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The Coming Spirit “Presence” 

What does the word “Presence” mean to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and International House Of Prayer (IHOP) teachers? There is unique eschatological significance to their use of the word “presence” and its companion term “glory.” These two movements, increasingly popular in the evangelical world, are teaching a different eschatology. This eschatology is the engine that drives the entire IHOP youth movement, and it accounts for many of the strange activities of the NAR. Because many evangelical leaders are now openly associating with the IHOP and NAR, it becomes necessary to more fully explain their aberrant doctrines.[4]

In brief, IHOP/NAR leaders hold to the old Manifest Sons of God/Latter Rain cult[5] teachings that “Christ must come TO His Church before He comes FOR His Church.”[6] They believe there will be a separate “Spirit” or “Presence” infilling in the last days, evidenced with many signs and wonders. They say their passionate worship will invoke a “Presence” which will “energize the church with new power and demolish the works of Satan.”[7] This Spirit of Christ (i.e., the “Presence”) will come first to indwell the church beforeJesus’ Second Coming. Thus there is a doctrine of a two-phased or progressive Second Coming.

NAR and IHOP leaders teach that there will be an “increasing” return of this Spirit/”Presence” which will release a special “glory” anointing on the church to equip the powerful mobilization of an endtime “Joel’s Army”[8] to take dominion[9] over the earth. There is considerable evidence that they believe that the Bride of Christ will actually become Christ, Who thus returns in the Bride’s fleshly bodies. Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, who has researched this eschatology for the past several decades, asserts that these teachers are not emphasizing the literal physical return of Christ Jesus:

The Glory, in the Latter Rain understanding, is the visible manifestation of the Spirit… [D]eceived Christians are being led to expect a manifested spirit and not the visible return of the Lord Jesus. I believe the way we are headed is into teaching about the return of the `lord` to his church, in glory, before (or perhaps even instead of?) the physicalreturn of Jesus.[10][all emphasis added] 

There is a direct historical lineage of this eschatology. It originated in the old Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God cult[11] that taught a prior “Secret Coming for the Elite” before the 2nd Coming:

The neo-Gnostic believes the manifestation of the Sons of God comes about in a secret inner coming of Christ TO some Christians which would transform them into“Overcomers.” [George Warnock wrote] “Christ should visit the saints . . . and minister His life ‘in secret’ before He is openly manifest.” In doing this they reject the literal Resurrection and Rapture (the personal coming of Jesus Christ FOR His Church). It is interesting to note they will acknowledge Christ is coming, but His coming is off in the future. The emphasis is not on Christ’s soon appearance but on the great “power” or “new anointing” that is to be manifest in the Church.[12][bold added, italics in original] 

This eschatology is not classic Postmillenialism, nor is it the familiar teaching about the Rapture. In fact, it is essentially a form of Gnosticism.[13] Some of the teachers deny that Jesus Christ returns in the flesh at all (contra 1John 4:3, 2John 1:7). Others teach that the church will become Christ, incarnating Him in the flesh to rule and reign on earth. Some teach a murky middle ground that seems to say that the 2nd Coming will only occur after Jesus has first appeared to “inhabit” His church on earth with His “Spirit” (i.e., Jesus’s secret returning as a Christ “Spirit” or “Presence”).

This alleged event is sometimes referred to as a Second Pentecost.[14] The Second Pentecost is said to be a special secondary “outpouring” of the Spirit in response to the church’s obedience in the “restoration” of the “offices” of apostle and prophet to govern the church, a teaching also emphasized by C. Peter Wagner and his New Apostolic Reformation adherents.[15] Then will come an endtime allegorical “Feast of Tabernacles,” a recurrent theme amongst all who teach this eschatology:

The First Pentecost caused believers to be “clothed with power from on high”. The Second Pentecost is about theincarnation of Christ into His Body…. This is what Latter Rain teachers said we must expect in the final outpouring of the Church age![16][emphasis added]

Old Testament scriptures are spiritualized to see birthing as the return of the ark to the temple, that is the coming of Christ invisibly into His living temple the church. This will occur when the Feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled which celebrates the Lord dwelling among His people. “When this happens, no longer will it be the Head (Jesus Christ) in heaven and the body (believers) on earth – but one Perfect Man filling both heaven and earth.”[17][bold and italic added, underline in original] 

The belief that Jesus Christ will first come as a “Spirit” or “Presence” alters foundational doctrines about Christ and the Trinity (Rom.1:3-4).[18] It ignores (or discounts) that Jesus is coming again in His resurrected body (Rev. 1:7; Heb. 9:27, etc.). It is not unlike Docetism, a heresy in the early church that denied that Jesus Christ came the first time in the flesh. Pastor Anton Bosch informs us that this “is also a popular device used by cults and others that have set dates for His return and then when He did not return on that date the response is that He returned ‘in Spirit.’”[19] 

What does it mean when these teachers say that Jesus secretly orinvisibly returns first as a “Spirit” or “Presence”? They think that the Church (the Body, the Bride) becomes inhabited by this “Spirit”/”Presence” to the point of actually becoming Christ on earth. Note: This isn’t talking about the indwelling Holy Spirit in the life of an individual believer. Rather, they believe in a separate “filling” by a coming “Presence” that results in a corporate “God-man” or “Perfect Man.” Hence their misapplication of the phrase “manifestation of the sons of God” from Romans 8:19. One critic has summarized this theology:

In MSOG teaching this scripture is taken to mean a powerful endtimes revelation of believers as glorified, transformed and perfected, and possessed by Christ to such a degree that they become One with him and become a living corporate Son of God on the earth, ruling with him. This will be accomplished by the descent of “the glory” in a final overwhelming event that will transfigure all those who receive it. (Other less heretical versions have this event as aprogression into spiritual perfection and holiness in the endtimes.)[20][emphasis added] 

This faulty scenario discounts the risen Jesus Christ our Savior, the Son of God, sitting on the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:55-56; Heb. 1:3; 12:18, etc.). Instead, their “God-man” is the “manifest sons of God” – a corporate body (the “Bride”) manifesting itself as Christ in the flesh here on earth. Due to these fundamental errors many scriptures are misapplied to the church that pertain to Jesus Christ alone.

Latter Rain teachers emphasize this “Bride” will become the flesh of Christ incarnate on earth; that this Corporate Bride will become filledor inhabited with the “fulness” of this “Spirit” of Christ, a “Presence.” This indwelling “Presence” is thus said to equip the Corporate Bride to walk out (literally) the judgments of the book of Revelation—as Christ’s incarnate body—and she is charged with the mandate to subdue the earth and put all things under His feet.[21]Thus many Scriptures that pertain only to Jesus in the book of Revelation, are misapplied to the Bride as her duties and responsibilities. There are many variations on this theme, and many teachers contradict their own statements.[22] But this is the belief that forms the foundation for the extreme Dominionism that is being taught.

There is actually quite a bit of confusion in IHOP and NAR documents about the “Spirit of Jesus” and the “Holy Spirit.” When they talk about the “Spirit” they often mean this secondary “Presence” that they are trying to invoke by their 24/7 prayers. Ironically, they downplay the actual Holy Spirit—especially His indwelling presence already promised to believers.[23] Instead they insist that their followers must perform all sorts of extrabiblical exotic rituals, frenzied antics, pronounced decrees and shouting declarations in order to summon more of the “Presence” of this “Spirit.”

Their “Spirit” is not the Holy Spirit.[24] And Jesus Christ is not returning as a “Spirit.” As Dr. Steinkamp has astutely observed:

Jesus has not become the Holy Spirit. It is rather the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. The Resurrected Jesus is at the Father’s right hand and in His glorified resurrected body He will return bodily to the earth. Obviously an indwelling spirit would not need to return from heaven. It is on this basis that some Dominion teachers assert that Jesus can be an on-going incarnation of God in His body (church) upon the earth. Consequently scriptures pertaining to Christ’s ruling on earth are often seen as referring the Church rather than Jesus….[25]

The old Latter Rain/MSOG teachers used their own unique terminology to describe their unorthodox views. Likewise, the IHOP/NAR has its own special “in-house” (pun intended) language. It can be very difficult for the “uninitiated” to wade through their gilded spiritual-speak. Nevertheless, once one understands the complex verbiage, it becomes clear that the original heresies about the “Manifest Sons of God” have been modernized for popular consumption.

The History of “Presence” Eschatology
It all began in 1951 when George Warnock, who had been at the Latter Rain Sharon Camp Meetings in Canada and who had been the personal secretary of Ern Baxter (an associate of William Branham’s[26] ministry), took up residence at the Sharon Orphanage and School doing office work. He then proceeded to write a book titled The Feast of Tabernacles, which is “based on an allegorical interpretation of the feasts of Israel that has the Feast of Tabernacles standing for a glorious end-times church that would arise before Christ can return.”[27] In this book he laid out a systematic doctrine for this movement calling itself the New Order of the Latter Rain. Warnock stated the premise as:

“Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles typify the whole church age, beginning with the death of Jesus on the cross, consummating in the [the Feast of Tabernacles] theManifestation of the Sons of God. These ‘Overcomers’ will become perfected and step into immortality in order to establish the kingdom of God on the earth.”[28] [emphasis added] 

“This will come about by a secret inner coming of Christ to some Christians which would transform them into ‘Overcomers.’”[29][all emphasis added] 

When Warnock talked of a perfected church he meant the endtime church would—by this “secret inner coming of Christ”—mature into “fullness” to become Christ (i.e., “incarnating Christ”). In other words, the church would become intrinsically one with Christ—not the biblical one in union/communion with Christ— but one in essence.[30]This corporate group of “Overcomers” believed they would then become imbued with both perfection and immortality. Bob DeWaay, in his groundbreaking report on the NAR titled “The Roots and Fruits of the New Apostolic Reformation,” summarized the eschatological significance of Warnock’s teaching:

One of the most heretical teachings associated with the [New Order of the Latter Rain] was called “the manifested sons of God” that claimed that certain elite Christians would obtain the promise of immortality (as promised in Romans 8:19)now rather than at the parousia. Warnock taught that all enemies, in which he included death, the “last enemy,” had to be conquered by the church before Christ could return: “God says Christ is going to stay right where He is until all His enemies are under His feet. And His enemies include the “last enemy,” which is Death. There must arise a group ofovercomers who shall conquer and become absolutely victorious over all the opposing forces of the world, the flesh, and the Devil—before this dispensation draws to a close.” The “overcomers” is another term used by the Latter Rain to describe elitist Christians who are to be distinguished from the rest of us.[31] [emphasis added] 

There are several interrelated teachings that form a further basis for this radical departure from orthodox doctrine. Note the unusual language in this summary of this eschatology:

• MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD which is the fullness and glorification of the Church on the day that “Christ is formed in his people”. They are a mighty Army of the Lord (Joel’s Army). This is sometimes described as the Birth of the Manchild—i.e. the overcomers of the Church are brought (literally) to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, and become the Glorified Christ—the “many-membered Body of Christ” on earth by means of the infilling of the Glory of God…. 
• THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, understood spiritually as the Harvest Festival of joy and gladness, when the Ark returns to the Living Temple, the glory cloud returns, and Christ appears in the midst of His people. Christ is incarnated in His Body—the Coming of Christ understood as invisible and spiritual (i.e., “The Kingdom of God is within you”). Also known as “The Latter Rain” outpouring of Joel’s prophecy—the Second Pentecost in which Christ indwells his entire [corporate] Body, as opposed to the first Pentecost, when he indwelt individuals. 
• ASTONISHING SIGNS AND WONDERS will take place at the hands of the Manifested Sons of God. Their campaign will lead to a glorious worldwide Endtimes Harvest—as the manchild overcomers go forth to reap [the harvest, ed.].[32] [some emphasis added]

As noted earlier, this movement also taught the necessity of the “restoration” of the “office” of apostles and prophets, a facet which is emphasized nowadays by the NAR. This restoration of a hierarchical pyramid of dictatorial power, reigning over both the church and the world, is envisioned as the powerful enforcement mechanism to “reap” (“harvest”) the nations.[33] More will be said on this later.

Earl Paulk, an early influential teacher, claimed that Jesus has “entered a higher realm of restoration and love by becoming an indwelling Spirit.”[34] Note: Paulk was not referring to the Holy Spirit here. Paulk’s message of “Christ in us” was one of achieving both dominion and immortality:

Christ in us must take dominion over the earth…. The next move of God cannot occur until Christ in us takes dominion.[35][all emphasis added] 

Jesus Christ, as the first-fruit of the Kingdom, began the work of conquering death on an individual basis, but we, as His church, will be the ones to complete the task…. Death will not be conquered by Jesus returning to earth. It will be conquered when the church stands up boldly and says, “We have dominion over the earth.”[36] [emphasis added] 

Paulk believed that Christians must release this “Spirit” into the kingdoms of this world through prayer. The prayer-induced release of this “Spirit” would cause worldly kingdoms to crumble as the church becomes empowered as overcomers to take dominion.[37] Paulk taught that the church was the “incarnation” of Jesus:

“Jesus was God in the flesh. We must be as He was in the world, and even greater in volume and influence.” 

“The completion of the incarnation of God in the world must be in His church…. Jesus Christ is the firstfruit, but without the ongoing harvest, the incarnation will never be complete.”… 

“We are on earth as extensions of God to finish the work He began. We are the essence of God, His on-going incarnation in the world.”[38] [emphases added] 

If this sounds similar to the New Age teachings about the “god within” it is because both have roots in Gnosticism.[39] Evangelical postmodern teachers have adopted similar “incarnational” language.[40] Thus, their shared belief about “incarnating Christ” may explain why certain evangelical leaders seem to have no difficulty finding common ground with the current teachers in the IHOP and NAR.[41] 

Bill Britton, a prolific writer and Latter Rain teacher, similarly taught Jesus’s return through a corporate body of flesh. Again note the unique terminology:

Suddenly the world sees Jesus again in the flesh, as He manifests Himself through these thousands of saintssimultaneously around the world…. God was manifested in the flesh, in one body [Jesus Christ], then think what it will be when He manifests that same Life through thousands at the same time. 

Beloved, it is people in human, flesh bodies who shallconquer this world and defeat Satan…. Jesus defeated Satan and overcame him for us and put all of hell’s forces to an open shame. And He did this in a flesh body. Since He is the Head of the Body, it is now in order for the Body to follow in the pattern which He has set for us…. This Body of Christ, the Overcomer, shall come forth in mighty power tomanifest the fullness of Christ in the earth. They are known as the Manifested Sons of God….[42][emphases added] 

I see the great year of Jubilee, when we shall pass through the veil into the very Presence of the fullness of God, to befilled with this fullness and go forth proclaiming liberty to all of creation. [43][emphases added] 

Notice how Bill Britton’s teaching about a simultaneous manifestation of this “Presence” is remarkably similar to Barbara Marx Hubbard’s proposed “Armaggedon Alternative” to bypass God’s coming Judgment. This prominent New Age leader teaches a “Planetary Pentecost” that resembles the Second Pentecost taught by the Latter Rain/MSOG. Hubbard wrote in her book The Revelation of an endtime “great Instant of Co-operation which can transform enough, en masse, to avoid the necessity of the seventh seal being broken.” (See Warren Smith’s book False Christ Coming, p. 100-103, to recognize the other similarities in these eschatologies.)

These older Latter Rain/MSOG doctrines about the “Presence” would go on to have a second life in the 1980s and 1990s as leaders began to revise and update these teachings for more widespread appeal.

The Kansas City Prophets & the Presence 
By the late 1980s the Latter Rain teachings became fully embedded in the doctrines of the movement that has now become widely known as IHOP and NAR. In 1990, just as the “Kansas City Prophets” coalesced with John Wimber of Vineyard and C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Seminary (who later set up the NAR[44]), Discernment Ministries published an astonishing report about a 1989 Vineyard Conference[45]where these old Latter Rain cult doctrines were being resurrected. The report summarized what was being said:

1. They believe they will become Christ corporately and individually. When you hear someone say, as Mike Bickle (from Kansas City Fellowship speaking at a Vineyard Conference in 1989) said, “Christ is the Alpha and we are the Omega,” you immediately realize this is not Scriptural—only Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. What is it then? Manifest Sons of God… i.e., we are Christ corporately.… 
2. They believe the Church is the Ongoing Incarnation of Jesus. This is the cornerstone of Manifest Sons teaching. Instead of us partaking in the divine nature of Jesus, we become EQUAL TO and EVEN ASSUME the ROLE OF JESUS CHRIST.[46] [bold added, underline in original] 

This is a subtle deception. While acknowledging that Jesus came in the flesh, they then say that the CHURCH incarnates Jesus, becoming Christ in the flesh. They even use the term “Rapture” to refer to the “Christ within”:

The RAPTURE as looked for by the Manifests Sons of God is a coming forth of the “Christ within” every saint after the order of the Pattern Son. He made it as a divine, immortal and sinless Son of God. This can be duplicated by each individual, who by following Jesus as the Pattern Son, becomes a Manifested Son. This company is known as “The New Breed” or “Joel’s Army” etc. They will take dominion (establish a theocracy) and execute judgment on those they deem ungodly.[47][bold added] 

The infilling “Presence” was often described as the “glory.” At the same 1989 Vineyard “Prophets Conference,”[48] the now-disgraced “Kansas City Prophet” Paul Cain[49] stated: “If you get close enough to God, you can extract the very breath of God, you can extract the very glory of God right out of Him and then pass that on to your generation.”[50] Another speaker at the conference twisted Scripture to state that we “become” the Word:

“…the Lord has well planted this seed of the New Bride and the New Breed…. He’s about to open the womb and He’s about to give birth to this New Thing…. When the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us we beheld the glories of the only begotten of the Father and when YOU begin to becomethat Word, I want you to know that the world will behold theglory of the Father and that’s what we’re waiting to see…. I want you to know that we’re going to have some channelingone of these days, but it’s going to be channeled right out of the throne room of heaven.”[51][emphases added] 

This “Presence” was also referred to as “fire” during the 1990s. There is a history to this. Franklin Hall, responsible for many of the teachings that came into the Latter Rain and the Manifested Sons of God in the 1940s and 1950s, taught a “fire baptism.” This “fire baptism,” he claimed, could be “passed on through the laying on of hands, (impartation) and other extremes imparting the Holy Ghost fire into people’s bodies, through fasting and prayer.”[52] Hall’s old teaching was revived in the 1990s during the Toronto and Brownsville “Laughing Revivals,” with many reports of a “Spirit” descending on people like “fire.” According to an in-depth report on this phenomenon, Benny Hinn specifically described it as “the fire of God’s presence”:

the day will come when the fire of God’s presence will visibly appear in public meetings. You may have never heard that before – it’s biblical…. We’ve known the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but we have not yet known the fire. And I’m here to tell you in Southern California, God is about to visit you and the whole Church with fresh fire.”[53][bold, underline added, italics in original]

A few years later, in May of 2000, at the C. Peter Wagner’s National School of the Prophets,[54] IHOP leader Mike Bickle explained how the “fire” coming down was a second Pentecost experience that would anoint the church with a “forerunner’s spirit” for judgment:

“In Daniel 7:10, the fiery stream, or the river of fire that breaks fourth out of the throne of God, I believe is the person of the Holy Spirit. And when the fire comes forth, the fire is not just judgment. The fire is the revelation of theburning desire of God’s heart for people. Now, with that burning desire, when rebellion rises up against it, the fireremoves that which hinders love, and we call it judgment. But the fire breaks forth. His name is the Holy Spirit, and when this fire comes through history, Malachi 3 says, “The forerunners at the end of the age are going to loose the burning fire.” The spirit of burning is the manifestationthrough the House of God in prayer, of this river of firecalled the Holy Spirit…. It’s the anointing of the forerunner’s spirit… the river of God, the Holy Spirit, clothing us with fire, bringing us into that kind of union, that intimate bridal partnership that we call intercessory worship.”[55] [italics in original. bold added] 

Bickle is saying that this “fire” is a “manifestation” of the “Holy Spirit” that can be summoned by IHOP style fervent prayer. NAR “apostle” Cindy Jacobs, immediately jumped in to reinforce Bickle’s remarks, by admitting, “We don’t understand this part of Pentecost.”Thus she provided a clear indication that Bickle’s remarks were in reference to the old Latter Rain idea about a Second Pentecost. Jacobs further underscored Bickle’s statement by claiming that a “fire of the Holy Spirit” is “coming…. And it’s going to issue out from us into the nations of the earth.”[56]

“The Days of His Presence” 
Francis Frangipane, one of the original “Kansas City Prophets” along with Paul Cain, Rick Joyner, Mike Bickle and others,[57] published an influential book The Days of His Presence in 1996. In this quasi-theological treatise, Frangipane uses the same terms “glory” and “presence” in the same way as the old Latter Rain/MSOG teachers. Notice he uses the word “Presence” with a capital P:

…God’s plan is that here on earth, in us, the glory of the Lord will be revealed! The luminous, radiant light of HisPresence, as it shone from Moses’ face and flooded Solomon’s temple at its dedication, as it radiated from Jesus and bathed His disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration—that light of God’s Presence shall arise from within us at the end of the age! This same divine glory shall, in ever-increasing degrees of brightness, appear upon us in the years prior to the Lord’s actual second coming.[58] [italics in original, bold added]

Frangipane bases his mystical eschatology in part on personal visions and spiritual experiences with this “Presence.” After seeing a vision of a “glorious, heavenly procession” of angelic beings, Frangipane says he “gained an understanding of Christ’s expansive Presence and the impact His glory will have on the church at the end of the age.”[59] He writes, “the Lord’s Presence emanates from His glorified body in heaven,”[60] a statement which sounds similar to the Gnostic idea of “emanations.”[61] He then states this “Presence” would increase:

So also will this world change as the person of the Lord Jesus and His millennial reign draw near. The radiance of HisPresence will increasingly fill the spiritual realms surrounding our world. And not only will the world as we know it begin to experience dramatic changes as demonic strongholds are confronted and toppled by the Lord, but among those whose hearts are open and longing for Him, a great transformation will occur!… The Presence of Christ will be all that fills our minds.[62][bold added] 

Nowhere in Scripture can we find any basis for a doctrine of an increase in a “Presence of Christ.” Yet, according to Frangipane, this “Presence” will appear “prior to” the second coming of Christ and will both intensify and increase:

Yet, before He appears, while He is near but still invisible, that same radiance of glory will be poured out on “all flesh”…. For as He is in power and glory when He appears, so He is beforehand though unseen! And it is this out-raying Presence which will grow ever more resplendent in the church prior to His second coming.

With surge of His glory many things will be quickened on earth…. 

 [W]e who are open and yielded to Christ will watch in amazement as His Presence in us also intensifies and increases…. He will present to Himself a bride without spot or wrinkle…. 

The church will be beautified with His glory and filled with His radiance before He physically comes for her! 

He must increase and we must decrease until His Presence fills everything, everywhere, with Himself.[63] [Italics in original, bold added] 

This last statement sounds like Panentheism, which teaches that God is IN everything.[64] Like the other Latter Rain teachers, Frangipane believes there is a “Transcendent Purpose”[65] for this indwelling corporate “Presence.” The church has a mission, and it is dominion:

…[T]he church at the end of the age is to be given a stewardship, a mandate from heaven. At the bidding of the Sovereign King, we are called to participate with God in the process of divine consummation. 

For the unrepentant world, the apostate church, and the demons of hell, this will manifest as a period of God’s judgment and wrath. However, for those who are yielded to God, the same Spirit which comes to judge the wicked is alsocoming to inhabit and transform the righteous! [66] [emphases added] 

Note that Frangipane states that a “Spirit” would come to judge the wicked, and that this same “Spirit” would “inhabit” the righteous. Scripture does not say that a “Spirit” will judge the wicked, nor does it say that the church will be indwelt by a “Presence” to judge the wicked. The Bible specifies that it is “the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead” (2Tim. 4:1). The church is not Jesus. This is yet another teaching that has the effect of corrupting the doctrine of the Trinity.

Frangipane explains his view that “the church” would be “entering Christ’s glory in successive stages of spiritual fulness.”[67] He alleges that “during this last great time of fulness, the Presence of Christ will expand in the lives of those surrendered to His Lordship….”[68] This progressive return of the Lord via His “Presence” is said to be as an inner coming: “before the day of the Lord breaks, the morning star shall rise in our hearts!” and there shall be an “unveiling of Christ rising in His people… the glory of God shallrise within us” which is said to create a “harmony” and “unity” that “is the consequence of Christ’s Presence.”[69]

Frangipane focuses on the Greek word parousia which can mean “presence.” Based in part on another vision he experienced, he believes that “the entire sign-period is activated directly by Christ’s increasing Presence, the Parousia, at the end of the age.” He clearly states his belief that “the Lord will increasingly manifest Himself in His Presence before He physically returns.”[70] To underscore this point, he asserts that “there is a difference between the calendar day of Christ’s return and the season of spiritual fulness introducing it.” Thus, as like the early Latter Rain taught, the return of Christ is split into two parts beginning with the “arrival of Christ’s Presence.”[71]In case there is any doubt, Frangipane reiterates:

…I am not saying this time of Christ’s Presence will take the place of the rapture; only that it will precede it.[72] 

Our destiny is not just to carry Christ inside but to reveal the fulness of His glory in this world…. 

As Jesus was both God and man, so the church is actually the dwelling of Christ in the temple of man. There is not a different Jesus in us than He who dwells in heaven. He is Christ wrapped in glory in heaven. He is Christ wrapped in our human flesh on earth…. 

He has chosen to hide His glory not from us but in us [73] [Italics in original, bold added] 

It is at this juncture that Frangipane introduces the ominous doctrine that explains the purpose of this “fulness” of “Presence”—“a finalcleansing would occur during the last years of the age.”[74] This is a thinly-disguised reference the Latter Rain’s oft-prophesied endtime “harvest.” “Harvesting” the earth is synonymous with the idea of “cleansing” the earth.[75] Those who “cannot accept God’s promises of a glorified church at the end of the age” are categorized with the warning “beware of the dogs.”[76] Lest there be any doubt, he reiterates, “At the end of the age, everything short of oneness with Christ will appear as sin.”[77] Does this mean that sin will be defined as anything short of experiencing this Christ “Presence” within? One can only wonder.

These unorthodox ideas would go on to become an integral part of the doctrine of both IHOP and the NAR. The next sections of this article series will examine the evidence.

Stay tuned for Part 3. . . . 

Due to inclement weather the Presence could not show up and needed to be rescheduled.

THE TRUTH:
Pastor Larry DeBruyn recently published an article “The Present of ‘His Presence’” which is very germane to the issues brought up in this current article series. Below are a few key excerpts:

The Bible teaches that the risen and glorified Christ has a corporeal presence, not on earth, but in heaven. According to the apostle Peter, Jesus Christ “has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand–with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him” (I Peter 3:22, NIV). The author of Hebrews agrees (Hebrews 4:14; 8:1). Jesus said He was going to that place (John 14:2-3). 

The Bible promises Jesus’ spiritual presence with believers on earth (Matthew 28:20), but precludes His earthly physical presence until His Second Advent, which will be personal, physical, visible, and public. At the time of His ascension, two men in white assured the disciples, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven”(Acts 1:11)…. 

• On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit (the “Comforter”) descended. “…in His goodness the Lord offered to them His presence again as He came to dwell not just with them, but in them, both individually (as saints) and corporately (as the church).” 
• “As such, the divine presence with people would no longer be associated, as during the Old Testament Era, with a place (i.e., a land, a city, a mount, and a building)….” 
• “Although Jesus would no longer be physically present with His faithful followers, the Spirit, whom He would send to take His place, would, and by faith we have that presence NOW! The Spirit of Christ is both with us and in us! (Romans 8:9b)” 
• “The error of the new spirituality is that it assumes that God’s presence can be ginned-up via the exercise of human passion…. Rather, Jesus’ presence in us depends upon our acceptance of His propitiation for us—that He died for our sins to make us fit vessels to be in (Romans 6:3-11). Christ graces sinners with His presence when by faith they receive the cleansing that can only come through His blood and new birth from above (John 3:3, 7).”[78] [underline added] 

When will we see Jesus again? Not as an invisible “Presence” sneaking in the backdoor. Rather Scripture is clear:

An old commentary on this verse from Hebrews states:

The Scripture is express unto a double appearing or coming of Christ. The first was His coming in the flesh, coming into the world, coming unto His own,—namely, to discharge the work of His mediation, especially to make atonement for sin in the sacrifice of Himself, unto the accomplishment of all promises made concerning it, and all types instituted for its representation; the second is in glory, unto the judgment of all, when He shall finish and complete the eternal salvation of the church. Any other personal appearance or coming of Christ the Scripture knows now, and in this [verse] expressly excludes any imagination of it. His first appearance is past; and appear the second time He will not until that judgment comes which follows death, and the salvation of the church shall be completed…. 

There shall be a public vision and sight of Him. He was seen on the earth in the days of His flesh: He is now in heaven, where no mortal eye can see Him, within the veil of that glory which we cannot look into…. 

The present long-continued absence of Christ in heaven is the great trial of the world…. The promise of His coming, recorded in the Scripture, is the ground of our faith herein…. In the continual supplies of His Spirit which believers do receive… is the great pledge of His mediatory life in heaven, of the continuance of His love and care towards the church, and consequently the great assurance of His second coming.[79] 

Joel’s Army

  


IHOP and the “Presence” 
IHOP is on the rise in the evangelical world. Once an obscure church in the Kansas City area on the fringes of the Charismatic movement, it has now become a youth movement. The IHOP (International House of Prayer) is on the verge of engulfing youth ministry in this country with its methods and its doctrines. Through its aggressive recruitment efforts it is playing a leading role on college campuses. It is listed as an equal partner in many collaborative evangelical prayer and mission efforts. IHOP leaders are now openly associating with the upper echelons of evangelical leadership, including engaging in political activism.[4] And the leaven of IHOP doctrine is quietly seeping into the entire church world.


Few parents who send their kids off to IHOP-sponsored or connected events know what IHOP really stands for. This is because IHOP and its many associated offshoots market themselves as revivalists. Everyone wants youth to experience revival. But is this “house of prayer” experience a true revival? Is this a revival based on the Gospel of Salvation? The IHOP conferences and events are stage-managed to produce the maximum amount of visual, aural, psychological, sensual and spiritual stimuli—all of which can superficially appear to be revival. But is it biblical revival? When this movement began 25 years ago, one critic noticed its faulty framework:


What is perceived as spiritual is in reality soulish, contributing to a euphoric state of altered consciousness from repetitious choruses that follow one upon the other. The mesmerizing effect of the music creates a frame of mind open to suggestion by the subsequent preaching of dominionist teachers who build on the fervor of the moment with messages of future power and glory.[5]


The orchestrated commotion at youth events serves as fertile ground for inculcating a strange and different doctrine—a doctrine that has been taught by IHOP leaders for decades.


The original IHOP blueprint is still in effect.[6] The extreme praise and worship music is an essential component of their whole plan. It is based on the old Latter Rain cult “Tabernacle of David”[7] (TOD) heresy that taught that “before the Church can be perfected and establish dominion, it must restore praise and worship as a means to enter into the presence of God.”[8] TOD is based on an “endtime revival”[9] scenario in which the church will progressively become mature, sinless and perfect, culminating in a final generation of “New Breed”[10] youth of “elect seed”[11] who will possess superior spiritual abilities. These youth, as “the manifestation of the Sons of God,” will evolve/emerge into “overcomers”—“and step into immortality in order to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.”[12]As a perfected corps of elites they will become “the ‘man-child’ of Revelation 12” (also referred to as “the many-membered man child”).[13] A summary of these teachings explains:


Central to Manifest Sons of God doctrine is the belief that sonship to God comes through higher revelation. The Christian life, it is believed, is fragmented into stages of maturity… to become a son of God and, ultimately, gods ourselves.[14][bold added]


Some who have been infected by the Manifest Sons of God teachings even believe He will not return physically, but rather that Christ and the Church are becomine one in nature and essence, and that the Church, as the ‘on-goingincarnation of God,’ is Christ on earth. [15][bold added] 


This doctrine of being able to attain spiritual elitism is both alluring and intoxicating to a generation raised on the witchcraft powers of Harry Potter. Youth are being told that they will be specially anointed with higher-order spiritual gifts that no generation on earth has ever attained previously. Possessing these superior powers, they are being told, will give them secret knowledge to become immortal. They will gain the ability to subdue their enemies and “rule over the nations with a rod of iron.”[16] They believe they can wield this spiritual power, much the same as is taught in the occult.[17] 


Before they can gain this supreme ascendancy, though, they must first undergo zealous works of purification and deprivation—activities which seem super-spiritual at face value, but which have nothing to do with the Gospel of Salvation. The IHOP call for extreme asceticism (referred to at times as the “Nazarite”[18] and/or “wilderness lifestyle”[19]) is held up as the exemplary model for becoming “mature.”[20] This model can best be performed by unencumbered youth. It cannot be replicated by those who are living typical lives in Christian families, nurturing small children, caring for the elderly, visiting the sick, working at normal jobs, doing mission work and attending church regularly. Rather, the most demanding rigors of this 24/7 prayer work can only be performed by those who have left behind“natural affection” (Rom. 1:31; 1 Tim. 3:3) and chosen a radical manner of life akin to monasticism.[21]


It is not a matter of IF the IHOP is teaching the old Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God (MSOG) doctrines. It is HOW they have repackaged them for mass-market appeal. Before getting bogged down in their semantic gymnastics, keep in mind that IHOP uses inventive spiritual-sounding terminologies laden with secret theological meanings known only to their initiated elite. One IHOP critic cautions:


You don’t have to be around the IHOP movement very long before you are exposed to a large glossary of insider terms and phrases…. A cautionary red light should go on whenever we discover any church or Christian movement creating, and extensively using, their own exclusive language.… This becomes especially disconcerting when most inside a Christian movement begin to “talk alike” and parrot the same terms and phrases in their prayers and songs….[22]


In Part 1 and Part 2 of this report, we examined the history and context of this “Presence” theology. What follows is an in-depth examination of IHOP’s specific teachings, methods and practices as they relate to the eschatology of a coming “Presence” that will indwell and empower the IHOP “Bride” to “to contend, to wrestle with and throw down [her] spiritual adversaries.”[23] 

Exhibit: IHOP’s Blueprint:http://beyondgrace.blogspot.com/search/label/Joseph%20Company

Fleshing Out the “Presence” 

In what Mike Bickle has called his “Forerunner Eschatology”[25] we can see evidences of the early Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God cult teachings. Bickle alters the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to focus on the preparation of a corporate “Bride” for a “last-day divine war to drive evil from the earth and cleanse it.”[26] The term “forerunner” itself implies an elite role. It is linked to John the Baptist and preparing the way. Preparing the way for what? The coming “Presence.”[27] Forerunners act in a manner similar to change agents, functioning as early adopters who are marketing IHOP’s doctrines and practices.[28] Similar to the old Latter Rain teachers, Bickle’s eschatology differs from both Premillennialism and Postmillenialism:


Bickle distinguishes his apostolic premillennialism from dispensational premillennialism by rejecting a pretribulation rapture for a conquering church that prays and ministers through Revelation’s Great Tribulation…. 


He believes he is preparing an army of Christians who will triumph during the soon-coming crisis of the Antichrist’s global rule and the Great Tribulation. He preaches a self-identified apostolic Christianity characterized by intimacy with Jesus as bridegroom…. 


He declares that… Jesus is waiting for the church to prepare itself as the pure Bride of Christ and to ready itself to launch the last-day divine war to drive evil from the earth and cleanse it so that it can be filled with God’s love and glory.[29][emphasis added] 


Bickle’s “Forerunner Eschatology” teaches that the endtime church will experience an infilling of the “glory,” thus manifesting itself as a corporate Bride who is “mature”[30] in the faith. This “Bride” must rev up passion.[31] She must “possess the keys of the kingdom through prayer that will drive hell off the planet”[32] :


Based on Bickle’s end-time teaching, Jesus’ second coming has preconditions. He teaches that Jesus will not return until the global church is crying out “Come, Lord Jesus” with a full understanding of her identity as the Bride of Christ. Jesus will only return when the church is functioning in the unity of the Spirit and is anointed in prayer to release the destructive end-time tribulation judgments.[33][emphases added] 


The IHOP “Harp & Bowl” radical worship style is the approved method for increasing the Bride’s perfection. “Harp & Bowl” is based on the old George Warnock “Tabernacle of David” teachings:


“In May 1983, [when Bickle met Bob Jones] the Lord gave a promise to the church at Metro Christian Fellowship that He would release in the midst of their city, a 24-hour a day, citywide ministry to the Lord in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David (Acts 15:14-18). This prayer ministry now includescontinuous worship, intercession and warfare.”[34][emphasis added]


IHOP’s plan has been to establish a 24/7 “citywide, House of Prayer (in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David) established in every major city of the earth before the Lord’s return.”[35] They believe that their radical fervent prayer will “release God’s power” to transform the church into a “living corporate Son of God on the earth.”[36]


This will be accomplished by the descent of “the glory” in a final overwhelming event that will transfigure all those who receive it.[37][emphasis added] 


An IHOP document explains their particular eschatology of creating a “dwelling place” for the “habitation” of “His presence”:


God wants to establish a dwelling place or habitation of His presence on the earth in His Church…. More than a spirit of revival. God’s looking for a place to manifest His presence. 


This expression of God’s manifest presence transforms the Church, thrust [sic] workers into the harvest and brings God’s power to work through His people on the earth in a way few have experienced in history. This has been reserved for the End Times church.[38][emphasis added] 


This isn’t talking about the indwelling Holy Spirit in the life of an individual believer. Rather, they believe in a separate “filling” by a coming “Presence.” God’s sovereignty is diminished as He is portrayed as waiting helpless in the heavenlies until their “bowl of prayers” reaches “fulness.” It has been described as:


“We along with all of creation are longing for the unveiling of Gods power as God waits in heaven for the bowl of the prayers of the saints to be filled up so He can show His power. Prayer is directly related to the release of Gods [sic] power in scripture….”[39][emphasis added] 

Exhibit: IHOP’s attempt to set up the Tabernacle of David in Washington, D.C.

IHOP teaches that “God will again raise up and restore the fallenTabernacle of David” based on 24/7 “music, praise, worship, dancing, and prayer.” Why David’s Tabernacle? They believe there was “NO VEIL separating the manifest presence of God” from the people in the tabernacle that David built for the ark in Jerusalem. Therefore, they believe that just as “the church established these ‘prayer/worship furnaces” of IHOP that “the glory of God will begin to emerge in our region and within each local fellowship” and “the power of God” will be “released in fulness.”[41] In other words, resurrecting the Tabernacle of David music worship system will permit them access to God’s Presence without a veil. But we already have access to God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross:“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Heb. 10:19-20). Nevertheless, they believe that a fully operational David’s Tabernacle will “draw His manifest presence into our midst” for “tremendous authority and anointing.”[41] Similarly they believe their continual aggressive prayer interacts with the heavenlies to change things on earth; that their prayer “opens up a fountain of life, an open heaven, a Jacob’s ladder.”[42] Thus again they discount the shed blood of Jesus Christ whereby we can draw near to God without the necessity of performing works and rituals: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).


Bickle’s “Forerunner Eschatology” teaches that the church will release endtime judgments. IHOP’s passionately praying “Warrior Bride”[43]is said to be readying herself to literally walk out the book of Revelation “to release the destructive end-time tribulation judgments.”[44] She has been referred to as “Joel’s Army,”[45] a Latter Rain army charged with wreaking a literal judgment on earth asChrist.[46] IHOP teaches:


The Book of Revelation gives us a stunning picture of the dynamic relationship between the intercession of the end-time church and the release of the judgments of God. There is a clear picture throughout the book of agreement in heaven and on earth as the purified, mature Bride interacts with the heavenly realm and a God stirred in His zeal to judgewickedness and reveal His delight in righteousness.[47][emphasis added] 


…The coming global harvest will have more than uncountable numbers but unmatched corporate devotion, purity, and depth of commitment to Christ before His return.[48][emphasis added] 


They believe their corporate Bride is able to interact with the heavenlies to release judgments, and that the “harvest” (or “cleansing”) of the earth takes place before Jesus returns. According to these doctrines the “Bride” wields the sickle and is in charge of the harvest.[49] This despite Jesus’s clear explanation in Matthew 13:39 that “the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” This explains the purpose of the radical 24/7 worship style in evidence at all the IHOP prayer furnaces across the world—their “Bride” plays an essential role in the coming judgments! The more fervid and frenzied her prayers, the closer the judgments are to being actuated. An IHOP document asserts:


The interplay of the prophetic church participating in thegovernment of God and His judgments through intercession in the ultimate concert of prayer is vital for us to understand if we want to grasp the critical role of the Bride on the earth at the end of the age. The heavens shift and angels move in response to an anointed Bride united with the heart of Jesus partnering with Him to release judgmentthrough prayer. [50][all emphasis added] 


There is an elitism that comes with this kind of theology. Faithful followers believe they will gain great personal spiritual power—quite an intoxicating idea.[51] History teaches us that anytime someone claims divinity (becoming Christ incarnate, e.g.) it serves to legitimize their grab for absolute power.[52] Note the elite sense of superior spiritual power evidenced in the following statements:


Bickle envisions that the end-time forerunner church will be an advanced “apostolic” movement. They will experience “greater things” than the apostles themselves. They will function as the last day Moses who through prayer releases God’s plagues on the Antichrist, the end-time Pharaoh.


Bickle emphasizes that during the end times, Moses’ miracles and the miracles of the Book of Acts will be combined and multiplied on a global level as the praying church looses God’s judgments on the earth. This is why Bickle calls the Book of Revelation the “End-Times Book of Acts,” meaning that the Book of Revelation reveals the acts of the Holy Spirit that will be demonstrated through the end-time praying church. 


Bickle imagines that millions of praying Christians will one day be unified in prayer by knowing exactly how and when to pray next because the judgments and events in the Book of Revelation are numbered and in sequential chronological order…. [T]he end-time church will be able to loose or bind God’s judgments exactly as they unfold in history…. 


By praying Revelation’s Great Tribulation events into existence, this will result in billions of men, women and children being killed.[53][emphasis added] 


According to its own training documents, IHOP arrogantly believes it will “be a central reality in the age to come as the primary governing strategy of Jesus as He interacts with both heavenly and earthly realms simultaneously.”[54] This IHOP Bride will receive special revelation. The Bride will be informed by the “prophetic messenger” in the “unfolding of the Word” as Jesus “imparts deeper truths and understandings of His heart” to them, proclaiming “His desires and intentions.”[55] As a result, the Bridal church[56] then become empowered “with great signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth” that will “authenticate the message.”[57] What astounding claims! In sum, IHOP believes it plays an exclusive powerful role in orchestrating the endtime judgment states:


God is continually calling IHOP to “do IHOP” because He longs for an active partnership with human beings in full agreement with His methodology to bring about change and transformation.[58][emphasis added] 


What is this “methodology” being spoken of? Below we will examine several key methods employed by IHOP to purify and perfect the “Bride” for this coming elite role.

Exhibit: An advertisement for the David’s Tent DC event

How to Manifest the Presence 
“Pray-Reading (Meditating)”[59]
One of the primary methods of inculcating IHOP doctrine is called “Pray-Read.” This is a method of reading Scripture and talking it back to God by “praying promises from His Word that we are to believe.”[60] Bickle explains: “Using the Bible and speaking the Word back to God…. Simply speaking its truths back to Him as we read it.”[61] He also describes this technique as “spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation.”[62] This rote repetition of verses “back to God” is essentially a form of Word Faith, i.e., name-it-and-claim-it. It is a scripted method of “encountering God.”[63] Bickle says, “We actively dialogue with God by praying truths back to Him that exhort us to obey His Word.”[64] While it is commendable that the person praying is committing themselves to obey God, this whole effort can become a formulaic ritual. In fact, it seems to have a bad case of tunnel vision— parroting words back to God is a one-dimensional way to learn the Bible. Bickle asserts,


It is not enough to study the Word, we must give our heart to God and receive from Him as we read it. We allow it tocreate an active dialogue with God as it gives us the “conversational material.” We must actually speak the Word back to God and against Satan’s attack on our lives.[65] 


Note: reading God’s Word isn’t just in order to claim promises for one’s self. This seems self-centered. Studying the Bible is an intellectual exercise of the sober-minded believer that will stimulate further knowledge of God and His holiness.[66] Various methods of Bible study can be profitable. Believers can study words in a passage and delve into related Scriptures for context. Through studying the Bible they receive edification, become convicted of sin, learn how to walk with the Lord in closer obedience, and apply the Word to their various life circumstances. God’s Word is alive, a two-edged sword, that reaches deep into the heart of a believer (Heb. 4:12). The Word is part of our spiritual armor, equipping us to stand in adversity (Eph. 6:17). It has the power to convert an unbeliever (Luke 8:11; John 4:41)). It also permits the believer to have a close and intimate relationship with the Lord (see “word” in Psalm 119, e.g.).


Passionate Praying 
An IHOP document asserts that “Sustained, fervent prayer is necessary to bring about an awakening and to sustain [sic] revival.”[67] This is heady stuff. “The prophetic song” is said to be “one of God’s most powerful weapons.”[68] And “Prayer Rooms” are said to function as a “Special Ops unit.”[69] The IHOP passionate prayer is a vehicle to attain the high level of spiritual power necessary “to establish justice in the earth” and a “breatkthrough in authority to change a nation,” as well as to “change the spiritual atmosphere of cities and nations.”[70] With such extraordinary promises as this, prayer becomes more than direct communication with God. It has nothing to do with humble petitions. Rather, prayer is viewed as a powerful weapon wielded for warfare over the spiritual (and physical) world. In this sense, prayer is a dagger to wield against anything construed to be an “enemy” (is this anything like a curse?). Thus the mercy inherent in the grace of the Gospel of Salvation message is completely lost. IHOP prayer is based on an “us vs. them” worldview in which anything deemed to oppose itself to Christ must be conquered, not saved.


Love is redefined to mean emotional passion. It is far removed from its biblical context of mercy and kindness. As a result, there is often very little difference between IHOP’s “passionate” love and carnal “passionate” lust—both are emotion-centered. Mike Bickle teaches that God passionately will release “the Presence of the Holy Spirit working in us to tenderize and exhilarate our spirits in love.”[71]Thus there is a stated goal to “experience godly emotions” which will provoke a “divine encounter” of “Jesus manifesting His presence (dwelling) in us.”[72] This is speaking of a separate experience from the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer promised in Eph. 3:17 (“that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith…”).


Rather Bickle asserts there is a secondary indwelling experience that “had not yet happened to the Ephesian Christians”—where “Jesus will release His Presence.”[73] The person praying must “profoundly encounter God’s affection” so that they can realize that “God has ‘volcanic desire.” They need to become “exhilarated by God’s affections” and “lost in love.” Such vivid passion language is common throughout IHOP documents.[74] The simple Gospel love message of salvation in 1John 3:16 has been lost: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 


Decrees and Declarations
The IHOP movement issues “decrees” and “declarations”[75] in the same way it is practiced by C. Peter Wagner and his associates in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). These decrees are essentially demands, assertions or pronouncements. These are based on a belief that it the church must emphatically and forcefully state that God will accomplish something. It is believed that fiercer their assertions, the more God will be “released” to act. This practice encompasses “binding” and “loosing” spiritual warfare.[76] The implication is that God is stalled and stymied in heaven, totally helpless to act until they utter their “prevailing prayer” with enough collective fervor, zeal and repetition.[77] Hence their propensity for 24/7 prayer and huge stadium rallies.[78]  


IHOP cohort and Nazarite advocate, Lou Engle, insists on a re-definition of ekklesia that makes the church “responsible for declaring war, developing military strategy and electing military generals, chief magistrates and other officials.” He said that when Jesus said he was going to build His church, “He meant He was going to establish His governmental center, His house of prayer to contend with every other house.”[79] Engle explained the practice of decrees and declarations in this context:


The ekklesia does not just ask God for answers; it makesauthoritative declarations at His direction. As His house of prayer—those who send the “rod” of Christ’s authority forth in the midst of His enemies (see Ps. 110:2)—we do not pray as if we are beggars but decree the Word of the Lord as priests.[80][emphasis added]


In fact, this whole scenario of a “house of prayer” contending with other houses was inspired by a dream Lou Engle had in 1996 in which he saw a Christian church “flipped from its inferior position to dominate [a] Buddhist house of prayer.”[81] Engle explained the significance of this dream in terms of Dominion:


The Lord gave me my marching orders through this dream: to join Him in establishing His church as a house of prayer contending with every other house that exalts itself above the lordship and supremacy of Christ. 


A threat to every corrupt government, institution of oppression, rebellious leader and demonic stronghold, theekklesia of Jesus is a council of war at the highest level. With Christ as our Head, we are bringing heaven down to earth and barring hell’s invasion.[82] 


Notice that nowhere is there a mention of reaching out to Buddhists with the Gospel of Salvation. Rather the focus is on supremacy over them. In the Dominionist worldview it becomes more important to wield power over one’s foes than it is to share the message of the forgiveness to sinners that is freely offered by Jesus Christ. How sad! What a missed opportunity!


Fasting For Fullness 
In 1946 Franklin Hall wrote a book titled Atomic Power With God Through Fasting and Prayer. It had a significant impact on the Latter Rain movement, Pentecostals and the later Charismatics. Hall taught that fasting was a “means of bringing about revival and the ‘restoration’ of the Church.’”[83] Hall’s teachings have now gained a second life in the IHOP movement. IHOP fasting is done for the purpose of “a greater release of power” and “for an open heaven” that will “release angels” on earth. The IHOP “Bridgroom Fast” is taught as a way to “encounter the Bridegroom God” and attain the “nearness of God’s presence.” Significantly, those who fast are promised “greater measures of revelation at an accelerated pace.” All of this fasting is believed to be “preparing the Church for the greatest revival” coming in the endtimes.[84] 


Fasting exacerbates the spiritual elitism that is being taught by promising the “experience” of “deeper encounters with God’s power and presence” and a “new ability” and “new level” of “fullness.”[85]This “extravagant fasted lifestyle… fuels passion for Jesus and justice for the poor.”[86] Thus fasting is seen as a method of gaining great spiritual power.


But only the healthy need apply. Even though there are disclaimers for those who cannot fast, the peer pressure is on. This fasting isn’t done in the context of a quiet sedentary life. In addition to normal life duties, there is a heavy expectation of commitment to a “wilderness lifestyle.” So what little physical strength remains after extended periods (up to 40 days) of food deprivation is spent in activities such as described below:


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.[87] 


100% Perfection 
“100-Fold Obedience” is a frequent phrase in most IHOP documents. Bickle teaches that believers must be 100% obedient in their Christian walk.[88] He says Jesus is not happy with those who come up short by 2%. Only 100% will please Him. Bickle asserts, “The 98% pursuit of obedience has a limited blessing on it. The last 2% is what positions us to live with a vibrant heart.”[89] Only the mature IHOP Bride will master this level of perfection.[90] Bickle teaches:


Jesus promises to manifest God’s presence to those who obey His commandments… the Father loves everyone in the sense of valuing, caring for and pursuing them. However, He only loves the lifestyle, choices, sacrifices and fruit of those who pursue 100-fold obedience.[91]


Power in our Christian life is found only in pursuing 100-fold obedience. There are powerful dynamics that occur in our heart when we soberly aim at walking in total obedience. The98% pursuit of obedience has a limited blessing on it. The last 2% is what positions us to live with a vibrant heart…. The call to be perfect… is a key to living vibrant.[92]


This 100% perfection teaching is simply an updated version of the old Latter Rain teachings about the “perfected” body on earth. In 1988, Bickle’s associate, Bob Jones, stated this teaching as a prophecy:


…There is a ministry after the five-fold called the ministry of perfection—the Melchisedek Priesthood… your children will be moving into the ministries of Perfection… coming into that Divine Nature of Jesus Christ… they themselves will be that generation that’s raised up to put death itself underneath their feet…. because the Lord Jesus is worthy to be lifted up by a church that has reached the fullmaturity of the GOD-MAN! [93]


Sleep Deprivation
When sleep deprivation is thrown into this mixture of fasting, along with hefty ministry obligations, the psychological and spiritual vulnerability of IHOP members is substantially increased. The 24/7 prayer furnaces require personnel to man their midnight-6 am shift. This means sacrificing sleep. Sleep deprivation can create disorientation, even leading to an altered state of consciousness (just ask any mother who has stayed up through the night with a sick child). In fact, sleep deprivation is a proven effective torture method.[94] It has often been used by cults as part of their brainwashing, indoctrination and training.[95]


Sexual Deprivation
No, we are not advocating sexual sin by including this as a sub-category. Rather, we wish to point out that Mike Bickle has developed his “Bridal Paradigm” based on his own allegorical rendition of the Bible’s Song of Solomon. As such, Bickle has ignored this book’s plain meaning in favor of an extraordinarily evocative endtime scenario. This “Bridal Paradigm” scenario requires that IHOP youth generate passion—extreme passion. Bickle’s  “Bridal Paradigm” is a graphic portrayal of a sensuous Jesus encountering a passionate Bride; they develop an intense intimacy with each other which is spelled out in vivid detail. This prurient imagery is being taught to a hormonally-challenged age group, which is already attempting to abide by the rugged demands of an ascetic lifestyle. This voluptuous, and sometimes salacious, teaching obviously creates a pressure-cooker situation. It even became necessary to issue a disclaimer about the “passion” that is being generated.[96] As one critic has noted:


I am not claiming that IHOP intends to promote a sexual Jesus, their motives may be pure. It is inescapable, however, that Mike Bickle paints such a sensual picture of Jesus through his allegorizing of the Song of Solomon that he feels obligated to warn us saying, “We are not to think of kissing Jesus on the mouth.” This warning is like the legal statements following television drug commercials – this may cause death or injury and the cure may be worse than the disease. The warning itself paints the picture. The Bible doesn’t need to warn Christians “not to think about kissing Jesus on the mouth” because the true teaching of Jesus doesn’t provoke these lusts. True biblical intimacy with God doesn’t provoke these lusts either. The fact that IHOP feels it necessary to give this warning is proof that their teaching is doing exactly that – creating lustful appetites for a sensual Jesus. Their Jesus is an imposter and the spiritual experiences they enjoy are not “intimacy with God” but spiritual fornication. Let us be clear; passions, desires, emotions, and feelings are sensual and creating an appetite for sensual spiritual experiences is the goal of IHOP’s Passion for Jesus Conference.[97]


Shaming for Obedience 
All of this drummed-up passion is in reality a works-oriented focus. Indeed, this is exacerbated by the emphasis on spiritual levels (stages) supposedly attained by those practicing these methods. One eyewitness account admits that


…IHOP leaders urged the students on to the grand vision by any means possible; and that includes shame. In the instances I have outlined above, shame was used as the motivator for us to stop what we were doing (theology, biblical languages) and comply with their vision. “Become like us or we will shame and ignore you,” was the message.[98]


Notice that this shame is based on a fear of man. It has nothing to do with biblical shame leading to godly sorrow. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” (2 Cor. 7:10).

Exhibit: from article “What Rolling Stone Didn’t Tell You About Tyler Deaton.”

The Violence of the Passion 
The IHOP movement frequently uses the words “violent” or “violence” in the context of their prayers. In addition to ramping up fervor and zeal, this “violence” language acts as a way to shore up the community so that they all members act in one accord:

• There is a violence that goes with keeping our word…. 
• Keeping our word is violent, and difficult! 
• We must be violent about presenting ourselves truthfully to one another when we stumble on a commitment…. 
• We are going to war against the pride that would look to justify or excuse our unfaithfulness to our word, or treat it like it was not a big deal. Lack of follow through is a big deal – it hurts the integrity of the team and its commitment to one another.…[99][emphasis added]