12. Is the Prayer Missionary a Biblical Ministry or created by Mike to Fund the Prayer Room?
I have supported many of the ministries in The Prayer Room but have always been aware of the following practices that I view as not Biblical. I feel that there are people called and equipped to Lead Prayer, Teach about Prayer, Coordinate Pray groups and organize special Prayer meetings. I know several people moving in these ministries and have generously supported them – NOT to build a “prayer movement” but to build up the church and Kingdom of God…
I respect every person who has a heart and vision to sacrifice and minister to God in prayer and worship in the Prayer Room. In fact, Jesus was very upset with similar practices in His Day of the Pharisees. And Paul had one of the strongest exhortation or rebuke about a similar practice in the First Century Church.
You are free to have a different opinion from me on this practice. Especially if you served as a Prayer Missionary – and felt that you were serving God. Many Christians sincerely serve God and all of us only understand partially what He wants. As we grow in the Lord this understanding should increase. Because you were sincerely following Jesus trying to be a “Ministry” in the Prayer Room, does not mean the following insights are not true TOO.
The Prayer Missionary was created, after Mike Bickle told God that he would, “DO the prayer room” but he WOULD NOT raise funds or support anyone on a large payroll as he had done at KCF and Metro.
For years - before the Prayer Room started, Mike was intentionally recruiting future prayer room staffers. God had told Mike about Day and Night Prayer, which Mike assumed it looked something like a 24-hours and 7-day a week monastery or the Roman Catholic Church. The always open concept.
At every National and International conference, Mike would ask everyone in the room if they thought they may want to be a part of this Day and Night Prayer Movement. Mike would use Anna from Luke 2 as an example of his new Prayer Missionary Ministry.
And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. Luke 2:36-37 NASB 1995
This NEW MINISTRY (if based upon Luke 2:36-37) has several problems in Biblical terms.
First, the Temple that Anna was living in, as a widow, is NOT a New Testament Pattern. God was about to do something that looked nothing like Old Testament Ministry or the Temple.
Second, Paul when instructing the New Testament Church about supporting widows (or putting widows on the list) had at least 9 rules to use to decide who qualified as a “Widow Indeed” in I Timothy 5:3-16
If the Prayer Missionary was to qualify as a New Testament Church - Widow Indeed - as Mike’s exhortations to “Join the Prayer Movement,” would suggest, very few people in the prayer room would qualify as a Widow Indeed. I personally am not aware of anyone.
The New Testament does have provision for the Church to support ministries. But there is nothing suggesting that people should be paid to pray. The New Testament practices DID NOT develop into full-time Monasteries supported by the church, in the First Century Pattern. This Roman Catholic practice was started centuries after the True New Testament Church pattern.
Also, the English word Missionary mainly refers to Christian Ministries who minister to other cultures. It is sometimes used for other “Task Orientated” ministries that need support. But everyone prays or should regularly pray – period. There is NO Bible Based Special Ministry of Prayer. Intersession should be something that we all grow in. It is obvious that as we age into the last seasons of our lives, we have more time to dedicate to prayer and other ministries. But a special prayer ministry that is supported by the church is nowhere in scripture.
I am not against Task Orientated – Prayer ministries that are supported by a church or a ministry and are dedicated to prayer for specific purposes. IHOPKC taught staff to Raise Support in similar ways other 20th Century cross-cultural missionaries raise support.
By having hundreds of young people trying to ”raise support,” without oversight or pastoral instruction there was little ability to follow wise practices. Jack Hayford (one of my spiritual fathers) taught us pastors, “If God isn’t supporting it, we will not do it.” He did not mean that something should not be done, but that God was calling someone else to do and God would support what He is doing in the Earth.
This would sound WRONG to most IHOPKC staffers, because they were told simply – don’t stop and God will provide. This did not happen in many cases – God supports what God wants done. But sadly, there were few pastors teaching this wisdom to the zealous young people.
Number 7 – of this paper goes into detail of the Unbiblical Practices about money at IHOPKC, but here are the 3 that pertain to an IHOPKC Staff member being supported as a Prayer Missionary. These scriptures were seldom taught. The prayer movement – I assume – needed prayer people even if they were NOT following Jesus’ words or other Scriptures. SAD.
A. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees – when they did not give money to honor their parents and claiming the reason was their assets were given to the ministry (God).
For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. Matthew 15:4-6
B. Paul states the fact that a Christian is worse than the unrighteous when an individual does not support his family.
But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. I Timothy 5:8
C. Paul wanted ALL Christians (when talking about their giving to others) to “NOT BE IN ANY NEED.”
…. and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. I Thessalonians 4:11-12
Mike also taught the three-legged stool concept of ministry. He created this “doctrine” to try to bring a New Testament Church practice to support his idea of the Prayer Missionary.
Simply – God used three things to win the lost.
1. Physical help – such as Doctors and Food ministries
2. Spiritual teachings about Jesus or savior and Lord.
3. Those who pray for the first two….
Mike would say, "We support the first two so why wouldn’t we support the 3rd one – the prayer missionary?” Some at IHOPKC may not even understand why they are called prayer missionaries. This three-legged stool doctrine was the reason.
Although the first two were supported in the New Testament the third did not happen until after 300AD when Rome took over Christianity created the full-time monastery.
In Summary, Mike created the Prayer Missionary position to fund the prayer room. And this 24/7 practice took so much funding that the other mandates were never completed.
God encourages all of His children to Pray, Fast and have an intimacy with HIM as they Walk in the Spirit – Day by Day.
My prayer is "GOD please stop us from being manipulated by men to fulfill man’s ideas and man’s ambitions. Amen."
(Back to Title Page - https://www.gregorygrinstead.com/post/12-ihopkc-doctrines-practices-to-examine)
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