Spirit & Power Episode 4: "Take Back that Which Was Stolen from Us:" The Charismatic Rituals of the Religious Right
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In this episode of Spirit & Power: “‘Take Back that Which Was Stolen from Us:’ The Charismatic Rituals of the Religious Right,” host Dr. Leah Payne and Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood, a sociology doctoral fellow at Tulane University and researcher for Spirit & Power, take listeners on an audio tour of Flashpoint Live New Orleans, a conservative talk show produced by charismatic televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s Victory Channel. Along the way, Karrie, whose research focuses on independent, neo-charismatic religion and political mobilization, and Leah analyze the characters and charismatic practices shaping conservative rallies leading up to the 2024 election.
Resources & Links:
The Courage Tour, the Reawaken America Tour, and the FlashPoint Live Rescue America Tour
Karrie Gaspard-Hogewood’s analysis in The Guardian, the Washington Post, and Religion News Service.
“‘The Trump Shall Sound: Politics, Pentecostals, and the Shofar at the Capitol Riots,” by Leah Payne
“President Trump’s Hidden Religious Base: Pentecostal-charismatic Celebrities,” by Erica Ramirez & Leah Payne
“The Future of “Born-Again Evangelicalism” Is Charismatic and Pentecostal,” Fanhao Nie, Ph.D., Flavio Rogerio Hickel Jr., Leah Payne, Tarah Williams, Ph.D.
“Is Modern Prophecy Leading Its Followers To a Religious State?” by Paul A. Djupe
Books:
God Gave Rock and Roll to You: a History of Contemporary Christian Music by Leah Payne
The Violent Take It by Force: the Christian Movement that is Threatening our Democracy by Matthew D Taylor
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Axis Mundi Axis Mundi And it says when they sounded the shofar, the Midianites became so confused that they began to kill each other.
There's something about the enemy's camp that boy when we sound the shofar we go right into space.
We stomp on him.
And we take back that witch's soul in from us.
Amen?
I tell ya, I tell ya, let's do something.
I believe God wants to move in this place powerfully tonight.
I said, I believe He wants to move powerfully in this place.
What we're going to do is whenever he blows this shofar again, I want you to the top of your lungs, say the name, Jesus.
Jesus.
"The sounds of the shofar, speaking in tongues, divine healing, prophecy." divine healing, prophecy."
Until very recent years, these were the types of activities you'd expect to see at a Pentecostal gathering like the 1997 Brownsville Revival Which was the audio that you just heard.
But now, you don't have to go to an Assemblies of God meeting to hear the shofar.
You can hear it at many of the pro-Trump rallies, worship services, and get-out-the-vote events led by Charismatics and Pentecostals leading up to the 2024 election.
I'm Leah Payne, a historian and expert in Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the United States and beyond.
Welcome to Spirit and Power, a limited series podcast where we do deep dives into how charismatic and Pentecostal movements are shaping the American political and social landscape.
Today on Spirit and Power, take back that which was stolen, the charismatic rituals of the religious right.
My guest and I take you on an audio tour of Flashpoint Live New Orleans, a live taping of a show from televangelist Kenneth Copeland's Victory Channel.
Flashpoint is one of many conservative, Pentecostal, and charismatic rallies and marches taking place leading up to the 2024 election, like Clay Clark's Reawaken tour, Jenny Donnelly's A Million Women, and Sean Foyt's Kingdom to the Capitol.
At all of these meetings, charismatic and Pentecostal Trumpers animate conservative talking points with exuberance.
My guest today shares her insights from attending Flashpoint Live New Orleans.
My name is Carrie Gaspard-Hogwood.
I am a doctoral fellow in sociology at Tulane University and I study charismatic religions and that intersection with the political arena.
Swag subscribers will recognize Keri's voice because she also does research for Spirit and Power and frequently provides bonus content.
Keri, I wonder if you could tell us a bit about attending Flashpoint.
It was held at Covenant Church, which is Jesse Duplantis Ministries.
Jesse Duplantis is a charismatic televangelist known for his prosperity gospel teachings, lavish lifestyle, and his enthusiastic support for Donald Trump.
The parking lot when I got there was pretty full.
They opened the doors at 6.
The event started at 7.
And so for Flashpoint Live for this particular event, the first day was actually the evening.
It was Flashpoint Live that started at 7.
And I don't think we left until around 9.
And then the next day was Flash Talks with two movie screenings and a Flashpoint Live again.
I did register.
And you get badges and a gift bag full of lots of goodies.
There was a magnet with the Watchman's Decree.
The Watchman Decree on the Victory Channel website says, As a patriot of faith, I attest my allegiance first and foremost to the Kingdom of God and the Great Commission.
Secondly, I agree to be a Watchman over our nation concerning its people and their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Then it goes on.
Whereas we, the church, are God's governing body on earth, whereas we have been given legal power from heaven and now exercise our authority, whereas we are God's ambassadors and spokespeople over the earth, whereas through the power of God, we are the world influencers, whereas because whereas through the power of God, we are the world influencers, whereas because of our covenant with God, we are equipped and delegated by him to destroy every attempted advance And it goes on from there.
It includes a declaration that America's executive branch of government will honor God and defend the Constitution.
It stands against wokeness, the occult, and every evil attempt against our nation, which is a fascinating trio there.
And it also includes the Seven Mountains Mandate.
If you're listening to this podcast and you're a subscriber, I'm sure I hardly need to describe the Seven Mountains Mandate.
But just in case you're new, for charismatics, particularly those associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, the seven mountains of influence that Christians are supposed to exercise God's kingdom over include media, and charismatics and Pentecostals already know how to do that quite well, Business, finance, family, education, politics, arts and entertainment, and religion.
So it's a very holistic vision to conquer for Christ.
A watchman in the Bible is someone who guards and protects military groups, towns, cities, etc.
from enemy incursion.
And so the people who take this watchman declaration seriously, they're not just what you see at the An average flashpoint gathering.
They're not just predominantly white charismatics of a certain age.
No, they are people of biblical significance according to this decree.
They are watch people.
Watch people don't just live in the mundane realities of this world.
They're also engaged in In a thrilling spiritual universe.
They aren't just citizens.
They're watchmen.
And the work of the American government isn't democracy per se.
It's warding off political enemies.
And if you think about combining that language with the language of voting interference and guarding polling and polls, you can see that that's a very specific orientation.
In addition to the Watchmen decree, Carrie let me know that there was some good old-fashioned conference swag.
There was a pen, there was a notebook, there was a Flashpoint Live Rescue America sticker, things like that.
And so they give you a badge and there's security all over the place.
This is what is very strange to me.
There's lots of people checking badges and not like at a ticketed event where you're like Here's your ticket.
Where should you sit or something?
Lots of people around with earpieces that were very on top of trying to figure out who you were and what you were doing there.
And yeah, it was a little intimidating.
There's people in lots of patriotic wear, men in polo shirts that have We The People on it, American flags.
They also gave you a little American flag with your gift bag.
But up people had brought their own.
And yeah, there was just, it's a big room, right?
It's this mega church and with a big stage and praise band up front.
And they had these laser light show things that cast patriotic stars on the ceiling.
Yeah, they started with Lee Greenwood, of course.
God bless the USA.
Everyone sang along, including me.
On day two, American Idol alum, gospel singer Danny Gokey started off with a patriotic ballad.
I still believe in us, oh America, you're still the land I love, though a little brew still.
The next thing they went into, it surprised me, but I guess because it was held in New Orleans, was they started singing When the Saints Go Marching In, and there was actually a second line that came through the room.
so that was kind of fun as you'd expect at a charismatic megachurch the event had a very polished worship set
In my book, God Gave Rock and Roll to You, A History of Contemporary Christian Music, I wrote about how Pentecostal and charismatic music and musicians and media makers and business people shaped what we think of as conservative white evangelicalism with songs that promoted God as a powerful warrior who fights on behalf of God's people.
like In Jesus' Name, that played that night from Worship Juggernaut Hillsong.
And songs of apocalyptic anticipation, like this 1990s classic, which set the Book of Revelation to music.
It's energizing.
People are singing along.
It's a fun place to be.
After all of that happened, then the speakers were introduced.
Rick Green was there.
Lance Wall now.
Kenneth Copeland, obviously, because this is held on his Victory Channel.
The host, Gene Bailey.
A host of other people.
They said a prayer and then started talking about As for the talking points of the evening, Carrie says that they followed a recognizable pattern in politicized charismatic gatherings leading up to November.
And both of those, like Flashpoint Live, were this mix of prayer and song, spiritual warfare talk, and politics.
And now we will continue to praise, and we'll continue to honor, and we'll continue to walk by faith in it, and we'll vote!
We'll vote!
And I'm talking to all you on television.
Get up and go vote or shut up.
I mean it.
You don't go vote, you don't have anything to say.
You just shut your mouth.
I love you, darling, but shut your mouth.
With Reawakened, there were speakers for two days every 15 minutes.
And there was lots of merchandise at Reawakened.
Same thing with the Courage Tour.
This one had a little bit of merchandise.
Kenneth Copeland was selling his book.
Patriot Academy had a table.
And there was a table that had David and Tim Barton's history book on it.
They're all plugging something, whether it's Patriot Academy and they have their infomercial reawakened supplements that they have created.
Okay, this is a weird thing to compare it to.
But I've been known to attend a renaissance fair or two.
And at a renaissance fair, there's a kind of person who goes and there's a kind of costume that you wear.
And there's also a set of vendors that go from renaissance fair to renaissance fair to renaissance fair.
And there's often a mashup of interrelated cultures.
You'll see people in Elizabethan gear, but you'll also see people who have been playing a 20-year game of Dungeons& Dragons together.
And you'll see people who are cosplaying as Lord of the Rings characters.
And these people are not exactly the same, but I would describe them as complementary and overlapping cultures.
And of course, by nature, it's in the title, It's Festive.
Is that too weird?
No, I really like the comparison, actually.
I mean, there were different, lots of different types of vendors at Reawaken.
People that sold Kingdom Coffee and people that sold supplements or onesies that said Naturally Immune.
There were just all kinds of things.
There was even a place that you could sign up to be a blood donor or to get blood from if you needed it for people who were not vaccinated.
There was a lot more diversity in who was there selling products and a lot more products being sold at Reawaken.
For the Courage Tour, because it was a political mobilization effort, you had tables from TPUSA, MAGA Black, the Lion of Judah organization.
It wasn't Moms for Liberty, but Moms for America.
That's what it was.
All of that geared toward voting and biblical citizenship classes and that type of civic engagement.
And the Flashpoint Live event just mostly had the books from the speakers and t-shirts and merchandise.
And these events attract a kind of activist tourism, drawing the faithful from a variety of locations.
Talking to people at Flashpoint Live, people were from Maryland, Delaware.
I talked to a woman from Georgia, a woman from Chicago.
There was a woman from Pensacola, Florida.
Whenever they asked during the event, like, who's from Louisiana or New Orleans and who's from another state, most of the people, I would say, at least over half, were from out of state.
And whenever I went to the Courage tour, it was the same thing.
And whenever I went to Reawaken, it was the same thing.
And I remember hearing people talk at Reawaken about, oh, did you go to the one in Nashville or wherever?
And people saying, oh, I couldn't make that one, but I went to this one.
And so it's almost like this These groupies that follow this tour, in many cases, I'm finding.
And just like at a renaissance fair, costuming helps attendees make the most of the evening.
There was a lovely leather jacket that looks like the American flag that was $225 if you so desire.
Kenneth Copeland had one on as well as a bright red hat that said MAGA on the front of it.
There was even a woman that had...
I took a picture of her shirt, actually, because it was very unique.
And on the back, it said, Trump going down vertically.
And for each letter, it had, truth really upsets most people, is what Trump stood for.
And her shirt.
And so I asked her where she got it and her daughter made it.
So, yeah, it's a family event.
Carrie notes that there's also a conspiratorial thread.
The Reawaken America tour was a lot different because it was really, I would think, the best way to describe it is fueled by conspiracy theories.
There were people who, doctors, that would put up PowerPoint slides of these organic chemistry molecules and say, this is what they're hiding from you.
And this is a very big conspiracy theory fest slash spiritual warfare conference.
There were 84 baptisms.
So it was more of an election denial, COVID denial, anti-vax, Anti-elitist, anti-intellectual kind of gathering.
And the Courage Tour and Flashpoint Live had those elements, but that wasn't the sole purpose of the event.
So you always have those little, someone will say something about when they made you take the experimental vaccine or stuff like that, that the sentiment seems to be very much the same throughout all of these spaces.
Now that we've set the scene, stay with us for more about the charismatic flavor of MAGA rallies this fall.
We'll dig into classic rituals from charismatic and Pentecostal worship and see how they're being retooled to energize the 2024 election cycle.
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That's BetterHelp.com Carrie, I'd love to know, did people speak in tongues at Flashpoint Live?
A couple of people in the audience, and I believe I saw Lance Wallnau doing it, but he was just a little bit down from me.
Speaking in tongues, the ecstatic speech or speech-like sounds believed to be from God is perhaps the most notable practice of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.
There are lots of ways it can appear in a worship service.
There might be a dedicated time for someone to deliver a special message in tongues.
And then someone else might interpret said message for attendees in whatever language the audience or the church speaks.
But a lot of times it happens spontaneously, like what Carrie's describing here.
And people will speak at will, sometimes as a murmur, sometimes in full voice, sometimes on the microphone, sometimes off of it.
Another striking practice of the movement is divine healing.
Early Pentecostal healers prayed for individuals to receive healing from sickness and often kept evidence of healing.
For example, a crutch for a leg that was no longer broken, a wheelchair even, or a set of glasses from someone who could now see.
And they would often keep them as a marker or even as a souvenir of God's work in the world.
At Flashpoint Live, the prayers are a little less personal and a lot more political.
Prayers for healing for the nation were big because the sentiment is, we'll lose America.
This is the last election.
Everything is on this one event.
And also, Kenneth Copeland offered a prayer that Praying against or praying for healing and against demons that were creating folks to identify as gay, for example.
Instead of the peace of God.
And we pray for the people.
The devils are fighting and trying to ruin their lives with perverted ideas and perverted ways.
The people that are addicted to pornography and addicted to the things of the flesh in this world.
And we break the power.
We break the power of the homosexual lesbian spirits that are trying to ruin our children and ruin this nation.
Get down from there!
We sit by the throne.
You are under our feet.
I mean, it just, it was there.
It kind of permeated the whole thing.
And then it definitely showed up in the prayers.
These prayers for healing moved seamlessly into prayers for spiritual and physical dominion.
Christians need to occupy the top of the seven mountains because it's assumed now that demonic forces, demonic entities control the top of those mountains and they need to be reclaimed for Christ.
I came.
Now, I'm going to connect this to our prayers where this government's concerned.
This is ours.
This belongs to us.
This government belongs to us.
It doesn't belong to Joe Biden.
It belongs to us.
It doesn't belong to Donald Trump.
And we're in the midst of hiring a new president right now.
That's what we're doing.
We're hiring a new one.
But it belongs to us.
But we need to have something to say about it.
It might be tempting to think that these practices are fringe in American Christianity, but they're on the rise in evangelical communities.
According to a recent Public Religion Research Institute study, PRRI, among those who identify as born-again, 56% experienced three or more of the following charismatic practices, speaking in tongues, receiving direct revelation from God, divine healing, or receiving a definite answer to prayer.
Another charismatic practice that has made its way into the MAGA rally sphere, flags and flag dancing.
Charismatic and Pentecostal churches often display flags from all nations prominently in their sanctuaries or in their church halls and foyers, usually to signify their global vision and transnational networks.
In American churches, you'll often see an American flag and an Israeli flag displayed prominently, as Israel occupies a place of special significance in their theology about the end of time.
And worshipers also use decorative flags made with bright colors that catch the light and swirl around on stage to wage spiritual warfare against the devil and all manner of demonic forces.
Sometimes flag dancers will cite passages like 2 Chronicles 20-21, wherein King Jehoshaphat sends praise singers out in front of his army.
And that's the idea behind the flag dancing.
It is a way of engaging in a vast spiritual war against the devil.
I have seen before flag dancers when I have gone to these services, but I didn't see them at this event, but there were definitely an American flag and an Israeli flag on the stage.
Along with, I think, there was the Christian flag and maybe the British flag, perhaps, but that's because I think Jesse Duplantis Ministries has a second location there or something.
But there were definitely, or maybe it was Australian, there were tons of American flags in the audience, whether that was on people's clothing or they were waving them in the air.
And there was one man who was holding up a very large appeal to heaven flag as well.
The Million Women March with charismatic activists Jenny Donnelly, Lou Angle, and Jonathan Cahn had flags aplenty.
American flags, lots of Israeli flags, mashup flags with the Stars and Stripes and Star of David, colorful prayer flags, flags that just said Jesus across them, and many more.
And every wave of the flag was accompanied by Prayers of intercession, asking God to get involved in the 2024 election, and imprecation, asking God to bring down their enemies and the evil one when it comes to the government and American culture more generally.
The ultimate praise weapon of warfare, however, has to be an instrument.
This past weekend as well, there were plenty of shofars present.
In 2021, just after the Capitol riots on January 6th, I started thinking about the shofars present at the Capitol riots and Pentecostal and charismatic love for all things Israel.
Charismatic revivals in the 1960s and 1970s included a proliferation of ministries, art, and innovative ritual appropriations that celebrated the state of Israel as God's chosen nation.
and then also encouraged support for that nation by the United States.
This included Christianized Seder meals, wherein the elements of the meal were celebrated and then decoded as symbols that prefigured Jesus Christ, and also included material culture like prayer shawls and, of course, shofar rituals.
Now, modern Jewish deployments of the shofar are most often associated with Rosh Hashanah, and that includes an emphasis on atonement and repentance and fasting.
But charismatic and Pentecostal communities freely paint outside the lines.
They deviate from that tradition.
And...
While early Pentecostal publications, maybe in the early 20th century, might have talked about the shofar in Jewish communities and used renderings of the instrument as a signal of the second coming in their literature, but its liturgical use in charismatic and Pentecostal communities didn't actually become very popular or widespread until the 1990s.
And in some communities, the ritual was connected closely to the Jewish New Year and was used in congregational worship as part of a celebration of the Jewish New Year.
But in communities like Brownsville Assembly that you heard at the very beginning of this episode, it was tied to spiritual warfare.
And by the 2000s, Charismatic and Pentecostal organizations began using shofar blowing as part of their arsenal against Satan.
God's worldwide end-time army would include shofar blowers, dancers, flag bearers, worshipers, and prayer intercessors.
Music And you can see how,
20 years on, that practice has developed and expanded, and now we see it on display with enthusiasm in the religious rite.
Shofarists wrapped in American flags and dancing to contemporary Christian culture war anthem, God's Not Dead, on January 6th of 2021, completely confused a lot of outside observers.
But if you were familiar at all with charismatic and Pentecostal communities who tied the United States together, To Israel, to the apocalypse, you could see the logic at play.
Blowing the shofar then was an ancient act of war on behalf of Donald J. Trump, who in his presidency had supported Israel in ways with gestures that charismatics really appreciated.
For example, the controversial choice to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
And according to this line of reasoning, Trump was good for the United States because he put his homeland on the side of Israel, which was also on the side of Jesus in their estimation and the final judge and ultimate ruler of the world.
It was very clear that in saving and praying for the healing of the nation that there's a super special place, Israel and America, in God's plan.
And so even talking to people during the breaks, a woman, two women actually mentioned that to me of, you know, only two special places God created, Israel and America.
There were no shofars that I saw on stage.
There were in the audience.
It was interesting because the symbolism wasn't there, but the words and the sentiments were.
Well, the spirit of the living God is the spirit over the United States.
Amen.
And over the nation of Israel.
So we have every right there is to tell the devil, you take your hands off this nation.
You get down under my feet.
I'll break your power with the blood.
The overall messaging of the praise music, the flags, and the shofar was clear.
I think it serves to continue to galvanize people around certain issues, but then also serves as voting reminder if you need to vote.
I heard that at the Courage Tour.
I heard that here over and over and over again, that you might not want to do this, or you might not want to get involved in your community and run for your school board, or you might think you're too young, or you might think you're too old, but God asks us to do hard things.
This was the message over and over again at both of those events, that we need to do this.
This is what's being asked of us.
Christians need to vote.
If you don't, I mean, Somebody compared it to the wicked and slothful person if you don't vote.
And so, yeah, they're really framing it as a Christian duty to get out and vote, and specifically to get out and vote for Trump.
I asked Carrie about the political messaging she heard beyond Trump support.
So they want to protect children.
They want to restore the family.
They want parental rights.
You have those kind of immediate things.
And then you have the far away goals that they want to make sure that America is under God's divine protection still.
Lance Wallnau gave a very interesting talk about time and different phases of life.
And I think there were like six phases of life that he went through, but he said that nations also have these phases.
And so he drew like a stair step on his whiteboard because he always uses the whiteboard.
Here's where another historic Pentecostal practice comes into play.
Prophecy.
Pentecostals have long made prophecies about current events and political leaders and tied their leadership to the apocalypse.
For example, there were prophecies about the Kaiser during World War I or FDR during World War II. But I will say the way that some prophecies tie Trump's presidency to the end of time is quite distinct.
He drew these stairs and the first...
One was leader slash Cyrus.
So if you look, his argument is if you look at biblical timelines and prophecy, that it requires a King Cyrus, someone like a King Cyrus.
King Cyrus of Persia, celebrated for freeing the Israelites from Babylonian captivity and allowing them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, was a pagan ruler, but he's still called God's anointed in the book of Isaiah and According to charismatic interpretations, he's used by God for divine purposes.
And in these circles, Donald Trump is often compared to King Cyrus.
Many view him as an unlikely vessel chosen by God to advance Christian causes.
And they draw parallels to Cyrus's role in Israel's restoration.
As Cyrus restored ancient Israel, so Trump could restore and is restoring 21st century Israel, which according to their theology would bring the second coming.
So, the end of time and the return of Christ is tied to Trump.
To set this domino effect into place that will then bring about the kingdom of God.
The first one was Cyrus.
The second one was the house, which was the rebuilding of the temple.
The awakening we pray for The awakening, revival.
We need a revival.
All the preachers said we need a revival.
And most kids are going to need a revival.
And we think somehow God's going to pour out like a zoo.
The nation's going to go speak in tongues.
We're all going to become righteous.
First, God gets to give you a ruler.
You've got to pray for the right ruler.
Then you've got to be in the right project, which is the ecclesia, which is his house.
Then the awakening comes to those that are in the building project God's got them in.
I honestly think those that are politically engaged that can keep themselves from a spirit of strife right now are probably more in the revival than they know.
Years from now, we're going to look back and say, when was the period of the Great Awakening?
We're going to date it.
Historians will date it.
And they'll put you in that period of Great Awakening.
Pictures like this crowd will be in the little textbooks in the future, saying these were the early signs, like when the Trump era came.
Then there was a galvanizing of Christian concern, and a lot of praying, and a lot of gathering, a lot of indigenous grassroots people.
A lot of people, like, are in this room right now, hearing the call of God to go into government, to go into schools, to go into media, to begin to do what, what, what, what, what?
What the awakened church did next, which was they had to see for Cyrus' house of God awakening.
They began to occupy the territory around their local church.
Kerry notes that this vision is ultimately about the charismatic vision of the end of time.
That's the ultimate goal.
It's not the immediate.
This election doesn't just have these immediate consequences for the next four years.
We're talking about The restoring of the temple, right?
It's massive.
It's a major spiritual win if this can happen in his eyes.
That's what's motivating and what's encouraging to people because you can have a place in this history that gives it that historical significance as a Christian, as a faith This is an important point to drive home because Pentecostal and charismatic Trump enthusiasts might be quite patriotic, but that doesn't mean that they are ultimately interested in American democracy.
The nation of nations in the charismatic mind is the end times nation of Israel, and the United States has ultimately utilitarian value.
Is the U.S. important?
Yes, but not necessarily as a model of democracy.
Whenever the lens does get turned back onto the U.S., the words and the narrative surrounding that is typically something to do with government overreach.
And so democracy is not on their agenda.
Rick Green gave a long talk about biblical citizenship and what the Constitution allows and what it doesn't.
And that there's been government overreach going on for quite some time that we need to get rid of the Department of Education.
So we are so blessed in America.
We know America's great.
We know she's crumbling, so we've got to turn her around.
So if we want that life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, we build it on truth, and we had it for a while.
The reason we're losing it is because we're not doing that next sentence, consent of the governed.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
You give or refuse consent by being involved.
When you sit on the sideline, government assumes you've consented and starts taking over more and more of our lives.
Telling us how to raise our families, how to take care of our property, how to run our businesses, all of those things.
And that's essentially where we are.
And it's not just the DEI and CRT and ESG, and it's not just the federal government.
Our local governments are squeezing the life out of the free enterprise system.
They're squeezing the life out of property rights.
They're micromanaging what you do with your property.
We need to get rid of the CDC because all of these were just oversteps, that they're not supposed to be government functions.
And they said outright that government is supposed to protect you, not provide for you.
There was a lot put into this kind of reap and sow narrative and framed it as, you know, the nation.
So, I mean, essentially they used a lot of words, but the gist was, give us your money or you're losing your nation.
What am I saying to you?
I'm saying simply this.
In a few weeks we are getting ready, I believe, to cut the head of a lot of giants and things that have been attacking our children, have been attacking our country.
This is what Flashpoint's been about.
It's why I've given four years of my life as a busy senior pastor of a 1,500 member church and growing and a worldwide ministry.
And yet I do this because I recognize that I'm giving my time as an offering for God, but because I also believe I put my money behind it, because I recognize the power of an offering to not only deliver me, but to position my country How many of you would like a part of that?
That's really what it amounted to.
And they called it this prophetic gifting.
So I want to bring you to what I believe is a prophetic act.
And here's what it is.
How many of you are believing for victory in a few weeks?
How many of you are believing in those of you that are watching for defeat against the giants of all the things that we've been facing in the harsh season we've been in?
Alright, I believe a prophetic act then has to precede our victory.
And I want to show you out of the Bible some prophetic acts.
I want to show you at least two that have to do with an offering that brought a deliverance to a nation.
In classic Word of Faith style, which teaches that believers can access divine power and blessings, they of course wrapped up the evening and invited attendees to participate through giving.
Holding up your offering or your gift and having the pastor pray over it.
And then they sent it around these very big buckets for people to put all of their things in.
And they closed with a prayer, encouraging the faithful to live out the Seven Mountains mandate in their daily lives.
So let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray over everyone here in the room as they go to their homes, as they go to their places, their hotels, wherever they're staying tonight, for divine protection.
Everywhere they go, their feet touches.
They take territory for you in the name of Jesus.
If you want more insights from Keri Gaspard-Hogwood, check out her website, KeriGaspard.com, K-A-R-R-I-E-G-A-S-P-A-R-D.com, or find her on Twitter slash X at Keri Gaspard.
You can find me at DrLeahPayne.com, and on most social media platforms is DrLeah Payne.
And if you want to read a little bit more about the connection between music and Pentecostal and charismatic politics, I'll put a link to God Gave Rock and Roll to you in the show notes.
Thanks for listening.
Spirit and Power is a limited series podcast from me, Dr.
Leah Payne, with research from Carrie Gaspard.
It's produced in conjunction with Straight White American Jesus and Axis Mundi Media.
And there's even more of this week's episode available.
I'm going to ask my guest to reflect on one Pentecostal and charismatic-driven story that people really need to be paying attention to this election cycle, but they aren't.
And for subscribers to the Straight White American Jesus Premium Feed on Supercast, you get an extra segment of this show each week, in addition to all other premium benefits on Swedge.
