Over this long, last year of reflection, revelation and reverberation from the collapse of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, the Lord has faithfully led me, my wife, and our All Nations household through months of intentional confession, weeping, listening, repentance, lament and contrition. It’s been our “in house” Joel Assembly.
While it is important to understand the dynamics of how the organization, and individual leaders sinned against God and others, it is ESSENTIAL that we bring our own selves into His cleansing light, to purge us of our own sins, and the strong, endemic inclination to “jump out of the number”. I share in IHOP’s sins. I share in her abuses. When I can say that, AND understand WHY I’m saying that, I am free to walk in the light, as He is in the light. His light doesn’t shame me. His light is able to be “true life” to me – all of me.
At the same time, if I am not willing to walk in the light and let Him illuminate my sinful ways, I have no business dialoguing about the sins of others within the organization… Jesus condemned this haughty, critical spirit as “the blind leading the blind”. (Matthew 15:14)
With this in mind, here are 10 places where the Lord has specifically humbled me into honest confession, and repentance, so that I can heal, engage the process of renewing my heart and mind, and (where God permits) help others to do the same.
1. I let the hope of elevating “self”, and cultivating relationship with prominent personalities dissuade me from embracing, living, and teaching the the crucified life.
2. On too many occasions, I did not listen to others; and didn’t make space for them to simply and purely share, emote, weep, etc. re: their cognitive dissonance re: IHOP – because it was IHOP.
3. Too often I attached more weight to the narratives of those who had “achieved platform status” than those that didn’t. (That’s called idolatry.)
4. Too often I was more interested in defending a beloved organization than simply, and faithfully championing God’s best for the individual souls being shaped by that organization.
5. Too often I accepted IHOP’s Prophetic History stories because either it was Mike who was telling it, and “Mike wouldn’t fudge the truth”, or I simply wanted the specific story to be true. I didn’t apply the same rigor to these stories that I do to many other notable prophetic words.
6. I lived, cultivated, and taught a casual, latte-sipping, attitude about serving as a “priest” before the supremely holy God of 300 trillion galaxies.
7. I succumbed to the lie that a ministry could routinely injure a few people and families, and still be achieving great good for the purposes of God.
8. I let the IHOP model of prayer crimp my prayer-life; pruning me from equally needed prayers of confession, lament, repentance, and contrition.
9. I let go of my circumspection, and stopped objecting to where I was experiencing the white, nationalist, male, 21c American cultural lens, because it was IHOP.
10. I’m letting the Holy Spirit show me whatever 10 is; and 11, and 12… as He graciously brings light to my own soul.
The only way to move through the trauma, destruction and tribulation that’s engulfed the House of Prayer world is to be wholly honest about the sins within our family. Unless we see these sins in the Father’s light, we will not understand… A • the depth of sin that has been worked against us, and how seriously it has injured us.
B • the various levels of our own complicity and participation in these sins.
C • the nature of the thorough healing and redemptive trust-building we must engage in, individually and collectively.
D • the fathoms of mercy that Jesus makes available to the sinner(s), and all affected by the sin.
E • Neither will we be adequately prepared to enter into the many promises of the coming season, as the Bride prepares herself for the return of our King.
When persons within the “family” refuse to cooperate with the essential work of naming the sins, the rest of the family is left with the extremely painful, and tender task of identifying the sin. This task is fraught with holy danger, but is vital if the family, and her individual, organic members are to recover in Christ. This endeavor is all the more difficult when the heads of the family are the ones refusing to come into the light and set the tone for those they are called to lead.
Yes. The Lord can heal, forgive and restore, but it is immensely more difficult to work for and receive this depth of redemption once the wounds have become infected, the limbs have been severed, and the perpetrators (that’s all of us) are enclosed in their/our towers of self-defense.
PART 1 THE DEADLY SINS of OUR “FATHER”, MIKE BICKLE
1 • Sexual abuse against our vulnerable, young sisters in Christ
2 • Covering, deceit and manipulation re these abusive sins – for decades
3 • Failure to seek out, and submit to family help/accountability re: the nature, and long pattern of these disqualifying sins
4 • Refusal to trust the mercy of God, as his own sons; our brothers came to him in the spirit of Matthew 18 re his hidden sins
5 • Building a campaign of self-defense, counter-attack, and prophetic machination against his own sons, and daughters, for the benefit of keeping his sins hidden
6 • Repeatedly lying and deceiving investigators about the substance of his hidden sins
7 • Remaining in the shadows for months, allowing his own family to suffer utter decimation, for nothing more than protecting that which should have long been crucified in Christ.
PART 2 THE DEADLY SINS of the LEADERS of IHOPKC
8 • Failure to initially respond to allegations with collective call to humility, trembling, repentance and fear of the Lord (Joshua 7)
9 • Cultivating an adversarial posture against victims and those who were speaking on behalf of the victims
10 • Fostering a self-saving, business as usual, public-relations management spirit while resisting the Lord’s wholesale call to the threshing-floor.
11 • Refusal to listen to hundreds of respected sisters and brothers in Christ; allies, compatriots, fathers and mothers in Christ who have been calling for an objective, third-party investigation
12 • Developing a pattern of communicating with other leaders, counselors, pastors and the rest of the House of Prayer family rooted in suspicion, hostility, pride and pretense
13 • Neglect of the spiritual/emotional needs for staff, families, students and interns to have a safe, holy space to grieve, mourn, speak truthfully, and receive intensive spiritual counsel
14 • Dogged resistance to suspend all other activities and blow the trumpet for a Joel 2 assembly
NOTE TO “US” (House of Prayer Leadership at Large, and the Whole House of Prayer Global Family) If we don’t see that the tribulation that has engulfed the House of Prayer is foremost about the Father judging us, and our household, whatever else we have to say, either as accusation, or in defense, is gonna be off-point. Profoundly. Generally speaking, we humans would rather do the easy work of “destroying”, than the hard work of “healing”. For this reason, the last SINS are not only listed, but also accompanied with words of confession, contrition and repentance. It is vital that we allow the Holy Spirit to search and engage our own souls about these matters.
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desire are they than gold; yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
PART 3 CONFESSION of THE DEADLY SINS of HOUSE of PRAYER LEADERS and FORMER HOUSE of PRAYER LEADERS in the DIASPORA
15 • We have refused to respond to the Lord’s summons and have not gathered ourselves to the Lord’s threshing floor through this crisis. We have not called for, nor responded to a collective Joel 2 assembly.
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God… Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes… Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’“ (Joel 2:12-17)
16 • We’ve watched our sisters and brothers in Kansas City suffer gross sin, difficulty, conflict, and great aspersion without coming to them with united support, encouragement and solidarity.
17 • We’ve attempted to “save self”, and have too easily “jumped out of the number”in our living fellowship with our sisters and brothers in Kansas City.
“He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
18 • We have compounded our family’s crisis, by too often allowing ourselves to become embittered observers, and social-media critics of our sisters and brothers in Kansas City.
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness…’ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 10:29)
PART 4 CONFESSION of THE DEADLY SINS of the ENTIRE HOUSE of PRAYER FAMILY
“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for Your servants, and confess the sins which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded.” (Nehemiah 1:5-7)
21 • We have tolerated, and helped to create a communal atmosphere where the prominent were vaunted, and protected, while the nameless were left vulnerable, marginalized and/or scrutinized.
22 • When our leaders have failed to “blow the trumpet” we have not prayed for them, nor pressed the need for such holy response to the judgments of the Lord.
23 • We have majored on responding to each other, seeking consolation and building self-honoring narratives in preference to seeking truth, counsel and consolation from the Lord, Himself.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my fears; and see if there is any wicked way in me.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
24 • We have allowed our opinions, our criticism, and bitterness to dictate the thoroughfares of our heart, rather than the Word of the Lord, and His cleansing, redeeming judgments.
25 • In our attempt to remain free of guilt and complicity, we too have easily, and often “jumped out of the number”, and become accusers, rather than fellows with sinners. Our hearts remain all too filled with self-exoneration.
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.“ (1 John 1:5-10)
Beloved family, we have deep, long furrows of spiritual work ahead of us, if we are to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). Our many, common and diverse future assignments from the Lord will not freely go forward with Holy Spirit power if we short-change this cleansing, purging, forgiving, redeeming process. This is no hour of human history to allow any sliver of unhealed or unsubmitted darkness to remain in our lives together. As the title of this article notes, to leave these sins partially or completely undealt with spells ultimate death to the fellowship the Lord has cultivated in the House of Prayer over the last 25 years.
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:2-8)
“Who is a God like You, who forgives wickedness and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He constantly delights in mercy and lovingkindness. He shall again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our wickedness [destroying sin’s power]. Yes, You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. You shall give truth to Jacob and lovingkindness and mercy to Abraham.” (Micah 7:18-20)
For the month of March (2024) All Nations House of Prayer Southwest is dedicating every prayer-set, prayer gathering, and prayer topic to engage the Lord in corporate confession, mourning, repentance and and purification. If you would like more information about visiting us, and participating with us in this work, contact me, Jonathan Boegl, at xaris4u@yahoo.com
There remains a great promise for all who thoroughly bring their house before the Lord in this hour: “The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” (Joel 2:24)
#IHOPKC folk: At the end of the day, if we don’t see that the tribulation that has engulfed the House of Prayer is foremost about the Father judging His household, WHATEVER else we have to say, either as accusation, or in defense, is gonna be OFF POINT. Profoundly.
Generally speaking, us humans would rather do the easy work of “destroying”, than the hard work of “healing”. In a nut-shell, this is the kind of endemic, and warped way of the curse, that Jesus came to save us from.
What if, we paused our cursing and accusing, and defending, and instead, used our many words to cry out to the Father for His tangible power and presence to rest upon us, the House of Prayer and the praying church?
What if we poured out our broken passion and pain, and tears and angst, and our many sins together at His feet?? Are His arms short? Would He not purge us, forgive us, and heal us? Would He not gather us to Himself? Would He not fit us for His purposes in this hour? Perhaps with even increased fidelity to His heart as the contra-Christ spirit intensifies around us?
This is what I am endeavoring to do here. I’m sick from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I’m tired of throwing my stones. I’m bruised from my own punches and counter-punches.
Here are 12 PRAYERS of REPENTANCE that I’m using to enjoin the Lord and His healing mercy.
#01 • A PRAYER of THANKSGIVING and SURRENDER to GOD and HIS JUDGMENTS
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desire are they than gold; yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
#02 • PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS FOR OUR REBELLION AND UNBELIEF
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness…’ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 10:29)
#03 • REPENTANCE AND PLEA FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE CURSE OF THE SERPENT
“(When) they knew that they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And the Lord said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”” (Genesis 3:7-13)
#04 • REPENTANCE FOR OUR HYPOCRISY RE: OUR FAITH IN GOD THROUGH CORPORATE PRAYER
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God… Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes… Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’“ (Joel 2:12-17)
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)
#05 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for OUR DEEP HYPOCRISY and PROFOUND REBELLION AGAINST the LORD and HIS WAY
“Our iniquities overwhelm us; only You can atone for our great rebellion.” (Psalm 65:3)
#06 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for ASSUMING WE HAD THE HOLY ABILITY TO FIX THE LORD’S HOUSE
“So they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. And when they came to the THRESHING FLOOR, UZZA put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against UZZA, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark… David was afraid of God that day, saying, ‘How can I bring the ark of God to me?'” (1 Chronicles 13:7-10,12)
#07 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for GIVING OURSELVES to DEVOURING OUR SISTERS and BROTHERS
“If you go on attacking each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!” (Galatians 5:15) [CEV]
#08 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for DISMISSING and MARGINALIZING the CONCERN and PAIN of OUR SISTERS and BROTHERS
“As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.” (Psalm 35:13-14)
DAY #09 • PRAYER of SELF-EXAMINATION and REPENTANCE
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my fears; and see if there is any wicked way in me.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
#10 • PRAYER of CORPORATE REFLECTION and REPENTANCE
“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the #HouseOfPrayer Your servants, and confess the sins of #IHOPKC which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded.” (Nehemiah 1:5-7)
#11 PRAYER OF REPENTANCE for SHUNNING the WAY of the CROSS
“If you do not take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38)
#12 PRAYER of REPENTANCE for SELFISHLY SEEKING OUR OWN PROTECTION and SELF-JUSTIFICATION while in the MIDST of CRISIS
“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
“In those days… everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 and 21:25)
“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God…” (Romans 3:11)
“He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)
“He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
‘Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand… Now, therefore’, says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God.’” (Joel 2:1, 12-13)
I don’t believe there’s a more important Kingdom concern for the body of Christ right now than to be responding to the Lord’s judgments over His praying church. The Lord is passionately bidding His priests, His intercessors and His prophetic messengers to be purified so He can retrofit us with His zeal, vision and strength for His end-times purposes. This is the primary lesson for us to learn from the last 6 months, as the Lord brought His swift judgment upon the largest, most far-reaching, and longest corporate prayer community in the history of our nation. Through all the contention, real, human abuse, sin, deceit, pretense and accusation the Lord is calling His house; (Isaiah 56:7) His house of prayer, to lose our pride, let go of our self-preservation, and meet Him on His threshing floor, where the abundance of “God-only” resurrection power is to be found.
“The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” (Joel 2:24)
This is where the prophet JOEL is inviting us to go. In three chapters, the Lord gives us the most complete set of instructions on how to humble ourselves before Him that we find anywhere in the Bible. I believe these three chapters also constitute some of the most oft-neglected and needed, but unapplied scriptures in the history of the people of God.
THE JOEL ASSEMBLY PARADIGM I’ve studied, prayed through, and taught the book of Joel intensely for nearly 20 years. The Joel assembly is not a call to a weekend festival. It would have taken Judah months to fully prepare and respond to this exhortation. This is most likely the chief reason the Lord’s summons was never heeded by the nation. It would have been too costly; too unsettling to their status quo lifestyles. Actually doing the Joel assembly would require a wholesale adjustment of every aspect of their lives. It would have disrupted the order of the temple, the administration of the government, the pattern of families and parenting, the schedules and details of commerce and the arrangements for festivals, marriages and funerals.
Any ministry, church or fellowship who wants to take the Joel assembly seriously in our day will need to face this thoroughness of application head on. Doing Joel demands a lot of time, prayerful consensus-building and detailed preparation.
Let me be REALLY clear here. There are many who are washing their hands of the #IHOPKC implosion, and moving on with their lives – crippled, stunned, PTSD, burned, disillusioned, betrayed – many in delusional denial… (I get it… I live w the same gravitational pull every day.) Because of the way IHOPKC leadership has disastrously dealt w this judgment of the Lord, MOST of us will never get the full healing we need, or deserve. This is a bonafide carnage of souls, relationships, and trust. With this in mind, let me also say to all of us: NONE OF US will come through these months walking with full hearts, in vibrant righteousness with Jesus, without doing what the Lord prescribes and provides for in the book of Joel.* This isn’t just a crisis. It’s first and foremost, a judgment of the Lord upon His people. We CANNOT circumvent what the Lord is after in this hour. We either get to the threshing floor or we will be winnowed like chaff through a thousand different personal, and interpersonal tensions attendant to this horrific episode. No matter how unjustly we’ve been treated; no matter how much pretense we’ve lathered on our ministries; no matter how much sin we’re still hiding in the dark; no matter how passionately we want to get back to our assignments, our families, and our lives… …our God is still a consuming fire preparing a bride for His Son. Large or small, no matter how we manage to engage its dynamics, Joel 2 is THE unavoidable way to participate in that preparation.
The brilliance of Joel 2 is that it marvelously empowers community to enable the weak, the young and the broken to do and receive what they need as the whole body engages the Lord. When a people choose to do Joel 2, the wounded and the traumatized are embraced, strengthened and provided for.
In chapters 1 and 2 of Joel, the Lord issues 16 specific instructions that will help Judah corporately yield their ways to HIs purging and redemptive work. In these few verses the eternal God is literally giving His people the blueprint for how to see their condition clearly, come before Him in humility, be cleansed, ask for forgiveness, receive His mercy, and be realigned to His righteous purposes.
16 ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPLOYING THE JOEL ASSEMBLY
“Hear and listen to the Word of the Lord.” (Joel 1:2) The call to listen and hear the Word of the Lord is at the forefront of Joel’s instructions. The God of Mount Sinai is speaking to His children. By nature of what it is, His Word demands that the people stop what they’re doing, give the Lord strict attention, ardently study, understand and meticulously obey the prophetic Words that are being spoken. The God of Genesis 1 is releasing His Words of power. This is a call for the people to wholly yield themselves to every diagnosis; every truth; every exhortation; every word of conviction; and every word of hope and promise that the prophet is declaring. “Hearing” and “listening” is a matter of life or death.
The context of (v.2) makes it clear that the Lord is also issuing a two-fold admonition to the elders (v.14) As the Word comes through the prophet, it would have first been submitted to the priests, teachers and other prophets. As it is announced to them, they would have understood that the Lord is saying: A.) Be certain that you (elders) hear, digest and internalize these Words yourselves; correcting the deficient norms, values and ways of your leadership and systems that have become cross-purposes to My heart. B.) Make sure that the people comprehend what I Am saying. The lives of My sons and daughters are on the line. I Am making you responsible for the sufficient dissemination of My Word. Teach. Answer questions. Cultivate applied understanding. I Am putting this obligation on you. Work toward corporate consensus and thorough obedience to My Word.I Am holding you accountable for My people adequately understanding, humbling and adjusting themselves to My Words of life.
HERE ARE THE REST OF THE EXHORTATIONS GIVEN TO US BY THE PROPHET JOEL…
“Be awakened.” (Joel 1:5) Let the light of the Holy Spirit illuminate your heart.
“Blow the trumpet.” (Joel 2:1) Declare the need to gather together corporately.
“Gather the elders.” (Joel 1:14) Share and dialogue what the Lord is saying with the leaders.
“Call a sacred assembly.” (Joel 1:14) Do the preparatory work to assemble the people into a holy convocation.
“Sanctify the congregation.” (Joel 2:16) Establish the purpose and intent of your gathering as holy and focused on the intentions of the Lord.
“Consecrate a fast.” (Joel 2:12) Focus the hearts and appetites to be fully attentive to the Lord.
“Rend your heart.” (Joel 2:13) Make your self, your ways, your history, your heritage, and your hopes exposed and vulnerable before the Lord.
“Tremble.” (Joel 2:1) Be aware of your unrighteous nakedness before the uncreated God of perfect holiness and power.
“Lament.” (Joel 1:13) Meditate upon how hopeless and barren you are apart from the Lord. Consider how you have lived so short of His glorious realities.
“Weep and wail.” (Joel 1:5 and Joel 2:17) Let your bankrupt condition bring you to tears and touch your emotions.
“Be ashamed.” (Joel 1:11) Let yourself feel the shame of your wretched state before the Holy One and all the holy ones in heaven.
“Lie in sackcloth.” (Joel 1:13 and Joel 1:12) Let your whole being be brought to nothing – to death – the grave – despair and ashes. Lie in that reality. Let it be your clothing.
“Cry out to the Lord.” (Joel 1:14) Repent out loud. Pour out your heart, your sins, your barrenness, your inability, your need, your hope, your falseness and your despair before the Lord. Keep on crying out.
“Prioritize the Lord’s paradigm.” (Joel 2:16) As you continue to listen to His Word, let Him reveal His righteousness and His righteous ways to your heart. Dialogue these righteous ways among the company of the repentant ones until they become agreed upon values and priorities.
“Gather and tell your children.” (Joel 1:3) Establish an agreed upon paradigm for teaching yourselves, and your children the right order of the Lord. This is where your repentance becomes your new cultural narrative that emphasizes the mercy and the right order of the Lord.
Each of these elements points to a relational reality that is important for us to follow in the repentance process. They are like lights in the cabin of an airliner that’s filled with smoke and plummeting into the ocean. They help us know how to navigate to safety and security in a “time of trouble” (Psalm 27:5). It’s vital that we know how to come to Him “without one plea” in wholehearted truth, and not in a superficial, religious, or self-saving spirit.
Each of the 16 elements are important, but we can’t make each element happen. Nor should we attempt to. What’s most important is that we make room for, and create corporate experiences where when these elements happen under the power of the Holy Spirit they are appreciated, encouraged and facilitated well, and not resisted and/or left unsupported.
Here are SEVEN PRACTICAL STEPS for IHOPKC, and HOUSES of PRAYER to implement the Joel Assembly:
1. STOP ALL BUSINESS AS USUAL. This includes pushing pause on all ministries, outreaches, group meetings, and administrative affairs. The world will understand something sober is happening when web-sites, and phone systems announce the Missions Base is closed for three months of “seeking the Lord.”
2. ELT, IHOPKC pastors, former leaders (AG), national House of Prayer leaders and/or even Mike himself: BLOW THE TRUMPET and call other Houses of Prayer to solidarity with a 3-month season of mourning, confession, and crying out to the Lord.
3. Dedicate 1 month to RAW TEARS, expressions of GRIEF, and stories of BROKENNESS – without judgment or correction. Agree to let the Prayer Room become a threshing-floor where there are no human fixes. Sanctify the GPR so that it becomes free space to weep, share and listen to pain in prayer. Require all pastors and leaders to be “all present”. Hire a team of counselors for the grieving and wounded who dare come, and want compassionate help re any kind of religious abuse; and/or trauma. This is seeing the value of becoming an ash-heap before the Lord. (See Ezekiel 20:37)
4. Dedicate one month to nothing but utter, 24/7, basement-level, public and private CONFESSION and REPENTANCE before the Lord. Confession needs to be specific. Repentance needs to lead to the purging of sins, and sinful ways.
5. Dedicate one month to CRYING OUT TO THE LORD, in a spirit of poverty, humility and unction, for the Presence of His Holy Spirit, and the joy of the Lord’s intervention, salvation and leadership within His sanctuary. Again. There are no fixes here. This is Matthew 5:3 posturing before the Lord.
6. Deploy a truly INDEPENDENT THIRD-PARTY INVESTIGATIVE TEAM to thoroughly analyze and scrutinize all aspects of the House of Prayer with regards to sexual, spiritual and manipulative abuse of the precious ones the Lord has sent to IHOPKC over the last 25 years. Agree to PUBLISH THE FINDINGS as “memorial stones” of where the Lord buried our great sin, and brought us into His light in righteousness solely by the blood of His own Son.
7. RESTART24/7 INTERCESSION with those who remain. SANCTIFY these ones to live with awareness of our great sin, but with dependence upon the greater mercy of God. CONSECRATE them into an atmosphere of reverence, humility, and contrition before the Lord.
THE DANGER IN NOT DOING JOEL To NOT deploy Joel is a.) to fail to give the family what it needs to authentically survive, heal and be restored to the Lord through this crisis. b.) to call God a liar; and not employ the thorough measure that His Word says we need… c.) to idolize the way of self; believing we have the power to “save ourselves” and do something better than what the Lord has prescribed.
In THIS MOMENT, we have an opportunity to redress months, years and decades of scandal, and the calamitous, sinful response we’ve given Him through our “hiding, redaction, shaming, image-management, and stone-throwing.”
O, the dishonor we’ve brought to His Name.
We also have a real-time opportunity to give the church, and the next generation a relevant paradigm on how to respond to the judgments of the Lord.
They’re coming.
____________________ JSB • February 2024
Jonathan Boegl has been a pastor for more than 40 years. He was trained at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA • M.Div. in Christian Formation and Discipleship • He’s been associated with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City since 2001. He served as a District Pastor on staff at IHOPKC, primarily responsible for the development of Friendship Groups and Evangelism from 2010 to 2018. He and his wife, Kathy now serve as directors of the All Nations House of Prayer Southwest in the mountains of Arizona.
“Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet… I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling… And I will cast those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds… and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.” Jesus
Beloved. It’s a holy, holy, holy moment that’s engulfed our House of Prayer.
The One from Whom galaxies and black-holes flee away is in our front-yard, judging, pulling down, exposing sin, uprooting leaders, and uncloaking the thoughts and intentions of hearts.
This is an hour of Achan (Joshua 7), and Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5). This is GOD IN OUR CAMP with His jealous fury over thousands of His beloved sons and daughters in Kansas City, and Houses of Prayer around the world, who have made a pledge to the Living God to keep His fire, on His altar.
Imagine how the Lord felt about Joshua and Moses as they served Him inside the tent of meeting. Now imagine what Joshua and Moses experienced as the God of Mount Sinai Himself burned and thundered before them, face to face. This is where the House of Prayer is:
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.” (Exodus 33:7-11)
Can you envision it? – All the Israelites who got up one morning and approached the tabernacle, shaking as they put on their sandals, believing it was better for them to be incinerated in the pillar of fire than to spend the rest of their lives wondering what this God was like.
Now consider the millions around the earth, who, over the last several decades have responded to this same primary, priestly lifestyle of encounter with the living God of Job 37:
“At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.” (Job 37:1-5)
But it’s not an organization, or social fad that’s led their hearts to the House of Prayer. It was never about coming to a ministry leader, or a geographical location, or having a career. It’s been about responding to the Eternal God of Hebrews 12, Who, in a generation filled with gimmicks and options and endless opportunities for self-exaltation, issued personal invitations into intimate, purifying fellowship with Himself through nothing less than the blood of His own Son.
“For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:18-29)
How does this God “rumble” as He sees this sea of seekers, and worshippers, and elderly, and families, and young ones coming close to His Presence? How does He feel about the viral-thousands of simple leaders who have said, “We need the tabernacle of His Presence back home – in Russia, Nazareth, Florida, England, the Solomon Islands, China and Brazil?”
Can you for a moment conceive of the tempest that would burn inside this God toward any person, or group of people who would use these ones for their own lust and pride of life!? (If this doesn’t make you tremble – pray for yourself…)
Can you hear His flaming roar against those who would cry that this tabernacle, where millions are making melody in their hearts toward Him, must come down!?
Beloved. This is where we are: in the middle of this tempest – as God cleans His house, and fiercely defends what His Holy Spirit has established on the earth. He is dashing brothers against brothers, and sisters against sisters, as He “ruins our pride” (Jeremiah 13:9) and cultivates tempered, agape love in His family. He is standing in the center of His lampstands, purging hearts, relationships, conversations and jot and tittles with His Eyes of fire.
…(SELAH)…
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.” “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: “Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.” (Job 40:6-14)
…who would dare to remain hidden in the shadows, resisting the calls of brothers, family members, and the Father Himself, shrouding themselves with fig-leaves and pretensions?
…who would continue to stammer that they can redress their own soul and chronic sin issues?
…who would not lament the countless lives, families, and noble ones whose destinies are considered as pawns in a living self-saving chess-match?
…who would not see the prophetic significance of this moment, and believe it’s prudent to give themselves to organizational status-quo and damage control?
…who would continue to throw stone after stone against sons and daughters of the Father, and then claim “moral high ground”?
…who would incessantly stand in angry protest, condemning others within the tabernacle of the Lord?
…who would gleefully hope to see the Lord decapitate someone – or a dozen “someones”?? (C’mon now, let’s be honest…)
…who cannot wail with utter terror, under the weight of this sovereign hour of sudden destruction; trembling over the swiftness of His judgments?
…who doesn’t weep and weep and weep, hearing beloved priest after intercessor after musician bare their anguished, naked souls in the public square?
The Lord is in His house confronting OUR sin, and OUR ways, and so many of us are “slow-to-believe” this reality, treating it all like some video game.
The Lord, our Lord, will be exalted in His glory. But, by necessity, His exaltation will bring down everything else about us that we have exalted in our own selves.
“Now I will rise,” says the Lord; Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift Myself up. You shall conceive chaff. You shall bring forth stubble. Your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be like the burnings of lime; Like thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire. Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might.” (Isaiah 33:10-13)
The Lord is bringing us into the strong bonds of His eternal covenant for this hour. But it requires that every part of who we are, pass under His rod.
“I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 20:37-38)
There’s a great promise of new wine and abundant harvest. But it won’t come without His household going through the wine-press and the threshing-floor.
The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. (Joel 2:24)
Father. We humble ourselves before You. We need Your vision for this hour!!
____________________ JSB • December 19, 2023
FINAL NOTE: I’ve been a pastor for 35 years, and have been connected to Mike, and the International House of Prayer in Kansas City since 2001. From 2001 to 2010 I personally took hundreds of individuals to IHOPKC, and their various conferences. In 2011 my wife, two daughters and I moved to Kansas City where I served as a senior pastor with Forerunner Christian Fellowship, and helped develop pastoral ministry and small groups within the community. In 2018 we moved back to Arizona, where my wife and I actually live inAll Nations House of Prayer Southwest and maintain prayer with worship five hours per day, and six days per week.
I am overall appalled at the level of deceit, moral perversion and abuse that’s being “named among us”. When the “allegations” themselves came out, it should have led all of us to fall on our faces in the fear of the Lord. It grieves me to no end that the extreme holiness of what’s been/being desecrated simply doesn’t seem to be a thought among so many in our family. Leaders, prophetic leaders, in all sectors of the House of Prayer, and the Body of Christ, seem to have so little awareness of the significance of what the Lord has shaken over the last several months.
Beloved. The ONLY WAY our family will encounter “justice” and “wholeness”; the ONLY WAY we’ll remain faithful to the Lord through this “Holy Hour”, is by coming to Him in our own sackcloth and ashes, face-down on His threshing-floor. This is the only way that’s worthy of who we’ve been called to be, and Whom we stand before, in our calling.
But the window of opportunity is quickly closing. Thousands will trudge along, bruised and bruising others, without having availed themselves of the holy fire available for purging, healing and preparation for the future that awaits the Bride at the end of this age. Without collectively entering into this moment, we will remain self-made, impure, diseased, ill-equipped and disconnected from Him and His end-time purposes.
SPIRIT WORD & CROSS 