The End-time Outpouring of The Spirit
It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My
menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass
that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall
be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:28-32)
I. THE PROMISE OF AN OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT
A. When God’s people come together to seek Him in wholehearted corporate prayer and fasting, God answers.
Before the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus told His disciples, in essence, ‘I promise you, if you will wait before
Me in prayer, I will pour out My Spirit and endue you with power from on high!” (Acts 1:8). Taking Jesus’ words to heart,
His disciples, pressed in together for ten days of night and day prayer before the Holy Spirit came upon them suddenly in
power and signs and wonders, just as Jesus prophesied (Acts 1;14-2:4). Of course their ten days of prayer came in the
kairos, prophetic timing of God and was preceded by Jesus’ fiery intercession, Anna’s sixty years of praying night and day
in the temple, john the Baptist’s lifetime out in the wilderness and many others. This reality of stored-up prayer and fasting
was what the apostles stepped into before Pentecost. This was what Jesus told them would happen.
B. In our day, we are going to see this same divine pattern played out again: people with wholehearted love for God
who participate in lives of long-term, corporate prayer and fasting which leads to His power breaking out on the earth. A
“suddenly” of God comes in response to the saints. What we see in Acts 1-2 is exactly the pattern described by the
prophet Joel. First, God’s people gather in consecration, fasting, and payer, believing and claiming the promises of God;
then suddenly the power dimension breaks in!
II. THE DOWN PAYMENT OF PENTECOST
It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)
A. The day of Pentecost in the early church and the outpouring prophesied by Joel are so intricately connected with
one another. On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, the disciples had been praying in the upper room for ten
days, and they had no idea what was about to happen. They did not know when the breakthrough would come. They
only knew Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit. But suddenly, the Holy Spirit broke out with power, and Peter, being
enlightened to God’s divine pattern, arose to explain what was happening. Referencing the outpouring of the Spirit
prophesied by Joel, he said, “this is that which was spoken of by Joel.” He was not only speaking of the power
manifestations and the promise of the Spirit that Joel prophesied; Peter was addressing the need to press in through
fasting and prayer as Joel spoke of. Peter was referring to the whole context of Joel, not just the move of God. When
he quoted this passage, he was walking out the same divine pattern of prayer and fasting that Joel described. Thus,
he was teaching the people not only about the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but about the way that they sought the
manifestation and the way that they lived believing for it.
B. Joel prophesied the requirement of wholeheartedness and the grace for wholeheartedness, leading to the promised
power of God and its manifestation touching the whole earth. Peter knew that Joel’s prophecy was the big picture of what
they were experiencing. Not by any stretch of the imagination did Peter think that all of what Joel said happened in his day.
But he understood they were touching the beginning of this end-time prophecy coming to pass. Peter saw the first fruits
of the installment of the New Covenant; Joel saw the time when the New Covenant would come to full expression related
to the Second Coming of Christ as Jesus ruled the earth from Zion (Joel 3:21).
C. The outpouring of the Spirit that Joel prophesied was not, by any means, exhausted or completely fulfilled on the
day of Pentecost. This is evidenced by the numerous, significant differences between Joel 2 and Acts 2. The fullness of
what Joel prophesied is still unfulfilled; only a portion of it was fulfilled in Peter’s day. Joel said that the sun and the moon
would grow dark and carry signs such as blood and smoke, yet the early church did not see this happen either. Joel
prophesied that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, yet the outpouring of Acts 2 was only upon a small group of
Jewish believers. The apostles experienced a local burst of power in the city of Jerusalem and three thousand people were
saved. Yet the full context of Joel’s prophecy is a global Day of the Lord when the power of the Holy Spirit explodes
across the earth. It will be a Day in which Israel faces tremendous crisis and deliverance as the nations of the earth
surround her in a unified military invasion. It is the kind of event that is not only local like in Peter’s day. It is a Day of
global impact, a “suddenly” of God that the nations will experience, not only witness.
III. THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
On My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:29)
A. Just prior to this point in the book, Joel was speaking of the natural blessing that God would bring upon His land
because of His zeal and His compassion. Now Joel speaks of the coming spiritual blessing to renew the people
(Joel 2:21-27). This is the most well-known passage in the Book of Joel, and it is very significant. It is God’s promise for
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it is more than what we think of. We imagine God giving us dreams and visions so
we can have a lively ministry, but this passage goes so far beyond our personal ministries. It was divinely designated for
the hour of judgment. The prophetic anointing that Joel spoke of was promised in context to great crisis, ultimately the
global, eschatological Day when God’s judgment comes upon the earth in unprecedented manifestation. In such an hour,
the prophetic anointing is essential.
B. We cannot separate the outpouring of the Spirit that Joel spoke of from its context to the end-time drama. It is
not a passage we can reduce to describe a gift God will give to us that will make our meetings a little livelier and our
ministry a little more popular. It is so much more than that. It is an issue of life and death and a promise of the Great
Harvest coming in. It is about understanding what God is doing in the earth and being supernaturally empowered in a
time of unprecedented visitation and crisis.
C. This great outpouring will be upon all nations – all flesh. This massive deluge of the Holy Spirit’s power is one of
the great, inevitable manifestations of the New Covenant. The New Covenant in its mature manifestation means people
in wholehearted obedience and supernatural anointing. Though the New Covenant was established at the cross and
resurrection of Jesus, it is not operating in its fullness in the midst of the people of God. We have the first fruits, the
beginning of experience, in that our sins are forgiven and we have the indwelling Spirit, but we do not experience the
manifest power of God in the fullness of that which God has provided. From God’s perspective, the very ideal of the
New Covenant is the outpouring of the Spirit and the manifest anointing in a full measure. This ideal will be experienced
before the Lord returns. He has promised a whole realm of Holy Spirit activity, an energetic, divine Presence in our midst
and a manifestation of the unction of God. As the early church knew, the New Covenant includes direct encounter and
communication between God and His people.
D. We are living so far beneath the fullness of what God has promised us in the New Covenant. God has not only given
us the promise of a new heart and internal transformation. He has promised us the ability to operate in the power of the
Spirit and to partner with Jesus in a global way. I do not want to undermine the fact that we have the beginnings of this
promise, that we do have a small prophetic anointing, that people really are getting saved and some are really getting
healed. We know from the Word of God that our inheritance and destiny is so far beyond what we are experiencing.
And God has given us the divine pattern for how to move from introduction to fullness. We cannot be satisfied, especially
at this time of history, to settle with the introductory dimensions of grace when God has promised a world-wide outpouring
of the Spirit, touching all flesh!
IV. THE TIMING OF THE OUTPOURING
A. When does this great outpouring take place? I have read so many commentaries on the book of Joel that claim
this outpouring is symbolic, something that never literally happens. Oh, how untrue! It is going to happen, and Joel tells
us when it will happen with the word afterwards (Joel 2:28). Of course the question is: after what? It is after something
specific. Peter’s interpretation at Pentecost of this word afterwards gives us insight. When he quoted this passage,
instead of using the word afterwards, he said, “It shall come to pass in the last days …” (Acts 2:17). Peter was clearly
making this an end-time promise. We know that the last days began at the day of Pentecost, two thousand years ago and
will culminate at the Coming of Jesus. Thus Peter’s apostolic interpretation confirms that the greatest outpouring of the
Holy Spirit of all time will happen in natural time and space, before the Second Coming.
B. In addition, Joel explains that this outpouring along with the cosmic signs, will precede the great and
terrible Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31). God will be strategically preparing the hearts of men for His Return, causing eternity
to bear down upon them. As we will continue to see, the afterwards is not a reference to the Second Coming, because all
of the timing indicators Joel uses speak of things before the Second Coming.
C. Another major timing reference Joel uses, “in those days”, ties together all of the events prophesied into the same
time frame, the same generation (Joel 2:29; 3:1). This phrase is helpful in understanding the timing; chapter two flows
right into chapter three. There should be no chapter divide – it is all one subject. Chapter three begins with, “For behold,
in those days and at the time, when I bring back the captives of Judah, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down
to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there” (Joel 3:1-2)
D. Since chapter two and three, in the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy, are in the same time frame, we know that
the outpouring of the Spirit will happen in the same time period as when the Lord gathers all of the captives and prisoners
of Israel from all the nations and brings them back to Jerusalem. It will also be the same time frame as when He will
assemble all of the nations to come against Jerusalem. This is all in the final generation, the generation of the Lord’s
return. Obviously what happens before the Lord gathers the captives and before He crushes the enemies of Israel, is
that Israel becomes the captives that are scattered across the nations. The nations of the earth are as God’s tool of
chastisement to discipline Israel. This is part of the military conflict that Joel prophesies; it is in accordance with the
judgment of God. But neither satan nor his evil nations will succeed in exterminating the Jewish race. Jesus will come
and be the Deliverer of Israel and the Judge of all the nations.
E. Some commentators link the word afterwards to the passage just prior, when Joel is describing the natural blessing
that God will bring to the earth. They say that the promise of the Spirit will come after this incredible healing and
restoration of the land and defeating of Israel’s great enemy, the northern army. This view is not possible because
Joel 2:21-27 is clearly talking about after the Lord comes and referencing the millennial blessing that will flood the earth
as He reigns as King from Jerusalem. We know this to be true because of the phrase that God says in the midst of these
tremendous blessings to the agriculture and defeat of Israel’s enemies, “My people shall never be put to shame” (Joel 2:27).
The Lord was saying that in the time frame when all of these things are happening, the final word is: Israel will never be
put to shame again. The only period of time that it could possibly be true is after the coming of the Lord. Many passages
in the word make this point very clear. The people of Israel will never again be put to shame once the Lord Himself comes
and delivers them from the stronghold of all the hostile nations of the earth. Concurrent with Israel’s deliverance by her
King, God will pour out abundant blessing over all created order. There will be supernatural vegetation and rain, blessing
in the agriculture and on the animals. Creation’s groan is only answered after the return of Jesus.
F. So if the afterwards of Joel 2:28 is not referencing the Second Coming, what was the Lord speaking of? Clearly
this reference to timing is speaking toward the wholeheartedness of Joel 2;12-17. It is as though Joel was saying, “When
you cry out to the Lord with fasting and prayer, maybe He will heal you and bless you even in the place of judgment. So
call everyone together and cry out to God! But be encouraged by this: no matter how bad the situation gets, the Lord
will be zealous for you and will bring you through the suffering into everlasting glory, if you respond to Him! After you cry
out to Him, the power of the Spirit will be released! This outpouring will lead into the Day of His coming” (Joel 2:13-32).
This aligns with the whole heart cry of the book of Joel. The message is, “Cry out to God; call upon His Name and He will
be zealous for you. He will heal you. He will visit you with blessing!” In studying all the different options as to the timing
that afterwards is referencing, it seems clear that there is only one cohesive option, and it is in concert with what the whole
Book of Joel. The outpouring of the Spirit comes when God’s people cry out to Him. He answers by giving that which he
is holding back until He hears the sound of their cry.
V. OUR INHERITANCE IN THE PROPHETIC ANOINTING
A. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit prophesied by Joel is our destiny and our inheritance. At the time when Joel spoke
it, it was a strange prophecy, because the Holy Spirit was restricted to just a few people in the Old Testament era. Joel
prophesied that the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, Jew and Gentile, men and women. Every believer on the
planet is going to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Paul the apostle echoed this truth when he interpreted
Joel 2 in the global dimension (Romans 10:12-13). The qualifier that the Lord made to this all-inclusive statement, “all
flesh”, is the phrase, “My servants” (Joel 2:29). This title refers to the wholeheartedness required for the outpouring
(2:12-17). “My servants” does not speak of those who casually profess faith but those who are fully abandoned to Him;
hey belong to Him in every way.
B. The gift that the Lord gives to us through this passage is confidence from the scripture that there is a promised
outpouring of the Holy Spirit with prophecy as the very centerpiece. There are about ten or fifteen categories of activity
that we could identify under the banner called “They shall prophesy”. But a simple way to paraphrase it is, “They will
move in the realm of the Spirit, the glory of God”. The realm of prophecy is about the Spirit of revelation giving testimony
of Jesus’ heart and mind. It is about God giving us ability to know and experience His affections for us. It also involves
dreams, visions, and angelic visitations that give us skill to understand end-time prophecy, as Daniel was given
(Daniel 8:22). We will operate in the spirit of Elijah, giving the prophetic oracles of God and speaking the word of the
Lord with power and authority. Micah spoke of this realm of prophetic anointing when he said, “But truly I am full of power
by the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8).
God will anoint His people to be full of His power, justice and might in order to declare to the human race their sin, calling
them to repentance and wholeheartedness before God.
C. We hardly even know what the prophetic anointing is about in its full manifestation. The stories that we tell now
about major prophetic experiences or words from the Lord will not even make the top ten list in the days to come. So
many people will be operating under prophetic unction, with encounters of divine information from the Lord, surpassing
anything we have yet seen. We must not imagine that we are really seasoned in the prophetic today, because the most
seasoned among us will be as beginners when god pours out the fullness.
D. God has given us this passage in Joel to create confidence in our hearts that this global outpouring of an
unprecedented measure of revelation is our inheritance and our destiny. More than that, it is an issue of life and death.
We do not want to face the pressures around the corner without hearing from God in precise ways – and we can.
E. You may be saying, “I am not one of those end-time prophetic vessels that get information on nations and kings.
Neither am I going to have a big conference ministry. I am just a normal person that loves God.” Now, the vast majority
of believers are not going to have a huge platform or get supernatural revelation about governmental shifts. Still, every
believer will need prophecy, dreams and visions in order to be kept from the powers of darkness and deception.
F. Do not say, “I do not have a conference ministry, so I do not need verse 18”. And do not say, “I am not one of
those end-time prophets who is going to figure out what Europe is going to do, so I do not need Joel 2:28”. Say this, “I
need the dreams and visions of verse 28 in order to enter into my full destiny and in order to help my friends and family”.
It will not be enough in that day to have read a book on eschatology. You will need living understanding – revelation,
dreams and visions of your own – to help your children, your wife or husband, your parents and grandparents, brothers
and sisters, or whatever network of relationships God has given you. Through coming together and sharing their
God-given dreams and visions, every family unit on the planet who calls on the name of Jesus can be equipped to avoid
the seduction of the end-time deceptions. Beloved, Joel 2:28 and Acts 2;17 is critical for every single believer.
VI. THE STIGMA OF THE PROPHETIC
A. The Lord has chosen the prophetic anointing as a means to reveal Himself to His people. Paul told us not to despise
it (1 Thessalonians 5:20). Prophecy is often filled with symbolism, parables and mysteries that need to be prayed through
and examined. So often with the riddles that God gives in the realm of prophecy, we interpret something one way and it
turns out being another.
B. Sometimes when introduced to the prophetic, you might not understand why the Lord made His communication so
strange. You might pray, “Lord, if this were just straightforward, I could deal with it. Yet I have such trouble with prophetic
testimonies and experiences being half in, half out, maybe this, maybe that! How do I interpret it all?” You might think there
must be a better way for God to speak. Yet God was not concerned about my pride being killed. He wants us leaning
upon Him. The Lord encourages us to walk with watchfulness, inch by inch, carefully leaning on Him, and to not give up
or go back to the business-as-usual pre-prophetic.
C. Because of the mystery dimension to prophecy, this anointing is so humbling. That if you have any wrong motives
for your own honor, or any pride in getting the interpretation exactly right, these will get exposed. To walk in the prophetic
anointing is to walk leaning on the Lord and limping in our own inabilities. The Lord does not want us honored for
something done according to the flesh, and so. God ordained that the prophetic anointing have the mysterious dimension
of dreams and visions, symbolism and parables so that we would walk every inch of the way completely dependent on Him.
D. When God ours out His Spirit there is an inevitable dilemma. It is the God-orchestrated stigma that occurs in
operating in the anointing of God. To maintain an accurate presentation of the word of God, I cannot present the
anointing, the outpouring, apart from its stigma. What one preacher said was true: God is not out to hurt your pride.
He is out to kill it. The principle of operating in the anointing is that the greater the power manifestation, the greater God’s
jealousy to establish the name of Jesus. God is jealous that we would be humbled while being anointed with power so far
beyond anything we have seen. God gives the anointing of power not so that our meetings might be livelier and our
ministry more popular, but so that people in crisis are delivered.
E. One reason a lot of people are backing off of the prophetic anointing is because of the fear of man. They do not want
their ministries to look bad nor do not they want the rich and famous to get upset and draw back from their ministry, so
they settle for what is more comfortable.
F. When we are immature and learning how to walk in these things, we do not like the risk process. Even when we
are more mature, we do not like the humbling process. Yet the Lord brilliantly designed both. He has made it clear
through scripture and through history that this prophetic anointing is not about carnal comfort. It is about the Holy Spirit
exalting Jesus, delivering people and humbling the servants whom He anoints.
VII. THE NECESSITY OF PROPHETIC ANOINTING
A. Some say, “Well, we are just not into the prophetic”. Treating it as some optional reality in the grace of God, some
category under the charismatic banner, or only for those with a large conference ministry, they write it off as not for them.
Such an attitude burdens a heart. How can we not be into the prophetic? If we are into the harvest and we love people,
and if we want to bring courage to our part of the earth, whether our family, our neighbors, or our ministry, we have to
accept the prophetic. It is absolutely inconceivable that we would be ready for the good and the bad, the great and the
terrible that is around the corner without accepting the prophetic.
B. We must not define prophecy by our experience of it thus far or our inadequate perspective of the way God manifests
this anointing. Each one of us is very limited and inexperienced in the prophetic, yet God desires that we would progressively
move into greater maturity in it. The doctrine that it is not for today is false and hindering to the body of Christ. The Lord
will awaken the church with this understanding. He will alert us to the necessity of the pursuit of this anointing and bring
us out of the causal and disconnected approach to pursuing a life in the Holy Spirit. It is an absolutely critical and non-
negotiable pursuit; we must not cut out of our bible what God has spoken about it.
C. The prophetic anointing and operating in it is something that we must contend for with sustained prayer with fasting.
There is certainly the sovereign dimension of it, where the Lord surprises us with a prophetic dream or vision and we get
“jump-started”, so to speak. He may speak to us through a prophetic word from someone and the Holy Spirit may do
something powerful in our lives through it. This is the sovereign side of the prophetic anointing. Ye the larger context of
the word of God tells us that we are to actually seek for an increase of the prophetic anointing. Paul exhorted the
Corinthians to earnestly seek the greater gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31). And of these spiritual gifts, he said that we should
desire most to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1). The principle that Paul was operating out of is that when you hear God in
a precise way, the other gifts of the Spirit also open up. When you receive impressions of the Holy Spirit and divine
information, you have the groundwork for the other dimensions of the gifts of the Spirit, for they all flow from that reality.
It is not enough to only know about the prophetic, and it is not enough to operate in it a little bit. We must earnestly
seek and contend for it, press into it in the way that the Word of God exhorts (1 Corinthians 12:31; Jude 3).
VIII. COSMIC SIGNS IN THE END TIMES
I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun
shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day
of the Lord. (Joel 2:30-31)
A. In continuing to describe the outpouring of the Spirit upon His servants in the end times. Joel prophesied of the
cosmic signs that are scheduled on the divine calendar before the great and awesome Day of the Lord, before the
Second Coming. Jesus said that there would be great earthquakes, fearful sights, great signs in the heavens, signs
in the sun and signs in the stars (Luke 21;11, 25-26). The nations will be perplexed, and men’s hearts will be failing for
fear at what is happening. The very powers of the heavens will be shaken, including the weather patterns and the solar
system. I have no doubt that even the heavenly realm will be affected as the war in the heavens occurs and satan is
cast down out of the mid-heavens and confined to the earth (Revelation 12:7-12, Daniel 12:7-12). John tells us in
Revelation that there will be a great earthquake, the sun will turn black, the moon will become like blood and the stars
will fall to the earth (Revelation 6:12, 13).
B. God will show “wonders in the earth”, manifestations of blood, fire and pillars of smoke. Blood is listed as one of
the major signs because God will cause blood to flow at a level that we have never known in history. The blood is seen
in the first four trumpet and bowl judgments (Revelation 8:16). God will grant to His servants the authority to turn water
into blood and entire rivers will be changed to blood like in the days of Moses. The blood of nations will also flow as a
sign of God’s judgment. The blood of the martyrs will also be a sign that time is short.
C. Fire and smoke will be other signs that God will use in significant measures in that day. There are many categories
of both fire and smoke. There will be times when the demons of darkness will release smoke out of the abyss and times
when smoke ascends from the very glory of God (Revelation 9:2; 15:8). Still other times, smoke of decimated cities will
fill the atmosphere, due to bombings and destructions caused in military conflict.
1. Smoke will be one of the agents that kills many people. This same diversity of sources will bring about the signs of
fire as well. The false prophet will call down fire from heaven (Revelation 13:13).
2. Fire will descend from heaven by the command of the two righteous witnesses (Revelation 11:5), and the Lord
Himself will release fire in both His judgments and His glory (Revelation 8:7; Isaiah 4:5).
3. We will be in prayer meetings together and the fire of God, His glory fire, will come in just like it did to the early
church in Acts 2. At other times, God’s fire will come and destroy cities just as it did upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
D. Joel prophesied that in that day, the sun would be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. These signs
will occur in varying levels; the resulting darkness will not be a one-time event. Scripture records a number of times that
the sun and moon will be affected by the power of God. This may occur in response to the intercession of the church
and through prophetic decrees like Moses’ and Elijah’s.
E. In summary, there will be unprecedented wonders in the earth, such as blood, fire and smoke. And these wonders
will be a result of four things: war, demonic activity, divine glory, and divine judgment. All of these unusual phenomena
will be happening simultaneously, stunning the earth with their terrifying nature. At that time, all of creation will be shaking,
as the Lord gets ready to manifest His full salvation in the glory of His Son’s name. He is going to shake the heavens, and
earth, the sea, the dry ground and all nations (Haggai 2:6, 7). This divine revolution of created order will be so dramatic
and radical that even the heavenly bodies in the solar system will be altered and do what is unnatural. Creation will line
up and say by its actions, “The Lord is coming! Today cannot be business-as-usual, it is a day of a whole new order.”
F. God sends these cosmic signs for a number of reasons strategically related to the fact that the earth will be in the
midst of global conflict when these wonders take place. The Lord wants the people of the earth to be clear about what
hour of history they are living in, and this message will reverberate like a trumpet sound when the lights in the heavens
blink on and off a few times, the stars fall, and many strange phenomena begin to happen.
G. Through these wonders He is shouting from the heavens, ‘It is Me! It is Me!” These supernatural marvels are an
important part of God’s end-time strategy He will warn the unbelieving world with them.
H. Theologically speaking, there are two approaches that people typically take concerning these cosmic signs. The
first approach is to interpret these signs prophesied in scripture as a symbolic, poetic statement of God. They do this so
that they can make them fit in a past, historical event. To the phrase, “the heavens tremble”, they make a case that the
heavens did not really tremble but that God was only speaking in prophetic poetry. They downsize the prophecy to fit it
into something historical and not something that is yet to break out literally on the horizon of human history. I fully
believe that this approach taken by many scholars and theologians is wrong. These cosmic signs are not just symbolic
poetry – they are real and entirely literal!
I. The second approach to these cosmic signs is the exact opposite. We take these verses literally, understanding the
past historical crisis of the invasion of Babylon upon Israel in 586 BC as a prophetic picture of a far greater invasion
coming that will be confirmed with the fullness of the cosmic signs in the heavens. In doing this, we take prophecy to heart
instead of dismissing it. We watch as God weaves the partial fulfillment of the prophetic scripture into the total fulfillment,
taking care to bring to pass every last detail of what He has spoken.
IX. COSMIC SIGNS AND THE PROPHETIC ANOINTING
A. These wonders in the heavens and the earth will be related to the prophetic anointing. As Joel presents it, the
signs go hand in hand with the dreams and visions and supernatural pouring out of the Spirit. They will come as a
powerful encouragement to the saints, happening right alongside the profuse escalation of the prophetic anointing upon
intercessors in the earth. God is even going to use the church to release these cosmic signs, and He is going to
encourage the church by causing these wonders to back up the visions of prophets. They are critical for His purposes
on numerous levels.
B. The miracles that Moses did were very astounding and what was really astounding was not just that the river
turned to blood, but that it turned to blood at the very second he commanded it to, in God’s name. How much more
astounding this will be when the whole world is watching – when a prophet of God is standing before the people of God
in Israel, the saints, and the unbelievers worldwide, and he or she commands a heavenly body to move or an earthquake
to break in, and it happens exactly according to the word! God will perform these wondrous signs using the involvement
and cooperation of His prophets and intercessors on the earth. The signs do not appear in a vacuum; God’s acts on the
earth are in response to prayer. They appear at the precise timing the Holy Spirit gives by prophetic decree through His
servants. As they declare them, God brings them to pass just as He did with Elijah and Moses.
C. Our God does not release arbitrary manifestations of power. He has planned and designed the most dramatic
display of cosmic signs in the heavens as a strategic plan of preparation for the end-time church! The subject of cosmic
signs in the heavens (wonders in the sun, the moon, and the stars), is not just an interesting subject to arouse our
curiosity. It is not something we can contrive, even if we try. It is actually a very practical theme with very profound
implications for the body of Christ. When the end-time church understands the signs that occur and actually recognizes
them as what God has prophesied in His word form of old, their harts will respond in an appropriate way. Rather than
perceiving them as arbitrary or incidental, they will see these divine signs as supernaturally given by God at a critical time
in history to signify the strategic hour that we are living in. Never before has God released the measure of spectacular
and terrifying signs as He will in the time of His Son’s return. Their intensity, magnitude, and frequency will make the
deliberate communication from heaven hard to miss. In His mercy, God will actively prepare His end-time church for what
is on His heart through these demonstrations of power.
X. ISRAEL ASKS FOR A SIGN
A. The nation of Israel understood the significance of the supernatural signs of God, knowing them to be confirmation
that the true Messiah was actively leading human history. Because they understood this principle, they came to Jesus
and asked Him for a heavenly sign (Matthew 16:1-4). They knew that the real Messiah has power over the solar system
and their line of thought was that if Jesus truly was sent from God, He could prove it by making things happen with the
stars. They were not asking for something so simple as healing the sick or even raising the dead. The Pharisees and
Sadducees argued the validity of signs such as these, saying that perhaps the deceased man was never really dead or
the blind man was never really blind. They argued that perhaps the blind man performed this hoax for a year or so and
Jesus paid him a large sum of money so that at the right time, He could falsely heal him and the people would marvel. For
this reason, the people of Israel did not want an earthly sign; they wanted a sign that no one could explain away. They
knew that even satan could not move the stars around, that all of the great powers of darkness could not move the
heavens around. Only the Anointed One of God could do this, and the heavenly signs they asked for would be proof of
the Messiah’s presence among them. They were really just quoting the prophet Joel in that they knew and believed that
when the Messiah came, there would be signs and wonders in the heavens. They expected Jesus to make this happen if
He was indeed the Son of Man. Of course, Jesus knew that they had evil, unbelieving hearts and that they were only
testing Him. He knew that even if He gave them a sign, they would find a way to write it off.
B. Many within Israel today are still holding out for the Messiah, the One who will show power over the sun, moon and
stars. God is going to answer their prayer. Jesus, their Messiah, is going to demonstrate His power over the stars and
the earth will see it. An intercessor or prophet of God will speak in the name of Jesus, and the stars will respond according
to whatever the Lord has purposed at that time. These signs will not just happen in a vacuum they will happen when
God’s servants on the earth speak them in prayer, like Moses did in his generation (Exodus 7-12).
C. One way that we are going to win Jewish people to Jesus is by operating in signs and wonders – the Lord
confirming His word through supernatural phenomena – because this is the way they know God to reveal Himself to them.
In their salvation history with God, He always gave them signs to verify a prophet’s word. They do not even have a grid
for a true prophet who does not move in signs and wonders. They want earthly signs like healings and miracles and they
want signs in the atmosphere above. Gentiles, on the other hand, usually want someone to explain it and we want to
logically debate it. If it makes sense to our understandings, we conclude that maybe it is God. But the Jews say, “Away
with that stuff! The God of Abraham, Isaac, David, Moses and Elijah does miracles when His prophets speak!” If they
do not see signs and wonders, the logic and all the great arguments do not interest them.
D. And the Lord is going to answer this demand by actually giving signs and wonders to them. He is the One who
has prophesied these wonders and given them this grandiose expectation. One of Joel’s final prophecies to the nation of
Israel is: “The sun and moon will grow dark and the stars will diminish in brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion,
and utter His voice form Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the
strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3:15-16). It is as though the Lord would say to the nation of Israel, “You have
every right to expect the true Messiah to demonstrate His sovereignty, His Deity, and His power over stars! I have written
it in My Word and I will bring it to pass!”
XI. THE GREAT HARVEST AND THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER
It shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:32)
A. In the day that these signs and wonders are filling the heavens and the earth, God will bring in a great harvest.
All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, which includes being delivered from spiritual barrenness and
protected from he end-time disasters. To an unbeliever, calling on the name of the Lord means receiving forgiveness
and salvation. To a believer it includes intercession for the breakthrough of God’s power. Joel is also including the
anointing of prayer that Jesus will pour out worldwide on the church (Revelation 22:17).
1. to be saved means we need to enter into our full destiny. When the Lord offers, “If you call upon Me, you will be
saved,” He could say, “If you call upon Me, if you enter into this anointing of prayer, you will experience the fullness of
what was in my heart when I bore your sins.” It involves being delivered from spiritual barrenness.
2. The Lord has so much more to give us. We must not be satisfied with 1% less than God’s best for us. The Lord
will release great holiness and love, plus angels and power beyond the Book of Acts. So, He is calling us to be fully
saved, that is, to be fully delivered from barrenness, compromise and lethargy.
3. The Lord has a realm of power for us that we can call salvation and deliverance. But He will not give it to the
church apart from intimacy and intercession.
B. In summary, Joel tells us that as the worship movement breaks out across the earth in the end-times and all who
respond will be saved. It will be a harvest in two ways, millions of people all over the world will come to the saving
knowledge of Jesus, and in the sense of believers entering into the fullness of what God has for them in the final generation.
XII. SUPERNATURAL PROTECTION
“…For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the
remnant whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:32)
A. Continuing, Joel narrows in on another dimension of salvation. He prophesies that God will supernaturally protect
many physical lives. This deliverance is not only about physical protection; it is a reference to eternal salvation as well.
But Joel is giving a promise from God that there will be survivors. God will supernaturally save the physical lives of many
who call upon Him, both those who are calling upon Him as a lifestyle and those who call upon Him for the first time unto
salvation.
B. A remnant will survive all of the end-time judgments. Specifically, there will be Jewish survivors. The antichrist will
be demonically energized to try to exterminate the Jewish race. Though many in Jerusalem will be destroyed, there will be
a remnant that God spares physically and He will save this remnant spiritually as well (Romans 11:26).
C. There will be deliverance in the most vulnerable spot in the earth – Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be shaken to its core
as it is surrounded by armies, under the hostility of nations, under the shakings of God’s judgments as it suffers under the
wrath of satan. Yet in this most vulnerable spot on the earth, in the very vortex of the crisis, there will still be the protection
and deliverance of God. God gave this verse so tat the people living in Jerusalem in that hour might have assurance of
divine deliverance even in Mt. Zion, or Jerusalem. He also gave this verse to comfort the rest of the inhabitants of the
earth who are in crisis under all of these pressures. The natural logic is, if there is protection in the center of the chaotic
activity, how much more so in other places? Among the survivors, there will be deliverance.
D. The nation of Israel will mostly be in unbelief when all of this is happening – as the vast majority of the nation is
being judged by God and attacked by satan at the same time. This verse will be key for the unbelievers of Jerusalem as
we prophesy this passage to them. We will declare, “God has promised supernatural deliverance to those who call upon
His name. His name is Yeshua! He is Jesus! He is your salvation!” Some of them will respond early by calling on the
name of Jesus for salvation and they will be delivered. Others will die in unbelief. Still others will be spared as part of the
believing remnant that have faith in Jesus as their Messiah.
E. God will cleanse Jerusalem to be His capital for the whole earth when He comes to reign and rule. His judgment
will not be greater than the glory He will bring in the city of Jerusalem. His glory will supersede the difficulty. When it is
all said and done, the people of Israel will see the beating they took throughout history in light of the eternal honor that
God gives them. The honor will be greater than the struggle and the crisis.