FINDING THE TRANSCENDENT WAY OF JESUS Beloved family. Stay true to the gospel of the Kingdom! Stay true to our King! Stay true to the cross!
Right now, heaven is searching for transcendent and unadulterated voices that will speak the truth of God to both the lost in the world, and the deluded in the Church.
It’s instructive to recognize that the voice of Christ – and the way of God – is almost never a singular, polarized antithesis to the way of godlessness. It is nearly always also a bur under the saddle of carnal, religious idolatry. History is packed with relevant examples:
A. In Exodus, there was the way of the Egyptians, the way of the Children of Israel, and then the way of God through Moses and Joshua. YHWH opposed the religious/idolatrous way of the Children of Israel (Exodus 32) as resoundingly as He did the paganism of the people of Egypt.
B. In Joshua 5, the Captain of the Lord’s armies declared He was not for the descendants of the Children of Israel, nor for the people of Jericho. He was looking for those who would “be on the Lord’s side”. It was a transcendent moment that moved Joshua (the man who would not leave the tent of meeting in Exodus 33) so profoundly that he fell at the feet of the Captain in holy worship.
C. In Daniel 3, there was the way of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, there was the way of the faithless children of Judah, and then there was the transcendent way of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, who would not bow to the kingdom image that all the rest of the Babylonians, including captive Judah were bowing to.
D. In Jesus’ day, there was the way of the pagan Romans, and then the way of the Pharisees, and the crippled people of Judea. Jesus walked in a transcendent way above the rampant false gods of the Hellenistic world, and the false, religious zealotry of the Jews – calling all to repentance.
“Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
E. Across the ages, kingdoms have risen in opposition to oppressive religion (ie. the Russian revolution, the populist movement in South Africa etc.), and kingdoms have risen up against virulent godlessness (the crusades, and many of the South American regime changes in the 60’s, and 70’s). In the VAST MAJORITY OF THE CASES the kingdoms that have risen against the ruling political power were NOT the way of Christ. (The Marxists weren’t the way of Christ replacing the religious elite in Russia. Pinochet wasn’t bringing the Kingdom of heaven to Chile. And Mandela wasn’t bringing the way of Christ to the people of South Africa.) There remained a transcendent way above, wedged and salted into the kingdoms that were in polar apposition to each other.
F. In the 1930’s, the Nazi’s rose to power promising to inoculate Germany from the godless ideology of communism that was sweeping the nations in eastern Europe. No one today believes Naziism was the way of Jesus. Nor would any Bible believer assert that the way of Stalin and Lenin were the government of heaven on earth. Faithful disciples of Jesus, the “ELECT” if you will, were borne and forged within the midst of the “trouble” (thlipsis – “tribulation”) of the intense cultural pressures that existed between these polarized ideologies. And so you had the Corey and Betsy TenBooms living for Jesus in spite of the Nazi opposition, and you had the Ivan (Vanya) Moiseyevs, living faithfully for Jesus under the thumb of communist Russia. BOTH LIVED FAITHFULLY FOR JESUS even though their secular cultural ideologies fought wars against the other…
It’s not so difficult to see the parallel today in America. There’s been a decades-long thrust of godless humanism that’s become virulent and oppressive throughout our culture, and now a strident, authoritarian nationalism that has taken aim at the evils of “the left”, and “the woke”. We dare (and it is a risk) to learn the long lesson of history – especially our own “people of God” history and realize that the Lord is most always NOT on one side or the other of these warring, political factions. His way is transcendent. His way is pure. His way is nailed to a cross to the glory of the One Who will one day rule ALL the nations.
Friends. Moses, Joshua, Jeremiah, Daniel, the John the Baptist, the disciples, Augustine, Luther, Wesley, and Bonhoeffer, all found the transcendent way of the “ELECT” of God. And it behooves the American Church to find it in our tumultuous hour as well.
“My Word is like a fire that purges dross… (Jeremiah 23:29); Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33:14) The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench the fire. (Isaiah 1:31)”
For the last 9 months, the Lord has been speaking to our House of Prayer in Arizona from the book of Jeremiah, and Isaiah chapter 1, about the approaching “fire of the Lord”. The hour is here. The Church in America (pastors, evangelists, apostles, teachers, prophets, young and old, women and men, Jew and gentile and black and native and… all who claim to be “in Christ”) is entering the forge of the Lord, with all of heaven, and the nation watching.
Some of us will come out of the furnace with spirits that are burnished bright; shining with His likeness. Millions of other believers will be radicalized by contraKingdom rhetoric; enflamed with nothing more than a raging self-seeking ethic that the Word of God warns us against.
Religious zealotry always looks promising to the flesh. But it is never what moves the Church from one age to the next. Consider the zealots of Jesus’ day. They subscribed to a very orthodox theology of God, and the scriptures. But their spirits, such as they were, were unprofitable for the Kingdom work that the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit were bringing to earth.
This historical parallel is essential to note. We live in an hour when many zealous individuals also verbalize classic, theological orthodoxy, and yet refuse to live under the reign of Jesus’ authority – marginalizing the blessings and warnings of the Sermon on the Mount, avoiding our daily (Luke 9:23) cross, and hence devoid of the Spirit’s baptismal fire. Consequently, the church elevates political power as an expedient end to prayer power, cultural dominion over humility before the Lord, and the temptation to live with a hostile, even violent spirit, rather than to learn the way of meekness.
Heaven has no use for a “Church” who has no use for the Son’s Sermon on the Mount. The Spirit will simply not release anointing upon a Church who isn’t walking crucified to “Christ”.
Heaven has no use for a Church who has no use for the Son’s Sermon on the Mount.
No. Classic, theological orthodoxy cannot be the sole, nor primary distinguishing characteristic of what constitutes “fidelity to the Lord” in this hour.
Nonetheless, it is a brusk, unbowed, militant, theological orthodoxy which is being spun, embraced and now normalized within our evangelical family in this hour.
It’s incumbent upon pastors and leaders to discern this deceitful perversion of Jesus’ Kingdom. It is a false way, that though it be filled with emotional, populist appeal, lacks the essential element that makes for Kingdom success: the crucified life. It is for this reason that the Lord is bringing His fire into our midst. His “burnings” are intended to purge the self-saving spirit from His Bride, while simultaneously beautifying the Christ-reliant, Christ-exalting resurrection spirit within His Bride.
This separation of the way of self, from the way of Christ, is a compulsory work of the Spirit. And it is the fire of the Lord that forges this element within the character of the Bride; refined, spotless, and pure – prepared to be presented to the Son. And it is for this work that the fire of the Lord is upon the “ecclesia” right now, in the fall of 2025.
Will we come to the Lord’s threshing floor and allow His fire to remove the endemic selfism from our ways, and spirits? Or will we “rise up” in the religious zeal of our own self-determined flesh in order to champion a crossless, politically empowered morality?
Every evangelical leader in America ought to be attuned to the intent of the Spirit right now, so as to help the people of God to…
A. Understand the nature of the cultural and internal conflict that’s upon them,
B. Understand the glorious nature of what the Lord wants to produce through the forge (ala. vibrant Christlikeness)
C. Understand how to help the people wholly submit to the purging/purifying work of the Spirit through this season.
A vow (not even a very popular, emotional vow) will not save the Church right now. Only finding His Presence, and bowing low before His unapproachable majesty will align us with our King. We can either be stirred to fervent determination (which will exit us from the forge of the Lord – a whole “other” story… [See Isaiah 1:28]), or we can stay in the fire, trust His heart for us, and submit ourSELVES to the deep, cleansing work of His fire. The Lord will ONLY bring resurrection power to one of these two places. Not the other. NOT the other.
Beloved. We don’t want a Christianity that has no resurrection power upon it. Only a cross will get us there. Not a sword. (Even if we do call it “the sword of the Lord”. It is not.)
We want bonafide New Testament Christianity. Not age-old, intertestamental religious zealotry. It’s vital that we learn to distinguish between the two.
Rising up in militant, nationalist opposition to their enemies brought neither Judah, nor Israel into revival. It brought them into exile.
Rising up in militant, nationalist opposition to their enemies brought neither Judah, nor Israel into revival. It brought them into exile.
The only way into the revival that the Lord has in store for His people is through the Christ-forging fire that the Lord is bringing upon His people.
Truth-be-told, the New Testament scriptures are clear: though He be enormously patient and compelling, should the covenant people of God steadfastly spurn the purging work of the Father, they can expect to be purged from the Father.
In real fear and trembling, I pray that more than a very small remnant will see the forge that’s upon us, and avail ourselves of it.
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; fear seizes those clothed in falsehood: ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?’ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks.” (Isaiah 33:14-16)
In accordance with what the Bible tells us about the ways of the Lord with a wicked and rebellious people, millions of church-going believers in our nation are being given over to a spirit of delusion.
“Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, GOD GAVE THEM OVER to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper; people having been filled with all unrighteousness…” (Romans 1:28-29)
“Consequently GOD SENDS ON THEM A DELUDING INFLUENCE so that they will believe what is false.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11)
“For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that THEY ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19)
“They are pure vanity, the work of delusion and error. When the day of their visitation comes, they will be destroyed.” (Jeremiah 51:18)
What does being given over to a spirit of delusion look like in a soul, a community, and/or a culture?
12 Signs and Consequences of a Christian Being Given Over to a sPirit of Delusion:
1. You cannot also be filled with the Holy Spirit
2. You will not crave the fruit of the Spirit – you will crave and justify the fruit of the flesh
3. You will (increasingly?) suffer (literally) the natural, compounding consequences of unrighteousness
4. You will not be able to rightly bear a cross; you will have no means of true discipleship in Christ, and will therefore have no means to cultivate increased living faith in Christ Jesus
5. You will be found testifying to things that actually harm the reputation of God, and harm others.
6. You will seek out greater and greater religious zeal to make up for the lack of Spirit power in your life
7. You will listen to the destructive and divisive arguments/doctrines of demons
8. You will increasingly NOT walk in the light of honestly, vulnerability, poverty of spirit, humility, meekness etc., but instead walk in darkness, shame, isolation, and evil suspicion
9. You will fill your self with more and more of a “curse” – that will actually often manifest itself as “cursing”
10. “Prophetic” words (charismatic), and Biblical teaching (dispensational) are more and more about “saving self”, and less and less about exalting Jesus, or even mentioning Jesus at all.
11. Daily intimate fellowship with Jesus and His Word, and prayer (watching and praying) becomes more and more burdensome, and the invitation to political, social, ethical, religious zealotry becomes more and more appealing.
12. Ultimately, the terms of your own covenant with Jesus are on the table, and you find yourself questioning key elements of the gospel for yourself, and others.
The only way to move through the trauma, destruction and tribulation that’s engulfed the House of Prayer world is to be wholly honest about the sins within our family. Unless we see these sins in the Father’s light, we will not understand… A • the depth of sin that has been worked against us, and how seriously it has injured us.
B • the various levels of our own complicity and participation in these sins.
C • the nature of the thorough healing and redemptive trust-building we must engage in, individually and collectively.
D • the fathoms of mercy that Jesus makes available to the sinner(s), and all affected by the sin.
E • Neither will we be adequately prepared to enter into the many promises of the coming season, as the Bride prepares herself for the return of our King.
When persons within the “family” refuse to cooperate with the essential work of naming the sins, the rest of the family is left with the extremely painful, and tender task of identifying the sin. This task is fraught with holy danger, but is vital if the family, and her individual, organic members are to recover in Christ. This endeavor is all the more difficult when the heads of the family are the ones refusing to come into the light and set the tone for those they are called to lead.
Yes. The Lord can heal, forgive and restore, but it is immensely more difficult to work for and receive this depth of redemption once the wounds have become infected, the limbs have been severed, and the perpetrators (that’s all of us) are enclosed in their/our towers of self-defense.
PART 1 THE DEADLY SINS of OUR “FATHER”, MIKE BICKLE
1 • Sexual abuse against our vulnerable, young sisters in Christ
2 • Covering, deceit and manipulation re these abusive sins – for decades
3 • Failure to seek out, and submit to family help/accountability re: the nature, and long pattern of these disqualifying sins
4 • Refusal to trust the mercy of God, as his own sons; our brothers came to him in the spirit of Matthew 18 re his hidden sins
5 • Building a campaign of self-defense, counter-attack, and prophetic machination against his own sons, and daughters, for the benefit of keeping his sins hidden
6 • Repeatedly lying and deceiving investigators about the substance of his hidden sins
7 • Remaining in the shadows for months, allowing his own family to suffer utter decimation, for nothing more than protecting that which should have long been crucified in Christ.
PART 2 THE DEADLY SINS of the LEADERS of IHOPKC
8 • Failure to initially respond to allegations with collective call to humility, trembling, repentance and fear of the Lord (Joshua 7)
9 • Cultivating an adversarial posture against victims and those who were speaking on behalf of the victims
10 • Fostering a self-saving, business as usual, public-relations management spirit while resisting the Lord’s wholesale call to the threshing-floor.
11 • Refusal to listen to hundreds of respected sisters and brothers in Christ; allies, compatriots, fathers and mothers in Christ who have been calling for an objective, third-party investigation
12 • Developing a pattern of communicating with other leaders, counselors, pastors and the rest of the House of Prayer family rooted in suspicion, hostility, pride and pretense
13 • Neglect of the spiritual/emotional needs for staff, families, students and interns to have a safe, holy space to grieve, mourn, speak truthfully, and receive intensive spiritual counsel
14 • Dogged resistance to suspend all other activities and blow the trumpet for a Joel 2 assembly
NOTE TO “US” (House of Prayer Leadership at Large, and the Whole House of Prayer Global Family) If we don’t see that the tribulation that has engulfed the House of Prayer is foremost about the Father judging us, and our household, whatever else we have to say, either as accusation, or in defense, is gonna be off-point. Profoundly. Generally speaking, we humans would rather do the easy work of “destroying”, than the hard work of “healing”. For this reason, the last SINS are not only listed, but also accompanied with words of confession, contrition and repentance. It is vital that we allow the Holy Spirit to search and engage our own souls about these matters.
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desire are they than gold; yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
PART 3 CONFESSION of THE DEADLY SINS of HOUSE of PRAYER LEADERS and FORMER HOUSE of PRAYER LEADERS in the DIASPORA
15 • We have refused to respond to the Lord’s summons and have not gathered ourselves to the Lord’s threshing floor through this crisis. We have not called for, nor responded to a collective Joel 2 assembly.
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God… Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes… Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’“ (Joel 2:12-17)
16 • We’ve watched our sisters and brothers in Kansas City suffer gross sin, difficulty, conflict, and great aspersion without coming to them with united support, encouragement and solidarity.
17 • We’ve attempted to “save self”, and have too easily “jumped out of the number”in our living fellowship with our sisters and brothers in Kansas City.
“He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
18 • We have compounded our family’s crisis, by too often allowing ourselves to become embittered observers, and social-media critics of our sisters and brothers in Kansas City.
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness…’ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 10:29)
PART 4 CONFESSION of THE DEADLY SINS of the ENTIRE HOUSE of PRAYER FAMILY
“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for Your servants, and confess the sins which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded.” (Nehemiah 1:5-7)
21 • We have tolerated, and helped to create a communal atmosphere where the prominent were vaunted, and protected, while the nameless were left vulnerable, marginalized and/or scrutinized.
22 • When our leaders have failed to “blow the trumpet” we have not prayed for them, nor pressed the need for such holy response to the judgments of the Lord.
23 • We have majored on responding to each other, seeking consolation and building self-honoring narratives in preference to seeking truth, counsel and consolation from the Lord, Himself.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my fears; and see if there is any wicked way in me.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
24 • We have allowed our opinions, our criticism, and bitterness to dictate the thoroughfares of our heart, rather than the Word of the Lord, and His cleansing, redeeming judgments.
25 • In our attempt to remain free of guilt and complicity, we too have easily, and often “jumped out of the number”, and become accusers, rather than fellows with sinners. Our hearts remain all too filled with self-exoneration.
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.“ (1 John 1:5-10)
Beloved family, we have deep, long furrows of spiritual work ahead of us, if we are to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). Our many, common and diverse future assignments from the Lord will not freely go forward with Holy Spirit power if we short-change this cleansing, purging, forgiving, redeeming process. This is no hour of human history to allow any sliver of unhealed or unsubmitted darkness to remain in our lives together. As the title of this article notes, to leave these sins partially or completely undealt with spells ultimate death to the fellowship the Lord has cultivated in the House of Prayer over the last 25 years.
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:2-8)
“Who is a God like You, who forgives wickedness and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He constantly delights in mercy and lovingkindness. He shall again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our wickedness [destroying sin’s power]. Yes, You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. You shall give truth to Jacob and lovingkindness and mercy to Abraham.” (Micah 7:18-20)
For the month of March (2024) All Nations House of Prayer Southwest is dedicating every prayer-set, prayer gathering, and prayer topic to engage the Lord in corporate confession, mourning, repentance and and purification. If you would like more information about visiting us, and participating with us in this work, contact me, Jonathan Boegl, at xaris4u@yahoo.com
There remains a great promise for all who thoroughly bring their house before the Lord in this hour: “The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” (Joel 2:24)
#IHOPKC folk: At the end of the day, if we don’t see that the tribulation that has engulfed the House of Prayer is foremost about the Father judging His household, WHATEVER else we have to say, either as accusation, or in defense, is gonna be OFF POINT. Profoundly.
Generally speaking, us humans would rather do the easy work of “destroying”, than the hard work of “healing”. In a nut-shell, this is the kind of endemic, and warped way of the curse, that Jesus came to save us from.
What if, we paused our cursing and accusing, and defending, and instead, used our many words to cry out to the Father for His tangible power and presence to rest upon us, the House of Prayer and the praying church?
What if we poured out our broken passion and pain, and tears and angst, and our many sins together at His feet?? Are His arms short? Would He not purge us, forgive us, and heal us? Would He not gather us to Himself? Would He not fit us for His purposes in this hour? Perhaps with even increased fidelity to His heart as the contra-Christ spirit intensifies around us?
This is what I am endeavoring to do here. I’m sick from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I’m tired of throwing my stones. I’m bruised from my own punches and counter-punches.
Here are 12 PRAYERS of REPENTANCE that I’m using to enjoin the Lord and His healing mercy.
#01 • A PRAYER of THANKSGIVING and SURRENDER to GOD and HIS JUDGMENTS
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desire are they than gold; yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalm 19:9-10)
#02 • PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS FOR OUR REBELLION AND UNBELIEF
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness…’ Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 3:7-8; Hebrews 10:29)
#03 • REPENTANCE AND PLEA FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE CURSE OF THE SERPENT
“(When) they knew that they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” And the Lord said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”” (Genesis 3:7-13)
#04 • REPENTANCE FOR OUR HYPOCRISY RE: OUR FAITH IN GOD THROUGH CORPORATE PRAYER
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God… Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes… Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’“ (Joel 2:12-17)
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)
#05 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for OUR DEEP HYPOCRISY and PROFOUND REBELLION AGAINST the LORD and HIS WAY
“Our iniquities overwhelm us; only You can atone for our great rebellion.” (Psalm 65:3)
#06 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for ASSUMING WE HAD THE HOLY ABILITY TO FIX THE LORD’S HOUSE
“So they carried the ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. And when they came to the THRESHING FLOOR, UZZA put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against UZZA, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark… David was afraid of God that day, saying, ‘How can I bring the ark of God to me?'” (1 Chronicles 13:7-10,12)
#07 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for GIVING OURSELVES to DEVOURING OUR SISTERS and BROTHERS
“If you go on attacking each other and tearing each other to pieces, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other!” (Galatians 5:15) [CEV]
#08 • PRAYER of REPENTANCE for DISMISSING and MARGINALIZING the CONCERN and PAIN of OUR SISTERS and BROTHERS
“As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.” (Psalm 35:13-14)
DAY #09 • PRAYER of SELF-EXAMINATION and REPENTANCE
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my fears; and see if there is any wicked way in me.” (Psalm 139:23-24)
#10 • PRAYER of CORPORATE REFLECTION and REPENTANCE
“I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the #HouseOfPrayer Your servants, and confess the sins of #IHOPKC which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded.” (Nehemiah 1:5-7)
#11 PRAYER OF REPENTANCE for SHUNNING the WAY of the CROSS
“If you do not take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38)
#12 PRAYER of REPENTANCE for SELFISHLY SEEKING OUR OWN PROTECTION and SELF-JUSTIFICATION while in the MIDST of CRISIS
“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
“In those days… everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 and 21:25)
“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God…” (Romans 3:11)
“He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)
“He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
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.
Click here for a link to this MESSAGE (Recorded at The International House of Prayer Kansas City)
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.(2 Corinthians 4:7-11)
God Has Placed a Treasure in You!
God has placed a great treasure in you! The apostle Paul writes that this treasure is “the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
The treasure that Paul spoke of is nothing less than the real, living presence of Jesus Christ within every born-again believer. Jesus promises, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. (John 14:23) Paul writes to the Galatians: I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. (Galatians 4:19) Paul also writes about this stunning reality in his letter to the Corinthians: Do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? (2 Corinthians 13:5) Every sacrifice we make to pursue the increase of this treasure within us testifies to His great worth and value.
The Treasure in You is Vibrant!
People who intentionally and sacrificially position their hearts before the burning revelation of Jesus’ glory, with a “yes” in their spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18) are made increasingly brilliant; transformed by an intensifying weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). While it is more fully manifested in the next age, this treasure is meant to shine ever brighter (Prov. 4:18) in this age within our minds, spirits, emotions, will and loving attitudes toward others.
The Treasure in You is Viral! Around the world, God is expanding His Kingdom and filling believers with His brilliant presence in ways that can only be described as “viral”; meaning, in ways that are very free from the mediation of human agency. We are sober to carry Jesus’ primary mandate to go and “preach the gospel” – but we rejoice (Acts 10:40) whenever we find that Jesus is doing so much of the work ahead, and often, completely independent from us.
Jesus promises to build His Church. (Matt. 16:18) And it is God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness, who has shone in our hearts. (2 Corinthians 4:6) Each of us are recipients of His mercy and none may take credit for the gracious, transformative activity of His Spirit.
In my opinion, the House of Prayer movement has exploded in sovereign, viral ways. My own introduction to the wealth of IHOP came through a series of God-orchestrated events; not through the strategic intervention of man, or my own deductive reasoning.
In the Fall of 2001 I received a prophetic word from the Lord that took me two days to receive and has taken 15 more years to materialize. In the prophetic word God told me of a movement that would emphasize singing and result in a great harvest, even while much of the rest of the evangelical culture struggled in barrenness, and our nation experienced terror and collapse. The two days that I received this major word from the Lord were September 9 & 10, 2001.
Two weeks later God gave me a dream about Lou Engle leading young adults through a shopping mall praying over closed shop-gates, while Larry Tomczak, a man that I respected as a powerful evangelist, waited to preach. Two days after the dream, I received an advertisement for a One Thing Conference that was held in Kansas City. Two of the main speakers were to be Lou Engle and Larry Tomczak.
Over the next several years, I would write, teach, promote, develop prayer classes and programs with the aim of stimulating individuals to embrace prayer and the Bridegroom paradigm. In spite of my zeal, my advocacy was not the persuasive element that won people to the movement. Often, an individual would show up to a meeting and tell us that they had a dream, a visitation, or an inexplicable burst of passion to pursue Jesus in prayer and worship. Over these years God drew scores of people to His extravagant love. They hungered for Mike’s Song of Song’s teachings, attended IHOP conferences and entered internships as the Spirit kindled their hearts with love for the Bridegroom.
In 2006, I wrote about what I was experiencing with the House of Prayer: “The Spirit is incubating a supernatural (Ezekiel 37:10) army in the House of Prayer that He will release into an asthmatic church and a distressed world. The DNA of this work is viral (Acts 10:44) and it is being borne on the very breath of God.”
God Cultivates and Enriches His Treasure Within Us in Unconventional Ways
It also pleases God to put His treasure in obscure places. Consider the context of God’s decision to put His treasure in you. There are more galaxies in the universe (300 billion), than there are stars in our galaxy (200 billion). And our God, fills the whole universe! (Jeremiah 23:24) He chooses one solar system on the spiral arm of one galaxy; and then chooses one planet (not even the largest) in that configuration where He chooses to shape little, clay pots; and then he declares: “This is where I will put the treasure that I plan to cultivate and reign with, forever!” Anyone who considers the macro-context of God’s work in us must ask the question: “Why?” From our human perspective God’s choice seems very curious.
He Places His Valuable Treasure within Fragile Vessels in Turbulent Conditions
Receiving the gift of Jesus’s presence in our lives is not the beginning of a sheltered and sanitized lifestyle. Although Jesus operates in a consistently faithful manner, saying yes to His presence is most often like saying yes to a whirlwind. He is lovingly and relentlessly committed to restructuring and refining our hearts to magnify His presence.
In 2006, on my way back from the House of Prayer in Kansas City, God spoke in an audible in-my-ear voice and declared my twenty-plus years of ministry to be breathless. He also placed a weeping burden in my soul (in a very-crowded Phoenix airport) declaring that the evangelical church in America was breathless. I didn’t fully understand it then, but I was entering a turbulent season of radical renovation.
It pleases Him to put His treasure in vessels who are prone to being crushed, perplexed and persecuted so that we learn, as Thomas a’Kempis elegantly observes: “how to trust under His wings and not trust in our own.”
In 2007 Barb, my wife of 23 years, contracted stomach cancer. In a matter of days hundreds of people were praying for her healing. Friends from the churches in our community started to pray 24 hours a day in a little camper trailer outside of our home. Nonetheless, in two, short months, Barb died. Abruptly, I was a 48 year old widower with two twelve-year-old girls – and a very breathless pastor.
Still, it took me another year and a half before I yielded to the changes the Holy Spirit wanted to make in my life and begin a work of liberating “self -less-ness”. In the Spring of 2009; very weak and breathless, I resigned from 20 years of professional ministry to simply meet with Jesus in a tent of meeting.
He Cultivates His Treasure in You through Weakness
One of the first lessons that Jesus taught me in this tent of meeting was the “blessedness of being poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). The Holy Spirit told me that He could not give me this blessedness because in nearly every aspect of my life I was striving to be rich.
We don’t do weakness well, and we bristle at the admission of our own inability. We want to be a Forerunner, yet we chafe at being forged through weakness.
It pleases the Father to hide His treasure; the formation of His Son, within human weakness for several reasons.
He wants to hide us in weakness, because He loves us and longs to heal our wounds as our weakness rests in His strength.
God’s treasure hides well in weakness. Satan can smell pride a Solar System away. Weakness is where we learn to trust the depth and breadth of His perfect protection.
Weakness is where we learn to trust Him and the strength of His grace. He brilliantly cultivates His treasure in weakness. Even though I didn’t enjoy it in my flesh, two weeks after a recent 21 day fast I wrote about the wisdom of making ourselves weak for His sake: “After the fast I have a deeper awareness of my own barrenness and inability to unlock & release and increase the power & glory of God. I also have an even deeper and growing sense of how much God desires to increase His glorious presence in my barrenness & inability.”
He hides His treasure in us in weakness because it’s the way of Jesus. No one had more of the treasure of God within them, than the God/Man Jesus Christ. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God … made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man…HE HUMBLED HIMSELF… and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a CROSS. – Philippians 2:5 & 8
He Enriches the Treasure within Us as we Bear His Cross
Ultimately, the Holy Spirit brings us to weakness, in order to bring us to death on the cross. The way of increased glory and manifestation of Kingdom power through a believer’s life always comes through our participation in the cross! Bob Sorge notes: “If it were so for Jesus, should we expect to find increase through an alternative route?”
Let’s return to our passage in 2 Corinthians 4, where the apostle Paul declares: “We always carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” The grammar and syntax of this statement gives believers one function in their pursuit of manifesting the life of Jesus. The active role of the believer is not to generate a resurrection. Indeed, we cannot! Paul explicitly says that our role is to always carry about in our bodies the dying of the Lord, Jesus. If the apostle Paul said he always did something wouldn’t you want to what that is?
“Carrying about in our bodies the dying of the Lord, Jesus” is a mystery of the highest level; and yet, one way that we practically live it out is by heeding Jesus primary command in (Matthew 16:24) “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
“We often speak of our abiding in Christ. But we forget that that means the abiding in a crucified Christ. Many believers appear to think that when once they have claimed Christ’s death in the fellowship of the cross, and have counted themselves as crucified with Him, that they may now consider it as past and done with. They do not understand that it is in the crucified Christ, and in the fellowship of His death, that they are to abide daily and unceasingly.” – Murray, Andrew The Secret of The Cross
We have wanted a church without a real cross and a cross without a real grave. We’ve wanted a glorious Christianity, but we have cared little for the refining fire (Revelation 3:18) through which such a treasure is produced.
Too often, the church has presented the cross as a tool unto self sacrifice, when Jesus taught that bearing the cross is primarily about the sacrifice of self. Consequently, the church has left the idols on the high places of the human heart and failed to teach disciples how to apply the cross to their opinions, attitudes, priorities, mores, ministry plans and ambitions. Bearing the cross is about more than curbing wanton acts and enduring rigorous disciplines; it’s about killing the intrinsic ways of the self!
Five Ways of the Self the Holy Spirit Puts to Death through the Cross
1. Self-Glorification and Making a Name for Ourselves:
It’s essential that we let the cross crucify our ambitious pursuit of the world’s definition of success (applause, material wealth & comfort and credit etc.) Putting the craving for self-glorification to death also includes dying to self-promotion that does not wait on God’s timing, contends with others and/or falsifies self to achieve it’s objective. Self-glorification
is antithetical to meekness.
2. Self-Gratification:
Our whole culture is obsessed with securing inordinate wealth, security, comfort and fame. This preoccupation has greatly consumed the church so that too often we treat the gospel as a self-help or life-management tool that merely has as it’s end-result, to make lives work. Cultivating the treasure of Jesus in our lives involves renouncing a self-absorbed lifestyle of unchecked self-gratification.
3. Self-Determination: We, like Paul, are BOND-SERVANTS of Christ, Jesus. (Romans 1:1) As a “bond-servant” we are not free to choose our own way. The way of a Christ-bearer is the way of Christ, our redeemer; our Lord; our Master. (1 Corinthians 6:19) “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
4. Self-Sufficiency:
One of the most difficult areas to discern and bring to death is our unbridled reliance upon the wealth of our human ability (ie. Expertise, Wealth, Institutionalism, Sophistry & Religious Zeal etc.) The can-do American Church has an endless amount of resource, ability, energy and creativity to extend the Kingdom of God. Without carrying about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, the American Evangelical community remains hyper-reliant upon her own power to minister, evangelize, build churches, and nourish mature believers. With no parameter, she can build structures and programs that are un-empowered by the Spirit and may even detract from the brilliance of the true treasure of the Church. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)
5. Self-Evaluation: (1 Corinthians 4:3, 5) “For me it is a minor matter for me to be judged by you, or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself… So then, do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the motives of hearts. They each will receive recognition from God.” Paul writes that he does not judge himself; he does not evaluate himself along the way. He has given up the right to determine what is valuable; what is of merit; what is worthless, and what is futile within himself. The Lord is free to use it all; the great and the small; the gifts and the weaknesses – for His good. What counts is not our estimation of what we give Him, but His. The wisdom of bringing our self-evaluation to death is that dying to this foul, critical way liberates us from both a haughty spirit and a self-deprecating spirit.
Uncrucifed, these five ways of the self diminish the glory of God, debase the value of the treasure in our lives, attempt to domesticate and subjugate the Spirit, profoundly short-circuit the dynamic power of the church and delude believers into blind allies of self-empowerment.
Too often believers have turned a blind eye to these self-idols, and have raised up ministries that, after seasons of wonderful increase, discover they are plateaued, obstructed and perplexed (2 Corinthians 4:8) rather than fruitfully fulfilling the Spirit’s purposes.
Cross-Bearing 101 for the Forerunner
If weakness unto cross-bearing and death-to-self is where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church, then a chief task of the forerunner is to die first!
In this hour, we dare not spare any part of our lives and our ministries from the scrutinizing fire of the Holy Spirit. The fact is, much of what has been left uncrucifed in our culture has not been crucified simply because the Holy Spirit wields the power of the Cross against so much of our best stuff. And for too long, it’s precisely “our best stuff” that’s been hindering us from receiving God’s I AM stuff. The crucifixion of Jesus tells us that the cross is ruthless in what it brings to death. It not only kills what is objectionable and offensive – but it also brings to death that which looks grand and glorious. Crucifixion of self requires a spiritual violence (Matthew 11:12).
Our primary focus must be our Magnificent Obsession: the manifestation of Jesus (our spiritual treasure) within our lives. John the Baptist’s moniker was not I must decrease and He must increase. He stated the dynamic in it’s right order. His pre-occupation was the increased revelation of Jesus, not on what needed to be decreased in his own life. John says, “He must increase and in the increase of His revelation we find the power to decrease and die.” The revelation of Jesus within our lives must remain the forerunner’s incessant obsession! We cannot allow our conscience to become fixated on what we think needs to be crucified next. That’s the Holy Spirit’s work, not ours!
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, revelations of Jesus can actually help put us to death!
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a specific REVELATION about Jesus (ie. Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to me as the One Who was pierced. [Revelation 1:7])
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what inside you RESISTS, or is perplexed by this revelation of Jesus. (ie. Holy Spirit, show me where there is any resistance or inhibition to my receiving Jesus as the One Who was pierced.)
RENOUNCE (and REPENT if necessary) those aspects of your life that struggle with the appropriation of this dimension of Jesus in your life. Yield all that is not in agreement with this aspect of Jesus to the cross! (ie. Crucify the part of my heart that is slow to believe that He loves me that much. Crucify the coldness within me that fails to cherish the magnificent worth of His sacrifice.)
Crucify the aspects of your heart that are indifferent, or opposed to Who He is. (Galatians 5:24) Bring these thoughts and attitudes to a merciless end.
REQUEST that Jesus, the treasure inside you, increase (Proverb 4:18) His RADIANCE within you!
Remember, the Holy Spirit’s phenomenal purpose in giving us increased revelations about Jesus is so the incarnational treasure of Jesus, is actually manifested within us.
And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2)
SPIRIT WORD & CROSS 