It seems like every time that we hear something from The International House Of Prayer Kansas City, that it's a soap opera. Days of Our Lives. The Young And The Restless. You name it.
Genuine church is very simple.
Come to a central assembly. Have a time of prayer. Sing a few Biblically based songs. Preach or teach the Word of God. Take up a simple offering. Say the benediction. And go home.
But it's more than this in the United States and abroad.
Personalities. Extravagance. Wealth. Large venues. Outlandish activities to attract the masses and other media attention grabbers.
But when an assembly and it's leader put out thousands, if not millions of dollars to pull out all the bells and whistles, it's a dead giveaway that the Lord Jesus is no longer the focus.
The "signs, wonders, and miracles" is the centuries old attraction and the personality (preacher) and events is the tools used to attract the Coney Island crowd, but not one "sign, wonder, or miracle" is ever experienced. If rarely they happen.
Their proponents never go to places like hospitals, hospices, funeral homes, mortuaries, homeless shelters, and other places where the poor assemble to give them the "promises" that are readily preached in arenas, auditoriums, and large rented out venues where the "well" in body assemble.
They always claim that it's about saving souls for Christ but apparently, other things take the forefront.
The drawing power of God through the preaching of the simple gospel isn't enough. Commanding sinners to repent. Preaching repentance from sin and placing faith on Christ alone is just too simple.
There has to be "more."
The Lord Jesus, and the efficacy of His expiatory sacrifice is an after thought.
The simple gospel is too simple.
The entertainment of the people to fill seats becomes the focal point.
But here's another subliminal activity of these places.
They use legitimate "church" activities to draw the masses, then underneath all of these activities is the real motivation of the personality preacher.
The deep dark web. No. I'm not talking about the Internet.
The only way that satan is successful is when what he really wants to do is kept hidden as much as possible until the last possible moment.
satan also uses the things in a legitimate assembly that he knows that would be effective at bringing in people that would be attracted to these events.
24/7 Prayer is a very attractive activity that draw a lot of people.
Schools of prayer and ministry, intercession, signs, wonders, and miracles will continue to attract people until the underlying purpose is revealed. It doesn't happen everywhere but it happens enough. False doctrine and false prophesies is the breeding ground to attract the unsuspecting.
What's the underlying activity?
It's always three things.
False teachings/prophesies, money and sexual immorality.
When the heat of controversy surfaced, it crippled Mike Bickel and it seemed as if they would recover from it but the plot thickened when the executive leadership team (ELT) began doing the silliest thing imaginable.
Use what appears to be legitimate organizations to disclose information and do the best you can to control, manipulate, and "spin" all information. And you would destroy anyone that mentioned the truth. You make them out to be the enemy.
Truth is an enemy to lies and the truth must never get out or it will destroy everything.
As usual, the cover up, deflection, and attacks on the truth and that people saying the truth, they all fail.
Lies always falls apart because the foundation of all lies never had a chance to stand against the truth. Even if you were to issue one ounce of truth, when you lie just once, even truth had already turned on you.
So now, after several leaders have resigned and Mike Bickel seemingly was permanently disassociated from IHOPKC, the episodes of a return to the pulpit surfaced.
It's common in houses of worship for a leader to "disappear" and then suddenly, after a few months of a hiatus, after the coast is clear, they return to active ministry.
Here's another thing. When they "disappear," they've really didn't disappear. They're behind the scenes, pulling all the strings and making all of the pertinent decisions, most of the time.
In other places, they do leave and then they start another organization but somehow, people give the leader the benefit of the doubt. Some supporters will join him because they're convinced that he had done no wrong.
Or, they knew that he had done wickedness, but they extend forgiveness. They trust him all over again. A serious lack of accountability with teeth.
But the going rate these days is like what William Booth of the Salvation Army once said.
"People want forgiveness without repentance."
The Bible is clear about restoration to Christ as believers.
Galatians 6:1 (NKJV) "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted."
But when it comes to ministry, the qualifications for men seeking ministry (see 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9) have never changed.
What about elders that sin openly and secretly, and the news of their sin begins to spread publicly? It must be investigated by credible sources and appropriately dealt with, having the fear of God at the forefront.
1 Timothy 5:19-20 (NKJV) "Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear."
Depending on the severity of the sin, disqualification, after they refuse to repent, is the only remedy.
When it comes to money and sexual immorality, disqualification is a must. Numbers 25 shows the severity of the discipline of the Lord.
When a man begins with false teaching and false prophesy, they're already unqualified. They're doing it for deceptive means.
Does the discipline invoked by the Lord in Numbers 25 carry over into the NT?
2 Peter 2:12-22 (NKJV) "But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.
They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
While it's not the job of the NT believer to "kill" like what the Lord commanded Moses in Numbers 25, the Lord handles all "removals" Himself at the time of His choosing.
Disqualification is the right course of action because the name of the Lord is blasphemed by the world when we allow a person that engage in teaching false doctrine, false prophesies, misuse of finances, and sexual immorality to return to ministry.
If they return on their own, they're already a laughing stock before the world. They have sullied their personal reputation. What's worse is that the organization that takes them back as their leader and pastor have lost their reputation and integrity as well.
The people that have any ounce of sense will leave and their money goes with them.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV) "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."
The Amplified Bibles says this about verse 27.
1 Corinthians 9:27 (AMP) "But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit]."
Would you give Judas Iscariot another shot at ministry after betraying the Lord?
Of course you would.
So the never ending saga of IHOPKC, ministers, and various fallen organizations will continue.
Other fallen ministers and their ministries have continued, or they've started a "new" organization without repentance and genuine actions that immediately underscores such repentance.
They hide over time, who they really are and hope that no one discovers them. When the time is right, they'll resurface as if nothing had happened. They end up worse than the last episode.
2 Timothy 3:13 (NKJV)
"Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
When a person's repentance isn't serious, how could we take them seriously?
Finally, listen to what Jeremiah said of the children of Israel as they were about to be carried into Babylon for 70 years.
Jeremiah 13:21-27 (NKJV)
And if you say in your heart,
“Why have these things come upon me?”
For the greatness of your iniquity
Your skirts have been uncovered,
Your heels made bare.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
“Therefore I will scatter them like stubble
That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
This is your lot,
The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD,
“Because you have forgotten Me
And trusted in falsehood.
Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face,
That your shame may appear.
I have seen your adulteries
And your lustful neighings,
The lewdness of your harlotry,
Your abominations on the hills in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
Will you still not be made clean?”
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