Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgent need for the church to contend for the fullness of God's power, urging believers to fight earnestly for the New Testament doctrine, lifestyle, and power. He highlights that this contending requires a clear vision, a commitment to change our lifestyles, and a deep reliance on prayer and fasting. Bickle warns against complacency and encourages a tenacious pursuit of God's promises, reminding the congregation that true power comes with obedience and a willingness to bear the reproach that may accompany it. He calls for a collective effort to seek a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing that the fullness of God's power is not just for individual believers but for the entire church.

Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus and we just open our heart to the person of the Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit, we recognize your presence in this room. We honor you as a real person. We welcome your leadership, Holy Spirit. We welcome your leadership tonight. We welcome your leadership and we honor you. We ask you to do what you do best and what you enjoy most. Take the things that belong to Jesus and give them to us. We just call on you to minister Jesus to us tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I'm calling this message, Contending for the Fullness of God's Power. The familiar verse in Jude verse three, you really want to be familiar with this passage if you're not, where the apostle Jude said, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to fight, to fight earnestly or contend for the faith that was originally given to you by the apostles. That is a clarion call of the Holy Spirit right now to the church in the Western world. We must contend. We must fight. And what I mean by is resolve with tenacity to move into God's heart and to embrace his word that we would lay hold of the gospel that was originally delivered to us through the early apostles. Paragraph A, to contend means to fight for something, to strive, to overcome the difficulties resisting us. Beloved, there is a necessity for contending. The fullness is not just going to suddenly, the fullness of the Holy Spirit's purpose and power won't just suddenly be released one day. It will be released because people have a vision to go after it and they won't take no for an answer as they agree with the word of God. Paragraph B, there's three different areas that are battlefields today in the spirit that we have to fight for, three of them. Number one, we have to fight for the New Testament doctrine. This is not a small thing. I mean, the church in the West nearly wholesale, it's exaggerated, praise God it's exaggerated because it's not quite that bad, but large numbers are turning liberal and they're letting go of the apostolic foundations of the deity of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit so we have to contend for the New Testament doctrine. Number two, we got to contend for the New Testament lifestyle. What is happening today? When I look at the church in America, I look at the leadership of the prominent ministries in the church of America, I'm talking about the high visibility ones, there's thousands of them I would think, I'm talking about I don't mean just the top five or six TV guys, I'm talking about the big ministries. It is difficult to find in the leadership of the body of Christ the New Testament lifestyle. I'm talking about the prayer, the fasting, the biblical approach to finance in many different ways. We have to contend not just for New Testament doctrine but for lifestyle. It was unheard of to have men and women in leadership in the early church who did not live with prayer and fasting and who were not radical givers to the poor from the first of their finance, not just the surplus of it. Today it's very extremely rare. We have to contend for the New Testament lifestyle, not just the doctrine, but that's not it. It's not all. We have to contend for the New Testament power, but some go for the power but not the lifestyle. Some go for the lifestyle but not the power. Some go for the doctrine but not the power or the lifestyle. We need to go for all three. We need to contend for the New Testament faith. Paragraph C, I'm laying out five components, very simple, but I just want to give them to you. One, two, three, four, five, so you got it. Look at it. That are, I believe, necessary if we're going to contend for the New Testament lifestyle, doctrine, and power. Number one, we got to have a clear vision, and that's what I want to lay out tonight. We have to have a clear vision of what God wants to give the church. I find many willing believers, they are completely uninformed as to how willing God is to give the fullness of His Spirit. It's in the book. It's already written. It's going to happen before the Lord returns. And when you talk to them, they're excited. They go, that's in the Bible? How come I never heard this? There needs to be a clear vision of what is possible, where God wants to take the church. Now, that's why I'm recommending the John G. Lake books. You take the book of Acts and the John G. Lake books, you put those two together, that will keep your spirit vibrant for a long, long, long time. It's not enough to have a clear vision, but it starts there. Number two, we have to actually change our lifestyle, our schedule I'm talking about, the way we spend time and money. We have to make time to seek it. Some people will come to a conference like this, and they go, okay, I got the vision. Nah, you get a little bit of a vision. This is only just a little spark. You've got to feed your spirit continually, and then you have to apply it in the presence of God, crying out before God for the full release. Number three, lest you get overwhelmed in the crying out for the big stuff, you may end up despising how little that you really have in your ministry. And there's a real tension, because we need to be grateful and faithful when there's only a small measure. While we're contending for the full breakthrough, we need to be grateful for what exists today. Not satisfied, but grateful. Discontentedly content. I mean, I'm, oh, Lord, thank you for what we have here in our midst. Thank you. But, oh, my heart is in pain, because I have the vision of more. But I don't have so much pain I despise today. I'm grateful, but I'm not so grateful I've let go of the pain that's compelling me into tomorrow. So, it's a tension. We're grateful, and we have to be faithful. But we stay desperate. We stay desperate. See, some folks have such a vision for tomorrow, they do nothing today. That's an error. See, we don't just see what we don't have, and that's part of what casting a vision is. I want to convince you of what we don't have yet. There's more to be had. But it's not enough to see what we don't have. We also want to see what we do have. There's healing tonight. There's words of knowledge and prophecies tonight. There's dreams and visions tonight. So, I want us to see what we don't have, the fullness, but I want us to see what we do have. We have a measure, and we're going to employ the measure with gratitude. And then, number five and number four, this is often separated from the quest of asking God for the full power of God, the lifestyle that seeks to be fully obedient. Now, it's key to put the word seek. I don't know of anybody that's attained it. The attaining is not where I put my emphasis. It's the reaching for full obedience. There's areas in my life I'm still wanting to bring under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in a greater way. And as soon as I bring those areas under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the magnifying glass goes from 10 power to 100 power. And I go, oh, there's areas yet to be brought under. And I bring those under, then the Lord brings it up to 1,000 power. I don't know that we'll ever attain. Attaining is not my biggest focus. It's reaching for full obedience. Now, a lot of folks, they'll go after power, but they'll be a little weak on obedience. Beloved, we have to be serious about the realm of obedience. I'm talking about a servant spirit. I'm talking about purity with our eyes, with our speech, the way we spend our money and our time. I'm talking about serious about obeying the Holy Spirit, the Word of God. And then, number five, which is often neglected, except some of the groups that break through to a little bit of power, then they understand it, we have to know part of the New Testament package, so to speak. I'm thinking of this gift of God, the package that God gives us as a gift. There is a God-orchestrated stigma on the anointing. It really is. It's a God-orchestrated one. There's a reproach we will bear if we go forward in the things of the anointing. Now, some of the reproach is self-inflicted. It's just lack of wisdom or just lack of godliness in our lives. But I'm talking about walking in humility and obedience. There is a reproach that we will bear if we break forth into the greater dimensions of the Holy Spirit, which we will, the people of God. I'm talking about the body of Christ in our nation and the nations. There is a reproach. Some folks are kind of imagining tomorrow with great power, and their life is just real happy. You have great power. You strike that hornet's nest, I guarantee you, you will have a strike of the devil coming against you. The devil can't defeat us, but I guarantee you that he can come after us. We can extinguish his flaming missiles, but those missiles will be multiplied. You hit that hornet's nest, you will stir up activity, and there will be trouble. But the trouble we can stand in victory, and we can stand against, but the trouble does increase. It really does. So those are five things. We won't get to all those tonight, but I just wanted to give it one, two, three, four, five. Okay, paragraph D. We have to contend. There's a fighting. There's a reaching. Why? Because the Christian life is a cooperation with God. God won't do our part. We can't do His. There is a cooperation with God in the grace of God. It's very, very important. Linda Valen, I want to get you a chair here. Wait, here, come. Linda, stand up. I want to get this lady a chair. She's been one of our faithful ladies here for many years, and she's just in town. Yes, you cannot sit on the floor in this place. There you go. Okay, you can give your little hugs to each other real quick. That was just family business there. I've been seeing her for a long time. Okay. We can't do God's part. We all know that. God won't do our part. He won't. It's a cooperation. And what I mean is there's folks, they mean well, but they get it wrong. They, I have in paragraph D, they're, quote, trusting the sovereignty of God. And, you know, that's a great thing to do in truth. Trust the sovereignty of God. But they trust the sovereignty of God in an unbiblical way, which means they're not really trusting the sovereignty of God. What I mean by that, they're trusting God to do their part. That's called presumption. You know, the story I like to tell is the farmer and the preacher brought the preacher over to his house after church on Sunday, and the farmer and the preacher are driving down the big driveway, hundreds of acres that manicured, you know, farms and acres. And the farmer goes, I mean, the preacher goes, boy, God sure blessed you with this farm. Look how beautiful it was. And the farmer instantly spoke back. He says, when God had this farm, it was a mess. If you, if a farmer asks God to plant the seeds and to pull the weeds, God says, I won't do it. I'll produce the rain and the sun. I'm not pulling weeds. I'm not going to do it. If you don't pull weeds, the weeds will not be pulled and your farm will be ruined. And a farmer could trust God all day long for God to plant seeds and pull weeds. God says, I won't do your part. You can't do my part. You can't produce sun and rain. I won't plant seed and pull weeds. I won't do it. God will not do our part. We must, we must come before him in a way that develops faith and obedience. We must, in servanthood and humility, we must do our part and the Lord will starve us out waiting on us to do our part. Some people say, well, if God wants it done, it'll be done. That is not, that is true if they mean certain things, but that's often a confused thought. If God wants it done, God will do his part. But if, if what God wants done, if he by his own wisdom has mandated that your part responsible, it's not going to be done till you do your part because God wants relationship. This is about relationship. He says, I want to work with you. I don't want to, you, you, uh, I don't view you as a robot. I want to work with you and through you in love. It's called partnership. God has given us a dynamic role, beloved. It's dynamic in determining some of the measure of the quality of life that we have in the spirit. Now, some of it, the Lord has determined, but some of it we determined. He says, I'll wait for you. You can increase the quality of your life in the natural and the spirit by coming before God in God's ways. And the Lord's looking at a lot of people and their quality of life in the spirit is so low. And the Lord says, it's not my will that it's so low. They're saying, well, Lord, if you want it different, you make it different. The Lord says, no, I'm not going to violate my word. And I'm not going to relate to you on your terms. You will relate to me on my terms. I do want it different, but I'm not going to break through until you do it my way. I've seen a lot of people wait for decades on God to revive them. He won't. He won't. Now, there's that one exception and it's normally got a little bit more pain in it than they anticipated. You don't want God to revive you against your will. You really want to do it on God's terms. Top of page two. Okay. We got to get a vision for breakthrough, a vision for breakthrough, for fullness. Beloved, I don't want a little bit of power. I want the fullness. I don't mean in my ministry. I want the fullness in the city and in the nation and in the nations. It's not enough for three guys or gals to break through. We want to see the water level in the kingdom of God and our city and our nation and the nations, our generation. We want to see we're all in this together. Now, we labor for our own lives in our own cities that God has assigned us to, but beloved God has put us together on the planet in this generation to labor together to see something for the fame of his name to go forth. I've talked to guys. This is really birds. I've heard this several times. I've heard this from several famous guys and big ministries. I won't thousands coming and healings happening. And I mean, one guy said it. I about fell out of my chair when he said it. I heard another guy say it a couple of years later from a platform. I said, this is unthinkable. The guy said, tremendous healings. He goes, this is as good as it gets. I said, excuse me. He goes, this is as good as it gets. We have thousands of the arena. I go, Oh, ouch, that hurts so bad. I can't even comment. Beloved, we're not even at the 1% mark of what God's willing to give. This is as good as it gets. So I thought, I thought that everybody thought there was a whole lot more. And then a couple of years later, I heard another famous guy, big meeting, thousands of people, everybody getting slain in the spirit. He goes, this is as good as it gets. I thought, where did he get that idea from the name of Jesus? I rebuke it. God has so much more to give us than what we're having right now in renewal meetings and revival meetings. There is a measure so far beyond the book of Acts that God is going to release his church before Jesus returns. Jesus said in Mark four, I mean, I appreciate the small measure. I appreciate anything he gives us, but I'm not content with it. I'm grateful, but I'm pressing in for more. Mark four, take heed what you hear with the measure that you use it. It will be measured to you and to you who hear more will be given. That's an interesting proverb. Jesus saying, be very careful what you hear. In other words, what you buy into what you believe, be very careful what you believe is the standard of what God will give you. Many people, what they hear on a scale of one to 10 is a one. It's all they ever hear is a one, and they're not careful about what they hear. They go, well, that's what our church teaches. Well, your church may not be the standard. They're not preaching the word. The standard is the word of God, not your church, not your famous preacher or your non-famous preacher. It doesn't matter. The standard of what we hear, I mean, what we buy into, that's what here means, you buy into the heart level. Beloved, be careful what you buy into because on a scale of one to 10, if you buy into a one, which the vast majority of the body of Christ do, the Lord says, that's all you're going to move in is a one. Let's go for the 10. Lord, we want to believe. We want to believe you. We want to go after. I don't mean just believe you like just preach it and put a banner on the wall and have everybody shout and sing a few songs about it. I'm talking about build our lives around it. I mean, one of the reasons, I mean, you just can't go build an IHOP because you get the idea to do it. The Lord told us to do it, but one of the reasons IHOP exists because we wanted to mobilize our entire life around going for a 10. The point of IHOP, one of the points, there's three or four main points of what this thing is about, our little thing here, and there's all kinds of different versions of prayer ministries. The Lord has different flavors all over the world. One of the reasons God's raising up the prayer ministries, and again, our little thing here, we are wanting to mobilize our lives around going after a 10 as a community with fasting teams every day, people hours a day in the prayer meeting, trying to throw off our compromise and unbelief and trying to kind of wake each other up to going after God together because we take serious that we have to take serious the things we hear, and hearing is not enough to hear the story, put and make a banner, sing a song about it. We got to mobilize our life around the pursuit of it or we haven't heard it. You can say, praise God, I want a 10. Well, okay, good. What are you going to do different in your life the next five years? Well, I'm going to go to two conferences a year and hear it more and get the tape series. Beloved, that's not hearing it. We need to change. I'm talking about the way we spend our time daily. What we do with our weekends, what we do with our strength, you know, it takes strength to fast. When fasting becomes a normal part of your life, and a number of you, it is, and some of you, it's a new thing, and you're saying, Lord, talk to me, and the Lord will help you. But I'll say this. Once fasting becomes the normal part of your life, you start figuring out where you're going to borrow strength from this event to save it for your fasting, because fasting takes strength, and it takes planning to live with fasting. You don't just show up one day with a life of fasting and prayer. It takes methodical planning about time and energy and strength and schedule. If you're going to do it for 10 or 20 or 30 years, it does. Does it not for a weekend, but for 10 or 20, 30 years, that's what it means to be careful to what you hear. Build your life around it. Feed your spirit, paragraph A, on biblical promises of the release of power. Jesus said it, greater works than these. That hadn't happened yet. That has not happened. It has not happened in any stretch of the imagination. This promise of that great prophet, yea, more than a prophet, God himself come in the flesh. He prophesied, you will see greater works, and this is going to be on a global level. It hasn't happened yet. I'm talking about a consistent flow of miracles before the Lord returns. Acts 2, verse 17, the spirit, you know it, on all flesh. Somebody say the word all. Every single born-again believer, every single one. The guy, I've had this, you know, opportunities to talk to pastors. They don't believe in the prophetic ministry or this and the healing, and they want to debate. I go, oh, I don't want to debate. They go, no, our Bible verse is verse years. I go, let's just talk about Jesus. I go, no, really, really. And they go, no, we're in the Bible, we're in the Bible. I go, no, I don't even want to do that. I say, I believe that there's people that should do that, should take time, and they should show the Bible verses. I am so convinced this guy is going to have visions in a few minutes that I can't even argue with him. He's going to be having them pretty soon, in a few minutes, maybe a few years from now, but beloved, they're all going to have visions. I just don't have energy to argue about the inevitable. I just don't, but I'm not actually being funny. This is real. They're all going to have visions. It's just, I just hang in there. I go, let's love Jesus. Let's be nice to each other. Let's not worry about it. Just say, I love you. I love you. I love you. Go, go hard after God and see what happens. Let's not argue about it. That kind of annoys some of the guys over the years, but I just don't really have the energy because I'm convinced they will operate in this. Now look at this, verse 20, the sun turned into darkness, the moon into blood. This is going to happen before the second coming. All of this will happen before the second coming. The outpouring of the Spirit that leads to the second coming of Christ happens before the second coming. I'm talking about every one of your believing family members. Everybody who's walking with the Lord will have the supernatural dimension operating in their lives. That will happen for a season before the Lord appears in the sky. Look what it says in Micah 7. It's talking in context, you read Micah 7 in context, talking about the generation the Lord returns. As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show you the same miracles. The miracles that were done in the days of Egypt, that's Moses, Exodus 7 to 12. The miracles of Moses will be done again in the generation the Lord returns. We could show you, a number of folks could, a number of verses if this is new to you. I mean, my point is, fill your mind with the vision of what the Word of God says about the miracles. Paragraph B, the greatest revival in history, the greatest one far beyond the book of Acts is coming. The miracles of Acts and the miracles of Exodus combined, multiplied on a global level. That's what we're believing for. A great harvest, an end gathering of souls. We're believing for over a billion people and there's millions and millions of believers believing for a billion. It might be two billion. I mean, we don't know. It's a huge number. They'll be saved from every single nation. Paragraph C, don't just feed your spirit on the promises of what's coming, feed your spirit on what's happened already through God's people. You want to feed your spirit on this. Here in Acts 19, it's a great one. Verse 11, God worked unusual miracles through the hands of Paul. Verse 12, I'll just read this abbreviated. They put handkerchiefs on people and the diseases left them. Demons came out when they put the handkerchiefs on them. So some of the Jewish exorcists, these traveling preachers, they said, hey, they don't know Jesus, but they go, this is cool. So they go over and they say, we're going to do what these guys with handkerchiefs did. They go, we pray in the name of Jesus that Paul prays. These seven, verse 14, these seven sons of these, of Sceva, they're all this one family, these fiery preachers, none of them were born again. The demon speaks up, Jesus, I know, Paul, I know, but who are you guys? Could you imagine a demon saying, Jesus, I know, and then saying, you know, I know you. I mean, Paul was known in hell. Paul was causing so much trouble by disturbing the demonic realm in the city he was at. They said, we know about Paul's ministry. What a statement. Beloved, it's far better to be known in hell than some of the celebrity, Christian celebrity media forums. I'd rather be known in hell. I'd rather be move angels and demons than ABCD. And if ABCD happens, whatever it is, that's fine that it happens. But let's not be excited that, that there's a frenzy, a media frenzy about personalities and ministries. Let's have a ministry that's known in the angelic and the demonic realm because we live in such unity with the name of Jesus. So they, these demons beat these seven guys up and they all, it says in six verse 16, they ran out of the house, beat up and naked and, and verse 17, all of Ephesus heard about it. And the great revival broke out. We need to see this. This is beloved. This, the book of acts was the down payment. The end time church is the full grown tree. This is our seed. This is the down payment. This isn't the fullness. The book of acts is not the ceiling. It's the garden. It's the seed bed. It's not the ceiling. It's the seed bed. Top of page three, feed on your spirit on examples through church history. I just give you a few. It's great examples of men and women used in power. And that book I taught, I talked about the end of paragraph D all things are possible. Then we got about 50 copies in the bookstore. I made sure that we, we got a bunch of mortar or you just go online and get it somewhere else. You want, you want to read this book and the John G. Lake books. You want to get them paragraph F maybe somebody brought you here and you think now, wait a second. What's all this seeking miracles thing? Uh, paragraph F we seek God's face. We seek his face first. Then we seek his hand. You've heard the phrase I've said it some years ago. I seek his face, not his hand. And everybody goes, praise God. Praise God. That is completely non-biblical. We don't seek his face instead of his hand. We seek his face first, but we make sure we seek his hand. Of course we seek his hand. You don't have to choose between your heart, your liver, and your kidney. You get all of them. No, I'm serious. Who do you love most? The father, the son, or the Holy spirit? What? What a question. You don't have to choose his face or his hand. You just have the right sequence. We seek his face first, but we must seek his hand. It's absolutely biblical to seek his hand, just improper sequence. Here's what it says in Corinthians. First Corinthians 12, earnestly desire the better gifts. Are you doing that? Are you earnestly going after them? Verse 14, chapter 14, verse one, desire the spiritual gifts, especially prophesied desire three times, desire them, desire them, desire them. Go after the gifts of the spirit. It's Bible. Don't go after the gifts of the spirit first, but just put them on the top 10 of what you're going after and put it on your main list. I don't care if it's second, third, fourth, but put it up there at the top somewhere. We seek his face first, but beloved, we don't throw away his power in his hand. Well, I just love his face, but what about a million other people loving his face? Well, I wish they would. Well, if you move in power, they will see me touching his hand. It's not just so my ministry is exciting. I want to touch his hand so a million other people can seek his face or whatever the number is. I'm just arbitrary numbers. So it's not about, I just want life to be more exciting. I want people exhilarated with Jesus and they're not going to be in the full measure, the full number, in the full measure without power being manifest. I seek his hand because I want multitudes to seek his face. Roman numeral three, we contend for God's fullness with fasting and prayer. How do we do it? Fasting and prayer. It's not the only way. It's not the only way we do it. You know the story. Matthew 17, the man, they come down from the mount of transfiguration and verse 15, Lord, have mercy on my son. He's an epileptic. He suffers severely. I brought him to your disciples. He could not cure them. That's the statement. I'm not saying that as a complaint. I'm saying that with pain in my heart, they come to us and they say, your disciples, God do not heal my children. That's what the vast majority can say across the earth. So they say in Kansas city, they can complain to God. We went to IHOP, but my child is still sick. I have pain in my heart about this. It's not okay. I don't want to deny the truth of it, but I want to use the truth of it to catapult me with a focused tenacity into God's heart and his word. They said, what a horrible statement. They could not cure him. Jesus rebuked the demon. Verse 19, the disciples said, why couldn't we? Jesus said, because of unbelief. Verse 21, this type didn't go off for prayer and fasting because prayer and fasting positions ourself to receive prevailing faith. See, prayer and fasting doesn't earn anything. It positions us for faith to be quickened in our spirit. Jesus said for this kind of faith, you have to have your spirit connecting with the Holy spirit in a way where you're being helped in your faith in a dynamic way. But prayer and fasting will position you for this. Paragraph A, determine you'll pay any price. Does it matter, Lord? Any price, any price to see the breakthrough. That's what you were crying out for. Said about John the Baptist, Matthew 11, from the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of God suffers violence and violent. The violent take it by force. Now, violence is spiritual violence. It's not physical violence. It says the kingdom of God suffers violence. The word suffer means it permits or rewards spiritual tenacity. When it says suffers, I put in there, it rewards violence. Jesus, the head of the kingdom, he goes, hey, you've come before me in spiritual violence. I'm going to reward you. I'm going to permit your violence. I'm going to vindicate it. Spiritual violence is a, is a, uh, aggressive, resolute abandonment to God. It's the kind of violence that leaves our sin and unbelief. It leaves our lethargy. It denies our self and goes after God. It's violent because our flesh wants to be pampered, but the spiritual violence means we deny our flesh. We press into God's heart and we give up time and money and energy and opportunity and social events and all kinds of things. I don't mean all of them, but a lot of things because we have a violent resolution to enter in. Jesus said, you go for that. I guarantee you, heaven will back you up. He says, matter of fact, John the Baptist is the premier example of a violent man, of a man, not physical violence. We're talking about a holy resolution to take. See, some things in the kingdom are given automatically. Other things of the kingdom, God waits until they're taken by resolute men and women. Not resolute for a weekend, not resolute for summer. Talking about decades, going after this. Not that it takes decades. I'm not saying don't put a time on it. You, you, you set your heart. You never know the breakthrough may happen tonight. No matter when the breakthrough happens, a whole lot will happen between now and the breakthrough. A lot of good things that are meaningful to God. I don't know when the breakthrough, all I'm just saying is the resolution I'm talking about isn't like, well, Lord, I'll give you three months and if this thing doesn't change, I'm out of here. Spiritual violence has no conditions. I will do this until the end, until I meet you face to face. And if I'm doing this thing hard for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, so be it. If the breakthrough happens in a day, so be it. But I'm going to be found in the place of violence taking the kingdom. Because see, many things in the kingdom are given automatically. Many things in the kingdom are given automatically. The rain and the sun. It falls on, it blesses the wicked and the righteous. There's many things in the kingdom that happen automatically. But some things are only released when they're taken by resolute faith. Beloved, I want to be a man of resolute faith and I want to be among the people of resolute faith. Young or old, new or, I don't care if they're three months old in the Lord, let's go for it together. You say, well, back home there's only three of you. Well, three of you is three times as many as one of you. Don't say only three. Say, hey, it's three times as much as it used to be. Say, well, I'm one. Well, the Lord will look with pleasure on you and He will find you a friend, I assure you. And that friend will have a friend. There'll be three of you before you know it. Now, I mean it. Three of you will grow to six. But determine you're going to be a person of resolute faith among a people of resolute faith. And I would get with people that are feeding my spirit. I would, that verse I shared in Mark 4 a few minutes ago, it says, Jesus said, be careful what you hear. Be careful what you buy into. All the folks around you, their faith level is all they're going for is a one on a scale to ten. You're going for a two and they think you're a fanatic. I would really invest in some new relationships. I really would. I'd still love them and honor them, but I would get some folks that are at least a four. Start moving forward, reading materials, connecting your spirit to truth that gives you the vision. I'm going to read a couple of John G. Lake stories. Okay, I got them right here and I don't have the book here. I just printed them out here. Again, John G. Lake, there are little books of a hundred. There's about 10 of them, I think. I don't know, a bunch of them. But you get a real big thick book where they put them all. It's about four to six inches, a big old book, but they put them all in there. John G. Lake. If you've never heard John G. Lake, put on your seat belt because this is going to stretch you. Okay, he's just jumping right in. Oh, by the way, John G. Lake was a very wealthy businessman in Chicago in 1905. Very wealthy. Today's market would be worth millions of dollars. I mean, talking about his annual salary would be like a million dollars. Very wealthy man, very prominent, but he became so hungry for God, he started laying everything aside to fast and pray and go after God, and he broke through into a realm that's never been surpassed in the Western world. I mean, I'm talking about church history in the whole Western world. John G. Lake, he tells, I jump in here, he says, then the ministry of healing was opened up to me. I ministered for 10 years in the power of God. Now he's still, for 10 years, he's praying for the sick and a lot of people getting healed, but he's telling his story. He's about to really kick into a new gear. Hundreds and hundreds were being healed by the power of God. I could feel the conscious flow of the Holy Spirit when I laid hands on people. Every answer to prayer created in me a more intense longing for a greater intimacy, a greater awareness of God. At the end of that 10 years, I believe I became the hungriest man for God that ever lived. There was such hunger for God in my soul. I would leave my offices in Chicago. I would walk down the street. I would begin to cry out, oh God, the people would stop and stare and look at me and wonder. Oh, the passion that was taking hold of my soul. I had to know God in a greater measure. My friends would say, Mr. Lake, Mr. Lake, you have a beautiful baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yes, yes, it was nice as far as things go, but it was not answering the cry of my spirit. I was growing up into a larger understanding of what God would give me of my need for God. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into God, to His presence, His power, His love. Answers to prayer were more frequent. Miracles occurred more often. I felt myself on the borderland of a great spiritual realm, but I was unable to step into that new dimension. My nature was not satisfied. Finally, I went into fasting and prayer for nine months in a focused way. I would set aside hours every day dedicated to God just to wait upon Him in prayer and in the Word. During this period, at nights, I would do preaching meetings, healing services, and after the healing services, I was in the habit of joining some friends, and we would, we were determined each night after the healing services to pray through to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the one like the early apostles had. I threw up my hands. I was ready to quit after nine months of fasting and prayer, night after night. Lord, maybe it just won't happen for me. I did not blame God. Then one day, we were praying for a lady in a wheelchair. All of her joints were set with inflammatory rheumatism. She had been in this condition for 10 years. My friend was conversing with her, and my soul was crying out and yearning, oh God, touch her. Suddenly, suddenly, it seems like I passed under a warm shower of tropical rain. It was not falling on me, but it seemed it was falling through me. The awe of God settled over my soul as we were praying for this lady. The Spirit said to me, I've heard your prayers. I've seen your tears. You are now baptized with the Holy Spirit. Currents of power began to rush through my being from the top of my head through the soles of my feet. The shocks of power increased in such rapidity and voltage. As these currents of power passed through me, they came on my head. They rushed to my body. The power was so great, I was vibrating under the power of God. At that moment, my friend looked up at me. He motioned to me to lay hands on the woman. I did instantly. The flash of dynamic power went through me. The woman was instantly healed. The shock of power went through her, knocked them both on the floor. He looked up and said, praise God, John, I think you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. The clenched fist of the lady that had been that way for so many years suddenly opened. All of her joints were working perfectly. These were merely the outward manifestations. Oh, if I could describe the inexpressible joy that was in my spirit, the presence that thrilled my soul. Even to this late date, he's telling the story some decades later, the awe of that experience still rests on my soul. I found from that day forward, I began to manifest in the varied range of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I spoke in tongues by a whole new power. The power of God flowed through me at a whole new force. Healings were a far more powerful order. Now notice he was operating in healing for years before that day after day, 10 years he'd seen healings on a near daily basis. That was the wonder that was manifested. My nature became so sensitized. I could lay hands on any man or any woman and I could tell you what organ was diseased. I could tell you what extent and what all about it. They tested it in the hospitals. The physicians, when they could not diagnose a case, I'd lay hands on the patient and I would tell what organ was diseased, what extent, what condition and what location. A great tenderness for mankind is what was awakened in my soul. I saw people through new eyes. They seem to be as wandering sheep, having strayed far away, groping in the darkness. The never ceasing fountain that opened up in that day in my spirit, in my body has brought salvation and healing to multitudes and multitudes. So that's how he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I might read a couple more, a little bit shorter ones. Now this is after he's had this experience. One night a gentleman came to me and he pointed to a large sign on the wall and the sign, because he was at a big healing meeting, and the sign on the wall said, in thy name they should cast out devils. This man said, do you believe it? I said, well of course I believe it. The man says, two and a half years ago my brother became violently insane and he was committed to an asylum. Somehow he got possessed of a spirit instantly. The physicians examined him, every function of his body and brain was normal. Nobody could account for his sudden insanity. I said, bring him. So on Sunday night the man came, attended by his family members and the attendant of the institution. I laid my hands on that man in the name of Jesus, commanded the demon to come out of him. The spirit of God went through my being like a flash of lightning. I knew in my soul the devil had left. I was not surprised. The man raised his head and for the first time spoke intelligently to me. A few days later he was discharged from the institution. He returned home a healed man, returned to his former position as the manager of the grain elevator. From that time to this I've seen hundreds of insane people instantly delivered. And again he had many critics, many people who saying not true, not true. And he had all kinds of scrutiny and newspapers. I mean he was, this thing was going all around the world and it's quite an amazing story to read his life and to read. I mean because even his critics could not resist what was happening in front of their eyes. I'll read another one, a little bit shorter one. 1908 I was in South Africa one night. He was there for five years. He left Chicago, left his big business in Chicago and went to South Africa just to become a full-time preacher. Since I was down there one night the power of God came on me and such power it was like streams of liquid glory. Power flowed consciously off my hands like streams of electricity. I could point my finger at a man the stream of God would strike him. One man stood up and interrupted my meeting. I pointed at him and I said sit down. He fell as struck and lay for three hours. When he became normal he said something struck me straight through like I was shot. I ministered to the six streams of power flowed through my hands with such violence people fell. I was troubled when they hit the floor with such violence. I held my hands a foot from their head they would fall in heaps all over the room. That is what the people saw on the outside but what was happening on the inside was very powerful. There was a tenderness of God working on my soul. I wept over men in sin like never before. During that period men would walk down the aisle they'd come within 10 feet of me and they'd just fall and collapse on the floor. In 18 months over a hundred churches were born out of my one tabernacle there in Johannesburg. There was hundreds of churches in that five-year period. The multitudes of those hundreds of churches they were healed and baptized in the spirit under my ministry. I saw hundreds of thousands healed five hundred thousand in five years. At that time catch this at that time my heart kept saying God there must be even more. I want more. My heart wants you even more. There was a cry in my soul. There was a yearning for God. I would abandon myself to God and I would discard the selfishness of the world. Beloved pray through for your church pray through for your ministry. Oh God will come. He will surely come in greater power than you've ever seen. Don't give up. God will come in waves of heavenly love. Read another one. Got one more after that. In South Africa some years ago now he's back in America he's telling a story back in South Africa again he was in South Africa for five years about 1905 to 1910. In a single night a fever epidemic struck the country for 350 miles. I found men dead in their beds besides their wives and children the whole family were stricken sick and dead. Within one month one-fourth of the entire population of the district 300 miles died. We had to organize an army of men to dig graves and to make caskets but I had this one man in my company that was so anointed to pray I'd never found anyone anointed to pray like this man. He would remain under this thorn tree for hours at a time. We would pass in the morning he would be groaning his prayer to God. We'd return in the evening he was still there because they were digging the graves and the caskets and praying for the sick. This one guy was under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many times I'd take a meal to him I'd rouse him just enough to eat he would be there hours a day. I said brother how's it going are you getting through he says not yet not yet. Then one day he said to me Mr. Lake I feel today if I had some help in my faith I think our spirit would break through to God so I joined him. We knelt down and prayed the Holy Spirit overwhelmed our soul and power. I found myself he's in a trance now I was no longer kneeling under the tree with a man but suddenly I found myself gradually moving away in a vision. I moved about a hundred feet away my eyes were wide open I witnessed a scene that I'd never witnessed before I saw a multitude of demons. I raised my voice and spoke in the name of Jesus and rushed ahead cursing that army of demons. The next morning we awoke the epidemic of fever was gone and the whole community was delivered. One more now how many of you are when I said you need to get John's your leg you said but now you're thinking I might go get those books okay there you go. The mail came in one day a request to pray for an insane young man the mother said I can tell you as far as I know my son has a devil he's had one since his birth he's been like a wild animal his own life he's never worn clothes he smashes himself with everything you give him we can't even put a dish in the room we put him in the center of the enclosure with a large stone hollowed out put his food in it he eats like an animal his whole life he's been insane. My friend and I said we'd go pray for him I tried to catch him he was wild as a lion he jumped right over my head I know this sounds a little strange but I'll never forget that afternoon as long as I as long as I remember I'll never as long as I live as I looked across to that young man I could see the lightning flash of faith in my spirit I knew that if I got my hands on him the devil would come out presently he landed on my side and I grew my friend grabbed him laid hands on him in two minutes we spoke over him he was instantly transformed he spoke the first words of sanity that he ever known that moment spoke his first sane words of his whole life that moment instantly delivered so we want to have a vision to go after this but it's not I'm not talking about again and I'm not meaning to insult any of you I'm not saying go to a meeting you know ah the power book of acts acts plus exodus multiplied combined global level that's our mantra yay go back you know to mtv you know no I'm talking about changing radically what we do with our time our money downsizing our life so we free up time and energy for fasting and prayer that's what I'm talking I'm talking about downsizing to free up more time to go after God hours in a week I mean many hours per week more than we've ever known before I don't mean an hour one time once a day I'm talking about downsizing radically reorganizing our life to go after God in spiritual violence that's my vision for why ihop exists now obviously a lot of folks in ihop they don't live that way they love God and they do what they do but there's a core that's why they came here to radically rearrange their life to abandon themselves with a company of people that will go after this thing together and God is raising up people like this all around the world in groups again it doesn't matter what they call it doesn't matter what the name of it is doesn't matter what their prayer meetings look like the holy spirit is sovereignly raising up ministries and companies of people that are going after this be one now a lot of folks will wait tell everybody till the breakthrough comes and they'll jump on the bandwagon don't wait for the breakthrough be a part of the breakthrough be a part of the breakthrough don't wait till everything else cool and the power like hey I think I'm in anybody can jump on the bandwagon when the breakthrough you know if not you then who the preacher said if not here then where if not now when who's the people that's going to do this it's going to be weak and broken people like us it's going to be weak little guys like us who go why not me why not now why not here and the lord says here's what the lord says if you will I will he really says that to us I got lots of bible verses to back that up a lot of folks are waiting on God and God's waiting on his people top of page four just real quick I'm just going to give you a one two three four quenching the move of the holy spirit seven ways the holy spirit common ways the holy spirit's quenched regularly number one way not that this is the top way you know I have them in no particular order they're all they all have to go they all have to go control refusing to make room for the holy spirit's manifestation the holy spirit's activity control now the control is the opposite of the spirit of truth because the truth is the holy spirit's leadership he's the truth the truth is he wants to do something control says not now it's the opposite of the spirit of truth it's refusing the holy spirit's leadership and one of the reasons people exercise control it's a normal care I'm not talking about it's a demon of control it's just a personality trait that's very very common probably the majority of the human race has a propensity to that direction just for comfort to to make sure things go well in their life this control refuses to look weak says nah nah if the holy spirit comes something might happen I might look foolish I might look weak well you are weak what's the big deal if you look weak everybody knows you're weak you say you're weak we agree you are what's the big thing refuses to look weak look foolish refuses the leadership of the holy spirit quenches the holy spirit second one exhibitionism same thing it's the opposite extreme it's adding to the holy spirit's manifestations it's drawing attention to ourselves and away from the holy spirit it's not a spirit of truth it's the same thing as control just the opposite extreme it's not a spirit of truth it's refusing the holy spirit's leadership now this group they don't want to look weak uh in the way that the the control group they don't want to look insensitive to the holy spirit so they'll just carry on any away just to make sure everybody knows they're anointed the holy spirit says why are you doing that you're not helping me I want you to honor my leadership not take over see the control guy takes over but so does the exhibition guy he takes over too it's the same spirit just the opposite extreme paragraph c neglecting the word of god one of my real uh zeals I mean passions that that that I have I am really committed to the move of the holy spirit and I am really committed to the word of god I tell you the chariot that the holy spirit rides best in is the word of god we don't have to throw away the bible to have the ministry of the holy spirit we don't have to do it I I didn't read the passage above here in Thessalonians but Paul said don't quench the spirit test everything this group they neglect they neglect to test things by biblical standards they don't want to look religious well we don't want the technicalities of bible verses the technicalities this is the all wise god and it's god the holy spirit who wrote the technicalities of the bible I don't want to look religious I want to look free this person does the same thing they are refusing the leadership of the holy spirit and they don't embrace the spirit of truth it's the same thing so whether it's control or exhibitionism or neglecting the word it's all the same thing it's refusing the leadership of the holy spirit refusing the spirit of truth and masquerading on another platform for something other than what the word of god says some people I've heard this through the years they say well let's just trust the holy spirit's leadership which translates let's not have leadership which translates let's let make let the most dominant personality with no inhibitions who's got the biggest need to be seen let them do what they want let me say that all that again to you again I really want you to get this for real this is serious I've heard this is really foolish and non-biblical they go let's just trust the holy spirit's leadership that's a great statement but what they mean by that is let's have no leadership and what they really mean by that is the gift of leadership of the holy spirit is placed in the body let's just throw that aside the holy spirit you know let's not worry about that and what let's create a vacuum so the person with the strongest personality and the least inhibitions who has the biggest need that person rises to the top and the thing the whole thing the whole context in a short amount of time is over I mean those things last a week or two or a month or two and they go away and there's division and all the blah blah blah we need to do it god's way we need holy spirit leadership we need the word of god we need to confront control we need to resist exhibitionism the carrying on that's not the holy spirit we want truth we want jesus we're we're not trying to create a reputation we're wanting an environment for encounter we're not trying to tell the neighbors how sensitive and powerful we are we're not wanting to create a reputation we want an environment for encounter we want truth that's what we're after that's why you're in this room paragraph d way to quench the holy spirit prayerlessness just the group that says we'll wait when the spirit wants to move he'll move and the lord says are you preparing a place for me are you preparing an atmosphere for me through your your prayer and fasting again we don't earn it but we position ourselves to have our spirits tenderized well no that group down the road is going to do the prayer part we're just going to have a holy spirit part and I think that happens sometimes sometimes the one group down the road will pray in the group it will actually happen that way sometimes it really does sometimes it happens across nations and who knows how it all works but I know this when we when we throw the prayer component out in the long run we're quenching the holy spirit in our ministry paragraph e the next way we quench the holy spirit by despising the day of small beginnings the despising the little things we have to be faithful when it's little I mean a lot of I've seen this over the years the guy will say hey when the power breaks out hey I'm in I don't want to mess with the little stuff when the power breaks out when God's serious about this I'm in I go that is an absolutely non-biblical attitude we need to all be in all the way no matter what the measure is because it's God we're in for we're in this thing for him we're not in it to dazzle the multitudes we're in it because it's his work and we're not going to despise the day of small beginnings if it's that little healing here a little healing there I tell you a little prayer meeting here a lot much anointing there a little press meeting there you know we've had plenty you know we've been going nine years now sometimes in IHOP I'll come into IHOP right here nine years we've been going I'll come in with a happy spirit I'll come to one of our prayer meetings and get oppressed I mean I was doing good till I went to the IHOP prayer meeting I left worse shape than I came in well that was a tough one and the Lord might say something like it pays the same just keep going now the opposite is true too I come in all feeling bad and boy the spirit of God's moving I don't know I can't measure it I don't try to measure my point is we have so much weakness and so much littleness but what the Lord loves about what we're doing here he says reach reach for prophecy reach for healing reach for souls cast out devils and if they don't come out just keep praying about them and don't give up and we got to stay with it you may be the only person in your church back home you know they pray for the sick you know the only person that will do it just keep doing it keep doing it you know the the the pastors we looked at earlier and Luke I mean a mark Matthew 17 when Jesus came down from the mountain and the guy said my son has has epilepsy and they couldn't get the demon out Jesus said oh you unbelieving the reason he rebuked him for unbelieving is because they quit that's why he rebuked him they quit he said I am here a hundred yards from you on the mountain and you quit I'm God in the flesh you quit and the well you're up there the mountain I don't know it didn't seem like no it's happening ah you quit that's why he said he goes you're unbelieving hard huh he goes I mean he made a pretty strong statement about how long can I put up with this and the point was I'm a hundred yards from you on a mountain I happen to be talking to Moses and Elijah about the crucifixion and the transfer of human history just there that was with you all day yesterday and you guys he's not rebuking the dad or the boy of the demon he's took the apostles he goes you gave up and you gave in why that's what the unbelief was about we can't despise we despise it and we can get real cool and despise it well you know you don't say how's the meeting like we banned something at IHOP we changed about three years ago we had a real strong rule I'm really big on this rule after the prayer meet after the worship says we have worships every two hours so the team would go into the briefing in the back room over there and this happened for about a year it was really bad and I wasn't aware it was becoming a real disease so what would happen is that they get in the back room and the guy would say hey how was the set they would debrief and it became real cool to say how bad the set was because nobody wanted to say it was good because if they said the set was real good then they might be inferring they were anointed and nobody else was or maybe they were saying their standard was low so everybody became cool to say the set was bad Lord wasn't here and I started like one here one there started building and just the spirit of unbelief was like choking our young worship teams and maybe didn't happen a year happens for some months I don't know it started building I began to get wind of it I said we have a new rule you cannot under no circumstance measure the amount of the presence of God in any of our meetings ever again if it's the full book of Acts or absolutely oppression you cannot measure it you cannot measure you can you can talk about if the drummer was off you talk about your techniques and your transition and some of your court progressions but you cannot talk about the measure of these spirits presence that is a forbidden topic to measure it in any of our meetings because if you get your eyes on it you will get into depression and so I hope I haven't heard anything in three years but I'm really against that measuring thing because people start despising because they see what we don't have instead of seeing what we do have I guarantee you in every meeting somebody the lightning of God is touching their spirit with a with a with a the light of God touching their mind in some way it's absolutely worth it the next one this is a big one F laziness laziness Jill Austin I'm gonna honor you this gal wave your hand now you don't have to do nothing tonight now after I say this this girl I have been watching her for years about 20 years now I was getting up there and I could say this about a few others she does these hours long ministry times just for people it is so much work it is pure raw servanthood s-e-r hood it's servant hood it is really work to do this our healing teams our prophecy teams you know we got like a couple hundred in this group and a couple under that they do hours a day it is work work work they have to go in the room they've got all their things in life they got to turn off their money problems their relational problems their physical problems their everything problems they got to turn it off dial down tune in for someone they don't know who's gonna go out and say that wasn't that big of a word that's that's how it's gonna happen they got to get there they're fasting they they feel miserable they feel double bad because they ate but their friend doesn't know it and they're sitting there they're doing the thing God how does this work do I confess it or just let it go or how does it work my money's not working I had a wrong conversation I think they're in pride but I might be in pride I don't know who's in pride in this lady needs a prophecy she's got like all her microphones Lord's gonna break through come in something breakthrough breakthrough that all you got for me I came all the way here no it is work it is work to do healing teams and prophecy teams it is work to pray for people one of the greatest way is the spirit of is quench is just pure laziness in the body of Christ just there it is the final one compromise it is so hard to flow in the spirit when we're grieving the spirit I mean it's really hard to be you know the day before looking at pornography in the next day trying to fall in prophecy it's just really hard to be lying about a brother or even telling your story in a conflict with slander and then flow in prophecy two hours later if you slandered your brother even though you're right you still slandered them wrong spirit wrong place it's slander you can't grieve the spirit and flow in the spirit what the scores of other ways those are just you know there's we I don't know that anybody will attain full obedience I don't even know exactly what that looks like but I know one thing we're seeking for full obedience we're seeking for it whenever we get the obedience we're after the Holy Spirit turns up the magnifying glass on that microscope and from 10 power at a hundred power you get that cleaned up thousand power you go Holy Spirit he keeps giving more light when you obey light so I don't know how this thing ends I never seem to get rid of the dirt every time I get victory I get more light and it's like he's doing it on purpose and of course that's how it's happening the pursuit I'm reading here no let's read this we have to seek to fully obey we have to declare war on known sin I don't mean we have to have victory over it we have to go after it though seriously this really stops the power ministry in the body of Christ I don't mean our immaturity I'm just giving in to sin prayer and fasting let me tell you this never are a substitute for lack of obedience see some folks will say you know what I'll do a little bit of this little drunkenness little immorality a little bit of lying and but I'll fast an extra day and I'll go more time no no you don't negotiate with doesn't work that way it's a relationship with a person called the Holy Spirit you know that it's the pursuit of it is different than attaining of it there are powerful dynamics in our heart when we go after 100% obedience I've learned this the hard way when I go after 98% it's pretty good but that final 2% is where the double power is and I'm using the word double just as a figure of speech that final 2% when you determine that your eyes your words your time everything will come under the Holy Spirit's leadership there is a radiance in your spirit that comes only with the final 2% your money your time your 15 minutes your hours I'm gonna talk about being religious I'm talking about saying Holy Spirit I want my life to be yours I want you to define grace to me not a culture that's living in sin tell me what grace is about because our culture will tell us what grace is and they will always mean compromise and feel good about it the definition of grace in the culture in the Western world means be comfortable with compromise there's a rarely a true definition of grace very rare in the land because it's mostly coming out of self-justifying our own compromise our definitions of grace we want true grace because Jesus is worth our hearts connecting with his radiance we rob people by the lower standard of grace it's being a priest all over the land we talked very much about the cost of discipleship we need to talk about the cost of non discipleship how much does it cost us to get our demons and feed them and then get tired of them and then have to pay to get rid of them I mean demons are expensive they're expensive money time relationally I'll talk about the body of Christ Holy Spirit we want to say yes to you let's just come before the Lord now I'm talking about a whole package here not just one thing I'm saying Lord as a whole lifestyle we want to go after you we want a approach that's wholesome the whole approach of going after the realm of power let's stand