My recent visit to the IHOP conference in KC
Date: September 10, 2006 08:23AM
A report from the field about what happened to me last night. I can't believe it. I went to the IHOP conference in town to hear this Mike Bickle guy speak, you know, hear what he had to say from his own mouth. I am visiting a friend and coming from out of town and had no idea about the conference this week. Things started out with some spirited praise and worship. Singing, dancing, people praying over each other, and all that. Sometimes I enjoy that ecstatic overflow-type worship, sometimes a more quiet, intimate, contemplative mode. Well, I had a small vial of fragrant spikenard anointing oil with me (sometimes I wear it just because it smells nice) and felt led by the Spirit at a certain point to begin praying with the people nearby and pulled out my vial of oil and began anointing them. I was wearing a shirt that says Soy borracho y me importa madre which is Spanish slang for something like, I'm drunk and I don't give a damn. Because, you know, I AM drunk (in the Spirit) and I DON'T give a damn (about what others may think of that statement, nor how they will judge me on the basis of that). Sometimes I dress certain ways in churches just to see what the people there are made of, to challenge their idolatries. To shake up their churchy sensibilities. Also I was wearing a loop of thick Hare Krsna tulasi prayer beads. Jeans and sandals too. Nothing too outrageous.
What happened next was a real milestone in my walk. I have never come out of a church environment feeling more judged and abused than I did tonight. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by security guards and being escorted outside. I honestly had no idea what I'd done wrong and asked the guards what the problem was. Well, they interrogated me right there in the parking lot: who are you, what is your name, where did you get the oil, show me some ID, what are you doing here, what does your shirt say. I was polite and mature about the situation and just plain had no idea what I'd done wrong. They said they saw me praying with and anointing some people and that as I was not on an authorized IHOP prayer team I had no business praying over people in their church. They gave me the third degree over this deal and when I asked them why they were so accusatory, dealing with me like I was a criminal, and let them know in a polite fashion (mind you, I never raised my voice, never cursed, or anything like that, I simply asked them what I had done wrong and exactly what they were accusing me of) they got quite agitated and told me to leave or they were going to call the police and have me put under arrest. I was like Arrest me for what? Praying with people? See, he said that in IHOP the only people authorized to pray for others are the official IHOP prayer warriors and they are identified by a very visible ID badge that they wear. Huh?? That's like saying that you're only a part of the body of Christ if you're wearing your ID badge, and everybody else is suspect. They treated me like a tresspasser and a criminal because I was anointing people with oil and praying with them as I was led by the Spirit. What kind of a church is that?? So no, never will I set foot on IHOP property again and will shake the dust of that end-time Uber-cult off my feet. They really seem to believe that they are God's specially anointed end-time Joel's Army . THEY ACTUALLY ASKED ME TO LEAVE AND THREATENED TO HAVE ME ARRESTED. I LEFT WONDERING WHAT THE HELL I DID WRONG. PARDON MY LANGUAGE. THAT WAS THE MOST OVERTLY ABUSIVE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. WHAT KIND OF CHURCH IS IT WHERE YOU CAN'T PRAY WITH PEOPLE UNLESS YOU ARE WEARING AN AUTHORIZATION BADGE?? WHAT EXACTLY DID THEY THINK I WAS TRYING TO DO? HOW PARANOID ARE THESE PEOPLE?? That's enough to make a weaker believer swear off church forever. How insulting. How presumptuous those people were. Talk about a spirit of elitism.
Bickle is teaching his people that God is raising up Joel's Army through His training program called IHOP and that one day they will literally take over the world for Jesus, because they (IHOP and it's graduates) are the End-Time Forerunners that will usher in Our Lord's Second Coming. I went to an IHOP conference last night and heard it from his own mouth. It’s also in a lot of recordings of his teaching. This is the most spiritually sick thing I have ever seen and heard to sit through. He teaches IHOP that THEY are God's Army (Joel's Army), and that he (Bickle) is the General. I am spooked beyond words. This is not something I would recommend to anybody under ANY circumstances. Talk about a spirit of elitism. Sheesh. And then when I was praying over people during Praise and Worship I was told to leave the property or they's have me arrested. Is this a club, or a church?
The way the ministry was represented in that circumstance absolutely and 100% validated for me that which I have heard from others concerning IHOP in the past: namely, that IHOP is an intensely controlling and cultish church that is drunk on a spirit of spiritual superiority, like they think they're God's elite . The way they handled me tonight, the way they represented the ministry to a visitor, completely lived up to the rumors I'd heard. I will never come back on IHOP ground again, and will never under any circumstances recommend IHOP to anyone I know. In fact, I'll tell them IHOP REALLY IS a cult. At least using the abusive way I was treated as an example. I'd actually like to hear from Mike Bickle himself on this.
Praise Him In a spirit of love I exhort you, IHOPpers, repent of your spiritual country-club elitist mentality. It's sad that this is my one and only experience with IHOP, and I came away feeling like a dog who's been hit over the head for misbehaving. Just because I was praying over and anointing people with my spikenard oil? I may not be on staff at IHOP nor a graduate of FSM, but I am a servant of the Most High God too and will NEVER EVER go back again.
To all of you “judge not” type folks who have a problem with my warning people about groups like this I say: if I knew there were some land mines in a path that you were walking down, and one wrong step could result in your being hurt or killed, it would be my responsibility to warn you, “Hey, there’s a mine there!” or else the blood (so to speak) would be on my hands if you got hurt because I didn’t warn you. You can listen, or not. Similarly, out there in the churchy world there are a loy of spiritually disastrous land-mines of churches that you may get seriously wounded in if somebody doesn’t warn you. I am just saying, don’t step there! Danger! In Love,
Zeuszor, the intrepid traveler