It is damage control time for Dr. Michael Brown...

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As Bicklegate continues to spin wildly out of control, it was only a matter of time before Dr. Michael Brown started damage control for himself and his ministry. Now, Dr. Brown has not been an overly vocal Bickle backer. He was understandably taken aback by the initial allegations and did not want to believe them. It must be very difficult to realize we have been deceived for such a long period of time by someone we supported. He was asked to speak in November at IHOP and in my opinion was used by IHOP leadership, who we now know was trying to cover up the scandal. He was promised that IHOP would hire a truly independent outside investigative source, which they still have not done to this day because they never intended to. IHOP initially approached this to try and save Mike Bickle but once the allegations of minors were involved, they have moved on the protecting the brand. IHOPKC is a money generator. People make their livings off of it, so we should have expected people would fight for it with all carnality. The problem is that starting with his November sermon to IHOP, Dr. Brown has continued to be on the wrong side of this and has even supported absolutely reprehensible people like Steven Strang. Very recently, Brown and seven other leaders, including Patricia King of all people, put out a statement regarding Bickle and IHOP that was relatively disgusting. The second link above is to a devotional I already wrote about this statement. The first link is to the radio show Brown did last week trying to apologize for some things while absolutely not apologizing for far more and far worse. Let us reason once more and try to highlight the hypocrisies of Dr. Michael Brown during this misadventure.

"I do not like being called into these situations. I am more at home preaching to the whole body, we've sinned, we've all fallen short and all of us get on our faces together. I am much more at home calling for the refiner's fire to work in all of our lives. I do not look at myself as "I am the one who is going to fix and correct everything. This is the one thing I would prefer to not do. To call for discipline in the body. Or I have to lead a certain charge." - Dr. Michael Brown

I found this opening salvo quite telling as it speaks to the core problem with Dr. Brown. This is a completely honest assessment he makes here of himself. If there are generic corrections to be made, Dr. Brown has no problem with that. He saw a threatening error in hyper-grace, and he wrote a book against it. When the circumstances call for individual correction however, he would prefer to not do it. He does not like being called to correct individuals and refuses to do so. Joseph Prince for example, is the king of hyper-grace. That is all he preaches, and he is leading people directly to hell through his preaching. He is a wolf, pure and simple. Brown may have written a book that essentially calls all of Prince's teachings utter heresy, but he will never call Joseph Prince a heretic. In fact, when I was a guest on one of his radio shows, I got him to admit that he considers Prince a "good brother in the Lord, with some holes in his theology." No Dr. Brown. A hole in your theology might be a misunderstanding of eschatology not preaching grace to excuse sin. Either way, quite a tell in his opening statement. Brown continues:

"I am very uncomfortable but I understand why people reach out to me. I understand that I have a certain testimony in the body. But when the call is from the Lord and others in the body make the appeal for me to be involved, I step forward in that way but some say, why don't you call out this one and this one? It's not my ministry or calling to do. It is no one's calling to just sit around and call out everybody and be the policemen. What we do is we are so selective. We do it with the camps of those we don't like but we don't do it with our own camp and we often don't do it with our own lives." - Dr. Michael Brown

Dr. Brown is spiritually allergic to discernment and discernment ministries. He views them all through a lens of personal grievance because they often call him out for his refusal to call anyone false. We saw this in his recent roundtable discussion with Justin Peters. In it, he refused to call out Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and some guy who claimed Jesus once woke him up by playing a saxophone at the foot of his bed! Brown plays this sleight of hand game to excuse his inexcusable position. He tries to always set the bar for a false teacher as a hell-bound reprobate. Now, the reality is we are not to judge anyone's final destination so he then wields it to say he cannot call someone false because he is not prepared to consign them to hell. Clever, but transparent. Our job is to test everything and say what is false and what is true - that is discernment. It is not our job to say this one or that one is hell-bound. These charges of selectivism are also quite hollow. They arise from a false dichotomy that Brown operates under. To Brown, and many others, you are either Charismatic or Cessationist. It never occurs to him that both extremes are wrong. The bible does not support cessationism, but the modern Charismaniacal expression of the gifts is woefully false. When you refuse this camp theology, you do not find yourself defending your camp because you do not hold to any. Brown's notion here that no one is called to call out what is false is scripturally asinine as the entire New Testament supports such. His goal here is to lessen the value of discernment too. He views his ministry work as important and called by the Lord or demanded by the body, but discernment ministries just sit around playing policeman. We get people in the body asking for help too Dr. Brown. We too feel called to correct error so that some might be set free from the bondages of the false teachers you enable.

"I want to lay out my heart. When I write a book on hyper-grace, I see a need in the body and everywhere I go I see the abuse of this and then leaders are coming in crisis saying what do we do and then I feel the Lord assigning me to do it. I don't just search every day, let's find the latest error, let's correct it. Who am I, who appointed me or you or anyone to do this. Yes, we are watchmen on the wall but we have our assignments and the first thing we do is search our own lives." - Dr. Michael Brown

As Paul Hewson once sang, how and you stand next to the truth and not see it? So, we are watchmen on the wall, but we do not actually watch anything? Notice the hypocrisy. Dr. Brown has a calling to minister to Israel and I would not dream of questioning that if he has been given that burden. The problem is he thinks he gets to decide what burdens are legitimate and which are not. When the Apostle Paul saw error, he corrected it and named names. Dr. Brown is no watchman as he allows every single false theology to just walk on by. Joseph Prince? Come on in. Saxophone guy? You are welcome. Sneaky squid spirit Jennifer the Grifter LeClaire? Just a sister in the Lord, right? Wrong!

In the video, Dr. Brown starts to review his part in the IHOP debacle. He recalls how he was called in by IHOP leadership and how he was led to believe there was an investigation starting so he felt this was not the time for us to be airing opinions on social media because there was this investigation and everyone who felt they had a grievance had a place to go to let it all get sorted out now in a "righteous way." He then says something else that was quite telling. He says that he never dreamed for a split second that we would now be in March, and this still would not have happened. Yes! That is the problem Dr. Brown! When you spend your days mocking discernment, is it any wonder that you have none? I knew early on that there was too much smoke for IHOP not to be on fire. You listened to the IHOP leaders, who you should have known were totally compromised, and just blindly accepted whatever garbage they were feeding you. Now, it was at this point that Brown stepped back in part because he had personal commitments and in part because IHOP leadership had not done what they said they were going to do. When those commitments were over in January, he returned to the scene of the crime and started speaking about putting together another Charismatic clown car like he did during the last Todd Bentley fiasco. This panel he was putting together Brown says was made up of leaders as well as people known for their involvement in the prayer movement. That is all you need to know beloved for how rigged this process was going to be. It was why others and I spoke against such an idea. By bringing in people involved in the prayer movement, Brown is trying to game the resolution to include saving the prayer movement. He actually closes this radio show affirming the prayer movement as well as the false prophetic history of IHOP. These false prophecies all came from Bickle, Bob Jones, and Paul Cain - three sexual abusers and false prophets. The 24-7 prayer movement was never of God or from God, no matter how hard Brown tries to get in God's way right now as He is laying waste to IHOPKC and the shattered lives it was built upon. In the video, Brown now plays a snippet from the November 5^th sermon at IHOPKC, followed by commentary from the radio show:

"You may have an opinion. Keep it to yourself. It does no good. You may want to show how prophetic you are and you are figuring it out - grow up! This is not the time to be doing that. There is a process in place and leaders have said that if it is insufficient they will go another step." - Dr. Michael Brown (November 5, 2023)

"I was not trying to silence the voice of victims or suppress people's hurt and pain. My understanding is a process had already been set in place that was now being announced. When I saw that this process was not working, one week later, I was on the phone saying, you got to make a change. The whole goal was let's not litigate this online. What's the use of me sharing my opinion and you sharing your opinion. Let's use social media constructively. It's devastating the damage we do with our tongue. We bear false witness against each other. We slander each other. We tear each other down. Spread rumors and innuendo." - Dr. Michael Brown (March 12, 2024)

What the use is Dr. Brown, is to get to the truth. The hypocrisy is that Dr. Brown has no problem with other people discussing and airing their opinions. IHOPKC leadership was certainly allowed to as they spread disinformation about the advocate group and the victims. Heck, they were allowed to bring in a professional PR Flack to deflect criticism. During these early stages Dr. Brown certainly did not have a problem with Misty Edwards and April Rose using social media to defend Mike Bickle. It's just that you were not allowed to have an opinion about that, right. Except Edwards and Rose were falsely leaked as being named victims when they never were. Back then, I called this for what it was - poisoning the well. To float a negative story to be able to use it to dismiss the legitimate stories. This is exactly what Brown's publisher, Steven Strang did when he actually called Bickle exonerated because of the Misty and April Rose's faux posts. How much damage has Steven Strang, your publisher, done with his tongue Dr. Brown? How much false witness did he bring against the advocate leaders, who used to work at IHOP! When he irresponsibly calls what is happening a "church fight" while you nod your head in the podcast, exactly how much slander are you engaging in? Strang and Larry Tomczak from Charisma have called this a coup of Mike Bickle. That the former leaders were jealous and wanted the IHOP empire for themselves. Isn't that spreading rumors and innuendo? Oh, I guess that was ok as long as your camp was spreading the innuendo? You see Dr. Brown, THAT was what was wrong with your early calls to "grow up." The only people who apparently did not know what IHOP leadership was doing was your camp, perhaps because you were so busy telling everyone else, they needed to shut up.

"I truly regret not understanding the full scope of what was happening." - Dr. Michael Brown

This is the latest excuse now. He just did not understand the scope of what was really going on. Perhaps then you should question if you were really called to get involved? After all, Brown fancies himself the voice of moral clarity but throughout this entire scandal has tried to silence the very people who understood what was going on. We can judge properly what people do and say. The truly amazing thing is Dr. Brown now has the benefit of full hindsight. He can see how HOP has lied to him, repeatedly, over these many months. He can see how the MacNamara Report is useless. He can see now how wrong and destructive his publisher has been. With all of this new knowledge to replace the initial poor understanding of the scope, Brown essentially takes the same position. Unreal. He now tells of how after his December 1^st statement, a pastor he loves and loves him called him furious. He told Dr. Brown to shut up. That Brown had no idea what he was doing. That he was doing more harm than good. And that the IHOPKC ministry is like a cult, and everyone needed to post their stories and put them out. Dr. Brown then makes a heartfelt plea for forgiveness if people were hurt by his words. If he had just stopped there perhaps he would not have come off so self-serving and arrogant but he instead doubled down, after apologizing:

"What I do not apologize for is the call to say, let's not gossip on social media. I don't apologize for saying, let our communication be godly and edifying. I do not apologize for saying that social media is not the place for us to all speculate without knowledge and information. I never had any idea that months later we would still be having these conversations. This was supposed to be resolved in November, where are we now? March 12^th? This is unimaginable. I don't apologize for saying we should not bear false witness against each other. I don't apologize for saying that social media is not the place to adjudicate this case. I do not apologize for saying we have to stop tearing each other down, attacking each other and hurting each other. It doesn't glorify Jesus." - Dr. Michael Brown

Gossip on social media? You mean what April Rose did and then your publisher used that to publicly declare Bickle exonerated? Something like that? Godly and edifying? Like when you told people who wanted and needed to talk about this burgeoning problem to grow up? We shouldn't speculate without knowledge and information? You mean like when your publisher smeared all the victims saying they were being used by Satan to tear down a good man? The truly sad thing is Brown acknowledges now that he never thought he would still be discussing this in March and actually calls that unimaginable. Except I imagined it. So did countless others who recognized the subterfuge and cover up being enabled by the likes of Dr. Michael Brown. You don't apologize for saying we should not bear false witness? Like when Strang said this was just a church fight and that the former leaders now advocating for the victims were just trying a coup? Is that what you mean? The true sad conclusion here is that Dr. Michael Brown has contributed to and enabled the complete tearing down and hurting of the victims, the advocates and anyone with the temerity to hold an opinion since this began. IHOP leadership has found a useful and willing stooge in Brown, who continues with his laughable positions, no matter how plainly wrong he knows he is. If you put out an apology that spends more time telling me what you are not sorry for? Yeah, then I am guessing you are not sorry for anything.

In closing, to highlight the utter disconnect Brown has on this, he closes the video by making two absurd statements. The first is that Mike Bickle could be restored in his walk and be closer to Jesus than ever but is disqualified from ministry because of a lasting reproach. Thankfully he is right about disqualification. The sad thing is the accusations of Jane Doe number one were not enough. It was the involvement of the two cases involving minors that pushed many like Brown over the edge. The tone-deaf part of this statement, however, is the assumption that Mike Bickle is saved. Closer to Jesus than ever? Seriously? When exactly did Mike Bickle show fruit in bearing with repentance? When he was a 20-year-old intern he abused a 14-year-old for years. When he was in his late 20's, and now married, he abused a 15-year-old for many years, even showing up at the girl's high school as her boyfriend. Then he lied about hearing from God regarding the 24-7 prayer model, reinforced by two other sexual predators and launched IHOP while he was abusing the daughter of a friend of his for four years, while married and in his 40s. These are not oopsies Dr. Brown. These are not mistakes. Restoration? No. Mike Bickle needs to hear the one thing he never uttered while running IHOP - the gospel.

The second thing Brown closes with is of course to affirm the prayer movement and the 24-7 model. He agrees with the prophetic history of IHOP, despite it now being proved to be false! Make no mistake about it beloved. This is the entirety of the gameplan here. Bickle is a lost cause and they recognized that once kids were involved but the ministry? That is the goal. Not to minister to the victims. Not to gain closure and healing. To salvage IHOPKC no matter how clearly the Lord is currently destroying it. Dr. Brown needs to stop apologizing by telling us everything he is not sorry for and gather his clown car of 24-7 prayer advocates and get out of the way. Let a truly independent source investigate so all the accusations be heard and known against Bickle and IHOP as an institution. Then they need to shutter the doors and return prayer to its necessary place in our lives as believers. Not this bastardized version of performative prayer for college credit. IHOPKC has always been a cult built on lies and mangled lives. The Lord has had enough, and rightly so.

Reverend Anthony Wade - March 19, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.