Thoughts on the Incarnation
This time of year inevitably evokes thoughts of Christ. All over the earth, Christmas is a time to dwell on the mystery of the incarnation. Believers and unbelievers alike will most likely find themselves pondering the life of Jesus at some point or another during these yearly festivities and rightly so, for it is in memory of His coming, His incarnation, and His birthday that people stop to dwell on this mystery—Immanuel, God with us.
But I always wonder if we truly grasp the implications of the incarnate Lord. To stop and think, to ponder, to consider or reflect is not sufficient to truly grasp the weight of God’s redemptive plan for all of mankind. Eternity’s cumulative expression is voiced now in one little helpless baby boy. This is a miracle, not merely a historic happenstance to be remembered once a year at Christmas. The reality of this miracle is as powerful now as it was to those shepherds and wise men on that evening in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago.
Imagine with me for a moment what this means. A baby born to one of the weakest clans in Israel, to a poor family of the least tribe, said to be conceived by the Holy Spirit, born in an oppressed nation during an era of foreign domination at the hand of pagan Rome, considered by His peers as an illegitimate child, He was forced to flee with his humble family because a murderous tyrant was seeking His head. Fast forward through His life as a young child and teen. As a young man He had no reputation, no prospects, no wealth, and considered Himself homeless for He had nowhere to lay His head. He was ostracized by the religious leaders of His day in a country where religious status meant everything, and He came claiming Messiahship—as the savior of Israel—only to be scorned, rejected, mocked, and eventually crucified as a trade-in for a murderer; all of this simply because He was being obedient to His Father.
The company He held was with the most despised class of people; namely, prostitutes, the sick, tax collectors, sinners, and vagabonds. All the hopes of Israel, from her first prophet all through her turbulent history, spoke of this man. All Israel’s expectations for a king for thousands of years and here Jesus is, claiming to be that man. One begins to wonder that had we been His contemporaries, would we have clung to our confession of Him as we do now, post cross and resurrection.
Do we really understand what He did? The cross was not a brief moment in time for Him. The cross was His entire life, from humble birth up until His extravagant passion. At every moment in His life He was driven by one thing—the will of His Father and joyfully submitting His life as a living sacrifice.
Christmas is not just a celebration of His birth, but of the nature, character, humility, and culmination of that birth and the life of exemplary love that followed it. As we celebrate Him this Christmas season, let us think and pray over what His incarnation means. And we will likewise declare with the apostle Paul, “Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, 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 the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:5-11).
onething 2010 Podcast #6
Onething Podcast – 6
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onething 2010 – Podcast 6
Description
Allen Hood talks about this year’s onething young adult conference.
onething 2010 Podcast #5
Onething Podcast – 5
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onething 2010 – Podcast 5
Description
Lenny LaGuardia, director of IHOP-KC Children’s Equipping Center, speaks about the children’s track at the onething 2010 conference.
Wordless Words of God in Bethlehem
As a babe in a manger, He came to tenderize our hearts. The Child has much to speak to lowly hearts, much to convey to hungry souls and any who will heed so tiny a voice. Have we become so familiar with the nativity story that we have relegated it to the narrative we tell our children in the Christmas season? And in so doing, have we neglected the gift of His nearness that the Holy Spirit desires to give to us through it—softening our hearts by it and piercing through our darkened understandings with the light of His nature there revealed?
The One we thought too far and too distant, too aloof and too indifferent to be known now lies before us as a Baby, so accessible. The One who created all things is now so close and approachable, having come to us in the form of a helpless, vulnerable baby. We see who God is in His humility, in His meekness, in His gentleness. As we join the story and kneel with the shepherds to gaze in upon the One in the manger, our hearts and minds are confronted with the truth that this tiny frame before us is the Word of God, God in the flesh, and that He has come near to us for the sake of love. When God the Creator—the Covenant Keeper, and the Redeemer—lies before us in the form of a newborn babe, the effect in our hearts is explosive.
As we kneel beside the shepherds and peer into the cave, our hearts pounding with the weight of the angels’ proclamation, we find Him there with wordless words, speaking so many things: “You thought I was too far and too distant, too aloof and too indifferent to be known. You thought that you were too weak or too broken to be received by Me. But behold, I am here in this dingy cave—I, the One who created all things. I am here so close to you in this cold night, inviting you to come near to Me.”
Our wrong paradigms of the Lord are exposed to the truth of the One we thought was unapproachable who now comes to us in the form of a defenseless baby. And the question must be asked: would we ever fear that a newborn baby might not want us near or think Him to be rejecting us? Would we ever wonder if He would rather another be in His presence instead? No! Without hesitation or the smallest inkling of rejection, we would hold Him fast in love and treasure the honor and beauty of such an opportunity. Babies do not reject another, and who would not rush into the privilege of holding so accessible a human frame? This is what Jesus whispers to us about His nature from of old in the fragile vulnerability of His infancy.
He is as approachable and embraceable as a newborn babe, and His reception of us without rejection is as sure as a receiving infant in one’s arms. Here in Bethlehem’s stable, as we gaze upon the glory of God revealed in His face, He conveys mysteries that have been obscured since the foundations of the world, now revealed in brightest light by the Incarnate Son—mysteries about His humility, His meekness, His mercy. And as we gaze upon Immanuel now with us, our hearts become assured of His unchanging love, His tenderness toward us, and His constant receiving of our love back toward Him.
Even from these first moments of His infancy, our only fitting response is to gaze with trembling tears and let our hearts be washed by wave after wave of so scandalous and glorious a truth—that this One is God, and this is what God is like. As we ponder how close He allows us to come, how He does not shun our presence or shield Himself from our love and worship of Him, our hearts cry out to Him, “Oh, who are we to be so near to You? And yet you desire us to come even nearer in heart and love. O, Christ Child, so tender, You have so many things to tell us and so many truths to convince us of. We wait here before You on this silent night and allow Your wordless speech to pierce our hearts over and over and over again.”
This article is an excerpt from Dana Candler’s book, Mourning for the Bridegroom.
African American Forerunner Alliance “Stand” Conference February 3–5, 2011
African American Forerunner Alliance
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AAFA Promo
Description
Join us for Stand, a Christian conference for black young adults, February 3–5 in Kansas City. We are coming together to focus on what the Holy Spirit is saying about the prophetic destiny and purpose of the black community and others of African descent in America.
In a time of the growing influence of the Nation of Islam and Five Percenters, the immorality of the hip-hop culture, and the growing tide of abortion in the black community, the Spirit of the Lord is raising up a prophetic standard. The Holy Spirit is raising up a generation in the black community, who will stand with burning hearts in intimacy with Jesus, as friends of the Bridegroom.
Stand is a three-day gathering for black young adults who have set their hearts to live prophetic lifestyles of radical obedience, with deep communion with Jesus. This conference will be focused on extended times of worship, ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, prayer, and teaching.
Turning Thoughts into Prayer
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing…”
And how do we do that! First, how do we rejoice always without denying the reality of our struggling emotions? And secondly, how do we pray without ceasing?
Now, we know that God is not excited about the mere vocabulary of praise if it doesn’t flow from the heart (Mt. 15:8-9). Rejoice always cannot mean “Just speak happy words in all circumstances,” for He values what’s going on in the heart more than what’s coming from the lips.
And we know God doesn’t wish that we’d speak only with Him, for we are to edify others with our speech—exhort, teach, encourage, prophesy.
Paul seems to be getting at something deeper. It’s as though he is saying that there is a posture of joy in God that is related to a position of on-going dialogue with Him. Paul expounds on this idea in Philippians 4:6. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (emphases mine).
Through an attitude of gratitude, we turn our cares into prayer.
We pour out our hearts before Him—every hurt, all worries, each struggle! And as we do so, we call to mind who God is and what He does. We perceive and process our struggles in light of His nature, His promises, and His faithfulness.
This is exactly what we find in the Psalms: utter honesty with God and radical trust in Him, so often viewed by moderns as mutually exclusive, are repeatedly brought together to give us the inner portrait of a saint’s soul. One who pretends he has no struggle is no saint, he is simply in denial! But, ah, one who admits struggle, yet sees it as grounds for God’s glory to be seen—there is one who is like Abraham and Moses and David.
So, we take our thoughts and turn them into prayer. And we take God’s thoughts, revealed in His Word, and turn them into prayer. We do not hide our struggles; we speak the words of God into them. Every thought of temptation, be it toward open immorality or some hidden darkness of heart (envy, anger, etc.), can be turned into dialogue with the Lord. We share. We ask Him questions. We listen. We repeat what He says.
We cherish who He is and what He says above all else. His promises are the words we live by. This posture of joy in Him equips us to live in a position of on-going dialogue with Him, a position that is much of how we walk in and with the Spirit, resisting the cravings of darkness that tug at us. We talk with Him! We commune—share thoughts. Our thoughts, His thoughts. And, in time, our thoughts become more like His. Our thoughts become captive to the knowledge of God, and they line up.
There’s a promise that Paul links with such prayer (notice how verse 7 follows verse 6!): “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). Peace is related to our attitude of gratitude that turns cares into prayer.
No matter what storm may be raging around you, or what disappointments may be crashing down upon you, if your life has become an on-going dialogue with the Lord, peace is your portion in Christ. It doesn’t mean you won’t struggle. It doesn’t mean that temptations won’t fly at you or stir within you. But peace will guard you in the onslaught of dark thoughts that would seek to take hold inside you.
The enemy will not find a foothold in you, because you will turn those thoughts into prayer.
Even if there already exists within you some old fortress of the enemy’s making—a stronghold whose roots stem from some past trauma or sin—it will not stay forever, because the new Guard will take over. Turning His thoughts and yours into dialogue with Him will eventually lead you to launch a victorious attack in the name of Christ against that old fortress.
Walking with Christ is a journey. He’s very patient with us. He doesn’t expect us to be perfected immediately. Possessing the land He has been promised (I speak figuratively, of our whole selves, for we are His inheritance as much as He is ours) is a process involving many battles—uprooting old kingdoms and establishing His. He is eager yet steadfast; He leads at just the pace we need for maximum growth.
One thing is for sure: we will not go very far with Him, if we don’t talk to Him along the way—turning our thoughts and His into prayer. And so we “rejoice always; pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17).
onething Orlando, FL, January 13-15, 2011
Hello from the onething team,
We know you wouldn’t want to miss it, so we are writing to let you know that onething is coming to your city soon!
The conference is coming up January 13–15, at Church in the Son, Orlando.
Visit IHOP.org/onethingregionals to register online and to find hotel information, promotional materials, and more. Registering today will grant you quicker access to the event, where seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is also available at the door.
We know that another historic great awakening is soon to sweep across our nation, and we are looking with confidence to God’s promise to continue to pour out His Spirit on all flesh, empowering His people to bring the gospel to all nations (Mt. 24:14; Acts 2:17–21). We are praying for a great move of the Holy Spirit in your region.
Have you ever wanted to help onething make connections in your region? Is your young adult group wondering how to get more information? If so, please make a quick visit to the onething website and request a promo pack. We can help equip you with the materials you need to spread the word about onething Orlando and fuel the prayer movement in your city.
We are so excited that onething is coming to your region, and we can’t wait to see you there!
In His affections,
The onething team
Cover Story on IHOP–KC in “Charisma” Magazine, November 2010
IHOP–KC was featured on the cover of the November issue of Charisma magazine. Charisma editor, Marcus Yoars, was recently here in Kansas City to experience the prayer room first-hand and to interview Mike Bickle and other IHOP–KC leaders. Mike Bickle also contributed an article to the November issue, writing about the Church’s identity as a house of prayer. Below are Marcus’s articles.
Beauty in the Back Row
Charisma editorial by Marcus Yoars.
Like it or not, the American Idol syndrome is alive and well in most Western churches today. We see it in the modern worship arena, with many young Christians believing that becoming a worship leader is the next best thing to being a rock star. Somewhere along the way, we’ve reinforced a model that equates spiritual success with stage time.
I’ve seen the same principle at work in the prayer movement, where true Spirit-led intercession is, in certain circles, overshadowed by a belief that the quicker you can lather a crowd into a praying frenzy, the more anointed on the mic you are.
I don’t mean to be cynical, but it says something about the American church when corporate worship and prayer can require as much spiritual discernment as listening to a politician. That’s why my visit to Kansas City’s International House of Prayer (IHOP) for this month’s cover story was a breath of fresh air. I’ve been intimately connected with the prayer movement for almost a decade; and as a worship leader for almost 20 years, I’ve also watched the dynamics change in corporate worship (not just stylistically, but in the emphasis given to what happens musically from the platform).
But after spending time with IHOP’s leaders and experiencing firsthand the corporate worship and prayer culture established there, I’m reassured that a major influencer for both movements is pursuing higher goals than just great stage shows, larger crowds and more spiritual lather. That’s because at IHOP, the platform is not the point.
Don’t get me wrong: Everything at IHOP stems from what happens in the ministry’s 24/7 prayer room, and logistically, the focal point of that room is a worship team on a platform and a prayer leader on the mic. But you’d be hard pressed to find an IHOP staff member-at least one who’s been there more than six months-clamoring to be onstage, despite most of them having grown up in an American Idol culture.
This is the fruit of leadership that places equal importance on the back-row intercessors as on those onstage. At IHOP, the midnight to 6 a.m. prayer shift isn’t for the B-string players; it’s prime time, with or without the crowds to prove that, because it’s for an audience of One anyway.
Mike Bickle and Misty Edwards, probably IHOP’s two most well-known leaders, credit this to a process of identity transformation. “God gives people an invitation when they come through our doors to get their identity right,” Edwards says, adding that the “police force” against fighting for the limelight is IHOP’s unglamorous, 50-hours-a-week-without-pay lifestyle.
It’s obviously working. Amid a generation of rock star wannabes, IHOP is producing a rare, humble people content to let Jesus get all the spotlight. Particularly from the back row.
We Won’t Stop Praying
Charisma article by Marcus Yoars.
Mike Bickle is a wanted man.
Not for a misdemeanor or felony. Not for a political endorsement. On the day I arrive at the International House of Prayer Missions Base of Kansas City, he’s being sought after by New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera, who’s in town for a series and is checking out what’s become known worldwide simply as “IHOP.” Though Bickle doesn’t recognize the greatest closer in baseball history, he swaps stories with Rivera to the point that I can tell he’s been here before, many times, and is unmoved by celebrities seeking out him or his ministry.
One look at the IHOP director’s closet-size office or modest duplex house (shared with his mother-in-law) and it’s obvious he isn’t too concerned about prestige, money or fame. Instead, Bickle’s priority—dare I say obsession—is about being wanted by another.
The fixation began in July 1988. That’s when, as a 32-year-old up-and-coming pastor, he realized he was being passionately pursued by God Himself. Through a series of divine encounters, the Lord gave Bickle a mandate that his life’s ministry was to be centered on the Bible’s most intimate message: the Song of Solomon.
It wasn’t exactly a natural fit at the time. The son of a Golden Gloves champion, Bickle is a man’s man—his handshake, “man hugs” and love for football affirm this—and he admittedly considered Song of Solomon something better suited “for the women’s ministry.” Yet as his study of the book morphed from weeks to months to years, he became consumed with a foundational truth unveiled throughout Solomon’s poem: God deeply desired him.
He didn’t just like him; the God of the universe was consumed with love for him, His passion so unrelenting that Bickle didn’t stand a chance running from it. He had been created to experience profound intimacy with God, and everything else was secondary.
Fast-forward more than 20 years and Bickle’s revelation of this passion hasn’t just deepened, it’s expanded in step with an 11-year-old ministry that now involves more than 2,000 people and envelopes an entire suburb of Kansas City, Mo. Not only has the 24/7 prayer center literally become a fixture on city maps, its astounding growth has even local unbelievers asking who’s behind this. And that’s just how Mike likes it.
Fire on the Altar
Technically, the blueprints for IHOP were given years before its official launch on May 7, 1999. The idea for 24/7 prayer has been around since the days of King David, and God instructed Bickle to do “24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David” as early as 1983.
“I had never conceived of such a thought,” Bickle says. “I didn’t have a clue what this meant.”
He began holding prayer meetings, even putting the directive from God on the wall in his church’s prayer room. About 20 people would show up three times a day, seven days a week. This continued for most of the next 16 years throughout Bickle’s rise as a globally known pastor, speaker and author, and even through the “Kansas City Prophets” controversy—which, when you hear Bickle recount the turmoil surrounding him and his church in the early 1990s, is laughable as he confidently asserts that his accusers grossly misrepresented his beliefs and practices. (Googling “Mike Bickle,” however, still proves the vitriolic attacks on him that linger from this sham are anything but funny.)
After years of what Bickle calls “pretty boring” prayer, a series of supernatural events and divine directives prompted him and 20 full-time “intercessory missionaries” to launch IHOP. The idea was novel: the full-time occupation of intercessors who raise their own support and commit to 50 hours a week, half of which is spent in a central prayer room that blends intercession with musical worship, and half of which is spent in either ministry or service.
“This is not a slothful, musicians-showing-up-late thing,” Bickle says of the requirements. “I’m not a singer or a musician, but I am a coach. We have clarity and discipline and goals. And if you don’t do that, you have to quit.”
None of the original 20 did. In fact, by Sept. 19, 1999, worship ascended heavenward around-the-clock from a tiny trailer in Grandview, Mo. “We started a worship set 11 years ago in September, and the music has never stopped,” Bickle says. “We call that keeping the fire on the altar.”
That concept proved invaluable throughout the “trailer years” when a lean staff did whatever it took to keep the fire going, at times playing instruments with gloves in weeklong snow storms with no electricity. Misty Edwards, IHOP’s most recognized worship leader today, was part of the original group and led 12 two-hour sets each week for nine years.
“In those early days, the music being related in our brains to fire was brilliant, because we would’ve definitely been silent many, many times in the night watch,” she says. “We wouldn’t have existed if we didn’t know that we couldn’t stop.”
By the following year IHOP had grown to 100-plus staff members and was attracting a predominantly college-age crowd. Ever the long-term thinker, Bickle knew he’d encounter waning zeal among these 20-somethings (“Intercession will wear anyone out,” he says) and began establishing a long-term model for worship that could keep the musicians and singers motivated through the 12 two-hour sets each day.
“Structure is critical,” he tells me while diagramming orders of worship as if they were football plays, “and that’s what a lot of folks don’t get. They think it will be just endlessly creative, but typically it’s creative for 30 minutes, and then it stalls. You’ve got to launch and land.”
Schooled in Prayer
As regimented as that structure may sound to those who thrive on spontaneous worship and prayer, it’s integral to what happens in the prayer room—which, in turn, is the heart of everything IHOP is and does. The ministry includes 1,000 full-time staff and 1,000 full-time students at the university, IHOPU, yet each person’s role, function and purpose at IHOP begins entirely in the prayer room, where adoring Jesus is blended with rending the heavens on behalf of everything from abortion to Israel to revival on college campuses.
For IHOPU students, the prayer room serves as an essential extension of the classroom. “We have a 24/7 prayer room in which music begins to be one of the primary discipleship tools,” says IHOPU President Allen Hood. “[Students are] learning the Bible faster than ever, they’re singing the Word, praying the Word and crying over the Word. Their heart’s expanding at the same rate as their head. As an educator, I believe this is one of the best greenhouses I’ve ever seen. Because they don’t learn in a vacuum where concepts cause them to be cynical; they learn in a place of worship where it causes them to weep over concepts.”
Skeptics may question the academic quality of a school that leans on prayer as its main teacher, but not to be overlooked are the 36 master’s degrees and nine doctorates represented among IHOP’s leadership. Rich Stevenson, a former Asbury College professor who now serves as IHOP’s director of community life, is quick to emphasize the dramatic results of centralizing prayer in the educational process.
“There’s something about learning in an environment of night-and-day prayer that’s sealing truth in these students at a rate I’ve never seen before,” he says. “To stand before them and teach is daunting because they’ve brought their Bible and their class notes into the prayer room and interacted with Jesus over those things. It creates an unbelievable young adult who knows the Word of God.”
Such a prayer-saturated climate undoubtedly factored into the student “awakening” that erupted out of a 9 a.m. Bible class last November and continued first as nightly, then weekend meetings through early October. The move of the Holy Spirit drew thousands, many of whom reported physical and emotional healings. Broadcast globally on God TV, the awakening not only introduced IHOPU to a new audience, but also played a part in a surge of incoming students that includes those from abroad. This fall the university began accepting overseas applications for the first time, and leaders say they have more than 5,000 international students waiting to enroll.
Properties From Heaven
While IHOP could possibly double in size over the next year, staff members have already seen God’s hand at work preparing the ministry for exponential growth. As Bickle and I drive in his Toyota Corolla around the dozen Grandview properties, he points out entire apartment complexes and housing communities filled with nothing but IHOPers. In 2008, Forbes ranked Grandview among the top 10 fastest-dying towns in the country, and the economic decline opened doors for staff and students to purchase housing at dirt-cheap prices. Just as amazing as the potential for prayer warriors to literally possess an entire suburb in the heart of America are the over-the-top supernatural stories of how God provided each of IHOP’s sites.
“I know, I know,” Bickle says as he sees me shaking my head during one account. “It’s remarkable.”
Remarkable. The man uses the word so often he should trademark it, yet there may be no better way to describe the rich, prophetic and supernatural history behind several key facets of IHOP—a history that took Bickle no fewer than eight hours to recount at the ministry’s 10-year anniversary mark and involves prophecies, visions, trances and God’s audible voice.
From shopping malls to lush retreat sites to churches, Bickle has watched God seemingly drop multimillion-dollar properties into his lap, all without him having to once go on TV or write letters asking for money. Years ago, he vowed to go, do and say anything the Lord asked as long as He supplied the necessary leadership and finances. So far the deal has not only been upheld, it’s repeatedly left Bickle shaking his head—as in the case of what’s known as “the Truman property.”
Covering 125 acres that stretch along Highway 71, the estate was one of many belonging to Grandview native President Harry S. Truman. As the first president to recognize and intercede for the nation of Israel, Truman sold the land to a Jewish couple. In 2007, the couple’s children knocked on IHOP’s door and, without knowing of the ministry’s intercessory commitment to Israel, offered the property for a mere $1 million, despite its $10 million market value. Within days an IHOP supporter had covered the transaction. Adding to the story’s prophetic twist, when the title deed was signed on Jan. 27, 2008, it marked exactly 50 years to the day from when Truman had sold the property.
“The way the properties have come to pass, it’s a clear master plan,” Bickle says. “We got them one by one, sometimes with supernatural provision, with no thought of them being tied together. It was like pieces of a puzzle. We got the outer pieces first, and we put literally no effort into getting any of these properties. They came to us, somebody pointed it out, the money came in within a week or two—we didn’t solicit it—and now 10 or 20 years later, there’s a master plan. The puzzle pieces are coming together. From a global point of view, it’s one big campus from heaven that nobody figured out.”
Going Global
That campus isn’t just expanding in Kansas City, it’s reaching virtually every nation of the world, thanks in part to IHOP’s relationship with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). Though the 24/7 prayer center has long partnered with the world’s largest missions organization, this year YWAM founder Loren Cunningham asked Bickle to meet with him and strategize on how to call the entire missions movement to prayer.
Together with a team of top leaders, they dreamed of seeing prayer watches in every missions organization and took the first step by establishing one at YWAM’s headquarters in Kona, Hawaii. But when it came to what that should look like, the conversation grew interesting as Bickle advised against the idea of a 24/7 Kona house of prayer. “If you go 24/7, you’re out of the game,” he explained to the group of young leaders. “People visit from all over the world, check us out, then go home and say, ‘I’m going to try to do one of these,’ and within two years utterly fail. Then we lose them for 10 years in the prayer movement because they say they tried it and it didn’t work.”
Instead, the IHOP leader emphasized the need to start with something more easily replicated—a two-, six- or eight-hour-a-day, six-days-a-week version that included “bad worship teams with a broken-string guitar. … The whole world can imitate that.”
Bickle recognizes, as he’s learned from Cunningham, that it’s more important to influence rather than control. He’s not looking to expand the IHOP brand—in fact, more than once we discuss the countless requests his staff gets from people wanting to “start an IHOP” in their city.
“We don’t want to franchise,” he says with a bitter twist of irony, given a recent trademark infringement lawsuit from the pancake-maker IHOP. “We want people to join what’s going on in their own cities; we don’t want anybody joining us. It’s much better that way for everybody.”
He’s proved this for years by allowing people to copy, distribute or plagiarize any of his teaching material, believing it not only causes people to take ownership of the material, it also causes them to argue for and fight for the message.
Preparing for the End
One of those messages has actually become Bickle’s calling card in recent years and furthered the controversy that, for reasons beyond his control, surrounds him. Mention Mike Bickle’s name to most charismatic believers and, aside from prayer or passion for Jesus, they’ll automatically think of the end times. Indeed, Bickle has developed a unique twofold emphasis of the praying church’s call to deeply love Jesus as “friends of the bridegroom” and its role in the end times as forerunners.
As was the case with the Song of Solomon, the latter wasn’t a message he’d planned to give. Bickle calls his end-times thrust a “sovereign accident” that began with a challenge from his staff to do a 10-week series on the book of Revelation. That series turned into a seven-year sermon during which he would preach on Saturday nights and meet with a group of 20 leaders the following day to poke holes in his teaching.
“It ended up becoming a laboratory for understanding,” he says, adding that often the greatest course-changers would come from young students who were out to “prove the old man wrong.” Through this process, Bickle has landed upon teaching historic premillennialism with the added dimension of a victorious church walking in New Testament power, purity and unity.
For all Bickle’s passion to unlock in others the revelation of a loving God, he is equally as zealous to stir up a sense of immediacy and understanding among those who disregard the Bible’s specific, copious directions for the end times, which he personally believes will be seen by a generation already born.
“My generation is profoundly ignorant of what the Bible says about the end times,” he admits. “How can we go decade after decade and continue to be ignorant? Somewhere we’ve got to get intentional about getting somebody understanding it so that in the future they’ll be ready to train the kids who are currently 10 and 20. Who I’m aiming for is my children and their children—and even their children.”
That long-term generational target is also one of the driving forces behind IHOP’s recently expanded vision to combine 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice until Christ’s return. Of the 75 departments that make up IHOP, more than three-fourths are dedicated to action outside the prayer room—everything from orphan care to crisis response to inner-city ministry to training marketplace leaders. This is in addition to a thriving worship label, music school, conference ministry, media institute, Israel initiative, children’s and high school ministries, and an ever-increasing list of other ministries making their mark.
As powerful as each of those is, what sets IHOP apart from most organizations is a corporate cultural of humility that, amid rapid and exciting expansion, understands its core function will always remain in the prayer room.
“If your idea is that people are just sitting there in the prayer room, you’re missing the point. You have to have a revelation of what’s happening in that room or it’s just sitting there,” Bickle tells me before we enter the prayer room for an intercessory set he’s leading with Edwards. As if following a script, we walk in right as she sings what’s become the cry of an entire army of worshippers: How far will you let me go? / How abandoned will you let me be?
It isn’t long before my eyes well up with tears. Not just because I have the sense I’m in a place that’s changing history. No, I’m simply overwhelmed with the same revelation Mike Bickle and 2,000 other prayer warriors share: I, too, am a wanted man.
Marcus Yoars is the editor of Charisma and is still reeling from his life-changing visit to IHOP for this story.
Click to read this article in its original format at charsimamag.com
Read Mike Bickle’s article on the Church’s identity as a house of prayer, in Charisma online
Make a Year-End Gift to the House of Prayer
Dear Friends,
We have seen tremendous growth throughout this year as the Lord has poured out His Spirit in marvelous ways. Part of our mandate is to equip young people as forerunners who will proclaim Jesus and His kingdom. To expand our capacity to do this, the Lord has provided for us to purchase, renovate, and equip a new International House of Prayer University campus, and in August more than 1,000 full-time students and interns began the fall semester, doubling our previous enrollment.
So many doors are opening to us. It is exciting and, honestly, even a bit overwhelming to manage all the new opportunities. As you know, we are committed by the grace of God to combining 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice.
In 2010 we made the webstream from the prayer room and our conferences and services freely available. In the last twelve months, the Lord has connected us with several worldwide ministries within the Body of Christ, who are together impacting millions of believers. We will be co-laboring with them to establish prayer ministries throughout the world.
We expanded our outreach ministries in the areas of ministering to at-risk youth, helping women trapped in human trafficking, and working to stop abortion in our nation. In September, through our local outreach efforts in conjunction with YWAM, we shared the gospel with more than 10,000 people, resulting in more than 1,100 souls saved.
All this—the prayer room, the free webstream, and our justice and compassion ministry outreaches—is possible because of our Partners who give generously each month, and those who make special contributions from time to time.
Would you ask the Lord how He wants you to help us as we prepare for the onething conference, or ask Him about joining our family for the first time as a Partner? We are confident that the Lord’s favor is with us as we labor for the advancement of the prayer movement across the earth and as we partner with many others until the gospel is preached in every nation of the earth.
Until He comes,
Mike Bickle
12.12.10 Global Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering
On Sunday, December 12, IHOP–KC has the honor of hosting Dr. Thomas Trask, former superintendent of the Assemblies of God, and Convoy of Hope for their annual Global Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering. From 12:00 noon until 12:00 midnight (CST), we will join with thousands of intercessors from six continents and unite together in prayer for the world’s needy.
Take time on 12.12 to join us in the prayer room via the free live webstream. Invite your congregation to be part of this day of prayer. Further resources can be found at Pray for Hope 12.12.
The ministry of Jesus Christ is undeniably marked with His love and compassion for the poor and suffering. Likewise, the first-century church and its leaders, such as the Apostle Paul, made it a priority to remember the poor. In honor of the life of Jesus Christ and the timeless tradition of genuine Christianity, Convoy of Hope invites you to mark your calendar for 12.12 to remember the world’s poor in prayer.
Pray for Hope 12.12 is an annual global day of prayer for the poor and suffering. 12.12 is a day to ask God to raise up workers, full of His love and power, to serve those in poverty. 12.12 is a day to petition God for salvation, justice, safety, water, food, shelter, healthcare, education, and employment for the world’s needy.
