In a now-viral clip, Christian recording artist Tauren Wells paused mid-concert to pray for fellow singer-songwriter Forrest Frank. But that moment almost didn’t happen.
“I kind of argued with God about it,” Wells said on CBN’s “Faith in Culture,” recalling the moments before he led a prayer for Frank at the Ohio State Fair, where he was performing a show just days after the “God Is Good” singer revealed he had fractured two vertebrae in his back.
The 39-year-old Wells said he tried reasoning with God, wondering when during the show he should pray and whether he should pray at all, because it was a state-run event.
Then God intervened, making His desire for prayer abundantly clear to the “Fight Like Heaven” singer.
“At the end of the song we were singing, all of our in-ear [monitor] packs went out, so the only thing that worked was my microphone,” said Wells. “I could no longer hear any of the music, and I thought, ‘Alright, Lord. You win.’ So it seems very noble and so spiritual, but I was arguing with God the whole way.”
Ultimately, Wells said, he was grateful for the opportunity to pray for Frank because he felt it would be “an encouragement” to the 30-year-old singer who was recovering from a painful back injury that was miraculously healed just days after Wells’ prayer.
The “Take It All Back” singer went on to assert — whether it’s injuries like Frank’s or David Crowder’s or the exposure of the allegations against former Newsboys frontman Michael Tait — the Christian music industry is facing spiritual attacks.
“I think it’s because Christian music is on the rise,” he said. “Christian music consumption is up significantly in the last five years and, so, whenever God begins to elevate something, of course, the enemy has planted seeds to dismantle what God has designed in the infancy of that thing.”
Wells continued, “We’re not just seeing some sin that has taken place in the present. It’s a pulling out of sin in the past, because the enemy is always trying to have tares growing with the wheat,” a reference to Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13.
“I think God is separating those tares [or weeds] from the wheat and, ultimately, His kingdom wins, His name is elevated, the Gospel is preached, and honestly, sin doesn’t get to have the final say — even in the lives of some of these individuals who have fallen, who have made mistakes, who have allowed the enemy to win in their lives,” Wells said. “If they surrender and repent and turn from that sin, we serve a faithful God Who is full of grace and mercy and Who is just and able to forgive.”
Extrapolated out, Wells went on to explain he believes all the evil in the world — from the assassination of Charlie Kirk to the deadly rampage against a Mormon congregation in Michigan — are examples “of how there are actual strategies and schemes that the power[s] of darkness are using to undermine and hold back the people of God and the kingdom of God.”
“Whatever we are ignorant of we are subject to,” he said. “And, if we are ignorant of what the devil is doing in the world, then we are subject to that power.”
However, he said, Christians are not “weaponless” or “powerless” in the spiritual “fight,” referencing Ephesians 6:12-13 (ESV), in which the Apostle Paul wrote:
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.
“God has given us weapons that actually have the power to overwhelm and overcome our enemies,” said Wells. “And it is, No. 1, clarifying who the enemy actually is. The enemy of our soul[s] is not in Washington, D.C., the enemy of our soul[s] is not hidden underground somewhere in some cave, the enemy of our soul[s] exists in heavenly realms and spiritual forces use people as pawns and what the trick of the enemy is is to get us fighting people to the right or people to the left when that is not where the real battle is. It’s a spiritual battle. It requires spiritual solutions.”
“We give so much ground to the enemy when the church misses this one thing — prayer,” he continued. “Prayer, intercession, [and] fasting [are] some of our No. 1 tools to actually hold back the kingdom of darkness and advance the Gospel in the world.”
Watch our full discussion with Wells in the “Faith in Culture” episode above.
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