Thousands Flock to IHOP Student ‘Awakening’

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.”