Showing posts with label Dylann Roof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dylann Roof. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2015

The Prophetic Significance Behind Confederate Flag Backlash - Jennifer LeClaire

The Prophetic Significance Behind Confederate Flag Backlash


People gather to protest the Confederate flag.
People gather to protest the Confederate flag. (Reuters)



Jennifer LeClaire is now sharing her reflections and revelations through Walking in the Spirit, a new podcast from Charisma. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Watchman on the Wall, by Jennifer LeClaire
The Civil War ended in 1865 but the Confederate Flag is still flying proudly today in many southern communities. The red-white-and-blue banner is a symbol of both rebellion and racism that serves as a painful reminder of our nation's history.
Indeed, Ku Klux Klan members still display these flags in their front yards in small southern towns and many retailers sell stickers, T-shirts, bathing suits, earrings, dog suits and other merchandise donning the emblem. The latter is changing in the twinkling of an eye.
Unfortunately, it took a massacre for our nation to wake up to the deep-seated division that the Confederate flag still symbolizes. Less than a week since Dylann Roof, who posed with the Confederate flag online, opened fire on Christians at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.—and less than two seeks after a stadium prayer event called The Response was held there to pray for our nation—backlash against the flag is reached a fevered pitch.
This Flag Does Not Represent America
"It's time to move the flag from the capitol grounds," Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, told a news conference in the state capital, which is about 100 miles from the Charleston shooting that left nine African-American believers dead. "The flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state."
Walmart and Sears are putting an end to the sale of products bearing the Confederate flag. Target appears to be taking the same measure. Amazon and eBay are still selling the merchandise sporting the emblem but industry watchers are expecting retailers en mass to put the end to promoting the sale of the rebel flag in the days ahead.
What, then, is the prophetic significance of the sudden and growing rebel flag backlash? My friend Tammie Southerland, founder of Frontline Ministries who lives in Greenwood, SC, pointed out that the flag has been a major point of contention in South Carolina for a long time.
"To the black community it represents oppression and is a reminder that the South fought to keep slavery. That alone should cause us to consider the need to remove it, for if our brother hurts so should we. But the removal is even more powerful that we realize!"
Southerland offered a quick history lesson: South Carolina pioneered the 1860 Secession. The word "secession" essentially means division. Noteworthy is the fact that revival was sweeping the nation at the very same time that South Carolina signed secession papers in Charleston. In an instant, America went from revival to war. The Civil War raged and revival went underground.
Church Pierce's Prophecy
"Chuck Pierce released a prophetic word in 2005 that revealed the reason South Carolina remained in ugly cycles of division—both in the church and beyond—is because we had not repented of the heart of the secession," Southerland recounts.
"But, he prophesied, if we would come together in the 12 most populated cities, including the port cities, gathering the five-fold ministry in prayer and intercession, we would break the spiritual repercussions of pioneering secession—and through South Carolina an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival would be released! This would pioneer a movement of unity and a message of Jesus like America had never heard! The Lord said we would be called a state of 'intercession' instead of a state of 'secession' or rebellion and division!"
According to Southerland, many believers in South Carolina took that prophecy to heart and have been waging war with that prophetic word—praying it through in intercession. For Southerland's part, she has been preaching and declaring this prophetic word as she's held "Fire on the Altar" meetings—unity-focused mobile 24-hour presence-driven prayer, worship and revival gatherings—across the Carolinas and beyond.
"Press into the heart of the Father and get this prophetic understanding," Southerland urges. "This is amazing! It is happening and Charleston has been the tragic catalyst to bring an outward act exemplifying the heart of unity."
Pockets of true revival are breaking out across America. Want to know more about the next great move of God? Click here to see Jennifer LeClaire's new book, featuring Dutch Sheets, Reinhard Bonnke, Jonathan Cahn, Billy Graham and others. 
Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual AwakeningMornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of GodThe Making of a Prophet and Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.
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Saturday, June 20, 2015

This Pastor Is Pulling No Punches About 'Demonic' South Carolina Massacre

This Pastor Is Pulling No Punches About 'Demonic' South Carolina Massacre


The interior of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where the 9 church-goers, including the pastor, were gunned down in an apparent hate crime during a Wednesday evening prayer service.
The interior of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where the 9 church-goers, including the pastor, were gunned down in an apparent hate crime during a Wednesday evening prayer service. (Facebook)
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The mass shooting tragedy that has shaken Charleston and the nation has caused the a pastor of a neighboring Southern Baptist Church to condemn the attack as demonic in origin.
"Everyone together—white, black, Hispanic, everybody—we're coming together in unity to see this not only [as] an attack on people, but an attack on the body of Christ," said Keith Biggs, associate pastor of Citadel Square Baptist Church, which is on the same block as Mother Emanuel AME Church, where the shooting occurred. "I mean, who can walk into a church and sit for an hour and have prayer, and then just begin to kill everybody?"
Suspected shooter Dylann Roof, who is white, made anti-black statements to his African-American victims right before killing them, according to law enforcement officials. But though police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, Biggs says bigotry and hatred is just the tip of the iceberg.
"As everybody said on TV, it goes deeper than just hate. To me, this is something that's very demonic to be able to do that. It's a big spiritual warfare, so we're coming together," he said. "We've just got to pray and seek direction, see how we can help one another, see how we can pray to get this action and so forth out of here. Everybody is very calm right now and just looking for answers."
Meanwhile, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Ronnie Floyd issued a statement echoing Biggs' sentiment. The statement was joined by Philadelphia pastor K. Marshall Williams, president of the SBC National African American Fellowship; California pastor A.B. Vines, NAAF's immediate past president; and Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"The brutal massacre of those in prayer at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church should shock the conscience of every person," part of the statement read. "There is hardly a more vivid picture of unmasked evil than the murder of those in prayer.
"This act of bloodshed is wicked and more than wicked. It is literally satanic, as our Lord taught us that the devil is a 'murderer from the beginning'" (John 8:44).
Meanwhile, the SBC statement, Biggs, and many other faith leaders are unanimous on what the Church needs to be doing now:
"Pray."
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