Charisma Interview with Mike Bickle

This article is taken from an interview with Mike Bickle by Charisma Magazine on July 19, 2007

Charisma: What happened in 1999 that caused you to decide to begin doing 24/7 worship?

MB: In May 1983 during a 21-day fast involving a thousand young adults, I was 27 years old, the Lord spoke audibly to a prophetic man in our church named Bob Jones. This prophet instructed that we were to do 24-Hour Prayer in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David. The Lord added that we would have 5,000 people who would do this as their full-time occupation. This seemed impossible at that time. However, we put a sign on the wall in the prayer room in our church that said, “24-Hour Prayer in the Spirit of the Tabernacle of David.” For the next sixteen years we wondered what it meant and how it would be possible to have 5,000 people who would embrace this as their full-time occupation. In January 1999, before our Sunday morning church service a man prophesied to me, and the prophecy included Haggai 1:2— Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, ‘The time has not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.’ He applied this passage to me by saying, “Do not say in your heart, it is not time to build the 24/7 house of prayer.” After the church service was over, I flew to Colorado Springs to speak at a prophetic conference with Peter Wagner. The next day, Kingsley Fletcher, a man with a well-known prophetic ministry was speaking at the conference. He walked up to me and prophesied Haggai 1:2. He also said, “Do not say in your heart, it is not time to build the house of the Lord.” In other words, I received the same prophetic word from Haggai 1:2 two days in a row. It was clearly a prophetic confirmation. However, I asked the Lord for another prophetic confirmation. I asked the LORD to speak to Noel Alexander about this. Noel had led daily prayer meetings with me for many years. Noel called me when I returned from Colorado Springs. He told me that he had recently returned from speaking at two conferences in Sunderland and London, England. At each conference, a woman gave him a dream saying, “Go back to Kansas City and tell Mike Bickle he is to begin the House of Prayer.” Noel was amazed that he had received the same prophetic word in both London and Sunderland. This was a great prophetic confirmation for me. This occurred the week after I returned from Colorado Springs.

Charisma: What was your vision for the House of Prayer when you began IHOP–KC on May 7, 1999?

MB: Our vision was to establish worship teams who would lead us in 24/7 prayer. We established the IHOP staff according to the YWAM model of missionaries who raised their own support. We started with 20 full-time staff members on May 7. We met thirteen hours a day for the first four months. On September 19, 1999, we began to worship 24 hours a day and have continued in this way for eight years. The Lord promised in May 1983, we would eventually have 5,000 full-time staff members. Thus, we began to believe for a miraculous increase of intercessors to join us. We believed that we would train and send out these 5,000 people to start houses of prayer all over the world. Our vision now is to establish 100,000 houses of prayer across the Earth. We do not want them to use our name because we do not want an official network or ministry franchise. We want each house of prayer to join the ministries in their own city rather than join IHOP in Kansas City.

Charisma: What would you say was the most difficult thing to overcome personally during the first two years of launching IHOP–KC? Was there anything that made it easy?

MB: First, it was difficult to establish our Harp and Bowl Model in which the singers sing in response to what the intercessors pray. It took us a year to construct and tweak the model. The second was the difficulty some were having in the church to accept the idea of worship and intercession as the primary activity for a full-time missionary. We are involved in many training and outreach ministries; however, our first responsibility is worship and intercession. We believe the most effective way to evangelize and care for people is in the context of night and day prayer, which releases more of the power of God in our labors. This is a new paradigm for many in the Church today.

Charisma: Was there anything that was easy in the first two years?

MB: Yes, we had about 100 enthusiastic young adults who counted it a privilege to throw their life into IHOP–KC many hours a day. That was my great joy.

Charisma: How many people began with you full-time in 1999?

MB: We had 20 full-time staff on May 7, 1999 when we were going thirteen hours a day. We had 50 full-time staff when we began to go 24/7 on September 19, 1999.

Charisma: How many are currently on the IHOP staff and in the Bible School?

MB: Presently, we have 500 individuals on the IHOP–KC staff, 500 full-time students as well as 300 interns, making our sum approximately 1300 people who are involved in IHOP–KC in a full-time way.

Charisma: When did you begin the Forerunner School of Ministry (Bible School)? How many students enrolled the first year? How many are enrolled now?

MB: We began the Forerunner School of Ministry in 2002 with 20 students. We currently have 600 full-time students with another 700 part-time students. The Forerunner Music Academy is a full-time Music Academy with 150 full-time students.

Charisma: What is one unifying characteristic of the students coming to the Bible School and the Music Academy?

MB: They are focused on growing in intimacy with God and believe that night and day prayer is the most effective way to see a full breakthrough of the Holy Spirit in revival.

Charisma: What do you say about the critics of IHOP–KC who do not agree with the idea of young people raising their financial support as a missionary if they are only going to sit in a prayer meeting without doing evangelism or humanitarian work?

MB: We have received some criticism along those lines, but it is only from people who do not understand the IHOP vision. We require all of our full-time missionaries to serve 50 hours a week. They spend half of this time (25 hours a week) in the prayer room and the other half (25 hours a week) in ministry and service. They are allowed to choose which ministry activity they want to invest their time in. We have various outreaches including evangelism, healing teams, feeding the poor, etc. We believe that mission’s work is far more effective when backed up by prayer. The New Testament presents the mission’s movement as deeply connected to continual prayer.

Charisma: Your ministry has helped popularize the Harp and Bowl form of prayer. What role does worship play in prayer?

MB: Prophetic music makes prayer enjoyable and powerful to experience, thus, it is an essential part of sustainable prayer. If prayer is not enjoyable it will not ultimately be sustainable. It is much more difficult to motivate people to pray together hours a day without an intimacy with Jesus focus and without prophetic music supporting it. The war cry in prayer is best fueled by love songs.

Charisma: Your music-led prayer meetings have continued for over eight years. When will this come to an end?

MB: Our passionate commitment is that IHOP continues until Jesus returns. Our vision is to help establish 100,000 houses of prayer across the Earth using media and technology.
We currently have a high quality 24/7 live webstream that can bring IHOP–KC’s worship teams into any home, office, dorm or prayer room anywhere on Earth that has the Internet. The worship team that is leading on stage at IHOP–KC can also be seen live in your home or in your local prayer room.

Charisma: How did IHOP–KC’s partnership with GOD TV begin?

MB: October 1, 2006 was GOD TV’s first day to be broadcast in America. I had the privilege of being interviewed by Rory and Wendy Alec in this live, three-hour program. Two nights later, I had a prophetic dream, where the Lord told me to pay close attention to what God was doing with GOD TV and to take them seriously. Within a week, they invited me to visit and be on their program in Washington, DC. During our time together, we felt a dynamic connection. Rory had the vision to bring IHOP–KC’s worship teams to the nations by establishing a high quality 24/7 webstream in relationship with GOD TV.

Charisma: What do you hope to accomplish in having IHOP on an international medium like GOD TV?

MB: It is a great privilege for IHOP to touch many nations through the medium of GOD TV. Our vision with GOD TV is to provide live worship teams to help establish a hundred thousand houses of prayer. We are not establishing an IHOP network. Rather, we simply want to provide live worship teams to help indigenous prayer ministries get started. We do not want them to be called IHOP, but rather to use whatever name the Lord gives them.

Charisma: What is your role at GOD TV and how do you feel about it?

MB: I am the leader of GOD TV’s global division of Prayer. I am really enthusiastic about this new role with GOD TV. I consider it a great privilege to serve them and their viewers in this way, which includes leading an hourly program each day called “The Daily Devotional.” In this program, we have worship, a short teaching on intimacy with God and then lead our viewers in prayer.

Charisma: How many 24/7 houses of prayer are currently in operation worldwide?

MB: There is no way to know for sure, we do not have an organizational network in which people join. We encourage houses of prayer all over the world and with many, we communicate and relate in friendship. Many cities in America are launching 24/7 prayer ministries. The Atlanta house of prayer under the leadership of Billy Humphrey has been going 24/7 with live worship teams for nearly two years. Billy was sent out from Kansas City and is doing a great job.