Facing multiple allegations of clergy sexual abuse, International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC) Founder Mike Bickle planned to publish a video last month, defending himself and IHOPKC’s so-called “prophetic history.” But before publishing, he reportedly sent a script of the video to Tammy Woods, a woman who days later would go public with her story of how Bickle allegedly sexually abused her, beginning when she was 14 years old.

Woods told The Roys Report (TRR) that Bickle sent her the script on January 31. She responded in a text: “I do not think this will serve your end goal or improve your public opinion poll. It feels like you are missing the forest for the trees. It’s charged out there and I don’t think this is what anyone wants to hear from anyone with the last name Bickle.”

Woods said Bickle texted back, thanking her and saying she had saved him from making a mistake.

Five days later, on Feb. 5, Woods told her story to the Kansas City Star.

On Feb. 6, Woods said Bickle texted her again with a call me hand emoji, which she said meant he was free for a call. Bickle reportedly continued: “Just giving an update no big urgency. Things are quiet right now. So greatful (sic) for 17.”

Woods said “17” was code for Proverbs 17:17, which says, “A friend loves at all times . . .”

The next day, the Star published Woods’ story. Woods said she then sent Bickle a final text and permanently blocked him.

Bickle never released the video. He also did not respond to TRR’s request for comment.

However, on February 14, Woods said she sent screenshots of Bickle’s video script to her sister, who then released the script to former IHOPKC staffer Ben Anderson. Anderson then posted the script on social media, prompting virulent backlash.

Some expressed disbelief that Bickle would send the script to an alleged victim.

“WHAT. IN. THE. WORLD?” wrote one person on X. “I wonder if he had to write this again after Tammy Wood’s testimony(,) would he still write like this(?)”

Others, including Anderson, took aim at Bickle for focusing on defending himself and IHOPKC’s prophetic history, rather than on the pain he caused alleged victims.

“He makes it clear why he made this statement—‘because of the pain and burden the MY family endures’—not to express any kind of sorrow for his actions or the pain he has directly caused to countless people,” Anderson wrote.

“. . . And where does this ‘pain’ come from? The criticism of the prophetic history. It’s clear that there’s nothing he’s more obsessed with than upholding the veracity of this ‘narrative.’”

Defending the prophetic history

In the script, Bickle expresses dismay that some are calling into question the prophetic history he taught.

According to this history, IHOPKC was founded on a series of “prophecies,” starting in 1982 with a prophecy that God would use Bickle to “change the understanding expression of Christianity in one generation.” In 1983, Bob Jones reportedly told Bickle that God would use Bickle to lead young adults in a movement to pray for Israel. A couple months later, Bickle said God told him to start “24/7 prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David.”

“If I had the hardness of heart to totally fabricate such a horrible and evil statement as this and repeat it often then it would lead some to believe that I made up the testimonies in our prophetic history,” Bickle says in the script. “This would be horrific prophetic manipulation.”

But Bickle asserts: “Our prophetic history is a true God story. It is a true corporate story that is for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.”

In the script, Bickle’s wife, Diane, agrees, saying, “Yes, this is a powerful generational story.”

Bickle adds that he’s making a statement now “because of the pain and burden that my family endures in continually having to answer the question to their friends—did Mike really say that ‘God told him . . .’”

He adds, “I am pained by the intense pressures that my total silence specifically on this issue has caused our natural family and our spiritual family.

“This false narrative is an assault against our prophetic history that causes much pain and turmoil in our staff by forcing them to answer for it to their family friends and supporters. (boldface in original script) It has resulted in . . . significant loss of income to some and thus it has greatly affected their personal lives. This is not okay with me. (red print in original script)”

Denying prophecies about Diane

Bickle also denies in the video that he ever told any women that Diane would die and then he’d marry these other women. This is a “prophecy” Woods claimed Bickle used to abuse her. Other women, including the primary “Jane Doe” and a woman identified as “TH”, said Bickle used the same prophecy to abuse them too. 

In the script, Bickle states, “Diane is the one who told me that she believed she would die young. In the earlier years of our marriage she had a foreboding sense that she would die young.”

The script then has Diane saying, “Yes, it is true, in the earlier years of our marriage, I had reoccurring (sic) thoughts about this. Several women in our ministry died young and it triggered me. Mike and I spoke about this often.”

Bickle said he assured Diane that “if such a terrible tragedy occurred that I would live a monastic lifestyle the rest of my days.”

In the script, Bickle also gives a defense for why he would talk about the premature deaths of loved ones. He claims the “unnatural death of loved ones will be one of the primary conversations in the human family in the years leading to Jesus returns (sic).”

Bickle adds, “One of Satan’s main agenda’s in this is to cause people to be offended at God’s leadership (sic) I have spoken in many setting (sic) over many years to many different people about the coming death of loved ones and the need to not be offended at Jesus’ leadership if it occurs.”

Bickle’s video script prompts backlash

Ben Anderson confronted Bickle’s views on social media, noting that current IHOPKC leaders have also claimed the ministry is experiencing a “demonic attack.”

“(Bickle) continues to blame all this on ‘Satan’s agenda’ to cause us to be ‘offended at God’s leadership,’” Anderson wrote on X. “This is not far off from a sentiment that is still held by some current leaders who are hanging onto the idea that this is the Black Horse and IHOP is under a demonic attack against the prayer movement.”

Days after the primary Jane Doe’s husband confronted Bickle for allegedly sexually abusing Doe, Bickle preached that a “black horse” prophecy showed someone close to him was about to betray him.  

Christy Sagal, also wrote on X, calling Bickle’s statement DARVO, which means Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

“Let the reader know: This script is a perfect example of obfuscation, manipulation, DARVO, gaslighting and narcissism, as well as cult influence themes,” Sagal wrote. “It’s just so blatantly awful and it could be used as a clinical example of a dangerous religious leader narrative.”

Another commenter on X, Shelley Dewitt, wrote, “The statement is a juvenile attempt to continue controlling the narrative and, by adding Diane’s supposed thoughts to his statement, they seem to believe that others will see their united front and, hey, because he says it, it must be true.”

Someone named J Hunter Jones took aim at Bickle’s defense of IHOPKC’s prophetic history. “I think the only reason the prophetic history is important to Mike is because without it, and without a platform to preach, He’s irrelevant. Being irrelevant is a narcissist’s biggest fear.”

*This article has been corrected to say Proverbs 17:17, not Psalm 17:17.

Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.