“I Forgive Him!”
Ceci and I watched the entire five hours of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on Sunday, as I’m sure most of you also did. Over 100,000 people gathered in Phoenix to celebrate his life -- we had staff members and friends in attendance – and there were 100,000,000 overall streams of the service. With multiple people watching on many of those transmissions, it is safe to say several hundred million people saw the service. All of them heard the gospel multiple times.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, 62,000 (and counting) requests have come to Turning Point from students wanting to open chapters on campuses across the nation, up from 3000 or so that existed when Charlie was killed. His assassination will go down in history as one of the greatest miscalculations of all time. God is using Charlie’s death to bring millions into His Kingdom; it has become a catalytic event for the Third Great Awakening. Turning Point? I’d say so.
In the memorial service, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said of Charlie, “His words were his weapons.” She went on to say, “It is time for us to step into the arena.” Without question, this has begun. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, speaking of the result of Charlie’s martyrdom, said, “You thought you could kill him; you made him immortal.” And addressing Charlie, he said, “We will prove worthy of your sacrifice.”
Charlie’s bold faith and cruel death have emboldened many to share their faith in Christ. Vice President Vance stated that he has always been reticent to talk about his faith publicly. However, he continued, “I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.” The Vice President also declared, “The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today, and instead, my friends, we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and his Lord Jesus Christ.”
Indeed, the White House Facebook page yesterday titled their post, “A Revival.” In his speech, President Trump said, “This is like an old-time revival, isn't it? An old-time revival?” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “Charlie started a political movement but unleashed a spiritual revival.” And the brilliant Dr Ben Carson stated, “Revival is coming, and it is not going to be stopped.”
All speakers spoke of their faith, and several shared the gospel in various forms, but I found it incredible that three Cabinet members declared the gospel clearly, intentionally, and brilliantly in their addresses: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth; and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Of course, they were not doing so in their official capacity, but the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ was declared to the world by people in the highest levels of the American government is staggering. I dare say it must have been what a celebration service conducted by America’s Founders would have sounded like. Though all presentations were outstanding, Secretary of State Rubio gave one of the most powerful declarations of the gospel I have EVER heard.(1)
Without question, however, the most moving address came from Charlie’s widow, Erika Kirk. Her strength and poise were remarkable, her words stirring and inspiring. For me, the most powerful moment of the day was when she spoke of Charlie’s killer, stating that this was the type of young man Charlie lived to influence and help. She spoke of love and forgiveness, stating that we must always follow the example of Christ: “On the Cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” Then, through tears of anguish, she continued, “That man, that young man — I forgive him!”
More powerful words could not have been spoken. The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
Erika continued, “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know from the gospel, is love and always love — love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”
The powers of darkness reeled when she stated those words. Once again, hate lost, love won.
As difficult as they were to say and truly mean, I have been praying that Erika Kirk would find the grace to speak those three words. We all needed to hear them. They released pain and poison from a movement, and cauterized our wounded hearts. We can now heal. The gospel was not only preached on Sunday, at that moment it was also modeled. Forgiveness to the undeserving – that is the gospel.
Contrary to what many believe, forgiveness does not mean there will be no justice, nor does it mean we will not oppose evil and darkness. It means we refuse to harbor hatred or allow bitterness into our hearts; instead, we leave the justice to God and those He has raised up to administer it. We are told to love our enemies and pray for them. Though this is humanly impossible, if we allow God’s love to flow through us, we can do so. We can follow the example of Jesus on the Cross and Stephen, the first martyr of the church. This kind of love defeats evil and hatred, and releases God’s supernatural power. The revival we pray for was infused with greater power when this occurred on Sunday.
Pray with me:
Father, thank You for the life of Charlie Kirk. He has joined the great cloud of witnesses and heard his “well done.” He honored the sacrifice and gospel of our Lord, and we will follow his example. Our hearts have been hurt, but they are strong. The torch Charlie carried was grabbed by millions before it even hit the ground.
Heal those hurting; we know many were horribly traumatized by the violence of Charlie Kirk’s death. Cause the forgiveness that flowed on Sunday to now cause healing to flow. We do forgive this young man, and we forgive those who rejoiced over Charlie’s death. Deliver them from such hatred. Deliver the many in our nation who have become hardened by hatred and bitterness. Save and heal them.
And just as we have been decreeing revival, our government officials are now doing so. This agreement of the Ekklesia and civil government will now release greater power. We ask You to breathe on these words of agreement, infusing them with multiplied power. Use them to release the four winds of Ezekiel on earth’s dry bones. Use them to bring Pentecost’s rushing, mighty wind. May it be said of us, as it was of the early church: They turned their world upside down!
We pray these things in Yeshua’s name. Amen.
Our decree:
We decree that love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8)
You can watch Sunday’s Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk here, or click here for the Memorial Service plus the time of worship preceding it.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.