Final Exit
Can you handle extreme reality? You’ve never been to anything like this. Experience it for yourself, if you dare. Final Exit is a graphic 40-minute, multi-dimensional, 11-scene, extreme reality walk-thru tour with over 100 live actors, high-tech visuals, and special effects that will assault your senses and captivate you.
Experience it now, right by IHOPU, at the junction of S. 71 Highway and Main Street in Grandview.
12905 S. 71 Highway, Grandview, MO 64030
Bring your friends. Open 7:00pm until midnight on the following days:
Thursday, March 24
Friday, March 25
Saturday, March 26
Thursday, March 31
Friday, April 1
Saturday, April 2
Thursday, April 7
Friday, April 8
Saturday, April 9
Thursday, April 14
Friday, April 15
Saturday, April 16
Tickets $10 at the door.
Contact evangelism@ihop.org if are interested in helping in any way. More information about Final Exit at finalexit.com.
I will Build My Ekklesia
“For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” —Isaiah 56:7
God’s plan has always been for His house to be a house of prayer. His desire is to raise up a house of prayer to contend with the powers of darkness in every place, and with “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5). It will confront every other ‘house.’
Jesus laid out a blueprint of His house in Matthew 16:13-19. The conversation recorded in this passage is the epicenter of divine revelation, divine definition, and divine calling for His people. Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt. 16:15) and Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16:16). In response, Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven,” (Mt. 16:17) and He declared “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16: 18).
“On this rock I will build My church.” On what rock? On Peter’s revelation that Jesus is the Christ. Peter got it! He connected the dots! He understood that Jesus is the Messiah, the King of kings who will crush oppressors, the kings of the earth, and the powers of darkness (Ps. 2; 72:4; 110: 5–6, Rom. 16:20; Rev. 17:14; 19:19–21).
Yet when Jesus announced His intentions, He meant a very different thing from what our English Bibles say. He did not say He would build His church. Those are not His words. He said, “On this rock I will build My ekklesia.” The Greek word ekklesia and the English word church do not mean the same thing. Ekklesia means “assembly.” “Church? Assembly? What’s the difference?” we might ask. “We all know what we mean.” But do we?
The Bible is inspired, and God’s Word is infallible. Even so, human error can lead to translation mistakes. The mistranslation of ekklesia as “church” is acknowledged by scholars as a critical error, yet it is perpetuated in nearly all modern English translations. We’ve come to accept a substitute word! But God says what He means and means what He says. In this passage, He means ekklesia.
The word church derives from the Greek word kuriakos which means “belonging to the Lord.” In early church history, believers called the place in which they met kuriake oikia, “the Lord’s house.” Ekklesia, however, derives from two words: ek, meaning “out of,” and klesis, meaning “a calling.” It came to refer to an assembly because people were summoned or “called out” to assemble. It is used 115 times in the Greek New Testament. It is translated “church” in all but three verses (Acts 19: 32, 39, 41). An important dimension of our Christian identity has been lost through this translation mistake, diminishing the strength of our role in society.
By the time of Christ, the word ekklesia had been in use for over 600 years. It had specific, well-acknowledged connotations. When early believers heard ekklesia, they didn’t think of a building but of a ruling body. It was a political term, not a religious one. The ekklesia was an assembly of the government in Greek city-states. Open to all male citizens over the age of eighteen, the ekklesia was responsible for declaring war, military strategy, and electing military generals and other officials, including chief magistrates of the city-state. Members voted on decrees, treaties, and law proposals.
This means that when Jesus said He was going to build His ekklesia, He meant He was going to build His governmental center. He was going to establish His ruling body with the revelation that He is the Messiah and the supreme ruler of the earth. The gates of hell would not prevail against the kind of assembly Jesus intended to build. We can be sure, too, that when He said ekklesia, His hearers understood what an ekklesia was.
A change of mindset is needed in the Body of Christ. We are not just going to a building on Sunday. We are joining an assembly, a spiritual body governing our cities, states, and nations, with Christ as our Head. We are not just leading a prayer session in our houses of prayer. We are gathering an assembly around the throne of God, and releasing leadership. We are binding principalities and powers. We are part of an ekklesia.
Understood properly, an ekklesia is a threat to every corrupt government, drug lord, rebellious king, and demonic principality. The ekklesia of Jesus is equipped with weapons. It is not on the defensive, but the offensive. Gates don’t move of themselves. When He says the gates of hell won’t prevail against His ekklesia, He’s identifying His people as an attacking body. We are going after the gates of hell. Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Mt. 16:19). We’re in battle. We’re at war. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, and neither are our weapons of warfare “carnal.” They are “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).
We have been the “church” for too long. It’s time to build His ekklesia!
This article is taken from Lou Engle’s teaching “The Contending House of Prayer” during our onething 2010 conference. To listen to this teaching, visit IHOP.org/onething2010
All Scripture references, unless otherwise stated, are in the New King James Version.
An important message from John Mulinde
John Mulinde
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John Mulinde
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03/01/11 – John Mulinde
John Mulinde of World Trumpet Mission, based in Kampala, Uganda, spoke to the entire IHOP–KC staff on Tuesday, March 1. John spoke of God’s zeal for the holiness of the believer by relating a powerful encounter he had with the Lord. Listen to this message and let it pierce your heart with sobriety and strengthen your determination to live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way (Col. 1:10).
Foundations of Night-and-Day Worship and Prayer
FREE SESSION AND ESCHOOL DISCOUNT!
Check out the final session of Stephen Venable’s IHOPU course, Foundations of Night-and-Day Worship and Prayer! The course in its entirety is available at a discounted rate for the month of February. For more information, and to see other available courses, visit IHOP.org/eschool.
Jesus and the House of Prayer
In this session, Stephen Venable provides Old Testament background for the house of prayer spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 21. He explains that to understand the significance of night-and-day prayer it is important to ground our view of the Church in a biblical vision of the end times.
Taking a sober look at Jesus’ statements in Mark 13 and Luke 21 about watchfulness and prayer, Stephen goes on to clarify that every believer is called to be vigilant in prayer, but not every believer is necessarily called to the full-time ministry of worship and intercession as expressed through the house of prayer in the nations of the earth.
Stephen Venable’s Preview
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24 Foundations of Night and Day Worship and Prayer – Video Excerpt
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Building the House of Prayer
Moral decline advances rapidly and secular humanism grips the hearts and minds of this generation. Economic crisis hangs like a cloud over the land. We are in desperate days, and without vision, the people perish (Prov. 29:8).
Yet there is hope. God always has an answer and a remedy. The answer is always sovereign, but sometimes it is contingent upon the response and repentance of God’s people, and the promise of hope is carried upon the prayers of the saints.
Throughout redemptive history, God has led His people by establishing worship and prayer as the central, cooperative way to release a spirit of repentance, revelation, and revival to the nation. “If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14).
In the Old Testament, God established His temple and the worship therein as the predominant means of blessing His people. From the tabernacle of Moses to the tabernacle of David, to Solomon’s temple, to the Moravians of Germany, to the present day, God sets His sanctuary in the midst of a people who bear His name in order that they might have one, primary vision: His glory among the nations.
Nowhere do we see this redemptive act more clearly than in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah during Israel’s captivity and subsequent release. At that time, there was only one remedy for Israel: repentance and revival through the rebuilding of the temple.
Where there is agreement with God, restoration is soon to follow. “I am the Lord and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret . . . I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right . . . Look to Me, and be saved all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:18–19, 22).
The prophet Isaiah was the first person in Scripture to refer to the temple as a house of prayer (Isa. 56:7), but God’s continual desire for the temple is that it be a sanctuary of unending, unhindered worship. At its core, worship is agreement with the truth of who God is and what He has promised to do.
Jesus understood His Father’s intentions for the temple. In Matthew 21:13, He quotes Isaiah, saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” We can understand Jesus’ anger at those who treated the temple as a place of commerce when we realize why the temple existed in the first place: to glorify God.
We can also see the labor and partnership of God’s people through history to build and maintain a sanctuary as a permanent place of worship for Yahweh. In 586 BC, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple that King Solomon had built. In those days, Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of the city, but he also prophesied its restoration: “Thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10–13).
After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, approximately 50,000 Jewish exiles returned to a desolate Jerusalem to begin rebuilding the temple (Ezra 1–2). Because of economic hardship, spiritual lethargy, resistance from their enemies, and drought, they worked for just a short time before quitting for sixteen years (536–520 BC). Eventually, the Lord sent Haggai and Zechariah to speak encouragement to the people, and they began working on the temple again.
Haggai prophesied strength to the people to continue their labors: “Yet now be strong, Zerrubabel . . . and be strong Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land . . . and work; for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:4)
Zechariah prophesied the Lord’s faithfulness in healing the land through their efforts: “Return to Me . . . and I will return to you” (Zech. 1:3). The people were called to continue their work in spite of the difficulties they faced. They were assured that the Lord would be with them. God’s zeal, through the mouth of His prophets, strengthened the people to persevere.
This dramatic story from centuries ago is a powerful encouragement to those seeking to build a house of prayer in this present, desperate hour. God is restoring the worship that the temple was intended to facilitate, by calling His people across the world to night-and-day prayer.
Do You Partner with Your Intercessor or Your Accuser?
The human mind is one of God’s amazing creations. It never stops, even when we sleep. God designed our minds to help us be in continual dialogue with Him, but this does not happen automatically. Unless we tell our thoughts where to go, they will slide down into darkness as easily as eggs roll off the counter onto the floor!
Our thoughts are not neutral. Scripture teaches us we have both an Intercessor (Heb. 7:25) and an Accuser (Rev. 12:10). Our thoughts either partner with the intercession of Jesus or with the accusations of Satan.
Recently Paul’s prayer for the church at Rome has revived in my heart: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
The God of hope! Seeing the end from the beginning, He “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). He is the One who looked at childless Abraham and called him “a father of many nations” (Gen. 17:5). Appearing to Gideon, the man who had a complex about being the least, He called him a “mighty man of valor” (Judg. 6:12). He described David as “a man after His own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14), although David had some serious issues which caused him to stumble badly. He affirmed Peter’s willing spirit when his flesh was still weak (Mt. 26:40). He called Paul forth as a love-stricken apostle while he was yet a murderer of the saints.
What does He see when He looks at you? You would likely be surprised by what He’d say. My guess is that you might sometimes—even often—look at yourself with more of the Accuser’s eye than the Intercessor’s. Do you speak dark words over yourself? Are your thoughts about yourself dark?
Do you know He has great hope when He looks at you? When He looks at you in the midst of your struggles, He sees through them to the glory He is producing in you because of them. He sees the gold while it is yet covered in muck, being refined in the fire. He knows the greatness and beauty of the vessel while it is yet a mass of clay. There is a smile in the Potter’s eye as He works!
Or do you think somehow He has hope in His eyes for everyone but you? Not so! He sees where you have come from, the challenges you are facing, and where you are going. He calls forth the little seeds of promise in you long before they are mature.
I love to grow garden plants from seed. I start them indoors before spring arrives because it takes so much time for them to grow. If I want to get three tomato plants, I plant at least twenty seeds because they don’t all make it. So when I see some little sprouts poking their tiny heads through the soil, I’m excited! As I water them every day, I can’t help but sing over them and speak to them, because I am glad they grew some more. Within a month, they are two inches tall; and while they are far from being fruitful vines, I rejoice over them. When I look at a little seedling, I see a full-grown tomato plant. If I, being human, can feel so much pleasure in the process of a seed’s growth, how much more pleasure must our Father in heaven feel over the growth of His children?
When we see ourselves as the God of hope sees us, it becomes a lot easier to also see others as the God of hope sees them. You can’t give what you haven’t received.
Receive God’s perspective of you, and you will be able to give God’s perspective of others.
As a start, just tell Him each day, “I want to see what You see and feel what You feel when You look at me.” You might think it sounds selfish, but it’s essential. It’s about agreeing with God. And pray this concerning others.
I find that when I get cranky I can often trace it back to some agreement with the Accuser in my thoughts. It usually starts with believing an accusation concerning my own heart and the Lord. I think He’s annoyed with me, tired of loving me. Then I feel sure others feel the same way about me. Before long, I feel annoyed with others, tired of being patient.
Sound familiar?
The cure for such a funk is quite simple. We break agreement with the lies. Then we fill our minds with the truth of who God is and what He sees. He’s the God of hope, and He sees the fruit coming forth from our struggle, if we yield to Him in it.
And we pray Romans 15:13 every time our thoughts start sliding downward.
Apostolic Prayers – Ephesians 1 & 3
Paul’s letters contain some of the most powerful prayers in the Bible. The Apostle to the Gentiles left us a record in the New Testament of what he prayed over the churches he interacted with. Together with the New Testament prayers of Peter, John, and other believers, they are known as apostolic prayers. Here at IHOP–KC, we pray them daily.
These prayers are powerful because they draw the heart and mind to the throne room and give courage to walk with Jesus each day. They are positive, focusing our minds on the spiritual qualities we desire to cultivate, rather than on the negative thoughts and attitudes we can so often dwell on. They reflect the skillful and tender care with which Paul labored as a spiritual father over the early believers in Jesus.
Using the apostolic prayers as I talk with God develops my life in the Spirit, matures my walk of obedience, and grounds me in biblical doctrine. It impacts my life to such a degree that I can’t imagine praying without them. They are an incredible gift!
Two of my favorite apostolic prayers are in Ephesians. One focuses on receiving the spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17−18), and the other on being powerfully strengthened by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 3:16). We may pray for a spirit of revelation and actually receive it. However, knowledge is not all we need. We need spiritual strength and determination to take what we know to be true and walk it out. This is why we pray for strength in our inner man as well as for revelation of God’s will.
These two prayers, taken together, are a treasury of grace. As we explore their extensive truths and turn them into our own prayers, we nourish our spirits.
What Paul knew about the believers in the New Testament period is true of us too: we need the transforming truths of both these prayers as we endeavor to be true disciples of Jesus.
I challenge you to pray these prayers daily.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling. (Eph. 1:17−18)
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His spirit in the inner man. (Eph. 3:16)
Passion for Jesus Conference April 2011
A conference for those who want to experience more of God’s love and live for Him alone.
It is our destiny to live in intimate relationship with God, knowing the depth and delight of being loved by Jesus, our Bridegroom God and, in turn, loving Him with all our hearts. Yet many of us feel that our experience is far from this. Come receive practical instruction and impartation from the Spirit who empowers the Church to love God wholeheartedly. No matter how weak or strong you feel, regardless of your previous failures, irrespective of your personality, you can be ablaze with passion for Jesus. The Holy Spirit is restoring the first commandment to first place in the Body of Christ.
Come and encounter Jesus through worship, teaching, and ministry. Become the person you were born to be—an extravagant lover of God.
onething 2010 Highlights
Every December, thousands of young adults gather at Kansas City Convention Center for our annual onething conference to exalt Jesus. This year, 30,000 registered for onething 2010, though the east coast storm prevented some people from coming.
Our cry is for an entire generation to be gripped with a spirit of prayer and a longing for Jesus, the man from Nazareth with burning eyes of fire, our Bridegroom, King, and Judge.
Worship Highlights
Worship is always a highlight at onething, and this, our tenth annual conference, was no exception. Misty Edwards, Cory Asbury, Matt Gilman, and host of others led us into the presence of the Lord daily, and Justin Rizzo’s worship team included a choir from our IHOPU Forerunner Music Academy. Ardent love songs ascended to the throne of the Lamb.
Thousands responded to the call of God on their lives, as prophetic preaching was interwoven with practical teaching.
Teaching Highlights 
Mike Bickle expounded on the seven commitments of a forerunner—pray daily, fast weekly, do justly, give extravagantly, live holy, lead diligently, and speak boldly—charging us to live out New Testament Christianity with allegiance to God’s Word, to resist the fear of man, and to live before God’s eyes alone.
David Sliker challenged many to pray daily for an entire year for the destiny of their parents. Corey Russell’s exhortation to reorder our lives to receive the fullness of God’s grace stirred many to commit to living wholeheartedly for the kingdom of God.
On the final night of the conference, Mike Bickle highlighted what he considered to be the two most important messages: Allen Hood’s teaching on God’s view of our physical bodies, and Shelley Hundley’s sharing on how she processed the pain of her childhood and found her identity and emotional wholeness in God.
Our evangelism team reports that 400 people came to the Lord and that 500 people were filled with the Spirit.
Free Conference Archives
We invite you to view the free video archives of each session and to download teaching notes from the conference, both for your personal Bible study and to use for teaching others.
If you were unable to be with us for onething 2010, we invite you to join us for our “Passion for Jesus” conference, April 7–9, 2011.
TheCall Haiti – January 12, 2011
On January 12, 2010, the nation of Haiti was tragically struck by an earthquake that claimed 250,000 lives. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. During this time of crisis, the Holy Spirit began to stir believers all across the nations not only with compassion to meet the physical needs of the nation, but also with zeal to see the nation rise to her full prophetic destiny. Haiti was once known as “The Pearl of the Caribbean” and we believe that in this hour Jesus the Divine Merchant is in pursuit of the Haitian people as a precious pearl.
Haiti has been the recipient of many humanitarian efforts and projects. However, destruction and despair continue to loom over this great nation. The Lord wants to raise up the church of Haiti as a bright and shining beacon among the nations. Haiti’s destiny will be shaped through fasting and prayer. The prophet Joel tells us that the response of the people of God, both before and after a crisis (Joel 1:13; 2:15) should be to hold a solemn assembly with fasting and prayer.
Thousands of saints gather all across Haitia in intercession. On January 12, 2011, exactly one year since the earthquake, Lou Engle and TheCall will join and stand with 6,000 intercessors to cry out for an historic breakthrough in the nation.
