I have had a little experience with IHOP I would like to share. But first Joshuapk777, I was gladdened and encouraged by your testimony so I am grateful to God for that. This a lot longer than I thought it would be.
I was introduced to Mike Bickle's Audio teachings on the Song of Songs and Hosea and from there I ended up reading at least one to two thousand pages of teaching which I was able to download from their website. I was carrying around a box that had about two reams of paper in it (that's about a four to five inch stack if you don't know what a ream is.) I also purchased over $200 worth of audio teachings and "prophetic music" from the website and listened to them non-stop. If 20 hours of teaching arrived in the mail, I was done listening to it 20 hours later (excluding work but not always sleep.) I eventually flew out there in distress because I was sinning so much and I couldn't find anyone who took repentance seriously and I was tossed back and forth between the knowledge of freewill to obey Jesus in my conscience and the constant message I was hearing from a local congregation (and my carnal soul blindly embracing) that christians will always commit grave, willful sins until the day they die. My conscience was being seered within me but my soul was blind to the depth of its pride and depravity. When I got to IHOP i went up to the front desk and cowardly explained that I didn't know anyone there and that I had flown from many states away (MA) and I was hoping to be able to talk to someone. So the young lady I was talking to was basically a receptionist at their prayer/music room. Which has cameras and mic's and you can watch music and dancing and prayer and teaching and all that online if you want. Their music is intoxicating. I had never heard stuff like that before. So the receptionist didn't really understand that I was on the brink of despair and pointed me to a sunday service schedule on a bulletin board. So I walked over to it and pretended to look at it and went outside and despaired. God had been allowing things to happen that had broken my heart but I really felt alone at that moment. The next day or so after I had recovered enough to walk back there from my motel room (I spent all my money on this trip) I didn't want to have to cross this narrow bridge because I couldn't tell if the cars would see me or stop for me since everyone drove there. So I tried to find a place to hope over the stream that the bridge went over. I ended up taking off my shoes and stumbling through freezing water in the middle of winter and when I finally arrived there in the IHOP coffee shop (I'm not kidding, it is better than starbucks) I was in complete despair, bitterness, desperation, etc. and just scrawling ridiculous and shameful complaints toward God in this notebook I used to write out prayers in as well as horrible blasphemy and wicked arrogance (I don't understand exactly how I came to use a notebook for prayer though, I don't anymore.) A man started talking to me and asking me how I had come to be at IHOP and since my heart was being crushed to some extent I was willing to tell him the weird personal nature of my trip. I was still being my usual fake self with him without really being aware of it and he looked at me and asked me if I was a liar. I was very intimidated by the question and I started reaching into my bag of anti-christian doctrines and self-flattery in order to deny being a liar. I new that I had lied in the past and that I had not committed to never lying again but I thought that like all the other "christians" I knew that I could just rely on "how God sees me" - as if God was deceived which is horrible blasphemy. It is just like how the Roman catholic church holds up a piece of wafer and says it is the body of Jesus Christ and everyone says amen. An unrepentant, arrogant man would also call himself the body of Christ and have all say amen. This man was not saying amen to me and pointed me toward repentance. I confessed before him that I was a liar and that I had been living a lie my whole life, trying to keep everyone from seeing certain things about me. In my opinion, men who are afraid of confrontation for example are often liars because they don't want anyone to see them in a situation where they don't know if they'll have total control over the outcome. I think that's why a lot of men blow up in anger eventually. Then the only kind of confrontation anyone sees is blind rage so everyone thinks confrontation is scary and evil and avoids it. Understand? I was like that and I was a liar because instead of confronting people I would hide my thoughts, feelings, love, words, etc. So it was a wonderful feeling of freedom to confess being a liar to that man. He thought that God wanted him to go to the coffee shop to ask someone if they were a liar. He recently had confessed the same to God and had to leave his real estate job because it was all lies. He did not work at IHOP, he didn't even know much about it except that it was there. He was so kind to me and humble. He was learning about being careful with his speech so he shared a lot about that with me and I kind of started feeling like I was in that movie the Matrix when I started paying attention to a lot of the things that people were saying. The whole world is under the power of the evil one. I was starting to learn how Jesus has nothing to do with all this evil and frivolity and lies and flesh serving.
Anyway, my new friend eventually was in one of IHOP's prayer rooms talking to their 'head prophet' or something and when he was asking them if they were a liar one of them said something like "my spirit does not agree with your spirit" and they were asking him to agree to refrain from saying or asking certain things if he wanted to remain on their property and since he couldn't agree to those things he had to leave.
In their prayer room they would have a line of kids who would come up to a microphone and read out scriptures with their now booming voices over the backdrop of the intoxicating and exhilarating music and after a scripture or a prayer they would often add a huge string of unintelligible syllables to which their was offered no interpretation, in my opinion because it was not a language but an unprofitable skill of the flesh.
They also had all these prophetic singing things going on and you know how people like to have 'impressions' and messages from God and things like that. I don't remember seeing a single woman with a covered head there. And in that large congregation/concert they certainly were not silent.
That's about all I can remember about IHOP right now. The humorous name IHOP and having a logo rub me the wrong way. But like Kathleen seemed to imply, the unarticulated feelings, senses, and impressions are beneficial when they are explained with understanding. So maybe someone else has more understanding than I about these organizations and their logos, marketing, brochures, websites, fundraising, fees, etc.
The person who warned about calling the Holy Spirit the devil should take their own advice and be cautious about calling works of the devil works of the Holy Spirit. Do you think it will turn out better for you because of an imagined technicality of language? I'm not pronouncing judgment on IHOP or on you who said that but I hope you will accept this reminder graciously. My name is Ben, I'm not your superior or anything, I hope you would do the same for me if I said something questionable as well! If you had said it privately I would say this privately but if you will accept this in peace then you will also understand that you won't want other people to follow your example. There are a lot of people who are afraid that they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit but are actually being drawn toward repentance and it is good for them to be wary of the congregations of the world because most of them do not obey Jesus. Therefore saying that can discourage greatly one whom God is working to strengthen in faith. It is good for us to be zealous for God's honor and I very much hope that I do not discourage you for doing so. Before you warn someone that they might be committing unpardonable sin you should look to yourself. That is a heavy warning for the one receiving it and you should be sure whether you are qualified to give it first. I hope (if you read this) that what I have said about God giving me the courage to confront others will help you to trust that I don't want to hurt your feelings or beat you down in any way. So I ask that you will accept it in a brotherly way with good will.
watchandpray,
I see that you are more humbled than I first thought and I beg your forgiveness if what I said above was more stern than God would want it to be! Will you forgive me if it was? I have left it for the sake of others but everything below I have just written for your sake not realizing that I was writing to the same person. May God have patience with my weakness and imperfection on account of Jesus. Do you understand? I thought your two posts were two different people because I wasn't paying attention. I'm glad that you're the same person though!
Here's what I just wrote to you before I realized you were the same one. In my heart I want to comfort you very much.
May God give you wisdom, knowledge, comfort, peace, assurance and holy zeal in the true faith of Jesus.
Do not despair over the lies. Remember God gives wisdom to all who ask him without finding fault. He is not a liar so banish from your mind any thoughts that he will not show you the truth if you truly desire it. If your soul did not desire it you would not have frustration. You must desire it in order to be saved so desire it.
"Come out from them and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you." He will be our father and we will be his children. Would you tell an orphan that they have to know certain things in order to be adopted by you and then not tell the poor child what those things are? Be strong and have patience. Sometimes patience just means crying before God and sighing and groaning and lamenting our weakness. Wouldn't you hug the orphan child and lavish comfort upon it if it was eagerly willing to do what you wanted but just didn't know exactly how? I think many would and you know that God ways are far higher than man's ways.
I can relate very much to your frustration. Seek peace and pursue it. Search for wisdom as for hidden treasure. Look in Jesus. All the answers are there in Him. Blessed is the man who is not condemned in what he approves. Many will say to you he (Jesus, his spirit, his body) is here in the inner rooms. If we walk in the light we will have fellowship in the light. God sets the solitary in families. Those who sow tears will reap joy. It is better to live on a corner of a rooftop than in a House with a contentious woman. Be still and know I am God. Where envy and self-seeking are there is confusion and every evil thing. If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. Brace yourself like a man. Perfect love casts out all fear.
There were men hundreds of years ago who realized the Roman church was wrong and when they started to follow the right way some of their own leaders who had left with them turned on their own flock and started preaching against them and having them put to death! But Jesus was with those who believed him and protected them from the evil one.
I thank God that he has given you the desire for wisdom and to follow Jesus. No longer say to yourself 'How can I know' if the Holy Spirit shows you that you have not believed the verse from James that God will give you wisdom then you can cry to God for wisdom. Purify your hearts you double-minded James said. Lament and mourn and weep. Remember cowards will not enter the kingdom of heaven. God is so patient and compassionate and desires so greatly for you to know him. Be a man. If you are a woman then be like a man in courage which comes from God. I don't know your gender. I have to ask God for courage. If I don't have God's help I'm just wobbly knees and weakness. Without God I would be scared away by the wind! But with God I can have strength. Jesus needs to be our strength. Look what the psalm says: "I will speak of your decrees before kings and not be ashamed" That's with the strength of Jesus! He did that before Pontius Pilate because God was his strength. May God give us both strength in Jesus.
