This was not a closing service. This was a detonation!
On the final night of the Living Proof Tent Crusade in San Bernardino, Mario Murillo delivered what he called the single most important message he has ever preached in his life. And if you were here tonight under our Tent, you know he meant it. The atmosphere, the weight, the fire. Everything about this night said: God is not wrapping up. He’s loading the cannon.
Let’s be clear about something before we go any further. This was the last night we will be in the Tent in San Bernardino for now, but it was not the last night for the move of God in San Bernardino. It was not the last night for California. And it was not the last night for America. What started under the Tent is the beginning. It was the opening salvo of the next great move of God across this nation. And everything about Night Three confirmed it.
The crowd here on a Tuesday night, east of Greater Los Angeles, was staggering. Mario himself noted from the stage that the crowd on this final night appeared even larger than on previous nights. He has said several times, “That never happens,” and yet here it was happening again.
Catherine Mullins and the Worship Team
Catherine Mullins and the band opened the night with worship that once again proved why this team is essential to what God is doing in our Tent. The presence of God filled the room from the first note, and by the time worship concluded, Mario said, “These folks here, they messed with us tonight…”
That’s not a complaint. That’s a testimony. When the worship goes so far into the glory that the evangelist has to recalibrate, the Holy Spirit is running the meeting. And that’s exactly what happened.
‘The Most Dangerous Night’ — Matthew 26:36
Mario told the crowd plainly, “I’m about to preach the single most important message that I believe I have ever preached in my life.” He titled it The Most Dangerous Night and opened not with a principle but with a scene that was from the most dangerous night in human history.
Gethsemane.
Jesus in the olive grove, every demon in hell pressing into that space, running a technicolor reel of every nail, every lash, every moment of the cross that was coming. The anxiety was so crushing that Jesus began to sweat blood. Medical science confirms this is the final stage before death by extreme distress. And out of that agony came the words that changed everything, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Mario used Gethsemane as the lens for five dangerous nights that the church, and every individual believer, must confront.
Danger #1: The Night You Refuse to Pay the Price
This was the prophetic blade of the evening. Mario spoke with a fire and directness that longtime followers said they had never seen from him at this level.
“The most dangerous night for you was the night that you were not willing to pay the price,” he declared. “We say we want revival. We say we want God to move. But we are not willing to sacrifice.”
He invoked Kathryn Kuhlman, who, when asked why the power of God was on her, answered, “I died to myself.” He described the death she experienced while walking down a street in Long Beach, California. She surrendered herself to God, and that was the end of Kathryn Kuhlman, so that the vessel could be used.
“America doesn’t need another good meeting,” Mario said. “America doesn’t need a big crowd. America needs an awakening.”
Then he turned the mirror on the charismatic movement itself. And he did not flinch. He acknowledged the scandals, the immorality, and the false words of knowledge generated from social media rather than the Spirit. But he refused to let critics use those failures to discredit the movement itself: “If you hate Spirit-filled Christianity, you’re out of your mind. The Pentecostal movement is the single greatest revival that Christianity has ever known, with 600 to 700 million believers worldwide.”
The corruption isn’t the movement. It’s what happens when people choose comfort over the Cross.
Danger #2: The Night You Quit Before Victory
Mario went to 2 Kings 13. Elisha, on his deathbed, the king of Israel comes to him in desperation as Syria threatens to invade. Elisha tells the king to strike the ground with arrows. The king strikes three times and stops.
The prophet’s anger was God’s anger: “You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have completely destroyed Syria.”
Mario applied it with devastating precision. The church in America is in danger of spiking the ball before crossing the goal line. Literally, he compared it to the NFL player who spikes the ball before he’s in the end zone and becomes a YouTube celebrity for being “Bozo the football player.”
“Look at me right now,” Mario said. “We cannot ask for false revival. We cannot settle for false victory. We cannot leave this four-day meeting and say it was ‘a nice time.’”
He invoked the 11th principle of war taught at West Point, Annapolis, and at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs: pursuit. When the enemy is in retreat, that is the most dangerous moment because defeated armies fall back on their supply lines and rearm. The victorious army, meanwhile, is moving away from its supplies.
“Do you think that we have Trump in office, we’ve got the majority in the Senate, majority in the House, so you think everything’s cool? By November, everything we’ve gained could be gone overnight.”
The devil’s strategy is division and distraction: “He got some folks hating Israel, got others chasing flying saucers, got another group seeing a demon under every chair. And we are losing our unity, and we’re losing our focus.”
But Mario matched the warning with a promise: “God is going to pour out His Spirit on America. And I believe that tens of thousands of pastors across the United States are going to say, ‘I’m done with entertainment. I’m done with TED Talks. I’m going to be a lion of God in this dark hour.’”
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Danger #3: The Night You Settle for Bronze Instead of Gold
Mario went to 1 Kings 14. The story of Shishak, king of Egypt, invading Jerusalem and looting the Temple. He stole the gold shields that Solomon had placed at the Temple’s entryway. These shields were the irrefutable standard, showing that Jerusalem was blessed of God.
What did King Rehoboam do? He made bronze shields to replace them. Same position. Same ceremony. Same guards carrying them. But the gold was gone.
“When you stage a Christian convention, and you do not give an altar call for souls to be saved, you have a bronze shield,” Mario declared. “When you put a post on the internet that talks about all of these wonderful things that God is doing for you, but it never ends up in a decisive, intentional act of feeding the poor or going into the streets to actually win a soul; then, you are operating with a bronze shield.”
The most dangerous night, he said, is when a leader loses power and authority and reputation; and instead of repenting, instead of publicly admitting failure and going back to the foot of the Cross, they build a bronze shield that makes everybody think they’re okay.
“I’m going to tell you the gold that’s gone – it’s holiness,” Mario said. “Is it too much to ask for a preacher to be true to his wife? Is it outlandish to require that a man of God tell the truth? Is it unreasonable to expect that they’re not going to cheat with money or be in a secret act of using their phone to fake words of knowledge?”
Then he named the deeper disease: “The charismatic movement is guilty of trading actual power for appearing to have power. That’s why we have great meetings, but the culture doesn’t change.”
He put a satirical piece on the screen titled “What Paul Never Said.” It is a parody of charismatic jargon: “While I was waiting in Athens, the idolatry of the city provoked my spirit, so that I identified the strong man over Athens and bound him, and then released the spirit of truth into the atmosphere. When Silas and Timothy arrived, they blew their shofars, which activated revival angels who consolidated the breakthrough.”
The Tent erupted in knowing laughter. Mario drove the point home, “We have artificial breakthroughs all over the charismatic movement. We’ve even created artificial intercession, artificial fasting, artificial doctrines, and artificial theology about how souls get saved.” The replacement for all of it? Deliberate, Spirit-empowered preaching and outreach. That is gold, not bronze.
“I don’t want to look like I have power,” Mario declared. “I want to have power.”
Danger #4: The Night We Failed the Next Generation
Mario went to Judges 2:10, “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel.”
Then he asked everyone under 31 to stand.
The Tent transformed. The overwhelming majority of the audience rose to their feet. Young people, the very generation the enemy marked for destruction through depression, identity confusion, internet predators, and despair. They were standing under a tent in San Bernardino, on fire for God.
Mario told them the truth no one else would: “In many ways, you have the right to be angry at the generation that’s gone before you.” But then he prophesied over them, “You are not going to be poor. You are not going to be addicted. You’re not going to be lost. You’re not going to be a casualty. You’re going to take the glory of God to the next level.”
He exposed the church’s failure. In the 1980s, megachurch pastors on Long Island wondered why their youth groups were small. Mario’s answer then was: “It’s because you all believe you are still the youth group.” The church had insulted the intelligence of young people, assumed they had no self-discipline, and never issued the challenge: “You are being called to the greatest act that God has ever done in the history of the world.”
Then came the TBN story. A famous prophecy preacher declared on camera that America couldn’t be found in Revelation. The old folks clapped. The young people were shattered. Mario took the microphone after that man and said, “Before I say another word, I want you to totally disregard every single thing this man just said. Because I’m going to tell you the truth. Maybe he doesn’t know how to read. But America is not going down. And God is not done with the next generation.”
He quoted the verse he said percolates in every atom of his being — Psalm 71:18: “Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”
Then he issued the challenge the modern church has been too afraid to give: “What if the best Christian books haven’t even been written yet? What if the best preachers haven’t even been sent yet? What if the best Christian generation that ever lived hasn’t even arrived yet?”
Mario connected Turning Point USA directly to sacrifice. The comfortable gospel wasn’t working. Then Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and the youth generation started turning to God because they finally saw that Jesus was worth dying for.
The Commissioning
What happened next was not a typical altar call. Mario told the young people he wasn’t going to let them just raise a hand or stand up. They had to get out of their seats and come forward, knowing exactly what was being asked of them.
“Would you be willing to die for Jesus?” he asked. “I’m going to recruit an army. I want to be the next generation of spirit-filled believers who change the world. If that’s you, jump up out of your seat.”
They came. In waves. The front of the Tent filled with young warriors answering a call that most churches won’t even issue. The response was as large as the altar responses we saw on the first two nights!
“Let the record show, body of Christ,” Mario declared over them, “let the record show that I told them that they had to be willing to die for Jesus. That they had to be willing to give up everything for Christ. And they came. They don’t want a comfortable gospel. They don’t want bronze. They want gold.”
Mario prayed for them to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The power fell. Languages poured out. The fire hit so hard that Mario himself said, “I feel so much power.” People were shaking, weeping, speaking in tongues for the first time. The older generation in the seats pointed their arms toward the young people and prayed.
The tongues of fire were audible across the Tent. Mario stood watching and said what everyone was feeling: “How many of you have the feeling that something indescribable has come to San Bernardino? How many of you know this is not going to stop? This is going to grow!”
Then he spoke over them with prophetic authority: “This is not the choir. This is the army. The world is going to hear from these people.”
Danger #5: The Night You Go Home Unchanged
After the commissioning, Mario brought the room back to stillness. He recapped the four dangers:
- Gethsemane and the refusal to pay the price
- Incomplete victory
- Bronze replacing gold
- Failing the next generation
Then he named the fifth and most dangerous night of all: the night you go home without giving your life to Jesus.
“I don’t care if there’s one or a thousand,” he said. “I’m not worried about how many people are going to respond. I’m only concerned about this – that the life of God gets in you.”
He gave the altar call with raw directness. No buildup, no emotional manipulation. He listed their need: “I’m going through a horrible time. I’m lonely. I’m broken. I’m depressed, and I don’t feel any hope. And I need a new life.” He told the crowd he was bold enough to ask it that way, rather than try to build them up to get a response.
They filled the aisles. Workers walked them outside. More souls were born again on the final night of a crusade that had already seen its largest altar calls in the history of our tent ministry.
Healing in the Atmosphere
The healing portion of the final night was different from the previous two, and intentionally so. Mario taught that when God establishes His habitation in a meeting, healing becomes ambient. You don’t have to fight for it. You don’t have to wait for a specific word of knowledge.
“He sent His word and healed them,” Mario quoted. “There is an atmosphere created by God where He conquers the will of the people and establishes a habitation in a meeting where instantly healing is everywhere. And I don’t even need to call it out because God Himself is doing it.”
He prayed corporately over cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, and blindness. Then he asked everyone who had been healed to stand. The response was overwhelming, with healings everywhere across the Tent, so many that Mario said he would be unable to call them all out individually. The Spirit was moving on a scale that transcended the specific-word-of-knowledge model of previous nights.
Marco Garcia’s Closing: Pick Up Your Mat and Walk
Pastor Marco Garcia closed the crusade with a word that will echo long after the Tent comes down. His theme was the lame man Jesus healed, whom Jesus then told to pick up his mat and walk.
“Don’t go back to your paralyzed life,” Marco declared. “Don’t go back to your mundane life. Don’t go back to a life without prayer. Don’t go back to a life without witnessing and sharing your faith. Don’t go back to your sin. Pick up your mat. That thing you used to lay on. And start walking. Start doing what you’ve never done.”
Then he declared over the city: “There’s 348 million people in America. And I believe that there’s a revival beginning right here in Southern California that’s going to spread throughout Southern California and then go throughout the United States of America.”
His final charge was simple and unshakable: “This doesn’t end. It continues from this moment on!”
What Comes Next
The Tent comes down in San Bernardino. But what went up under it isn’t coming down.
Wednesday night, churches across the Inland Empire will baptize the thousands who were born again under this Tent. Young people who were commissioned on that final night are carrying fire back into their communities, their campuses, their families. Pastors who heard the rebuke and the challenge are going back to their pulpits with a decision to make – will it be gold or bronze?
The Tent moves next to Stockton, California, where it will be planted on the campus of Lifesong Church. Mario Murillo Ministries has received 72 invitations to hold crusades across the United States.
But here’s what matters most: San Bernardino was not the conclusion of a crusade season. It was the epicenter of an earthquake. What shook this city with the thousands saved, the healings, the commissioning of a generation, the prophetic rebuke that demanded gold instead of bronze, those aftershocks will be felt for years.
As Mario declared over the young army standing before him: “This is not going to stop. This is going to grow.”
And as Marco Garcia charged the church on the way out the door: “God did not bring us to this place for us to go back and lay down. Pick up your mat and walk.”
The most dangerous night isn’t behind us. The most dangerous night is the one where we go home unchanged. Where we settle for bronze. Where we stop striking the ground. Where we spike the ball before the end zone. Where we fail the generation standing right in front of us.
San Bernardino refused every one of those dangers. And the fire that fell here, on the young, on the desperate, on the hungry, that fire is just the beginning.
Strike the ground. Don’t stop. The enemy is retreating, and the pursuit has begun!
This article originally appeared on Mario Murillo Ministries and is reposted with permission.
