IHOP-KC, The Situation With Mike Bickle & The Church At Large

(Please see the important hyperlinks in bold within the body of my blog, below.)

Especially out of concern for individual people and families in distress, and with all due respect for the leadership of the International House of Prayer and the Forerunner Church in Kansas City, I’m going to keep this as brief as possible. I’ve prayed about whether I need to write anything at all but have settled on the importance of an ongoing public witness/record.

Exactly one month ago I produced a video that brought into sharp focus the inestimable relationship in the Church, (across the whole of the Church), between false doctrine/teaching and immorality, and specifically the false doctrine of egalitarianism. My video focused specifically on IHOP-KC and Mike Bickle, both of whom, in the heat of my spirit, I have also expressed genuine love and affection for.

Exactly two weeks later I had a significant dream that related to the very serious and damaging nature of false teaching and the existence of concealed sexual sin in a well-known Christian ministry. I therefore broadcasted this to as wide an audience as possible. The dream was extremely clear and very sobering, not just for those involved, implicated and damaged, but for the Church at large.

Exactly two weeks later, (last night, October 29th, 2023), the tragic news concerning the allegations of sexual immorality and misconduct concerning Mike Bickle came to my attention. You can download the public statement by IHOP-KC here and watch the public announcement from IHOP-KC leaders here.

Some of you won’t know this but it is important to say that there is an intimate connection between these latest revelations concerning Bickle’s immorality, (seemingly over years), his slap-dash teaching concerning female leaders and the unwise nature of his counsel to the leadership of Frontier Alliance International (FAI) that myself and two other good men were called to speak into in September 2020.

These details and dynamics of teaching (digital content), spawning immorality, complicit concealment and damaging church infestation are critically important.

In light of my dream on October 14th, 2023 and the distress of this latest revelation at IHOP-KC, I’d like to make six summary points:

1. This situation pertains primarily to the glory of God and the sake of His Name in the nations.
2. This situation is extremely serious but also an opportunity not to be wasted. It is an opportunity for repentance and global influence for righteousness, one that the Church can not afford to squander.
3. This situation coincides with the distress and travail unravelling in the nations, specifically in the Middle East and, most importantly, in the land of Israel, (an “end-time distinctive” of IHOP’s global ministry).
4. This situation is a significant slur on the genuine eschatological urgency and emphasis of the Holy Spirit for the Church being prepared for the return of Christ. It is therefore an unparalleled moment of opportunity for redemption and furtherance of the LORD’s primary agenda, whilst becoming more aware of the schemes and strategies of Satan, (Ephesians 1:17).
5. This situation is not primarily about sexual immorality but rather the intimate interconnectedness between false teaching/doctrine and the health of the Church at large. The Church are being called to repent, not merely to repent about specific instances of sexual immorality and leadership failure. Rather, we are to fundamentally repent from the chaos that we are all suffering within; how could this have ever happened at IHOP-KC? (This “repentant new normal” for the long-term will largely be about coming to the Lord with a new priority of waiting and listening to Him with absolutely everything on the table. This is unprecedented and applies to charismatics, cessationists, egalitarians, complementarians, every single denomination and to all who have been given ears to hear.)
6. In grace and mercy, the LORD is first emptying, cleansing and judging His own covenant people. The world will not be prepared for the return of Christ until the Church are prepared for the return of Christ.

Finally, the whole of the fourth chapter of The Glorious Few, (“Wasn’t Ravi Enough? — Jesus’ Radical Emptying of Church Filth“), deals in important detail with this overall situation in the Church at large. This remains the radical context of hope that I have no doubt applies to every single disciple, every single one of us who takes the Name of Jesus at this pivotal moment in history.

Let us be found praying maranatha!

NPF