Permission to write freely, please?
IHOPKC (International House of Prayer, Kansas City) is a mess, and last night it got even messier. I haven’t said anything about the investigation into the founder, Mike Bickle, and all the things that were exposed over the last several months about sexual abuse and sexual improprieties. It’s not because there aren’t things to say, but rather that it’s hard at times to know how to say things when you’re just so grieved by it all.
But after reading the news from The Roys Report about Misty Edwards last night, my grief runs even deeper today. I feel the need to write something in order to process it, while simultaneously having no idea what to write.
I’m just … so … sad.
Misty’s worship has gotten me through numerous dark nights of the soul, and this one just hits closer to home for me.
How do we respond to the weariness we all feel over what seems like a never-ending parade of disgraced leaders?
With grace and truth.
Grace reminds us that we are all flawed, and surprises us with the reality that God uses flawed individuals.
This is such good news because if we had to wait until we’re not flawed to do anything for the Lord, well, we’d never do anything for the Lord. He uses us despite our flaws, and as we’re coming to realize all too well, He even uses us when we hide our flaws.
But if we only respond with grace, then we’ll be content to just go on living deeply flawed inconsistent lives, and that’s why we also need truth.
Truth reminds us that in Christ, we’re not just flawed and called, but flawed and called to something greater. We’re new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) with new DNA (John 1:12) that leads us to a life that looks more and more like Jesus (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
The truth is that the grace of God is always enough — even on days like today — because grace outgrows our sin (Romans 5:20).
But it also calls us higher than our sin because it frees us and empowers us to make a different choice.
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have … been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness … Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. (Romans 6:17-19)
Grace doesn’t allow us to sin without consequence, and it doesn’t cover up the sin to escape the consequences. Grace covers the sin and empowers us to live through the consequences.
Grace doesn’t allow us to sin without consequence, and it doesn’t cover up the sin to escape the consequences. Grace covers the sin and empowers us to live through the consequences. Click To TweetThe truth is that grace calls us to holiness, a life that sets us apart, which is literally what the Greek word for holiness means.
We read that as “set apart from sin,” and while that’s true, it’s also incomplete, and that’s why news of another leader’s sinful failure is so hard for us to process. We begin to wonder if the power of God can really set us free from the pull of our sinful humanity?
“If I really love Him, and He really loves me, then why did I do that? Again??”
It’s true that we’re set free from the prison of sin, but now that we have a choice to live free, we need to wrestle with the presence of sin because, while we may not be enslaved to it, we are still around it.
The pull of sin is something we all deal with, but the important truth to remember is that we’re made holy by what Jesus achieved for us. More than being set apart from sin, we’re set apart with Him!
Should there be consequences for leaders who have moral failures? Absolutely. But we don’t need to equate their removal from the platform with their removal from His presence, They can be deeply disciplined while also being deeply loved. It’s why the apostle Paul addressed almost every letter he wrote to “the church, the saints, the sanctified” even as he dealt with their sinful behavior in those same letters.
Will people abandon Misty Edwards, Kevin Prosch, and Mike Bickle over this mess? Yes.
Will they lose positions and platforms over this mess? I hope so, but I hope it’s not to prove a point, or to punish them, or to save the face of a ministry. I hope it’s to find space to repent over their choices, lament over the consequences of those choices, and restore the relationships and trust broken by those choices.
But most of all, I pray for a season in a cave where each of them can once again hear the soft whisper of their Savior, reminding them of something Misty wrote about years ago.
“I knew what I was getting into when I called you. I knew what I was getting into when I said your name, but I said it just the same.”
For all those affected by the hot mess at IHOP — the victims, the church members, the worship leaders stunned today the same way I am — my prayer is that you will hear His voice healing you, and reminding you: “Don’t give up, and don’t give in. If you don’t quit, you win. You win.”
