Get ready for a powerful word from guest preacher Lou Engle!
V1 Church
Fasting To Break Every Stronghold | Lou Engle
(upbeat music) - We've got brief time to be with you today. And so I'm gonna tell you a story. How many of you know our lives are a story? We are stories written by God. The God I worship is not just the author of our story. He's the finisher of our stories. I worship the God who wrote a book about our lives before we were ever conceived. If we simply got that, we would be able to go through hell because God is the author of only good books. And if your book's been bad, well, good news, he can rewrite the script. He can change it all. Says in Psalm 40, he says this. He said, "Lo, it is written of me in the book. "I have come to do your will. "When you find what's written in your book, "you can say to the world, here I come. "Not with arrogance, but with a sense "of divine sonship and daughtership. "Here I come, I come to do your will. "I know what's written in the scroll of my book. "I even know the title of my book." (laughing) 40 years ago, 1984, my pastor had a dream of a black man saying, come to Los Angeles, there's gonna be a great revival. 12 of us went to that rented Los Angeles. 1984, we were reading a book called Azusa Street. How many are you familiar with this? (audience cheering) Where the color line was washed away in the blood. I was reading a book called Azusa Street by a man named Frank Bartleman. He was an intercessor in that Azusa Street revival. He fasted so much they thought he would die. He was possessed with revival. He was actually praying 100 years before me in the very streets that I was living in, in Pasadena. There's a well of revival in New York, waiting for another people to arise as intercessors, to burst that open. I was reading that book by Frank Bartleman and everything in the book screamed and cried my name. Have you ever had a book that calls your name, and causes you to burn inside? Moses had a burning book, but I had a burning book, but I had a burning book. I remember being so gripped by this book that I went into 18 days of fasting. I'm not boasting, I'm simply saying, it's not enough to get fire in your soul. You've got to draw near to what is burning inside of you. It's said about Moses that God was actually, actually Moses said, I will draw near to this wonderful sight. There's something about drawing near when God begins to awaken you. You don't just say, well, that's cool. No, you draw near by pursuing what that fire is going on inside of your soul. And it's said that the Lord was standing, the Lord said, the Lord was looking on to see if Moses would draw near to the book. In other words, would he have found his divine calling if he hadn't drawn near? God was looking, will he draw near? Spiritual responsiveness to the prophetic fire is what produces giants in the spirit. When God speaks to you, you live your life under the shadow of a dominating prophecy. Let me say that again. We live our lives under the shadow of a dominating prophecy, not under statistics and failures. What God has said is what keeps us alive. And so I remember going into 18 days and one night I cried out in the 18 day. God, give me the mantle of Frank Bartleman. I don't want to read about revival. I want to see revival. I don't know if I've ever cried so intensely. Some of us need to demand from heaven the divine assignment on our lives. We treat things so casually. It's a tragedy not to know what is the book that God wrote about your life. It's a tragedy. Now it doesn't happen right away. It's an unfolding of divine callings on your life. But I remember I cried out, give me the mantle of Frank Bartleman weeping before God. The next day a brother walks up to me and says, "Lou, I had a dream of you last night." And in the dream I saw a big black book and the title said revival. He said, "I turned the inside of the cover "and there was the guy's face. "I didn't know who he was, "but his name was Frank Bartleman. "And his face turned to your face." (congregation applauding) I know the title of my book, It's Revival. And my chapter meets your chapter. Right now, right now. Come on, New York, our chapter's meet right now. We saw revival after 10 years. The 80s were from Hades. God gives you a great dream. And then he takes you like Joseph through all kinds of betrayal. All kinds of difficulty. Stick around and forgive everybody. Because the day comes when you enter into your divine convergence. And I, over those years we prayed, had small permings. I got stories to tell about the millions. No, maybe not millions, but a lot of them. And then something happened in a divine convergence in my own life, and I'd like to start right here. In other words, faithful and little until like John the Baptist, he was in the days of the desert until the days of his public appearance. There comes a time when you stick around long enough. There comes a day for your public appearance where you step into a divine convergence. And you're thinking, this is what I was created for. It was 1999, I prayed a prayer that defined the whole rest of my life. Everything from that point on 1999 has been dictated, or at least lived under the shadow of a defining prayer. Have you ever prayed a defining prayer that marks the rest of your life? I prayed this prayer. How can I turn America back to God? It was the most outrageous prayer, but I was weeping. I knew I had reached into heaven, and he had heard me. I didn't know that at that moment that prayer was setting in a divine movement that would lead me to New York right now. I see my meeting with you today is about a fulfilling and returning America back to God. I have to look at it that way. You, a casual approach to the prophetic brings casualties. You have got to live seriously about the prophecies. It's about how you fight your battles by the prophecies that were spoken over you, and by the dreams that God gives to you. So in this context, I prayed a prayer. How can I turn America back to God? Two weeks later, I didn't know her. Some woman shows up and says the Lord told me to pay your salary this year, 'cause you're gonna start something with the youth of American prayer. Little changed the destiny of the nation. She paid my salary for 15 years. She, say when you pray, it may not be the same way or the same fear, but when you pray a prayer, it activates heaven, and heaven begins to move on your behalf, on your family. Anyway, she came to me three months later, and she said, have you ever thought about putting kids on the mall to pray and fast? Like promised, keepers put a million men in 1997. I said to the woman, I prophesied two years ago, she said, I'll give you $100,000 to start it. September 2nd, just coming up 24 years ago, 450,000 kids gathered to the mall in D.C. to fast and pray for 12 hours. We told no one who the speakers were, or the worship teams were, because we've had enough personality-driven religion in America, his answer is in the times of crisis, blow the trumpet in Zion, call a fast, gather the elders, gather everyone, and come and cry out to God, and afterwards, he would pour out his spirit. This was the burning vision of our hearts. In 1999, something began to happen in response to a prayer. Then it went in 1999, and the leader of youth with a mission came to me, and he said, Lou, would you help me call the whole world to a 40-day fast, the first 40 days of the new millennium for the harvest of the new millennium? Now, I hadn't done anything but the call hadn't happened, which was called the solemn assembly's massive gathering. Nobody knew me, and I said, Lord, nobody knows me. How could I call the whole world? To 40 days of fasting in the first 40 days of the new millennium? I said, if you want me to do this, have some prophet call me tonight, and tell me he had a dream that I was flying a plane and dropping an atomic bomb. So weird. There was a reason for my madness. I was reading a book called "A Comic Power Through Prayer and Fasting" that happened in '46, '47. It was, in that time, a worldwide movement of extended fasting takes place. And what happens? The healing revival's a break-out. All of the guys are fasting 40 days. Billy Graham arrives at '48, '49. Bill Bright, major worldwide outpouries what else happens, Israel becomes a nation in New York. It's Joel 2. After the fast, I'll restore the land, and I'll pour out my spirit and all flesh. I think we're coming to another time. And I think his eyes are on New York, where Israel became a nation right here in Queens in '48. Could we be in another awakening moment? Well, a prophet called me that night and said, hey, I had this dream you were flying a plane and dropping an atomic bomb. I'm thinking, this is crazy. See, this is what happened. I said, Lord, this is so cool, but this will never mobilize the world. So I have a prophet. This prophet's coming to our church. Have him call me out with my birthday, and give me Ecclesiastes 11.1, cast your bread upon the water. In other words, don't eat bread and throw your revelation out. Prophet comes, he calls me out by my middle name. I wish I could tell the whole story and my birthday. And he says, and I see that you're skinny for you are fasting. And the Lord says, Ecclesiastes 11.1, cast your bread upon the water. I know what my calling is. It's to call the church to fasting and prayer, to break through in the heavens. So on the ground, we can break through on the ground. Jesus started his whole ministry on a 40-day fast, and then came out in the power of the Spirit. And those who sat in darkness, they'll see a great light. I feel there is something that I've come here to impart faith to you probably have already have it. But I want to speak to V1. It's a take-off point where you have to fly or stay grounded. You've got to win the battle of the heavens so that you can win the battle on the ground. God sent me on this journey of extended fasting over the years. We held the call in September 2nd, the 450,000 gathered. And then something happened in a stadium in the cotton bowl in Dallas, where the Lord spoke to us concerning the issue of abortion. A prophet said, the call will be shut down for three years. And then God will sovereignly raise it up again in three years. Our board said, let's do it. What happened was, during that time, a young man enlisted to me, fasted two years, no meats, no sweets, a Daniel fast for two years praying for one thing, the ending of abortion in America. See, this is stuck. What kind of young man does the Daniel thing to shift history out of his prayers God sovereignly called us to hold a prayer meeting set 50 days and 50 nights? Day and night intercession. I believe the days of monstrous prayer strikes are going to take place when we penetrate the demonic powers like Daniel who, for 21 days, principalities and powers resisted. But one man at age 83 sets in motion cosmic powers. An archangel comes down to Mrs. Oh Man, greatly beloved. In other words, oh Daniel, this is heaven's estimate of you. God loves prophetic intercessors. Those who knows what God knows, what the timing is and set themselves to fast and pray and not take no for an answer until it breaks. And so with this, we called this gathering, and I told those kids, I told them from Daniel chapter 10 where the archangel comes down who says, from the first day you set your face, I've come down to you. But I was resisted by the demonic power over Persia for 21 days. And then Michael, the archangel came and helped me. And now I've come down to give you a message. I said to those kids, our assignment is to end abortion. You must win the presidency. You must win the elections for a pro-life president. You're in more important than the voters. You think I'm crazy. You must win a pro-life presidency because you can't turn a nation back to God when you have an altered debate all in front of the Supreme Court, shedding the innocent blood of the unborn. Many of you had abortions. The blood of Jesus washes you clean. Take your greatest pain and make it your greatest profit. Rise up. I remember, here in Long Island, I think it was Long Island years ago, preaching on the issue of abortion. And there was a abortion clinic with a stack, some kind of stack and a smoke of the incense of those babies, right? Whatever the case, I forget where I was, but I was. I told the church, you must win the battle of the heavens over the elections to get a pro-lifer. That sounds very crazy, but the church is the ecclesia, the ruling body, not the presidency, not the senators. The church, I will build my ecclesia, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. So 50 days and 50 nights, I said to them at the beginning of those days, I said to them, it will be said of you, you are the RAF, the Royal Air Force. Those are the ones that won the battle of Britain who in the skies risked their lives and died. Life expectancy of two days. They won the battle of the heavens to stop the German Luftwaffe from coming in. Had they lost, we might be speaking Japanese or German right now. It was the turning point of World War II. I said to them what Churchill said, it will be said of you, never has so much been owed by so many to so few. In other words, if you don't win the battle of the heavens, you will not win the battle of the earth. And so on the 47th night I ran in the guy in Colorado Springs, we were going 47 days and nights. I asked him to preach that night. I'd heard about this guy. I didn't tell him what we were doing. At the end of his message he stops. He looks at those 70 young people and he says, you are the RAF. Never has so much been owed by so many to so few. It was shock and awe. And I knew the Lord was saying, I'm going to raise up a movement of fasting and prayer that wins the battle of the heavens, that challenges the powers over New York, that shifts things in history. Out of that movement, God gave us a dream. During that 50 days and in that dream, we had a dream of two tornadoes coming to destroy America. And they had the letters AHA on them. And in the dream, it was abortion and the homosexual agenda. Two tornadoes coming to destroy America. And in the dream, our company was being called to resist and restrain those two tornadoes. But before we could do that, we had to go to the laundry room. In other words, you can't bind, but bind you. You've got to have a company. You've got to have a constituted in unity, people constituted impurity, not sinlessness, but 70 times seven forgiveness in the community so that they actually see a function as the ruling body over New York City. So the Lord led us on a journey. We traveled highway 70 to start a house of prayer, facing the Supreme Court building. The gates of Hades will not prevail against. God gave us a dream that we put life tape on our mouths, tape with life, and we would stand in front of the Supreme Court. So we stood there, 70 people, for 18 years, with a light band praying, "Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God and abortion send revival to America." Millions of prayers of the blood taking communion five days a week for 18 years and then suddenly Roe v. Wade fell. I don't think Roe v. Wade fell. I believe Molot, a demonic power. Something fell from heaven. Well, you say, "Well, now it's all over the states and everybody's saying it's worse than before." Do not let the devil light to you by the news. How many Moses has been saved in the thousands of babies who have been saved in the states? God has his ways. And when Roe v. Wade fell, suddenly the Lord spoke to me and says, "It's now time for the home of the sexual agenda." Today, who could have guessed that we'd be in a Elijah Jezebel showdown, or an Esther-istar showdown? That's all the time I have, right? How can I do this? Listen, that young man who fasted two years ago fast after a pro-life president was elected, he said, "God, I'm ending my fast at midnight. I hate this fast anymore." He maybe didn't say I quite like that to God, but he said, "I'm eating cake at 10 o'clock at night. Unless you confirm to me you want me to stay on my Daniel fast." He's leaving his library at 10 o'clock at night. Brian Kim on his Daniel fast, sees the guy doesn't know, says, "Hello, my name's Brian Kim." The kid says, "Hello, my name's Daniel fast." Everybody freaks out, but it's not a freaking out matter. God has said, "You're moving principalities and powers." He did two more years of a Daniel fast, and the story is history. When we, Lord, I don't have time to do that, so I'm going to skip major parts. I do want to say this, I'm going to skip major parts. And because of that victory of Roe v. Wade, the Lord spoke to me, he said, "The blood defeated the powers." And he said, "The blood will win 100,000 LGBTQ." A prophet gave me a word 20 years ago in a trans vision in 1989. He saw 100,000 LGBTQ saved and transformed. He said they were becoming the greatest intercessors. Many, they would not, many would not be married again, because they were so in love with Jesus. They would, and he said, "We begin to see AIDS break out, being healed. We begin to see miracles take place, people." And then all hell broke loose, why? Because a spirit that's seeking to dominate the world is now where it came in 1969, right out of Stonewall, on this anniversary, the 55th anniversary, new beginning, 5-5. We're in a moment of a divine transition. I've got to believe that God will not fasten our soul to a dead end vision. He wants to turn America back to God. And that man said it would just be the first wave of a great revival that God was coming. And so we've lived under this, you could say, well, you know, you kind of doubt it, or you can stay alive and believe the prophets and succeed. And so what took place in 2017, I had done a solemn assemblies in stadiums and arenas. In 2002, we did Queens. A hundred thousand gathered in Queens to remember and pray for Israel and a court case that came out of New York, as I understand, called Engel versus Vital. It removed prayer from school. Once they removed prayer from school, then they removed the 10 commandments. President Kennedy is killed. Martin Luther King, what happens? You vacate God and demons seven times worse. Come in to possess the nation. Come on, America has been repossessed by the gods. The small little G, but they're the demonic spirits. So the Lord, this man said to me, there are eagles that fly in the heavens who get divine revelation, but unless you have the wild geese intercessors, flying in V formation, breaking through the principalities and the powers, you won't see the manifestation of the eagle's vision. He said to me, he said, your tribe is the wild geese hunkers. He said, and your assignment is a hundred thousand LGBT. I've come here on the weekend of a moment that I believe were really connecting the V1 flyers with the V1 evangelists that are beginning to reap a harvest. They're gonna get saved. I feel so significant being here on this date. Two LGBT women, friends of ours, actually somehow got into Stonewall last yesterday. Got into the second floor, took communion, pleaded the blood over Stonewall. The eunuchs threw her down. Come on, you didn't get that. Spirit of Elijah, J who's writing. I think Jesus, J who is writing right now. Who's on the Lord's side? And two eunuchs captive by the spirit of Jezebel which is really Ishtar are throwing her down. What if the next revival is a throwing down of Ishtar, the goddess of homosexuality, the goddess of transgenderism, the goddess of pornography? I believe the church is rising right now for such a time as this, which brings me to 2017 in the video. That which is rose up worldwide? I don't know if I should say it here. You may not like what I say. 2017 President Trump was elected. I told you. And which is rose up in one day to curse him worldwide? You've got to ask the question, why witches would curse an immoral man? Why would witches curse a man? I think they understood that he was a threat to their blood altar that fueled the witchcraft worldwide. (congregation applauding) Come on, God raised up Cyrus, who is a man, a king in Persia with harems, would kill anybody at the drop of a hat and God called him his anoint. He got the job done. Sometimes we demand of leaders in the government. They were never necessarily meant to be all that great men. But God is said in the book of Daniel. He raises up the basis to men. Come on, I'm not telling you who to vote for by you. I turned that debate on, I couldn't take it. I got to get out of here. These are two leaders in America. Whatever the case, 2017, because witches rose up to worldwide to curse President Trump. I went to Esther's Park in Colorado, some call it Esther's Park and I fasted. Fasting makes your life a landing strip for revelation. Daniel in his fast is seeking for understanding. In the understand, somehow fasting opens our hearts to receive divine intelligence, keys to unlock doors. I'm gonna pray for you today for the grace of fasting. And I'm gonna pray for you for dreams because our whole life has been led by dreams during fast that actually unfold the next chapter titles of our books. How it happens. And in this dream, as far and wide as I could see, you saw it, women were coming from everywhere. I was being called as a Mordecai to mobilize this Esther movement and this word that's in these two words in the Book of Esther, actually mean Nazgol, any GUL. I exploded out of that dream knowing what it meant. That there is a spirit, a witchcraft that is coming to America and God is gonna use women. Esther's like Esther to break the demonic power like she did with Haman's demonic powers, when Haman cast lots to see what he kissed, killed the Jews, he was tapping into divination. So Esther, I think, understood, you can't deal with divination on the ground. You can't deal with it with politics. You gotta deal with touching the spiritual realm and she calls a three day fast. Yesterday, last night with Jesse Green, we were with 65 high women unbelievable influencers that may, that have access to 50 million people. And Jesse Green stood up. He said, we're calling a three day Esther fact. What if 50 million women all over the world would do a, come on, help me now. (audience cheering) What if they did a three day Esther fast to break the spirit of Ishtar? See, 'cause Ishtar, Esther was named after Ishtar. (audience chattering) She's an orphan, nothing going good for us. She's been taken into exile, her family. She seems to be a very passive woman. She's taken into a harem. We've made the book of Esther like a beauty queen contest. She was being sex trafficked. (audience chattering) She was being trafficked, but a woman coming out of being an orphan by the sovereign providence of God is exalted to be a queen. The book of Esther is the book of divine reversal. Come on. And there's some Mordecai's involved in it. And I said to Jesse Green, tell me when you want to call that three day fast and I will mobilize it worldwide. The dates are the 29th, right? (audience chattering) - 29 through 31st. - 29 through 31st. What if New York led the parade of history? (audience cheering) Where Esther living under the culture of the Ishtar possession of a nation actually rises up and overthrows the spirit by which she was named. Come on. This is what we're believing for. So, a couple more stories and then I'm ended. I'm not a Bible teacher. I believe the Bible, I read the Bible, but God's given me stories to tell, to create bones to rattle. Movements to occur. I'm still believing that God's gonna send something stronger than the rebellion to America. It was in April of 2000, mobilizing for the call. I had a dream of a scroll rolling before me and in the scroll I was overwhelmed with the impossibility of seeing America turn back to God, but a scroll rolls down before me and I read Luke 17. He shall go on before the Lord and the spirit and power of Elijah and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and in the dream I read this part in the scroll and the rebellious back to the wisdom of the righteous. I woke up and the Lord said, what I'm pouring out in America is stronger than the rebellion. I have to believe that a scroll was rolling before me. Gotta know what your scroll is. You should be crying out, unroll my scroll. Whatever the case on 4/13 last year, I'm flying to a conference, I'm reading a book, and in a paragraph about seizing your divine movement. And suddenly the Lord speaks to me on the plane. You don't have a yesterday or tomorrow, you must push go, mobilize a million esters to them all. In DC, you have no money, you have no staff, but mobilize push go right now. I get to the next plane to go to Pasadena, I'm sitting in the window seat and I pray this prayer, Lord, this cannot be just white esters. The African American esters must rise to fight for their children and the Latinos and I prayed God, confirmed to me now the African American esters will arise. Immediately a black lady sits next to me, she's reading a book, I can't see what it is. I said, "Excuse me, ma'am, what book are you reading?" She holds it up, the ester anoint. You can't make these things up, you can actually say, "Wow, that's so cool." Or you can treat it like prophecy. I said, "I will not miss my moment." That's the deal, we treat prophecy like shooting stars when they should be lighting up your whole skies, your whole life. Come on, I went to that meeting at 413, on 413 that night, a woman named Jenny Dunley had had the same vision I had of a million women on the mall. God knit our hearts together, that night she was on stage being commissioned into her apostolic role in America. My wife texts her and me at the same time and said, "Guys, do you get it? It's 413, not April 13, it's Esther 413. Mordecai says to Esther, don't you think you can hide in your palate? Don't you think that you can hide in your homeschools? They're coming in the education for your kids. That transgender spirit is not looking to this be nice, it's coming to take your kids. No, there should be a roar of mama bears. Don't mess with my kids. We're starting a movement called Don't mess with our kids. And it is this. You tell us that you're gonna take our kids and we don't let them do their pronouns. We will go to jail, but you can't have our kids. I think we're being driven to another civil rights movement. It's called parental rights. And our banner will be this. In the image of God, He created man, male and female. We'll die on this hill. And you shall not shed innocent blood. New York led the way in both of these gods. But today we're declaring there is a showdown in the heavens. There is a fasting prayer movement coming to New York and an evangelistic explosion that I believe begins to catalyze. That revival of 100,000 LGBTQ saved and transformed. I felt this so strongly and I wish I could tell the story of a 40 day fast I did, where I ended up giving you a dream about the removal of the governor of California. I had a dream, we had a dream that I was in a stadium and a platform where kings decree the word of the Lord. And in the dream, the governor of California was in the stands and had to submit to every word you were speaking. So we begin to pray for the removal of a man that was passing every law, Jezebel law. The day after the call San Francisco began something called the recall and he's removed from office. I warned Gavin Newsom preaching on the homosexual Jezebel showdown in San Francisco. A preaching on the mayor of California comes of San Francisco, comes into the meeting. Everybody's looking at the end, he shaves a few words and I said, I thank you Lord, that all government is derived from your government. Therefore let this man know he will be held accountable for everything. They're grooming him possibly for the presidency right now. We're coming to the fullness of a showdown. Stand with me, let me pray. (soft music) Wherever I pray, wherever I go, I pray for dreams. I don't understand it. People tell me all over that when you prayed for dreams, dreams came to me. Dreams are one of the precious, most precious gifts of God. He shows us what's in our heart. He warns us, he also gives us divine destiny dreams. And right now I want to pray for you. And if you would like and you're sick God, I desire that you would speak to me in the middle of the night. You talk to me, would you raise your hands and I want to pray for the right now? I lose in the middle of New York. I lose dreams. Not just on these, but dreams on unbelievers in the light. We lose the realm of the open heaven dreams. I want you to reach up and I want you to say, I'm receiving, I'm desiring and you keep asking, Lord, I'm asking you, raise a prophets, teachers in evangelists by encountering them in the realm of dreams. I lose this grace. I lose this grace in Jesus' name. And now I'm going to pray for the grace of fasting. Some of you want to take your hands down. But if you want to shift history in your families, in your own life, story after story, we've seen it, marriages reclaimed, callings come, history shifting in governments. We fasted 30 days at one point every day, 30 days, a company praying that God would invade our church in the midst of worship with a divine encounter that people would just get saved during worship. On the 30th day, we were worshiping God, I was singing a prophetic song and a bond drop, an explosion took place. Shut up, people screaming, we see angels. Dancing broke out everywhere. And for months, we saw people getting saved during worship. Father, I pray for the grace of fasting. Lord, men and women, I pray for that a Esther fast. In the name of Jesus, I pray for the grace of fasting. One man came to me, said, I've never fasted in my life. But when I heard you preach, I said, he said to me, would you pray that I'd have the grace to fast on water for 40 days? I thought that was stupid, but I prayed anyway. He came back to me, he says, I could not eat for 40 days. I don't think that's gonna happen to you, but I want you to believe for a grace. He did three fasts in two years like that. And the last time came back, I've seen the dead raised. The Jesus fast is part of the breakout of the great revival. And by the grace of God, I was just talking to pastor. I feel the Lord is calling me to come to New York to fast from September to the October 12th day of atonement when the blood will be applied to the nation. I felt like the Lord should go to New York and fast those days for a breakthrough, the spirit of Ishtar to set free, to reverse the stone wall movement, raise up a wailing wall where people are weeping, crying out for those in the lifestyle. I believe today is a flashpoint moment. Lord, loose this apostolic army, V1 in the heavens and V1 on the earth in Jesus' name, give a shout to God. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)