James Robison Talks to Steve Strang About His New Book, God and Donald Trump
By James Robison Published on November 3, 2017
https://stream.org/a-conversation-wi...-donald-trump/
Editor’s Note: Stream founder James Robison talked with Charisma Magazine publisher and author Steve Strang about his new book God and Donald Trump. They discussed the miraculous events surrounding the 2016 election, Trump’s willingness to hear the truth and how God can use an imperfect person to do His will. Pray for the President for wisdom and guidance as he travels to Asia.
James Robison: You have written the book God and Donald Trump. And I shared with you because of the amount of time I’d spent with him and the amazing journey that the two of us had in our conversations and extensive time together.
Why did you feel so strongly that you had to write this book?...
Steve Strang: ...I wrote the book because I felt that when we had the discussion about what has been happening in our country, God is left out nearly everywhere except in Christian circles. Hillary Clinton wrote a book about the election called What Happened. My book God and Donald Trump answers that question.
The answer is God intervened. Many Christians had been praying about the direction our country was going in. It was going further and further to the left, almost socialistic in some ways. And the moral decadence has been increasing. God raised up a man we did not expect, and maybe didn’t even like. Maybe we didn’t even want him, but God raised up a man to help shift our country. I believe that, in the year since he was elected, there has been a shift.....
Robison: ....This is what I hope every reader will understand: God gave us a man who is fearless and tireless. Who was fed up with political correctness and a manipulative, out of control media and a government masquerading as a new form of Caesar or Pharaoh. The people who didn’t want Caesar, who want God and depend on God not government, along with all of the common sense Americans — who were fed up with political correctness, fed up with an out of control government, fed up with politicians they can’t trust — they’re the ones who put President Trump in office. Evangelical Christians and people sensitive enough to hear what you and I began to hear — God can use this man.
When the other candidates like Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry began to tell me, “This is the man strong enough to do what has to be done. He’s not concerned about his wealth. He knows he can get it again. He’s concerned about America. This man wants to do what is best for America.” I don’t think he is thinking about Donald Trump or his family, except that he loves them and wants them to have the same freedom he enjoys. I believe this man has lost himself in what is best for the American people. We still don’t always like the way he approaches things. Some of his tweets concern us. The past concerns us, but all of our pasts have to be dealt with by the grace and mercy of God. I really believe God was answering people’s prayers and I sense you bore witness to that.....
Strang: ....Remember the famous quote by Benjamin Franklin, who was no choir boy as we know, in the Constitutional Convention. He said, “God is involved in the affairs of men” as the Constitution was being written. We’ve lost that in our country. Not very many people in the public say that kind of thing anymore. Yet God answered our prayers that Donald Trump would be elected and Hillary Clinton would be defeated. It wasn’t just her leftist views. There are a number of other Democrats that might have gotten the nomination that would have been as far left as her, or even more so — such as Bernie Sanders. She brought a level of corruption the likes of which our country has never seen before. God spared us. A number of people in the book said that they feel that God has given us a reprieve. A window of opportunity to do something in our country and in our culture to turn this country back to God — which is how it all started with the founding fathers, based on Christian principles, as you well know.
Robison: I think people would wonder: Why would God want to reach out to a nation that has been so blessed, and yet has sinned against more light and more truth than perhaps any other nation all the way back to Israel? Why did Jesus offer to a city and to a people the shelter of God’s wings and covering, even though they rejected the prophets? He still invited them to come to that shelter and He could give them what He wanted — the life and freedom He offers. We don’t need to speculate about why God would do that for America. Maybe it’s because we were birthed by people who said, “We’re not going to worship Caesar.”....
Strang: ... Earlier you mentioned Donald Trump’s tweets and certain things he does that we don’t approve of. I’ve raised my eyebrows at some of the tweets. In the period leading up to the inauguration, he was saying his phones were tapped by the government and everyone thought he was crazy. Well, it’s turning out again and again that some of these things that initially sounded crazy are actually true. He is having to fight the entire system, we call it the “deep state.”
Some of the crazy things he did — he had a reputation as a playboy, a billionaire, reality TV star. But about ten years ago, something happened. He got much more serious. He cleaned up his act. He started thinking about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. About that time he called Paula White. I’ve known her for a long, long time and knew her back in that era. She told us that one day her secretary came in and said, “Donald Trump is on the line.” She thought, “Why in the world would he want to talk with me?” She took the call. He said, “Paula, I’ve been watching you on TV. I like you. Would you be willing to come to Trump Tower to talk to me?” She was willing to do that and a friendship developed. (I talk about all of this in the book.)
In 2012, when Donald Trump was thinking of running, he called Paula and said, “Paula, I need you to call together some of your preacher friends who know how to pray. I’m not going to ask them to endorse me. I’m going to ask them to pray if it’s God’s will for me to run.” That shows a lot about his character right there.
When he did run in 2016, he reconnected with Paula. She invited a lot of these same people. They were some of the Christians (mostly of the Pentecostal bent) who would meet with him and lay hands on him to pray for him. Someone would always take a video and it would be on YouTube. I watched some of those videos and transcribed some of the prayers by Paula White, Kenneth Copeland and so on.
When I saw them, I thought to myself, “I can’t imagine another politician allowing himself to be prayed for like that.” You’ve been around power much more than I have, but I have been around four presidents in different settings generally during the elections when they were trying to curry our votes. I can’t even remember a prayer being said let alone in the Pentecostal style of gathering around and everyone puts their hands on your back and prays. Donald Trump seemed to enjoy this. It happened not once, but many times. It also happened in public when he would speak at a church and leaders would come up and pray for him and Mike Pence. (There is actually a picture in the book of one of these settings.)
Robison: ....If Donald Trump was totally controlled by pride, he wouldn’t let certain groups pray for him or even be seen with him. Let’s quit talking about it. Let’s say, “Worthy is the Lamb! It’s all your grace, God. You’re the One who covers us and cleanses us and gives us new life. We all need it. Everyone in this country needs it. This is what I say when I’m with the President and say to every person. I proclaim the Gospel!
Here’s what I believe and I said it to you — I believe this man wants to know the will of God and He wants the will of God for the country and the people. That means the poor. He’s not trying to take care of the rich. Quit singling people out. Quit criticizing these people. They are not your enemy. Anytime you put a tax burden on anyone, that burden comes on all the people — especially the poor. We’ve got to get Caesar and Pharaoh off the backs of people. I believe this man wants to help do that....
Strang: I agree with you 100 percent. A few days ago I was with Dr. James Dobson (the radio program will air in a couple of weeks). He wanted to know why it was that the charismatics seemed to rally around Donald Trump early, when some of the more mainline evangelicals were backing Cruz or Huckabee. At first I thought, I don’t know. Then quickly I realized — first of all they were invited to come and pray with him. He was open to them. He’s not the brash person you see in the media. He’s very gentle and kind. That was my impression when I interviewed him. I was surprised and I found other people showed that he is humble. There are some things he has said that show his humility like during the Republican Convention when he was accepting the nomination he talked about how the evangelicals had backed him. In the election evangelicals backed him 82%. At that point the points showed good support. He goes off script and says, “And I don’t even know if I deserve their support” which I think shows humility.
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