given by God to that city. So the body of Christ complains in a futile way because the condition has not been met yet. He didn't say, I'll answer speedily if there's a prayer meeting in a few congregations once or twice a week. It comes night and day, I will answer, I promise you I will answer. And I'll answer speedily. That doesn't necessarily mean a week or a month, it may mean several years to the Lord. But he will answer. Anyway, verse 7, it came to me like the fire of God, and I don't want to exaggerate it, but it did change my life radically in May of 1979. When I was 23 years old, I was struggling with the issue of prayer. My devotional prayer life had a certain grace on it, not that much, but a little bit. But my intercessory prayer life was disaster. And I tell you, the Lord used that phrase in verse 7 right there. He married it with Isaiah 62, 6, and it set me on fire. He said, that's who you are. You are one that will do night and day prayer. I had no idea that it would be a 24 hour a day house of prayer. That never really came to me until four years later, until May of 83, when the Lord spoke it audibly. And I went, oh, of course, Luke 18, verse 7, of course. That adds up. Okay, turn to Isaiah 62, the other one. The other passage the Lord used. I'm just giving you what He gave me. What I really want to do, I want to set on fire some old folks. I'm in the 40 and up crowd. But what I also really want to do is I want to set a context for the 20 year olds. I really do that. Because the 20 year olds, by the grace of God, in a moment, you'll be 30, 40, and 50. And some of you are going to have a prayer history that is outstanding. Because the Lord is drawing you and wooing you, even in these days. Now, what I'm going to tell you biographically here, it will sound like a sob story, but I don't mean it that way. I need to tell you my resolve. When I was 23 years old and the Lord gave this to me, the Lord launched me into, and I don't want to tell the whole thing right now, I will someday probably, but I began to spend five hours every day in intercession. The grace of God was never on me, and suddenly it was. I don't think that it will happen just suddenly to everybody that way at all. But it did to me. And I went from zero hours. Again, I had my devotional life, but I never actually prayed for revival. It happened. I did five hours a day. For the last 20 years, I've maintained that for at least 15 of the last 20 years. A little less for five of those years, right? About 92 to 97. But for at least 15 of those 20 years, the Lord kept me in that place. But here's what happened. And I'm not saying that's some great big statement, because I said that the Lord visited me in the supernatural way and called me in a way that would have been just unthinkable if I would have said no to it. I actually had an encounter with the Lord where I stood before Him at the judgment seat of Christ in eternity. I had a supernatural experience before the throne where I was literally standing before Him, and I heard Him talk about my life. If I went one way versus another way. So I did have help. I did have serious help. So I don't want to... I mean, and the Lord... I needed that. I couldn't have... I needed the... I mean, a full-on supernatural experience. And I'm talking about just in my mind's eye kind of deal. It radically changed my life in one very short period of time. But the Lord held me accountable. He says, I've graced you. I've helped you. You must answer that. When God gives grace, He requires an answer from the heart that gets grace. Some have experiences and they tell them and they go, well, I guess I didn't really do that. That's not good. The Lord calls you to something in a supernatural way. And in a definitively supernatural way, you need to, absolutely need to go there. It's trouble. See Jonah. I mean, it is trouble not to go when you've had an unusual supernatural encounter. But anyway, here's my self-story. Is that at that time in my life, for years, I couldn't find one leader over me. I had a number of guys over me in various capacities. Not one of them would give me one word of encouragement to this calling. I mean, every one of them, to a person. I'm talking about 20 key men in my life in various seasons. Without a doubt, in those early first 10 years or so, maybe 15 years, I don't know. Without a doubt, without one exception, every one of them tried to talk me out of my prayer calling. And I said, why is this that the old guys are so burnt out and so nervous about a young guy praying? I mean, you know, there'd be new situations. I'd meet another guy and the Lord, he'd have a certain place in my life. And he would hear what I was, what are you doing all your time? And I'd tell him, oh, you've got to be practical. Everyone, I heard that practical speech so many times. And I remember, again, here's part of my sob story, but I remember being so pained that I went before the Lord many times saying, is there anyone in the land that's been in the kingdom for 20 years that will stand for this kind of thing? And so the reason I'm telling you this, this isn't just to tell you a sob story, that I want to be that voice for 20 year olds. Because I know what it was like to have all the voices against me that day. And I said, Lord, so one of these days I'm going to be old. Well, what happened? I mean, compared to most of the people in the prayer room, I am. And I said, Lord, I'm going to be, I'm going to find other people of life spirits in the 40s, 50s, and 60s and on up. And we're going to create an environment that I don't mean protects them, but we push them and we set them on fire. And when they lag back, we push them to get in their face. We're going exactly the opposite direction. Not just okay them. Not just say, wow. Not just an occasional encouragement. I mean where we push them into this thing with all the force of the grace of God that we have. That was my commitment to the Lord in those days. So, Lord, just give me one voice of one man that will simply tell me this is God. And I did meet one. His name was Paul Cain. I was about 29 years old, 30. I met Paul Cain. And he said, yeah, that's exactly what you're calling me. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I loved him for that one reason. I said, I love you. And he goes, well, that seems pretty normal. You should do that. And I went, I got one. I really got one. And that really was a part of my, one of the factors of my deep bonding with Paul that he pushed me and prophesied to me according to this direction. Well, by the grace of God, we're going to, because I believe there's going to be millions of people with this calling, millions. Again, there's going to be a billion plus in the harvest. So millions is not like 50%, but it's going to be all over the earth. And we're going to make a place for them. We're going to find a place where they're nurtured and trained and not told that they're impractical and foolish. That's what the four-letter school is all about. I've been talking just a little bit here and there about, I'm going to talk a lot more in the days to come about, we're starting an international house of prayer mission base. The mission base, and what this is, we want to start these old, I want to start a hundred of them in the key places of the earth. This mission base is the prayer ministry that's essential to missions. And I'll talk more about that in the days to come. But these mission bases are going to create a place, a home in the spirit and in the natural, for these Anna's and these Mary of Bethany's that do this all day, every day, for years and years and years. I'm not saying it's the only place they will go. The Catholic Church has for years made a place for people with this calling. A lot of the monastic movement, a lot of it has gone, I mean, whole portions of it has gone right and left in negative ways. But I tell you, the fire has burned through the centuries. And they made a place for the Mary of Bethany's and for the Anna's. They made a place for her. But the Protestant Church almost has entirely rejected people with that kind of calling. If they did, they'd just have to sweat it out on their own somehow, some way. But the Lord wants to raise up these family units, I'm calling them mission bases, because it's the prayer end of the international missions movement that God's raising up in the earth right now. That's what's going on. And so the Lord is raising this up in this hour. And we'll talk more about these mission bases. They're not going to be monasteries in the historic sense. These mission bases are going to be deeply committed to the Great Commission. That's why I'm calling them mission bases. Isaiah 62, look at this, verse 1. Well, 6111 is the promise of global revival. Isaiah 6111 is one of the great ones. Well, 6110, take a back of verse, is the bridal paradigm of the kingdom. 6110 is the bridal paradigm of the kingdom. 6111 is the promise of a global end time harvest. As surely as the garden grows, as surely God's going to cause righteousness and praise to spring up in power in all the nations of the earth. Anointed praise. That's the house, that's the tabernacle of David. We're just anointed worshippers. We're going to fill the earth. All the different dimensions of it. So now God answers that prayer in that statement of 6111 and 62-1. This is the Lord speaking. For Zion's sake. God says, I'm not going to hold my peace. I'm not going to be quiet. For Jerusalem's sake, I'll not rest. I'm not going to be inactive. That's what the Lord's saying. The Lord says, I have a vision. God does. For 6111, for global revival that touches the ends of the earth and the generation of the Lord to return. And God's commitment. In 62-1, He says, I'm going to talk about it. It's called the prophetic ministry. It's called dreams and visions. It's called the power of God on the word. God says, I'm going to talk about it with fire. I'm not going to be quiet about this. And I'm not going to rest. He says, I'm going to be involved. I'm going to release some supernatural intervention to set things in order. He's going to raise money supernaturally. He's going to visit intercessors. He says, I'm not going to rest. He means I'm not going to be inactive. God is breaking. Now, this is a, you've got to just hear it right. His relative silence and His relative inactivity through church history. Obviously, He's been speaking through church history. He's been speaking and been acting. But nothing like the last generation. When God reveals what's on His heart at the magnitude He does in the last days. And in the sovereign dimensions of power, divine activity, it will look like the hundreds of years before. He was silent and inactive compared to what's going to happen. And look what He's going to do. He says, I'm going to keep talking and I'm going to keep acting until. Oh, I love that. Until, until, until. Until is the key word here. You find it here and you find it in verse 7. Until. This is the measuring rod. Her righteousness goes forth as brightness. And look here. Her lamp. Her salvation is a lamp that burns. A burning lamp. He says, I am going to set them on fire like a burning lamp. Incidentally, this is the very verse that Jesus quoted about John the Baptist. John 5.35. When he died, John the Baptist died, Jesus said he was the burning and shining lamp. John the Baptist was the first fruit of Isaiah 62.1. It's a direct quote of Isaiah 62.1. Men and women with the heart of John the Baptist. Can you imagine it? Could you imagine about 10 million people, I don't know what the number will be across the earth, with a heart like John the Baptist or Ann or Mary Bethany, like burning fire. Because God says, I promise you I won't quit talking until they're on fire. Now, I don't know what he said to John the Baptist, but I know John the Baptist was on fire. I don't know what he did to John the Baptist, but whatever he said and whatever he did, it set John on fire. And God says, I'm going to talk, I'm going to act until they're on fire. Now, enter, school of prayer Saturday night people. That's us, here we are. That's us. We say, okay Lord, you've made a promise. You're going to fill the earth with revival, 62.1, and you're going to set people on fire. Here I am. The Lord says, you're the very ones that I was longing for. You're the very ones I picked, as well as others across the earth. Weak people like you and me. He's going to talk to us. He's going to visit us. I don't know what's going to happen to everyone, but I know I've had several profoundly powerful supernatural experiences in 20 years. And I say, what's this about? And the Lord's answer, it's not like I heard this answer, but he says, I'm acting and speaking. I'm setting you on fire. You know, I know I've got a hyper personality. I know all that stuff. But it's not just about being hyper. It's about being visited. It's not that I just have more energy or more dedicated. It's not about that. It's really not about that. It's about being visited. It's about knowing who I am to the Lord in this. Here's my point. Every weak and broken person that gets visited and knows who they are, they become dedicated. They become torches. They become lamps that burn. And God promised He'd take weak, broken people like me and like you. He said, I'll talk to you and I'll visit you. I'll do things to you. I'll set you on fire. I don't mean just bad things like make it hard for 10 years. That's not what I mean. The Lord will do something. I'm talking about supernatural encounters with the Lord. So, well, I've never really had one. Well, you never have the first one until you have the first one. I mean, before I had one, I said I never had one. I mean, I'm not trying to be cute with that, but I mean, everyone has never had one until it happens, of course. The whole human race has hardly had one, but God is about to loosen them wholesale across the earth. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a heavenly visit, a trip to heaven. But I'm talking about the spirit of burning. I'm talking about encounters in dreams and the Word getting a hold of you and the Lord resting on you. It says we're at the beginning of the beginning of the beginning right now. But He's going to talk and He's going to act. He's going to break His rest. He's going to set people on fire. I don't know what He said to John the Baptist. I don't know what He did. But it worked. The man was on fire. And Jesus quoted this very verse. And then He quoted it about John, John 535. But it's really a statement not really about John. It's about the Father's activity in John's life. That's what it's really about. When I see an on-fire man or woman, I don't say, wow, they are so incredible. I say, God has been kind to them. There's only one reason that I've spent the hours I've spent in the last 20 years in prayer. Only one reason. I have been visited supernaturally. That's why in my heart I don't find anger. And I don't despise people who don't do it. Who don't live like that. Because I did it one time and the Lord showed me real clearly. He says, you only do it because I visited you in a way that just literally changed your emotional chemistry. And I don't mean that all my sins and propensities and temptations and propensities for sin are all God. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying it made a difference. It made a difference. So why am I telling you that? There's an army of people around the earth that God's about to visit. I mean, it's a vast army. And a number of them are sitting right here in this room. And a number of them have never, ever had anything unusual happen to them outside of their new birth. It may be a thing here or there, but not really much. But you just wait. Is it an accident you're in this city, in this hour, with this ministry of the House of Prayers being birthed, and this is one of the first installments of God's House of Prayers across the earth, for the whole earth before the Lord's coming. Is it an accident you're here? I tell you it's not. I tell you, good old week, you, you're here by divine appointment. You're being set up to be set on fire. You really are. And I told the Lord, I said, we're going to build, not that you have to be on one of these, be a full-time member of one of these International House of Mission bases, but I want to create an environment where this thing can be nurtured. We're going to have schools and train people and have meetings and call this forth, instead of put the fire out in the name of being practical. I don't think there's anything more practical in the hour of Satan's rage than being men and women on fire for God. I can't think of anything more practical than knowing how to operate in the power of the Spirit when Satan's rage is about to break forth on planet earth. That is not impractical, to live lives of prayer and fasting. Why? Because I tell you, the battle is a spiritual battle that's before us. Men and women that speak and demons move are the ones that will be in demand. Because the powerful and the rich and the wise of the earth can't get a demon out of their children, let alone out of their own mind. They can't get rid of a demon. It takes spiritual authority to do that. It takes men and women set on fire. And if we can have an environment where 20-year-olds stumble into this place accidentally. I mean, some of them come to Grace Training Center and say, Hey, we're going to go learn about the Bible to go do something. And all of a sudden they fall into the prayer furnace. They get set on fire and go, I didn't even know there was one of these things. Glory be to God. They may come for one reason and fall into something else. And I'm not saying that something negative about Grace Training Center. Obviously, I'm one of the main leaders of it. But I'm saying some people come to say, I want to get a Bible degree to go on to go do something. Do business as usual. And you know, there's 10 Bible schools and I chose that one. And they fell into something they didn't even plan on. Lord, let it happen. Look at verse 6. I've set watchmen. I've set watchmen the setting of God. The setting of God. There's a divine setting. It's supernatural activity that's going on here. It's a wooing. Some of you are being set on the wall now. That setting, what does it mean? It's divine activity. And it's in various stages in various people's lives. Some of the setting, the initial setting is people, they're going to go to one prayer meeting a week. But they've never gone to prayer meetings ever before. They've never thought about it. That's the beginning of the setting. It's not the fullness of the setting, but it's the beginning. They're being set. But God's going to woo. He's going to convince people of the wisdom of this lifestyle. Mary of Bethany was convinced of something by God. That's why she did what she did. Anna was convinced of something, as was John the Baptist. They were set. Those were some of the first ones set on the wall in Jerusalem. They were literally in Jerusalem. This setting, when you're set as a watchman. Watchman, you can put worshiper, you can put intercessor. You can put what you want. Radical prayer person. But it's talking specifically about prayer right here. Specifically about prayer. It's the people who can't be quiet. You know why they can't be quiet in verse 6? Because God's not quiet in verse 1. Every time the fire burns low in them, and they get their mouths shut and their testimony ruined, God speaks again, verse 1. God won't be silent. And He keeps stirring the fire, so therefore they can't be silent. They go, I can't live another life. Woe is me. I'm under compulsion. I have been set by the Lord on the wall of intercession. I tell you, far be it for me to put my hand to anything outside that takes me from that calling. I can't. I've tried it. And I don't mean in rebellion. But I've tried to get on with other things, and it burns in me. I remember we were about to launch a network of churches in 1996-97. They had about 100 churches that wanted to join us. And I was like, well, they said, we want to follow this and that. You guys have raised up this model and that model. And we're sitting around the table, and we're all kind of thinking we would. And then a few months go by, and I go, oh, I've got a stomachache, man. I go, it makes, I can't. I remember the day when we all got together. I go, guys, I can't. You guys can. I can't. That was the setting of the Lord. They said, well, what do you mean? And I said, it's my prayer calling. I can't. They said, well, you can still pray. I said, no, no, no, no. I don't want to pray 10 hours a day. I don't want to be, I want to, I'm called to do this before the whole earth. I mean, to set people across the earth to do this as a ripe occupation. I can't do anything else. I can't take Billy Graham's position. I can't become the president of a nation. I can't inherit millions of dollars and manage it. I can't do that. I'm called to the wall to be a voice of intercession. I said, it's burning in me. I said that every other calling would be a demotion for the way God's made me. Everyone's talking about who's taking Billy Graham's mantle. Every calling in the earth will be a demotion when you're set in this full way, if you're called to the prayer end of the Great Commission as your primary focus. And we will all do the Great Commission. Don't get me wrong. The intercessors will be evangelists and will do signs and wonders and win the lost and the whole bet. But there's something in us that can't hold your peace. Day and night. There's the day and nightness. And that's what the Lord gave me was this verse, the day and nightness of it. Just like Luke 18, 7. The day and nightness. And he told me it's literal. It's literal day and night. Well, the Lord's literally setting watchmen. I think of the watchmen in the Old Testament. Let's turn to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. And I only got a minute on Anna and we're going to, can't do Mary Bethany, but we'll do her plenty of times before this thing's over, believe me. Poor Amy's disappointed over there. Oh, Mary Bethany. I can't wait. Hurry up. Sorry, Amy. Luke 2. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Okay. I think of the setting of the watchmen on the wall. First, I think of Simeon. Luke 2, verse 25 to 35. Oh, what a powerful man of God. Simeon. It's the first example in the New Testament of a set watchman in Jerusalem. There he is, Simeon. Second example, which I think is a more powerful one, is verse 36 to 38. It's Anna. It's a woman. She's a set watchman. Now, you can be set on the wall without it being to the degree of the most powerful intercessor in history. I mean, there are degrees of this, but I'm just going right to the top. Oh, by the way, the burning heart of Isaiah 61.1 is the set heart of Isaiah 66.6. The burning heart of verse 1 is the set intercessor of verse 6. That's why I think of Anna as a woman with a burning heart. She was a set intercessor. God sovereignly called her and spoke to her. The second one was Anna. The third one in the New Testament was John the Baptist. Whatever God said to him, because God said, I won't be quiet and I won't be inactive. Whatever God said and did, it caught in that man's life, that young man as a boy. He would have been the third one in the New Testament. The fourth set intercessor in Jerusalem would have been Mary of Bethany. She had a prayer reality far beyond the apostles at that given time of history. This young woman was much deeper in prayer than any of the twelve. The fifth one that I would think of would be the Apostle John. The man that was beginning, even as Mary was deep in it, was beginning to lay his head on the Lord's breast. He became known as the man that laid his head on the Lord's breast, the Lord's friend. He was known in church history as the Lord's friend, John the Apostle. John the Apostle was a celibate, his whole life. Lived on way up into his nineties, was never married. He gave himself to, church history says, to the extravagant life of prayer and fasting and waiting on the Lord. Of course, he had the shock of his life when he received the book of Revelation. That would have been the fifth one. The sixth one would not have been in Jerusalem. This is the order of how I see it of the main prayer personalities of the New Testament. The sixth one would have been Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, 1-4. Cornelius, a Gentile man, a powerful businessman. Now, he's a military man, but in those days, one of the ways that they did the military is it became like your personal business because it was related to the tax system. It was kind of a percentage incentive kind of thing operating. He was very much in a businessman kind of capacity, but his business was the army. A man who gave lots of money and prayed always, it says, Acts 10, verse 4. He prayed continually. You don't find very many wealthy men that have a heart to pray continually, but Cornelius did. And then the seventh, of course, last but not least, is Paul the Apostle. I mean, that man was like, wow. Wow. That man was like the others. He was a set man. The fire. God says, I'll talk and I'll act, and I set him on fire. I'll talk and act and I set him on fire, Isaiah 62. And I'll set them on the wall and make them watchmen. All of these were watchmen. All of these were known in history as intercessors, as men and women of prayer. Acts 2, I mean, Luke 2. Let's look at Anna for just a moment. And we could spend several evenings on the life of Anna, but with this introductory, because that's kind of the flow we're in because of what we're going to do tomorrow, and we'll get back to Ezekiel 1 next week. Verse 36. There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Pinuel, the tribe of Asher. I say Pinuel because that's what the word means, actually, and that's the place where Jacob wrestled with God and saw God face to face. Pinuel. It comes from the word Pinuel, from the tribe of Asher. She was of great age. She lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. This woman was a widow of about 84 years old. She did not depart from the temple, but she served God with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord. And listen, she was a preacher. She spoke of him to everyone. You couldn't keep this woman quiet. She was not just lost in isolation. She was night and day in prayer. But I tell you, when she took her breaks from the prayer room, she was preaching about him to everyone. When Anna came around the corner, I mean, this feisty little 84-year-old lady full of God, I tell you, I wouldn't have wanted to have been in sin and ran into 84-year-old Anna after she laid hands on Jesus. I tell you, no demon was safe in the proximity of that woman. I tell you, after she saw the Christ child, saw him with Jesus with her eyes, and after all those 60 years, whoo! Now, let me tell you about Anna. Anna was, she served the Lord with prayer and fasting. I think that in the flesh, just without knowing the scripture, that's a strange concept that you would, I mean, we're used to the concept, but when I first was confronted with it by God and spent my life doing this, I said, you know, I know about prayer, you know, I've heard about prayer and stuff. And I grew up in a totally heathen home. My father was a world champion boxer and did, some of you know the story, he actually did assignments, wasn't a full-time staff member, but did assignments for the mafia for real. And I was raised in bars and taverns and the boxing world and knew, you know, famous boxers and went to the gym and trained, and we never talked about prayer. I mean, I never heard, and it was in a setting where I never heard anything about prayer. And I remember when I first heard of Moses when I was 16, I thought he was a Catholic priest or something. I never had a clue who Moses was. And so I had no grit. I had no Sunday school, no nothing, anything about religion or Christianity or nothing. I said, this prayer thing, I go, this is a strange thing to me. I go, why would I sit in a room and tell God what he tells me to tell him? I go, I have no comprehension why he wants me to do this for the rest of my life. I struggled, not with the fact God called me to something and it was prayer. I couldn't grasp the concept of why God invented prayer. It was a strange idea to me. I go, you already know it, don't you? Then why am I going to tell you? I struggled with that for some time. I go, this doesn't make sense. The one thing in the kingdom that I wish wasn't in it was the prayer concept. It just didn't make sense to me. Because he already knows it all. And to do it all different colors a day didn't make any sense at all. And then to top it all, to fast it. So I don't eat a hamburger today for lunch. And I tell God what he tells me to tell him and I don't eat. I go, that's it. And the Lord was speaking. That's the words I always used back in those early days. I go, so that's it? The Lord says, yeah, you do that your whole life with great zeal. And kingdoms will topple in the wake of what I will do in the grace of God in you. Tell you what you tell me to tell you and don't eat. Well, anybody could do that precisely. That's why I called you. I wanted something you could do. It takes no special gifting. I mean, it takes the control of the grace, but you don't have to be smart. You don't have to be pretty or handsome. You don't have to have money. You don't have to have gifts. You don't have to do nothing. Anybody can not eat. Eating and fasting is simply doing nothing. You don't do anything to fast. It takes no ability. You just do nothing and you're fasting. And in prayer, you simply tell him what he tells you to tell him. Some prayer movements have made prayer so sophisticated. You simply tell him what you tell him and he tells you to tell you. And the Lord made it clear when I was 23, He said, This is what you will do all the days of your life. And I will bring kingdoms down. I will bring kingdoms down. And I was struck by the concept of prayer and fasting. I said, Lord, I could do things for you. I could do all kinds of stuff. But I tell you, these years, many years later, I have a number of little fragment thoughts of why this is a brilliant strategy. There are so many emotional dynamics to this that, of course, I didn't know about. But the idea that you can serve God with prayer and fasting. Now, the church, they all assent to it, that it exists, until they meet someone who does it. The church will tell stories of people in history in prayer and fasting, but they don't want someone doing it in their presence. And I don't mean in the presence in the sense of fasting right in front of their face, but I'm talking about they don't want the testimony of people in their midst doing it. It makes people super uncomfortable. And it took me a few years to figure that out. But they love historical stories. They'll tell them, they'll preach them, but they don't want to encounter it. But it's a giftless calling. You take no gift at all. It takes nothing but a heart that says, I want to do it the way you said to do it. And you do it. It's a strange thing. She entered into the night and dayness of it. And I tell you, I want to call and I want to lift my voice to the ends of the earth. God is calling young men and women, old men and women to the night and dayness of prayer, not just here and there and on with the task. There are going to be millions called to night and day prayer, and they'll go out of the prayer room and they'll tell everybody about Him. And these IHOP mission bases is the answer I have at this time for how families, people can be a part of a family. And my vision is to see a hundred of these in key places across the earth. It's their job. It's what they do full time. Anyway, Anna, there's a part we always forget about. We think about her as the old retired woman. She was 24 years old. She'd been married seven years. She was married approximately 17 or 18. That's standard or 15, whatever. Seven years later, she's 22, 23 years old. Now listen, ladies, almost every woman can identify with this. She's 22, 23 years old. The love of her life has died. She's not 80 when he dies. She's 21 or 22 or 23. She loved this man undoubtedly. He's dead now. Crisis. Think of the few young married couples I know in the last year or two or three are going to get married in the next year or two. Your husband's taken from you suddenly. No children. The hopes, the house, the team ministry, it's gone in one moment. There you are. What do you do with that? She's 22, 23. That's the one that strikes me. It's the 22-year-old Anna, not the 84-year-old Anna. Since her young womanhood, in the midst of this intense crisis, crisis, tragedy struck, she ran into God. 20, I said this last week, 30 years old. 40 years old. 50 years old. Think of that gal still in the prayer room. 60 years old. 70 years old. 80 years old. 80, 60 years later, she's still a set one that's been set on fire. I believe God's going to raise up set ones in this body and in this city. And all over this body. He's going to bring them from the ends of the earth to this place to get trained. And I tell you, we're going to train them with fierceness. We're not going to say, well, you know, we've got to be practical. Oh, we're going to be practical. I can put the book of Proverbs easy into this thing, but I'm going to tell them, go for it. Go hard and burn. Because there's a setting of a ministry that God promised the Indian church, and he sets them on fire before he sets them in the wall in the full sense. And I tell you, we're going to raise up, by the grace of God, a place and inspire places together. It's going to take all of us together where these fire torches in God's hand can have gas put on them instead of water. That was a promise I made many, many years ago. I said, Lord, if I'm doing this when I'm old, I am not going to put the fire out of the 23-year-olds. And I need all of you to help me. We're all in this together. All of you that are called to this know we're called to be set in various levels. I'm talking in a real intense way because that's what I do on Saturday nights. I talk different in different settings because I believe it's biblically responsible, but there's one place where I want to call people to everything that's in my heart. And it's only Saturday night meetings to do that. Amen, let's stand. The set ones. Some of you are starting to get on fire right now. The Lord's setting some of you on fire. Some of you are 60 and some of you are 20. It's never too late. You may be 80. It does not matter. There's a fire that God said he'd give his church. He'd set them on walls, the walls of intercession, the house of prayer. But where are they? The Lord says, I'm giving you one in Kansas City right now. Give yourself to it. Give yourself to it to the degree that God's called you. And then speak of him to everyone, everywhere you go. Father, we love you. Oh, God, we want to be on fire. Lord, all the other callings, Lord, in the body of Christ, I truly esteem. We can't make it without them. And, God, I'm asking you to give us the very best of you. Lord, I'm asking you to give them a safe place in Kansas City and this place in Los Angeles. Wherever you raise them up and wherever they already exist, gather them, cluster them together. Let the fire burn. Let it burn. Raise up men and women that will answer every excuse the devil gives and then quit. Lord, I ask you to release your fire on these things. I ask you to speak. You would ask. To set people on fire, they have set them on fire. You set them in a place. Speak. That's what the blind encounters. Adam, the Lord spoke to Adam. Do the more of the fourth watch. That's the beginning of the story. What an open vision. That's the beginning of the beginning. That's how it starts. A wooing, a stirring. I'm going to do this. It's not practical. But it's the burning of my heart. I'll do this. It's going to cost a lot. So what? I don't care. I'm going to do this.