In one of Jonathan Cahn’s sermons, he reveals the connection between something as simple as eating Doritos and the things God is still needing to change in our lives.

Cahn points out that when we fill ourselves up on junk food, we lose our desire for what is healthy and necessary for ourselves to live a clean lifestyle. So, it is the same with our spiritual lives as well. This illustration became clear to him after being convicted of his eating habits from none other than a small child.

“I hear a voice saying, ‘Jonathan!'” Cahn said. “It’s a little kid about 15 feet away from me…he says, ‘What are you doing?’ I said ‘what do you mean?’ He says, ‘You’re eating junk food. You should not be eating junk food.'”

Cahn said that this scorn from the child, and later his sister, has a lot to do with the things in our life that we want to indulge in that we know God needs to shape and change in our lives.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

“The untilled ground is the ground in your life that you have not let God change or touch,” Cahn said. “A secret sin, a habit, whatever that is, the most; the part you have not let God change, even the most ungodly part, that is your untilled ground.”

He says that these are the places and things that we have yet to let the Lord come in and change in us to make ourselves more like Christ and bear His fruit. However, Cahn says that if we allow God into these deep and hidden places, it is the area that the Lord will use the most.

“From that is going to come the most growth when you give it to God,” Cahn said. “The areas of your life you want growth, the areas of your life that are going to have the most growth is when you give those places to God and God come in because that is your untilled ground. That’s what’s going to bear the most fruit once it comes into God’s presence.”

Cahn shares that if we surrender our greatest sins and struggles to the Lord, He will use them to catapult our lives to something greater.

“The area of greatest change are those sins that you hang on to or even just that attitude or that scar you just don’t let God touch. That’s where the greatest thing is going to be.”

Cahn says the best thing that we can do to allow God to do the work that He has to do in us is to write down the things that we have not allowed God to touch to identify what ground needs to be broken up and tilled.

“In God you have to press out and you have to step out even if though you’ll fall on your face, you got to go out,” Cahn said. “Peter could never walk on water if he didn’t do that. That’s where the new ground is, that’s where you’re going to have new victories, that’s where it’s going to be revived. Step out of your routine.”

Just as Cahn shares this key to growing in the Lord, he opens up even more fantastic mysteries to help us walk soundly with the Lord in his latest book, The Josiah Manifesto.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

Jose Hernandez’s experience of dying and coming back to life changed him forever. What he thought was just a void into the darkness turned out to be an afterlife where he received the shock of his life.

After having the most peaceful and mesmerizing experience of seeing the heavenly realm, Hernandez saw his father, which completely changed his perspective and mended a broken heart.

“I see a man in the water. He’s like knee deep in the water and he’s got six children holding on to his right hand in a string, right? In a line. And one child on his left hand,” Hernandez said. “And I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty amazing! Let me go down and see what that’s all about. So I moved down, and maybe I’m about 10 feet…15 feet away? And he turns around. That was my father.”

Hernandez shared that he and his father had a rough relationship with one another, and there was very little affection or appreciation shared between the two of them.

“It was amazing to see him, but what was more amazing was that, me and my father had a very, very hard relationship. We used to bump heads tremendously…I don’t ever remember saying to my father, in life that, ‘I love you,’ or he to me.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

However, this reunion in heaven allowed Hernandez to heal the damaged pieces inside of him and repair what was broken between the two of them.

“What an opportunity to say to my father what I could never say to him in life,” Hernandez said. “And so we had this exchange that was very emotional to me…but I understood that he loved me. And I think he understood that I loved him. So, it kind of reunited us in a strange way.”

Hernandez had the opportunity to not only reconnect with his father, but he also had the chance to experience the perfect peace and beauty of heaven itself.

“My expectation when I died was that I would encounter nothing and become nothing,” Hernandez said. “Now I’m beginning to see things that were mind-boggling, in the sense that this color was alive!”

Part of the beauty Hernandez saw was the striking landscapes all around him.

“I saw these mountains, and I could see the shadow that the clouds make on the mountains, and they were so dark and contrast, and I could see these wild herds of animals just running and I found that I was kind of hovering. I saw this amazing vista, and I’m looking up and I’m seeing that mountain, and I’m realizing that I’m flying.”

It’s stories like Hernandez’s that show how our lives here on this earth is just the beginning of our eternal story. Bill Wiese’s powerful testimony of how he spent 23 minutes in hell also provides the reality that just as there is a heaven, there is also a hell.

“My experience gave me an eternal perspective,” Wiese previously said. “This life is short, but He will never forget what we do for Him. It should cause every Christian to want to please God and fulfill His will.”

Each of us will face the day before the Lord where we will either hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” or “depart from me; I never knew you.” It is our time here on this earth right now that we must decide to either follow Him forever, or forever be separated from the risen King.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

It seems as though no matter where you go or turn to, someone always has an opinion or unsolicited advice to give. We see them on social media, news and blogs, and it can be easy to get caught up into what others have to say about our lives.

But what about God?

How can we know if the Holy Spirit is speaking to us? God’s voice tends to be much quieter and softer than the noise of the world. And unfortunately, there are some very real spiritual forces vying for our attention. Scripture says that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but rather we war against principalities and powers. While God can and does speak to us in many different ways, there are a few keys that we can use to discern if something is from God or if it’s from another spirit.

The Holy Spirit will never lead you away from godly wisdom.

The first thing to know about the Holy Spirit is He will never direct you away from a path of godly wisdom. In Proverbs we learn that God has a specific plan and direction for our lives. Steering us away from this path isn’t something God would do—it’s something from the enemy.

Proverbs 3:5-6 reads: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

There are two things that the Lord is never going to lead you away from: He is never going to tell you something contradictory to what’s in His Word, and He’s never going to tell you a lie about what mercy looks like.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

So, what kind of spirit might want to take you away from the proper direction God has for His children? In 1 Kings 22 we learn about a lying spirit that was to go and persuade Ahab to go to Ramoth Gilead.

Verses 21-22 read: “Then a spirit came forth and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ “The LORD said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.'” It wasn’t the Holy Spirit who would be speaking to Ahab, but it was a lying spirit. A lying spirit will lead someone away from the godly path that Proverbs refers to, and instead of leading them toward spiritual refreshment and renewal in Christ, it will lead them to destruction.

The Holy Spirit will only testify to the glory of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ Spirit and He simply cannot testify to Jesus being anything other than Lord and Savior. The Father, Son and Spirit are one in the Trinity, so it’s impossible for something to be from the Holy Spirit and contradictory to the words of the Father or the Son. One thing you can ask yourself is, “Does this glorify Jesus?”

Not all spirits we encounter are going to give Jesus the glory he deserves as Lord. First John 4:1-3 is one of the best places to read about how to test spirits. Verses 2-3 specifically read: “This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world.”

To deny who Jesus is comes from an antichrist spirit. However, the Holy Spirit will never lead you astray from the truth of who God is.

The Holy Spirit will refine you while other spirits will tell you what you want to hear.

Something else to know about false spirits is that they not only deceive people away from Jesus as Lord, but they focus on telling people exactly what they want to hear. The problem with that, is God is the God of loving correction. Proverbs 3:12 tells us that the Lord corrects those who He loves. Sometimes we need conviction. Sometimes we need to be steered away from sin. Love without correction isn’t love at all. It’s the acceptance of sin.

Psalm 66:10 tells us, “For You, O God, have proved us; You have refined us, as silver is refined.”

If we look back at Ahab, he didn’t desire to hear the truth from a true prophet of God, instead, he only wanted to hear prophecies that sounded pleasing to the ear. How often do we do this in our own day and age?

We seek out prophecies hoping to hear that we will be healthy, wealthy and rich. However, God doesn’t work the way a fortune teller does. He places us into the fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego because transformation doesn’t happen without trials. Character and faith are produced in the middle of the storms, and it is from these experiences that we can share a genuine testimony with others. The only way to become more like Jesus is to carry our cross and follow Him.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

In one of his latest messages, Evangelist John Ramirez exposed the price behind temptation as he asks one of the most important questions about the enemy’s tactics: “What is he tempting you with?”

“Temptation comes with a price,” Ramirez said. “What is the price of your temptation? Temptation comes with a price because the biggest weapon the devil [has] against the body of Christ is temptation.”

Ramirez warns that just as in the biblical stories we see about angels falling from heaven after Satan’s temptation, Adam’s fall into sin and Peter’s denial of Jesus three times, we too are tempted by the devil to fall for his schemes that lead to destruction.

“Temptation knows your price,” Ramirez said. “The devil’s number one weapon against the body of Christ is temptation. If you’re not tempted, you won’t open the door.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Ramirez points out that the devil knows what he does and does not have access to. We have to be careful not only of keeping the doors open to Satan’s attacks, but of knowing what he is likely to go after to tempt us away from the Lordship of Jesus.

“See, the devil knows your price. You know why? Because the devil knows one thing he can’t mess with—your inner man—because your inner man is in agreement with the Holy Spirit, but he can mess with your soulish man.”

Ramirez shares that one of the biggest ways we are tempted is by chasing after influence instead of spiritually maturing in the fruit of the spirit.

“Jesus said in Matthew 14, ‘Depart from Me; I never knew you’ because you know why? Jesus said that because we are operating in influence and gifts in the house of God, not by the anointing and the fruits of the kingdom,” Ramirez said. “You will know me by my what? Not by my gifts they will know you; they will know you by my fruits…without fruits, Jesus will never know you.”

John’s point about the fruit of the Spirit goes even deeper. He believes lukewarm Christians today aren’t just seeking out to be popular and to have influence, but rather, instead of chasing after the Lord and His Word, they are chasing prophetic words more than they are running toward the Creator.

“You know what people do? They take advantage of the prophetic,” Ramirez said. “You know how they take advantage of the prophetic? Because you rather not read your Bible, fast and sacrifice…because you want a shortcut. You might as well go to the medium.”

Ramirez’s convicting message should strike a cord in the heart of all Christians. What is it that we are after? Are we trying to spiritually grow so we can enter into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus? What is it that we are most motivated by? May our hearts always be captivated by the One who gave His life for us.

To discover how to pray more like Jesus and seek after him, you can learn more through John Ramirez’s book, Fire Prayers.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

At the latest “The Send” conference, the Holy Spirit gripped the hearts of the next generation to spread the gospel.

Influencer and revivalist Joel Bomberger shared the incredible moment on TikTok when 680 people made their way to the altar to missionally commit their lives to spreading the Word of God to the places and people across the globe who have not yet heard of Jesus.

“I will never forget this moment!” Bomberger wrote on Facebook and Instagram. “This generation is giving Jesus their yes!

Bomberger recounted how one young man in particular moved forward to the altar, crawling and sobbing as the Holy Spirit gripped his heart for the lost.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Bomberger shared that from the event, over 1,800 people committed to go deeper in the Word of God and over 800 others also committed to be a light to their neighbors.

“The lives that will hear the Gospel from around the globe because of the hundreds that said yes last Saturday cannot be quantified,” Bomberger wrote.

With the explosion of the Asbury revival that happened earlier this year and the box office success of Jesus Revolution, it’s clear that God is tugging on the hearts of the next generation to know Him and to tell the world about Him.

In an exclusive interview with Charisma News, evangelist Nick Hall shared that what started at Asbury would not be the end of the movement. Instead, he shared that it was just the beginning.

“God is moving. It’s not over. It’s just starting,” Hall said. “I only left Asbury because I felt like I had to bring it home.”

Hall also shared that the Holy Spirit’s fire is spreading in ways that may not make sense to us right off the bat.

“We’re living in a moment now that doesn’t make any sense. If you try to make sense of it, you’re just gonna miss it. Because it’s God. It’s His Spirit. It’s just kindness, it’s His mercy. But none of those things are disconnected.”

The words of Joel 2:28 are ringing truer each day as the Lord promised to pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and that sons and daughters would prophesy. As we inch closer to the end, God’s Spirit is stirring people to share His Word as He places clear and accurate visions and dreams inside of them that reflect Jesus as the one true Messiah.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

For many, the church serves as a spiritual home and a place of growth. However, even within the sanctuary of the church, hurt and disappointment can arise, causing pain and confusion. Natalie Runion is a gifted worship leader and author, who is shedding light on the complex issue of church hurt and offers a path toward healing and restoration.

“The Lord has given us the blueprint to how to receive people into the family of God,” Runion said. “That is to love God and to love people. And what does love look like? It looks like meeting people where they are when they show up, not trying to adjust behavior before we address belief.”

Runion points out that the church has been so focused on living perfect lives that it has been a detriment to many when support is needed or someone does something out of line with the Word of God. Instead of leading people back toward Christ, many feel shamed and left behind.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

“The church is so behavior-focused that if we don’t change the way that we do church within our own walls we are going to continue to prove to the world that we are not the safe place that we say that we are,” Runion said.

It’s important to recognize that in the same way no one can live up to a holy standard on their own, no one wants to be on the receiving side of backlash from the church. How we handle hurt, though, is up to us.

“We don’t walk into a church and say, ‘Oh, please somebody hurt me;’ that hurt happens to us. Abuse happens to us,” Runion said. “We don’t choose to be hurt, but offense is a choice. We choose to pick up an offense.”

Runion believes that offense becomes a deep issue when we allow hurt, frustration and anger to consume us. John Bevere’s “The Bait of Satan,” for instance, discusses the very real impact that the root problem of unforgiveness can have on our spiritual health. A heart of unforgiveness will bleed over into every other area of life. It scars our hearts and keeps us from the freedom that forgiveness can bring into our lives.

While it is the church’s job to be a place of healing and peace, it is still made up of broken people who all have fallen short of the glory of God. It is Christ alone who we must place our faith and trust in.

“I should probably investigate why that happened rather than going to the dark place of ‘everybody hates me and everybody’s against me,’ and that’s what’s happening when we’re picking up offense; the enemy is just using it to create these false scenarios the Bible calls them high things, anything contradictory to the Word of God that we’re commanded to pull down as well as to shake off all those things that so easily keep us from running our race,” Runion said.  

The church is meant to be a refuge for all those weary and heavy laden, but it is only through Christ and Christ alone that we can truly be set free from the grip of offense and bitterness. Without Him, none of us can experience a life of abundance and true forgiveness.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

In a recent message, Troy Black shared a profound vision that speaks directly to end-times living and the plans and purposes God has for believers in this day and age.

Black’s vision included a city skyline being engulfed by a wave of darkness coming from one side, accompanied by an image of a seven-headed dragon emerging from the shadows. Black believes this vision correlates with the Scriptures of Revelation 13, pointing to a deeper message about the end times.

“I was praying, ‘Lord, what is this, what am I seeing?'” Black said. “And this is what the Holy Spirit said. He said, ‘It’s coming. It’s already here.’ And then He said, ‘What’s been happening over these last few years is the beginning of a pattern, an increase in birth pains. A shift.”

This statement matches perfectly with what Jesus says about the end times in Matthew 24 where He describes famines, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars as the beginning of the birth pains, but that the end would not be here yet.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Black then dug further into Revelation 13:1-2 to speak specifically about his vision. These verses read: “I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on his horns, and blasphemous names on his heads. The beast which I saw was like a leopard. His feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.”

So, what does Black’s vision have to do with Revelation 13 and the birth pains of the end times? Black says it’s about the spirit of the Antichrist.

“God may just be using this imagery of a seven-headed dragon to represent the same idea that’s happening here in Revelation in a simpler way,” Black said. “Part of the Antichrist spirit is always going to be attached with blasphemy against God, against the true living God. See, the devil and the Antichrist spirit in the end times are okay with people worshipping a god; he’s just not okay with people worshipping the God.”

Black says that it is the Antichrist spirit that is leading people to reject Jesus and to take their eyes off of who He is.

“This is the next thing I heard the Holy Spirit say: ‘The seven heads will try to control the seven leaders of the seven arenas of society,'” Black said.

God has purposed Christians to have an affect on each arena of society so that His goodness, truth and light would be known throughout the entire world. Just because there is an Antichrist spirit in the world doesn’t mean that we are supposed to forfeit the message of the gospel and give up. Instead, it is the perfect time for Christians to do as Jesus said and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15) until He returns.

“The next thing He said, ‘push back the darkness as you celebrate the light,'” Black said. “The goodness of God shown through the message of grace delivered faithfully to you.”

Black emphasized the importance of Christians engaging with the world, not to dominate it, but to make a positive impact for God’s kingdom. He also encouraged individuals to rise up, letting the Holy Spirit ignite their passion and purpose to share their testimony regardless of what is happening in the world. As the end approaches and many will look away from Christ, we must be vigilant and keep our eyes locked on Him. {eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

In one of his latest videos, Jonathan Cahn unveiled the ancient mystery behind the “Barbie” movie as it skyrockets to the top of box office charts. In a world where entertainment and pop culture play a pivotal role in shaping societal norms and values, the release of this seemingly innocent movie has had far greater spiritual implications than anyone might have thought.

“The fact that Hollywood could take that doll and turn it into an attack on half of the human race, on marriage, on life itself is a sign of just how sickened our culture has become,” Cahn said.

Cahn points out that the movie is blatant in its attack against marriage, and particularly on men. He suggests that there is an even darker mystery behind Barbie’s cheerful façade.

“This has to be the most widely distributed anti-man movie ever made. Never before has there been a major motion picture directed at children, girls, to the effect of indoctrinating them against men. Just a few years ago this motion picture could not even have been made as a children’s movie, but it shows you how rapidly our culture is changing, or rather, deteriorating.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

The dialogue within the movie, laced with feminist rhetoric, raises concerns about its potential influence on impressionable young minds. For example, the film opens with a scene showing girls smashing their baby dolls, symbolizing the death of motherhood and the distinct roles of men and women in society.

“In this movie, the idea of men and women actually loving each other or needing each other or complementing each other is an anathema. Marriage is rejected for the sake of the sisterhood. Women must separate themselves from men in favor of being with women. Thus, women are not to need men as they can fulfill all the functions of manhood by themselves without men, and men likewise are not to need women as they can presumably fulfill all the functions of womanhood by themselves without women,” Cahn said.

Besides the tear down of the family unit and the value of both sexes, the Barbie movie also infiltrates the LGBTQ agenda in with a transgender Barbie character. However, Cahn says that this is just the surface of what’s going on in the film. Instead, he points to a deeper, spiritual issue that connects all of these elements together.

“What does Barbie have to do with an ancient Mesopotamian goddess?” Cahn asks. “I wrote of this key in ‘The Return of the Gods.’ When a civilization turns away from God, it doesn’t become neutral or empty when it turns away from the Spirit of God…one of the most ancient of these spirits that I reveal in the book is that of a goddess known in the Bible as Ash Torah.”

Ash Torah was known as Ishtar in Babylon.

“Ishtar was the goddess of sexuality, sexual immorality. She was always depicted as a young woman on her own, independent,” Cahn said. “She was often depicted as taking roles traditionally assumed by men. She was not the goddess of marriage. She was rarely linked to marriage; her ways were generally averse to marriage or motherhood.”

Cahn not only points out the character trait similarities between Ishtar and Barbie, but also says that ancient Mesopotamian culture was filled with her images and idols, including little figurines that people kept in their houses—just as girls today would own a Barbie doll.

Cahn reveals that just as Barbie is famous for having Ken as her boyfriend, so too is Ishtar known for having a boyfriend named Tammuz.

“Tammuz was always a secondary character, always in the shadow of Ishtar in effect, an accessory to Ishtar’s mythology,” Cahn said. “Ishtar dominates and subjugates her lover. She even destroys Tammuz. In the movie, ‘Barbie,’ Ken is vanquished along with the other men.”

Cahn says the breakdown of the two genders is what leads Ishtar to trick society into believing that men can become women and women can become men.

The parallels between Barbie and the goddess are striking. As we’ve seen media evolve over time, female characters receive more praise if they dominate over men while male characters are degraded and seen as ignorant or worthless. Now is the moment to recognize the spiritual forces at work, and to see both men and women with the purpose that God has created each with.

To pre-order Jonathan Cahn’s newest book, The Josiah Manifesto, go to BooksbyJonathanCahn.com.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

Church hurt is a poignant reality that many believers face on their spiritual journey with Jesus. As followers of Christ, we are called to love both our Savior and the people He loves. This often leads us to gather and worship together in churches. However, there is always the potential for division and offense anytime we are in groups of other people.

The personal experience and reality of church hurt gripped the heart of Natalie Runion, leading her to start a ministry and write a book called, “Raised to Stay.” In an exclusive interview with Charisma Magazine Online, Runion shared her journey through church hurt and how Christians can be the hands and feet of Jesus when people need it the most.

“Being a pastor’s kid growing up in it, and then going into ministry right out of college, I kept thinking, ‘Well, surely when I become an adult everybody will just magically grow up,’” Runion said. “And I was actually wrong. You know, the older we get, the more into church we get, the more leadership roles we take. But ultimately, the more people we love, the more people we let in, the more people we are in community with, that hurt ratio to relationships and all of that, it grows.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Runion believes one of the key reasons we are seeing so much church hurt at this present time is because of the church culture cultivated in the 1980s and 90s. Those who grew up in the church at this time are currently dealing with the negative consequences of steep abuse cases as documented in shows like “Happy Shiny People.”

“So now, thanks to social media…abusers are coming out and they are being prosecuted; they’re being dealt with and people who were abused—honestly and truly abused by those leaders and organizations are getting help, and they’re getting their day in court,” Runion said.

However, while there have been actual abuse cases, Runion wants to point out that more often than not, documentaries and other means of communicating hardships within the church are tools used by the enemy to keep people away from community with fellow believers.

“I think it feeds a narrative that the enemy wants fed,” Runion said. “That is, you can’t trust leadership, you can’t trust the church, you can’t trust each other. So, the goal of the enemy is to divide the church, to divorce the church from within, so that we don’t have a chance to be that light on the hill that we’re called to be.”

Runion believes this kind of narrative is feeding into people’s fears to flee from the church instead of running toward it during their times of trouble. However, Runion distinguishes the difference between knowing when to stay and when God is calling you to leave a church.

“A lot of people in our generation saw our parents get hurt by the church, and then just continue to get abused by those same churches and leadership,” Runion said. “And so it’s almost like this trauma response of, ‘I’m not going to let them hurt me again.’ And for me, I had to be so deeply in love with the people God had called me to serve, that they were worth fighting for if I was simply hurt…there’s a difference between packing up our toys and just leaving and then knowing that God is calling us out to go because we can’t produce good fruit in unhealthy soil.”

Remember that church hurt does not have to define your story. Instead, it’s an opportunity for growth, healing and deeper connection with our Savior. Just as Jesus overcame betrayal and fulfilled His mission, you too can overcome church hurt and continue to shine His light in our dark world.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

In the midst of life’s challenges, unexpected moments can spark profound transformations. For Greg and Tai Locke, the Holy Spirit led them on a journey of pain and faith to transform their lives and birthed an unprecedented deliverance ministry.

Greg and Tai’s first step toward deliverance ministry happened within their own marriage. Tai was in the middle of devoting her time to her ailing mother, and with each and every day her own struggle with excruciating back pain grew more fervent.

“When I started caring for my mother toward the end of her life, that pain became excruciating,” Locke said. “I would sleep on our hardwood floors because it was the only way that I could get pain relief.”

Greg saw the immense pain his wife was drowning in, but declaring healing and deliverance were far from his expertise at the time. Finally, one night, the Holy Spirit spoke to him.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

“The Holy Spirit spoke to me,” Locke said. “And said, ‘I want you to lay your hands on your wife’s back and command healing because she had a problem.’ I thought, ‘well, she’s asleep, so if nothing happens then she’s not going to know the difference. And sure enough, I put my hand on her back and it was just like the Spirit of God…it was a definitive moment in my life and my marriage and my ministry.”

The next morning, Tai woke up and realized that she felt better. After a couple of days, she realized the pain in her back had ceased.

“I had this realization that the Lord had healed me,” Locke said.

Eventually, she broke her silence, and asked Greg if he had prayed for her. Greg said yes, and skepticism was replaced by awe and gratitude as the couple witnessed the undeniable transformation in her spine. Tai’s crooked spine was straight.

This occurrence completely transformed and wrecked all of Greg’s theology and rules that was against the possibility of miracles, signs and wonders.

“It was in that moment, I realized, I have missed out on 30 years of setting people free,” Locke said. “Because I was bound by the Law. I was bound by religion. I had more rules than the book of Leviticus.”

Tai’s healing was the first step Greg needed to break off the lens of religiosity and enter into the calling that God had for him: deliverance ministry.

“That was a pivotal moment for us and that one was a moment that honestly, I praise the Lord for so much because I believe it was from that moment that we are where we are today,” Tai said.

After this, the couple started learning more about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how God was still at work today. The biggest moment of transformation came when a young girl manifested a demon during the middle of baptisms and the Locke’s were unsure of what to do.

“It was the embarrassing moment that we had to have,” Greg said. “Maybe I’ve been theologically having gotten in a box. And it’s time that I removed the denominational lens from my eyes and say, ‘Lord, if you will, teach us the principles of deliverance and healing.'”

From this moment on, Greg and Tai transformed their ministry which has catapulted into best-selling books, and the blockbuster film, “Come Out in Jesus Name.” Thousands have been set free and they continue to see more people break off the chains of darkness each Sunday. Their journey is a testament to the transformative power of faith and the Holy Spirit’s intervention that comes through God’s supernatural power.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.