My Two Cents:
The situation at IHOP KC is heart breaking. Gut wrenching…I have been grieving ever since Friday, October 27th. Oddly, both my wife and I woke up that day and had the exact same thought in our hearts, “Oh no, Mike Bickel is dead!” We didn’t say it to one another until we got a phone call from our son, in the school that afternoon saying, “Something weird is going on; dad they canceled everything and called an emergency meeting for tonight.” My wife and I prayed, held fast, and a few hours later our suspicions were confirmed, Mike Bickel was dead! Not physically but his reputation was. We have been grieving, not sleeping…BUT…BUT…NOT for the reasons you may be thinking.
First of all, over the last several days I have seen post after post on what to do “When a Leader Falls.” Has anyone ever stopped to consider what to do if a leader is falsely accused? I am not saying Mike is innocent, but there are some serious thoughts to consider before we rush to condemn and give the enemies of God an occasion to blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14).
The Bible says, “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter (Zechariah 13:7).” The genius of the enemy is to raise a cloud of suspicion through accusation, that is after all, one of his primary titles, “the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10)”. Accusation is the number one tool of the enemy against the end time church. Jesus warns repeatedly about it. And yet, still, in situations like this it’s so easy to hear the accusation and get swept up in the tide of popular opinion rather than getting alone with God, and pressing in and asking Him His opinion on what’s happening. That’s why the old hymn says, “Be careful little ears what you hear.” Alan Dershowitz wrote a bestselling book recently, appropriately titled “Guilt by Accusation.” The idea is in the political spirit of our age, in this culture today, one only needs to whisper an accusation and in no time it becomes a crescendo of believability; and anyone who would dare say differently is vociferously attacked by the zeitgeist (the spirit of the time that forms into a storm.) As Plato said, “No man is more hated than one who speaks the truth.” I have been grieved by seeing anyone who would dare to speak up for Mike Bickel INSTANTLY labeled a man worshipper, an idolater, even given a clinical NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) diagnosis! I had no idea there were so many doctors out there! (Sarcasm implied)
Ever since the “me too” movement there has been a rush to quickly believe the alleged victims and despise the accused. Now hear me, I am not saying that every accuser is sinister and lying, not at all! I think there have been a lot of helpful things that have come out over the last few years as the result of the movement. So, hear me, there are legitimate victims in society today who need to be heard. But there are also two sides to every story and I have seen time and again that the accused can actually BE the victim. People say, “Be patient, let the process play out,” but the enemy craftily knows that the destruction is not done by the proof at the end of the investigation but by the mere accusation at the beginning.
Accusations are so dangerous. Mark Twain famously said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has put its pants on!” Now I don’t want to be critical of the leadership of IHOP. I get it. Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the nose.” The leadership got punched in the nose by these accusations and as a result got fogged and gummed up at first. Now that the accusation is out there, it’s over. The damage is permanently done no matter what the findings may be as the character of Mike Bickel is besmirched under the fog of permanent suspicion. I don’t know what it is about living in Missouri that always draws my mind back to Mark Twain, perhaps it’s because he is the favored son of the state, but his proverbs often come to mind in situations like this. He said, “The truth is no defense against a fool who wants to believe a lie.” The way accusations work is they make people WANT to believe the lie instead of believing the truth, and they all pile on in a mob mentality. This happened to the apostle Paul in Jerusalem. The Bible says when the Roman officer saw the mob stirred into a frenzy he couldn’t find the truth. (Acts 21:34)
Instead of running to social media, or even a third-party consulting group that can help, wouldn’t it be better if we first ran to the Scripture? 1 Timothy 5:19 says, “Do not even entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three WITNESSES.” What is a witness? A witness by definition is one who SEES the allegation with their own eyes. A witness does not operate in hearsay. Look at the metric Jesus gives to evaluate situations like this. He said you should judge a tree by its fruit. Rotten, dead trees tend to not produce marvelous fruit. (Matthew 7:15-20) I think we ought to consider the fruit of Mike Bickel’s life, teaching and ministry. God sovereignly chose him and used him to build a 24 hour prayer movement, night and day, unceasing prayer and worship for nearly 25 years! I have often felt sorry for the assignment on Mike’s life. To me I saw it as a sentence to be served, but not Mike, he saw it as a high honor. One observer said, “This is the strangest shady character I have ever seen, a man who spends 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in a prayer room, and the rest of his time teaching and writing to edify the body of Christ. All while taking no salary, owning five shirts, living in a duplex and driving a 20 year old vehicle!” Let’s not be quick to judge but rather quicker to inspect fruit. Look at the fruit: global impact, healing and helping millions, even transforming the likes of Francis Chan.
I remember listening to Shawn Bolz teach one time. He told the story of how he was ministering in a church and his ministry in the supernatural just wasn’t working, nothing was flowing and it was revealed later that the pastor was being unfaithful, and in that atmosphere the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit was nearly quenched! Not at IHOP! How do you explain the powerful, supernatural work here on the daily, if all the while the founder is entrenched in sin? When did we throw out the counsel of our King? Again He said, “Judge a tree by its fruit. Just look at the fruit of this place, of this ministry. Mike has a track record of integrity, a wife and kids who adore him and a ministry that is second to none.
Is he perfect? Of course not. Is the ministry? Of course not. But is he a serial, sexual misconducting, groomer…come on!?! When will the body of Christ wise up and surround a leader who is being accused in prayer, and at least consider that accusers in this day and age can pose as hurting victims? Not that this is necessarily the case here, but we need to be SLOW to reach conclusions.
Remember the devil hates prayer more than any other ministry. As the old adage goes, “The devil trembles when he sees even the weakest Christian on their knees.” What if this is a calculated attack from hell to destroy Mike Bickel so you can discredit the work of God through him: This powerful prayer movement!?! The Bible teaches that when the restrainer is removed the enemy can rush in like a flood. I believe IHOPKC has been a major restrainer of evil on the earth. Take it out by taking out its leader and watch the destruction that will flow on the other side of this. We may very well be on the verge of World War 3 with all that is going on in Israel. If I were the enemy, I would first destroy prayer and divide Christians before moving in to start a war, and IHOPKC would be in my crosshairs, maybe more than any other place on earth.
To me, the solution is simple. There needs to be a path forward. First, listen to Mike. If he is innocent, as he asserts, even though he would be quick to forgive to bless and move forward, there would need to be a public apology at the very least. We cannot afford to just let false accusations go. A life’s work can be destroyed in an instant through a whisper, that’s pretty scary! If there is no penalty for false accusation then it succeeds either way and rest assure it will be coming to a church near you. It can be used to take down any leader, any where, any time.
But if the opposite were true and Mike were to confess guilt, then make restitution to the victims publicly, and the leadership should work toward public restoration of Mike over time. As the Bible says even a “righteous man will fall seven times but then gets back up (Proverbs 24:16).“ We help him up. The Church of the Living God should not be an army that shoots their wounded. The world is desperately longing and needs to see the church lead the way in cleaning up a mess and not just moving on by sweeping it under the rug.
But before we look at a path forward, it would be wise to take the focus off of Mike for a moment and shift it to the letter that was released last week. First of all, the accusations were veiled and cryptic. The statement I saw first circulating on social media was released and made to look like it was official when really it was composed by former leaders who may have had an axe to grind, who left, some more than a decade ago! Yet they made it look like it was the stance of IHOP. Just that deceit alone is evidence enough to me that something is off here right off the bat. Secondly, the timing of all this seems quite interesting. Reaching a fever pitch on Halloween? COME ON! That is the hallmark of occult involvement. Thirdly, there is weird stuff surrounding the list of the accusers. I have heard that a rushed demand was made to the current board by previous board members to deal with this in three days or else! And then a list of names was given of supposed victims, yet some on the list are standing up and saying, “wait a second, how did my name get on there? I am no victim. I love Mike, he didn’t do anything to me!” And they were being coached, groomed even, on how to enter the narrative and jump into the accusation. I heard a rumor that the accuser was Misty Edwards and, at first, I believed it until she set the record straight on her social media post. The Bible says, “Any story sounds true until the other side is shared. Proverbs 24:17.”
I say Let Mike speak! Don’t take away his voice and silence him. The vacuum just creates an echo chamber making the accusations only ring louder.
What if we took a stand against the wiles of the enemy. What if we rallied in prayer around this leader? What if the hatred for the Jews we have been seeing around the world is flooding IHOP due to their unwavering support for Israel and the 5 million person, 21 day fast they arochestrated in May?Perhaps I am wrong…but don’t you think we ought to put our torches and pitch forks down for just a moment and press into the heart of the Father and hear a word from heaven? We need this powerful leader in the body of Christ, perhaps now more than ever with what is happening in the earth. Can we at least give him the benefit of the doubt and hear his heart?
Come let us reason together.
Join me in praying…
Father, I plead the blood of Jesus over this entire situation and in the name of Jesus I ask that the Holy Spirit would rush in with power and lift the fog off the entire atmosphere. I pray that those in charge would see this as the attack it is, that they would be competitive against the enemy and not let him win. That they wouldn’t be swayed by vicious threats or attorneys but would listen and obey your heart oh God! In Jesus name I ask…Holy Spirit Come!
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