Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition founder Dede Laugesen says darkness is advancing in the world.

“We profess that the people in darkness will see a great light,” she tells The Jim Bakker Show. “We do believe that.”

All around the world, Christians are “suffering in such brutal violence towards them.

“If America won’t stand for them, who will?” Laugesen says.

Watch the video to see more.

Pastor Carl Gallups says there are three words that come to mind when he considers U.S. President Donald Trump and the leader’s potential prophetic role in the country and beyond: fulfillment, exposure and cleansing.

“Those of us that know the Word of God, and we understand the prophetic utterances of God’s Word concerning the days before the coming of the Lord, we can’t help but to see that somehow, for some reason, God is using this man to bring about fulfillment,” Gallups says.

Watch the video to see Gallups explain the rest.

He was a small-town doctor who seemed to have everything going for him: a beautiful wife, two small children, a thriving practice, regular church attendance.

One week, Jeff Huxford was in small group, complaining about not having a crazy God-story to share. He was jealous that others had amazing testimonies that spoke of the goodness of the Lord, completely unaware of what was about to happen next.

“And one week later, God is like, ‘OK, here’s a story that you said you wanted,'” Huxford says. “Eventually I felt like God’s given me this story [so I can share it with others]. I shouldn’t have the ability to tell it. I shouldn’t be able to talk or stand, so I better tell my story.”

In May 2012, a truck collided into Jeff Huxford’s vehicle when the driver failed to stop at flashing red lights along a small highway.

When emergency personnel arrived at the scene, Huxford’s vehicle was wrapped around a utility pole and he’d suffered a severe traumatic brain injury.

He remembers nothing of the days that followed, but doctors tell him his survival is a miracle. Six years later, Huxford has exceeded all their expectations and details his experience in his memoir, Finding Normal.

It’s incredible to hear how God orchestrated events that day—from how his son rode the bus that morning to the paramedic who was able to respond to the 911 call—but Huxford says the real miracle is how the Holy Spirit revealed Himself in intimate ways.

“I grew up knowing about knowing about the Holy Spirit, but I didn’t recognize Holy Spirit as a someone that lives inside of us who gives us power,” Huxford says of his faith before the accident. “Then I realized that I can use my own life I’ve been given [to share about the Holy Spirit] because He’s empowered me to do this. I can depend on Him.”

Huxford returned to work for three years, until his doctors informed him that the daily challenge was actually shrinking his brain. He was forced to reconsider his relationship with Christ again.

Once Huxford retired, he went with his wife to a conference where he says he experienced a profound awakening.

The speaker was preaching from Revelation 3:16 about lukewarm Christianity.

“In the past when I heard that first, I’d be feeling bad for the lukewarm people because they thought they were doing so good and now they are being spit out by God,” Huxford says. “This time when I heard it, I thought, ‘Holy cow, I might be one of these lukewarm people.’ The way I’ve been living and the way I’ve been practicing my faith, I’ve not been all in. I’ve been lukewarm. …

“Something changed. I’ve not been the same since that thought.”

As he grew in his faith, he knew the Holy Spirit was calling him to share his testimony in mighty ways—and time was running out.

“I decided to do it so early on because one of the reports the neurologists gave me was that, based on my injury and what my MRI shows, they suspect in 5-10 years, that I will lose a lot of the ability to do what I have now. The things I can do now, that’s going to start getting worse. In 50 years, I can’t do it, so I wanted to get it down now,” Huxford says.

What started as a blog turned into a book. He shares his story whenever prompted by others. He is a walking testimony of the goodness and mercy of the Lord.

Though Huxford continues to defy doctors’ expectations, he knows it’s entirely based on the Holy Spirit.

“I survived this accident when I should have died,” Huxford says. “The fact that I’m doing as well as I am now is a miracle. Based on what my MRI shows, when doctors look at it, they don’t know how I’m functioning.”

Churches in Austin, Texas, may soon be forced to hire homosexual and transgender employees, including pastors, if a city ordinance is implemented.

The city says it guarantees “the opportunity for each person to obtain employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age or disability.”

The Houston-based U.S. Pastor Council and the Texas Values organization is suing the city in federal court over the code. Both groups argue that the ordinance forces churches to go against their biblical beliefs and does not include a religious exemption for churches in Austin that refuse to hire homosexual or transgender people as employees, including pastors.

Austin city officials are not backing down. They defend the ordinance, which basically says churches have no right to insist their employees accept and practice a church’s teachings on homosexuality.

“Nondiscrimination is a core value in Austin and we need to defend it,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler told KXAN-TV.

U.S. Pastor Council Chapter President Dave Welch warned that if the ordinance is enforced, it will be just a matter of time before all First Amendment protections collapse in the U.S. He told the Christian Action Network it’s time for churches across the country to stand and fight. {eoa}

Click here to read the rest of this story from our content partners at CBN News.

If the mere presence of This Is Us star Chrissy Metz won’t make you cry, the miracle of God will.

After lying below the surface of an ice-covered Missouri lake for 15 minutes in mid-January, doctors didn’t give John Smith much chance to live, let alone be honing his summer league basketball skills.

Nor is his survival the only startling element of this miraculous story. After rescue workers pulled him from the icy lake about 40 miles west of St. Louis, the teenager spent another half hour without a pulse.

Soon after John’s mother, Joyce, walked into his emergency room ward, Dr. Kent Sutterer told her she could approach John’s bed. But the doctor didn’t reveal he was about ready to pronounce the time of her son’s death.

That announcement never came. After feeling the coldness of John’s feet, his mother recognized that God represented her only hope. The member of First Assembly of God of St. Peters decided to put Bible teacher and author Beth Moore’s teaching on the power of life and death residing in the tongue into action.

Less than a minute after praying, “Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son,” she watched with joy as a voice rang out, “I’ve got a pulse!”

This story is now the subject of Breakthrough, produced by DeVon Franklin and Samuel Rodriguez. In addition to Metz, the film stars Josh Lucas and Topher Grace.

Watch the trailer, but be sure to have tissues handy.

The 43rd president of the United States stood up, composed himself and then delivered a deeply touching eulogy for the 41st president.

This was more than one successor honoring his predecessor. Rather, it was a son remembering his father, and sharing the intimate details that really made George H.W. Bush click, including the elder’s vibrant prayer life.

“To his very last days, dad’s life was instructive. As he aged, he taught us how to grow with dignity, humor and kindness. When the good Lord finally called, how to meet Him with courage and with the joy of the promise of what lies ahead,” George W. Bush said.

“One reason Dad knew how to die young is that he almost did it, twice. When he was a teenager, a staph infection nearly took his life. A few years later, he was alone in the Pacific on a life raft, praying that his rescuers would find him before the enemy did. God answered those prayers. It turned out he had other plans for George H.W. Bush,” the younger Bush continued.

Then later: “Dad taught us that public service is noble and necessary, that one can serve with integrity and hold true to the important values like faith and family. He strongly believed that it was important to give back to the community and country in which one lived. He recognized that serving others enriched the giver’s soul. To us, his was the brightest of a thousand points of light,” George W. Bush said.

And: “Jeb and I were too young to remember the pain and agony he and Mom felt when our 3-year-old sister died. We only learned later that Dad, a man of quiet faith, prayed for her daily. He was sustained by the love of the Almighty and the real and enduring love of her Mom. Dad always believed that one day he would hug his precious Robin again.”

Watch the video to see the full eulogy.

In the video, he’s a freshman in college, wearing an American Eagle collared shirt and standing in a make-shift pulpit for a class presentation.

“Can I go?” he asks before launching into a sermon about missions and how believers must be set apart from the world.

The video was posted in 2010, but the world now knows the man preaching: slain missionary John Allen Chau.

The Sentinelese people reportedly killed Chau last month when he arrived on the remote island.

Watch the video to see how this fresh-faced missionary burned with passion for the gospel of Christ.

According to Revelation 13, we could very well be in the last days, with the Antichrist gaining traction on the world stage.

Revelation 13:1-3 (NIV) tells us:

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.

“The dragon stood on the shore,” refers to Satan summoning the deep forces of evil who precipitate Armageddon. The “beast” is a collective of seven heads, or powers.

Because it wears 10 crowns, three of the powers have more than one crown.

Since Russia, the European Union and China (for example) each have one supreme ruler, those three heads would have just one crown. All Islamic countries have two ruling authoritarians, a political leader and a spiritual (imam) leader. Thus, an Arab League, for example, could have two crowns.

A collective of Persian Powers (Iran, Iraq, Syria) would comprise another case of one head and multiple crowns. The caliphate, the former Ottoman Empire, headed by Turkey, could also be represented as one head with multiple crowns.

Saudi Arabia was never a power under either the Ottoman (caliphate) or the Persian reigns. It stood alone. Thus, Saudi Arabia (along with some of her subjugated acolytes) could be classified as one head with one crown.

The country is run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is moving aggressively to dampen clergy interference in Saudi politics, effectively consolidating his position as the most powerful and unfettered monarch of the Middle East.

Today, Saudi Arabia is the most powerful of the Muslim nations and empires, possessing worldwide influence through its control of petroleum trade and pricing on a global basis. Following upon President Trump’s sanctions limiting Iran’s export of petroleum, Saudi exports have risen to all-time records, consolidating her role as unchallenged head of the OPEC nations.

This history could lead us to an interesting conclusion found in Revelation:

Note carefully that one of the heads of the beast suffered a fatal wound.

Is does not say that the wound was physical. It’s ambiguous, but given the Bible’s propensity for accuracy, it’s strange that it doesn’t present accompanying modifiers along with the words “fatal wound.” One could surmise that one of the heads has lost its power over life-events rather than the assumption that it loses its life through a physical wound.

These assumptions are consistent with my belief that one head, in collusion with six other heads, taking orders directly from Satan, arises as a sovereign authority, directly coordinating eventual military onslaughts against the land of Israel and her small collection of allies.

Now let’s consider Salman’s rise to power and recent headlines surrounding his reign. His current involvement with the sanctioned execution of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi would certainly seem to be a wound that “kills” Salman’s skyrocketing global influence as a bridge between the twinned worlds of East and West political and religious hegemony.

In my opinion, Salman seems now to be on his way out as titular leader of the Arab/Persian/Muslim world. But the public memory is notoriously fickle, and his continuing moderate stances on women’s rights and attempts to otherwise modernize a continent stuck in 16th-century social, political and business habits could soon give him renewed traction.

Because of Salman’s willingness to acknowledge the ancient Jewish right to a shared Jerusalem along with certifying much of the surrounding lands, stretching from Lebanon to the Red Sea, he could again emerge as an ultimate broker of peace, salving the planet’s contagious and endless circuit of Israeli/Palestinian warfare.

This role as mediator (or interlocutor) could seem to all mankind the ultimate harbinger for a resolution to the world’s longest-lasting and most intractable human dilemma: ownership of Israeli/Judean territories. With all this evidence, could Salman emerge as the primary ruling head of the beast, perhaps even the Antichrist incarnate?

We know from Bible prophecy that among the first public actions of the beast emerging from these tides of demonic derivation will be a seemingly munificent recognition of Israel’s right to existence by the Arab/Muslim world. This action will disarm even the righteous, all those who fail to understand the ultimate goals of Satan.

And other world leaders are taking note.

At a recent ceremony in Paris acknowledging the 100th anniversary of the WWI armistice, The Economist magazine reports that French President Emmanuel Macron prophesied before a scowling President Trump and a poker-faced Vladimir Putin that “Old demons are rising again, ready to complete their task of chaos.”

One can only wonder at the irony of the man’s name, “Emmanuel.” And, does he … does anyone comprehend the great truth of which he speaks?

Ronald D. Mallett of Milliken, Colorado, studied journalism and mass communications at Colorado and Stanford Universities as a Ford Fellow. A retired corporate executive, he was director of jail and prison, Mexico outreach and intercession ministries for 19 years.

Kayla Stoecklein, the widow of California pastor Andrew Stoecklein, has spoken out in the first interview given since her husband’s untimely death. Andrew, the senior pastor at Inland Hills Church in Chino, California, died Aug. 25 after attempting suicide the day before.

In the few months that have elapsed since Andrew’s death, Kayla has written candidly about her process of grief on her website, . Openly describing her husband’s period of severe mental illness that preceded his death, Stoecklein has sought to shine a light on the epidemic of emotional distress that is prevalent in our churches and wider society.

“He was sick,” she wrote of her husband in a post to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day. “His mind was overtaken by mental illness, spiritual warfare and a series of unfortunate circumstances that caused him to lose control of his own thoughts and actions. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around what that must have felt like.” {eoa}

Click here to read the rest of this story from our content partners at Faithwire.

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Angels hearken to the voice of the Word of God (Ps. 103:20). But we can grieve angels. Take this warning to heart.