IHOPU Student Awakening

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

With the Onething Young Adult conference coming up quickly, and the continuation of the IHOPU Student Awakening, I'm looking forward to seeing 20,000 young adults get touched by the Holy Spirit December 28-31. I'm also thinking about how much altar ministry there will be during the conference, and continuing throughout the awakening season at IHOP-KC.

In light of this, I've assembled an "Altar Ministry Survival Kit" and thought I'd share it with you. Things to bring if you're apart of the altar team:

1. Mints or Gum If you're going to be praying or prophesying over people and hollering over some loud music, get a breath-freshening item.

2. Earplugs The volume level of subwoofers in an altar area can be deafening, literally, when endured for hours on end.

3. Water Don't get drained! Stay hydrated.

4. Cliff Bars A couple hours of altar ministry can be very exhausting for your body, and downtown you may not find the healthiest options for food for lunch and dinner, so it would be wise to bring some healthy munchy protein options like cliff bars or mixed nuts to snack on.

5. Kleenex to Go Keep a stash of kleenex with you at all times! I know for me, there's nothing worse than having a deep encounter with the Lord, but being distracted because I know there's snot dripping off my chin. You could rely on provided kleenex, but you may want to bring some yourself just in case you don't want to leave to person you're praying for to track down that box.

6. Individually packaged wet wipes Sometimes kleenex just isn't enough. If you've ever seen somebody go through a major prayer time with the Lord, whether deliverance or a deep touch from the Father, things can get a little messy. Individually packaged wet wipes can be a God-send to stem the tide of make-up, running mascara, or snot-on-face.

7. Hand-Sanitizer There are lots of germs out there, and you don't want to spread them around while laying hands on people.

8. Pen and Paper Many times as I'm praying for someone, I will get a prophetic word for them, but they may be in the middle of going through a lot. It can be really helpful to write down the word and give it to them to read and process a little later.

19.67 MB
14-minute clip of worship and a powerful prophetic song with Jonathan Rizzo and Julie Meyer from Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

Ways to keep your mind, will and emotions healthy to receive all that the Lord is doing during seasons of refreshing

The Lord is doing incredible things in Kansas City right now through the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. I was inspired to write, not about what the Lord is doing for those who aren't here, (check out www.ihop.org/watch if you haven't heard about it) but about what to do for those of use who are here in the thick of it, or for others who find themselves in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

When I think about previous outpourings, renewals or awakenings, I think of Toronto, Brownsville and Lakeland. When I think about what I would term "revival culture" or people who have cultivated a lifestyle of encounter with the manifest presence of God, I think of Bethel with Bill Johnson. From these, there are practical dynamics and lessons learned. We should desire to receive the council of those who have gone before us. From what I've gathered, they have rather profound insights. In all honesty, none of the following thoughts originated with me, they came from asking questions and receiving some advice, reproof and exhortation regarding the way I was living and ways to create a "revival culture" in my own life.

The premise is "When in a Move of the Holy Spirit" - and this is particularly focused towards people who are involved in altar ministry, administration, deliverance, platform ministry, ushering, singing, worship leading, etc. etc.

1. Eat Food If you have an ambitious fasting regimen, transition to something like a Daniel fast, no caffeine, or fast only one day a week.

I was in an internship a few years ago and we talked to Bob Jones about fasting, and He said "When the Bridegroom is with you (referring also to an unusual season of visitation) you don't fast, but when He's not there, then you fast."

2. Stay Hydrated Drink lots of water. You will get dehydrated really really fast, and then you will wake up with swollen gunky eyes, chapped lips, raw face, and you will feel worn down in your body and be more susceptible to colds or the flu.

3. Try some cranberry juice I know this sounds strange, but a few years ago, I was leading worship at prophetic classes with Shawn Bolz and Paul Keith Davis. Every night after worship, my lower back would BURN in pain and I could hardly even get to my seat. Finally, Paul Keith pulled me aside and shared with me that how Bob Jones' always drinks cranberry juice. Bob had said that when you were ministering in a flow of the anointing, that you needed to take good care of your kidneys, which he called the Biblical "reins." He said that's where the anointing flows from. Now I didn't ask a lot of questions or try to figure out the who's, what's, and why's of all that, I just started drinking cranberry juice and more water and I noticed that the pain was GONE.

For inquiring minds, here are more Scriptural references for Bob's perspective on kidneys and "reins."

Reins: the kidneys, the supposed seat of the desires and affections; used metaphorically for "heart." The "reins" and the "heart" are often mentioned together, as denoting the whole moral constitution of man (Ps. 7:9; 16:7; 26:2; 139:13; Jer. 17:10, etc.)

Paul Keith also suggested finding a friend or leader that you trust to pray for you, or if you can't find somebody, putting your own hands on your lower back and asking the Holy Spirit to fill you up, refresh and sustain you if you're feeling that type of pain during or after ministry.

A Note on Intercessors If someone is engaged in a dynamic ministry where the Lord is really resting on them - whether its a minister, worship leader, prophetic singer, or someone with an unusual anointing during altar ministry, (in our case people like Wes Hall, Allen Hood, Laura Hackett, Shelley Hundley, Ed Boasso, Graeme Walsh, Steven Beauchamp, and so many others) they may need some "back up" or prayer that the Lord would continue to flow through them, cover them from attack and fill them up. This is why many times in different churches and conferences (Bethel, conferences with Shawn Bolz or Paul Keith, and many more) you will see someone standing behind the singers on the platform - a platform intercessor - or someone following behind a minister during altar ministry.

A word of caution: Don't start praying for someone you don't have relationship with at close proximity without their permission. What I do during the IHOPU awakenings is to pray for Wes and Allen from wherever I'm at: "Lord bless Wes and Allen right now. Holy Spirit, cover them, sustain them, fill them up. Release your ministering angels to them even now God, strengthen their bodies, renew their spirit man.." Speaking from my experience as a worship leader, it is more unsettling to have a stranger pop up behind you and start praying (you hope).

4. Eat healthy. I've experienced this scenario firsthand: It's 1:30 am and you've been in the meeting for 8 hours. You're starving, and nobody wants to go home and cook at 1:30, and nothing else is open! So you go to Buffalo Wild Wings for the 10th day in a row.

I also observed junk food eating behind the scenes at a more recent outpouring and thought to myself, "You guys have been eating that? No wonder you feel bad! It's not warfare, it's your diet." 65 days in a row of junk food will make you feel terrible. The Holy Spirit is not going to transform that deep fried, sugar covered, bacon marinated junk into fruits and vegetable in your stomach. You need to make healthy choices that will help sustain your "weak frame."

Now like I said, I understand (I've been to BWW twice already as have an entire worship team) that no one wants to cook at 1:30 am. But you need to become deliberate about eating healthy! Some friends of mine have a plan: we're getting 10 or so people together into a little cooking co-op where a couple of us will leave the service around 11:30 to go prepare some food, and the other 8 can come after the service and we'll all eat together. We rotate houses, and cooking responsibilities and pitch in some funds. You can get some of your friends together and do something like that and you'll save lots of money, feel better because you'll be eating better, and you'll have great redemptive fellowship in the afterglow of the Holy Spirit.

You also might want to get some cliff bars to keep with you - 8 hours of ministry is a long time.

5. Get Plenty of Rest This isn't a time to push your body to the point of exhaustion. You may find yourself needing a lot more sleep than you did before, that's normal and okay.

6. Eliminate the Unnecessary. Stay faithful with what the Lord has really called you to: Mike used the example of continuing to feed the homeless, but if you're doing lots of unnecessary "stuff" consider downsizing. Suspend your end-times Bible study for a season, cancel meetings, and simplify your life so that you can fully receive all that the Lord has for you during this season. When you look back on this time years down the road, you're not going to regret being as involved as you can, but you may regret not being more involved.

7. Keep your Devotional Time Maybe before this, you've been able to have devotional time in the prayer room, but with all that's going on in there now you may to need to carve out quiet time ALONE with Jesus. There, He's going to speak, minister, fill you up, and sustain you. Don't think that because you're spending 8 hours praying for people at an outpouring service that you can suspend your personal devotional time. The Lord will meet you in such sweetness during these private times - He will meet you with that same manifest presence that is there during the altar ministry for impartation to others if you take the time.

Another note: During the meetings or prayer room ministry time, remember that you can switch back and forth from praying and releasing to personal receiving. Your "ministry mode" doesn't have to last the entire time, you can have sweet personal encounter, and transition right into praying for others.

8. Keep Taking Your Day Off Nightly meetings will ebb and flow, and some nights will be "better" or "stonger" than others. That's just how it works. Don't feel like if you take a night off that God is not going to meet you anymore. There is NO condemnation for resting your body or spending time with you family. Even in the midst of the most dramatic healings, miracles, salvations and power demonstrations that we look forward to in the capital letters REVIVAL, you're still going to need a Sabbath and some time off with your family.

Some people throw themselves so into a renewal that their family suffers. You don't want your wife or children to acquire offense towards the Lord because you're not stewarding your relationships.

9. Realize that You are going to be Sensitive Things that didn't bother you before may grieve your spirit now. It's good to keep that in mind that in your conversations and activities before you ask those "Why do I feel this way" questions. Keep in mind that you may feel the presence of the Lord or manifest when you're out to eat and get prophetic words for the barista at Starbucks, or you may be grieved at a film you used to enjoy. Be extra vigilant about what you allow to enter your "gates" (eyes, ears, etc) because it will strike your heart in a heightened way.

10. Backlash is Real Francis Frangipane's "New Levels, New Devils" is real: If you're experiencing breakthrough, freedom, joy and increased manifest presence, the enemy doesn't like that. You will need to stand your ground in agreement with the Lord over hopelessness, depression, shame, condemnation, disqualification and other lying "fiery darts" the enemy may deploy in an attempt to take you out. Stand Firm, declare agreement with the Lord OUT LOUD and use the Scripture.

11. Remember The First and Second Commandment If this awakening continues and grows here in Kansas City, there may be quite a lot of people who come for a touch from the Lord. After a while, His sweet presence can become viewed as a commodity that is passed around: "Blam Blam Shaba Blam...Get 'Em, Blam."

We can become sidetracked by the unique sensation of His manifest presence, and overwhelmed by the numbers of people. We will need to continually remember that we are called to love the Lord our God, not just His tingles but His Person, and to love our neighbor. Not neighbors as if they are a mass group of people, but neighbor singular, dealing with each one as an individual as we're praying at the altar, prophesying, singing, or even just running into them in the bathroom.

12. Make Lists of Stuff you Really Need to Do I'm noticing this for myself: I am preoccupied with Jesus. That is an AMAZING thing. After years of being preoccupied with me, this is way better! Some unexpected side-effects are that I'm forgetting to do some stuff I need to do, like trash day, grocery shopping, and going to the bank. Errands that previously were just a natural part of your life may completely slip your mind because you're thinking about JESUS, which is AWESOME, but you do still need to pay your gas bill. I've started making a sticky notes I take everywhere with me:

1. Eat
2. Walk and Feed Dog
3. Talk to Parents
4. Pay Utilities
5. Trash Day is Wednesday
Sounds a little silly, but it may be necessary for you like it is for me.

Love to hear your comments