Sports and Entertainment: Our Nation’s False God
Sports and Entertainment: Our Nation’s False God
By Gary and Marie Wiens
I wonder how many are as outraged as we are, regarding the Penn State Sex Scandal. Or, will you disregard what we are about to say in this article for the sake of a keeping a forty five year legacy and football sacred? You may think we are being dramatic but our souls are at stake here, for Scripture speaks of God’s judgment on a culture that did not repent from such things.
As Coach Joe Paterno, President Graham Spanier and two vice presidents are fired for a cover-up of over fifteen years involving retired defensive coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing eight young boys, protests are breaking out on the Penn State campus. Shocking as this may be, much of the outrage is not for the victims but instead for the firing of Coach Paterno who knew of the abuse and did nothing. A freshman student that was interviewed said this, “It’s like where do we go from here? We no longer have a president, we no longer have a 45 year legacy.” One individual close to the program was primarily concerned about the impact of the situation on future recruiting for the football program. Has this young generation come to this? The sister of one of the victims is a student at Penn State and she is having trouble attending class because so many are making jokes about the trouble.
We as a nation have made football a god. Let us demonstrate this. In 2002 assistant coach Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky raping a nine year old boy in the showers at Penn State. Instead of calling the police he went home to his father who agreed they needed to tell Coach Paterno. The coach then reported it but nothing was done, and he let the matter drop. Sandusky continued his privileges at the college and maintained his access to young troubled boys and it was allowed for the sake of the football game and a so called “Squeaky clean football program”. How close as a nation have we come to Genesis 19, and Sodom and Gomorrah?
The word “Sodom” means “cesspool, den, and pandemonium.” Does this sound similar to what is going on at Penn State? What has happened to us that students would protest and destroy things for the sake of keeping a coach on staff who covered up rape? Is this an example of a generation that is in jeopardy of losing their souls? Let’s take a look at Genesis 19. Here is a quote from a commentary by Matthew Henry. “Thus many that are under some convictions about the misery of their spiritual state, and the necessity of a change, yet defer that needful work, and foolishly linger. Lot did so, and it might have been fatal to him if the angels had not laid hold of his hand and brought him for, and saved him with fear.” In Jude 23 it is said “the Lord was merciful to him; otherwise he might justly have left him to perish, since he was so loth to depart. The salvation of the most righteous men must be attributed to God’s mercy, not to their own merit.”
Are we righteous men and women and are we outraged because of the abuse of these boys? Or, do we turn our heads and say it does not involve us? How close are we to destruction because we have allowed entertainment such as football to become an idol and a distraction from Jesus? When the two angels appeared to Lot and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah did you know to this day that area remains a great lake called the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea? There is no living creature in it and it stinks, literally. Also, when Lot hesitated, the angel grasped his hand and rushed him to safety. Lot did not want to abandon the wealth, position, and comfort he enjoyed. It is easy to criticize Lot for being hypnotized by Sodom when the choice seems so clear to us. To be wiser than Lot we must see that our hesitation to speak out about how far we have gone with idolizing entertainment stems from the false attractions of our culture’s pleasure and we would sacrifice innocent boys for the sake of a college and a game.
Two facets of God’s character are His great patience and His fierce anger towards unrighteousness and sin. If there is true repentance, God will have mercy on anyone who calls on His Name, even those who commit such overt and criminal acts. He has had mercy on us, and our sin put Jesus on the cross. Fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much and the very presence of God-fearing men and women in a place helps to ward off judgment. We must pray for these men and the children whose lives were ruined through this behavior. And we must pray that the Holy Spirit will bring true repentance and revival to an idolatrous culture that sacrifices our children on the altar of entertainment and sports. The time has come for us to wake up and see what we have done and what we have become. The Lord is calling us to holiness and our time is drawing short. The Lord Jesus is drawing near.
A Celebration of Baptism at IHOP-NW
I’m excited that we are having our first baptism service at IHOP-Northwest this coming Sunday, June 5, as part of our Family Day celebration. In preparation for this, I want to look at a couple of ideas that are important for our understanding of what baptism means.
As I was growing up in the Church, baptism basically carried the implication of a membership ritual, a rite of passage that in our little denomination predictably happened to young people finishing the eighth grade! Rarely did I see anyone baptized before or after that time.
As I look back on that total misunderstanding of baptism, I’m delighted to realize the truth of what it means for us as believers. Baptism is one of the sacraments of the Body of Christ, what I call a “predictable power encounter” in which the Holy Spirit breaks the power of sin in our lives, and infuses into us the ability to say no to sin, to resist temptation and walk in holiness.
This is such good news, because every sincere follower of Jesus that I know deeply wants to be free from sin. We want to get rid of the patterns of sin that systematically destroy our lives, as well as to be free from the occasional sin that trips us up and causes us to feel defiled and ugly.
The New Testament idea of baptism is rooted in the Old Testament experience of Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea, where the Egyptian army was then drowned. In 1 Corinthians 10, we’re told that through that experience, the Israelites were “baptized into Moses,” and the promise of the Lord to them was “the Egyptians you see today, you shall see again no more forever” (Exodus 14:13). The power of baptism was that the influence of evil that is represented by Egypt would no longer have control over the people of God, but that they were now entering into a new power, the power to obey the Lord and live holy lives. Although they would still have to choose righteousness and obedience to the Lord, the power of the enemy was broken, and they no longer needed to fear being taken captive again.
Paul the Apostle writes essentially the same thing in Romans 6, where he declares that when we are baptized, we are joined with Jesus in His death, and the power of sin is broken in us. When we are baptized, we are immersed under the water as a spiritual picture of death and burial, and then we are brought up out of the “water grave” into a new life where victory and power over sin are available through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Notice (this is important!): baptism does not make sin impossible; it makes obedience possible. When we get saved, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit, the power to choose is restored to us. Sin and death no longer are our lords, but Jesus steps into that place. We have the resource to say “no!” to sin, and to say “yes!” to God.
Even as Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit when He came up out of the water, so we can anticipate a flooding of the Spirit’s presence in us – a predictable power encounter that releases to us the power of new life. We can now do what Paul exhorts us to do: “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members (body parts) as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members (body parts) as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion (lordship) over you, for you are not under law but under grace (the power to choose holiness)” (Romans 6:12-14).
If you would like to be baptized at our Family Day Celebration this Sunday, June 5, please call the IHOP-Northwest office at 253-509-4958 and give us your information so that we can prepare. Blessings on you all!
Gary Wiens
Chart – Overview of Key End-Time events
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ARTICLE: We Won’t Stop Praying (Re: IHOP-KC)
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.
ARTICLE: Beauty in the Back Row (re: IHOP-KC)
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.
RECOMMENDED READING: God in Three Persons – The Trinity (Grudem)
Chapter from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology on the topic of the Trinity. As we seek to communicate with clarity about this important doctrine that has historically been one of the marks of orthodoxy in the Christian Church, we would encourage you to read and study up on this topic, using this resource and others. Our hearts come alive as we gaze on the LORD in His glory!
Focusing on my assignment, I almost lost sight of my purpose.
Recently I received a phone call from one of our leaders at IHOP-NW. The previous evening she had a dream about me and felt an urgency to share it. She first mentioned, however, that I should remain calm and not be upset because she had prayed through it and felt that the Lord had given her an interpretation. That comment alone started the butterflies in my stomach because I sensed intuitively that I was about to be corrected.
Her dream began with me and several others she recognized coming out of meeting in which we had been discussing the finances of IHOP-NW and our possible move into a larger facility. I was standing outside the door talking to her about our financial concerns when I begin to smile. In her dream she could see that my teeth and roots were rotten and this was because of my constant worry and anxiety about finances. But the good news was that I had a retainer in my mouth and we knew that meant that the Lord was correcting this. The Lord showed her and Gary that this was causing me not to be able to chew and digest the Word of God properly.
After she shared the dream I confessed that I recently had not been able to focus in the Bible and even when I read something I did not retain it for long and this really was grieving me. Also, for some time I had not had any dreams that were significant. Having this dream shared with me was embarrassing and I told no one, but the dream was so convicting that I was really humbled. I immediately went into repentance asking the Lord to forgive me. I confessed my fear and worry and asked God to release peace, which He did.
A couple of days later, I clearly heard the Lord say to me “Isaiah 57,” and I sensed that there was a connection to this dream. As I read Isaiah 57:3-13 I had revelation that the Lord was speaking to all of us about setting aside our idols. “When you cry out for help let your collection of idols, save you! The wind will carry all of them off; a mere breath will blow them away.” As I reflected on the idols the Lord brought to my mind how I had been fearful about money and that’s where I had put my trust. He started bringing to mind how I was worrying about the finances of our country and what the future was going to bring. He showed me how people were beginning to be my resource and not Him. I knew that this was the reason I was not getting the revelation and breakthrough that I had been crying out for and so I asked for forgiveness. All this happened during our recent forty day fast which was about to end.
That night I had a powerful dream. I was standing near the edge of a shallow bay and I was looking into the water. The water was beautiful and I could see to the bottom. I knew that if I drank the water it would be pure and fill me with great health. I turned to my right to see a man on all fours lifting his leg side ways in the air to exercise. Floating over him on all fours was a trainer with very large muscles. As the man lifted his leg, the trainer was lifting His directly above the man’s as if to be supernaturally causing him to build his muscles. All of a sudden I saw someone throwing big logs into the water and I was alarmed that it would stop the flow of the water and dam it up. But, the trainer – Who I now knew was the Lord – said, “Do not be worried about that person because I will take care of it, you just be concerned about building your muscle.”
I knew the Lord was saying to me and to others to stay in the Word, praying and interceding for our strength to endure what is coming and He will ensure for us that the flow of the Holy Spirit will not be stopped or hampered by the enemy. Then I woke up.
The following night I had another dream. All of the people at IHOP were in a building and we were having lots of fun. I looked outside and I saw a horrible storm like I had never seen in my lifetime. I knew it was a life and death storm and I remembered that my dog Lucy, whom I dearly love, was outside and I had to get her. There was a great body of water like an ocean and not far out I could see a very large ship like a freighter and I knew it was an international ship. Along the bank of the water was a large dock and I noticed that my dog Lucy had just been swept over into the water and was drowning. I quickly grabbed her leash as she went under. I struggled for some time to pull her up and then all of a sudden just her leash and collar appeared. I was terrified and so sad that I went inside crying and screaming for help. And then I woke up.
After praying and speaking to Gary about these dreams we both came to the same interpretation. Lucy represented things that were not eternal and we are not to hope or hang onto them because a great storm which is possibly international is coming. The Lord is saying that we must build our strength and let go of our idols, whether it be Fox News, money, our home, shopping, food, etc. The Lord will show us.
Isaiah 57:13-15 says, “But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and posses my holy mountain. Build up, Build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and lofty One says he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Shortly after the revelation on this word, Gary and I were watching the DVD The Finger of God. Bill Johnson was speaking about the Lord multiplying the food for thousands twice and then shortly afterwards His disciples were in the boat complaining that they had no food. Jesus says in Mark 8:17 “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Bill Johnson said we do not have “Kingdom reasoning” because we cannot see things by spiritual discernment because of our idols that we do not even know exist and inhibit our reasoning. This should really concern us because I believe the Lord revealed to me a storm is coming and we cannot be passive or asleep. But the good news is, remember in my dream those that were in prayer and worshipping together were not harmed by the storm and in fact did not seem that concerned about what was going on outside.
After a couple of weeks I finally had the courage to tell the whole story on a Friday evening at IHOP-NW Encountering God Service. I realized as I told the story how the Lord had healed and humbled me because it felt good to real this to others and to help them. The following Monday I received a call from Pastor Troy Green from Elma, WA. This was significant because he was part one of two things that the Lord had done to multiple money for us as we begun IHOP-NW and had almost no money. Well over a year ago when we needed $17,000 to purchase sound equipment he came to us and said the Lord told him to seed into IHOP and give us the money. His church is very small and in a low income area, this was miraculous.
The reason he called last Monday was to tell me about his major encounter with God as he stepped up to the pulpit to preach Sunday on the First Commandment. As he was about to speak the Lord said, “Troy your assignment is building a 24/7 prayer movement, but your passion and calling is to love Me. As he began to preach this the whole church broke down in repentance and weeping and they did not leave the church until 2:00PM.
As he told me the story I began to see the connection of my dreams, the leaders dream, Isaiah 57, Mark 8. The Lord is saying “Love me, just have a passion for me and I will add all the rest. I will take care of the logs the enemy is throwing at you.”
The stock market is up, homes are selling and people are beginning to shop again but do not be fooled by all of this. Do not be afraid either but instead do as I did. Get on your knees and pray for forgiveness and ask the Lord for revelation on what is coming and how to prepare the way. Ask the Lord for dreams and visions, but most of all begin to tell the Lord how much He means to you and how much you love Him. Tell him you cannot live without Him and nothing means anything without revelation and muscle building from Him. Let Him be in control of everything in your life. It is much more exciting and rewarding.
An Open Invitation: Come Up Higher to the Presence of the Lord
As we enter this new year of 2009, it is blatantly obvious that we are all facing serious challenges to our faith and life. These challenges come at personal level, as well as in the arena of our professions, our friendships, our workplace, and our centers of worship. On top of all these personal settings, we are clearly facing national and international pressures in a more intense way than most of us can remember. It seems clear to me as I reflect on my own life that the level of commitment to Jesus that sustained me through this past year will not be sufficient for the days that are ahead. I must know Him in a deeper way, and somehow must get hold of His power for the issues that confront me at every level on a daily basis. Perhaps you feel some of the same needs as I do.
I want to draw your attention to a short statement found in Revelation 4:1 – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, ‘Come up here . . .’”
These words were spoken by an angel to John, the old apostle who was exiled on Patmos Island at the end of the 1st Century. He was in the midst of a radical encounter with God in which he would witness the battle plan of Jesus to take over the kingdoms of the earth, including the implications that this strategy has for followers of Jesus as well as for the entire human race. John was about to see some truly awesome and terrible things, and it is significant for us to see the first things that God decided to reveal to John.
Before the Lord revealed the wonders and horrors that would accompany the coming of Jesus to Planet Earth, the angel was directed to show John the realm of God’s presence: His beauty, His personality, His power, His holiness, and His perfect justice in doing what He is about to do. This strategy was so important to John, and it is important to us as well. Like John, we must become settled in the ultimate beauty, kindness, power, and righteousness of the God who is orchestrating the transition from this present evil age to the wonder and majesty of His Kingdom that is coming to the earth.
A Throne Set In Heaven
Here’s the first thing John saw: there is a throne set in heaven. This is very powerful for us, because it is far more than a nice religious picture or sentiment. There is a place of ultimate authority and power, and it is essential that we know this deeply and personally. The culture that we live in has gone to extreme lengths to eliminate any sense of absolute truth or authority. “No one can tell me what to do!” is the cry of our spoiled-brat society. We have become our own gods, and we are reaping the fruit of our self-worship. The values that have held America together are no longer embraced, and the enemy is strengthening his grip. King David wrote Psalm 11 and declared that “if the foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do?” The answer that David came to is the same for us: there is a throne in heaven, and there is One seated there who is holy, beautiful, righteous, and just, and He is ultimately and personally involved in what is happening here on earth.
God has a clear and present strategy for this planet, for His people, and for all those who oppose Him. His plan is beginning to unfold. His desire is that we would be so settled in the experiential knowledge of His goodness and kindness that we will not be shaken by the decisions Jesus makes as He comes to take His place as the King of all kings, the Lord of heaven and earth.
In the next article, we’ll take a glance at the One who sits on this throne, that we might be filled with wonder and delight as our eyes behold this One who is beautiful and holy.
Blessings on you!
Gary Wiens
The Gift of Woundedness
Greetings, Everyone!
I recently received the following article by Francis Frangipane. Marie and I were powerfully blessed by this word, and wanted to share it with you. Blessings on you!
“The Gift of Woundedness”
by Francis Frangipane
Nov 30, 2008
The world and all it contains was created for one purpose: to showcase the grandeur of God’s Son. In Jesus, the nature of God is magnificently and perfectly revealed; He is the “express image” of God (Hebrews 1:3). Yet to gaze upon Christ is also to see God’s pattern for man. As we seek to be like Him, we discover that our need was created for His sufficiency. We also see that, once the redemptive nature of Christ begins to triumph in our lives, mercy begins to triumph in the world around us.
How will we recognize revival when it comes? Behold, here is the awakening we seek: men and women, young and old, all conformed to Jesus. When will revival begin? It starts the moment we say yes to becoming like Him; it spreads to others as Christ is revealed through us.
Yet to embrace Christ’s attitude toward mercy is but a first step in our spiritual growth. The process of being truly conformed to Christ compels us into deeper degrees of transformation. Indeed, just as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered (see Hebrews 5:8), so also must we. And it is here, even while we stand in intercession or service to God, that Christ gives us the gift of woundedness.
“Gift?” you ask. Yes, to be wounded in the service of mercy and, instead of closing our hearts, allow woundedness to crown love, is to release God’s power in redemption. The steadfast prayer of the wounded intercessor holds great sway upon the heart of God.
We cannot become Christlike without being wounded. You see, even after we come to Christ, we carry encoded within us preset limits concerning how far we will go for love, and how much we are willing to suffer for redemption. When God allows us to be wounded, He exposes those human boundaries and reveals what we lack of His nature.
The path narrows as we seek true transformation. Indeed, many Christians fall short of Christ’s stature because they have been hurt and offended by people. They leave churches discouraged, vowing never again to serve or lead or contribute because, when they offered themselves, their gift was marred by unloving people. To be struck or rejected in the administration of our service can become a great offense to us, especially as we are waiting for, and even expecting, a reward for our good efforts.
Yet wounding is inevitable if we are following Christ. Jesus was both “marred” (Isaiah 52:14) and “wounded” (Zechariah 13:6), and if we are sincere in our pursuit of His nature, we will suffer as well. How else will love be perfected?
Yet, let us beware. We will either become Christlike and forgive the offenders or we will enter a spiritual time warp where we abide continually in the memory of our wounding. Like a systemic disease, the hurtful memories infect every aspect of our existence. In truth, apart from God, the wounding that life inflicts is incurable. God has decreed that only Christ in us can survive.
The Wounds of a Prayer Warrior
Intercessors live on the frontier of change. We are positioned to stand between the needs of man and the provision of God. Because we are the agents of redemption, satan will always seek the means to offend, discourage, silence, or otherwise steal the strength of our prayers. The wounding we receive must be interpreted in light of God’s promise to reverse the effects of evil and make injustice work for our good (see Romans 8:28). Since spiritual assaults are inevitable, we must discover how God uses our wounds as the means to greater power. This was exactly how Christ brought redemption to the world.
Jesus knew that maintaining love and forgiveness in the midst of suffering was the key that unlocked the power of redemption. Isaiah 53:11 tells us, “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
Jesus possessed revelation knowledge into the mystery of God. He knew that the secret to unleashing world-transforming power was found at the Cross, in suffering. At the Cross, payment for sin was made. As Christ forgave His enemies, Heaven’s power rent the temple veil in two. Christ’s stripes purchased our healing. I am not just talking about suffering, but the suffering of love.
The terrible offense of the Cross became the place of redemption for the world. Yet, remember, Jesus calls us to a Cross as well (see Matthew 16:24). Wounding is simply an altar upon which our sacrifice to God is prepared.
Listen again to Isaiah’s prophetic description of Jesus’ life. His words at first seem startling, but as we read, we discover a most profound truth concerning the power of woundedness. He wrote, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
How did the power of God’s pleasure prosper in Christ’s hand? During His times of crushing, woundedness and devastation, instead of retaliating, Jesus rendered Himself “as a guilt offering.”
The crushing is not a disaster; it is an opportunity. You see, our purposeful love may or may not touch the sinner’s heart, but it always touches the heart of God. We are crushed by people, but we need to allow the crushing to ascend as an offering to God. The greatest benefit of all is the effect our mercy has on the Father. If we truly want to be instruments of God’s good pleasure, then it is redemption, not wrath, that must prosper in our hands. If we are Christ-followers, we must offer ourselves as an offering for the guilt of others.
Conformed to the Lamb
When Christ encounters conflict, though He is the Lion of Judah, He comes as the Lamb of God. Even when He is outwardly stern, His heart is always mindful that He is the “guilt offering.” Thus, Jesus not only asks the Father to forgive those who have wounded Him, but also numbers Himself with the transgressors and intercedes for them (see Isaiah 53:12). He does this because the Father takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11), and it is the pleasure of God that Jesus seeks.
Is this not the wonder and mystery, yes, and the power, of Christ’s Cross? In anguish and sorrow, wounded in heart and soul, still He offered Himself for His executioners’ sins. Without visible evidence of success, deemed a sinner and a failure before man, He courageously held true to mercy. In the depth of terrible crushing, He let love attain its most glorious perfection. He uttered the immortal words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Christ could have escaped. He told Peter as the Romans came to arrest Him, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). In less than a heartbeat, the skies would have been flooded with thousands of warring angels. Yes, Jesus could have escaped, but mankind would have perished. Christ chose to go to hell for us rather than return to Heaven without us. Instead of condemning mankind, He rendered “Himself as a guilt offering” (Isaiah 53:10, italics mine). He prayed the mercy prayer, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also” (John 14:12). We assume He meant that we would work His miracles, but Jesus did not limit His definition of “works” to the miraculous. The works He did – the redemptive life, the mercy cry, the identification with sinners, rendering Himself a guilt offering – all the works He did, we will “do also.”
Thus, because He lives within us, we see that Isaiah 53 does not apply exclusively to Jesus; it also becomes the blueprint for Christ in us. Indeed, was this not part of His reward, that He would see His offspring? (see Isaiah 53:10) Beloved, we are the progeny of Christ!
Read these words from Paul’s heart:
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His Body, which is the Church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24).
What did the apostle mean? Did not Christ fully pay mankind’s debts once and for all? Did Paul imply that we now take Jesus’ place? No, we will never take Jesus’ place. It means that Jesus has come to take our place. The Son of God manifests all the aspects of His redemptive, sacrificial life through us. Indeed, “as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Paul not only identified with Christ in his personal salvation, but he was also consumed with Christ’s purpose. He wrote, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).
For those who blame others for the decline of our nation, to be a follower of the Lamb, you must render yourself as an offering for their sin. By your wounds they shall be healed.
What a wondrous reality is the “fellowship of His sufferings.” Here, in choosing to yoke our existence with Christ’s purpose, we find true friendship with Jesus. This is intimacy with Christ. The sufferings of Christ are not the sorrows typically endured by mankind; they are the afflictions of love. They bring us closer to Jesus. We learn how precious is the gift of woundedness.
Let’s pray: Father, I see You have had no other purpose in my life but to manifest through me the nature of Your Son. I receive the gift of woundedness. In response, in surrender to Christ, I render myself an offering for those You’ve used to crush me. May the fragrance of my worship remind You of Jesus, and may You forgive, sprinkle and cleanse the world around me.
Francis Frangipane
Living Today With An Eye To Eternity
It’s been said that a person can be “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” On the surface that sounds like a good proverb, encouraging us to keep our feet on the firm ground of practical living, rather than being captivated by some vague notion of heaven that is more closely related to Greek mythology than it is to Biblical truth. But beyond the superficial perspectives that that hold many followers of Jesus in the grip of ignorance, we find this truth: if we are not heavenly minded in the correct way, we will be no earthly good at all, because we will find ourselves living for the wrong reasons, using the wrong strategies, and aiming at the wrong goals.
The way we as followers of Jesus live today should be directed by one reality: Jesus is coming back to the earth to take over the leadership of the planet, and His plan is to give rewards to His people according to how we have carried out our existence here. I don’t know for sure how much thought you have given to the statement you just read, but if you’re like most believers in America, you’ve not given much thought to it at all. The idea of Jesus actually returning to the earth to establish His Kingdom here has probably been a vague thought in the back of your mind, with little or no influence upon the decisions you make moment by moment, and day by day.
But I want to encourage you to think about this with a fresh perspective. Jesus was very clear with His disciples that He is coming again to evaluate the lives of His followers, and to reward them with assignments based on what they did with the stewardship they were given. Consider the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
Matt. 25:20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, “Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
Matt. 25:24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
Matt. 25:26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
Matt. 25:29 “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Most of us have read that parable with very little understanding. Perhaps we’ve known that there is some sort of accountability over how we use our gifts and abilities, but what Jesus is laying out here is very specific and very sobering. He has given each of us a deposit, a stewardship of time, energy, and money, and He expects a return on His investment. For those that are faithful with what they’ve been given, and who invest their resources of time, energy and money in a way that is consistent with His character, there will be tangible, earthly, and eternal rewards. You see, the Kingdom of God is really coming to the earth, and Jesus really intends to have a leadership team that is made up of people that have embraced His agenda during this life. We are not going to spend eternity in a mythological heaven that is removed from the earth and has no tangible reality to it. Jesus is bringing heaven here, and He intends to do the Father’s will on earth in cooperation with people who have followed His lead in this life as preparation for the age to come.
Please understand that I am not speaking here of salvation. We gain entrance into the Kingdom of God by the power of the blood of Jesus, by confession of sin, repentance from evil ways, and by believing in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God. Salvation – entrance into God’s Kingdom – is free and cannot be earned in any way. However, the Bible repeatedly refers to the reality of assessment, the accountability that Jesus, the Lord of the Kingdom, will demand from each of us as stewards in that Kingdom.
Therefore, the choices we make today about how we spend our time, energy, and money, about what we do with our thought life, and how we behave when no one is watching – those choices all have eternal consequences. There is continuity between this age and the age to come, and the individual choices we make from day to day matter more than we can imagine. Therefore it is very important that we gain understanding of what is important to Jesus, and begin to live in that way. We will give an account for the life we live, and the choices we make, and we will be rewarded magnificently if we are found faithful.
I encourage you to read through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and through the first two chapters of the Book of Revelation. That’s where Jesus is speaking to the churches that are prophetic pictures of the Church at the end of the age. He gives strong exhortations in both those sections, but in every instance, the call to obedience is motivated by the promise of great reward in the age to come. Jesus is wise. He created us with a longing for greatness, and He promises to deliver it to us if we will walk in a faithful stewardship of what we’ve been given.
Blessings on you all as you consider these things.
