It’s 2026, and most Bible-believing followers of Christ honestly neither see what’s at risk inside ourselves, nor within our household. We have little perspective on what it is that the devil is attempting to wrest from our lives. And, in most cases, we give it up willingly, without even understanding what it is that we’re surrendering. The troubling truth is, without it, we (ourselves and the Bride) will never enter into the nobility of our destiny. What we’re blindly relinquishing is that precious.
Right now, the age-old deceiver is using thousands of voices (politicians, pundits, pastors, and prophets) in a full-press quest to divest the church of her cross.
These are the false christs, false teachers, and false prophets that Jesus warned us about. They have no value for walking in the manner that Jesus walked. Neither do they have a game plan for the Bride to come forth in glorious Christlikeness. They are literally hell-bent on agitating the faithful to lay down their cross, take up the power of the exalted flesh, and follow the spirit of anti-christ – no love; no Holy Spirit fruit; no humility; no death to self…
Millions around us, in our churches, our prayer gatherings, our home fellowships and our seminars are succumbing to the temptation, and enthusiastically handing the enemy of our souls, the very nexus of our covenant in Christ, and the one essential means by which we may bear the fruits of righteousness – our cross.
It is nothing short of the “falling away” from vibrant faith in Jesus Christ.
Chief among these incendiary voices are those who crusade to turn our nation back to God. Burning with an eternal flame of enmity, they intend to accomplish the feat by fiat. Their banner is a sword. Their mouths never tire of the propaganda. And, in spite of their desire to be known as “peacemakers”, their festivals are filled with the drums of war.
There is no humility in their spirits. No mutual confession that escapes their lips. No call to repentance that touches their own houses of ill-repute. Their’s is a perpetual campaign to destroy the “other”, in pursuit of an earthly utopia for the “unwoke”. Not a community of the redeemed – a society of the justified, the mutually adoring, and the worthy.
In 1930’s nationalist Germany, the new, spiring socio-political power within that nation sought a symbol to represent its vigor and devotion. The image it chose was one of a broken cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer perceived what his sisters and brothers were being seduced by, and wrote about it in his landmark book, “The Cost of Discipleship”. Essentially, Bonhoeffer’s message was, if we take up the emblem of naziism, and champion a crossless “kamph”, we, and the world around us will only have cheap grace, and a pretentious kingdom built upon edict, hostility, intolerance, platitudes, and the unrestrained appetites of the right-minded flesh.
The vast majority of German Christians did not heed Bonhoeffer’s cry to count the internal cost of remaining faithful to Christ. Instead, in their lust to become the master race of humanity, they exacted that cost from the lives of 50 million of their fellow human beings who opposed their “jihad”.
Such is the universal way of the antiChrist: glory without the agency of the cross.
When tempted in the desert, the true Christ, turned down the offer to receive the nations from the hands of the devil, who was offering it to Him without the messy need for a cross. Jesus had already determined to follow the plan of the Father, that would deliver both the rule and the redemption of the nations into His Hands via the way of the cross.
And when we see national prayer assemblies filled with self-vaunted rancor, and the honor of killing others for the glories of supremacy being esteemed as the pathway to eternal salvation, we know the devil has come to our doorstep as well.
Friends. Family in Christ. American evangelicalism is at a watershed moment. The crafty rhetoric of the deceiver is not only echoing from the White House, its found a foothold in the pulpits of our churches. We MUST attune our spiritual ears to the pride, the lust and the selfism, and hear his serpentine beguilement.
By his siren song, our apostolic virginity is being raped. The Name of our King is being coopted. Our witness is being bastardized. The fame of our God is being defaced. And unless we wake up from our intoxications, we are going to rush ourselves, our families, and many in our nation toward an everlasting fire that was only prepared for the devil and his angels.
We need the pure holiness of the Lord within our own bosom, twitching at every promise of greatness through self-promotion. Evil isn’t (only) coming with horns, dressed in drag. It’s coming wrapped in red, white and blue sentiment, and the magical touch of Meidas.
We MUST, in all our praying, speaking, meditating, studying, gathering, and debating cry out to the Spirit to bring us into the way of our cross! Should we not, we WILL exact the same price upon all others who oppose us in our gilded zeal.
“For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they set their aspirations on earthly things.” (Philippians 3:18-19)
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JSB • February, 2026
- * At the February 5, 2026 Prayer Breakfast, Secretary Pete Hegseth made the following incredible statement to the assembled guests; pastors, evangelists, intercessors, government officials etc.:
“The willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of one’s country is born in one thing: a deep and abiding belief in God’s love for us and his promise of eternal life. The scripture says, ‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.’ The warrior who is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country, and his Creator, that warrior finds eternal life.” (Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War • February 5, 2026)
…and no one rose to object.
The idol is now on full display. The trumpets are bidding the “faithful” to bow. The sheep are being divided from the goats – real time.
Christian leader. In this hour, if you’re not making the way clear, you’re playing the role of Aaron. You’re an impediment to Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples. We are watching nothing less than the usurping of American evangelicalism by the spirit of antiChrist. Period.
After his curse-filled rant, (…at the NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST!) Trump announced that in a May 17 festival, he intends to declare the United States a Christian nation. Tragically, this assembly will be hailed by millions of our sisters and brothers, as a monumental step in the ascendency of the Kingdom of God. In truth, it promises to be the greatest desolating abomination our culture has ever witnessed – satan himself serving as the master of ceremonies where he will bestow glory upon a people who exalt self, and repudiate the need for a cross.
See this same article at my SUBSTACK Page.
SPIRIT WORD & CROSS 