Individuals who formerly identified as LGBTQ and left the lifestyle to follow Jesus are declaring a “rainbow revival” over their community.
Approximately 200 gathered at the Sylvan Theater near the Washington Monument for the Freedom March on June 5 to celebrate those who surrendered their formerly LGBTQ lifestyle to follow Jesus. After three hours of sharing testimonies that could only come from the miracle-working power of Jesus Christ, those gathered marched from the Sylvan Theater, around the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial and back.
While sharing her testimony, one woman spoke of how in her early teenage years, because of a “pile of brokenness” in her heart, she started to “pursue” alcohol, Ecstasy and getting in trouble with the law.
“I had no clue who I was,” she says. “All I knew was that I had a lot of broken pieces on the inside, and I didn’t know how to put them back together.”
She continues, “I didn’t know … whether or not I would always have a void inside.”
But what she learned was this: “If you don’t allow the Lord to heal your brokenness, it carries with you.” And only when she discovered for herself what it means to find her identity in Christ rather than the useless pursuits of the world, did she realize that “God comes to shake us up and say, ‘No, My love. You may have been born this way and lived this way, but I need you to be born again so that you can live again.'”
She shares how her four years of being gay and the following six years of being bisexual were just ways she was trying—and failing—to grab at her identity. From this experience, the Lord showed her how she was to encourage others struggling with their identity:
“For anyone who is searching for identity, it’s already written in your DNA; the Lord has crafted into the fibers of your DNA who you are.”
She declares, “We are not this flesh. We may dress it up, clean it up, look nice … But at the end of all of this, what matters is how we live, and our soul will carry on. Will you allow the Lord to cleanse your soul and show you who you are outside of what you feel?”
One attendee, Angel Colon, who survived the tragic 2016 Pulse shooting in Orlando, shares in a recent interview how the LGBTQ symbol of a rainbow has been perverted from God’s original biblical use of it to establish His covenant in the earth. No longer will the rainbow be a symbol of gay pride, Colon says, but a signpost for what God is doing in hearts of former LGBTQ members.
“We are taking back the rainbow,” Colon says. “It’s His. For us, it’s something beautiful.”
“We are here and we’re loud, letting the world know that the rainbow is something beautiful,” he adds. “And we shouldn’t be ashamed of what it really is.”
Ahead of the march, founder Jeffrey McCall spoke of his heart for the event in a press release, stressing the importance of the family that has been created through the annual march. Because the event was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, the march team was even more expectant to see how God would move in Washington D.C.
“The world is often against us sharing our stories,” McCall says. “And the church often won’t share these stories because of fear or being uncomfortable. The Freedom March has created a family of many former LGBTQ who are united under Jesus and stronger together. I just want people to be able to hear the stories for themselves and make their own decisions.”
Referencing Kent Christmas’ prophetic prayer at the The Return event, also in Washington, D.C, this past September, McCall says, “There have been prophecies that over 100,000 people will come out of the LGBTQ community in the coming revival. I think we are just at the beginning of this great rainbow revival!”
Drew Berryessa, A Living Letter Ministries pastor in Oregon, struggled with his same-sex attraction, especially growing up in a culture where homosexuality was not only condemned but those who identified with it were outcasts.
“In 20 years of ministry to the LGBT community, I know there are many people that they were Christians, that they loved Jesus in their childhood, but they just felt disqualified from His love and grace and redemption because of what they experienced,” he says.
“And I’m here to say—and I know that we all are—that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word. We are qualified for His redemption and grace.”
The Freedom March will travel next to West Palm Beach Oct. 23. Find more information at freedomtomarch.com and read this interview with founder Jeffrey McCall. {eoa}
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