Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding the Day of the Lord as outlined in the book of Joel, which serves as a prophetic warning for the church in the end times. He discusses the historical context of Joel's prophecies, particularly regarding the Babylonian invasion, and draws parallels to current global tensions, suggesting that we are in the early stirrings of a similar crisis. Bickle highlights the dual nature of the Day of the Lord, which encompasses both divine judgment and the outpouring of God's glory, urging believers to prepare spiritually for the challenges ahead. He stresses the importance of recognizing God's progressive judgments and the necessity of repentance and readiness among God's people. Ultimately, Bickle reassures that despite the severity of coming events, God will work all things together for good for those who love Him.

The title of this will be, Understanding the Day of the Lord, Principles of Divine Judgment. Understanding the Day of the Lord. We're going to begin the verse-by-verse next week, but I wanted to take the first two sessions, last week and this week, as well, to give some introductory principles of...and this one is...its focus is understanding the Day of the Lord. Okay, a little review from last week. Why do we study the book of Joel? Because Joel has been, in a very unique way, designed, particularly designed, to prepare the church in the end times for such a time as this. I don't know of any other book in the Bible with greater focus on preparing the church, except the book of Revelation, but many of the prophets are very relevant for this hour in history. But the book of Joel has a particular design in the heart of God for this hour. So we need to be really familiar with the book of Joel. It's not one of those books that we can afford to live without, especially in our context, forerunner of Christian fellowship. We want to be forerunners. We want to operate in the forerunner spirit that, obviously, was upon Joel. Again, review from last week. The most challenging question is the dating of the book. And there's three different dates that the scholars have given, and I believe that one of the dates is the best answer. So I've studied all three of the possible dates, and the one that I think is clearly the one, is the writing of the book just prior to the Babylonian invasion, which is described in Joel chapter 2, verse 1 to 11. Many of the commentators will tell you Joel 2, 1 to 11, is giving a second description of the locust invasion that was described in chapter 1, but I believe that's wrong. I believe the locust invasion is chapter 1, the Babylonian military invasion is chapter 2. I have a half a dozen reasons why I feel that that is clearly what is happening. I'm not going to give those reasons in the commentary that I recommend that we'll have at the bookstore in the next couple days. You can do all the different angles of it, but I think it's clearly the Babylonian invasion. Now, just for a historical point of view, because it matters to us today, the military conflict between Israel and Babylon really was a conflict that went on for 20 years. It was a 20-year period of military conflict with three major invasions over 20 years. The first one was in 606 BC, then about 10 years later, 597 BC, then about another 10 years later, 586 BC. So it's a 20-year military conflict between Babylon and Israel with three really intense times of invasion, and with each of these three military invasions, they deported the population, the Jewish population, and marched them 700 or 800 miles through the desert and put them in work camps back in Babylon, which is today modern-day Iraq. So three different military invasions, each time they deported, they took a whole bunch of people as slaves, as prisoners, marched them for, it took about five, six months, and put them in slave camps or work camps back in Iraq. So that was the third invasion, and the third deportation of the population was the big one. That's the famous one, 586. But I think it's important to know that was kind of like the final act of aggression after 20 years of conflict. And the point I'm saying that is this. The point I'm making is that the book of Joel and Joel's contemporaries, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, those three were undoubtedly good friends. They're all prophesying at the same time about the same event. They are prophesying possibly, I'm guessing, 10 years before that 20-year military crisis began. And the Lord's giving them ample of time to prepare. It's the Lord's way to raise up prophets, to raise up forerunners, to raise up the voice that prepares 10 and 20 years before the conflict starts. And the conflict that Joel was preparing the people for went on for 20 years. So all through it, they're prophesying, and they're trying to prepare the people. Also, over the 20-year period, the judgment was progressive. In 606, it was intense. They thought, wow, this is our worst time in a long time. Then about 10 years later, 597, it picks up and it becomes more severe. They said, man, we thought it was over back in 606 BC, and here it is, 597. It's worse. Then about 10 years later, it gets more severe than ever. In other words, there's a progressive severity. There's a progression of intensity that's happening, and the prophets are prophesying. I believe that is the pattern of God's judgments in history. I believe the reason I'm making this point is because we are at a very, very similar time in history as Joel was before Israel. The nations are being stirred. There is going to be military conflict. I don't mean just because of the war in Iraq right now. That's important, but this thing is going to escalate. It may escalate for 20 or 30 years in stages before the thing reaches the crescendo of which God is preparing his people for. We must be about preparing the people now. We must be about understanding the judgment and the crisis and the conflict will be increasingly growing, though there may be several years where it seems to lift, but then it comes back again like birth pangs. I mean, it was in 1918, when 1917, 1918, when World War II is coming to an end, they say, it's over. It's over. 25 years later, World War II breaks out, which really, if you understand anything about history, World War II happened because of the conflict in World War I. It was really World War I, part two. They're saying, hey, let's go another round. The same unsettled conflicts were the root cause of World War II. The same issues, the unresolved issues at the end of World War I, my point being, one war often builds, produces the platform for the next one and the next one and from God's perspective, it's one large time frame where he's trying to wake the nations up. That's what it looks like from the heavenly point of view. Now in 586, which was the third invasion, that's the big famous date, 586 BC. Those of you that are new with us tonight, you have to know 586 BC. It's the most devastating hour in Israel's history in the Old Testament. The most devastating negative event was after 20 years of conflict, this horrible negative crescendo where the vast majority of the population was taken out of the land. I mean, this was the big one and marched across the desert and put into work camps and they were there for 50 years from 586. The whole process was a 70-year process. Now in Israel's history, Joel is warning them in chapter 2, 1 to 11. I don't believe he's talking about the locust invasion a second time. He's talking about something far more severe than locust, the Babylonian invasion, it comes. Now what happens in Israel's history, it gets far worse than that in 70 AD. 70 AD, in the time just the generation after Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, the Roman army did something more severe than Babylon. But then, it's 2,000 years later in the 1940s, Nazi Germany does something more devastating than the Romans. The Romans out did Babylon and the Nazis out did the Romans and I'm telling you this, there's something yet ahead, negative and positive for the Jewish nation that will outdo all of the previous military conflicts they've ever had. Israel's worst days and best days together are ahead of them in the future. And that could be said, that's true of many nations of the earth. America's worst days and best days are yet ahead. There is mounting up a global conflict alongside a outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They will go hand in hand together. It's God's divine strategy and the worst and the best days for planet earth are yet ahead of us. That's not just true of the nation of Israel. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral number one on the handout. Theme of the book of Joel is the day of the Lord. The theme of the book of Joel is the day of the Lord. You'll notice that five times in the book of Joel, the day of the Lord, I have it there. Joel 1 15, 2 1, 2 15, 2 31 and 3 14. Five times it talks about the day of the Lord. Now what is the day of the Lord? Let's look at the handout. A, the day of the Lord is a unique time frame in history. It's a Kairos hour. The word Kairos hour, what it means in a practical way, it's a special prophetic hour where the Lord's doing something very important to his divine strategy. A Kairos hour, it's a prophetic hour. You'll hear that word Kairos hour. You hear that term a lot in the last number of years. The day of the Lord is a very unique time frame in history. B, here's what happens. God, the warrior king, goes into battle against his enemy. Of course, which is always sin at the foundation. And what he, what happens when he goes to battle? He openly confronts sin in the nation or the nations of which he's focused on. I'm gonna say it another way right here on the handout. He displays his power and he displays his victory over the sin in that culture and in that nation. He's manifesting his zeal. Now God's always zealous. God always has zeal. God's heart is always jealous and on fire. But there's, there's, there, there are those unique times in history where he openly manifests his zeal in the natural realm, calling the nations to account for rebellion to him. God's zeal is always burning. But C, here's important to know that God's normal mode of leadership over the planet, all through history, his normal mode of leadership is to restrain with great patience his intensified judgments against sin. The earth deserves judgments far greater than God releases them. It says it right there in 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 9. God shows great patience. He holds it back knowing that there's a day related to the second coming where his judgments will be fully displayed. But he also has a few unique special time frames through history where he manifests that zeal in a way that's beyond his norm. Normally he holds it back in tremendous restraint, but there's those few times in history that the prophets identify as the day of the Lord that when God breaks out and he's, he displays his power against his enemy, which is sin. Now Ecclesiastes 8.11 I have written on the notes here. It's very interesting. It says that here's what the spirit of God's saying through Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8.11. It says because the sentence of judgment is not executed quickly, because God does not execute the sentence of judgment quickly, he may wait generations to execute it. Here's what it says. It says the sons of men set their hearts fully to do evil because God, because God delays the judgment. One category of the human race writes it off and they set their heart fully to sin more. Another part of the human race, Isaiah 26.9, they learned righteousness because of God's judgments. But in the, in the time of a delay, one part of the human race, they just, they say, hey, God doesn't judge. He's not active in leadership over the earth. And they set their heart fully to do evil. Now D, the reason it's called the day of the Lord, it's his day because he is displaying his leadership for all to see, at least all in the proximity of the nation of which he would describe it as a day of the Lord for that nation. He's always the leader. He always has zeal against sin. Sin is always his enemy. He's always going to judge it. But a few times there's a heightened intensity in his judgment and it's called his day. He is showing his leadership before all to see related to that geographic area because the judgments of the Lord in that geographic area break forth and they're not global. There's only one great day of the Lord. We'll get to that in just a moment. Okay. Roman numeral two, Roman numeral two. There are two primary Old Testament events that teach us the principles related to the end time judgments or to day of the Lord type activities. Moses in Exodus is a picture of God's deliverance and the Babylonian military invasion is a picture of God's discipline. So Moses is the positive example. Babylon is the negative. Here's the reason I'm saying these. Right through the prophets, more times than not, instead of God using a hundred different illustrations of deliverance, he almost always just uses the Moses event as his illustration. He could, he could use many, many examples of deliverance and he uses them occasionally, but usually he goes to the big one. He goes, let the Moses deliverance, I mean the deliverance I worked through Moses, let that be a type of my delivering power and let the Babylonian invasion be a type of my disciplining power and that becomes centerpiece to God's theology all through redemptive history. He points back to one positive event and one negative event. He goes, study those two events and you'll be prepared to understand my deliverance and my judgment at the end of the age. So God constantly references the Moses and the Exodus event with the Babylonian and the military invasion. He says, if you understand those two Old Testament realities, you will be prepared to understand the day of the Lord at the end of natural history. We have to study these events. We have to, we have to grapple with them and understand the issues. Those are the centerpiece theological pictures God gives the human race to understand what's about to happen in the planet before the Lord returns. Roman numeral three, the day of the Lord. There's two different expressions. There's a local and a global scale to the day of the Lord. And what I mean a, there's a local and a lesser day of the Lord. That well, that's what was happening at Joel 1 and Joel 2. It was a local day of the Lord. It only affected the nation of Israel for a short period of time and it's not the global great day of the Lord. There's only one great day of the Lord. It's related to the second coming of Christ. The lesser local day of the Lord, the small D day of the Lord, those are always preparations and they're always to inform us. We are to study those lesser local days of the Lord. We study them so we understand the great and the global day of the Lord at the end of the age. I'm a student of World War II because World War II was one of the most significant day of the Lord. And I'm sure that the prophets that were prophesying back there were calling it the day of the Lord where God and it was local. It wasn't global. I know it's called World War, but it wasn't global. It was, it was bigger than the Joel 1 and the Joel 2 day of the Lord. It was touching all of Europe and other countries besides that as well, obviously in Asia, but it wasn't global in the full dimension like the day of the Lord is coming. So I like to study because I believe the Bible mandates us to do it. We study the lesser and the more localized day of the Lord in order to understand the global and the great day of the Lord. And that's what's coming ahead. So I, I I've made it a very, very important part of my life and preparation to understand these unique timeframes in history where everything is stirred up by the hand of God. Okay. Let's go to Roman numeral four, Roman numeral four, the length of the day of the Lord, the length of it. I'm talking about the length of the, of the big day of the Lord of the one related to the second coming of Christ. It's not just a 24 hour period. The day of the Lord is not just that 24 hour period when Jesus appears in the clouds with all the angels and the saints. And that, you know, is that one moment, that one 24 hours a day, the Lord, I mean, that's a really important part of the day of the Lord, but the day of the Lord is bigger than the, the very moment, the very 24 hour day of which the Lord appears. Hey, the timeframe is usually of an unspecified length that I'm talking about. If they reference the day of the Lord, in the lesser ways, like in Joel one and Joel two, because in Joel one and Joel two, the military invasion of Joel two lasted for 20 years. So what was the day? I mean, it was a, it was a 20 year military crisis, a crisis that was under the category of the prophets is the, the hour of God judging sin openly in Israel. It was a 20 year period. And then they went to 50 years into the work camp. So really it was a 70 year period, 20 years of conflict in Israel and then 50 more years over there in the work camp. So it was really a 70 year period of which God was dealing openly with the center of Israel. Now the day of the Lord, the big one, the big one, uh, uh, it's like second, uh, Peter three, eight, here's what the Lord says to the Lord. One day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. And so he kind of puts a spin on all of our, uh, if we want to just really nail it down, the Lord just puts a curve into all of our equations. He goes, well, if you really want to nail me down and understand all that I'm doing one day is like a thousand years, a thousand years, like one day. So now get out your calendars and tell me what I'm about to do with detail. Well, Lord, you just changed the game. How can we, he goes, there's mystery in it. There's always mystery in it. But I, I liked the, the illustration I've used for some years now is the illustration of a storm, a big tsunami out at sea about to come in and crash in upon the land. And there's this big storm, the biggest storm you can imagine. It's got, you know, 200 mile an hour winds and they're swirling. And there's this big, uh, uh, swirl of, of activity of when at the very eye of the storm, the very eye of the storm, the very center of the storm. I likened that to the appearing of the Lord Jesus and that before he appears the winds, like the winds, but when a storm is approaching the coast, the winds on the front side of the eye of the storm, the winds are disrupting everything. And then after the eye of the storm hits the coast, and then it goes on a little bit more, the winds on the backside, stir everything up. So there's winds on all sides of the Lord's coming. There's a, a divine disruption. There's a divine reestablishing of things before the Lord returns. That's the decade or two before the winds are blowing and everything is being disrupted. The winds are progressively intensifying as the coming of the Lord is, is, is approaching near and near winds of change. Hebrews 12 calls it a great shaking. The shaking is before the Lord appears. It's the wind before the, at the very center of the storm, the Lord himself, it's disrupting, it's rearranging. God is establishing a new order for the nations and everything is shaking. And we think it's so bad than the Lord appears. And then there's another series of disruptions after his appearance. When he reorders the, the nations, he sets up his earthly kingdom and he judges all the nations. He, some of the nations are eliminated. Things are put into order. There's all these, uh, uh, geographical changes in the earth, all the things, the atmosphere, there's so many cataclysmic events, the winds after he shows up, but the day some of them says, when's the day of the Lord is at the moment he showed up. Was it the wind stirring before he actually appeared in the winds afterward? All of that is involved in the day of the Lord. So it's not a, uh, it doesn't have the scientific precision of the day. The Lord is just that very moment. The Lord appears in the sky. We are, uh, we're at the very, uh, uh, we're approaching the very, uh, outskirts of the day of the Lord, though the winds are blowing on the front of that storm right now. And nations are moving. The economies are doing this and things are being stirred and God's calling his prophets and setting up intercessors into place. These are the early stirrings that will all be under the one large category a million years from now. We'll look at it. It was, the Lord says, that's the day of the Lord. These are the early stirrings. The Lord's going to appear. And there's a lot of stirrings right after he appears. He's setting everything in order, moving boundary lines of nations, all kinds of change, uh, and the atmosphere and the weather and the agriculture, uh, geographical changes, all kinds of things are going to happen. So the, the, the length of the period of the day of the Lord, I believe we're on just the front end of the early stirrings of the winds of change of the day of the Lord. I believe that's where we're at right now. If we were liking this to the days of Joel, Joe was probably prophesying 10 or 15 years before the 20 year Babylonian military crisis began. And people said, you know, it was a time, as I said last week, you know, the, the, the economy was pretty good. It wasn't phenomenal, but it was pretty good. Religious activity was up. You know, Joel saying Habakkuk, Zephaniah, the three of them, undoubtedly good friends together. Cause they got this very uncomfortable job. They're there prophesying the next 10 or 15 years is going to change. I don't think they say 10 or 15 years. They say it's coming. It's coming five years goes by nothing came 10 years goes by it's no problem. And then suddenly the armies of Babylon show up at the doorstep and they go, we want to dominate your nation. And they go, Whoa. And then, so they, they, it's an invasion. They take a whole bunch of people back home, put them in work camps and people go, Whoa, we're glad that's over. Joel said, it's not even close to over. And it went on for 20 more years of intensity. And then the whole nation was, was deported across the desert into Iraq and beloved word, the early stirrings of the day of the Lord. We're in the early stories of the day of the Lord. Okay. Look at Roman numeral five, the focus of the day of the Lord and the old Testament prophets is almost always the nation of Israel. The focus, when they talk about the day of the Lord throughout the book of Joel, they're mostly talking about Israel. Occasionally there's references in, especially in Joel three, but in Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 24 to 27, just a whole bunch of places. Occasionally there's the reference that says this, and by the way, all you Gentile nations better duck to, you know, the day of the Lord, it's mostly going directly to Israel. And then the prophet will say by the anointing and all you other guys better pay attention to, because you're going to be caught up in the events, negative and positive that affect Israel. So as you study the old Testament prophets and we, we get an understanding of the day of the Lord, here's what we need to understand. The judgment and the blessing will be greatest in the nation of Israel. The judgment and the blessing will be greatest. And here's the principle of application. This is my own little theological term. I've made up a half a dozen of them over the years. I don't know if anybody actually fully appreciates them like I do, but here's one of my little theological terms, like kind yet lesser degree. And here's what happens. What happens negative in Israel will happen in the same, it will be a light kind, but a lesser degree of negative in America. What happens positive in Israel in the glory realm, the same kind of glory will touch the church in America, just a lesser degree. What happens negative or positive in Israel, the light kind, but a lesser degree will happen in the nations around the world. Israel gets the most severe judgment. It says in like, like here's a real devastating one. I mean, this is so devastating. I hate just to make it as a kind of a passing illustration. Revelations 9.15 says that one third of the earth's population will be killed. They will die unnatural deaths in the judgment of God. One third of the entire planet. But you go to Zechariah 13.8, two thirds of Israel dies. One third of the earth, but two thirds. I mean, it's, it's twice the proportion in Israel of negativity. And, and, and all the countries of the world, there's invasions and conflicts, but in Israel, all the nations come against Israel. I mean, a few nations will come against America and a few nations will come against this nation or that, but all the nations come against Israel. Well, Israel is going to have a spirit of glory. That's going to surpass anywhere else of the church in the earth. And I'm talking about the church in Israel. Some people will say the church or Israel, it's not the church or Israel. It's the church in Israel. It's the born again, Jesus loving lovesick worshipers of Yeshua that are the recipients of the blessing. It's not the nation unrelated to a love relationship with the man, Christ Jesus. It is the church in Israel we're talking about. And I hear a lot of debate. Well, I'm, you know, I don't know about the church or Israel. I'm for the church. I'm not for Israel beloved. It's the church in Israel, but there will be a greater deposit of glory there. And the judgment is more severe, but the glory is greater. But here's the reason we care about that here. Here's the reason. Well, there's several reasons, but one reason we study the judgment from the prophets. It's going to touch the nation of Israel. And we study the glory because we know that both of them will have an application in America, a lesser degree, but the same kind of judgment and the same kind of glory, just a lesser degree of it. So when, when the spirit is going to be poured out and all of them are going to prophesy and they're going to be caught up in the power of the spirit in Israel, you can be sure that same thing is going to happen in the church around the world. Because when the prophets prophesied, they locked into the people of God, the born again community in Israel in the last days, whether they had that language or not by the spirit, that's what they were talking about. And they didn't really understand the Gentile church. That wasn't something the old Testament prophets grasped in their day. So they were talking about the on fire, anointed people of God in Israel, which translates the born again community in Israel, the church in Israel. And they were just talking about the people of God in Israel, and they didn't really have full revelation that there would be a global community living by the same spirit related to the same Messiah, Jesus. And so I care a lot about what Joel 2 says is going to happen in Israel with the outpouring of the spirit and all these things, because if it's going to happen there in the church, it's going to happen here as well in the church. But also you can't just take the positive and throw away the negative. And that's what a lot of people do. I've heard it. It's, it's really, it's less than honest. What they do is they'll study, uh, the, uh, replacement theology, which is, I think a very, very, uh, uh, it's a dangerous, uh, air in the body of Christ. It's a very dangerous air replacement theology where they replace the church. Uh, they replace Israel with the church, but here's how they do it. All of the good stuff is going to happen in Israel. They say, it's the church, the church, but when all the bad stuff, they go, that's not us, that's Israel. So it's less than honest. They'll take the good. I say, wait, if the church is Israel, then two thirds of us are going to die in the end time. Well, well, we're not really Israel. We're just Israel when the anointing stuff hit, you got to take it all or none. But the real truth is, is that the church doesn't replace Israel, but rather a worldwide revival center church emerges in Israel, which is a picture and a center of blessing for all the earth after the Lord returns. It's a very, very wonderful reality. Okay. Roman number six, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. There's two dimensions. There's two dimensions in Joel chapter two, look at Joel chapter two, verse 11, man, this is really intense. Verse Joel two, uh, verse 11 says the Lord gives voice before his army and his camp is very great for strong as the one who executes his word. And here it is for the day of the Lord is great. And look at it. It is very terrible. It's there's two dimensions. It's great and terrible, but that's not what it says. It says great and very terrible. When the Lord reveals his zeal against his enemy, San and the great global day of the Lord, beloved, it is really great. Great means it's dynamic. It is awesome in a positive sense. It is the greatest hour for Israel and for the planet. The Lord is manifesting his revival power. I don't know if revival is the best word, but that's a word where all we can all relate to it's revival to the 10th power. I mean, it's more than revival. It's far beyond the book of Acts. So revival, it seems a little bit of a weak word, but it's a spirit of revival. The great day, the Lord, the great mean it it's magnificent in power and awesome and display, but that's not all that it is. It's very terrible as well. It's great to the people that say yes, and it's very terrible to the people who say no. And the Lord says who can endure it, who can endure this day. And it means who can endure it without the favor of God. Nobody can endure the visitation of Holy Spirit power, the great, nor can they endure the very terrible shaking judgments that will shake everything that can be shaken. No one can endure it except they are living in the favor of God by the gift of righteousness through Christ Jesus. That's the only way we can endure it. And we endure it because we've received righteousness as a gift. So no one can endure it of their own account of their own ability. We only endure it because of the gift of salvation. That's the only way that we can face this day. Okay, let's let's look at each word, the great day. Now it's it's a great day to the responsive. This is good news to the people who say yes. The responsive are the people like yourselves and many others, a billion around the earth that are saying, yes Lord, we want all that you have. It's the greatest revival power in history. Again, it's revival to the 10th power. It's more than revival. I have a few things here. It says Psalm 91, it's the hour of which the greatest expression of supernatural power of Psalm 91. Now most of you know Psalm 91. If you don't know it, you need to circle that and say, hey, I'm going to read that tonight. Psalm 91 is that that Psalm that basically says God's going to help you in such a fantastic way. You have no fear when a thousand fall at your right and 10,000 your left. You're going to stand untouched when everything around you shaking. Psalm 91 is big. It's the Psalm. It's the it's the hour. The great part is where there's supernatural provision, protection and guidance. Supernatural provision. Let's look at that for a minute. Supernatural provision in the book of Exodus, because remember that's the real example of God's provision in the Bible is the book of Exodus. We study the book of Exodus. Have you ever studied the book of Exodus? I'm afraid that we've relegated Genesis and Exodus to the children's church, you know, to the cutout section, you know, and here's the book of Exodus is one of the most significant books to prepare the church for today. It's God's, uh, centerpiece national deliverance story where he delivers a nation with power. Anyway, provision God, uh, they, they had man a fall from the sky. Food came out of the sky every day. Water came out of a rock in the desert. Beloved, that's good stuff. That's going to happen again. That's going to happen in our day. It's going to, it's going to go beyond the book of Exodus. We're going to sit around a table and water will start flowing out of a rock at the Lord's command. You're going to say, boy, they trapped us in, but the Lord says, no, they haven't. I've surrounded you. Jesus fed the 5,000 with the fish and the loaves he took. He multiplied food. That's going to be happening. He fed Elijah by the ravens. This bird brings him his hamburger every night. You know, the, this bird carries his food to him every day. The Lord says, I can command the birds in the heavens. I can supply. There's no problem with me supplying you. This is the greatest day for the people of God for provision protection. Look at this here. I call it the Goshen principle is protection. The Goshen principle. It's fantastic. Uh, that in the nation of Israel, when everything is, uh, when the plagues are breaking out again, you know, Moses is, is leading the people of, uh, of Israel and he's the prophet of God and the plagues are breaking out all over Israel. I mean, all over Egypt, God prepared this little piece of real estate called Goshen. And you can read it there in Exodus. It's absolutely fantastic. It says when the plagues were poured out all around in Goshen, nobody was sick and Goshen, there were none of the animals died. None of the hell on the fire fell in Goshen. They were in a pocket of mercy. They were in, it was like a city of refuge and the Lord's going to have his geographic Goshen's all over the earth. He's going to have cities of refuge where it's like an open heaven, where the bombs will be falling and plagues will be breaking out, but there'll be geographic areas entirely protected by the Lord. Supernaturally like Goshen. It's a great day, man. It's the greatest day imaginable. Again, it's not a one day period. It's a, it could go on 10 or 20, 30 years before the Lord returns, who knows. And it will go on after he returns in a whole another level. Miracles. Here's what I like to say. Take the book of Acts here, number three on the handout and the book of Exodus. You know, Acts are the apostles. Exodus is with Moses. Combine them, multiply it on a global scale. And that's the level of signs and wonders we're going to be seeing. I like, I just got to throw this in here. Micah 7, 15. Moses, I mean, the prophet Micah says, and in that day, the very miracles done in Egypt will happen again in that day. There's a half a dozen verses that tell us the miracles that happened with Moses are going to happen again, related to the coming of the Lord. Beloved, it's a fantastic day. Guidance. Guidance. Okay. Supernatural direction. I have here number one, Jeremiah 9, 30. Direction. I love it. I don't want to develop it, but Jeremiah 9, I mean, Jeremiah chapter 30, verse 9, rather. Jeremiah 30, verse 9 says this, as you're going, and here they are escaping, they're fleeing like refugees. He says, as you go, I will lead you by prayer. It says the word supplication. I'm going to lead you. Their prayer life will be red hot and anointed. There'll be two-way communication. He says, I'm going to tell you, go right, go left, go right, go left. And there's a stream of water. There's a valley. There's food over here. And I will show you supernaturally how to work through the maze of all the conflict globally. I will lead you supernaturally by supplication. That's what Levy did. She told the dream. The Lord says, go right, go left, go right, go left. She just told the story just a few minutes ago. And the Lord led her by supplication and led her to the right person. There's going to be that kind of supernatural guidance to find food, to reconnect in relationships, to be at the right place at the right time, to escape the earthquake, to escape the bomb, to escape the ambush of the enemy, military or spiritual. He will say, go right, go left, go right, go left. And there's many verses that describe this kind of divine guidance. It's the great day of the Lord. I mean, it's our greatest day. Sometimes I hear people say, well, the book of Revelation, I'm glad we're going to be gone. I go, no, number one, we're not going to be gone. We're going to be there through a whole lot of what's happening in the book of Revelation. It's our greatest hour. I mean, that's when the food multiplies. That's where angels appear. That's when supernatural direction, signs and wonders, a great harvest is coming in. I go, you don't want to be gone there. I mean, even if you have a weak stomach, you want to be down here. I mean, this is when things are going to go. Acts, the book of Acts, the book of Exodus, multiplied, combined on a global level. It is the great, it's the magnificent hour of the Lord. Instead of the word great, put the glorious, magnificent hour of God's display of power in the midst of his people. That's what it means, the great day of the Lord. Let's go in the other direction. It's going to be the terrible day of the Lord, very terrible. Now it's to the people who say no, it's good news to the people who say yes, it's called the great day. It's bad news to the people that say we don't like Jesus. Bad news, very bad. And at the very, at the very foundation of it is going to be the issue of Joel chapter 2 verse 1 to 11. It's God's use of military invasion. He's always used military invasion in nations to stir up the nation for salvation and to prepare his people. He's always used military invasions. We don't like that theology because it, because if we need to be stirred up a little bit by the Lord, it means one might be coming. I'm telling you one is coming to America. There is coming, we will be occupied by foreign forces, military, we will be have foreign military forces on our soil. We will be occupied. We will not be dominated, but we will be harassed. We will be, there will be oppression. There will be cities of refuge. There'll be places where the enemy completely dominates whole geographic areas of America and other areas will be like a city of refuge, open heaven with the power of God is moving. And this will be true in many nations around the world. But there is, God is raising up. I have it down in Roman numeral seven. I'm going to kind of taking Roman numeral seven and tying it into number one here of under B Roman numeral six, military invasion. There is a worldwide evil empire, a worldwide empire being raised up under a man. The Bible describes as the antichrist or the, or the man of lawlessness. And this worldwide empire is going to be like a military machine seeking to rule and oppress all the nations of the earth. Now, now this evil empire will not succeed in oppressing all the nations of the earth. It won't happen. I'll give you just a general perspective. There's 262 nations in the earth right now. This evil coalition of nations may only bring together 50 or a hundred nations. That's that will be the biggest military call. I mean, uh, it'll be the biggest coalition of nations in history and unity under one leader. It may be 50 nations. It may be a hundred, it may be 150 nations. I don't know. There's nobody knows there's a certain mystery to it, but there'll be about a hundred nations or more who won't be brought under that will be resisting at each step of the way. And the Bible makes it clear that in this evil, uh, global worldwide empire, this coalition of nations, whether it's 50 or 150 nations operating under one dictator, this evil demonic man, there will be many nations, a hundred nations, 150 nations. Nobody knows there's mystery. The Lord leaves it unspecified. He does not define it. He wants there to be an element of mystery, but these nations, we will be impacted by this evil empire. We will even be occupied. We will even have elements of oppression in our country from this evil empire, but we'll be occupied, but we will not be dominated. And before it's over, it will only be a temporary oppression, a temporary occupation before it's over. The Lord will cause our nation by the grace of God to triumph over this evil empire. And I'm not saying that as a patriot, I'm saying that as a man of God, by revelation, I'm not, I love America, but I love the kingdom of God more. And I'm more loyal to the revelation of God, uh, than I am just kind of, you know, cheering on big, you know, optimism. I'm not into optimism. I'm into realism, but I believe I can say by the scripture and by the word of the Lord, that it will be a temporary, uh, occupation that will not dominate our nation in a full way, but it will be present in America. It really, really will be present in America. And it's going to get really intense. And this may go on 10 or 20 years. I'm talking about the whole military conflict of this evil empire. I mean, we know the antichrist rules it, and he has a three and a half year period, very similar to Adolf Hitler, a three and a half year period where he, everything he touches, not everything, but many things he touched begin go good for him. Adolf Hitler had about three and a half years, about three years, possibly where things, things were going really well, then they all went sour. But, uh, I believe this evil world empire, this leader will have a progressive buildup. He will be in a, in some kind of a leadership position in some nation. And then they'll, then, then there'll be a momentum nations will gather and he'll have a rise to power and he'll be oppressing people along the way. I mean, he could be, he could be in some kind of a governmental position, military position for 10 or 20 years before the intensity of the last three and a half years come. I mean, nobody knows the Lord doesn't tell us. He says, oh, you'll know when you get there, it could be a long drawn out military career and political career could be a, a much shorter one, but one thing's for sure. It's going to be longer than just the three and a half years of the intensity that's described in a number of places in scripture and beloved things are going to be shaken all around everywhere and, and God's raising up men and women like Joel. We may be 10 or 15 years away from that. Like Joel, when he prophesied 10 or 15 years before the Babylonian invasion, but that invasion, that crisis may go on for 20 years. We may be 10 or 15 years out, but the crisis may go on 20 or 30 years. We don't know. We may be five years out. We don't know. We just don't know. The Lord doesn't want us to know. He says, get the people ready, prepare the people to understand what I'm about to do. I'm giving them time to repent. That's why the judgments are progressive because it says in the book of revelation, a number of times he's, he's makes the judgments more severe so that people have another chance to say, Lord, I really want to change my mind. I'm repenting. I'm on, I'm, I'm letting go of my sin. Okay. So that's at the very foundation of the very terrible day of the Lord is this worldwide global empire. Number two, there's going to be judgments in the created order, plagues, earthquakes, famines. I mean, it's not military related. Uh, well, I mean, some of them will be, but I mean, supernatural judgments from heaven, shaking things up. God will be putting his finger on the earth, touching parts of the earth to make things go negative. It will be a supernaturally, uh, instigated, initiated, uh, judgment on the earth. And then thirdly, the very terrible day of the Lord will be the fruit of reaping and sowing the reaping and sowing process related to sin. Sin will reach his highest dimensions ever in history. And just, there's a natural reaping and sowing impact on sin. I have the verses here, revelation nine 21. You want to really highlight that one, the four primary sins in the generation, the Lord returns will be murder, immorality, sorcery, and theft. Those will be the four primary categories of sin that becomes ripe. And that's what the other verses here in revelation four 18 and 17. And, uh, the other past in the verses I have written here in the, uh, uh, handout, God says, sin will become ripe on the planet. Sin will become ripe. Sin has never been ripe globally. It's going to reach heights. Humans are gonna, God's going to give the human race the, the, uh, uh, opportunity to reach their fullest potential of sinfulness. Just like he'll give the human race the ability to reach their highest potential in righteousness while in the natural realm of church will enter into a spirit of radical holiness unseen in church history. And that the earth will reach its heights of sin and perversion unequaled at any time in history. God will give the human race the chance to reach its full potential on both sides in the natural realm. That's what's going to happen. But there's a natural reaping and sowing process. I know a couple billion people, a couple billion people one day feeding on internet pornography for a 10 or 20 years from now, beyond anything it is now with all the, the, uh, all the technology that's going to bring it to a whole nother level. You're going to have, you're going to have several billion demonized people with, with, with a lust demons completely possessing them. And there's going to be demons that are related to murder. Murder is going to reach all time heights. I mean, already there's 40 or 50 billion abortions in America. There's that much blood on the soil in America right now. But, uh, murder is going to reach an all time high and the demonized humanity in the fruit of all this outlandish, this indescribable amount of murder, there are going to be more demonized human beings with murder and adult, I mean, not adultery, uh, sexual perversion, adultery is a subcategory, but it's far more severe, all kinds of perversion. And then the occult, there'll be more demonized people. Just the, the, the natural process of reaping and sowing, walking around the streets, talking about an unsafe environment. You have no idea who's driving in that car over there. There'll be more demonized people on the planet at any time in history at significant levels of demon possession. It's a natural process. It's a terrible day, but beloved, I should have put the terrible day first. Remember Goshen acts, Exodus Psalm 91, God leading us to supernatural guidance. I wanted to get you back. I kind of lost you there for a minute there. Okay. I lost you there for a minute. Okay. Roman numeral eight, Roman numeral eight, the result of the day of the Lord judgments, the result of the day of the Lord judgments, one third of the population of the earth is going to die unnatural deaths. In other words, they're going to die deaths related to, uh, encountering the judgment of God. One third of the entire population. Now, if the Lord doesn't return till 2025, uh, the people who study demographics say about 2025, there'll be 10 billion people on the earth. I don't know if the Lord's coming before or after that, but we're on the path to having 10 billion people on the planet in the next 20 years or so this would be like 3 billion people beloved. I, we can't relate to what 3 billion. That's a third of, of 10 billion. It's 50. It's more than 50 times the death toll of world war II world war II had 50 million people die in six years, six years, 50 million. There's nothing like an history. This hour of history will be 50 times greater than the death toll of world war II. The Bible lets us know this. Here's my point of saying this. I'm not trying to scare you. It is terrifying, but it's glorious beloved. This is the hour to be serious with God. This is not the hour for us to be playing church half in half out. You know, we're a little tired and we're a little preoccupied. We're a little of this. We're a little burnout. We're a little of this. This is not the hour to get a little of this, a little of that. It's the hour to, to lay things down and to press in. God is raising up as an act of mercy to his church, people with a forerunner spirit who have understanding and who are making known what God is doing in this hour of history. Now look at this a under Roman numeral eight, God is going to use the least severe means to produce the greatest number of people responding in the deepest levels of love. God, one third of the earth's dying. We think that's pretty severe. When we stand before God, he will say, I gave the least severe. That was the least I could do it to produce the most amount of people being saved at the deepest level of love for Jesus without violating their free will. When it's all said and done, the God who is good is orchestrating human history and he says, I will give the least severe means to produce the greatest good that I can. I am after the largest number at the, at the deepest level of love without violating anybody's free will. That's what he's about. And I'll end with this and we'll pick up with these notes next week. So I guess we'll have three weeks of introduction instead of two, but that's okay. That's what we do here at IHOP. We have prayer meetings and we have Bible studies, and then we pray for the sick, prophesy, feed the poor, and preach Jesus to anybody we can. Says here, uh, B, all things work together for good for the redeemed. In the midst of all of this negativity, Romans 8 28, God says, I promise you individually and corporately. Corporate groups, I mean large groups, maybe even nations. Good, thank you for coming up. Good. Uh, individuals or whole corporate groups. If we press into the heart of God, God says, I promise you, I will work it together for good. I promise you when it's all said and done, you will be better off having experienced it if you give yourself to me with a whole heart. And the other, uh, uh, verse I want to say right there is, and end with this, is Genesis 50 verse 20. When Joseph was finished, Joseph in Genesis 50, uh, his brothers, uh, he's talking to his brothers and he had this tremendous prophetic revelation. He said, what you meant for evil, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. He goes, I went to prison and I was kicked out of my family, all but kicked out and left for dead, went into prison, two different prison sentences. He goes, you meant it for evil, but he says, let me tell you something. God overworked it for good. And listen to what it says. The last line, it says in order that many would be saved, many would be saved. That's the principle. God says, don't worry about this. He says, whatever happens in the midst of my people, whatever happens in the midst of my people, I will cause it to work together for good and for the salvation of multitudes. I promise you that. So beloved, we're in good hands. We're in the right place at the right time. And I don't mean in this building, that's not what I mean. We're in a place before God where we're going hard after the things of God. We're going after this thing hard. We're doing it together. We're doing with other ministries all around the world. We're in this thing hard, going after God's heart, confidence in our relationship of intimacy with God, night and day pursuing with fasting and prayer. We're cultivating the grace of fasting and prayer. We're radically committed to heal the sick. We want every manner of sickness. We're radically committed to feeding the poor and those that have absolutely nothing to freely offering the good works of Jesus to them, preaching Jesus, prophesying to whosoever the Lord puts in our way, Lord, this, I mean, this is what we're about. And we're, we're together with like-minded people wanting to pursue God in this way. And that's a gift of God that you're in the midst of people like this, but there's many groups like this all over the world. I mean, the Lord's raising them up. The church will succeed in this, uh, uh, hour of history. Amen. Bring the notes back next week, if you would, so we can finish the outline. Let's stand. Thank you for listening to this teaching from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. For additional teachings, resources, and podcasts, as well as information on who we are and our upcoming events, please visit our website, ihop.org. For more free downloads from Mike Bickle, please visit mikebickle.com.