Photo credit: Jarrod Tobias (Photo used with permission)
Men and women who once identified as LGBTQ and now as new creations in Christ believe their community is experiencing a revival much like the Jesus People movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Rainbow Revival-Freedom March, a diverse group of formerly LGBTQ individuals from across the country, celebrated with praise, worship, prayer, evangelism, testimonies and baptisms for five days in Dallas area churches and a prophetically significant location downtown.
It was here that a gospel music festival attended by 150,000 people in 1972 led Time magazine to feature “Jesus People” on its cover. Four days before the mass gathering of Jesus in 1972, the late Dr. Billy Graham and Bill Bright of Campus Crusade For Christ preached at Explo ’72 in Dallas.
Alongside members of the Body of Christ during the Rainbow Revival, men and women shared their stories of leaving the LGBTQ lifestyle at a meeting, rally and march October 18-22 .
“We are here to proclaim our testimony of entering the kingdom of God,” said Dallas prayer leader and author Lindsey Kiser.
Sharing her testimony, Kiser said her former identity as a lesbian faded over time as Jesus revealed the truth to her. She shared God’s wisdom on sexuality and gender, as well as the lies and deceptions of the adversary around LGBTQ.
A writer on the topic of powerful prayer for LGBTQ people, Kiser also encourages intercession for the fulfillment of a 1989 prophetic word that 100,000 gay people – today called LGBTQ – would be saved, delivered, healed and restored to preach the gospel, especially to such. community.
While LGBTQ activists have attempted to use the rainbow as a symbol, according to the Bible, the colors of the sky after rain represent a sign and a promise from God to preserve the earth from devastating floods.
“Another flood is coming, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh,” Kiser told the victors.
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Rainbow Revival-Freedom March leader MJ Nixon, who is another winner among hundreds, shared her struggles with same-sex attraction from a young age. Standing on a large outdoor stage in downtown Dallas, Nixon spoke passionately to a large crowd, including her parents.
Raised in a conservative, pious home, Nixon felt shame, isolation, confusion, and conflict between her spirit and her flesh because of an unwanted sexual attraction to women. Like the people she led, Nixon heard nothing optimistic about homosexuals.
“I wish there was an event like this where people heard testimonies of real overcoming and coming out, instead of just hearing that homosexuality is a sin,” Nixon said, pointing to a unusual rainbow in the sky.
Above the event, a rainbow completely encircled the sun above the grassy venue – an image captured by many attendees on their phones.
Nixon said it was difficult to let go of her old sexual identity until she had a radical encounter with Jesus, who spoke to her in Genesis 50:20. It reads: “You intended to make me evil, but God willed it to be for good to accomplish what is now being done, the salvation of many lives.” (NIV)
“At that moment, Jesus put his hand in front of me and said, ‘MJ, come as you are. I have great things for you. I am much greater than the things you leave behind . I will satisfy you.'” Nixon recalled.
The key to Nixon’s 12 years of freedom is connecting to a community of like-minded individuals, something LGBTQ people know well. Finding friends within the Body of Christ and among former LGBTQ men and women is vital, Nixon said.
2022: Former LGBT Individuals Celebrate Christ’s Deliverance at Washington Freedom March: ‘There Is Hope’
Although he hasn’t struggled with sexual orientation or gender identity in his personal life, evangelist Ross Johnston spoke to freedom protesters about how LGBTQ issues hit close to home.
Johnston was conceived by artificial insemination and raised by two lesbian women who were both “moms” to him in the home they shared. His life changed dramatically when Johnston met Jesus at age 15.
A revivalist and co-founder of California Will Be Saved, Johnston preached the gospel at Rainbow Revival and later invited people to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
“If we are truly honest, what have sex, drugs, alcohol and money done to satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts? Nothing,” Johnston said as he prayed then for the people who came forward to receive Jesus.
He believes that the LGBTQ community is due to a movement from God, just like that experienced by the hippies of Jesus’ people.
Two pastors – including a former gay man – encouraged the Rainbow Revival crowd and offered hope to people experiencing spiritual battles.
UPPERROOM Dallas co-pastor Kevin Tipps shared his testimony of overcoming same-sex attraction during a praise, prayer, worship and declaration gathering at the church that he helps to lead.
Tipps said he knows other church and ministry leaders who God has redeemed and reconciled from LGBTQ lifestyles.
Tipps said he longed to touch and know God when he was growing up, starting at the age of six. His alcoholic family did not have the skills to manage the sensitive, empathetic, creative and expressive boy he was.
Tipps’ messy home life was further complicated when he was sexually assaulted and exposed to pornography. The combined traumas put Tipps in what he calls “a hot mess” for 6 years while leading worship and living a mixed life before the Lord.
Eventually leaving his church, Tipps was unhappy away from God – because of the prayers he would do – until a divine encounter in 2012.
Then Tipps saw what looked like a column of smoke and a door with no handles or hinges. In the doorway, Tipps saw the image of a man.
“At that moment, I knew who I was (standing) before. He said nothing about my lifestyle choices and I felt no conviction. I felt complete awareness of the presence of the God of Israel,” Tipps said. , who could only cry “holy” before the Lord Jesus.
“In an instant I was completely burned in the presence of the spirit of fear of the Lord, whose waves of grace, mercy and love filled the space that had been burned within me,” Tipps said .
Today, Tipps is married to a woman who says he looks nothing like the photos she’s seen of his past life. Together they have a five-year-old son.
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Rainbow Revival leaders — including two men who survived a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida — are covered by the pastoral ministry of GateCity Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
There, Pastor Billy Humphrey has lifted up the LGBTQ community in intercession for many years, but GateCity has only seen two or three precious souls come to Jesus through his massive sowing efforts.
In 2019, believing that GateCity was losing the spiritual battle for LGBTQ people, Humphrey visited a church that was in God’s movement. There he meets MJ Nixon, the current leader of Rainbow Revival.
On fire for the Lord, Nixon introduced herself and then told Humphrey that God had sent revival to hundreds of former gay men, women and transgender people.
“I told him, ‘You’re the one we’ve been praying for. I need to know all of you,'” said Humphrey, who participated in freedom marches in Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and in Dallas.
He believes there is going to be a big exodus from the LGBTQ community to a new family in Jesus.
“These crowds and these gatherings are the most beautiful people to me,” said Humphrey, who himself overcame pornography, drugs and alcohol through the power of God.
“Being among people who are aware that God delivered them from death to life without worrying about what others think is the right place for me,” Humphrey said.
A West Palm Beach, Fla., man who left the gay lifestyle for Jesus attended two events — a freedom march and a Rainbow Revival — where he found encouragement.
“My takeaway from this weekend is: Not only do I want the Jesus who saves, but I also want the Jesus who satisfies,” said Jarrod Tobias, who attended his second Rainbow Revival.