The Autopsy of Mike Bickle’s IHOPKC

The exposure of Mike Bickle’s sexual sins has left a deep wound. For many, the fall of IHOPKC is not just the collapse of an institution but the shattering of trust in a man they believed was raised up for a global move of prayer and revival. The revelation of abuse and manipulation has ignited grief, anger, and confusion among those who gave decades of loyalty and sacrifice.

At the heart of this crisis are the victims, primarily young women and I’m told two minors, whose trust was exploited under the banner of spiritual authority. Their voices must remain central, not sidelined, as the church grapples with the aftermath. But the implications reach far beyond the victims. They reach prayer rooms and ministries and churches worldwide.

Entire congregations and networks of believers have been left disoriented. Many who prayed through the night in the IHOPKC prayer room, fasted for revival, and gave their resources to sustain the mission are now left questioning whether they were deceived all along. For some, the betrayal has caused them to retreat from fellowship altogether, disillusioned and spiritually adrift.

Others, however, remain fiercely loyal, standing by Mike Bickle no matter what, dismissing credible testimonies of abuse, or spiritualizing the situation to explain away sin to allow Bickle back into ministry. This polarization has only deepened the fractures within the body of Christ.

The Danger of Extremes

Both responses, abandonment and blind loyalty, reveal the same underlying problem: a lack of biblical discernment and grounding in sound doctrine. When faith is rooted more in personalities, movements, or experiences than in Christ and His Word, disorientation becomes inevitable when those personalities fall. The result is a church that either abandons the faith or excuses sin, rather than standing firm in truth and righteousness.

And yet, Scripture reminds us that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). Exposure, painful as it is, can also be the mercy of God. The fall of a leader is never just about that individual; it is also a moment for the entire community to examine itself. What allowed this deception to endure for so long? Why were Scriptural and prophetic warnings ignored or suppressed? Where was discernment?

Discernment
One of the most sobering questions in the aftermath of IHOPKC, and perhaps the hardest for many to face, is this: How could so many faithful believers remain blind for so long? How could leaders, intercessors, and worshipers, people deeply devoted to prayer, fasting and the Lord fail to recognize deception and misconduct? And what about the leaders who knew or suspected, have they repented? Made restitution?

The answer may seem complex, but at its core lies a lack of biblical discernment. Discernment is not an automatic gift given to every believer in equal measure. It is something we grow into, something sharpened by practice, and something cultivated only when the Word of God is allowed to shape our thinking and our obedience. Without it, even sincere devotion can be subtly redirected into misplaced loyalty, false teaching, or man-centered spirituality.

Hebrews 5:14 tells us that discernment comes by “constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Psalm 119 reminds us that true understanding comes from God’s precepts, not simply from spiritual experiences. Many who participated in IHOPKC assumed that visible spiritual activity was proof of God’s approval, but without doctrinal grounding and accountability, those activities became a smokescreen. What appeared as deep spirituality was often an empty substitute for true maturity.

As the church in Kansas City, and everywhere for that matter, goes forward, it requires us to take an unflinching look at the wreckage, perform an autopsy on IHOPKC, and learn the lessons necessary for the rebuilding of the church in Kansas City and the church universal.

Autopsy on Mike Bickle, IHOPKC & Forerunner Church
The crisis forces us to confront the reality that sexual sin was not the root problem but the fruit. The deeper issues had been present for decades and were largely ignored, dismissed, or spiritualized.

The First Problem: Structural Failure
Mike Bickle never established a truly biblical framework of leadership. From IHOPKC to Forerunner Church to IHOPU, authority ultimately rested with Mike. While many leaders and staff helped run the day-to-day, their decisions were consistently filtered through Mike’s vision or dictate. Outwardly, the ministry appeared collaborative, but functionally it was centralized in one man’s control. While this can work for a business, it will never work for a church or ministry.

The New Testament offers a clear framework designed to safeguard both leaders and the flock. Churches were to be led by a plurality of elders (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), men of tested character who could provide mutual accountability (1 Timothy 3:1–7; Titus 1:6–9). Authority was never meant to concentrate in a single personality or prophetic voice. Instead, it was distributed equally among qualified leaders who could weigh teachings, test prophetic words, and protect the community from error or abuse.

The result was predictable. Without structure, safeguards collapse. Without safeguards, abuse festers. A biblical model of leadership provides fences that both empower leaders and protect the flock. Remove those fences, and what follows is inevitable: spiritual mess, untested doctrines, and unchecked abuse.

The Second Problem: Dead Works
Hebrews 6:1 warns us to repent from dead works. These are religious activities that may appear spiritual but are detached from repentance and sound doctrine. Dead works are deceptive because they can look alive: conferences, 24/7 prayer meetings, worship gatherings, and prophetic words, but if they are not rooted in the gospel’s demand for holiness and truth, they rot from within. Over time, dead works accumulated at IHOPKC until they became a heavy weight dragging the movement down, even as outward appearances looked vibrant.

The tragedy is that many mistook activity for fruitfulness and experiences for health. But Scripture warns us: “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). If the fruit is deception, manipulation, or abuse, the root is diseased. Unless this reality is faced, the church risks repeating the same cycle again, only under different names and with different faces.

The Third Problem: Lack of Foundational Teaching
The third problem, which made the other two possible, was a lack of foundational teaching. Neither Mike Bickle nor his leaders were grounded in the elementary doctrines taught by Paul and the other apostles, and therefore they could not impart them to those attending any of Mike’s churches or ministries. The truly sad thing is, they thought they were, and probably still do.

This deficiency was not unnoticed. Over the years, leaders such as Derek Prince, Ernie Gruen, John Wimber and others pointed out that Mike’s ministry leaned heavily on prophetic experiences and eschatological speculation, while failing to establish believers in the bedrock of sound doctrine. Within IHOPKC, the culture of loyalty to Mike’s vision overshadowed such warnings.

Without grounding in the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42), the people were unequipped to test the spirits (1 John 4:1) or to distinguish truth from error. And what resulted was a generation of sincere believers, zealous for prayer and worship, yet vulnerable to deception because they had never been discipled in the “word of righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13). A church that neglects foundations may appear vibrant, but beneath the surface it remains fragile, unable to withstand storms of false teaching or the collapse of its leaders.

A Forgotten Foundation
The early church offers us a different picture. Acts 2:42 describes a community that “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.” Notice that prayer is listed last. It was vital, yes, but it was balanced by sound doctrine.

This balance is what produced discernment. Apostolic teaching grounded the church in the truth. Fellowship created accountability. The breaking of bread kept the gospel central. And prayer tied it all together with dependence on God. When any of these are removed, or when one is elevated above the others, the church becomes vulnerable.

When Prayer Alone Isn’t Enough
IHOPKC was built around prayer. Day and night, worship and intercession filled its halls. To an outside observer, this would seem like the pinnacle of spiritual vitality. Yet Scripture warns us that outward activity, even spiritual activity, does not always equate to inward health.

Behind the 24/7 prayer model was a system that looked less like a New Testament ministry and more like a cheap labor business model. Young people were called ‘staff members,’ but in reality many worked full-time without a livable wage. Even the worship teams, the very heartbeat of IHOPKC’s 24/7 prayer model, were often underpaid. Many full-time staff lived below the poverty line, depending on outside support, side jobs, or even communal housing just to survive. This model institutionalized scarcity and spiritualized sacrifice, blurring the lines between voluntary service and systemic exploitation.

The New Testament is clear: “the laborer deserves his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18). Yet IHOPKC normalized a culture where spiritual zeal justified economic neglect, subtly teaching that prayer and fasting were enough to sustain a ministry, even if the people carrying the weight of that ministry were underpaid and underserved.

This is where the line between living faith and dead works becomes painfully visible. Hebrews 6:1 calls us to “repent from dead works,” meaning religious activity that looks righteous but is detached from God’s order, truth, and justice. Prayer is holy, but prayer built on a foundation of neglect, injustice, and economic exploitation becomes hollow. What should have been the life of the Spirit became, in many ways, the machinery of dead religion.

In the end, IHOPKC’s outward devotion, unceasing worship, fasting, and prayer, was undermined by structures that failed to honor biblical safeguards, failed to provide for the workers of the Gospel, and failed to rightly order ministry under Christ’s headship. Without repentance from these dead works, even the most sincere devotion turns into deception.

Where We Go From Here
I believe it’s time for us to begin a different kind of discussion. While we must never forget the victims, nor minimize the deep harm that has been done, we must also ask what comes next for IHOPKC, the church in Kansas City and the wider body of Christ.

Scripture consistently calls us to move forward with God rather than remain trapped in the past.

1. Forgetting What Lies Behind:
Philippians 3:13–14, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul makes clear that spiritual maturity requires focus on the future, not lingering in past failures or even past successes.

2. Remember Lot’s Wife:
Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Jesus’ sobering reminder: looking back to the past can paralyze us and prevent moving forward into God’s deliverance.

3. Do Not Dwell on the Former Things:
Isaiah 43:18–19, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” God calls His people to watch for His new work rather than cling to what has already passed.

4. Press On in Obedience:
Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…” This is especially relevant about IHOPKC’s dead works. Repentance must be followed by forward movement into maturity.

5. The Danger of Looking Back in Ministry:
Luke 9:62, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Looking back with divided loyalty makes a believer unfit; God calls us to move forward with undivided focus.

6. Renewal of the Mind:
Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Moving forward means allowing God to renew us and give discernment, not remaining bound by past patterns.

Bridge: From Autopsy to Solution
If we are to move forward faithfully, we cannot stop at exposing what went wrong. We must also ask: What now?

First, we must recognize that the damage goes deeper than one man’s sins. The spiritual culture around IHOPKC created space for abuse, deception, and misplaced loyalty to flourish. These are the dead works Hebrews 6 warns us to repent of: activities that wear the mask of spirituality but are detached from Christ. Unless these works are named, confessed, and renounced, they will continue to bear rotten fruit. For those who refuse, there will be no movement forward.

Second, we must remember that God’s purposes are never defeated by human failure. His call to His people is always toward repentance, restoration, and renewal. That requires humility: listening to victims, owning past mistakes, and refusing to whitewash the truth. It also requires courage: the willingness to ask hard questions, to dismantle unhealthy structures, and to rebuild on the foundation of Christ alone.

Finally, we must reframe the crisis as an opportunity. The failure of IHOPKC provides a mirror to the wider body of Christ. It reminds us that revival without accountability leads to ruin, and that prayer without foundations collapses into dead works. The question now is not only what went wrong at IHOPKC, but how we can build differently going forward, so that we may take part in the next move of God without repeating the same fatal errors.