There are no real winners in war and with Russia’s relentless attacks against Ukraine, millions of the country’s children have suffered the most.

Their innocent young hearts and minds are suddenly marred by horrifying sounds and images of bombs and death. Many of these children and their mothers are now in Poland.

To ease their trauma, a Filipino Superbook team traveled there to bring them God’s Word and Gizmo.

When Ukrainian mothers were asked why they left home and separated from their husbands, they replied, “It was for the sake of our children.”

Marina Rylowa and her family live in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine and a major Russian target. She and her three children have been staying at a shelter in Poland for three months.

To read the rest of this story, please visit our content partners at CBN News.

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The other day two doves were on the railing of my back deck. I had never seen them before. As I stood in my kitchen watching them I was reminded that one of the pictures the Scriptures used for the Holy Spirit is that of a dove.

When John the Baptist baptized Jesus, Scripture tells us that as soon as He went up out of the water, “heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him” (Matt. 3:16b, NIV). What’s intriguing is that Scripture doesn’t say that the Spirit of God came like a pigeon. Pigeons are often confused with doves, but they are very different in character.

I did a little research and discovered some unique qualities about doves:

— Doves don’t fight, while pigeons are known for fighting.
— Doves don’t like loud noises, while pigeons are fine with noise.
— Doves are not territorial, while pigeons are very territorial.
— Doves mate for life, while pigeons can have several mates.

What does all this have to do with us? Plenty.

3 Implications of the Dove Being a Symbol of the Holy Spirit

1. The Spirit of God calls us to peace. When we think of the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit we are reminded that we are called to peace. The apostle Paul wrote, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (Col. 3:15a). Peace is an inner quiet that comes from the Holy Spirit assuring us that all will be well. With an interior of peace, we can let go of anxiety and stress and simply rest in God’s goodness.

Julian of Norwich lived during the Middle Ages and survived the Black Plague. She had a series of visions while she was very ill, and out of those visions came her profound writing, Revelations of Divine Love. While confined in seclusion in a cell, Julian was able to write, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” It is the Holy Spirit who provides us that depth of peace.

The Spirit of God is not territorial. As I think through how polarized our world is right now, the dove is a good reminder that we are not called to be pigeons, fighting and marking our territory. We are called to be peacemakers. Orchestrate peace where ever you can. The apostle Paul wrote, “As far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone” (Rom. 12:18). Particularly with your fellow believers, don’t let differences in your opinions sever the bond you have in Christ. Don’t speak disparagingly of others. I have been guilty of that myself. But then I realize that is not from the Holy Spirit.

It’s always astounding to me that one of the last things on Christ’s mind before He went to the cross was the unity of the church. James 3:17 teaches us that when the Holy Spirit reigns in our lives, our wisdom will be peaceable and gentle. This is the evidence that the wisdom is from God and not from our own arrogance.

The Spirit of God reminds us that we are wed to Christ—our mate for life. When the Holy Spirit fills us, He reminds us that our allegiance is to Christ. He reminds us to stay centered on our first love, Jesus Christ. Rather than running after every new thought or theology, keep your focus on Christ. He is our “one thing.” As news reports fill our homes with all sorts of issues and all sorts of opinions, keep your focus on Christ. Spend time in prayer and reading the Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your mind with thoughts of Christ throughout the day. Seek to know the presence of Christ in your everyday life.

Friend, remember, the Holy Spirit is like a dove. He is peace-loving, nonterritorial and unites with the believer for life. Though He indwells us and will never leave nor forsake us, His power can be quenched in our lives when we forget that He comes as a dove. Don’t adopt a “pigeon theology.” Instead, live and walk by the Spirit.

Becky Harling, a bestselling author, is a popular speaker at conferences, retreats and other events. She is the author of 11 books, including The Extraordinary Power of Praise. Becky is a certified coach with the John Maxwell Team and offers parent coaching. Becky and her husband, Steve, have traveled and ministered in over 70 countries around the world. She is the parent of four grown married kids and Mimi to 14 grandchildren. Connect with Becky at , , Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

This article originally appeared at .

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This is the clearest warning God has ever given me.

God is emphatically telling the American church, “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.” Whatever we are going to say, whatever we are going to do, whatever action we are going to take to protect our rights as Christians and Americans, we must do now.

Doubt my words at your own peril. Churches are about to be closed forever. People of faith will soon be marginalized, both socially and economically. What we are talking about here is the destruction of your children’s and your grandchildren’s future. They will live in a world where they will be targeted for the faith you have given them. And the worst part is that you will not be here to protect them when they endure the worst of it.

The Lord would say that Satan has come to rob you of your joy and to diminish you. In fact, the Lord gave me the Scripture where David was praying, “Restore to me the joy of salvation.”

And the Lord would say to you, “You have been in a season where Satan has literally been nibbling away at your joy and it has happened at times just by degrees. But I am coming with a wave of the Holy Spirit. I’m coming with a wave of joy. Know this: as you make a decision, you are going to believe that I am healing you where you’re hurting. Make the decision that you are not going to stay in this place where you feel anxious, where you feel panic, where you don’t know what to do.”

The Lord just wants you to know that He is going to give you solutions. There are solutions coming for you. The Bible talks about hope being the anchor for your soul, and I see that Satan is trying to take your hope that things will ever change or that things will ever get better. The Lord would say that that is a lie and an attack from the enemy.

When Disney bought a 30-minute TV program in the late ’60s to announce its new theme park, no resident of Florida or member of the American church could have predicted how powerful Disney would become.

With a variety of fake business names, Walt Disney’s company bought 55,000 acres of pastureland at $110 an acre. In an effort to appease Walt Disney’s growing entertainment business, Florida granted Disney the right to set up the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a self-governed special taxing district that can make its own laws and levy taxes against themselves while taking advantage of multiple tax breaks.

When I reported for the Orlando Sentinel, I witnessed firsthand the challenges and problems that Disney World created for city and county governments. In Orange County, Florida, Disney World is like a black hole in the middle of the county where the county has no jurisdiction.

In Samuel 28, King Saul inquired of God for advice, but God did not answer him because of his disobedience. King Saul then went to the witch of Endor to bring back the prophet Samuel from the dead even though this was forbidden by God. Was it Samuel who appeared to him—or was it an evil spirit?

I believe Scripture is clear that it was Samuel who ascended out of the earth to talk with King Saul. There are multiple reasons that make this clear.

First, the witch was surprised and startled to the point of fear. Scripture says, “When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice” (v. 12a, MEV). This verse says she saw Samuel, not an evil spirit. She would not have been shocked and scared if were an evil spirit. She had seen evil spirits before, since this was her practice. She knew she could not have brought up the real Samuel, but only an impersonating demon (familiar spirit).

In addition, seeing the real Samuel caused her to know that it was Saul asking. She said, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul” (v. 12b). She would have known that Samuel was frequently with Saul, as the prophets had audience with the king. She immediately associated the two identities.

The second reason is that Samuel’s appearance came before the witch had started her ritual or incantations. God interrupted it immediately. Bringing up Samuel was allowed and caused by God, as several commentaries point out, since this was the king, and it involved the nation of Israel, God made this exception. God made exceptions elsewhere in the Bible. One example is He allowed Samson to marry a Philistine in Judges 14:4, which was not permitted for an Israelite.

The third reason is the witch described Samuel’s appearance as, “an old man … coming up; and covered with a mantle” (v. 27, NKJV). Samuel would have in fact been old, and Samuel wore a mantle as a prophet would (1 Sam. 15:27).

The fourth reason is found in 1 Samuel 28:14, which states that “Saul perceived it was Samuel.” I’m sure Saul knew, since he was an eyewitness. He perceived it to be Samuel. In addition, verse 14 says that Saul, “stooped with his face towards the ground and bowed down.” He must have been strongly convinced it was Samuel for the king to bow down.

The fifth reason is the most important point. The passage states twice that Samuel spoke: “and Samuel said” (v. 15a) and “Then said Samuel” (v. 16a). If it were an evil spirit, the Scripture would not have said it was Samuel. The Bible answers this question for us. God’s Word says what it means.

The next reason is that Samuel prophesied the future in detail, which the evil spirit could not do. The devil does not know the future. “Then Samuel said, ‘So why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? And the Lord has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 28:16-19).

If it were an evil spirit, the spirit would not have chastised Saul’s disobedience to God, and more importantly, could not have predicted the future so accurately and with so much detail.

The last reason, found in verse 20b (KJV), says, “Saul was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel.” Again, it says these were “the words of Samuel.” The Bible would not record a lie, which would have produced confusion. Four times, the Scripture specifically says it was indeed Samuel. That sums it up clearly and leaves no doubt.

Bill Wiese is the author of the New York Times bestselling book 23 Minutes In Hell, the story of his life-changing visit to hell in 1998. Bill has since authored six additional book titles and continues to share his experience around the world. He and his wife, Annette, founded Soul Choice Ministries in late 2006 and have dedicated their lives to reaching the unsaved.

For more information about Bill Wiese and Soul Choice Ministries please visit us at: Find more of Bill’s teachings at:

Dr. Steve Greene, publisher and executive vice president of Charisma Media Group, knows about love. As a longtime marketing expert, college professor, pastor, podcast host and mentor to many, he has lived out love in the marketplace—and depended on the Holy Spirit to give him the love he needed in every situation.

That’s why he wrote the book, Love Leads, Greene tells host and deliverance minister Kathy DeGraw in a recent episode of Prophetic Spiritual Warfare on the Charisma Podcast Network. He had read many leadership books and although they taught him a great deal, “There’s something missing from them,” he says. “I thought there was a core ingredient, and that was godly love. …. If you don’t have love, if God is love, and you don’t have love, how can you possibly lead?” Greene says that although he was never good at algebra, he realized this was a simple equation: “If you don’t have love, you can’t lead a godly mission.”

Greene had some encouraging feedback on his book from someone he calls “a well-known leader in the kingdom, who told him, ‘Your book rocked me.'” But this leader added, “‘I don’t think this book is going to sell well among pastors, because most pastors believe they’re good leaders. And they believe that they must lead, that they don’t need love. They need to be strong in their pulpit. They need to show people that tough love.’

“I don’t think I’ve ever read ‘tough love’ in the Bible,” Greene says. “Never saw examples of it. I see correction. I see strong rebuke. But I don’t see tough love. I don’t think they’re synonyms. I don’t think that ‘tough’ describes ‘love’ in any way. … The capacity to love has got to be something supernatural because I can’t do it in my flesh. I think some people can feel love in the flesh, that we can make a choice to love. But that choice is going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

To hear more about godly love and how you can access it through the Holy Spirit in all of your relationships, click here to listen to the entire podcast. {eoa}

Steve Strang, founder and CEO of Charisma Media, was raised in a Pentecostal pastor’s home. But it was also a home that, he says, was not politically active.

On a recent episode of Prophetic Spiritual Warfare on the Charisma Podcast Network, Strang tells prophet and deliverance minister Kathy DeGraw that the situation when he grew up was very different than it is now. But, as a Spirit-filled Christian, a leader, a journalist and the author of four books on Donald Trump, Strang believes today’s church needs to wake up to the realities of what is happening in the spiritual realm.

The problems we see in our nation today are not just cultural but “examples of spiritual warfare, where people call right things that are wrong and things are wrong that are really right. in terms of biblical principles and what God wants,” Strang says. “And we Christians have to stand up. I’m very concerned about the passivity in the church.”

He adds, “Now in Pentecostal circles and certainly in the early days of the charismatic movement, deliverance from demons was a big thing, and people would pray to get victory over the demon of nicotine or alcoholism or some other kind of addiction or anger.

“And I know personally people who have been gloriously delivered, but I can remember having discussions with other Christian leaders and saying, ‘Those are the easy demons,'” he says. “The real demons are what they call the principalities and powers and rulers in high places that control entire cultures and countries.'”

And that’s what is happening in our country, Strang believes. To hear more of his discussion with Kathy DeGraw on this episode of Prophetic Spiritual Warfare, listen to the entire podcast here. {eoa}

All believers in Christ have the hope of heaven. But Dr. Manuel Johnson (“Dr. Manny”) of MegaPraise Ministries may long for his heavenly home even more after the Lord gave him the opportunity to visit heaven via a vision he had. In that way, he says, he visited heaven for an hour and 45 minutes.

One of the first things God showed him while he was there, Johnson tells host Derrick Gates on a recent episode of the Unleashed podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network, is that “all lives matter from the womb to the tomb.” He also says believers should remember that “every day is effective and perfect in heaven.”

Because of Johnson’s experience with heaven, Gates asks him some common questions people have about the holy realm. The first is, “Will you be able to know other people in heaven that you knew here?”

Johnson says, “Yes …You won’t know their sin. … You know, there is no forgiveness in heaven, and there’s no forgiveness in hell.” Gates and Johnson agree: You don’t want to miss heaven.

Gates also says people want to know, “Are there pets in heaven?”

Johnson answers, “Yes. That was one of the things that I was assigned as I walked into this beautiful home. Well, there’s material here that’s on earth and there’s material that is not on earth, right? … I did see animals in heaven. There are horses in heaven; there are animals there. Those of you that are born again, your pet is waiting for you in heaven. That’s OK; they don’t have to be born again. God just brings them into heaven. They’re waiting for you.”

To hear more from Dr. Manny about heaven and the prophetic vision God has given him for the years ahead, listen to the entire podcast here. {eoa}

Chronic fear and anxiety have a clear impact on our health. As head with his wife, Dr. Michele Neil-Sherwood, of the Functional Medical Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dr. Mark Sherwood, naturopathic doctor, understands this. And he says the current upheaval in our country with protests and police only adds to the stress and fear many are experiencing.

On a recent episode of the Healthcare’s Missing Link podcast on the Charisma podcast network, Sherwood says, “When we’re living in chronic fear and chronic anxiety, in all kinds of upheaval, it absolutely will have a powerful effect on your system, specifically the immune system. The effect it has on the short term will be OK, but long term chronic [anxiety] will cause a weakening and a lessening of its effectiveness. So it’s going to weaken the strength, lessen its response. So therefore it becomes a health issue.”

So how can we find true peace? Sherwood explains several things we need to understand about biblical principles of authority and shares a story from his high school days. “I fixed the drinking fountain. I put some gum on there so that when it we pushed it, it would shoot it out instead of up. And wouldn’t you know it? The head football coach came by thereafter. And he pushed it. And you know what, the water went straight on his pants.”

When Sherwood was caught, he says, he experienced consequences in the form of two giant swats from a wooden paddle. “That was a fear that I needed to learn from,” he says. “How did I become free from the fear of getting a swat again? … I had to obey the rules. And so I had to search my heart and say, ‘God, help me. Help me obey the rules.'”

That’s what we need in our country, Sherwood says. If we want true peace and freedom from fear of authorities, he says, we need to understand that authority comes from God and obey the rules put in place. But he says there’s one more ingredient that can help. To hear his explanation and learn more about how to find peace and freedom from fear and anxiety, listen to the entire podcast here. {eoa}