In an exclusive interview with Charisma News, Pastor Troy Brewer shares a powerful message, delving into the spiritual meanings and biblical signs behind the Great American Eclipse.

Comparing life to a ship, he urged everyone to shift from a laid-back “cruise ship” attitude to a more alert “battleship” mindset. The key, according to Brewer, is to live as though we’re truly in the end times, keeping our focus on Jesus and holding onto a deep respect for God.

A major highlight of Pastor Brewer’s talk is the upcoming Great American Eclipse which will take place Apr. 8. Referring to Jesus’ words about signs in the sun, moon and stars in Matthew 24, Brewer pointed out the significance of this celestial event, signaling the start of a crucial seven-year cycle since the last major American eclipse in 2017.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

For those skeptical about the celestial signs, Brewer connected the upcoming eclipse to a verse in Exodus 4:8, where God tells Moses that if people don’t believe the first sign, they will believe the second. This biblical tie-in adds weight to the belief that this eclipse isn’t just a regular occurrence but a divine message.

Expressing concern about the growing global tensions, Brewer admitted that the threat of war is more significant this year than ever before. However, he offered a reassuring note, saying, “God doesn’t want anyone to feel powerless this year.” The call was clear—find hope and lean into the power of God, even when faced with challenging times.

In a down-to-earth explanation of eclipses, Brewer shared that historically, God uses the moon to communicate with the Jewish people and the Sun with Gentiles. Eclipses, according to Brewer, are a way God grabs our attention, telling us to “look up” and pay attention to what He’s saying.

In response to questions about the eclipse’s path, Brewer emphasizes the seriousness of the message, stating, “This is the word of the Lord. You know, Jesus Christ made all of these things, and God Almighty rules from His throne over the heavens and over the Earth, and Jesus Himself actually said there will be signs in the the Sun and in the moon and within the stars. And is a tremendous sign.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Breaking down the symbolism of the eclipse’s path forming an X across the United States, Brewer explains that in Hebrew, the X means a “prophetic sign” and the “signature of God.” Highlighting the intersection point at Little Egypt, he adds that it symbolizes “literally Jesus, the Prince of Peace.”

As the time continue to accelerate and spiritual warfare continues to be waged, Pastor Brewer urges everyone not to forget the basics—keeping our focus on Jesus. He stresses that there’s a deep peace, a “Shalom of the Lord,” waiting on the other side of challenging times, accessible only through His divine presence.

As the Great American Eclipse approaches, Pastor Troy Brewer’s words stand as a clear call for everyone to understand the signs in the heavens and anchor their faith in the Word of God as they navigate through these uncertain times.{eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.

Just how dangerous is artificial intelligence? Could it be used to do the unthinkable—summon demons?

In an exclusive interview with Charisma News, Joseph Z gave some warnings about how AI will end up at the forefront of the end times struggles we will face in the future.

• AI has a severe risk for misuse.

Like any powerful tool, AI can be misused for harmful purposes. This could range from autonomous weapons systems used in warfare to AI algorithms that perpetuate biases and discrimination in decision-making processes. Just look at the fact that AI is already being used by innovators like Elon Musk to create brain chips to create mind-control based products.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

“AI itself is not bad coming out of the gate; it’s who programs it,” Z says. “When we’re talking about Elon Musk and AI, on the one hand, he’s kind of a white knight of liberty and freedom of speech. And on the other hand, he says, you know they’re summoning demons.”

• AI has unintended consequences, including the potential release of the mark of the beast.

AI systems may exhibit unintended behaviors or outcomes, especially in complex or unpredictable environments. These unintended consequences could have significant implications, particularly in critical domains such as healthcare, finance and transportation. AI, for the most part, is still in its developmental stages. Therefore, it’s hard to tell what the exact impact will be humanity as we move forward. However, it is plausible that part of its unintended consequences includes the release of the mark of the beast.

“When you look at medical tyranny, and then you look at technological tyrannies, such as AI, or what could begin to rise from it, I see the mark of the beast scenario coming into play,” Z says. “When you look at digital currency being a programmable issue, you look at AI, the technology that can run everything…”

• AI could create an existential crisis.

Some researchers and scholars have raised concerns about the long-term risks associated with advanced AI systems, including the potential for AI to surpass human intelligence and pose existential threats to humanity. A recent report by the Daily Mail suggested that as early as 2027 we could see artificial intelligence surpass that of human intelligence. Even more pressing, Time Magazine has discussed the need for the U.S. government to move swiftly in its decisions about what to do for national security purposes involving AI and weapons, fearing possible extinction.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

“They’re even predicting the next few years that the wars we would supposedly get into would be fought AI to AI, by China, by other nations, by AI would actually step up and people would step away from it” Z says. “AI, I believe is the system that the beast will use to rule the world when his time comes.”

• AI could create serious job displacement issues for millions of people.

The automation of tasks through AI and robotics has the potential to disrupt labor markets, leading to job displacement and economic inequality. When it comes to our already shifting economy and rising cost of living, the thought of AI taking control of even more jobs and functions in society leaves people to the backburner, without much of a clear and straight role.

However, as Joseph Z points out, there is a new generation rising up, one that was created for this specific day and age. It’s with this in mind that we can still reach for hope.

“I believe the Lord is saying to His people, ‘we got one more round; we got one more round because I have a promise of the young lions that are coming,'” Z prophesies. “They don’t care about some of the norms and values we used to care about. They actually will be reformers.”

• AI brings about privacy and surveillance concerns.

When it comes to surveillance and data analysis, AI raises concerns about privacy infringement. The collection and analysis of vast amounts of personal data by AI systems could potentially erode individual freedoms and civil liberties. The falling away of these liberties could show a sign of shifting control by evil forces.

“The antichrist agenda is always one of control,” Z says.

Yet, even with these concerns and with the potential chaos and destruction that could come from AI being utilized for the sake of evil and even for the coming in of the mark of the beast, God is not finished yet with this generation.

“For the coming three we do at these years specifically, is going to determine what we do for the next 25,” Z says. “The Lord said, ‘You can have a great run, we can have one more round, but My church has got to stand up and not just stand up with pitchforks and torches and storming the castle.’ I’m talking about intercession and a return to holiness and a return to the gospel and a return to getting rid of all these fables and false narratives.”

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

It should be crystal clear to any believer that there are elements throughout the U.S. that despise Christianity, and will fight to keep it out of the American government.

This was never more evident than after Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was invited by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to lead the House of Representatives in prayer.

This of course did not sit well with certain members of the Democratic Party, who were distraught at the prayer which Hibbs says is based off of the First Prayer of the Continental Congress delivered by the Rev. Jacob Duche in 1774.

What was once welcomed and invited in the halls of Congress has now been dubbed “hateful and divisive.” And no condemnation of a Christian in America would be complete without being slapped with the label “Christian Nationalist,” as Hibbs was.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

In response to these expected yet still outlandish claims and accusations, Hibbs spoke to Fox News Religion Correspondent Lauren Green’s podcast, Lighthouse Faith, at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tennessee, about the faux outcry coming from the members of Congress who cringe in discomfort at the mere mention of God.

“You know Lauren, I found out I hate Muslims, I hate . I’m not sure, I’ve been labeled like you cannot believe,” Hibbs reveals.

“…Here’s the problem: They criticized something that they didn’t even realize was part of the fiber of our American DNA. That it was Benjamin Franklin who called Congress to their first session of prayer when they couldn’t come to an agreement [on] the Constitution itself,” he continues.

Meanwhile, many are waking up to the gaslighting by use of the term “Christian Nationalist” which still does not have a consensus definition behind it. If you’re an American and believe that the country should be guided by the standards and morals on which she was founded, and actually know American history, it’s a good bet you’ll be slandered as a “Christian Nationalist” regardless if you’re a Christian or not.

“They [the Democrat critics] didn’t understand or recognize American history. They didn’t understand the First Amendment. And they didn’t understand that I wasn’t praying to them. I was praying to God,” Hibbs says.

“I was praying to the Lord, and I asked the Lord to have mercy on us as a nation, for our national sins. And boy did I get chastised for implying that our nation has something to repent of,” he adds.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

The list of issues that America has and needs to repent of is too long to list in any one article, but the Scriptures are quite clear what happens to a nation that is stubborn and refuses to repent.

In Romans 2, Paul warns about the coming day of God’s righteous judgment, and in the Old Testament we can see that God will invoke judgment on a nation for turning it’s back to Him as both the nation of Israel and the city of Nineveh faced God’s judgment. Cities like Sodom and Gomorrah experienced this judgment first hand.

Make no mistake about it, America was founded from the very beginning to honor God. The writings of her Founders speak for themselves. But should America remain unrepentant, it should come as no surprise to those who know the Word of God that the Lord would judge the nation in similar fashion as Nineveh.

Will America follow the example set by Nineveh and humble herself before the Lord, or will she test His longsuffering and court His wrath with an unrepentant heart?

Perhaps the country should heed the words that Pastor Jack Hibbs delivered before the House of Representatives when he said, “I ask you today Father to bring to us a great awakening of righteousness and confidence in you. Hear my cry in this hour of great need, that we might be humbly blessed before you in the repentance of our national sins.”{eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.

Whether we want to admit it or not, witchcraft has infiltrated our society, and has found its way into the church. While it may look slightly different in this atmosphere without blatant witchcraft textbooks being opened up, manipulation and control find themselves right at home in religious communities.

Prophetic voice Troy Black recently shared in a livestream the top ways to discern if witchcraft is happening in your church. For some, these signs may be eye-opening as they discover what is happening right underneath their nose.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

• They will use the Old Testament more than the New Testament with a disregard for what the New Testament has to say.

“It’s okay to preach from the Old [Testament], but we must preach from the Old in the lens of the New,” Black says.

One the key elements of this point is that practices from the Old Testament are used to place pressure on someone to do things a certain way and create a righteous standard that none of us can live up to. This doesn’t draw people in toward Christ, but places a weight of guilt and shame upon the other party.

• Like covering up with a veil, they make it impossible to understand God’s glorious ways without their interpretation.

“What’s wrong is when we exalt someone to a place of ‘they are my spiritual leadership and authority, and the way I hear from God,’ when we should all be hearing from God for ourselves and we should all be communicating with God for ourselves, not through somebody else, not through another vessel. That’s why it becomes manipulation and control and witchcraft,” Black says.

While it is important to gain good understanding of Scripture or desire to study the Bible in more depth following a good, relevant teacher, idolizing the speaker and seeing their words alone as the authoritative Word of God is not biblical, and is a principle we should run from.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

• Instead of producing the fruit of the Spirit, they produce fruit of wickedness in your life.

“…things like darkness, depression, fear, anxiety, intrusive thoughts etcetera,” Black says. “The fruit of the Spirit acts like a measuring tool where we can know what’s coming in, what’s pouring in by what’s coming out of the heart.”

Instead of shaming people to act a certain way because of religious standards, it is the job of leadership to encourage people to grow in their personal relationship with Christ to know Him and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

• You often feel placed under punishment as if the ultimate punishment has not already been received by Christ.

“Anything that is trying to get people, is trying to control people out of manipulation or fear of punishment if they don’t comply is leaning in that direction,” Black says.

While all of us have and will continue to fall short of the glory of God, we must remember that Christ took the wrath of God upon Himself, that we may be made holy and righteous through Him and Him alone. It is through His mercy and grace that He poured out on the cross that has made us clean. To think anything differently is a complete lie. {eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

It should be crystal clear to any believer that there are elements throughout the U.S. that despise Christianity, and will fight to keep it out of the American government.

This was never more evident than after Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills was invited by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to lead the House of Representatives in prayer.

This of course did not sit well with certain members of the Democratic Party, who were distraught at the prayer which Hibbs says is based off of the First Prayer of the Continental Congress delivered by the Rev. Jacob Duche in 1774.

What was once welcomed and invited in the halls of Congress has now been dubbed “hateful and divisive.” And no condemnation of a Christian in America would be complete without being slapped with the label “Christian Nationalist,” as Hibbs was.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

In response to these expected yet still outlandish claims and accusations, Hibbs spoke to Fox News Religion Correspondent Lauren Green’s podcast, Lighthouse Faith, at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tennessee, about the faux outcry coming from the members of Congress who cringe in discomfort at the mere mention of God.

“You know Lauren, I found out I hate Muslims, I hate . I’m not sure, I’ve been labeled like you cannot believe,” Hibbs reveals.

“…Here’s the problem: They criticized something that they didn’t even realize was part of the fiber of our American DNA. That it was Benjamin Franklin who called Congress to their first session of prayer when they couldn’t come to an agreement [on] the Constitution itself,” he continues.

Meanwhile, many are waking up to the gaslighting by use of the term “Christian Nationalist” which still does not have a consensus definition behind it. If you’re an American and believe that the country should be guided by the standards and morals on which she was founded, and actually know American history, it’s a good bet you’ll be slandered as a “Christian Nationalist” regardless if you’re a Christian or not.

“They [the Democrat critics] didn’t understand or recognize American history. They didn’t understand the First Amendment. And they didn’t understand that I wasn’t praying to them. I was praying to God,” Hibbs says.

“I was praying to the Lord, and I asked the Lord to have mercy on us as a nation, for our national sins. And boy did I get chastised for implying that our nation has something to repent of,” he adds.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

The list of issues that America has and needs to repent of is too long to list in any one article, but the Scriptures are quite clear what happens to a nation that is stubborn and refuses to repent.

In Romans 2, Paul warns about the coming day of God’s righteous judgment, and in the Old Testament we can see that God will invoke judgment on a nation for turning it’s back to Him as both the nation of Israel and the city of Nineveh faced God’s judgment. Cities like Sodom and Gomorrah experienced this judgment first hand.

Make no mistake about it, America was founded from the very beginning to honor God. The writings of her Founders speak for themselves. But should America remain unrepentant, it should come as no surprise to those who know the Word of God that the Lord would judge the nation in similar fashion as Nineveh.

Will America follow the example set by Nineveh and humble herself before the Lord, or will she test His longsuffering and court His wrath with an unrepentant heart?

Perhaps the country should heed the words that Pastor Jack Hibbs delivered before the House of Representatives when he said, “I ask you today Father to bring to us a great awakening of righteousness and confidence in you. Hear my cry in this hour of great need, that we might be humbly blessed before you in the repentance of our national sins.”

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.

Has Hollywood’s Bohemian Grove Been Exposed?

For years people have wondered if Bohemian Grove is real, and if it is, what happens there and are there actual initiation ceremonies that take place?

After last night’s Oscars where celebrities applauded one another for their work in the film industry and others made remarks in support of Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, Hollywood is flooding the web and social media. Even when John Cena ran on stage without clothes, some wondered if this could be a Bohemian Grove initiation practice. So, what if there’s something more to what is happening behind-the-scenes with some of the world’s most elite people?

In a reaction video, Ruslan KD shared Alex Jones’ footage from The Bohemian Club, which documented strange ceremonial practices that reflected Satanism.{eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Singer Jeremy Camp’s surgery Mar. 11, to treat atrial fibrillation was a success, with his wife, Adrienne, posting a message to her husband’s Instagram letting fans know he’s resting.

“He’s resting and has to lay completely flat for a while,” she wrote. “He’s enjoying being spoon-fed by me. Lol!”

Adrienne said Camp’s surgery was “a success” but it will be a few months before he is fully healed. She also expressed gratitude for those who have been praying for Camp and the family.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

“We are beyond grateful for how you guys have cared for us in prayer,” Adrienne wrote. “Also, so grateful for an incredible [doctor] and staff.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jeremy Camp (@jeremycampofficial)

She concluded her message with words from Psalm 73:26: “My strength and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

As CBN News previously reported, Camp revealed this weekend he’s suffering from atrial fibrillation, also known as AFib, a condition involving rapid and irregular heart rhythm, and issued a “big cry for prayer.”

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up-to-date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

“I debated telling everybody this,” Camp said in an Instagram video, noting people always ask how they can pray for him. “There’s a lot of prayer warriors out there.”

The “I Still Believe” singer then disclosed his surgery aimed at restoring a normal heartbeat.

“My heart is in a crazy rhythm and it was affecting a lot of things,” he said. “It beats really, really fast. And it’s hard to breathe. It’s hard to function.”

To read the full story, visit our content partners at Faithwire.

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Whether we want to admit it or not, witchcraft has infiltrated our society, and has found its way into the church. While it may look slightly different in this atmosphere without blatant witchcraft textbooks being opened up, manipulation and control find themselves right at home in religious communities.

Prophetic voice Troy Black recently shared in a livestream the top ways to discern if witchcraft is happening in your church. For some, these signs may be eye-opening as they discover what is happening right underneath their nose.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

• They will use the Old Testament more than the New Testament with a disregard for what the New Testament has to say.

“It’s okay to preach from the Old [Testament], but we must preach from the Old in the lens of the New,” Black says.

One the key elements of this point is that practices from the Old Testament are used to place pressure on someone to do things a certain way and create a righteous standard that none of us can live up to. This doesn’t draw people in toward Christ, but places a weight of guilt and shame upon the other party.

• Like covering up with a veil, they make it impossible to understand God’s glorious ways without their interpretation.

“What’s wrong is when we exalt someone to a place of ‘they are my spiritual leadership and authority, and the way I hear from God,’ when we should all be hearing from God for ourselves and we should all be communicating with God for ourselves, not through somebody else, not through another vessel. That’s why it becomes manipulation and control and witchcraft,” Black says.

While it is important to gain good understanding of Scripture or desire to study the Bible in more depth following a good, relevant teacher, idolizing the speaker and seeing their words alone as the authoritative Word of God is not biblical, and is a principle we should run from.

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

• Instead of producing the fruit of the Spirit, they produce fruit of wickedness in your life.

“…things like darkness, depression, fear, anxiety, intrusive thoughts etcetera,” Black says. “The fruit of the Spirit acts like a measuring tool where we can know what’s coming in, what’s pouring in by what’s coming out of the heart.”

Instead of shaming people to act a certain way because of religious standards, it is the job of leadership to encourage people to grow in their personal relationship with Christ to know Him and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

• You often feel placed under punishment as if the ultimate punishment has not already been received by Christ.

“Anything that is trying to get people, is trying to control people out of manipulation or fear of punishment if they don’t comply is leaning in that direction,” Black says.

While all of us have and will continue to fall short of the glory of God, we must remember that Christ took the wrath of God upon Himself, that we may be made holy and righteous through Him and Him alone. It is through His mercy and grace that He poured out on the cross that has made us clean. To think anything differently is a complete lie.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator for Charisma Media.

Here’s a quick rundown of the top stories on :

Has Hollywood’s Satanic Activity Been Exposed?

For years people have wondered if Bohemian Grove is real, and if it is, what happens there and are there actual initiation ceremonies that take place?

After last night’s Oscars where celebrities applauded one another for their work in the film industry and others made remarks in support of Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, Hollywood is flooding the web and social media. Even when John Cena ran on stage without clothes, some wondered if this could be a Bohemian Grove initiation practice. So, what if there’s something more to what is happening behind-the-scenes with some of the world’s most elite people?

In a reaction video, Ruslan KD shared Alex Jones’ footage from The Bohemian Club, which documented strange ceremonial practices that reflected Satanism.

Breaking news, Spirit-filled stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

Larry Tomczak’s Week in Review: Prophetic Leaders Gather From Across America: Hottest Issues, Heaven’s Answers

In the book of Revelation, God issued this invitation, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this” (Rev.4:1b, NIV). He is issuing that same invite to all of us, as we are rapidly approaching the end of the age.

For over three decades, prophetic leaders from across America have come together in Fort Mill, South Carolina, at what was once Heritage Village USA, for a forum to pray and seek God for wisdom in the midst of what’s going down in our generation. And the need has never been more critical.

For three days, senior leaders, representing hundreds of thousands in the body of Christ, assembled to engage in an exercise that enables us to keep step with the Spirit in our generation.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Israeli Researchers Use Cosmic Waves to Uncover Hidden Formations and Artifacts Beneath Temple Mount

A team of Tel Aviv University physicists and archaeologists succeeded in jamming a large device into an underground cavern outside of the Old City of Jerusalem in 2023.

With the help of ropes and pulleys, the researchers lowered the large device—made up of layers of metal components linked together by tangled wires, tubes, ribbons and clamps—into the cavern.

It was probably the last thing that anyone would expect to find in such a place, as it resembled a time machine that had been deposited 3,000 years ago.

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!

When we look back through history, secular and spiritual, ancient and contemporary, it is clear that God uses sinful people to accomplish His purposes—not just weak people, but sinful people. But this does not mean that God always approves of those He uses. And it does not mean that there are not consequences to our sins. Sin is still deadly.

In the same way, God uses wounded people to accomplish His purposes, including wounded Christian leaders. But if those wounds are not properly healed, it is likely that those wounded leaders will themselves wound others.

In the Bible, there is probably no greater example of this than Samson, a man called to be a Nazarite (meaning, specially separated to the Lord) before he was conceived in the womb.

As the angel of the Lord said to his mother, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judg. 13:3-5, NIV; see also Num. 6).

Samson, for his part, is best known for two things: the supernatural strength God gave him, enabling him to accomplish powerful exploits against Israel’s enemies, the Philistines; and his lack of self-control, because of which he ended up having sex with Philistine women and even marrying a Philistine woman. Talk about sleeping with the enemy!

And so, even though God used him to kill many Philistines, his folly cost him his freedom, his eyes (literally), his reputation and ultimately, his life. His last words, spoken as he pulled down a Philistine temple filled with thousands of people who had come to mock him, were: “Let me die with the Philistines!” (Judg. 16:30a).

Still Samson, despite his sins and weaknesses, is listed as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11, among those “who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies” (-34).

Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!

So God did use Samson, and the gifts the Lord gave him were his for life, despite his sin, unless he violated his Nazarite oath. That’s why, in Judges 16, after sleeping with a Philistine prostitute, which was about as low as you could go as the national leader of Israel, he got up in the middle of the night and “took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron” (Judg. 16:3b).

This is as remarkable as it is terrifying. Just because a spiritual gift operates in someone doesn’t mean they are right with God. Just because God uses a person doesn’t mean He is pleased with them or sanctions them.

In the end, Samson’s folly caught up with him, and he paid a severe price for his sins. This hurt the nation as well, since he was called to be its deliverer.

Yet the Lord still called Samson from his mother’s womb, and the Lord still gifted him, even though He knew full well that Samson would fall repeatedly. The Lord also saw something positive in Samson’s heart, recognizing him in Hebrews 11 as one of the heroes of faith.

In the same way, God used Martin Luther to spark the Protestant Reformation, which has literally affected the entire world. For Protestants, Luther is one of the giants, a fearless pioneer with a backbone of steel, a man who would not bow, a man with incredible spiritual insight.

For Catholic apologists, Luther is a madman, a clear proof that Protestants are in error.

To quote Luther’s writings against the German peasants, “Like the mules who will not move unless you perpetually whip them with rods, so the civil powers must drive the common people, whip, choke, hang, burn, behead and torture them, that they may learn to fear the powers that be.” And, “A peasant is a hog, for when a hog is slaughtered it is dead, and in the same way the peasant does not think about the next life, for otherwise he would behave very differently.”

For Jews, Luther is the one who wrote that Jewish synagogues should be set on fire and their places of business broken down and destroyed, that rabbis should be forbidden to teach under penalty of death, that passport and travel privileges should be revoked, that Jews should be deprived of good jobs and herded together like gypsies. That’s why the Nazis reprinted his writings with glee and why Hitler thought Luther was a genius.

Get your FREE CHARISMA NEWSLETTERS today! Stay up to date with current issues, Holy Spirit news, Christian teachings, Charisma videos & more!

Yet God not only used Luther to bring about powerful and needed reformation in the church (many Catholics would also agree that there were some things that needed to change back then), but his writings have continued to change lives over the centuries. Both John and Charles Wesley were deeply impacted by Luther’s commentaries on Romans and Galatians, which played a key role to their own spiritual transformation.

Luther was used by God, but his weaknesses and sins caused much pain for many.

What is the takeaway for us?

First, let’s not be overly impressed with people. We can honor leaders for their service, but let’s save our high praises for the Lord Himself.

Second, just because someone is gifted or anointed or used by the Lord doesn’t mean they are saintly or holy. We should judge the tree by its fruit, which includes moral conduct.

Third, for all of us, especially those in leadership and ministry, let’s be quick to repent, let’s do our best to acknowledge our weaknesses and wounds and find healing and strength in the Lord, and let’s walk in humility and the fear of the Lord.

In the long run, this will determine whether we do more harm than good or more good than harm.{eoa}

Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!