As believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, many of us have found 2020 to be a tough year to live out our faith calling. We have been constrained in many of the activities whereby we could have assisted in sharing hope with those in need in our world today.

However, we also know that enduring hardship helps us develop perseverance and grows our faith. With that in mind, I want to extend a call to my fellow Christians to put 2020 behind us and to build upon our trials as we begin 2021 with new resolve to spread God’s Word and advance His Kingdom.

So, here are my suggested Christian New Year’s Resolutions for 2021:

1. Take every thought captive. As negative or complaining thoughts come to mind about what happened in 2020, focus instead on a positive that resulted from it or how you can turn it into a positive for 2021.
2. Run the race that is set before us. Any competitive runner knows that, in order to win the race, you can’t let yourself be distracted by what the other runners are doing around you or keep looking back at what (or who) is behind you. You must stay focused on your course alone, eyes always forward. Let us not get distracted with all that is going on in culture and politics—and there is a lot—neither let us compare ourselves to others and their experiences. Our individual futures and spiritual growth are determined by us and God alone—no one else.
3. Take what we have learned into the New Year. One thing 2020 taught us was to adapt and pivot, to be flexible and creative in figuring out ways to still accomplish our goals. Those lessons can continue to serve us well as we have learned to expand the ways in which we can reach out to others and share the love of Jesus Christ despite a variety of obstacles or limitations.
4. Press on toward the prize. Never forget the end game of our individual activities and missions. The ultimate goal is to win souls for the kingdom, so we must prioritize our activity—especially as things begin to return to normal—and not let busyness prevent us from getting down to business. At The Hope Center, where I serve as president, we empower more than 60 different Christian ministries in expanding their impact. They do this in a variety of ways, from meeting physical needs of orphans in the developing world to counseling with families in crisis here in the U.S., but they universally focus on our Lord and Savior’s final commission to us: go and make disciples. May we each do the same, whatever our individual giftings and callings.
5. Prepare for the battles ahead. While we have long enjoyed the freedom of religion in our great nation, a different future may lie in store for evangelical Christianity. Even though our governmental system was founded on Judeo-Christian values, we have seen the gradual erosion of those values from our civil and public institutions. I fear it is only a matter of time before Christian organizations will not only no longer have freedom to act in accordance with biblical values but will be attacked for doing so. As followers of Jesus, it is more important than ever that we know what we believe, why we believe it and be willing to stand for those beliefs no matter the cost.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, will you join me in putting the past behind us and pressing on toward our future and the high calling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? {eoa}

Lt. Col. (ret.) Allen West is president and CEO of The Hope Center, a 501(c)(3) incubator of Christian ministries making a global impact for God’s Kingdom. It serves as a center point for Christian activity and ministry here in North Texas, providing professional resources, ideas, mentoring and training to empower ministries to magnify their reach. Lt. Col. West is a combat veteran, former Member of the U.S. Congress, an author and speaker, and chair of the Texas GOP.

How do we possess real peace and joy despite the very challenging circumstances we may have experienced in 2020?

Without Jesus Christ, the Bible says we are without hope in this world. Jesus died a horrific death on the cross, was buried and rose again. He did this to become the provision for our sin and to bring us hope.

We have the choice to turn away from sin, ask Him to forgive us and receive Him as our Lord and Savior. It is our choice to believe what He has done for us.

Watch the full teaching from Bill Wiese here.

This season has presented us with so many people having visions and dreams, and everyone truly believes their spiritual encounters are coming from the Holy Spirit. Only these visions and dreams are all over the place—either contradicting each other or a repeat of the evening news.

God doesn’t contradict Himself, and He doesn’t copy the news media. Some of these visions and dreams seem to have a wrong spirit on them altogether. They either carry a spirit of fear, or a foreboding spirit, or they reflect a paranoid conspiracy mindset. These visions and dreams do not seem like they are coming from a pure place, and we have to go back to some basics to get this back. We need purity. We need purity in the prophetic.

Any belief that holds us more strongly than the truth of His written Word will bend and distort His voice accordingly when it comes.

“Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes according to the multitude of his idols” (Ezek. 14:4).

What does it mean that God will answer an Israelite “according to the multitude of his idols”? When Ezekiel made reference to idols, he was referring to the vile practices of worshiping other gods in addition to worshiping Yahweh.

We can envision the wayward Israelite going off somewhere, perhaps to a shrine they have built at home or to a designated temple nearby, and then performing some kind of prayer, offering or ritual to a false god. No matter where they paid homage to a physical idol, this verse made it clear that the idol ruled them from the altar of their own hearts.

As a result, anything that God chose to say to them became shaded, influenced and voiced over by the idol.

Most Christians would not dare worship another god in this manner. Still we all have biases, personal bents, preferences and opinionated beliefs that were never written by the author, Jesus Christ. Our biases, our thinking and our preferences are not God’s thoughts.

Remember, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways (see Isaiah 55:8). We have to be disciplined to lay down all of our preferences, opinions and biases at His feet to truly hear or see the Lord’s voice with purity and to prophecy a pure word from the Lord. {eoa}

Jennifer Eivaz is a minister and international conference speaker with a heart to equip the church in the supernatural and for raising up passionate and effective prayer. She is a regular contributor to Charisma online and The Elijah List, has been featured on several Christian television shows, hosts the popular podcast Take Ten With Jenn and has authored several bestselling books, including Seeing the Supernatural and Glory Carriers. Jennifer released her fourth book, Prophetic Secrets, in August 2020. Jennifer lives with her husband, Ron, and their two children in Turlock, California, where she serves as an executive pastor at Harvest Church.

Why did you go through the wind, earthquakes and fire, prophet? Was it so that you could stay there or so that you could truly discover the Lord in His still, small voice?

From one next-gen prophet to another, this message will give you your marching orders for the year 2021!

1 Kings 19 shows the Lord revealing a new era to His church. Elijah stood on the mountain where high winds tore at his clothing, and the earth threatened to turn into dust; heat blasted his whole body as fire roared around him. Yet, the Lord was not in these chaotic events. Instead, He revealed Himself as a still, small voice.

Before this event, the people of Israel had only known the Lord in His power. They knew Him through the flooding of the world, the plagues of Egypt and the fire of mount Sinai. A new side of the Lord was being revealed on this day. God was now no longer just a God of power, but He was calling His people into an intimate relationship with Him.

As a church we keep asking the Lord for more fire and power. However, when was the last time you saw fire heal someone and high winds establish a foundation? The Lord made a statement to Elijah. He said, “I am not in the power you are seeking me for … I am in the still, small voice, and if you just listened and took the time to work with me, you would have your answers.”

It is up to us, prophets, to bring God’s fresh revelation and will down to earth. If there is one thing that my apostles, Craig and Colette Toach, taught me, it is that we, as prophets, are responsible to position ourselves for the Lord so that He can position the church through us.

The fire, the wind and the earthquakes were not for the people. They were for us. The trials we faced burned away all bitterness, all the stains of sin and every flaw that would stand in the way of the people seeing Jesus. Everything shook until all that remained was Christ crucified. This had to happen so that, at the end, God could bring us to the mountain to experience His still, small voice.

The church needs that experience, intimacy and heart that longs for the Lord. There is no one more qualified than us prophets to teach them and spread this message.

Your superpower isn’t in calling fire down from heaven. Even the prophets of Baal were asking their god to do that. No! Your power is in bringing the church back into a relationship with Jesus and teaching them to know Him as you know Him.

Don’t be afraid to be brash! Don’t be afraid to knock down some doors! Don’t be afraid to get into people’s ears because that is what the Lord created you for. He created you to rock the boat. The church will continue to experience a shaking like they did in 2020, but only a relationship with Jesus and a daily experience of Him will stabilize you.

Now is a time to build, establish, create and see growth in the church! It is up to you, prophet, to speak God’s will into the earth and establish His plans for the year to come. By the end of 2021, you will look back and see the work of your hands multiply and come into fruition.

I echo apostle Colette Toach’s words from this podcast: “Stop asking to be positioned! You already are. You may not like it, but the Lord went through a lot of effort to place you where you were most needed! So, stop looking around trying to see where else you could be. Rather, start getting quiet so that you can hear the Lord’s voice and start building where you are today.”

Now, get connected. Subscribe to the Next Gen Prophets podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network to get your weekly direction and prophetic mentorship with apostles Craig and Colette Toach!

Then, get your free e-book called I’m not Crazy I’m a Prophet, by heading to

You were groomed for this, prophet, and you were anointed for it. Simply walk out the grace and calling that the Lord has given you. Put your hand to the plow and prepare the church for the Lord’s will in 2021! {eoa}

As this challenging year of 2020 winds down, millions of Americans are looking forward to better, brighter days. On this topic, bestselling author Jonathan Cahn, known worldwide as the creator of one of the year’s biggest publishing successes, The Harbinger II: The Return, has a key message: There are prophetic, biblical explanations for the many trials we have experienced—and an even stronger message for what we must do moving forward.

Among other revelations, Cahn—in The Harbinger II: The Return—pinpoints a specific day on the Hebrew calendar that brims with significance. And he reveals how America is following a template from Jeremiah 39 that leads to judgment.

In a recent interview with Shannon Scholten on Voice of Truth, Cahn discussed the vital prophesies contained within The Harbinger II: The Return.

“When you look at the judgment of Judah, the southern kingdom that had rebelled against God, there was a day that sealed that judgment,” Cahn explained. “It was the day the walls of the city were breached by the Babylonians.” Once that happened, Cahn said, “Judah’s hedge of protection was gone. The king fled the city—and those who were supposed to be defending the walls took off, so the defense was broken through.”

Added Cahn, “It happened on the ninth day of the fourth month. The fourth month of the Hebrew year is Tammuz, so the Ninth of Tammuz was the day that the end began. It became a day of sorrow, fasting and mourning—the day that sealed the destruction of Judah.”

Cahn then revealed how this occurrence foreshadowed the breaking of America’s own “hedge of protection.” “For the first time in history, the Supreme Court redefined marriage. They basically struck down biblical, or traditional, marriage as it has always been. This is major,” Cahn continued, “because God made marriage. If you change it, you’re messing with a vessel of God. So what happened on that day in American history was gigantic, and it is still affecting all of us. It’s affecting religious freedom. It’s affecting everything.”

Cahn is referring, of course, to June 26, 2015—the very date on the Hebrew calendar that is the Ninth of Tammuz. On that exact date, said Cahn, the Supreme Court insisted that the U.S. Constitution protects same-sex marriage—and “it’s the day when the defenses of American civilization were gone. This is an absolute, gigantic warning.”

In The Harbinger II: The Return, Cahn says that when a nation turns away from God and its very foundations, that turning of spirit “will inevitably lead to a turning of values, the changing of standards, laws and precepts.” Cahn urges Americans to pray, repent and seek God’s blessing. “If a nation should uphold the ways of the Almighty, then it shall be upheld. But if it should pass judgment upon the ways of the Almighty, then upon that nation shall the judgment of the Almighty be passed. A return to God and His ways is the only hope for America.”

With the release of The Harbinger II: The Return, on Sept. 1, 2020, thousands of new fans all around the world have embraced Cahn’s messages and prophesies. His new book, available for purchase online and everywhere, made the Amazon Bestsellers Top 10 lists of all books in the world and took three of the top 10 spots on Amazon’s Christian Books for print, Kindle and audio—each charting as a Top 10 Bestseller, including No. 1 Christian Prophecy and No. 1 Christian Prophecies. The Harbinger II also catapulted Cahn’s earlier books back onto bestseller lists, including The Oracle, The Paradigm, and The Harbinger.

The author has made multiple media appearances, including on CBN’s 700 Club, TBN’s Praise, and Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson. Cahn is continuing to do TV and radio interviews.

Cahn’s first book, The Harbinger, became an instant New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2012. His next four books were also New York Times bestsellers: The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, The Paradigm, and The Oracle. Along with Billy Graham and Keith Greene, Cahn was named one of the top 40 spiritual leaders of the past 40 years who has radically impacted the world.

Called the prophetic voice of this generation, Cahn has spoken on Capitol Hill, at the United Nations and to millions around the world. Cahn is known for opening the deep mysteries of Scripture and bringing forth messages of prophetic import. He leads Hope of the World ministry, an international outreach of teaching, evangelism and compassion projects for the world’s neediest. He also leads the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, a worship center made up of Jews and Gentiles, and people of all backgrounds, outside New York City in Wayne, New Jersey. His ministry can be contacted at and on Jonathan Cahn Facebook.

For more information about The Harbinger II, visit . The Harbinger II: The Return is published by Frontline, an imprint of Charisma House. {eoa}

Did your Christmas shopping get out of hand this past year? In the midst of COVID-19, online sales exploded. In fact, many people have confessed to shopping till their fingers dropped in a failed attempt to make up to friends and family for the many losses of the pandemic and lockdown.

No matter what our excuse, it seems we can find plenty of reasons to take our focus off the true meaning of Christmas. And that’s what Allison Hottinger found was happening several years ago with her five children. Appearing on a recent episode of the Family Matters series on Charisma News with her sister and co-creator of the Giving Manger set, Lisa Kalberer, Hottinger tells host Marti Pieper, “When my children were younger … they were just making Christmas lists like all kids do. But the list just kept getting longer and longer. And I just felt like that’s what they were mostly focused on; Christmas was just what they were gonna get. And they wanted to be good so they could get presents.

“And I remember turning to my husband one day and just saying, ‘This is not what I want Christmas to be about in our home,” Hottinger says.

Hottinger relays that over the next few weeks, God brought to mind a childhood memory of a friend whose family kept a simple manger on the mantel at Christmastime. The friend told her, “Each time we do something nice for somebody else, we get to put a piece of straw in the manger; we try to make a soft bed for the baby Jesus.’ And I said, ‘Well, do you put a baby Jesus in at the end?’ Hottinger says. “She said, ‘No.'”

Hottinger she recalled none of this until 20 years later, when she was searching for ways to make their own family Christmas more meaningful. She couldn’t find what she wanted online, so her husband made the very first Giving Manger. Hottinger and her husband began their own tradition of placing a piece of straw in the manger to create a bed for baby Jesus each time anyone in the family did an act of kindness.

“And that Christmas, my kids weren’t super excited,” she says. “But slowly over that Christmas season, as we gave and I served them and then they served others, their hearts really shifted and completely changed our Christmas season. And it’s changed it so it’s better and the way I want it to be every year since then.” Hottinger says their tradition grew to include family acts of kindness and that, as the tradition continued, her children began planning their own ways to serve others.

The Hottinger family’s experience with their Giving Manger soon expanded to include Hottinger’s sister, Lisa Kalberer, and more and more of their friends wanted a Giving Manger of their own. But expanding the idea seemed impossible. “It really wasn’t the best timing, because I had recently been diagnosed with MS. And Allison had five little kids,” Kalberer says. “We prayed on it a lot.”

Still, the sisters couldn’t let the idea go. “We both just really felt this call to do it,” Hottinger says. “And it’s been such a blessing in our lives. It’s hard; it’s been so challenging. … It’s really the emails that we get and the comments and the pictures that are sent of people giving and their Christmas is being changed. It’s blessed our life more than I could ever imagine.”

Before long, the two partnered in a business that eventually culminated in the Giving Manger set, which includes a book to help draw children into the project; a wooden manger; a bundle of straw, with pieces to add to the manger after each individual or family act of kindness; and a sturdy baby Jesus figure to place in the manger on Christmas Day. Today, the Giving Manger project has become an entire online community, the sisters say. Members exchange photos, praises and ideas about how they are using this set to help keep their family’s Christmas focused on Christ.

If you’d like to help ensure your family’s 2021 Christmas stays focused on Christ, listen to this episode of the Family Matters series to hear the entire story of the Giving Manger, and connect with the Giving Manger family at and on Facebook and Instagram. {eoa}

God always gives me a word for the year. It’s usually a word I either think I know or don’t want to spend time thinking about. This was more than true with the word He gave me for 2021. It is the word “more.”

The first thing I thought when He gave me the word was, What more, God? I don’t want more. More means I have more to do, more to handle. I’m not sure I like this word.

More Than Conquerors

Here’s the deal: God doesn’t care if I like it or not. He wants me to understand and experience what the word means. So I looked up Scripture for the word “more”. Romans 8: 37 stood out to me in a major way. In The Passion Translation it says, “Yet even in the midst of all these things, we triumph over them all, for God has made us to be more than conquerors, and His demonstrated love is our glorious victory over everything.”

In the verses right before this, Paul is talking about who or what can separate us from God’s love? He tells us that nothing can do that. He says, “Troubles, pressures, and problems are unable to come between us and heaven’s love” (Rom. 8:35b). We are more than conquerors over all these things.

After the year we’ve had, this is really good to know. We don’t want more of what 2020 brought us, but if it does come, we know we are more than conquerors over whatever the new year throws at us.

The Challenge of More

When I read Proverbs 25:16, TPT, it stopped in my tracks. Of course, my lifelong battle with sugar addiction caused me to stop here, but I have read Proverbs through many times and not really read this verse. Today, though, was different.

Here’s what this verse says: “When you discover something sweet, don’t overindulge and eat more than you need, for excess in anything can make you sick of even a good thing.”

The word “more” has challenges, and this describes those challenges in a nutshell. We always want more, but more comes with difficulties of its own. I have to admit, when I finally accepted that God’s word for me this year was “more,” I was a little scared that might mean more money.

Don’t get me wrong, money is great. Money managed correctly can impact the kingdom of God in phenomenal ways. It’s just that lots of money is more (there’s that word again) than I want to try to manage.

Do We Really Want More?

I look at those I know who are making a lot more money than I am and I think, I don’t want to be that stressed or that busy. While it is true that I do like to keep myself occupied, I’ve also learned that more money does means more issues.

We always say we want more, but it comes with a price and that is the price of our souls. We can get so entangled in always wanting more that we lose sight of what is really important to us. As Mark 8:37 says, “What could be more valuable to you than your own soul?” Notice the word “more” in that sentence. There are some things more valuable than even money.

When we focus on the more that we want, such as more food, more money, more cars, more furniture, more electronics, more things to comfort us, we lose focus of what God wants for us.

All of that is wrapped up in Proverbs 25:16. When we overindulge to excess in anything the world offers, it can make us sick. Excess in anything can make us sick of even things that appear to be good. Money is good. It can do good things. Food is good. We need it to fuel our bodies. We just need to view these things through God’s eyes. And this is the great challenge of more.

Where Our Focus Should Be

Although more has its challenges, it also has its upside. If our focus is in the right place, it won’t matter what God brings to us because we will use it correctly to help expand His kingdom, not ours. If we focus on things like more of Jesus, more grace and more dreams that He has for us to accomplish, we will be headed in the right direction.

God has calmed my fears about the word “more.” Now I can’t wait to see what 2021 brings. The “more” He is whispering to me is not more calamity and chaos, but more of Him in everything I do and every day I live.

For more about what we should focus on, go here to listen to episode 61 of the Sweet Grace for Your Journey podcast, The Challenge of More.

Another more you will want to investigate is one more book of mine. It’s my new book, Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds, and it is live on Amazon in paperback and Kindle; visit this link to find it. {eoa}

Teresa Shields Parker is the author of six books and two study guides, including her No. 1 bestseller, Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds. Her sixth book, Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds, is available for preorder. She blogs at . She is also a Christian weight loss coach (check out her coaching group at Overcomers Academy) and speaker. Don’t miss her podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey, available on the Charisma Podcast Network.

This article originally appeared at .

Eleven Senate Republicans say they will object to certifying the 2020 election Jan. 6 when Congress convenes for the historic joint session.

The results of December’s Electoral College vote will be counted that day in Congress. As the count approaches, both House and Senate legislators are going public with plans to officially object to an election they believe to be fraught with illegal vote scams by Democrats, including both fake ballots and corrupting voting machines.

GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, Texas; Ron Johnson, Wis.; James Lankford, Okla.; Steve Daines, Mont.; John Kennedy, La.; Marsha Blackburn, Tenn.; and Mike Braun, Ind.; and GOP Cynthia Lummis, Wyo.; Roger Marshall, Kan.; Bill Hagerty, Tenn.; and Tommy Tuberville, Ala.; said in a joint statement that they will vote against accepting the election results until there is a 10-day audit.

Their effort is separate from one announced Wednesday by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who said he will object to the failure of some states—most prominently Pennsylvania—to follow their own election laws.

“Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed,” the lawmakers said Saturday in a statement. “By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”

In the House, it’s said that at least 140 members will vote against counting the electoral votes Jan. 6—the day many Americans have expected the next president to be announced.

The election has been contested for two months—and President Donald J. Trump has never conceded. Having both U.S. representatives and senators prepared to oppose the vote will force lawmakers to vote on whether to accept the election results as they have been reported. {eoa}

To spend time with attorney Lin Wood is to be energized, empowered, have your faith amped up and wonder why he didn’t become an evangelist. In addition to faith, he has an equal dose of good old-fashioned common sense.

In a digital world where every pronouncement is audience-tested and filtered, Wood speaks from his heart and with a background in law of representing a half-century and celebrity cases ranging from the defense of Richard Jewell, the security guard who was falsely blamed for the Atlanta Olympics bombing; the family of JonBenet Ramsey; former Congressman Gary Condit; Herman Cain; the victim of Kobe Bryant; the successful defense of Nicholas Sandmann against CNN; and most recently defending President Donald J. Trump with attorney Sidney Powell.

“I found God when I was 14 in my local Baptist church and, after giving a sermon at my church, was told by those at the church that God had called me to be a preacher, but I went away from the Lord at 16 when my beloved mother died—but God never walked away from me,” Wood says.

He went on to testify:

Two years ago, at 66, I was diagnosed with a macular hole in my eye from a degenerative disease and was forced by the treatment to keep my head down until it healed. I was suddenly faced with my mortality and began to look back at my life and ask what it had all been about.

At the height of my illness, I began to reach the 23rd psalm every night and was confronted with the simple fact that God is real. I surrendered my life to Him—that was just two years ago.

Wood joins an emerging army led by Trump of the so-called “deplorables,” who are leading what he believes is a spiritual awakening that, in many ways, is happening apart from the established church and is being led by those who have often found Christ late in life and after turbulent lifestyles. Their attitudes contrast those of some who have grown up in the church and take so much for granted.

Wood was first invited to the White House by the president on March 11, 2020, at the beginning of the Chinese bioweapon attack. From that time, he has supported the president in multiple legal challenges, sensing when they met that the president, too, had found God later in life and he was called to be the president for a second term.

Bestselling author of God, Trump and the 2020 Election Stephen Strang writes, “a second term for President Trump is vital to America’s well-being so he can finish the job he has started and fulfill his unique calling as America’s political reformer,” echoing Daniel 2:21: He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding

“I believe that President Trump will go through, and we all need to have faith, have patience and wait on the Lord, in addition to doing all we can to support the president in prayer, showing up at the upcoming rallies and flooding our representatives with calls. This coming Sunday, we need to pack our churches in a strong sign of support for our faith and our beloved president,” Wood says. “In a profound act of spiritual warfare, pack your church this Sunday.” {eoa}

Amir George is on parlor @Amir George.

With the new year underway, Larry Tomczak encourages believers to press into God, past fear and anxiety.

“God does not want you to be fearful in any way in the new year,” he says. God loves you. He sets His love upon you.”

Is this 10-minute video commentary, Tomczak provides insights into how to be strengthened, focused and persevere in building your faith and the kingdom of God well, in a way that will withstand the tests and trials of the world. {eoa}