Michael and Lisa Gungor made waves in Christian music for their folksy sound and raw lyrics.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Lisa opens up about what happened when God didn’t answer her heart cries.
“We started becoming heretics,” Lisa says.
Though the video may be titled, “I Stopped Believing in God After Pastoring a Megachurch,” there’s more to her story than a headline.
Watch it for yourself.
Now might not be the best time to visit Saudi Arabia, but a delegation of US evangelical leaders felt it was a risk worth taking. They met with controversial Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and other Saudi leaders. It was filled with both political controversy and spiritual opportunity.
The visit came following a global firestorm over the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but the planning began a long time ago.
The meeting between evangelical leaders in the US and Mohammed Bin Salman had been in the works for months, but it came to pass when the delegation made a visit here to the United Arab Emirates.
“There’s a lot of people who would say this is the wrong time to go to Saudi Arabia and meet with the leadership there,” author Joel Rosenberg told CBN News. “I understand that criticism, but I disagree.”
While realizing the potential for controversy, the group felt the opportunity to help Christians there was more important.
“Given the fact that we care about the people of Saudi Arabia, Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula, the desire to see more freedom of worship, even Christian churches being allowed to be built, this all seemed important to us to do,” Rosenberg said.
“When people ask, ‘why would you go, why would you meet’, I mean as a Christian called to be a peacemaker, as an advocate for freedom of worship, as an advocate for tolerance and peaceful coexistence, my answer is how can I not?” Rev. Johnnie Moore said.
The delegation went not with a political agenda but with a Christian mission.
When I think of Saudi Arabia, I think of that verse, ‘We are ambassadors for Christ. That’s who we are representing, not the United States of America. We’re representing the Lord Jesus Christ,’ National Religious Broadcasters President Jerry Johnson said.
Pastor Skip Heitzig said, “it’s an opportunity.”
“You know in the Bible, (there are) people like Esther, who was in a royal court. Daniel approached several kings and filled several key positions. God used them to speak to people in authority, kings, and the Bible says we are to pray for them.”
This is the latest in a series of meetings with Sunni Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and UAD Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The meetings are part of a long-term agenda.
“We aren’t here for a short-term purpose. We are not here for a photo op. We could care less about that. We’re here to build long-term relations and to benefit our brothers and sisters that are here in this region,” former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said.
Click here to read the rest of this story from our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}
Jamie Grace is pregnant, according to an Instagram post the Spirit-filled starlet shared today.
View this post on InstagramMy husband and i went to share our baby-on-the-way news with my sister and her husband and they surprised us with some big news of their own!! We would have never expected or planned to be pregnant at the same time but we’re so grateful to be on this journey together 🙂 Some may wonder if it’s too soon for my husband and i to have kids (7 months married ) or even too soon to announce it, but what seems like a surprise to some is God’s perfect timing for us and never a surprise to Him âœï¸ All four of us, and our crazy-excited extended families, are honored to celebrate these sweet, small lives (both due in June!!) and thank you in advance for your prayers with us as we celebrate them!! check out the link in my bio / story for a NEW VIDEO where we share how we found out and shared the news with each other!! @theaaroncollins @morganharpernichols + @patrickwnichols
Jamie Grace wed husband Aaron Collins in a ceremony open to the public in February. The couple frequently vlog about their relationship, walk with God, music, working out and more.
What is a floodgate? Merriam-Webster defines it as “a gate for shutting out, admitting, or releasing a body of water,” and “something serving to restrain an outburst.” I prophesied in October about things that needed to come to a head coming to a head, for better or worse. Now, the floodgates are flinging wide.
I heard the Lord say, “The floodgates are opening for these next 40 days. People will begin to reap what they have sown. Those who have sown mercy will reap mercy. Those who have sown discord will see turbulence. Those who have sown financially will see the first fruits of their harvest trickle in before the full head of wheat manifests.
“For I am a just God. I weigh everything on My scales. I will not be mocked. The law of sowing and reaping are in effect. I will bring to pass that which I’ve promised My people: vindication, restoration and justification from accusers. I will bring correction to My people who have played the harlot, selling out for money and fame while lost souls are suffering without the knowledge of My Son.
“I am rewarding the faithful with blessings they cannot contain. Many will wonder what they did to receive such blessing. I am a multiplier God. I can take your smallest act of kindness and return it to you a hundredfold. Every seed of righteousness and love you have sown is springing up a harvest in this season. Keep your heart right as the floodgates open wide. Do not rejoice in those who fall but rejoice in Me with a heart of mercy and walk in my maximum blessing.”
Deliverance in the Floodgates
For Noah, there was deliverance in the floodgates. The rest of the earth was wiped out when the Lord opened the floodgates and devastated the earth (see Gen. 7:17-23). Noah and his household were delivered from the wrath of God. The Lord wants to deliver you from the wrath of demon-inspired people in your life as you keep your heart prayerful and pure before Him.
Financial Breakthrough or Curses in the Floodgates
For the priests in Malachi’s day, there was opportunity for blessing in the floodgates as they were obedient to give (see Mal. 3:10). God promised He would send an uncontainable financial blessing through the floodgates.
God challenged the priests in that day to test Him to see if it were true. That test required trust. Those who didn’t trust the Lord with the treasures in their storehouse were cursed with a curse (see Mal. 3:9).
If you’ve been obedient in your giving, whether that’s in tithes and offerings, first fruits, or sowing time, prayers, and so on, you are going to see floodgates of blessing pour out on you. If you have been withholding your seed, eating your seed, or disobeying God’s instructions in the area of sowing, you need to repent. If you have been cursing your finances with a poverty or lack language, you need to repent.
Provision or Lack in the Floodgate
Elisha prophesied relief in the midst of the famine. One of the king’s officers offered an evil report and walked into a curse: “Then an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, ‘If the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could this thing happen?’
“And he said, ‘You will see it with your eyes, but you will not eat from it'” (2 Kings 7:2).
Many have been walking through seasons of famine, and not just financially. There are health famines, spiritual famines, relational famines and the like. It’s time to believe for an end to your famine in this 40 days of the floodgates opening. If you don’t believe you will see it, you won’t have it. Don’t be like the officer who issued an evil report in the face of an accurate prophetic word. Contend to believe.
The blessings and judgment are ready to be released. What has come to a head is about to burst through the floodgates. Those who have been done dirty in past seasons will see a flood of payback if they have trusted God as their vindicator. Those who have been doing wrong will see swift discipline begin to break forth if they do not repent.
The floodgates are opening. {eoa}
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Sixty-two prominent Catholic theologians charged Pope Francis with heresy in September, eschatologist Tom Horn says.
Other conservative Catholics believe Francis will give rise to catechism 675, which addresses the role the church would play to give rise to the false prophets and antichrist and, “The fear that the Vatican could become a machine of the New World Order under the man of sin.”
So what’s next? Watch the video to see.
An American missionary was shot to death this week in Cameroon while riding in the car with his wife and son.
Charles Wesco of Indiana was out to shop when two bullets struck him through the windshield, according to Dave Halyaman, assistant pastor at Believers Baptist Church in Warsaw, Indiana.
The bullets knocked Wesco unconscious, and doctors were unable to revive him at the hospital.
Believers Baptist Church “is grieving greatly the murder of Charles Wesco, but we are also trusting God that he has a purpose in all of this,” Halyaman says.
Halyaman says officials are unsure who shot the missionary. According to The Washington Post, the area is strife with violence.
Unrest broke out in that region in late 2016 over complaints that the Anglophone community was being marginalized by Cameroon’s central government, which is largely controlled by French speakers. The country is bilingual, but Francophones have historically held more governmental power than English speakers. Security forces stifled peaceful protests in the Anglophone regions, and an armed separatist movement emerged. Around 400 civilians have been killed in violence in the country’s two Anglophone regions. Tens of thousands have fled the country as refugees and others are now internally displaced.
According to the Indy Star:
Military spokesman Col. Didier Badjeck told the AP the military killed at least four suspects in Wesco’s death and arrested many others. He did not specify if the people detained were military personnel or separatists.
Cameroon’s military said last week after launching attacks on suspected separatist training grounds that “many have been killed.” The attacks happened the day after President Paul Biya was declared the winner of a seventh term.
The increased violence began after the government clamped down on demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they called their marginalization by Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.
Armed factions emerged after the government crackdown and have been using violence to push for an independent state they call “Ambazonia.”
Protests against the 85-year-old Biya’s Oct. 7 re-election have been ongoing.
Wesco and his wife, Stephanie, had just moved to the African nation about two weeks ago.
“He was really wound up about everything. He was really excited about everything and well, he is a hard worker,” says Rebecca Wesco, Wesco’s mother.
Wesco’s brother. Tim, is a Republican representative for the state of Indiana.
Tim says, “He loved the Lord. He loved people. The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
“My husband already prayed for his killer,” Rebecca says. “Charles would want us to do that, he would.”
In a prayer letter dated September/October, the family writes:
“We are humbled to be here representing Christ on your behalf, and we trust that you are upholding us before the Lord in prayer regularly! Your continued prayers are vital, if we are to be successful in bringing the gospel to this dark place!”
The Wescos’ testimony is available here.
I was shocked. It was unexpected, but tragedies like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting always are.
I learned of this horrific event during my School of the Prophetic. I instructed my students to do a prophetic exercise I call “Current Events” where they prophesy into a news headline.
While they were praying, I decided to look at the news headlines to find an example so I could demonstrate. To my surprise, I read headlines about a massacre in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. It shook me as I saw what the enemy was planning next.
The massacre left 11 dead in an attack during worship services. According to CBS News, the victims ranged in age from 54 to 97, the latter of whom was a Holocaust survivor.
Police sources tell KDKA’s Andy Sheehan the gunman, Robert Bowers, walked into the building and yelled, “All Jews must die.”
According to 2016 FBI statistics (the most recent year data is available), there has been a nearly 5 percent hate crimes increase since 2015 and 10 percent since 2014. The FBI reports 1,273 crimes committed due to religious hatred—half those were against Jews.
Anti-Semitism is rising in the U.S., and this is just the beginning. The Holy Spirit showed me Ant-Semitism is going to ramp up. Most people aren’t aware that there are nearly as many Jews in America as there are in Israel. America is a stronghold for the Jewish people and therefore will become a greater target of terrorism in the years ahead.
In my School of the Prophetic, I heard the Lord say:
“This is indeed a day of demarcation where you will begin to see more public, more vicious attacks upon My people. You will see them targeted for abuse and targeted for discrimination. You will see this because I am preparing a way for the Aliyah. I am preparing a way for them to return to their land. I am preparing a way in an unwelcome environment.
“As for you, you shall stand for them and you shall bless them and curse them not. You shall bless them with your prayers and you shall bless them with your words. And you will not be known as a people who tears down a people that I am building. For My heart is still with My chosen nation. My heart is still with My people.
“And I am charging you today with a renewed response of intercession to press in for My people, to bless Israel and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem but not just the Jerusalem that is in the Middle East but the Jerusalem that is here, represented by My people that are round and about you.
“They need know My Son. They need to know Him as Messiah, the one that came to sacrifice His blood and His body on the cross for their eternal redemption So begin even now to press into strategies to see My people saved because I am bringing them to a new place even as the attacks against them begin to arise. I will place a hedge of protection around them according to the intensity of your prayers because I want them to come into the knowledge of the truth.”
Prayer points:
—Pray for the salvation of the Jews.
—Pray for the Messianic movement around the world.
—Pray for the Aliyah.
—Pray against Anti-Semitism.
—Bless Israel and the Jewish people.
—Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the Jews around the world.
Christian artist Lauren Daigle is taking the world by storm—the secular world, that is. Her album debuted at No. 1, and she easily rose the ranks in charts to beat out top artists like Drake, Ariana Grande and more.
She’s so popular that Ellen DeGeneres—yes, that Ellen—invited the worshipper to perform on her show. DeGeneres then sent each audience member home with a copy of Look Up, Child. Check it out.
Austin Carlile, founder and former lead singer of Of Mice & Men, shares the ups and downs of his struggle with a genetic disorder and his miraculous healing in a new film released today from I Am Second, a global storytelling organization.
“When we first heard Austin’s story, we knew we had to share it with the world through I Am Second,” said I Am Second President Lance Villio. “Austin’s powerful journey shows that no matter how far we run away from God, He will always welcome us back with open arms. That is a message of which we all need to be reminded.”
Watch his story here.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is the youngest player since 1985 to win the coveted Cy Young Award. But he’s humble, cautious and knows where the glory goes. In a White Chair Film, Kershaw shares how he surrendered everything to God, and it’s probably the last moment you’d expect—when he got drafted.