Jesus calls us to die to ourselves, and a victorious Christian life revolves around self-surrender. So why would a Messianic rabbi and international leader encourage us toward a focus on ourselves?

Curt Landry urges us into self-examination for one purpose only, he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network: to help us draw closer to God and His purposes for our lives. The popular author and speaker lays out seven questions that can help us think about our calling from God and opening the right doors.

“How you anticipate God is how you anticipate the doors that are open,” Landry says. “If you anticipate God as poverty, punishment and lack, then you’ll go through the door of punishment and lack. If you think of him as love and abundance, then you wait on the doors of love and abundance.”

“So the first question I want them to ask to answer is this: If you could only accomplish one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Landry says. “And they need to go ahead and write it down. … If you could do one thing, what would you want to do?

“It’s important because when they identify that one thing, it’s their heart’s desire, and your calling from God and heart’s desire, when you’re born again, or you’re really seeking after God—those two things are always the same,” Landry explains.

And Landry has a second question. “What do people often seek you out for advice, wisdom and health? What do they come to you for?

“Like, for instance, in our congregation, Pastor Tim’s a farmer, so they’ll go to him with more things in that line,” he says. “I’m more of a businessman. People will come to me for the business. So ask yourself a question. Even if you don’t see it, or even understand the value that you carry, what questions do people ask you? Because what people see in you may be a surprise.”

To hear the rest of Landry’s seven questions for godly self-examination, listen to this entire episode of the Greenelines podcast here, and make sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring, informative episodes like this one. Check out Landry’s own podcast, Ancient Principles, Kingdom Authority, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

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Sometimes, you have to take a stand.

But as Caleb Cooper, pastor of New Hope Revival Church in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, in his case, a strong stance brought supernatural breakthrough.

“We took one of the strongest stances in the state,” Cooper says. “We were on a head-on collision with law enforcement, based on the governor and some of the [other authorities who were] able to release that voice against the church.”

When Cooper sat down with the New Mexico State Police, he made his perspective clear. They told him how intense COVID was and that “We’re in a different world. And we just want you to recognize how bad this really is,” he explains.

“And I looked at them, and I said, ‘The only thing worse than someone dying of COVID-19 is that they die of COVID-19 without Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they burn in hell for eternity,'” Cooper says. “And so I’m essential. I’m here to make sure that if someone does die, they’re right with God.”

Cooper also made sure the officers understood he appreciated and honored their work. In the end, he says, God came through.

“The sheriff stood with us,” Cooper says. “You might have heard that he came in; he deputized our whole church, helped us stand in the face of media. … the sheriff told me, ‘I’m going to stand with you. I will be that barrier between your right to be here as the church and any tyrannical government that would seek to overthrow that. And he was just nominated as Sheriff of the Year from New Mexico.”

For more from Cooper on how his strong stance for God, for revival and for reaching the nation for Christ is making a difference, listen to this entire episode of Greenelines at this link. Subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform, and be sure to check out Cooper’s own podcast, Uncompromised Revival Fire, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

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We all know COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our world. Michael Thompson of Zoweh Ministries recognizes its devastation, but he views it through a spiritual lens, one that, in the midst of the negatives, also allows for multiplied ministry.

COVID gave the spirits of death and fear that had already been released into the world “some steroids,” he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. “I think it gave death and fear the kind of power in the world that we’ve seen then play out in the hearts of men and women, families, divorce rates. I heard recently that filing for divorce at the end of 2020 in the state of New York was up 70%.”

But these trials, Thompson says, have moved men to a place of recognizing their need. The enemy’s tactics have left them uncertain, he says.

“And where I see Jesus working is if you’re not hurting, if you’re not hungry, if you’re not asking questions, if you’re not uncertain, I don’t know that Jesus has a lot to offer you,” Thompson explains. “If you have a confidence in your way and what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, there seem to be these times in a man’s life where something needs to be ruined … something needs to be awry, something needs to be a mess before they can come to the end: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t have the answers.’ That seems to be when God says, ‘Here I am. I’ll help you.'”

For more from Michael Thompson on how God is using Zoweh to reach people in the midst of pain and problems, listen to this entire episode of Greenelines here, and subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform. You’ll also want to check out Zoweh’s Exploring More podcast, also on the Charisma Podcast Network, and his book, The Heart of a Warrior, available wherever fine Christian books are sold. {eoa}

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Hearing the word “retarded” hurled at you.

Receiving discipline for behavior that didn’t fit the norm.

Facing exclusion and bullying from fellow students.

These were only some of the challenges Xavier DeGroat faced while growing up as someone on the autism spectrum. And those challenges, he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, have moved him into a life and ministry of advocacy for others on the spectrum—one that has taken him to a White House internship and beyond.

“I’m not going to let anyone stop me,” DeGroat says. “My parents told my teachers and principals way back in the beginning that one day, you’re going to find out our son is going to become quite the astonishing leader … with laws and policies and helping benefit those with autism.”

A connection with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani led to him becoming the first White House intern with autism in 2020, DeGroat explains. Before that, he had a 2019 meeting with President Donald Trump. “It was only supposed to be a five-minute meeting, but it turned out to be a half-hour meeting, because the president was inspired by me,” DeGroat says.

That meeting also led to some changes in the Transportation Security Administration’s policy that directly impacted those on the spectrum, he explains. “It changed their way of operating the screening process …. Because that can bring about heavy tantrum behaviors in those with autism when they are very anxious about getting past the density of the crowd and the loudness and bright lights,” DeGroat said.

Now finished with his internship and back at home in Lansing, Michigan, DeGroat continues his efforts on behalf of those on the autism spectrum through his Xavier DeGroat Autism Foundation. During his time in the White House, he spoke with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about a possible position as global ambassador or special envoy for autism, and he says he plans to work with the Biden administration on this idea as well.

For more about Xavier DeGroat and how God is using him to bless others with autism, listen to the entire episode of Greenelines at this link. Subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast for more inspiring stories like this one! {eoa}

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His son lay dead in the hospital morgue. But Bible teacher Andrew Wommack and his wife had something he says made all the difference: confidence in God.

“I’ve got a confidence in the Lord that is way beyond me and my performance,” Andrew Womack of Andrew Wommack Ministries tells Dr. Steve Greene on a popular episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network.

That confidence, Wommack says, must be tied to a firm foundation of faith: “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

“My son died in 2001, on March 4, and he was dead for between four and five hours,” Wommack says. “And he was in a hospital; they had stripped him naked, put a toe tag on him, put him in the morgue on a slab. And then they called me to tell me what happened.”

“And my wife and I just spoke our faith and agreed,” he says. “And we had such confidence that my son, who had been dead for over four hours, just sat up and started talking, and has no brain damage today.

“I believe that that is a part of confidence,” Wommack says. “There are a lot of people who believe God can do those things. But they just kind of ask, ‘God, will You do this?’ And then they wait to see how things work out to discern whether God’s going to answer or not.

“But I knew that God was answering that prayer,” Wommack says. “And that’s confidence. And so this has literally transformed my life and the lives of many, many other people.”

For more from Andrew Wommack on how purging your conscience according to the Word of God can give you complete confidence in Him, listen to the entire episode of Greenelines at this link, and make sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories like this one. {eoa}

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“I’m done.

“I’m done doing Christianity my way. We’re going to do it all Your way. I don’t care. You can tell me what to eat, what to drink, what to wear; I don’t care.”

That’s what Rev. Josephine Ayers told God after what she calls “a couple of major failures.” And that surrender changed her life.

“It opened up a flood of favor,” Ayers, an ordained minister who attended Elim Bible Institute and College, tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “It’s when the prophetic just burst in me. And that’s when God really started to cruise in my life, when I just handed it all to him.

“And I really did,” she says. “I just said, ‘That’s it.’ And I think that’s what He was waiting for.'”

Ayers didn’t surrender with the idea of receiving God’s blessing, she says. “I just did it because I could see that my way of doing Christianity was not His way. And that’s one of the things I’d like to teach to other people: If you think full surrender to God is going to limit you, you’re wrong. You just opened up the floodgates of heaven on your life.”

And Ayers knows the cost of surrender. Her life has included everything from moving across the country with her husband at God’s direction with only $5,000 and no jobs to God bringing her through times of great trial. Today, she writes, speaks and serves others through her own Flames of Fire Ministry.

For more from Josephine Ayers about the cost and benefit of true surrender to God, listen to this entire episode of Greenelines here and subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories like this one. You’ll also want to check out Ayers’ own podcast, Game Changers for God, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

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For more than a year now, COVID-19 has dominated our lives. Many of us have lost friends or loved ones. Others have battled the disease themselves. And all of us have faced the challenges of lockdown, isolation and quarantine in different ways.

But we may not have considered the spiritual impact of the fear surrounding all things coronavirus, naturopathic doctor Mark Sherwood says. All the clamor surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine has also become “a huge distraction,” he tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. Our assignment from Jesus is to preach the gospel, not live in fear—and that, more than any other factor, must inform our decisions on this and every issue, he says.

Sherwood points out that right after Jesus tells His followers to “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), He says, “These signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18).

“In that situation I just laid out, the vaccine, whether it’s good or bad, or poison or not, isn’t going to harm me,” Sherwood says. “The enemy doesn’t need a vaccine to take out the people—doesn’t at all. So we need to take a step back and say, ‘All right; what am I doing? What am I thinking? And why am I putting so much intensity and emotion into this thing right now?'”

Sherwood says it’s absolutely not God’s will for people to remain in their homes, stuck in fear. Those people should get the vaccine, he says. “The loneliness, the isolation is killing people,” he says. “It’s crushing people. That is not God’s intent.”

If not having the COVID-19 vaccine is keeping us fearful, isolated and away from gospel opportunities, we should consider getting it, Sherwood says. “Satan tries to isolate and dominate. What happens is people get isolated, and that’s how the thief kills us.”

For much more from Dr. Mark Sherwood on the specifics of the COVID-19 vaccines, how they work and where God wants you to place your focus during this unusual season, listen to this entire episode of the Greenelines podcast at this link, and be sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform. In addition, check out Sherwood’s own podcast with his wife, Dr. Michele Sherwood, Hope and Health, also on the Charisma Podcast Network.

There’s no doubt about it: Men have gone from the leaders of society to, at least in some circles, the lowest of the low. But Dr. Tim Clinton says they’ve gotten a bad rap.

“Most men are looked at as distant, disengaged, lazy, cold, no-emotion porn addicts, bad husbands, horrible fathers, buffoons,” Clinton, author, professional counselor and co-host of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. He and co-author Max Davis wrote their most recent book, Take It Back, as a response to the impact of the cancel culture on men in particular.

“Most of the men I’m around—they’re tired of getting beat up,” Clinton says. “They’re tired of getting pounded. [But] I’m seeing a real uprising starting to surge right now. There’s a lot of men out there wanting to step up to the plate and make a difference: Be godly dads, be good husbands, be men who know and love and serve the Lord. There’s a hunger. And I’ll tell you what, it’s a hunger like I’ve not seen in a long time … So we felt it was time to write a book of a strong encouragement and hope for men. And by the way, for those who love them, this book is written also for those who really care deeply about the men in their lives.”

“We want to give this as a bow-tie present to say, ‘Listen, you matter; you matter more than you know,'” Clinton says. “And it’s time; it’s time right now to step into this moment.”

Contrary to what our culture often says, Clinton explains, there is a lot of good news about men and the impact they have in their families. “For example, 92% of Americans agree that men, dads, make a unique contribution to their son and daughter’s life; in other words, they have a profound influence on them according to the National Center on Fathering.”

Clinton also says that “Dads make all the difference in the world when it comes to their sons and daughters in terms of influence in their life. When you think about the influence of dad, and if he is emotionally engaged and present, kids score higher on assessment of academic performance … they do much better in their male and female identities. They’re stronger against peer pressure. They’re stronger against whether or not they’re going to get involved in drug use or more and mental health issues.

“It matters. Dad’s presence when he’s engaged and participating in the life of the son or daughter—it matters,” Clinton says. “And again, I don’t think that message gets out there enough: Men matter.”

For much more from Dr. Tim Clinton about why men matter and how godly men can reclaim biblical manhood, listen to this entire episode of the Greenelines podcast at this link, and make sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories like this one. {eoa}

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She wondered how she could be a good parent. But in the end, it all came down to just one thing.

And now, God has her parenting the next generation of prophets alongside her husband, Apostle Craig Toach—focused on that same one thing, Apostle Colette Toach says. She and Craig share their story with Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network.

Colette grew up as the child of divorce, she says. And while that didn’t stop her from getting married, it did make her wonder about her parenting abilities.

“My greatest struggle, because I was pregnant so early, was that I be a terrible mother,” she says. “Lord, I don’t know how You’re going to do this,” she told God.

But God, of course, had an answer: “Don’t worry. I just need you to do this one thing for Me. … You can fail on every other account but this one thing: Teach them to have a relationship with Me. And I’ll fill in the gaps.”

“I am so not the soccer mom, I am the apostle and the prophet,” Colette says. “My kid comes in with a bad attitude, and I would say, ‘You will march yourself to that bedroom, and you will go pray to Jesus, and you are not leaving that room until your spirit is in order. … I wasn’t about the bed being made. It was like, ‘That spirit is not OK. We’re not having that at our dinner table.'”

And that natural calling became the core of the Toaches’ spiritual calling, she explains. In their Apostolic Ministries International Prophetic School for the Next Gen Prophets, they seek to impart to young prophets that same “one thing,” the Lord showed her years before:

“The prophet is one whose heart beats at one with Christ,” Colette says. “And that heart is misunderstood because it feels everything. And because Jesus needs us so much to express that heart to the church, it has to be about Him. That means dying to the flesh, that means dying to me, what I want, what I want to eat for dinner, who I want to marry—the ‘me’ becomes irrelevant. And for the Holy Spirit to bring that out of you, that means going through a process of getting rid of you.”

For the Next Gen Prophets, Craig says, “We try and create the character that a person needs to be the prophet God’s called them to be. … We call them to death. And the crazy thing is, if you’re really a prophet, you tell that to a real prophet, they’re like, ‘Bring it on.'”

For much more from Apostles Craig and Colette Toach about their apostolic ministry to the Next Gen Prophets, listen to this entire episode of the Greenelines podcast at this link, and be sure to subscribe to the Greenelines podcast on your favorite podcast platform. You’ll also want to subscribe to the Toaches’ own Spirit-powered podcast, Next Gen Prophets, also on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

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“You know, I am a really competitive person. When I was in the Iran Army during the Iran-Iraq War, I told my commander, ‘Send me to the place where I can be martyred for my country within 24 hours. I don’t want to waste my time; I just want to go where the fighting is the fiercest.”

The man who told Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs this story was an Iranian named Iman. And Iman had much more to say, Nettleton tells Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network—a “more” that should challenge every follower of Christ.

“When I was a drug addict, I wanted to use more drugs than anyone else was using, and I wanted to use every single drug that anyone could use,” Iman told Nettleton. “I wanted to be the best drug addict in the world.”

But this Iranian had still more to say.

“When I was a thief, I wanted to be the best thief in the world,” Iman said. “I wanted to steal more than anyone else was stealing. And if someone else tried to steal something and was caught, I would try to go and steal that thing just to prove that I was a better thief than the first guy.”

But then, Nettleton says, “Iman had an amazing powerful encounter with Jesus Christ. And Jesus healed him of that drug addiction, completely took away the desire for any drugs, any narcotics, any anything—just healed him. And Iman was transformed into a follower of Christ.

“Iman was a very competitive person; he doesn’t want to be an average follower of Christ,” Nettleton reminds listeners. “He wants to be the best follower of Christ that he could possibly be. He doesn’t want to be an average evangelist. He wants to tell every single person that he ever meets or ever talks to about Jesus and about how Jesus healed him, and how Jesus died for them. And so he has this competitive desire to be a follower of Christ.”

But this time, Iman’s competitive nature landed him in jail. When you live in Iran and become a zealous follower of Jesus, that’s where you end up, Nettleton says.

“Iman did end up in jail,” he adds. “In fact, they put him in solitary confinement. And then they put him in a cell with 100 other prisoners. And during the week that he was in that cell, he was able to share Christ with all 100 of his fellow prisoners, and 24 of them knelt and prayed with him to receive Christ and to renounce their old life.

Iman was released from prison, and Nettleton says, “The guards had to chase him out because he was having such an amazing ministry.”

That month, Iman sent in his monthly ministry report to his church leadership, showing that he had shared Christ with 100 people, and 24 had received Christ.

“Several weeks later, his ministry leadership understood that he had been arrested, that he’d gone to prison,” Nettleton says. When they asked Iman why he hadn’t told them about his ordeal, he was incredulous.

“Why does that matter?” Iman asked. “Why does it matter when I was sharing Christ? I shared Christ with 100 people, and 24 of them prayed to receive Christ.

“That’s the important part; that’s the part I reported,” Iman said. “Now where that happened? That’s completely immaterial. Who cares if it was in prison?”

For more inspiring stories from Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs, listen to the entire episode of the Greenelines podcast, and be sure to subscribe to Greenelines on your favorite podcast platform for more inspiring stories. To read more about Iman and other heroes of the faith, check out Nettleton’s new book, When Faith Is Forbidden, wherever good books are sold. You’ll also want to listen to his podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, Forbidden Faith. {eoa}

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