Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of intercession in God's kingdom, explaining that it is the primary means through which God governs the universe and releases His power. He highlights the majesty and mystery of intercession, noting that even weak intercessions hold profound value in God's eyes. Bickle encourages believers to embrace the simplicity of intercession, which fosters intimacy with God, unity among His people, and transformation within individuals. He asserts that intercession is not only vital for the present but will continue to be a central activity in eternity, as Jesus will forever intercede for humanity. Ultimately, Bickle calls for a deeper understanding and commitment to intercession as a means of participating in God's divine plan.

Father, we thank you for the Word of God and we ask you to bless it even now, the hearing and the speaking of your Word. And I thank you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now, those of you that have the notes, as most of you know that we're not going to cover them all, but the notes are more for referencing later, so I don't have to go through all the verses and the notes are on the internet each Friday and Saturday night, so you can take them. And our copyright is the right to copy, so you can copy them, you can change them, you can edit them, put your name on them, anything you want to do, if it's helpful in a Bible study you're teaching back home. The revelation of intercession. This is one of the great needs of the hour, even in context of the prayer movement, to receive revelation, Holy Spirit revelation, as to how intercession works and how valuable it is in God's kingdom. Not just how valuable it is right now, how valuable it is in His kingdom in eternity. Because intercession is the central activity and the governing of God's kingdom forever and ever and ever. And when we gain revelation of how intercession works from God's point of view, particularly the value of weak intercession or intercession that appears to be weak. When we see it from God's point of view with revelation, it really changes the way that we engage with it. Roman numeral one, the primary way that God governs the universe. God has chosen, paragraph A, God has chosen intercession as the primary means in which He releases His government. When I mean His government, I mean His power. It's the primary way He releases it through Jesus and it's the primary way He releases it through His people now and forever. That is a stunning concept, that we will be interceding forever and so will Jesus as a means of releasing God the Father's power into the natural realm. And the natural realm will continue forever because at the second coming, heaven's coming to the earth. Jesus is bringing the new Jerusalem to the earth. The two realms are coming together, the natural and the spiritual realm. The natural realm is not going to disappear, but the spirit realm, God's bringing heaven down to the earth and both realms will exist together forever and forever and forever. It says in Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25, I like to talk about the majesty and the mystery of intercession. There's a majesty to intercession. There's a mystery to it. And this majesty and mystery is seen best or first in the fact that Jesus lives forever to make intercession. Can you imagine that Jesus a million years from now will still be making intercession? Paragraph B, the mystery of intercession. The primary principle of intercession is this. This is why it's so mysterious. It is simply to tell God what he tells us to tell him. It is so simple that we miss it. We need a revelation of simplicity of it. It's profoundly simple. The mystery of revelation is in its so-called weakness, its so-called simplicity, its humility, and its accessibility to everyone. It is mysterious that the highest release of God's power is so simple, it's so humble, and so accessible to everyone forever. Who names the name of Jesus, forever it's accessible to them. And yet this simple reality has such profound impact in the life of a believer. I'm just going to summarize a little of the impact and then later on in the notes I outlined a lot more specific if we even get to those part of the notes. But the impact is that intercession brings us into intimacy with God's heart. It brings us into unity with God's people. It transforms our inner man and it trains us to function in his government now and in the age to come. The simplicity of intercession has that kind of impact upon the people of God. We'll look at a little bit of what I mean by a few of those sentences and how it relates to intercession. Because when the Lord first called me to intercession some years ago in the late 70s, I was so excited about intercession and I began to do intercession every day. I began to get a group of people and I didn't have any revelation of intercession at all. I just knew in a very clear, in a really direct way, the Lord said this is your primary calling. And I told everybody, I started prayer meetings, I said this is that. I'd never been to an intercessory prayer meeting before that time, not one ever. I'd been to devotional prayer meetings when we sit in a circle and told God we loved him, but I'd never been in a prayer meeting where we asked for revival. The Lord made it clear to me in May 1979, he said your number one calling is intercession. And so I shifted my understanding of what I was supposed to do on the earth. He said your intercession is number one, teaching the word is number two, and shepherding my people is number three. And so I didn't even have intercession on it, on my grid. And so I began to do it and I began to do it with all the wrong understanding and with no revelation whatsoever. And I was tripped. I mean tripped means stumbled over the simplicity and the majesty and the mystery of this awesome calling. And it just little by little over the years of, of doing it regularly since those, uh, since that time, little by little, God would begin to humble me and show me the glory of this awesome calling. Cause I was mad at him for a little while about it. I said, Lord, you don't understand if you just let me loose and release your power on me, I can do a whole lot of good things for you. And the Lord maybe said something like, don't worry Peewee, I got you right in the right place. You'll, you'll understand it. You'll like it. He didn't exactly say that those were my words, but he wasn't impressed with my arguments. Okay. Paragraph C the majesty of intercession. It's the highest means of releasing God's power. There is no other means in God's kingdom of which he releases his power. That's that's more effective or that he uses more often than intercession. The angels pray and declare God's prophetic decrees, Jesus as God. I mean, as God, before he became man, he would speak in this intercessory principle to release the power, to create the heavens and the earth. Even Jesus functioned that way as God in eternity. And then as man, he functions that way. And even now as man at the right hand of the father, of course, he's fully God as well. He still relates to the father in terms of releasing power through intercession. It is, it is majestic that God himself, the second person of the Trinity humbles himself in to the wisdom of this mode of releasing the father's power. Roman numeral two, Jesus at the time of creation used intercession. Now I call it the principle of intercession. And what I mean by the principle of intercession is that he spoke the thought that the words and the thoughts that were on the father's heart. That's what I mean by the principle of intercession. The father had ideas in his mind and Jesus articulated those ideas. He spoke them out. And then the spirit that was hovering over the earth moved in power, but only after the word was spoken, the spirit was hovering brooding over the earth, the Genesis chapter one, waiting for God to speak. God, the father had the ideas clearly in his mind. The Holy spirit wasn't waiting for the father to make his mind up. The Holy spirit was waiting for the, for the ideas and the thoughts that were in the father's heart to be declared openly. And then he moved in power. And the one that declared them openly was the second person, the Trinity, Jesus himself, he was the agent of the father for creation. And the spirit moved only when Jesus spoke the words of the father, paragraph B, Jesus is identified as the creator. And I have a number of verses there. The father is the creator in the general sense, but Jesus was under the father's authority, speaking what was in the father's heart. And then the spirit moved paragraph, a Roman number three, top of page two. Not only does G did Jesus create that way that even now Jesus is sustaining creation. He is keeping it together. He is holding it in place in the same way that he created it by speaking the father's word back to him. It says in Hebrews one, that Jesus is upholding all things. And how is he upholding all? I'm talking about the created order. The scientists still can't figure out how the Adam, uh, stays together with all the, the, uh, uh, energy of the electrons and the protons and the neutrons. How does this thing stay together? It's mysterious. If Jesus quit speaking the word, all of the created order would dissipate. He upholds it. How by speaking the word of God, it's his father's word that he speaks. It says in Colossians one, that Jesus is before all things, meaning he existed before anything else that he's uncreated like God, the father, the second person of the Trinity. And in him, all things consist the new King James says, but the new American standard and NIV say all things hold together because of him. I mean, literally the planets, the beating of your heart, the sun shining, the processes of life itself only hold together because of the present tense government of Jesus speaking the word of his power. Paragraph C you're familiar with this, with this principle. I'm just going to mention it and then move on. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness in Matthew four on three temptations, each time he said it is written, he spoke the word of the father, and then the power was released and Satan was driven away. It's the most simple yet absolutely remarkable reality that the father has ideas in his heart. He is ordained that those ideas must be spoken. They must be articulated or sang, and when they're spoken or sang, when they're articulated, then the spirit releases power wherever the word is spoken. If we lay hands on people and speak, healing happens. If we do not do it, many healings do not happen. If we speak the word of God over our own heart, power touches our heart. If we don't speak the word of God, there's power that would have touched us that the Lord holds back. The spirit moves when the word is spoken in whatever sphere the word is spoken. So whether it's Jesus speaking about the heavens and the earth and the spirit moving, or whether we're speaking in a prayer meeting or worshiping and contributing to the release of God's power in that region or area, that area that we're focused on, or whether we're speaking the word to the devil who's coming and the power of God drives back the work of darkness, or whether we're speaking the word of God in our own heart, or we're speaking it to a friend, we call it fellowship, and then that friend changes their mind from depression and discouragement and there's a life that uh a strengthening of divine life in their heart we call it encouragement because the word went forth and then the spirit touched their heart a little bit. The the point I want you to get is that God's government is through the speaking of the word and that's really what intercession is. It's simply saying what God says to say and Jesus is not is not uh taken back by this reality. Jesus speaks what he already knows the father's thinking. I mean it wasn't a new idea, let there be light. Jesus knew that's what was on the father's heart. But there actually is a process in the government of God that is necessary. The word needs to be spoken. Paragraph four or roman numeral four. Jesus is the word of God. Now we've we all know this passage well, we've read it, we love it, but what does it mean? In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The word is Jesus. All things were made through this person who is the word. Now paragraph eight. When Jesus articulates the father's thoughts, he's functioning as the living word of God. One reason Jesus is called the word, he brings the father's private ideas into existence in the natural realm by Jesus speaking him or the body of Christ related to Jesus is speaking and God's purposes are released into the natural realm. Things that God wants to do that are not being done yet happen when Jesus or his people speak under the father's authority and the spirit is more than willing to move. Now we don't speak one time and it's done, but there's a there's a whole body of Christ worldwide prayer movement that's being raised up that is in unity with the head and that's where it's going. It's not that unified with the head right now, but it's going to be. It's going to release the greatest revival at the end of the age and it's going to be the power of God stopping and bringing deliverance where great judgments and great shakings are taking place as well as well as the rage of satan. It will be the rod of Jesus's mouth even through the lips of his church and the way that Moses extended his rod before pharaoh the end time church will extend their rod before the antichrist and who's the uh of who pharaoh was a type of and the power of God will go forth as described in the book of revelation but through the rod that's extended called the body of Christ and intercession the bible calls it the rod of Jesus's mouth and his the rod of his mouth goes forth from him directly but the rod of his mouth also goes forth through his people and the end time church will be in the same role together collectively that Moses had before pharaoh now what if Moses would have got raptured before he went to Egypt he looked at the the Jews and slavery sorry guys I prepared 40 years in the wilderness so I could get taken out before the drama we don't want to be taken out before the drama we want to extend the rod of God in the midst of it and we want to make the difference in the will of God not that we get to vote on it anyway you know my guy says I want to be I don't want to be I go you know what it's all good to say we call it fellowship but you don't get to vote nobody in heaven they like you up there but you don't get to vote on this it's in the word of God it's already settled Roman numeral five Jesus releases God's justice in response to intercession now we know this passage well all of us in this room Luke chapter 8 shall not God avenge his elect it's what the new king James says new American standard I like this it says shall not God bring about justice for the people who cry night and day so you could call it vengeance or justice it's the same thing paragraph a Jesus taught that justice would be established through night and day prayer but think what night and day prayer is it's speaking the word of God we're not coming up with new ideas we're speaking the ideas that God the father has in his heart we're just simply telling God what he tells us to tell him because there's we're going to look at in a few minutes minutes there's a number of dynamic realities that happen when we simply tell God what he tells us to tell him as simple as it is it is profound in its impact on the human spirit let's look at paragraph b there's two sides to justice there's a judgment side to justice when the when the rebels are punished and there's a salvation a deliverance side to justice when the redeemed are vindicated the deep the redeemed are delivered justice has two sides night and day prayer releases justice in this age and even in the age to come in the millennial kingdom it causes justice a very simple definition of justice is God making wrong things right and the way that God makes wrong things right is when people cry out night and day justice in small measures but still it's justice is released every time we have a prayer meeting every time we speak the word over somebody in sin and prayer or somebody in sickness we lay hands on them or maybe they're not even in the room every time we do it there's an element of justice that's released even a small incremental uh measure of it prayer releases justice it stops the negative and releases the positive in terms of God's salvation and God's judgment paragraph c examples of God's justice we're not going to go through all these just a couple of them healing is God's judgment on sickness revival is God's judgment on compromise in the church evangelism is God's judgment upon blindness and darkness in the hearts of unbelievers God's judging darkness when evangelism takes place every one of these positive things are expressions of the justice of God paragraph d Jesus requires night and day justice i mean night and day prayer for the release of justice i want to encourage you intercessors the majority in this room are are called to be intercessors whether as your primary calling or secondary calling or you wouldn't be in the room right now may not be your primary calling but it's it's it's part of your your uh your uh diverse calling in God and i want to say this to you so you're strengthened in your heart God requires that prayer goes night and day much of the church doesn't under does not have a revelation of intercession so it looks like what's how i saw when the Lord first called me intercession i thought an intercessor was a would-be evangelist wasted in a prayer room i said because i was just a a uh zealous not very anointed but a zealous evangelist and guys that went to prayer meetings were would-be soldiers in the army that were copping out i didn't like guys going to prayer meetings because i saw them as sitting out of of the war instead of getting in the war i had no revelation of intercession it was a waste of time it was a cop-out but i want to say that God requires night and day prayer in the cities of the earth i don't mean everyone's got to build an eye hop and do it in one building because there's night and day prayer going in many cities of the earth it's not one building but from God's point of view it's happening in in a way that he can see it all the time around the clock in ways that you or i can't see but he sees it and it's not i think it's it's exciting to do it in a building but in one building it's not necessary there's a lot more prayer going on in the cities of the earth than we can put on our organizational ministry chart it's still happening but God does require it and the reason i'm saying it is that when people will tell you man you're putting all this time and energy it is biblical Jesus requires it the church doesn't have a revelation of that but he still does require it so stay steady there's wisdom in this thing called intercession now the point i want to make in paragraph d is that not only does Jesus require it but it is one of the most practical expressions of loving loving your neighbor that i know of in the bible is developing night and day prayer ministries and again not that your circle the people that you meet would have to do it night and day but in the in the city the answer to a mom that brings her demonized son to you isn't just you know doing a work of good deeds they need the demon to get cast out when somebody has cancer they need the power of healing and the night and day prayer ministries are releasing greater dimensions of power that's what the lord has promised he would do he would release justice where there's oppression we need power and the fact that you're contending for power and presence in your city is a dynamic commitment to love the people who are in bondage there is no freedom if somebody does not break through we can have a fellowship dinner with them we can buy them a gift we can write them a card but they want the demon cast out of them they appreciate the other things they say is anybody going to pay whatever the price is in terms of contending together to get a breakthrough in my rg graphic area and so don't let anybody tell you that your efforts and prayer is somehow opposite of loving people it is a fasting and prayer is a radical statement to declare i mean to express love to people that isn't apparent till the people get delivered and then they go thank you thank you thank you that you stayed faithful and the point isn't to get them to say thank you that's the point my point is the love is apparent when the deliverance begins to happen but the lord is required that night and day prayer go forth for justice to be released what god means by night and day prayer i'm sure it means a number of different things again don't lock it into your mind you have to be in one building and everybody have one organization and all do it there and then night and day prayer exists that it means much more than that so don't limit it to that okay let's go to roman numeral six when jesus returns at the second coming fully god but he comes in his full humanity he will rule on the earth for a thousand years and then after that comes the new heavens and the new earth which is the same earth it's right here on the earth but for a thousand years jesus will have a throne in jerusalem that's dynamically connected to the throne in the new jerusalem because the new jerusalem is coming down i don't want to get into all that detail right now but it says it three times in the book of revelation the new jerusalem is coming down to the earth the supernatural realm of the heavenly realm is coming to the planet and that's where our residence is is in the new jerusalem but we will have assignments on the earth where the natural realm is fully natural i mean the it will be physical and material we will have anointed ministry on the earth forever and forever and forever it was always god's plan to bring the two realms together on the earth and to dwell with humans on the earth that's what's going to happen the end of book of revelation chapter 21 verse 3 we all know the passage and it says behold god will god will make his dwelling place with man he means in the natural realm on the earth god will dwell with humans and the two realms will come perfectly together the heavenly and the natural realm will will be brought together as ephesians 1 10 says it will be and many other verses as well well at that time jesus will establish his throne on the earth and what i found remarkable when i first saw this just some time ago is that jesus is going to be leading a global prayer ministry as the means of releasing the renewal of the father's power across the nations you know for some years i just assumed jesus comes everything is automatically fixed it will be fixed line up online city by city and intercession will be the primary vehicle that we will be engaged and we'll be engaged in other forms of ruling but nothing will have greater priority to jesus or to the father than the intercessory ministry of saints with resurrected bodies as well as the people that are living on the millennial earth they will be engaged in prayer meetings all over the earth i have good news for you the prayer ministry you're contending for in your city it's going to continue for a long time after you're gone after the lord returns that ministry will continue in your city what we're doing in kansas city the prayers we're praying in kansas city will have value 500 years from now not just in in the next 10 years those prayers that we pray through history are are in a bowl before the father's thrones they're not forgotten they're not lost their impact and their reality is alive before god as the bowls of intercession from history are being filled up the prayers of the saints from ages ago are still alive before god as are your prayers well here in paragraph a in psalm 2 one of the great psalms about jesus's return at the second coming psalm 2 has its greatest fulfillment at the second coming so it's a fantastic psalm about jesus's leadership over the earth but here's what i find so interesting and when i first began to see this i was so taken back by it because i had no paradigm for it i only saw a intercession or something we did now i did not have a revelation of it of its grandness of its majesty in god's eternal plan and when i begin to see it and i don't see it that clear even now but as i begin to see it more and more it began to be very relevant to do weak and boring prayer meetings seem totally valuable completely changed the way i viewed a three-member prayer meeting that had no sense of power on it and the lord wants us to change our view of what's really happening he wants us to see reality not what just the natural eye sees when we come together in prayer but look what it says in psalm chapter 2 jesus is speaking jesus said i will declare the decree of the lord the father's decree well that's what he's been doing for a long time back in genesis 1 jesus was declaring the father's decrees let there be light and the spirit says i heard it boom light was created let there be the the the dry ground jesus declared the father's decree the spirit says i love it the dry ground was created keep going jesus this is great jesus declared the father's decrees back in genesis 1 and he's still doing it but david's talking about jesus coming as king of the earth in jerusalem to rule the nations for a thousand years and he says jesus david is just is describing the dialogue within the trinity that he sees by revelation he goes to there was jesus was before the father what did he say david it was amazing jesus said i will declare the decree of the father father you said to me i am your son and you told me father to ask of you for the nations give me the nations this is jesus praying before the father at the time of the second coming jesus will only possess the nations fully through intercession even his own intercession even when he comes to possess all the nations the nest the the nations won't be instantly christianized in 24 hours it doesn't work that way i've asked people to think about this and of course a lot of folks don't really they think well this jesus comes we get rapture we take it away we play it on a cloud of harp for billions of years and i don't know we just do something it's supposed to be cool i don't know what we do i hope we do more than worship we love you god but i mean a million years later is anything else we could do besides worship and they have this idea of heaven is a fleecy white cloud far away with a harp and maybe a guy next to you playing another instrument you get a fellowship occasionally that's not what heaven is when the lord returns and then there's evil in the nations he doesn't return on the day of his coming raise his hand and all several billion people on there if they don't all just pass out and die that second i've asked people well what happens when jesus comes to you know there's three four five billion people you know a lot get killed in the judgment say there's three four five billion left what happens to them those that aren't rapture jesus kills them okay okay kills them how's that work does he wave his hand and they all die do some of them die the bible actually gives real clear answers to this okay so let's say a lot of them die what do they do do they just disintegrate do they evaporate does somebody bury them hmm what about all the broken down cities who fixes them up does jesus wave his hand in every city it just shoots right back up who moves the rocks you know like in war-torn europe in 1945 after the war in europe all the cities were bombed out what happens are they just instantly cleared the day jesus comes and waves his hands like well i don't know why don't we just play the harp out in heaven i don't know what we do but the bible has much information about this kind of stuff the process of restoring and renewing the nations is lengthy and it's through not only through but jesus makes intercession his own primary in the possessing of the nations at the second coming and we will intercede with more anointing and clarity at that time than we do now but what we're doing now has continuity to them they are not disconnected it's one continuum it's one reality what we're doing even now it relates to them and when that touches us it is it is dynamic what we're doing in weakness because we know he sees it and he likes it let's go to top of page four roman numeral eight or seven intercession embracing what men call foolish and what men call weak first corinthians chapter one the bottom of the uh powerpoint god has chosen the foolish things now you need to add the word the so-called foolish things they're not foolish in reality and they're not foolish to god they're foolish in the esteem of men he's called the foolish things to put to shame the wise and he's called the weak things they're not really weak from god's point of view they're wise and that's where his power releases and the weak and the foolish things are humility fasting prayer serving obeying giving telling god what he tells us to tell him agreeing with who god is you are good you are love i like you you like me i will serve you you like me i am yours you like me you know i always thought that went in about every other one but declaring those simple things agreeing with god is what releases power into the created order god has chosen and you know this passage most of you and it's there's more to the passage than i have here on the text here it's fantastic he has chosen the so-called foolish things like prayer fasting and obedience and meekness and and these kinds of things he's chosen worship to subdue to utterly put to shame the world systems now that happens in the in the dynamic way at the second coming that's when it begins to go to a whole nother level but it's happening between now and then but i mean literally the praying obeying people will take over the governments of the earth in historical reality i mean it's real it's gonna be in real time and space on the earth at the second coming it's not that the the wise things of the world are sort of put to shame they are completely removed by the praying obeying people that are called weak right now it's this is an actual prophecy this is not just a well it's kind of a neat little you know proverb for life no this is a declarative statement of how god's going to change the governments of the entire earth through weak and foolish things that men called through the fasting praying obeying people and paul was telling him he goes guys don't be tripped up by the apparent weakness of fasting and prayer it is not weak before god you know we offer our prayers in weakness but because of who jesus is and who the father is our prayers ascend before the father in strength and in power and they live forever i don't know forever but they live a real real real long time enough to where the prayers from history are still in the bowl around the throne i don't know how long they live but they live a real long time paragraph c paul jesus is speaking to paul the apostle and he tells paul my grace is sufficient for you because my strength or my power one translation says is made perfect in your weakness what an interesting verse jesus is speaking directly to paul face to face paul's complaining about the thorn of the flesh three times lord take it move it this messenger of satan the lord stands in front of him paul yes finally the thorn no no i'm not taking it away what what what are you doing here i'm here to give you revelation because uh i want you to know paul that in weakness now this is not in moral weakness he's not talking about if we send more the power of god is in us to free us from sin that's not the context this is talking about i've actually heard people read this and they think of it as moral weakness no it's voluntary weakness fasting and prayer and enduring persecution instead of fleeing and quitting is voluntarily standing in the place of weakness because of the cause of christ and the power of god is perfected in that place it's the weakness that first corinthians 1 the passage before is talking about that's the kind of weakness fasting is weak prayer is weak prayer is taking our time and we're talking to an invisible god telling him what he already knows i mean come on i mean i have better things to do and the lord says do you do you really because see only weak people pray only people that see their weakness bother with prayer strong people don't need to pray because they think well it's going to be okay without prayer i mean i want to pray i went to the prayer conference i don't actually do it i know i'm i know i'm weak but i'm not weak enough to be desperate to change my schedule i'm not that weak only really weak people pray and then they enter in prayer is weakness because we're taking our time our energy and we're investing it in telling an invisible god what he tells us to tell him i mean how weak is that we have to believe god's listening and that it matters or there's no or we lose heart and what jesus told paul he says my strength will be made perfected in you if you stay in this place of voluntary weakness okay let's go to paragraph uh f i'm i'm just amazed awed by the humility of god god is so humble god has chosen to govern forever through a means that promotes humility the humble god is the only one who would have thought of a governmental system based on humility nobody else would have ever thought of it there's no king in history that ever thought of ruling through everybody being empowered through humility but god did because god is so humble his system of rule forever is based on humility and the ultimate humility is in his son i mean there's becoming a man you know humility beyond our description that he became human because you know jesus didn't become a human then after the resurrection say oh boy i'm glad that thing's over let's uh take this robes of humanity cast them aside i'm back to just being only god wow no when he became man he became man forever a billion years from now he will be human that was a huge statement of his passion for us to become human forever then as a as a human he's on the earth living in limitations in perfect obedience being assaulted by men and by demons and he humbles himself for 30 years in his life of obedience and servanthood then he the ultimate humility on the cross but then even his humility he tells god what god tells him to tell him forever and that's how he gets his power he says that that works for me father i so like what you think i so want to be near you i just want to say what you say and somebody might say yeah but you're god too he goes no it's enough for me to say what he says yeah but you're god no lucifer tried that route and he wasn't god he said i don't want to do this you know submitted to another god deal i want to do my own deal jesus said no it's my glory to do this and god the father in his humility came up with a governmental system based on humility at the core of it is this we say simple words back to god and yet most the church is tripped up and offended and bored by it because the humility of it doesn't touch our spirit how awesome this is forever and ever and the implications that an entire eternal kingdom is based on this reality that the empowered are empowered through means of humility and part of that humility is we simply say simple words is it not real profound be healed jesus said let there be light father that was an easy one okay say let there be land let there be land this is easy i can do this father i mean have you ever considered the humility of jesus in those utterances i mean he's like really smart i am i am oh i'm i mean not enough overcome but occasionally overcome overwhelmed by just the humility of god in the way that he's running everything and it makes sense i go it's so brilliant what if he would run his kingdom opposite of this forever what if only the the one percent like major cool people from history were the only ones that could get in and they had to defy everyone had a different definition what cool is no no it's based on humility forever it's accessible to everyone roman numeral eight the wisdom of intercession a the very fact the very fact that god chose intercession in its weakness and its wisdom the very fact he chose it is a statement that he wants relationship with us i mean it's like god says okay here's the bar it's only one inch off the ground whoever can get over the one inch bar makes it the bar is so low it's so low that everybody can do it but it's so low that very few want to do it it's called intercession he says all the human race if you want to rule in power with me you got to get ready to jump over the bar it's one edge like that's it the lord made the bar so low that everybody can get over it but it's so low that almost nobody wants it he he came up he has such a desire to relate to you and me to share his government with us he created a way that it works for everybody not just the rich and the famous and the highly skilled everybody if they can groan and say jesus they're groaning of the prisoner if they can groan and say jesus the thing works i just say what's the deal and the answer is i so want you with me i made it to where we could talk together like what is a guy like me and a person like god going to talk about you know math science history i mean what are we going to talk about you know what am i going to tell him that's going to be interesting to him when he has a hundred billion uh galaxies on his resume he's made a hundred billion of them i have a hard time managing my schedule he's made a hundred what we had talked about math science truth hey lord you know i had this one idea the holy spirit gave me oh my god so neat you know i mean what am i gonna tell him we're gonna be friends forever he knows everything he's super smart and super powerful and loves so well he has made it he says i have made it in a way where you and i can do something that moves my heart and will move your heart it's called intercession i go this is awesome lord so i thought you'd like that once you figured it out i thought i was being put on probation when he called me to prayer i didn't realize he was inviting me into his presence in those early days i thought i'm on probation i am fully in prison because i was young enough i told everybody i was called to it forever i was 23 years old so i got all these daily prayer meetings so i had to stick with them i was proud enough to stay with it you know after i made the big announcement a couple years later i said i am fully in prison i am trapped paragraph b intercession causes us to internalize the word of god we say it back to him millions of times in this age in the age to come and each time we say what god says it actually marks our spirit and marks our mind it marks us and this process i compare it to a computer programmer who is rewriting lines of code you know thousands or millions of lines of code whatever a team of them you rewrite a line of code one line at a time and one line of code of your inner man every time you declared out you are good i love you i am yours move in our city stop murder change the laws of every single thing you say in agreement with him thousands and millions of them it's like one line of code being rewritten in your spirit and it's marking your inner man even though you cannot measure it just like when you i talked last night about peeling the onion you can't see any change when you take one layer off the onion but it is truly changing it marks our spirit it's renewing our inner man we can't measure it in days and weeks but over years the change is profound and over millenniums over thousands of years because it's not just this life we're doing it's not just in the millennial kingdom forever we will be telling god what he tells us to tell him and it will be touching us with life and spirit and power paragraph c top of page five jesus gave us the key to how this works he said that he said the words that i speak to you in john 6 he goes the words that i speak to you are spirited life in other words when we speak god's words there's an impartation of spirit that touches us on their inner man that's not just now this is forever every time we say what god says it marks our spirit and renews us and strengthens us and gives us more from god it's incremental but it goes on and on our heart is tenderized by it the very calling to the prayer room or that's what we the language you use here at the prayer room just the calling to prayers is enough it tenderizes and internalizes it internalizes the word and marks your spirit and tenderizes you paragraph d i talk about jesus talked about the father the word abiding in us that's why it was so critical i know so many believers that don't have time and interest in the word i go oh i beg you have time and interest in it the word is spirited life you get it you don't have to be a profound theologian fill your mind with the word study it and then say it back to god and say it to people and say back to god and say it to yourself and it marks your spirit every time you say it paragraph f the process of intercession humbles us so that when god does answer our power our prayers with power we're protected from pride see lucifer had great answers he had great blessing and he was overcome by pride and he fell the very process of intercession protects the people of god forever from pride the very way that he does his kingdom i think it's a brilliant form of government and nobody ever would have thought of it the simplicity of it the power of it paragraph g intercession deeply joins our hearts to people and to places to cities and nations because there's a law of the kingdom it's this whatever you pray for you love you fall in love even if you don't mean to whoever you pray for you fall in love with so here we are praying for our city we're praying for our nation and we are by nature i mean just because we're of our over familiarity with the church all of us have been in for a while our natural idea is to be annoyed with the church but when we pray you know when you read all the prayers of the new testament there's about 25 of them about 90 of them are praying for the church to get anointed and therefore when they're anointed everything else a lot of other things get fixed it's like we want to skip the praying for the church and just go lord win the lost and the lord says you pray for the church church gets anointed the loss will come in yeah but the church annoys me well the only reason the lost don't annoy you is because you don't know them once you become friends with them you'll they'll annoy you too see the lost is this romantic crowd that's awesome and innocent and tender they're really mean and evil and they don't and they will they'll bug you and you'll bug them once you know them so it's easy to pray for the loss but to pray for the church is like all those old pastors or i'm just tired of pastors you know and the lord says no because pastors are human leaders and human leaders are weak and we're all of us are imperfect he says no pray for the church you guess what you fall in love with the church you fall in love whatever you pray for so god calls us to pray for the church to get anointed as the number one means of evangelism and as i've seen this over the years it is amazing how many of the new testament prayers are for the church i said lord what about the loss he goes just trust me you just do it my way and you'll see what happens you get mercy for the church you get revelation for the church you get patience for the church you see the value of the church in the weakness you will fall in love with whatever city or nation or people you pray for it's a law of the kingdom intercession joins our hearts to one another what a brilliant idea i would have never thought of running my kingdom this way paragraph h intercession for others multiplies blessings back to you you know you can never out give god if you pray for the spirit of revelation upon the guy on the other end of town did you know that you and your family will become the recipient of that prayer it will come back on you some guy says i don't have any heart to pray for this that the other i don't pray for anybody for anywhere i don't care you pick the most remote place i'll agree and pray with you because every prayer you pray it's the law of the kingdom it's returned back on you does it matter you pray for your enemies not only will you have a tenderized heart for your enemy and the enemy might really even get touched the prayer comes back on your family as well you and your family all of the prayers are multiplied back when you're in the prayer room does it matter who you're praying for it's the lord you will never ever out give god in the measure you give in prayer it will be measured back to you paragraph i intercession gives us an inheritance in the people and the places we pray for there are a number of individuals i pray for and i have an inheritance in god's blessing in them there are cities and nations i pray for i'm talking about 500 years from now in the millennium 5 000 years from now in the age to come i will have an inheritance i will have part of a blessing that is personalized in my life that will be dynamically related to whoever or whatever i labored in in prayer it's amazing reality i could i could prove that in a number of verses where paul labored for churches and they will stand together even in the second coming in the age to come there's many uh passages that make that clear paragraph j intercession makes a long-term impact again i mentioned this earlier my prayers for kansas city or jerusalem or whatever city the prayers that i am praying and you're praying for your city or other cities i pray for many other cities those prayers will be powerful hundreds of years from now they're not over when you die and they're not over when the second coming happens those prayers are still alive i sit that little my chair in that little room that i hop and whether it's annoyed or unannoyed oh my goodness i can do so many things prayers returning back to me i'm falling in love to people i'm building things for the age to come my heart's getting tenderized so much is happening and it's so simple okay top of page six intercession possession positions us to receive freely we're not earning anything by intercession some people think we're gonna pray and then we earn no there's no form of earning we're simply positioning ourself to receive paragraph l intercession positions us to hear from god beloved when when we hear from god with power on it then we we're far more prone to obey our desire there's such a blessing in hearing clearly in obeying promptly and in the place of prayer we hear clearly and we have energy to obey promptly and that brings us into indescribable blessing in our life and that comes through prayer like no other way there's no other activity that brings us into the dynamic of hearing clearly and then the motivation to obey promptly paragraph in i'm just gonna say it just one two three and i'm just a minute or two on the on the because uh for the folks here at the summit i just have a it's uh one or two thoughts on more to say to them just to encourage them but paragraph in intercession is god's brilliant strategy for including the saints in his rule to rule with him in power it draws us into intimacy protects us with humility transforms our heart and holiness unifies us in community trains us to operate in his wisdom gives us an inheritance multiplies blessing back on us it just goes on and on and on weakness will triumph over all what men call wise the people of prayer when it's all said and done at the judgment seat they will have far more power and honor than all the wise and the powerful people on the earth the weakness will triumph even in the individual sense not just in the fact that nations will be the government of nations will be replaced with the saints it's just that even the weak people of the earth will seem to have triumphed have chosen wisdom when it all comes out because the people of prayer end up in the places of honor and closeness the throne of god and it's just wisdom triumphs weakness triumphs over the wisdom of men it really does and there's so much of the wisdom of men in much of the church much of the church pursuit pursues its future without an aggressive commitment to prayer that's called the wisdom of man it's all over the church and that wisdom will be seen to be uh uh deficient it will it will be seen to be defunct in a short amount of time but much of the church is living and drinking from that well of wisdom and it will be triumphed over soon beloved i don't want to live without developing a prayer life no matter how hard or whatever the struggle it is the wisest thing to do on this side and it's what you'll do forever on the other side not only what you'll do but it'll be a key part of what you do okay roman numeral nine just i'll do this real quick there's a verse here that zerubbabel most of you know the zerubbabel was the governor of judah or the leader of jerusalem when israel was released from captivity from babylon in 536 bc so it's you know 2,500 years ago and he's coming back with 50,000 uh jewish slaves in babylon all 50,000 of them walk 7 800 miles it takes them five six months to get back they get to jerusalem to rebuild the city to rebuild the temple they see the city the city is an absolute mess they've been in prison for 70 years as a whole nation zerubbabel is their first leader zerubbabel is now commissioned by god to build the temple which was clearly the prayer ministry in his day it's not just figurative of the prayer ministry it was actually the prayer ministry they offered the the uh the uh animal sacrifices but they had the singers the musicians and they had the prayer going forth there it was a worship and prayer ministry actually not just figuratively so zerubbabel's leading building the ihop in jerusalem i mean this is actually true but he's building a building and there's a big heap of rubble because the cities were decimated just like again a city though when babylon came they complained they destroyed all of it there's a big heap of rock and they were so discouraged after months of walking back there all the slaves came back and they thought or the exiles and they think oh this is horrible and it says here's what the lord says and it's talking about the prayer ministry this is talking specifically about the temple in the prayer ministry he says go tell zerubbabel this the prophet zachariah is the prophet he says go tell him not by human might and not by human power but by the energy of the spirit you will build the temple that's he's talking about building houses of prayer that's actually what it's talking about we use this verse for everything which is cool sure the lord doesn't mind but it's actually talking about building the house of prayer in jerusalem and those of you that are building prayer ministries back home maybe there's three people that meet you meet once a week and two of them don't show up every other week hey i led those kind of meetings for years there was three of us every now and then we had four we took a picture to pull it in the bulletin you know four showed up you know but the three that swore an oath of commitment missed every other week you know the lord released me you know like oh great so i know all about those days i did those days for years and my point isn't that i paid my dues that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is i really understand where some of you are sitting i really live there not for a month or two but for years little unanointed boring prayer meetings going lord are you sure i tell you i promise you i can do more for you than this he goes you just stay there and tell me what i tell you to tell me anyway so here's what the spirit says to the prophet zachariah to the governors of rubel verse 7 who are you oh great mountain the mountain was the mountain of rock because remember nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and all it was just a big heap of rock that's the mountain so in your situation back home it's a mountain there's no people there's no money everybody's against you your family doesn't like it the devil doesn't like it the church doesn't like it there is a mountain in front of you how many of you can relate to that one of one of those things i do there you go talking to the right crowd okay of course you can it says tell him this before zerubbabel these obstacles will become a plane which means the obstacles will be moved in due time the mountain the big heap of rubble of the temple rocks it will all become a plane meaning everything will be put in order and the mountain will be out of the way so rubel says i don't get it i don't get this because all the people that tells us from haggai and zachariah that all the people gave up and quit working because they were all excited to work for a little while and they quit they just gave up so rubel sitting there on a big old heap of rock you know big old stone by himself the prophet zachariah comes up hey it's a rubel how you doing oh man nobody's coming to work anymore they gave up and it says it and hang out they all gave up and went back and said forget this temple thing we'll do it some other decade rubel thinks i can't build the temple nobody will help me and so zachariah says here's what the holy spirit tells you to say shout to the capstone because the capstone is the dedication stone the capstone is the stone you put in when the building's done and the dedication's a week later the capstone is the symbolic stone you put up and put you know dedicated to god to the glory of god there's the capstone so in other words you're going to finish it but here's how you're going to finish it you're going to finish it by shouting grace to the stone so rubel goes what i want you to shout grace to the stone in other words don't look at how many people show up don't look at how much money show up don't trust in the motivation of the people because they will always be deficient just start speaking grace so i can imagine zero goes good and i can see zachariah saying well let's do it he goes what do you mean like here now he goes yeah grace no shout grace okay grace no no grace grace zachariah there's people around here shouting in a stone shout to the stone grace grace now my point isn't to get you all to shout grace grace although we'll probably do a little bit of that in a minute here the point of it is that there was going to be supernatural intervention that zachariah that's rubel could not see on the horizon it was going to come if he would stay steady and keep the grace confession now he tells him the great thing answer here in verse 10 he says for who has despised the day of small beginnings and you know what this verse is about it's about a small temple and a small prayer meeting that's exactly what it's about although you could use this verse for other things it's talking about a deficient small prayer ministry this is exactly the context he asked the question who has despised the day of small beginnings there's only one answer sir rubel the governor you are despising how small this is exactly he goes i do nobody shows up there's not enough money there's not enough motivation it's not happening right now they actually delayed for 16 years the whole nation quit for 16 years and just said we're not even going to work on it and the weeds grew up again so now this is the time to it's it's time to get right back to it and there just doesn't seem like a chance it's going to work some of you've been waiting 16 years now he gives this incredible revelation he says for these seven it's talking about the eyes of the lord from an earlier reference the seven are the eyes of the lord you have to read the whole chapter in the chapter three as well they are rejoicing to see the plumb line in your hand for these are the eyes of the lord which are looking to and fro throw throw throughout the earth now a plumb line is only in the hand of a builder a plumb line is what you measure the wall by the accuracy of the building the wall you don't use a plumb line when the building's over you use the plumb line in the early stages of the building and he's saying god is rejoicing his eyes are on you because the plumb line the early stages you're wanting to build it according to god's order there's a plumb line in your hand and god is excited he's rejoicing because god's eyes are on you zachariah right now and so robo goes god's watching he goes not only is he watching he's excited that there's a plumb line you care in the early stages when nothing is apparent it's going to succeed you care to do it right god's way now the plumb line's used to measure so zachariah was measuring now here's where we go wrong we measure wrong on two accounts number one god has a far bigger vision of power and most of the church is sold out for a very small vision of just a little bit of church growth you know if our church grows from a hundred to a thousand or a thousand to ten thousand it's enough god wants to bring the miracles of the book of acts and the book of exodus together combined on a global scale worldwide the vision is massive what he wants is the plumb line the building god's building before the second coming of christ is so dynamic in power that our plumb line in our hand must be equal to the vastness of what god wants to do but the plumb line has an exact opposite dimension too that we've got to be able to measure the smallness today god's way of measuring how valuable it is and what the church does is exactly opposite we don't have a big vision so we're not desperate for a historic breakthrough and then we despise the little thing that's happening exactly opposite of how god sees it he goes now i want you to believe for something huge in your nation and i want you to value the little thing that's happening right now because my eyes are upon you right now let's look at paragraph we'll just end with this paragraph his eyes are rejoicing with us long before the work is complete many of you have prayer meetings of two and three people one prayer meeting week the it's not even close close to complete the prayer movement in your city you got a plumb line you're in the early days believe for the big vision and value the smallness that's what the plumb line is for god sees the details of your need he sees the details of your labor he sees the details of your tears your sacrifice the eyes of the lord are on you with that little plumb line in the early stage all the houses of prayer in the earth today are incomplete all of us are in the plumb line stage none of us are in the ordering the carpet stage the building's not near done we're all digging the hole still in the basement stage god wants us to feel the pleasure that his eyes are rejoicing over us even now and that we're supposed to maintain the confession of grace grace it's going to come to pass and your labors matter to the completed job in your city in your region your nation god wants eye contact with us the eyes of the lord looking at us he wants us to look back to him during the process he wants our eyes on him and so that we don't see how small the work is we don't see how slow the work is and we don't see what everybody's saying against the work our eyes are on his eyes because his eyes are on us he wants us locking into him and what happens we look how small it is how slow it is and how many people think what we're doing is stupid and the lord says you speak grace grace you understand my eyes are on you and i'm happy about what you're doing right now and it matters in my bigger purposes amen let's stand