I published the results of this research under the post – GOD LOVES YOU, DO YOU LOVE GOD? with a different message but this post is aimed at young people with the message on the CBN video.
Dr. Josh Packard, executive director of Springtide Research Institute, told CBN’s Faithwire about his extensive research into 13-to-25-year-olds, noting studies have long found “religion is good for you.”
“Faith and spirituality are good for you,” Packard said. “If you’re a person who believes in some kind of higher power and has a connection to that higher power, you’re generally flourishing more than your peers.”
He continued, “Those who pray more tend to be flourishing more in all areas, including their mental health.”
Packard’s comments are particularly stunning when America faces an “epidemic of mental health [crises] among young people.” Meanwhile, there’s also a massive rise in the proportion of “nones” who no longer affiliate with a specific faith or religion.
Data pointing to increased wellness among the faithful is particularly pertinent in the midst of these dynamics, pointing to a potential solution to cultural conundrums.
Packard said there are lessons in Springtide Research Institute’s findings that can inform the culture and churches alike, especially in an era in which faith is being downplayed or diminished.
“Young people would be … better off if more of them had a connection to something bigger than themselves,” he said. “But also, I think a lot of religious institutions and leaders would do well to take mental health into account, so that like faith and belief could be appropriately part of somebody’s overall approach to health.”
While young people might not be aligning with Christianity at rates they once were, Packard said many still see themselves as spiritual, and more than half pray.
While the separation from biblical truth is undoubtedly troubling for Christians, these realities show at least openness to a higher power. And that intrigue could lead to receptive Gospel introductions.
“We see lots of desire from Gen Z to embark on these conversations and explorations of meaning and purpose and, ‘Why am I here on this Earth?’” he said. “So, the desire hasn’t gone away. The exploration hasn’t gone away.”
As Faithwire has extensively reported, countless surveys and studies show the benefits of faith.
Recent research has found Christians are exceptional at giving, fare better in relationships, church attendees are happier and more content, and churchgoers have better mental health. Read more about these findings.
Dr. Josh Packard, executive director of Springtide Research Institute, told CBN’s Faithwire about his extensive research into 13-to-25-year-olds, noting studies have long found “religion is good for you.”
God is real and He is concerned about His Cosmos particularly those in it that He made in His image to be in a relationship with Him so it is natural that He responds to those that sincerely call on Him in prayer.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7
“Faith and spirituality are good for you,” Packard said. “If you’re a person who believes in some kind of higher power and has a connection to that higher power, you’re generally flourishing more than your peers.”
He continued, “Those who pray more tend to be flourishing more in all areas, including their mental health.”
Packard’s comments are particularly stunning when America faces an “epidemic of mental health [crises] among young people.” Meanwhile, there’s also a massive rise in the proportion of “nones” who no longer affiliate with a specific faith or religion.
Data pointing to increased wellness among the faithful is particularly pertinent in the midst of these dynamics, pointing to a potential solution to cultural conundrums.
Packard said there are lessons in Springtide Research Institute’s findings that can inform the culture and churches alike, especially in an era in which faith is being downplayed or diminished.
“Young people would be … better off if more of them had a connection to something bigger than themselves,” he said. “But also, I think a lot of religious institutions and leaders would do well to take mental health into account, so that like faith and belief could be appropriately part of somebody’s overall approach to health.”
While young people might not be aligning with Christianity at rates they once were, Packard said many still see themselves as spiritual, and more than half pray.
While the separation from biblical truth is undoubtedly troubling for Christians, these realities show at least openness to a higher power. And that intrigue could lead to receptive Gospel introductions.
“We see lots of desire from Gen Z to embark on these conversations and explorations of meaning and purpose and, ‘Why am I here on this Earth?’” he said. “So, the desire hasn’t gone away. The exploration hasn’t gone away.”
As Faithwire has extensively reported, countless surveys and studies show the benefits of faith.
Human beings were created to live in fellowship with God. We know from God’s Word that the two people God created, in the beginning, disobeyed God and the consequence of that disobedience was separation and subsequent death.
We also know from God’s Word that God created angelic spiritual beings prior to making mankind and that rebellion by one supreme angelic being named Lucifer, now renamed Satan convinced one-third of God’s angelic beings to rebel with him. Moreover, it was Satan that tempted Eve who then enticed Adam into disobeying God. Satan is now the prince of this world and our prime battle is against him and his demons.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:12-13
God has provided all we need to overcome Satan and his demons. God sent Jesus, His Son to pay the price for our rebellion against Him. Once we repent of our rebellion and accept Jesus’ offer of Salvation and submit to Him as Lord then God the Father sends the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to indwell our spirit and enable us to live the Christian life as our counsellor, comforter, and teacher. Moreover, He teaches us how to pray and will even intercede for us when we do not know how to pray.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:26-28
God has also told us the end of His Story. Satan is defeated and Jesus is made king and will rule and reign on this earth for one thousand years.
“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:9-11
“They (resurrected Saints) came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:5-6
Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021
Keener is not one to throw ideas against walls to see if they’ll stick. Keener is one of the best-known scholars of the Bible and early Christianity in the world today. He is careful with his research and documents everything. The point of the book, as the back-cover states, is to demonstrate via examples “that miraculous works of God, which have been part of the experience of the church around the world since Christianity began, continue into the present.”
This stated goal is admirably accomplished by Dr. Keener. He commences the book by addressing a few preliminary questions. What is a miracle, anyway? Why do some people assume that miracles don’t happen? Do many people witness miracles? Do only Christians report Christian healings?
He then launches into the main portion of the book in which he briefly relates the details of hundreds of well-attested miracles, but especially healings. This middle section comprises about 75% of the book proper. At the end of the book, Keener addresses a few more key questions people often wonder about miracles. Why don’t we see more miracles in the West? What is the role of faith? What about when healing is temporary? What does the Bible say about non-healing?
Let us not be tardy in praying for the sick but be on time in step with the Holy Spirit.
I appreciate Keener’s candid honesty in acknowledging that most blind people who have received prayer are still blind, and most dead people prayed for are still dead (pp. 137, 202). He comments, “What we call miracles are still the exception rather than the rule,” (p. 221). But his main point is that whether you or I have personally witnessed a dramatic miracle or not, many significant and verifiable miracles have occurred and still occur in answer to the prayers of God’s people all around the globe.
One other thing I appreciate about this book is Keener’s acknowledgment that more dramatic miracles occur more frequently on the frontlines of Christian evangelism than they do where the church is well-established (pp. 31, 33 135, 183, 201, 203). He still affirms, however, that such dramatic miracles sometimes happen in the West, too (pp. 151, 203).
Practically, this book reminded me to stay expectant when I pray. In any way He chooses, and at any time He chooses, God may do something momentous to display His glory and help those who witness His mighty acts of mercy to trust Him more fully.
What it takes to encounter God is complete surrender, nothing less will do. Glennys Hyland a single mum (mom) from Honduras discovered this critical truth. Like all of us Glennys struggled with the questions “Is God Real?”, “Can He, Will He help me?”
Struggling with these questions Glennys Hyland risked everything leaving her home country of Honduras. A single mom with two children immigrating to a new land, Glennys heard God say to her on the plane to America, “tell everyone that you get in contact with that I AM real”.
Sharing the real and vulnerable experiences of a woman’s daily walk with the Lord, Glennys shares in her book, “I AM REAL” how real God can be in life’s most challenging times. Through detailed recollections of the unexpected and disappointing seasons of life, Glennys tells of her struggles dealing with a spirit of fear, the sudden loss of loved ones, scars of rejection, the weight of homelessness, and overcoming sickness.
Encountering God and the practical instructions He gave her to live life in complete surrender to Him, Glennys discovered obedience resulted in constant interventions of God’s supernatural provision.
From healing for her soul, to a strong and healthy marriage, and experiencing countless souls converted to Christ Glennys shows us God is real and He wants to be real to you too.
Testimonies are powerful, make sure you use yours to good effect in the place God has put you.
In West Virginia, not only are the number of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations coming down, they’ve vaccinated more people per capita than almost any other state.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice credits God and common sense as the State leads U.S. in vaccine rollout.
Jim Justice realises God exists and that He loves to respond to the heartfelt, repentant prayers of His children. Their success was due in large part because Jim prayed on behalf of the State of West Virginia. The governor proclaimed March 25th of last year as a statewide day of prayer. He urged West Virginians to pray for God’s mercy and intervention with the coronavirus during a virtual prayer service at the state capitol.
“But Father, I pray for all of us in our great state that You will intervene now and hear our words as I know You will, and someway, somehow intervene to stop this terrible virus,” Justice prayed.
The governor says although they’ve seen their share of tragedy and loss of life, he knows God has been with them through it all. He has surely guided the boat since that day, (that we prayed) I can promise you that. This State is blessed because they have a Governor who believes in God’s goodness and His promises and acts accordingly.
In the year 1849 in the United States a major cholera epidemic broke out and quickly spread. Soon more than 150,000 died. The death rate was far higher than today’s covid19. In response President Zachary Taylor called for a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer – a solution that had been called by Americans many timespreviously, beginning with the Pilgrims. Within days the epidemic was stopped. God responded.
Abraham Lincoln called three times during the Civil War for such Days of Humiliation
The Lord has allowed today’s global pestilence. New more virulent virus strains of the Covid virus are emerging worldwide. God typically uses catastrophes whether it is pestilences, famines, floods, wars to cause nations to repent and turn to Him. Read the story again of Jonah and Nineveh (Jonah 3:6-10). If sincere repentance happens, “God will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:12-14). Abraham Lincoln called three times during the Civil War for such Days of Humiliation, He said, “But we have forgotten God; we have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplies and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Yet this simple but humbling solution is ignored by not only our nations leaders but most church leaders. I would suggest we are living in the last days Jesus spoke of prior to His return to rule and reign on this earth. Jesus said, lawlessness will abound like the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah. Apostasy in the church, a great falling away, “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24)
Personal and national repentance is typically not on the agenda of most political leaders and most churches. In that vacuum, you and I, are called to be examples, if necessary to start a prayer network, certainly to join other prayer networks, participating, for example, in Global Days of Repentance. The next Global Day of Repentance focuses on Australia on February 7, 2017. If you want to join in then do so by going to: www.globalrepent.com
Do you want to live in pursuit of God, or do you want to die not knowing God?”
In the beginning God created people to enjoy a relationship with Him, to rule over all creation, and to reflect and multiply His glory to the ends of the earth.
We know how devastating were the consequences of man’s sin, leading to the destruction of all mankind save eight people with Noah’s Flood.
We also know the enormous cost God, the Trinity, was prepared to make, to provide us with an opportunity to get back into a right relationship with our heavenly Father.
We all have sinned against God and we all deserve judgement for our sin. The only way any one of us can come before God is by trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin. That’s how a relationship with God begins. Fortunately, a relationship with God begins not with our pursuit of God, but with His pursuit of us. The God who pursued you out of love in the past has not stopped pursuing you out of love today.
God saves His people so that they might “seek His face in worship.” Remember we enter His gates with thanksgiving, we enter His courts with praise but we enter His presence with worship.
Many Christians struggle to pray because they don’t understand how their prayers fit with the purposes of a sovereign God.
Does prayer change God’s mind? And does prayer change anything, for that matter? If God is sovereign, if God’s in control of all things, and all of God’s promises will come to pass, then why pray?
To answer that question, one must know four things about God:
The perfections of God are unchanging;
The purposes of God are unchanging;
God’s promises are unchanging,
The plans of God are unfolding.
God has designed prayer to be a powerful means by which we participate in His plans in the world. God brings about a remarkable change in the world in response to the prayers of His people. When we pray, God acts. Read Exodus 8:13, “God did according to the word of Moses.” Read that again. What a testimony to prayer. Prayer is an invitation to join with God in effectively shaping the course of history. God has called you and me not to watch history, but to shape history for the glory of His great name. That should change the way you pray.
All of us have an assignment from God, but unless we pray, we may never know what it is, none of us can be who God has called us to be without prayer. This is the way it’s designed to be, it’s a massive moment when we realise we can’t do anything worthwhile without God’s help. This will drive us to pray.
When we fail to pray, we essentially say we’re content with a little knowledge of God’s glory. Reality is, we can’t help but become like what we behold.
Because God is holy, we must approach Him with a humble and contrite heart. Sin is no small thing in the sight of a Holy God, The propensity to sin is strong, and the Bible reveals that the punishment for sin is severe. For the severity of how God’s punishes sin, just look at the history of God’s nation Israel.
Our goal in prayer must be to know, love, and enjoy God,. Only then will it satisfy. Prayer will not be very satisfying if you just want things, prayer is the pursuit of God, not just His gifts.
As a result of prayer, we will walk away changed by God, We will come to know Him better as we experience His answers to our prayers. God wants to bless us, He wants to bless His people, He invites us to experience His blessing through prayer.
Every pastor needs to see this video. Four cities where Satan had control of its citizens, sin and lawlessness abounded. In every case, it took one or two, usually pastors coming into the city who realised that they could do nothing to change the situation and that unless God turned up nothing would change. Desperate prayer and fasting followed. God made His presence known and with faith and persistence transformation took place. In many cases at great cost, even martyrdom, but God was responsible for the transformation and He certainly gets the glory. You will be blessed and hopefully challenged by this God inspired video.
The busyness of life distracts us from the source of all life. our Creator. Our focus is invariably on our goals, tasks, and demands. But when we pause to consider David’s words in the Psalms, we can see where our focus truly needs to be – let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us a heart after God that David had.
“I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You, in a dry and parched land where there is no water,” David wrote in Psalm 63
We can see the world getting darker exactly as Jesus prophesied would happen in the time before His return, lawlessness is on the increase and His Commandments despised. We are, indeed, people living in a dry and parched land. We need God more than anything else; our ultimate longing should be for Him alone.
“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!”Psalm 66:16-29
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”Psalm 28:7
Do you want God;s help? David did and He knew how to get it – “my heart trusted God”.
Want to get right with God? It starts with repentance and acknowledging Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, understanding that without His sacrifice on the Cross, we are all dead in our sins. ” I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but by Me.” John 14:6
Though Angel had grown up with a strong spiritual family who taught him right from wrong, He had forsaken them and God for drinking, drugs, and a lifestyle that drove him away from God.
Angel said, “The world told me I was gay, that my new identity was in the LGBT community, but at my heart, I missed worshipping the Lord. I was so consumed with drugs, alcohol and, most of all, homosexuality, that it took one of the worst massacres in U.S. history—and the power of a praying mother—for me to repent of my sin.”
June 12, 2016, changed his life in a way he never expected.
“I headed to a friend’s housewarming party, where we all decided to head to Pulse nightclub in downtown Orlando.
I remember love and laughter until 2:02 a.m., June 12, 2016. I was on my way back from the bar with my final drink for the night to bid my friends farewell with hugs and kisses.
That’s when we heard the “big pop.” We know now Omar Mateen opened fire with a machine gun. We were like fish in a barrel.
I tried to run, but it was too late. The moment I realised it was a gunman, he was only a few feet away from me and took aim at my body. Shots riddled my frame.
As I struggled to my feet, I felt a foot step behind my left leg and heard a loud snap. My left femur shattered.
The only thing I could do was cover my head and pray that stillness would overtake my body. That last part wasn’t too hard given I couldn’t even feel my legs.
With chaos all around, I could hear the shots, the screams, the glasses and bottles all shattering.
I looked up and all I saw was bodies falling down one by one. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
Shots began again, but this time they were slow, methodical. Mateen didn’t want to leave anyone alive.
I begged my neighbor to pretend she was dead, but the closer the shots got, the louder she shrieked.
The footsteps were practically on top of us now. I held my breath and covered my face with my hand.
“Pop!” Her eyes closed slowly. I couldn’t believe I’d just witnessed this beautiful lady die in front of my face.
I was petrified knowing I was next. I heard the shooter behind me, gauging his next move.
That’s when I asked the Lord for forgiveness, to forgive me for failing Him, for turning my back on Him. I wanted to be at peace with God, but at that moment, my prayer changed to prophecy.
I prophetically claimed my life for the Lord. I told Him I would not leave that building dead, that I had a purpose and He would fulfill all the promises He made over my life. I knew in that moment that I was chosen and God had something big for me.
I promised Him I would worship Him for the rest of my days.
The very moment I said, “amen,” I felt the bullet. Heat swelled through my abdomen, and I was certain I was dead. But when I opened my eyes, I knew the Lord spared me.
The most traumatizing night of my life also revealed that God had answered the heartfelt cries I’d prayed for years.
Every night, I would ask the Lord, “Please, God, make something happen in my life that will make me return to You, that will make me leave this life of sin, leave the life of homosexuality that I know is not right in your eyes.”
And all the while I prayed, my mother prayed, too. For eight years, she faithfully asked the Lord for the return of her prodigal son.
Two years later, I’m still recovering, but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt what true love, true happiness and true peace really is.
I wake up every morning and say, “I am good with God.”
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 