Don’t Overcorrect: The US Prayer Movement after the Mike Bickle Scandal

We need to make sure our actions are being guided not by reactions against wrongdoing, but by the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit

When I was in college, my wife and I attended several churches. We loved taking communion at the local Anglican church. We loved the fellowship and liturgy at the Eastern Orthodox church. And we loved the teaching at Calvary Chapel. To be honest, even when we would visit other local churches, we’d try to make it to Calvary every Sunday.

Our pastor seemed like a middle-aged surfer who also happened to be a Bible scholar. He would preach barefoot, matching our own hippie vibes. I remember looking forward to his messages—his verse-by-verse Bible exposition was clear, simple, and yet deep. It was a well of refreshing for us every week.

One Sunday, our pastor was conspicuously absent. Another church leader brought the shocking news: the pastor and the worship leader, who was a freshman in college at the time, had been having an affair. He was stepping down from ministry. As details emerged, it became clear the affair was not just a one-time mistake—it had been going on the entire two years we had been at the church.

While this was shocking, I had a very strange reaction to the announcement, something that I believe came from the Holy Spirit. Rather than questioning his teaching and influence on my life, or feeling the sting of betrayal by a trusted leader, I felt an extreme and unusual peace. The Holy Spirit allowed me to leap right to the conclusion:

“This man who I respect has been living in sexual immorality secretly the entire time we’ve been here,” I said to myself. 

“And I’ve received so much of God’s grace from him in spite of this.”

“This is how God’s grace works. Okay. Good to know. I’m thankful for the lesson. I think I’ll need to remember this in the future.”

This impression from the Holy Spirit also checks out biblically.

Romans 11:29 tells us that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” In other words, human sinfulness cannot cancel out God’s gifts. Matthew 7:22 speaks of many who have performed miracles and cast out demons in the name of Jesus who will nonetheless hear, “depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” Once again, God is apparently using people who are practicing lawlessness to perform miracles.

Scriptures like this are terrifying for ministers. It means that we can have absolutely zero confidence that we are in good standing with the Lord based on how God is using us in ministry. However, it is very encouraging for us as we receive from one another. God can, God has, and God will put his grace on people who are serious sinners. While they will bear responsibility for their sin, it doesn’t mean what we’ve received through them is wrong or not from God.

Learning the Right Lessons from the Mike Bickle Scandal

It’s been nine months since accusations of sexual misconduct first emerged against Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. By now, credible accusations have established a pattern of repeated sexual sin and misconduct against young women, some of whom may have been under eighteen years old. Especially disturbing is the pattern of using so called prophetic words and spiritual manipulation in these immoral relationships.

These accusations have been devastating to the community in Kansas City and have had wide-ranging effects on the broader church and especially on the global prayer movement.

Our eyes must not be dry over these things.

I’ve always had incredible respect and admiration for Mike. He’s an excellent and anointed Bible teacher and an inspiring student of Scripture. In terms of his perseverance and pioneering leadership in 24/7 prayer, he was a hero. In his personal life he seemed like a refreshing mix of very loving to people, very intense about Jesus, and somehow still completely normal and relatable. The IHOP KC prophetic history, shared in different versions over the years, was an amazing confirmation to me that God is truly calling for a global prayer movement before the return of Jesus. It resonated with many personal revelations I’ve had from the Holy Spirit.

When these allegations were confirmed by IHOP KC leadership, I was surprised by how discouraged I was.

I found myself examining my foundations—have I been running in vain for all these years? Have I been seriously deceived by the prayer and prophetic movement? If intimacy with God and 24/7 prayer don’t lead to righteousness, what’s the point? And if a hero like Mike has fallen, what hope is there for the rest of us?

When confronting these questions, I realized at various points I was in danger of overcorrecting.

Overcorrection is a common human tendency—we’ve been hurt by a harsh father, so we refuse to discipline our own children. We grew up in a legalistic church setting, so we overemphasize grace and refuse to rebuke sin.

The problem is, overcorrection always leads to an equal and opposite error. We need to make sure our actions are being guided not by reactions against wrongdoing, but by the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I wanted to share three temptations I’ve struggled with, and how we should ultimately reject these overcorrections.

Overcorrection 1: We should throw away what we learned from Mike

God has used Mike and IHOP KC to trumpet major messages that have impacted the global church: these include intimacy with God, a renewed emphasis on the Song of Songs, the concept of 24/7 prayer, harp and bowl worship, a “bridal paradigm” for the church, and a focus on the return of Jesus.

Now, we do need to evaluate these teachings based on the standard of the Holy Scriptures, with the help of the Holy Spirit, and in community with the saints. However, I think a careful study of the Scripture will reveal that all of these emphases are straight from the heart of God and straight out of the Bible. I truly believe that God has used Mike in spite of his sin to bring these messages forth.

The God who put grace in Mike Bickle is also the God who used men like David to write the Psalms and Solomon to write the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. If we reject Mike’s teachings because of his sin, should we also reject Psalms and Proverbs as well? Thankfully for us, God’s grace can flow even where hidden sin is present. We can also rest assured God can and will bring about justice in these situations. This is how God works—he works through sinners. He’s not changing. Let’s agree with His ways.

Overcorrection 2: We should reject the IHOP KC prophetic history (and maybe most prophecy)

In January of 2009, I listened to an early version of the IHOP KC prophetic history.

I learned how God had spoken to an Arkansas hick named Bob Jones in the late 1970’s about a coming global prayer movement that would result in revival and eventually lead to the return of Jesus. 24/7 prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David would be central to this movement. Songbirds would sing Holy Spirit songs 24/7 and be watched on hand-held, wireless TV’s in the rice-paddies of Asia. God had confirmed this word with many miraculous signs, including a comet that suddenly appeared in 1983 exactly on the date Bob predicted.

It would be hard to express how encouraging this prophetic history was to me. I had specific prophetic experiences of my own related to the return of Jesus and a global prayer movement. I’d sum up the impact this way: “What God spoke to me is real and I’m not alone.”

However, as we’ve seen Mike Bickle used false prophetic words to manipulate and seduce. How can we believe this prophetic history he has related?

I think we need to treat the IHOP KC prophetic history the same way we treat all prophecy:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Mike, and others associated with the Kansas City Prophets struggled with sexual immorality and other serious sins. They taught and warned against sexual immorality, but were themselves ensnared by it. They are not the only church leaders to stumble in this way. And yet, God also gave them powerful prophetic experiences, many of which have tangibly come to pass.

For instance, Bob Jones correctly predicted the Kansas City Royals would win the World Series in 1985.

Bob predicted 100 million intercessors would be praying with intercessors in Kansas City for the salvation of Israel. As best we can tell, that happened last year on Pentecost Sunday!

Bob also predicted a global prayer and worship movement that would emphasize 24/7 prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. It’s undeniable that such a movement now exists.

We should test the prophetic history and all prophecy. I believe there are many similar predictions that we can test, that are good, and that we should hold on to. There may be other aspects that we need to let go of and reject if they don’t stand up to testing.

The bottom line is this: God’s grace was once again working through sinners. Let’s thank God that he set it up this way—otherwise we would all be destitute of His grace. Let’s not throw away the grace of God.

Overcorrection 3: There’s no value in 24/7 Prayer and there’s no Global Prayer Movement

In 2004, I read the book Red Moon Rising by Pete Grieg.

I was in the middle of having my own incredible experiences with God in prayer. Pete seemed to be a guy just like me, open to God but skeptical. A normal guy who began having wild, supernatural experiences when he started praying for long hours. I was in the middle of similar experiences. I couldn’t believe this was happening to other people.

Pete shared how their 24/7 prayer room got started quite accidentally in September of 1999 and hadn’t stopped since. He also shared a remarkable coincidence: three different 24/7 prayer movements, including IHOP KC, started in that same month within days of one another, with no knowledge of one another. They met years later to compare notes! In 1999, the concept of 24/7 prayer was virtually unknown. Today, it’s everywhere.

Last week, I was speaking to my friend, Lewis Hogan, from Dallas.

In the fall of 2004, both of us had a series of life-changing encounters with the Lord. God called both of us to a “forerunner” ministry, something that neither of us understood or had heard of outside the Bible. Our encounters caused both of us to start ministries focused on prayer and repentance. We couldn’t believe the similarity in our stories. It sounded for all the world like we got our marching orders from the same person, in the same year, at almost the same exact time. Twenty years later, both of us are still doing what we were called to do in 2004. But now, we’re aware of thousands of groups responding to God in a similar way.

I spoke to another friend, Brad Stroup, who has been attempting to track houses of prayer in the United States and has spoken to dozens of house of prayer leaders. According to Brad, almost every founder of a house of prayer he had spoken to started their ministry because of an encounter with God. The Holy Spirit is the one leading and calling His people to pray. It’s not dependent on any one person or ministry.

I’ve travelled around the world, and I’m telling you: from all my reading of Church history, there has never been a movement of prayer around the globe comparable to what we are seeing right now. This is not based on Scripture or Prophecy—this is just observation of what’s happening.

We are seeing the church become a house of prayer for all nations, composed of all nations. Core to this global prayer movement is the pursuit of an “on earth as it is in heaven” reality by means of 24/7 Prayer. We learn in the book of Revelation that in heaven there is continual worship and prayer. Doesn’t it make sense to do the same thing on earth? There are hundreds and maybe thousands of ministries around the world praying 24/7. The fire on the altar is not going out.

So, let’s not reject what God is doing in the earth because of one of his messengers. As Mike would often teach, this is much bigger than IHOPKC. This is a global movement being orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. At the end of the day, let’s trust the leadership of Jesus. He is the one who is truly leading this thing we call the Global Prayer Movement.