Mike Bickle emphasizes the urgency of recognizing the signs of the times, urging the audience, especially the youth, to prepare for the imminent return of Christ. He highlights that many in the current generation will witness the second coming, and it is crucial to understand the biblical signs and trends that indicate we are in the end times. Bickle encourages believers to engage in prayer, study the Scriptures, and be aware of the global movements that align with biblical prophecy, including the rise of false prophets, wars, and the spread of the Gospel. He stresses the importance of being anointed observers of current events in light of Scripture, and the need for a deep relationship with Jesus as the Bridegroom. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to watch and pray, preparing both oneself and others for the coming of the Lord.

Let's pray. Father, we ask you in the name of Jesus that you would move by your spirit on our hearts. Lord, I ask you that you would mark hearts tonight. That the fire of God would touch hearts and a spirit of living understanding. The ministry of the Holy Spirit would touch minds and hearts. And I ask that you would call messengers, even young people, 13, 14, 15, 16 and older. You would set them apart as end-time messengers in the days to come. That tonight would be a night where you called them. Tonight would be a night where you convinced them. That they had a calling to make known the plans of your heart. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, in this conference, our real emphasis has been to call you to the heart of Jesus. That you would be fascinated with Jesus. And that you would have a new resolve and a new confidence. To grow in intimacy with him and to know who you are in Christ. But we want to spend a little time in each of our conferences giving some understanding about the end times. This is my conviction. I believe this. I believe that there are people in this room, many of you actually, that will actually see the coming of the Lord in your lifetime. I believe that with all of my heart. And I'm going to give you some of the reasons why I believe that. And my desire in doing that, my goal, is that you would be able to give these answers to other people as well. Now, I don't know the day or the hour. The scripture makes it clear that we don't know the day or the hour. But the Bible makes it real clear, and I'm going to point that out in a minute, that we not only can know the generation, now listen carefully. Not only that we can know the generation, Jesus actually commands us to know the generation. Some folks, they hear the teaching about the end times, they go, wow, that's kind of neat, we might be able to know. I go, no, it's not an option. If we are in that generation, we are commanded to see the signs and to actually have confidence and proclaim it. Well, that brings it up a notch. That takes it out of the curiosity realm to the like, well, I want to be sure if it is or isn't. Because I don't want to say it if it isn't, but I don't want to be silent if it is. And that's where I believe that, I mean, that's where my prayer target for you tonight is to be able to move in that direction. Now, to be either convinced one way or the other, and not just tonight, but tonight would be a beginning point. Now, is the Lord coming in 5 years or 50 years? I don't know. If I was guessing, I would guess it's closer to 50 years than 5 years. And I believe that to be true. I think we have some decades. I think we have 2, 3, 4, 5 decades, maybe more. But maybe not. I don't know. And nobody in heaven is asking my opinion. But Jesus, here in Matthew chapter 24, He gives us signs. And in paragraph 8, He gives us 12 trends in society. Or just in what's happening in the nations or earthquakes and creation. He gives us 12 trends. And we're not going to go through those trends, but I want you to know they exist. And I want to challenge you to go study these, because with the internet today, you could take those 12 trends, and you could have a significant amount of information in a few weeks if you and a few of your friends said, we're going to find out everything we can about these 12 trends. Now, here's how it works. If you do that, you have to send me the information so I can put it in my handouts. So if you get some good stuff, send it to me and Dave Schleicher, and we'll use it, we really will. Matthew chapter 24, verse 5. We're going to look at just a few of them, 7 of the trends here in Matthew. Jesus said, many will come in my name, saying I am the Christ. So there'll be a lot of false Christs. Verse 6. You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. Verse 7. Nation will rise against nation. Now, it's interesting, the word nation is the word ethnos. Now, most of you know the New Testament was written in Greek. It wasn't written in English, right? It was written in Greek 2,000 years ago. And so the English Bibles, they take the Greek word, and they try to figure out what it means in English, and that Greek word is ethnos, and it means ethnic groups. So it's ethnic group against ethnic group. There are 6,000 ethnic groups, people groups, in the earth right now, 6,000 approximately. There's about just under 250 nations, 238 nations, just under 250, but there's 6,000 people groups, ethnic groups. And Jesus said, ethnic group will rise against ethnic group. And of course, we see that on the rise on a global scale. Although we're not going to really break down these 12 trends, I'm just kind of mentioning them a little bit on the way here. Kingdom will rise against kingdom. Now, he's not saying the same thing two times. Kingdom is a reference to economic resources. There will be famines, there will be pestilence, which is the same word as disease. You could put the word disease in there if you want. And there will be earthquakes. But verse 8, notice, Jesus said, these are only the beginning, the beginning of sorrows, or most Bibles use the word birth pains or birth pangs. You can use either one you want. This is just the beginning of the birthing process that leads to the second coming of Christ and the establishing of Jesus' thousand-year kingdom on the earth. Now, you know, Jesus is coming soon. And again, it may be two, three decades. It may be four, five decades. Maybe a little bit longer, maybe shorter. But when he comes, he's not coming to rapture us to go away. Yes, we will be raptured. He's coming to rapture us, to give us resurrected bodies, to organize us, to mobilize us, to take over the earth under his leadership. When the saints are raptured, and Jesus has his resurrected body, and we all have resurrected bodies, it's not to go away. It's Jesus is going to establish a thousand-year reign on the earth, a literal physical kingdom on the earth. And the decades leading up to this, which I believe we're in those decades right now, they are called birth pains or birth pangs or sorrows. And it's linked to a woman in the trauma of childbirth, the childbirth process. And what's being birthed is a new age, a new order for the earth. And the new order isn't the new order that the politicians are talking about. The new order is Jesus taking over every government of the earth, and the new Jerusalem coming down to the earth, and we have resurrected bodies, and all the earth is under his leadership. That's the new order that's being birthed through this birth canal process of turbulence and pain, and we're at the beginning of that birth canal process. Now Luke gives us five more descriptions. So if you take the 7 in Matthew and the 5 in Luke, there's 12 trends that describe the birth pangs. Now what happens when the birth pangs start? When a woman's giving birth to a child, they intensify. And they intensify, and eventually a baby comes. Well, the baby is the second coming of Jesus, and the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year kingdom on the earth, when Jesus comes. Okay, paragraph B. Now notice, in paragraph B, we're still in Matthew 24. The passage we read in paragraph A was Matthew 24. We're in the same sermon. Jesus is still speaking. It's a few minutes later, in the same setting to the 12 disciples, and he said this in verse 33 and 34. When you see all of these things, now what are the all of these things? It's the 12 trends. He said when you see the 12 trends, and you can write on your notes, all of these things are the things of verse 4 to 8. I don't have that in the notes. The things of verse 4 to 8. When you see these 12 trends that are mentioned in verse 4 to 8 that we just read a minute ago, Jesus said this. Know that the second coming is near. He said I command you to know this. Don't be false humility. Well, nobody can really know. It is right, we don't know the day or the hour, but we can know when those 12 trends are happening together at the same time on a global level, we can know the second coming is near. And it's not just we can, we're actually commanded to know the second coming is near. He didn't say guess or maybe. He said I want you to know with certainty my appearing is in that generation. Verse 34. He said be sure of this. When those 12 things happen, this generation will by no means pass away. If when those 12 things happen, all of them are happening on a global level, never before have all 12 of these trends happened together on a global level all at the same time. It's never happened, but they're all beginning right now to increase. Well, they're not all increasing, but they're all in a unique, most of them are increasing right now in a measurable way. He said know that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place. Okay, there's only one, I'm reading for paragraph B. There's only one generation in history, and I believe you're in it, and I believe that this age group will be the leaders globally. I believe you'll be in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. You will be the leaders in the body of Christ as the moms and dads in the spirit when these things happen, that's my opinion. I'm not saying that by the Holy Spirit told me that, but I believe these signs are increasing all 12 of them rapidly enough on a global level that I have a confidence in my heart. We are at the early days of that generation, and if it's true, then you must understand what Jesus says about that generation, and you must prepare others for his coming. Believers and unbelievers, you must prepare them because you are the ones that will know. And when I mean you, I mean millions of believers worldwide. Now, this will be the first time in history, I'm still in paragraph B, where all of these trends happen in an unusual measure all at the same time. That's the unique thing. All of them are happening at an unusual measure simultaneously. That's the key. Jesus said, when all of them happen, then you know. If three of the 12 are happening, we're not there yet, but when 12 out of 12 happen, then Jesus said you can know. Paragraph C, no one knows the day or the hour. That's clear. But we must know the generation if we're in it. Now, if we're not in the generation, then obviously we're not supposed to have that confidence. But I believe we're in it. Now, a generation can be anywhere in the Bible from 40 years to 100 years. So, if we're at the beginning, if we're in that generation, we have somewhere between 40 years and 100 years from after that generation started. Paragraph D. Now, Paul the apostle told us we should know the times and seasons. I won't read that verse. You can read it later. We should know the times and seasons. See, I hear regularly people say, you can't know the day or the hour. And I go, that's absolutely biblical. But not knowing the day or the hour is not the same thing as not knowing the time and the season, which means the generation. We know the generation. We know the time and season. We don't know the day or the hour. Those are two separate pieces of information. Paragraph E. Now, the Bible tells us that as we're in that generation, we should watch and pray. And just look up the word watch in the New Testament just in your Bible program. Look up the word watch. And Jesus says this word more than anybody. And he says it in relationship to the end times. He says watch. Watch and pray. Now, to watch means to pray as well. But to watch means more than pray. You could have a prayer life without watching for Jesus's plans to unfold across the earth. Some people have a very strong prayer life, but they don't have any thought of watching what the Spirit's doing on a global end time way. Others, they study the end times, they watch, but they don't have a prayer life. So they gather a bunch of Bible information, and it's helpful, but their spirit is not engaged with Jesus in the plan. So when we watch and pray, number one, we're reading what the Bible says about the end times. We're figuring out what is the battle plan? What is his plan to confront Satan and the Antichrist? We want to know it. Now, this might be a surprising piece of information, and I don't have it on the notes, but you can write this down if you want, and we have this document on the internet if you want it. There are a hundred and fifty, a hundred and fifty chapters in the Bible of which the primary subject is the end times. Now, just look at your neighbor and say a hundred and fifty. I just want you to get that in your brain. A hundred and fifty. A hundred and fifty. Now, if you add up, listen, shh, I don't want to lose you. If you add up Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels, how many chapters do you have if you add up the four Gospels? You have eighty-nine. So the four Gospels, almost ninety chapters about Jesus' first coming. Did you know there's a hundred and fifty chapters describing Jesus' second coming and the events related to it? A hundred and fifty. There's more about Jesus in all the events related to His return than there is about Jesus' first time. Same Jesus, same Bible, same Holy Spirit, and most of the body of Christ is almost totally illiterate of those hundred and fifty chapters. They don't know anything about them. But that's not your story. Now, we'll give you five or ten years, but you're going to say, I'm going to go after these. I'm going to know these hundred and fifty chapters about His second coming, and I'm going to know the eighty-nine chapters about His first coming. If it's Jesus, and it's in the Bible, I want to know the whole deal. Because, see, I love Jesus. I want to study the end times, not because I want to know data. I want to study the end times because Jesus is leading it, and I love Jesus. If He's doing it, I want to know about it. I want to work with Him in it. I want to be a part of it. So, we watch and pray. We watch by looking at the Bible. We search out, what is your plan? Tell me about, what are the signs of the times? That's part of watching to study. Part of watching is prayer, having your spirit prepared. Having your spirit prepared is prayer. It's not enough just to get the Bible information. What the Bible says, you want to have your spirit engaged with the Holy Spirit. But, number three, it's what I call anointed observers. I want, because I've got a prayer life, because I'm connected to the Holy Spirit, as you are, I want to have anointed observation, meaning, when events are happening in the nations, I don't want to look at them and just say, oh, wow, that's really intense. I want to say, I know the Bible verse, and the Holy Spirit is impressing my heart, this is significant. I want to not just be a casual observer, I want to be an anointed observer on what's unfolding in this generation. Now, all of those three issues, the Bible study part, the prayer part, and the anointed observation, they're all part of watching and praying, and that's what Jesus said to do. He said, if you're in that generation, watch and pray. And so, I want to challenge you to do all three of those, the Bible study, the prayer part, but even the anointed observation, like when you see events happening in the nations, you know the end times, signs of the times well enough, to where you, and the Spirit is touching you, you can say, I can see that is significant. I may not know how significant, I may not know all the details, but something registers in my spirit, this is an important event to pay attention to, and that's what I call it, be an anointed observer. But you've got to be an informed observer to be an anointed observer. We've got to have the Bible info first, before the Spirit will make it alive in our heart and to tell us its significance. Paragraph F, Jesus rebuked His generation because they didn't know the signs of the times of the first coming. He said, here I am, the Messiah, I am fully God, I've stepped out of heaven, to the earth, and you didn't even know I was coming. Beloved, it's 2,000 years later, and millions of Christians are not even paying attention to the signs of the God-man stepping out of heaven to come to take over the earth. And He rebuked His people. He said, why is it, you don't have any information, and you're not at all alert, you're so unalert, I could show up in your nation, and you don't even know what I'm doing. And there are believers, millions of them around the world, and I'm not being critical of them, they are so connected to just their own lifestyle and what they're doing, they're unaware globally of what the Bible and the Spirit are saying about what God's doing on the earth. And I think it's important to be really involved in your ministry and your life, but you don't want to be so involved you're disconnected from the big picture. Because I tell you, something bigger is going on than what's happening in your life. God, who's fully man, is stepping out of heaven, He's about to take over the earth and drive evil off the planet, and He wants you involved in the plan with Him. Let's go to the top of page 2. Now there's common lies that I hear, I've heard of, I've been teaching on this for some years now, and I hear these all the time, and we're not going to go through each of them, but a few of them. Lie number one, people say, well, you can't really understand the end-time scriptures, those 150 chapters, you can't understand them anyway, so why study them? I mean, nobody really understands the book of Revelation, not really, you can't really know the signs of the times, I mean, they're too mysterious. Let me tell you this, the Bible was written for everyone. The Bible was written not just for the elite intellectuals of history, the Bible was written for the common man, and the majority of the planet have been uneducated peasants, the Bible was written so they could get it. You can understand these chapters, you can understand these signs of the times, the Bible was written so you could get them if you were hungry to know them. Lie number three, well, if we don't know the day of the hour, why should we even try to know the generation? No, it's clear we don't know the day of the hour, but Jesus and Paul both told us that we must know the generation, we must know the times and the seasons of that generation. Lie number four, you hear this one all the time, every generation believed they were the last generation. That is not true. Now, most of you have probably heard that. Every generation believed they were the last generation, absolutely not a true statement. Now, let me tell you what might be a true statement, less than 1% of that generation, of the body of Christ of that generation might have believed it. A little fringe group over on the side, but the majority of the body of Christ has never believed they were in the end times in a sustained way, in a global way. Meaning, there's never been a time in history, except for the first century, where the majority of God's people believed they were in the end times in a sustained way. Yes, there's that one fringe group that's one less than 1% of the body of Christ in the earth, maybe they did and they were wrong, but 99% of the church did not believe it. It is a new phenomenon in this generation that millions and millions are believing it. It's not just that they're believing it, but in a sustained way. Meaning, they're staying with it decade after decade and millions are waking up to this reality. It's a phenomenon in itself. And so, when someone tells you, well, every generation said it, so that's true, but only less than 1%, and 99% didn't believe it. This is a new thing. The early church, the majority believed it for decades. They were wrong. And then 2,000 years later, there's a new generation emerging. And right now, the numbers are growing fast. Millions and millions worldwide believe they will see the coming of the Lord in their lifetime. And they've believed it for a period of time, not just, you know, when a big crisis comes, sometimes when a crisis hits, you know, people believe it for a year or two, and then they get tired of it, they move on. I'm talking about the majority of God's people believing in this in a sustained way that has never happened in history before besides the first generation, and it's beginning to happen in this generation for the first time in history since the first century. Okay, Roman numeral three. Now, I'm going to give you three, I'm going to do this real brief, and so you're going to have to read it more if you're interested in it, three general time frames, just so you can kind of get the big picture of the overall storyline of the end times. Because as you're reading these signs of the times, the positive ones and the negative ones, you want to have the kind of the big picture storyline. There's three big, there's three very significant time frames. Time frame number one is, I believe we're in it right now, the beginning of the birth pangs. The beginning of the birth pangs in paragraph B. Time frame number two is the first three and a half years of that final seven-year period. And time frame number three is the last three and a half years of that final seven-year time frame. Now, most of you are aware that the Bible makes clear there is a seven-year period right before Jesus appears that's very significant. Well, the period before that seven years is right now, I believe. And this is my opinion. God has not told me this. This is my opinion because I've read the signs of the times and I've looked across the earth and I want to be an anointed observer. I want to not just to read it with a skeptical heart of unbelief. I don't want to be into a hype and falsehood either. I want to have a heart of faith that when something important is happening in the kingdom of God, I actually have faith of a child to believe it. And that's what the Lord, that's what I'm going for. But the beginning of the birth pangs is period number one, I believe we're in it now. And that period can last from 50 to 100 years, you know, or however long. A whole generation, but a generation goes up to 100 years in the Bible. And we don't know how long the birth pang, the beginning of birth pangs lasts. I believe we're in it and I believe it's picking up. The next time frame that comes second, this might be surprising, the Antichrist is going to cause there to be a period of world peace, but it will be a counterfeit peace. We won't believe it, but the nations will believe it and they will be rejoicing. But the Antichrist will be presenting himself as a man of peace and he will bring world peace, but it will only last for three and a half years. He'll pull his mask off and he will show he's not really a man of peace. He's really a man of sin. He's the most evil man that ever walked on the planet and he will bring desolation to many people and to many nations. That's the final three and a half years. So those are the three time frames. And you can, you say, I don't quite have those yet. Well, read those a couple times and we're going to have a discussion group here at the end of this teaching. We're going to break into small groups and we got our leaders. We got about 75, 80 leaders and we're going to give you a chance to ask questions. And you don't have to be a part of that if you don't want, but if you want to, we're going to do that for a little while, maybe a half hour, 30, 40 minutes before Corey comes to the worship concert of the volleyball and the intermural start outside at 10 o'clock. But we're going to do that for a little while so you can ask some questions if you have them to some of our leadership team here. But my goal isn't that you would grasp it all right now, but I want you alert to the fact, three time frames, the beginning of the birth pangs, I believe we're in it now. Next is coming counterfeit world peace. That's the next season that comes. And then after that becomes the great tribulation where actually the judgment of God crushes the antichrist kingdom. That's really what's happening in the great tribulation. Okay, let's turn to page three, go all the way down to paragraph K. Page three, down to paragraph K. Because I'm going to skip those three time frames. I just wanted to give you a little bit on it so you might take a couple of days reading over it and going back with a friend, like check each, I mean quiz each other and read the Bible verses and make sure, by the way, everything that you hear in this pulpit here, well, it's anywhere you hear it, but I say it to our students here all the time, make sure that you see it with your own eyes in the Bible before you believe it. Like I tell our IHOP students here and the interns, I go, don't believe anything because Mike Bickle said it, Lou Engle said it, Alan Hood, Dave Slyker, don't believe anything because the Bible teacher said it. If you can't find it in the Bible with your eyes, don't you dare believe it. And we've encouraged them and empowered them to challenge us at every step of the way. I tell our young students, first-year students, if you can find anything, I will honor you and reward you. I won't say how dare you, I'll give you a $5 bill. If you can find anything that's wrong, because I want to correct anything that's out of place. And all of our teachers have that attitude. And so what I'm saying is, I want you to have the attitude too. It's not enough for you just to hear a Bible teaching and say, Lou Engle says, Alan Hood says, Mike Bickle said it, kids. Misty Edwards said, that's not good enough. You got to say the Bible says or don't say it. And so what these notes are is to give you some Bible verses and you get together with a few friends and you debate them a little bit, have some fun with it, search them out. I mean, some of these verses, because you won't, the verses will be new to you. So you don't email me right away with a suggestion of changing it. You might read a verse and maybe it's new to you and say, what was Bickle thinking here? That's not at all what it says. Well, go ask somebody that studied the passage just a little bit, get familiar with it first. Because some of the things I put in these handouts, are at a secondary level of understanding of it. It may not be obvious when you first read it, you may read it and say, huh? And so search it out, debate it out, talk it through, talk about it on the bus, on the ride home, and work this thing through, study it in your Bible studies, in your high school, in your different church ministries, and see if these things are really in the Bible. Because if they're right, you need to know them. If they're wrong, throw them away. But if they're right, you need to know them, and you need to say them to other people. Okay, paragraph K. Now, it's during this second time frame, it's the context that I'm in here, in the third page of the notes here, there's going to be a great falling away from the faith. I'm talking about people who are professing that they love Jesus, they're going to deny Jesus. It's going to be a massive number. It's not going to be the majority of the body of Christ, just so you know. They say there's a billion Christians in the earth right now. I don't know if that's an accurate number, but that's what some of the guys who take, you know, do the demographic studies. A billion. Some say that's a little bit high, but let's just work off of a billion. Hundreds of millions. I mean, a hundred, a million, or two, or three. I mean, I don't know. But a big number will fall away, but still, six or seven hundred million won't. Or eight hundred. Who knows the numbers? I'm just throwing those numbers out there. Meaning the majority won't, but still hundreds of millions, in my opinion, many will, it will be a significant thing. Here's what Paul said. The Spirit explicitly says, expressly says, that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith because they will pay attention to deceiving spirits, that's demons, and they will pay attention to doctrines of demons. That's just saying the same thing two different ways. So Paul's saying the Spirit, just circle that word expressly. What Paul's saying is the Holy Spirit really was intense when he told me this one. So when he said the Holy Spirit expressly said, he means the Holy Spirit really emphasized this in a really intense way. So when the Spirit expressly says something, you better pay double, triple attention to it. He said, make sure you write this down and tell the saints that in the end times, there will be a falling away of people who really have a relationship with Jesus. Meaning this is not just people who went to church, but in their real private life didn't care about Jesus. These are some people who really had a relationship with Jesus and they ended up denying Him. It's real. It's a real issue. I'm not trying to scare you, but we need to be sober about this. Not just for our own lives, but for the lives of the people we love. This is real. Loved ones will fall away. I don't mean your loved ones, but in the body of Christ, there will be loved ones that fall away. And I want to do everything in my power to prepare the church to be fascinated with Jesus and to know the Word of God to where they're not one of those that fall away. Okay, let's go down to Roman numeral four. There's four types of prophetic signs. Four types of prophetic signs. Now, we're only really focusing on two of them, number one and number two, because those are the ones that are written in the Bible clearly. They're what I call sign events. These are main events that happen. Like one of the big sign events, Israel became a nation. Now, that may not mean anything to you. Right now, you may say, so what? Israel became a nation. You know, so did Germany, so did America, so did, you know, lots of nations became a nation, but we'll get to that in a minute. That is a startling, stunning prophetic promise that came to pass in a most remarkable way that really shocked the world in 1948. I'm getting ahead of myself, but that's an example of an event. An event that happened that was prophesied was going to happen and it didn't look like it could happen and then after 2,000 years of Israel not being a nation, suddenly they became a nation in one day and it shocked the world. It really did in 1948. It was the greatest turnaround in a political turnaround in history. The greatest political turnaround of a nation in terms of its relationship to other nations, a geopolitical turnaround, the most dramatic one in human history and it was prophesied by the prophets and it would happen and 2,000 years go by and Israel's not a nation and then suddenly in 1948, it shocks everyone they become a nation in a way that was so remarkable and now when that happened, when that happened, I believe that's when the beginning of the birth pangs began. That's my personal conviction. I believe that's when the beginning of the birth pangs began and that generation will not pass away. Well, we're going on, getting 60, 70 years afterwards, but I believe a generation could be up to 100 years and so that generation will not pass away and I might be wrong. It may not be the beginning of the birth pangs, may not be when Israel became a nation, it may be when Jerusalem came under the leadership of Israel. I have that in the notes. You can read that if that interests you at another time, but I believe we're in that generation. So the first thing is sign events. These are events that we can clearly measure those events. The next thing are sign trends. It's not an event, it's trends, like sin is increasing in the nations. One of the clear Bible prophecies is that immorality would increase dramatically. We can see a trend in the earth. Immorality is exploding. The amount of perversion and the number of people participating in it, that's a trend. That's not a one-time event, that's a trend. Then number three, cosmic. Of course, that's just a fancy word for the sky. Cosmic signs, those are signs of the heavens. Jesus said there will be dramatic signs in the heavens. We don't know exactly what those will look like, so those are hard to study. We're paying attention, but we don't know quite, I don't know what to do with that just yet. I know it's real, because Jesus said it a number of times. And then we have personal experiences, personal signs. Misty talked this morning, she had a prophetic dream where the Lord spoke to her about preparing her life. Like she said, she emphasized this morning. She goes, I don't go, I don't put all my weight on a dream, and it's personal because dreams could be fallible, they could be a mistake. So you don't base, you don't make dreams more important than the Bible, but God will pour out his spirit, and he will give many people personal assignments, and he will speak to them about issues in that generation. And I'm assuming, I don't really know the number, but I'm thinking in the IHOP community, we have hundreds of people who've had dreams, hundreds of them, that are related to the end time drama. There may be trends that will happen, or something they will do, or something the nations will do. And we've never really counted them, I had them all stand up and say, count, one, two, three, but it's so many. We ask the Lord for dreams, anything that's on his heart. And the end times is on his heart, but it's not the only thing on his heart. Many things are on his heart besides the end times. We want dreams for the spirit to awaken our heart to what's on the Holy Spirit's heart, or what's on Jesus' heart, and then we want to back it up with the word of God. But what I'm saying is, is that there are such a thing as personal signs, but those are the least convincing and the least reliable of these four signs. But number one and number two, they are the ones that we're focused most on, because those are the ones that are in the Bible. Okay, page four. Let's look at a few positive spiritual trends. These are not signs per se, these are trends, these are broad stroke trends that are increasing. Number one, this is a remarkable, paragraph A, and we'll just be able to spend a minute on some of these, and we won't finish the notes here, because I'm just looking at, there's so much information here, but I want you stirred up. I want you stirred up to say, you know, I don't really get all this, but I know there's a lot I don't get, and I'm going to go study it. And if I get you, if I convince you, or the Holy Spirit does, to study this, this is a successful evening. If you leave here and say, I don't get all those signs, but I know one thing, I'm going to, in this next 6 to 12 months, I'm going to take my free time, and I'm going to figure this stuff out. Because if I'm in that generation, I want to know. And if I'm not in that generation, then I want to know why I believe I'm not, when millions of people around the world believe we are in that generation. Millions of believers think we are. Number one positive trend, it says in Matthew 24, verse 14, Jesus said, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to the nations, and that, remember, nations means ethnos, so every single ethnic group, there's 6,000 of them, then the end will come. Now Jesus said this 2,000 years ago. Okay, 6,000 people groups. He tells them, they're right there in Jerusalem, you've got one group down here, you've got to reach the other 6,000 now, you've got to reach the rest of them. So 2,000 years later, and the top mission organizations in the world, they have put out a paper, because we're friends with a number of them, so that we've talked to them in person, but we've read their material. Look at this, this is staggering, paragraph A, they say for the first time in human history, by the year 2015, beloved, I'm talking about like in five years from now, they say all 6,000 people groups for the first time in history will have the gospel preached to them for the first time ever in history. Jesus said when that happens, the end is right around the corner. That is one of the biggest signs imaginable. It's impossible to reach all 6,000 of them, until you do, and it's 2,000 years later, and it's speeding up so fast, I mean the ground, the body of Christ has gained, in the last 100 years, is remarkable how it has sped up. So that's sign number one. We're five years away, from every single people group. Now remember, there's 238 nations, but 6,000 ethnos, or nations, people groups. All 6,000 will have the gospel preached in their area within five years. That is remarkable reality. That is a sign of the times in itself. Paragraph B, the salvation of Israel. Now Israel is the nation most hostile towards Jesus. Israel is the nation that's hardest to reach. And Jesus said, mark my word, I won't come back until the people in the land of Israel say to me, we want you back. And when Jesus told them that 2,000 years ago, here in Matthew chapter 23, he goes, you won't see me again. He's talking to the leaders of Israel. They're going to crucify him real soon. I mean, in a couple of days, they're going to kill him. He goes, let me tell you something that you won't believe. I won't come back to the earth until the nation of Israel says to me, blessed are you, Jesus of Nazareth, we want you to come back. And of course, the leaders of Israel said, you can be sure of this thing, it's never going to happen, you're never coming back. And Jesus said, we'll see. There is a massive increase of evangelism, a 500% increase of people coming to Jesus in Israel beyond any time of history. I mean, it's exploding right now in Israel and the Jewish communities around the world. Now, there's still many that are saying no, but the number that are saying yes is a 500% increase. That in itself is a sign of the times. For 2,000 years, the Jews, you couldn't hardly get just one here, one there, thousands of Jews are saying there's 15,000 in the land of Israel. And 10 years ago, the number was really, really small. I was interacting with the leaders 10 years ago in Israel. They said almost nobody is saved in the land. And suddenly the increase is going so fast, it's a sign of the end times. Paragraph C. Jesus, or the book of Revelation says, the spirit and the bride will say come. Before Jesus comes back to earth, the Holy Spirit will be moving on the church and the church won't just be the army of God. We are the army of God. The church won't just be the family of God and we are the family of God. Not just the body of Christ, not just the kingdom of God, but the church, individual believers. They will see themselves as a cherished bride. And the spirit will be on the church a billion believers worldwide and the vast majority of the church will understand for the first time in history they are not just the army of God, they're not just the family of God, they're not just the kingdom of God, they're not just the body of Christ, they're actually the bride of Christ as well. Now in 2,000 years, the church universally has never seen this revelation of the church as the bride of Christ. But John prophesied, he said before Jesus returns, they will cry out with understanding of intimacy with God that they are a cherished bride and he is a passionate bridegroom with great love in his heart for his people that this understanding would fill the body of Christ. Now I've been preaching on the bride of Christ for now 20 years. And when I began 20 years ago, and some of you undoubtedly, some of the older ones here in the room, maybe you were aware of it in your own ministry, you were preaching on it. But 20 years ago, I heard not hardly a whisper of anybody saying the word bride of Christ. One guy here, one guy there, one ministry over there. And in 20 short years, you think short years, what? In 20 years, the message of the bride of Christ, millions are getting it overnight. I mean, it's amazing the amount of people that even had dreams and visions about this reality of the church as the bride of Christ. For 2,000 years, almost 99% of the church has not understood this. And for the first time, millions of people are getting this for the first time, even in the last five and 10 years, and it's growing so fast. Worship songs about the bride and the bridegroom. It's exploding on a global level. And I say, Lord, you're not coming. It doesn't say the spirit of the army saying, come Lord Jesus. He says, when you know who you are, and when you know who I am, I am the bridegroom and you are my cherished bride. When you know that, then I will come and I won't come until then. So even this subject is in itself a sign of the times. The very fact that you are interested in this subject, and not all of you are yet, but you all will be before it's over. Before the Lord returns, the whole church will be focused on this subject, the bride of Christ. Now, remember when the first, the Lord first told me, called me to preach on the bride of Christ. I was kind of troubled by this. It was 1988. It was 20 years ago, 21 years ago. And it was in a very dramatic way. I won't go through the details, but he told me to do this. Now, my father was a world champion boxer. I mean, like beat people up, and got money for it on TV. And I grew up in a boxing home, and all of his friends were boxers and tough guys. And the Lord told me to talk on the bride of Christ. And I said, Lord, I don't really think this will work for me. I'm the son of a boxer. This isn't going to work. I'm not really, I said, give that to the women's ministry. They will love this. I really did. And the Lord, and I won't go through the story, but I tell it in the Song of Solomon series. He called me to spend my life teaching on the Song of Solomon. I said, this is impossible. I can't do this. I read the Song of Solomon. It was horrible. It was songs, and flowers, perfume, and body parts. I said, there's not a chance I'm going to preach on this. It's not going to happen. Not me. And I was shocked that over a little bit of time, the Lord began to tenderize my heart. I mean, it was a miracle that I bought into this. But it's a miracle that millions worldwide are, it's exploding on a global level. It is a sign of the times. Paragraph D. Another sign of the times is the global prayer movement. Now, again, you know, we've been doing IHOP 10 years, so we're really focused on the global prayer movement. And because we're doing it hard with all of our energy here, and we're interacting with prayer ministries throughout Asia, and Africa, and Latin America. And 10 years ago, there were a few. There were a few. And I was blessed. But 10 years later, beloved, there are houses of prayer. And I don't mean they have to look like the one we're doing here. They all look different. They all have different names. They all have different styles, different emphasis, different models. I'm not talking about how they do it. Houses of prayer are springing up so fast across the earth that even people that are not in the prayer movement, who are not really excited about it, are acknowledging it's a global phenomenon, that it's a sudden thing. Now, when you study the verses, and I don't have that many of them here, but on the 12-page handout, the extended notes of this document, on the internet that you get, I have a lot more verses on it. There are so many verses that make this point. They don't say it just this precise, but it's very clear. There will be a worldwide prayer movement before Jesus returns. And it will grow so rapidly. There are stadium events where 50,000 to 100,000 people are meeting in the cities across the earth, all-day events to worship and pray. And that's never happened in history. It's a brand new reality in the last 10 years. Now, maybe there was an exception 20 years ago, one group here, one group there, but it is exploding. Now, the mission leaders came back and gave us a report, Mark Anderson with YWAM, Youth with a Mission, one of our dear friends. As a matter of fact, he's preaching tomorrow here. And one of the main mission leaders in the world, and he came back from a group, from a group of 3,000 leaders in the kingdom of God in Hong Kong, and Alan Hood was there, and some of the others. And they came back, and these 3,000 national leaders from China, from Korea, mostly from Asia, although they were from 100 countries, it was a major meeting, these 3,000 leaders of the body of Christ, they committed to start, now catch this, in the next 10 years, or it could be 15 years, I might have that wrong, 400,000 houses of prayer in Asia. 400,000 of them. Now, we're on the platform up here, and Mark was telling me this the other day, I said, now, you mean 4,000, you know, 3,000 leaders, 4,000 prayer meetings, that sounds good. He goes, no, not 3,000 leaders, because a lot of these leaders have hundreds of churches under them. 3,000 top leaders, 400,000 houses of prayer, they want to start throughout these 100 countries. He was just in Kenya, and a couple thousand leaders, the same thing. And they, I can't remember the number, but it was some staggering number, like they committed to 200,000 houses of prayer, some huge number, I'll have to get the exact number down, but the body of Christ, across the nations, are excited about prayer, and the numbers are staggering right now, like no other time in history. Paragraph E, paragraph E, and we're only going to make it to H, and then you're going to just read the rest on your own. But it's just two or three more points, and then we're going to have a small group discussion, is what we're going to do. But paragraph E, the worship movement, now you say the worship movement, the prayer movement's the same thing, well, from heaven's point of view, it is, but in the last 50 years, you've had the worship movement, but the worship leaders don't really do prayer meetings, and you've got the prayer leaders the last 50 years, they don't really do worship. But recently, in the last 10 years, the worship and the prayer leaders are doing worship and prayer in the same meetings, and this is a new phenomena that's happening all across the globe. So you might say, well, that seems pretty obvious, to go ahead and throw in the worship leaders, but for 2,000 years, mostly the worship leaders were not leading the prayer meetings. But the Bible says, in the end times, they will come together, and because I've been involved in the prayer movement for right at 30 years, just over 30 years, I've been actively involved in leading prayer meetings on a regular basis, and talking and studying for 30 years of my ministry, and I never saw a worship leader lead a prayer meeting for many, many years. And now, it is so common, matter of fact, there's almost no prayer meetings that doesn't have worship involved. It has changed so dramatically in the last five years, and it's going global. Paragraph F, the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it's not just an outpouring of power, it's a spirit of prophecy. You read the verse, this is going to happen before Jesus returns, dreams and visions are going to be poured out on every single believer worldwide. Dreams and visions, there's an explosion of the prophetic ministry that is taking place in the earth right now, and the greatest revival is yet to come. Now, look at the numbers I have there, in paragraph F, in the year 1900, 100 years ago, there were only 1 million Pentecostal Charismatics, people who believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 1 million. After 1900 years of church history, only 1 million believed that dreams and visions and healing the sick and casting out devils was something the church was supposed to do. The vast majority of the church said it's not for the day. 100 years later, 500 million people believe this now. And for the first time in history, the guys that do the demographic studies reported about 3 years ago, there are now, for the first time in history since the early church, there are more believers on the earth who believe in the gifts of the Spirit than believers who don't believe in it. It's the first time it's happened and it changed about 3 years ago. Paragraph G. Now, I don't see this happening yet, paragraph G, but it's going to happen. I see an interest, but I don't see insight. Paragraph G. There's an explosion of interest in the end times, but what the Lord told Jeremiah, he said, in the last days, my people are going to not just have interest in end time prophecy, they are actually going to understand it perfectly. Now, I don't think that means everybody has 100% insight, but what he means in a mature way, the Lord told Jeremiah, in the latter days, the people of God are not just going to be hungry about the end times, they are going to have understanding of the end times. That is actually a sign of the times. The hunger is what's happening now. Millions and millions are interested and they believe this is that generation but those millions that are hungry are translating it into Bible study and prayer and they're gaining biblical understanding about the end times. And the Lord told Jeremiah that would happen, and he told Daniel and he told John and others as well. This is one of my favorite ones. We'll end with this. The global youth focus. A global youth focus. The Lord told Malachi, because I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet before the second coming. Beloved, Elijah is coming back before the second coming. People go, that's figurative. I go, no, it's real. And I've been saying this for a while, I'm going to ask him to come speak at IHOP. I'm going to say, Elijah, I told everybody I believe that verse. He'll say, you know what, I'm really a little busy right now, but since you held the line for so long, you know what, I'll come one afternoon, I'll give you one session. Maybe it probably won't work that way, but he's coming before the second coming, but look what he's going to do. There's going to be an outpouring of power. It's going to turn the hearts of fathers to children. There is a powerful move right now in the body of Christ where fathers, I'm talking male and female, talking about the spirit of a father. It's on men and it's on women, are turning to young people. It's an amazing reality. Now, I'm an old guy, so I can see it, maybe you're 15, I don't really see that, but I've been watching this for years, and there's a turning that's happening right now of the attention of the body of Christ to the younger generation. And it's to the fatherless. It's not just to the young people, it is to young people, but it's also to the fatherless. And the whole issue of abortion and orphans and human trafficking. And there's a turning of the hearts of fathers to children. Now, young people, if you're 21 years or older, you are qualified to be a spiritual father. I mean that. Meaning, I've had 25-year-old people say, I want a spiritual father. I said, forget it, you are one. They go, what? I'm still looking for one. I said, it's too late. Forget it. Turn your 25-year-old heart down to 12-year-olds and go be a spiritual father and raise up people and start discipling them. And if you're 18 or 19, if you're 18 or 19, start taking care of and discipling 14-year-olds. And that's the beginning of the spiritual father. Don't read that verse and say, where's my dad? Read the verse and say, where are my kids? Ask a different question. There's some of you, 15, you're going to go after the children's church. You're going to say, I'm going to start discipling them little 8-year-olds right now. I'm going to take Malachi 4.6 and I'm cashing in on it right now. Well, let's stand up. We're done with the message. That was a sudden end.