You Cannot Stop Me!': Pastor Who Was Lambasted for Quest to Buy $65 Million Jet Blames the 'Devil' and Delivers Fiery Defense That Leaves His Congregation Cheering

Pastor Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church International, who was showered with criticism last month after he launched an effort to raise millions for the purchase of a highly coveted aircraft, offered a fiery and passionate defense of himself over the weekend.

Dollar came under fire after launching the Project G650 campaign, asking donors to help him buy a $65 million Gulfstream G650 jet — one that Business Insider recently called, the "biggest, fastest, and overall best private jet money can buy" — before taking his fundraising appeal offline amid controversy.

But he's now defending his ministry's quest for the aircraft, claiming in a sermon he delivered on Sunday that the "devil tried so aggressively to discredit [his] voice."

Screen shot from Creflo Dollar Ministries website

"The enemy has got to discredit the voices of faith, and grace and truth, because he don't want you to know that you can walk on the water if you can look at Jesus," Dollar told his congregation, going on to seemingly paraphrase Satan. "'I got to discredit that man before he starts showing people Jesus.'"

He offered a passionate defense of his quest to raise millions for the Gulfstream G650, saying that he was merely believing that God could provide his ministry with a tool that he says was much-needed.

"I can believe God as long as I want to. If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me," he said, taking aim at his critics. "You cannot stop me from dreaming. You can't stop me from dreaming! I'm going to dream until Jesus comes!"

And he wasn't done there, going on to say that he'd dream for a billion dollar spacecraft if it were deemed necessary.

"If they discover life on Mars, if you think a $65 million plane was too much — if they discovered that there's life on Mars, they're going to need to hear the gospel and I'm going to have to believe God for a billion dollar space shuttle," he said. "Because we got to preach the gospel on Mars. I dare you to tell me I can't dream!"

At this point, the congregation went wild with cheers and applause.

"Don't dream about what you can have," he said, calling on members to hope for the best house, best car and the overall best in their lives. "Dream about what the devil says you can't have."

He continued, "You cannot stop ... what God has blessed."

Watch Dollar's defense here:

As TheBlaze previously reported, the Project G650 website was set up to encourage 200,000 people to donate $300 or more so that Dollar could purchase the coveted jet, though it was taken offline not long after its launch.

The Gulfstream G650 was slated to replace the current airplane that his ministry has been using since 1999. That plane was built in 1984 and, according to a video produced by the ministry, it recently experienced serious technical difficulties that put Dollar and his family in danger.

“Recently on an overseas trip to a global conference, one of the engines failed,” the televangelist’s website explains. “By the grace of God, the expert pilot, who’s flown with Creflo for almost 20 years, landed the plane safely without injury or harm to any passengers.”

Read more about the debate here.

(H/T: Charisma News)