Reinhard Bonnke has led 76 million people to the Lord during the course of his 60 years in ministry. The evangelist that has had over 1,000,000 people in his meetings declared to the over 20,000 conference attendees in Kansas City that “America will be saved.”
Bonnke added, “I want to pass my baton on to someone who’s here.” The 75-year-old evangelist shared how he met George Jeffreys, a minister of healing in the U.K. Jeffreys was in his 70s and Bonnke was a 22-year-old Bible college student. “He prayed for God’s blessing for me and I picked up a mantle,” says Bonnke. “The next day I heard that he died.”
Most of Bonnke’s ministry was in Africa and he believes that if God can move in Africa, he can do it in America. This was Bonnke’s first time speaking to the audience comprised of mostly teenagers and millenials. Bickle announced at the New Year’s Eve evening session that Bonnke had asked to partner with IHOPKC will speak at the 2015 gathering.
“This is the first time in 14 years that we’ve charged a fee for the conference,” says Bickle. “This was an experiment and we may reconsider.” According to a statement posted on their website,”For the past few years the Onething conference has been a free event, and we know what a blessing this has been to many thousands. While our heart in this remains the same, the actual costs of putting on an event of this size have risen steadily over the years. Therefore we’ve made the difficult decision this year to charge a registration fee, while trying to keep it affordable for all.”
The $57-per-person fee didn’t stop the 20,000 attendees from coming all over the world. Folarin, Falade, 21, says this was the first time she had been to Onething. Falade was part of a group of 50 Nigerians and Americans that came from Maryland. “I love the diversity and worshipping with other denominations,” says Falade. “Our country is in a crisis but when you encounter the God of the university, people still have hope.”
Miracle Ojiaku, 24 was part of that group. She said she was so moved by Bonnke’s message that she wants to go to Nigeria and preach the gospel. “This has been a life-changing experience, especially before the new year.”
Bickle closed out the conference by saying this was trumpet call to the nation. “It’s not business as usual. In the next two to three years, life will never be the same. We’re living in a significant hour with positive and negative events that will escalate. The prayer movement is exploding but the majority of the Body of Christ still isn’t responding. God has given us a reprieve for now.”
The pressure to remove the influence of the Word of God from the culture is an escalating crisis, Bickle added. However, politicians see the need for God’s Word. Besides having Bonnke speak and charging a fee, two politicians spoke at the conference for the first time. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Grandview Mayor Leonard Jones, where IHOP is based, opened the evening main sessions.
Leilani Haywood is the editor of SpiritLed Woman. An award-winning writer, Leilani is a frequent contributor to Charisma and blogger at Keeping It Real. Follow Leilani on Twitter @leilanihaywood.
