The Kansas City Royals rallied to win the World Series on Sunday, and many in Kansas City and beyond are shouting for joy—even if they are not hardcore baseball fans. That’s because they are believing the prophets and hoping to prosper.
Indeed, the win was not only significant because it was the first time in 30 years the Royals took home the championship; it’s significant because it fulfills a string of prophecies and stirs hope in the hearts of many contending for revival in Kansas City and America.
Mike Bickle, director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), shares a Bob Jones prophecy in the ministry’s prophetic history. He explains that Jones prophesied during the 1985 World Series:
“God, the Holy Spirit is going to create worldwide attention to be focused on Kansas City … That’s the good news. Here’s the bad news. The Lord is going to do it through the baseball game.
“It looks like Kansas City is down and out and will never make it and suddenly at 5 till 12 the Lord brings the victory in. That’s the spiritual message over this movement breaking forth in this city. When it looks like it is five till twelve and Kansas City is counted out. Suddenly at 5 till 12 the Lord’s breaking in victory.”
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Later, Jones told Bickle: “I heard it! I heard it out loud. I heard it in my dream. I heard the voice of the Lord. It spoke resounding. I heard it very clear. The Lord said, ‘Eleven is the number because it’s the 11th hour victory. It’s the 11th hour victory he’s going to give Kansas City.”
The 1985 match went down in baseball history as the “Miracle World Series” because it looked hopeless. From the outside looking in, it didn’t appear there was any way the Royals were going to pull out a victory. Kansas City was down three games to one and had to win four in a row to take the crown. Thirty years ago, Jones went on to tell Bickle:
“You’re going to be counted out many times by people and at 5 till 12, in the 11th hour, the Lord is going to break through and this prayer movement is going to succeed and it’s going to get the attention of the entire earth. This is going to happen. You wait and watch the baseball league.”
Of course, this was long before IHOPKC was going hard 24/7 with worship and prayer. It was before a generation of youth started contending for revival. And this was before Bob Hartley, founder of Hartley Institute/Deeper Waters Ministry in Kansas City, had six dreams about the drama of the Kansas City Royals. Here’s the bottom line of those prophetic encounters:
“Watch the Royals, because after many years of disappointment, the Royal ones are entering into a time of Numbers 27:18-23, where they are being commissioned to enter into the promises. Watch them, as they will win and bring a shift from hopelessness to hope … This is going to be like 1985. Do you remember what brought them home? … Hope unseen will get them to first base. Then they will become unburdened and light on their feet. This carefree hope will get them to second base. They will be filled with joy and happily steal third base with childlike hope … but salvation will come from an unlikely place and ‘hope against hope’ will bring them home.”
And then it happened. The Royals won the World Series in 2015 after a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to San Francisco last year. As the Associated Press put it, “For these resilient Royals, no deficit is too large, no time in the game too late.”
At a time when hopeless is striking the heart of America and men’s hearts threaten to fail them for fear of economic meltdowns, plagues, earthquakes and other evil prophetic forebodings, the words of Jones and Hartley are ringing in the ears of believers around the nation believing for a Third Great Awakening.
Could God be speaking words of life and hope—and revival—through a baseball game?
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