Stephen Strang responds to the Mike Bickle Accusations

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This podcast I've ever done, I'm going to deal with the charges against Mike Bickle,

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who is a longtime friend.

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And this is a matter that's been all over the news.

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It's been something that I haven't really known how to report because I was just stunned

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by these charges.

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I've known Mike Bickle since the 1980s.

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Over the years we've become good friends, both his wife Diane and my wife Joy.

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And I've never seen anything, nothing in his life that would hint at a double standard.

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Yet leaders at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City have asked him to step

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down from leadership, not teach, not to go on social media and so forth, while they're

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investigating charges of clergy sexual abuse.

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And they have called for a third party investigator.

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I'm not clear where that stands exactly, but I just finished an opinion piece that we're

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going to write on Charisma News later today, in which I applaud them for doing this.

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There needs to be an investigation.

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The truth needs to come out.

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These are very serious allegations, especially someone as high profile as Mike Bickle.

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People who are involved in this kind of thing are often hurt.

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Even people who are in the pew, so to speak, are hurt when these kind of charges come.

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And we need to get to the truth.

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When I first found out, I said, oh no, not Mike too.

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I didn't know.

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I just didn't know.

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But some things have come to me that make me think that there's another side.

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And that's the purpose of the opinion piece I wrote, and also the purpose of what I'm

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talking about now.

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And basically it's this.

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There are apparently eight women who are not named, but two of them have come public and

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said it's not true.

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And one of them is Misty Edwards.

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She's probably the best known of all the worship leaders.

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She's been at IHOP for 25 years.

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And I have here something she posted on Facebook.

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She says, I'm very sad.

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It's been a sorrowful week.

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My eyes are swollen with tears.

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I'm not commenting on any of the women's allegations regarding Mike Bickle.

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However, I want to make it clear that I am not one of them.

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I have worked with Mike for 25 years in my personal experience.

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He has only been godly.

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I have been sent several social media posts speculating differently, and I want to boldly

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say those are lies and entirely based on suspicion.

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I have never been sexually or spiritually abused by Mike Bickle.

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And there was another one by a...

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I know Misty, I don't know her real well, but I've known her for years.

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This other one is from a lady named April Rose.

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She also posted on Facebook.

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This was sent to me by someone who I do know really well and believe.

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I have not been able to contact this woman to verify it.

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But the headline says, I am not a victim.

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And she says she starts by saying that she's stewing over the fact that her name was included.

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She said it was over secondhand hearsay of several years ago that some former leaders

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came to her and wanted to use her experience.

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She said, don't do it.

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They went ahead and did it anyway.

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And in my article, I quoted and also I will have a link to the entire thing.

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It's rather long.

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She gets very specific.

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She criticizes some of these leaders by name.

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A few of these leaders I know.

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Over the years, I've gotten to know some of the leaders when I've gone up to the International

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House of Prayer in Kansas City.

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I've been there at least half a dozen times over the years.

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And full disclosure, I have personally supported that ministry and Mike Bickle since it started

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in 1999.

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They've had 24-7 worship and prayer.

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They don't even miss when there's an ice storm or a snow storm or some other kind of thing

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that would normally shut everything down.

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They figured out a way to kind of keep it going even in those kind of situations.

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Holidays, everything.

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And I just felt that it was very important.

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They've always stood for righteousness.

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There's always been a real devotion for Jesus.

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In fact, Mike Bickle's book, probably his most famous book, is called Passion for Jesus.

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And this is always the kind of thing that he has exemplified.

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So it's been very hard for me to believe it's true.

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I want to say clearly, it could be true.

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I'm personally choosing to believe my friend.

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I immediately reached out to him via email when I first heard about this.

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He sent me a link to an article in the Kansas City newspaper.

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And I haven't heard from Mike.

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He has a long history of not defending himself.

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He's been charged with things.

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Usually it's people who don't like his view of revelation or his understanding of the

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charismatic gifts, such as prophecy and so forth, but he has always chosen not to defend

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himself.

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And that's the same thing he's doing now.

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I have several contacts in Kansas City.

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I have been texting them.

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And the people I have talked to seem to be standing with Mike pending the outcome of

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this investigation.

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This does need to go forward.

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The truth needs to come out.

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We need to not gloss over it, and we need to not also assume that it's true.

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That's what secular people do with the Me Too movement.

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If a man was charged, sadly, most of the people, maybe nearly all the people, were guilty of

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what they were charged with.

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But that's not always the case.

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Remember in the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph.

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He was charged by Potiphar's wife and ended up in prison because he was falsely accused.

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That can happen.

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There are church fights.

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There are disagreements with leaders and so forth that happened.

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There are people who have their own agendas.

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I'm not saying these people do.

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In fact, the leaders that I have met in Kansas City have always been godly people and they

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always seem very impressive.

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But it is beginning to be seen, especially with what April Rose says, that she believes

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that there are people who have an agenda.

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I don't know that to be true.

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But when we're looking at this, and the media always jumps on these kinds of stories.

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In fact, I have a friend who says that he believes that this is failure porn.

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I mentioned this in my op-ed.

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I'd never heard that expression.

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But it's basically people that would, you know, good Christian people that would never

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in the world look at porn.

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That when someone fails, they gravitate to it like a porn addict would look at porn.

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All the salacious details and so forth.

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We can't do that.

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At the other hand, I realize that there have been a lot of people that you would never

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suspect of having a private double life due.

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And until this investigation is out and Mike's name is cleared, as I hope it is, we have

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to realize that there's always two sides.

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And I don't want anything I'm saying to make it sound like I'm glossing this over because

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I'm not.

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This is very, very serious.

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But also, let's consider this.

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Mike Bickle had this vision.

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He's been a Christian leader, really.

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He's been nationally known since he was in his 30s.

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He's been a part of a lot of good things that have happened.

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Most recently, he rallied in the month of May 5 million people to fast and pray for

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Israel.

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And he had no way of knowing, of course, that this war with Hamas would happen.

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And to think that he had that kind of influence that people, not just in the United States

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but all over the world, me included, would agree to fast and pray for Israel.

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And I believe that there's something spiritual going on.

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Isn't it interesting that right at the same time that Hamas is attacking Israel, that

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Mike is getting attacked in really the worst attack he's had in his entire life.

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He's built a great ministry there.

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It's worth millions of dollars.

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But yet he is a very humble man who early in his career—I mean, I know this is his

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friend and he's written about it, he's talked about it—felt that he should have a humble

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lifestyle.

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I've been in his home.

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He lives in a duplex within walking distance of their ministry.

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He drives a very modest secondhand car.

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There are a lot of ministry leaders that when the ministry prospers, they prosper along

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with it.

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That is not necessarily wrong.

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It can be wrong, but it's not.

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I'm just saying that Mike said when he was young that he would live this simple lifestyle

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and he's kept to it.

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He's devoted.

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He's in their prayer room all the time.

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I know he's been a guest in my home many times.

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When I get up to get a cup of coffee, he's already been up an hour or so praying, studying.

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I mean, this is just his lifestyle.

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And he didn't do it as a show for me over the years as he's been in our home.

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I've seen it.

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We sit around the kitchen table.

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We don't talk about politics or sports.

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We talk about the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation.

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I mean, he lives this stuff.

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He also is a guy with a sense of humor and he loves the Kansas City Chiefs.

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In his earlier years, he was an athlete.

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In fact, I like to tell this story about him.

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This is entirely off the subject, but his father was an Olympic athlete in the 1954

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Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

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I'd never met anyone whose father was in the Olympics, but his father was an athlete.

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Mike was an athlete.

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He loves sports.

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He's just a regular guy, but he is also someone who has a real passion for Jesus.

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And we have to understand that if—and I say, I make this point—that if—and the

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enemy is going to attack any of us, and if he can't get us off with liberal theology

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or compromise in other areas or compromise with money, he's going to attack us, even

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if it's with falsehoods.

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But these two ladies, Misty Edwards and April Rose, said that their involvement was false.

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April Rose said she told these people, don't use my name, but they did it anyway.

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Now, I have a copy of the editorial.

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We haven't put it online yet, but we will within the next couple of hours, and I want

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to read something toward the end about spiritual lessons that we can learn.

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And these lessons came from Malachi O'Brien.

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He is an up-and-coming leader that people are starting to talk about.

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I met him only a couple of months ago.

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I've had quite a bit of interaction with him, and because I knew he was a part of the

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IHOP KC family, I reached out to him to just get his read on what was happening.

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Like, is it possible that this is true?

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I found that his stance is very much like mine.

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He loves Mike.

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He hopes it's not true.

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He can't see that it's true, but he feels that the process needs to work through.

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This investigation needs to happen.

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The truth needs to come out, and we need to be concerned about anyone who's been victimized.

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But he put this on ex-formerly-called Twitter.

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He did it on Sunday.

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I didn't actually talk to him until yesterday, but it is so good that I got his permission

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to use it.

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And he wrote this.

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What has come out recently does not discredit the prayer 24-7 movement, the labor of IHOP

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KC, and the thousands of faithful missionaries and tens of millions of people who have been

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impacted by Mike Bickel, the worship from IHOP KC, the miracles, the prophetic promises,

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the innumerable hours of prayer.

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There are some who will use this moment for their gain and do, I told you so.

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And Malachi is saying that they shouldn't do this.

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He also says that he lives with the insane hope that Jesus is faithful and people are

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not.

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Hope that God blesses his word and his work because of what he desires to do in the earth.

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His blessing has more to do with his character than character of leaders.

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On the other side of pain is a beautiful promise.

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This situation hurts me, and he's speaking of himself internally.

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All that means that I'm human and you are too.

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If someone like this causes you to doubt your faith, that means a man has been placed in

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an idolatrous pedestal in our lives.

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The tension of innocence until proven guilty and the need to validate and care for the

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victims of any and all abuse is something that we have to consider.

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Mike has denied the allegations.

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Malachi is writing this.

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I don't know that to be true, and I need to check this out before I put it in my article.

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And I choose to believe that he deserves the benefit of the doubt, and I fully believe

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credible accusations must be taken seriously and victims deserve it to be taken seriously

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and helped in all ways.

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We must never victimize the victims with our words.

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They need to safely share without repercussions and character assassination.

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And I'll just add that I hope that what I've said so far in making this point several times

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shows that I do have concern for the victims.

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I don't know who they are.

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Their names have not been released.

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They're confidential except for the two women who self-identified themselves.

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Then he makes this point.

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We need deliverance through wisdom, a view in all situations through a higher perspective.

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What does the Father think, feel, and see in this situation?

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What God wants is repentance, healing, and restoration, not casual observers and giddy

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critics to addicted failure porn.

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Malachi is the one who gave me that expression, by the way, so that we can justify our non-Christ-like

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feelings and emotions.

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We love to share it and to assume many things.

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Then he makes this point.

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Truth is our ally, and we must pursue it with patience and no bias.

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Not the version we want, but the version of truth and wisdom that identifies reality.

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Good or bad, we must seek truth and an appropriate response to it.

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And then he says, what I know is this.

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I will be in the prayer room at IHOPKC this week, just like every other week.

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It's my calling.

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Mike Bickel is my friend.

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Night and day prayer will continue.

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The presence of the Lord is still there.

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What is hidden will be made known.

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The faith family of IHOPKC and Forerunner Church, which is the name of the local church

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that's located there at the ministry, they all need our prayer.

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And finally, let me acknowledge the inadequacy of my words and perspective.

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And he says to the reader, reflect on your own life and draw closer to Jesus.

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I know I am.

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I thought what he wrote was so good, I asked if I could read it.

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I think that going through it, I will tweak it a little bit for my own words.

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In my article, I'm going to have the full transcript of what Misty Edwards wrote and

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also April Rose, so you can read it for yourself.

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There's a lot online.

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And I commend the leaders at IHOPKC for getting an independent investigator because it needs

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to be something who has no vested interest, not someone who wants to defend Mike Bickle

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and not someone who wants to remove him from power.

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But I think that we need to recognize that sometimes there are people with their own

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agendas who, for whatever reason, sometimes just a disagreement will get it in for a leader.

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I have heard something say about Mike Bickle is abusive and uses his influence and his

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position in an abusive way.

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Again, let me say I have never seen that.

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But I do know that any strong leader is subject to those kind of charges.

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There's a well-known Christian leader who's now in heaven, and I used to…

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I had a pretty good relationship with him, but I used to hear people who absolutely hated

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this man and said the most vile things about him.

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And as I dug into it a little bit, I found that these were people who had their own agenda,

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they negotiated with this man, and they lost in negotiation.

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And they were just mad, and they were hateful.

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And I learned that early in my career, and people who are fired, who don't get what

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they want, will often become very, very vindictive.

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I mean, I know that from personal experience.

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And we have to understand that just because someone says that they're an abusive leader

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does not mean that that's true.

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I'll throw this out.

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There was a somewhat similar situation with Mark Driscoll at Mars Hills Church up in Seattle.

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He built a great ministry.

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He was always a little bit controversial.

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He sometimes said some things that were kind of off the wall, but he built a great ministry.

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He was a real kind of man's man.

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Men related to him.

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This church had a higher percent of males than most churches because he was kind of

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a man's man.

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But then it got to a point where some of his own staff pastors felt that he should go in

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a different direction with the ministry of the church.

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And they started putting all kinds of charges, mostly that he was spiritually abusive.

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And I published a couple of books with him.

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And before we published the books, we looked into it because we didn't want to get involved.

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And it seemed to be a power play.

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He ended up resigning and moving to Phoenix where he started over and building a great

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ministry.

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I've been out there.

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He is also still controversial.

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He still got his haters out there on the internet.

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But in that instance, I personally found that it was a power struggle.

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And unfortunately, these happen in churches all the time.

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My own father-in-law, the late Harvey Farrell, in the 1960s got into a very serious car wreck

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and he was out of commission for several months while he healed.

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During that time, one of the deacons wanted him kicked out of the church.

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Now, he later recovered and he resumed his pastoral roles.

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But it was nasty.

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Of course, this was long before I was in the family.

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But there are a couple of my in-laws, two in particular, who are not really walking

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with the Lord today.

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Actually, one of them is in heaven now.

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Well, let me say this.

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He's dead.

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But he was not a strong Christian and he was very, very bitter most of his life because

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of that church split kind of situation.

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He saw what happened to his father.

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There were other siblings who came through it just fine.

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At the end of the day, if the truth comes out, I believe that the people there at International

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House of Prayer in Kansas City, Forerunner Church, will come through it.

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Most of us have gone through something.

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When I was in my 20s, I had to live through a horrible thing where the pastor had to step

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down for immorality.

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And in that case, it was true.

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And in some ways, that church has never really recovered.

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And there are still people here in Orlando who are, you know, they're still serving Jesus

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the best they can, but they're hurt.

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I hope and pray that that does not happen.

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There's a lot at stake here.

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And you know, on one hand, I'm trying to defend my friend to the, and I'll say it again, to

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the extent of giving him the benefit of the doubt, even in a court of law, someone is

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innocent until proven guilty.

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This is not in a court of law.

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Thank God the government's not involved.

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But it is kind of in the court of public opinion.

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And there are a lot of Christian people piling on, people who already didn't like Mike Bickle

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or didn't like his emphasis on prophecy or on revelation or whatever it is, people who

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thought that it's cultish to pray 24-7 or whatever.

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I mean, you can go on the internet and see a lot of stuff.

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Mike has weathered all that.

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This is in a different category.

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And I'm grateful to the leaders at IHOPKC who are handling this in the, I'm sure in

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the best way they can.

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If you're watching this, I want to just say personally that I respect you and admire you.

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But also I am not willing to jump to judgment that Mike Bickle is guilty.

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I believe that there's more to the story than that.

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I'm eager to see how this investigation comes out.

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I think it's important that the ministry have full disclosure and that it really is fair.

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Mike Bickle apparently is not going to defend himself.

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He's never defended himself, even when that movie called The Cessationist came out like

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a month or so ago.

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I asked him, I said, would you like to be on my podcast and just discuss the thing that

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he said and just, you know, tell your side of it?

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These are people who believe that the gifts ceased with the death of the last apostle

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who is apostle John.

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And so people, they would, you know, they're against people like me and certainly people

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like Mike Bickle who is so high profile.

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He didn't want to do that.

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He didn't want to defend himself.

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Of course, these things had not come up at that time.

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So in summary, I hope whoever's watching that you'll share this with others.

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I know there's a lot of interest in this subject.

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You know, of course, we're going to promote it on our website, not for promotion sake,

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but because it's important.

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This is the first time that I've spoken out about it personally before.

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As you know, if you watch the Strang Report, I played what Dr. Michael Brown said.

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Now, he also doesn't know if this is true or not, but he talked about when these situations

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are true, how they should be dealt with spiritually.

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And I agree with him.

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So I asked him partly because I did not know what to think.

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I had not had a time to reach out to people to see what they said and so forth.

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So in the minute or so that I have left, I want to pray.

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And each of us needs to pray.

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And we need to pray not only for Mike Bickle, but we need to pray for the people who've

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been identified as victims, for the leaders there, for the many people who follow that

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ministry online around the world.

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So Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus.

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And Lord, my prayer is that all things work together for good.

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Even Lord, if it's to remind us that the enemy is going to attack in any way he can and that

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we all must live uprightly, even avoiding the appearance of the evil, we must also walk

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humbly.

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I have known Mike to walk humbly over the years.

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And I pray, Lord, that you give him strength to continue to walk humbly.

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Give the leaders of that ministry wisdom.

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Give the investigators that they bring in, give them wisdom.

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And Lord, somehow can you be glorified through what has happened.

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We just pray this in the name of Jesus.

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Let me just close with this, that if you don't subscribe to the Strangle Report, I'm starting

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to post more Strangle Reports.

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Yesterday I'm live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m. Eastern time.

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But yesterday I put on Jim Gault's podcast.

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I'm getting more.

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I'm going to even start doing some cell phone kind of podcast in between, trying to connect

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with you.

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So if you don't subscribe, do so.

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Hit the little bell so you're notified when I'm online.

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And share this with other people.

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There aren't that many people that are media that's really reporting it.

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Mine is really not a report as it is my own opinion.

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I'm opining.

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But I have lots and lots of history with this ministry, lots of history with Mike Bickel

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and Diane Bickel.

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And I love them.

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I hope that it's not true.

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But I also hope and pray that the truth come out.

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We've got to believe that.

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We believe that the truth will come out.

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Thank you for watching the Strangle Report today on the Charisma Podcast Network.

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God bless you.