Some Christian leaders say God isn’t only after people getting converted one by one. In the end, He wants Jesus Lord over whole nations.

And in Matthew 28:19a, Jesus pointed the way to do that, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Not just people—whole nations.

At a recent conference in Orlando, top Christian speaker Lance Wallnau explained one way for believers to capture a nation is to conquer its seven mountains of culture.

Culture isn’t just what’s in museums or what people watch on TV. If people were fish, culture is the ocean they’d be swimming in.
 
The Seven Mountains of Culture

These culture-influencing mountains described by Wallnau are:

• Government, 
• Media, 
• Arts and Entertainment,
• Education, 
• Business, 
• Religion and
• Family.

Wallnau argues just winning souls one by one is not enough. He believes Christians need to invade these strongholds of influence and control over populations.

“Stop thinking of our assignment as merely soul-winning or having experiences with God,” he said. “We should be seeing the fact that we are literally a kingdom-invading force going into all the world. And if you see darkness, that’s where you should go. Because the church should be going where the gates of hell are located.”
 
Wallnau believes God has put in most Christians a desire and ability to ascend and take on these mountains of culture.
 
“My prayer is that everyone will find the assignment that God created them for and that it will consume you,” he stated.

“Be Bold and Ask God to Take You”

As top people are falling in some of the most influential industries, Wallnau insisted it’s a great time for believers in godly principles and virtues to push onto those mountains of culture.

 “At the top of the film industry, the fishing is ripe. At the top of media right now, couldn’t be a better time to go there,” Wallnau pointed out. “In government, in business, in finance, in education/ be bold and ask God to take you.” 
 
Film producer Rick Eldridge is taking the challenge.
 
“Of course, our culture is in trouble,” the Reelworks Studios producer said. “And I think we as Christians have a responsibility to make a difference in that culture.”
 
He says the way to get to the top and be an influencer is becoming one of the best at what you do. As Proverbs 22:29a puts it, “Do you see a man diligent in his business? He will stand before kings.” Eldridge says it’s certainly true on the mountain of Arts and Entertainment.
 
He explained, “As we infiltrate that industry with a high-caliber and quality of excellence in what we do, and a high-caliber and quality of our faith, living and working in that will touch lives.”

Sometimes Story-Telling Trumps Scripture-Spouting

Eldridge said of some in the “faith film” arena, “Many times we try to force religion on culture, which doesn’t go very well usually. But I think in living out our faith with excellence, with integrity, and doing what we do at the highest degree, winning the right to be heard, we certainly can make a difference.”

The filmmaker remarked how Jesus often answered religious and spiritual questions by replying with a great parable or story rather than just quoting scripture.

Eldridge suggested Christians who want to dive in and influence culture need to take that to heart.

“We have to be there as counter-culture in many ways, to tell stories that can cause people to look and to challenge themselves maybe,” he said, “but do it with a level of excellence that can win that same right to be heard.”

He pointed to The Ultimate Gift, a movie he produced.

“There’s no mention of Christ in that movie. There’s no Scripture in that movie. But it’s all over it,” he explained. “It’s living it out. And that’s storytelling. That’s the craft that gets you where you need to be without beating people over the head with it, but it’s there.”

Operating without a Moral Compass

Christian and journalist Lee Stranahan co-hosts a three-hour talk show, Fault Lines, put on by the Russian network Sputnik.
 
“I do. But the Russians don’t tell me what to say,” he insisted.
 
Stranahan is desperate for Christians to run up the media mountain.
 
“I don’t think there’s just a place for Christians in journalism. I think they have to be there,” he opined.
 
Stranahan said that’s because he believes mainstream news media operate without any moral compass, and their objectivity is in tatters.

You Don’t Beat Bad by Being Bad

“One of the things that’s missing in journalism right now is any sense of principles,” he insisted. “Really what they’re doing is they’ve become a public relations arm for the Left. Journalism right now is in the tank for Hillary Clinton, even though she lost the election.”

But Stranahan warned, “If you want to replace the establishment media, you don’t do it by being as bad as they are.”
 
“So few journalists now actually have principles, like truth. The only way to combat that really is with principles,” he explained.
 
Like presenting truth based in reality, not political correctness.

How Words are War

Wallnau explained the mainstream media and the left use politically correct language to present Christianity as a religion of bigotry and hateful discrimination.
 
“You know you’ve lost culture war when the power to define the meaning of words has shifted,” Wallnau said. He then asked about some words being redefined in the present culture, “So what is a couple, what is an American, what is hate speech?”

He pointed to the culture-changing power of the LGBT community and its allies, saying just a few years ago, “Neither Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama could run for office without saying that they believe in the sanctity of marriage. I mean, this was out of their mouths. And so what’s happened in a decade regarding marriage?”
 
Those in charge of the culture get to define the meaning of words, concepts, institutions. So, in other words, pretty much what you think. And that’s why a war over the culture is a war over everything.
 
Thus Wallnau’s belief: God wants His people to capture the seven mountains that influence all of culture.
 
“Because God wants to take territory in these systems,” he explained.

Why Everyone’s Better Off in a Christian Nation

Stranahan said he knows it’s not politically correct to suggest everyone would be better off living in a Christian nation, but his reporting in the Middle East and war-torn regions showed him that they actually are better off.
 
“And this is before I came to Christ. I realized that countries are safer and more peaceful when they’re Christian,” he stated.
 
“The people there, their lives would be better,” he said of non-Christian nations that might convert. “I’m not even having a theological debate here. There’d be less people killed by the state. They would be freer. Women would have a better life. And they would not try to wage war on other countries.”

Stranahan said this principle even works on an individual basis, stating, “We’ve all known people who had a spiritual crisis in their a drinking problem or something like that. And you’re like, ‘well, look, even if you don’t believe in God, if you live by those principles, by Christ’s principles, you’d be doing better. You’d be happier.”
 
How God Can Use the Lincolns, Churchills and Trumps of the World

And that’s why Wallnau believes Christians should accept leaders like Donald Trump, Winston Churchill or Abe Lincoln—leaders who may not be evangelicals, but fight for biblical principles that can help make a nation more Christ-like.
 
“I don’t care if it’s a believer or an unbeliever so long as their principles align with the wisdom and counsel of God,” Wallnau explained. “And it’s like good physics: if it’s the right principles, it’ll incur a blessing.”
 
That could help disciple the nations for Christ and even eventually fulfill Isaiah 2:2, which states “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.” 

Wallnau doesn’t see God’s mountain dominating all those mountains of culture till God’s people are all over them and influencing the nations from their peaks. {eoa}

Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., All rights reserved.

Recently, my wife and I prayed with a woman during a prayer occasion following a Sunday service at our church.

She was distraught about an evil presence she felt that frightened her often. We discovered that her husband is a devout Muslim and she had ventured to some kind of spiritist and encountered what she described as a “jinn.”

I recognized this term as describing, in Islamic teachings, spiritual beings, which we would understand as demons. An individual jinn is called a jinni (genie). This woman wanted us to pray for her to be set free from this evil presence, which frightened her.

I knew that “The House of Islam” denies the basic beliefs we hold about our Savior. This false religion (1 John 4:1-4; see also John 3:35-36) denies that:

1. Jesus is the divine Son of God. Rather their holy book, the Koran, teaches Jesus (Isa) is to be respected (not worshipped) only as a miracle-working prophet to the Jews and messenger of Allah.
2. Jesus died on the cross outside Jerusalem and was buried in a tomb for three days. Rather, they are taught that Jesus’ disciple Judas died on the cross in place of Jesus.
3. Jesus was resurrected from the dead by the power of God and lives forever in heaven at God’s right hand, where he intercedes for us to the Father. Rather, the Koran claims that Jesus prophesied the coming of Mohammad, as the last and greatest prophet. Many Muslims believe Jesus is in heaven now and will be sent to earth again by Allah at the last hour to wage jihad on behalf of Islam, at the end of the world.

As we began to pray with her, I quoted Romans 10:9 and 10: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, or with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

I explained that she needed to acknowledge that Jesus is the almighty Lord (not a prophet or messenger) and He needed to be accepted as such and her new beliefs confirmed by her own lips. She needed to sincerely believe Jesus died to pay the price for her sins and mine. I related that God forgave us both because of Jesus’ sacrificial actions, which Father God approved by raising Jesus from the dead.

By honestly believing these new truths about Jesus’ deity, death and resurrection and then telling others about it, she could find the forgiveness of sins and remove the jinn’s right to torment her.

The woman pulled away, mumbling, “I cannot say that!”

She had told me a friend had given her a Bible, so I urged her to read the Gospel of John and then to come back to church in the weeks ahead, and we could talk more. My wife and I have since prayed for her that her spiritual eyes will be opened and divine truth will be established in her by the Holy Spirit.

When a Muslim hears the truthful claims of Christ and is drawn to the call to the commitment that is required to follow Him, they have to wrestle with the heavy costs they must pay. Such a decision may mean the loss of family, the loss of community and even the loss of life.

Muslims (and others) with inquiring minds and harassed souls are not to be feared but loved into God’s kingdom, in the name of Jesus.

In these last days, may we all be enlightened and empowered by the Holy Spirit to point people of all backgrounds to the loving Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. {eoa}

HGTV sweethearts Chip and Joanna Gaines are pregnant. The Fixer Upper couple is expecting baby No. 5 to join children Drake, 12, Ella, 11, Duke, 9, and Emmie Kay, 7.

“Gaines party of 7.. (If you’re still confused .. WE ARE PREGNANT),” Chip posted to Instagram Tuesday night.

 

Gaines party of 7.. (If you’re still confused.. WE ARE PREGNANT) @joannagaines

A post shared by Chip Gaines (@chipgaines) on Jan 2, 2018 at 7:08pm PST

The pair announced in September season 5 of their hit show would be their last.

“Our family is healthy and our marriage has honestly never been stronger,” Chip and Joanna said in a statement. “This is just us recognizing that we need to catch our breath for a moment. Our plan is to take this time to shore up and strengthen the spots that are weak, rest the places that are tired and give lots of love and attention to both our family and our businesses.”

To celebrate 2018, Joanna posted a photo telling followers to “be expectant.”

 

New year, new hope… Be expectant. There is just something about fresh faith and unwavering trust that brings life to our souls. May this be your best year yet. #2018

A post shared by Joanna Stevens Gaines (@joannagaines) on Jan 1, 2018 at 2:56pm PST

The couple are passionate Christians who often discuss their faith in the spotlight. The two starred in a White Chair film, and Joanna frequently pens devotions on her blog.

Jim Woodford was brain-dead for 11 hours, but during that time, something incredible happened.

The successful businessman told his story to Sid Roth, including the message he says the Lord gave him.

Watch the video to see what it is.

The avalanche of accusations highlighting the sexual abuse and harassment of women has resulted in a cultural phenomenon that will forever raise the bar regarding ethics.

(Of course, some extreme feminists will use this as an opportunity to disparage all men, and others will merely see this as a way to advance their political agenda. We also have to be careful not to receive any accusation against a person unless there is due process along with a consistent and cohesive narrative regarding the alleged harassment.)

As a committed Christ follower, I am very pleased with this development in culture because of my view that all humans are made in the image of God (both male and female according to Gen.1:27). Having “image bearer” status compels us to treat all human beings with dignity and respect—irrespective of their ethnicity or if we agree with their lifestyle and politics. Expanding this concept further also brings us to the idea of the Christian view of the “sanctity of human life.”

Throughout church history, Christ-followers have always fought for and advocated for the sacredness of human life—which includes humanity in its “pre-birth” and “post-date” stage of development. (This is why the church spoke out against abortion, infanticide and slavery from the very beginning of its existence, as we can read in documents like the first-century book called The Didache as well as numerous other historical records of early church practice.)

More importantly, biblical passages in Jeremiah (1:5), Psalm 139, Luke (1:41), give the Hebraic perspective that human life begins in the womb. Also in the book of Exodus (21:22,23) we have an instance of biblical case law in which doing harm to a child in the womb carries the same penalties as when harm is inflicted to a post-birth human.

Ultrasounds also give incontrovertible scientific proof that a baby just a few weeks old in the womb already has a beating heart and all human biological features in its embryonic stage. (If every woman were required by law to view the ultrasound image of the baby in her womb before she had an abortion —this horrific practice of infanticide would rarely occur.) Consequently, when the USA legalized abortion in 1973, it desensitized people regarding the sanctity of life—after all, if you justify the killing of an innocent human baby in the womb in the name of “women’s rights,” the overall regard for humanity quickly goes downhill like a domino effect.

Having less cultural regard for the rights of the most vulnerable in society (a human baby) can easily result in projecting less value to all other humans. Hence, the equation goes like this: A culture with less regard for innocent unborn babies can equal less regard for all other humans (Resulting in more post birth racism, crime, murder, rape and sexual harassment). Hence, this eroding of societal mores makes it easier for people to objectify one another for their own ends (like a mother terminating her pregnancy for economic reasons or to avoid embarrassment).

Does this mean that a pro-life individual will never sexually harass or abuse another individual? Of course no—since all humans are born in sin, we are all guilty of living duplicitous lives and compartmentalizing truth—however, a pro-life person who sexually harasses another person is clearly going against their core belief system, which can make it harder for them to act on their deviant sexual impulse.

Conversely, pro-choice people lack the moral foundation in their worldview necessary to protect the innocent—which can possibly result in making it easier in their conscious to objectify and mistreat (post-birth) human beings.

In conclusion, I believe that the current conversation regarding sexual harassment and abuse should also lead us to further dig down and re-examine the abortion debate—because the two are inexplicably connected.

Brooke Simpson, the daughter of traveling evangelists, took third in the finale of The Voice.

Simpson, a Lee University alumnus, wowed judges and audiences with everything from hymns like “Amazing Grace,” “O Holy Night” and secular tunes by James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Pink and Journey.

Thank you guys for all of the love!!!! I’m so sad to see this journey come to an end but I am also so HAPPY to start making music for you! I love you and this is just the beginning

— Brooke Simpson (@brookesimpson) Dec. 20, 2017

Thank you ALL for the sweetest most heart warming messages and texts. I love you so much

— Brooke Simpson (@brookesimpson) Dec. 20, 2017

After Simpson’s loss, Coach Miley Cyrus tweeted: 

.@brookesimpson My queen! I will never stop believing in you! #1 in my heart! Love love love you chicken nugget! wouldn’t trade spending all this time together for anything in the world! You ARE the voice!

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) Dec. 20, 2017

As part of her live finale, Simpson performed “O Holy Night” Monday evening. Watch the video and get your socks knocked off.

Pope Francis and the Vatican are prepping for the Antichrist, and Tom Horn says he has the proof.

The information confirms Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj’s prophecy that Pope Francis is the false prophet from Revelation.

Watch the video to see how it all breaks down.

Revelation prophecies of the world bank may be manifesting in front of our eyes, Derek Gilbert tells Jim Bakker.

As England attempts to leave the European Union and Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies make headlines, Gilbert believes that there’s a globalist agenda attempting to gain control.

“On the short term, it’s a political ploy by those who see this as a new constituency,” Gilbert says in a recent episode of The Jim Bakker Show. “I think looking at it as Christians, we have to look at the prophetic view and see that this is bigger than the United States. All over the world, there’s a drive by the likes of George Soros and his open society initiative and other globalists who want to break down national borders.”

Watch the video to see more.

A Tennessee pastor who nearly died after a gunman open-fired at his church in September has finally returned to the pulpit, sharing an inspirational message about unity, recovery—and forgiveness.

Pastor Joey Spann addressed his flock at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tennessee, on Sunday, recounting the horrific ordeal that unfolded on Sept. 24 when gunman Emanual Samson, 25, allegedly killed one woman and injured seven others, including Spann. This was Spann’s first full sermon back at the church since the tragic shooting.

“I thought I was dead, he shot me in the chest, he shot my finger off,” Spann said. “I thought I was dead. I told my wife ‘bye.” {eoa}

Please read the rest of this article from our content partners at Faithwire.

Vandals smashing church windows. Flames consuming the building. Questions about how Americans really feel about Christians. It’s all in God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness. The third iteration of the franchise has Rev. Dave (David A.R. White) at a loss what to do when vandals utterly destroy his church. The ensemble includes John Corbett (All Saints), Shane Harper (God’s Not Dead) and Tatum O’Neal (Paper Moon). Watch the trailer and let us know what you think.