Judgment or Awakening? My Response to America's Great Fall - Jennifer LeClaire

Judgment or Awakening? My Response to America's Great Fall

6/29/2015 JENNIFER LECLARIE  charisma news

The Supreme Court voted to overturn a ban on gay marriage, causing a massive ripple effect. (Reuters)

Jennifer LeClaire is now sharing her reflections and revelations through Walking in the Spirit, a new podcast from Charisma. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.

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When I learned the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage I went into what you might call spiritual shock. I almost felt like someone had died. Someone didn't, but something did. True liberty and justice for all. I am grieving right now over the false freedom that was birthed out of a false equality movement. I am mourning because true freedom and true equality have been replaced by a counterfeit crusade that truly sets no one free. I am weeping because America has fallen and many in the church are being caught up in the Great Falling Away.

A line in the sand was long ago drawn. Our tyrannical government crossed that line on June 26, 2015. When five Supreme Court justices trampled state rights they knew all too well Christian rights would be trampled along with them. Call it a betrayal of our Constitution. Call it an anti-Christ agenda. Call it an assault on religious freedom. It's all that and more.

See, crossing this line in the name of equality was a spiritual assault on every believer who calls on the name of Jesus. This isn't about allowing gays to get married. No, not really. While I stand against gay marriage, it's not the letter of the law that concerns me most. It the spirit behind the law that truly grieves me. This ruling will open the floodgates to a tsunami of perversion in the land. Pedophiles now want the same rights as same-sex couples. But that's the topic of another column.

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Of course, we wrestle not against flesh and blood (see Eph. 6:12). Our nemesis here is essentially the spirit of the world (see 1 Cor. 2:12). The church opened the door to the spirit of the world long ago, as is evidenced by the adultery, child molestation, financial improprieties and other scandals running rampant in the body of Christ. Unfortunately, we've discovered it's not so easy to shut the door. High-profile pastors and entire denominations are capitulating to the popular opinion on gay marriage. As Charisma Media founder Steve Strang so aptly wrote, it's time to stand up and be counted.

I would say that persecution is coming except that it's already here. Bakeries, bed and breakfasts, pizza shops and farmers are being sued for refusing to accommodate gay weddings. Public officials are being fired for standing for the truth and military chaplains are being told they cannot pray in the name of Jesus. As the saying goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.

So what is my response to America's great fall? Will we see a great judgment as so many are saying in this hour? Or will we see a great awakening that spills over into the nations of the earth? This is my response: I am grieving, but I will not fear. I am mourning, but I will not compromise. I am weeping, but I know joy will come in the morning and that joy will strengthen my hope. All is not lost. Yes, we deserve judgment, but I am still believing for mercy. If Jesus gave Jezebel and Nineveh a space to repent, there is still hope for America. And faith is the substance of things hoped for. So I hope and I believe that it will be just as the Lord told me. The Holy Spirit woke me up after midnight on April 21, 2007—long before I ever discerned the need for a Great Awakening—and told me this:

There is a great awakening coming to this nation. For I have heard your cries and I long to heal your land. I am a covenant God and I will not forget the covenant I made with your Founding Forefathers. Yes, there will be a shaking, but the foundations will not crack and they will not crumble. Only those things which can be shaken will be shaken that the sin in the land may be laid bare.

Repentance. I require repentance from My people who have through the generations allowed the enemy to take ground in this nation. I require repentance for the abortions and for the prayerlessness. I require repentance for the apathy and for the idolatry. You shall have no other Gods before me. I am indeed the God of America.

Yes, there is a great awakening coming to this nation. I am the Author of it and I will bring it to pass. Just turn from your wicked ways and humble yourselves. Stand in the gap and make up the hedge. I am the Lord and I am a Warrior. I will not leave or forsake this country. I will fight through you and with you to regain what has been lost.

Be encouraged now because as you go forth boldly with My Word and My Spirit there will be the sound of truth and it will prevail in the land. Speak boldly and clearly and watch as the mighty men arise to take their positions on the wall and in the churches and in the marketplaces. For I am raising up deliverers and reformers in this generation who will not shrink back at the challenge that is coming in the days ahead.

Yes, it will grow darker before My light shines brightly from this nation again. But the light has not been extinguished and will not be extinguished. The time to rise up is now. I am calling you to war. I am calling you to repentance. I am calling you to My side. I am the captain of the hosts. I am calling you to victory. I am calling you to destiny. Will you answer?

I believe this so much that I've set my heart labor for it with everything in me until I see it come to pass. I wrote a book on the topic that released almost eight years to the day after I received that prophetic word. In The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening, I included thoughts and perspectives from the likes of Franklin Graham, Reinhard Bonnke, Greg Laurie, Dr. Michael Brown, the late Steve Hill and many others and we're all agreeing for a spiritual awakening.

I have to keep believing even in the midst of a raging spiritual war. I believe America as we know it died last Friday but I believe America can be born again. Like Winston Churchill said during World War II when the situation looked dire, "Never, never, never, never give up."

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 Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The 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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Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists? - Jennifer LeClaire

Why Are So Many Christians Turning Into Atheists?

1/2/2015 JENNIFER LECLAIRE  charisma news

Former pastor Ryan Bell converted to atheism. (YouTube screengrab)

Pastor Ryan Bell made a strange New Year's resolution in 2014—he aimed to live a godless year.

Bell, no relation to universalist Rob Bell, kept a blog to chronicle his yearlong journey without God and even had a documentary crew on hand to film what turned out to be his transformation from a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor to a full-blown atheist.

"I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God, and on the question of God's existence or not, I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case, in my view," Bell told NPR's Arun Rath.

"I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience. But I don't think that's necessarily the most interesting thing about me."

What? How do you move from accepting a call of God into full-time ministry only to turn your back on him and decide to exchange a close relationship with God to a "closer relationship with reality"?

From Christian to Murderer?

Maybe we should ask heavy metal Christian rock star Tim Lambesis, the former front man for As I Lay Dying. Of course, that may be somewhat difficult considering he was sentenced to six years in prison for hiring a hit man to kill his wife. In the midst of that drama, Lambesis admitted he's an atheist.

In another instance, a Methodist worship and teaching pastor who served God in ministry for 20 years took up a new post, at least for a season, as public relations director for the American Atheists. She said her move to atheism was "very, very gradual."

"Actually there's not really one single moment where I can look back and say, "Ah, that was the moment," Teresa McBain told The Christian Post. "It was kind of a slow progression."

There's a long list of Christians who turned to atheism on WikiPedia. And the Clergy Project, a secret initiative that's willing to foot the bill to get you out of your pulpit and into a new career, claims to offer a "safe haven for active and former professional clergy/religious leaders who do not hold supernatural beliefs."

What is going on? Is the church doing something wrong? Or is the culture wooing once-saved Christians to the godless side? Or both?

A WikiHow article actually spells out "How to Persuade a Christian to Become Atheist" and atheists are certainly campaigning hard for their godless view. At the same time, a Barna Group study conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age in 1997. Just 16 percent of non-Christians in their late teens and 20s said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent) and too involved in politics (75 percent).

"We are far from becoming an atheist nation," says Barna researcher David Kinnaman. "There are tens of millions of active believers in America today. But the wall between the churched and the churchless is growing higher and more impenetrable as more people have no muscle memory of what it means to be a regular attender at a house of worship."

The Great Falling Away

What, then, is the root of Christians turning their back on God? I believe it's a sign of the times and may be part of the Great Falling Away. About two years ago, I asked the question: "Is the Great Falling Away Already Underway?". Jesus said that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold because iniquity will abound (see Matt. 24:12). When a God-fearing pastor becomes a godless champion for faithlessness, love has grown cold.

But there is hope. Mike McHargue is a Christian turned atheist turned follower of Christ. He says his time as an atheist actually made him a better Christian.

"Atheism doesn't pretend to have answers to every question. Losing God changed me. I no longer feel like I have to have answers to all the questions we face in life. I'm happy to look for an answer without finding one, and I'm comfortable with uncertainty. My faith is an act of simple trust now," McHargue wrote in Relevant magazine.

"What I know is less important than what I do. Knowing Jesus is not an abstract set of information or a construct of dogma. Being a Christian comes down to the simple of act of dropping my nets when I hear the words, 'Come, follow me.'"

I pray that every Christian-turned-atheist—and every atheist for that matter—would come to this same revelation. God is waiting to embrace you.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft, and The Spiritual Warrior's Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed are solely the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Charisma Media.

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