Recently, my attention has been drawn to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOP-KC) for various reasons, not least of which is that some in our church have been there and were greatly impressed. With a gimmicky name like that I am skeptical. (IHOP? Excuse me, but couldn't somebody come up with something original? Cue yellow flags.)
I was looking at their website a bit just now. Their existence is premised on a faulty understanding of devotion to God presumably built around David's worship method in 1 Chronicles 15:1-17:27. (Cue red flags.) The article outlining the history of 24/7 prayer is filled with examples of the Desert Fathers and later ascetics who were given over wholly in their devotion of God. (Cue red flags waving wildly and sirens blaring.)
Now this group does not have a monopoly on misplaced devotion. One can walk into what has become a typical church meeting to find people with arms raised singing their lungs out to songs that have no meaning, but because Jesus is mentioned, they must be good. I do believe that if the song leader started "Jesus Is Just All Right with Me" by the Doobie Brothers or George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," nobody would notice the difference. The euphoria would carry the meeting. (OK, maybe somebody would notice on the latter song when we got to "Hare Krishna, Hare, Hare" but certainly not before then.)
Why am I being sarcastic and skeptical of this attitude? Because it espouses a devotion never found or intended in Scripture. It is a devotion rightly directed to a spouse, but because of an ascetic lifestyle in church history and Roman Catholic doctrine, has been given up and transferred to God himself. Protestants have decided this must be worthwhile, though it has no biblical basis. Paul indicated that celibacy was appropriate for a few (1 Cor 7:7, 17), not an entire class of men and women. As an aside, if you want to feel devotion like Olivia Newton John sang of in the title of this piece, find yourself someone of the opposite sex, marry, and be one flesh as God intended.
Previously, I had posted on what true love looks like as Moses discussed it in Deuteronomy. That has not changed between then and now. Godward devotion is nothing more than doing those good deeds that he has prepared for us to walk in (Eph 2:10). Is the walk passionate? It can be. Will Jesus be my lover? Never in a million years.
2 comments:
Of course the place is run by a bunch of false prophets also!
IHOP - sad commentary on the state of the church today. It's been around for years and came out of the KC prophets movement. That movement and those involved is a whole mess in itself. I'd warn anyone wanting to go that it's teaching isn't biblical, it's founder Mike Bickle has created an environment that is more about him and his false prophecies than is about God Almighty!
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