I have been incredibly privileged. I grew up a pastor’s kid at a huge church in Houston, Texas. I was raised in a Christian home by two incredibly loving parents who worked very hard to provide everything we could possibly need. I have two beautiful sisters and a big brother whom I adore. We weren’t…
Continue the Work of God
The annual National Religious Broadcasters conference came around again in the spring of 2020, right before the virus shut everything down. NRB held a bittersweet place in my life. It was a reminder that thirty minutes after my father had been inducted into their hall of fame, he was telling us that Mommy’s cancer had…
Spiritual Warfare is Real: Know Your Enemy
In the early 2020s, people in San Francisco started putting signs in the windows of their cars saying things like “I have nothing of value in my car, please don’t break my windows.” Or, “My car doors are unlocked and there is nothing to take.” Why would they do this? Because a growing number…
Weapons of War
Editor’s note: In Kill the Spider, Carlos Whittaker shares his story of pursuing God and healing at a spiritual retreat. * A few months after OnSite, my wife and I were on our way back from our fifteen-year wedding anniversary trip to Ireland. It was filled with lots of refreshment, but not a lot of…
Spiritual Warfare: Behind Enemy Lines
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. — 1 Peter 5:8 Why is it important to understand the enemy? Before you fight a war, it’s always a good thing to know something about your enemy. Nowhere is this statement truer than in…
Take Back Your Life: Look in the Mirror
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. ~ Albert Einstein WELCOME Harry Houdini was one of the greatest escape artists the world has ever seen. One of the most famous tricks he loved to perform was to escape from jail cells across the world. Houdini would travel to a city and challenge…
Don’t Give The Enemy A Seat At Your Table: The Table Before Us
The enemy wants to crush you. He wants to steal from you everything you value. He wants to kill everything in your life that’s good. He wants to destroy you. If he can claim the victory over your life. But you don’t have to let him get a foothold. For you have been invited to…
Get Out of Your Head Week 3 — Weapons We Use, Part I
This has been the hardest thing for me: to sit still, all alone and there’s a reason for it. Because real, connected, intimate time with Jesus is the very thing that grows our faith, shifts our minds, brings about revival in our souls, and brings about revival in our communities. And, so the devil hates…
Checkered Pasts Don’t Check You Off God’s List
The journey to become Missy’s mama started when I was seventeen years old, when Cindy Whelchel — my best friend in high school — and I led our youth group Bible study through the theme of adoption in Scripture. We made a pact to adopt babies that no one else wanted when we grew up. We were as sincere as…
The Difficult Stuff Is the Beginning of Joy
While I may have read in my Bible that we are in a spiritual war, that truth had not fully adjusted my expectations of this life. To accept that life is supposed to be hard is the beginning of joy. There is freedom in understanding that Heaven is coming and we are not there yet.…
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