In Matthew 24:6-13, Jesus warns us that: ^“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. For all these things must happen, but the end is not yet.”

China vs. Taiwan. China vs. the United States. Venezuela vs. the U.S. North Korea vs. Japan. North Korea vs. the U.S. Russia vs. the U.S. Russia vs. Israel. Iran vs. Israel. Iran vs. Saudi Arabia. Turkey vs. Syria.

Jack Hibbs, senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino Hills, California says all of these conflicts have either begun to manifest or there are “rumors of these wars” and a physical battle is just heating up.

Want biblical proof? First John 2:18 reads: “Little children, it is the last hour. As you have heard that the antichrist will come, even now there are many antichrists. By this we know it is the last hour.”

First John 2:22 says, “Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? Whoever denies the Father and the Son is the antichrist.”

Many are denying the Father and Son these days. The spirit of antichrist indeed has engulfed the globe.

Second John 7 reads: “For many deceivers, who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Each one is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

Does this sound familiar?

The Bible, Hibbs says, is very clear that these things will take place. Believers in Jesus Christ, however, can rejoice in what is coming, and we must apply these countermeasures to the impending evil that will engulf the culture worldwide:

1. We must have the right attitude about what’s going on. “If you’re going to follow Jesus, it’s going to be tough, Hibbs says. “We have to fight and get our minds and attitudes right and in line with Scripture. We are so opinionated with our emotions. We must watch out.

2. Keep yourself ready. “Watch out for things that would cause you to get sloppy, spiritually speaking,” Hibbs says.

3. Avoid compromising situations. “This should speak for itself.”

4. Keep yourself ready. “Resist complacency and spiritual laziness. This is dangerous for all of us,” Hibbs warns.

5. Exercise extreme discernment regarding information. “Simply put, don’t believe it,” Hibbs says. “Don’t believe it even if I’m saying it. You are supposed to do an Acts 17 on people, to test everything against Scripture. Judge it through the Bible.”

6. Galvanize yourself with the Bible. “Why do you galvanize something?” Hibbs asks .”To keep it from rusting. It means it has been treated in such a way that it’s impervious to the environment around it. As Christians, we must be galvanized, and you do that through God’s Word. Know the Word and be safe.”

“I believe God is preparing His church,” Hibbs says. “Live your life, but keep your head up; you are spiritually looking for Him. All the while, you’re doing the hardest thing of all in that you’re discipling your life to stay the course. You have to be ready to meet Him today, planning for the next 100 years.

“Jude 1:20 reads, ‘But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit.’ Keep yourselves in the love of God. That’s a great marching order.”

Listen to Jack Hibbs’ podcast at . {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.

During the 1960s, many young Americans (myself included) were looking for more than the American dream, asking deeper questions about the meaning of life. The rapid changes in the culture, the challenges to the status quo of the day, the shocking assassinations and the specter of the Vietnam War created a deep sense of uncertainty, also leading to a spiritual search.

Why are we here after all? A deep void existed in our hearts, one that led many of us to a transformational encounter with the Lord during the Jesus Revolution.

Unfortunately, it was not only the Lord who filled that void. Satan and the world rushed in to fill it too, especially with sex, drugs, rock-n-roll and Eastern religion. That was the path many of us took before we came to know the Lord, a path from which many others never returned.

In our day, as a young generation deals with its own set of uncertainties and frustrations, longing to see justice and equality prevail, Satan and the world have rushed in to hijack these sentiments, many of which are good and noble in themselves.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the hijacking of empathy, defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”

It is partly because of empathy that a disproportionate percent of Gen Z’ers identify as LGBTQ, even though only a small percentage of them are actively, let alone exclusively, involved in same-sex relationships and activity.

As a result, this quality of empathy, which can be very positive in and of itself, has been coopted in a destructive, negative way. And so, to give just one example, out of empathy, many teens will instinctively defend a trans-identified peer, not realizing that this peer is about to destroy his or her life via chemical castration and genital mutilation. Their empathy in the short-term actually contributes to their friend’s long-term pain.

And so, rather than lovingly help their friend not to mutilate and alter the healthy body God has given them, their empathy moves them to side with an act of self-destruction.

It’s the same with the pursuit of justice and equality, in the name of which a male who identifies as female can compete against real females, not to mention share a locker room with them. Yes, this uncomfortable, unequal and potentially abusive situation is justified in the name of equality.

And so, in a recent court case where a weightlifting association was ordered to “cease and desist” from banning biological males from competing against biological females, the verdict was reached in the name of fairness. The association must not discriminate against a man who believes he is a woman, thereby discriminating against all the true women. What a travesty.

Almost 20 years ago, in April 2005, Dr. Al Mohler noted that, “When Christian Smith and his fellow researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took a close look at the religious beliefs held by American teenagers, they found that the faith held and described by most adolescents came down to something the researchers identified as ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.'” (Remember that these adolescents, today, are in their 30s or 40s.)

“As described by Smith and his team, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. ‘A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.’ 2. ‘God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.’ 3. ‘The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about ones self.’ 4. ‘God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.’ 5. ‘Good people go to heaven when they die.'”

Note again principle #2: “God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”

In practice, this means, “If your religious beliefs or biblical standards offend me or cause me any discomfort, then they (and you) must be wrong, since they (and you) are not nice and being nice is the essence of the gospel.”

Add empathy to the mix, and you end up with this: “You and your religious beliefs are obviously wrong, since they make my friend feel bad.”

Add the pursuit of equality to the mix, and you end up with this: “You and your religious beliefs are obviously wrong, since they are unfair to my friend.”

This, in short, is the hijacking of empathy and equality.

A remarkable example of this can be found in a recent dialogue between the social media superstar (and boxer) Jake Paul and his good friend and co-host, who is a professing Christian. (I watched the video clip but cannot locate it at the moment.)

Paul justified the open hostility he was showing towards his friend because his friend was a Christian, and Christians believed in “conversion therapy.” That was it.

Presumably, this alleged Christian practice made Paul’s gay friends feel bad, and therefore Christianity itself was bad. Case closed. (See again the chapter, ‘If Gay Is Good, the Church is Bad’ in my new book, “Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith.”)

Charlie Kirk pointed me to a 2022 article by Perry Glanzer titled, “Is Empathy a Christian Virtue? Comparing Empathy to Christian Compassion.”

While recognizing the potential value of empathy, Glanzer noted that, “surveys reveal that having greater empathy may lead to less sympathy for enforcing certain unpopular moral or legal principles on college campuses, such as freedom of speech. Empathy, in this case, becomes a weapon welded by those concerned about the feelings of the majority who are disturbed by speech from the minority.

“In this respect, empathy by itself is like a tool. It can be used properly or improperly. Whether it becomes the Christian virtue of compassion depends upon whether it is directed to God-ordained ends and results in action.”

This reminds me of a quote by Ayn Rand (hat tip to John Hawkins for the quote): “Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent.” How easy it is to turn something good on its head.

Those who reach out to the younger generation (and others who share their values) should recognize how some good values have been hijacked. And rather than simply react to the wrong positions they espouse, we can point them in the direction of Christian compassion and biblically-based justice. Then, working together, we can take back what has been stolen and steer that passion in a positive, life-changing direction. It’s called being redemptive. That’s a virtue that is almost impossible to hijack, pervert, or twist. {eoa}

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Dr. Michael Brown () is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is “The Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel.” Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

You and I are living in a day when we need to be certain that God is directing our lives. We get His answers for the situations in our lives when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, speaks into our spirits and transmits the “overcoming” victory of Jesus.

If you want to clearly hear the voice of the Lord, you must create an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to talk to you. You must also develop your listening abilities so that you are able to distinguish among all the competing voices in the earth. This is essential for you to live a godly life—a life of victory.

God wants you to know His will. But for Him to reveal it to you, there has to be an open line of communication. Take these steps to make sure there’s no interference:

the hindrances to hearing God’s voice. To walk in the Spirit, you must focus on God and shut out distractions. Your emotions are one thing that can divert your attention and keep you from hearing the Holy Spirit.

You can’t receive a “phone call” from Him if you’re busy taking a “call” from your emotions. When fear, worry, anxiety or depression dominates your thinking, it blocks out the still, small voice of the Spirit.

Fear: One of the emotions that shouts the loudest is fear. Recognize that the voices that come to torment you do not come from the Father, who deeply loves and accepts you and is in control of your every circumstance (see 2 Tim. 1:7).

You can hang up on fear. The Word says you are to “[cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7, NKJV).

Selfish ambition: Maybe you’re a doer, an overachiever. There is nothing wrong with desiring to succeed in life, but if that drive dominates your thoughts, you will not be able to hear clearly the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Pursuit of pleasure: Some people are consumed with the desire for material “things”—things they believe will bring them comfort and enjoyment. Others are so wrapped up in themselves or their families, they hardly give a thought to God. As a result, they are simply not attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Still others become professional “escape artists” who keep their minds occupied with entertainment—movies, books or television—in order to avoid their fears or problems.

In any case, the Holy Spirit will not shout to be heard above the din that fills your mind. To tune Him in, you will have to tune out the rubbish and clean out the clutter of your inmost thoughts. One of the best ways to do this is by taking time to encounter God through worship.

2. Become a worshiper. Worship increases your sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful way to help you focus your attention on God, rather than your problems and desires.

Worship is something you do, not something that happens to you. It is an act of your will, to magnify or enlarge your vision of God. When you worship, the things you face appear smaller, less important and less daunting in comparison to His greatness.

Two worshipers in the Bible are good examples for us. The first is Moses. In Exodus 15, after God parted the waters of the Red Sea and led the children of Israel to safety, Moses and Miriam led the Israelites as they praised and worshiped the Lord for their deliverance.

When they began to sing, dance and play their instruments in praise to God, the Holy Spirit prophesied through them about the victories God would give them as they took possession of the Promised Land.

The second is David. Perhaps, of all the people in the Old Testament, David understood, cherished and delighted in the Holy Spirit the most. After being caught in adultery and murder David pleaded with God, “don’t take your Holy Spirit from me” (see Ps. 51:11).

As a psalmist, David was a singer of praise and one who reveled in worshipping God. He did not want to lose his sweet communion with the Holy Spirit.

3. Perceive in your Spirit. As your worship God, you will begin to develop spiritual perception. The more you worship and commune with Him, the greater depth your relationship will have; and the more familiar His voice will become.

You may not always hear Him with your ears, but you can perceive what He’s saying as He whispers truth to your spirit (see 1 Cor. 2:9-10).

4. Pray in tongues. First Corinthians 14:2, 4 says, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” (NKJV). To “edify” means to “build up.” It is another way to heighten your communication with the Holy Spirit.

Praying in tongues not only builds you up, it also strengthens, rebuilds and recharges your spirit so you can hear the Holy Spirit more clearly. He has all the answers you seek.

Nearly every successful thing I’ve ever done came to me as a revelation after praying in tongues. When you face a dilemma or a decision, don’t reason in your heart; instead pray in the Spirit, and you will receive the answers you need.

Being able to hear the Spirit’s voice isn’t an option. It is essential to live as God wants us to live. He doesn’t hide His will from His children. But doing God’s will is dependent on our clearly hearing His voice and perceiving His direction.

God speaks constantly through His Word, through His creation and by His Spirit in our hearts. These voices never contradict one another. The responsibility to have “ears to hear” what He says falls to you. Your job is to eliminate undesirable noise and tune in to the Holy Spirit by offering up worship to the Lord, developing your spiritual perception, and building up your human spirit by praying in tongues.

Saturate yourself in God’s Word, and reorder your priorities. Make whatever lifestyle changes you need to make. Nothing in life is more important than hearing from God.

Click here to listen to the connected podcast. Visit the ministry’s website, .

Marilyn Hickey founded Marilyn Hickey Ministries more than 45 years ago with God’s vision to cover the earth with the Word. Marilyn co-hosts a daily television program, Today with Marilyn & Sarah, reaching a potential viewing audience of over 2 billion households worldwide. Marilyn communicates deep biblical truths in a way that is understandable and practical for everyday life.

This past week, city councilors in the second largest city in Oklahoma voted for a resolution to make the city “safe, welcoming and inclusive.”

They said it was about “kindness” and it was about “everyone.” However, one of the authors said while it did include “everyone” per their biological or perceived gender, it didn’t include anyone she considered an “extremist.”

Her definition was clear after she called conservative candidates with different political ideologies than herself “Nazi’s, fascists and extremists.” Her definition of “inclusive,” was “exclusive” to those who believed different than she. A total of 17 people showed up to speak against the discrimination in the resolution.

In contrast, the LGBTQ community flooded the room filling the seats and lining the walls. They were hurting and angry and lashed out at us.

When called to speak, I shared my concerns by affirming everyone’s desire for a safe, welcoming city. But then presented erroneous information said to be the reason for resolution. Information such as why a company chose to build a new facility in another state as well as high marks the city had received from a transgender website stating it was already welcoming and inclusive.

Additionally, that all protections in the resolution were already in previous resolutions and ordinances.

In response, I was jeered at, mocked and told to sit down. “You’re just a ‘Karen,'” someone yelled. One of the city councilors made faces as I spoke. No one told them to stop until after I finished. Even then it continued, but on a much lighter basis toward others who shared concerns.

Let it not be lost on the reader that the resolution was about “kindness” and the group that said they were afraid and harassed were the harassers. The five city councilors who said they would vote against the resolution caved and unanimously voted for it.

What if the church had filled the room? Even though hundreds had been notified of the meeting, only 17 people showed up to speak up. It wasn’t enough.

However, that night afforded an opportunity to see a large group of people who are crying out for help. Like the hippies of the Sixties, they hurting and searching for answers and identity. They are frustrated, fearful, angry, suicidal and sometimes violent. They expect to be rejected and so reject first.

And let’s be honest, the church does often reject them. We need to learn how to love the sinner, even as we reject the sin. Jesus knew how to do that well. He loved first.

The question we need to ask is, “Are we loving well?” What will be our response in situations where we are the ones mocked, belittled, or even attacked as happened in the Oklahoma State Capital recently? LGBTQ activists screamed at legislators, hurled insults and water at them and assaulted a police officer in an effort to stop legislation meant to protect underage children from potentially harmful transgender therapy.

How will we respond? With love? Will we still pray? Or will we respond in kind?

Will we willingly “share in the sufferings of Christ?” Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Peter 4:12-14).

In that meeting, I was laughed at, mocked and my name attacked. It was a small taste of how the name of Jesus is mocked and taken in vain every day of the week. In a world increasingly intolerant, are we willing to endure insults and verbal assaults?

May we walk in love and pray not only for the LGBTQ, but all who are hurting, angry, confused, and lacking identity. May we be ready with our response to love even when attacked—because I assure you it is coming.

For a scriptural prayer on how to walk in love and pray after an attack click here. {eoa}

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Karen Hardin is the director of prayer movement. Abraham negotiated with God, “if there are 10 in the city would you save it?” She and her husband seek to raise up ten people in every city across America who will pray for their city for revival. Her work has been published in USA Today, Western Journal, Intercessors for America, Charisma, Elijah List, and more. She is the author of several books including “God’s Justice after Injustice.” For additional information go to: or .

Don’t miss this special edition video commentary with cultural strategist, Lance Wallnau.

Amidst the confusion and chaos of our turbulent times, Wallnau has provided millions with clear prophetic guidance and predictions repeatedly verified and proven extremely insightful.

He brings his trusted and widespread influence to us in this interview at a time when we need to “understand the times and know what to do.”

Take 10 with God’s servant who told us Donald Trump would be a modern-day Cyrus and shared his innovative “Seven Mountains of Culture” to enable us to be confident and courageous as we engage as ambassadors for Christ. {eoa}

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“There’s nothing quite like waking up to discover that your church is being featured on an episode of ‘Dateline,'” Pastor Cal Jernigan wrote in a letter to Central Christian Church, the congregation he leads in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jernigan’s church has been under the microscope and featured in news headlines after he brought in Caleb Baker to work on their staff as the Lead Student Pastor and Associate Preaching Pastor.

On Feb. 12th Jernigan discovered Caleb was involved in a six month extramarital relationship with another staff member at their church.

Once Jernigan informed the board, Baker and the other staff member were let go, just one day later.

This isn’t just one lone accusation made against Baker. Baker previously worked under his father Mike Baker at Eastview Christian Church in Normal, Illinois before he was quietly let go for abusing women in the church. Jernigan claims Caleb’s dad, a longtime friend, did inform him of an accusation made against his son “by a woman who felt Caleb acted inappropriately toward her.”

Jernigan says, “He assured me his leadership team had investigated this charge and it was proven to be an unfounded and unsubstantiated claim by someone who had it out for his son.”

A former Eastview staff member Brooke Yarbrough wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about her experience working for the church and says what happened in Phoenix, Arizona was “completely preventable.” She says in 2016, while on staff, Caleb was let go for the sexual misconduct. She left the church because of their mishandling of the situation.

She wrote, “The church has to do better. We have to stop trying to cover things up and spin stories to protect predators and allow abuse against the congregations and staff we are entrusted to steward over. I keep hearing these general terms of ‘moral failure’ and ‘extramarital affair’ that insinuates equality and complicity. It has to stop. This is sexual and pastoral abuse and nothing less.”

The elders at Eastview have announced a third party is investigating what took place at the church. They released a statement saying they are aware that their church is “not perfect” but believe they have a strong and healthy work culture currently.

Lead Pastor Mike Baker whose son is at the forefront of the allegations, has resigned from the church. The church wrote that Mike “remains steadfast in his sincere conviction that there is nothing to investigate.” Jernigan obviously disagrees. Mike resigned from the church instead of submitting to an investigation from Eastview’s board.

Jernigan wrote in his letter, “because I was not personally aware of any character issues regarding Caleb, in recent years I began to allow him to use his gift of communication on the biggest platform we have: our weekend pulpit. Nothing, until the revelation of the past two weeks, caused me to doubt the integrity of Caleb. I believed what I saw was the real Caleb. It wasn’t.”

There is still a large misunderstanding in the Western church today about what pastoral abuse looks like. Retired professor of pastoral leadership at Baylor University Rev. Robert Creech told WGLT, “There’s always a power differential between the clergy and the congregation. And that makes it different than if a clergyman had an affair with someone outside the church, just because there’s not a power differential.”

When pastoral figures in the church use their position of power to spiritually and physically manipulate others, it’s abuse.

“The level of trust between those congregants and their pastors has been eroded by what’s happened to them in the past, and they’ll carry that with them the rest of their life. Over time, I think it’s terribly wounding to congregations to have had that,” Creech says.

Jernigan has taken full responsibility for not looking into the Caleb’s history more in depth. He says he is taking responsibility for knowing there was an allegation against Caleb when he hired him and chose to look the other way.

For many churchgoers, Jernigan’s response isn’t enough. They are wondering what it actually means when he says he takes “full responsibility.”

Pray for all of those who are involved in this situation. Pray that God’s nearness and healing power would wash over each and every person. The body of Christ needs to unify and learn and grow together, not hide and sweep issues under the rug.

We reached out to Jernigan for an interview but have not yet heard back.

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Shelby Bowen is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the American founders positioned Scripture as the bedrock of society, overlaying the nation’s foundation with the fundamental principles from Old Testament wisdom literature and the Good News of eternal life found in Jesus Christ.

The grand evangelistic mission by America’s Founders materialized on May 13, 1607, as approximately 144 settlers and sailors arrived on America’s shores aboard the English ships the Godspeed, the Susan Constant and the Discovery. As they disembarked they erected a cross, took communion and pledged “to reach the People within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise up Godly generations after us.”

Some 13 years later, on Nov. 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored at what is now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod. Before going ashore, the passengers established a set of rules for self-governance, pledging their mission “for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith.”

Puritan passion for Biblical education began then to underpin the nation’s culture with 106 of 108 of the first colleges established in America as distinctly Christian. Christian character and values sat the standard for the “fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty and just systems of civil government,” as historian Benjamin Morris noted in his magnum opus from 1864, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States.

For 250 years, the greatest export of America was Jesus Christ, not democratic capitalism. For the glory of a nation lies in its righteousness, as Proverbs 14:34 declares, rather than in its GDP or military prowess. The nation’s rights, as per the Founders, come from God, not from the government, and the purpose of government is to protect the liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Then, in the late 18th century, devotees of the French Revolution and its anti-God ideology began infiltrating America’s halls of higher education with their secular creed of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité [liberty, equality, fraternity], undermining the biblical foundation laid down by the American Founders to secure sustainable freedom.

American Christendom, inopportunely, relinquished its fundamental role in the public square early in the 20th century, thereby enabling the State to take on godlike proportions … as prayer, the Bible and the Ten Commandments were banned from public education and government buildings in the mid-20th century.

After the banishment of the Word from culture, the denial of the existence of evil, and thus that God actually has enemies, resulted in an alarmingly increasing biblical illiteracy among the general population. From a spiritual perspective, the whole secular plot and maneuvering over the last 200 years was nothing but an attempt to eliminate God’s Sword from the public square and drive the “stinging salt” of the Word out of the cultural centre into the periphery of the church building.

How true this is, as shown by contemporary public education’s denunciation and censure of such declarations as “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth’ (Gen. 8:21), “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9), and “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). Biblical truth is highly objectionable to human pride and contemporary secular education theories.

This brings us to left-leaning Politico’s report on NYC Democrat Mayor Eric Adam’s remarks at the interfaith breakfast he hosted. The mayor “seemed to regret the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned school-sponsored prayer in 1962.

“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,” Adams said to applause from hundreds of religious leaders gathered at an annual event in Manhattan.

“Don’t tell me about separation of church and state. State is the body; church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies.'”

New York Civil Liberties Union blasted Mayor Adam’s speech. “We are a nation and a city of many faiths and no faith,” pontificated NYCLU’s Donna Lieberman. “In order for our government to truly represent us,” she added deceptively, “it must not favor any belief over another, including non-belief.”

Ms. Lieberman merely joins the modern priests, priestesses and administrators in the holy sacraments of syncretism. Syncretism is the combining of different, often contradictory beliefs, melding together practices of various schools of thought and religion. The Old and New Testaments strictly forbid the practice as an abomination. The mingling of biblical and pagan religions is a violation of the First Commandment, resulting in anarchy and judgment on a nation.

Dutch pastor M.B. van’t Veer (1904-1944) brilliantly explains that “In the broken altar of Yahweh, syncretism is unmasked as a vain illusion. Anyone who wishes to mix the service of the true God with the service of an idol will have nothing left but idolatry. Baal was granted the right to have altars erected to him, but the altars of Yahweh were torn down.

“Whenever the church and the world mingle, it is not the church that sets its stamp on the world but the world that sets its stamp on the church, until only the world is left. The service of the true God is then allowed a place under the sun only to the extent that it allows itself to be determined by the service of idols.”

Secularists expelled God Jehovah from the culture, using secularized Supreme Court Justices to elevate the State to divine status and sanction secularism as the official religion of America. With that, blind dependence on government was substituted for trust in God for our daily bread.

To make it through, for one, senior pastors should re-establish prayer in America’s churches,. And second, American Christendom should become conversant in the acquisition and use of the larger denominations of political currency. Pastors and pews ought to engage the culture and play the long game in obedience to Jesus’ ekklesia Kingdom assignment in Matthew 16:18.

Every church in America would do well to have a pastor, deacon, elder or congregant run for local office in 2024, 2026, 2028 and thereafter. Jesse Kelly, the conservative commentator, and podcaster tweeted recently what reawakening will look like:

“We’re not playing offense yet. We’re in the early stages of playing real defense. But no offense yet. It will take time to learn.

“You’ll know we’re playing offense when we’re pushing our values in schools. Not just stopping theirs. When we’re building our statues [of the giants that led the spiritual restoration of America in the early/mid 21st century] …”

Praise be to God that Gideon’s and Rehabs are now beginning to stand. {eoa}

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David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project.

Ex-porn actor Joshua Broome is on a mission to spread the gospel and help people build stronger and healthier relationships with the Lord.

Now a preacher and evangelist, he routinely shares the Gospel at churches, schools, and other areas, explaining how the Lord radically transformed his life.

Broome was at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, Sunday night for a powerful, last-minute revival meeting hosted by Christian evangelist Nick Hall.

He joined CBN’s Faithwire Monday to describe what it was like to speak to hundreds of Asbury students and community members who came together to continue their praise and worship services after a now-viral revival experience broke out on the Asbury University campus earlier this month.

“They wanted to continue to worship,” Broome said of those seeking to continue after Asbury shut down the public procession. “They wanted to continue to seek God, there was this overwhelming hunger. Nick saw an opportunity, and he … reached out to Rupp Arena.”

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Broome recalled observing a “visible hunger” for the Lord during Sunday’s event and said the gathering’s theme was repentance.

“God is moving in a very unique way,” Broome said. “God is doing a new thing that He’s done in the past … there’s momentum. People want to be a part of it and they feel drawn to it.”

For the rest of this article, visit our content partners at . {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.“

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A deputy sheriff who loves police work and loves revival guarded and prayed for people who had traveled from around the world to experience the Asbury Revival.

“I’m policing here, but I am praying for people too,” said Marty Elliott, a deputy sheriff who is also a retired elected sheriff of Boyle County in Danville, Kentucky.

The deputy worked undercover and in uniform during the 16 days when an estimated 100,000 people traveled to Asbury University, located in Wilmore, Kentucky. They had watched videos and read reports online about a revival that was drawing tens of thousands of people to where Asbury students had been leading praise and worship, reading Bible Scriptures aloud and testifying of personal breakthrough since Wednesday, Feb 8.

“I am praying for the power of God to come the way I have seen Him come,” he said.

Although he had attended outpourings of God’s manifested presence at Brownsville, Toronto and Rock Church in the Nineties and had pursued revival since then, he told Charisma that he had never seen anything like what he was seeing at Asbury.

“This is beyond what any of us have seen since the healing revivals. Unprecedented miracles are taking place.”

Police presence became very visible after Asbury University leaders, on the tenth day of on-campus gatherings that had been open to the public, sped up a transition away from public access. The small Christian university has an undergraduate enrollment of 1,639 students from 40 states and 31 foreign nations, and 80% of the students live on the 64-acre campus.

University leaders posted an announcement at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19, that public access would be reduced significantly that week and would end Thursday. Livestreaming in campus chapels might be available and another venue somewhere in Kentucky might open.

Earlier that Sunday, in the middle of the national holiday weekend commemorating President’s Day, the city’s infrastructure had been stretched so thin that state troopers closed entrance to Wilmore to everyone except residents. Within a 12-hour period, an estimated 28,000 people from various backgrounds from around the world overwhelmed the small town of only 6,000 residents. Cars had been hurriedly parked without permission on residents’ front lawns and across public sidewalks as people raced to get in line.

Most of the people who arrived after the 10:30 p.m. announcement were unaware of the change.

A measured balance of crowd management and ministry was needed.

As Elliott slowly moved the growing crowd of anxious revival seekers to the front edge of Asbury University’s property, he replied to questions with comforting words like, “The school administration is not trying to squash the revival, they are trying to father it and steward what God has given.

“You’re not here by accident, you didn’t miss it, you’re here because God sparked it in you to come,” explained Elliott. “God is a good, good Father and He loves you.”

Elliott later told Charisma that a good father will push his chicks out of the nest because he loves them.

“Everybody wants this revival, including me,” he said. “The Father who loves us is saying, ‘Go out and spread the Good News.'”

Among the new arrivals in search of an encounter with God at Asbury was a man who had been on his way to see Buddhist temples in Taiwan, but then suddenly changed directions when he read an online news report that the love of God was being poured out at a revival in Kentucky.

While waiting for his delayed flight at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, he realized that the Taiwanese temples were not where he would find what he longed for. What he really wanted was to experience the love he’d heard so much about and so he rented a car and drove straight through to Wilmore.

When he arrived, several people surrounded him with prayer and friendship. That evening he was able to join other people over age 25 in an on-campus chapel to sing and worship along with the livestreaming of the service in the auditorium that was reserved for young people.

As the crowd grew from 19 students who lingered after a chapel service to 28,000 people hoping for a chance to get inside Hughes Auditorium, there was valid concern that not all the visitors to Wilmore were there for revival.

Wilmore’s mayor of 40 years, Harold Rainwater, pointed out the need to be vigilant.

The nine police officers employed by the city were working overtime in rotating shifts, and invaluable backup support was being provided by county sheriffs and police officers from nearby cities.

Noting the importance of being careful and protective, the longest-serving mayor in the history of the state of Kentucky told Charisma, “Large crowds always bring different personalities and so the police are profiling people as a precaution.”

Rainwater, who graduated from Asbury in 1969, pointed out that this revival outbreak had been sudden and completely unexpected, and so the city was not able to plan and prepare in advance for the arrival of an unprecedented number of visitors.

When there was a revival here in the 1970’s, the students kept going to classes and only about 1,000 extra people came because there was no Internet in the Seventies, he said.

“When life was suspended and the altar was full on the morning of Feb. 3, 1970, the nation was being torn apart by the Vietnam War, segregation, riots, assassinations, protests, division over politics and division among races,” he explained. “This is the world those students went out to when other schools invited them to share about the transformation they had experienced at the altar.”

In 1970, Rainwater owned and operated a sandwich shop next to the Asbury campus that was popular with students and staff. He said the multiplication effect of those students, many of whom became missionaries in the Seventies, continues today.

“Now, just imagine the multiplier effect of what is happening today,” he said. “I saw lasting change in those students in the Seventies and I am noticing a real shift in the Asbury students today.”

Asbury University is no longer open to the public, but outpourings are reportedly breaking out around the world where people are gathering on sidewalks and other meeting places. Just thinking of it, the words of a policeman who loves revival come to mind:

“Get in the river, because that is where you will experience the love of God so that you can go out and tell other people about it. Then go back to the river and soak some more. You don’t need to clean yourself up first. Jesus died on the Cross for that.” {eoa}

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Renee DeLoriea: During the Brownsville Revival, Renee was the managing editor of the Brownsville Revival Magazine, a columnist for the Remnant Newspaper and a freelance writer for Charisma magazine. Since then, she has edited books and written articles for numerous media outlets. She lives in Nashville, Tenn.

This article originally appeared on Curt Landry Ministries.

*Note: This is the second of a two-part series. To view the first part click here.

Applying the Principles of Operating in the Opposite Spirit

So, when you’re going to apply the principles of God, you need to…

• Stand firm and fast
• Apply them quickly

The Scripture says in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast, therefore in the liberty of which you are in Christ Jesus, that made you free and do not get entangled to the yoke of bondage.”

So, this disciple who is part of our team, that’s what happened to him. He made a decision not to get entangled by the enemy through bitterness. Even though he experienced anger, he experienced the whole thing. It’s not that you’re not feeling. It’s just that you’re choosing, please hear me, you’re just choosing not to get involved with it.

So, when you notice the enemy is trying to take over your mind, will and emotions, as soon as you start to feel that…

• Declare the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Tell the enemy by the authority of Yeshua that he must back up.
• Operate out of the spirit of love, kindness, gentleness, patience, goodness and faithfulness.

The only way to do this is to lean into Jesus and know the Word, declaring it over your situation.

Let Me Talk to You as a Spiritual Father

But here, I want to speak to you as a spiritual father to many of you. But let me talk to you as a mature older man, and let me talk to you as a businessman.

If you’re really going to be successful in your business life, you’ll have to learn how to say less and act more. And I’m saying you’ve got to, even with your family. When things go wrong, it’s better. Listen, you’re feeling it.

Don’t try to go out and recruit others and build a team around your bitterness, anger or frustration.

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

And the thing in business is this, if you meditate on that which is good and pure and holy and of good report, then the God of peace will protect you and trust God in your battles that I just read Galatians 5 here out of our book.

If you choose to develop a spiritual life where you’re Christ-centered…

• Your identity is in Christ
• Your character is in Christ
• You are in that Galatians fruit: love, peace, joy, long-suffering, temperance, kindness of which such there is no law

… then the contribution, the three Cs: Christ’s likeness, Christ’s character and Christ’s contribution, if you’ll focus on that contribution, your contribution just isn’t your money.

Think about this disciple I used as an example. He basically saved this company potentially millions of dollars because I really think if he would’ve said something, the new guy probably would’ve blown the deal up, and they would’ve lost it. And not to mention, it’s this company’s largest customer, and the enemy was after it.

The enemy’s always trying to steal your prosperity. He’s always trying to steal your networks, so don’t let him in. He’s the fiery dart that came in, but don’t give it any fuel. Don’t water the seeds of bitterness.

Calling Joshua’s and Caleb’s

So, when you’re operating in the opposite spirit, you can do it biblically. There were two servants of the Lord, and they went out to look at an opportunity, they went out with a consulting crew, and they went out to check out things and growing and the opportunity for some business, and these two executives that worked for Moses, this one name was Joshua, the other was Caleb, and they went with 10 others to spy out the Promised Land. And those 10 spies spoke out about the giants and the dangers, and Joshua and Caleb stood up on God’s promise and believed that they were able to take the land.

So, that’s battling in the opposite spirit. It’s like there are always going to be problems. It doesn’t take a genius or even somebody very smart to point out the problems, but it takes a spiritual person who is wise to point out the solution and the promises of God.

Calling Daniel’s and Hannah’s

Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and could have been operating out of fear. Instead, he trusted God, and God saved him in a lion’s den.

Hannah, the prophet Samuel’s mother, could have operated out of doubt and discouragement when she was unable to conceive. Instead, she trusted God. And look what God provided. One of the greatest prophets, Samuel. I know we all talk about Elisha and Elijah, but Samuel was huge. I mean, he was just so on target his whole life. He just was not swayed by these kings or men. He was just a godly man. And you know what? His mother was a godly woman.

Fight with Faith

So, if you’re in a battle of fear, fight with faith.

If you’re in a battle with sadness, fight with joy.

If you’re in a battle with self-doubt, fight with God’s truth.

If you’re in a battle of confusion, fight with God’s Word, which will bring clarity and peace.

And if you’re in a battle of a judging spirit, fight with the love of the Father. {eoa}

Click here to view Rabbi Landry’s book on spiritual warfare!

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Curt Landry, founder of Curt Landry Ministries, and his wife, Christie, travel extensively, preaching and teaching about the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Together, their passion is to empower families to live and leave Kingdom legacies and understand their own personal heritage.