Joel · The Whole Book in Four Movements

The Cast · who is who in Joel

Keep the players straight

Joel has no family drama like Hosea. Its players are a nation, a plague, and an outpouring, so here is who stands where before the movements begin.

The LORD

who roars from Zion

He sends the locusts as a wake-up, pours out His Spirit, and stays a refuge to His people.

The LORD

Joel

“the LORD is God”

The prophet. He treats the locust plague as a trumpet and calls the whole land to return.

The Prophet

The Locust Army

the swarm

The plague that strips the land bare, and a picture of the great army of the day of the LORD.

The Army

Judah / Zion

the people of God

The land called to fast, weep, and return to the LORD with all their heart.

The People

The Priests

the ministers who weep

They lead the fast between the porch and the altar, crying, “Spare Your people, LORD.”

The Ministers

Sons & Daughters

the Spirit-poured

Young and old alike who prophesy, dream, and see visions when the Spirit falls on all flesh.

The Outpouring

The Nations

gathered for decision

The peoples brought down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, for judgment.

The Nations

Who is teaching: the colored dot beside each lettered point below shows which IHOPKC teacher it came from. Mike Bickle Allen Hood Gary Wiens David Sliker Dana Candler

Joel · The Whole Book in Four MovementsMovement I · 1 of 4

Movement I · Chapter 1

The Locusts and the Alarm

Joel 1:3, 4, 14, 15

Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.Joel 1:3 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 11 exact refs for Joel 1:3 · Dana Candler (Rewards of Fasting) · Mike Bickle (Establishing a Joel 2 Culture SBJ04) · Gary Wiens (Joel Session 3) · open in studio

Kid mode on · simpler words

A.The book opens on a disaster so total it has to be retold for generations. Wave after wave of locusts strips the land bare, vine and fig and field. Joel refuses to write it off as bad weather.The book starts with a huge disaster that people must remember for years. Swarms of locusts eat every plant, every vine and fruit tree and field. Joel will not just call it bad luck.

Dana Candler

B.He hears the plague as a message. The stripped land is a loud horn. What looks like an ecological ruin is God getting the attention of a people gone numb.He hears the plague as a message from God. The bare land is like a loud horn. What looks like a nature disaster is really God waking up people who had stopped listening.

Gary Wiens

C.The first thing he calls for is a fast. Gather the priests, call a solemn assembly, cry out to the LORD. The famine of bread becomes a doorway into hunger for God.The first thing Joel asks for is a fast. Bring the priests together, hold a special meeting, cry out to God. Being hungry for bread turns into being hungry for God Himself.

Dana Candler

D.And he says the day of the LORD is near. The locusts are a small rehearsal of a far greater day. The alarm covers more than this harvest. It points to what is still coming.Joel says the day of the LORD is close. The locusts are a small preview of a much bigger day ahead. The warning is about more than one lost harvest, it is about what is still coming.

Mike Bickle

Sources Dana Candler (Rewards of Fasting), Gary Wiens (Joel Session 3), and Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (Establishing a Joel 2 Culture SBJ04). Joel 1:3 returned 11 exact matches in the index.Index tags for Joel 1: end-times, outpouring, day-of-the-Lord · ESV

Joel · The Whole Book in Four MovementsMovement II · 2 of 4

Movement II · Chapter 2:1–27

Rend Your Hearts, and the Years Restored

Joel 2:1, 12, 13, 25

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near.Joel 2:1 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 10 exact refs for Joel 2:1 · Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (Forerunner Curriculum Course Notes) · open in studio

Kid mode on · simpler words

E.Chapter 2 blows the trumpet louder. A great army advances like fire, the day of the LORD, dark and dreadful. The warning grows bigger before the mercy does.Chapter 2 sounds the horn even louder. A huge army comes on like fire, and the day of the LORD is dark and scary. The warning gets bigger right before the kindness comes.

Mike Bickle

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.Joel 2:12–13 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 8 exact refs each for Joel 2:12 and 2:13 · Mike Bickle (Book of Joel Dec 2009) · Gary Wiens (Joel Session 3) · open in studio

F.Then the turn: return to Me with all your heart. Tearing your clothes was the old public sign of grief. God asks for the inside torn open, the heart itself, and He lets the torn shirt go.Then God says: come back to Me with your whole heart. Long ago people tore their clothes to show they were sad. God says He wants the heart torn open on the inside, not just the shirt on the outside.

Gary Wiens

G.The reason to return is who God is. Gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love, One who relents over disaster. Repentance here depends on His kindness the whole way down.The reason to come back is who God is. He is kind, full of mercy, slow to get angry, and full of love. People turn back because God is good, all the way down.

Mike Bickle

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.Joel 2:25 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 4 exact refs for Joel 2:25 · Gary Wiens (Joel Sess 2) · Mike Bickle (Book of Joel; The Causes of a National Crisis SBJ03) · open in studio

H.And the promise that crowns the chapter: I will restore the years the locust has eaten. God gives back the ruined seasons. The math of grace runs backward over the lost years.Then the best promise in the chapter: I will give back the years the locusts ate. God returns the seasons that were wrecked. He is able to make up for the lost years.

Gary Wiens

The middle of the book turns on one word: return. God asks for a torn heart, then meets it with His own kindness, and promises to hand back the very years the plague devoured.The middle of the book turns on one word: return. God asks for an open, honest heart, meets it with His kindness, and promises to give back the very years the plague ate up.

Sources Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (Book of Joel Dec 2009; The Causes of a National Crisis SBJ03) and Gary Wiens (Joel Sessions 2 and 3). Joel 2:1 returned 10 exact matches, 2:12 and 2:13 returned 8 each, 2:25 returned 4.Index tags for Joel 2: end-times, outpouring, day-of-the-Lord · ESV

Joel · The Whole Book in Four MovementsMovement III · 3 of 4

Movement III · Chapter 2:28–32

I Will Pour Out My Spirit

Joel 2:28, 29, 32

And 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, and your young men shall see visions.Joel 2:28 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 16 exact refs for Joel 2:28 · Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (The Manifestations of the Spirit; Book of Joel Dec 2009) · open in studio

Kid mode on · simpler words

I.Afterward I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. This is a flood, not a trickle on a chosen few. Sons and daughters, old and young, servants, all of them prophesy and dream and see.Then God says He will pour out His Spirit on everybody. It is a flood, not a few drops for a special few. Sons and daughters, old and young, workers, all of them hear from God and dream and see.

Mike Bickle

J.This is the verse Peter stands up and quotes at Pentecost. What Joel saw from far off, the early church watched pour down in Jerusalem. The prophecy and its first fulfillment shake hands in Acts 2.This is the verse Peter reads out loud on the day of Pentecost. What Joel saw from far away, the first church saw come true in Jerusalem. The promise and its first answer meet in Acts chapter 2.

Mike Bickle

K.The passage runs to the very end of the age. Wonders in the heavens, the sun darkened, before the great and awesome day of the LORD. The outpouring of the Spirit and the day of the LORD arrive together.The passage reaches all the way to the end of the age. Strange signs in the sky, the sun going dark, before the great and awesome day of the LORD. The Spirit being poured out and that big day come at the same time.

David Sliker

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.Joel 2:32 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 48 exact refs for Joel 2:32, the most-cited verse in the book · Mike Bickle (Overview of the End Times) · David Sliker (Biblical Foundations of Eschatology) · open in studio

L.The door stays wide open: everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. In the middle of the most fearful passage in the book, the offer could not be simpler or more open to all.The door stays wide open: everyone who calls on the LORD will be saved. Right in the middle of the scariest part of the book, the offer is simple and open to anyone who asks.

Mike Bickle

This short passage is the heart of Joel. The same God whose day is dark and dreadful pours His own Spirit on every kind of person, and swings the door of salvation open to anyone who will call on His name.This short part is the heart of Joel. The same God whose day is dark pours His Spirit on every kind of person, and opens the door of rescue to anyone who will call on His name.

Sources Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (The Manifestations of the Spirit; Overview of the End Times) and David Sliker (Biblical Foundations of Eschatology). Joel 2:28 returned 16 exact matches, and 2:32 is the book's most-cited verse with 48.Index tags for Joel 2:28–32: end-times, outpouring, day-of-the-Lord · ESV

Joel · The Whole Book in Four MovementsMovement IV · 4 of 4

Movement IV · Chapter 3

The Valley of Decision and the Fountain

Joel 3:14, 16, 18

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.Joel 3:14 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 12 exact refs for Joel 3:14 · Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (First Commandment session 11; Book of Joel Dec 2009) · open in studio

Kid mode on · simpler words

M.The nations are gathered to the valley of decision. History narrows to one crossroads, great crowds standing where they have to choose, with the day of the LORD near.The nations are brought together in the valley of decision. Everything comes down to one crossroads, huge crowds standing where they have to choose, with the day of the LORD close.

Mike Bickle

The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.Joel 3:16 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 4 exact refs for Joel 3:16 · Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (Haggai–Zechariah Course Notes; Forerunner Curriculum) · open in studio

N.The LORD roars from Zion. The voice that shakes heaven and earth is a hiding place for His people. The sound that terrifies the nations is a shelter for the ones who ran to Him.The LORD roars from Zion like a lion. The voice that shakes the sky and the ground is a safe hiding place for His people. The roar that scares the nations keeps His own people safe.

Mike Bickle

And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim.Joel 3:18 · ESV

✓ 5578 exact match · 11 exact refs for Joel 3:18 · Gary Wiens (Prophetic Ministry in the End Times) · Mike Bickle (150 chapters 62) · open in studio

O.The book ends in water. Mountains drip sweet wine, hills flow with milk, and a fountain comes out of the house of the LORD to water the dry valley. The ground the locusts stripped is drenched at last.The book ends with water everywhere. The mountains drip sweet wine, the hills run with milk, and a spring flows out of God's house to water the dry valley. The ground the locusts stripped is finally soaked.

Gary Wiens

Joel moves from a stripped field to a flowing fountain. The God who sounded the alarm through the locusts is the God who pours out His Spirit and His streams. He lets the ruin wake His people, then He restores the years and waters the ground.Joel moves from a bare field to a flowing spring. The God who sounded the alarm through the locusts is the same God who pours out His Spirit and His rivers. He lets the ruin wake His people, then gives back the years and waters the ground.

Sources Mike Bickle / IHOPKC (First Commandment session 11; 150 chapters 62) and Gary Wiens (Prophetic Ministry in the End Times). Joel 3:14 returned 12 exact matches, 3:16 returned 4, 3:18 returned 11.Index tags for Joel 3: end-times, outpouring, day-of-the-Lord · ESV

Joel today · modern pictures

What each beat looks like now

Joel in the language of now, following the arc from a stripped field to an outpoured Spirit and a flowing fountain. Each card carries the verse it grows from.

Joel 1:3–4

Wiped out overnight

Today it looks likeA whole harvest or a whole economy gone in a single season, so shocking that people keep telling their kids about the year it all vanished.

Joel 2:1

The emergency broadcast

Today it looks likeThe alert that lights up every phone in a city at once, the siren that tells a whole town to stop what it is doing and pay attention right now.

Joel 2:13

The heart torn, not the shirt

Today it looks likeDeleting the polished apology post and actually calling the person, letting the real change happen inside where nobody is watching.

Joel 2:25

The years given back

Today it looks likeLife rebuilt after addiction or bankruptcy or a lost decade, where the ground that looked wasted grows again and the ruin is reversed.

Joel 2:28

It jumps every line

Today it looks likeA movement that crosses every age and background at once, young and old, near and far, the way one thing can reach the whole world in a day.

Joel 3:14

The valley of decision

Today it looks likeThe moment a huge crowd has to choose, an election, a verdict, a crossroads a whole generation faces together, with no fence left to sit on.

Joel 3:18

A spring in the desert

Today it looks likeClean water reaching a place that had none, renewal that starts at the center and spreads outward until the dry ground is green again.

These Joel parallels are the study’s own work; the verses and teaching above them come straight from the IHOPKC commentary index.