Todd White’s faith has changed quite radically in just a matter of months.

In May, the Christian evangelist was speaking out against a documentary series that condemned the prosperity gospel and his preaching of it. At the time, he rebuked the show, American Gospel: Christ Alone, as “demonically inspired.” And he was quick to reject the suggestion he was “a heretic.”

But just a few months later, White—a protege of fellow preacher Benny Hinn, who last year walked back some of his own teachings—seems to have had a radical change of heart, a shift he said is the result of conviction.

“I am not perfect, but I am strongly convicted,” White said Sunday. “I feel like I just met Jesus again! There’s just this rekindled thing inside of me. This has been the hardest season of my life. I’m like, ‘Lord, what are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m pruning every branch that you have.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not OK. It hurts.’ And He said, ‘If you were dead, it wouldn’t hurt.'”

At another point early on in his sermon, White talked about evangelism and how people come to accept Christ.

“When you come into the gospel because you came in for a better life,” he explained, “you’ve come in for the wrong gospel. When you come to Jesus because He’s gonna give you this and He’s gonna give you that, you really didn’t surrender. See, what you’re saying is, ‘I’ve come to get this.’ What you’ve done is a taste test to see if it’s true. It’s the same thing as getting a buzz: ‘Well, I’ll try this Jesus thing. Maybe there’s a buzz in it.’ That’s not Jesus.”

He went on to preach, “Your goal as a Christian is to be conformed to His image, is to be transformed into His image, into His likeness, and to actually walk like Christ walked. Jesus didn’t despise sinners, but He hated sin, and He addressed it all the time.”

White told the congregation he has been spending time recently poring over the words of New Zealand-born minister Ray Comfort and 19th-century theologian Charles Spurgeon.

Read the rest of this story from our content partners at Faithwire. {eoa}

Most of us would agree that 2020 has been a year of challenge for families. Studies show that stress is up and Bible reading is down.

Psychologist and author Dr. Magdalena Battles believes there’s a spiritual factor in play as well. “I strongly believe that Satan is attacking families,” she tells host Marti Pieper on this episode of the Family Matters series on Charisma News. “What better way to destroy a nation and to destroy the world than to start by attacking families? Families are what God created us for. … He did that because He wanted to see relationships in action,” she says.

Battles, whose new book is 6 Hidden Behaviors That Destroy Families (Whitaker House) says, “In Matthew 22, the two greatest commands are first, love Him, first and foremost. And then second, to love others as you love yourself. And the people that you put in your life … are your family members.”

Battles adds, “The destruction of the family is the way that Satan destroys us as individuals, and it destroys nations. And restoration in our lives happens when we look back to God, look at His solutions. And then we begin working on it ourselves. We partner with God to work on these family issues ourselves.” She cautions people not to think, “I don’t know how I’m going to fix my family members,” saying bluntly, “You can’t. We can be an example of how to do things. And that’s probably the best way … if we don’t tell our family members, ‘You need to do this, you need to do that.’ That usually doesn’t go so well.

“What always works best is being the person who takes action and is the agent of change within the family,” Battles says. “None of us is a perfect human being, but we can do better, and we can try harder. And trying harder means just applying God’s Word. … We need to dive into His Word and use His solutions to have family relationships and have restoration.”

To hear more of Dr. Magdalena Battles’ biblical, practical wisdom on helping your family survive the pandemic and beyond, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}

Family, friends and the Christian community are mourning the loss of a Texas pastor and father to four children who was killed Saturday night in a traffic accident.

While driving down U.S. Highway 75 in Sherman, Texas, John Powell pulled over to assist individuals who had been involved in a crash, KXII News reports.

The 38-year-old pastor was struck by a passing semitruck and died at the scene of the accident.

Powell was regarded as a true servant of God who tragically lost his life while helping others. He was a church planter and pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in New Caney, Texas.

Tributes to the beloved pastor, who was known for his kindness were shared on social media.

Dr. Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission wrote on Twitter that he was saddened by the loss of this great Christian leader.

“I am shocked and shaken and grieving this morning, beyond what I can say,” Moore wrote. “My former student John Powell was killed last night, hit by an eighteen-wheeler while helping stranded motorists off of a highway.”

Grieved and heartbroken beyond words. Please pray. pic.twitter.com/imBM0OmXue

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) July 19, 2020

To read the rest of this story, visit our content partners at CBN News. {eoa}

We might expect the author of a book and newly released companion study guide titled Parenting First Aid (New Growth Press) to be an expert, and that he is. Marty Machowski is the father of six, grandfather of two, author, family pastor and publishing leader who has helped thousands of families through the years. But there was a day, he says, when he needed parenting first aid himself.

Machowski tells host Marti Pieper on this episode of the Family Matters series on the Charisma News podcast that “We started with twins, a boy and a girl. And our girl, Emma, was what you might call the picture of perfect Christian young lady. She knew the Lord at a young age. She was very compliant. and she wanted to follow the rules.

“And our son was the opposite,” Machowski says. “He didn’t want to be constrained by rules. He wasn’t interested in doing things that we said [just] because we said them. He said to me one day, ‘Dad, look. I’m not one of the kind of guys who can just learn from a lesson and do it that way. I can’t learn from other people’s mistakes; I have to make them myself.'”

And he did, Machowski says. In the middle of the night, he and his wife “got the proverbial call from the police station: ‘Can you come pick up your son?'” They discovered their teenage son had been sneaking out at night to drink beer with other church kids at a local park.

Machowski says he asked God what to do, and the Lord said, “I don’t want you parenting standing up. I want you parenting kneeling down.

“You see, I had a vision [that] I’m going to be the pastor who does it all,” Machowski says. “I’m going to do devotions with my kids. I’m going to take them to church. I’m going to watch and be a good gatekeeper over their media intake. I’m going to steward friendships. I’m going to do it all to help show people how this can be done well.

“And God said, ‘You know all those things you’ve got? They’re all really good. But guess what?” God asked. The Lord told him that not one of those things started with J and spelled “Jesus.”

“‘You’re doing this in your own strength, and you’re going to take the glory for yourself,'” Machowski says God told him.

“And just like He did with Israel, He just removed his hand and said, ‘All right, you want to do it on your own, by your own means, go ahead,” Machowski says. “‘And then I’m going to come back up on the back side, and I’m going to lift you up when you fall in, and I’m going to do a work in your family.’

“And what we realized was, when the psalm says, ‘Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain,’ you say, ‘OK; who’s building the house: me or God? And the answer is yes. We’re doing it together,” Machowski says.

To hear more of Machowski’s wisdom for parents including his top tips for parenting during the pandemic, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}

A wave is hitting Huntington Beach, California, and exploding across the sand. Except in this case, the water comes from an eternal source, and the driving force is Holy Spirit power.

The longtime prayers of God’s people are being answered even now as Saturate OC (Saturate Orange County, California) plans and conducts weekly revival services, spurred on by a prophetic word. Saturate OC co-founder Jessi Green who, with her husband, Parker, moved to the area from New York City in expectation of a move of God, says on the ministry’s website that God spoke clearly:

“There’s a 50,000-person harvest in Huntington Beach during Summer 2020. Pray for workers.”

A Facebook post repeats the vision: “My husband Parker and I moved across the country from New York to California and gave up everything we had because of a profound vision God had shown us. We came to California on a vacation and as we prayed we saw a picture of thousands of people being baptized along Huntington Beach Pier; the harvest was so massive, people were quickly turning around to baptize the person behind them. There was a ripple effect to this move of God. I believe that there is a massive harvest for THE CHURCH in Orange County to participate in and we need to prepare the nets of discipleship,” Jessi says.

And now, Saturate OC says on Facebook, the movement has grown “from a few hundred to a few thousand,” with hundreds of salvations and multiple baptisms in its wake.

Ed Young chuckled to himself, realizing the backlash he’d soon receive for warning “woke” Christians against jumping too quickly onto “cultural hype trains.”

Sure enough within a matter of days, Young, a megachurch pastor in Grapevine, Texas, was dragged repeatedly on social media for —in the eyes of his detractors—failing to recognize the difference between the phrase “Black lives matter” and the official organization. The irony, the predictable reality Young was laughing to himself about just days before, is their comments were in response to a video in which the Fellowship Church pastor explained the difference between the three-word phrase and the organization, endorsing the former and disavowing the latter.

“‘Woke’ Christian leaders and pastors today are jumping on the ‘hype train’ of what culture is currently applauding,” said Young. “But they don’t really look at what the hype train is connected to. For example, many of the things culture applauds are connected to relativism, abortion, transgenderism, the breakup of the nuclear family.”

One example of the “hype train,” the preacher said, is the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a report from The Christian Post.

Young explained he “wholeheartedly agree[s]” with the phrase, adding, “I believe in it and the church should champion it. We should stand up for equality and justice. I believe we need to lead out.”

“But I can’t support or agree with the core beliefs of the organization Black Lives Matter,” he continued. “It’s tied to abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism and the breakup of the nuclear family—just to name a few. So I’m not going to hashtag that phrase, because whenever someone hashtags something, they need to hash it out through Scripture, and they need to understand what the people who have started the hashtag are actually living out and what solutions are they recommending.”

Read the rest of this story from our content partners at Faithwire.com {eoa}.

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Evangelist Chris Brooks refers to this Scripture on a recent episode of Recovery to Recovered podcast with host Caleb McCall on the Charisma Podcast Network. Brooks says President Trump has told us that with the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant economic downturn, “there has been an increase of drug addiction, suicide and all these things happening because that’s what the world is turning to. And it is the responsibility of the church to be there in order to show the world where to turn and leave the darkness because we’re supposed to be the light that penetrates that darkness.”

Brooks shares the concept of the hand being used to help us understand the five-fold gifts given in 1 Corinthians 12:28. He says, “Your thumb is actually the apostle, for the apostle actually is the only member in your hand that can touch the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor and the teacher.” The prophet, he says, is “the shooter. … The prophet is the one that goes in there and points that finger and says, ‘This is what needs to happen. This is what needs to take place. I hear the voice of the Lord coming.'”

But the evangelist, Brooks says, “sticks out further than all of them. … he’s the first one that comes in there and is a draw.” Brooks reminds listeners of the biblical purpose of the five-fold gifts: “for the equipping of the body of believers,” he says (see Eph. 4:12). He points out a common misunderstanding of the gift of evangelism: “We used to think the role of the evangelist was to come in and hold a huge revival. And the evangelist comes in and draws everybody in. And that’s not true, and here’s why. If we rely upon the evangelist to be the only one who draws the people in, when the evangelist leaves, the church does nothing.”

To hear more of the discussion between McCall and Brooks on the five-fold gifts, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}

“I see a plague coming on the world and the bars, church and government shut down. The plague will hit New York City and shake it like it has never been shaken. The plague is going to force prayerless believers into radical prayer, into their Bibles, and repentance will be the cry from true men of God in the pulpit. And out of it will come a third Great Awakening that will sweep America and the world.”

This was a prophecy that was circulated and going viral on social media just a few months ago that was attributed to the late David Wilkerson. But quickly, it was questioned and then attacked. Was it truly a word from God? Or was it manufactured in a time where the national and global consciousness is heightened and alarmed with the ongoing ‘pandemic’?

These were answers I wanted to get to the bottom of, as I love the Holy Spirit and all things truly prophetic.

I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Stephen Strang, the founder of Charisma Media. On my podcast Adventures in the Spirit with Jared Laskey, he addressed this prophetic word. It also begins his new book, God, Trump and COVID-19. Stephen said that his friend Mike Evans picked up his Bible one day, and the handwritten note with David Wilkerson fell out, shaking Mike to his knees in prayer.

Dr. Michael Brown even weighed in on the conversation about the validity of the prophetic word. Many people say it very well could have been a word because David Wilkerson was known to give such words. If you have ever read The Vision or Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth by Wilkerson, you can see those words being in the same vein. But then others, even other prophetic ministries, distanced themselves from it or tried ignoring it.

But Strang said that he emailed Gary Wilkerson, the son of David Wilkerson, who said, “I have read the post, and we at World Challenge have no written quotes exactly like the one circulating widely, [though] I do feel it could very well be something my father would have said.” And being the well-trained journalist that he is, Strang included it in his book, saying, “It was a prophetic word Wilkerson gave Mike, who wrote it down and stuck it in the Bible he used at the time. It stayed there until Mike found it not long ago.”

The word struck a chord around the world, giving hope to many and calling people to prayer, which we all should be doing anyway. But have you sensed the Spirit of God calling you to more prayer, to stay up late to pray? Around the world, more people are being called to prayer through what I call the Holy Spirit’s 24/7 Prayer Watch, initiated by Him alone. Could it be a sovereign and divine summons to pray for a Third Great Awakening in America that spreads around the world?

Please listen in to my interview with Stephen Strang and weigh in on the prophetic word here. {eoa}

Jared Laskey, M.Div., M.A. Christian ministry, is the founder of Fireborn Ministries and host of the Adventures in the Spirit podcast. He lives to see Jesus awaken this generation to the power of the Holy Spirit. Jared loves teaching people how to hear God. He has recently published the Spirit-Empowered Journal, available on Amazon, and a mini e-course, Fellowship with the Holy Spirit. His testimony of how God supernaturally healed him of PTSD is in Joan Hunter’s new book, Miracles for Veterans.

On Friday (July 17), Christian author Matthew Paul Turner came out as gay via Facebook and Instagram and announced that he and his wife, fellow writer Jessica Turner, are divorcing.

Matthew Paul Turner is the former editor of CCM, a magazine covering contemporary Christian music, but he is best known for his rhyming children’s books published through Convergent, an imprint of Penguin Random House. His 2019 book When I Pray for You is a Today, Publisher’s Weekly and Wall Street Journal bestseller with more than 100,000 copies in print.

“[A]s someone who spent 30+ years in fundamentalist/evangelical churches, exploring God through conservative theologies, I’ve lived many days overwhelmed by fear, shame and self-hatred,” Turner wrote in a Facebook post. “But for the first time in my life, despite the sadness and grief I’m feeling right now, I can say with confidence that I’m ready to embrace freedom, hope and God as a gay man.”

Jessica Turner also shared a Facebook post. “We are moving forward with ending our marriage, while remaining deeply committed to our family and each other,” she wrote. “We are all adjusting to a new normal, with our home now extended under two rooftops.”

The two were married in 2004 after meeting online and quickly bonding over their interest and involvement in CCM.

“I fell in love with her 17 years ago and still love her deeply,” Turner wrote. “Despite her own grief and pain, she has loved and encouraged me to be fully me.” The couple live in Nashville, Tennessee, with their three children.

They did not say when their divorce will be finalized.

In his book, Fear No Evil, Turner describes growing up in a conservative Independent Fundamental Baptist Church where he said his belief in God was rooted in fear of damnation—he was taught musical syncopation was sinful and said he didn’t set foot in a movie theater until age 19. He writes that his faith evolved over the years, and eventually Turner launched a blog called “Jesus Needs New PR” and became a part of more progressive Christian circles.

“Though my own faith evolved long ago to become LGBTQ+ affirming, my journey toward recognizing, accepting and embracing myself took much longer,” Turner wrote in his post.

His now-progressive faith is reflected in his children’s books—which emphasize God’s radical, inclusive love—as well as his other writings. Turner said he would continue to write children’s books with the support of his publisher.

Jessica Turner is founder of popular blog and of the 2018 book, Stretched Too Thin: How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt, Work Smarter and Thrive. She writes about family, motherhood, DIY hacks and savings tips. {eoa}

© 2020 Religion News Service. All rights reserved.

Few people would argue that race has become a major issue in our country, only adding to the tension during this time of quarantine and lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus. But Keith Daniel, a founding member of the ministry Zoweh, has a suggestion for us all.

Daniel tells host Michael Thompson in this episode of the Exploring More podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network that he recommends people “make it a regular practice to read one of the most powerfully written documents in the American landscape.”

Daniel is referring to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail. “It speaks to this present moment, and the person today who I feel is picking up [God’s] voice is picking up of that same spirit that Dr. King wrote that letter in,” he says.

Daniel has committed himself “as a regular practice to allow that document to be a regular reflection point,” he says. “Now for those who don’t know, Dr. King wrote that letter in response to white clergy who had written him to essentially say, ‘Why are you provoking and protesting instead of letting the courts deal with it?”

Daniel says Dr. King was in prison, in isolation, so he was “basically quarantined. He’s in jail, he actually offers a response, which he normally did not do in that kind of way. And that statement was so profound, and I asked myself to this day, I wonder if any of those white clergymen … now participated in the movement and walked in the marches as a result of what he said.”

To hear more of this discussion in the In Living Color series on the Exploring More podcast, listen to the entire podcast here. {eoa}