Hundreds of Gen Zers Make Decisions for Jesus at University of Tennessee: ‘God Is Moving!’

There is a spiritual awakening taking place on college campuses across that country that God alone can take credit for.

On Wednesday, 8,000 students gathered on the campus of the University of Tennessee to praise His Name alone. 

Unite US is a faith event geared toward GenZers and aims to present the Gospel message to students at different college campuses. Their latest stop was the Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

As CBN News reported, the first Unite US event kicked off at Auburn University last fall and an impromptu baptism that started with one student wanting to be baptized grew to roughly 200 people who decided to take that plunge and give their lives to Christ. 

“We’ve seen thousands of students give their hearts to Christ,” continued Prewett. “We’ve seen over 800 baptized and you know, we’re just being obedient, we’re just walking in obedience and God’s gone before us and He’s moving in incredible ways.”

Jennie Allen from the “IF: Gathering” spoke at “Unite Tennessee” and witnessed some of the most powerful moments last night including 150 students baptized in Jesus’ Name.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Jennie Allen (@jennieallen)

“Last night once again thousands gathered and hundreds responded to Christ and were baptized,” she shared on Instagram. “It’s just too good!”

“God is moving,” she added. 

“Unite Tennessee” featured Allen alongside Pastor Jonathan Pokluda of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, and included worship led by Passion Music. 

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




Foreign Funding Allegedly Fuels US Campus Protests, Says Expert

JERUSALEM, Israel – Within just a few weeks, anti-Israel protests have expanded to occupy U.S. campuses coast to coast.

Given the overall coordination, officials are questioning whether these demonstrations go beyond a spontaneous student movement to a more well-funded outside operation.

Jack Landstein described what it’s becoming like to be a Jewish student on one campus.

“Being a Jewish student at the University of Michigan right now, it’s definitely a scary and uncomfortable time. There’s a lot of anti-Semitism on our campus and it’s extremely unsettling,” he admitted.

Landstein described some of what he’s witnessed.

“So it’s a lot of chants from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, intifada, intifada; bullhorns going through the school of business, go through the undergraduate library, making it very challenging for students to do work and focus. I sometimes worry about wearing my Star of David outside of my shirt,” he explained.

Landstein is not alone.

Dr. Jay Greene, a senior research fellow and an educational policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told CBN News the protesters have an unmistakable goal. “What they’re clearly doing is they’re very clearly signaling to Jewish students that they’re not welcome on campus, that they’re not being protected by the university leaders in a way that they would protect any other group on campus,” Greene stated.

He sees clues pointing to a more professional, organized effort behind these protests. 

“We only get little hints of it. and the hints are that the funders include the Soros Open Society Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.  And there are also some links to foreign organizations as well,” Greene noted. “We’ve seen that people linked to foreign organizations have been involved in training and that there are shared talking points and documents as well. So it’s pretty clear that this is an externally funded and organized effort.”

Greene also finds similar strategies recurring across the various campuses.

“Among the common signs are that they’re determined to set up camps so that it’s more difficult to remove them, but they never have to leave them. That’s one sign. A second sign is that they’re setting up in the middle of public spaces within the university so that it is difficult for people to get to and from work to and from classes without having to go through these protests,” he said. “So they’re effectively shutting down the normal operations of these universities. And third, they’re on locations that are often where commencements will be held in a few weeks.”

That’s also intentional as those upcoming ceremonies put a lot of pressure on the universities. Greene’s detected a strong Middle East connection.. 

He noted, “We’ve seen people from the Middle East come and provide trainings to them. So, and the biggest connection that we might identify between the Middle East and these protests is the very large number of Middle East students who are involved.”

He also adds that the element presents a financial dilemma for many of the schools. 

One reason universities are reluctant to crack down on the protests by arresting students or suspending them is out of fear of jeopardizing the students’ foreign visas.

“And so if they were to be suspended from school or arrested, they might have to be deported. And the universities are very wary of doing that, in part because these foreign student revenue streams are an important source of revenue for them. There are very large donors overseas that they’re wishing to keep happy,” Greene observed.

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




National Day of Prayer Set to Elevate God’s Word against Darkness

By: Charlene Aaron/CBN News

This year’s theme for the 73rd National Day of Prayer is “Lift up the Word – Light Up the World” from the biblical passage in 2 Samuel chapter 22. It reads in part: “O Lord, you are my lamp. The Lord Lights up My Darkness.” It is a message that organizers say is needed now more than ever. 

“It seemed all we were talking about was darkness,” Kathy Branzell, President of the National Day of Prayer Task Force told CBN’s Faith Nation. “‘Oh, America’s getting darker, our schools are getting darker, my neighborhood’s getting darker.'”  

Branzell explains, “While that might feel true, the truth is darkness is the absence of light. This year by lifting up the Word, we know His Word in prayer won’t return void and we’re going to light up this world.”

The annual National Day of Prayer, which was established by Congress in 1952 and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman, is a call for Americans to humble themselves before Almighty God, to seek His guidance, wisdom and blessing.

Branzell said events like the unrest and anti-Semitic protests on college campuses should guide how Christians pray.

“We are praying God’s presence on those campuses. We are praying for the Holy Spirit to come in and for hatred to be diminished and for love to come in and to take over,” she said.

The hope is that the light already breaking through at some schools will spread to others. 

Author and speaker Jennie Allen who has witnessed repentance, revival and mass baptisms on several college campuses said many students are ready to hear the message of salvation.

“Gen Z is different,” Allen said in an interview on CBN News’ The PrayerLink. “They are open to God, and they want to confess their sin. They’re sick of the world and they want something different. Not all of them, but a lot of them.

“And I think what the older church needs to hear and believe is that it’s possible,” added Allen. “God is doing it again. He is awakening His people. And so, to pray and to pull those kids into your life and your home and disciple them because they’re hungry.”

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




Satanist, Suicidal Woman Among Hundreds Redeemed Through God Behind Bars

God Behind Bars is sharing more amazing stories about how God is touching hearts and changing lives to set hundreds of prisoners free, including the story of a prisoner who had turned away from worshipping Satan by giving his life to Jesus Christ.

“I’ve seen the glory of God,” inmate Daniel told the ministry. “There is nobody greater. There is nobody more powerful, nobody more dangerous, which is good when you need a warrior on your side. He is a man of battle, for real.”

The former gang member told God Behind Bars he is “all in about Jesus,” but that wasn’t always the story. 

“About a year ago is when God took me out of the satanic cult,” he shared. “I had been with the Lord before that, but I backslid and wasn’t involved in church anymore, so it was an accident that I became part of [the cult] when I was trying to learn deeper things.”

“[But] I’ve never seen anything better than what the Lord has revealed to me now,” Daniel added. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by God Behind Bars (@godbehindbars)

“We create satellite campuses in prisons and our whole mission is to introduce inmates to Jesus,” Isaac Holt, Director of Innovation for God Behind Bars, told CBN News. 

In 2021, the ministry released its PandoApp – a faith-based app, that gives prisoners access to worship music and sermons on a tablet. 

The ministry’s goal to win souls for the Kingdom of God is exploding into an ongoing outreach that is providing hope in a dark place. 

Former inmate Shannon was in her cell preparing to hang herself, but a care package she received from God Behind Bars made her rethink her decision. 

“Shannon prayed a final prayer asking for a sign for her to live,” the ministry explained. “Suddenly, she heard a knock on her cell. The knock was a God Behind Bars volunteer.”

The volunteer told her, “Shannon when you get out of here we have a care package for you to come and grab. We can’t wait to see you.”

Shannon wept knowing that God heard her prayer. 

The young woman began to attend services through the ministry and eventually gave her life to Jesus Christ. 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by God Behind Bars (@godbehindbars)

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




Christian Persecution Takes Center Stage After Pastor’s Tragic Murder

By Billy Hallowell/CBN News

Yet another pastor has been slaughtered in Nigeria, underscoring the crumbling state of affairs for Christians in the African nation.

The Rev. Manasseh Ibrahim was reportedly killed last week as he traveled to provide ministry to church members, according to sources who spoke to Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

Ibrahim was reportedly slaughtered by “bandits” in the Kaduna state, though many other believers have faced violence at the hands of Islamic extremists in recent years.

“Rev. Manasseh Ibrahim, a pastor with ECWA [Evangelical Church Winning All] Church, Gure, was on his way for a pastoral church ministration in the Kurebe area of Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna state when he was ambushed and killed by the bandits,” the Rev. Yahaya Kinge, a local faith leader with the Christian Association of Nigeria, said in a statement.

Kinge lamented the intense violence and persecution Christians face in the region, noting believers “who are direct victims of banditry and insurgency in Kaduna state are fed up with the inability of Nigeria government to find a lasting solution to the incessant killings of innocent Christians.”

And he wasn’t done there. Kinge also said Christians have had enough of these murderous and dangerous actions and implored the government to help.

“The hard push of Christians to the wall through incessant attacks is enough,” he wrote. “And we can no longer bear this brunt.”

As CBN News has reported, the situation in Nigeria is dire. The list of anecdotal examples of violence against Christians is extensive. In November, Oluwakemi Moses, the wife of a Nigerian pastor, was murdered by terrorists as she traveled home with her two-month-old baby.

And the Rev. Charles Onomhoale Igechi, a Catholic priest who was vice principal of St. Michael College, Ikhueniro, was slaughtered last year while driving through Benin, Edo, in Nigeria.

These events aren’t new, though international attention on the matter is continuing to grow. Violence in Nigeria broke through the global news cycle in May 2022, when Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a 25-year-old Christian college student, was stoned to death by a Muslim mob.

The killing of Yakubu, a Shehu Shagari College of Education student in Sokoto, Nigeria, was purportedly filmed and shared on social media, horrifying the international community.

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




Survivor of KKK Sex Trafficking Finds New Hope and Healing

Galia Ahava Meira became a victim of sex trafficking when she was just a toddler. 

“It started when I was three, actually,” Galia told CBN News.

Her own grandfather took that step by selling her for sex to his fellow members of the KKK.

“That went on up until he passed away when I was almost seven,” Galia explained.

The trauma from that experience then led to a lonely life of drug and alcohol abuse.

Breaking NewsSpirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

“I actually had been on life support for nine days due to an overdose and no one came to the hospital to see me. No one in my family at all,” she said. “When I woke up after they had taken the machines off, there was a social worker there from CPS and that is how I got out. I got put in foster care.” 

After aging out of foster care, Galia hoped marriage might provide a new start. Sadly, her husband continued the exploitation and even became her pimp.

“He actually would sleep with a pistol under my pillow with his finger on the trigger,” said Galia. “He, in the community, had a lot of power because of the job that he did. So, for me to just be able to reach out to someone and say, ‘This is happening,’ wasn’t possible.”

Her breakthrough came during a secret Skype call with a trauma counselor who told Galia about Rest Stop Ministries – Tennessee’s first long-term program for female sex trafficking victims. 

“They partnered with another agency and sent a rescue team to Ohio to get me out of that situation,” Galia explained.

“These women come to us, broken body, mind, soul and spirit,” Rondy Smith, founder and executive director, said in an interview with CBN News. “We have a trauma-focused therapist and we have clinical case managers who are linking arms and creating comprehensive healing plans that help these women deal with whatever they need to deal with to be completely rehabilitated, made whole in Christ.”

Smith went on to explain the ministry’s holistic approach.

“We tell these women when they come through the door, ‘Your life has been hard, but the bravest thing you’ve ever done is walk through these doors and the healing journey is going to be just as hard. And if you’ll come and just focus on doing the very hard work of healing, we’re going to take care of your every need.'”

Part of that healing includes a nine-month curriculum called Good Hope Farms that provides education and employment opportunities.

“They are learning job skills, paid hands-on,” said Smith.  “They’re being paid to learn because they need to be ready when they transition. And when they start working and earning it boosts their self-esteem and they realize there is hope for me to transform my life.”

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

That hope was actually born from tragedy according to Smith.

“In February of 2014, the matriarch and patriarch who lived in this house were murdered,” Smith shared. “A bomb exploded in their kitchen.”

While seeking a location for her ministry, Smith met that couple’s daughter Laura who co-owned the property.

“Laura said, ‘My mother always wanted to serve the last and the least and the lost,'” Smith said. “She was the kind of person who wanted to give radical hospitality to broken women. She always wanted them to have a place at the table. Everybody needed a home. And she said, ‘I can’t imagine a better legacy for the memory of my mother who was the one who named this property when they moved in, Good Hope Farms.’

“She said to her children and kids, ‘We don’t just have a hope, we have a good hope. And His name is Jesus Christ,'” Smith said.

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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




Liberty Students Honor God in Massive Event as Antisemitism Sweeps Colleges

As radical displays of antisemitism continue to spread throughout dozens of college campuses and universities across the country, students at one Christian school are defying the narrative and joining together to honor God and Israel.

Students at Liberty University gathered by the hundreds on the Academic Lawn outside the Montview Student Union on Wednesday to close out the semester with prayer, worship and reading the Bible.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Liberty University (@libertyuniversity)

Breaking NewsSpirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

As CBN News reported, the private Christian university located in Lynchburg, Virginia usually coordinates 24/7 prayer and other special prayer events midweek throughout the academic year.

And this week, students chose to close the semester with the “ultimate wrap-up” giving glory to God well into the night. 

Chancellor Jonathan Falwell told the students, “How amazing it is that Liberty students come to our lawn, and what we do rather than attacking one another is lift up the name of the only One who is worthy of our praise, and that is Jesus Christ, King of kings, and Lord of lords.”

Falwell, who is also the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, told Fox News that Liberty University is shining as a light in the darkness.

“While so many campuses are erupting in anger, hatred, and violence; it is refreshing to see the students at Liberty University reflecting the love of Christ as we are commanded to do by Scripture,” he told the outlet. 

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

“Jesus clearly tells us to love, and it is so telling that in higher education today, it seems as if some of the only places where love is being displayed are from the campuses of Christian universities like Liberty University,” Falwell continued. 

The school’s peaceful, Christ-focused, worship gathering stands in stark contrast to dozens of students being arrested at Yale University, NYU, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, and Emerson College this week.

Even with Israel under fire from Hezbollah, Iran, and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the number of anti-Israel demonstrations at prestigious universities continues to grow. 

As of Thursday, Emory University, Northwestern University, Cornell University, George Washington University, Princeton University, and the City College of New York all participated in demonstrations, NPR reports.

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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




Pastor Said to Face Criminal Charges Amid City Conflict

By: Billy Hallowell/CBN News

Just two months after reports indicated charges would likely be dropped against an Ohio pastor under legal fire for housing homeless men and women in his church, the battle is once again heating up.

Attorneys for Dad’s Place Pastor Chris Avell filed a motion Apr. 25, to show cause against Bryan, Ohio, on the basis officials purportedly failed to abide by an agreement requiring them to notify the court if they planned to take any such actions against the pastor.

The lawyers said Friday the city indeed served Avell “with new criminal charges for keeping his church open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

In a press release from First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal firm representing Avell, the attorneys alleged police and fire officials showed up at Dad’s Place one morning this week at 5:30 a.m. for an “unannounced inspection” that once again yielded violations.

“[They] alleged fire code violations, and threatened fines of $1,000 per day if the church does not immediately halt its 24-hour ministry beginning on May 1, 2024,” the release said. “This was the second time officials arrived for an inspection at 5:30 a.m.”

A Reversal of Recent Reports

This latest row comes after it recently appeared a resolution was in sight. Statehouse News Bureau reported in February Bryan officials had moved to ax criminal charges against Avell amid accusations he violated city zoning rules.

The outlet did note Bryan officials reserved the right to refile charges as detailed in a motion to dismiss. News of the potential dismissal had come after Avell and his church filed a federal lawsuit against the city. According to the most recent First Liberty press release, Avell and the church were engaged earlier this year in what they called “good faith settlement discussions.”

“Hoping to resolve this case and in reliance on the city’s representations to the Court that they would take no further enforcement actions against the church, the church agreed to cancel the preliminary injunction hearing originally scheduled before this Court on Mar. 4,” the statement read. “Since that time, the church has addressed many of the alleged safety concerns raised by the city.”

But new criminal charges against Avell and the church have attorneys claiming city officials have no regard for the Constitution.

“City officials demonstrated once again that they have no respect for the First Amendment or for the court,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty, said in a statement. “The city’s blatant hostility toward Dad’s Place and the court is repugnant.”

As CBN News previously reported, the case against Avell originated late last year, with the pastor refusing to back down from officials’ demands to stop housing the homeless.

“[Pastor Chris Avell’s] facing 18 criminal charges for violating the city’s zoning laws,” a news release from First Liberty read at the time. “The city is going after him, because, earlier this year, Pastor Chris opened the church 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He’s seeking to serve homeless people.”

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.




Thousands Attend Jerusalem Annual Passover Priestly Blessing, Focus on Hostages

JERUSALEM, Israel – Despite war and rumors of war, tens of thousands of Jewish people came to the Western Wall during the intermediary days of Passover to pray and receive an annual blessing.

Unsurprisingly, this year’s focus was the hostages and their families.

Breaking NewsSpirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

More than 30,000 people came to take part in the Birkat Hacohenim, which in Hebrew means “Priestly Blessing”” this Passover, and cried out for the return of the Hamas-held hostages and peace for the State of Israel.

The attendees came from around the world to bless and be blessed. This year, that included families of the hostages.

Sigi Cohen’s son Eliya was wounded and taken hostage into Gaza in the Hamas-led massacre and kidnappings of October 7th.

“We came to the Kotel to the priestly blessing, because Eliya is a cohen (from the priestly line) and he couldn’t come to participate in the priestly blessing, so we were invited here by the Rabbi of the Western Wall, to come to hear the priestly blessing and to pass on the power of the blessing that was here today to Eliya and all the hostages that are in Gaza 0:41 that they’ll be strengthened by this blessing until Eliya, with the help of God will return to us, Cohen told CBN News.

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

In the book of Numbers, God gives Moses and Aaron these words to bless the children of Israel:

“The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”

While The Aaronic Benediction or Blessing is a daily part of Jewish prayers, this public tradition at the Wall happens twice a year – during Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) and Passover. 

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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




Nicaraguan Pastors Facing $80M Fines, Imprisoned After Huge Revival

An American missionary is fighting back after he, his family, and 11 Christian leaders are facing serious charges from Nicaraguan officials who accuse them of money laundering and organized crime.

Britt Hancock, founder of Mountain Gateway Order, Inc., denied these charges in an interview with CBN News and said he believes the legal battle is a direct response to the scores of Nicaraguans who attended his organization’s powerful evangelistic events last year.

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

“In 2023, Mountain Gateway helped to organize a series of mass evangelism campaigns—eight of them throughout the year,” he said. “We began in February and had the last one in November. But 1,000,000 people in total came to those eight meetings.”

Hancock said arrests began a month after the final meeting, with the national leader, coordinators of the events, and main pastors all being detained by mid-December.

ADF International attorney Kristina Hjelkrem, who is representing Mountain Gateway, told CBN News the imprisoned leaders are accused of aggravated money laundering.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

“The government has no proof whatsoever to that extent,” she said. “Mountain Gateway has tried several times to prove their innocence and to provide evidence to this point to the court, but the government has either ceased or prohibited this evidence to reach the court file.”

The potential prison sentences are sweeping, with Hjelkrem noting they range from 12 to 15 years and up to $80,000,000 per person—a fine she said is not common in the Nicaraguan judicial system.

As CBN News previously reported, Hancock, his son Jacob, and daughter-in-law Cassandra are all facing the aforementioned charges.

To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.

Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

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