by AJ Elliott | Jul 2, 2026 | Uncategorized
It’s a new year, and that always means there’s something new happening in the Spirit. So what has the Lord said about 2026? Let’s talk about it.
What is Teach Me to Kill Monsters?
Teach Me to Kill Monsters is a spiritual warfare training podcast. It’s also an author podcast. I write young adult science fiction and fantasy, so this is an atypical author podcast. Most podcasts done by authors are about books or maybe about writing, and it might seem like a mismatch. But I write books with powerful Christian characters because I’m tired of reading books with Christian characters who are weak and who don’t have any faith, or don’t know what they believe, or don’t know how to call on God for help when they’re in trouble.
So I write books where the strongest characters in the book are the ones who know God. The books demonstrate what a powerful Christian could look like, and the podcast teaches how to be a powerful Christian. The books provide the vision, and the podcast is the application. I’m not saying I’ve figured out everything there is to know about being a powerful Christian, but I’m working on it.
Frankly, there’s not a whole lot of people out there who are teaching Christians how to be powerful, so here I am. And since it’s January for, like, one more day, I want to talk about the prophecies that have been given about 2026. I’m gonna do this a little bit like a news roll-up, where they go over different news articles, and comment on them.
I have a compilation of prophecies from a few different prophets, and I’ll go over what they’ve said about this year. This is important for us to know because if you’re aware of what the Lord has spoken about the coming year, then on the one hand you know what to be watching out for, and on the other hand, you know what to believe for.
Year of the Big Fix
This first prophecy is from Kenneth Copeland, and this was given right around the New Year. The interesting thing to me is that these various prophets, they don’t get together and decide by committee what the title or the theme for the new year is going to be. They’re each getting their own download from the Lord, and a lot of prophets won’t even listen to what other prophets are saying, because they want to make sure that what they are hearing is their specific download. And yet, these two different prophets have the same theme for 2026, where the Lord has called this year the Year of the Fix.
Or in Copeland’s words, it’s the Year of the Big Fix. And this is what he says about it: “It will be the fix of nations, the big fix of time, and the big fix of ordinary things turning into extraordinary things.” Now, that’s not very specific. When you’re listening to prophecy, you have to listen to it and interpret it with spiritual thinking.
If you try to think about it in natural terms and using natural thinking, you’ll end up in the wrong spot. The first one, the fix of nations, that could be a whole lot of things. But if you look at it from God’s perspective, He has a plan for every nation on the Earth. He has a plan and a desire to prosper every nation.
If you look around the world right now, there’s a lot of nations that need fixed. But I believe we’ve already seen this fix of nations starting to happen, even with the things that have occurred in the first month of this year. And if you look at the news, there’s all kinds of upheaval happening in various places around the world.
And when you see upheaval like that, it’s often a sign of a spiritual shift that’s occurring. Sometimes on the surface, it can look like a bad thing. It can just look like chaos. But if you’ve ever had to clean your house or your room, especially if there was a lot of cleaning and organizing to be done, there’s a point at which it looks worse before it looks better.
That definitely happens when there’s a spiritual change taking place in a nation. It might look like a mess on the surface, but there are things being uprooted that have to be gotten rid of before that spiritual change can take place. So that’s what I see when he’s talking about the fix of nations.
And then he says the big fix of time. This one is difficult. What does it mean, the big fix of time? Well, it makes me think of Daniel chapter seven. It’s where they’re talking about the Antichrist in 7:25. I like the King James for this one. It says, “he shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change times and laws.”
Some have said with all that happened in the early part of this decade, that it’s like the world ended up on this alternate timeline. You know that scene in Back to the Future? I don’t even remember which movie it is, but Doc is explaining to Marty how Biff, the bad guy, went back in time and changed something and it skewed their future into this alternate timeline that wasn’t supposed to happen.
And some people felt that with COVID and everything that occurred, that it was like the world went on to this alternate timeline, because God had a plan for the first part of this decade and it didn’t involve everything that happened with COVID. So if it’s the big fix of time, what if you could redeem the time? Everybody lost something during COVID. I don’t care who you are or where you were in life. Everybody lost something. What if you could redeem those years? What would it look like in your life? Think about that.
Then the third item he listed, the big fix of ordinary things turning into extraordinary things. What does that one mean? Well, God did this a lot in the Bible. He was always turning ordinary things into something extraordinary. David wasn’t really an ordinary shepherd, but he killed Goliath with a handful of ordinary stones. People probably walked on those stones. They weren’t anything special until that day, and then they became very special.
But I feel like this is one of those things where you don’t really know what it means until you see it, and then you’re like, “Oh, that’s what it means.” So watch out for that this year, ordinary things becoming extraordinary things. And then he goes on to say the spirit of peace will hit the United States during the month of September.
He said it might take a while for it to rise up, but it will be like when the man of Galilee spoke to the storm and said, “Peace.” And then after that it says there was a great calm. So he says there will be a great calm in September, particularly for the US and Israel. And then he talked a little bit about New Year’s resolutions, which he says are not resolutions, they’re New Year’s quality decisions.
And he said, “Search your life, even the little things. See what little things you might need to fix in your life to be able to go further with God and not be stopped by the kind of things that maybe held you back in the past.” And then he goes to Psalm 112, and he goes through Psalm 112:1-7, but in verse seven it’s talking about the man who honors the Lord, and it says, “He’ll have no fear of bad news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” Or some translations say, “His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” Those are instructions for the coming year, having our hearts firmly fixed to trust in the Lord and what He is doing.
Fixing Impossibilities
Now we’re going to go to Robin Bullock’s prophecy, and this one is quite a bit longer, but it’s also more specific. And what’s interesting about these two prophecies is that they are complementary but not duplicative. They’re not a copy of each other. And this one wasn’t given at New Year’s, it was given at the Jewish New Year in September, Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets.
Robin says, “2026 is the Year of the Fix.” And then he goes into a lot of detail on what that means. He starts by saying, “This is our year to walk with God and learn from Him,” and he also calls it the year of the great fix. He says things that looked impossible to fix can be fixed in 2026. It’s the year that the power of God is flooded through the earth for his people to fix impossibilities.
Then he goes into a couple different ways that you can look at this word “fix”. It could mean to fasten securely. So it’s the year to secure things such as a position, a station, a year for new positions in your workplace, or it could mean to situate or to lodge. So it could be the year for a new home.
If you’ve been believing for a new home, this is the year for it. And I have a quote from him here. He says, “You must take your place working with God to create, or you will, with your words, use his government to destroy your destiny.” And I remember him saying that in 2026, the words that we say would have great creative power.
It’s always been true that the words we speak over our own lives have creative power in our lives. We’ve been spiritually created to speak and to create the world around us, but it’s limited in authority to our own lives, typically. But he said this year our words would be very important.
So pay attention to what you’re saying this year, especially what you’re saying about your own future, and make sure that the things you are speaking are the things that you want to happen. He says to fix could also mean to direct one’s eyes or attention. So this year, eyesight and attention spans are to improve. He’s expecting a science miracle in eyes and hearing. Then he says “to fix” could mean to set a date for decisions. And here he said if there’s a decision you’ve been trying to make and you haven’t been able to decide on it, that this year you would be able to make that decision.
He also says “to fix” could mean to set a specific price, the price you want to sell or buy for. Are you trying to buy something? What price do you wanna pay for it? Now, be careful here. You can’t just say you want everything for free. God is fair, but maybe there’s something you’ve been wanting to buy, especially if it’s something that you feel like God is leading you to buy, like maybe a property or, you know, or a vehicle or an airplane or, or whatever it might be, and maybe it’s overpriced. Well, you can get with God and figure out what that price should be. What’s the price that is the fair price that you want to pay for it? And you can believe for that. Or what’s the price you want to sell for? There’ve been lots of examples of people—particularly people who know how to tithe and know how to believe God for financial increase, and they know how to increase the righteous way and how to use their finances in a righteous way—but there’s been lots of stories of people like that selling for a very good price, and it’s because of the blessing working on them because they have put themselves into God’s economy. That’s included in this year.
Robin also said, “2026 is a year to advance and expand your world.” And he referenced Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54:2-3 is where it says, “Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”
So Robin says it’s the year to advance and expand your world and to destroy worlds that the enemy has built for you. I guarantee there are some worlds that the enemy has built for you. Don’t live in them. Live in the world that God wants to build for you. If you advance and expand your world, it’s going to look a little different for every person.
For one person, it might mean a business advancing and expanding, or it could mean a family if you want your family to grow, or it could mean just your relationships and your friendships or your network or whatever it is that you are doing and involved in that God has set for you to go do. Advance and expand that this year.
Look for growth in positive areas. To fix could also mean dates set for your good. He said this could be legal matters settled. “The date for the hearing is fixed.” To fix could mean to mend or repair and improve, especially when referring to hair, clothes, or appearance. Do you need a new wardrobe? This could be the year for you.
But, you know, I feel like it can also mean your overall appearance because the first half of this decade had so much pressure in it and so much negativity. And if you look back to pictures of yourself from five years ago, how different do you look? Do you look better or worse now than you did then? There’s nothing to stop us from believing God for rejuvenation in our appearance. His life is in our spirit, and it can rejuvenate even our physical appearance and our face and our skin. Would you like a facelift this year? You can have a spiritually ordained facelift.
Robin says to fix could also mean to arrange, to furnish, supply, or accommodate.
Whatever you need furnished, whatever needs supplied, whatever you need accommodated, if you yourself need accommodation, believe for it this year. It could mean to arrange to meet. So this is the year for romantic relationships, if you’ve been looking for one of those, or if you’ve been looking for a husband or a wife.
To fix could mean to arrange provision for food and drink, which spiritually translates to having plenty to eat. I feel like that’s not just having plentiful food, but having actual nourishing food. We’ve seen the start of change going through in our food supply, and there’s been so much done to our food supply, not just in the US, but in different parts of the world.
Because of industrialization, there’s a lot of our food that doesn’t have near the amount of nutrition that it used to, and a lot of stuff added to it that takes away health from people. When I read this, I see the restoration of our food supply, not just in the amount of food, but in the value and the nutrition of food, and the cleanliness of our food.
To fix could also mean to preserve and stabilize. In other words, preserve and stabilize everything in your life that needs preserved or stabilized. I didn’t write this in my notes, but I remember him also saying that this is a year for fertility. If you’ve been believing for a child, this is a year for new babies. That’s already happened for at least one person I know.
Then he goes into a couple of things to be aware of. He says the enemy will try to fix things against you, meaning he will try to influence things, especially a race, a contest, or an election. All of these are things to watch for and to come against.
He said a fix could also refer to a drug addiction. 2026 will be the year of addiction and the year to get off of addiction. It doesn’t just have to mean addiction to illicit drugs. It could be any kind of addiction. If you look at your life, is there anything that you are addicted to, whether it’s a particular kind of food or drink or even a cell phone? Are you addicted to the internet? Well, 2026 is the year to get free of addiction.
Finally Robin said, “Give God the year.” And he said, “2026 is a year that commemorates the cross.” And I forget the specific reasons why he said that it did this. And if you wanna know the details, you can find the service on YouTube, the Rosh Hashanah service from September 2025. But he said, “Everything that Jesus did on the cross is available to you this year.” Now, it’s available to us every year, but especially this year. Remember he said at the beginning, things that looked impossible to fix can be fixed in 2026.
This could apply to so many things. So what needs fixed in your life? It could be a disease that is impossible to cure. It can be cured in 2026. It could be a family or job or financial situation that seems impossible to fix. It can be fixed in 2026. What do you need fixed this year?
What do you need redeemed? And remember he also said that our words would have great effect this year. Speak the things that you want to see fixed and the things that you want to see redeemed, and do it now at the beginning of the year before the year is half over. Something else that I remember him saying is that in 2026, judgment would be swift, meaning that the consequences for things would come quickly and not be delayed.
Most people are familiar with the verse that says, “The wages of sin is death.” All that’s really saying is that sin carries judgment with it. There’s often a period of mercy that holds off judgment in certain cases. Robin was saying that this year judgment would follow quickly after sin or after evil things being done, and it might be a small evil.
If it’s a small evil, it has a smaller consequence than a large evil. So watch your life, watch what you’re doing, walk with God, engage with Him this year. Pray about these things. Determine what you need from God, what you are looking for, what you’ve been believing for, and actively stand for those things.
Find the scriptures to stand on, and also the words of this prophecy. There’s blessing for us when we believe prophecy, when we listen to prophets and believe them. There’s an inherent blessing in that.
One last thing Robin said was that when you add up the numerical value for Yahweh, it equals 26. And Yahweh stands for the breath of God. So 2026 is also connected to the breath of God. It might be interesting to do a study on the meanings behind the breath of God, and that could probably be a whole other episode.
But you know, the COVID illness worked by taking away breath. And whenever the enemy does something, God always answers in an opposite direction, but not an equal direction. He answers in the way that is opposite but greater than what the enemy did. So COVID stole away breath, but this is the year of God’s breath.
And that’s the breath that he breathed into Adam when he created him and gave him life. The breath of God is life for us.
Not all things are as they seem
I’d encourage you to be intentional about what you’re believing for and what you want to see out of this year. The enemy may try to paint things in a certain way and make it look like things are going downhill, but there’s an intense amount of deception going on right now. So it’s important that we stay close to God and listen to the Spirit so that we can see through what’s going on, what appears to be going on, and understand what God is doing and where he’s headed.
If you’re new to the podcast and you want to learn more about me and my writing, you can find me at authorajelliott.com. I like to end every episode with 1 Thessalonians 5.23 because it’s the benediction for a powerful Christian: “May God himself, the God of peace or wholeness, sanctify you or make you perfect through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless or be kept without a breach until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. It’s a benediction for the Christians who are willing to fight. Thanks for listening. Learn how to become dangerous in the Spirit this year.
And if you’re already dangerous in the Spirit, walk in love and stay dangerous.
by AJ Elliott | Dec 8, 2025 | Uncategorized
A friend whose blog I follow recently posted a review of Veronica Roth’s book Divergent. I’d seen all the movies, but never felt motivated to read the book. Maybe it was because I once ate dinner with someone who talked at length about the series, but not in a way that made it compelling. My friend even admitted in her post that the plot of Divergent was not that unique, but there was one thing that caught her attention—the character Tobias Eaton (“Four”).
She specifically said that Tobias was the “best-written male character in literature.” That caught my attention, because this friend is also one of my readers. Now I had to read the book—one of my fans was raving about another author’s character! So, like a jealous teenager, I had to check out the competition.
Subtle Strength
I read Divergent and found it enjoyable enough, but mostly I came to some conclusions about what makes Four’s character compelling. First of all, he’s very male. He’s a decent example of a Sigma male, which is all the rage these days—a guy who’s strong enough to be an alpha, but unlike an alpha he doesn’t assert dominance or flaunt his strength. The alpha to Four’s sigma would be Eric, the up-and-coming but brutal Dauntless leader who proves to be a villain. Four could have a higher position within the Dauntless faction, but he turned it down, possibly in order to avoid his abusive father, who runs the faction that Four came from.
This is a second layer to Four’s character which rounds him out: he has fears, and yet, not that many. His nickname draws from the fears that gained him notoriety within Dauntless—the fact that he has only four, a record low number. One of those fears is heights, a fear which Tris does not share. When Tris climbs the ferris wheel near the book’s midpoint, Four is uncomfortable. But he still follows her up there. It’s the first scene in the book where he shows any kind of weakness, but within that same scene he shows the ability to overcome his weakness. This not only makes him more relatable, but more likable. He’s not just a cold shadow who fears nothing. But he’s not paralyzed by the fear either, proving that his strength is real.
Flirtation Skill: 0
A third layer to Four’s character is how he relates to Tris. He falls in love with her over the course of the book, but never treats her like some dainty thing. In Tris’s words, “He is not sweet or gentle or particularly kind. But he is smart and brave, and even though he saved me, he treated me like I was strong” (p. 289). That’s a pretty good description of Four’s masculinity. He saves the girl, but doesn’t treat her like a damsel in distress. And even though he has feelings for Tris, he doesn’t profess those feelings in lots of words. Instead, his feelings comes through in various actions, some more subtle than others. This is pretty typical, especially for a guy of Four’s age—and considering that he grew up in Abnegation, where flirting isn’t a cultivated skill. I should point out, a male character like this isn’t often seen from a female writer. We’d rather just have things spelled out to us—“Yes, tell me I’m beautiful…”)
There’s a fourth layer, which isn’t exactly tied to Four’s character, but the way he’s physically portrayed. He’s tall, slim and strong. He might not be body-builder strong, but he has the right amount of muscle for his frame. Roth does a good job of describing Four’s physique without sounding awkwardly steamy. She gives just enough details to make the picture come together, like the shape of a jawline, or how the muscles in his back move (though I have to say I’ve never thought to draw a comparison between a character’s upper and lower lip. Tris notices odd things.) All of this helps add to Four’s unique but very male image.
The Would-be Protagonist
Interestingly, the earlier draft of Divergent had Four as the main character. It eventually changed to Tris, but this could be one reason that Four’s character is well-rounded. If you didn’t know, there’s a short story collection called Four. It contains the full character backstory, beginning with Four’s Choosing Ceremony. I found it more compelling than Tris’s early story, probably because Four’s situation was so much worse. I already knew what faction he would choose, but I was still sweating until the moment was over because I was so desperate for him to get out of Abnegation. And yet, Four isn’t defined by trauma. This can be an easy cop-out to try to add depth to a character. Sure, Four’s background influences his decisions, but it’s obvious he becomes who he is because it’s who he decides to be. As a reader, that’s an interesting character path to follow.
Is Four the best-written male character in literature? It’s a hard competition. I do think he could be the best-written male character for this generation, which isn’t looking for 80’s bravado but for someone who’s intrinsically strong despite what he’s gone through. If you’re a fan of Four, I highly recommend the short story collection.
Inspiration for this blog post came from the blog of Sarah Hamilton: https://contemplationsofachristiancreator.wordpress.com/
Photo by Alan Labisch on Unsplash
by AJ Elliott | Oct 26, 2025 | Uncategorized
What is it about ‘military’ and ‘sci fi’ that goes so well together?
I’m not sure I know the answer, though I have a theory: since science fiction involves futuristic technology, what better way to showcase that technology than to put it in the hands of some futuristic soldiers and send them to fight monsters?
I believe it goes deeper than this, though. There’s something about the uniqueness of military culture that lends well to good storytelling. Also, military or not, putting characters in harrowing situations is a great way to achieve strong character exposition and development. On the other hand, all military-oriented stories carry a particular danger: the risk of stereotype.
“Not like a military”
When I arrived at the airport for a recent trip and checked in, the airline agent was an older Asian woman. She looked at my ID and said something to the effect of, “Oh, you don’t look like a military, you look like a lady!”
I had to ask myself, what, in her mind, would “a military” look like? Somebody with cold steely eyes and harsh cheekbones? I honestly don’t know, but I can only assume they wouldn’t look “like a lady.”
I believe this is a key factor in what makes for good military sci fi. Let’s look at a classic: Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (good book, horrible movie…) The book has a distinctive, authentic voice which makes the story seem believable—no small feat for a tale about shooting giant alien insects. Except the book wasn’t actually about killing giant insects (the movie, on the other hand…) The book was about the transformation of joining an elite military unit. The voice was authentic because Heinlein himself had been a military officer.
That’s not to say that the only people who can successfully write military characters are those with personal experience. It only takes someone who understands that military people are just that—people. Not robots. In many ways, they’re ordinary individuals doing a job they trained for, and they come in all types.
Martial artists, gamers, and disposal workers
One military sci fi story that gets it right is Kaiju Number 8. This anime series follows Hibino Kafka, a Kaiju disposal worker who dreams of joining Japan’s Kaiju Defense Force—a special military force that uses advanced technology to fight monsters (Kaiju) that emerge from underground. At the story’s beginning, the closest Kafka can get to his dream is cleaning up the remains of defeated Kaiju. That is, until a strange experience grants him the ability to transform into a Kaiju himself—and a very powerful one.
Kafka eventually manages to make it into the Defense Force, but has to keep his alternate Kaiju identity a secret. Still, whenever his teammates get into tight spots, he can’t help using his secret identity to save them.
While Kafka is the central character, the story has some of the best supporting characters I’ve ever seen. The writers take the time to include backstory on certain secondary characters that makes them three-dimensional. For instance, take Vice Captain Hoshina (one of my favorites.) At first he just comes across as elite and powerful, like all the captains. But in his backstory, you discover that he thought he’d never make it to where he is. Despite his strength, the only advanced weapons he’s able to use are swords, not guns. He is steeped in his family’s tradition of elite Japanese swordsmanship. But swords are only useful against smaller kaiju, not the big ones. He might’ve stayed in the lower ranks if another captain hadn’t recognized the value of his unique skill and brought him on as a vice.
The other characters are just as unique—a female prodigy with blond pigtails, a young recruit who excels because he has an overactive sense of responsibility, and the son of the billionaire CEO who manufactures kaiju-fighting technology. There’s even the elite captain of the first division, who deals with the stress of monster-fighting by ignoring military protocol and spending all his free time as a cheeto-munching gamer addict. As Captain Hoshina tells him, “Your only redeeming quality is your ability to kill kaiju.”
It’s fun to watch these individual personalities come together and help each other in some seriously bad situations. Even Kafka’s first-hand knowledge of kaiju anatomy comes in handy now and then.
These characters are endearing because they try their hardest despite obstacles, they use what they’ve got, and they’re all different. Just like real people.
If you enjoy military sci fi and you’re looking for a new series to check out, I highly recommend Kaiju No. 8. The bad guys are intimidating and it’s got plenty of action and suspense, but also some humor to take the edge off.
As with Solo Leveling, this is an adult series and can be a little bloody, though it’s mostly monster gore. I would rate it PG-13.
Blog Photo by Alejandro Hikari on Unsplash
by AJ Elliott | Apr 11, 2025 | Uncategorized
Ben Wilder has spent two decades in Myanmar, finding ways to share Jesus in a place that is predominantly Buddhist. His book, Jesus in the Buddha Belt, releases on April 22. It tells the story of four people from Myanmar who encounter Jesus—and the tumultuous journeys that follow.
In my interview with Ben, he gave some insights into his life in Myanmar, and what led him to such a fascinating place.
How did you make the decision to go into missions?
Great question. That could be a book in itself 😃. The short of it is that God flipped my life upside down in college. I grew up in the church, but had a very self-centered view of Christianity that revolved around yours truly: Obey God and get blessings; disobey and get disciplined. That was the gist of it. My best friends growing up were actually the pastor’s sons. We were the biggest troublemakers in the church. In college, I sat under some Atheist professors and wrestled with God about it. I asked God to answer some very specific questions, and he emphatically did. After that, God flipped things upside down by showing me through the Bible that his plan is MUCH BIGGER than just me—it includes me, but reaches much much further. God’s plan is to bring hope and healing to the whole world—every tribe, language, and nation—40% of which are still considered unreached by the Gospel. WOW! That blew me away, and still does.
What led you to Myanmar? Did you do missions in other places before that?
I had an experience where I sensed God telling me to go and tell people about him who had never heard. But there are lots of places like that. He led me to Myanmar specifically through a series of events and relationships (isn’t this how he often works with us?). I took a few short-term trips to Myanmar to help a new missionary family, and they later invited me to join their team. I did missions in several other places before that, including other parts of the US, Mexico, and Kenya. “Jambo!” to any Swahili speakers out there.
What’s the most striking thing about doing evangelism in a Buddhist country?
Another great question! Reflecting on my experience, I think I was shocked by three concentric rings, each getting closer to the heart of my Buddhist friends. The outer ring was language. I had to learn a new language before doing anything else, and in the beginning it was so shocking how differently Myanmar people communicated—not just with different sounds, but with different ways of viewing and describing the world. As I grew in my understanding of the Burmese language, I encountered another ring—culture. Words weren’t enough to get to the heart of people. They just gave me more ways to offend them until I understood their ways better. Haha! I have by no means mastered these first two rings, but I have gotten familiar enough with both of them to get to the third and final ring between the gospel and people’s hearts—spiritual power. I didn’t really think about this beforehand, but this one probably fits really well with your blog theme.
Inside the rings of language and culture, people’s hearts are bound by invisible forces. After seeing this in people’s lives, I saw it more clearly in the Bible. For example: “…the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” (2 Cor 4:4), and “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Eph 6:12).
Behind language and culture—which I do believe we have to communicate the gospel through—demons are the real power holding people captive, keeping them from Christ. Where I grew up, demons seemed like something from Bible times that didn’t interact with our lives today—so this has been a shocking discovery. Buddhist people (like anyone else who doesn’t follow Jesus) are bound by spiritual powers—and those powers must be overcome for them to experience new life in Jesus.
Tell us about the spiritual atmosphere in Myanmar. Aside from the obvious difference in religion, how does it differ from the West?
Across Southeast Asia, most people seem to be more in tune with the spiritual world than people in the West. I know there are exceptions to this, but I think many Westerners in my sphere (except for missionaries) tend to approach angels, demons, ghosts, etc. with skepticism. In the past I remember a friend telling me he saw a ghost. I was skeptical too. Myanmar people and others across Southeast Asia, on the other hand, approach things like this with inherent belief. They see spiritual powers (most often evil ones) interact with their lives on a daily basis and they practice rituals to placate them, avoid offending them, or to gain their assistance in times of need. For those who don’t know Christ, this is driven by fear. When these spiritually attuned people come to know Christ, however, they often immediately experience a deep relationship with him that I find less often in the more skeptical West. I’m not throwing stones here; I include myself. I am still trying to learn how to be more spiritual.
Can you tell us an interesting story from everyday life there?
My first Christmas in Myanmar was super interesting. I took a 24-hour bus ride with local friends to their hometown. Our overnight bus departed on December 24th, and—I kid you not—I didn’t realize it was Christmas until late afternoon on the 25th. The people I was traveling with were Buddhist, and I did not see a single evidence of Christmas anywhere along the way. No Christmas trees, no Christmas lights, no Christmas carols—not even Santa Claus! 20 years later, the commercial side of Christmas has reached further into rural Myanmar, but back then Christmas looked like every other day.
As our group took a break for the afternoon on Christmas, I reflected on my friends’ lack of interest in Jesus (I had been telling them about him along the way), and it hit me: “These people are so uninterested in Jesus.” I paused for thought. “And today is Jesus’s birthday!” The next day I took the stage at a concert and sang a song about Jesus to all the Buddhist people in my friends’ village. That ended up being a super cool way to celebrate the birth of Christ, but I will never forget that first Christmas in Myanmar when I forgot it was Christmas. It made me think about what made Christmas special and what it really meant.
Tell us about the writing side of things. When did you start to write?
I loved writing from elementary school on and was encouraged by my teachers and parents along the way. A creative writing class in high school fanned the flame, and I always thought, “Someday, I’d like to write a book.” But I mostly just wrote journal entries and emails to prayer supporters, until COVID struck and I found myself locked out of Myanmar. That’s when I started writing Jesus in the Buddha Belt: Untold True Stories of a Mighty God and Messy Mission. It’s funny how God works. I’m thinking about Paul Bunyan writing one of the bestselling Christian classics of all time because he was locked in jail for preaching the gospel. I’m not comparing Jesus in the Buddha Belt to Pilgrim’s Progress, but they both started because the authors were locked down 😃.
How would you say your experiences in Myanmar have changed or developed you as a person?
Profoundly! Myanmar (the epicenter of the Buddha Belt) has so many contrasts from where I grew up (the Bible Belt). Learning about Buddhism—not just from books, but from seeing how it plays out in people’s lives and society as a whole—has sharpened my understanding of Jesus and made me love him more. Seeing materially poor Myanmar people experience God in powerful ways has enlarged my view of God and challenged me to know Jesus more deeply. It has made me more spiritually minded, more appreciative of elders, and more convinced that while we all differ in many ways—we are all very similar at a basic level, and there’s a hole inside all of us that can only be properly filled by Jesus.
The positive ways God has changed my life through my experience in Myanmar is one of the reasons I wrote Jesus in the Buddha Belt. I am so thankful for these experiences and want to share them with others. Most people can’t move to the other side of the world, but I think they will enjoy meeting real people from there and hearing the good, bad, and ugly of their lives and the powerful ways they experience Jesus in the scary face of all kinds of hostility. I would love to introduce you to four of these amazing people through the book. In fact, I wrote their stories in first person so that it feels like you are sitting across the table from them.
How can people connect with you and get the book?
I would love that! The best way to connect with me is through jesusinthebuddhabelt.com. You can email me from there, check out the blog, and get get prayer resources and book updates.
The book will be released by William Carey Publishing on April 22. It will be available at missionbooks.org and, of course, Amazon. I would love to give you a free sample right now at jesusinthebuddhabelt.com/freechapter, before it’s available anywhere else. You can also pre-order the book at a 25% discount if you order before April 22. Here’s the link for that: https://missionbooks.org/products/jesus-in-the-buddha-belt.
Thanks so much for interviewing me. Tons of grace and peace to all of your readers and many many blessings on all that you are doing.
by AJ Elliott | Apr 10, 2025 | Uncategorized
End Times Prophecies
Generally speaking, most Christians are aware of end times prophecy, and they’re aware that the closer we get to the end times referred to in Revelation that the darkness and evil in the world is supposed to increase. For many Christians, when they see darkness and evil and corruption increasing in the world, they take it as just another sign that we’re getting closer to the end. Whether you believe in a rapture or don’t believe in a rapture, it’s the belief that the end is imminent, so we need to just hunker down and ride it out till we go to heaven.
This leads to a resigned attitude on the part of the body of Christ in the Earth. And it’s also based on the assumption that the end could happen any day. But if we look at the scripture, that’s not actually true.
There are certain things that still have to happen before Jesus can return, and we don’t see them happening yet. There are still certain prophecies that haven’t been fulfilled. Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 5: “Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
People are usually familiar with the concept of the day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night and destruction coming quickly. But the part that always caught my attention is where it says, “While people are saying peace and safety”, destruction will come. Even when I was in my young teenage years, if I looked around, people were not saying peace and safety. In fact, my whole life, and increasingly so, if you look around the world, people are saying war and death and destruction.
So this verse is referring to something that we still haven’t seen. Let’s look at 2 Thessalonians 2: “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report, or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.”
This verse is talking about the antichrist, the one they call the man of lawlessness. It says, “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he’s taken out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”
Notice what it says about the secret power of lawlessness: “The one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way.”
Who is the one that now holds it back?
It’s the church. It’s the body of Christ and the earth. We are the ones who are supposed to hold back the secret power of lawlessness.
It says that power is already at work, and we’ve seen that for centuries. It’s the secret power, it works in secret until it comes into the open, and we’ve seen this throughout history. When Nazi Germany started to rise up, it was put forward as a positive thing until its true nature was revealed. It was the same with the communism of the Cold War. It was put forward as a positive movement. But communism has killed more people than all of the world wars. It’s the Antichrist system that is trying to come into manifestation in the earth.
But it isn’t time yet, because there are these certain prophecies that haven’t yet been fulfilled.
In Matthew 24:14, Jesus is talking about the end times and he says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Well, the gospel hasn’t yet been preached to the entire world.
Unreached Corners
About fifteen years ago, I heard about this movement called the Back to Jerusalem movement. The idea behind it is that when the gospel left Jerusalem, it traveled predominantly westward. If it continues all the way around the world, then eventually it has to go back to Jerusalem from the east.
This is just one example, but there are multiple places and nations around the world where the gospel has never been, and those places have to be reached before that particular prophecy can be fulfilled. The end can’t come until the gospel is preached everywhere.
Somewhere, perhaps in the South Pacific, there’s an island of natives whose technology hasn’t changed in something like 200 years. They’re a very violent tribe, to the point that anyone who sets foot on their shore will be killed. There was a young missionary sometime in the last decade or so, who decided that he was going to go evangelize this island. He got a, a guide to take him out there in a boat. As I remember the story, the guide wouldn’t even leave the boat to go onto the shore. He had the missionary jump off the boat in shallow water and go in. So this young missionary walked up with his Bible on this very primitive island, and when he set foot on the shore, they just killed him and took his body away.
There’s a spiritual stronghold on that island, and one day there will be someone or multiple people who go and evangelize that place, because the gospel has to be preached everywhere. But before the end can come, every place, including that island, has to be reached with the gospel.
What does that mean for us, and how does that relate to what we read in Thessalonians about the body of Christ holding back the secret power of lawlessness? Well, what would have to happen for all of these places to be reached with the gospel? Yes, there is an underground church in many places, but in order for the gospel to really be preached everywhere in the world, the body of Christ has to expand, has to have greater power, and has to be able to push back the darkness that is keeping it out of certain places. Christianity has to become stronger.
The End Times Church
As the end times come, Christianity is not supposed to diminish. It not only has to become stronger, it has to gain the upper hand. It’s only when Christianity has the upper hand that it can get into every part of the world. Also, if you go back to the other verse that we read about, where people will be saying “peace and safety” — the only way that happens is if the church becomes very strong, so that it is predominant.
One more scripture we need to look at is Numbers 14:20-21, “Then the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word. But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” (NKJV)
When God says, as I live, that’s a very serious promise, because he’s saying — If I don’t do this, then I, God will cease to exist. He says, as I live, all the earth will be filled with my glory. We haven’t seen that yet. God is everywhere in the earth, but his glory has not filled the entire earth. There are plenty of places where that glory is not manifesting. This is talking about a scenario where the gospel and the light of Christianity and the light of God is brought up to such a high level that it is all over the entire earth. That’s something the world has never seen.
If you put all of these scriptures together, it starts to build a picture of what this would have to look like—a time where people are saying peace and safety, and where the gospel is preached everywhere in the entire world, and where the glory of God fills the whole earth.
In order for those three things to happen, it would require the Church in the earth to be very strong, active, and full of power. That’s not a scenario that can happen if the church is hiding out in their hovels, waiting for the end to come. We’re supposed to grow in power, and we’re supposed to be actively pushing back the darkness.
A lot of Christians will make the assumption that God is just going to do all of this, and he is, and he does, but he’s chosen to do certain things through us. Jesus was often a little stern with his disciples, wanting them to do the things that he was showing them. He kept saying, I’ve given you an example, you go and cast out these devils. You go and do this. I’ve shown you what to do. There’s multiple times where they got in a bad spot and they ran to him for help, and he asked, where’s your faith? It seems pretty clear that we have a role to play. God is sovereign, and the power is his, but he still expects us to wield it.
A Behemoth Sleeping
Where does that leave us? Well, the church started to wake up a little, because they saw the antichrist system starting to emerge again. But now some people have started to relax, and think that we can go back to normal. But that’s the problem, because normal was what got us to the point of seeing the power of lawlessness start to rise.
On the whole, the church wasn’t really fighting back against darkness that was pushing and growing in the earth, and so we got to this point where it was just so bad the church had to do something. What that reveals is that if the church doesn’t fight back, then the antichrist system can come into power in the earth on our watch.
Over in Ephesians 6:13, it says, “Therefore put on the whole armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm.”
We could paraphrase this as, “After you’ve done everything necessary to hold your position, then hold your position.” After you’ve gained the hilltop, then you have to hold the hilltop. And the reason is that the enemy isn’t lying on the ground bloody, they are regrouping. I heard a news story recently that there is a Satanic group in Kansas that wants to hold a black mass on the Capitol grounds. I don’t know how they’re going to do this, but these are their plans. And a couple of weeks ago, there was an SNL skit that went a little viral, because there was supposedly an actual occultic ritual taking place in one scene.
It is the occultic world that manifests as one of the main enemies to Christianity. That’s what we’ve seen in our generation. Some years ago, around 2015 or 2016, the pastor of the church that I was attending at the time pointed out that Washington DC was full of witchcraft. At the time, it came as a surprise to me. It doesn’t seem strange now, but back then, it hadn’t occurred to me. But of course it would be that way, because it’s a seat of power. And it’s the seat of power in a nation that is predominantly Christian and is responsible for a lot of the gospel going around the world, so of course, Satan would want to gain a foothold there.
If we consider all the other manifestations of darkness around the world, those entities haven’t crawled into dark corners. Not yet. There’s a point in a battle where you gain the upper hand, and there’s a point where the enemy is actually defeated. We haven’t come to that final point yet.
Holding the Hilltop with Spiritual Gifts
We need to not only hold our hilltop, but we need to take more ground, and take the light further. So how do we do that? How do we avoid going back to the same old thing that we’ve been doing up to now?
From an individual perspective, if you have particular spiritual gifts that you know you are able to operate in, work to develop those. Find mentors and teachers who can help you develop those gifts.
And don’t stop praying. Don’t stop pressing in. Don’t resign yourself to just waiting around for the rapture. We’re in a different part of the battle now. Maybe we’re shifting from defense to offense, but there’s still a battle to be fought. And it’s not only about reaching the loss, although of course that’s important; but the other side of it is holding our ground and continuing to advance the kingdom.
We can also be open to greater displays of God’s power than we’ve seen before. I remember when I was a teenager, I was in a pretty large active youth group and a new member was visiting the church. She was asking one of our volunteer youth leaders about what the church believed, and asked if we believed in speaking in tongues. And the youth leader said, no.
I’d never seen anyone speak in tongues at that particular church, but I’d never also heard anyone say that they didn’t believe it. It just wasn’t something that was emphasized. But when I heard someone actually say, no, we don’t believe that, I thought, well, do you believe all of the Bible or don’t you?
Yes, different congregations have different opinions about that, but there are some who are kind of frightened of supernatural displays of God’s power, or things that can’t be naturally explained. There’s no need to be so frightened that we won’t allow God to do something different—because he always does something different.
There are demonic forms of spiritual manifestation that aren’t of God, but if there’s a demonic version, then there has to be a God version, because Satan can’t create anything. The bottom line is, we need to let God out of our box and not be too timid to allow the Holy Spirit to do something just because we haven’t experienced it before.
We’re in a time now where we’ve seen modern day prophets appear and start to speak. And they’ve come under a lot of attack from the church. That’s the kind of thing that really holds the body of Christ back. But it’s those who are willing to flow with God, and see where the Holy Spirit is going, who will be the real victors in this fight.
Lastly, when it comes to developing your spiritual gifts, this doesn’t only mean the nine gifts of the spirit. It’s also talents, like artistic gifts. We often recognize these as God-given gifts, but when we think about using them for the church, it’s usually in the context of using dance or music for evangelism, like on as outreach or for a missions trip. Or we use music in worship—and these gifts are meant are meant to worship God, but they’re also for so much more than that.
The artistic talents that God gives us aren’t just so that God can sit back on a Sunday afternoon and be entertained. They have a fundamental spiritual purpose. I was at a Bible convention years ago, and they would have different worship music throughout the various sessions. There was one man who was very skilled at playing the trumpet, and one of the Bible teachers pointed out that he played the trumpet by the spirit.
At the time, that was a novel thought for me. People who are open to the use of tongues usually recognize that you can sing in tongues—you can sing by the spirit. But I thought to myself then, if you can play the trumpet by the spirit, then you can also dance by the spirit.
The biggest unrecognized aspect of these talents is that they’re not only for making beautiful worship, but they have direct application in spiritual combat. When music and dance and even painting and drawing becomes prophetic and is used in a prophetic manner, it can be utilized as a direct spiritual weapon to stop the plans of the enemy and carry forward the plans of the kingdom.
I think that’s one aspect of the church that’s going to become more prevalent going forward. That’s also part of what I meant when I said that we need to let God out of our box and be open to new ways of fighting, new ways of fighting in the Spirit.
When I wrote Turning Pointe, I didn’t write it as a fantasy, because I believe that the events depicted there are true to life. I think that that’s what we’re going to see more of.
So don’t surrender your hilltop, because the church has a long way to go. It will take all of us to represent the fulfillment of Jesus.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan.
by AJ Elliott | Feb 18, 2025 | Uncategorized
In Jan 2024, Crunchyroll launched Season 1 of a series called Solo Leveling. Based on a Korean web novel, the story is set in a fantasy version of modern-day Korea where portals allow magical beasts to enter our world. When the portals first appeared, certain humans discovered they had special abilities to fight the magical beasts. These humans became known as hunters.
Whenever a portal opens, the hunters enter to fight the beasts inside and close the portal. But hunters are not ranked equally. Some are extremely powerful, while others are so weak they can barely survive the fight.
Jinwoo has such a low power level, he’s earned the title, The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind. But he fights anyway, because his mother is in a magic-induced coma, and someone needs to pay for her medicine. And whether strong or weak, every hunter faces one limitation: they can’t change their power level. No matter how much they fight, none of them will get any stronger than they already are.
This is where Jinwoo’s story begins.
Although he has plenty of courage as a fighter, Jinwoo’s attacks are so weak that he nearly gets killed by the lowest-level monsters. But as long as he can survive the fight, he’ll get paid with the rest of the hunters.
Everything changes when Jinwoo’s team finds an unexpected extra dungeon within the portal they’re clearing. Enticed by the possibility of a bigger payoff, they decide to venture in. But it turns out to be trap. The next scene is both engrossing and terrifying as inhuman statues wreak havoc on the team, and what was supposed to be a routine raid turns into a bloodbath. Although Jinwoo is the weakest hunter, he is the only one able to solve the dungeon’s riddles and help some of his fellow hunters survive. In the end, too severely injured to flee, he sacrifices himself so that the remaining survivors can escape.
Just before his heart stops, he sees a strange message: Would he like to become the Player?
He accepts.
And just like that, everything changes.
In the next scene, Jinwoo awakens in a hospital bed. All of his wounds from the dungeon are gone. He soon learns what it means to be the player. He is the only hunter who is able to change his power level.
He can get stronger, and he does. He now has access to special portals where he can fight monsters alone, and he gets more powerful with every fight.
Season 2 started in Jan 2025. When last week’s episode dropped,there were so many people downloading it right away, it crashed the server. They brought the server back up, and it crashed again.
What makes this story so captivating?
Relatability
For starters, both the story and the character are relatable. People of the 2020’s find common ground with the idea of being surrounded by evil and feeling powerless to do anything about it. For many, it does feel like we’re stuck at a low power level. Who wouldn’t want to grow stronger and be able to fight back?
Watching Jinwoo go through this transformation is fun and inspiring. It’s also well-handled in the series. He doesn’t get strong right away, and even has to do daily, physical workouts, or the game sends him to a penalty zone. In his first solo fight, he’s not much stronger than he was at the beginning. He’s able to defeat the lowest level beasts for the first time, but the next ones still give him a run for his money.
During that first fight, there’s one moment where Jinwoo deftly flips a knife in his hand. It’s small, but significant. The old Jinwoo didn’t have even that much skill. It’s the first hint that something has changed, with a subtle promise of more to come.
Story Structure
The series also does a good job following classic story structure. Jinwoo’s situation at the beginning is one that you want to see him get out of. He’s likeable, but if something doesn’t change, he’s likely to die a pitiful death in some low-level dungeon.
The inciting incident is not only nailbiting and — seriously, terrifying — but it reveals more about Jinwoo that makes us want to root for him. He solves the puzzles, he’s chivalrous despite his weakness, and he’s as scared as anyone else but still has guts. All of this proves that he’s a character worth following.
After that, we enter a new world where Jinwoo no longer has to be weak. Although the inciting incident was something that happened to him, it was his choice that landed him where he is now. In the new world, it’s still his choices driving the action. He chooses to enter the solo dungeon and take on the boss when he probably isn’t quite ready. He chooses to keep getting stronger, but also decides to keep his rare power a secret because fame would get in the way of his goals. And just when it seems like he’s starting to figure things out, the story will throw in some new element that raises the stakes again.
Moral Complexity and Setting
It’s been said (probably) that power amplifies a person’s character. Bad character will translate to more powerful evil. Jinwoo demonstrated noble character in the beginning, but as he gains more power, the moral dilemmas he faces become more complex. He fights not only magical beasts but also murderous humans. His new skills carry a different weight when he’s forced to kill in order to save his own life.
The setting aids this complexity, because it has one very interesting character – the game. This faceless, godlike entity that is both setting and character is a constant reminder that Jinwoo is not in total control, no matter how strong he gets. Is the game a good guy, or a bad guy? Although it’s the reason that Jinwoo survived episode one, it’s also the reason that his life was endangered in the first place, and it serves as an unpredictable antagonist.
Throughout season one, Jinwoo strives to keep his unique power a secret—officially, he’s still ranked as a low-level hunter. But keeping his anonymity becomes more difficult as his power grows. This applies additional tension to the plot.
All of these story elements put together, plus some quality artwork and high-action fight scenes, create the kind of show that can crash a server.
Now that I’ve spent several paragraphs raving about it, a brief disclaimer: This is an adult series, and there are some bloody scenes on occasion, particularly in the beginning. It’s not a Christian show either, and there are some elements of game magic that are typical in a LitRPG type of story. This is one thing I myself am sensitive to, but Jinwoo fights with a sword and for the most part can’t use magic at all. For those characters that do use it, there are no spells, pentagrams, or witch hats, and it comes across more like superhero powers. But if you’re already a fan of the genre, you’ll find nothing objectionable.
