Have you felt as though you have been easily distracted from your purpose and vision? Have you felt worn out and beaten down in recent months? You started off the year strong, but somewhere along the way it felt as though the wind was knocked from you—either through circumstances or just feeling weary and exhausted with no explanation of why?

This accurately describes our own (mine and Nate’s) experience in the past few months. I believe the Holy Spirit led me to the story in Acts 16:16-40 to give me the right tools for the opposition that has come against us, and I want to share them with you. I believe that many in the body of Christ have been facing resistance from the spirit of Python. Acts 16:16 in The Passion Translation (TPT) tells it like this: “One day, as we were going to the house of prayer, we encountered a young slave girl who had an evil spirit of divination, the spirit of Python. She had earned great profits for her owners by being a fortune-teller.”

This verse, and those to follow, tell us a lot about the effects of Python. I want to give you a brief outline of what Python is; but the emphasis of this word is not on Python itself, but on the supernatural tools and strategies from these verses that God has given us to overcome and break free from this demonic oppression.

About Python

Paul and Silas were on their way to the house of prayer but were sidetracked in their path by this slave girl. The spirit of Python seeks to distract and then enslave. Its objective is to distract those on their way to prayer; those who are on their way to their calling. It wants to keep you out of the secret place through annoyances and disturbances. It will throw circumstances and diversions your way to have you focused on the “noise,” and in turn, draw you away from going to the Father in prayer. Python operates through false prophecy and counterfeits. Verse 17 (TPT) says: “She kept following us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Great High God, and they’re telling us how to be saved!'”

At first glance, this statement seems a little confusing because it appears to be truth, but let’s be clear: The enemy will contort the Word of God for his own purposes, to mock and taunt, which is exactly what was happening here. The ambitions of Python are to wear you down through mockery. It will scorn you personally; it will mock the call of God on your life and have you question if the dreams in your heart are possible. It will shout over you relentlessly until, just like Paul, you become weary and greatly frustrated. It will accuse you in the public forum, and it will have people surround you with lies and judgments.

Python will also seek to expose you, strip you and beat you until you are raw (see Acts 16:22). Its intention is to rob you and divert you from your destiny; coiling its lies around your heart until finally you are enslaved in its chains. But you do not need to fear! For greater is He within you than he who is in this world (see 1 John 4:4).

Keys to Victory Over Python

1. Speak Your Authority

Many of us, when faced with opposition, have a tendency to run from confrontation rather than face the fear head on. Refrain from speaking negatively about the circumstances around you. Don’t be distracted by the noise. This only weakens you. Instead, focus on who you are in Christ and declare your victory through His name. Paul showed us how to firmly turn toward the attack (see Acts 16:18) and ultimately away from the distraction; commanding it to leave in the name of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 12:11 (MEV) says, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony …” One of your greatest weapons is the word of your testimony. By declaring the name of Jesus, His blood makes you (as a son or daughter of the Most High God) inherently victorious over the enemy every single time, but you need to speak your authority.

2. Lift Up Your Victory Song!

If you have been beaten down and the coils of despair have been strangling the life out of your dreams and hopes, it is time to sing. Despite what circumstances have come against you, your song of worship to the Father is a warfare tool of heaven to burst through the atmosphere of heaviness.

In Acts 16:24, we see Paul and Silas in the after-throes of their battle with Python, bound by their hands and feet in prison. Yet The Passion Translation says they were “undaunted.” They began to sing, and it was their songs of worship that captivated an entire jail of prisoners. In verse 26, it tells us: “Suddenly, a great earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. All at once every prison door flung open and all the chains of all the prisoners came loose.”

Your song of victory before the breakthrough comes literally shakes the foundations of the ground and sky; causing every chain that has restrained you to come unstuck and every door that has confined you to come unlocked. Psalm 108:2 (TPT) says, “Awake, O my soul, with the music of His splendor. Arise my soul and sing His praises! I will awaken the dawn with my worship, greeting the daybreak with my songs of light!” Your song will cause the light to burst through the night.

3. Shake It Off

I believe the earthquake was a supernatural sign of shaking off the spirit of Python. In Acts 28:3, Paul encounters another snake, but this time a physical one. As he was gathering a pile of brushwood for the fire, a venomous snake latched onto his hand. In verse 5 it says, “But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.”

Among the very few natural predators of a python is an eagle. They have distinct ways of attacking the snake—especially if it is in pursuit of eaglets in their nest. They will shake it vehemently or drop it from a great height. They show the snake no mercy—and neither should you!

The question is, how do you shake it off? Do you recall Paul and Silas were on their way to pray before they encountered this opposition? Acts 4:31 gives us an amazing account of the manifestations of what prayer can do: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (emphasis mine). Prayer literally shakes off the attacks from your life and drops the snake into the fires of God.

Lastly, let’s not forget the incredible miracle breakthroughs that are promised to you on the other side of this opposition. All of the prisoners that were with Paul and Silas that day were set free; along with the jailer and his entire family who gave their hearts to Jesus. Your breakthrough is not just for you, but for others. Those around you who have been in captivity and are lost are meant to be freed through your breakthrough as well.

Mighty ones, it is time to speak to the problem, turn your affections towards the Father and command Python to leave in the name of Jesus! As you pray and lift your songs of worship, you will see a breaking through of the night season and the shaking off of all that has been opposing you. {eoa}

Christy Johnston was born and raised in Australia. After living the majority of her life plagued with insecurity and fear, she came to learn the power of her identity in Christ. She now lives with the mandate to breathe fresh hope and life into God’s sons and daughters through her passion of writing, uncovering the truths of living in grace and freedom through our identity in Christ. Nate and Christy have two daughters, Charlotte and Sophie, and currently live on the Gold Coast in Australia.

A new  petition is urging American believers to call for the rescue of two kidnapped archbishops. In February 2013, Fathers Michael Kayyal and Maher Mahfouz were kidnapped in Syria near the Turkish border. The driver was murdered in the process. Since then, no one has heard from the victims.

Now the International Christian Union is calling for the United States government to resolve the case of Kayyal and Mahfouz’s abduction. The petition, which has over 1,100 signatures, reads as follows:

On April 22, 2013, both the Greek and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim (U.S. citizen), were kidnapped in Syria near the Turkish border. Their driver, Deacon Fatha’ Allah Kabboud, was killed.

Today, 4 years later, the bishops remain missing—though for some time it has been rumored that only one of them is still alive. The bishops were abducted on their way back from the Turkish border, where they were negotiating the release of two priests, Fathers Michael Kayyal and Maher Mahfouz, who had themselves been kidnapped in February 2013.

We have been quietly inquiring behind the scenes for four years now. We will not be silent any more. As per the Freedom of Information Act and the fact that one of these men is a U.S. citizen, we are now demanding from the United States government in particular as well as the international community in general, to provide us with answers as to the whereabouts of these two servants of the Lord and the church, in the name of humanity and decency. We urge the United States government to place whatever pressure need be applied on all its allies to obtain results in this matter, particularly Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel and Syria.

If these two clergymen are deceased, release their bodies so that they may receive a proper and dignified burial. If by any miracle of God, any one of them is still alive, we urge the U.S. President, the Senate and the members of Congress and their allies to put their efforts together with other countries in the region and help bring them home. Please help us bring our brothers home.

Your immediate action is highly appreciated. {eoa}

We’re crying out for revival every day, but Third Day put their hearts’ prayers into words in their latest single, “Revival.” 

The lyric video, which released Friday, calls for all of those who want a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to say, “amen!” 

The folksy song declares, “Ain’t gonna find it in a politician/Not from the government or any law/Can’t get it going by your own religion/Only by the Spirit and the word of God!” 

Watch the video and catch the fire.

{eoa}

All 100 U.S. senators signed a letter, sent to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, demanding that the world body end its “anti-Israel agenda.”

The letter, authored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Christopher A. Coons, D-Del., called on Guterres to “ensure that Israel is treated neither better nor worse than any other U.N. member in good standing.”

Further, the letter noted that “too often, the U.N. is exploited as a vehicle for targeting Israel rather than as a forum committed to advancing the lofty goals of its founders. These actions have at times reinforced the broader scourge of anti-Semitism, and distracted certain U.N. entities from their original missions.”

The letter condemns several U.N. bodies, including the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, the Human Rights Council and the cultural body UNESCO. The senators urged the Human Rights Council to address “the many pressing human rights challenges of our time in countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and South Sudan,” rather than singling out Israel for criticism. UNESCO, meanwhile, last year passed two resolutions denying Jewish ties to the Temple Mount holy site.

While the letter does not mention an end to any U.S. funding for the world body, the senators wrote, “As both the U.N.’s principal founding member and its largest contributor, the United States should insist on targeting of Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N. entities is unacceptable. This situation must change.”

This article was originally published at . Used with permission.

Judge Roy Moore resigned from his seat as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in order to pursue a new job—this one in Washington, D.C.

The judge said Thursday he plans to challenge Sen. Luther Strange in the Aug. 15 Republican primary for the special election to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Strange, the former Alabama Attorney General, was appointed by former Gov. Robert Bentley, whom he was investigating at the time.

Bentley resigned after he was arrested on two misdemeanor charges of malfeasance in office related to an extramarital affair he had with one of his senior advisers. His successor, Gov. Kay Ivey, set a date for a special election as one of her first acts after being sworn in.

“I’ll stand for the rights and liberties of the people,” Moore said while announcing his intent to run at the Alabama statehouse in Montgomery. “My position has always been God first, family then country.

“I share the vision of President Donald Trump to make America great again. Before we can make America great again, we’ve got to make America good again.”

The GOP primary field is already widening up. In addition to Strange and Moore, state Rep. Ed Henry (R-Hartselle) and Christian Coalition of Alabama President Randy Brinson have announced their intent to run. Three other state legislators are said to be considering a run.

Candidates have until May 17 to qualify for the primary election. If there is no clear winner on Aug. 15, a runoff will be held Sept. 26. Regardless of how deep the field is, the election will provide a true test of Alabama’s support for the twice-removed former chief justice, who has been the target of politically motivated complaints filed by the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center.

The most recent travesty was his suspension amid complaints over an administrative order he gave the state’s lower courts in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to “legalize” same-sex “marriage.” Following a complaint from the SPLC, the state’s Court of the Judiciary found he had violated judicial ethics by telling probate judges they still had a duty to uphold Alabama’s laws against gay marriage.

“I have done my duty under the laws of this state to stand for the undeniable truth that God ordained marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” he said. “I know and I think you do, too, that the foundations of the fabric of our country are being shaken tremendously.

“Our families are being crippled by divorce and abortion. Our sacred institution of marriage has been destroyed by the Supreme Court. Our rights and liberties are in jeopardy.

“What I did, I did for the people of Alabama. I stood up for the Constitution. I stood up for God. The great majority of the people of this state believe in God.”

After Moore’s suspension by the Court of the Judiciary was upheld by a special court convened in lieu of the Supreme Court, Ivey appointed Associate Justice Lyn Stuart as chief justice. Stuart had been serving as the acting chief justice while Moore was suspended, and will likely face one of Moore’s closest allies in the 2018 election.

Associate Justice Tom Parker has also announced that he will run for Alabama Chief Justice, saying the state needs to maintain a conservative court.

“Alabama is a conservative state,” he said. “We revere the Constitution and the rule of law. And I believe our courts are the battleground for our God-given rights as free people.

“Please pray with me as I take this step, and thank you for standing with me as I continue to stand for the God-given principles that remain the foundation of the freedoms we cherish as Alabamians.” {eoa}

The Greek word Paul uses for “head” in Ephesians 5:23 is kephale, which was commonly used to refer to the physical head on one’s shoulders. In fact, of the 59 times kephale is found in the New Testament, 44 times, it is used of someone’s literal, physical head.

The issue, then, concerns the meaning of kephale when it is used figuratively. Does it, as the English word “head,” refer to someone in charge, as in the “head” of General Motors?

That was the assumption until a landmark study by Dr. Berkley and Alvera Michlesen entitled “The Head of the Epistles” that was published in the Feb. 20, 1981 issue of Christianity Today. They examined and compared how the Jewish translators of the Greek Septuagint had translated rosh, the Hebrew word for “head,” into Greek. Their findings completely upended the traditional view and threw many traditionalists into disarray.

They discovered that when rosh was used literally to refer to someone’s physical head, they used kephale. When rosh was used figuratively to refer to the source or origin of something, they would again use kephale. However, they discovered that when rosh was used figuratively to refer to a person of authority, the Septuagint translators avoided kephale and used archon (ruler) or a similar word.

This shows that when Paul says in Ephesians 5:23 that the husband is the kephale of the wife, his point is not about authority and leadership. If he had wanted to establish an authoritarian structure for marriage, he could easily have done so by using words such as archon (ruler), despot (master) or timē (one of rank and honor). Any of these would have unambiguously communicated the idea of superior rank and authority.

Paul, instead, avoids those words and speaks of the husband as the kephale, or source of the wife. In doing so he is referring back to the Genesis account of creation where, instead of creating a separate creature from the ground to make the woman, God took a side from the person He had already created from the dust, and built the side into the woman. The popular Jewish commentary known as The Chumash says,

Unlike man’s, the woman’s body was not taken from the earth. God built one side of the man into woman—so that the single human being became two, thereby demonstrating irrefutably the equality of man and woman (Hyatt, Paul, Women and Church, 85).

This was important, for ancient, pagan teaching said that woman had been made from a different and inferior source than man, which became the basis for male superiority and female subservience. It also became the basis for homosexuality, for as Plato declared, “the truly noble soul is masculine and will therefore seek out another male as the object of its love,” because they are alike and of the same substance.

Paul’s use of kephale carried connotations of mutuality between the man and the woman and undermined the ancient argument for homosexuality. It also contributed to Paul’s call for commitment and intimacy in the marriage relationship by highlighting the common origin of the sexes.

Commenting on the use of kephale in the New Testament, Dr. David Scholer, the late Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, stated that the latest research “does not support the traditionalist or complementarian view of male headship and female submission.” He goes on to say, “This data supports a new understanding in Christ by which men and women are viewed in a mutually supportive, submissive relationship.” {eoa}

This article was derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt’s latest book, Paul, Women and Church, available from Amazon and his website at .

Dr. Eddie Hyatt is an author, historian and biblical scholar. His books on church history, church order and spiritual awakening are available from Amazon and his website at .

Kenneth Williams, the fourth man to be executed by Arkansas in a rapid spree, planned to speak in tongues for his final words.

“Regarding my last words… Not that I believe that a person can speak last words, there’s eternity. I imagined I will once again apologize to the victim’s family members. In addition to that, I doubt it if you will be able to properly record my final words on paper. You [won’t] even understand them because they will be spoken in my spiritual language, in ‘tongues,'” Williams told the executioner.
 
“Tongues are made mention of in the Bible: 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If it be my fate to die on an execution table shaped like a crucifixion cross, my last words here on earth will be spoken to God above while the ADC and the State of Arkansas work to put my body to death beneath,” he said before speaking in tongues.

Reporters say he continued to speak in tongues until midazolam took effect.

“[I am] not the same person I was. I have been transformed. Some things can’t be undone. I seek forgiveness,” Williams said before he died.

Midazolam is a sedative used before surgeries. The drug is also part of the cocktail used for lethal injection executions.

Midazolam belongs to a family of chemicals called benzodiazepines, psychoactive drugs used primarily for treating anxiety, Newsweek reports.

After all the drugs were administered, Williams reportedly convulsed and coughed, dying seven minutes after the execution process began.

Williams was one of eight inmates on death row Arkansas scheduled to execute before one of the sedatives expired Saturday. Williams was the fourth execution in the spree, and the last to be executed before the drug’s expiration.

The 38-year-old was initially sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of Dominique Hurd, a university cheerleader.

Three weeks into the sentence, he escaped in a barrel of kitchen scraps. He was later convicted of capital murder for killing Cecil Boren during the escape.

Williams was convicted of Boren’s murder and sentenced to death row. He later confessed to killing another person the same day he murdered Hurd. {eoa}

Most believers are familiar with the false god Baal, the idol Elijah faced down while King Ahab and Queen Jezebel ruled.

But the principality traces further back in the Bible, to Exodus 14, author Derek Gilbert says.

“Backing up 1500 years from the confrontation on Mount Hermon, the Red Sea crossing was a supernatural conflict, another smackdown if you will, in the supernatural realm between God and Baal. Now what was Baal doing in Egypt?” Gilbert says on The Jim Bakker Show.

When Moses was leading the Israelites from Egypt, God commanded him to go back and camp on a mountain with “Baal” in the name.

Why? Watch the video to see.

{eoa}

The Lord is decreeing triumph over the United States of America, Lana Vawser wrote in a powerful new word she shared with Elijah List readers on Friday.

“I watched as angels of triumph that had been positioned all across the United States began to stomp upon the nation with their feet,” she wrote. “As they stomped their feet and the intercessions of the people of God were rising up to Heaven, I saw a great and mighty shaking that was happening and increasing in the nation.”

But, as the angels stomped their feet, Vawser wrote she also saw cracks beginning to appear in the ground, exposing “all of the hidden things” under the surface. These cracks spread “far and wide across the United States,” but she was struck also by how deep they went, as well.

“The shaking was going deeper and deeper and deeper and I heard the words, ‘I am going to the foundations,'” she wrote. “‘I am going to the roots. I am uprooting and exposing the weeds and the snares in the foundations. I am uprooting and exposing the weeds in the roots and foundations.'”

This major spring cleaning, Vawser said, comes with an urging that Christians continue to pray as the Lord establishes His truth for the new day. She said the Lord also urged for prayer as He breaks the spirit of false accusation hanging over our nation.

A revival of courage is coming, she added, and “the dreamers” are arising in the U.S. She closed out with the following:

“People of God in the United States of America, the nation is being shaken, but more and more ground is being taken. Don’t leave your post. Stand strong, keep praying, it has started to rain! 

“I heard the Lord say, ‘The cloud the size of a man’s hand has risen up out of the sea! Now the rain is about to get a whole lot heavier to bring refreshment and greater healing to My people and the nation. Do not put up umbrellas of offense as I move in unexpected ways. Stay close to Me, crying out for eyes to see and ears to hear, asking Me for wisdom and eye salve; that you would discern and see the truth of the new thing that I am doing and springing forth.'” 

Click here to read the entire article at the Elijah List website. {eoa}

Repentance is the life-giving rhythm of the Christian life. It restores hope, fuels joy, tells our fears to lie in “quietness and in confidence” (Isa. 30:15). This is the way it should be.

But there was a time when it wasn’t that way for me.

After following Jesus for more than 30 years, the need for repentance hardened like a layer of frost over my soul. I wanted to repent, but I couldn’t. I felt frozen. Fear and accusations assaulted my mind almost daily.

What if I don’t repent the right way? What if I’m not repenting enough? How could I have failed again?

How can I come into His presence after this?

Clear as hindsight is, I can now see that repentance had become my way of proving I was worthy of God’s forgiveness. I would repent for messing up again, and my heavenly Father would extend mercy. But, in my mind, my standing with God was dependent on my ability to get things right—and if I got things right, eventually repentance should become unnecessary. Oh, the confusion and distortion that comes when we forget the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Though gloriously redeemed by Jesus, my heart had become shackled by chains of unbelief, dramatically impacting the way I repented (or didn’t repent). I simply could not believe that Jesus accepted me, mess and all, and that He didn’t throw up His hands at my incessant need for forgiveness.

Who even wants to hang out with—let alone love and die for—hopelessly broken, messed up failures who can’t ever get it right?

Only Jesus. Only the Messiah who tenderly said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).

You see, “Jesus Loves Me” isn’t only a song we learn as children; it’s the anchor of truth upon which our faith rests. We’re free to admit the depth of our need and the messiness of our real- ities when we believe that nothing—not even our sin—can separate us from the love of Jesus.

Repentance and belief are two sides of the same beautiful coin. Repentance flows freely when we believe our sins have already been forgiven—past, present, and future.

Jesus, because of His great love for us, came to seek and save us while we were still dead  in our trespasses (Eph 2:5). Knowing this kind of unmerited love and kindness changes us. It
makes our repentance, our returning to God, as natural as breathing. It restores our relationship with Him.

Friend, don’t repent to earn God’s love. Repent because you are deeply loved by the God who already secured your forgiveness. Thanks be to Him.

Excerpted from the She Reads Truth Bible, publishing by Holman Bibles, copyright 2017.