Feb 3, 2026: Party on Garth. This is what I have thought about for YEARS as I considered the charismatic part of the church. Not that I don't believe in the charis (gifts) of the Spirit, but I just have seen the Christians in the charismatic end of the body of Christ as more interested in their party-happenings paying zero attention to the relatively fledgling Messianic Jews part of the body.
"Party on, Garth!" is always the image I
got when I considered Christian leaders of the charismatic part of the body
expressing genuine puzzlement over any of their fellow charismatic leaders
"Israel thing."
I'm not exaggerating. I sat in Sojourn Church
probably around 2010 and watched as Bill Johnson said that exact thing about
how he didn't get Mike Bickle's "Israel thing." Johnson was even
looking at me off to the side when he said this from the pulpit. I can only
imagine there was conversation prior that prompted him to say such a thing in
the beginning of his healing service. All I know is that the whole time I sat
there in that chair there was intense spiritual warfare swirling around me. If
I had not come with someone else I would have fled the scene. The panic mode
was on me intensely.
So when the attack came on IHOP and Mike Bickle,
you will just have to understand that I have experienced the spiritual warfare
of standing with the Israeli ministries when 90% of the charismatic world does
not have the least bit interest in what God is doing among the Messianic Jews
of the international body of the LORD.
In part the charismatic/Pentecostal part of
Christians dismiss the salvation of so many Jews since 1948 as insignificant,
no impact on them. Party on, Garth. It is because they are too caught up in
enjoying their spiritual gifts — not unlike the Corinthian church — to take
notice of how much of the prophetic verses of Bible are God's promises to
spiritual restore Israel. . .after the physical restoration of the State of
Israel.
Another part of the charismatic/Pentecostal part
of Christians is pure ego: because it is mostly the non-charis part of the
Church that has understood God's promises to Israel. These are the ones who
stepped in to provide the necessary Christian support of God restoring the
physical State of Israel.
They are not the ones that are most needed in the
spiritual restoration of Israel. #1 their understanding of God's vision and
desire for Israel's restoration ends with the physical for the most part. They
support all Israel with an enormous amount of money, and that is good except
they give their donations to traditional rabbis who have convinced them if they
want the "honor" they get from Israel, they MUST steer clear of
relationships and especially donations to the body of the LORD in Israel:
Messianic Jewish ministries.
So the Jews bearing the Gospel in Israel get
hardly any of the Christian donations streaming into Israel and that is a HUGE
problem, because we are talking about a place where it is impossible for most
of the Israeli ministries to be self-sufficient especially in forwarding their
Gospel among their people. Not only because of the small numbers in membership
but also because of the massive poverty levels in Israel where war and
terrorism takes a massive bite out of their economy.
It is unacceptable to me that this is the case,
and that the party goes on in the USA charismatic/Pentecostal churches with the
Israeli Messianic Jews are struggling to keep their head above the floodwaters
against them.
While I am holding back nothing, let me not hold
back on the exposure situations that have rocked American churches - especially
the charismatic ones. When we go through storms it is an opportunity God uses
to take us deeper. As far as I'm concerned the exposures are not just about what
the accusations have been about.
#1 I have done a lot of watching and investigation
into the accusations against Mike Bickle, for instance, and I am still not
convinced that the accusations were valid or accurate. I am still of the mind
that it was a Jezebel attack on Mike Bickle as one of the few major prophetic
people in the US who understood that the Israeli Body of Messiah was important.
And what has the attack on him managed to do? Drive a stake in the heart of
relationship that he had with Israeli ministries, and likely the closest relationship
he had with Tikkun.
That one of the younger members of Tikkun, the one
who was heir apparent to taking Asher Intrater's position when the baton pass
was made, joined the attack against Bickle from the get-go is mind blowing to
me. Tell me the devil isn't a treacherous foe to orchestrate something like
that. And one year into the attack against IHOP, having already dismantled it
down to a skeleton crew, Ron Cantor managed to manipulate the Tikkun leaders
into an already prejudiced "investigation" into Mike Bickle and IHOP.
The final report was laughable, if it didn't make
you cry. The accusations were tissue paper thin, and it was accepted without
any attempt at defense investigation. I have said these things repeatedly but
everyone just seems to want to push past all the red flags of lies,
manipulation, evil schemes involved.
God will work it out. He will vindicate and He
will convict.
We are talking about believers who did so much
damage and at the same time took the Israeli body off the table. I can't live
with that so I have to speak to it all the more. There are none who cannot
repent and be restored, but those who will not repent are in for some terrible
days ahead as the storms grow stronger.
As for me, I am going to keep speaking, calling
the charismatic Church to quit partying so hard and take a look at what God is
doing among the body in Israel. They need us to Awake and Arise to the hour we
are in.
In the days ahead, the body in Israel needs the
support of charismatic Christians to come alongside them as they reach out to
their people. Most all of them are reporting that hearts of Israelis are more
open now, after the horrible events of the Hamas war, than ever before. The
time of the spiritual restoration is upon us. If that shatters your eschatology
what are you going to believe? Your favorite end times theory or was is
unfolding in the midst of God's timepiece Israel? Wake up and mature into our
calling of the unity of one new man. Ephesians 2:15. Like a marriage, we come
together with our difference intact and our unity made complete by our
commitment before God.
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