Here’s one more list of “Ten Things” surrounding the Lord’s current judgment of the House of Prayer. Each of these values has been established by the Lord, not only in the scriptures, but also via life-applied truth that has seen the marvelous Kingdom fruit of such emphases. Our House is asking the Spirit of the Lord to give us the grace to remain plumb-lined to these vital New Testament dynamics.
As a part of the orthodox, apostolic confessing, Bible-believing Church, we believe the Lord is calling our House of Prayer (All Nations House of Prayer Southwest) to press into these 10 realities without reservation, apology, or pretense:
1. In all that we are, and do, we exalt the God/Man, Christ Jesus as the priority of our duties. Above, and beyond all, it is the revelation of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) that has power to pierce the heart of sinful men, and fulfill the mission of our Lord’s great commission. This is also known as the ministry of the forerunner; the friends of the Bridegroom. This priority entails living faithful lives that are established upon the “first commandment”: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength.” (Luke 10:27)
2. Jesus calls us to bear our cross every day, unto His increase, and His return. “He must increase. And I must decrease.” (John 3:30) This means cultivating a tangible lifestyle of fulfilling Jesus’ most ubiquitous invitation into His Kingdom: “If anyone would be My disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) This requires a preeminent love for the Person of Jesus Christ, that requires then, the subjugation of self to the increase of His glory, and dominion in our lives, and secondly in our ministries.
3. The Lord is a judge. And He justly, compassionately, and with great redemptive power judges His household (1 Peter 4:17), for the sake of our good, and (most importantly) the purification of His Son’s Bride. The corporate judgments of the Lord, are invitations to corporate repentance. This is the plenary message of the book of the prophet Joel.
4. We are called to sacrificially love, and mutually edify other praying, Spirit-filled, cross-bearing believers and communities, unto His increase, and the fulfillment of His great commission.
5. We are to operate by the full, Biblical, powerful leadership of the Holy Spirit. This includes relying upon His grace for evangelism, prophetic words, signs, wonders, mutual accountability, forgiveness, living Sermon on the Mount lifestyles, and walking in the light with humility toward one another.
6. We are called to engage in worshipful, intercessory partnership with Jesus, the Great Intercessor, unto His righteousness being established on the earth. We are also called to encourage churches and New Testament fellowships into the priorities of perpetual corporate prayer, meditating on the Word, with singing, and making melody in our hearts together for His glory.
7. We believe the scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) tell us it is wise and vital for believers to pray for the salvation of Israel and the Arabic speaking peoples in the land.
8. All Nations House of Prayer Southwest is specifically commissioned to intercede first, for the Lord’s Intended noble destiny for the Native peoples of the Southwest, and then the destiny of other people groups in the Southwestern United States.
9. We are called to live fruitful lives that stem from the gospel, that express themselves in vibrant righteousness (Psalm 37:6, and Daniel 12:3). These lives include walking in open, humble integrity, living the Sermon on the Mount, compassionately caring for each other – especially the least, and the overlooked; operating in contrition toward others, testifying of the beauty of Jesus, and offering our sin-cursed world covenant hope re: all matters of personal, relational, and social morality.
10. We engage in these mandates under the glorious weight of the fear of the Lord. This lifestyle, and these values are privileges that the one, true and living, holy God grants us to live in by His Spirit, and by His daily grace.
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 WHAT it is within myself that I’m saying that about, 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.
“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)
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)
It’s from this naked place that confession, and repentance, becomes authentic due diligence with God, and with others. This is the only way forward to healing, wholeness, and the crucified renewing my heart and mind need. It’s also the only way I can genuinely help anyone else do the same. Until I’ve gone through this illuminating and cleansing work, I myself cannot walk in covenant fidelity with the God of all truth and grace. Neither can I be an agent of redemption and wholeness to others who are in need of the Father’s truth and grace.
With this in mind, here are 10 places where the Lord has specifically humbled me into honest circumspection about my own long relationship with Mike, the leadership at IHOPKC (of which I was a part – and sought to be a more prominent part)…
1. From the very beginning, in 2001, I let the hope of elevating “self”, and cultivating relationship with prominent personalities dissuade me from honestly embracing, living, and teaching the crucified life with integrity; a posture that would have helped arrest some of the raw, simple, daily, leadership abuses and self-exaltations that chronically made up the ethos of IHOPKC during my 23 years of involvement with Mike and leadership team members. In short, I often traded my cross, for furtherance of self, and the promotion of the grand, IHOPKC vision of “changing the definition and expression of Christianity” in one generation. (I call this “IHOPKC Kingdom Legacy”. Kingdom Legacy entailed both the eternal notoriety that IHOPKC was accruing before God, and the prominence that the “IHOPKC DNA” was accruing with other Christians and Christian ministries on the earth. Nothing about a leader’s involvement with IHOPKC can be rightly assessed without understanding that people – largely, inexperienced, young, western individuals – wanted to be a significant part of the talent and glory of what IHOPKC had achieved in a very, very short period of time. It literally went from a broken trailer meeting, to the New York Times in less than a decade.)
2. On too many occasions, I did not listen to other staff, students, interns, or subordinate pastors; and didn’t make space for them to simply and purely share, emote, weep, etc. re: their cognitive dissonance re: IHOPKC – because it would have stained IHOPKC’s Kingdom Legacy. This is cultish thinking. As a senior pastor in the community, my devaluation of such perspicuity, was spiritual abuse. Period.
3. Too often I attached more weight, and gave more intentional energy 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 pastoring, and championing God’s best for the individual souls who had come to that organization to be shaped by God.
5. Too often I accepted IHOPKC’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, because it would have undermined my own “Kingdom Legacy”.
6. I lived, advanced, 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 IHOPKC model of persistent, exhilarating, authority-rooted, heaven-shaking prayer pervert my prayer-life; pruning me from equally needed depths of confession, lament, repentance, and contrition. The almost total lack of this type of interior, reflective prayer on the corporate level, made it nearly impossible to break the spirit of pretense that came with the spirit of “platform seeking” that pervaded the IHOPKC community.
9. I let go of my social perspicuity, and stopped objecting to where I was experiencing the white, nationalist, male, 21c American cultural lens, because it was IHOPKC – and God was using IHOPKC to change Christianity worldwide.
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.
____________________ JSB • May, 2024
2026 Note: For the record, I spent the first six months after Mike’s exposure reaching out to ministry leaders in KC, and many many leaders in the Body of Christ, seeking their input and unity re how to help the hundreds of families who were enduring the rolling explosions going on on Red Bridge Road. I also strongly sought former IHOPKC leaders, and other leaders in the body of Christ to collectively gather to help bring light and health to Mike himself. I appealed to Mike directly and personally on four separate occasions.
In the early spring of 2024, our House of Prayer in Arizona hosted a series of weekly ZOOM meetings where 30-40 beloved friends, ministry leaders, current IHOPKC staff, and former staff gathered MOSTLY to weep, listen, go low, and celebrate together. It was eight weeks of honest processing of what was happening inside of our hearts. NOTHING WAS OFF-LIMITS. Haha. There were no “NDA’S” – only compassion… TONS of compassion for each other, and our honest, humble, broken stories. Mostly, it was all about helping honest sisters and brothers in Christ sorting out their experiences, without condemnation, internally.
It was exactly what I was hoping for: an online Joel 2 assembly of sorts; aimed at helping others do Joel 2 corporately in their own context. When we finished I felt half-equipped to begin to do the deep, repentant, honest, scaffolding deconstructing work in my own heart, and within our own House.
I need to add: from two months of this ZOOM experience Kathy and I had multiple private weeping conversations with precious souls who were devastated by what was happening amongst the IHOPKC family… the dysfunction… the wounding… the shaming… the discrediting… the sequencing of deceit and ongoing abuse… It was horrible. And IT WAS VITAL that everyone got to share their stories!!! Warts and all! It’s part of God’s Joel 2 cleansing process. Telling our stories with baseline transparency without fear of being rejected for telling it the way we saw it, or experienced it. Adjustment, reconciliation, forgiveness, regained trust – it all comes later. But if the honest weeping part isn’t there, nothing else of God’s redemptive power can honestly be applied at all.
After the ZOOM series, Kathy and I spent another 3 months on the Lord’s threshing floor – HOPING others were doing the same. Encouraging those who were. Helping those who were asking questions about “how to do Joel 2”. Exhorting those who wanted another way – strongly exhorting others to beware of the dangers of rebranding… In the end, the Lord led us to a place of great peace, deep, tender dependence and settled vision, for ourselves, and our household.
This is where we are today. We’re doing, in the mountains of Arizona, what the Lord commanded me to do back in 1986. We’re providing a place, and a community of quiet, humble prayer, with a prophetic spirit to this age, established upon the power of the Word, intimacy and integrity to the Spirit – daily being crucified unto the incarnational manifestation of Christ, and walking as intercessory friends of the Bridegroom, in the minutes before He returns.
In 1983 Leonard Ravenhill wrote: “There’s going to come an awakening. God Almighty doesn’t care if He sends America bankrupt. He doesn’t care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn’t care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline… The greatest impediment to this (awakening) will be a Church who refuses to give themselves to prayer and repentance.”
Awakening is a God thing. In our carnal, disengaged state we believers will sleep (and sleep and sleep…) It requires a supernatural response to the Word of the Lord for a soul to be awakened and remain awakened in Christ.
Awakening is also a Church thing. The world can’t wake up. Only those alive in Christ can wake up. The world is dead in their sins and trespasses. The New Testament call to wake up is to the covenant people of God who have had their souls dulled and weighed down by the paradigms, narratives and thinking of the flesh; thoughts that don’t stimulate faith, first-commandment love and the fear of the Lord in our hearts. This happens naturally in a fallen world, and at different times happens to all of us.
Waking up for a believer entails the same response to the Lord as being raised from the dead does for the unbeliever.
• Being Stirred by the Word of the Lord
• Responding with Repentance
• Being Filled with the Spirit
• Taking Up Our Cross
As the Church is awakened, she finds her Spirit-empowered voice:
A. The intercessory voice we use to bring the lost before the throne of God’s grace in prayer.
B. The prophetic voice that arrests the slumbering and those endangered by the crossless spirit of this age.
C. The evangelistic voice that makes clear the powerful message of the gospel, and has the power to raise the dead.
The fact of the matter is, these “voices” all have as their singular, magnificent obsession, a Man; a crucified, resurrected, Jewish God/Man. The declaration and acclamation of this beautiful Man is the ruling passion and preoccupation of awakened voices. EVERY TIME! EVERYTHING ELSE is a shadow, and an expendable extra to the increase of His glory.
Here’s the trick: (And in today’s politically supercharged culture it IS a trick) Don’t let someone (no matter how prominent and/or popular) wake you up to a SHADOW rather than THE ONE WHO is casting the shadow. Our waking up is to HIM – and nothing else; not political power; not deep spiritual insight; not even justice for the poor.
The Holy Spirit is wholly invested in waking us up to HIM. The Bride belongs to the Bridegroom. He’s the One (and the only One) you want to wake up to. There’s more than enough of Him to wake up to to keep us engaged and enthralled – for eternity.
The truth of the matter is, none of us are as “awakened” as we can be. In Christ, there’s always more to be awakened to. He’s that big.
The book of Revelation shows us how the mature apostle John was “awakened” to a new dimension of awe and fear and love for His “friend”, Jesus. Although John had watched Him heal the sick, feed thousands and refute the wisest teachers of his day; although John himself performed miracles in Jesus’ Name; although John was an eye-witness to His crucifixion – felt the earth-quake under his feet – and even walked into his Friend’s empty grave; when Revelation 1 happened to him John still fell “as though dead” at His feet.
There’s no shame in waking up to more of Jesus. Ever. The only shame is for us to assume that we are fully awake to Him and Who He is.
Come. Let’s let the Holy Spirit awaken us, all the more, to the glory of Who He is.
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let’s behave properly as in the day… 14 (Let’s) put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13:11-12,13,14)
JSB • May 2, 2022
POST-SCRIPT Living revelation of the beauty of Jesus is THE vital (Matthew 25:3) oil our hearts need in this age. More than a call to believe the right theological truths about Jesus, this is a call to a lifestyle that cultivates an adoring, faithful heart, that’s been awakened to His beauty.
Without being saturated with revelations of the truth and majesty of Jesus, our hearts will be vulnerable to…
the compromising lies of demons,
the rage of humanism,
hostile self-determination,
self-insulating pride,
phobic suspicion,
idolatrous worship,
shame-filled pretense,
and incessant (hellish) condemnation.
These are the true, toxic threats to our culture; dynamics that plague every human heart; liberal, conservative, apolitical, monk, wealthy and poor…
And there’s only one solution: the daily application of the revelation of the Person of Jesus that engenders first-commandment love, and self-crucifying fidelity.
Not a better argument, a more popular opinion, or a more detached and objective spirit…
ONLY life-activated exhilaration over the magnificence of Jesus will keep our hearts alive and loyal to Him through this turbulent hour.
What is the nature of the nationalist fervor which has fallen upon our nation? How do its tenets pollute the ethos of the ekklesia, and the pure proclamation of the gospel? How does the nationalist fervor influence the body of Christ to walk out of step with the Spirit and ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ? What are the real, and pragmatic faith issues that are at risk, because of this fervor? What evangelical declarations need to be reenforced within the Church in this hour?
These were questions that stirred within Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and other pastors and theologians, who were watching a menacing political spirit overtake the people of God in 1930’s Germany.
In 1936, when Bonhoeffer did most of the writing of his book, “The Cost of Discipleship“, the Nazi rallies in Nuremberg were at their height of popularity. These rallies would run for a week, and include marches of various segments of the nation (ie. Labor workers, women and mothers, youth, religious etc.) who would participate in elaborate, festive parades that would snake through surrounding villages – all culminating in the large amphitheater in Nuremberg.
The Rally included speeches on the topics of The Power of the German Workforce, the Bolshevism in Theory and Practice, Homeland Security, The Youth Movement, The Task of the Judiciary, The Task of the German Press/Newspapers, The Financial Health of the German Government
On the seventh day of the rally, “the Fuerher” would address sometimes upward of 700,000 attendees.
“I see before me endless columns of the flags of our new Reich. I make this prophecy to you: This Reich will grow in the coming centuries, becoming strong and powerful! These flags will be borne by ever new generations of our people. Germany is healthy once more! Our people is reborn! I greet you as the hope of the present and the guarantee of our future. Fight! and Be upright and determined, fear no one and do your duty! If you do so, the Lord God will never leave our people. Heil Germany!” Adolph Hitler • September 14, 1936
The following Sunday, hundreds of thousands of these same people would go to church. (In 1936, 95% of the German population identified as Christian – 65% Protestant, and 30% Catholic.)
The pro-Nazi “German Christian” movement became a force in the church in 1933, primarily preaching that Bolshevism was using race as a way to pollute and divide the German people. The majority of Protestant churches, Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist fell in league with the Nazi Party by 1936, forming the “Protestant Reich Church”, and glorified Adolf Hitler as a “German prophet”.
Early on, some Catholic bishops prohibited Catholics in their dioceses from joining the Nazi Party. This ban was dropped after Hitler’s March 23, 1933, speech to the Reichstag in which he described Christianity as “the foundation for German values”.
The Reich Ministry of Church Affairs was established in July of 1936, creating for the first time in Germany an independent, centralized government ministry with responsibility for the Reich’s religious life.
Two years earlier, (1934) Bonhoeffer, along with a handful of other leading Protestant theologians, seeing the growing contraChrist spirit overtaking much of the German Church, formed “The Confessing Church”, centered around “The Barman Confession” (originally titled, “Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church”) http://postbarthian.com/2018/05/21/karl-barth-and-the-barmen-declaration-1934/
“The Barman Declaration” (chiefly written by the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth) contained six propositions, each rooted squarely in Scripture, stating its implications for the present day, and rejecting the false doctrine of Nationalism. The declaration asserted the church’s fidelity to Jesus Christ alone, Who stands as Lord in every sphere of life – and Who’s ways are to govern the manner of His Body’s witness within each of these spheres as well.
THE BARMAN DECLARATION In view of the errors of the “German Christians” and of the present Reich Church Administration, which are ravaging the Church and at the same time also shattering the unity of the German Evangelical Church, we confess the following evangelical truths:
1. “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved.” John 10:1,9
Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
We reject the false doctrine that the Church could and should recognize as a source of its proclamation, beyond and besides this one Word of God, yet other events, powers, historic figures and truths as God’s revelation.
2. “Jesus Christ has been made wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption for us by God.” 1 Corinthians 1:30
As Jesus Christ is God’s comforting pronouncement of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, with equal seriousness, he is also God’s vigorous announcement of his claim upon our whole life. Through him there comes to us joyful liberation from the godless ties of this world for free, grateful service to his creatures.
We reject the false doctrine that there could be areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ but to other lords, areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
3. “Let us, however, speak the truth in love, and in every respect grow into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body is joined together.” Ephesians 4:15-16
The Christian Church is the community of brethren in which, in Word and Sacrament, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ acts in the present as Lord. With both its faith and its obedience, with both its message and its order, it has to testify in the midst of the sinful world, as the Church of pardoned sinners, that it belongs to him alone and lives and may live by his comfort and under his direction alone, in expectation of his appearing.
We reject the false doctrine that the Church could have permission to hand over the form of its message and of its order to whatever it itself might wish or to the vicissitudes of the prevailing ideological and political convictions of the day.
4. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to have authority over you must be your servant.” Matthew 20:25-26
The various offices in the Church do not provide a basis for some to exercise authority over others but for the ministry [lit., “service”] with which the whole community has been entrusted and charged to be carried out.
We reject the false doctrine that, apart from this ministry, the Church could, and could have permission to, give itself or allow itself to be given special leaders [Führer] vested with ruling authority.
5. “Fear God. Honor the Emperor.” 1 Peter 2:17
Scripture tells us that by divine appointment the State, in this still unredeemed world in which also the Church is situated, has the task of maintaining justice and peace, so far as human discernment and human ability make this possible, by means of the threat and use of force. The Church acknowledges with gratitude and reverence toward God the benefit of this, his appointment. It draws attention to God’s Dominion [Reich], God’s commandment and justice, and with these the responsibility of those who rule and those who are ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the Word, by which God upholds all things.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the State should and could become the sole and total order of human life and so fulfill the vocation of the Church as well.
We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the Church should and could take on the nature, tasks and dignity which belong to the State and thus become itself an organ of the State.
6. “See, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:20 “God’s Word is not fettered.” 2 Timothy 2:9
The Church’s commission, which is the foundation of its freedom, consists in this: in Christ’s stead, and so in the service of his own Word and work, to deliver all people, through preaching and sacrament, the message of the free grace of God.
We reject the false doctrine that with human vainglory the Church could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of self-chosen desires, purposes and plans.
The Confessing Synod of the German Evangelical Church declares that it sees in the acknowledgment of these truths and in the rejection of these errors the indispensable theological basis of the German Evangelical Church as a confederation of Confessing Churches. It calls upon all who can stand in solidarity with its Declaration to be mindful of these theological findings in all their decisions concerning Church and State. It appeals to all concerned to return to unity in faith, hope and love.
Verbum Dei manet in aeternum. (The Word of God endures forever.)
Is it time for the American Church to establish her own Barman Declaration? Is it past time?
What is the nature of the nationalist fervor which has fallen upon our nation? How do its tenets pollute the ethos of the ekklesia, and the pure proclamation of the gospel? How does the nationalist fervor influence the body of Christ to walk out of step with the Spirit and ways of our Lord, Jesus Christ? What are the real, and pragmatic faith issues that are at risk, because of this fervor? What evangelical declarations need to be reenforced within the Church in this hour?
Right now, across the earth, in the midst of impossible crises; elections; climate-fear; Israel; epidemics; and even church scandals, the way of Babylon is being heralded, elevated, and strengthened through all forms of media, governments, organizations, and human interaction – and especially through social media.
At its essence “Babylon” is the way of self-determination, and self-rule. The voice of Babylon says: “Come, let us build ourselves…” (Genesis 11:4) It’s the way of developing solutions to human crises. It legislates laws. It forms think-tanks and committees. It develops strategies and initiatives. It protests, and then demands countermeasures.
Resolutions that are impossible to accomplish, and enforce – but programs that are put in place none-the-less; without humiliation; without abasement; without poverty of spirit – liberal, socialist, conservative and nationalist; these endeavors of human flesh “promise the world” without the encumbrance of being subjected to (and waiting upon) the One Who created, died for, and is coming to rule the world.
These very human ways; the way of Babylon, are fouling the earth with insurrection against the essence of our endemic relationship with God. These are the ways of human striving and impatience.
We belong under our Father’s intimate, daily, and holy care. Apart from this life-giving connection, we’re in rebellion against our God. We are living in human autonomy – ultimately, only accountable, “on the curve”, in comparison to others who are also living alienated from our true life-source.
This way of Babylon is being touted by political champions, cultural idols, and religious intelligencia; prophets and priests alike – everyone who attempts to crowd-source a unity rooted in the power of human strength, rather than human poverty.
This is the prevalent, endemic way of the human heart – and the Bible tells us, it will mushroom, compound, and thoroughly infect the whole earth…
“And (the angel) cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great… has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” (Revelation 18:2-3)
The first Words of Jesus’ sermon on the mount spell the end to the kingdom of Babylon: “You’re blessed when you realize that you’re poor, and you live with the daily awareness of your impoverished spirit. In fact, THIS mental attitude is the gateway into My Kingdom.” (Matthew 5:3)
Right now, those who are (even blindly) caught up in the ways of Babylon, are urging communities, nations and churches to come up with solutions to the troubles and tribulations that threaten us – without needing to acknowledge our mutual poverty; without needing to admit that none of us are righteous; without acknowledging that none of us have the keys to life.
Do you see the difference? The Lord is orchestrating circumstances, and training the redeemed to perceive the distinction between the way of true life, and the way of perpetual darkness, curse and frustration.
Those who humble themselves and learn from Him, are seeing the distinction; and are becoming more and more rooted in intimate, humble, repentant-even, conversation with the dialogue-speaking God. He’s our way; our truth; our life; (John 14:8) breath by daily breath. He is our very Present Shepherd Who guides, counsels, provides, protects, and resurrects EVERYONE who comes to Him out of the contention of Babylon, and says: “I’m poor. Completely poor. Without a cent. Without one plea. Show me the way.”
Those who never come to Him in this manner; who continue to follow the self-sufficient-siren-song of Babylon, will never sing the song of the Lamb. When push comes to shove, they will not have cultivated lives that have learned the blessed place of putting all their weight, and hope on the close, leadership of the King. And with the rubble of Babylon’s laws, edicts, projects, initiatives and mandates all around them, they will not understand the tingling zeal of those who herald Him with the words: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing… and who sits on the throne… forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:12,13,14)
Today is a day for us to come to Him, and behold Him in all His unique, life-giving sufficiency; to fall at His feet; to lay the millions of our wisest solutions before Him; to plead utter poverty – and to plead for grace to continue to live before Him in such an impoverished manner. When we do, the Kingdom of heaven will open to us (Matthew 5:3) – and we may even be privileged to offer His Kingdom to others who are being chafed by the barren promises of Babylon.
Beloved. Right now, the Father is waiting for us to do His Son’s first beatitude; to humble ourselves; to desperately need Him; and to urgently cry out for His tangible, daily, in-our-midst, administration of our lives.
His invitation into (or BACK into) His Kingdom is open to us at this very moment.
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)
