We’re all growing older. However, many of us don’t realize we’re aging too fast. Well, cheer up! There are dozens of things we can do to turn back the clock years, even decades.

We all want strong, disease-free bodies and minds so we can continue working, doing things we love and spending quality time with people we care about.

Telomere Length Reveals How Fast We’re Aging

Our drivers license says we’re one age, but inside our bodies, microscopic telomeres may tell a different story. Scientists can measure them and tell us the longer the better. Telomeres act much like a plastic tip on a shoelace. They protect our chromosomes and DNA. But over time, as cells divide, telomeres shrink, causing health issues. The faster our telomeres shrink, the faster we age.

Women’s health physician Sara Gottfried noticed she was feeling older than she should and went for testing. “So, I was 45. I was interested in telomeres, the little caps on your chromosomes that are the best markers of biological, as opposed to chronological, aging,” she explained, “And I flunked the test. So at age 45, I had the telomeres of a 65-year-old woman, and that’s not what you want to hear when you’re 45 years old!” 

Better Choices Pay Off

Dr. Gottfried discovered unhealthy lifestyle choices are the main reason telomeres shrink too fast.

“Well I think the biggest problem that no one knows about is that they’re aging too fast,” she said, “And the interesting part for me is you can measure this.” 

She developed her own test to score how well a person is aging, which she shares in her book, Younger.

“It took me about five years to develop it,” Dr. Gottfried recalled, “We had a thousand people go through it, mostly women, about 98 percent. And they averaged about 10 years that they added onto their health span.”

Fifty-six-year-old Cathy Pickle was one of the women who jumped on board. She was having trouble keeping up with the demands of her busy schedule.

“I was tired all the time,” she recalled, pointing out the fact that she still had much to live for. “I’ve got kids and I want to still be active with them because they’re all really active and outdoorsy,” she said.

Anti-Aging Diet

Dr. Gottfried recommended Cathy overhaul her diet, by giving up carbohydrates, especially sugar and grains. She also advised Cathy give up processed foods such as prepared, boxed items from the grocery store, as well as fast-food restaurants. Cathy was honest with herself and admitted she stuck mostly to the so-called, “Standard American Diet.” 

“The big one is, I used to not eat many greens at all,” she laughed, “It was bad.”

Cathy started eating a diet that provided her the energy and micronutrients to keep her young and healthy. It consists of mostly vegetables. Cathy said she started eating greens in her shakes and at meals and immediately started feeling better.

In addition to lots of vegetables, Dr. Gottfried recommends consuming healthy protein like fish and good fats such as avocadoes and olive oils. She also advocates drinking bone broth, which is anti-inflammatory and loaded with skin-firming collagen.

Dr. Gottfried says strengthening the gut helps keep us young. That means getting enough of the good bacteria, also known as probiotics, we need. A great source of probiotics are fermented vegetables such as kim-chi, and sauerkraut, which can be found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Fermented vegetables also help reset our blood sugar, which starts to increase after age 40.

The Benefits of Fasting

While eating the right food keeps us younger longer, so does going without food altogether because fasting can make our cells more efficient. Dr. Gottfried recommends no food at all three hours before bedtime and 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. She also advises increasing that fast to 16 hours once or twice a week.

Different Kinds of Exercise

Dr. Gottfried shines a spotlight on the benefits of movement.

“When it comes to growing younger, I think one of the most important things to do is exercise,” she said, adding, “”What exercise does in the body is trick the brain into thinking that you’re younger.”

We lose muscle as we age, but lifting weights can replace it. Taking a sauna for 20 minutes a day turns on a longevity gene and reduces early death by 40 percent, according to Dr. Gottfried.

“So this is huge,” she exclaimed, “You know, saunas, they do more than just heat you up. They’re actually a form of moderate exercise.”

Getting Enough Sleep

Aging gracefully requires proper sleep. That means seven to eight-and-a-half hours a night. Unfortunately, that’s too tall of an order for many people.

“The problem is, a lot of us just can’t do it,” Dr. Gottfried explained, “So you can make that up with a nap. There’s new data showing that when you nap, it actually counts twice as much as your sleep at night.”

Even though Cathy struggled with daytime fatigue, she never allowed herself to nap, fearing it would interfere with her nighttime sleep. But now, she goes for it and is reaping the rewards.

“I have found that if I come home after work and I’m really tired, if I go and take a nap for a half an hour, 45 minutes, I am rejuvenated and for the next three, four hours I feel great, and I can still sleep at night,” she said.

Reset the Stress Hormone

Research tells us feeling anxious or worried can severely damage our health and ages us far more rapidly that if we experienced peaceful emotions most of the time. Dr. Gottfried admitted stress was clearly the source of her health issues, and says she’s not the only one.

“There was a cost to being a working mother, burning the candle at both ends,” she said, “There was a cost to my medical training, and it showed up in my telomeres. So this is the problem I think a lot of people don’t know they have. And we need to address it.”

Dr. Gottfried says walking for 20 minutes in a calm setting, such as a forest, resets cortisol, the stress hormone, and benefits the brain. Foam rollers help relieve tight muscles that store tension and stress. Prayer also minimizes anxiety.

So while new information shows an estimated 90 percent of the signs of aging and disease are caused by lifestyle choices, making smart ones mean it’s possible to stay younger longer. {eoa}

Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., All rights reserved.

Truthfully, the only thing Bishop Kenneth Ulmer could think as he climbed the stairs to Martin Luther’s pulpit was, “Don’t trip.”

He didn’t.

Instead, the pastor of Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, took on the persona of Luther and spoke from his heart and the Holy Spirit without any notes to guide him.

“I spoke in a first-person narrative as though I was Martin Luther. And so the whole message as with ‘I,'” Ulmer says. “I did this, I did that. I began by saying, I didn’t expect this to get as big as it is. I didn’t expect to have a memorial 500 years later. But it was me telling his story. And I based it around what I learned was his favorite passage. As he translated the bible from Latin to German, his favorite book was the book of Psalms. And in the book of Psalms, his favorite three chapters were Psalm 32, Psalm 46 and Psalm 118. And of those three chapters, his favorite verse was Psalm 118:17, which says ‘I shall not die, I shall live.'”

Ulmer was the final speaker at an international celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation called the Wittenberg 2017 Congress. He spoke in the very pulpit Luther did, in the same church where the Reformation founder had nailed his 95 Theses.

“I drew from the other psalms to deal with the different theologies that came out of it, particularly in Psalm 32 about God being the God who forgives. And then I took a bold statement—and I honestly didn’t know how I was going to go over it—I mentioned in my section about forgiveness, and I’m speaking in first person now, and I said I needed God’s forgiveness and I needed God’s forgiveness for the way I spoke against the Jewish community. And I don’t think anybody expected me to go there. You could hear a pin drop when I got to that point,” Ulmer says. “But I wanted to bring out the reality of this man, and the frailty of this man, and I said I needed God to forgive me. You know, he wrote a text called “The Jewish Lie”. And so I said I needed God to forgive me for that.”

The message was years in the making.

James O. Davis is founder of Cutting Edge International and the co-founder of Billion Soul Network, and helped spearhead the celebration. Three and a half years ago, Davis journeyed to Wittenberg, Germany, to book the celebration in person.

Davis’ network brought in international church leaders who recommitted to spreading the Great Commission through the Finish 2030 declaration: 

As a part of the Body of Christ, representing different church organizations, from different groups of believers from every world region, we come together to make the following commitments to FINISH the Great Commission:

We commit to FIND the rest of the unengaged, unreached people groups around the world and to engage them through denominational and organizational platforms for the purposes of cultural understanding, missional strategies, Bible translation, evangelism, church planting, and discipleship. We will strive to have a Bible in every language and a missionary presence in the remaining 3,000 unengaged, unreached people groups by 2030;

We commit to INTERCEDE throughout the entire Body of Christ for harmony in the Church, humility before Christ, healing of the sick, and harvest of the lost. We will study ourselves to death and pray ourselves back to life again! We will pray to know our part in God’s heart and our role in God’s goal. We will ask our Lord to send a sweeping, weeping, reaping revival like this world has never witnessed before;

We commit to NETWORK for synergizing and mobilizing the entire Body of Christ toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Even though we may have come from different streams of Christianity, we recognize all of us are in the mighty river of salvation today! We pledge to not allow our egos and logos to stop us from tying relational knots for global impact throughout the Global Church and to the ends of the earth;

We commit to INVEST our time, thoughts, talents, temples and treasures into unengaged, unreached people groups and into the Kingdom of God worldwide. We choose to not duplicate the efforts of our fellow servants and spend our God-given resources wisely. We will encourage Christ-followers everywhere to move from criticizing to complementing, from complaining to connecting and from competing with each other to completing the Great Commission together. We do not care who gets the credit as long as God gets the glory!

We commit to SEND missionaries not only to regions where the Gospel is, but into regions where the Gospel is not in order to consistently move toward the finish line. We will measure our local church’s success not only by seating capacity but by the sending capacity. We have moved from the West going to the Rest to the Best around the world going to the Rest of the world. The mission field has become a mission force!

We commit to HARVEST together until the last person has heard the saving Gospel of Christ. We will motivate our leaders to run toward the finish line and mobilize our churches to grow and go and not to dry and die! We collectively cast vision to the ends of the earth and establish a goal to FINISH by 2030!

The declaration went forth on November 1 for significant reasons.

“When we were planning, we wanted November 1 because this was the first day to the finish line,” Davis says. “This is the first day of harmonizing our efforts to go out and finish the assignment. It is to me, and all the fountainheads of Christianity emerged from this little spot, and the first sermon of the Protestant Reformation was preached in that church. And so we saw this as the first day challenging the church to go out together, let’s go out and finish this together. It was a wonderful, wonderful afternoon when we were all together. We went to the house first, went from where he was, where he lived, where he died. We stood by Luther’s table when he had all the networking that he did. And then we walked together Luther Way. It was chilly. Ken can tell you it was chilly. But it was a wonderful walk together all the way to the church house. And then to go in and have church together was a very moving time. I think anybody that was there that day will never forget that moment. I’ve gotten emails since then from people saying, ‘I’ll never forget that moment at Castle Church.'”

Ulmer says the message is already going forth around the globe.

“How do I run with this mandate for me to finish in Los Angeles?” Ulmer says. “I’ve gotten emails from people all over the country also. I just got one yesterday from our friend in Fiji, There are men and women all over the world who are saying ‘I have a piece of this, I have a section of this and I want to run with this mandate in my context, in my city, in through my church.’ And so I think the idea of how this is spread is that I think that everyone left personalizing this historical event. That this began by the power of God 500 years ago, and yet here I am in the Philippines. Here I am in South Africa, here I am in Ghana, and I have a piece of this. I’m going to run this, I’m going to spread this. I’m going to live as Martin Luther declared from that text so that I may declare the works of God.”

Ulmer continues: “Well, I made a very direct statement in our church when I came back, and when there were stories going out about me having been there. It’s that: what is our connection here? We, as African-American Charismatic Americans, wouldn’t be here in terms of the body of Christ were it not for this. This Reformation movement has not only spread around the world, but it has spread here to Inglewood, it has spread here to Los Angeles. And so the buy-in for them was, Wow, this was likened to the Gentiles coming into the body of Christ. And so the various streams of Reformation, the various streams of Christianity, [have] flowed right down to Inglewood and right down to Los Angeles, and so we are a part of this. We have a piece of it, and we have a piece of this mandate to continue to declare the works of God in our context, in our neighborhood, in the setting that God has placed us.”

An ex-witch who came out of occult, satanic ritual abuse and more says she had an encounter with Lucifer in the Christian church.

“This time, I just want to dig into things I’ve personally witnessed and experienced over the last couple of years as I’ve been navigating of learning this corruption in the Christian church,” Beth Eckert says in a new video.

“[I’ve been] learning about this already-established, antichrist, New-Age indoctrination and movement that’s already infiltrated the Christian church,” she says.

Watch the video to see more.

In the wake of Australia formally recognizing same-sex unions, Brian Houston of Hillsong maintained he will stand firm on the Bible’s definition of marriage.

“Australia has overwhelmingly voted to legalize same-sex marriage, and my hope is that once this becomes law, Australians will move forward in unity and love, viewing one another without labels,” Houston says in a statement. “I believe every person is created by God with a plan and purpose, and the focus of Hillsong Church has always been—and will always be—to point people to Jesus.

Australia legalized gay marriage, with 62 percent of registered voters voting yes on the measure. Houston previously warned of what would come if the country moved forward with the legalization process.

“Whatever your view on this issue, it is undeniably one that is important to the fabric of our social structure. Changing the definition of marriage has wide-reaching ramifications and should not be taken lightly by any society,” Houston wrote in a press release.

Now that the measure has been approved, Houston reiterated his church’s core beliefs about the controversial issue.

“My personal belief in the Bible’s teachings on marriage will not change, and the work of our church will continue as usual as it does in many parts of the world where same-sex marriage is legal. It is vital however, that legislation protects the rights of churches, pastors and others to hold contrary beliefs based on the traditional teachings of Scripture. Freedom of religion is a fundamental part of a democratic society and must be upheld. Any attempt to force Christians to compromise their faith would be wrong.”

Houston founded Hillsong, one of the world’s largest Pentecostal organizations, with his wife Bobbie in 1983.

Rumors have swirled for years that campuses around the world allowed LGBT attendees certain roles in ministry and performances.

Yet Houston has maintained his congregation stands firm on the Scripture’s description of marriage, but is reaching out with compassion.

“As we move forward as a nation and put what has been at times a divisive debate behind us, my prayer is that we replace anger, criticism, hatred and intolerance with love, understanding, acceptance and kindness. Jesus taught us that holding firm to our convictions, and respecting and appreciating other people who hold different views, are not mutually exclusive,” he says.

Fifty-eight prophets from the nations of the earth gathered with dozens of prophets from the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders in Dallas this week. Some are calling it prophetic history in the making.

How significant is this, really? Bishop Bill Hamon is confident The Global Prophetic Consultation and The Global Prophetic Summit reveal the times we are in.

“My revelation in 1983 was that God was going to raise up a company of prophets to ‘prepare the way’ and ‘make ready a people’ for the coming of the Lord Jesus as John the Baptist did for Christ’s first coming,” Hamon told me, calling it a fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6:

“See, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreaded day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

What could the lasting impact of this meeting could be? What could this lead to? How could it impact the global prophetic movement? Hamon says, “The lasting impact will be the fulfillment of God raising up and launching a company of prophets to fulfill His end time purposes. I originally declared there would be hundreds of prophets in the USA and thousands throughout the world, not just a few here and there, but a company of prophets. It will be a sign and demonstration that we are in the second phase of the prophetic movement that was birthed in 1988.”

Hamon says this is illustrated in Ezekiel 37—and 1988 till now has been the noising abroad of the message of the prophetic movement. As he sees it, it caused a shaking in the church. The bones came together as different prophetic networks were formed then books and teaching put muscle and sinew together and formed a body or company of prophets.

“God then told Ezekiel to prophecy again and resurrection life was released and they stood up an exceeding great army. This is the second phase of the prophetic movement. God’s exceeding great army is described in my new book God’s World War III,” Hamon says.

“This meeting in Dallas could launch the second phase of the prophetic globally. More prophetic ministers will be envisioned for God’s greater purpose for the church worldwide, plant earth and the nations. It should bring more global recognition to God’s prophets and their contribution to the fulfillment of God’s end-time purpose in Amos 3:7.”

A new nine-part documentary from Revealed Films, Christ Revealed, explores the scientific evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Featuring top Christian apologists and historians and filmed on location in Israel and across America, the docu-series is an epic journey of revelation about the truth of one of the Bible’s most controversial claims.

The resurrection of Christ has long fascinated the world, and it has been the focus of many movies and television series, including The DaVinci Code and History Channel’s The Bible. However, over one-third of Americans are unconvinced of the resurrection’s veracity, according to Rasmussen Reports.

“The resurrection of Christ is one of the most-discussed events in history, and it is the cornerstone of the world’s largest religion,” said Jeff Hays, director and executive producer of Christ Revealed. “While Christians believe in the resurrection in faith, we wanted to see what scientific evidence was out there to support whether this event occurred.”

The series is produced by the award-winning David Brookwell, who has produced projects such as Soul Surfer and That’s So Raven! The series will be available exclusively online at . Viewers who register on the website will be able to access the full series for free for a period of nine days.

Christ Revealed features top historians and apologists including Dr. Sean McDowell, Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University, and Greg Koukl, founder of Stand to Reason.

“Through discussions with leading Christian thinkers, we explore the history, evidence and inspiration of Jesus Christ,” said Patrick Gentempo, host of Christ Revealed. “The project is epic in scope and covers Jesus’ life from birth to resurrection.” 

Access it by signing up at .

He’s one of comedy’s biggest names, but also, he’s on a journey with Christ, just like you and me. In a recent interview with Matthew Faraci, Cedric the Entertainer described his walk with God and how he incorporates his faith into his acts.

“It’s probably more in tune with the spirituality of being Christlike,” Cedric says. Watch the video to see more.

A football coach from Georgia’s East Coweta High School who was recently banned from praying with players has revealed that an atheist group’s quest to remove him from invocations has actually sparked an incredible reaction from players and students, alike.

“Our students have done a great job, and our students took it upon themselves to organize a prayer with our students in the stands before the game,” John Small told The Christian Post. “Instead of it being 100 players praying, it turned into 400 students praying. That’s their right, and we are going to support them in that.”

The coach went as far as to say that the ban preventing him from leading prayer has “really turned into a positive” and that the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the atheist group that sparked the entire battle, has actually activated something much more powerful. {eoa}

Click here to read the rest of this story from our content partners at Faithwire.

“This is a first of its kind.” That’s how bishop Bill Hamon described this week of prophetic gatherings in Dallas.

This is my first year as part of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, led by Cindy Jacobs. It’s an especially significant moment to join the group.

Hamon told me this week, which includes The Global Prophetic Summit, is important for the same reason Christian International’s first conference of prophets in 1987 was important.

“It was the first conference in the history of the church conducted for the purpose of recognizing and promoting the restoration of the fivefold ministry of prophets back into the church,” he says. “It was a demonstration that God’s prophets are alive and active in the 20th century church. It was the year we did intercession for birthing of the prophetic movement. The following year, at our October Conference, the prophetic movement was officially birthed.”

As Hamon sees it, this international gathering of the prophets in Dallas will bring international recognition of God’s 21st century prophets, combined revelation and witness of God’s timing and purpose about to take place in the church on planet earth.

We all know there are challenges in today’s prophetic movement. Hamon told me he sees the challenge is raising up prophets who have their 10 Ms—manhood, ministry, message, maturity, marriage, methods, manners, money, morality and motives—in order and have more specific and accurate words for the church and nations and God’s timing for His purposes to be fulfilled.

Many are asking the question: How do we overcome the challenges we see in the prophetic movement. Hamon has some wisdom:

“Have more communication between prophets and church with each other before putting out a word that has national or world events. It’s not enough to get a word; we need counsel and wisdom for presentation and some idea of the timing. We have seen words of world events or catastrophes to happen,” Hamon says.

“In my 64 years [of ministry], I have heard many such prophecies but few have come to pass at that time. Like in the Old Testament, many prophecies took centuries before fulfillment. Such as Messianic prophecies and judgments to nations. Younger-arising prophets need to be trained and mentored like Elisha was by Elijah.”

In light of major world events in the last week, Ricky Scaparo issued an urgent prophetic update.

“We don’t do these very often, but when there [are] this many events happening at one time that’s newsworthy, we want to get you up to date,” Scaparo says.

Scaparo, the founder of End Time Headlines, broadcast his announcement after a major earthquake struck the Middle East, killing more than 300 and injuring at least 6,600.

But that’s not all. Watch the video to see more.