I remember when I saw my first UFO at Camp Horseshoe in Rising Sun, Maryland. I could take you to that place today; it’s still there. I was twelve years old, and I was taking a shortcut back to camp for lunch. I was with three other boys. We were hopping over boulders and making our way back. I was the last boy in line; the three other boys were all in front of me. Suddenly the lead boy shouted, “What’s that?”

The other two boys shouted, “Wow, what is that?”

I said, “Where?”

The boys pointed and shouted, “There!”

I looked out and above me, and there, in the clear canopy of blue sky, was a metallic silver disc. It was hovering without a sound as the sun glistened off it. We all watched it for perhaps twenty-five seconds, then, in a flash, it shot straight up into the atmosphere and was gone. We were so excited that all four of us ran back to the camp.

“We saw a flying saucer! A UFO!”

The other scouts came running out of the cabins and were joined by the scoutmasters. Everyone wanted to know what the object that we saw looked like.

That was lunchtime. By the evening meal on the same day, the other boys denied that they had ever seen anything due to the teasing and ridicule they experienced. This event became an important life lesson for me. I learned that people will deny what they have seen in order to remain part of the herd.

I have never forgotten that lesson, and I’ve wondered about the other three boys that saw the UFO with me that day. I have called out to them on numerous podcasts and radio shows, hoping that one of them would contact me, but so far no one has.

When Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out, I was all in. I believed in our space brothers and wanted them to take me. Fortunately that never happened. When I became a Christian years later, the Lord changed my paradigm. I began to look at the UFO phenomenon through a whole different lens, and that lens was the biblical one. I realized that these so-called space brothers were anything but!

I will say that the Lord has led me on a very interesting road, perhaps one that I would not have chosen.

We Have Been Visited for Thousands of Years by Ancient Fallen Angels

I’ve mentioned before that every Friday night on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, they promulgate the ancient astronaut theory. This theory essentially states that we have been visited by extraterrestrials for thousands of years.

I appeared on the first two seasons of Ancient Aliens, and one of the reasons my late business partner, Richard Shaw, and I started the Watchers series was to counteract what the ancient astronaut theory and Ancient Aliens were promulgating. They have a large budget, and they can travel anywhere on the planet. However, we’ve been to many places that the History Channel later visited for their series. In fact, our Watchers series broke the story of the ancient megalithic structures that were in Peru before the History Channel did their segment on it, and it was the same story regarding the enigmatic Paracas skulls.

The sixth film in our On the Trail of Nephilim series covers the groundbreaking DNA evidence that we published regarding elongated skulls. The shape of the skulls is not the result of cranial deformation or cradle head boarding but is, in fact, genetic. In the film we have doctors, surgeons, optometrists, an archaeologist, an anthropologist, and a chiropractor go on the record, telling us that what we are looking at is genetic. We broke the story. The History Channel followed us; however, the channel’s media footprint is far bigger than ours and obviously we can’t really compete with them.

Let’s just take one example of the vast differences in our paradigms, in our belief systems. We have been to the ancient megalithic site of Sacsayhuamán, in Peru; I have been there three times. I remember the first time I laid eyes on it. It took my breath away, seeing how these megalithic stones, some of them weighing over one hundred tons, are fit together with absolute perfection and no mortar.

The reason I chose the site was because it is very controversial. There are essentially three paradigms regarding the site. The first is what the docents, who are hired by the Peruvian government, tell the tourists who visit the site. They will say that the Inca were master stone builders, and they created the site. I have witnessed this with my own eyes and ears, and it makes me mad. The reason it’s maddening is that the Inca only had copper chisels—you cannot cut and shape andesite stone with a copper chisel. Moreover, the stones are polygonal in shape, and no two stones are the same. And in addition to all that, the stones with impossible shapes and angles are fit together, one stone to another, with absolute surgical precision. So the view that the Inca built Sacsayhuamán is patently absurd!

The second position is what the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens is promulgating. They claim that what we see at Sacsayhuamán is the handiwork of extraterrestrials who visited the planet thousands of years ago. This is the paradigm they put forth every Friday night—for fifteen seasons now.

The third position, and the one I hold to, is that Sacsayhuamán is a pre-flood structure the likes of which I have come to call fallen angel technology, or Nephilim architecture. None of the tools or machines that were used to create this site have ever been found by archaeologists. It is truly a very enigmatic and mysterious site.

In the Book of Enoch we are told that fallen angels came down and gave mankind certain technology:

And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, ‘Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal [taught] astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven.’

While the Book of Enoch is not part of the biblical canon, Jude does quote from it. It may be easy for some to dismiss the Book of Enoch and Jude’s reference to it. However, in my opinion, if a person were going to keep one book away from people, it would be Enoch 1. Why, you ask? Because the Book of Enoch tells us exactly what happened in Genesis 6. It tells the story of the fallen angels coming to earth, taking human women as wives, and procreating with them, creating what has become known as the Nephilim. This is the amplification of Genesis 3:15 and the ongoing seed war.

There are three paradigms. And looking at the History Channel’s position, in some ways they are right—extraterrestrials did build Sacsayhuamán. However, we need to define what an extraterrestrial is. In my opinion an extraterrestrial is any entity that does not originate on planet Earth, and the entities that built these structures did not originate on planet Earth. However, and I need to stress this, these entities are not interplanetary but interdimensional and are, in fact, fallen angels. This is why the Book of Enoch is so important. In my opinion it clears up any doubt as to what happened so long ago. These fallen ones were here and influenced mankind, and they continue to do so up to the present day.

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The Sky Gods

Chief Joseph RiverWind is a Taino chief. We interviewed Chief Joseph in our Watchers series and On the Trail of the Nephilim series. Chief Joseph brings to the table the oral tradition of Native American culture. In the interview I asked Chief Joseph about the sky gods. Without hesitation Chief Joseph told me that the sky gods came down, took human women, and had sex with them. This, of course, hails back to Genesis 3:15 and also Genesis 6. In other words, we have here in the Americas an extrabiblical source that is telling us about the reality of fallen angels taking human women and creating a hybrid entity—the Nephilim.

We also know, once again from the oral tradition, that giants roamed the Americas. Of course, modern-day archaeologists scoff at this and make every excuse possible to discredit Native American or First Nation oral tradition. Sarah Winnemucca talked about the Si-Te-Cah—the red-haired giants that were cannibalistic. The Paiute went to war with the Si-Te-Cah and essentially herded them into a cave. The cave still exists today, the Lovelock Cave, in Nevada. I have visited the cave and explored it. I found that the roof of the cave was completely singed black, which corroborates Sarah Winnemucca’s story that the Paiute piled brush and wood at the mouth of the cave and set it on fire, and then when the giants came out, they killed them. We also filmed in the Humboldt Museum, which is the home of the Lovelock Cave artifacts. One pair of sandals at the museum was well over fifteen inches in length. There are also reports of a ten-foot skeleton and a nine-foot giant skeleton being found in the area. Of course, there’s no way to vet the reports of ten-foot skeletons, but the Lord willing, someday we will find one.

Added to this is the account by Robert Mirabal, a Pueblo musician from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, who created a performance of his song “Stiltwalker.” I contacted Robert and asked, “Where did you hear the story of the giants?” He told me he heard it from his grandfather; it was part of the tribe’s oral tradition. At the very beginning of the video Robert quoted—almost verbatim—the Genesis 6 narrative, talking about the sky gods coming down. Then in the video you see the giant appear. It really is an incredible piece. The music is superb. The staging and lighting are excellent. Hats off to Robert Mirabal. The interview I did with him is in my book On the Trail of the Nephilim.

To sum things up here, it’s important for us to understand that fallen angels did the unthinkable—they came to earth, had sexual relations with human women, and created a hybrid being known as the Nephilim.

Jesus warned us that it will be like the days of Noah when He returns. It’s important for us to realize that it’s like the days of Noah, meaning similar, not exactly like the days of Noah. Immediately we must ask ourselves, What differentiates the days of Noah from all the rest of human history? Once again I call your attention to the Genesis 3:15 narrative, which results in the full-blown manifestation of the seed war in Genesis 6. Daniel 2:43 (kjv) states:

They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

The word cleave is from the same root word that we see way back in Genesis when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife. This is a marriage contract. I got this from Jim Wilhelmsen, who stated that there are no marriage contracts in the modern-day abduction phenomena. We delved into this in our fourth film in the UFO Disclosure series, on abductions. What we are seeing is the creation of modern-day hybrids, who are in a fixed state, who have no soul. The sky gods have returned. These are the intruders, the fallen ones, interdimensional beings, with a very dark agenda.

Sitchin Is Wrong

The Ancient Aliens crowd and lots of New Agers point back to Zecharia Sitchin and his work, and they quote it endlessly. Dr. Michael Heiser created a website called Sitchin is Wrong. I have spent some time on the site. It is incredible that Dr. Heiser clearly shows that the translations Sitchin used to base his entire theory on are, in fact, mistranslations. As Dr. Heiser shows, Sitchin has essentially created a fantasy with the Anunnaki. In other words, it is a construct, and Sitchin’s body of work rests on his translations of the ancient Sumerian clay tablets.

There are also critics of the biblical narrative that point to the fact that the Sumerian clay tablets were created centuries before the Bible, and sometimes these critics argue that the Bible is borrowing the flood story from the Sumerians. In my opinion, this is a straw man argument. The God of the Bible is patient, and just because He waited centuries before bringing Moses and Aaron into the fray does not mean that the Sumerian clay tablets are the truth. In fact, I would say this is just another example of fallen angels—interdimensional entities—which have come to earth and set up shop. In my series On the Trail of the Nephilim we show that all over the world there are ancient sites, and many of them are built on an eighteen-and-a-half-year lunar cycle. Many of them point to the constellation Draco, or the dragon. Many of these sites engaged in human sacrifice. Where did this knowledge come from?

I have speculated that these entities arrived at a certain location on the planet, and then they set up shop. They were worshipped as gods. They gave technology to the human population. The Book of Enoch makes this clear. I remember the first time I visited Caral in Peru. It is the oldest city in the Americas, reaching back over five thousand years. It reminded me of Teotihuacan in Mexico, and when I mentioned this to our guide, he agreed, “Yes, they are similar, but Caral is much older.”

Rising from the plateau were three large step pyramids. This immediately begs the question, Where do the engineering skills, the mathematics, and the knowledge of lunar and solar procession, equinoxes, and solstices come from? Did they just fall out of the sky? Yes, they might have, in the form of a fallen angel who set up shop there. What has become an inside joke is that we are told that climate change had forced these people to abandon the site. Of course, this is complete speculation and, in my opinion, is another straw man argument that is repeated at other megalithic sites all over the world. There was a diaspora 3,500 years ago as Joshua and Caleb conquered the Promised Land, and the Nephilim tribes fled westward. We see their handiwork all throughout the Mediterranean and into Spain, Portugal, France, England, Ireland, and finally the New World.

Dr. Michael Heiser, who was able to read the ancient Sumerian tablets, has cleared up the canard of the Anunnaki that has been promulgated by the ancient astronaut theorists for now two decades. Once again there is another explanation for all this technology, and it is this fallen angel technology, Nephilim architecture. It makes perfect sense.

As I often say, “There is a hidden history that has been deliberately obfuscated from the peoples of the world. And this is why I am on the trail of the Nephilim.”

What Is The Truth?

In the last two films of our ten-part UFO Disclosure series, we interviewed lots of researchers and showed the two main paradigms. The first is the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which states that we are being visited by so-called extraterrestrials from some other planet. The second is the interdimensional hypothesis, which states that these entities are from another dimension, which I’m sure you know by now is the paradigm that I tenaciously hold to.

These interdimensional beings have a nefarious agenda, and I think we’ve covered that in this book. Certainly, when a person watches our films on the UFO phenomenon, specifically episode 4 on abductions and episode 6 on cattle mutilations, the conclusion, in my opinion, is overwhelming. There is a dark agenda to all of this, and it connects directly back to the biblical prophetic narrative that we see in the Bible. Once again I call your attention to Genesis 3:15. It is the gateway to the biblical narrative. We are, in fact, in a seed war.

For episodes nine and ten of our UFO Disclosure series, I interviewed over a dozen people, including Nick Pope, Nick Redfern, George Noory, Dan Heiser, George Haas, Gonz Shimura, Derek Gilbert, Josh Peck, Gary Stearman, Mondo Gonzales, Pastor Matt Freeman, and Dick Oswalt. At the very end of the film I weighed in one last time, and in some ways I have waited until now, this last chapter, to bring this to your attention. It is based on decades of research and work. I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me such as Dr. I. D. E. Thomas, George Pember, Chuck Missler, and Gary Stearman. I owe a debt of gratitude to these men who have come before me, and in many cases mentored me. I will tell you what I think is about to happen. It is conjecture on my part; however, it is biblically sound and ties into the prophetic narrative.

Fátima: Harbinger of Deception

I already covered in detail the events that happened in 1917 in Fátima. I’ve created two films on the Fátima apparitions. We went there during the one-hundred-year anniversary of the so-called apparitions. The films do a deep dive into what really happened at Fátima in 1917. The crowds in Fátima swelling to as many as seventy thousand people ties into what I believe is the coming great deception. In my opinion, Fátima was, literally, a harbinger of deception. It was not Mary of the Bible. It was, in fact, a UFO event.

I encourage you to do your homework and watch the films we made on the subject. You can download each film for just a few dollars.

Nuclear Saber Rattling and What That Might Bring

I remember vividly doing safety drills when I was in elementary school and hiding under my desk in case of a nuclear event. I was born in 1950, so I was right in the window of time when the Cold War and the threat of a nuclear event was a very real thing. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, which alarmed my parents very much. Cuba was under the control of communist dictator Fidel Castro. The Soviet Union was bringing missiles into Cuba. This was unacceptable, and President Kennedy created a naval quarantine to stop the Russian ships from reaching Cuba. It was as close as we have ever been to World War III and a nuclear exchange. The Russians turned around, and a nuclear event was avoided. Years later the Cold War ended, and the former Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight. For the record, though they have been tried many times, communism and socialism have never worked anywhere and, quite frankly, never will. It is a dead-end system that eliminates the entrepreneurial spirit.

Now we are seeing saber rattling coming from Russia, specifically Vladimir Putin, who is threatening the use of his nuclear arsenal.

You may recall from the chapter about Robert Salas that a UFO appeared over the Malmstrom base in Montana and switched off all ten intercontinental ballistic missiles. These intruders seem to be obsessed with our nuclear armament. Is it any wonder they appeared in Roswell in 1947, when the 509th Bombardment Group was the only nuclear-capable bombing group in the world and, in fact, had dropped the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Is it possible that a nuclear event triggers their arrival?

We Go Up; They Come Down! We Go up; They Show Up!

I am going to present you with a scenario I think is extremely plausible and based on the biblical prophetic narrative. When Jesus cast out the demons from the man of the tombs, they said to Him, “‘What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matt. 8:29). Think about it. How did these entities, these demons, know that it was not their time? How can they make a statement like that? I truly believe that the fallen ones see through time in greater ways than we humans do. I wrote about this in my book The Cosmic Chess Match. I will quickly repeat it here; I call it the cornfield analogy.

A person is standing in a cornfield. They see the corn in front of them and the corn to the left and the right and the corn behind them, but they can only see a very short distance in any direction. That’s our perspective of time—we move through time one second at a time. We can’t jump ahead; we can’t go back. We are, in fact, stuck in the space-time continuum. We are grounded in linear time.

The Dragon pulls up to the same cornfield in a shiny red firetruck with a ladder. He climbs up that ladder, and now he’s two stories above the cornfield. The Dragon can see that cornfield plus several other cornfields around it. In other words, he is able to see through time in ways that we humans cannot. The fallen ones can see farther in time than we can, but they cannot see all of it as God can. The Dragon is not all-knowing and thus cannot pinpoint the future with the specificity of the Most High God!

I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. — Isaiah 46:9–10

The God of the Bible is sitting in the space shuttle high above the earth with a telescopic camera. He looks down at the cornfield, and He can see the dime that just dropped out of my pocket because it had a hole in it. And that dime is next to my right shoe! But the telescopic camera can pan back and see not only you but the cornfields that the Dragon saw. Plus He can see the entire state of Kansas. And if He pulls back farther, He can see all of planet Earth!

In other words, the God of the Bible is all-knowing, and He sees through time in ways that are incomprehensible to us. This is why He can call out with great specificity the end before the beginning and the beginning before the end. This is why prophecy is so important—it is His words of warning about what will happen!

Here’s a question: Is it possible that the fallen ones know that there will be a nuclear event somewhere on this planet and that event will trigger their arrival? Is it possible that a nuclear event is their go button, as it were? Think about this: In 1945, when the atom bomb was dropped on Japan, there was no internet; people were not connected the way they are today. Fast-forward to 2024. There is a grid that connects all living beings on the planet. News travels at the speed of light. Satellites circle the earth, relaying information. I truly believe that this is the time of the end.

Think about it. If a nuclear device goes off anywhere on this planet, it will create the greatest fear that humanity has experienced collectively since the beginning of time. All eyes would be on this event, and people would panic. People would wonder if the whole world were going to come to an end. Fear is the calling card of darkness. Faith is the calling card of the kingdom of light, of Jesus’ kingdom. If you have the greatest collective fear in the history of the world sparked by a nuclear device, is that when they show up since fear is their calling card, their gateway to the people of earth?

A few years ago I was at Prophecy Watchers, and Gary Stearman was interviewing me. I came up with this comment on the spot, during that interview: We go up; they come down! We go up; they show up!

Gary looked at me, and I could see he was startled and taken aback by what I had just said. He replied, “You should copyright that, LA!” From that saying, which acted like a springboard, Mondo Gonzales and Jeff Van Hatten inspired the following.

We know that when Elijah the prophet was taken up, Elisha watched him go up. We know from the biblical narrative that when Jesus was taken up, the apostles (and who knows how many other people; certainly Mary, His mother, and I would venture Mary Magdalene were there as well) watched Him ascend into the clouds.

We have the two witnesses in the Book of Revelation; they are killed, and their bodies lie on the streets of Jerusalem. Then three days later, they are resurrected, and the entire world watches them ascend into the clouds. Finally, we are told in 1 Thessalonians:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. — 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, KJV

The point I’m trying to make is that in all of these scriptures, human beings go up into the clouds. The passage from 1 Thessalonians makes it clear that we rise to greet the Lord in the air together with Him in the clouds. Is it possible that when we go up into the clouds, after we are gone, and millions of people have vanished in similar ways all over the earth, then one-mile-wide UFOs will appear out of that same cloud? I realize for some of you this might be a stretch. But I heard this exact scenario literally fifty years ago when I was in the New Age. I mentioned briefly in a prior chapter that I was told there would be some people who would be taken to another place by the space brothers because they were not ready for the paradigm shift in consciousness. We go up; they come down! We go up; they show up!

While the scenario above is conjecture, there are biblical precedents for it, and I truly believe we are on the cusp of seeing these events unfold. I will close with the statement that I have said perhaps thousands of times: UFOs are real, burgeoning, and not going away. It is time for the church to wake up and understand that we were warned by Jesus Himself that even the elect would be deceived if that were possible, that men would faint from fear of what was coming upon the earth. This is what I have come to call the coming great deception, and it is at hand. The time is now.

Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from Rungs of Disclosure by best-selling author, researcher and filmmaker L.A. Marzulli, which is available online at . In the book, Marzulli explores the UFO phenomenon through a biblical lens, examining its connections to prophecy, the Nephilim and what he believes is a coming global deception.

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. —Luke 10:19, NKJV

Even though I was born in Chicago, I don’t remember it. Soon after my birth, my father moved us to a two-hundred-acre ranch in rural Wisconsin. The hundred-year-old farmhouse’s windows looked out on a massive rock formation we called Bankruptcy Bluff—so named by my father, who joked that we’d jump off it if we ever went broke.

Growing up on the ranch was any kid’s dream. It came fully equipped with a cave that had bear-claw marks raked into the limestone, and mountains of dense forests packed with deer and squirrels, along with wild apples, asparagus, morel mushrooms, and sour rhubarb. There was even a creek that wound right by our house, filled with hidden treasures in the form of geodes lined with sparkling crystals.

I spent my days running wild in every part of this giant playhouse. Every day was a different destination. One afternoon, my sister Candy and I, along with the neighbor kids, would be in the dilapidated barn, climbing up the haystacks to an old rope tied to the rafters. We would scream like banshees as we swung out into the air, Tarzan-style, timing it just right to let go and plummet into the piles of hay below.

It was Christmas Eve, and like every child around the world, I was looking out my window, longing to see Santa come with a sleigh full of goodies. On this crisp, cold night, the moonlight glittered off the blanket of crystal-white snow covering the ground. Outside, there was no wind whatsoever. The silence made that night feel even more electric as I sat, eyes glued to the window, watching for Santa’s arrival.

My bedroom was on the second floor, so I would have a good view of Santa the moment he appeared. My heart pounded as I wondered whether I would get any of the toys I had asked for and how long it would be before Candy and I could rush downstairs to find out. Then suddenly, there he was!

“Santa!” I gasped as I stood, pressing my hands against the window. I watched as colored lights in an unusual formation flew slowly and silently past me. It was not at all what I expected Santa and his sleigh to look like. There was not a single reindeer in sight, and I didn’t see Santa at all—much less the bags of toys I was expecting. The lights flew out of view, and shortly after, I heard the sound of small footsteps. Looking back, they did not sound like those of a fat, jolly old man or even reindeer for that matter. Rather, it was something else. Then suddenly, I was pulled into a deep sleep.

A few hours later, my parents woke me, and the encounter was forgotten as Candy and I tore into our gifts. In fact, I did not recall that night again until many decades later, when I discovered, much to my distress, what really came visiting that night.

Alien’s Throughout History

UFO sightings date back millennia. We see possible proofs of this in archaeological monuments such as Stonehenge, the Great Pyramid, and Peru’s Nazca plains. During inspections of these monumental sites, skilled engineers conclude that humans could not have built the structures using the technology we possessed at the time.

Cultures around the world make countless claims that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for thousands of years. On the walls of the pyramids are hieroglyphs of pharaohs and Egyptian gods, drawn with elongated skulls like those of alien Greys. In fact, King Tut’s father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, had an extremely elongated head and almond eyes eerily like those of an alien being. Astonishing depictions of modern-day craft resembling planes and helicopters have been found in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs etched thousands of years ago. These have been acclaimed as undeniable proof that alien beings visited the ancient Egyptians and brought them advanced technology from the future.

In 1965, a group of explorers ventured deep into the Colombian rainforest and discovered the thousand-year-old Quimbaya civilization. These mysterious people had made handcrafted golden brooches that at first looked like insects. But upon closer inspection, they eerily resembled modern-day jets and NASA space rockets, complete with delta-shaped wings, a rudder, and ailerons (flaps) used on aircraft wings to control lift.

Close Encounters in America

Since its founding in 1974, the National UFO Reporting Center has processed well over 150,000 reports concerning Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sightings. (The government has now officially adopted the term UAP to replace the old Unidentified Flying Object [UFO] designation.) A 2021 Gallup poll found that 41 percent of Americans believe that alien spacecraft have been visiting Earth for some time.

American history is littered with sightings of mysterious craft, as well as alien beings. In April 1941, a local sheriff summoned Rev. William Huffman to the site of a “plane crash” near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to deliver last rites. However, he arrived to find that it was not a plane crash at all but rather a downed flying saucer that had set the neighbor’s field on fire. Near the saucer was a dead alien body and a second that lay dying. As photographers rushed to the scene, the local Army Corps quickly arrived and shut down the entire site, confiscating all film.

On August 27, 1979, on a rural stretch of State Highway 220, about ten miles west of the small town of Stephen, Minnesota, Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson’s squad car was engulfed in a ball of light. Johnson reported that he blacked out, then awakened forty minutes later to find his wristwatch and car’s clock had stopped for fourteen minutes.

Upon exiting the squad car, he found he was a thousand feet from where he originally parked, and a hundred feet of skid marks stained the asphalt. The damage to Johnson’s car was extensive: cracks peppered the windshield, and, according to an expert from Ford Motor Co., they appeared to be caused by inward and outward forces acting simultaneously. Another expert brought in to examine the car found that the bent antennae could only be explained as having been warped by powerful bursts of air. To this day, the car is on display in Warren, Minnesota, at the Settler’s Square Historical Museum. Deputy Johnson also suffered burns and scorched retinas from the encounter.

Alien sightings have been reported from across America and around the world. Even then, Georgia governor Jimmy Carter filed a report in 1973 with Oklahoma’s UFO Bureau about a mysterious object he had seen in 1969. There is no denying that something strange has been going on in the skies for a long time.

Alien Contact and Abductions

One of the most infamous abductions in the United States involved fishermen, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, who claimed aliens kidnapped them while they were fishing on the Pascagoula River in 1973. Parker stated to police that when he saw a blue light on the water, he assumed the cops had come to tell them they were trespassing. Soon, though, he realized the light was coming from the sky. He then said three aliens without legs came upon them suddenly and grabbed them, injecting them with some sort of sedative.

They awoke to the aliens performing an assortment of physical examinations on them while holding them captive in a spacecraft. Hickson and Parker both stated they were released shortly after this. If one looks at the pictures taken of them immediately after the claimed abduction, there is no doubt from the stunned look on their faces that something horrifying happened to them that night. In 2019, three more witnesses came forward to confirm their statements.

Military Close Encounters

Sighting reports by military personnel go back to the 1940s—one of the earliest and most notable close encounters was the “Gorman Dogfight,” which took place on October 1, 1948, over Fargo, North Dakota. The incident involved Second Lieutenant George F. Gorman, a World War II veteran and North Dakota Air National Guard pilot. He was flying his F-51 Mustang when he encountered a brilliant white light. For a harrowing twenty-seven minutes, Gorman pursued the object, which he described as a “simple ball of light,” that evaded him with speeds and maneuvers exceeding his fighter’s capabilities.

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Two air traffic controllers, along with the pilot and passenger of a nearby civilian aircraft, verified his story. The Air Force later officially concluded that a lighted weather balloon caused the encounter. However, the high-speed, sharp-turning movements reported by Gorman helped cement this case as an authentic encounter and made it one of the most compelling early examples of a military engagement with a UAP.

Modern-Day Military Events

Modern-day military reports of UAPs have picked up dramatically in the wake of the declassification of UFO files and recent congressional hearings. In fact, the total number of UAP reports has soared since 2021. This sharp increase demonstrates that the reduced stigma attached to a “sighting” has led hundreds, if not thousands, of service members to report phenomena they previously kept silent about. Now pilots who used to avoid reporting these sightings—or were laughed at when they did—are eager to share their experiences.

Two of those officers are Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, a naval fighter pilot, and Commander David Fravor, commander of Fighter Squadron 41, the Black Aces. The date was November 14, 2004; the location was the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles southwest of San Diego. Taking off from the USS Nimitz, the pilots in two brand-new Super Hornets were on an air defense exercise when radio operators on the USS Princeton contacted them. The sophisticated radar systems on the Princeton—able to pick up a baseball at eighty thousand feet—had been logging hundreds of UAPs that week. That day, another craft appeared, and radar was champing at the bit to get a closer look.

Fravor and Dietrich were rerouted to the object’s location. When they arrived at the coordinates, far below the water’s surface, they saw what looked like a plane crash or a submerged submarine churning up the water. Suddenly, Fravor sighted what he now calls the “Tic Tac,” so named after the white oblong shape of the famous candy. Right away, Fravor observed there were no wings or rotors, and the craft was unlike anything he had ever seen. He then told Dietrich to back off and get into wingman position while he flew closer to check it out. Later, after the event, Dietrich wrote in a famous tweet, “Some days your boss asks you to swab the deck. Some days he asks you to keep high cover while he spars with a UFO.”

Both pilots watched as the Tic Tac would go instantly from one place to another, like—as Fravor described—“a ping-pong ball bouncing off the wall.” Suddenly, the UAP seemed to notice them and began mirroring the jets’ movements, Fravor said. Then it accelerated toward them at an incredible speed, streaking across the plane’s nose before completely vanishing.

One minute later, a frantic controller from the Princeton came on the radio and said that the Tic Tac had reappeared 60 miles away at Fravor’s combat air patrol (CAP) location. Astonishingly, the craft had flown 60 miles in one minute—at a speed of 3,700 mph.

Back on the Nimitz, the next crew was launching a jet outfitted with an infrared sensor and camera. The Tic Tac managed to jam their radar, but not before they got a lock on it and recorded footage of the now-infamous Tic Tac encounter.

Claims of Nonhuman Biologics and Concealed Craft

So where are the bodies? When asked directly whether the US government had in its possession extraterrestrial life, Grusch affirmed under oath, “I was informed in the course of my official duties that a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program exists and that they did recover nonhuman biologics.” Grusch also asserted that the recovery program has recovered “quite a number” of intact and partially intact craft, purportedly dating back to 1933 in Magenta, Italy.

Insider Jay Stratton openly affirmed that he has “seen with my own eyes nonhuman craft and non-human beings.” When a high-level Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) official such as Stratton says something like this, the world needs to sit up and take notice.

Deep Black Operations and Reverse Engineering

The claims made by the whistleblowers in Congress and in the documentary did not stop at the retrieval of nonhuman bodies; they painted a picture of an enormous, decades-long, “deep black” program devoted to developing the retrieved technology. This program allegedly operates “above Congressional oversight” and is dedicated to reverse engineering recovered UAP craft.

What Are They?

Opinions vary on who extraterrestrials are and where they hail from, ranging from the simplistic “beings from another planet” to demonic entities disguised as aliens to even more bizarre assumptions. So who and what are they really? And what is their ultimate agenda?

Dr. Steven Greer, the architect of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), has long challenged the narrow view that alien life is strictly biological. He argues against the idea that these are merely physical entities traveling from distant star systems. Instead, Greer champions the perspective that these beings are interdimensional and “celestial” in essence.

He draws a sharp line between traditional “ET” theories and a reality in which these beings operate across varying spiritual planes. Because they possess the ability to “materialize” and “dematerialize” at will, Greer contends that they are not merely extraterrestrial but multidimensional in nature.

Let’s move into an activation exercise. Have you opened the door to fear through disturbing encounters or fascination with the paranormal? Have you given place to deception by dwelling on dark mysteries instead of standing on the truth of God’s Word? Have you allowed spiritual intimidation to settle into your mind because of what you have seen or experienced?

Remember, the Bible says Jesus has given you authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). You do not have to live under fear, confusion, or the pressure of counterfeit supernatural power. Right now, I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to show you any place where you have come into agreement with fear or lies. Ask Him to reveal where you need the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus and where you need to repent for opening the door to intimidation or deception.

Please repeat after me:

Lord God, I repent for every way I have come into agreement with fear, deception, or counterfeit power connected to the alien agenda. I repent for opening any door through unhealthy curiosity or intimidation. I renounce every lie that says darkness has power over me. I reject every false belief that exalts hidden forces above Jesus Christ. Wash me now with the blood of Jesus and cleanse every part of me from the defiling effect of fear and confusion.

Father, forgive me for entertaining what was false and giving place to torment. I break agreement now with every lying spirit and with every demonic influence that has tried to gain access to my life. Your Word says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy. So I take up the victory Jesus already won for me and command this assignment to be broken off me in His name through the power of His cross. Now, Lord, fill me with Your truth and establish Your peace in me. I declare that You alone are Lord over my life, and I will not bow to fear, deception, or false light. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Katie Souza writes, teaches, and travels extensively. She is the founder of the prison outreach Expected End Ministries, which serves over four thousand prisons in five countries, and the author of The Captivity Series: The Key to Your Expected End, Healing the Wounded Soul, and The Serpent and the Soul. As part owner of Channel 379 DirecTV, she produces a live television show, Faith With Katie, which also airs on all her social media platforms. Katie lives in Florida with her husband, Robert. Her new book, Star Gods: Unmasking the Alien Agenda, Fallen Angels, and End-Time Deception, is available on .

The conversation surrounding UFOs, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) and the possibility of nonhuman intelligence has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. Subjects that were once largely confined to science-fiction films, fringe researchers and late-night radio programs now occupy a prominent place in public discourse. Military pilots have testified about encounters with unexplained aerial objects. Intelligence officials have made extraordinary claims before Congress. Government agencies have released footage of phenomena they acknowledge they cannot fully explain. Major news organizations now cover stories that, not long ago, would have been dismissed outright.

Whether one views these developments as evidence of advanced technology, extraterrestrial visitation, spiritual activity or something else entirely, it is clear that the cultural landscape has changed. The UFO question is no longer a niche topic discussed by a small group of enthusiasts. It has become part of a broader conversation about humanity’s origins, our place in the universe and the possibility that reality may be more complex than most people have assumed.

This changing environment provides the backdrop for the release of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s latest film exploring themes of government secrecy, nonhuman intelligence and humanity’s response to extraordinary revelations. The significance of the film extends beyond its box office potential or entertainment value. Spielberg remains one of the most influential storytellers of the modern era, and his projects often shape the way millions of people think about a subject. When a filmmaker of his stature returns to the UFO topic at a time when public interest is surging, it is worth paying attention to the larger cultural moment in which the film appears.

What makes the current discussion particularly noteworthy is that it differs substantially from previous waves of UFO fascination. During much of the 20th century, reports of strange lights in the sky or alleged encounters with unidentified craft were often treated as curiosities. They generated brief headlines before fading from public attention. Today, however, the discussion has moved beyond isolated sightings and anecdotal reports. Questions are increasingly being asked about the nature of the phenomenon itself and what it might mean if humanity is forced to confront the existence of an intelligence beyond our own.

This shift has given rise to a growing number of competing explanations. Some researchers argue that advanced civilizations from distant star systems may be visiting Earth. Others suggest the phenomenon may involve dimensions of reality that science has only begun to explore. Still others believe the answer may lie in spiritual realities that have been described throughout human history but interpreted differently by various cultures and religions. While there is little agreement regarding the source of the phenomenon, there is growing agreement that the subject can no longer be ignored.

Order L.A. Marzulli’s Best-Selling Book, “The Rungs of Disclosure” on !

An equally important development is the way the disclosure conversation is being framed. For decades, popular culture often portrayed alien encounters as hostile invasions that threatened humanity’s survival. Movies frequently depicted extraterrestrials as conquerors arriving from distant worlds to destroy civilization or enslave mankind. More recent narratives have taken a different approach. Increasingly, stories involving nonhuman intelligence emphasize concepts such as empathy, enlightenment, unity and personal transformation. Rather than presenting these entities as enemies, many modern narratives portray them as guides, teachers or catalysts for humanity’s next stage of development.

That shift in messaging deserves careful examination because ideas often shape public expectations long before major events occur. Throughout history, societies have been prepared to accept new concepts through stories, entertainment and cultural narratives. Long before people embrace a particular explanation for a phenomenon, they are frequently introduced to a framework through which that phenomenon should be understood. As a result, the disclosure conversation has become about far more than strange objects in the sky. It has evolved into a discussion about human identity, spiritual truth and the future of civilization itself.

For Christians, this raises important questions that extend beyond the debate over whether UFOs are real. Scripture does not call us to accept every claim uncritically, nor does it encourage us to ignore developments taking place around us. Instead, believers are instructed to exercise discernment and evaluate ideas according to the truth of God’s Word. That means the central question is not merely whether unusual phenomena exist, but how those phenomena should be interpreted.

The Bible repeatedly warns that deception often presents itself in appealing forms. Throughout Scripture, spiritual counterfeits rarely announce themselves as falsehoods. Instead, they frequently appear attractive, persuasive and even beneficial. Because of this, Christians must carefully consider not only the existence of unexplained phenomena but also the explanations being offered to account for them. The worldview behind an idea can ultimately prove more significant than the phenomenon itself.

As disclosure continues moving into mainstream culture through government investigations, media coverage and major Hollywood productions, believers will increasingly encounter friends, coworkers and family members who are asking questions about these subjects. Many of those conversations will revolve around science, technology and the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. Yet beneath those discussions lies a deeper issue involving humanity’s origins, purpose and relationship to the Creator.

Those questions are not new. In fact, they reach back to some of the oldest and most mysterious passages in Scripture. Long before modern governments held hearings about nonhuman intelligence or filmmakers produced movies about disclosure, the Bible described a supernatural conflict that unfolds throughout the biblical narrative. Understanding that conflict provides a framework through which many Christians interpret the growing fascination with UFOs, nonhuman entities and the possibility of contact with other intelligences.

To understand why these issues have become so significant for many believers, it is necessary to return to the opening chapters of Genesis and examine a biblical storyline that some researchers believe remains central to the spiritual battle taking place in the world today.

The Seed War and the Forgotten Story of Genesis 3:15

For many Christians, discussions about UFOs, nonhuman intelligence and unexplained phenomena often begin with questions about technology, space exploration or the possibility of life on other planets. Yet for a growing number of researchers, theologians and Bible students, the framework for understanding these issues begins in a much different place. Rather than looking to the stars, they look to the opening chapters of Genesis.

At the center of this perspective is a passage that is frequently overlooked despite its enormous significance. Genesis 3:15 records God’s judgment upon the serpent after the fall of mankind: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

For centuries, Christians have recognized this verse as the first prophetic announcement of the coming Messiah. The promise ultimately points to Jesus Christ, who would defeat Satan through His death and resurrection. Yet many scholars and Bible teachers have also noted that the passage introduces another theme that runs throughout Scripture: the conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

Viewed through this lens, the Bible tells the story of an ongoing spiritual war that extends far beyond the temptation in the Garden of Eden. The conflict is not merely between good and evil in a general sense. It is a battle over humanity itself, a struggle that repeatedly appears throughout the biblical narrative and reaches its climax in the victory of Christ.

This perspective becomes especially significant when readers arrive at Genesis 6, one of the most debated passages in Scripture. The chapter describes a period before the Flood when the “sons of God” took wives from among the daughters of men and produced offspring known as the Nephilim. The passage has generated centuries of debate, with some interpreting the sons of God as fallen angels and others viewing them as human descendants of Seth.

Those who see Genesis 6 as describing the activity of fallen angels argue that the passage represents a dramatic escalation of the conflict introduced in Genesis 3:15. In this interpretation, the corruption that spread across the earth before the Flood involved more than human wickedness. It included an attempt to corrupt humanity itself through the introduction of a hybrid lineage that was never part of God’s created order.

This understanding helps explain why the Flood occupies such a central place in biblical history. Scripture describes a world that had become thoroughly corrupt, violent and spiritually polluted. God’s judgment came not only because of widespread sin but because creation itself had been defiled. Noah and his family became the means through which God preserved humanity and carried forward the line through which the promised Messiah would eventually come.

It is impossible to deny that Genesis 6 raises profound questions about the relationship between the human and supernatural realms. The passage stands apart from nearly everything else in Scripture, describing events that many modern readers find difficult to understand but that ancient Jewish and early Christian writers frequently discussed.

The significance of these events becomes even more apparent when Jesus speaks about the conditions that will exist before His return. In Matthew 24, Christ declares that “as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Similar statements appear in Luke 17, where Jesus compares the last days to the period immediately preceding the Flood.

Many Christians understandably focus on the moral dimensions of those passages. The days of Noah were characterized by violence, corruption and widespread rebellion against God. Those themes certainly remain relevant today. Yet some researchers believe Jesus’ reference to Noah may also point to the unusual supernatural activity described in Genesis 6. If that interpretation is correct, then the days preceding Christ’s return could involve more than moral decline. They could include renewed deception involving the interaction between humanity and supernatural powers.

This possibility leads many students of prophecy to another intriguing passage found in Daniel 2. While interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of the statue composed of various metals, Daniel describes a future kingdom symbolized by iron mixed with clay. Daniel 2:43 states: “They will mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they will not cling to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay.”

The identity of the “they” in this passage has been debated for generations. Many commentators understand the verse as describing political alliances that ultimately fail to hold together. Others suggest the wording points to something more unusual. They note that Daniel does not simply describe nations mingling with nations. Instead, he refers to entities mingling with “the seed of men,” language that some believe echoes the conflict first introduced in Genesis.

Those who connect Daniel 2:43 to Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 6 see a consistent pattern emerging across Scripture. In their view, the Bible presents a long-running conflict involving attempts to corrupt, alter or counterfeit God’s design for humanity. The battle begins in Eden, escalates before the Flood, reappears throughout biblical history and ultimately reaches its conclusion in the last days.

This framework has led some Christian researchers to view modern reports of alien encounters, abduction experiences and hybridization narratives through a spiritual rather than extraterrestrial lens. They point out that many of the themes reported by alleged experiencers bear striking similarities to concepts already found in Scripture and ancient writings. Rather than viewing these accounts as evidence of visitors from distant planets, they interpret them as manifestations of the same supernatural conflict described throughout the Bible.

Such conclusions remain controversial even within Christian circles. Faithful believers disagree on the interpretation of Genesis 6, Daniel 2 and other passages related to the Nephilim. Yet the growing interest in these subjects reflects a broader recognition that the UFO discussion cannot be separated from larger questions about theology, anthropology and biblical prophecy.

At its core, the issue is not merely about strange lights in the sky or mysterious encounters. It is about competing explanations for the nature of reality. If humanity is being presented with a new understanding of its origins and place in the universe, Christians must carefully evaluate whether that understanding aligns with Scripture or contradicts it.

This is why the discussion surrounding disclosure has become so significant for many believers. The debate is no longer limited to whether unexplained phenomena exist. It has become a conversation about the nature of the spiritual realm, the authority of God’s Word and the possibility that ancient biblical warnings may have direct relevance to the modern world.

As the disclosure movement continues to gain momentum, these questions become increasingly difficult to ignore. If the Bible describes a long-running conflict involving deception, counterfeit spiritual experiences and efforts to draw humanity away from the truth, then believers must consider how those warnings apply in an age increasingly fascinated with nonhuman intelligence. That challenge brings us to perhaps the most important question of all: What happens if disclosure becomes the foundation for a new spiritual narrative that competes directly with the gospel itself?

The Coming Battle for Truth

The growing fascination with disclosure is often presented as a scientific issue. Public discussions typically focus on government transparency, military encounters, advanced technologies and the possibility of life beyond Earth. Yet beneath those conversations lies a much deeper question. If humanity is eventually confronted with evidence of nonhuman intelligence, how will that revelation reshape the way people understand themselves, their origins and their future?

That question sits at the heart of the current disclosure movement. The issue is no longer simply whether unidentified phenomena exist. Increasingly, the discussion centers on what those phenomena mean and how humanity should respond to them. As a result, disclosure is becoming more than a conversation about objects in the sky. It is becoming a conversation about worldview.

This shift is evident across popular culture, media and even government circles. In recent years, public officials, intelligence personnel, military officers and researchers have repeatedly suggested that humanity may not be alone. Documentaries, television programs and bestselling books have explored similar themes. Stories once confined to speculative fiction are increasingly being discussed as possibilities worthy of serious consideration.

At the same time, a growing number of voices are proposing that contact with nonhuman intelligence could fundamentally transform civilization. Some envision a future in which humanity gains access to advanced knowledge, new technologies or a deeper understanding of the universe. Others suggest such a revelation could unite the world around a common purpose and help humanity move beyond many of its divisions.

What makes these ideas especially significant is that they often carry spiritual implications. The conversation is no longer limited to science and technology. It increasingly touches on questions that have traditionally belonged to theology. Where did humanity come from? Why are we here? What is our purpose? Who possesses ultimate authority? These are not merely scientific questions. They are foundational questions about truth itself.

For Christians, this is where the disclosure conversation becomes particularly important. Scripture teaches that mankind was created in the image of God and that our identity, purpose and destiny are inseparable from our relationship with Him. Any worldview that seeks to redefine humanity’s origins will inevitably challenge the biblical narrative. That does not mean every discussion of nonhuman intelligence is inherently false, but it does mean believers must carefully evaluate the assumptions that often accompany such discussions.

One of the most influential narratives gaining traction today is the idea that humanity may have been guided, engineered or influenced by advanced intelligences throughout history. Variations of this concept have appeared in books, documentaries and television programs for decades, but the theory has become increasingly mainstream. Ancient monuments, religious experiences and even the origins of civilization are frequently reinterpreted through the lens of extraterrestrial intervention.

The implications of such a worldview are enormous. If humanity comes to believe that advanced beings created us, guided our development or seeded civilization, the authority of Scripture would inevitably come under attack. The biblical account of creation would be replaced by an alternative origin story. God’s role as Creator would be diminished or eliminated entirely. The spiritual history recorded in Scripture would be reinterpreted through a completely different lens.

This is one reason many Christians view the disclosure movement with caution. The concern is not simply that people might believe in extraterrestrial life. The greater concern is that humanity could be encouraged to embrace a new spiritual framework that competes directly with the gospel. Throughout history, false religions and deceptive philosophies have often emerged by offering alternative explanations for humanity’s origins and purpose. The modern disclosure movement has the potential to do the same on a global scale.

The New Testament repeatedly warns that spiritual deception will increase as history moves toward its conclusion. In 1 Timothy 4:1, Paul writes that “the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” The warning is striking because it does not describe people abandoning the faith due to persecution or hardship alone. It describes individuals being drawn away by ideas and teachings that appear convincing but ultimately lead them away from the truth.

Similarly, 2 Thessalonians speaks of a great falling away and a powerful deception that will accompany the rise of the lawless one. While Christians have long debated the details of these passages, there is broad agreement that Scripture anticipates an increase in spiritual confusion and deception in the last days. Believers are repeatedly urged to remain grounded in the truth and to test every spirit and every teaching against the Word of God.

When viewed through that lens, the disclosure conversation takes on a different significance. The issue is not whether advanced technologies exist or whether unexplained phenomena deserve investigation. The issue is whether humanity is being prepared to accept explanations that ultimately undermine biblical truth. A society that no longer believes it was created by God will naturally seek another explanation for its existence. A culture that rejects divine revelation will inevitably look elsewhere for answers.

This does not mean Christians should respond with fear. Scripture never calls believers to panic in the face of uncertainty. In fact, the Bible consistently reminds us that God remains sovereign over history and that nothing takes place outside His knowledge and authority. The rise of disclosure narratives, no matter how dramatic they may appear, does not threaten God’s plan or diminish the victory Christ secured through His death and resurrection.

Instead, these developments present an opportunity for the church. As public interest in the supernatural continues to grow, many people are asking questions that materialism cannot answer. Conversations about nonhuman intelligence often lead to discussions about spiritual realities, human purpose and the existence of a Creator. In a culture increasingly fascinated with mysteries beyond the physical world, Christians have an opportunity to point people toward the One who created both the seen and unseen realms.

This moment also highlights the importance of biblical literacy. Many believers are familiar with popular theories surrounding disclosure but have spent far less time studying what Scripture actually says about spiritual warfare, deception and the nature of the unseen realm. The stronger our foundation in God’s Word becomes, the less vulnerable we are to confusion when new ideas emerge. Discernment is not developed through fear of deception; it is developed through a deep knowledge of the truth.

As disclosure continues to dominate headlines, inspire films and shape cultural conversations, Christians should resist the temptation to respond with either blind acceptance or dismissive indifference. Instead, we are called to approach these issues with wisdom, discernment and confidence in God’s Word. The Bible provides a framework for understanding reality that remains trustworthy regardless of how technology advances or what discoveries may lie ahead.

The central issue has never been UFOs, nonhuman intelligence or government disclosure. The central issue is truth. Every generation faces competing narratives that seek to answer life’s biggest questions. Our generation is no different. The challenge before us is to remain anchored to the unchanging truth of Scripture while thoughtfully engaging with the questions and uncertainties of our time.

Whatever revelations the future may hold, Christians can move forward with confidence because our hope does not rest in governments, scientific discoveries or contact with other intelligences. Our hope rests in Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things visible and invisible, who has already triumphed over every power of darkness and whose kingdom will ultimately prevail.

This article is derived from Charisma Media’s interview with L.A. Marzulli.

Prepared by Charisma Media Staff.

For decades, reports of unidentified flying objects occupied the fringes of popular culture. Stories of strange lights in the sky, alien encounters and government cover-ups were often dismissed as conspiracy theories or science fiction fantasies. Today, however, the conversation has changed dramatically.

Government hearings, military footage, whistleblower testimony and mainstream media coverage have pushed the topic of UFOs and UAPs into the public square. What was once considered fringe has become a subject of serious discussion.

But as the disclosure movement gains momentum, many Christians are asking a deeper question: What if the greatest danger is not whether extraterrestrials exist, but what people are being prepared to believe?

That concern was at the center of a Charisma interview with pastor and author Billy Crone, whose extensive research into UFOs, the occult and Bible prophecy has led him to a startling conclusion. Crone believes the modern UFO phenomenon is not preparing humanity for contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Instead, he argues it may be conditioning the world for a massive spiritual deception.

“The enemy is preparing people to explain away the rapture of the church,” Crone said.

The Rise of a New Belief System

One of the most remarkable developments of the past several decades has been the growing cultural acceptance of extraterrestrial life.

Hollywood has spent generations filling theaters with stories of alien visitors. Television programs regularly feature UFO investigations. Social media platforms are flooded with videos, theories and predictions about first contact.

According to Crone, this cultural shift has become far more significant than many Christians realize.

“More people believe in aliens than they do in God,” he said. “More people believe aliens have visited Earth than believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Whether those statistics are debated or not, there is little question that fascination with extraterrestrials has become deeply embedded in modern culture.

For many people, aliens have evolved beyond mere entertainment. They have become a source of hope.

In countless books, documentaries and online communities, advanced extraterrestrial beings are portrayed as humanity’s future saviors—wiser, more evolved and capable of solving the world’s problems.

To Bible-believing Christians, that should sound familiar.

Scripture warns repeatedly that humanity will ultimately embrace a false savior who promises peace, unity and solutions during a time of global crisis.

The question is whether modern UFO narratives could help prepare the world for such a figure.

Ancient Spirits, Modern Packaging

Crone’s perspective is shaped partly by his own background.

Before becoming a Christian, he says he was deeply involved in New Age spirituality, occult practices and channeling. During that time, he became familiar with teachings that claimed to originate from extraterrestrial beings.

What struck him later as a believer was how similar these messages were to ancient occult doctrines.

The names may change. The packaging may look different. But the message remains remarkably consistent.

Many alleged alien communications promote ideas such as humanity evolving into godlike beings, the rejection of biblical sin, the creation of a one-world spirituality and the elevation of Lucifer as a misunderstood figure who brings enlightenment.

These concepts are not new.

They have existed for centuries within occult traditions, Eastern mysticism and New Age philosophies. What appears new, Crone argues, is simply the modern rebranding.

“The enemy repackages the same old demonic lies for a new generation,” he said.

Instead of presenting themselves as demons, fallen spirits or occult entities, the narrative shifts toward advanced extraterrestrials from distant star systems.

The terminology changes, but the spiritual message often remains the same.

The Channeling Connection

One of the most controversial aspects of the UFO phenomenon involves channeling.

Throughout the New Age movement, thousands of individuals have claimed to receive messages from extraterrestrial beings through altered states of consciousness. These communications often produce detailed predictions, spiritual teachings and warnings about humanity’s future.

Crone argues that Christians should pay careful attention to how these messages are received.

Rather than receiving information from advanced alien civilizations, Crone believes these encounters represent spiritual deception masquerading as extraterrestrial contact.

This concern becomes particularly relevant as viral predictions spread across social media.

Many modern prophecies circulating online claim to predict economic collapse, global war, UFO disclosure or massive societal upheaval.

While some predictions occasionally appear accurate, Crone warns that partial truth can be one of the most effective tools of deception.

“The enemy takes a little bit of truth and then leads people to the wrong conclusion,” he said.

Preparing an Explanation for the Rapture?

Perhaps the most provocative aspect of Crone’s research involves what he believes could become a future explanation for the disappearance of millions of Christians.

For generations, Bible prophecy teachers have taught that the church will be removed from the earth in an event commonly called the rapture.

The obvious challenge for unbelievers would be explaining such a massive disappearance.

Crone points to decades of New Age writings and channeled material that describe a coming “evacuation,” “harvest” or “mass removal” of people from the planet.

These accounts often claim that advanced extraterrestrial beings will rescue certain individuals during a period of global transformation.

The similarities to biblical language are difficult to ignore.

References to people suddenly disappearing, being taken away amid global chaos, and undergoing a dramatic transition recur throughout these materials.

Crone believes such narratives may provide a ready-made explanation if millions suddenly vanish.

Rather than acknowledging the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, humanity could be encouraged to believe an alien intervention had occurred.

The Role of Crisis

The Bible describes the end times as a period of unprecedented global turmoil.

Wars, economic instability, social upheaval and widespread fear are recurring themes throughout prophetic passages.

Crone argues that many globalist and occult philosophies envision a similar scenario.

He points to discussions of what some call a “polycrisis”—multiple crises unfolding simultaneously and creating widespread demand for a strong global solution.

Imagine a world facing economic collapse, geopolitical conflict, social unrest and widespread uncertainty all at once.

In such an environment, humanity would likely become desperate for answers.

History has repeatedly demonstrated that fear can drive populations to accept solutions they might otherwise reject.

Scripture warns that the final world system will emerge during precisely such a season.

The challenge for believers is to remain grounded in biblical truth rather than becoming swept away by fear-driven narratives.

Testing Every Spirit

The growing fascination with disclosure presents a unique challenge for the church.

Yet Christians are not called to respond with fear or blind acceptance.

They are called to exercise discernment.

The apostle John instructed believers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).

That principle remains essential today.

Believers must evaluate every claim through the lens of Scripture.

Does it exalt Christ or diminish Him?

Does it affirm biblical truth or replace it?

Does it point people toward salvation through Jesus Christ or toward an alternative spiritual path?

These questions matter far more than the question of whether unidentified objects exist in the sky.

Looking Beyond Disclosure

The modern disclosure movement has captured global attention.

New reports emerge almost weekly. Government investigations continue. Public curiosity continues to grow.

Yet Christians must remember that the greatest spiritual battle has never been about extraterrestrials.

It has always been about truth.

The Bible warns that deception will characterize the last days. It also promises that believers do not need to live in fear.

No matter how convincing a narrative may appear, God’s Word remains the ultimate standard.

As discussions about UFOs, disclosure and alien contact continue to intensify, the church must remain anchored in biblical truth, prepared to answer questions and ready to point people toward the only Savior who can truly rescue humanity.

Because if a great deception is coming, the answer will not be found in the stars.

It will be found in Jesus Christ.

This article was prepared by Charisma Media staff and is derived from a video interview with Billy Crone.

One of the most critical healing stories in Scripture is that of the woman with the issue of blood. She had been bleeding for twelve years straight. Can you imagine? She had suffered for so long that she was desolate, hoping for a miracle. She had seen doctor after doctor, and her condition only worsened. Yet twelve years of waiting had not destroyed her faith; it had refined it, positioning her for a moment that would change everything.

Perhaps you can relate. The doctors told you there was nothing more they could do. Maybe you’ve been praying over and over, and you’re still struggling. I beg you: Keep praying. God answers those who call on His name, and at the right moment, He will bring a sudden manifestation of healing. I know it can be exhausting to keep praying when things don’t seem to be changing. But what if you stopped right before the breakthrough? What if you gave up right before Jesus was about to enter the scene? Healing isn’t just something God does; the healer is who He is. Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals, has not changed. I cannot guarantee you a timeline, but I can guarantee that He will walk with you through the process.

Years ago, I heard about something called the Dalton Miracle Bible in Georgia. Videos were posted online of a Bible oozing oil, and people who touched it shared incredible testimonies of being healed. Recently, the Lord brought this story to my mind, so I looked into it again. It turns out this entire thing imploded, with the owner of the Bible supposedly caught buying the oil out of Tractor Supply. Yet some people testified that they were physically healed after touching the Bible’s oil. So I asked the Lord why He would remind me of this if the whole thing were a sham. He responded with a question: “What do you think healed them? Was it the oil that healed them?”

I realized it was not the oil. It was their faith. It was the faith of people who believed that if they could reach out, God would meet them. Ultimately, their faith tugged at the heart of God, the ultimate healer.

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So it was with the woman with the issue of blood. Scripture records her saying, “If I may touch His garments, I shall be healed” (Mark 5:28). The woman was so desperate that she believed even touching something belonging to Jesus would bring healing.

What do you think happened next? “Immediately her hemorrhage dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction” (v. 29).

After years of suffering, the woman was healed in an instant because of her faith in Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and this hearing comes from the Word of God. Clearly, she had heard that Jesus was the Messiah, the One who could bring complete healing and wholeness.

So often, we block our own deliverance by staying stuck in fear, lust, pride, religiosity, or dissociation instead of trusting God fully. Sometimes, the greatest obstacle to healing is not God’s willingness but our hesitation to reach for Him.

Letting go can be scary, and sometimes we may not even be sure how to do it. Start by asking God what He requires of you. He will give you direction. Whether it’s through prayer, declaring His Word, studying Scripture, fasting, or serving others, He will provide the solution for you.

Right after the woman was healed, the Bible says, “At once, Jesus knew within Himself that power had gone out of Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My garments?’” (v. 30). Obviously, Jesus knew who touched Him. The point was for her to be seen and known by Him.

The disciples didn’t quite understand this, telling Jesus that many people had been pressing in on Him, touching Him. But Jesus knew her and, with such vigorous love and passion, took this moment to pursue her fully. She came trembling, though there was no reason for it. The next thing that happened was that the woman came before Jesus and fell down, telling Him “the entire truth” (v. 33). She needed Jesus, and she let Him know.

And Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction” (v. 34). Her suddenly moment did not end with healing alone; it concluded with peace and restoration.

Maybe you need a miracle. All it takes is a mustard seed of faith to completely change a situation. Your suddenly may come after years of waiting, but when it comes, it will be unmistakable. All He desires is that we reach out and grasp the hem of His garment.

Do You Want to Be Well?

Another story that we’ll touch on is one of my personal favorite healing stories. Here, we have a group of
sick and disabled people—some unable to walk, some unable to see, others paralyzed—all lying near a pool believed to have healing powers. Almost like a lottery; whoever entered the water first was the one to receive healing. But God didn’t come just for a few lucky ones to be set free—He came for all, and He was never limited by human systems of access or effort.

Jesus visited this pool and found a man who had been there for thirty-eight years.

Thirty-eight years of bondage.

Thirty-eight years of waiting for God to deliver.

To put this in perspective, that is almost as long as the Israelites wandered in the desert.

Can you imagine spending nearly forty years of your life waiting by a pool, believing the only way you will ever be healed is through a superstitious source of water? I can’t even begin to imagine the mental chains this would have placed on someone over time. All I know is this: Sometimes the wait is painful, but God always has a suddenly moment when chains will break for good, even when we’ve learned to survive without freedom.

Jesus looked at the man and simply asked, “Do you want to be healed?” ( John 5:6).

Why would He ask that? Because everyone wants relief, but not everyone wants the change that healing requires. Healing often demands surrender: letting go of our own ways and familiar patterns, even when those patterns feel safer than the unknown. It requires dying to self and trusting God with the outcome.

The man didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he gave Jesus every excuse for why he hadn’t been healed yet. Sometimes we try to explain away the miraculous when God wants to do something supernatural in us. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean God is done working on what He has prepared. He told Jesus why he couldn’t make it to the water and the trauma he had endured from everyone who kept stepping on him. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t done this.

During one season, I felt God asking me to keep moving forward, to keep putting my hand to the plow even when I felt unsure. I realized that sometimes the greater sin is sitting in self-pity instead of believing that movement can be healing.

But that’s not what Jesus asked. Jesus asked whether he wanted to be healed. While healing sometimes demands the impossible of us, God is able to help us, in our weakness, do what we could never do on our own.

So Jesus gave the man a task that would’ve been impossible for him to do on his own: “‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ Immediately the man was healed, took up his bed, and walked” ( John 5:8–9).

Ultimately, when it comes to receiving true healing and deliverance, we must be willing to trust God enough to move when He speaks. We must step out of the comfort of what we know—even if that comfort is pain—and believe that He will meet us with the power we lack.

To be delivered means we stop striving in our own strength and trust that God can break every chain that has held us—even the ones we’ve learned to live with.

Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the new book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment, which is available on .

Replacement theology is the driving force behind most interpretations of the Bible, leading many into deception. In the 1500s a Catholic astronomer named Copernicus proposed that the earth revolved around the sun, which the church deemed to be foolish and philosophically absurd. In 1616 the Catholic Church officially warned another Catholic astronomer, Galileo, who affirmed Copernicus’s theory.

The Roman Inquisition conducted a heresy trial where Galileo was forced to recant his beliefs publicly. He was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. The church refused to accept this theory, citing a literal interpretation of Scripture that holds that Joshua made the sun stand still. It wasn’t until 1822 that the Catholic Church allowed Galileo’s 1632 book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems to be printed, and it was finally removed from their index of forbidden books in 1835. Not until 1992 did Pope John Paul II acknowledge that the church was wrong in persecuting him.

I say this because I believe that the view of the “church” being at the center of the theological universe is equally untrue. God declared His firstborn Son to be Israel: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn” (Exod. 4:22–23).

Even though your firstborn may cause you all kinds of trouble, you can never replace them. Today non-Jews are the branches being grafted into believing Israel, and as it says in Romans 11, we are not to be boastful and high-minded about this. This warning in Romans 11 is referring to the fact that the adopted
children better not think they are any holier or better than the natural children.

An Identity Theft

Many people today have gone through the disaster of identity theft. There is nothing like having your identity stolen and having to prove that you are you. I have heard stories of terrible cases where people had to prove they were still alive and argue with a bank or agency about it.

The most significant identity robbery was of Yeshua’s. In art you will see a Caucasian Jesus, a Black Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, a Mexican Jesus, and even a Native American Jesus. Everyone wants to create God in their image rather than accept the fact that every race has been made in His image.

Today, with the advancement of AI, influencers want to manipulate public attitudes by reproducing AI clones of people saying things they have never said. The concept of fake news has been with us since the beginning of time, but it has grown only more sophisticated. This is why they say that the victor writes history. Look at the changes that have taken place throughout American history. Was Christopher Columbus a good guy or a bad guy?

We are conditioned to believe what we have been taught, and we lean heavily and emotionally in a particular direction. Do we want to erase history and eliminate anything we do not like, such as statues of Civil War generals? How about ISIS, which destroys ancient archaeological sites to create a history that is
more palatable to them?

More than 2,300 years ago, the first example of replacement theology occurred around 168 BC. The Samaritans claimed to be the true Jewish people. But when Antiochus IV Epiphanes came during the historical events of Hanukkah and was ready to destroy the Jews, suddenly, they were no longer faithful Jews. Even today, people claim that the Jews in Israel are not the real Jews.

So many people are having an identity crisis. Among the body of Messiah, some Gentiles want to identify as Jews, wearing Jewish clothing and claiming to be from one of the lost tribes. We need to find our identity in the Messiah.

Among both the extreme Left and Right are some who want to eliminate the Jewish people, and, in the middle, some want to pretend they are Jews. And some Jews do not want anyone to know they are Jewish. Masquerading has been going on for millennia.

Order Mark Biltz’s New Book, “The Final Tyrant” on !

The Bible records how Jacob masqueraded as Esau, Tamar as a prostitute, Joseph as an Egyptian, Esther as a non-Jew, and so forth. To fool believers, the Antichrist will also try to deceive the church through charades. Why did Joseph’s brothers not recognize him when they came to Egypt? It was because Joseph was masquerading as an Egyptian. He looked Egyptian, spoke Egyptian, and followed Egyptian customs.

To this day, for the last 2,000 years, the church has been presenting an Egyptian Jesus to the Jewish people, expecting the Jews to recognize Him. How in the world could the Jewish people accept a Messiah with an English transliteration for a name and who did away with the Torah and their traditions, their calendar, their priesthood, their capital city, and their commandments?

Anyone who still believes the church has replaced the Jewish people will be easily deceived by the Antichrist. This is why this chapter is needed. Today many believe the church has replaced Israel in the plan of God rather than being grafted into God’s plan for Israel. We have to remember the wheat and tares were sown in the same field, and Satan has become the expert at sowing discord within the body of Messiah over the last several thousand years.

Most believers do not realize how prophetic the Book of Ruth is for today. Orpah and Ruth, the two Moabite women, represent the church that is grafted into Israel. In Hebrew the name Ruth means friend; Orpah means the back of the neck or to turn your back on. Orpah ends up giving Naomi a token kiss, turns her back on her, and returns to her pagan gods. Ruth, though, befriends Naomi and works the harvest in Israel from Passover to Pentecost. Through her marriage to Boaz, Ruth descended from King David.

You may not be aware, but rabbinic tradition tells us that just as Ruth descended from David, Orpah descended from Goliath. I believe Ruth represents the faithful church and Orpah the counterfeit church. The final battle in these last days will be between the Goliath/woke church and the David/awakened church over who will stand with the God of Israel.

The major problems from the very beginning were arrogance and anti-Semitism. Did you know the apostle John was once kicked out of the church? Not only that, but all the Jews were also kicked out of the church, along with any Gentile who wanted the Jews to stay. It’s in every Bible, and it is too often overlooked. (See 3 John.)

Luke 22:24–25 describes strife among the disciples over who would be the greatest. Yeshua told them not to be like the Gentiles who always want prominence in order to exercise lordship over others and to exert their authority. The disciples, though, were to exercise servant leadership (v. 26).

If I told you my name was Igor, Paco, or Mohammed, you would probably think you know where I was from. In 3 John 9, the apostle writes that a Gentile named Diotrephes has taken over the synagogue and will not even allow the apostle John to come in! He recognizes no authority but his own. On top of that, Diotrephes won’t even allow John’s brethren (the Jews) to come into the synagogue either. Then we find that he doesn’t allow in other Gentiles who do want the Jews to be allowed in, and he even kicks out of the church all the Gentiles who desire Jews to enter. This assembly was in Asia Minor and most likely near Ephesus.

So now, Gentiles who knew only Greek philosophy as a moral base were teaching the Scriptures, and they didn’t even know Hebrew. Nor were they familiar with the Torah except through a Greek translation, which they were using to try to understand Hebraic concepts.

They also did not understand the Jewish culture or their idioms, and most didn’t even care to. A perfect example is when Peter denied the Messiah three times and the rooster crowed (Luke 22:60–62). Did you know that there was a prohibition against raising chickens or roosters in Jerusalem at that time? Chickens were not acceptable as a sacrifice.

The truth is, just as the words general, captain, or president are titles, the Hebrew word gever, meaning a man or a rooster,1 is also related to Gevini, a title given to the temple crier who would call out three times every morning to tell the people it was time to get ready for the morning service. Many people are familiar with the Muslim call to prayer made over a loudspeaker. In ancient times, the temple crier had the title of the rooster! We still use the idiom today when we talk about a man who acts like the rooster in a hen house. So yes, the rooster crowed, but it wasn’t a rooster. This is not a theological problem but an authenticity problem.

So many things are missed in translations from Greek to English without a Hebrew understanding of the culture. Another example is found in Acts 3:1, where “Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.” Wrong translation! It was at the hour of the prayer. The ninth hour is 3:00 p.m., the time of the evening sacrifice. The prayer at this time was known as the amidah, or the standing prayer, because amidah means to stand. Even back then, it was an ancient prayer written several hundred years earlier. This prayer was prayed three times a day. This means Yeshua prayed this prayer three times a day for His entire life.

I believe 100 percent in the inspiration of the Bible in its original language, which is why you must “study to shew thyself approved” (2 Tim. 2:15). We must fight with everything we have for authenticity. The Bible plainly declares that not one jot or tittle will pass away from the Torah (Matt. 5:18), which refers to the Torah in the Hebrew language. I believe that even in the New Testament, several of the books were originally in Hebrew. It is obvious by the writing style, and when you translate them back into Hebrew, you see poetry that is not seen in any other language.

Pastor Mark Biltz is the founder of El Shaddai Ministries and livestreams his messages every weekend to over 200 cities in twenty nations. He has spoken in over 20 nations and authored several best-selling books such as “Decoding the Antichrist” and “Decoding Jeremiah.” His new book, The Final Tyrant, is available on .

Few voices in media carried the same boldness and unwavering faith as Joni Lamb. Through decades of ministry, she encouraged millions to pursue the presence of God, stand firm in truth and believe that no life is beyond the reach of His redemption. As we reflect on her extraordinary legacy, Charisma is honored to share this excerpt from her writing as a reminder of the passion, perseverance and Spirit-led conviction that defined both her message and her life.

When you’re in the middle of a storm, the one thing the enemy will try to do is keep you from running to Jesus. Fear, panic, and anxiety set in. You have trouble keeping your mind from conjuring up the worst-case scenarios. A storm will do one of two things: it will drive you closer to the Lord, or it will drive you away from Him. The choice is yours.

Some people get angry and bitter, even at God, because of the painful circumstances they find themselves in. When they don’t understand, they pull away and shut God out instead of reaching up through the turbulent waves for His hand. The enemy wants to keep you in fear or distracted by your situation because drawing closer to the Lord in those hard times is how we ultimately find comfort and strength. Those who call out to Jesus let the turbulent waves push them closer to God. Often, they learn to do this after going through multiple storms in life and experiencing God’s faithfulness time and again.

I’m just a down-to-earth Southern girl. I have flaws. I’ve made my share of mistakes. Yet one thing I have done consistently throughout the storms in my life is talk to the Lord.

I don’t always know what the Lord is doing or understand things that hit me out of left field, but I’ve learned that I can trust Him because He’s come through for me so many times. Trusting God is not a theoretical concept for me; it’s my life. God is so alive to me in my everyday life, which is why I talk to Him like I’m talking to my best friend. He is my best friend.

I stay in an attitude of prayer, so I’m in an ongoing conversation with God, one that never stops. The Bible says to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). God doesn’t want to be part of your life; He wants to be your life, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

God lets us ask Him anything. I often say, “Lord, here we are again. I need to hear from You. Where do we go from here?” I know that wherever I go, He is with me, guiding me. Just as the Israelites followed the cloud by day and the fire by night when they were in the desert, I want Him leading me, every step. I’m not leading Him; He’s leading me, and I’m following Him because He knows where I’m going and I don’t.

One indication that you’re walking with God is that you feel His supernatural peace—a peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7). That means it’s a peace that doesn’t make sense at times. Peace isn’t the absence of difficulty or pain; it’s the presence of God amid those difficulties. Peace is a person in the storm with us, holding us, carrying us, and calming the turbulence within us. The Bible says, “For He Himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14). And the psalmist wrote, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” (Ps. 46:1–2, ESV). Jesus is God. He is our peace. Run to Him for refuge, strength, and peace. He’s real, alive, and fully present, even though our circumstances often scream the opposite.

Only the Lord can give us peace and strength in the midst of our storms. If I were to tell you otherwise, I’d be misrepresenting myself and the Lord. From an early age, I started walking, talking, and singing with Jesus. I thought that was just a normal thing for Christians to do. I assumed if He loved me and lived inside me, He wanted to talk to me. And I was right! If Jesus wants to live inside me through the Holy Spirit, why wouldn’t He want to speak to me? Henry Blackaby wrote in his classic book Experiencing God: “God speaks to His people. When He speaks, what does He reveal? Throughout the Scriptures, when God spoke, it was to reveal something about Himself, His purposes, or His ways. God’s revelations are designed to bring you into a love relationship with Him.”

A love relationship with God. It sounds so simple because it is simple! God’s ways are not complicated. Jesus said unless we become as little children, we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3). The kingdom of heaven is more than an eternal realm. It’s a love relationship with Jesus here and now. Praying to the Father, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Real, eternal life starts with knowing the Lord and is sustained through knowing Him, and to delve into the depths of that relationship with Him, we must become as little children. That doesn’t mean we are to be childish or naïve. There is a difference. Being like little children means running to Him, hopping in His lap, enjoying His presence, and talking to Him. I guess I’ve always been a child at heart when it comes to my faith. I often say, “Lord, it’s Joni here—Your girl.”

As we grow older, however, and life gets tougher and more hectic, we make our relationship with God more complicated than it should be. Just talk to Him and continue to talk to Him. That’s what He asks. He sees and hears. He can handle our questions and emotions. He created us to be in a personal relationship with Him. Don’t shut Him out. Run to Him and talk to Him, especially during the storms. This is how we develop the kind of intimate fellowship with the Lord that will empower and guide us through every storm we will face.

If you are reading this and don’t know Jesus intimately, take a moment and invite Him into your heart. Repeat this prayer:

Jesus, forgive me. Come into my heart. Be my Lord and Savior. I surrender my life to You. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.

He Is So Much Bigger Than You Think

Another amazing thing about God is that He can take the most unexpected things, even tragic things, and use them to miraculously change your life to accomplish the new and fresh purposes He has for you. God isn’t surprised by anything that happens to us. He has a purpose for our lives and uses the storms to build His character in us. God is infinite and all- knowing, and He does not fit into our little boxes. He can do far more than we think He can do—“exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).

I never could have imagined my life or ministry without Marcus. Yet when Marcus had completed his race on the earth, the Lord called him home. Through that heartbreaking storm, God did something I could not have dreamed up. It was as if one day I was facing the most difficult journey of my life, and the next I was surprised by what God revealed for the next chapter of my life. His plans are always amazing and always good. We just have to trust those plans. Talk to God and listen. His ways and ideas are far better than the ones we have for ourselves. As God said in Isaiah 55:8–9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

I’ve always wanted the Lord’s best for my life, from way back when I was a child picking up kids for church on the bus with my dad to when I was twenty years old writing that letter surrendering my life to Him. God is faithful to fulfill that which concerns you. If you commit your ways to Him, He will take you at your word. And when He speaks to you, He wants you to obey—not out of fear but out of love for Him. Even when we mess up, He, the almighty God, can turn it around for our good. It’s crazy how He can do that.

God’s grace, His ways, and His plans are far greater than we can comprehend. He is always at work and never sleeps. As I said earlier, I don’t understand how He does it, but God is able to be fully present with every other person and me throughout time simultaneously without being diminished one little bit. It blows my finite mind.

My other secret weapon when going through a storm is worship. I’m talking about throwing up my hands and praising God at the top of my lungs. It takes faith to believe God is in control and acknowledge Him in the midst of chaos and pain.

It’s next to impossible to praise God with your whole heart while harboring fear, doubt, or unbelief. David thought worship was so important that he had worshippers in the temple around the clock. This kind of worship brings joy. When we worship Him, God shows up in our storms, just as He did for Paul and Silas in Acts 16.

After the residents of Jerusalem had finished rebuilding the wall under Nehemiah’s leadership, they were all gathered for a day of worship and dedication to the Lord. It had been a long, hard battle as they built with bricks in one hand and swords in the other because of the enemy’s constant attacks. Nehemiah exhorted the people, saying, “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). Other translations say, “Do not be grieved” (ESV, MEV), “Don’t be sad” (CEB, CEV), or, “Don’t be dejected” (NLT). People who were building a wall while keeping one eye out for the enemy, sword in hand, might not have expected to hear a message about joy. But Nehemiah said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (emphasis added). Get this now. It’s important.

The joy of the Lord equals strength. No joy, no strength—just like no worship, no joy. Nehemiah said this in a situation in which the people were facing grief, sorrow, and relentless attacks from their enemies. Of course, Nehemiah wasn’t telling us not to grieve or feel sorrow when we experience tragedy or the death of a loved one. Nehemiah was saying our strength comes when we go to the Lord and experience His joy, even in the midst of our grief and sorrow. If we lose our joy in the Lord, we lose our strength. But what does it mean to have joy? It’s not being happy and chipper all the time or walking around saying, “Praise the Lord,” in heartbreaking situations.

Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is dependent on our circumstances, but we can be filled with joy even in the most turbulent times.

To order Joni Lamb’s book, Through the Storm, visit .

Joy comes from the presence of God, so our strength likewise comes from the presence of God. “In Your presence is fullness of joy,” David wrote in Psalm 16:11. We don’t have to be moved when the storms rage around us. Our flesh can rest in hope. If there is “fullness of joy” in the Lord’s presence and “the joy of the Lord is [our] strength,” that means our strength for life and surviving storms is found in God’s presence. David knew this well. He knew how it felt when storms and caves and enemies tried to take him out, yet he always sought God’s presence for joy and strength.

In Psalm 42, David wrote: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’” (vv. 1–3, emphasis added). David shed tears while those around him were saying, “Where is your God?” That’s what the enemy will whisper, and your flesh will scream when it looks like you’re going under. David knew better than to give up. He knew his joy and strength came from being in the Lord’s presence, so that’s where he ran.

Running into God’s presence and finding strength and joy in the middle of the most difficult and painful trials is not some pie-in-the-sky, self-help, positive-thinking gimmick. It’s for real life. I’m reminded of the late Corrie ten Boom, who, along with her entire family, was arrested and imprisoned during the Holocaust for hiding and protecting Jews. The ten Boom family was sent to a concentration camp in Scheveningen, and all but three were released: Corrie, her sister Betsie, and their father, Casper. Corrie’s father died only ten days after their arrest, but Corrie and her sister, like so many prisoners, were herded onto cattle cars like animals, stripped, and starved. They witnessed people being exterminated and knew they could be next. Betsie eventually died in prison.

I once read a series of quotes attributed to Corrie ten Boom that is incredible considering all the suffering she endured: “Jesus did not promise to change the circumstances around us. He promised great peace and pure joy to those who would learn to believe that God actually controls all things.” “When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus.” “Joy runs deeper than despair.” What incredible words written by someone who experienced torment most of us can’t even fathom. Could this be true? Corrie ten Boom was sustained in the most unimaginable horror by joy that came from the Lord’s presence.

If you’re in a storm and are at your lowest point, shift your focus to the Lord. Begin to thank Him for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do! I think about the situation with the tower in Dallas. Marcus and I were moving forward in obedience and faith. God had a tower hidden away just for His purposes, to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Although most people thought we were crazy for attempting to build a station in a market as challenging as Dallas, God supernaturally made a way. He is the waymaker. Our thankfulness throws open the door for the hand of God to move. Never underestimate God’s supernatural power to accomplish what He has called you to do.

God has us in the right place at the right time for His good purposes, and He has equipped us to do the work He has set before us to do. Through the storms, God revealed things in me that I had not seen or known. I can look back and see that through the storms and snakebites, God had a master plan for my life. He was guiding and preparing me for what was coming. Ask the Lord to show you the gift He has put within you, and let Him develop it. It may surprise you. All you have to do is surrender all and be obedient; He will do the rest.

When the storm clouds begin to clear, you will see that God has something new for you. Storms give us an opportunity to learn and grow. They may give us a new direction for our lives or a new perspective on our business or ministry. Maybe a new season is around the corner, and you just acquired the tools you need to navigate it. God loves you and wants His best for you. He is working in and through all things to bring about that good thing.

Pause and Listen

You may know what it’s like to go through storms of personal betrayal or to think God has let you down. After those kinds of experiences, you may feel as though you’ll never trust again. Your flesh screams out for someone to validate how deeply you were wronged. It’s in those times that you need to take a little pause and listen. Give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to speak to you. His voice is so quiet and still that you can’t hear Him if you’re indulging your anger. I don’t mean to say you shouldn’t feel angry; I mean, you shouldn’t act out in anger. Ask the Lord what you should do, and listen to Him. Surrender the situation to Him. Pray in the Spirit, and follow His promptings. This makes all the difference in the storm.

One final lesson that the Lord has taught me over and over again while walking through storms is that He will never ever leave me or forsake me. People, friends, coworkers, and even family will disappoint you while you’re in the storm. That’s why you must keep your eyes on Jesus. He, not the opinions of those who surround you, is your source. You may see seasons shift, changing your relationships with certain individuals. Just as the leaves fall from the trees during winter seasons, change inevitably happens, and people naturally fall out of our lives. Not everyone can continue with you on the journey God has mandated for you. That’s OK. Bless them and release them. As I’ve already said, God works all things for our good. That includes the relationships in our lives.

Losing Marcus was a huge storm in my life. Although I knew he was in the arms of Jesus, his death was just so shocking and painful. Then I felt such loneliness. Those who have lost loved ones understand these feelings. All I can say is that God gave me supernatural grace and strength to continue the ministry despite my grief. My family and friends held my arms up along the way.

I thank the Lord for the prophetic words I received that encouraged and fortified me. The Holy Spirit was truly my Comforter. I pray for each person who is hurting that the Comforter will touch you in a way that encourages you and brings healing to your soul. You can trust God. He is faithful.

Really, it all boils down to this: in John 15, Jesus calls those who follow Him His friends. What did I do in my storms? I called my friends. We cried. We talked. At times, we just sat in each other’s presence. That’s what friends do. That’s grace. That’s Jesus. He’s always the first friend I call, and He’s never too busy to answer.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Joni Lamb was the president of Daystar Television Network, co-founded with her late husband, Marcus Lamb. The network reaches over 110 million homes in the U.S. and over 5 billion people worldwide. She was executive producer and host of her daily talk show, “Joni Table Talk,” which earned 10 Telly Awards, three Lone Star Emmy Awards and five Daytime Emmy nominations. Lamb also co-hosted Daystar’s daily, live flagship broadcast “Ministry Now,” with her husband, Dr. Doug Weiss. Her book, Through the Storm, is available on .

We want to start by saying something clearly: We know you’ve been hurt. The pain and trauma you have endured have felt completely unfair. You did not choose to have those formative experiences, and yet they have become a weight you’ve been forced to carry.

Unconfronted pain and trauma do not simply fade with time. They don’t disappear because we love Jesus or dissolve because we’ve been born again. Left unaddressed, they continue to inform how we show up in the world—how we relate, communicate, cope and survive. Pain becomes the unseen narrator of our lives.

We also want to acknowledge this up front: Everybody’s story is not the same. Not everyone who struggles with same-sex attraction has the same kind of pain. We are not interested in reducing anyone’s story to a single origin. Some people can point to specific traumatic moments, while others cannot. Some experienced abuse. Others experienced neglect, rejection, or simply silence—the absence of someone saying this isn’t your fault.

But after talking with so many people battling same-sex attraction, we know that we all have experienced some form of pain or trauma, and it has shaped us in ways we may not fully understand yet. For some of us, the pain was so deep or happened so early that we don’t even remember it. The mind learned how to survive by blocking it out. But even when the memory is gone, the impact remains. Our bodies remember. What we cannot recall still influences us.

We have heard time and time again about the childhood moments with people we trusted when lines were crossed. At the time, we didn’t always know what was happening. Some experiences felt confusing; others felt normal, even consensual. We didn’t yet understand that what felt “OK” really wasn’t OK. For many of us, it wasn’t until later in life that we realized something had been taken from us.

Yet pain and trauma do not come only through sexual experiences. They can be inflicted verbally, physically, or emotionally. For some, simply existing with same-sex attraction—and dealing with the judgment, rejection, and isolation that came with it—was traumatic in itself.

We did not all respond to this trauma the same way. Some of us became curious and felt a draw toward same-sex attraction. Others spent years womanizing, trying to prove that what happened to us wasn’t who we were. Some numbed themselves. Others learned to perform.

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We have walked with hundreds of men over the years. In one men’s group we are part of, an anonymous survey revealed that over 40 percent of the men secretly struggled with same-sex attraction. Pain pushed many of these men into hiding, convincing them there was a part of them too dangerous to be seen.

Sometimes it isn’t only same-sex attraction that keeps us hidden. It’s what trauma awakened in us desires and fantasies so uncomfortable that we wouldn’t dare confess them to God, let alone to other people. Even in spaces that claim to be open, these desires can feel too dark and shameful to name. And yet we have to sit with this truth: Many of these desires were born not from rebellion but from pain, confusion, exposure and survival.

As if all this weren’t enough, we also have to acknowledge the trauma created by the internal war itself. It is painful to love God while fighting something inside you that feels powerful and relentless. You wake up every day trying to surrender, trying to obey, and trying to believe, while everything in you seems to pull in the opposite direction. This conflict is exhausting, it is traumatizing, and over time it can leave us weary and confused.

This is not about reliving your pain. It is about understanding how pain shaped the ways you learned to survive. It is about facing what has been hurting you, not to shame you but to free you. Trauma does not negate the truth that you really have been born again. God really did make you new. But unaddressed pain can slow the sanctifying work God desires to do in your life.

You are not broken; you were hurt. And the same God who saved you is patient enough to heal the places that are still bleeding.

Living Like Mephibosheth

If you are honest, you have been hemorrhaging since you were a child. There is a way children experience the world that adults often forget. As a child you do not have context. You have only momentary experiences. However, those moments make you feel what you believe.

In Scripture there is a man named Mephibosheth. As a child he was dropped by the one who was responsible for carrying him. The fall left him disabled in both feet (2 Sam. 4:4). His injury wasn’t due to rebellion, nor was it a decision he made. It was a wound inflicted by someone who was supposed to protect him. And that moment marked him for the rest of his life.

By the time we see Mephibosheth as an adult, he is living in a place called Lo-debar, a name that literally means no pasture, no word, no nothing (2 Sam. 9:4–5). It was a barren place. Though he was royalty by birth, he lived like someone who had been forgotten.

This story mirrors the reality of many men battling same-sex attraction today. Something happened to us
early—a fall, an experience we did not understand, or a series of experiences that shaped us before we were mature enough to process them. And though we may not remember all of it clearly, the impact followed us. What happened to the boy shaped the man.

As we’ve shared, for some of us, the label gay was spoken over us because of the way we walked, talked, gestured, or expressed emotion. People started calling us something we didn’t even understand, and the bullying, jokes, and name-calling only reinforced it. When a child hears something long enough, he begins to wonder whether it’s true. Questions arise, not from genuine desire but from repetition. Identity wasn’t discovered. It was suggested. And over time that suggestion begins to feel like confirmation.

For others, pain came through boundaries that were crossed too early. The experiences didn’t feel violent or wrong in the moment because we didn’t yet know what wrong was. For children who were hypersexualized by abuse, interactions with neighbors, cousins, or friends didn’t always register as abuse at the time. Some moments felt confusing. Some felt normal. Some even felt wanted.

It was only later that we realized something had been taken from us. Growing up and suddenly understanding that what happened wasn’t OK is traumatic in itself. Realizing you were hurt before you knew you were allowed to say no creates a deep internal fracture.

Physical abuse does the same. Being punished with violence or living in fear of the next outburst teaches the body that love is unsafe. Verbal abuse leaves marks no one sees. Being mocked, harshly corrected, or torn down teaches a child who he is not allowed to be. Emotional neglect—being unseen, unheard, or unprotected—teaches a child that his needs do not matter.

Sometimes the deepest trauma isn’t what happened. It’s what never happened—the absence of affirmation, guidance, and someone saying, “This isn’t your fault.”

We’ve named many of the pains and traumas we faced growing up, but there is one experience many people overlook: early exposure to pornography. Pornography is often treated as innocent curiosity. But it is not neutral. Early exposure may not leave visible scars, but it can be deeply traumatic. Being shown pornography or discovering it as a child is a form of sexual exploitation of the developing mind and body.

Porn becomes a private teacher. It introduces sexual images before the brain is capable of processing them. It shapes desire before discernment ever has a chance to form. It floods a developing mind with stimulation that it was never designed to handle, wiring arousal to confusion, secrecy, and shame. And the child doesn’t know how to tell anyone, so they learn how to cope but never how to heal.

Then one day, the man looks up and realizes he is Mephibosheth—alive but living in Lo-debar. He’s still
breathing, still functioning, and still spiritually royalty, yet he’s emotionally stalled and psychologically stuck in the place his pain carried him.

Arrested Development

You cannot become the man God has called you to be without addressing the boy you once were. This is not to blame or shame him but to finally tell the truth about what he has dealt with alone. What happened to you wasn’t fair. But healing begins when you stop pretending that it didn’t affect you, because until you can identify where you were hurt, you will continue to live from the place and stage of development that was formed in pain.

You can be sincere, committed, and surrendered, and you can still respond to the world like the boy who learned how to survive before he ever learned how to be safe. Growing older doesn’t mean we grow whole. Time passed, but there were parts of us that never moved forward because they were never tended to.

There is a kind of brokenness that doesn’t look broken at first. You grow up. You get older. You function. You work. You serve. You love God. And then something happens, and your reaction feels bigger than the situation. Something small feels threatening. A look, a tone, or a perceived rejection sends you spiraling. You don’t understand why it hits you so hard. You just know what you feel. This is what arrested development looks like.

When pain or trauma happens at a specific point in your life and goes unaddressed, part of you stops growing there. Your body keeps aging. Your responsibilities increase. But emotionally, mentally and relationally, something inside you is still operating from the age when the wound occurred.

So you end up with grown men carrying the unmet needs of boys. This may show up as a deep fear of abandonment, an intense longing for affirmation, an inability to set boundaries—or setting boundaries that are too rigid—a constant need to keep the peace, or a tendency to appease rather than express. These aren’t adult responses. They are evidence that the needs of our younger selves still require care.

When we look at it through this lens, we begin to see that many of our adult patterns are not acts of rebellion against God. They are attempts to soothe the wounds of a younger self. People pleasing; avoidance; extreme submission; the sexualization of relationships; wanting to feel chosen, safe, wanted, and seen—these behaviors didn’t form because we were evil. They formed because at some point they worked. They kept us safe and connected. They kept us from being abandoned again. But what protected us as boys can imprison us as men.

This is where the story of Mephibosheth continues to speak. He was injured as a child, and though he grew older, the effects of the fall followed him into adulthood. He lived with the posture of someone shaped by what happened early—royal by birth but living as if he expected nothing.

That is what arrested development does. It doesn’t stop time. It suspends growth.

For men who wrestle with same-sex attraction, identifying this is especially important because when part of you is stuck at a younger age, sexual desire often expresses itself from that stage of development. It becomes less about lust or attraction and more about finding the safety, affirmation, or connection that was missing when it mattered most.

This is why healing is emotional and not just spiritual.

Sanctification does not only correct behavior, but it also matures what pain froze. God does not shame the boy who adapted to survive. He reparents the heart and teaches the parts of us that never learned how to be safe, trust, and rest.

While that process is beautiful, it is also deeply disorienting. You may love God deeply and still feel emotionally young in certain areas. That does not mean regeneration failed. It means sanctification is touching a deeper layer.

Arrested development is not permanent. It is interruptible. You are not broken because you are struggling. Some parts of you simply stopped growing when pain told them to, and God is patient enough to meet you there.

Zaire Willis is the co-founder of Brand New You and Executive Pastor of VEIR–The Church at Huntsville, bringing excellence and compassion across worship, administration, and discipleship. Shaped by his own journey of deliverance, he mentors men toward freedom, healing, and purpose rooted in God’s Word. He lives in Huntsville, Alabama, with his wife.

Reginald Robinson, Jr. is the founder of Brand New You and Senior Pastor of VEIR–The Church at Huntsville, known for strategic leadership, prophetic insight, and a heart for discipleship. Formerly in urban planning and workforce development, he now mentors men to break cycles, grow in emotional intelligence, and walk in God-given purpose. He lives in Huntsville, Alabama, with his wife and three children.

Willis and Robinson Jr.’s new book, Born Gay, Born Again: A Journey of Identity, Faith, and Freedom is available on .

Beyond the sacred furnishings of the Holy Place stood the most mysterious and awe-inspiring part of the Tabernacle: the Holy of Holies. After passing the Golden Menorah, the Table of Showbread, and the Altar of Incense, the priest approached the place where the presence of the Lord dwelled between the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant. Yet one final barrier remained before entering that sacred space where God’s voice was heard and His manifest presence revealed: a thick, heavy curtain known as the Veil.

You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.…You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. —Exodus 26:31, 33

The Holy of Holies was so sacred that only the high priest could enter it—and only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Inside was the Ark of the Covenant, and within the Ark were the Ten Commandments—written not by Moses but by the very finger of God. The Lord gave the laws of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, on Mount Sinai, and Moses wrote them down. But the Ten Commandments were different. God Himself inscribed them on tablets of stone. These commandments are so holy that they have formed the moral foundation of Western civilization. In fact, every major religion in the world draws from the moral law found in these ten truths written by God Himself.

Above the Ark were two golden statues of a class of celestial beings, or angels, called cherubim. The Hebrew word cherubim means “near ones.” The cherubim are guardians of God’s holy presence. They are first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 3:24 after the Lord drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their rebellion—after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. —Genesis 3:24

The visible presence of the Lord rested between the cherubim, and when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of Israel, the Lord would speak to him from between the golden cherubim.

To get into that sacred place, the priest had to pass through the thick, weighty Veil. Some say it was so heavy that it took several men to hang it. And here’s something mysterious: There was no slit in the middle. So how did the high priest get through it?

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According to some mystical Jewish traditions, the priest was supernaturally transported—or translated through the Veil into the Holy of Holies. I don’t know whether that, in fact, happened, but the Veil was clearly an obstacle since no one knows for certain how the priest got past it. This is why I believe that for us today, the Veil represents more than a physical barrier. It’s a prophetic shadow of spiritual warfare. It points to the thick, heavy presence of the enemy we must press through if we are to enter the Holy of Holies, the place where we experience the deepest communion with God.

Today, many believers don’t want to talk about spiritual warfare. They love the idea of God’s blessings, but they don’t want to deal with the devil. Some even think Satan and demons are only a problem for unbelievers. But that kind of thinking is like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand—and it’s a dangerous deception.

The devil is real. Demons are real. And they absolutely target believers. If we’re going to lay hold of God, we have to learn how to war in the spirit. We have to learn how to overcome. Seven times in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, Yeshua says, “To him who overcomes.” In Revelation 3:21, He declares, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” We cannot walk in victory without learning how to defeat the enemy.

Building Strength Through Warfare

We even see this principle operating through the life of Yeshua. Before Jesus launched His public ministry, He was baptized in the Jordan River, and the moment was powerful. The heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove, and He heard the Father say, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Luke 3:22). But immediately after that, Yeshua was “led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1–2).

Why would the Spirit of Elohim, the Spirit of God, orchestrate that? Why would He lead Yeshua into the wilderness to battle against Satan? It’s because the Lord was preparing Him. God wanted to strengthen His Son through warfare so He would be able to exercise authority over darkness and be the Healer and Redeemer the Father had ordained Him to be.

After Jesus overcame the devil, Scripture says He returned from the wilderness “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). He began to teach, and people marveled at His authority. But before that power was demonstrated publicly, Jesus first had to fight—and win—privately.

You see, even though He was the Son of God, Yeshua had to grow and learn. The Bible says He “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). He wasn’t born into this world with a microchip in His head that downloaded everything He needed to know. God taught Him. And one of the ways the Father equipped Him for ministry was by having Him face the devil in spiritual warfare.

The Lord strengthened Yeshua in the Spirit as He learned how to overcome the enemy, and He’s going to do the same for us. Father God strengthens our spiritual muscles by putting us in a position to war against the powers of darkness that seek to keep us from entering God’s presence.

Beloved, we can go into the Holy Place in the spirit realm and encounter God. We can be led by His Spirit, represented by the Golden Menorah. We can know His presence is always with us, symbolized by the Table of Showbread. And we can commune with Him in constant prayer, as reflected at the Altar of Incense. But to get into the Holy of Holies—where we experience the closest, most intense fellowship with God—we must first overcome the evil one, just as Yeshua did. There is no other way. That’s what the Bible says: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

Recognize the Tactics of the Enemy

Our fight is not against a physical enemy. It’s in the unseen realm. And the battleground where this war is often fought is in our thoughts.

Let me give you an example. In 1 Chronicles 21, the Bible says Satan moved David to take a census of Israel. David didn’t know Satan was influencing him. He probably thought it was his own idea. Many scholars believe that David’s decision to take a census was rooted in pride or a desire to trust in numbers and military power rather than the Lord. As a result of taking the census, David was disciplined by the Lord, and seventy thousand men of Israel died.

Now get this: David was deceived by a single thought, and that’s still how the enemy works. He puts an idea in your mind, and if you don’t recognize it and reject it, you’ll potentially act on it. That’s why we have to be vigilant.

For so many years, even as a Christian, I lived spiritually passive. I just accepted whatever thought entered my head. I didn’t know I had the power to fight it. I would cry out to God for help and ask Him for mercy, but I didn’t realize I had the power to reject the thought and focus on something else.

I want to encourage you to wake up! Ask the Holy Spirit to make you aware of what you’re thinking about and reject the thoughts that are from your flesh or the enemy. As soon as you recognize a thought isn’t from the Lord, come against it and say, “I reject you, Satan, in Jesus’ name. Get out of my head!”

We see Jesus Himself doing this in Matthew 16:21–23:

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

There is something powerful in opening your mouth and talking back to the devil. When Yeshua was being tempted in the wilderness, every time Satan tried to bring Him into bondage, He countered Satan’s strategy by speaking the Word of God (Matt. 4:3–11; Luke 4:3–13). In Jesus’ day, people didn’t carry around Bibles like we do now. Yeshua had the Scriptures memorized. You could say He had the Word hidden in His heart (Ps. 119:11). But when the devil came against Him, Yeshua didn’t keep the Word in His heart. He didn’t just think about Scripture—He spoke it. Every time Satan came at Him, Jesus responded with “It is written” and quoted the Word of God (Matt. 4; Luke 4). And eventually the devil fled.

This is a principle throughout the Word of God. Romans 10:9 tells us that salvation happens when we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth. And Jesus said in Mark 11:23, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.” We believe, and we speak. That’s how we release the power of God.

If we don’t get engaged in spiritual warfare and learn how to combat the lies of the enemy that enter our thoughts—if we don’t allow ourselves to be trained by the Spirit of God to do spiritual warfare—we’ll never penetrate the Veil and enter the Holy of Holies. Without penetrating through the powers of darkness into God’s light, we will not be able to experience the fullness of the love, power, and beauty of God the way the Father wants us to.

Even as the Israelites had to drive out the Hittites, Amorites, Jebusites, Canaanites, and other enemies before they could enter the Promised Land, so you and I need to take authority over the powers of darkness if we’re going to enter the abundant land of Messiah’s Spirit. If we want to gain entrance into the Holy of Holies, we must learn to take authority over Satan, believe and confess God’s Word, and pray that He strengthens us with divine might in our inner man so we can rise up and drive out the powers of evil, unbelief, and darkness.

The Tabernacle is a pattern for intimacy with God that teaches us how we can know Him. And if we want to know Him in the fullest sense, we have to pierce the Veil! We can’t stick our heads in the ground and pretend the devil is not real. Satan is real, and we need to understand how he’s attacking us. We need to realize that the thoughts we think may not be coming from our subconscious mind or from other people. They may actually be from the enemy.

So we need to be alert. We need to discern when the devil is planting his lies in our minds and cast down every vain thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5). We need to overcome fleshly addictions, which a lot of times are being empowered by Satan. And we need to learn how to keep from being distracted from seeking the Lord, which, again, is often the enemy at work.

When we learn how to defeat the devil, we’re going to encounter God’s Spirit in a deeper way, even as the high priest passed through the Veil and experienced God’s manifest presence in the Holy of Holies.

The Veil Has Been Torn

As previously discussed, under the old covenant, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies—and only once a year on the Day of Atonement, when he would pour the blood of the sacrifice on the altar for the forgiveness of the sins of the children of Israel. But when Yeshua died on the cross and said, “It is finished,” everything changed.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. —Matthew 27:50–51

God supernaturally ripped the Veil that isolated the Holy of Holies. And because that Veil has been torn, it’s no longer just the high priest who can enter God’s presence. Now, through the blood of Yeshua, everyone who has a relationship with Him has access by God’s Spirit into His very presence—not once a year but anytime. Hallelujah!

Beloved, the high priest didn’t casually stroll into the Holy of Holies. He had to get through the thick, heavy Veil—and so do we. Although the curtain may be torn, spiritual warfare remains real. We overcome not by our strength but by the blood of the Lamb, by the Word of our testimony, and by refusing to give the devil a foothold (Rev. 12:11; Eph. 4:27). The battle has already been won. God has given us the victory (1 Cor. 15:57). So let’s press through—and enter in.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider is the host of the popular TV, radio, YouTube and podcast broadcast Discovering the Jewish Jesus. His teaching is straightforward, authentic and revelational. The anointing on his ministry carries an eternal weight of glory that the Father uses to transform the souls of His elect. Rabbi Schneider is the author of several books, including The Book of Revelation Decoded, To Know Him by Name, A Journey Into Divine Love, Messianic Prophecy Revealed and Called to Breakthrough. His latest book, Decoding the Torah, is available now on .

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” (Isa. 10:27, KJV).

A vital part of the new-wine doctrine that God is restoring is the revelation and belief in the anointing. The anointing is the power of God. Miracles happen by that power. God’s primary way of releasing miracles is by placing His anointing within His servants and then flowing through them as they walk in their God-given authority.

God performed signs, wonders and miracles in Egypt through Moses by splitting the sea and delivering His people by His power. It was when Moses spoke or lifted his staff that these miracles were released.

God also performed mighty wonders through Elijah. Through him, God multiplied flour and oil for a starving widow, called down fire from heaven, raised the dead, and parted waters. Elijah’s spiritual son, Elisha, received his mantle, and God used him as well to perform many miracles. By God’s power, Elisha multiplied food, provided oil for a widow, healed a man of leprosy, raised the dead, and parted waters. Even after Elisha’s death the anointing still rested upon his bones—so much so that when a dead man’s body touched them, the man came back to life!

In the New Testament, Jesus performed many miracles—healing the sick, casting out demons, opening blind eyes, opening deaf ears, and raising the dead. Everywhere Jesus ministered, the casting out of demons and the healing of the sick always accompanied His teaching. “So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons” (Mark 1:39, NLT).

Jesus then told His disciples that they would do the same works He did, and even greater (John 14:12). He commissioned them as apostles, instructing: “Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” (Matt. 10:7–8, NLT). The apostles and other fivefold ministers throughout the book of Acts did the same works as Jesus, just as He said would happen!

People need freedom from demons and healing from sickness today just as much as they did in the time of Jesus and the early church in Acts. Healing and deliverance should not be limited to a few ministries or happen only once a year at a conference. Every church should be healing the sick and casting out demons by the power of God. The sheep (believers) need more than teaching—they need the power of God.

The Anointing Destroys the Yoke

It is the anointing that destroys the yoke (Isa. 10:27). Oppression, curses, sickness and strongholds can be broken only by God’s power. At times, God may heal or deliver someone as they cry out to Him alone in their room, but His primary way of releasing miracles is through His anointed servants—those through whom His power flows.

In the book of Acts, believers were continually in awe of the signs and wonders performed by the apostles (Acts 2:43). God’s method of releasing His anointing is through the fivefold ministers He appoints, equipping them with higher levels of anointing as the foundation of the church. Apostles and prophets in particular are often entrusted with greater measures of power to establish His kingdom on earth. The Bible says, “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul” (Acts 19:11).

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In the same way, God anoints apostles and prophets today to perform extraordinary miracles. This does not mean that every apostle or prophet will perform extraordinary miracles, just as not every one of them in the Bible did. The level of anointing on each fivefold minister depends on their specific calling and their measure of faith.

Scripture declares, “These signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons…they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17–18, NKJV). Every believer is called to walk in God’s power, yet among the fivefold ministers, some carry greater faith, and through that faith God uses them as vessels to perform greater works.

In the old-wine doctrine, people tend to resist God’s working through His servants in power. Many believers today want to see God perform miracles, yet they become uncomfortable when those miracles happen through a vessel. What’s striking about this mindset is that it looks nothing like the church we see in the book of Acts. Every miracle recorded in the New Testament was performed through a person—a servant of God whom He chose to anoint and use.

In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees’ hearts were hardened to the truth and beauty of what God was doing. God was healing, delivering, and reviving people through Jesus, but rather than rejoicing, the Pharisees were fixated on finding fault. When Jesus healed the man who had been blind from birth, instead of praising God for the miracle, the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a sinner and of breaking the Sabbath. They even interrogated the man who had been healed, trying to get him to agree with their accusations (John 9). The pride, skepticism, and jealousy in the Pharisees’ hearts blinded them to who Jesus truly was. They refused to acknowledge or honor Him because He walked in power, and they did not.

Because it is rare today to see vessels of God walking in true power, and because there are still prideful hearts like the Pharisees’, it has become common for people to do exactly what they did to Jesus. Some even go so far as to accuse God’s servants of operating by demonic power, just as the Pharisees did to Jesus. After Jesus delivered a man who was blind and mute because of a demon, and the man was able to see and speak, the Pharisees falsely accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan: ​​“But when the Pharisees overheard what the people were saying about the miracle, they said, ‘He casts out demons by the power of Satan, the prince of demons!’” (Matt. 12:24, TPT).

God will not be manipulated, and He will never go against His Word. To act like the Pharisees—refusing to accept God’s moving in power through His chosen vessels—is truly a wicked way. For the power of God to be restored in the body of Christ, we must come into alignment with God’s ways of releasing His power.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

—2 Chronicles 7:14, KJV

There are many churches today where members remain in bondage because there is no anointing present to deliver them. If pastors would humbly acknowledge where God is moving in power today and lead their congregations to those places, the people could be set free! And if ministers would humble themselves to recognize that they need what an anointed servant of God carries—if they would seek impartation—then God would pour out His anointing upon them. They too would begin to deliver the oppressed and heal the sick within their own churches.

This is happening even now! I’ve seen many pastors come humbly to my church, and as God led me to release impartation to them, they began to walk in the power of God. Today, people are being healed and set free regularly in their own congregations. But many ministers still struggle to humble themselves and come to the place where God can truly entrust them with His anointing.

Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:11, NLT). You must first go low before God can lift you high. He cannot pour out His mighty anointing upon those who refuse to humble themselves.

In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees held their congregations back from encountering Jesus in His love and His power. Tragically, many leaders today are acting in the same ways as the Pharisees of the past. But God is saying, “If you will humble yourselves and genuinely pray—if you will truly seek after My heart—you will hear My voice guiding you to My revival and to where I am moving in power.”

If leaders and believers alike would humble themselves and pray to hear God’s voice, they would find Him guiding them to align under the modern-day Peters and Pauls. There, they would receive impartation, be healed, and be set free, and in turn, they would carry that same power to bring healing and freedom to others, releasing revival and healing across the land.

Divine Structure

In God’s kingdom, there is a divine government structure. He gives every believer authority, yet each one carries a different measure of authority and a specific area where they are called to exercise it. This is similar to how government operates on earth. For example, in America there is a president, senators, governors, judges, police officers, teachers, and parents. Each one operates within their assigned sphere of authority. Parents have authority over their children. As they lovingly discipline and guide them, those children grow to become assets to society, helping to advance the nation’s ideals of freedom, equality, democracy, and the pursuit of happiness.

Within the sphere of school systems, teachers carry authority over their students. Police officers uphold order and justice in their jurisdiction, and through their rightful use of authority, the values of the nation are protected and preserved. The same principle applies to judges, governors, senators, the president and even those in the workplace, such as business owners and leaders.

Each one, when operating rightly in their God-given authority, contributes to the greater good and the advancement of purpose. God’s vision is for all believers to become vessels of Him, walking in authority, speaking His Word, moving mountains, and revealing His love. As we live this way, heaven is brought to earth, and transformation comes to the world, one soul at a time.

God assigns each of us different functions to fulfill His divine vision. He has appointed apostles and prophets as the foundation for equipping the body of Christ and establishing the work of God. To them He entrusts the highest levels of spiritual authority.

As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.

—Acts 5:15–16, NLT

This scripture reveals that there was clear recognition of Peter’s position within the kingdom government — as an apostle who carried an extraordinarily high level of anointing, similar to Paul (Acts 19:11). The reason why all were being healed was the people simply aligned themselves with God’s order of releasing His power, through His kingdom structure. They recognized Peter’s place of authority in that divine order and positioned themselves to receive the anointing flowing through him.

As people came to where Peter was ministering, demons and sicknesses had no choice but to leave. Peter carried a level of anointing that overpowered even the highest ranks of demonic forces. God has made it truly this simple for people to be healed and set free. It is religion (operating in the old wine) that makes it complicated. It is religion that closes the door to God’s help.

Jesus was in the same city as the Pharisees, and it would have been so simple for them to receive salvation, healing, freedom, and transformation. All they needed to do was humble themselves and show up where Jesus was ministering. The power of God would have touched them if they had just positioned their hearts to receive. They were physically close to Jesus yet spiritually far from Him because of pride.

It is just as simple and easy to encounter Jesus’ power today, to be healed, delivered, and receive impartation. God has brought a global revival! But when pride fills the heart, it blocks the flow of God. Instead of stepping into revival, many remain outside of it. They are still praying for revival while resisting the very move God has already released.

God gives apostles and prophets the highest levels of anointing, and He entrusts pastors, evangelists, and teachers with the next level of authority. This does not mean that every apostle carries the same measure of anointing or authority. The amount of anointing varies according to each person’s specific calling and their level of faith. For example, a truly anointed pastor leading a large congregation may carry a greater anointing and authority than an anointed apostle who is called to minister to a smaller group. Each of the fivefold offices carries and exercises authority within their own spiritual territory. Likewise, every believer has authority within their own God-given dominion. Each believer is given authority over their personal spiritual life to resist the devil, reject his lies, and make him flee.

However, spiritual authority over others, to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to shepherd, or to teach is not given to everyone. God must first see that a person is trustworthy before He increases their level of authority. We are all called to share the good news, but not all are called to be teachers or fivefold ministers (James 3:1). As Ephesians 4:11 says, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers” (NKJV).

God releases the greatest levels of authority and anointing to apostles and prophets, followed by evangelists, pastors, and teachers, so that they may pour out that anointing into the believers. This is the divine principle of impartation, as seen when Elijah released his mantle to Elisha. Just as a student needs a teacher who possesses greater wisdom and understanding in order to grow, so it is in the kingdom of God. God raises up fivefold ministers and fills them with great anointing, wisdom, and spiritual knowledge so that believers may learn, grow, and receive impartation through them as they humbly submit under their leadership. This is God’s divine structure.

The power of God will be restored to many more churches and believers as leaders and all believers embrace God’s kingdom government structure. Through this divine order, miracles flow mightily, and impartation is released, empowering believers to walk in the same anointing and authority.

Order

God is also restoring divine order to the body of Christ. He is a God of order (1 Cor. 14:40). Where there is no order, chaos and confusion take over, resulting in division. The Bible warns about this: “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand’” (Matt. 12:25).

This is a spiritual principle: The more united a group is, the more powerful it becomes; the more divided, the weaker it becomes. When division enters a church, it limits what God can do. His power cannot move mightily in a house that is not in unity. There are several ways a church can fall out of order, one of which is a lack of submission to leadership. A football team is led by a coach—one head coach who carries the vision for how the team will play and win. The coach determines the starting lineup, the plays, and the adjustments needed when the opposing team takes the lead.

The team’s success depends on its unity, on every player’s willingness to respect and follow the coach’s direction. If even one player becomes rebellious and prideful and believes they know better than the coach, it weakens the entire team. Imagine that player suddenly giving different directions right before the next play; confusion and division would take over, almost guaranteeing defeat. This is exactly how it is in the church. For every true leader of a ministry, God gives a specific vision and anoints that person to lead. He equips them with the grace to teach, to handle difficult situations with wisdom and discernment, and to navigate spiritual warfare and persecution against the church.

Unfortunately, a lack of honor for, awareness of, and submission to the anointing upon the leader God has chosen is common in many churches today. We are in a spiritual war, carrying out a divine mission. As the body of Christ, we are a revival army—and every army must honor its captain. In the same way, you must have reverence for the leader God has placed over your church. This is not something to be done lightly but with the fear of God.

It’s common in many churches for people to treat church as something casual, forgetting the sacred purpose and weight of what God is doing there. It is also common for some to act like prideful players, believing they know better than the leader, assuming authority, and leading others into confusion. But when every believer comes into alignment, united under godly leadership, the church becomes strong, moving forward in power, advancing the kingdom of God, and destroying the works of the devil with great speed.

Order in the church also includes honoring and following the principles of God. In many places, especially within the old-wine way, people pray however they feel led, according to what they were taught, or by imitating what they have seen others do. But God has specific principles for how demons are to be cast out and how the sick are to be healed.

We are to model our prayers after Jesus and the apostles in the book of Acts. They ministered by walking in their authority in Christ. They didn’t beg God to deliver someone. They commanded demons to go. Their prayers were simple and full of power, without striving, theatrics, or loud performance. Because they truly carried the power of God, their simple words released mighty results. When Jesus commanded a demon to leave, it was with few words. Throughout Scripture, when Jesus, the apostles, or other ministers prayed for the sick or oppressed, it was always one person ministering to another or to a crowd—never several people laying hands at once or shouting commands together.

We see this principle clearly in Acts 5:15: “As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.”

Another example is found in Acts 8:6–7: “When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.”

And in Acts 19:11–12: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

In all these examples, miracles occurred as one servant of God walked in their authority in Christ, and the anointing flowed through them to touch the people. When Jesus prayed for the sick and delivered the oppressed, He demonstrated this principle of walking in authority.

The principle of authority means that when one person carries delegated authority over a group, their word, instruction, or command is honored and carried out by those under that authority. Students in a classroom understand that they are to obey their teacher. If a single police officer gives a command to a crowd, people listen. When a mayor, governor, or president issues a mandate, citizens understand they must follow it.

It works the same way in the spiritual realm. When demons recognize that a leader — or believers within a church — are not operating in true spiritual authority, they exploit the lack of order. They find loopholes and hide. It’s like a classroom where the teacher doesn’t understand or exercise their authority. In those cases the classroom becomes chaotic and students take advantage of the situation.

These two areas in the church — submission to godly leadership and praying according to God’s principles — are among the main places where disorder has taken root. But in this time of revival, God is restoring divine order to His church.

As apostles teach the principles of the kingdom of God and the importance of order, and as prophets release the fear of the Lord, spiritual eyes will be opened to understand the true meaning and necessity of walking in God’s order.

Kathryn Krick is a rising online influencer, apostolic minister, and the lead pastor of 5F Church in Los Angeles, where miracles happen and people are healed, delivered, and transformed as the prophetic anointing flows powerfully. She travels the world ministering with a passion to see people encounter the power of God, be set free, walk in abundant life, and be transformed into mature, anointed vessels of God. Her new book, Ignite Revival, is available on .