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.
“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 