A charismatic pastor from Texas who was harassed by protesters last week as he left the White House at the end of President Trump’s acceptance speech at the RNC has a word for believers:
“Don’t be intimidated; be empathetic, yet understand the mindset of the radical Left regarding the unrest in our country.” But most of all, believers must have what he calls a “kingdom mindset” to combat “top demonic spirits” that have been unleashed on America.
This is the philosophy of Keith Craft, founder of Elevate Life Church in Frisco, Texas, and founder of Strike Force—a longtime ministry of sharing the gospel to youth by highlighting incredible feats of strength—who has been preaching on this topic. When a copy of a recent sermon on “Kingdom Mindset” made its way to the White House, Keith was invited to attend the president’s acceptance speech in Washington, D.C.
I have known Keith since he was a member of the Power Team in the 1980s. He later began his own ministry, which after 32 years, is still conducting high school assemblies, and later in the day presenting the gospel to students who visit a nearby church.
When I heard about the message, I invited Keith to be on my Strang Report podcast so we could talk about the Christian response to the unrest in America. What is happening is more than just Democrat vs. Republican and more than the personalities of the presidential candidates, he told me. He said it’s even more than black-white issues.
“We are dealing with a top demonic spirit that has been unleashed in this nation. And unfortunately, what the real issues are, is having a hard time being addressed because of the spiritual component,” Keith said.
He saw a manifestation of this as he left the White House with his wife and her uncle on Aug. 27. They had to walk more than a mile and a half around the mobs to go the few blocks to their hotel.
“People were screaming, cursing, getting in my face, telling me to raise my fist and say, ‘Black Lives Matter,'” Keith said on the podcast, which you can listen to here. Keith, who can still bench-press 450 pounds, is not someone you want to provoke. Yet he said he exercised restraint, even though he has been active in working for justice and bringing races together. But the mob didn’t care.
“Don’t be intimidated. Secondly, be as empathetic as you can without feeling fear to stand up for what you believe biblically,” he said. He added that slogans matter, and it’s important to understand exactly what Black Lives Matter stands for—Marxist principles and the destruction of biblical moral values.
Contrast this to a “kingdom mindset.”
Keith said: “It’s the rule of God. It’s the realm in which God’s will and His purposes and His plans matter most. It’s the realm where he’s the King, and [since He is] the King, then we are not only His subjects, but He makes us His royalty. And we become a part of that royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people … And it’s about His will, His purposes, His plans and His desires in the earth, that then we have this kingdom mindset predetermined and decide in advance how we are going to respond to and interpret situations.”
Of course, the real answer, Keith told me, is Christians being willing to “humble themselves and pray, and God will “heal our land.”
“I’m trying to help people understand a biblical worldview,” he said. “I’m not just a pastor who feels like I’ve got to call out every sin. That’s not it. I want to encourage people; I want to build people’s faith; I want to inspire them. But there is some great darkness in our world right now. And we just have to take a stand biblically and understand some of the ideology.
“And that’s how we have to frame it: not Democrat or Republican, but ideologies that are not biblical, and that we’re taking a stand based on biblical morality. And all I can say is this biblical morality should dictate personal polity, or a believer’s polity, and your polity. In other words, what you believe is right and wrong should determine your politics.”
He says a lot more, so I encourage you to listen to the podcast and share it with others. This is a message the body of Christ needs to understand and to communicate through the power of the Holy Spirit to our culture.
I’m thankful leaders like Keith Craft are putting things into perspective and leading the way. But each of us can buy into these important concepts and also shape our sphere of influence. {eoa}
