Charisma Magazine Article about the Student Awakening at IHOPU

Tuesday, 24 November 2009 03:32 PM EST Karen Tom

Thousands of Christians from across the U.S. have been flocking to Kansas City, Mo., where a Bible college class at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) has sparked nightly revival services.

More than 1,600 people have been packing into IHOP’s ministry school auditorium to pray, worship and experience what many are describing as spiritual renewal.

(Photo: Scott Townsley, courtesy of the IHOP–KC Missions Base)

At services held last weekend, participants shared testimonies of healing from chronic back pain and migraines, deliverance from shame and self-hatred, and experiencing God’s love for the first time. Similar testimonies have been sent from around the world, where the services are being viewed via live Web stream.

Wesley Hall, provost of IHOP’s Bible school, said several people have been saved and 80 people baptized since Nov. 11, when students in his 9 a.m. class started breaking into small groups and praying for one another.  

“Some were lying on the floor, others were weeping, and some were laughing,” said Hall, who led the class with Allen Hood, president of the ministry school. “So I asked the Lord for a release of Pentecost, and it just snowballed. Other teachers brought their classes in, and the Holy Spirit moved for 15 hours, with reports of physical healings and deliverance.”

Almost 2,000 people from the Kansas City area heard about the “awakening” and came to the campus to participate. Since then the meetings, held nightly from 6 p.m. until midnight, have been drawing capacity crowds to the ministry school’s sanctuary.

College students are also gathering across the country to watch the services online. Testimonies have poured in from such schools as Georgia Tech, Wheaton College, Asbury College and the University of California-Berkeley, where students reportedly are experiencing great joy, deep peace, and emotional and physical healing.

“We will continue these nightly meetings as the Holy Spirit leads us,” IHOP founder Mike Bickle co-wrote in a letter with prayer leader Lou Engle, founder of TheCall, which has offices in Kansas City. “We earnestly pray that this awakening will continue, as our nation is in desperate need of another great awakening in this hour.”

Hall said the younger generation is very broken and looking for authenticity. “It’s the students who used to make fun of the manifestations who are now being hit with the power of God,” he said. “Those students don’t want to fake anything or create a culture. Rather, they want to experience God.”

And while Hall said he is grateful for the renewal, he and Hood are praying for more. He said most of the people being touched by the meetings are Christians.

“We want to see the lost saved and the culture changed,” Hall said. “We want this to grow and expand. We want an anointing where no known disease would stand against the people of God. We want to see this on the body of Christ worldwide, the third Great Awakening.”

Bickle said IHOP is not the next place of revival, but “one of many places that the Lord is visiting in our nation.”

“We believe that many other places are soon to receive a visitation of the Holy Spirit,” he told Charisma.

Bickle says the meetings will continue in the run up to IHOP’s One Thing conference Dec. 28-31 in Kansas City. Leaders expect some 20,000 students to attend, and seek to mobilize them to evangelize their cities and campuses in partnership with area houses of prayer.

Bickle and Engle said the conference would also address “a new wave of confusion that is systematically seducing many young adults into deception.”

“Sincere young people whose hearts were once ablaze for Jesus are being lured into compromise on foundational biblical truths and practices, while at the same time they are increasing in works of compassion and justice,” the ministers said.

They believe the renewal meetings are a sign that the Holy Spirit will release His power at the conference.

“We must confront the confusion that is pouring forth from many pulpits as well as from the halls of Washington,” they wrote. “It is time to draw a line in the sand. We must hear what the Spirit is saying, and we must act on it. The Spirit will confirm the truth with demonstrations of power.”

 

A letter from Mike Bickle and Lou Engle concerning the critical hour in which we live – it is time to encounter God and take action!

We stand at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. It is time to encounter God and to take action. The Holy Spirit is visiting His people with power. At the same time, the powers of darkness are raging against the moral fabric of our nation. The light is getting brighter as the darkness gets darker. Many of you will have heard of the spiritual awakening at our Bible school. On Wednesday, November 11, the Spirit fell on a class for more than 15 hours. The word spread quickly and over 2,000 people spontaneously gathered in the auditorium from all over Kansas City, as deliverance and physical healings continued to increase. We canceled our classes for the next week so that each one of our 1,000 students and interns could receive from the Spirit in an extended way. We decided to meet nightly from 6:00pm to midnight because His manifest presence continues to increase. Visitors are pouring in from many places across America to partake of this spiritual awakening. We will continue these evening meetings until our onething conference, December 28–31, 2009, when we are expecting 20,000 young adults to gather for worship, teaching, and to participate in the supernatural ministry of the Spirit. Last year, over 16,000 young adults attended this conference. We are still hearing testimonies of lives that were changed. This year, we are expecting to receive even more from the Spirit. We believe that this will be a historic and important conference, and encourage you to attend. The theme for onething’09 is “What is the Spirit saying to the Church?” Our team will proclaim what we believe the Spirit is prophetically speaking to the Church in this hour. We will also share practical ways in which we can “adopt” high schools and colleges across our nation as we envision young people to impact each sphere of society with works of justice and acts of compassion. At the conference, we will have extended ministry times to receive healing, renewal, and impartation from the Spirit. We believe that the Spirit will release His power at this conference, as evidenced by what He is currently doing in our evening meetings. Mark Anderson, a senior international leader in YWAM who also works closely with Campus Crusade for Christ, will host forums for leaders to discuss how we can systematically evangelize entire cities and campuses in partnership with the houses of prayer in their area. Mark has remarkable insight that comes from his 30 years of successful ministry in evangelism. The Lord has given him some bold new strategies for this hour. The crisis in our nation is real. The serpentine stranglehold of abortion continues to squeeze the life out of over 4,000 wombs daily. Sexual immorality, both heterosexual and homosexual, are reaching epic heights of perversity. The number of women and children being trafficked into the dark underbelly of the sex industry in our cities is growing at an alarming rate. Entire school systems are giving way to darkness. The sanctity of marriage is under siege, threatening to destroy the moral foundations of our nation. We will also address the growing crisis that is emerging in many churches across America. A new wave of confusion is systematically seducing many young adults into deception. Sincere young people whose hearts were once ablaze for Jesus are being allured into compromise on foundational biblical truths and practices, while at the same time they are increasing in works of compassion and justice. No amount of increased ministry activity can “balance out” their profound spiritual compromises. In the name of tolerance, they are settling for a humanistic and “politically correct” theology that trivializes the glory of Jesus. Many young adult ministries are falling prey to this as they are seeking “relevance” that dulls the razor’s edge of truth for the sake of man’s approval. It is not enough to mention Jesus’ name if they deny foundational truths about Him. Our works of justice must flow from deep allegiance to Jesus and the Scripture. Our nation has never stood on such a precarious footing as today. The onslaught of spiritual darkness is increasing in our classrooms, boardrooms, courtrooms, and bedrooms. We must confront the confusion that is pouring forth from many pulpits as well as from the halls of Washington. It is time to draw a line in the sand. We must hear what the Spirit is saying and we must act on it. The Spirit will confirm the truth with demonstrations of power. It is darkest before the dawn. Our hearts are full of faith. We know another historic “Great Awakening” is soon to sweep across our nation. We look with confidence to God’s promise: “In the last days . . . I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh (Acts 2:17-21). All nations will receive the witness of kingdom with power (Mt. 24:14; Rev. 7:9). What a privilege to live in this awesome hour of history. At this very hour, Jesus is raising up young adults who are being mobilized to cry out in night and day prayer, win the lost, heal the sick, and do works of compassion and justice as they impact the very fabric of our society. Please join us in Kansas City from December 28–31. The onething’09 conference is FREE. You can register at IHOP.org/onething09 With passion for Jesus, Mike Bickle and Lou Engle

Onething Conference ‘09

A great revival is coming to the Church worldwide that will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation. The Lord is raising up a forerunner generation of young adults with a foundation of intimacy with Jesus and love for others—a foundation that produces dedication to works of justice, missions, and outreach as these young adults embrace God’s plans for the end times. These burning and shining ones will declare the coming of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ten years ago, in 1999, a few young adults gathered together in Kansas City for a prayer meeting that has continued night and day ever since. The International House of Prayer in Kansas City conducts eighty-four two-hour prayer meetings a week, all led by worship teams. Over 1,500 people are involved full-time at the IHOP–KC Missions Base. We have continued for a decade in 24/7 prayer, asking Jesus to release His justice in the earth, and, by the grace of God, we are committed to combining 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice. It is from this place of prayer, worship, and compassion that our annual onething young adult conference emerges.

This December 28–31, many young adults will gather in Kansas City to worship, pray, and hear messages that will help equip them to answer the call to abandonment to Jesus. They are singers, artists, writers, preachers, teachers, musicians, entrepreneurs, and future mothers and fathers. They are messengers from all walks of life who last year committed to the Sacred Charge—a commitment to a lifestyle of prayer, fasting, bold proclamation of Jesus, works of justice, extravagant giving, holiness, and diligent leadership in preparation for the Lord’s return.

The onething’09 conference is a gathering of young adults who have set their hearts to discern the times and live with abandonment and devotion to Jesus. Come this December and join thousands of others with like heart and like mind to pursue this call to one thing.

 For more information click here.

International House of Prayer : Prayer and Prophetic Conference: October 15–17, 2009

Many today are hungry for a deeper experience of the power of the Holy Spirit that will equip them to walk out practical expressions of compassion and justice to help others. Men and women are crying out for both a new depth of relationship with Jesus, and a greater impact on the needy.

Scripture makes it clear that the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the spirit of prophecy will occur just before Jesus returns (Joel 2:28–31). At IHOP–KC’s Prayer and Prophetic conference, you will receive practical training in the prophetic ministry to help you grow in prayer and hear the Lord’s voice, and to cultivate the Spirit’s power with prophetic revelation for your personal life as well as in your ministry to others. We will also look at practical ways to give expression to this as we contend for justice and walk out compassion.

Come and be practically equipped to live a lifestyle of prayer that operates in the prophetic anointing and seeks godly justice in every sphere of life.

To register for the conference click here.

Struggling Families Look at Adoption : Zoe Foundation Makes Adoption Affordable

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

MARENGO, Ill. — Renee Siegfort broke the news to her three teenagers on Mother’s Day last year: She was pregnant.

She really wanted the baby. Her kids did, too. Her on-again, off-again boyfriend of three years did not.

“I talked to God a lot, asking what does this mean. What am I supposed to do?” she recalls. She was working long hours as an office manager at a chiropractic firm and just making ends meet. She would need to take on a new expense: child care.

“We live simply,” says Renee, 36, looking around the living room of her three-bedroom town home. “There wasn’t much more we could simplify in our lives.” As much as she wanted the baby, she says, “I didn’t want to hurt my children.”

So after giving birth Dec. 30, she nursed Josephine Olivia Renee for six days. She then did something she would not have imagined nine months earlier: She gave her child to another family. Read it all Here

Support the Zoe Foundation make adoption affordable.

Wilberforce’s Grandson on the Inhumanity of Abortion

by Gerard Wilberforce

I am writing as the great great grandson of William Wilberforce, who campaigned vigorously for the ending of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, which ultimately paved the way for the abolition of slavery itself throughout the entire British Empire in 1833.

I am often asked what would be the campaigns Wilberforce would be fighting if he were alive in 21st century Britain. I believe that there would be a number of different issues – among them human trafficking and the scourge of drugs. But almost certainly at the top of the list, would be the issue of abortion.

As the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill comes before Parliament over the next few weeks, the opportunity presents itself to amend the abortion Act. With the number of abortions having reached 200,000 per year in the UK alone, the time is right to tighten up the law that was designed to protect women by ending illegal abortion, but never to allow such a high degree of deprived life.

There are great similarities between the status of the foetus and the status of African slaves two centuries ago. Slaves were considered a commodity to do with whatever the vested interests of the day decided. Today, in our desire to play God in our embryology experimentation, with all its’ unfulfilled promises of miracle cures, and our decision to abort unwanted children, we are no better that those slave traders who put their interests and world view higher than they placed the sanctity and value of human life.

Most people at the time didn’t believe the evil of slavery could ever be defeated, as so much of the economy at the time was dependent on the trade. It’s easy for us to think that is the case today with abortion, but I believe William Wilberforce would not take such a view.

Whilst our hearts go out to those who have chosen abortion, there should now be much greater emphasis on the alternatives that exist. Many of us would like to see far more support those who have made such a significant and difficult decision – but whilst we recognise the trauma many women have gone through, we also have a duty to ‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves’ (Proverbs 31).

The Psalmist says ‘My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.’

With abortions in the UK reaching 600 a day, it seems to me that the ‘secret place’, is one of the most dangerous places to be in modern day Britain.

As with my great ancestor, the battle took many years, even decades. But now, with the passage of time we look back in horror at how we devalued human life. I truly believe we will look back in years to come, repent and ask forgiveness for what we let happen to the unborn child.

There is something deeply depressing about a society in which abortion is so easy, yet alternatives such as adoption are made to appear so difficult.

Evangelist Believes a Praying Church Will Spark Stadium Healing Revival!

May 14, 2009 — David Turner (pictured, right) has seen the deaf receive their hearing and the blind gain their sight at crusades across India, Mexico and Malaysia. But the Phoenix-based businessman-turned evangelist believes a revival of miracles will soon hit the U.S. “I believe God is about to do an explosion in America,” said Turner, who has seen thousands healed during large-scale crusades he led in India with evangelist Harry Gomes (pictured, left). “We will start seeing [healings and miracles] even with stadiums of people.” Turner is expecting the miracles to begin this week, when he hosts the Harvest America Healing Explosion at the 14,000-seat Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. More than 120 churches across the city will participate in the three-day event, which begins Friday and includes a food giveaway for needy families. Turner expects at least 20,000 people to participate during the three days. He believes hundreds will be saved, plugged into a church and healed. “The Holy Spirit showed me that revival won’t come with just miracles, signs and wonders,” Turner said. “The church has to come together and pray, and then that with the miracles, signs and wonders will spark a revival. And that, I believe, will be the ultimate thing that comes out of this. We’re going to start to see the beginning of a revival.” Turner-who owns Southwest Commodities, a suburban Phoenix importer of nuts and dried fruits, and Suntree, a California-based plant that packages peanuts, trail mix and other products-began ministering internationally in 2003 after experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. Although he had been a Christian for 15 years, Turner said he felt as if he had been hooked up to an electric current when a charismatic pastor prayed for him. The pastor told him he would not only see miracles but also minister in healing himself. Soon after, Turner was healed of a compressed disc that had cost him the use of his left arm and was later healed of torn knee ligaments. That touched off a desire to pray for others, and Turner said dozens have been healed of cancer, stomach problems, blindness and other illnesses. He met Gomes in the early 2000s, and the Indian pastor began mentoring Turner in the healing ministry. Since then Turner has partnered with Gomes to lead healing crusades across India and to establish an orphanage there. In the U.S., Turner said the troubled economy has made many Americans desperate for answers and more open to evangelism. “People need hope, and the problem is they’ve been looking in all the wrong places for it,” Turner said. “We have their answer, which is Jesus. The problem is, we have to, as a church, walk in the power of God and let the people see it. Then there’s no question; they want it.” Turner is financing the healing crusade himself, paying roughly $250,000 so far. Food banks are providing most of the food being distributed each night of the crusade. “What I like about him, he’s just not promoting [himself],” said David Friend, pastor of Scottsdale First Assembly, the church Turner attends and a participant in the crusade this week. “He just knows the Spirit of God is going to move. “I believe the same thing. Why can’t revival start in America? Why can’t we see the same thing we’ve seen around the world? This meeting is being approached with the expectation that God is going to move.” Turner said his primary goal is to encourage people to believe God. “Jesus does not have geographic and financial boundaries,” he said. “He’ll go anywhere there’s faith. The faith is waning here in America, but … Rom. 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So when you speak the Word, the Word, the Word, people’s faith rises and the Word comes and heals the people.”

Sweden Rules Gender-Selective Abortion Legal

I find the following news so disturbing, I cannot even begin to comment on it.

By Kathleen Gilbert, lifesitenews.com

STOCKHOLM, May 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Swedish health authorities have ruled that it is not illegal to kill a healthy unborn child based simply on its gender, according to Swedish news service The Local.

Doctors had asked health authorities about the matter after a woman from southern Sweden had two of her children killed in utero for being an undesired sex.  The woman had already given birth to two daughters.

The gender was determined during an amniocentesis requested to determine whether the child had a disability. 

Concerned doctors at Mälaren Hospital then asked Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare to determine a protocol for future instances in which they “feel pressured to examine the foetus’s gender” without a medical necessity.

The medical board responded that such requests must be accommodated. 

According to Swedish law, abortion is legal on any basis whatsoever up to the 18th week of gestation, and therefore the board said doctors cannot deny a mother seeking to have an unborn child killed because it is the wrong gender.

A medical ethics consultant told The Local in March that mothers regularly travel to Sweden from Norway, where sex-selective abortions are illegal, to abort unwanted girls.

Ten Years Later, Boy’s ‘Hand of Hope’ Continues to Spark Debate

Nearly 10 years after a stunning photograph of his tiny hand traveled the world, Samuel Armas has a firm grip on what “The Hand of Hope” means to him.

“When I see that picture, the first thing I think of is how special and lucky I am to have God use me that way,” Samuel told FOXNews.com. “I feel very thankful that I was in that picture.”

On Aug. 19, 1999, photographer Michael Clancy shot the “Fetal Hand Grasp” — his picture of a 21-week-old fetus grasping a doctor’s finger during innovative surgery to correct spina bifida. Nearly four months later, on Dec. 2, Samuel Armas was “born famous.”

The photo, which first appeared in USA Today on Sept. 7, 1999, quickly spread across the globe as proof of development in the womb and was later cited during congressional debates on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which passed in 2000.

“It’s just a miracle picture, a miracle moment,” Clancy told FOXNews.com. “It shows the earliest human interaction ever recorded.”

Samuel, now 9 and living in Villa Rica, Ga., said the photo likely gave countless “babies their right to live” and forced many others to debate their beliefs on abortion, something he’s proud of.

<!–
var adsonar_placementId=”1425767″,adsonar_pid=”144757″,adsonar_ps=”-1″,adsonar_zw=224;adsonar_zh=93,adsonar_jv=”ads.adsonar.com”;
qas_writeAd();
// –>

“It’s very important to me,” Samuel said of the photograph. “A lot of babies would’ve lost their lives if that didn’t happen.”

Julie Armas, Samuel’s mother, said her eldest son has a “very strong sense of right and wrong” and understands the impact of his unconventional first baby photo.

“He identifies it more in terms of a pro-life message more than anything,” she told FOXNews.com. “This photo happened and God used it to show people that this baby in mom’s tummy is alive. He’s pleased that his photo conveyed that message.”

Armas said Samuel will wear lower leg braces for the rest of his life as a result of spina bifida, which occurs when the spine fails to close properly during early pregnancy. He’ll also use a wheelchair during long trips, as he did at Great Adventure earlier this week. But the mother of three said Samuel “walks great” and has been lucky enough to avoid some surgeries associated with his condition.

“He’s doing extremely well,” she told FOXNews.com. “We pray that he continues to be as healthy and able as he has been.”

Samuel’s condition hasn’t slowed his activities as a decorated Cub Scout or in the swimming pool, where he took first place last weekend in a 25-yard backstroke event.

“I love to swim,” Samuel said of his typical Saturday activity. “You use your arms a lot and it gives your arms great muscles.”

The third-grader also loves science and animals, especially orcas, bald eagles and tigers. And he still collects bugs, something his father, Alex, revealed during a Senate hearing in 2003 to highlight advances in fetal surgery.

“Anything we see, he wants to catch and put it in a jar to watch it,” Julie Armas said. “He’s a great kid, he really is. He’s very gentle; he’s very laid-back.”

Clancy, who hasn’t photographed a surgery since Samuel’s, recalled meeting him for just the third time in 2007 during an event for Come Alive Ministries in Atlanta.

“His eyes just lit up because he was born famous because of that picture,” Clancy told FOXNews.com. “It was amazing.”

Clancy, who was a freelancer for USA Today when he photographed Samuel’s fully-formed hand, now works as a motivational speaker at pro-life events. Prior to the picture, Clancy said, he was pro-choice.

“And that’s what I’m going to do, keep telling this story,” he said. “It can change people’s hearts. What started off as an assignment turned into a responsibility to keep telling the story behind it.”

A crucial part of the story, Clancy argues, is whether Samuel reached through the 8-inch opening in his mother’s uterus and grabbed Dr. Joseph Bruner’s hand, or if the doctor manipulated the hand during surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee.

“I could see the uterus shake violently and then this little fist came out of the surgical opening,” Clancy recalls. “It came out under its own power. When Dr. Bruner lifted the little hand, I fired my camera and the tighter Samuel squeezed, the harder Dr. Bruner shook his hand.”

Bruner, who could not be reached for comment, has told reporters that Samuel and his mother were under anesthesia and could not move. In a Jan. 9, 2000, article in The Tennessean, he said he pulled Samuel’s hand out of the uterus, further complicating the debate surrounding the photograph.

But none of that matters to Julie Armas. Samuel continues to thrive, and he is leading the way for his 3-year-old brother, Zachary, who also has spina bifida.

“I don’t care, honestly,” Julie Armas said. “What I felt the picture showed is that this is a child engaging in some form of interaction. I’m a labor and delivery nurse, so I understand that Samuel was anesthetized to some degree.

“So if he reached out, I don’t know. If Dr. Bruner reached out, I don’t know. The fact of the matter is it’s a child with a hand, with a life, and that’s meaningful enough.”

Illinois Pastor Slain in Church

March 9, 2009 – An Illinois pastor was killed Sunday when a gunman entered the church and opened fire during the first of three morning worship services.

The Rev. Fred Winters, pastor of First Baptist Church of Maryville, deflected the first of four bullets with his Bible, causing pages to fly “like confetti,” witnesses told the Associated Press. After four shots, the man’s .45-caliber handgun jammed, and he stabbed himself with a knife and injured two other church members when they tackled the man. One remains hospitalized, while the other has been treated and released.

 

The gunman, identified by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as 27-year-old Terry Joe Sedlacek from Troy, Ill., is hospitalized and in police custody. In a previous Post-Dispatch report, Sedlacek claimed to have lyme disease, which he said was a cause of his mental illness.

Church members said they did not recognize the gunman.

Winters, 45, became senior pastor of First Baptist Church in 1987. Since then the church has grown from 32 members to more than 1,200. Winters was also an adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a past president of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Winters is survived by his wife, Cindy, and their two daughters.

The Baptist association’s current executive director, Nate Adams, said Winters was “a wonderful, gifted, leading pastor in Illinois, and a dear friend.

Continue reading here