Christian leaders exhorted during the “Flashpoint Live” event in Phoenix, Arizona, Thursday night that those who want to see a positive change in the direction of our country must keep the pedal on the metal going into the midterm elections and beyond.
The two-night event marked the last stop of the Flashpoint Live events, which started the year in Hanford, California, in February and continued on to Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas and most recently in Iowa last month.
Most of the gatherings featured the “Fab Four” of host Gene Bailey with The Victory Channel and three panelists: Christian speaker Lance Wallnau, evangelist Mario Murillo and pastor Hank Kunneman, with various other guests participating along the way.
Thursday night’s event included Christian speaker and author Dutch Sheets, who conducts the popular online program, “Give Him 15.” Tens of thousands watch weekdays to hear encouraging words and pray about current issues the nation faces.
Also on hand was Christian singer and author Sean Feucht, who has led “Let Us Worship” outdoor events all over the country, starting during the COVID lockdowns.
Wallnau recently made it into the pages of Rolling Stone, with the liberal magazine labeling him a “Christian nationalist.”
Wallnau argued Thursday that the rise of the Christian populist movement is “freaking the left out,” coming as it is on the heels of the conservative populist movement led by former President Donald Trump.
“They’re having a panic attack. This is a grassroots God movement among the people,” Wallnau said.
Are the midterm elections just the first step needed to changing the country?
Trump sent his greetings to the “Flashpoint Live” gathering via a pre-recorded phone interview done earlier in the day. He said to the evangelical crowd that the overturning of Roe v. Wade worked out “nicely,” with the issue now going back to the states.
The 45th president lamented at the current state of the United States under President Joe Biden and the Democrats, saying, “There has never been so much damage done in a two-year period in our country.”
During the show, Bailey asked Wallnau if he felt America would see a red wave in response to Democrats’ poor leadership.
Wallnau said he believes a red wave will hit.
“There are governorships and senate races, which were supposed to be secure seats for Democrats, they’re even up for grabs. That’s why you know that this is a huge wave, when they’re on the defense, when they thought they were totally safe,” he said.
However, Wallnau went on to argue a red wave will not be enough if Christian populists really want to see change.
“So our movement … has to be more than just securing some positioning in a political thing, we have to shift the culture. Do not forget this. We are the force behind the change in America, and it will only keep moving if we keep the heat on it,” he said.
Murillo agreed, saying there must be a “sustained pattern of public persuasion.”
He offered the example of the late 18th and early 19th-century Christian British member of Parliament William Wilberforce, who spent decades spearheading the effort to outlaw the slave trade in the empire.
That push eventually led to the abolition of slavery itself in Great Britain in 1833.
Murillo also called on preachers to follow the lead of the “black robe regiment” of ministers who, during America’s founding period, boldly spoke out against injustices by King George III and parliament toward the colonies.
The evangelist further contended that World War II U.S. Army General George S. Patton has something to teach in the present time.
“There is a transition in the country. Now is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” Murillo said.
“George S. Patton believed in a principle of war called pursuit,” Murillo continued. “He said the most dangerous moment is when your enemy starts to retreat, because an army in retreat is falling back on its supplies, therefore you must outrun them and cut off their supplies and he said you annihilate them.”
“What we’ve got to understand is if we let up now it will be worse than it was before. This is our moment to truly attack and vote and speak up,” engaging with friends and neighbors on the issues of the day, Murillo said.
Western Journal founder Floyd Brown was a “Flashpoint Live” panelist Friday night. Brown shared a similar sentiment to Wallnau and Murillo regarding the need to keep pressing after the midterms.
“We can’t stop after the win in November. We’ve got to continue to work if we really want to restore the nation,” he said before Thursday night’s event.
Brown lays out that strategy in his upcoming book “Counterpunch: An Unlikely Alliance of Americans Fighting Back for Faith and Freedom.”
@WestJournalism caught up with @floydbrown and @lancewallnau at #FlashpointLive in Phoenix: “We can’t stop after Nov. We’ve got to continue to work if we really want to restore the nation.”
“People of faith are going to be the key.” pic.twitter.com/rfs0FXr0UR
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) October 21, 2022
Kunneman exhorted the Flashpoint audience to be encouraged.
“As long as the Holy Spirit is in the earth, God always has a redemptive plan, a plan of help and a plan of hope,” he said.
He cited the example of the prophet Elisha, found in the Bible’s book of 2 Kings, chapters 6 and 7, as to how quickly change can come.
He told people trapped in a besieged and starving city in ancient Israel that they would be eating to their heart’s content the very next day — and that’s what happened. God intervened, and the enemy fled.
Kunneman also pointed to when God delivered the children of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians, drowning that nation’s army in the middle of the Red Sea.
“And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers,” the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 23 records regarding the Hebrew nation entering the promised land.
“This is about God triumphing in a huge way and setting a nation free. This is what the midterm is about. It’s about God’s calendar to act the way he wants on his terms,” he said.
Kunneman believes that, though the decade started out harshly, God is about to lead America and other nations into a season of rest.
Likewise, Sheets sees God’s timing is in play, citing the lame man who was healed at the Beautiful Gate in Jerusalem when the Apostle Peter instructed him “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to rise and walk!”
Jesus himself could have healed the man, even years sooner, while he walked the earth, but did not. Jesus no doubt passed the man several times on the way to the temple, Sheets argued.
God had a different plan that led to thousands coming to a saving faith after witnessing the miracle of the lame man walking following Peter’s command.
“There’s a right time for our nation. There’s a right time for our schools. There’s a right time, and we’re coming into the right time!” Sheets said, a time of refreshing or reconstituting, as Peter talked about following the healing.
“And I want to say to you America is going to be reconstituted back to the purposes of God. The wind is about to blow! … It is the right time!” Sheets exclaimed, bringing many in the audience to their feet.
“There’s a deep working in the soul of this nation where God says, ‘I’m going to rewrite into the DNA of America that which I constituted her to be and nothing is going to stop me!’” Sheets said.
