When you do the work of the kingdom, you’re sure to make a few enemies, as Francis Frangipane learned the hard way.
“You’re such a nice guy, I find it hard to understand how you had thousands of witches and warlocks fasting and praying and cursing you,” Sid Roth says as he interviews Frangipane. “But even more important question that that is, you survived. How did you survive?”
Frangipane tells all his interview. Check it out.
If David had written an autobiography, I believe he would have emphasized that being the choice of God isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Any person seeking to live for God faces excruciatingly tough decisions. Living out that passion for God in such a violent era as David’s is what makes his story so raw and so maddeningly complex.
It could be said that because of Saul’s failures, God stripped David of his childhood. When most young boys are concerned with games, David was being anointed king of Israel. At the age an average teenager today learns to drive, David cut off the head of a giant.
David’s early life is gut-checking. His life makes us rethink the whole question of what it means to be set apart by God for great things. Between David’s anointing and his public coronation, decades of waiting and bloodshed, and waiting, and running, and waiting, and deceiving and waiting pass by.
Being a man after God’s own heart means living life open and submitted to God’s will and timing. It means telling Him, “I’m Yours, and I will trust in You, no matter what.”
A Strange Boy
When David first appeared in the story that was to become his, he was a shepherd boy. His life was far from those of the romanticized shepherds of modern stories. In David’s day, the shepherd in the family was the runt, the youngest, and often the most despised by his elders, who was made a shepherd because he was not capable of much else.
David had seven older brothers, grown men who were strong warriors. They endured their younger brother—barely. Jesse’s seven older sons thought David was strange, to say the least, and a bragging little liar, to say the worst.
From his earliest days, David’s life had a touch of the miraculous. Consider the fact that David was a master musician at a prodigious age. Prodigies are often hated by their less-talented elders. Then there were his accounts of supernatural victories in the wilderness. Imagine an evening meal in David’s family home: He has returned with his sheep, cleaned up and joined his older, larger brothers at the kitchen table. Challenged by their mother to be nicer to David, they fire off questions between bites.
“What did you do today, little brother?” one asks before immediately turning to his mother to make sure she noticed his “effort.”
Guileless as the child he is, David answers without hesitation. “Today I killed a lion.”
Imagine the ridicule, the mockery he must have endured.
Perhaps Eliab, the eldest, led the verbal assault. “Killed a lion, did you? Wow! That must have been dangerous business. It’s a miracle you weren’t killed.”
“Yes,” agrees the naïve child. “It was a miracle. A great miracle.”
“How did you kill the ferocious beast?”
David, oblivious to the sarcasm, answers, “I punched him.” Imagine the laughter. Gales of laughter.
David begins to realize he is being mocked, but he presses on. “Yes, he ran at the sheep, and I hit him with my fist.”
“And he died? Just like that? Wow!” By now, everyone is up to speed on the conversation. The brothers are laughing together, and Jesse and his wife are smiling awkwardly and shaking their heads.
“Yes, he died. Just like the bear.”
“Oh, a bear too. A lion and a bear. What a warrior. What a mighty slayer of beasts is this sweet singer of songs.”
After what feels like an eternity to David, his father, Jesse, raises his hand, and the laughter ceases. “OK, David.
Are you saying you killed a lion?”
“And a bear,” Abinadab adds. “Don’t forget the bear, Father.”
“And a bear?” Jesse asks. “A lion and a bear?”
“Yes,” David responds quietly.
Jesse looks into the innocent eyes of his youngest and says, “The next time you kill a lion or a bear, why don’t you cut off its head? Bring that head home and show it to your brothers. To all of us. No one calls anyone in this family a liar, and we’re not calling you a liar, son, but next time, bring the head.”
The Prophet Arrives
One day, the prophet Samuel arrived in town. This was a big deal, especially in a village like Bethlehem.
Since anointing Saul as the first king of Israel, Samuel had nearly retired and taken a back seat in the kingdom. His return to the scene, his arrival in Bethlehem, was something of a scary moment. There was serious apprehension.
Samuel doesn’t waste any time upon entering Bethlehem. He tells the elders of the town, “Gather at Jesse’s house for a sacrifice to the Lord.”
“Jesse’s house? What for?”
“I’m going there to anoint a new king,” Samuel answers. The elders are shocked—probably horrified.
“Look, uh … listen, we don’t want to argue with a prophet. But we do have just one tiny, maybe important, maybe not, question: What about Saul?”
Without hesitation, Samuel responds bluntly, “What about him? I have nothing to do with Saul anymore. The next king is in Jesse’s house.”
That said, everyone gathers at Jesse’s house. Samuel goes straight to Jesse’s oldest, strongest son, Eliab. He is a perfect specimen of a man. He looks kingly, Samuel thinks to himself. He’s not Saul exactly, but he’s impressive enough. Samuel holds out the oil, ready to anoint Eliab, when he feels a spiritual check. “This isn’t the one.”
After going through all seven brothers, Samuel’s next words to Jesse prompt one of the funniest exchanges in the Bible:
“Are you sure these are all your sons?”
“Am I sure these are all my sons?” Jesse asks in disgust. “What are you accusing me of? What’s wrong with my boys here? What do you mean, are these all my sons?”
“Well, are they?”
Silence.
“Are they? I count seven sons. Is this right, Jesse?”
Jesse becomes quiet and looks away before answering.
“There, well, there is another … out in the fields somewhere. The youngest. He is … well … What can I say?”
Samuel responds, “Let’s see what God sees in him.”
When David eventually arrives and sees everyone staring at him, he must have been thinking to himself, What did I do now? He has absolutely no idea what’s happening, but as the youngest he’s used to being left out of the loop.
Perhaps Samuel himself argued with God. “Oh, Lord, no. Not this one, surely not this one.”
Samuel listens for the only opinion that matters. “This is the one.” Immediately, Samuel pours oil on David and anoints him as the next king of Israel.
His brothers’ reactions must have been priceless. All their anger and envy must have made that mysterious evening a bitter pill to swallow.
David has no more idea than the others of what has happened to him. He just came in out of the field and an old man poured oil on his head.
The Next Step: Wait
Perhaps even stranger than this scene with an old man pouring oil over a boy is that when it’s over … it’s just over. Samuel goes back to his lonely prophet’s retreat, and David returns to his sheep. Everything goes back to normal. Or so it seems.
Yet nothing is ever normal again. God has made His mark on David, and David’s story was just beginning. It was time for the next step, but that next step was simply to wait.
God withdrew His anointing from Saul, who was having horrible nightmares and not sleeping well at all. A kind-hearted minion in his camp says to the king, “Hey, I heard about a kid over in Bethlehem who can play and sing better than anyone in Israel. Why don’t I go get this kid, and we’ll see if he can sing you to sleep?”
Saul is willing to try anything at this point, so he summons David to his camp. Now what could David have been thinking at this point? Not too long before, the most famous spiritual leader in Israel poured oil over his head and said that David was God’s choice to be the next king. Now the current king is sending for him? Did Saul know?
When young David arrives in the king’s tent, Saul is tossing and turning and moaning behind a veil. And the captain of the guard simply says to David, “Sit over there, and play and sing for the king. See if you can get him to sleep.”
Here’s young David, away from home and probably frightened. Secretly he knows he is supposed to be the next king, but he’s told to play and sing for the current sleepless and tormented old king. It’s a very odd and frightening moment in the young boy’s life.
David plays, and at last the king sleeps. In time, David is sent back to Bethlehem. Saul and his army head out for battle, and nothing else happens for David. It’s over. He simply goes back to shepherding.
And that’s exactly where God wanted him right then.
Promotion Comes From the Lord
Young people today spend way too much time trying to force their way into opportunities. Whether we’re fresh out of college or 20 years into a profession, when we see even the hint of an opportunity, our initial instinct may be to push the door open ourselves.
We dare not promote ourselves to our next job. We cannot force others to see what only we can see, or think we see, in ourselves and kick-start our destiny into a higher gear. Promotion doesn’t come from us or even from others. Promotion comes from the Lord.
You are where you are right now because that is where God wants to use you right now.
David had an opportunity to serve the king, and he did it well. That is all God wanted from him at the time. His moment to become the ruling king had not yet arrived.
Follow David’s lead. Learn to wait on the Lord. Trust in His timing. Let God work on Saul. Let God work on you.
Wait on the Lord. Let God promote you in His own way and in His own time.
Dr. Mark Rutland is president of Global Servants and the National Institute of Christian Leadership. A renowned communicator and New York Times best-selling author, he has more than 30 years of experience in organizational leadership, having served as a senior pastor and a university president.
For More Study…
For too long, we’ve thought of King David as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint. Dr. Mark Rutland breaks down the famed marble statue to reveal the biblical David in his new book, David the Great.
Miracles follow Mike Hutchings. The Lord has used him to heal nearly 1,600 people of what he calls “soul injuries”—post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related injuries. More than 10,000 people affected by trauma have reported being healed through those who have been trained through his God Heals PTSD ministry. Though known in charismatic circles, Hutchings has never before gone on record about his trauma-healing ministry.
Evangelist Robby Dawkins was present the first time God used Hutchings to heal someone of PTSD. At Dawkins’ church in Urbana, Illinois, Hutchings ministered healing to Ronald Nixon, a U.S. veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
“He wasn’t able to even sleep in the same room with his wife because of night terrors and physical violent sleep disorders,” Dawkins says. “He had been prayed for many times before. As Mike was ministering to him, I stepped over and just observed for several minutes, and I could immediately see this stuff being peeled away, both emotionally and spiritually.
“Ron informed me the next day through tears that he had had the best night’s sleep he could ever remember. His wife verified he had not awoken. They resumed sharing the same room and bed within a week and have been problem-free in this area ever since. I was astonished. This was the first of Mike’s prayer and ministry model for ministering freedom to people with PTSD.”
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That was in 2011. Today, Hutchings’ training sessions have gone viral. He has trained more than 8,000 people across the United States and in five other countries how to pray for trauma victims and see results. PTSD affects more than soldiers; those afflicted include people who have suffered trauma from sexual abuse, church hurt, workplace injuries or any other incident that triggers the brain’s neurological pathways to recreate the incident again and again.
“My primary message is simply this: No matter what trauma you’ve been through, no matter how much you’ve been traumatized, you no longer have to be defined by your history,” Hutchings says. “You no longer have to be defined by what you’ve experienced or how you’ve been treated. You no longer have to be identified by what you’ve done to deal with your pain. You can be healed in Jesus’ name and allow Him to restore your broken soul.”
Hutchings has spent more than 35 years in some pastoral capacity, ministering in congregations that range from Baptist to Vineyard to Mennonite. He is director of education at Clark’s Global Awakening, an evangelistic ministry based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He also wrote Soul Restoration: God’s Answer for Healing PTSD and All Trauma, due out this summer. But healing isn’t Hutchings’ primary focus, and he has no formal training in trauma treatment. He lets God use him to heal, then does research to learn more about what happened. He prefers to train others to operate in the Holy Spirit and see the miracles of PTSD and trauma recovery in their own communities.
Those who have learned his prayer model have seen miracles and testimonies that prove God is still in the healing business.
Healing a Soul Injury
Hutchings’ prayer model addresses the root of trauma, not just the symptoms. When he goes before the Father, he considers the Psalms, many which were written by David, the man Hutchings says was the most traumatized person in the Bible other than Jesus.
Trauma is a disorder that affects both brain and body. When a traumatic incident occurs, images are seared into the brain that physically and emotionally haunt the victim.
“It’s not like something in the past; they can have a flashback or a trigger, and it feels like the trauma is right there,” Hutchings says. “The Bible speaks of trauma as brokenheartedness. I call it a soul injury, where your soul—which includes the mind, the will and emotions—has been impacted by a trauma that you just haven’t experienced. Now, everybody has some kind of trauma. Many people are able to move past their traumas because they have resiliency in their soul. … But there are many folks who carry trauma with them, whether that be from childhood abuse or whether it be from military service or things that they’ve witnessed.”
Hutchings trains people to specifically pray over trauma victims to restore the dream God has for their lives. His model seeks to heal the soul of those suffering through several spiritual steps.
“That’s one of the things that happens with people who have been traumatized, particularly if they’ve been repeatedly traumatized: They begin to believe a lie that the trauma speaks to their identity,” Hutchings says. “Therefore, they become identified as ‘victims.’ They see themselves as somebody whom bad things always happens to. That’s not the identity God has given them. They’re beloved sons and daughters who have just had some bad things happen to them because they live in a broken world.”
First, the intercessor reminds the victim of the promises God made to the victim, which are found in the Scriptures. Second, the intercessor walks the victim through the forgiveness process, both for themselves and others who have hurt them. Next, the intercessor will break off the pain and guilt associated with the trauma. Although each step may be easy to describe, the process can be grueling, especially with demonic forces involved.
“A huge portion of this prayer is simply declaring God’s purposes and promises for their identity as a son and daughter,” Hutchings says. “So it is breaking off shame, breaking off guilt, helping them to forgive themselves as well as anybody who’s hurt them. It is also about cancelling the assignment of demonic influence that lies to them, saying they have to live with that stuff for the rest of their days. So there is a spirit of trauma. There’s a spirit of torment. There’s a spirit of fear.”
These spirits often manifest in the form of suicidal thoughts and actions, especially in the military community. A 2015 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study estimates 20 veterans commit suicide every day. Other military organizations claim the stat hovers closer to 22 per day.
“That’s caused by a spirit of suicide that comes after them,” Hutchings says. “Now they’re not possessed by those spirits. They simply are listening. … When they’re receiving these thoughts, they think it’s their thoughts, because trauma actually opens a door for the enemy to come in and torment people. Until that soul wound is healed, it’s like there’s that open door there, and they can’t have control.”
The model is just that—a model, not a formula. Healing doesn’t necessarily happen instantaneously. After the prayer time, Hutchings or whoever is praying may ask the traumatized person to check in the following day. If healing isn’t evident, they will pray again. And again. The prayer goes deep, and those trained under Hutchings are taught to understand the science behind what they are addressing in the body and why they need to pray specifically concerning a certain area of the brain.
Psychology Today reports that chronic PTSD patients have gray-matter structural damage in the prefrontal, occipital and parietal lobes. As Hutchings or his teams pray, they speak to these areas in the brain and spiritually sever the memories lodged in the hippocampus. When the memory pathway is broken from the senses, healing pours over the person as they experience freedom.
Giving Glory to God
Hutchings has never even met U.S. Army veteran Matthew Fisk, yet Fisk is eager to talk about how Hutchings’ work healed him.
Fisk says he was held captive by the chains of PTSD since a 2004 ambush in Iraq. Two of the platoon’s four vehicles were destroyed within minutes. Fisk’s gunner, Sgt. Eddie Chen, was killed. The platoon leader ordered the survivors into a nearby alley to wait for rescue. And that’s when the unthinkable happened.
“As we set up our defense, the enemy ordered the women and kids to march toward us from both ends,” says Fisk, who has participated in 214 combat missions. “By the time we had stopped killing them, my soul was shattered.”
Doctors diagnosed him with PTSD, but Fisk longed for freedom. After a friend gave him Hutchings’ DVD Healing PTSD, God began a work in Fisk’s heart. In 2016, he decided to follow the step-by-step process.
“To my surprise, Dr. Hutchings laid out a compelling case,” Fisk says. “I had expected snake handling and a foaming-at-the-mouth, tongue-speakin’ type. Instead, I found a reasoned and in-depth explanation of how PTSD affects the mind and body, coupled with a specific manner to pray for healing.”
“Faith healing, in general, has not been something to which I’ve given any credence,” Fisk says. “I’ve heard that God can heal, but I’ve never seen a credible instance of that in my own experience, so I didn’t fully believe it until I was standing in Walmart later that night. While shopping, a mass of fellow consumers blocked me in an aisle on both sides. I didn’t freak out. My pulse didn’t even twitch.
“As the days passed, I noticed that I had lost all anxiety related to my deployment experiences,” Fisk says. “My depression vanished. I felt normal, powerful emotions. I no longer had nightmares. I stopped obsessing about snipers. I would say that I was my old self again, but that’s not accurate. I was new.”
Fisk now operates the Lancer Legacy Ranch in the East Texas city of Maud for veterans with PTSD.
Hutchings works with veterans, but trauma’s prevalence extends beyond those who have returned from war zones. For instance, Kristen Petrarca’s testimony relates to a workplace injury.
Petrarca says she was on a plane flying from Athens, Greece, to New York City in 2014. While in the galley, she heard a piercing noise, which came from a loose door. Though she and other crew members paged the pilots, hours passed with no response. The crew endured the screech for more than 10 hours.
As a result of the sound, Petrarca lost control of her facial nerves, ending her career. The skin on her face distorted and changed colors. She also lost the ability to drive, and walking became difficult due to damage to her vestibular system, the bodily system that helps maintain balance and spatial orientation.
“Crossing the street was becoming impossible, and I had a hard time transitioning from walking on cement to grass,” Petrarca says. “I was unable to walk on any incline, and other people’s movement would cause me to lose my balance or fall. I fell so many times that I ripped tendons in both wrists and was in need of double surgery. I lost some of my hearing yet was also diagnosed with hyperacusis.”
Hyperacusis, as defined in the American Journal of Audiology, is a debilitating hearing disorder characterized by an increased sensitivity to certain frequencies and volume ranges.
“The hyperacusis was so bad, I could not be around any sound,” Petrarca says. “I had to live in seclusion for a solid year. Life was awful.”
Enter Hutchings.
Petrarca had met Hutchings before her accident, when she was a student at Global Awakening. When doctors gave her a grim prognosis, Petrarca went to meet with Hutchings, she says.
When Hutchings prayed over Petrarca, he placed his hand on the left side of her face. He told her to keep her eyes open, making eye contact with him.
“I remember feeling very calm,” Petrarca says. “I remember feeling very safe. The first thing I noticed was that the area below my left eye stopped shaking. That particular spasm didn’t hurt like the pain behind my left eye, but it felt like bugs were crawling under my eye. It made it hard to concentrate or focus on anything, and it freaked people out when they saw it.
“The first time he prayed for me, all the spasms on the right side of my face stopped; the spasm between my eyes stopped; the spasm below my left eye stopped; and my face stopped turning purple, black and gray,” Petrarca says. “The vulgar pain behind my eye didn’t stop completely, but it became less painful, and the painful episodes became less frequent.”
Allie Harrison has a different story than Fisk and Petrarca: She was sexually abused for more than a decade.
Before Harrison met Hutchings, she says she lived in survival mode and refused to share the intimate details of her life with anyone, including her family. Nightmares hindered sleep, and she lived detached from her emotions.
“No one knew the real me or what was actually bothering me—or that there was something deep and consuming looming beneath the surface,” Harrison says. “I threw myself into school, work and achievement to escape and keep my mind focused on something productive, and to find my worth when I felt I otherwise had none.”
Even during the time of her abuse, Harrison was a passionate, prayerful Christian. She kept a prayer wall where she wrote out all the promises she believed God had for her. This attitude drew her to a 2015 Voice of the Apostles event where she first encountered Hutchings. When she discovered his healing successes, she approached him.
“I was desperate,” Harrison says. “I realized healing was the only way out. Once I caught a glimpse that there was more, no one could talk me out of it.”
When Hutchings began to pray for Harrison, she says, permeable peace replaced her guilt and shame. Nearly three years later, this peace surrounds her and continues to grow.
“That prayer seeded hope in me, as I pulled the weed-thoughts out of my mind in the season to follow,” Harrison says.
Preparing the Bride of Christ
Trauma can be easier to identify in the case of veterans or sexual abuse survivors. But within the hallowed walls of the church, hurting people ache for healing, afraid to identify their pain at the very place that is supposed to bring them comfort. Hutchings calls it “post-traumatic church disorder,” although he says he didn’t coin the phrase.
“When you say that phrase in a crowd in a church, everybody laughs,” Hutchings says. “They laugh at it with a very nervous laugh because they all know that it’s true. So what we do is we meet with church leaders, we meet with people, and however they’ve been abused, we just go after them.”
Hutchings says there is widespread trauma within church leadership as well. He says the body of Christ doesn’t know how to deal with negative emotions, especially trauma: “We have a tendency to be in denial about it. We put on a happy face, and we don’t know how to create an environment within the church where people actually get healed of their trauma and get set free.”
Hutchings loves the church and works with congregations around the world to train ministry teams and leaders to perform healing work. Jesus is coming for His spotless bride, and the church is going through the refining fire to make herself ready for Him, Hutchings says. Treating trauma is part of that refining.
Within a congregation, trauma can occur when pastors or leaders experience moral failure. It can also happen when men and women of faith succumb to an illness for which the church had been crying out for healing.
To address trauma, Hutchings says church leadership should set up an atmosphere where negative emotions are not stifled. The atmosphere—be it a conference, seminar or special small group—should be a safe space where trauma can be openly discussed to promote healing. Often, especially in the charismatic church, leaders label trauma as a spiritual battle, and at times, the affected individual must fight it alone.
Leaders also tend to encourage those suffering hardship to press in for joy, which could actually be detrimental.
“In the church as a pastor, we have this pressure to make everybody happy, happy, happy; joy, joy, joy; act like everything is fine when in reality everybody’s broken and bleeding,” Hutchings says. “So we have to create an atmosphere in church leadership where we can talk about how do we deal with negative emotions that come from broken souls.”
The feelings that stem from atrocities are valid and need to be addressed: “They’re not a lack of faith,” Hutchings says. “They’re not something that’s sinful.”
Hutchings believes the church can be the catalyst in advancing the kingdom of God, especially through healing.
“We have to understand how prevalent the issue of trauma is throughout our society and move in such a way that we can address this and make people feel it’s OK to honestly say, ‘Hey, I’m really wounded. I need some help.'”
Churches must not ignore or even facilitate the pain that haunts people who have suffered soul injuries. Healing can come if the church abides by the Psalm 147:3 prophecy Jesus fulfilled: “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.” {eoa}
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CHARISMA is the only magazine dedicated to reporting on what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of believers around the world. If you are thirsty for more of God’s presence and His Holy Spirit, subscribe to CHARISMA and join a family of believers that choose to live life in the Spirit. CLICK HERE for a special offer.
Jessilyn Justice is online news director for Charisma Media.
Dr. Mike Hutchings speaks about how he helps free people from post-traumatic stress disorder through healing prayer at .
Catholic church authorities in the Chilean city of Rancagua on Tuesday suspended 14 priests while they are investigated for “improper conduct,” a development that could deepen the crisis the church is facing over sexual abuse charges.
The suspensions were announced after a meeting of 68 priests of the diocese of Rancagua, which is located to the south of capital city Santiago.
“Precautionary measures have been adopted,” Gabriel Becerra, vicar general of Rancagua, told reporters.
Earlier on Tuesday the Vatican said Pope Francis would host a second group of victims of priestly sexual abuse in Chile, days after the country’s bishops all offered to resign over the scandal.
Earlier this month, the pope met three men who were victims of a priest accused of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s. The second group includes priests who also fell foul of the same disgracedchurchman, the Vatican said.
The five men, accompanied by two other priests who have helped them and two lay people, will see the pope from June 1-3.
In a subsequent statement, the Diocese of Rancagua reported that the information was given to a prosecutor’s office and that, from the canonical point of view, the antecedents were sent to the Vatican.
“We deeply regret any act or situation that violates the values and principles that underpin our Catholic Church and we want to express our solidarity with the victims,” said a statement later issued by the diocese. {eoa}
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Revival is sweeping the rural village of Cottlesville, Newfoundland and Labrador, bringing crowds to meetings at Salem Pentecostal Church that are greater than the population of the village itself. Evangelist Velmer Bessey calls the Canadian revival a “very deep move of the Spirit.”
The revival started in late January in the community, which has a dwindling population of about 250. Pastor Cory Langdon invited Bessey to hold services for a week. Langdon says the first services saw salvations, healings and baptisms in the Holy Spirit, and word quickly spread that something exciting was happening in the church.
Langdon and Bessey continued services for a second week, then a third. Residents from Cottlesville and surrounding areas poured in to the meetings, some traveling for hours to see for themselves what was happening at the church that seats about 150.
Twelve weeks later, Langdon and Bessey say the fresh wave of the Holy Spirit is “unmistakable,” and the two decided they will ride it out as long the Spirit tarries. As of late April, Bessey was still there, continuing to hold revival meetings four times a week in the community, drawing hundreds from nearby towns and villages. Recently, 273 people poured into one meeting, overflowing into the foyer and standing along the sides of the sanctuary.
“We’re expecting even greater things,” Langdon says.
Filled With Glory
This is the third year Bessey traveled to hold revival meetings at Salem Pentecostal, but both Langdon and Bessey agree: This ongoing visitation of the Holy Spirit is unprecedented. So far, 19 people have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and 56—more than 20 percent of Cottlesville’s population—were saved. To put that in perspective, if more than 20 percent of the U.S. population got saved in a series of revival meetings, more than 70 million salvations would have occurred.
“One particular miracle is a drug addict who got delivered, completely delivered and filled with the Spirit,” Bessey says. “Then there was a friend of mine whose wife had been praying for him for 35 years. He lives about an hour’s drive from this church and has been to a lot of my meetings in the past. He came to a service, and that night at the altar call, he came up and gave his life to Christ. That was so powerful for me, knowing his wife has been praying for him for 35 years and seeing that prayer get answered. Two weeks later, he got baptized with the Holy Ghost.”
Langdon is rejoicing as people come forward.
“A lot of people struggling with depression and anxiety in deep ways are being completely delivered,” Langdon says. “You just get that sense when you are praying that something is happening.”
Bessey says some nights, he stood in the pulpit unable to speak or even turn on his microphone because the Spirit of God was moving so tangibly.
“It’s just these encounters with the power of God in this place, the glory of God filling this place,” Bessey says. “It just changes everything. You have some services where you want to sing your songs and bring the Word, but the Spirit just takes over.”
Langdon and Bessey say the waves of prayer and praise ebb and flow for hours, with some services going as late as 1:30 a.m.
“There is no music, no singing, just waves and waves of prayer and praises, and when they come onto shore, it’s like thunder sweeping through the place,” Bessey says. “It just keeps happening.”
The services have made such an impact that regional newspapers picked up the story. Langdon said he attributes the media interest to God wanting to magnify this movement for His glory.
“We had been taking some video clips and posting them [on YouTube], and we just got this random call one morning from the local newspaper,” Langdon says. “I see it as the Lord really wanting to show that His power hasn’t changed. He still wants to show His power to the world.”
Delivered Through Fire
Angus Wheeler is one man who says his life has been forever changed by the Spirit’s fresh fire. Wheeler, 49, heard about the meetings in their second week and decided to travel from the nearby community of Virgin Arm-Carters Cove to Cottlesville to check it out for himself. On Feb. 9, Wheeler went to the altar to accept Christ.
“That night, I knew the Holy Spirit made it very clear to me that I couldn’t leave without becoming a Christian,” Wheeler says. “The feeling started like a fire in my belly and just pushed its way up. Bessey didn’t even have to say much, maybe five or 10 words. He just gently said, ‘Here. I’ll walk with you to the altar.’ I brought a big load of sin and left it at the cross, and that’s where it will stay.”
When Wheeler was a teenager, he asked Jesus into his heart but says he had not followed Him since. His big regret is that it took nearly 30 years for him to “come to his senses,” he says. He continues to attend the revival meetings and says he also experienced a miraculous healing from tobacco addiction.
“I had been a very heavy smoker for many years, a pack and a half a day,” Wheeler says. “I had told God that when the time came, I knew I would be delivered from them—and I was delivered instantly. I have not had even a single craving.”
Everything in Wheeler’s life has changed, he says. His passion for the Word of God is insatiable, and he plans to witness to everyone he encounters.
“I don’t know if you know the song ‘Trust and Obey,’ but that’s what I keep hearing in my head,” Wheeler says. “And that’s what I plan to keep doing.”
Preparing the Way
Langdon said the revival was birthed out of weeks of preparation from the church’s core members, who met weekdays for extended periods of prayer and fasting.
“We bathed this in a couple of weeks of prayer beforehand,” Langdon says. “In fact, before they even knew evangelist Bessey was coming, word went out to the elders that revival was coming. In their prayer time, they felt like the word went forth from the Spirit of God, so we were really looking forward to coming together. That was a big part of this.”
Bessey believes those weeks of prayer laid the groundwork for what God was about to do.
“I came and preached the Word, and God’s Spirit began moving people,” Bessey says. “They started coming from all around the community, some of them from hours away. People began getting saved, healed, filled with the Spirit, filled with joy and encouraged—and the crowds kept coming.”
Bessey retired five years ago after serving as full-time pastor of various churches for 33 years. Since then, he has been traveling as an evangelist, visiting churches throughout Eastern Canada, Peru and Africa. He said his heart has been aching for a revival like the one Cottlesville is experiencing now.
“The Lord impressed upon me when I started this ministry work, moved upon my heart and said, ‘You are going to be scheduled somewhere for a week, but it is going to become a lot longer.’ Still, I didn’t know where or when,” Bessey says. “There are places I’ve been that I thought could be, where maybe we went into a second week. I felt, God is going to break wide open somewhere. I just don’t know where it’s going to be. Then the Lord confirmed this is the place.”
Bessey says his heart is to see the Spirit of God descend as in revival movements of years ago. He was in Pensacola, Florida, during the Brownsville Revival in the mid-1990s.
“Now this is so refreshing, a lot of lives being transformed,” Bessey says. “Everybody who comes in feels that sense of the Lord’s presence.”
Discipling New Converts
For Langdon, the entire experience is nothing short of a miracle. Salem Pentecostal Church is his first pastorate. Prior to taking the pulpit three years ago, he worked various jobs and volunteered in church ministries. His congregation numbers about 50, up nine members since he took the role of senior pastor.
“I’m in a small community where the population is dropping, and it is challenging,” Langdon says. “We have actually been growing.”
A large percentage of Newfoundland and Labrador’s population claims to be Christian, but whether the people live out a vibrant faith is another story, Bessey says. Although Cottlesville is considered part of the Bible Belt of the Canadian province, there have been dry spells in experiencing the Holy Spirit, he adds.
Area churches have been like-minded and supportive of Salem Pentecostal’s services. Langdon says he senses no competition or envy among local congregations. Rather, members of various churches are praying for the services, attending and furthering the work of the Holy Spirit.
“There seems to be a pretty good sense of coming together of a lot of the local pastors,” Langdon says. “There are six Pentecostal churches within 25 minutes of each other here, plus many other denominations. I have been seeing people from all different places, and they’ve been very supportive.”
Langdon says it will take more than his church to continue the transformation of lives in the New World Island community once the tangible wave of the Spirit lifts.
“The big thing for new converts is discipleship,” Langdon says. “Struggles are real, and everybody needs someone to lift their arms up. You still have to deal with the flesh. Meetings like these teach people how to get into the presence of God, but for us as a church and for moving forward, we want to encourage local churches in the area to promote this unity and go forward and stay in prayer and worship and continue to preach so lives can truly be transformed.
“There’s actually a different church about 25 minutes from here that has four young teen men, just out of school, who came and gave their lives to Christ here, then they went back to their church,” Langdon says. “So we are then seeing this ripple effect flowing over.”
Bessey sees “a lot of fires being started with the pastors and people here,” he says.
The evangelist was scheduled to hold meetings in Peru in April but postponed the trip to remain in Cottlesville.
“If the Lord directs me to leave, I’ll leave,” Bessey says. “But the things happening here are deep enough that I believe it will be going on for some time, in some way, in some nature.”
Langdon observes the commitment it takes to allow the Spirit room for revival for an extended period.
“It’s hard work to hold services four times a week,” Langdon says. “It’s not easy work, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is my heart. Should the Lord tarry, we’re in for another big move of God.” {eoa}
Natalie Gillespie is an author, editor and journalist who has contributed to Charisma Media publications for more than 20 years.
Watch as evangelist Vernon Bessey preaches a powerful message on the gospel of Christ at SonRise Ministries at .
CHARISMA is the only magazine dedicated to reporting on what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of believers around the world. If you are thirsty for more of God’s presence and His Holy Spirit, subscribe to CHARISMA and join a family of believers that choose to live life in the spirit. CLICK HERE for a special offer.
Did you know that your worship continues on long after the songs are over?
The Lord has been highlighting to me for many months the importance of developing our own altar of worship in our daily lives, and that this year would be a year of the “new song.” This “new song” is mentioned seven times in Scripture, but I will use only one here: “Sing to Him a new song; play an instrument skillfully with a joyful shout” (Ps. 33:3).
Holy Spirit has been wooing us for quite some time, to come into His holy presence with such a gentle, sweet calling of His voice, wooing and beckoning to us saying, “Come! Come unto me, in this very moment.” Make wherever you are, an altar for the Lord. You are the sacrifice! You are the altar of the Lord, 24/7! Your worship continues on long after the songs are over.
“You are the song! Worship is a way of life. Wherever you may be, driving down the road, at work, or in the shower—it doesn’t matter. You are the worship song to the Lord. Hallelujah. Your worship is 24/7, every waking moment and every sleeping moment, in the quietness of the night, to dream the dreams of God. Your worship doesn’t stop. You are the 24/7 worship house of the Lord. And right now, you are part of God’s eternal worship team. Holy Spirit quickened this song to my heart: “No rock’s gonna take my place! No rock’s gonna take my place! No rock. No rock!”
He answered them, “I tell you, if these should be silent, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).
You are a “living stone” in the house of my God. You are a living stone in Him; one that reverberates life, 24/7. The Lord is now strategically placing you by His very hand; where in days past, man has tried to place you, but it didn’t fit. Man tried to force you into a hole where you didn’t belong.
You have been a “living stone” at the altar of my God, where the greatest stonemason in the entire universe has been hammering and hammering on you, and He said, “Not ready yet. Not ready yet.” “Is not my word like a hammer?” He said in Jeremiah. “And I’ve been pounding on you, because there were some rough places that I needed to break off to get just the perfect fit. Oh, the very rocks will cry out. … He’s been hammering on us all, and it’s been painful at times! But we can’t allow our current situation to steal our song! No rock’s going to take my place! No, no, no!
Your personal praise, 24/7, when no one else is watching, will be your primary weapon for your breakthrough. You and God are a majority. Holy Spirit sang this phrase: “I’m looking for one! I’m looking for one!”
“For the eyes of the Lord move about on all the earth to strengthen the heart that is completely toward Him” (2 Chron. 16:9a).
“Can I find one who has made an altar of worship when no one’s watching? One that has brought down the fire of God to already consume the sacrifice that has worshiped at my feet before they stand in the pulpit, for you are the sacrifice! You are the fuel for my fire, and you are going to release the new sound and the new song in your own life, at your own altar, and give a shout of praise when no one else is around.”
“Sing unto Him a new song” (Ps. 33:3). Play skillfully with a loud noise … with a loud noise … with a loud noise. Sometimes you have to release a shout! You have my permission right now, to shout onto the Lord, for He is good. For no rock is going to take my place. He is good! When you have nothing else to say, a hallelujah will do. It means “Let us praise the Lord,” or “Praise Yahweh”! You are releasing the greatest praise that you could ever speak, and it’s the same in every language. (It is a pure Hebrew word and yet is found in almost every language under the sun.) Their word for “hallelujah” is “hallelujah”! “Hallelujah”! There’s no confusion in this word!
God is raising up a people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. We know the word, but we need the spirit with the word to be in a 50/50 balance. You won’t be afraid of getting out of balance. Too much word and not enough spirit, the lampstand falls over and it gives no light. Too much spirit and not enough word- same result! God’s looking for the worshiper! You will worship at His feet before you stand in His pulpit. You’ll be a worshiper before you ever teach the word or play before thousands. You will worship in the fields before anyone invites you to the party.
Little David was not invited. He was worshipping in the field at his own altar. Samuel asked, “Is there another? Jesse, are all your sons here?” The oldest, handsomest, smartest, tallest, and strongest, were all brought before Samuel, the Lord’s prophet.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the hear'” (1 Sam. 16:7).
He’s looking for one, with the heart of God. What made David so special? Was he perfect? No. He had the heart of God. Because, then, when you mess up, you are quick to repent. You have the heart of God. He’s not looking for perfection, because we’ve all missed the mark, but He has been molding and shaping the heart of the worshipper.
The Lord sees you all as the Marys who have broken open your alabaster box while worshiping at Jesus’ feet when no one else in the room was willing to honor Jesus for who He was. They had a meal in His honor, and it was customary to anoint the guest. But no one was willing to honor even Jesus at a meal planned just for him. But Mary broke open everything she had—a year’s wages at his feet. The disciples thought it was a waste. To the world it will be a waste. Your worship will be foolish and a waste of time, but you’re building an altar of his anointing for your own life, and that’s all you need.
“For you are my anointed ones,” says the Lord. “Oh my Davids, I am calling you out from the fields, from the place of worship. I’m in need of you now. I’m pouring out my ‘alabaster box’ of costly perfumes upon you now with the anointing of my Son. And this is the anointing of kings! You’re a king in my kingdom, with a small k,” says the Lord. “You are my kings! Right now, this anointing is yours that establishes you as my kings. It doesn’t matter about male or female. God’s not looking at gender. For there are females who are called to preach my word in the earth and to call fire down out of heaven. For now is your time! I have called you for such a time as this.”
“Oh my mighty Davids, come in out of the cold! Come out of the fields, for I am pouring out an anointing of my kings with my power and authority to establish my kingdom here in the earth. The anointing of my son David, in the lineage of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—his anointing—in unlimited portion. You have to get that word, “unlimited.” It’s unlimited! Just receive it all by grace right now. This is a now moment! He’s pouring out His anointing right now in this moment. How big is your cup? How wide is your cup? How wide and how deep is the love of God? How much do you want? He’s not going to stop until you say, “When”! Until you say, “When.” Until you don’t want any more or can’t take any more. Anointings to preach my word in the earth. Anointings for my revelation, of my line between the line. I’m going to open up the Word, and I’m going to share my heart’s desire with you. And I’m going to reveal deep mysteries of my heart to my David’s in this hour. Preachers: You will preach my words with a fresh fire, with a new powerful anointing, that will break the yoke like never before. You will see the captives set free with My Word in the power and demonstration of My spirit,” says the Lord.
“For this is a new day. The dawning of a new day. Where I am making all things new. I’m speaking Revelation 21:5. I’m making all things new. Everything. Your ministries are going to be new and fresh unlike anything else you have ever seen. There’ll be no point of reference for what God is about to do in your ministry, because it’s not anything like the old. It won’t look the same. It won’t sound the same. It will be completely new and completely fresh. God’s pouring out this anointing upon you now to equip us for every good work in Christ. He is sending you out but not in name only but fully weaponized. You won’t lack any one good thing. Your cup runs over. You’ll have too much. And the secret of the kingdom is just to keep giving it away. Freely have you received; freely give, and the more you give the more you’ll receive!”
“You will preach my Word with my fire,” says the Lord. “You’ll preach my Word with a fresh fire, and fresh anointing like you have never known before. For I am taking the coal and touching your lips to cleanse and purify your speech! You’ve said, ‘Here I am.’ It’s the anointing of Isaiah 6 in the throne room as the seraphim cried out “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. For it is through your worship, as you cried out ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ the coal is going to touch your lips and bring My refiner’s fire in you to speak My words in the earth. This will literally consume every sacrifice around you. If there’s a tree within 100 miles around you, My fire will consume it! My people are trees, and My Word will consume every tree around you. You will cause forest fires wherever you go, in Jesus’ mighty name. You’ll set this world on fire! And I’m seeing many mighty forests yet to be consumed. And I’m seeing many blazing forest fires all across the USA and into the nations of the earth!”
In many places in Scripture, people are trees symbolically. You are oaks of righteousness. You are the palm trees, cedar trees and olive trees. The sweet fragrance of the Lord. Humanity is seen in the burning bush; a tree set on fire with the glory of God. I’m seeing the church as many burning bushes coming together to form one mighty forest fire in this time. “You are my burning bushes! You are the sacrifice, the altars of my worship. You are humanity set on fire with the glory of God with nothing left to be consumed in you, where everything else is burned to a crisp,” says the Lord your God.
This is where we are right now in the body of Christ, in this our now time, and that’s what we need. If it’s not God’s; we don’t want it anyway, and we say, “God, send your fire upon this sacrifice. Send your fire, Lord! {eoa}
David Lebo of Tidal Wave Ministries, has a passion for awakening among the nations boldly proclaiming the word of the Lord as a voice of “one crying in the wilderness”. He ministers in freedom to release the fullness of God’s Kingdom! He is author of the book: Abiding Under The Shadow.
Not long ago, it was reported that prominent Protestant pastor Michael A. Walrond Jr. of Harlem’s 10,000-member First Corinthian Baptist Church now advocates a pluralist belief that there are many roads to God and salvation.
Among other things, “‘People take many paths to God,’ he argued, noting that he personally celebrates the paths others take in finding Him—even if that path does not involve faith in Jesus,” The Christian Post reports.
The same article says:
“In 2008, a Pew Research Center Study found that more than half of all American Christians believe that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to salvation. Nearly a decade later, a new study has shown that even among the most traditional Christian groups, significant minorities are also rejecting God as described in the Bible.”
Of course, this downward trend away from biblical Christianity should alarm every true Christ-follower! The fact that many so-called Christian seminaries eventually digressed away from their original fidelity to Scripture and evolved into propagating a form of universalism (the belief that Jesus saved every human on the cross, irrespective of whether they believe in Him or not) and pluralism (that there are many roads to God not just through Jesus) beginning since the early days of Harvard and Yale divinity schools (to appease and accommodate the prevailing intellectual climate and culture) is one of the root causes of this growing rot in mainline churches.
The good news—according to this same Pew Research reported above—is that more than 90 percent of historically black and evangelical churches still believe in the God of the Bible. However, there are troubling signs that many young evangelical pastors are trending towards pluralism, as more and more theological institutions they learn from capitulate to a form of universalism.
Whether a pastor or church actually makes a strong statement or not (I’m sure Michael Walrond has been hinting at his pluralistic tendencies for years before his recent public overture toward it) is not the point of this article as much as it is to help a believer discern if their pastor and or church is sliding down this heretical slippery slope. (Since Jesus said He is the only way to the Father, as cited in John 14:6, the stakes are high, and the importance of this subject cannot be overstated.)
The following are seven signs your pastor advocates a form of pluralism or universalism, which is heretical:
1. He has taught that there are many roads to God and salvation.
Although I believe it is true that there may be strands of truth in most major religions like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and the like—in and of themselves, there is not sufficient grace for eternal life if a person falls short of faith in Christ alone for salvation. That being said, if your pastor ever says something like “Every religion is equal” and or “God can be found in every religion” or “every religion has grains of truth” without qualifying his statement and or making sure he follows said statement by making it clear only faith in Jesus is sufficient for salvation, my advice is that you sit down with your pastor and demand a clearer explanation before continuing to attend that church.
While it is true that all roads lead to God (see Rom. 11:36), not all roads lead to salvation and eternal life.
2. He only teaches on the love of God.
I would be suspicious of any pastor who never preaches that people need to repent, turn from sin or face divine consequences (I’m not saying to preach fire and brimstone every week, but the whole counsel of God has to be preached throughout the year). Scripture clearly teaches that there is a severe penalty for unrepentant sin (Rom. 6:23).
3. He teaches that all religions are equal.
Any pastor who makes it seem as though all religions are equal or are to be equally respected should be suspect, in my opinion. While we should respect all people irrespective of their religious beliefs, that’s not the same as treating all religions as equal.
The religious ideologies of communist atheism, radical Islam, Nazism, the KKK and the like are not as noble as other religions like Judaism and cannot even compare to the way of Jesus and His apostles as taught in the New Testament.
4. He teaches that all persons will eventually go to heaven.
Any pastor that teaches “ultimate reconciliation” has already begun bringing his congregation into the theological genre of pluralism and universalism.
5. The church takes no moral stand on critical cultural issues.
Any pastor who only preaches encouraging, positive messages and never applies the biblical ethical standard to the controversial issues of the day like abortion, sexual identity, biblical marriage and gender may be only a few steps away from espousing pluralism. The reason I say this is because their gospel of appeasement is historically the root reason why many Christian leaders and institutes eventuated towards pluralism.
6. The Bible is not honored as the highest authority for faith and life.
Any pastor who purports that other works of literature and or religious, philosophical or scientific writings or books are equal to or superior to Scripture is most likely a pluralist or universalist. Think twice before committing yourself to such a church who employs such a pastor.
7. Sermons are emotionally based rather than Bible based.
If a pastor rarely preaches biblically sound messages from a text of Scripture and merely relies on oratory skill or rhetoric, which excites the emotion but fails to holistically feed the soul, then said church has sand as its foundation (Matt. 7:24-27).
Such a preacher has an emotionally alive church that lacks biblical discernment (Heb. 5:12-14), which can easily lead members down the road to pluralism or universalism if the pastor so desires.
Finally, Jesus warned His followers about following false prophets (Matt. 7:15), as did the apostle Peter when he predicted that false teachers would arise that will secretly introduce destructive heresies, and that many will follow them. Because of them the way of truth will be maligned (2 Pet. 2:1, 2).
May the sincere Christ-follower study the Scriptures and be more shaped by the Word of God than the words of any man apart from Jesus Christ.
You cannot have a spirit of fear if you are filled with the Spirit of the Lord, Trumpocalypse author Paul McGuire says.
McGuire shared his reasoning on a recent episode of The Jim Bakker Show, comparing American Christians to the Israelites who were quaking in their boots before the Philistines.
But David, he had the Spirit of the Lord—and slaughtered Goliath.
Here’s how this applies to you today.
Paige Patterson was removed as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as allegations surfaced he covered up a campus rape.
“After much prayer and a more than 13-hour discussion regarding challenges facing the Institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity, the Board determined to move in the direction of new leadership for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary,” according to a statement posted to the SWBTS website.
“The board passed a motion through a majority vote to appoint Dr. Patterson as President Emeritus with compensation, effective immediately, which he accepted. In addition, the board passed a motion to affirm the trustees’ September 2017 offer for Dr. and Mrs. Patterson to live on campus as the first theologians-in-residence at the Baptist Heritage Center, scheduled to be completed in July 2018,” the statement continued.
Patterson was thrust in the spotlight earlier this year when old tapes surfaced that revealed Patterson previously appeared to condone domestic violence, telling a woman to submit to her abusive husband.
More than 2,000 Southern Baptist women signed a letter asking the seminary to remove Patterson from his position. The alleged rape cover-up may have been the final nail in Patterson’s coffin, though SWBTS did not specifically address the reports in their statement.
The Washington Post reported the campus rape which recently came to light after Patterson was thrust in the spotlight. According to the Post, a woman says she was raped in 2003 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Patterson was then president.
“I had bottled it up,” the woman, who was not identified, tells The Post. “My husband didn’t know about it until last week. … I told him ‘I need to do something.’ “
The Post reports:
She said she had been dating the man she alleges raped her and had allowed him into her apartment the night she said he assaulted her. The two were kissing when he forced himself on her, she said. She said she reported it the next morning to the administrator who handled student discipline. That administrator then reported the incident to Patterson, she said, and she was required to meet with Patterson and three or four male seminarians she said were proteges of Patterson’s. She said she doesn’t remember the specific words Patterson used but that he wanted to know every detail of the rape.
Patterson and other administrators did not report the incident to the police, and she claims that Patterson encouraged her not to, as well, she said. The Post confirmed that a report was never filed with the Wake Forest Police Department.
The woman said she was put on probation for two years, but she doesn’t know why, saying it was perhaps because she was with another man alone in her apartment, which was against seminary policy.
“They shamed … me, asking me question after question,” said the woman, who attended the seminary until 2005 before dropping out for reasons she said were unrelated to the alleged incident. “He didn’t necessarily say it was my fault, but [the sense from him was] I let him into my home.”
The woman said she recalls Patterson telling her to forgive the man who allegedly raped her. The former roommate said the woman described the alleged assault to him shortly after it happened and later complained to him about her treatment by Patterson and seminary officials.
Southern Baptist leaders responded to the allegations and Patterson’s removal on Twitter.
Protecting abused women and children from predators is not an optional calling. Such is demanded by the lordship of Christ, the authority of Scripture, and the credibility of the gospel.
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) May 23, 2018
There are some things hard to figure out about how to follow Jesus, where we see through a glass darkly and sometimes aren’t sure what’s the right thing to do.
Protecting women and children from predators is not one of those things.
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) May 23, 2018
There can be no ambiguity about the church’s responsibility to protect the abused and be a safe place for the vulnerable. Abuse can never be tolerated, minimized, hidden, or “handled internally.”
— J.D. Greear (@jdgreear) May 23, 2018
There is no triumph here.
This hard but necessary decision is a step toward the corporate repentance and healing needed in the SBC.
It’s a new chapter. Let’s make it a good one, filled with faith, hope, and love.
— Karen Swallow Prior (@KSPrior) May 23, 2018
Many evangelical women have spoken up in recent weeks about the misogyny they faced at the hands of male church leaders.
Stemming from the #MeToo movement that brought down Hollywood execs for sexual harassment and abuse, the #ChurchToo movement shows that similar treatment happens in pews and pulpits as well.
In an open letter to her “Brothers in Christ,” prolific author and speaker Beth Moore described some of the discrimination she faced as a female leader in the church.
Moore writes:
Many women have experienced horrific abuses within the power structures of our Christian world. Being any part of shaping misogynistic attitudes, whether or not they result in criminal behaviors, is sinful and harmful and produces terrible fruit. It also paints us continually as weak-willed women and seductresses. I think I can speak for many of us when I say we are neither interested in reducing or seducing our brothers.
The irony is that many of the men who will give consideration to my concerns do not possess a whit of the misogyny coming under the spotlight. For all the times you’ve spoken up on our behalf and for the compassion you’ve shown in response to “Me too,” please know you have won our love and gratitude and respect.
John Bisagno, my pastor for almost 30 years, regularly said these words: “I have most often seen that, when the people of God are presented with the facts, they do the right thing.” I was raised in ministry under his optimism and, despite many challenges, have not yet recovered from it. For this reason I write this letter with hope.
I’m asking for your increased awareness of some of the skewed attitudes many of your sisters encounter. Many churches quick to teach submission are often slow to point out that women were also among the followers of Christ (Luke 8), that the first recorded word out of His resurrected mouth was “woman” (John 20:15) and that same woman was the first evangelist. Many churches wholly devoted to teaching the household codes are slow to also point out the numerous women with whom the apostle Paul served and for whom he possessed obvious esteem. We are fully capable of grappling with the tension the two spectrums create and we must if we’re truly devoted to the whole counsel of God’s Word.
Finally, I’m asking that you would simply have no tolerance for misogyny and dismissiveness toward women in your spheres of influence. I’m asking for your deliberate and clearly conveyed influence toward the imitation of Christ in His attitude and actions toward women. I’m also asking for forgiveness both from my sisters and my brothers. My acquiescence and silence made me complicit in perpetuating an atmosphere in which a damaging relational dynamic has flourished. I want to be a good sister to both genders.
Patterson sits on the board of trustees at Cedarville University, a Christian university in Ohio.
University members launched a petition calling for his removal.
They say: “Our concern is that Dr. Patterson’s seat on the Cedarville University Board of Trustees is a signal to the men in the faculty and staff, alumni community, and student body that as long as you are powerful and connected you can be complicit in the abuse of women without consequence. His seat also signals to women in the faculty and staff, the alumni community, and the student body that submission to your husband is more important than your physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual safety and security.”
Looking to lose weight fast for vacation and swimsuit season this year? You’ve probably heard the advice to simply eat less and move more. But to achieve quick, efficient weight loss and keep it off, you need a plan. And that’s why we’ve compiled the top five best tips for how to lose weight quickly this summer—or for any time of year.
The following tips will help you jumpstart your way to a slimmer body, better health, and super-fast weight loss.
1. Detox first to enhance results (optional).
The Keto Zone diet is the ideal diet for rapid weight loss (more on that in a second), but detoxing for summer can help prepare your body to shed the most weight.
Doing a detox can help:
Think of it as cleansing your system of toxins before “cleansing” it of excess fat.
The best detox avoids common food sensitivities (dairy, soy, gluten) and inflammatory foods like grains, sugars, meats, nightshades and processed foods. It also floods your system with tons of leafy green vegetables, non-nightshade vegetables, fruits, and beans and lentils.
While detoxing isn’t necessary, it’s the best way to enhance your weight loss results.
To find out more, join the free 21-Day Divine Health Detox or our Detox Facebook group.
2. Get into the Keto Zone.
The Keto Zone is the optimal place to be for quick weight loss.
A ketogenic diet (high fat, moderate protein, very low carb) switches your body from burning carbs to burning fat—including that excess body fat!
But the right type of keto diet matters. Keep your keto macros at:
Being in the Keto Zone also:
These are all important factors for quick and healthy weight loss. Find out more about the using the Keto Zone for weight loss here.
3. Get enough fiber.
One common mistake people make on the keto diet is not eating enough fiber. But we need fiber for good gut health and weight loss. Eat plenty of low-carb vegetables and supplement with keto-friendly fiber sources like chia seeds or psyllium husks if you feel like you need more.
4. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry.
One of the biggest weight loss benefits of the Keto Zone diet is appetite suppression.
That means you’ll notice yourself not feeling hungry at times you used to. You might feel the need to eat out of habit, but listen to your body and refrain from eating if hunger isn’t there. This will naturally reduce your caloric intake and drastically boost weight loss.
5. Practice fasting or intermittent fasting daily.
Fasting is another great way to rapidly increase weight loss results. It helps get you into ketosis faster and easily reduce daily calories. Read more about how to fast on keto here.
With summer fast approaching, there’s no better time to make your health a priority by detoxing your body, entering the Keto Zone and slimming down fast! {eoa}
Don Colbert, M.D., has been board-certified in Family Practice for over 25 years and practices Anti-aging and Integrative medicine. He is a New York Times best-selling author of books such as The Bible Cure Series, What Would Jesus Eat, Deadly Emotions, What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You and many more, with over 10 million books sold. He is the medical director of the Divine Health Wellness Center in Orlando, Florida, where he has treated over 50,000 patients.
This article originally appeared at .