With the embers of revival fire spreading to more college campuses, students at Asbury University are filled with the renewing power of the Holy Spirit and sharing what the Lord has taught them.

In a world that batters people in a seemingly endless cycle of despair, hopelessness and fear, these young believers are invigorated with a hope and joy that only the Lord could pour out upon them.

This is causing other students to recognize what is going on in the hearts of those filled with Christ and making them want it as well.

“They’re seeing joyful people, they’re seeing fulfilled people and they’re going, I don’t know what they have, but I’m interested in that,” said Asbury senior Isaiah Friedeman in an interview with Fox News.

Friedeman, like many of his generation, has searched for answers to the issues they see plaguing the world today.

How do they fix it? What is the answer to life’s problems?

“Something that everyone can agree on whether you’re a Christian or not is that the world is messed up. We look around; we see brokenness and poverty. We see hurt and pain. So, the question is, what is the remedy to that?” Friedeman says. “I think we’re starting to see that politics isn’t the remedy to that. There aren’t human leaders that can be the remedy to that. Every time we put our faith in those things, they fall down.”

The amazing outpouring of God’s Spirit brought with it the healing love that mends relationships between quarreling parties.

Asbury Student Body President Alison Perfater shared about the unity that came with the presence of the Holy Spirit and how it healed division among her fellow students.

“The amount of people that are in Hughes who I know that hated each other for decisions they made are now praying together, worshipping together and laughing together. However, I can, in little human words, express the opposite of pain; that’s what it is,” she said.

Graduate assistant Mia Lush joined her fellow students in pointing back to the remedy for all of these issues confronting these young adults in today’s society.

“It’s not social media, it’s not sports, it’s not academics, it’s not self-identity, it’s Jesus,” she said. “We’re in this place where we don’t know what’s happening to the world, and it’s hard being a Christian today. I think it’s something we’ve needed so bad, and I don’t even think we knew we needed it.”

As revival for the Asbury students enters into a new season, God is far from finished moving within America.

Reports of revival, and prayers for revival, have sprouted up across the country at places like Lee University, Cedarville University, Baylor, LSU and Bakersfield, California, just to name a few.

God is looking for repentant hearts that are willing to die to themselves and allow Him to mold them and shape them into His righteousness.

America does have a chance at being great again, to being a united country filled with love and hope instead of division, anxiety and depression. And it all begins with putting Jesus Christ, the hope and salvation for all of humanity, front and center. {eoa}

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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.

For years, Chick-Fil-A and its owner, Dan Cathy, have been under scrutiny from the LGBTQ community for its Christian beliefs and values. In 2020, the company released a statement saying it would work exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger.

In recent years, many other restaurants and companies have bowed to the protests from the LGBTQ agenda to support their cause. After a phone call with Cathy during the past week, Evangelist Franklin Graham says Chick-Fil-A will not bow to the culture and give into the pressures from the gay community.

“Has Chick-Fil-A caved?,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post. “Some are saying they’ve rolled over, that they’ve conceded to the LGBTQ protests because they released a statement about their charitable giving. They announced that, in 2020, they are giving to fight hunger and homeless and to support education. What’s wrong with that?

“I picked up the phone and called Dan Cathy. Dan was very clear that they have not bowed down to anyone’s demands, including the LGBTQ community. They will continue to support whoever they want to support. They haven’t changed who they are or what they believe. Chick-Fil-A remains committed to Christian values.

“Dan Cathy assured me this isn’t going to change. I hope all of those who jumped to the wrong conclusion about them read this.”

The National LGBTQ Task Force says the controversy with Chick-Fil-A stems from “the millions of dollars the fast-food chain has donated to anti-LGBT and alleged hate groups over the years, and to President Dan Cathy’s support for traditional marriage.

But Cathy’s company is simply choosing to give money to support other causes.

Chick-Fil-A’s website says, that in 2020, the company committed $9 to the above-mentioned initiatives. To support education, the company expanded its partnership with Junior Achievement USA, which fosters work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills in students.

The company also addresses youth homelessness, and expanded its partnership with Covenant House International. To fight hunger, Chick-Fil-A supports more than 120 communities by dedicating $25,000 to a local food bank at each new Chick-Fil-A opening.

Restaurant chains like McDonald’s and Burger King publicize, if not outright flaunt, their relationship with the LGBTQ community. Chick-Fil-A refuses to do so.

Graham says the gay community, in his opinion, “wouldn’t ever be happy with Chick-Fil-A unless …

“They were open on Sunday (which no Chick-Fil-A restaurant is in order to honor God), gave all of their charitable donations to LGBTQ organizations and flew the rainbow flag over their stores,” Graham wrote. “Their hatred for Chick-Fil-A is rooted in founder Truett Cathy’s strong stand for biblical ‘traditional’ values and his desire to honor God.”

As long as Chick-Fil-A continues its biblical values, Graham says, the company will continue to be successful.”

“No fast-food chain does a better job. I went through the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A yesterday morning and I thought I might get dinner there—but a whole lot of other people had the same idea!” Graham wrote. {eoa}

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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.

Here’s a quick summary of the top stories on :

Holy Spirit Uprising Hits Another Secular University

Unlike the revival at Asbury University in Kentucky this month, the Holy Spirit has been working on the campus of Texas A&M University Corpus Christi for quite some time now.

Students at TAMUCC—many of whom attend New Life Church in Corpus Christi, Texas—have shown their boldness for Christ for many months, leading to many salvations, baptisms and healings at the secular university.

Last Friday night, nearly a couple hundred people gathered for at TAMUCC to prayer for revival for not only their school, but also for America. The event lasted for five hours.

‘Jesus Revolution’ Experiences Double Portion at Box Office

Originally projected to bring in $7 million during its opening weekend, the Erwin brothers latest film “Jesus Revolution” raked in more than twice that amount and became the third highest-grossing movie over the weekend as the nation continues to experience revival.

The Lionsgate movie “Jesus Revolution” brought in a total of $15,525,000 in more than 2,400 theaters.

The movie’s performance at the box office surprised many, but then a lot of people continue to underestimate God and the pockets of revival that continue to happen throughout the country. A headline from the Washington Examiner read, “Frasier Star Kelsey Grammer and Jesus Revolution Shock Box Office with No. 3 Open.”

Proof That God Is on the Move in America

As the outpouring that began at Asbury University continues to spread, some of the signs may not involve massive worship services in an auditorium. There’s still plenty of proof that God is on the move, like outdoor prayer gatherings and baptisms at more colleges, even secular ones that don’t have regular chapel times.

Spontaneous worship, repentance and prayers continue at Texas A&M.

“2nd night! Jesus is JUST GETTING STARTED,” Grant Bynum wrote. “This is REAL. Worship, repentance, prayers, no leaders. Physical healing. Baptism. Crowds bigger than last night. It’s not religion. It’s just meeting JESUS. Jesus! Had to leave a 1 am, but it was still going on! GO TO: Aggie Park 8:30 every night!” {eoa}

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An unofficial list of schools, churches and entire nations in revival like the Holy Spirit’s outpouring at Asbury University in Kentucky includes more than 31 locations.

Dr. Jim Garlow, a pastor, best-selling author, historian and commentator who has spoken and written about the Asbury awakening since it began Feb. 8, believes an official list of places experiencing revival—when compiled—will include hundreds of locations.

Garlow posted on his Facebook page a page of revival hot spots that includes six locations in Kentucky, and places as far away from where the outpouring began in Wilmore as Maine, Minnesota and Michigan in the United States, with awakenings from nearly coast to coast.

Nations on Garlow’s informal tally of Holy Spirit outpourings include Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia and Africa.

In another Asbury update, Garlow writes that revival has hit Uganda.

A ministry leader who traveled to Uganda before the revival began at Asbury says there are similarities between the Lord’s moving in Kentucky and what the Holy Spirit is doing in the western part of the African nation.

Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Scott Curry says his ministry Real Christian Life witnessed demons leaving people who put their faith in Jesus for the first time—at least 200 prayed for salvation—along with hundreds of medically-documented healing miracles.

Curry recorded Ugandans accepting Jesus and at least 300 people receiving healing.

“People who were unable to walk, getting up and walking. People with birth defects in pregnancy who went for an ultrasound that confirmed the babies 100% normal,” says Curry.

One man was raised to life from death, says Curry, who is sharing video of people enjoying the Kingdom of God – righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

“This is one of the most amazing outpourings of God’s love I have ever seen. Revival broke out because God’s love came to the people of Uganda. It was absolutely amazing,” Curry says.

Whether revival, awakening or both at Asbury—Curry says it doesn’t matter the term—it’s God’s love poured out during chapel that’s marked people forever.

“This is exactly what we experienced in Uganda as well. Churches worshiped God for days on end. Everywhere I went people were full of love and joy. They broke out in dance, song and joy, praising God for miracles, healing and salvation,” Curry says.

News of an American Christian’s arrival in Uganda prompted villagers to carry a crippled woman to a church where she laid for two days before Curry arrived.

“When I prayed for her, she was healed. She is now walking and jumping up and down praising God, telling everyone what Jesus did for her,” Curry says.

Another woman was healed of swelling and pain in her arms and legs after receiving prayer from Curry.

A pregnant woman with conjoined twins in her womb received prayer from Curry at a church service and, after going to her doctor, x-rays revealed the mother’s healthy twins had separated from each other.

“I also saw demons cast out of a witch doctor who got saved and denounced witchcraft,” says Curry.

His ministry, with support from Zeal Church and others in Colorado Springs and elsewhere, provided funds to purchase food and school books for 45 children living at a care home in Jinja, Uganda.

“Christians, Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims and government officials were healed in Jesus’ name,” says Curry, who visited 20 churches, some schools and a care home for orphaned children.

The ministry bought land for one church, payed rents for two others, and funded the construction of a fourth-grade school building.

“There are needs for land and funds to build churches,” with costs about $3,000 for property and $5,000 for structure, Curry says.

In Garlow’s Facebook post about Uganda, he writes the revival is nationwide.

“From the four corners of this nation, God is setting this place on fire with His presence,” according to Garlow’s friend David Guinn, who reports 1,000 people were saved in one week.

The Holy Spirit is pointing to crusades by August. “However, now is the hour for Uganda,” Garlow’s post reads.

To learn more about some of the Holy Spirit’s activity in Uganda, watch here. {eoa}

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Steve Rees is a former general assignment reporter who, with one other journalist, first wrote about the national men’s movement Promise Keepers from his home in Colorado. Rees and Promise Keepers Founder Bill McCartney attended the Boulder Vineyard. Today Rees writes in his free time.

There are moments in life where it feels like your prayers are hitting the ceiling. No matter what you pray and how long you pray, the breakthrough just isn’t coming. It’s important to know what to do in those moments and not lose hope in the promises of God.

The Bible tells us there are some circumstances that require prayer and fasting for breakthrough. I interviewed Tammy Hotsenpiller for my “Strang Report” podcast to talk about fasting for breakthrough.

Fasting isn’t easy, in fact it isn’t supposed to be easy. The first time I tried to fast in college during the Jesus Movement I felt like was going to die.

“That’s the point. You are dying to your flesh. That’s what you are supposed to do,” Tammy says. As a coach, author and co-pastor of Influence Church in southern California one of the things she teaches is fasting out of conviction instead of guilt.

In her new book, “Fasting For Miracles: A 21 Day Journey to Seeing Faith Become Reality,” Tammy walks you through the biblical meaning and purpose of a fast. In the Greek the word ‘fast’ means to shut your mouth. In the Hebrew the word means no food.

“So when Jesus is telling us to fast, or the Old Testament is teaching us to fast, I believe it’s a food fast, because I’m struggling with my flesh right now in fasting,” she says.

In America we are accustomed to eating whatever we want whenever we want it. When you fast you are clearing your mind and pressing deeper into God. It’s not just about going without food, but it’s an opportunity to grow closer in your relationship with God.

“My focus isn’t on my physical wellbeing it’s on my spiritual breakthrough. I think that’s the difference between a physical fast and a biblical fast,” Tammy says.

In today’s world we hear about intermittent fasting to improver our physical health, but fast for your spiritual health will be prompted by God.

For Tammy, her journey with fasting grew deeper right as the pandemic began. God gave her a prophetic vision of what was going on in the world and she quickly saw the enemy shooting arrows of fear, dissension and confusion.

“This is important because when God gives us prophetic words, He also gives us revelation. He spoke to my spirit and He said ‘pray against the arrows.’ I immediately knew this was demonic. On my walk, the Holy Spirit said to me very clearly ‘fast with Me, fast with Me.'”

Most Christians in churches today don’t understand the purpose and discipline of fasting. In Matthew 17 we read about a father who brings his epileptic son to Jesus for healing. Jesus rebuked the demon and the child was set free. When the disciples came to him later they asked why they weren’t able to cast out the demon. In verse 21 Jesus says, ” But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

In her coaching book, Tammy takes you step-by-step through various fasts and the biblical miracle stories that accompany those fasts. The goal through fasting is to have an encounter with God.

“When the Holy Spirit said to me ‘fast for miracles,’ I knew that He wanted me to do something that would press in deeper than the natural realm,” she says.

There are multiple different kinds of fasts that you can implement in your life. One of the most common fasts is the Daniel fast, often a 21-day fast eating mainly vegetables and water. There are sun up to sun down fasts, and an absolute fast which is no food at all.

Wherever you are at in your fasting journey take a moment and pray and ask the Holy Spirit how you can be fasting for breakthrough in your life.

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On June 30, 2022, someone named Robert posted this comment on our ministry’s YouTube channel: “Why would anyone in the 21st century give a [expletive] what illiterate desert dwellers from 2000 years ago thought about anything?” In writing this, he reflected the views of many people today, especially in the younger generation. Why on earth should I care about what this old, outmoded, outdated book has to say? What does it have to do with me?

Of course, the authors of the Bible were anything but “illiterate desert dwellers.” To this day, scholars are still trying to understand all the nuances of the brilliant Hebrew of Job (let alone plumb the philosophical depths of the book), while theologians have written thousands of books and articles debating the meaning of single verses in the writings of Paul. But who cares about facts? It’s convenient to bash the Bible and dismiss it out of hand. “I’ve got better things to do than read the Bible!”

I want to give you a fresh perspective on God’s Word. I want to invite you to get reacquainted with the most wonderful book that has ever been written. Are you ready to come along?

In recent years, I’ve heard lots of people say, “You can’t trust the Bibles you read. They are translations of translations of translations.” Is there any truth to this? Absolutely not. Whether you’re reading an older English Bible (like the King James Version) or a modern English Bible (like the NIV or ESV or NASB), you’re reading a translation into English straight from biblical Hebrew, biblical Aramaic or biblical Greek. That’s it.

You are not reading a translation from Hebrew into Greek into Latin into German into English (or something like that). You are reading a translation straight from the biblical languages (namely, Hebrew and a little Aramaic for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament) into English. Everyone who knows anything about Bible translations knows this to be true, and the translators have spent decades studying the original languages and then many years producing their translations. So, let’s bury that myth about “translations from translations” once and for all.

“But,” you say, “I’ve heard of ancient translations of the Bible like the Septuagint, translating the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek, or the Vulgate, translating the whole Bible into Latin. And then scholars today use those versions, meaning, they use translations of translations. What about that?”

Well, you’re right and you’re wrong. It is true that such translations exist, dating as far back as 250 years before the time of Jesus. And it is true that scholars use them to see how ancient readers understood the original text. In other words, when a scholar is translating the Hebrew Scriptures into English today, he will see how the Septuagint translated those same verses more than 2,000 years ago, seeking to understand the Hebrew as best as possible. Why not use all the tools you have? But then—and this is the key point—that scholar will go directly from the original language into the target language, in this case, English.

“But hang on,” you protest. “I understand what you’re saying about these scholars going straight from the biblical languages into the modern language they’re working with. But you keep talking about ‘the original Hebrew’ or the ‘original Greek,’ yet we don’t have any original copies of the Bible. We only have copies of copies of copies. So that undermines your whole argument.”

Actually, it’s true that we only have copies of copies of copies. It’s the same with virtually all the major books from the ancient world. But we must remember that the people copying books and verses of the Bible did so with the utmost seriousness, believing these to be sacred texts, even the very Word of God. It’s true, of course, that with so much interest in these texts, not every scribe was professionally trained or thoroughly meticulous. But there’s good news here too, since we have so many thousands of manuscripts to compare, sorting out the least accurate from the most accurate.

The more you dig into this, the more amazing it becomes. That’s why, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late 1940s, scholars were amazed to see that among the Hebrew manuscripts found there, some of them dating back to as early as 150-100 years BC, some were identical to the text found in our Hebrew Bibles today virtually letter for letter.

But this should not surprise us. After all, if you look at a Hebrew Bible today, which is based on manuscripts that are roughly 1,000 years old, you’ll see a note like this at the end of the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch, referring to the first five books of the Bible). It lists the total number of verses in the Torah, then the middle verse. Then the total number of words in the Torah, then the middle word, then the total number of letters in the Torah—yes, letters.

This means that, upon finishing his work of copying out the Torah, the scribe would have to go back and count every verse, every word and every letter. (How many times do you have to count something like that before you’re sure you counted correctly?) And what happens if your total deviates by one single letter? You cannot use the manuscript. It is considered defective. Talk about a painstaking job!

It is true that there are some verses in the Bible that we find troubling today, such as the command to drive out (or kill) the Canaanites, a subject I have addressed at length in other books. For the moment, let me just say that there are explanations that make good sense—and I mean good moral sense. But here, I want to focus on another subject. What kind of morality does the Bible put forth? How does God call us to live?

Let’s start with the Ten Commandments. If you’ve forgotten them or are not familiar with them, I’ll print them here in full:

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex. 20:1–17).

Now, ask yourself this question. If the whole world lived by these words, would the world be a better place? A safer place? A healthier place? A more moral place? Would it be easier for you to raise your kids in an environment like this? Would there be less crime? Would marriages be stronger? Would people be more at peace with themselves and one another?

The answer is obviously yes—unless you think that more murder and more adultery and more theft and more lying and more dishonoring of parents and more covetousness and more workaholism and more worship of false gods would make the world a better place.

Yet it is these Ten Commandments which lay the moral foundation of the rest of the Old Testament. Perhaps the Bible has some divine wisdom after all. {eoa}

(This is a small section of the chapter ‘Why Should We Care About What the Bible Says?’ from my new book “Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith: Responding to the Deconstructionist Movement With Unshakable, Timeless Truth,” used here with permission from the publisher.)

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Dr. Michael Brown () is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is “The Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel.” Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

An unofficial list of schools, churches and entire nations in revival like the Holy Spirit’s outpouring at Asbury University in Kentucky includes more than 31 locations.

Dr. Jim Garlow, a pastor, best-selling author, historian and commentator who has spoken and written about the Asbury awakening since it began Feb. 8, believes an official list of places experiencing revival—when compiled—will include hundreds of locations.

Garlow posted on his Facebook page a page of revival hot spots that includes six locations in Kentucky, and places as far away from where the outpouring began in Wilmore as Maine, Minnesota and Michigan in the United States, with awakenings from nearly coast to coast.

Nations on Garlow’s informal tally of Holy Spirit outpourings include Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Brazil, Australia and in Africa.

In another Asbury update, Garlow writes that revival has hit Uganda.

A ministry leader who traveled to Uganda before the revival began at Asbury says there are similarities between the Lord’s moving in Kentucky and what the Holy Spirit is doing in the western part of the African nation.

Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Scott Curry says his ministry Real Christian Life witnessed demons leaving people who put their faith in Jesus for the first time—at least 200 prayed for salvation—along with hundreds of medically-documented healing miracles.

Curry recorded Ugandans accepting Jesus and at least 300 people receiving healing.

“People who were unable to walk, getting up and walking. People with birth defects in pregnancy who went for an ultrasound that confirmed the babies 100% normal,” says Curry.

One man was raised to life from death, says Curry, who is sharing video of people enjoying the Kingdom of God – righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

“This is one of the most amazing outpourings of God’s love I have ever seen. Revival broke out because God’s love came to the people of Uganda. It was absolutely amazing,” Curry says.

Whether revival, awakening or both at Asbury—Curry says it doesn’t matter the term—it’s God’s love poured out during chapel that’s marked people forever.

“This is exactly what we experienced in Uganda as well. Churches worshiped God for days on end. Everywhere I went people were full of love and joy. They broke out in dance, song and joy, praising God for miracles, healing and salvation,” Curry says.

News of an American Christian’s arrival in Uganda prompted villagers to carry a crippled woman to a church where she laid for two days before Curry arrived.

“When I prayed for her, she was healed. She is now walking and jumping up and down praising God, telling everyone what Jesus did for her,” Curry says.

Another woman was healed of swelling and pain in her arms and legs after receiving prayer from Curry.

A pregnant woman with conjoined twins in her womb received prayer from Curry at a church service and, after going to her doctor, x-rays revealed the mother’s healthy twins had separated from each other.

“I also saw demons cast out of a witch doctor who got saved and denounced witchcraft,” says Curry.

His ministry, with support from Zeal Church and others in Colorado Springs and elsewhere, provided funds to purchase food and school books for 45 children living at a care home in Jinja, Uganda.

“Christians, Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims and government officials were healed in Jesus’ name,” says Curry, who visited 20 churches, some schools and a care home for orphaned children.

The ministry bought land for one church, payed rents for two others, and funded the construction of a fourth-grade school building.

“There are needs for land and funds to build churches,” with costs about $3,000 for property and $5,000 for structure, Curry says.

In Garlow’s Facebook post about Uganda, he writes the revival is nationwide.

“From the four corners of this nation, God is setting this place on fire with His presence,” according to Garlow’s friend David Guinn, who reports 1,000 people were saved in one week.

The Holy Spirit is pointing to crusades by August. “However, now is the hour for Uganda,” Garlow’s post reads.

To learn more about some of the Holy Spirit’s activity in Uganda, watch here. {eoa}

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today!

Steve Rees is a former general assignment reporter who, with one other journalist, first wrote about the national men’s movement Promise Keepers from his home in Colorado. Rees and Promise Keepers Founder Bill McCartney attended the Boulder Vineyard. Today Rees writes in his free time.

The occult is permeating American society in ways that have never occurred in the past.

Across social media, entire generations are being deceived by practices such as “manifesting” and remain unaware of the spiritual doors they are opening.

According to the outlet Oxygen, manifesting is “A once-niche, New Age movement, it had been swiftly swept up by the mainstream. As of now, the hashtag ‘manifesting’ has almost 15 billion views on TikTok, while YouTube channels based on the subject regularly incur an audience of millions.”

For those not raised in the social media era, the term “manifesting” is not unheard of, but this new practice and trend has completely flown under the radar of many Christians.

The social trend of manifesting is described as “the theory that real, tangible change can be brought into our lives by simply harnessing the power of positive thought. Practitioners of the theory often attempt to manifest different goals and opportunities into their lives by writing down repetitive mantras, or by speaking them out loud, in order to will their dreams into reality.

This practice is unsurprisingly linked with a multitude of celebrities, notably the rap/pop singer Doja Cat, who are so bound up in occult practices that they have started taking on the demonic images of the principalities controlling their lives.

(Screenshot, Twitter)

What they are actually doing is performing seances, as is evident on the thousands of TikTok videos that pop up when one searches for the term.

The videos are so popular that when combined, the terms “manifest” and “manifesting” have been viewed over 18 billion times. Sadly, this trend is dominated by young women across the globe.

It is no surprise that when the CDC released its survey showing 57% of teen girls say they feel “persistently sad or hopeless” with another 30% saying they have seriously considered suicide, it is evident that young women in America are suffering spiritually, physically and mentally in a culture that has embraced witchcraft and the occult.

Social media is not the only place these young women are being assaulted with the occult.

There are more television shows on networks now that are steeped in the dark arts than ever before.

The physical manifestations of the rulers of darkness attacking America are perhaps the saddest signs of the country’s spiritual slide away from its Creator.

With images such as the golden-pagan goddess “Now” that was erected on top of a New York City courthouse paying homage to abortion and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the youth of America are constantly bombarded with pagan, occultic imagery while being taught that the Bible and lessons held within it are outdated and in compatible with modern society.

(Charisma News Archives)

In their ignorance, youth across the country have called the very forces God forbade in the Bible back into existence.

There is power behind the actions of mediums, sorcerers and necromancers. The false prophets of Egypt were able to imitate the miracles God performed through Moses up until a certain point.

This practice is repulsive to God. That is why He tells Israel in Leviticus 19:31, “Do not turn to spirits through mediums or necromancers. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.”

So many young people are seeking answers to the afflictions they encounter in life, but the Lord is the only source they need to seek. Yet they must be reached so they can receive this Good News.

It is the job of Christians to introduce these lost children to the love of God. In that love, they will find the cross and their salvation. They need only repent and accept the one who overcame these dark forces torturing them instead of engaging in false practices that will only lead them down a path ending in death and destruction. {eoa}

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James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.

There are moments in life where it feels like your prayers are hitting the ceiling. No matter what you pray and how long you pray, the breakthrough just isn’t coming. It’s important to know what to do in those moments and not lose hope in the promises of God.

The Bible tells us there are some circumstances that require prayer and fasting for breakthrough. I interviewed Tammy Hotsenpiller for my “Strang Report” podcast to talk about fasting for breakthrough.

Fasting isn’t easy, in fact it isn’t supposed to be easy. The first time I tried to fast in college during the Jesus Movement I felt like was going to die.

“That’s the point. You are dying to your flesh. That’s what you are supposed to do,” Tammy says. As a coach, author and co-pastor of Influence Church in southern California one of the things she teaches is fasting out of conviction instead of guilt.

In her new book, “Fasting For Miracles: A 21 Day Journey to Seeing Faith Become Reality,” Tammy walks you through the biblical meaning and purpose of a fast. In the Greek the word ‘fast’ means to shut your mouth. In the Hebrew the word means no food.

“So when Jesus is telling us to fast, or the Old Testament is teaching us to fast, I believe it’s a food fast, because I’m struggling with my flesh right now in fasting,” she says.

In America we are accustomed to eating whatever we want whenever we want it. When you fast you are clearing your mind and pressing deeper into God. It’s not just about going without food, but it’s an opportunity to grow closer in your relationship with God.

“My focus isn’t on my physical wellbeing it’s on my spiritual breakthrough. I think that’s the difference between a physical fast and a biblical fast,” Tammy says.

In today’s world we hear about intermittent fasting to improver our physical health, but fast for your spiritual health will be prompted by God.

For Tammy, her journey with fasting grew deeper right as the pandemic began. God gave her a prophetic vision of what was going on in the world and she quickly saw the enemy shooting arrows of fear, dissension and confusion.

“This is important because when God gives us prophetic words, He also gives us revelation. He spoke to my spirit and He said ‘pray against the arrows.’ I immediately knew this was demonic. On my walk, the Holy Spirit said to me very clearly ‘fast with Me, fast with Me.'”

Most Christians in churches today don’t understand the purpose and discipline of fasting. In Matthew 17 we read about a father who brings his epileptic son to Jesus for healing. Jesus rebuked the demon and the child was set free. When the disciples came to him later they asked why they weren’t able to cast out the demon. In verse 21 Jesus says, ” But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

In her coaching book, Tammy takes you step-by-step through various fasts and the biblical miracle stories that accompany those fasts. The goal through fasting is to have an encounter with God.

“When the Holy Spirit said to me ‘fast for miracles,’ I knew that He wanted me to do something that would press in deeper than the natural realm,” she says.

There are multiple different kinds of fasts that you can implement in your life. One of the most common fasts is the Daniel fast, often a 21-day fast eating mainly vegetables and water. There are sun up to sun down fasts, and an absolute fast which is no food at all.

Wherever you are at in your fasting journey take a moment and pray and ask the Holy Spirit how you can be fasting for breakthrough in your life. {eoa}

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When police arrested a human trafficker at one of her “gentlemen’s clubs” three years ago, Donna Holbrook began to re-evaluate her life.

She had always believed in God and wanted to help women, but her relationship with Him wasn’t a close one. But after the man was arrested for sex trafficking women in one of her clubs, the Holy Spirit convicted her not only to get out of that business, but also to re-dedicate her life to the Lord.

“I have always known God, but I felt I needed a closer connection,” Holbrook told The Christian Post. “Reverend [El Akuckie] from Fusion Church and I talk, and I was explaining things to him. And so, I gave my life back to God. And then, I had a baptism after that.

“After the baptism, that’s what really changed my whole entire being. I just feel light, and I don’t have heaviness anymore. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just an amazing feeling.”

Holbrook, 55, says she worked with a human trafficking task force to apprehend the perpetrator—after she and her husband came to Christ.

Holbrook was baptized at Fusion Church in Lexington, Ohio in 2019. Following her husband’s death from cancer in 2020, she decided to close the doors of the two clubs after five years in business and felt convicted to sell both businesses. She now works as a real estate agent in Ohio.

Holbrook says she and her late husband, Steve, needed a church to attend and they “stumbled across Fusion Church” in Lexington.

“We love the atmosphere and the people,” Holbrook told Frontlines Ohio. “Not only that, but the Holy Spirit is there and that is important to us. In April 2019, we gave our lives to the Lord. But while we were transferring an doing all these things, we still owned two gentlemen’s clubs. So when we gave our lives to the Lord, our hearts changed.”

Holbrook said that she once “viewed her clubs as a safe place for women to dance and for her to share the gospel with as many women as she could, and invite them to church.”

She felt deep conviction that she could no longer participate in such a business.

“Prior to going to church, we were reaching out to these girls (dancers) and helping them get back into college; we found them jobs in order to get them out of the clubs,” Holbrook recalled.

Frontlines Ohio reported that many of the dancers—and some of the bartenders—came to Fusion Church and were welcomed with open arms.

“Our congregation treated them just like we would have treated any other first-time guest at Fusion,” says Fusion Church Lead Pastor Terry Garrett. “The last thing they needed, was to think they had a scarlet letter over their head. Our goal is to create a space for them to grow in their relationship with Christ and to let the Holy Spirit bring conviction.”

Frontlines Ohio reported that a recent wave of sex businesses, including Holbrook’s, have closed in North Central Ohio and are “falling like dominoes.”

“We bought clothing and food for the girls and had a Bible at each of our clubs,” Holbrook said. “These girls (dancers) would be like, ‘What are you doing with a Bible in this kind of place?’ I know this is not normal, but that is what we did. We were not there to make money, we were there to save souls. This was our heart: to be inside the clubs and helping the girls get out.”

And the former dancers’ lives have changed dramatically. They now know Jesus, and they are grateful.

“I still have the girls coming to me—they are managers of stores and restaurants and they thank me for loving them and showing them what Jesus is all about. Some of them have even given their lives to Jesus,” said Holbrook.

Bring Charisma magazine home with a subscription today! {eoa}

Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.