The bishop stepped to the podium with a determined stride. It was evident to all in the building that something had stirred him, and they were about to hear it. With a scowl on his face, Bishop Wright, in holy indignation, boldly rebuked the college president who had just spoken.

“That is, without a doubt, one of the most ludicrous things I have ever heard,” began the bishop, and he didn’t stop there. He continued, “How foolish for any man, much less, an educated man, to make such statements as ‘One day in the future men may fly through the air like birds.'” The bishop went on to tell the denominational gathering, “If God had intended for humans to fly, He would have created them with wings!”

When Bishop Wright returned to his home in Ohio, he related the foolishness of the college president to his wife. He also told her how he had set things straight and soundly rebuked him in the hearing of the entire gathering. They smirked over the preposterous idea that men would one day fly through the air. What foolishness!  Although they scoffed at this ludicrous idea unable to see its potential, two of their sons, Orville and Wilbur, would one day dream the impossible dream.

“What if?” the boys asked. “Could it one day be possible that men could fly through the air? What if? True, God did not create us with wings, but did he give us the power to create wings with which to fly?”

These two young men dared to dream the impossible and through their diligence opened the door for one of the great marvels of the modern era. Flight!

Although I have taken liberties to reconstruct the conversation, the above story is factual. By all I have read, Bishop Wright and his wife were faithful Christians and wonderful parents. They just couldn’t see! This man of God could not see the jet age which we now experience. Bu, Orville and Wilbur dared to dream an impossible dream and birth it into reality. If we hope to make a difference in our generation, we must also dare to dream the impossible.

I love how little children dream. Have you ever watched a small boy with a toy train? He’ll make train noises as he moves it around the track, complete with whistles and bells. He’ll load the cars, then chug around and around, deliver the load and start all over. How about a little girl with a doll? She’ll talk to that toy, wash it, hug it to herself, discipline it and change its diaper, and want you to help her take care of her baby. This is not mere child’s play; it is preparation for the future.

I don’t believe God wants us to grow up and forget how to use the power of imagination. It is a God-given gift to prepare us for ever better and bigger things. Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible” (Mark 9:23a). Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18a).

We were created to dream. Or as Walt Disney would say, “Imagineer!”

Here are three keys to dreaming God’s way:

* Dream big! It honors God when we believe He is big enough for us to imagine big, ask big and act big. As Dwight L. Moody said, “If God be your partner, make your plans big.” The apostle Paul wrote, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20).

* Dream God’s dreams for your life. We must surrender our thoughts and let Him birth His ideas in us. How do you know it’s God’s vision? “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4).

* Hold on to the dream and don’t give up! If you hold on to the promise, the promise will hold on to you. One way to hold the dream is to write it down. God said, “Write the vision, and make it plain …” (Hab. 2:2).

Keep dreaming! What past generations could not even imagine, you may be the catalyst to make it a reality. “For with God nothing will be impossible”(Luke 1:37). If you stopped dreaming, let God resurrect the Imagineer in you. Let’s become like childlike, and let God train us for the preferred future He sees. It is filled with mind-blowing possibilities. Through Jesus, we can accomplish the impossible! {eoa}

Keith Nix is the founding lead pastor of a thriving congregation, The Lift Church in Sevierville, Tennessee. He has traveled as an international evangelist since 1993, carrying a unique prophetic message of awakening to this generation. He and his wife, Margie, have one daughter, Isabella. To learn more and get a free audio download you can visit:

Donald Trump’s presidency has been filled with headlines, both positive and negative. And Americans are divided on their opinions of him as well—some remaining staunchly supportive while others are still opposed.

Those evangelical Trump supporters have been buoyed by his actions that have made good on his campaign promises—to protect religious liberty, defend the unborn, represent Judeo-Christian values on the Supreme Court and stand for America’s churches.

These supporters have been waiting “for such a time as this.”

In his new book, God and Donald Trump, award-winning journalist and author Stephen E. Strang tells the story of Trump’s evangelical voter base through personal interviews and behind-the-scenes reports, detailing the events that helped shape the dramatic Trump presidency thus far.

“Few people outside the four walls of a church pay much attention to what God is doing in the world,” Strang writes in the chapter titled “For Such a Time” in God and Donald Trump. “To them, acts of God are what you call tornadoes and hurricanes. But is it possible God has a plan for this nation? Is it possible He has a plan for His people? I’ve tried to make the case that President Trump won the evangelical vote by the largest margin in history, because, as (Pastor Robert) Jeffress said, Christians understood that he alone had the leadership skills and the unwavering persistence to reverse the death spiral of our nation.”

Strang added that Trump affirmed—time and again—what Christians had been waiting to hear from a national leader. “My administration will always support and defend your religious liberty,” Trump told a Kennedy Center audience during the first Independence Day celebration of his presidency. “We don’t want to see God forced out of the public square, driven out of our schools or pushed out of our civic life. We want to see prayers before football games, if they want to give prayers.” Before he even finished the sentence, attendees were on their feet with loud and resounding applause, after seeing too many examples of secular schools stamping on the beliefs of religious students. Trump added, “We want all children to have the opportunity to know the blessings of God. … As long as I am president, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what is in your heart.”

Strang added in his book, “As I listened to those words, I wondered if people were asking themselves why Donald Trump was saying such things. For most of his life, he has not been very religious. He was more interested in making money—lots of money—than defending religious liberty. But just as millions of Christians were praying for someone to stand up and help turn things around, here came Donald Trump, seemingly out of left field. At first most Christians didn’t think much of him. Perhaps they didn’t believe him. But now they’re happy to know he has their back.

“Not everyone appears so happy about this new Donald Trump, however,” Strang continued. “If you’re secular, you see the world through a different lens. You may not even believe God exists. And if that’s the case, you feel there’s no reason to be concerned with such things. While people decry ‘the downward spiral,’ calling for restoration and renewal of the culture, Hillary Clinton and her supporters have been saying that everything is just fine. When Trump raised concerns about the moral decline in America, he was lampooned by the media as a hypocrite. Leftists, meanwhile, were marching in the streets for abortion on demand, and celebrating the right to take the life of an unborn child right up to the moment of birth. They were glad same-sex marriage has been validated by the Supreme Court, and that marijuana is being legalized in state after state. And when it comes to old-fashioned morality, the mantra of the secular culture these days is simply, anything goes. But most Americans recognized the problems; they didn’t have to be religious to perceive that something is wrong with the way this country has been going.”

Set for release on Nov. 7, almost a year to the day from the presidential election, God and Donald Trump, which contains a foreword from presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, takes an incisive look at these and other factors that drove those conservative and evangelical voters to the polls.

Strang is an award-winning journalist and successful businessman who began his career as a newspaper reporter at the Orlando Sentinel before founding a Christian publishing house and media company while interviewing and writing about nearly every Christian leader in the country over the past four decades.

For more information on “God and Donald Trump” visit  and view the book’s video here. Visitors to the site can also download a free chapter and pre-order the book.

God and Donald Trump is published by Frontline, an imprint of Charisma House, which has published books that challenge, encourage, teach and equip Christians, including 13 New York Times best-sellers.

Among many other Christian leaders, Generals International Co-Founder Cindy Jacobs keenly realized the urgency of intercessory prayer prior to the 2016 presidential election, so much so that she helped orchestrate a network of intercessors to prayer-walk the seven swing states crucial in the vote.

God heard the pleas of these groups of prayer warriors, and Donald Trump indeed became the 45th president of the United States in what some say was a “miraculous” event.

During an interview for my new book, God and Donald Trump, Jacobs said the coalition of prayer leaders, called “As One,” was instrumental in mobilizing 10,000 people to walk around courthouses or through the centers of towns in the swing states, praying for righteousness to prevail.

She collaborated with kingdom leaders such as Dutch Sheets and Lou Engle to bring awareness to the call through the internet as well, and it became a worldwide effort of fasting and prayer.

“It was an urgent, Pentecostal type of prayer,” Jacobs said. “There is no way he could have been elected if it weren’t supernatural. … I think one of the interesting phenomena from this election as that so many believers around the world prayed that Trump would be elected president. The Chinese, Latinos, Europeans—many leaders simply told God that’s what they should pray for.”

Jacobs even prophesied that Trump would be elected, although she later had to be reminded of it.

“The year before the election, at a New Year’s celebration at Chuck Pierce’s, I had prophesied that the Lord said, ‘I have a trump card in my hand, and I’m going to play it,'” Jacobs said. “‘I’m going to trump the system.’ In retrospect, you see what God was trying to say.”

We turned the raw interview with Jacobs into a podcast, which you can listen to here.

I want to encourage you to download a sample chapter of the book by clicking here. See our exciting video trailer about the book. I hope it makes you want to purchase it, and I encourage you to preorder it online at , or . Of course, you can also order through a local Christian bookstore. These advance sales will help boost the numbers to qualify the book for some of the literary best-seller lists.

Special Preorder Offer!

Preorder before Nov. 7, 2017, and get an exclusive bundle worth over $40, with access to a free subscription to Charisma magazine, the first three chapters of the book before release and the God and Donald Trump e-book.

As always, please share this with your social media followers and leave your comments below. Help us get the word out about God and Donald Trump. {eoa}

If you identify with the psalmist when he felt abandoned by God, you are not alone.

In a 4-year-old Kim Clement video recently released by his daughter, the musical prophet has a word for those who feel discouraged.

Watch the video to see what it is.

Collecting Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children is an “appalling” promotion of Christianity, a humanist group has claimed.

Humanists UK—also known as the British Humanist Association—is warning against a Christian organization that sends gifts and supplies in shoe boxes to children around the world.

The Samaritan’s Purse, which runs Operation Christmas Child, includes a gospel message in every shoe box.

Operation Christmas Child

Humanists UK claimed that donors are often left “unaware of these ulterior motives.”

Its Education Campaigns Manager, Jay Harman, said: “Using the donations of well-meaning parents and children as a tool for promoting an evangelical Christian agenda is appalling.”

The group has prepared a template letter that parents can send to schools opposing Operation Christmas Child.

Not Hidden

The letter advises parents to write to schools saying that the Christian message included in Operation Christmas Child “is extremely problematic and one that I do not think the school should be supporting.”

Operation Christmas Child was started in 1993 and has since delivered over 124 million boxes worldwide.

A spokesman for the group said: “For many of these children, the gift-filled shoe box is the first gift they have ever received.

God’s Love

“No matter where we go, we don’t hide the fact that we are Christians. Shoe-box gifts are given through the local church to children, but shoe-box gifts are given to children regardless of religious affiliation and with no strings attached.”

The Samaritan’s Purse website states that every shoe box delivered by Operation Christmas Child “is a tangible expression of God’s amazing love.”

“It also presents an opportunity in more than 100 countries for our church partners to invite children into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Hezbollah praised the defeat of Kurdish troops in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, calling it a victory over the Trump administration and Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

Iraqi troops, flanked by Iranian-backed militias, wrested control of the city and surrounding provinces from the Kurdish Peshmerga, while the Trump administration reportedly monitored the situation.

“Our victory in Kirkuk is a victory over the U.S. and Israel and an answer to Trump’s threats to Iran,” the Post quoted Hezbollah’s Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy chief of its forces in southern Lebanon.

“The qualitative and strategic gains achieved by Iraq in Kirkuk is a new achievement for the resistance axis and a new defeat for Trump, America, Israel and others in the region,” Qaouk said, according to the report.

In an analysis entitled “Iran’s very good week,” author and Middle East expert Caroline Glick explained in some detail the implications of Iraq’s defeat of Kurdish forces in Kirkuk.

“You have to hand it to the Iranians. They don’t play around. Just hours after President Donald Trump gave his speech outlining the contours of a new U.S. policy toward Iran, senior Iranian officials were on the ground in Iraq and Syria not only humiliating the U.S., but altering the strategic balance in Iran’s favor,” Glick wrote.

Baghdad’s Iranian-backed government quashed Kurdish hopes for independence.

When the “combined force of Iraqi government forces and Shi’ite militias took over Kirkuk and other areas,” Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk abandoned their posts, Glick explained, noting that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps directed the operation.

Hezbollah’s leaders praised the takeover because it strengthens the prospects of an unimpeded route from Tehran to the Mediterranean, with Israel in its crosshairs. {eoa}

Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., All rights reserved.

The Burpo family captivated the world when father Todd Burpo published Heaven Is for Real back in 2010, a book that details his son Colton’s near-death experience that included a purported visit to heaven and a conversation with Jesus.

Now, Burpo, who is a pastor and firefighter, is back with a new book titled, God Is for Real: And He Longs to Answer Your Most Difficult Questions.

It’s a text that dives deep into the character of God, answering some of life’s most difficult and pressing questions about the presence of evil in light of the existence of the Almighty.

Listen to his amazing testimony—including what he learned from his son’s visit to heaven—in the podcast.

In addition to reflecting on the lessons about God that he learned after Colton’s heaven experience, Burpo offered up hope during a recent appearance on “The Billy Hallowell Podcast.”

“God is so big that His faithfulness does not depend upon our faithfulness,” he said. “That same Jesus that carried Colton to heaven wants to do the same thing for you.”

Burpo also addressed the age-old problem surrounding the presence of evil on Earth in light of the existence of a loving God, specifically when it comes to horrific events like the recent Las Vegas massacre.

“Every time evil happens, God gets the blame for it,” he said. “And we take no resposblity for it.”

In addition to human-induced evil, he said that there’s an important spiritual reality that too many people have come to overlook in our modern era.

“When you look at this world, there is a devil too. There is evil too and there’s a source for that evil,” Burpo said. “And people, they really don’t want to talk about it.”

He continued, “There was a force and there was an evil presence that caused these shooters to do what they did, but it was not God.”

Burpo said he believes that “the greatest lie” that Satan perpetuates is to blame tragedy on God, while also lamenting the fact that, over time, too many people have started to separate from biblical values.

“We have lived in darkness so long we don’t even know what light is anymore,” he said, citing the decrease of faith and church attendance. “It has become so dark.”

Burpo urged people to rediscover what “peace” really means, imploring listeners to realize that peace isn’t about an absence of pain or horrific events and is, instead, something much deeper.

“We don’t understand peace in the way Jesus wants you and [me] to experience peace,” he said. “The word for ‘peace’ in the Hebrew vernacular is shalom … the picture of peace is wholeness … God says, ‘You got hurt, you hurt others; right now your life is in so many pieces … If you really want to have peace, you bring Me into your life.'”

In the end, Burpo said that far too many people only want to have “a little bit of God,” while these same individuals overlook the fact that one needs “a lot of God” if he or she truly wants peace.

“The only people who can’t find God accessible are just the proud ones,” he said.

{eoa}

This article originally appeared on Faithwire.

The issue of a baker who wouldn’t make a cake for a gay marriage celebration is likely to be the biggest religious rights case in this Supreme Court term.

Those who oppose Jack Phillips and his Masterpiece Cake Shop accuse him of discrimination against gays. They insist it’s like when segregationists in the Jim Crow days refused to serve blacks at lunch counters.

But now a group that really has suffered discrimination in America for centuries is coming out to back Phillips. Monday, a coalition of African-American civil rights leaders and advocates launched .

At a news conference outside the Supreme Court, they insisted that Jack Phillips’ refusal as a Christian to provide a cake for a ceremony celebrating a same-sex marriage isn’t even close to the kind of discrimination shown against African- Americans in the past.

Janet Boynes lived as a lesbian for 14 years, but then turned away from it.

At the news conference, she said, “I am very concerned that the LGBT activists have hijacked the civil rights movement for African-Americans.”  

“The civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s was a movement to secure for African-Americans the basic privileges and the right of U.S. citizenship that whites and others already had. Homosexuals, on the other hand, have always had the rights. They continue, however, to demand special rights based on their sexual behavior,” she continued.

Rev. William Keen of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said of the case involving Phillips, “This is based on a sin and a faith issue.”

Keen argued that the real discrimination here isn’t against gays, but religious believers.

“A person according to their faith should not be compelled to take part in what they believe is a sin,” Keen said.

Clarence Henderson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of North Carolina stated of Phillips’ foes, “Not only are they coming against him, but they’re coming against the Constitution of these United States of America. Now they’re trying to take away Jack Phillips’ freedom of religion.”

Bishop Garland Hunt of the Religious Liberty Coalition of Georgia told CBN News, “The First Amendment is clearly for our protection, those that are Christians and believers.”

He said of cases like this one against Phillips, “If you don’t allow a person to live by his conscience, you discriminate against the Christian.”

And Henderson warned that limiting someone’s freedom of religion goes against America’s principles, saying, “When we start to infringe on another person’s rights, then we have taken away the freedom that America offers.”

Boynes concluded, “Sexual behavior is not the same as skin color. I could change from gay to straight, but I cannot change the color of my skin. It is an immutable, unchangeable characteristic. I resent my race being compared to what other people do in bed.”

Those at the news conference pointed out all Phillips refused to do was bake a cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. He had willingly sold many cakes to many homosexuals over the years. {eoa}

Reprinted with permission from . Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, all rights reserved.   

Last month, the S&P 500 stock index established, for the first time since 1998, all-time record closing highs every day. The Dow Jones Industrial Index also established record closing highs every day of the week. New weekly employment insurance claims were reported to be 222,000—22,000 below the previous week and the lowest in more than 44 years. Something is stirring.

The unemployment rate of 4.2 percent is the lowest in 16 years. Consumer sentiment is the highest in more than 13 years. At 3.1 percent, second-quarter real GDP growth is the highest in more than two years. Fewer regulations, the possibility of lower business and personal taxes and the possibility of the repatriation of hundreds of billions of dollars by U.S. companies with money abroad are economic positives. Something is stirring.

Certainly, economic negatives exist. The risk of deflation, low productivity, questions regarding European unity, U. S. political uncertainty, Chinese debt and a host of geo-political issues exist. But thus far, the negatives have not mattered. The stock market, economy and labor markets have continued to strengthen. Something is stirring.

More things are being exposed. Recent accusations about Harvey Weinstein revealed a darker, more sinister, side to Hollywood. As women come forward with new and broader accusations involving others, the scope is expanding. More than a million women have adopted the #MeToo hashtag on social media documenting the extent of sexual harassment, including and beyond Hollywood. Could social norms be moving toward showing women the honor and respect they deserve?  Something is changing.

The release of documents about a uranium deal, in which Russia gained control of 20 percent of U. S. uranium stocks, has possible implications for the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation, the Justice Department and others. The Senate Judiciary Committee has decided to investigate the matter. Something is changing.

Most would agree that things are happening at a previously unimagined pace. The changes are impacting all—believers and nonbelievers. The question is why?  Is it God?  Does it have implications for the kingdom?  Does it present more opportunities for the spread of the gospel?  

After the dedication of the newly finished temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon, and gave him the prerequisites for a nation to be blessed by the Lord. Specifically, He told him that His people must pray, humble (fast and more), seek His face and repent. He promised that He would hear and heal their land.

“When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or when I command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence on My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:13-14).

During the 2017 Values Voter Summit, President Trump made a number of statements in accord with the Lord’s directive to Solomon. The message was enthusiastically received by the Conservative Christians in attendance. Specifically, President Trump reiterated:

• “In America, we don’t worship government, we worship God”

• “We know that it’s the family and the church—not government officials—who know best how to create strong and loving communities”

• his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court
• easing enforcement of the Johnson amendment which regulates political activity of churches
• “We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values”
• …”we hope that Congress will pass massive tax cuts for the American people, that includes increasing the child tax credit and expanding it to eliminate the marriage penalty”
• “In this administration, we will call evil by its name”
• “In protecting America’s interests abroad, we will always support our cherished friend and partner the state of Israel;” and
• “As long as we have pride in our country, confidence in our future and faith in our God, then America will prevail.”

Whether one supports President Trump or not, many would agree that his statements are in accord with the Lord’s direction to Solomon. Most would also agree that the stock markets, economy and labor markets have continued to strengthen. Certainly, current and proposed policies give the church more freedom to carry out its divine-ordained mission.

A closer examination of 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 reveals that the Lord’s direction to Solomon was not addressed to the leader, but to the people who are called by His name. We have a responsibility. More freedom has created even greater responsibilities.

• Peace and courage. Regardless of the nature, rapid change creates anxiety and/or fear. We have a responsibility to model and point the way to the author of peace and courage.
• Love. Change produces a reaction and some reactions will be hateful, judgmental and unloving. We have a responsibility to walk in the love which Jesus has so freely bestowed on us and introduce people to the God who loves them.
• Security. Change produces insecurity. We have a responsibility to introduce people to the God Who provides eternal security.
• Perspective. Change can shake foundations like the parable of the house built on sand. We have a responsibility to model and testify about the sure foundation which cannot be shaken. We should model a kingdom perspective.
• Values. Change tests values. Worldly values will be diminished and their followers will be disappointed. If Jesus is the author of our values, and they are firm, we can be a light to a shaken world.

Something is stirring. Changes are accelerating. Opportunities to model the differences between a worldly life and the kingdom life are expanding. Let us have a firm resolve to take advantage of all opportunities to make disciples of all nations. Let us complete our race with valor.

Multiple reports claim a South African pastor uses alcohol throughout his services for everything from baptisms to exorcisms.