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.”
No one’s asking me, but in light of the calls for the closure of #IHOPKC here’s one urgent plea, and 10 strong pastoralencouragementsfor the House of Prayer family as we respond to the fire-storm of revelations, and accusations being leveled against Mike and House of Prayer leadership:
1. Set-apart 3 – 6 (or more) months for this season of focused grieving, lamenting, confession and repentance.
2. Shut EVERYTHING on the base down and focus EVERYTHING on repentance before the Lord. (This is central to the radical, Joel Paradigm.)
3. Require all staff, leaders, group-leaders, pastors be present at these gatherings – multiple times each day. If they’re unwilling, kindly give them their exit papers.
4. Be as thorough as the blood of Jesus bids us to be. Let all of our “ways” get scrutinized and brought to the threshing-floor. Own it all. Without one plea; or an ounce of excuse. Stay in the number. Get entirely naked before God. Get to the roots of the mundane to the most wicked inclinations of our hearts.
5. Invite Houses of Prayer around the globe into this season; for their own well-being, for solidarity w IHOPKC, and ultimately for their own unique integrity before the Lord.
6. Establish and enforce an atmosphere of open prayer and grief that the “Tammy’s” and the “JaneDoes” tell us are “safe” and “real” before the Lord. Hire professional counselors to minister to those who “dare” come and need intimate, respectful, Christlike care.
7. Cultivate lament, tears and travail as values, and vital expressions of prayer in Houses of Prayer everywhere. Normalize these types of prayer as much as the Spirit does.
8. Let (John 12:24-25) be the driving vision of the whole of the base; no less than “changing the expression of Christianity in one generation” was in the past. Let the style; the ethos; the language; and the prophetic history die. Bury it. Erect “Achan memorial stones” (Joshua 7) over it. And then train every worship leader, singer, musician, intercessor, pastor and teacher in the theology of the cross, so that NOTHING is done apart from embracing the crucified, dead and buried life-style.
9. Hire a truly, independent, third-party investigation team. Let them do their work. Compare notes with their findings, and the prayer room’s repentance. Across the board. Post the findings to the IHOPKC web-site, as additional memorial stones.
10. Restart prayer and worship ONLY on God’s terms. Listen to the Lord for His design; His style; His formation; His unction; His vision. And gather objective prophetic, prayer leaders from the nations to speak into, help shape, ordain, and release the new expression of the tabernacle of David prayer according to their sense of the Lord’s timing.
None of this will be easy. But it IS what’s necessary. It’ll go against every natural inclination to “save self” that IHOPKC has been evidencing the last four months. For the sake of authentic healing. For the sake of the integrity of the prophetic histories of the beloved hundreds of individuals, and families who came to pray in this community at the behest of the Holy Spirit. Do. Luke. 9:24. Anyway.
Why is it imperative to have #IHOPKC#HouseOfPrayer leadership facilitating such radical, self-restrictive measures “today“? And why does the work of personal and corporate introspection, confession and repentance become exponentially more difficult the longer the time goes by without it?
We are not only personal beings, we are relational beings. We form norms, values, beliefs, language, histories and narratives between ourselves that shape how we view ourselves, our significant others, and our place in our world. Once a “narrative” is set, it is extremely difficult to unravel the thousands of threads of belief, value, normative behavior, histories and episodes that have formed that narrative.
This is the reason why millions could vaunt a Hitler in the 30s and 40s, and why billions looked on with horror at the warped beliefs, norms, values and episodes of the German people when they were finally exposed. Through their shared culture; conversations, relationships, propaganda etc. Germans were accumulating evidence for their narratives, and then reenforcing their values, norms, behavior with those pieces of evidence.
This was also the reason why the prophetic messages of Jeremiah were so adamantly opposed by the people of Judah. Their aggregated narratives had placed them in a paradigm of thinking and believing that WOULDN’T ALLOW FOR YHWHs WORDS to be embraced as TRUTH and REALITY.
The point? If the current leadership of #IHOPKC does not quickly, do an about-face, cease with its narrative of persecution, and cultivate an atmosphere where it trusts the independent, objective analysis of both God and other brothers and sisters, the dominant, self-saving narrative will become too engrained within the people; too engrained for them to want to do the thorough self-crucifying work of untangling the months and years of accumulated belief, values and episodes. This is the ONLY WAY any of us will come through the chaos of this tribulation into vibrant righteousness.
ASIDE: I generally believe, pray and hope for the continuance of the Spirit’s authentic worship and intercession through my #IHOPKC family. (Mike’s profound sins, do not have the ability to negate the millions of sincere expressions of love and adoration to Jesus, the brilliant, Kingdom-enhancing friendships, the testimonies, the gazillions acts of Kingdom witness, the healings, the souls saved, nor the many, many miracles manifest over the decades.)
HOWEVER, the base, (the WHOLE base) MUST let go of self, and undergo a long, radial, self-abasing, self-analyzing, self-crucifying fire of the Holy Spirit. Without this arduous, focused work being engaged, we should not entertain any hope of the Father’s anointing upon us. (I honestly can’t swallow that I am saying this.)
PRAY FOR the current leadership at #IHOPKC. Pray for #HouseOfPrayer leaders in the nations. Pray that we/they would abase our/themselves before the objective analysis of the Holy Spirit, and humble our/themselves before what He says is true and real, that we might appropriate the Father’s authentic healing and righteousness. He IS a complete, and mighty Redeemer.
This is where I’m aiming my little energy in this hour.
‘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.
SPIRIT WORD & CROSS 