Natural disasters are claiming lives in America. Economic disasters are driving poverty in America. Agronomists are predicting famine in America. Politicians and schoolchildren are being shot in America. Pastors are falling into sexual immorality in America. Violent protesters are taking to the streets in America. All the while some Americans are arming themselves for another Civil War.

There’s been an increasingly rapid decline in America’s morality since prayer was removed from schools in 1962. Abortion was legalized in 1973. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004. Plenty of wickedness has taken place in between and since—and the enemy is growing bolder. God has lifted a measure of His hedge of protection around America. Christians are meeting with persecution in the marketplace, and anti-Christ agendas are working overtime to send America into a downward spiral of darkness.

“Without divine intervention, what we call America will be gone within the next couple of years. It’s that critical,” says evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor at The River at Tampa Bay. “The handwriting is on the wall. Only God can save us now. This is not a game. If we don’t see a turn in the next two or three years, America as we know it will sink into the abyss and will be gone forever.”

For decades, God has sent prophetic voices from many streams, like Billy Graham, Jonathan Cahn and Howard-Browne—to warn America. Yet the spiritual state of the union has only grown worse. Our national debt continues piling up, abortions are still legal, prayerlessness abounds, a spiritual avalanche is looming over our churches even as natural threats like the Ebola virus and the Islamic State threaten to cross our borders.

No politician can fix the problems our nation is facing. We need another Great Awakening. The good news is God wants to bring another spiritual awakening to America. He’s just waiting for us to get in line with His Spirit like our Founding Fathers did when they fought to establish one nation under God. Like George Washington did when he was faced with the reality of losing to the British, we need to make an appeal to heaven that will usher in the next great move of God.

Making an Appeal to Heaven

The revelation of making an appeal to heaven as it relates to taking back our nation for God unfolded to Dutch Sheets, an internationally recognized author, teacher and conference speaker, through several prophetic encounters over the course of about 12 years—and it’s igniting fires of revival and awakening in the United States and beyond. Many, including myself, believe that it relates directly to a Third Great Awakening in America.

One of those prophetic encounters was a dream a young man named Thomas shared with Sheets. In the dream, Sheets was a boxer facing five giants in five rounds. One by one, he knocked out those giants with a single punch, alternating fists. One of the boxing gloves said “Everlast,” which is a common brand name for boxing gloves but nevertheless prophetic. The other glove said “Evergreen.” Sheets knew God was talking to him about taking out the giants in America.

“When I look at the giants in America, I get overwhelmed,” Sheets says. “I have to get my focus off the giants and get my focus on the Lord. He can do this. This is not too hard for God.”

The foundation of the revelation is in the Everlast and Evergreen dream—and then tied back into Scripture. As Sheets studied the life of Abraham, he was fascinated by Genesis 21:33: “Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” This is the first time in Scripture when Jehovah is called “Everlasting God.”

The Law of First Mention is a Scripture interpretation principle that states the first mention or occurrence of a name or subject matter in the Bible establishes a pattern that is unchangeable in God’s mind throughout Scripture. Up until Genesis 21:33, Abraham knew Jehovah as Adonai, El Shaddai and Yahweh. After walking though 25 years of struggles and mistakes, waiting to see the promise of Isaac fulfilled, Abraham saw Jehovah as the “Everlasting God,” or Olam-El, the strong eternal God who fulfills the past and precedes us into our futures. The Everlasting God is the One who stood by Abraham even when he lied about Sarah being his sister. The strong, eternal God is the one who stuck with him through the issue of Ishmael.

God Is Not Finished With America

“God is not finished with America. He’s not,” Sheets says. “God is not going to send awakening to America because we deserve it. He is not going to send awakening based on our merits or our goodness. I’m not asking for revival because we haven’t sinned or because we’re perfect. I’m asking for this based on His mercy and His faithfulness and the fact that He’s bigger than our mistakes. And I’m asking based on the blood of Jesus.”

That’s the revelation of the “Everlast” glove in the prophetic dream. The revelation of “Evergreen” wouldn’t come until six years later at a Christ for the Nations graduation when Sheets asked one of his spiritual sons, a military man, to offer the graduation message. Long story short, the soldier pulled out a flag that George Washington flew on his naval ships before the United States of America was ever birthed. It was the banner America was born under—a white banner with an evergreen tree and the words “Appeal to Heaven” written in block letters across the top. The tamarisk tree that Abraham planted in Genesis 21:33 is an evergreen tree.

Here’s the bottom line as Sheets saw it: “I realized what God was saying to me is if we’re going to defeat the giants, we can’t be asking for God to deliver America just so we can prosper. We’re going to have to tap into His eternal purpose. This is not about being the most powerful nation or the richest. This is about being that city on a hill. This is about furthering the gospel. This is about what God wants to do, not just here but all over the world. We’re going to have to tap into this synergy of the ages. We are going to have to do the same thing they did. If we wear the everlasting covenant glove and wear the evergreen covenant glove and reconnect to our roots in Him, God will come through for us.”

When God Poured Out His Spirit in Kentucky

There is power in making this appeal to heaven. For nearly 200 years, Clay County, Kentucky, was marked by violent family feuds, moon-shining and murder, extreme poverty, government corruption and deadly drug abuse. Clay County—and specifically the City of Manchester—made national headlines over and over again for all the wrong reasons.

In July 1989, USA Today reported that more than 40 percent of Clay County’s population was growing marijuana and the Daniel Boone National Forest was effectively transformed into a pot field. By the turn of the century the area moved on to a new drug. The Lexington-Herald Ledger dubbed Manchester “The Painkiller Capital of America” in January 2003 as Oxycontin was sold on nearly every street corner. From there, “cooks” rose up to manufacture methamphetamine, a highly-addictive crystalline drug that can be snorted, smoked or injected.

Political officials and police were being paid to look the other way. The drug lords bought the elections every four years. More than 90 percent of the county’s high school students were strung out on one drug or another. Overdoses became a common occurrence, with memorial crosses strewn along the city streets like a picket fence. Meanwhile, the pastors were polarized based on doctrinal differences and felt hopeless to help members whose families were drug-addicted and dying.

“Our kids started dying. Out of desperation, we started praying in the fall of 2003. We started crying out to the Lord. A Southern Baptist preacher named Ken Bolin had a dream,” says Doug Abner, who was pastoring a church in Manchester at the time. “Ken wanted to have a march against drugs and corruption on May 2, 2004. We received threats on our lives, our homes and our churches, but we knew it was God.”

The morning of May 2, in the pouring rain 4,000 people turned out for the march. That’s especially significant considering Manchester is only home to 2,000 people. The rally ended at a park. There the pastors and church leaders repented for being more concerned about their own denominations, their own congregations, and their own programs than the lost souls in Clay County. When they asked the people to forgive them and vowed to work together, Abner says the manifest presence of the Lord fell in the park to the degree that people could hardly breathe.

“The fear of the Lord gripped the community. Drug dealers and corrupt politicians began to tell on each other,” Abner says. “A few months later, the FBI came to town and started arresting people. Eventually, they arrested the mayor and the assistant police chief, the fire chief, the 911 director, several local judges and city council members, a circuit judge, school board members and the superintendent and lots of others. They arrested the drug dealers, who were selling drugs to the nation from Manchester.”

Today, Manchester is known as the City of Hope. God even healed the land. For years, the water tasted foul without a water filter. But in 2008, Clay County’s water won first place in Kentucky’s municipal water system for its taste. Churches and local businesses banded together with the court system to develop second-chance employment programs for Clay County’s population of recovering drug addicts. As the economy improved, new businesses started opening to provide those jobs.

“I asked the Lord, ‘Why Manchester?’ And He said, ‘Because I want the world to see what can happen when people get desperate and begin to come together,'” Abner says. “As bad as the darkness was, our biggest problem was not the darkness. Our biggest problem was the lack of light—the church not being what it is supposed to be. When we came together in desperation, He healed the land. He changed the fabric of our society.”

Transforming Revival Is Possible

Transformation is possible in America and indeed transforming revival has broken out in communities around the world. The Sentinel Group, a Christian research and information agency dedicated to helping the church pray knowledgeably for end-time global evangelization and enabling communities to discover the pathway to genuine revival and societal transformation, has documented transformation in about 1,000 communities worldwide.

A transformed community, as The Sentinel Group defines it, is a neighborhood, city or nation whose values and institutions have been overrun by the grace and presence of God; a place where divine fire has not merely been summoned, it has fallen; a society disrupted by supernatural power; a culture that has been impacted comprehensively and undeniably by the kingdom of God; and a location where kingdom values are celebrated publicly and passed on to future generations. Transforming revival starts with an appeal to heaven.

“They re-covenant with God. They form unity kernels and they prevail in prayer. And with clean hearts and pure hands, they ask God to rend the heavens and come down—not first and foremost to repair the community but because they cannot bear to live apart from His presence a moment longer,” says George Otis Jr., founder of The Sentinel Group. “They are not summoning a handyman. They’re summoning a lover. And when they do this, there is a certain moment in time where the presence of the Lord comes. God comes in response to that entreaty.”

It’s time to make an appeal to heaven and many are responding to the call in what some are calling the next great move of God. In my book, The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening, I was struck by how so many voices from so many camps in the body of Christ—Sheets, Billy, Greg Laurie, Reinhard Bonnke, Mike Huckabee, Kenneth Copeland, Howard-Browne, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, Mike Bickle, David Ravenhill, James Goll, Jack Hayford, Ben Carson, David Barton, Chuck Pierce, and the list goes on and on—are essentially saying the same thing. America is a nation in crisis—and God wants to wake us up, bring us in line with His heart and heal our land.

For all the doom and gloom prophecies over America, there is yet a rising cry from respected voices from various streams of the body of Christ that sense God’s heart—and God’s hope—for America even in the midst of discipline. Despite the reality that a degree of judgment has come to America—and that we may continue to reap on the wicked seeds we’ve sown for a longer season—many agree that God is not done with America. There is hope.

“Now, many look at the state of the nation and are deeply discouraged, but I am filled with hope,” says Lou Engle, co-founder of TheCall solemn assemblies that call young adults into a lifestyle of radical prayer, fasting, holiness and acts of justice. “I have read history; most great moves of God erupted in the darkest times of crisis and were preceded by years of intercession. Today, I have more expectation for the Great Awakening in America then I ever have had.”

Rick Joyner, founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries, sees the enemy’s plan clearly but remains hopeful for another transforming revival in America. “There are many great signs of revival and awakening in America—incredible things happening,” says Joyner. “I believe we’re going to see a Third Great Awakening in America within the next couple of years. It’s going to be massive. It’s going to transform America. It could help restore us to the foundations.”

God is hearing our cries, but that doesn’t mean we should stop pressing in now. In fact, I believe our level of desperation must increase before God breaks in and pours out His Spirit to bring a transforming revival. I believe we must continue making an appeal to heaven. And I believe as we do it will transform our hearts and our minds to take part in the greatest Great Awakening the world has ever seen.

“God is calling forth an army of faithful followers who will come up out of their discouragement to boldly push back the darkness,” Sheets says. “Many leaders in government, health, education and ministry are having to make a decision right now—am I going to make my stand or am I going to compromise and yield to the enemy’s plans? I, for one, say what America’s founding fathers said upon signing the Declaration of Independence and, thereby, committing an act of treason against the crown: I pledge my life, my fortune, my sacred honor—everything to stop this insidious plan of hell. Will you join me?”

Pockets of true revival are breaking out across America. Want to know more about the next great move of God? Click here to see Jennifer LeClaire’s new book, featuring Dutch Sheets, Reinhard Bonnke, Jonathan Cahn, Billy Graham and others.

Jennifer LeClaire is the news editor of Charisma. She is also director of the Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening. You can visit her website at jenniferleclaire.org.

Listen to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s prayer at The Response: Louisana hosted in LSU at jindalprayer.charismamag.com.

John is a normal guy. He’s a Christian, a businessman and a good father who happens to struggle with a pornography addiction.

Introduced to pornography at the young age of 11, he just seems to always struggle with the pull of it. Growing up, getting through school, marrying and having two kids helped life to seem normal but always right there under the surface is this pull of the forbidden that he always seems to lose.

John has great intentions and every time he fails, he tells himself, “This is the last time.” John doesn’t share his struggle with his wife because it will probably upset her, and it just affects him anyways, right?

Christine is John’s wife and constantly struggles with her self-image. She never feels quite settled or secure in her marriage. Although John is a good provider and always comes home, there are times when he just seems to check out.

Although he is nice to her most of the time, sometimes he just seems to pick her apart. It is those times that Christine thinks about most days and wonders if she’s good enough for John and if he is eventually going to find someone else if she doesn’t measure up a little better as a wife.

So Christine struggles, she tries to work out, she tries different makeup, different hairstyles, better outfits, and although the new works for a little while, it eventually settles back in to those same old uncomfortable interactions that leaves her feeling less than.

This isn’t a how-to article on eliminating porn from your life. In marriage mentoring and counseling, I have seen countless men addicted to pornography. The ones who have successfully been delivered from that addiction all had several things in common. They recognized what their addiction was doing to their relationship with God, they recognized what their sin was doing to their relationship with their wife and they recognized the very real capability of sexual sin passing down through the generations to their children.

They then after reviewing all the evidence, made a firm decision that they wanted pure relationships more than secret sin. They confessed to God and their wife, and were genuinely changed through grace and forgiveness and the power of Jesus Christ to be overcomers, more than conquerors, exceedingly and abundantly free from their past.

Here are three ways porn steals from your marriage:

1. Porn steals honest and open communication from your marriage. You can never get to a level five-communication status with your wife if you are always hiding something from her. Every time the conversation goes a little too deep and you find yourself a little too open, you have to reign it back in to keep from revealing something about your hidden life.

This leaves your wife feeling abandoned and disconnected from you which, in turn, causes her to usually withdraw as well. If there is always something between you and God, is your relationship in good standing? If there is always something between you and your wife, is your relationship in good standing? A foundation for a healthy, affair proof, divorce proof marriage is honest and open communication about everyday life. The more you know about each other’s struggles, the more you can pray for and support each other.

2. Porn steals a genuine unconditional love from your marriage. Once you dive in to the world of porn, it’s like a slippery slope. What started at the surface soon becomes mundane and you have to go further to try to maintain an excitement

Now what happens next is beyond your control. If you’re immersed in pornography you will begin to view people as sexual objects only. Those that are “good” for sex and those who are “bad” for sex, those you are attracted to and those you aren’t attracted to will be the only two categories you view people in. You no longer will think with concern for someone’s well-being but only if they look hot or not. This will bleed over in to your relationship with your wife.

Does she look hot enough, does she act like the girls on the video, and does she perform as well as those girls perform? If not, you begin to become bitter towards her for not meeting your new expectations. You deserve more, you need more, and this isn’t cutting it.

You become condescending and mean trying to get her to respond with more enthusiasm, more passion, but it only drives her away, because her number one need from you is security and she doesn’t have it anymore. Unconditional love and security brings a whole new level of intimacy in a relationship. If your wife knows you love her unconditionally, she will more than likely be much more available to you physically (barring any other situations not mentioned).

3. Porn steals the utter relief of holiness from your marriage. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote that a marriage is a Holy Office to hold. One to be cherished and respected and treated with dignity, ordained and sanctioned by God Himself.

Pornography addiction within a marriage is not honoring to the office and not honoring to God and completely dishonoring to your wife. There’s a certain stress that lies under the surface when dealing with unconfessed sin. “But I confessed it to God, Steve!”

It is still a sin against your wife that requires confession. Carrying around a potential threat to your family all by yourself is dangerous and deadly to your family spiritually.  There are two ways this secret will eventually come to the light, by your confession or by revelation. Revelation to those around you will be much more embarrassing. There is an utter relief when holiness returns and there’s nothing between you and God and nothing between you and your wife.

If your wife isn’t a safe place for you to confess, (some women aren’t) try a Pastor or a counselor first. Then ask him for help in revealing it to your wife. You may need counseling to stabilize your marriage. You may need a program like Pure Life Ministry to hold you accountable to finding your deliverance. Whatever the cost, it’s less than what porn costs your marriage and family.

Praying for your release from this bondage and for you to feel the utter relief of freedom.

Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ freed us. Stand fast therefore and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (MEV).

Even if porn isn’t your struggle, what else do you recognize that you are allowing to steal from your marriage? Share on social media or in the comments below.

Stephen Miller is a Family Life Pastor at Crystal River Church of God, an ordained minister in the Church of God, the Men’s Ministry leader of Warriors with a Covenant and a Married Life Small group marriage ministry leader. Steve and his wife Jessica present regularly for the Marriage Restored Conference. You can read more of his work at Marriage Encounter and read his book “Fight for Her! A Marriage in Crisis and God’s Intervention.”

A growing number of studies are giving a whole new meaning to the term “health nuts.” Researchers across the country are linking daily consumption of nuts to a lower risk for developing cancer, in addition to heart disease and other conditions.

A series of studies presented at this month’s Experimental Biology 2015 conference in Boston suggest that walnuts and other nuts hold a great deal of promise in promoting health and longevity—adding to a body of evidence that includes more than 150 similar studies.

The likely culprits are active ingredients in nuts—such as alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid, protein, vitamins E and B6, and nutrients like folate, selenium, magnesium, and antioxidants called polyphenols—that boost health.

Among the latest study findings:

Colon cancer: For the first time, researchers reported that components of nuts have an effect on colon cancer cells. Research conducted by the Department of Nutritional Science and Food Management at the Ewha Womans University in Korea showed that walnut extract significantly slowed the survival of the cancer stem cells. The results suggest walnut consumption could be a helpful adjunct to standard colon cancer therapies.

Cardiovascular health: Medical specialists with the Departments of Nutrition and Internal Medicine at the University of California-Davis found postmenopausal women with high cholesterol who ate nearly two ounces of nuts a day had notable improvements in blood-vessel function—a measure of overall heart health—likely due to the polyunsaturated fatty acids they contain.

Age-related brain disorders: Scientists with the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University found that laboratory rats fed a diet that included nuts had notable beneficial protective effects on critical regions of the brain tied to memory, cognition, and mental functions. Although the study involved animals, researchers believe the same mechanisms are at work in human brains.

Digestive health: A study by the Department of Physiology School of Medicine at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center found nuts have a marked effect on “healthy bacteria” in the gut that boost digestive health and overall wellness. In fact, a daily diet including about two ounces of walnuts were found to change “the gut microbial environment, by which walnuts may exert their beneficial health effects.” Those changes boost the body’s ability to digest and use the food we eat, lowering the risk for a range of chronic diseases.

“These findings help advance the understanding of the many advantages of eating walnuts as part of a healthy diet, and add to the more than 159 published papers over 20 years that have shown how walnuts affect heart health, diabetes, cancer, cognition, fertility, and weight management,” said Dennis A. Balint, CEO of the California Walnut Commission—a health research agency of the State of California.

In addition to the recent study findings presented at the Boston conference, food scientists from the University of Scranton recently reported walnuts have the highest amount of polyphenols of nine nuts they tested—including pistachios, pecans, Brazil nuts, peanuts, almonds, macadamias, cashews, and hazelnuts—and two kinds of peanut butter.

Joe Vinson, a chemist who led the new study, said it takes only about seven walnuts a day to maximize their health benefits.

“[Walnuts] are high in fiber, low in saturated fats, high in beneficial unsaturated fats, and very high in antioxidants,” he said. “Nuts are a nutritious snack and food additive providing both nutrients and bioactive antioxidants which provide significant health benefits.”

Penn State researchers also reported last month that including peanuts—or a smoothie made from them—as a part of a high fat meal helps to control dangerous blood fats known as triglycerides, improve blood vessel function, and boost overall heart health.

“Peanuts are a healthy snack when eaten as part of a healthy diet,” said lead researcher Xiaoran Liu, a graduate student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.

“Previous studies have shown that individuals who consume peanuts more than two times a week have a lower risk of coronary heart disease. This study indicates that the protective effect of peanut consumption could be due, in part, to its beneficial effect on artery health.”

In addition, a series of large studies publishes this year—including the Nurses’ Health Study of 76,464 women, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study of 42,498 men, and a clinical trial in Spain involving people who ate a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra nuts—have all found that the more nuts people consume, the less likely they are to die from cancer, heart disease, or stroke.

In line with these findings, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endorses the consumption of nuts as part of a daily diet to boost cardiovascular health.

“Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease,” the FDA says.

For the original article, visit newsmaxhealth.com.

Although I always tell people to eat their vegetables and fruit, there are at least three reasons why juicing is important and should also be included in the diet.

First, we can juice far more produce than we would probably eat in a day. It takes a long time to chew raw veggies! Chewing is a very good thing, and I highly encourage it. However, we have only so much time for chewing up raw foods.

One day I timed how long it would take for me to eat five medium-size carrots. (That’s what I often juice along with cucumber, lemon, ginger root, beet, kale and celery.) It took about 50 minutes to chew them up and swallow them. Not only do I not have that kind of time every day, but my jaw was also so tired afterward that I could hardly move it.

Second, we can juice parts of the plant we would not normally eat, such as stems, leaves and seeds. I juice things I know I would rarely or never eat such as beet stems and leaves, celery leaves, the white pithy part of the lemon with the seeds, asparagus stems, broccoli stems, the base of cauliflower, kohlrabi leaves, radish leaves and ribs of kale.

Third, juice is broken down so it spares digestion. It is estimated that it is at work in the system within 20 to 30 minutes. For ailments such as thyroid disorders, juice is therapy for this very reason. When the body has to work hard to break down veggies, it can spend a lot of energy on the digestive process. But juicing does the work for you. When you drink a glass of fresh juice, all those life-giving nutrients can go to work right away to heal and repair your body, giving it energy for its work of rejuvenation.

People often ask me if it takes a bushel basket full of produce to make a glass of juice. Actually, if you’re using a good juicer, it takes a surprisingly small amount. For example, five to seven large carrots or one large cucumber yield about one 8-ounce glass of juice.

The following amounts of produce each yield about 4 ounces of juice: one large apple, three to four large (13-inch) ribs of celery, or one large orange. The key is to get a good juicer that yields a dry pulp. I’ve used juicers that ejected very wet pulp. When I ran the pulp through the juicer again I got more juice and the pulp was still wet.

Adapted from Cherie Calbom’s The Juice Lady’s Remedies For Thyroid Disorder (Charisma House, 2015).

Cherie Calbom, M.S., C.N., is the author of more than 20 books, including The Juice Lady’s Big Book of Juices and Green Smoothies and Remedies for Stress and Adrenal Fatigue. She holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. Cherie and her husband, John, offer juice health retreats throughout the year, along with health and healing conferences. For more information, visit juiceladycherie.com.

I’m a big proponent of pressing in to the Holy Spirit for battle plans. While spiritual warfare Scriptures—like putting on the whole armor of God (see Eph. 6) or casting down imaginations (see 2 Cor. 10:5)—are always true all the time, I believe certain weapons and certain strategies are most appropriate at certain times.

For example, God once told Joshua to have men of fighting age march around the city once a day for six days, then march around the city seven times on the seventh day with the priests blowing the trumpets, then let out a battle cry on the last long blast (see Josh. 6). That strategy brought the walls of Jericho tumbling down, but that’s not the right strategy for every battle.

Indeed, we see many warfare strategies in Scripture. The key is to discern and execute the warfare strategy God is breathing on during any given season and for specific situations. In this season, I believe there’s wind on a strategy Paul gave his spiritual son Timothy: “This command I commit to you, my son Timothy, according to the prophecies that were previously given to you, that by them you might fight a good fight” (1 Tim. 1:18).

Waging War With Your Prophetic Words

The Amplified translation of that verse exhorts us to “be inspired and aided” by the prophetic words “that you may wage the good warfare.” The New Living Translation tells us that the prophetic words “help you fight well in the Lord’s battles.” And the Message Translation tells us the prophecies should make you “fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in.”

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Indeed, this is a fight we’re in—it’s a good fight of faith against unseen enemies. “For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Thankfully, the unseen God—and unseen angels—are on our side. The angels are an important part of this spiritual warfare equation.

Think of Daniel. He had a prophetic vision that took him into prayer and fasting for three whole weeks. That prophetic vision, prayer and fasting was followed by an angelic encounter from which we can learn plenty. The angel told Daniel from the first day he started praying out that prophetic vision, God heard his words and an angel came because of his words.

“For from the first day that you set your heart to understand this and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia” (Daniel 10:12-13).

Unleashing a Heavenly Host

Angels are still warring in the heavenlies. God can dispatch them—Jesus said He could pray and God would send 12 legions (that’s 72,000 angels) to rescue Him (see Matt. 26:47-54.) God told Moses He would send an angel before him to drive the enemies out of the land (see Ex. 33:22). But angels also obey the voice of His word (see Ps. 103:20). That includes the written Word and true prophetic words.

So, we see that waging warfare with the proven prophetic words we’ve received is scriptural—and that angels hearken unto the voice of His word. The question is, how do we wield this weapon? We pray it through. We decree it. We declare it. We meditate on it so that it gets down so deep in our spirit that when we pray it, decree it and declare it, it carries authority that comes through faith.

We’re fighting a good fight of faith more than we’re fighting any enemy. The enemy is real, but the fight is often the fight to believe God’s Word is true in the face of contrary circumstances. Scripture is the final authority and it’s our sword, but tested prophetic words are like arrows in our quiver that we can shoot into the spirit realm to hit the target of God’s revealed will. It’s time to go back and review some of your prophetic words and rise up against the enemies that are standing in the way of your destiny.

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Next Great Move of God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening; Mornings With the Holy Spirit, Listening Daily to the Still, Small Voice of God; The Making of a Prophet and Satan’s Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

In another blog, I addressed the power of the tongue by noting that your tongue is a wild animal: You need to chain it, tame it and train it. Chain it by being silent when you know nothing good will come out of your mouth. Tame it by vowing each day that you will harness and control your tongue. And train it to breathe life-giving words into those you love.

When it comes to your kids, your tongue can do a whole lot of damage, if you’re not careful. Never underestimate the defeating power of a few careless words. So here are nine things that you should never say to your kids:

1. “Why can’t you be more like _________________?” Comparisons are toxic and they serve no positive purpose. Comparing your child to their brother, sister or friend only tears down your child and makes them feel like they’re not good enough or don’t measure up. Treat each child of yours as an individual. Never say, “Why can’t you do well in school like your sister?” Do say, “What can we do to help you do your very best in school?” Each of your children is unique. It’s important to treat them uniquely.

2. “I don’t have time right now.” One Saturday morning, when my son, Marky, was a little boy, he showed me his ball and glove and said, “Dad, let’s play baseball.” Of course, since I’m Mr. Family Guy, I said, “Sure, son.” Right? Wrong. No, I said “I don’t have time right now. I’m fixing the toilet. Just give me a few minutes.” Well, the minutes turned into hours and when I was ready that afternoon to play ball, my son said, “No thanks, Dad.” When we say, “I don’t have time,” what we’re really saying is, “What I’m doing is more important than what you need.” or “There’s something else I’d rather be doing.” Is there anything more important for us to do than to spend time with our children and family?

3. “I don’t think you can do it.” What your child hears is, “I don’t believe in you.” Knowing you believe in them gives your kids strength, courage, motivation, tenacity and more. Take that belief away and the damage will be huge. When you’re tempted to say something like this, instead say, “You’ve got some big obstacles, but I’m here for you, cheering you on and ready to help you to do your very best.” While you don’t want to fill your kids with false hope or inflated pride, you do want to encourage them in their goals.

4. “You’re such a disappointment.” Your kids can mess up, and they will. We all do. But if you want your children to learn from their mistakes, address their mess and how it can be fixed without hanging it on them. The label of failure is a heavy load to carry, and most kids won’t hold up. Try saying, “Your [bad grade, bad choice, etc.] is disappointing, but I love you no matter what. What can you learn from this?” Separate who your child is from the mess they’ve made.

5. “Don’t be such a wimp.” This should never be said to a boy or a girl. But, for a boy, it’s basically saying, “You don’t have what it takes to be a man” and can damage him to the core for quite some time. Saying, “You throw like a girl” to your son can have the same effect.

6. “You’re such a bonehead.” Telling your child they’re stupid is implanted in the hard drive of their mind and is difficult to delete. It’s certainly no way to motivate them.

7. “Can’t you do anything right?” When a parent says this to a child in the heat of the moment, it’s not only saying that the child messed this one thing up, but also that they mess up everything. It’s always dangerous to use broadbrush words like always, never, everything or anything.

8. Why didn’t you make the starting team? Your daughter or son probably tried really hard to make the starting team, but landed on the B squad. They probably already are disappointed about it and don’t need anyone to pour vinegar into their wound. Instead, they need to be praised for doing their best and for even making the team.

9. “So you made a B+, why didn’t you get an A?” When something like this is said, here is what a child hears, “Nothing I do is good enough for my mom or dad.” If they did their best, we should praise them. If they didn’t, we should challenge them to give it everything they’ve got the next time.

By the way, the 5 Toxins of the Tongue that Can Poison Your Marriage also apply to your relationship with your children. It might provide you with further insight on this topic as well. And these 5 Types of Powerful Words for Your Marriage are likewise applicable to your children and will help you to build them up.

What other hurtful things have you said to your kids? How did you remedy the situation? Share your experiences below.

Mark Merrill is the president of Family First. For the original article, visit markmerrill.com.

Summer is right around the corner, and that means warmer temperatures (scorching ones if you live in the south, like me) and cooler clothing! Many of us will be lounging by the pool, heading to the beach, running outside, or simply running errands in shoulder and arm-bearing attire.

Not surprisingly, “toning up my arms” is a frequent fitness goal I hear from clients this time of year.

We all want to feel confident in our clothing, yes, but even more important than how we look and feel is how strong we truly are. As I wrote in another article recently, weight training provides a plethora of benefits, such as increased energy, fat loss thanks to a revved up metabolism, improved memory and intellectual capacity, better sleep and stronger bones. Whether your goal is to lose weight, build strength or tone up, lifting challenging weights will help you reach it while simultaneously promoting a healthy body from head to toe.

With that in mind, the workout below features both weight-bearing and bodyweight-only exercises intended to engage major muscle groups so that more calories are burned and your heart rate is elevated, as well as isolate smaller muscles like the biceps and triceps to correct any muscle imbalances and build size, or, for any bulkiness-fearing ladies reading this, “enhance definition”).

The only equipment you will need for this workout is a pair of moderate and lightweight dumbbells. The first four exercises will be performed in a circuit, meaning you go from one movement to the next without resting. After you complete the circuit one time, you can take a timeout to catch your breath, grab a sip of water, or reply to a text … if you must).

Once the circuit portion is done, rest about two minutes and perform what I call “The Finisher” (sounds ominous, doesn’t it?), which will isolate the biceps and triceps. Ready? Great!

Complete the following circuit three times. Perform 8-10 reps of each exercise. Use a weight at which the last two to three reps are particularly tough!

Bent-Over Dumbbell Row With Underhanded Grip

1. Stand with knees bent and your torso at a 60-degree angle. Grasp the dumbbells with an underhand grip so your palms face up.

2. With arms fully extended, pull the weights straight up to your chest, contracting your shoulder blades fully.

3. Slowly return to the starting position.

Burpees (no dumbbells)

1. Lower your body down using proper squat form. Place hands on the ground in front of you.

2. Jump your feet back to a plank position, then quickly lower your chest to the ground.

3. Push yourself back up to a plank position and jump your feet back in toward your hands.

4. Jump back up and simultaneously clasp your hands behind your head. Stand all the way, extending the hips fully before beginning your next rep.

NOTE: To modify this exercise, you may eliminate the push-up component. To further modify for beginners, you may also walk your feet out and back in instead of jumping them out and in.

Renegade Row

1. Place a pair of dumbbells side by side on the floor. Then get into a plank position with hands gripping either dumbbell, feet hip-width apart. Make sure dumbbells are about shoulder-width apart.

2. Bend your right elbow and pull the dumbbell until your elbow passes your torso. Keep the elbow tight and close to your body. Keep abdominals engaged and neck in a neutral position. Press the left dumbbell into the floor for balance.

3. Lower your arm and repeat on the opposite side.

Tricep Push-Ups (no dumbbells)

1. Lie face down on the floor and place your hands closer than shoulder width for a close hand position.

2. Using your triceps and some of your chest muscles, press your upper body up to a plank position. Squeeze your chest and exhale as you perform this step.

3. Lower yourself until your chest almost touches the floor as you inhale.

NOTE: To make this exercise a bit easier, you may either bend your legs at the knees to take off resistance, or perform the exercise against the wall instead of the floor.

Finisher

Perform the two exercises back to back. Do as many triceps extensions as you can (until “failure,” we say), then do the same with the biceps curls. Rest two minutes, then repeat this sequence two more times.

Triceps Extension

1. Stand up with a dumbbell held by both hands. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart from each other.

2. Slowly use both hands to grab the dumbbell and lift it over your head until both arms are fully extended.

3. The resistance should be resting in the palms of your hands with your thumbs around it. The palm of the hands should be facing up towards the ceiling. This will be your starting position.

4. Keeping your upper arms close to your head with elbows in and perpendicular to the floor, lower the resistance in a semicircular motion behind your head. The upper arms should remain stationary and only the forearms should move. Inhale as you perform this step.

5. Exhale as you go back to the starting position by using the triceps to raise the dumbbell.

Biceps Curl

1. Stand with feet about hip-width apart, abs engaged as you hold dumbbells in front of your thighs.

2. Squeeze your biceps and bend your arms, curling the weights up towards your shoulders.

3. Keep your elbows still and only bring the weight as high as you can without moving your elbows. Slowly lower the weights, keeping a slight bend in the elbows at the bottom.

Enjoy! Do this workout one to two times a week—not on consecutive days—each time trying to add a few more reps to your sets (up to 15), or more weight if you have heavier dumbbells available.

For over 100 at-home workouts, check out my book, Perfect Fit: Weekly Wisdom and Workouts for Women of Faith and Fitness.

Diana Anderson-Tyler is the author of Creation House’s Fit for Faith: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Total Fitness, Perfect Fit: Weekly Wisdom and Workouts for Women of Faith and Fitness, and her latest book, Immeasurable: Diving into the Depths of God’s Love. Her popular website can be found at dianaandersontyler.com, and she is the owner and a coach at CrossFit 925. Diana can be reached on Twitter.

For the original article, visit dianaandersontyler.com.

It is believed that our ancient ancestors ate up to six pounds of green leaves per day. Can you imagine eating a grocery bag full of seasonal greens each and every day?

Few of us eat even the minimum USDA recommendation of five servings of vegetables and fruit a day or three cups of dark green vegetables per week. And yet, green veggies deliver a bonanza of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, biophotons and phytonutrients. The good news is that you can juice them and easily consume one to three cups of greens per day.

Calorie for calorie, dark green leafy vegetables are among the most concentrated sources of nutrition. They are a rich source of minerals including iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium plus vitamins K, C and E, along with many of the B vitamins.

They also provide a variety of phytonutrients including alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage and our eyes from age-related diseases. Dark green leaves even contain small amounts of omega-3 fats.

Juicing is one way you can get these power-packed beautifiers into your diet every day. There are many greens that can be juiced such as collard leaves, chard, beet tops, kale, kohlrabi leaves, mustard greens, parsley, spinach, lettuce, cilantro, watercress, arugula and dandelion greens. All you need is a juicer and some great-tasting recipes to make a significant change in your health.

Green juices are good because even if you took the time to chew up a couple of cups of green veggies each day, you wouldn’t get as much benefit from them as you would from juicing them up. It’s the mechanical process of juicing the vegetables, which breaks apart plant-cell walls and makes absorption better than even the best-chewed food. It has an effect like throwing marbles at a chain link fence rather than tennis balls—juiced contents are going to go through your intestinal tract in a way that “tennis ball-size” nutrients can’t.

Juice contains easily absorbed micronutrients that will optimize your overall health and wellness. Green juices energize your body, fire up your metabolism, speed weight loss and over-haul your health.

Adapted from Cherie Calbom’s The Juice Lady’s Remedies For Thyroid Disorder (Charisma House, 2015).

Cherie Calbom, M.S., C.N., is the author of more than 20 books, including The Juice Lady’s Big Book of Juices and Green Smoothies and Remedies for Stress and Adrenal Fatigue. She holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. Cherie and her husband, John, offer juice health retreats throughout the year, along with health and healing conferences. For more information, visit juiceladycherie.com.

It’s all about passion. When you sing “Amazing Grace,” are you just going through the motions or are you singing it with passion about the God who saved you from an eternity in hell?

In this video, Shane Idleman asks, “Are you are flippant about your salvation or are you passionate about it?”

How can such a simple thing make such a huge difference?

Raw juices and living foods are packed with a cornucopia of nutrients, including biophotons—those light rays of energy the plants get from the sun. When we cook food, those beautiful rays of energy are destroyed or shrink way down.

Two researchers have found that the light energy in biophotons is an important aspect of food. The more light a food is able to store, the more beneficial the food. Naturally grown fruits and vegetables that are ripened in the sun are strong sources of light energy. Numerous minute particles of light—biophotons, the smallest units of light—make their way into our cells when we eat these foods. They provide our bodies with important information and control complex processes, such as ordering and regulating our cells.

When you drink a tall glass of fresh veggie juice and your day is focused on more live foods than cooked or processed fare, your whole internal environment changes. As you consume more living foods, you require fewer calories because biophotons help rev up the mitochondria of your cells—the little energy furnaces that pump out ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the energy that is used by cells).

They also feed your DNA, which stores about 90 percent of the biophotons found in your cells. Because biophotons carry biological information of the plant into your body, it’s kind of like getting a software download or having a computer technician take over your computer remotely to fix things you can’t begin to correct. Just as the computer tech fixes errors on your computer, the biophotons help to fix errors that have taken place within the body.

Voilà! You start feeling better, lighter and more energized as time goes on. Your sleep improves, and you may need less of it. Your mind becomes more alert and creative. No longer will you find yourself in a disorganized fog because biophotons help your mind and body to come alive. You will experience more mental energy, and your creativity improves as well because of the electrical stimulation of the biophotons.

(Could this be the boot for dementia or early Alzheimer’s disease?)

Your metabolism also ramps up, and you burn more calories, which helps you get fit with greater ease. And in the process, your overall health improves. Symptoms of poor health, ailments and chronic diseases begin to heal. Your whole life changes!

Adapted from Cherie Calbom’s The Juice Lady’s Remedies For Thyroid Disorder (Charisma House, 2015).

Cherie Calbom, M.S., C.N., is the author of more than 20 books, including The Juice Lady’s Big Book of Juices and Green Smoothies and Remedies for Stress and Adrenal Fatigue. She holds a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University. Cherie and her husband, John, offer juice health retreats throughout the year, along with health and healing conferences. For more information, visit juiceladycherie.com.