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NRB Awards Kim Davis for Commitment to Christian Values
Above: Kim Davis leaves jail. (Reuters)
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Kim Davis, the Rowan County Clerk who was jailed for her Christian faith and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, received the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) President's Award for her faithful commitment to Christian values despite political and media opposition. Last year, this award went to Miriam Ibrahim, a woman imprisoned in Sudan for her Christian faith.
Kim Davis will receive the Heroine of the Faith award for her courage from Bott Radio Network, a Christian radio network with more than 100 stations nationwide that reaches more than 50 million people. The NRB conference brings together thousands of similar Christian communicators each year to encourage and educate them about current trends and issues facing the religious community.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, joined Kim Davis at the podium to represent the importance of our First Amendment freedoms and free-speech rights. Staver said, "Our client, Kim Davis, never asked for the spotlight. She was just doing her job while remaining faithful to Christian values. Our nation should never force people to choose between their jobs and their faith. Kim has been an encouragement to me and to everyone she meets, showing how completely God can transform a life and use it incredibly beyond what you can imagine, ask or think. I'm thankful to Jesus Christ for transforming lives. What you see in Kim is a woman whose life was transformed by Jesus, and she will not be unfaithful to our Lord, and that's why she was there. That's the story of Kim Davis."
Kim Davis is still in the process of a legal battle in Kentucky, where her case is pending. There has been victory after victory for Liberty Counsel's client, including the governor's executive order protecting her freedoms and a legislative bill that permanently removes clerk's names from the marriage license. There still remains her court case that we are continuing to fight for clarification of the religious freedom of all county clerks and for all citizens' First Amendment freedoms.
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
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The time has come for Israel to wake up to the fullness of their identity in Christ. (iStock photo )
In early December 2006, I was supposed to fly to Long Island, New York, to be the first speaker at the Open Heavens Conference with revivalist Matt Sorger. But God had other plans.
Prior to my flight, I suddenly came down with a flu-type sickness. The conference planners quickly reshuffled the order of the invited speakers, while I took the day to rest and recover at my home in Franklin, Tennessee.
As I lay there in bed that day the Holy Spirit kept telling me, The winds are coming! The winds are coming! I did not understand what He meant, and I could not get any more information than that. All day long as I rested, I heard the same declaration: The winds are coming!
The next day I felt well enough to fly. As the first leg of my flight headed from Nashville to Baltimore, we encountered unusually strong winds. The plane was bouncing around like crazy. The pilot came on the loudspeaker to say that we were hitting winds of 160 knots and that these were the fiercest winds he had ever encountered in flight.
When we finally landed safely in Baltimore—in winds that were still blowing 40 to 60 knots on the ground—the plane was shuddering and shaking. I wondered how I would make my connecting flight, but I soon discovered that it did not matter. Nobody was going anywhere. As it turned out, the entire East Coast was affected by this weather pattern, and all the airports in New England were closed down. That meant I would have to layover in Baltimore for a day. I began to wonder if I would ever make it to this conference at all.
That night, lying awake in my hotel bed, I heard the same words once again: The winds are coming. What? More winds?
By morning the winds had died down enough for us to fly, and I finally made it to Long Island in time to address the closing session of the conference. As I sought the Lord beforehand, I felt that He wanted to give me words of knowledge for people at the beginning of the service (which is not my typical modus operandi). Again I heard,The winds are coming.
The winds are still coming? I thought they had already come and gone.
During the worship portion of the service, I was worshiping our awesome God, enjoying His presence and minding His business with my eyes closed. Suddenly I felt a wind blow across my face. I opened my eyes to see if I could find the air vents. I could not see any vents, so I went back to worshiping. Again I felt a wind blow. In an instant, the atmosphere shifted, and I began to scribble down words of knowledge as fast as the Holy Spirit gave them to me—people's names, cities and diseases. The air was permeated with the spirit of revelation.
Then a third time I felt the wind. This time when I opened my eyes—whoosh—an angel suddenly appeared in front of me, hovering and looking right at me. The angel was carrying a shofar and wearing a glowing white robe with a gold sash that went from the left shoulder to the waist. On the sash I could read the words "Israel Awakening." The angel blew the shofar right in my face and then vanished.
Israel Awakening
I have experienced angelic encounters before, but never before have I been given the name of the angel. Was "Israel Awakening" the name of this angel? Though I did not ask, I believe it was. But whether that was the angel's actual name or not, I do know that the angel had come from the throne of the Ancient of Days to convey a message to His people.
The angel, Israel Awakening, had come like a wind in our day to blow a trumpet and to awaken the Body of Christ in a new way. This particular messenger from heaven had been released to this generation to blow the shofar and to keep blowing it. The winds had come. The winds would continue to come. The atmosphere had shifted. The time for change had come.
The time had come for Israel to be awakened, for the Jewish people worldwide to wake up to the fullness of their identity in the Lord their Maker. A new spirit of adoption seemed to have become available from the Lord Jesus Himself to help prepare the Body of the Messiah to fulfill her call in these last days.
Church Awakening
Simultaneously, the time had come for the Gentile church to awaken to her intercessory mission of compassion, to say "yes" to her calling to stand in the gap for God's purposes in Israel and wherever the Jewish people reside on the globe. I believe the angel named Israel Awakening was the head of a legion of angels that had been released to bring a spiritual awakening to both the Jewish people (regarding God's purposes within Israel) and to the Body of the Messiah, the Church of Jesus Christ (concerning her role of supporting Israel in the end times, when the dispersed of Israel shall be gathered into the Kingdom of God). Centuries ago, the prophet Isaiah said, "The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, 'Yet I will gather others to them, besides those who already are gathered to him'" (Is. 56:8).
First God had sent the winds in the natural realm, and then He sent them in the spiritual. Why had the Spirit made such a point of telling me, The winds are coming? Because the angels are winds. "Of the angels He says, 'Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire'" (Hebrews 1:7, NASB). Why had they come? Because they are "ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14, NASB). The Word of God will interpret the revelation sent from God.
Excerpted from The Coming Israel Awakening. Dr. James W. Goll is the cofounder of Encounters Network, a ministry to the nations. He has written 15 extensive Bible study guides and is the author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Coming Prophetic Revolution and Praying for Israel's Destiny. Goll is a contributing editor toKairos magazine and speaks and ministers around the world.
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It was a true joy listening to Brad Stine for the first time at the Proclaiming Justice To The Nations dinner at the NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) convention in Nashville, TN. He is funny!
After watching a brief presentation of the 2016 PJTN video "Hating Israel: In Search of the Truth Behind BDS" (which I am really looking forward to seeing the full video), he came out on stage and did a 15 minute comedy routine. Loved it!
I was able to record most of it from our table in the middle of the room, filled with several 100 people.
It was also a great joy to have so many present from Jerusalem. We sat a a table with Bruce Mills, deacon at the Jerusalem Baptist Church. Also present was the former director of ICEJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem), the director of Yad Vashem, and staff from Christian Friends of Israel. Jeffrey Levinson of GODTV was a panelist during one segment of the 2.5 hour evening.
Shalom,
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People, Inc.
Published on Feb 26, 2016
Brad Stine - comedian in support of Israel speaking at NRB - PJTN dinner Feb. 25, 2016 in Nashville, TN
Videos filmed and shared by Steve Martin - to give appreciation to and love for those we support, through Love For His People, Inc.
Why are millions of Christians believing this lie from the enemy? (Lightstock )
When the devil wants to hijack the advancement of God's people, he introduces subtle, yet destructive deceptions. Deceptions that are easy for us to embrace as truth, even though they are not presented in Scripture ... anywhere!
I want us to consider one of these deceptions and its severe implications to every single Christian or church who has bought into the lie.
Why Does the Devil Hate the Holy Spirit?
One of the enemy's favorite topics to target is the Holy Spirit. This is no coincidence. The more the enemy can confuse the church about the role of Holy Spirit, the more he can gain influence.
Consider this. The very Spirit of God that empowers ordinary men and women to be a restraining force to darkness in the earth has become reduced to being a controversial doctrine that we tolerate, at best, and ignore, at worst. This should not be so!
Satan hates Holy Spirit intensely for one key reason. The Christian who fully embraces the revelation that he or she is actually filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead becomes a spiritual Joshua or Caleb who enters into and releases the promise land of heaven on earth. We begin thinking, speaking, and acting like people who are, quite literally, possessed by God. Surely, this throws a wrench into Satan's diabolical plans.
This is why the enemy so persistently perpetuates lies about the Spirit. He's done this since the beginning of church history, causing division about how equal (or non-equal) the Holy Spirit is to God the Father and God the Son. Controversy has continued all the way up into our modern era, where everything from speaking in tongues to the continuation of miracles to being "slain in the Spirit" is on the table for theological debate and division. Yet, while Christians are dividing over the Spirit, darkness is gaining ground. This must stop if we are going to see a great worldwide revival prior to the Second Coming of Jesus.
The Lie that is Impacting Millions
There is a lie that is being widely circulating in the evangelical (and yes, even the charismatic) church that shuts down expectation concerning the Spirit's movement. In many ways, this lie is robbing the people of God from embracing (let alone sustaining) the supernatural culture that is the inheritance of every single believer. So, what's the lie?
Have you ever heard someone say, The Holy Spirit wouldn't do that ... remember, He's a gentleman. That's the lie right there. "He's a gentleman." We've taken this to mean that the Spirit of God will not move with unusual power or force. He won't make us uncomfortable. That's a lie. You know how I know? Because God's chief concern is not mankind's comfort; it's His kingdom.
Jesus never seemed to consider comfort when he healed the sick or drove out demons. These kingdom-advancing activities always brought great freedom, while simultaneously attracting significant reproach from the religious community.
This false idea about the Holy Spirit has put a ceiling on what we are expecting from God in our lives, church services and in our world today. As C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan, "He's not a tame lion, but he is good." Yes, the Holy Spirit comes to faithfully represent King Jesus who is kind, compassionate, gentle and caring. Yet, this Jesus is also a King, Warrior and Conqueror. He is Lamb, yes, but also Lion. He blesses little children one moment and casts out devils in the next.
I don't want a containable, in-a-box Jesus. Likewise, why should we place the same expectation on Holy Spirit?
I'm most concerned about the definition we've assigned to "gentleman." While I don't believe the Holy Spirit forcibly causes us to experience something we don't want to, my concern is how we have lowered our expectations of what He can do, will do, or wants to do. Even Charismatic communities tremble at the prospect of "opening the service up" to the Spirit, in fear of what He might do.
Is there risk? Always. Is there potential for disorder? Certainly. As long as human beings are involved, you will have those who behave out of order. Is it worth it all to watch God crash in and transform people's lives forever? Ask John and Carol Arnott, pastors of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship during the Toronto Blessing. Ask John Kilpatrick as he pastored the Brownsville Revival. Ask Steve and Kathy Gray, leaders of Smithton Community Church. Ask Randy Clark and Heidi Baker. Ask Bill Johnson and Leif Hetland. Ask Dr. Michael Brown and R.T. Kendall. The answer is yes. To pay the price of risk and experience the move of God in exchange is always worth it.
Consider the multiple scriptural accounts of how the Holy Spirit moves. In the Old Testament, he comes upon the judges and prophets with great power, anointing them for supernatural exploits. Even from His grand entrance on the Day of Pentecost, it's quite obvious that He's not tame. He invaded that upper room as a mighty rushing wind (Acts 2:2-3) and it's been His will to bring heaven's mighty transformation ever since. So why aren't we seeing it as much today?
Tune in Tuesday for part two of this article.
Larry Sparksis co-author of the book, The Fire That Never Sleeps, with Dr. Michael Brown and John Kilpatrick. Larry's mission is to help teach all believers how to experience and sustain personal revival—enjoying a deep relationship with God through encountering the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. To this end, he maintains a blog through Charisma magazine, is a published author, teaches revival seminars, and is the co-founder of Renewing South Florida, an organization committed to uniting the local church for regional outpouring. Larry holds a Master of Divinity from Regent University and presently serves as vice president of publishing for Destiny Image Publishers.
You can receive daily empowerment for personal revival from Larry on Facebook (facebook.com/larryvsparks).
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Proclaiming Justice To The Nations (PJTN) dinner with Laurie Cardoza-Moore at the NRB in Nashville, TN
Thursday pm, Feb. 25, 2016
Gaylord Opryland
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, PJTN
Steve and Ben Martin of Love For His People, Inc. attend the dinner as part of the NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) convention in Nashville.
Standing together in support of Israel and the Jewish people, the hundreds gathered heard from Rev. Raphael Cruz (father of USA Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz), comedian Brad Stine, Rabbi Jonathan Hausman and NRB President Dr. Jerry Johnson.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore with Jeffrey Levinson of GODTV and others
Posted: 25 Feb 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Barack Obama recently stated that anyone that is claiming that America’s economy is in decline is “peddling fiction“. Well, if the economy is in such great shape, why are major retailers shutting down hundreds of stores all over the country? Last month, I wrote about the “retail apocalypse” that is sweeping the nation, but since then it has gotten even worse. Closing stores has become the “hot new trend” in the retail world, and “space available” signs are going up in mall windows all over the United States. Barack Obama can continue huffing and puffing about how well the middle class is doing all he wants, but the truth is that the cold, hard numbers that retailers are reporting tell an entirely different story. Earlier today, Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert released a letter to shareholders that was filled with all kinds of bad news. In this letter, he blamed the horrible results that Sears has been experiencing lately on “tectonic shifts” in consumer spending…
In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Lampert said the impact of “tectonic shifts” in consumer spending has spread more broadly in the last year to retailers “that had previously proven to be relatively immune to such shifts.” “Walmart, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Staples, Whole Foods and many others have felt the impact of disruptive changes from online competition and new business models,” Lampert wrote.
And it is very true – Sears is doing horribly, but they are far from alone. The following are 13 major retailers that are closing down stores… #1 Sears lost 580 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2015 alone, and they are scheduled to close at least 50 more “unprofitable stores” by the end of this year. #2 It is being reported that Sports Authority will file for bankruptcy in March. Some news reports have indicated that around 200 stores may close, but at this point it is not known how many of their 450 stores will be able to stay open. #3 For decades, Kohl’s has been growing aggressively, but now it plans to shutter 18 stores in 2016. #4 Target has just finished closing 13 stores in the United States. #5 Best Buy closed 30 stores last year, and it says that more store closings are likely in the months to come. #6 Office Depot plans to close a total of 400 stores by the end of 2016. The next seven examples come from one of my previous articles… #7 Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States. #8 K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months. #9 J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015. #10 Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees. #11 The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America. #12 Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America. #13 Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years. These store closings can be particularly cruel for small towns. Just consider the impact that Wal-Mart has had on the little town of Oriental, North Carolina…
The Town’n Country grocery in Oriental, North Carolina, a local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors in October after a Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three months later — and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived — the retail giant is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery store and no pharmacy. Though mom-and-pop stores have steadily disappeared across the American landscape over the past three decades as the mega chain methodically expanded, there was at least always a Wal-Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts are disappearing, too.
Of course there are many factors involved in this ongoing retail apocalypse. Competition from online retailers is becoming more intense, and consumer spending patterns are rapidly changing. But in the end, the truth is that you can’t get blood out of a rock. The middle class in America is shrinking, and there just isn’t as much discretionary spending going on as there used to be. And now that we have entered a new economic downturn, many retailers are finding that there are some local communities that can no longer support their stores. The following comes from CNBC…
Though the shift to online shopping is no doubt playing a role in lighter foot traffic at malls, there’s more to their changing economics than the rise of Amazon. Changing demographics in a town are another reason a shopping center could struggle or fail — for example, if massive layoffs in a particular industry cause people to move away to find employment. “A lot of people want to try and tie it to the Internet or ‘that’s not cool,’ or teens don’t like it,” Jesse Tron, a spokesman for industry trade group International Council of Shopping Centers, told CNBC last year. “It’s hard to support large-format retail in those suburban areas when people are trying to just pay their mortgage.”
In order to have a thriving middle class, we need good paying middle class jobs. Unfortunately, our economy has been bleeding those kinds of jobs quite rapidly. For example, Halliburton just announced that it is eliminating 5,000 more jobs after getting rid of 4,000 workers at the end of last year. During the Obama years, good paying middle class jobs have been getting replaced by low paying service jobs. At this point, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year. And there is no way that you can support a middle class family with children on $30,000 a year. We have an economy that is in the process of failing. We can see it in the explosion of subprime auto loans that are going bad, we can see it in the hundreds of retail stores that are shutting down, and we can see it in the tens of thousands of good paying energy jobs that are being lost. During the Obama years, interest rates have been pushed to the floor, the Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars out of thin air, and the size of our national debt is getting close to doubling. Despite all of those desperate measures, our economy continues to crumble. We stole from the future to try to paper over our failures and it didn’t work. Now an economic downturn that will ultimately turn out to be even worse than the “Great Recession” of 2008 and 2009 has begun, and our leaders have absolutely no idea how to fix things. I wish I had better news to report, but I don’t. Get prepared now, because very rough times are ahead.
The Prophetic Warning Behind the Death of 13 Bald Eagles
Thirteen bald eagles were found dead recently. (Flickr/Creative Commons)
A very interesting story is coming out regarding 13 bald eagles that were found dead at a Maryland-area farm over the weekend and federal authorities are currently investigating, and offering a reward for any information. The Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) were first called to the scene on Saturday afternoon after a man discovered four dead bald eagles on a farm in Maryland's Eastern Shore region, according to NRP spokeswoman Candy Thomson.
When I saw this story breaking I saw so much symbolism in this for America. Let me explain. The national symbol for America is the eagle and the Thirteen Colonies, founded in the 16th and 17th centuries, declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States. The thirteen were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Is there a prophetic picture here? If so what could it represent? We do know that the number 13 is symbolic of rebellion and lawlessness.
Nimrod, the mighty hunter who was 'before the Lord' (meaning he tried to take the place of God – Genesis 10:9), was the 13th in Ham's line (Ham was one of Noah's three sons who survived the flood). Thirteen represents all the governments created by men, and inspired by Satan, in outright rebellion against the Eternal. America as a nation has continued to rebel against God through idolatry, legalized abominations and the list continues.
The phrase 'valley of Hinnom' (or variation thereof) occurs in 13 places in Scripture. The valley was the scene of the evil-inspired rites of the pagan god Moloch (or Molech). Molech was an idol god worshiped Phoenicians which included child sacrifice, or "passing children through the fire." It is believed that idols of Moloch were giant metal statues of a man with a bull's head. Each idol had a hole carved out in the abdomen and possibly outstretched forearms that made a kind of ramp to the hole. A fire was lit in or around the statue. Babies were placed in the statue's arms or in the hole. Today we don't see this in America but children are aborted daily by a practice of removing the child from the belly of its mother.
The dragon, a symbol for Satan, is found 13 times in Revelation. Satan is behind all rebellion against God.
In Romans Chapter 1 Paul lists 23 characteristics of sinful people who have a debased or reprobate mind. The thirteenth characteristic is that they are haters of God (Romans 1:28–32). I am grieved as I have witnessed over the years, such hatred towards the things of God and believers at large in America.
The American dollar even has the number 13 embedded all over it.
13 steps on the pyramid of the Great Seal
13 letters in "Annuit Coeptis"
13 stripes in the shield on the eagle
13 stars above the eagle
13 letters in "E Pluribus Unum"
13 arrows in the eagle's left talon
13 leaves, and 13 fruits on the olive branch in its right talon
I believe the Lord is continuing to send America warning after warning that we may continue to seek Him through prayer and intercession to turn things around and bring another mighty revival to the land to bring America back to God. Let him who has ears to hear, Hear!
Ricky Scaparois a former Pastor and Founder of International Ministry "End Time Headlines".
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