FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM

The Great Crisis Coming to MAGA

/ JSB / 1 Comment

Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war!” (Joel 3:9)

One of the two greatest crises of the soul is fast approaching our MAGA brothers and sisters in Christ. Faster than I would like to believe. Right now, the topics of Antisemitism, Zionism, the nature of Islam related to the God of Abraham, Replacement theology, etc. are steaming through a plethora of statements, debates, exposes, and teachings from Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Joel Webbon, Glenn Beck, and thousands of evangelical leaders – unlike any time in the history of the American Church. THE controversy of the nations: “WHAT ABOUT ISRAEL?”, is about to reach a boiling point within the ranks of Christian Nationalism.

Here’s the alarm: When Donald Trump finally turns on Israel, MAGA believers will be confronted with the consequences of the decisions and talking points that they’re cultivating now. Will they act in fidelity to the God of the Bible Who is pressing His character through the affairs of this tiny nation? Or will they (once again, as they have with Canada, Mexico, Greenland, the Ukraine, Denmark, Panama, NATO etc.) come up with a defense for Trump’s storylines, and take up this man’s offense against Israel?

It’s coming. As sure as every part of the Bible is true, it’s coming, friends.

What makes this inevitable internal, “anfechtungen” most alarming is this:

1. MAGA has spent nearly every day of the last decade developing spin redactions and apologetics to defend Trump’s outrageous unrighteousness. That’s a LOT of gravity to go against. I believe the devil has purposefully accrued this inertia for the sake of ultimately bending the will of many sincere MAGA Christians re: Israel when all the chips are on the table… in spite of the fact that millions now ardently protest: “But we will never betray you, Israel.” In the day of great threat and temptation, MAGA will walk in the pattern of deception, and have cultivated no integrity of will to stand against this lawless man’s hot displeasure.

2. The second alarm deals with the realty that it is God Himself Who is going to be behind the crux of this confrontation. (See Joel 3 below) MAGA won’t be fighting against political opposition. It will be wrestling with God Himself. It is His penultimate test to the faith of the Bride. “Will you stand with your Bridegroom, and with Israel? Will you believe My promises for Zion are true? Will you even let go of your fascination with an unrighteous leader in order to remain champions of My heart, My expressed plan, and My vision for the redemption of the people of this land, and the nations?”

This is the way the question will be framed: “Will you betray MAGA? Or will you betray Israel?”

It’s coming, beloved. As crazy as it seems that a controversy over this one, small, resilient people-group could embroil the whole earth, it’s coming…

AND, it’s coming to a church near you.

JOEL 3:9-21
9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
11 Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.
12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow – for their wickedness is great.”
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.
16 The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from 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.
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”
18 And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.
19 “Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence against the people of Judah, for they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted; for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

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JSB • November, 2025

10 Things that IHOPKC Got Wrong

/ JSB / 8 Comments

PREFACE: Awake very early. I’ve been hearing a stillness in the Lord the last three nights. Tonight, I’m unable to dismiss it. As our little House of Prayer goes into the last week of lament, I am pained over the judgment from the Lord, that I believe is passing from the “prayer-movement”, to the larger American Church culture. Beloved, it’s not about one ministry organization, I believe the swift judgment that’s fallen upon this house is now falling upon the church in America, and the destruction that erupts in the Church will be terrible, and heart-breaking. As I’ve said from the beginning. The Lord is using the House of Prayer in Kansas City as a “forerunner of judgment” upon the rest of the unrepentant Church in America… We need to understand what’s at risk, and why.

10 THINGS IHOPKC GOT WRONG

Underneath the collapse of this beautiful community of believers was a system of beliefs that could not hold either the weight of its success, or ultimately, its demise, under the judgments of the Lord. The load-bearing walls to this bonafide movement of God finally proved insufficient, both in terms of what it had built, and what it simply would not, or could not do in order to be saved. For all that IHOPKC got right; for all its orthodoxy, these 10 theological beliefs, and praxes are what the Lord was aiming at in His judgments, and the reason why the organization collapsed, and hundreds of families fled in six, short months.

Here’s the salient, sticky part: EVERY ONE OF THESE ELEMENTS ARE PRESENT IN CHURCHES and HOUSES of PRAYER throughout the United States.

Here are 10 beliefs and practices that could not stand the test of the Lord’s refining fire:

1. Casual practical, lack of daily appreciation for the utter, eternal holiness of God. We forgot, (or never inculcated) an awareness that the One we were standing before in the place of prayer is supremely holy, and was calling us to serve Him as priests in a privileged place of utter holiness.

2. We hurt people. The top-down leadership, pastors, professors, counselors, section leaders, worship leaders, and intercessors tolerated, and contributed to community dynamics that used people, manipulated people, abused them, and ultimately, in too many instances, abused them sexually, and then applied little to zero pastoral, accountability to safeguard the people.

3. A one, or two-dimensional approach to prayer. IHOPKC never developed a bonafide model of corporate confession, lament and repentance. IHOPKC never applied her own many teachings of “Joel”; in fact she resisted every encouragement to engage the Joel assembly.

4. A pre-packaged, hermeneutic for interpreting the Bible that could not transcend the gravitational pull of western, 21c culture. We saw, and applied Biblical truth through a very Ameri-centric lens.

5. No theology of the cross… She never cultivated training on the crucified life in a way that leveraged Jesus’ warning: “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses His life for My sake, and the gospel’s will keep it.” (Luke 9:24)

6. No theology of the cross… is what allowed Mike to stay hidden in darkness for (now) 7 months…

7. No theology of the cross… is what has allowed the “current” ELT to so desperately “save itself” that it yielded to pretense instead of repentance.

8. No theology of the cross… is what kept the “current” ELT from believing that if all of IHOPs sins were brought into the light, it would have no ability to “recover”.

9. No theology of the cross… is the void that satan used to keep Mike, and many others in bondage to hidden, unaccountable sin, and not healed and set free from sin.

10. No theology of the cross… is ultimately why no outside evangelical ministry, voice, or leadership personality maintained a prophetic, redemptive, crucio-centric dialogue with IHOPKC through her judgment from the Lord.

No theology of the cross could make this list on 100 different planes. And, it must be understood: this is at the crux of what is ultimately going to contribute to the ashes of SO MUCH of American evangelicalism in the coming years.

This isn’t merely a list of what IHOPKC got wrong. IHOPKC didn’t exist in a vacuum. She existed within an evangelical culture that looked for, rewarded, and provided a seed-bed for these contra-Kingdom elements of belief. This is one reason why when we debate, lament, defend, and criticize IHOPKC, we is talking about “us”.

Unless the American church recognizes herself in these same dynamics; and unless she surrenders herself to the Lord’s zeal to rebuild our faulty load-bearing walls of prayerlessness, cultural ethno-centrism, fear of repentance, and no theology of the cross, the rest of us will suffer the same judgment as IHOPKC.

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JSB • May 25, 2024

10 Things that IHOPKC Got Right
10 Things I’ve Been Repenting of re: My Own Long History with IHOPKC
10 Things the Lord is Calling Our House of Prayer to Press Into
10 Places Where the Lord Has Been Bringing Judgment upon the House of Prayer, and His Household in America
10 Rewards Reserved for Those Who Have Faithfully Responded to the Judgments of the Lord that Have Fallen Upon Houses of Prayer and Our Evangelical Family