Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of prayer in the church, sharing personal encounters with God that highlight the urgent need for a shift in the understanding and expression of Christianity. He warns that many leaders are operating without the necessary oil of prayer, leading to ineffective ministries, and stresses the importance of becoming a house of prayer for all nations. Bickle outlines seven types of prayer essential for this transformation and calls for a deep, personal intimacy with God, which is crucial for effective leadership in the end times. He also addresses the control spirit prevalent in church leadership, urging a return to humility and dependence on God rather than human agendas.

May I have you turn to Matthew chapter 25. Tonight I'm gonna share a message that is, I told one of my friends today, I'm really speaking it for myself before the angels. I'm just gonna have a big living room with people listening to it. Because I'm really speaking this message as before the Lord in the room of the spirit. I know that sounds a little bit mystical and euphoric and whatever, but I'm just saying it as a testimony of my heart before the Lord. And I'm just letting you just pay attention or witness it. And it's not that I preach very many messages that way, but that's just what I'm doing tonight. I had two very, very powerful encounters with the Lord over the years. I've had several, but I'm gonna highlight two of them. I'm not gonna really give much explanation on them. I've told them over and over through the years. One was in September, 1982 in Cairo, Egypt. Where I was spending an evening alone with the Lord in a hotel room and the spirit of the Lord came upon me. The dread of the Lord, the fear of the Lord. It's the only time I experienced the fear of the Lord as a full experience, I'm talking about awake. The dread of the Lord came on me and the voice of the Lord spoke. And I heard it as clear as I've ever heard anything from the Lord. It resounded through my being. He said this, I'm going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity and the whole earth in one generation. And he said this and it resounded through my being. And he says, I'm inviting you to be a part of this in essence. I don't wanna give the word for word a whole deal. It'd take about 20 minutes to do that. I don't wanna do that. But the point of it is, I was weeping before the Lord. This thing went on for a little while. The Lord says, I've invited you to be a part of it. And he's invited millions worldwide. That's not a special invitation. But I remember I was crying and weeping and saying, yes, Lord, yes. And he said back to me in the same authority, he said, many have said yes, but they've not yet done it. Many have said yes, but they've not yet done it. And he said, beware lest your brethren steal this from your heart. And that's always been a kind of a heavy statement, but I heard it so clear. And I'm not talking about the level of I heard it. Normally the Lord leads me just by the written word or by impressions, that's the way of the kingdom. This was far in a measure of communication far beyond that. One of the most dynamic experiences I've ever had. And so I've held this conviction that I don't know when the generation begins. He didn't say when it begins, but I assumed it was sooner than later. But he said, I'm gonna change the understanding and expression of Christianity and the whole earth in one generation. And it's gonna look very, very different. And so I've understood for some time that there were gonna be new paradigms. People said, what does it look like? I said, I have really no idea. I've nearly have maintained that for nearly 20 years. I really don't know what this means. And I'm in a season of my own personal ministry before people and my own life before God where he's taking me to the next measure of what this means. And that's what I'm gonna just be speaking a little bit on tonight. Because when the Lord says, I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity, when he says, I will change, change means conflict. When the Lord changes, it means the power base shifts. And when the power base shifts in any power base in any sphere, if it's in a political sphere, it's called a revolution. And there's really a lot of bloodshed. And it's though it might bear good fruit at the end, it's very painful. And it's not a trivial thing when a power base shifts in a political arena. Many, usually many, many, many people lose their lives in unjust ways. And many people justice comes to them. And when God said, I will change, I understood that that meant conflict because the power base, if you will, of the kingdom is gonna shift out of the hands of a man. And the Lord is going to begin to actively control the people and the resources of his kingdom. He's allowed men to control it, even good men. Men, what do I mean by good men? Born again, men who love God, but are not operating in the mind of the spirit. They're not being led by the Holy Spirit. They got grand plans and the Lord's blessed some of their plans and there's just been a general spirit of grace on it. But he has a jealousy that his strategy and his, there's gonna be a transfer of wealth in nations. And there's a great harvest coming in and God's gonna transfer his church to become a house of prayer in all nations. Many, many things are happening. And the zeal of the Lord is going to be expressed in a way where the Lord's gonna take the resource of his kingdom into his hands in an overt manifest way that will disrupt some of the servants of the Lord that are dear to him, but his jealousy will not be hindered in this. He loves the servant of the Lord, but the servant of the Lord is so unfamiliar and ill-equipped to move and dance with the Lord in this dance, that they will rise up and resist him and say, yeah, but it's not like it used to be. And well, how can this and how can that? And their reasonings will be according to an unrenewed mind, even though a born again spirit. And as I've pondered this statement, I will change. That word, I will change. Even in that hour, that's a massive word that brings apprehension to my being. That word, I will change. It's one sense, it's positive. I mean, extremely positive. You're going, hallelujah, this is what we're after. But in the human, kind of the carnal dynamic of my own fear and weakness, I sigh and go, Lord, this sounds like trouble. This is troublesome. And the Lord is gonna trouble his church. He's gonna wrestle with his church. He's gonna trouble his church to seize control of it. And it's gonna cause trouble to some of the servants of the Lord who dearly love him. Because like Peter, when Peter looked at the Lord and said, Jesus, you will not die. And Jesus said, you're filling your mind with the interest of man, Peter. You're an anointed apostle. Get thee behind me, Satan. You don't understand the ways of God. You're an anointed apostle, but you're hindering. You're hindering the work of God. I'm actually having to wrestle with you right now to bring the will of God to pass. And even mighty men of God, God will contend with and wrestle with. And he will wrestle things out of their hands, but for their own good and for the sake of the kingdom. It doesn't in any way undermine his passion and his tenderness for them. But he's going to manifest his jealousy over his church, over the resource of his church, the money, the people, the time, the whole thing. And he's gonna change it into something it is not now. What's he gonna change it into? Well, I certainly don't have a complete answer, but I'm getting a little more understanding. But between many of us worldwide, it's not gonna be one little group over here plus another group over there getting together. The puzzle pieces are gonna be spread out to the prophetic servants all over the earth. And we're gonna only have the whole puzzle pieced together when we come together in fellowship and in humility together. Then everybody brings their peace. And so I'm not pretending to understand what it means, but I know a few broad strokes of what the Lord's doing. He's going to cause the church to enter into her primary identity as a house of prayer. Isaiah 56, verse seven, he says, I've called my house a house of prayer for all nations. That is such a radical statement. Isaiah 56, verse seven. It's a prophetic forecast of the activity of the spirit of God at the end of the age. I'm going to call, I'm naming my church prophetically. I'm gonna name her in a way that she will eventually function according to the name I give her. She will enter into the reality of it after I name her this. And that is the Lord's way. He calls this weak little man, Peter, the rock. And then later he becomes in reality his lifestyle. He lives out the rock, prophetic title, but he's a weak little servant cowering before a little servant girl. He's anything but the rock, but he grows into that. And the Lord names his servants. He names his church. He names her the house of prayer. Matthew 21, verse 13, Jesus quotes it. He reaffirms the purpose again. He goes, we've named you from heaven, O redeemed of the Lord. You will be called from heaven. The angels will know your name and you will experience it in fullness one day. You are called in my father's house, the house of prayer. That's who you are. That's what you'll do. It's more than the house of prayer. It's the house of prayer for all nations. That's critical. It's critical because the Lord's not gonna allow this kind of parochial little me, mine and ours, our little deal. He's gonna make us become believers that seek the kingdom in the city and regions we're in. And then we're gonna take the resource of our regions and contribute to the international family of affections, the body of Christ worldwide. And it's no longer gonna be enough. God's not gonna allow men. He's gonna contend with them. He's gonna wrestle with men who see their resource entrusted to them, basically used and understood as being for their little sphere only with maybe a little five or 10% tip to God called a tithe. As long as they keep the 95% and the 90, they build their grand schemes and their grand agendas and imagine they're operating in the anointing of prayer for all nations. The Lord says, no, no, it's gonna be an all nations deal. I'm going to take control of all the resource of my kingdom, the money, the people, the time, and I'm gonna build an international family of affection that operates in the anointing called prayer. They're gonna flow in the anointing and they're gonna flow for one another in the nations. And the idea that you kind of farm that little piece of ground and it's your, you kind of cut out a little, carved out a little place for yourself. You've been there 20 years, it's irrelevant. It doesn't matter. It never was yours. It was never meant to be yours. You were always a steward of it. You preach it all the time. Now I'm gonna bring it to pass. I'm gonna cause it to be manifest. You're only a steward of my resource. And it's gonna be, I'm gonna use all my resource to build a people of God who will flow in the anointing. Put the house of prayer, that means flow in the anointing in essence. That's kind of a bottom line what it means. And it's not enough to do it for your little congregation. You're gonna do it for the church of Jesus in your city and then your city will do it for the purpose of God in the whole earth. And the Lord's not gonna ask the permission of little guys and boards and little committees. He's going to do it. And I really mean this, but it's one thing to say, oh, isn't that awesome? But I'm telling you, we are as much a part of the problem as the guy we're thinking of right now. I'm telling you, this thing touches deep in all of our being. That's part of the thing I wrestle with in this whole deal is that the Lord is really calling me to come forth and take a stand on this. And I'm saying, Lord, I'm not cured of the disease. And the Lord says, that's true, you're not free. But while you're pursuing freedom, you will proclaim it. I go, Lord, that's too big of a target on my back. Why don't you let me get free, then proclaim it. And the Lord's answer might be, well, then you'll never proclaim it. And I've wrestled with the Lord and I said, yeah, but if I proclaim it, having not been totally freed, I give a target to the enemy. And the Lord says, I'll take care of you. Just don't worry about it. I'm not out to hurt your pride, I'm out to kill it. So don't worry, you're gonna end up okay. And so, though that's cute, except for it's terrifying. But I understand that I have part of the problem resident in my own being as I'm proclaiming God's solution, I am still a part of the problem. That's a bit of a dilemma, but the Lord doesn't seem to care. He just says, go ahead, I want you to begin to proclaim it. And I'll free you little by little as you proclaim it and stay steady with it. Okay, the house of prayer. I'm gonna give you seven types of prayer that we're gonna operate in, seven types of prayer. And this is just so you're not thinking, you're not limiting the house of prayer to just one thing. Number one, worship, worship. I'm gonna, this is real quick. You already know them anyway. Number two, evangelism. When the unbeliever prays to receive Jesus, that's the house of prayer, it's evangelism. Number three, healing. I mean, when you're praying in the name of Jesus, let that arm, that limb be created. Healing prayer is part of the house of prayer. Number four, prophetic, the prophetic anointing. When you're declaring the decree of the Lord, the Lord says there's a breakthrough coming in the season. I mean, just simple little prophecies to global, prophecies of global dimension, it doesn't matter. The prophetic utterance is prayer, it's number four. Number five, it's the one we think of, intercession for revival, that's a type of prayer. Number six, when we think of devotional prayer, sitting at the feet of Jesus, Mary and Bethany. I love to love you, Jesus. That's prayer, devotional prayer. And number seven, the judgment prayers. The judgment prayers that stop the judgment and the judgment prayers that loose the judgment, both sides of judgment prayers. And there's two sides of judgment prayers. And Moses knew both sides of them. Moses prayed to stop judgments and Moses prayed to loose judgments. I'll give you those again. If you want those seven, worship, evangelism, healing, prophetic, intercession, devotion, and judgment. Those are seven types of prayer. I'm not saying that's all there are. There's more types of prayer than that. My point being, operating in the anointing in these ways is what we're gonna do. But it's not enough that God is gonna shift. He's gonna shift the center of activity from whatever's going on in the body of Christ right now to it's gonna become these things are gonna be the centerpieces of the Holy Spirit strategy. It's gonna begin to anoint fasting and prayer at a whole nother level. Prayer is gonna be the most prominent anointing in the end time church. I wanna say that again. Prayer is gonna be the most common. I mean, the most prominent, the most visible, the most observable grace on the end time church is gonna be prayer. That's a major statement of concern because right now the church in the Western world is a prayerless church led by a prayerless leadership. And if it's gonna become the number one prominent observable anointing, there's gonna be conflict between now and then. There's gonna be a collision of agendas between a church in the Western world that's prayerless led by a prayerless leadership being intervened and confronted by a praying head of the church, Jesus, who is jealous that prayer, the prophetic name of the end time people of God would come to pass and be an expression that is observable, an expression meaning anointing that's expressed as observable to believers and unbelievers alike. I said, Lord, what's it gonna look like to take a prayerless leadership that's profoundly carnally motivated with self agendas to turn them into tender anoint men and women who flow in the anointing, not just the anointing for their own sphere, but for all nations because most of the nations are poor and far away and forgotten by them. Is it gonna be like a little wrestling match or a big wrestling match? And not that I got some big answers from the Lord, but my guess is it's gonna be a really serious, big wrestling match. That's where it's going. And so, I'm not saying people need to go start little prayer ministries like this IHOP here. Actually, in some ways, it's the calling, and I said this even in our dedication. I said, you know, calling this little prayer ministry house of prayers really, it's not really the best. It really isn't the best. I said, because the church of Kansas City is the house of prayer. It's the whole church of a thousand congregations. I go, we're not the house of prayer. I said, at best, we are like a little gas station as a catalyst throwing a little cup of gasoline on the fire. I go, that's really our role to be a catalyst ministry. I go, the church of Kansas City, a thousand congregations, that's the house of prayer in Kansas City. It's not this little thing. And even when the day comes, we'll have 5,000 staff members and it'll be far more than that. That isn't the church of Kansas City. We're believing God for 300,000 converts to come in and a great harvest. That's a number the Lord gave in a very, very clear way. That's the lowest number that we'll ever be at peace about. 300,000 new converts to add to the 50 or 100,000 that are here already, whatever. I don't know the number. And that's the house of prayer. It's not our little three, four, five, 10,000 people, you know, in a couple of little buildings doing IHOP night and day. I mean, it's important that we do it, but we're a catalytic ministry at best. God's into something far, far bigger than little IHOPs. Far, far bigger. It's the end time church operating in power. Operating in power. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. The problem we have today, I said this at 911 when it happened, we had a conference a week after the World Trade Center tragedy. And I said, the great tragedy in America, the great tragedy in America, and I hold my ground on this because it needs to be said, it needs to be confronted. People need to be wrestling with this. The great tragedy in America, the economics is gonna get heavy. Terrorism is gonna get heavy. Fear is gonna get heavy. This is gonna get heavy. All these things are gonna get heavy. But the great tragedy in America is the church in America is being led mostly by a prayerless leadership. Because if we had a leadership with a spirit of prayer on it, we can interact with angels and demons and the authority of Jesus and change destinies. I said, I don't care how big the problem and the terrorist the economy, if angels and demons are lining up right when the people of God are praying, all kinds of good things happen. I said, the problem is the authority base is distracted and disconnected from authority. And we're just like, believers and unbelievers are just running around chasing their tails type deal, running in circles and just the painful display of so many of God's servants on different media exposure kind of rambling about, it hurt my heart to think this is America's best giving clarity to a nation in tragedy right now, almost zero. That's a little exaggerated. Very, very little understanding was proclaimed just politically correct statements, preparing themselves for the next increase on their mailing list. I go, this is disaster. It doesn't move men, let alone demons or angels. It wasn't helpful for almost anybody. And my point isn't to try to be critical about that because I wasn't, I didn't feel critical. I felt pain, I hurt. I said, Lord, this is a little more serious than I was thinking. It's the fourth quarter and we're not down by a touchdown. We're down like by five. I mean, we gotta like do something like really serious, really quick. And the Lord says, I know, and I'm gonna wrestle with my leaders and I'm gonna change the whole chemistry. And there's gonna be many, many men of God and women of God who are unheard of, completely unheard of today that will be in powerful positions of leadership in the next couple of decades, the Lord tarries. And other people in powerful positions of leadership that will have almost no voice that anybody will listen to at all. There's gonna be a tremendous change in the personnel of who's leading God's kingdom in our nation and nationwide. And the people who really, really wanna be in the leadership roles are the very ones that that very preoccupation is gonna, it's not gonna disqualify them. It's gonna so distract them from having the goods to lead. It's not that wanting to lead will disqualify them. Their preoccupation with wanting to is gonna be so distracting, they're never gonna get oil. They're just gonna be pursuing how to become a more visible leader all the time as their primary passion. And that's so wearisome. That's such a hard, burdensome way to live. It takes so much energy to do that and to keep that emotional structure going all the time. It's just a real hassle. Done a little bit of that over my time. It's just a lot better to push to lead and to throw yourself into the hands. Psalm 31.5, David said, into your hands I commit my spirit. Well, there's another verse that talks about the people of God in the last days. Zechariah 12.10, you all know it. Zechariah 12.10, it says that I'm gonna pour out the spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication upon the people of God. The spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication. Again, like Isaiah 56, he's talking about Jerusalem, but if he does it in Jerusalem, if he does it in the most difficult city and makes them lovesick worshipers of Yeshua in the most difficult city of the earth, he'll do it in that city, he'll do it in the other cities of the earth. Zechariah 10 is talking about Jerusalem, but John the Apostle quotes it and gives it a broader expression in the book of Revelation that is talking about more than the city of Jerusalem as well, but God's gonna pour out the spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication. Point being this, the end time leadership of God's church is gonna be men and women, young and old, anointed in prayer. In all of thy getting, get the anointing in prayer. In all of thy acquiring, acquire anointing in prayer. Oil for the lamps. And it seems like so many of God's servants are so preoccupied on everything except operating in the grace of fasting and prayer and that is clearly, prophetically, where the end time church is going. I could give you a half a dozen more verses where God says, this is where it's going. I've been very clear with my servants. My servants don't really care about what I've told them where we're going. There's a wrestling match, a fierce one ahead because I'm gonna bring all the resource, the money and the people, and they're gonna back up my agenda of my people becoming a house of prayer. They're gonna be a prophesying, praying, demon casting out, operating in the anointing people and they're gonna be led by young and old who operate in it and my resource is gonna fund it. That's where it's going. And there's gonna be a big wrestling match between now and then. There's a twofold expression of the church becoming a house of prayer, twofold expression. Number one, there's bridal intimacy, bridal intimacy. Becoming a house of prayer is rooted in the revelation of Jesus the bridegroom. It's the spirit of the bride, Revelation 22, 17. Say come, now notice when the bride says come, that's a prayer. It's the spirit in the church in a bridal identity, in a prayer posture. Revelation 22, 17, the spirit of the bride say come. The spirit is interceding through a church in a bridal identity. She's pictured in the posture of prayer with a bridal identity to the bridegroom God. That's the end time church. There's gonna be tenderness. It's gonna be a fascinated heart of a lovesick bride and the implications of that are massive for martyrdom and many other things. The fascinated bride, the fascinated heart of the lovesick bride is a critical part of equipping the heart for the troubles ahead. It's not just a nice little thing, a little cherry to put on the dessert to make things better, make the conferences a little sweeter with better worship songs. No, it's critical for the martyrdom and the shaking and the turbulence in the nation that we live lovesick and fascinated on the inside. It's critical part of the strategy. It's not just a nice thing on the side. It is very nice and it is forever, but it's critical to the father's strategy for bridal intimacy. That's a form of prayer. There's many, all of these types of prayer I mentioned will flow out of the bridal revelation, but there's more than bridal intimacy. There's sonship authority. There's power demonstrations. It's the authority of sons as heirs of the father. I mean, we will move in power. The sun and the moon and the stars, signs in the heavens and on the earth, the sun will move and stars will be moved by the word of God's sons, both male and female. See where men and women are both sons of God and men and women are both the bride of Christ. It transcends gender. One speaks of intimacy as a bride. The other speaks of authority as a son. And they operate in 13 year old boys and girls, just like 80 year old boys and girls. It doesn't matter, transcends gender. But there's a power demonstration in prayer, but there's an intimacy expression in prayer as well. And one before Jesus, the bridegroom, one before the father, and both of them are critical. All of them have an expression of those seven types of prayer I gave you earlier. We could call it a priest and kings. That's what it's called in the book of Revelation. And in many places, priests and kings. The kings have authority, the priests are worshipers. The priests lead the worship ministry and the kings have authority. And it's interesting that in Hebrews 7, 17, Jesus functions in a priesthood very different than everybody else. Jesus functioned in a priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, who was a priest to the king. In other words, the order of servants of God that Jesus is leading do king and priest together. There's no competition. They do the authority of the son and the lovesick worship of the bride. The priest to the king anointing go together under Jesus's leadership. And that's where God's bringing his church. And some people debate, they want one versus the other. I go, no, we want both and. It's not one or the other. It's the order of Melchizedek. It's a whole new order. It's the Jesus leadership. King David was the worshiping king. He was the king who was a priest. He was a hint ahead of time, just a little down payment in that same order that his son, the greater David would come and be the king who was also a priest before God the Father. The worshiping priest and the powerful king, the two are gonna come together. Well, anyway, that's where the church is going. And that's exciting. But the exciting, it is exciting. But the problem is, here's the problem. The church isn't operating in it now. And it's not gonna just kind of one day, it's gonna happen like a rabbit pulled out of a hat. God's gonna raise up leadership. He's gonna begin a transfer of authority in the midst of his church, a transfer of wealth, even within the church, not just from the wicked to the righteous. Within the body of Christ, there's gonna be a transfer of wealth. All the believers are talking about the wicked, but God says, no, no, I'm gonna line it up to where the people, the multitudes of the nations and the wealth of the nations will be supplying. The priest and king movement. My sons that move in power, the stadiums are filled. They're faceless, nameless men and women, young and old, but they're worshiping like a bride with intimacy. They're lost in God. And so as exciting as that is, and I love that part, and I've preached on that for years, but the part I'm talking about today is the process of the wrestling match God is gonna have with the current leadership in the body of Christ and the whole earth, not just the Western world, the whole earth. And that wrestling match is already in process at a higher degree in some of the third world nations. The prayer movement's really reaching new heights, but still not anywhere close to where it's going. God's gonna have a people. God's gonna have a people who have oil in their lap. Here it is in Matthew 25. Let's look at this. I don't wanna take time. I've taught on this for years and I'm tempted just to, like really, well, this means that, and this means that in my little opinion, but I'm gonna skip all that and just give a couple points because I wanna get to a couple other points. There's these chapter of 25, verse one. There's these 10 virgins. All of them are born again ministries, okay? They're all born again ministries. They all have lamps, which are ministries. They're all virgins. They all are going out to meet the bridegroom. They all have a doctrine of the bridegroom God. Nobody at the end of the age in the body of Christ in the Revelation 22, 17, the spirit of the bride say come, nobody in that generation will be unfamiliar with the doctrine of the bride of Christ. Everybody will be about the doctrine of the bridegroom before the Lord returns. It's still kind of a new idea now, but it will pick up so much pace before it's over. Everybody, all the virgins, all of those with lamps and oil will be about that. And then the Lord divides the body of Christ into two groups. And it's amazing, the two groups, because I would have picked different groups. And he says, I'm gonna divide it down one dividing line, wise and foolish, based on if they have oil in their heart or not, which is talking about, in essence, in one sentence, if they're operating in a spirit of prayer. We call it the intimacy. It doesn't matter which kind of, all those kinds of prayers, because when we do one, we'll end up in all of them. I'm sure in some areas you'll be stronger than the other, but you don't get in a river and then divide the river up in the middle of it. It's just one river in God's heart. And it's oil, and the Lord says, let me tell you, here's Jesus speaking. He goes, the guys that pursue their lamps, and they don't pursue the oil, they don't pursue the grace of prayer and fasting, they don't, the spirit of grace and supplication, Zechariah 12, 10, they don't cultivate that. They are called, in the court of heaven, foolish leaders. They're called fools. That's what I call them in heaven. When me and my father talk about them, we love them, but as leaders, they're operating in a spirit of foolishness. It says the other group that cultivates the oil before the lamp, verse four, we call them wise. Yeah, but look, they got all these other little issues in their life, the Lord says, that's true, but they're still wise. Wisdom is the predominant description of their life when me and my father talk about them. We call them wise. We didn't say they're free of everything. We didn't say they're perfect. We just said they're wise. Both of them have lamps, both groups, but the problem is, is the wise ones, the foolish ones, their oil runs out, and here's the problem. Here's the wrestling match. The oil is going to run out. That's the wrestling match that's coming. In verse eight and nine, verse eight and nine, what happens is, again, I'd love to just take time and give you my little opinions about it, but there's a transition process. There's a transition process. There's terrorism, the occult rising, sin growing in perversion, fear dominating, power of God breaking in, and you know what? The body of Christ is no more going to be satisfied by the sermons that satisfied them in the 1990s. The needs will be so much more fierce. The hunger will be so much greater for God in the midst of the people of God, and the fear of the adversity on the other side will be so great. Some old guy's going to pull out the thing that filled up the stadium in 1990s, and they're going to pull that out, and the new believer's going to say, give me a break. That didn't move anything. Wrong crowd, wrong decade. Man, we're into the deep things of God, and the whole earth is being shaken. Give us something that moves us right now, and they go, you know, that's all I got. It filled the stadium up in the 90s. It will be unmoving to believers and unbelievers, and in this parable, it's called the oils out of the lamp. Ministries are going to be extinguished based on this issue of becoming a house of prayer. This is the issue of which the ministries will be extinguished. Doesn't say they're going to go to hell. Doesn't say God doesn't like them. It doesn't say God doesn't have mercy on them. Just says they won't have an impact in their ministry. Their ministry won't give light to anyone. Again, the perversion will be so perverse. The sexual perversion is going to go to levels through the internet technology in the next decade or two if the Lord tarries, which I think he is going to tarry for a little bit, a while longer, and the occult and the evil and the shakings and the terror. Luke 21, 26 said men will faint for fear. They'll walk in the streets and faint just for fear everywhere, and those old canned sermons of the 80s and 90s pulled out, kind of dusted off, and retried again with a few new jokes and a couple new headlines will do nothing. Absolutely do nothing. They won't move demons. They won't move angels, and they won't move humans either. They won't move nobody. Nothing will move, and these old guys will kind of say, well, let me say it a little louder and maybe put a little light show on in the background. Nothing will matter. All that will matter is what moves angels and demons, and therefore, that kind of power is going to move human hearts, and that's the only thing that's going to stop. That's the only thing that's going to be sufficient for the hour of where this thing is going, and Jesus said, verse eight, the lamps went out. Their ministries went from world known to nobody even will show up at the building anymore, and a whole nother crowd is the Lord's going to put in their place, and he's raising them all up out in the wilderness right now. They're like David's in the cave of Adullam. They're like Joseph's down in the dungeon being tested by the word of God. They're like Moses in the wilderness, like John the Baptist feeding on locusts and honey, living a life of fasting and prayer. No one's ever heard of them, but suddenly, suddenly, the Lord's going to begin to move, and again, beloved, this isn't about people thinking I will endure God in the wilderness as long as I can be rich and famous in ministry one day. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not saying if you hang in there long enough, you'll finally make it. That's not my point. My point is those guys are in the wilderness because God is enough for them. God is enough for them, and when God is enough for them, he says you're the kind of man or woman I need in a place where stadiums, because the stadiums, you don't care about the stadiums. I am enough for you, and I see that now, and my word flows through your heart like a river, and that's what the nations need. In Psalm 1, you'll be a shade tree for nations because you're going to know what's going on. You're going to stand on the counsel of the Lord. Again, I'm not talking about people who endure God long enough to deserve a right to stand on the big platform. That is blah. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that. I've heard through the years, hang in there and your day will come, and I go, ugh, the worst thing that could happen to the body of Christ is your day would come. We've had enough of those guys that finally got their turn. You know what I mean, like yuck. It says in verse nine, here's what the wise, here's the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of wisdom. This is the wisdom of God. This is the Father and the Son's counsel speaking through them. No, we're not giving you a position on our platform. That's what they're saying. We're not giving you a voice in our platform. Go get your own oil, because oil can only be acquired personally in private. You can't, they're saying, give us your oil. In other words, give us a share of your lamp shining capacity. Give us a, I tell you what, let me get one of your best sermons that worked at the last stadium deal. I'll memorize it tonight. Give me a shot at it. You know, I'm gonna make a comeback. And the guy says, no, I'm not sharing. No, no. You can only get oil in the private place with God. Go get it. The Lord's told you from the beginning, the house of God would be a house of prayer for all nations. It's not about your little parochial little group of 10 or 20,000. You may be the big mega church in town, but compared to the six billion on the planet, it's infinitesimally small. It's unbelievably small. And a guy thinks, well, you know, I got my five, 10, 20, 30,000 little machine here. It's nothing. It's nothing. And it's so small. It's power is so ineffective in touching the nations of the earth and the way God wants to do it. It doesn't give anybody a right to anything. The Lord says, I'm switching it all around. I'm gonna switch it all around. I'm going to raise up shepherds like my servant, David, and they will feed my people, Jeremiah 3.15, on the knowledge of God. They will feed my people on the knowledge of God. Why? Because they experience the knowledge of God in the secret place of their own life. That's what's going on. Okay. So the Lord says, no, verse nine. And then the bridegroom says, shut the door, shut the door. They're not cast in the hell. That's not what's going on. He says in verse 12, I don't know you. He's talking about there's a, in a Jewish wedding, in a Jewish wedding in the ancient world, there were seven different days of the ceremony. And this is one of the ceremonies. What he's saying is this, in this season, you've not acquired intimacy with me. You can't be in my inner chambers, masquerading like this is real. We don't have reality with each other in this sphere, in this season. Go get some reality. You don't have an invitation to stand in my inner councils like you did decades ago. This is for those that know me. This is in the intimacy sense. This isn't in the salvation sense. They are not wicked and lazy and evil servants. They're foolish. They're not wicked and lazy like in the other places, even in Matthew 25. He's saying, you know what? I'm not gonna allow you a place in the sphere of authority in the anointing right now. This is for those who know me. Go, go, go sit down for a while. Yeah, but I'm famous. I'm the guy that, remember? And the Lord says, no, no, it doesn't really matter right now. I don't, you haven't talked to me in years. And the truth be known, Mr. Famous, I haven't been at your meetings for years either. You kept the bells and whistles going and it just wasn't ever me. And as the people are so undiscerning, they come in massive numbers for all kinds of reasons. All kinds of reasons they gathered there. But I haven't even been there really, a little bit. Every now and then, because I like you, I show up a little bit. Obviously, that's not perfectly theologically accurate, but I think you got the point. Okay, I had another very powerful experience with the Lord in October 5th, 1990, October 5th, 1990. This was eight years after the Cairo Egypt one, eight years. And I had a trance. And what I mean by trance, where I saw the Lord with my eyes. Anyway, I just did. Let's just leave it there for the sake of time. And I saw the Lord with my eyes and he spoke to me. And he said this. He said, no one with a control spirit. Well, and I won't give you exact word for word, but he said, no one with a control spirit is going to, the essence of it is they're not gonna fully experience the power of my kingdom. Maybe a little bit here and there, but they're not gonna experience the power of my kingdom. And he said, I have a controversy with my people, with my leaders. I have a controversy with them. And it was a very dramatic experience. It changed my life. And I mean, I saw a literal experience where I saw the Lord in a face-to-face encounter in a trance. And I'm not talking about a mental vision. I'm talking about, I really talked to him and he really talked to me. It's the only time I think of it. I mean, I have this, I mean, like, well, I've had one or two things, but I'm just saying that it was a very unique experience. Let's just leave it there. And I've wrestled with that for years. I thought, Lord, what meaneth thou this? What is this about? This was, it was such a powerful experience. And I know that the October, 1990 was the second installment on the September 82. I'm gonna change this understanding expression of Christianity to the earth. Eight years later, he says, oh, I'm gonna add a sentence to it. And when I change it, no one with a control spirit is gonna be in the power demonstration realm. Maybe the introduction of it only, but not in the realm of fullness. And then the power of God touched me. And I just told the story to our whole staff the other day. It was some real dramatic things happened, even some signs and wonders happened right afterwards. And it was, Lord confirmed it in a very, very powerful way. But I've wrestled with this. I've wrestled with this for a long time. Turn to Matthew 20, Matthew 20, control spirit. The Lord told me he has a controversy with his leaders. Now, when I talk about control spirit, I'm not talking about somebody who talks a little bit too much in a conversation. I'm not talking about the pastor who cuts the worship leader off one song early to give the announcements. As I'm not talking about that, little things like that. I've heard over the years, that guy's got a control spirit. Just, we had a really anointed song and he gave that. I go, oh, give me a break. The control spirit is far more serious than something like that. The control spirit's a very, very serious thing, the way that the Lord spoke it to me. I'm not talking about a personality trait where you're a little pushy. I'm talking about something at a far stronger level than that when I'm talking. I know that's what the Lord was speaking of. And in Matthew chapter 20, Matthew chapter 20, verse 25, he's talking about authority in the kingdom. You could just see it right there. Talk about the people who exercise authority and lord it over people. It's a spirit in which people operate with spiritual authority. We're not talking about a little pushy personality, just in the everyday relational kind of dynamics. They need to improve their relational skills a little bit. I'm talking about something, a far stronger reality than that. I'm thinking about something that dominated King Saul as in contrast to King David. And it's talking about how authority is exercised in verse 25. And this was about people in authority. In verse 26, he says, let me tell you something. He goes, verse 26 and 27 and 28, he goes, in essence, you all know the passage about serving. He goes, if you use authority to serve little people, that's the essence of not a control spirit. Using authority, using your authority to get the little people to keep your sphere intact is what Saul did. And we're talking about, but just so you know, I don't have some kind of victim thing for the little people. The little people are just as proud and selfish as the big people. So, you know, these poor little innocent little people, they are radically selfish and everything else is all the guys that got a chance. And if they got the chance, it'd be just like the guys they don't like. So I don't have some big victim thing for the little guys, okay. But I'm talking about the way we steward authority, the way we steward authority. You could just read the verses on your own. You already know them anyway. And the Lord spoke to me very, very clearly. And he's wanting to raise up churches in this hour that will exhibit, that will display freedom from a control spirit. And this is going to be so troublesome, so troublesome as men and women begin to raise up and begin to live out freedom from a control spirit as it relates to, and that's the way the Lord meant it when he visited me. It's the way they operate with their ecclesiastical, with their church authority is what we're talking about. Again, we're not talking about just a person who's a little pushy in their personal, in their relational style. We're talking about something far stronger than that. And the Lord is going to wrestle and confront the control spirit in his church. And he said, I have a controversy with the control spirit in the body of Christ. And this is so massive. This is so, so massive of an issue that's going to happen that I'm just thinking about just the ramifications of this. It's really the Saul and David leadership kind of thing. And there's no question in my mind as to the fact that the stronghold of the control spirit and the body of Christ, the stronghold of the control spirit is in the leadership of the church. The stronghold of the control spirit, there is a stronghold of a control spirit in the body of Christ. And it's in the leadership of the people of God. It's in the leadership and the Lord's gonna confront that in a very, very, very powerful way. And it's a fear-based control. It's a control that's based in fear. And the fear is, the fear has grown because of the vacuum created by lack of intimacy, by lack of oil. God created the human soul for that vacuum to be filled with intimacy. When intimacy is not there, which is it's so prevalent today, that vacuum creates the soil, the seeds for fear of which the control spirit grows out of. And the Lord said, I'm gonna confront that control spirit. And I know that in my little world, he is challenging, more than challenging. He wants me and many, many people, I mean, many people worldwide to confront this problem in the body of Christ in a very direct way. There is need for massive, massive, near, nearly wholesale repentance. Now, there are exceptions. Massive repentance in this area of God's servants straight across the board. They are so used to it. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, Paul says, you compare yourself with yourself and you think you do well. He says, you have no wisdom when you do that. One prayerless pastor who dominates his people and uses his money and authority one way, looks at the other 20 guys that do it, and then says, I'm no worse than them. And they think the councils of heaven are therefore appeased. The Lord wants us confronted. He wants it exposed. He wants a revolution that is gonna start from heaven. I don't mean to start with me. It's not like that. The Lord's been confronting it for a long time. I'm just kinda just getting in the game on this. I've known it for years. I just really haven't done anything about it to be really honest about it. And I don't know exactly what the Lord thinks about that, but he's been talking to me lately and saying, you have to confront this in your own life. And I know in our own little world, and this isn't a big announcement, this is just kind of a fearful testimony, so to speak, is that the Lord has spoken to us just recently about raising up a new fellowship and a new gathering of believers. And he wants us to operate it in a continual assault against the spirit of control. Well, that sounds like, I can just see when I tell the IHOP staff that on Monday, we had 400, yay, yay, but the first enemy, the first adversary that God wants to confront is them. The first kind of opinion will be, yay, we'll get them old pastors and put them in their place. And the Lord's saying, no, I want you to raise up a work that confronts the spirit of control first in your heart, in the midst of your team, all through your ranks. The people, they don't have authority, so they don't have that kind of control. They'll be in authority in a minute, and they'll automatically operate in old paradigms. And I'm thinking, oh man, Lord, I just wanna like pray and like, I wanna do the Mary of Beth. I don't wanna like wrestle with my buddies. And the Lord's saying, I want you to do this. He told us about starting a church, and there's a kind of excitement in our midst, but I got this little secret, this part, I haven't really laid out yet. I'm going to, I'm thinking. And the Lord's talking about the way we do money, the way we do meetings, the way we view the people in our congregations, just all kinds of things. And I just, and He's speaking to me about things that even as I write them down, I have little hiccups and go, yeah, but, you know, because there's a thing in every one of us that we lead in a way that gives us assurance that our resource will be there tomorrow. We lead in a way, we have a control, we have a control, a fear-based control spirit. So we put so much energy to create a biblical terminology to dignify fear-based control spirit. We've got tons of Bible verses around it. And all the good old boys club across the city, they all sign on because everybody needs it to work for them too. And so then we come up with, it's very normal to control people and money so that our institutional agendas are built and secured. And we want our assurance from the people and we serve them and we have this kind of unspoken kind of agreement that I've put a lot into you. So therefore you have a certain, it's an unspoken debt to be loyal back to me. And the Lord says, no, they don't. It's nothing like that. It's nothing like that. You invest all that you are, the higher up you are in profile, the more you give away free. They don't owe you anything after you've invested 10 years in their life. Absolutely not. You celebrate their coming. You celebrate their going. Let them take a hundred people with you, with them, let them empty the coffers. That's how my kingdom operates. Then it goes on and on and on. I just got a whole bunch of clear one, two, threes for me and my little world. And I'm going, oh man, I'm thinking maybe we'll have the party of the church and everybody, yay, we're gonna do it. We're gonna be different. And then, you know, let Christmas get by and then like pull out the real stuff of what we're about. Because just because they show up in our setting doesn't mean they're suddenly clean from the old residue of how they were raised in the spirit. And I'm just looking at this. And my point isn't to give all the clarity about that. Or I don't even, you know, I got a bunch of clear points but some of it, I'm sure I think it's clear. And then later I'll find out I was a little more confused. But, and I'm saying, Lord, I'm not even free myself. And yet you want me to be one among many all over the earth to begin to raise up a new way to gather, a new way to assemble, a new way to hold ourselves together. And God wants us to begin to see the church of Jesus in a city. There's a thousand congregations. And the Lord wants us to, he wants our tithes and offerings to go to any place in Kansas City because it's all one church in Kansas City. They give them anywhere. The people can go anywhere. They can bring the people anywhere, everywhere they go. They don't have to sit in our settings or give their money in our coffers for them to be a part of our thing. There's many, many dimensions like this. And as we begin to do it, it's gonna, again, it will be fun at first because it's small and nobody's gathered and there's no money. And then when the people start gathering and the money starts to increase, they go, guys, no, no, you don't get it. I meant it. We really don't do this with that. Yeah, but the church I grew up in, that's irrelevant right now. That is totally irrelevant. We're gonna do it very, very different. And I'm just thinking of my own little hiccups that we're gonna have. And then the guys, whoever, start thinking, oh, so you guys have got the answer on this. Like, oh gee, here we go. And I said, Lord, this thing, I think this is gonna be one of the strongest, most fiercest conflict in the whole kingdom of God is when the power base moves, when the power base moves. And it's the most in the flesh kind of unsettling thing I've ever said yes to in the Holy Spirit. And so, like I said, I'm not really giving you guys a sermon. I'm just documenting this before God and angels. I'm just telling the Lord I'm in. You don't even fully know all that I'm talking about, but I do and they do. And so there you have it. But the Lord's calling others of you. Well, he's calling every one of you to it, to be honest, every one of you to it. He's calling his church. I'll end with this. I know, I know for sure why there's not power demonstrations in the kingdom. Not the only reason, I don't have the whole reason, but I know it's because of control in the leadership. I'm positive of this. The Lord told me face to face. I saw him, I saw his eyes, I heard his words. He said, I have a controversy with my leaders. This was 12 years ago, you know, and I haven't done a thing about that. You know, here it is 12 years later and he's stirring it up again. And I'm saying like, Lord, that was just a minute ago from your point of view. I haven't really like ignored that. You know, with the Lord, it's just a moment anyway. And so I'm hoping he sees it that way that, but he's saying, I want you to go about that. I want you to do something about that now in your own life, in your own midst. And that's why I'm gonna have you raise up this fellowship of congregations all over the city. I want you to be a prophetic statement, not to men, but before angels, to principalities and powers. Don't do it in the sight of men. You'll trip if you do it that way. If you try to make a point to others of who's better and who's worse, you'll get so lost and befuddled. Do it for angels. Do it in the spirit. Be a prophetic token, a prophetic statement in the spirit and steady the ship because many people that will be excited by the novelty and the excitement of this will trip along the way themselves because they've never been in a position for their control spirit to come to surface, but it's there. It's just in remission. It will come to surface when they get a little budget to work with. And they get a few people that call them pastor. Amen. Let's stand. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit mikebickle.com.