Mike Bickle and other leaders at the International House of Prayer (IHOPKC) recently recorded a video response to recent reports that Christian leaders like Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson have fallen away from their Christian faith. (Sampson has since clarified his faith is on “shaky ground” but not yet renounced.) In the video, Bickle applauded Harris and Sampson for chasing truth and integrity and wrestling with their faith, and expressed hope that they would eventually return to Christianity.

“One thing that’s really important is that for Marty or Joshua, either one, this isn’t the end of the story,” Bickle says. “I mean, good guys have hard moments. So I don’t look at this and say ‘This is that. It’s over.’ I say, ‘No, Marty, Jesus loves you. We love you. We’re standing with you as a human being, as a believer in the body of Christ all these years.’ Yeah, you have a hard moment. You might say, ‘Hey, it’s more. I’ve already made some decisions.’ But I know our heavenly Father, and there’s a cry in your heart for the Lord.

“So this isn’t the end of the story. We continue like we’ve always done: we show love and support. I don’t mean support of wrong ideas, but support of the quest, the struggle, the journey. Because we’re going to be there together in the ups and the downs. The Bible clearly talks about a falling away in the generation the Lord returns, but that doesn’t mean [for] every individual that has a huge setback [that it’s] the final chapter of their life. I’m still praying and believing, and if I had the chance to talk to them, I’d show love. I’d hug them. I’d say, ‘Man, your hearts are hurting. I get it. I see a cry for honesty and integrity and being genuine. That is good. But there’s some wrong answers to that right cry. But again, the wrong answers aren’t always the final answers.'”

Bickle added later that it’s important to “honor the authentic questions, because truth is never hurt by questioning it.” Yet he encourages believers who are strong in the faith not to lose heart when they see Christian leaders falling.

“Yes, some are stumbling and they don’t have the answers and they’re embracing wrong answers—but millions are not,” he says. “So I would say we don’t look at this one stumbling and say, ‘That’s my future.’ We look at the one stumbling with compassion and tenderness, and if we’re grounded in the world in a biblical community of godly relationships … we can make it through those hard times together.”

Bickle also confessed that the modern charismatic church can create these doubts in people because of its emphasis on hype. Though he does not attribute any malice or ill will to people who exaggerate, he admits it’s a big problem.

“Here’s what I think troubles people: It’s hype,” Bickle says. “I’m a part of the charismatic community in terms of experience. I appreciate that part of the body of Christ. But I am troubled by how much hype is in some of the charismatic camps—meaning the exaggeration on the stage, the manipulation, the overstating things. Forcing people to buy into ‘Are you feeling the power?’ And they [have to say] ‘Yeah’ or they feel rejected if they don’t say, ‘Yeah.’

“I think a lot of stuff is fake. I don’t think it’s charlatan deceivers. I think it’s people saying, ‘I don’t want to be left out. I don’t want to be left behind. Yeah, I did a miracle, I think, sort of, kind of.’ You don’t need to do that. We don’t need to help the Lord by faking manifestations, faking healings, overstating healings. The numbers are more than they were more before, and they’re going to really increase, and they’re not at the level we want. But I don’t buy a whole lot of testimonies.

“There’s real ones, and I’m not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. [Just] because there’s fake preachers that manipulate crowds and because there’s fake manifestations and fake healings, it doesn’t mean they’re all fake. To me, I work through. I want to see the gold in the midst of all the rust and the negative. If you’re only looking at the fake, you’re going to miss a lot, because there’s a greater story going on. The gold is there. And it is increasing.”

To watch Bickle’s full video response, watch the embedded video here.

Recently, Todd White says he met a man who died from a drug overdose and went to hell itself. In the video, the man describes going to another realm and seeing “all these monsters.”

Then, White says, “Jesus comes in light and He looks at him and says, ‘I’m your brother,’ and grabs his hand, picks him up. The guy comes back into his body, and the paramedics are working on him.”

Watch the full video testimony here.

In January, Francis and Lisa Chan celebrated 25 years of marriage. Francis says the secret to having a God-honoring relationship—more than communication or any relational tips—is first being deeply in love with God. That opens the doors to be a giver, not a taker, with your spouse.

Francis says, “What we have found in marriage is … we find so much security when we wake up every day in awe, like I can’t believe you said that about me. God, I can’t believe you delight me. You delight in me and you call me a member of your body, and you are I are one? Then it’s like, ‘What do I need from this?’ [referring to his spouse].

“Instead, I’m a giver now. Because of everything that God’s given me. I love learning about marriage and learning about how to communicate better, but at the core of everything, it has to be you being an individual who is blown away that you are one with God. That is going to bring more to your marriage than anything else.”

Bill Johnson was interviewed backstage after teaching and leading others in healing prayer at the Hillsong Conference 2019. In this behind-the-scenes interviews, hosts Niyah Rahmaan, Tom Yanco and Mel Wade ask Johnson about his approach to praying for healing and miracles.

Johnson says every believer has the power to perform miracles if they are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit.

“The Holy Spirit is the spirit of resurrection,” Johnson says. “And the Holy Spirit took up residence in every believer and He wants to flow through to demonstrate the resurrection of Jesus. Every miracle demonstrates and reaffirms that Jesus is alive. So we owe the world an encounter with God. We owe them the opportunity to taste, experience and see—change their perception. What you taste will change what you see, and that’s our obligation to people right there. We owe that to people: an encounter with the Almighty God. We don’t just owe them words. We owe them words that are soaked with presence that will bring them into an encounter with God.”

Johnson says if a miracle does not happen, it’s important to set aside time to talk to God to find out why it did not happen. He says miracles should always happen, because the Bible never depicts Jesus failing to perform miracles.

“You pursue a miracle,” Johnson says. “Let’s say we’re praying for somebody. If they get a breakthrough, Jesus gets all the credit. We make sure that we don’t put the attention on the gift, on the prayer of faith. I’m thrilled we get to be involved, but the miracle is Jesus entirely. If it doesn’t happen, we get alone with God to find out why, because Jesus never had that experience. He never had that experience. And He set it up to where we’re not supposed to either. So it’s not a moment for guilt and shame. It’s not a moment for introspection. It’s a moment to draw near.

“See, Jesus only said what He heard His Father say. He did what He saw His Father do. So that means when you put mud in the eye, that’s what He saw the Father doing. So that was the process the Father chose to release the miracle. And if we aren’t paying attention through the Holy Spirit to what the Father is doing, we will simply do routine prayers instead of Holy Spirit anointed prayers. We want to pick up what He’s doing so that we can release the kingdom [and] release the breakthrough that that person has asked for.”

Watch the full interview embedded here.

Streams Ministries’ John E. Thomas says prophetic dreams where you witness you or a friend dying are probably not to be interpreted literally—but sometimes they can be.

“Have you ever had a dream where you died in your dream?” Thomas says. “Not many people actually have dreams where they actually die in their dream, but it does happen periodically. But it’s such a weird feeling. Even if it’s not you that died, maybe you’re seeing somebody else die.”

First, Thomas says that if the dream triggered feelings of fear, it’s probably a dream caused by anxiety and not a true prophetic dream from the Lord.

“If you in the dream have a significant amount of fear, and when you wake up, you’re still feeling that fear, that was most likely a fear dream from the enemy and not something that’s actually going to happen,” Thomas says. “So when that happens, pray against it, because you’re realizing either the enemy is trying to give you fear, or God’s allowed you to see the plans of the enemy. Either way it’s not so that you can accept it. It’s so you can stand against it so that it doesn’t happen.”

But if it’s a real prophetic dream from God, how should believers interpret it? Thomas believes it usually indicates an end to something—whether a season, a pattern of sin, or even a job—but does not usually correlate to the end of life.

“What does it mean when you see somebody die in a dream?” Thomas says. “Well, most of the time it’s not a literal death. … It’s saying that something is going to come to an end. It could be a dying to self, so there could be something that is in them that needs to die. Maybe a part of their sin nature, something that’s unhealthy, something that’s not good that’s going to come to an end. It could be talking about a change of season. Maybe there’s a season of their life that’s going to die.”

However, Thomas says there are times when a prophetic vision of death may need to be interpreted literally.

“There are time when dying in a dream is actually that person is going to die, and those are not fun dreams to have,” Thomas says. “But they can be very, very helpful, because sometimes people need help to transition well. They need to deal with some things so that they have peace as they transition into the next season. Or maybe they really need to know Jesus before they transition. So God will sometimes share what’s going to happen beforehand.”

Thomas says there are three primary ways to discern whether a prophetic death dream is to be interpreted literally or metaphorically—though he cautions that these are guidelines and not universal rules.

“How do you know if it’s real?” Thomas says. “You can’t just say the emotional impact, because you have the emotional impact when it’s more metaphoric. Usually—not a hundred percent of the time—but usually if you see blood, it’s usually an actual dying. … If there’s a funeral … that’s one of the clues that sometimes lets you know that this is about a literal dying. And then the main one is when you wake up, ask the Lord, ‘Lord, is this literal or is not?'”

Watch the full video here.

Pat Barrett performed his new song, “Hymn of the Holy Spirit,” on Worship Together’s New Song Café video series. Barrett—a worship leader at Grace Midtown in Atlanta—is best known as the lead singer/songwriter for the worship band Housefires and wrote the hit “Good Good Father” (which was later recorded and popularized by Chris Tomlin).

Barrett’s “Hymn of the Holy Spirit” lyrics focus on the importance of listening to and being guided by the Holy Spirit. Will it become as popular as “Good Good Father”? Watch the video and let us know in the comments what you think.

Joyce Meyer says her 2-year-old great-grandson, Jeremiah, prayed for healing for his mother’s back pain, and she was healed.

“My great grandson who’s 2, his mother’s back was hurting really bad,” Meyer says. “…She was hurting so bad [that] she was laying on the bed crying. And he went up to her. Jeremiah, [who is] 2 years old, put his hand on her; said, ‘Jesus, Mommy, ouchie, amen’; and her back quit hurting!”

Meyer used it as an example of the importance of having faith like a child.

“Stop trying to get hold of God with your head,” Meyer says. “It’s a heart thing. You got to see what’s in your heart. As soon as you get into reasoning, you’re going to have trouble believing. You need to come like a little child.”

Hear Meyer tell the story herself in this video.

The GMA Dove Awards honor and celebrate the best Christian music every year. Last fall, Lauren Daigle performed her hit single “You Say” live at the Dove Awards—and the Dove Awards’ official YouTube channel just made that footage publicly available. Check out Daigle’s performance here, and to catch more live performances from the show, visit the official YouTube channel here.

Tim Costello, an Australian Baptist minister and senior fellow at the Center for Public Christianity, recently told his fellow believers to “calm down” and “suck it up” when it comes to persecution. Recently, Australian believers have been concerned about growing religious persecution, and what role the government has in protecting religious liberty.

According to the Guardian, Costello—who previously served as CEO of World Vision Australia—said earlier this month, “I don’t think there is a risk of persecution—Christians need to calm down. I would say to Christians if you want to see persecution, let me take you to places where there is persecution of Christians and other religious groups. Let me take you to Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and I will show you persecution. And if they read their Bibles, Jesus said ‘The world will hate you and misunderstand you for following me,’ but to go on following, loving, serving. So I would say, just suck it up. Jesus didn’t go around demanding legislation to protect his rights. Jesus didn’t advocate for freedom of religion legislation.”

On Monday, during an appearance on Q&A—a public broadcast show in Australia—Costello was questioned by an audience member named Rob Ward about his earlier comments.

“Tim, you’ve recently been reported as saying that Christians should calm down in the face of what would seem to be an increasing intolerance of the Christian faith,” Ward asked. “So my question is should Luke and Carla Burrell, publishers of White wedding magazine, forced out of business for failing to promote same-sex marriage, should they calm down? Should Joshua, the uni student suspended for daring to pray, should he calm down? And what about the Melbourne IT specialist, fired for privately expressing concerns about the safe schools program—should he calm down? What do we do?”

Costello then clarified that his points were intended for a Christian audience—although “calm down” would also be applicable to liberal opponents—and said he was trying to paraphrase Jesus.

“I was speaking to my mob, the Christian mob,” Costello says. “I would also say to some on the hard secular left that they should calm down. I think I’d paraphrase Jesus, who said, ‘Turn the other cheek.’ My paraphrase was ‘Calm down and suck it up.’ By that I’m saying that we’ve just elected our first Pentecostal prime minister who could pray openly for six minutes at Hillsong and talk openly about his faith. So this notion that we’re victimized, we’re persecuted? I’ll show you real persecution in my World Vision work. Where Christians really are suffering.

“To your question, I do think there are real issues around freedom of religion. I think freedom of religion is actually good for society. Freedom of Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Christians—who actually ran institutions, have schools, charities that express their vision of flourishing is good in a democratic society. I do think there are loopholes. I know in New South Wales that you can be sacked because of your religion. An employer can say to a woman wearing a hijab, ‘You’re scaring the customers. You’re fired.’ I think that’s not on. I think that to go to what’s behind your question, that Christians should be working this out sensibly, because I think there’s a lot of victim-claiming of ‘We’re persecuted,’ which is overreach.”

Costello also speculated that Christians were being exploited by political parties, who were intentionally stoking outrage rather than seeking genuine solutions to the cultural divide.

“I think left and right want to keep the war going often, and overreaching hysteria keeps the war going,” Costello says. “In the middle is us, the exhausted middle, who want to compromise and live together. And I think we can find solutions to this.”

Watch the full video of Costello’s Q&A reply here. The question and Costello’s response begins at 21:20.

A new Netflix documentary alleges that power, rather than sincere faith, is the driving motivation behind the Fellowship, the secretive organization that runs the National Prayer Breakfast. The Fellowship, founded by the late Douglas Coe, shuns publicity and holds members to a vow of secrecy. The organization has many ties to politicians in the U.S. and internationally.

The documentary The Family will reportedly “expose” the Fellowship’s secret ties and activities in Washington, D.C. In the official trailer released last week, one interview subject claims, “They say it’s about faith, but there’s a shared understanding that what we’re really about here is power.”

All five episodes of The Family will debut Aug. 9 on Netflix. When it does, the series will likely cause controversy—the YouTube comments on the trailer have already been permanently disabled. Watch the preview here.