While Religious Right political operatives poured their energies and their millions into mobilizing ground troops to elect right-wing candidates and protect Republican congressional majorities, Trump-supporting “apostles” and “prophets” gathered in Washington, D.C., and a nearby suburb in the days leading up to the midterm elections. Their purpose, they said, was to wage spiritual warfare by asking God to intervene in the midterm elections the same way they believe He did to put Trump in the White House.
“Shift America” was a three-day conference culminating in a Sunday night gala near the U.S. Capitol. In attendance were former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Trump campaign advisor and POTUS Shield creator Frank Amedia, Trump-promoting “prophet” and author Lance Wallnau, anti-choice crusader Alveda King, and Bishop Harry Jackson, whose claim to fame is his leadership in opposition to marriage equality in the District of Columbia. On Monday, many of the same figures, along with Cindy Jacobs, Mario Bramnick, Jim Garlow and others, held "Rise Up 2018," a day-long gathering at Jackson’s Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland, just outside Washington.
At both events, Trump was portrayed as a gift from God, an anointed protector of the church—like the biblical King Cyrus was to the people of Israel, they said—a reprieve for a wicked nation deserving judgement, an act of mercy from on high to give the church time to bring repentance and revival to America. And today’s midterm elections were portrayed as essential to allowing Trump to continue the work God gave him to do.
About 300 people in tuxes, formal gowns, and fine suits gathered at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill for Sunday night’s gala, which, like Shift America, was sponsored by the Texas-based mission group Global Celebration and its leaders Georgian and Winnie Banov, who are referred to as the “Apostles of Joy.” Longtime Religious Right activist Lou Sheldon—founder of the Traditional Values Coalition—was given a lifetime achievement award.
Lance Wallnau, a sort of hybrid inspirational speaker-executive coach-prophet, was the keynote speaker. Wallnau made a name for himself by prophesying Trump’s victory; he put out a book shortly before the 2016 election declaring Trump was “God’s Chaos Candidate.” At the gala, Wallanu sketched out his explanations of Trump-as-Cyrus and Seven Mountains dominionism on a white board:
The church’s role, he said, is not just to give people ecstatic experiences at revivals; it is to “disciple nations.” And that requires getting the right kinds of Christians in leadership positions in government and business to work with the church to bring about societal reformation.
After Wallnau’s presentation, Amedia led prayers for Trump and his family and administration, for the Senate and House seats, and for the third Supreme Court appointee that he promised “will be coming forth soon.” Trump-supporting prophets have declared that Trump would get three chances to name Supreme Court justices “in the first season”--and some believe he will eventually get to name four or five justices. Wallnau asked God to “sweep clean that Supreme Court” and to “put the fear of God in those men and women” and “plague them at night, put fear in their hearts” to bring about the end of legal abortion.
Amedia thanked God that “we can once again go to foreign nations and not have to make excuses for the gay flag flying with our nation’s flag.”
Amedia asked God to expose and destroy every plot against his plans for America. “May confusion and chaos be the dinner and brunch of the enemies of God,” he prayed.
“We declare it, we set it forth as warriors of God,” he said, “set forth to bring the kingdom here on earth even as we prepare the way for the coming of the Lord!”
And he prayed that after the election God would give Trump strength to purge those from his inner circle and around the government who are standing in the way of Trump doing God’s will:
Allow him, Father, to stand up with a renewed strength on November 9 and begin to remove those from the deep state, remove those from any state, remove those from within and without as his authority allows him, Father, without fear and without accountability to popular opinion, but only to you, and you only, oh God.
Similar themes marked the Monday event at Jackson’s church.
Mario Bramnick, a leader of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told attendees they were in the midst of a “major spiritual battle” on “the eve of this most important election.” God, he said, had declared Hope Christian Church a “command center.”
Bramnick said the media’s job is not to tell the truth, but to “incite anger, fear, despair.” Most of the media, he said, are “under the prince of the power of the air, Leviathan, twisting spirits.”
Two years ago, he said, the church rose up to prevent an “anti-Christ, anti-Israel domination tyranny,” but then the church went to sleep.
“It’s a battle between the spirit of the age and the spirit of God,” he said, declaring that God is releasing a movement of love, which he said is “a powerful weapon of war.”
“Father, we declare a red tsunami of the blood of Jesus,” Bramnick said. He predicted that as a sign of the coming “wave of revival,” there will be a wave of conservatives elected during the midterm elections.
“Prophet” Cindy Jacobs also talked about the imperative to “disciple nations.”
“We’re going to put people in office that are going to believe that government needs to be upon His shoulders,” she said, citing a scripture that reads: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea…”
“Do we believe this or not?” she asked. Although she said she was not talking about a theocracy, she declared, “The government of God must be established.”
“Every nation that models itself after biblical law prospers,” she said, “because the Creator of the world knows how to run his own creation.”
In this election, she said, “the battle lines are drawn.” She prayed, “We ask you to shift the balance of power.”
More reports from these events to come.
