FAKE HOLY SPIRIT ATTEMPTS TO MISLEAD MILLIONS AND WILL PROBABLY GET AWAY WITH IT TOO.
Awakening Sweeps over Int’l House of Prayer
Paul Strand - Tuesday, December 22, 2009
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Over the last decade the International House of Prayer, or IHOP as it’s usually called, has become a destination where worshippers lift non-stop praise and prayer up to God 24-hours a day. Now, there’s a new level of worship taking place at the ministry.
A series of miracle-filled meetings has been going on at the IHOP almost nightly since early November. As CBN News arrived to check out this move of the Holy Spirit, two young men were testifying about healings they had just experienced.
Jay Fridenmaker plays bass guitar in one of IHOP’s worship teams. He was so nearsighted that from the stage where he plays and these meetings take place, he’d never been able to see the big green digital clock on the other side of the auditorium.
“I’ve been asking the Lord for the last few days to heal my eyes,” Jay said. “A couple of people came over and prayed for me and my eyes…and now I can read things that are far away.” And he said the clock is now crystal clear.
Steve Moduno works with one of the other worship teams. Suffering with asthma since he was born, Steve has never been able to take deep breaths.
But he’d just been prayed for when CBN News showed up.
“Immediately I could breathe deeply.” We asked him to take a deep breath. He sucked in huge gulps of air. We said, “You were never able to do that before?” “No,” he replied, with a big, happy grin.
The ‘I Got Healed’ Gal
Rachel Beauchamp’s knee was so torn up she couldn’t run or dance for seven years. The Kansas City, Mo. resident confessed, “I’ve probably got prayed for – my knee – literally I’d say 900 times.”
At a recent renewal meeting, she wasn’t even praying for healing when it suddenly came for her damaged knee. She ran up on the stage, charging back and forth yelling, “I got healed! I got healed!” It was such a joyous, memorable moment, it earned Rachel a new title among people at IHOP: the ‘I got healed’ gal.
This move of the Lord in Kansas City began November 11 when Wes Hall’s 9 a.m. class at IHOP’s Bible school began to fill with a palpable presence of the Spirit.
15-Hour Holy Ghost Encounter
All other classes quickly moved in with Hall’s. Hundreds of Christians from across Kansas City – alerted by e-mails, texts and cell calls – started showing up for a Holy Ghost encounter that lasted 15 hours.
IHOP immediately began nightly six-hour renewal meetings and was soon sending it all out on a free, live webcast reaching 180 nations. Allen Hood, president of IHOP-University, described what God’s doing to His people in these meetings: “We’re getting healed. We’re experiencing His joy. We’re finding out He not only loves us, He likes us. He wants to use us. He wants to partner with us.”
For every physical healing, there appear to be dozens of spiritual ones – often leading to a total renewal of the recipient’s faith. It’s especially happening among the young people. “This generation is so broken,” said Hall, not just an IHOP-U instructor, but provost as well. “And the Lord is setting this young adult generation free of all kinds of brokenness and shame and addiction.”
‘Religion’ Knocked Right Out of Them
What’s interesting is how many long-time Christians here have had God knock the religion right out of them, but then replace it with a loving, intimate relationship with Him.
Anna Tullis, an IHOP student and almost lifelong Christian, felt tied up in knots over her religious spirit of perfectionism and performance: “I’ve grown up in a Christian home so I really knew how to perform and do what leadership wanted you to do…just knowing the system. And it had been so much bondage.”
She received prayer and deliverance at the renewal. “Afterwards I felt so light and so free. And like the freedom to be who the Lord called me to be instead of what everyone else was expecting of me. And it’s awesome!” Tullis exclaimed. “I’m just free from religion and like, my concept of God, which was totally messed up.”
IHOP-U president Hood explained, “A lot of our kids have grown up in religious contexts. They know what it means to look religious. But they’re finding out that God loves them, accepts them and is delivering them from performance.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Brent Steeno is another IHOP-U teacher. He was praying for students during the first day the renewal began, when he realized he himself had issues blocking his relationship with God.
Steeno asked for prayer and had a heavenly encounter: “I felt like Jesus was standing next to me and He just began to do surgery on my heart and removed self-hatred and insecurities and listening to the lies of the enemy.”
Igniter for the Nation?
Many local Christians who have been paying attention for years to prophetic words spoken over Kansas City are excited for what this move might mean not just for their area, but the nation.
Pastor Alan Koch of Christ Triumphant Church in nearby Lee’s Summit, Mo., recalled one prophecy he’d heard: “There would be an outpouring of God on the coasts, but it would come to the center. And when it would come to the center, it would ignite. And we’re hoping that this is that ignition.”
IHOP invited leaders of two longtime streams of revival to come to Kansas City to wed their efforts and also examine what this move of God might mean.
John and Carol Arnott have watched over a powerful renewal at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship for 15 years now. They like what they saw at the IHOP renewal.
Carol said, “They’re healing the sick and they’re preaching the gospel. And I believe as people start to come, it will be so contagious.”
John added, “This is going to go all over the world. And the earth is going to be a different place because of what God does here.”
Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church in Redding, Calif. has been seeing its own miracle-filled renewal for years. He advised IHOP to drink it up: “What these pools of refreshing are is they’re wave after wave of God’s goodness that we get to taste.”
Healings Every Night
IHOP founder Mike Bickle described what he’s seeing happen night after night: “The Lord is releasing His Spirit, mostly on young people, although it’s for all ages. And a lot of people are getting healed physically, just sovereignly. Healings every night.”
IHOP staffer Rachel Wagner received one of those healings recently. For about a year she and her doctor had been worried about a suspicious lump in her breast, but she couldn’t afford the tests that could tell if it was cancerous.
Wagner told CBN News, “I’d been praying ‘Lord, if you want to heal this, announce it from the platform,’ because it’s not something that you would normally hear on a microphone. And then Wes Hall said ‘God is removing a lump from someone’s breast, someone who’s been worrying about a lump in their breast, He’s dissolving it right now.’ And I was like ‘That’s me!’ So I ran to the bathroom and I checked and it was gone completely.”
The same day Wagner talked to CBN News, her doctor confirmed the lump has totally disappeared.
A Whole New Set of Teeth
The anointing for healing isn’t just happening here at these IHOP meetings. As they go out over the live webcast, individuals and groups elsewhere are watching, joining in and reporting their own wave of healings.
Pastor Dane Joneshill was visiting IHOP while others in his Searcy, Ark. church, including his co-pastor Taylor, were watching the webcast. One began to feel a strange sensation under her dentures – a whole new set of teeth growing in.
“She could just tangibly feel them with her fingers under her gums,” Pastor Joneshill said. “So she had Taylor put his finger in her mouth and feel all these bumps under the gums where these teeth were beginning to grow and push through the skin.”
Back at IHOP, the miracles just keep coming on. Kansas City resident Stephanie London fell seven stories five years ago.
“I broke my pelvis and ever since then, my right hip has been lower than my left,” Stephanie said. “During a prayer time I felt some really intense pain and some popping, and went and checked and my hips were even.”
The next week her chiropractor confirmed her total healing: “He said ‘I can tell you right now your hips are even, you have equal flexion in both sides, you’re balanced and I have never seen you like this.’”
Now those in Kansas City experiencing this rich move of God pray that it will spread from here in the core of the country out to the campuses and the coasts and everywhere people call upon Christ, wanting more of Him.
*Originally published December 18, 2009
SEE VIDEO HERE: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2009/December/Awakening-Sweeps-over-Intl-House-of-Prayer-/
You can talk people out of an idea or a thought or head knowledge, but NOT an experience. Nitely people are lead in prayers of repentance, receiving prophetic words and receiving healings. All these are creating a deeper hunger in the individuals lives. AWAKENING a passion for “more” of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I fail to see how this leads people away from Jehovah-God. I fail to see how Satan gets glory when people are healed. Many are coming broken and wounded and being awaken to Gods deep love for them. Lets pray for those whom God is pouring through in this awakening, they have made many saccrifices for our benefit. Lets be quick to pray and slow to speak.
Dr Reilly
>> You can talk people out of an idea or a thought or head knowledge, but NOT an experience.
Yes, experience is most definitely how we tell that something is TRUE and Biblical. Oh wait, no, no. The Bible says (sorry I am actually going to quote from the bible now) The Bible says:
1 John 4:1-6 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Jeremiah 29:8 8 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.
3 John 1:11 11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
1 Corinthians 14:36-37 36 Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only?
37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.
Matthew 16 1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
3 “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?
4 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.
2Th 2:9 2Th 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.
Matthew 24:24 24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
Deuteronomy 13 1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or the wonder COMES TRUE, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
So Dr Reilly. If you are indeed a Dr. Please examine these verses carefully and start testing what is TRUE and what is NOT true, because there are LYING signs and wonders and a wicked generation seeks after experiences.
Dr. R,
Please don’t take this the wrong way; I need to point out that you have used a logical fallacy in your point…which can lead to circular reasoning. Let me explain.
Signs and wonders don’t necessarily draw people ‘closer’ to God – the foolishness of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ does. But hang on …
Most of these movements love to use language such as ‘a deeper hunger’ and ‘passion’. If you ask them to define words like ‘holy’ you will find that it is not the same as the biblical meaning. The ultimate test is to see lives that are growing in Godliness, Sanctification, biblical purity and understanding/Godly Wisdom. The problem is that false teachers are one step ahead of the game; they also use biblical terms such has ‘repentance’ and ‘faith’ but if you analyse what that really means you may get a surprise. Faith in faith as opposed to faith in God being one example. Another instance; ‘repentance’ to them means ‘changing you mind or view of god’ when in fact the biblical definition is being broken, contrite and sorrowful over our sinful condition. You can catch out many dominiionist movement’s beliefs over their definition of sin, a lot of them don’t believe they have sin (because they are growing in godhood etc).
I see ‘prophetic words’ as a clever tactic of misleading people. People have their egos massaged with these prophetic words by self appointed prophets. Yet the reformers fought for the sufficiency of scripture, the word of God alone exposes us, leads us, guides us, teaches us. By the working and power of the Holy Spirit, goes without saying. The ‘prophetic’ can easily become a substitute for the teaching of Holy Scripture and sound biblical doctrines. I can guarantee you that you will also find a huge amount of biblical illiteracy in these movements.
I personally have zero, nothing against healings etc. This is biblical. The problem is that it becomes a hook. The real awakening is when people realize their sinful condition and a need for God’s Gracious Salvation wrought in Jesus Christ. Even a mature Christian never tires of hearing of this wonderful work.
But here is the crunch: EXPERIENCE is SUBJECTIVE & PERSONAL. The Word of God is OBJECTIVE and PUBLIC – open to public scrutiny. Experiences cannot be because they are personal.
The god of experience is very alluring, it does not cause you to deny yourself and pick up your cross. This god is all about you.
Implying that satan does not get glory because of these types of works is a logical fallacy to begin with. The generation that saw the most signs & wonders in history all perished in the desert. Jesus did say that a wicked generation seeks after a sign (the context of that passage is that the Pharisses had just witnessed a clear sign – Jesus cast out a deaf & dumb spirit of a young man in front of them and yet the Rabbinical law stated that a rabbi had to ask the demon ‘what is your name’ before casting the demon out. See a problem? It was a DEAF and DUMB spirit, it could not talk back. Only the Messiah could have done this. They missed the real sign for wanting to see the spectacular. That is man’s wickedness…and fallen state)
What I have heard of youngsters coming out of movements such as IHOP is that they have this arrogance that they think they are more ‘holy’ because they spent the last few hours shaking and vibrating under the ‘spirit’. (The fruit of the Holy Spirit is self control…see a problem? Everything according to scripture must be done in order, with soberness) They have this view that Christians that place utmost importance in the Word of God and have an extremely high view of scripture are a bunch of stuffy-religious- fuddy duddy-hypocrites… but they are privileged. No, they are deceived. Their ‘deeper hunger’ is for another fix of experiences. That is not God, that is not the Holy Spirit and that is certainly not the Gospel.
I will give you another one – ‘the fear of god’. Man, that sounds so godly does it not? The problem is that I have come across false teachers that use this as ‘submission’ to them because they are god’s chosen as opposed to a Holy, Reverent, trembling fear of God.
This does not lead people to ‘Jehovah God’, it leads people closer to what they think is ‘Jehovah God’ but could be a good counterfeit. What you call ‘deep love’ is normally mistaken for the affirmation of belonging to a group and having an identity. God’s love is deeper and greater than any experience.
Yes, there are probably many real born again Christians in these movements. Many of these probably very sincere. Most of them actually believe they are doing what is scriptural, but that is not the point…
How do you keep a church full of possibly false converts from knowing the truth? You keep them entertained – tickle their ears. Satan has just the right euphoria driven church program – full of pseudo spiritual hype, pseudo spiritual healings…that’s entertainment!
Maybe we are all wrong about this and have just misread the situation, over analyzed everything and have some explaining to do before God Almighty. Yep, have thought about that…but these alarm bells just keep going off.
If you knew a tornado was about to hit the city would you warn people? Or would you withhold the warning in case you upset people?
You make your own mind up.
WOW! I’m not sure what the motives of this article are. Have you all ever taken part in a prayer meeting there at IHOP? Do you have any idea how much time they spend in the Word? They live a life of worship and prayer 24-7! They are very sound and hold the scripture high above “experiences.” My heart is so sad. We constantly are ripping one another apart. I know someday Jesus’ heartfelt prayer will be answered that we would be one just as He and the Father are one. May we know the pain that we cause Holy Spirit and how we grieve Him. No wonder the Body of Christ isn’t nearly as effective in our nation, sin dominates, because the Body of Christ abuses parts of it’s body. Can you imagine if we all looked past our “differences” and joined in and asked the Lord to show us what’s on His heart and we prayed together and actually “loved” one another? Our world would be such a different place, but instead of fixing our eyes upon Him and paying so much attention to speck in our brother’s eye and not asking God to search our hearts and show us what’s displeasing to Him, our idols and such, we like to spend our time on who we can reveal to all is a “false prophet.” Father, in the name of Jesus I break off every curse that has been spoken over the Body of Christ by the Body of Christ and ask for Your great mercy and Love that covers a multitude of sins. Father, I pray for a greater revelation for each one of Your children about the power of our Words and what it is we’re doing to You and one another when we eat each other up with our Words. Lord, I thank You that You are so rich in mercy and Your love in never failing. Father, I pray for each one of Your children who has never really truly encountered the Father’s love and only has head knowledge that You would break through with a mighty rushing wave of Your love, take them in Your lap, with Your arms cradled around them and captivate their hearts and minds with the length, depth, breadth, and width of Your love. In Jesus’ most worthy and matchless name! Hallelujah and amen! God’s abundant blessings on you all!
I agree with Jesus heart, we need deep repentance for speaking against what His Spirit is doing in the lives of countless people in the nations, especially right now @ IHOP-KC. This is a move of God bringing holiness through the first commandment and the second. It seems many on this page have not been moved by the living word of God into LOVE. Jessica, Jesus will have His way at the end of the day, do not be sad : ) pray for the lost who think they are found. Pride is the very thing that keeps them from the God they claim to know. Humility is the manifestation of the nature of our Lord and He will judge my heart for writing this. I pray we all come before the Lord and ask Him to search us and bring us into His heart according the Word of God. Grace and Peace