Two Kingdoms At War!

This is Confessions of a Pastor. This is where we share with you the behind the scenes of being a pastor at Journey Church in Bend, Oregon. It is so good, Kara. But sometimes there's the bad and sometimes there's the ugly. So, this is our free counseling today. This is our time to connect with you. Yes. And share with you what God's doing. And I will tell you, God's doing so much, Kara. He is. I mean, this past week was just one of the most full weeks we've had in a while. I mean, if we just go back eight or nine days, it's like we've done everything from a concert celebrating our birthday. We've had the if gathering, we've had a celebration of life, memorial services, we had church, right? Yesterday we had baptisms in the house. So much is happening. And I'll tell you, busyness does not equate to spiritual transformation. It's true. Uh but God is transforming lives.

Oh yeah. And in today's episode, I want to talk with you about spiritual warfare in the realm that we are focusing on right now as a church kingdom. Yeah. I I am firmly convinced the more I think about it, pray about it, and particularly if you just go to God's word, there are two kingdoms and they are at war at all times. In fact, I can argue that they've been at war since the very beginning in the garden. This war has been the same and is still happening today like it was in the garden. Yeah. And I'm talking about the war between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God. Right? That is the kingdom of this world which is ruled by the prince of this world, Satan, and the kingdom of God ruled by the king of all kings, Jesus. And the more you see it, the more you I'm going to use this word and tell me what you think of it, but you obsess about it because it's real.

Yeah. It's a real obsession. And and you can see it all over the place. I mean, I I even think today on on my drive-in today for this podcast, I was thinking about the book of Daniel and what how Daniel fasted and he prayed and it was in the land that right now in real time there's war happening in Iran. This is like the literally the same land Persia uh in the days of Daniel. Yes. Uh is the same place that there are spiritual wars happening. So although we see the United States and Israel bombing Iran, this is the physical realm that actually is imitating what's happening in the spiritual realm. Yes, for sure.

And and this is from the very beginning. And if if I'm getting weird at all, let me know because I I do want to direct towards a particular place that what's happening on a macrocosm in the world, kingdom of darkness, kingdom of light, kingdom of devil, kingdom of God, wars happening that happens in the micro level of our personal lives as well. Yeah. In the physical, we can see it. Correct. Yes. In every single realm. And so what we see happening in Iran and with the US and I'm not saying that the US represents the kingdom of God and Iran represents the kingdom of the devil because we know the church is alive in Iran. So there are Christians there and we pray for our brothers and sisters for revival in Iran through this. But we do know that there are spiritual things happening over physical realms, over um government leaders. the supreme leader

that was killed. He's a dictator. He's been leading since 1979. I who knows how many people he's murdered over the decades of his leadership. Countless thousands, probably tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. So then you you focus back to our lives. The enemy is at work to destroy us as well, right? And I would go so far as to say like an evil dictator just want to oppress to not let freedom reign so that we don't ever become who God wants us to be. Yes. And and I think this past week you and I particularly in our little microsphere of this world, we saw that spiritual battle all over the place. Yeah, we did. I mean, I I first was like got that revelation that they're um call me slow, but that there the things

in the physical world um really do u mimic what's happening in the spiritual world world was, you know, over the the season in 2022 where we kind of just spiraled out and right and uh tried to run and um God called us back. Um but in that season is where it started to it started to become very clear to me that things do happen in the physical that represent what's happening in the spiritual. We've even talked on this podcast about water and how like flooding of water in our life has represented breakthroughs about to come, but it's it's not going to be without some type of a you know, hardship. Yeah. Um of something breaking through. Kara, can we can we just focus on this for just a second before we even get to real life practical examples like life and death examples right now that that

are in our lives because I want to talk about that like literally the more again I obsess about this. It's wild. So, go back to the garden. You got Adam and Eve who sinned. And because of the curse of sin, there's thorns in the world with work. It's more painful. Women will have pain giving birth. God created procreation. But he says it's going to come at a cost now, right? And then you go to their first kids, Cain and Abel. The very first kids. Now, you know, Cain kills Abel. This was not just in the physical. This was not just a brother killing a brother. Yes, this is spiritual very much from the beginning. The devil wants to divide families. Yes, the devil wants death. The you know the devil want is is so prideful and arrogant. He he cannot humble him. You know, he he wants us to be arrogant when it comes to God and our

offerings. So from Cain and Abel, you start to go forward with this all the way to where I am in my annual Bible reading in the book of Numbers. Yeah. You have got this guy Kora who raises up against Moses and literally he's trying to get all of the leaders and all of the people of Israel to go against Moses and God's like not going to have it. Yeah. In fact, I I'm going to take care of them and their families and anybody that comes against you. This is spiritual. Yes. Very. It's a demonic attack. So God says, "Here's the deal. Since you're raising up against Moses, which means you're raising up against me, none of y'all get to even go into the land that I promised there. This is spiritual. So, our rebellion hinders us from experiencing the promise. It's demonic and it's it's real.

And there's a a and we're deceived because we don't understand that. So, to come back to the 2022 example that you gave there in the scripture reading today, I believe it's in um I don't have my Bible on me, but I believe it's in Numbers 15. There's a place where God says no one can go in but Caleb because of his spirit. And I just remember during that time God imparting at least in in me a Caleb Joshua spirit, right? That that you know what? You're going to go and you're going to go back to the land. Yes. That you were in. Yes. And and you're going to take it. Yes. Because the enemy is occupying it. So yeah, it's so true. even if you don't want to go back to the land. I've been studying in uh Elijah in our Bible study

and and all of um all of the examples of actual um you know people in the Bible who God called them to places that they did not want to go. Wow. Yeah, I know. But but God calls But God calls, right? So, you're going to be obedient. Yeah. I mean, look at Jonah, right? God called him to Nineveh. Yeah. A horrible place. He didn't he tried to repent the other way. Yeah. It's spiritual. Very much. And he ends up on a pagan boat. Yeah. And then in the belly of a whale. Well, and they're like, "You must be the cause of this." Yeah. You know, and then they they realize he serves the one true God. They're like, "We don't want to be a part of the consequence of right your rebellion." Like, what what did you do? Uh it's number 16 that I'm referring to. Um but I I I look back and I say everything is spiritual. Yes. Oh, definitely.

And when you do live in naivity or ignorance, as you humbly admitted, because I've been in the same place. Yeah. Many years even as a pastor, you're actually you're you're giving into the authority of the kingdom of darkness and not even knowing it. Yes. Oh, completely. And you're losing the battle. Amen. Um because you're not you don't even know you're in a battle. Like that type of a battle, right? Until you have that revelation, then you're just going to lose. Yes. You're going to get pummeled. I I I totally agree with you. Sorry, I'm looking for this scripture while we're we're talking. I would help, but I'm about a week behind on our Bible reading plan, not going to lie. That's right. It's been a busy week. Uh well, it it's so interesting this this whole section um Numbers 14:15, 16 because God says, "I'm going to wipe

them out." And Moses is over here like petitioning on behalf of the people saying, "Remember, Lord, what you said." Yeah. You said these would be your people. You said that they can go in. And you know, then God reminds them uh then keep my commandments and put blue tassels at the end of your clothes. Yeah. as just this reminder that when you see these things, well, I'm not finding, but I'm going to I'm going to declare it's it's around 15. I want to say it's 15. Oh. Uh because the the thing that struck me is just that it did say that Caleb's spirit, it was his spirit that God honored. And it's like God sees Oh, yeah. our hearts. And Caleb had the fight in him. Yeah. He was the one willing to say, "No, no, no. God said we can have it. I don't care who's occupying it. Let's go get it. Yeah.

And I think that's the spiritual um that that's the spiritual place that God wants us to be in. That's that's the heart he wants us to have is no matter what's in front of us that we don't shrink back. We don't give up. We don't question God. We don't doubt God. We don't uh give up. It's we don't have a divisive spirit. We're united. Yeah. So 2022, we've talked about it countless times. Just we burned out. We were empty. But God gave us a fight. We came back in victory and have been fighting since that day from victory for sure. But fast forward to present day, we have to fight every day. Yes. If we don't, here's what begins to happen. At least I'll say it for my opinion. If we're not fighting this every day, we fight each other. That's true. Yeah.

And we we saw that even with all that God's doing at Journey. Just the littlest things will cause us division and we don't even realize why outside of my only explanation would be this is spiritual. Yeah. You know, it requires a quick repentance of like, oh man, I am not against you. You're not against me. So why in the world are we going against each other? Yeah. You know, and uh let's bring fast forward to what we went through this weekend because wasn't that a whirlwind of a weekend? Yes. Come on. That was one of the wildest week. I just I knew God was working. I went to war. But sometimes when you go to battle, you don't know what to expect. Yeah. You don't know how That's so true. The enemy is going to advance against what God's doing. Because if God is advancing, I want to testify to anybody listening that if God is working, you

have to expect the enemy is going to work too. Yeah. And he's going to go after that which matters most to God, which is you. Yeah. Your family, right? your kids. He's going to go after the things of God. It's what he did with Job. What did he do? He took out Job's kids. Yeah. He took out his finances. And then eventually he took out his health. Yep. And ultimately what he was trying to do is take out his relationship with God. Right. He wants to Yes. That's that's his ultimate goal. Yes. And so going into this weekend, our son's home for a week for spring break and he got home late Friday night. But before he got home Friday night, you were at the if gathering. Tell me just about the if gathering moment. It was good. It was a a group of uh you know quite a few women. We got together and we streamed it. It's a a um simal cast and multiple speakers and worship and um it was just a really good night.

It was an impartation I feel like to to the church. Um Francis Chan spoke. It was really impactful. He got gave this just beautiful picture of how much like how how intimate and close we can be with God with he just held his daughter and just didn't let her go and how much he loves her. this cool picture of like how God feels about us and I've heard from multiple women the impact that it's had. So, it was just a good night to be together and I mean heard uh testimonies of um of even people that were in the room that um you know were unexpected even you know like you wouldn't find that that person there but but that person was there and just really cool. I think seeds were planted. I sent an email this morning to the leaders that okay that all the the 18 table leaders that I had. I just thanked them and said, "I know seeds were planted, especially based off of your sermon this weekend, right? Seed the seeds went out

and the seeds are the kingdom of God." Yes. Which is the word of God. The word of God went out and I know that it's going to sink in and it's going to start it's going to start uh growing roots and it's going to start bearing some fruit. It's going to take time, but I know that's what happened. It was the beginning of of that for some people. So, it was great. So, I want to go there because it was long, too. I mean, you were getting ready all day, but the event itself was 6:00 p.m. to after 10 p.m. It's true. I mean, 10:30 p.m., right? So, 4 and a half hours, you're investing in the kingdom. Women's lives are being changed. I know there was so much impartation. One woman told me she, you know, she had kind of gotten apathetic. It's not that she didn't love Jesus, but just she wasn't doing the things that she could be doing. She's like, "That's exactly what I needed. It was like the, you know, defiill of my soul. I needed that Friday night. So, I'm I'm setting this up for while you were doing that, I was doing my own personal spiritual war in our home.

Yeah. I was praying in the spirit. Yes. This is weird. I didn't even tell you this. So, I I bought a prayer shaw uh from the garden tomb in Israel. Oh, yeah. Okay. And I don't even know why because it's been sitting on the desk. Yeah. Well, it actually was in a drawer in a desk. Oh, okay. Okay. So, I wanted the oil from Israel to um That's why there's an oil thing sitting on my desk. Okay. Uh that oil, it all makes sense now. That oil is from the garden of Gethsemane. That's awesome. Where Jesus prayed. That's from those olives from the olive trees. Um taken from uh Catholic monks that press it and sell it in the garden. So that's what that oil is from, the Garden of Gethsemane. And then the prayer shaw I bought from the Garden Tomb. Okay. There's a little touristy shop. Yeah.

At the Garden Tomb. And uh it's it's the tassels that are described in numbers whatever it is 16 with the tassels. So I don't I've never done this before. Never in my life. I'll be 50 next year. I've never done this. I took that prayer shaw, put it over my head and prayed over our house and I went room to room slapping oil everywhere. And it's like it's funny. It's like I felt like a child because like my prayers weren't very deep. So I just had to like pray in the spirit. Yeah. And I remember a pastor recently I was just asking him for prayer and he's just like just pray tonesues. Just don't stop praying tones. You don't know what to pray. Meaning I'm going to interpret that as Romans 8 when you don't know what to pray. Let the spirit grow in you. Like you don't have to have the right words. Just just be in the spirit. Let let God in to these things. So I'm praying over the house and I know our son's coming in that night and I'm just praying praying praying and just warren. I I I just knew while

you were there. Here's what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to just be comfortable and do nothing while you were doing something. It's going to make me a little emotional. Like our time's limited. Like I'm like, God, I don't want to waste my time with like I like thriller fighting movies, you know? Like where there's they're all the same, you know? Some guy's got to rescue some little girl from some place and he's an ex-military and you know, it's like I don't know. I just I I didn't want to do that this night. So So fast forward, you you don't get home till almost midnight. Yeah. I get home. We pulled into the same almost midnight. It was 11:45. So it's a4 to midnight. We get home at the same time. Our son gets home. Well, because he had picked him up at the airport. Yep. I picked him up from the airport. So he got didn't his flight came home like like 11:15 and at Redmond. I got home about 11:45. So

the very next day, Saturday, we're not even talk less than 24 hours. Yeah. Colton's driving your car. Yeah. A big old Toyota Seoia. Uh, I asked him to come home from his friends just cuz we like to get good sleep that night. So, it's not crazy late, but it's like 10:30 at night. Yeah. He's he's driving home and on a country road on a on a back country road in the middle of nowhere. No lights on the roads. I mean, we're talking like this is out where we live. It's out in the country. And lo and behold, he he comes home. Really wakes us up because we're like starting to fall asleep. Yeah. Banging on the door. Mom, dad, mom, dad.

Yeah. Hey, on my way home, a rock went through the window. Like, what do you mean a rock went through the window? And he he's upset. And all of a sudden, we start to get this story and it's like, this isn't normal. This isn't normal. It's like, yeah. And all of a sudden, we we realize we start putting these pieces together in the story. Someone threw a very large rock that looks like a dagger. I mean, it's got pointy edges. It was a weapon. It's the size of a football. Yes. With the the thickest part in the middle with the two edges being sharp. Yes. So, about this big. Yes. About this big in the black while he's going 60 miles per hour. No cars in front of him. No trucks in front of him, no one in sight on a black dark road. It goes through the windshield. Yeah.

Probably within a foot of hitting him. That's him. So within a foot of hitting his face or going through his heart cuz this thing went right through the um it it looks like reminds me of the movies like when um you know someone gets hit by a car and their body goes through the windshield or a body goes through the windshield. It was it's just nasty looking. Yeah. It's horrible. So all of a sudden we realized this is serious. When we called the sheriffs, they came out and they said, "Good thing you called us. You should have called us." And you know, well done and doing it in a timely manner. You know, they tried to investigate it to the best way they could and they could find nothing. But this is like the best way I could put this in the spiritual realm. And unless you have a revelation of the Holy Spirit and the two kingdoms at war, kingdom of darkness, kingdom of light, unless you believe that, it's going to sound crazy.

I know that was demonic. Yeah, I know that was a tool of death. I believe that there is an army of darkness filled with principalities, demons. The Bible says this clearly. A third of heaven, right, got kicked out of heaven and they are at war now. Yes. And and they want to suffocate us spiritually. They want to kill us. So they're they want premature death. They want people who are not ready to die to die. That's why there's suicide. That's why car accidents happen. I mean, this is why, and this is again, it's going to get weird until all of a sudden you have a revelation. I believe the enemy is trying to take out our son. He's trying to take us out. Yes. Because we didn't get to go to sleep early that night. The next thing you know, we're up past midnight working with sheriff's deputies, dealing with these things. The night before, we're

about to go to war in our city, praying for revival, bringing forth the kingdom of God, baptizing people. Many baptisms yesterday. And as we're storming the gates of hell, the enemy ain't happy. No, he hates us. Yes. Yeah. I mean, that was to me just a a physical picture of that. Yes. And how bizarre. And I'm just so thankful that uh the the rock landed where it did cuz, you know, I don't know, 10 or 12 inches over and it would have hit him. Yeah. Um so I'm thankful for that. But it's just this crazy picture that you wore the night before. Yeah. And then this like you can't that's not that's not a coincidence. Yeah. It's beyond a coincidence.

Everything we see in the Bible from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation is all out war. Yes. That's all we see in the book of Revelation, which is the only prophetic book we have left in the New Testament of in the end there is war. Yes. that Satan will not only go against the Lord but against his people. Yes. And there's an allout war and he's he's going for us. He he's going after it. And um we see the images over and over. In fact, I mentioned this in the message yesterday, the depiction of unclean birds reflecting evil. And I think it's in uh Revelation 16, we see that imagery of a bird once again. Like in the end, it's like until there's victory by until Revelation 19,

you know, all of a sudden we are going to be at war every day. And I like that choice of word you said, Kara, because this is just a truth. And even for our listeners, the bizarre things that happen in their lives. Yeah. It it it is bizarre. It's very bizarre because how do you predict these things? Like it's like when you're in unity with the Lord and in a marriage and you just full-on fight about nothing. Why? That's bizarre. It's spiritual, you know. It It's why weird freak freak accidents happen like that. It's bizarre, but it's also spiritual, right? I mean, we see this over and over. I I'll go so far as to say even cancer at times. I mean, we're seeing cancer raised in people as we're declaring war against cancer. Yeah. And we're declaring that our God has defeated all sickness. It's by his wounds we're healed. All of a sudden, what do we hear over and over again?

Cancer diagnosis. Cancer diagnosis. And it's like for every one we hear healed, we hear of another person getting it. It's like ah this is a fight. It is a fight. As soon as we advance and not to be mistaken, I don't want to go into all the details of this, but yesterday there was so much spiritual fruit. Many people raised their hands to follow Jesus. Many people stepped forward in baptisms. And meanwhile, while all that was happening, again, I'm not going to go into all the details, there was a hot freaking mess happening in our church. Yeah, it's true. I mean there there was some weird stuff happening and I'm like I'll just be honest because this is Confessions of a Pastor. So I'm like what the hell like you know like what the like what the devil like as we're advancing. Yeah. I mean you never you think that you're not going to be surprised by the next thing like like I've I've seen so much I'm not going to be surpris but then it's like oh my gosh had never thought of that. What in the world?

I totally agree with you. I've seen it all. weirdest things happening. I mean, this is why we have so much security at the church. This is why we have so many cameras at the church. This is why we spiritually want to just always be in integrity, the elders, the pastors in our private lives. And then all of a sudden, Christians, oh, they're they're just they're flawed people. Yes. I mean, I wrote it in my notes this morning, my Bible reading, like people are so fickle, you know? They're just fickle. Like you try to do the like guys, obey the Lord and be blessed. That's it. Easy. This is it. Like you you screw this up, there's consequences, and it impacts everybody and there's division and there's death. Look at the Israelites. I mean, over and over. There's nothing new.

Nothing new. Exactly. Nothing new. We want to say like, oh, they were so barbaric and it was ancient times and oh, there was slavery or look how they treated women. Nothing new. It's the same. Oh, we're screwing up the world today just like they screwed it up there. Yes. Completely. And it's we have idols. We don't obey. We think we can go our own way. Yes. Yes. And God is patient and he's kind. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Amen. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance because we deserve death. I deserve death. But God in his faithfulness doesn't give up on us when we doubt. Yes. When we screw up and do the wrong things, right? He just constantly comes back. And his ways are so much better. We just don't understand it. We have like there's so much thickness to get through that we think we can do it and better on our own. And yes, it's just it's not it's not truth. Truth is God's kingdom living in his kingdom under his

authority and his law and rule. And I mean that in the kindest way. It's the best like it's it's life. It brings life and life abundant. It's why Jesus said, "I came to bring life and life abundant." Um understand it. In the context of a thief that comes to steal the sheep. Yes. And kill the sheep. Yeah. He's come to give us life. So in the cont he he describes in John 10:10 that war that war that's happening in the context of a shepherd with sheep. Yeah. That there's an enemy and it's um it's really it can be a foreign concept until you really have a revelation of it because it's weird. It's just let's just be honest. It's weird. Like it's like you're um you know movies that play out good versus evil. um you don't think that's reality, but there is reality um between the good and evil in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness. We live in that tension.

And it is weird until you know it. It actually is a relief. Yeah. Too. I mean, we were just talking to Hannah before this podcast started as we were just talking about a newer believer who uh may have been into spiritual things prior to believing in Jesus. Crystals, the new age, all all these there's there spiritual things. And what tends to happen, we've seen at Journey Church, is people who are participating in the demonic without knowing it's demonic. Yes, it is demonic, but they don't even know. They just think it's spiritual because the enemy has laced it in like good things. Yeah. Vibes, good vibes and horoscopes and uh the the stars and energy and the universe and uh crystals and all these good aura and all these that's all demonic. When you really unpeel the layers that he's laced it in the kingdom of darkness as spiritual things that are good. So when someone surrenders their life to Christ, they typically don't have a hard time learning quickly that we're in a

spiritual realm. They say, "Oh, no. I know this is spiritual." So true. I encountered spirits. I encountered the spir dark. You know, they they know these things. So it's less training because we weren't really dabbling with that stuff in our Christian lives, right? So we were just I think the enemy wanted to keep us in naivity, ignorance, ignorance. And as long as you're ignorant, you don't even know there's a spiritual realm. Even though it's happening, then you don't know. Absolutely. And you're going to get pummeled by it. I think we did. Yeah. But th but those who have been engaged, you know, you think about people like even from like uh Haiti or New Orleans and uh all over Africa. This is the truth in Africa too. Like even if they come from places where there's uh witchcraft and you know all those kind of things, a witch doctor there when they surrender their life to the Holy Spirit. Yes.

They know there are false spirits, demonic spirits. And all of a sudden, there's not hard for them to get the weirdness. Yeah. It's only really, really weird for those of us that are like, "Oh, this has been happening even though I didn't know it, right? Those bad dreams, those bad thoughts, those bad things. Okay, this starts to make sense because of the kingdom of darkness." So, that really actually is helpful in the sense of saying, "Yep, it is as weird as you think it is, right? But totally agree. You if you're not engaged, yeah, you're losing the war." Um, you know, you look at Ephesians, the the the the armor, you know, like there's a reason that we're charged to put on our armor and and um until you really realize there really is a spiritual battle, it it's very it has to go from here to here to take it from just like an intellectual understanding like I know these things are happening.

Yeah. To uh No, I'm actually going to armor up and I'm actually going to fight this battle in in the heavenlies. I'm going to pray. I'm going to intercede because it matters. Um, and until you until you go from understanding it to actually doing it, uh, that you're not, you're living in a a powerless Christianity in my opinion. Yes. Wow. And Kara, I I want to just continue with that thought. When you go to war and when you mature, you get to advance the kingdom. Yes. You get to see more people saved, more people healed, more people set free and delivered. You get to see more of the kingdom realm because we don't and it almost sounds cliche because of how often we say it. A lot of our statements we use here they become these like consistent statements but we fight from victory.

Yes. So it becomes easier and easier and easier. The war in the room becomes easier. It's more of a natural muscle memory. Yeah. Because if you know you have victories Yeah. then it's easier to fight. It's you have the confidence to fight something that you know you're going to get victory on. So yeah, an example of that just a very simple one for you and me in the the staff realm is we pray together on the way into work on Tuesdays. Uh for years we never ever once did that. I mean not even for years, like the entirety of the church. But we do it now knowing Tuesdays are long days. They're filled with staff meetings and other meetings. And if we don't pray into it, by the end of the day, you can feel just beat up and and like defeated,

like maybe I shouldn't be doing this, right? Maybe I should sell insurance or cars or maybe I should go into a different business. And no offense to those who might sell insurance or cars. Uh just some days something else sounds better, but when you pray into it, we have seen time and time again, God answer our prayers. Yeah, absolutely. And you I'm grateful that we have learned new rhythms. I'm not saying we got it figured out, but we've come a long ways from where we were. Yes. You know, just going into something, getting beat up, and being like, why' we get beat up? Oh, I did not put on that armor. Yeah. Well, I mean, I I think back even to our early church planting of this church days is we did not have enough intercessors. We did not understand the power of prayer and we got beat up. Yeah. Like daily.

Yes. I mean, we just didn't I didn't understand the the power. I didn't understand the battle that was actually happening. I didn't understand that this that Satan hated us that they they to the level that he did. Um I didn't understand any of it. And until, you know, we've just I've come a long way and understanding the spiritual world and the importance of intercession that um it really is important to have a lot of prayer and a lot of intercession uh to to toil this the ground. Amen. And um and be, you know, be victorious. It it's important. And if we could just use this as a lesson to anyone who's listening thinking like, well, I don't even know where to start there. Like intercessors, how do I do I ask for intercessors? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Yeah. Let me tell tell you, you don't fix it overnight. Doesn't happen overnight. You don't get to this place. You just start somewhere. Yeah.

When you start taking your spiritual life serious and understand you're on God's side and it's winning and you begin to learn to pray more often, it happens organically. You know, like next thing you know, you're praying for other people. Next thing you know, how many times over the last few years have we heard hundreds of people say, "I pray for you every day." Yeah. You know, it's like, "Oh, I didn't even know that." Right. But the more we're engaged and open our eyes and we fight the spiritual fight, it becomes more natural. Yeah. And so I just And the more you do it, it's like it's like um working out. Yes. I mean, the more you do it, the more you um get better at it. And it's not that you you're good or bad. It's just you get more comfortable with it. You understand it better. Yes. You understand the fight better. You understand, you know, all the things that that's a great example. So, you don't just have muscles overnight. You develop them. You And I would say in the spiritual realm, it's similar. Yes.

You know, you put on that armor of God and you know, the helmet of salvation, your battle for the mind, it it takes a while to realize what's of God, what's not of God. Yes. You know, that that righteousness. I mean, we've learned that. I feel like sometimes I'm born again and born again, you know, working out my salvation. Oh, yeah. I am righteous. Yeah, you know, I live I live through the righteousness, the truth, and even the shield of faith, just taking that armor. So, just start somewhere today. Don't go backwards. Don't be defeated. Just start somewhere today. And eventually, I mean, I look forward to in 10 years us having this conversation. Be like, "Oh, we've come so far." So true. We've come a long ways. And I I as long as you fight the good fight, you'll always have victory and you'll continue to see more fruit. Yes. And and it's okay to at the end of your life, like Paul say, I've done what I can do. Yeah.

I did what I could do. I I fought the good fight. I I didn't I didn't cheat. Corners. Yep. I It was hard, but it was worth it. Amen. You know, it's not on our watch. We're going to do what we can. Amen. Well, I want to just go back to yesterday. It feels like a week ago. It was Sunday and we had baptisms all three services. And our last podcast, we talked about the kingdom. We talked about what we we we introduced the subject I'd be preaching on the parable of the sewer. Yes. And uh one of the challenges I had in my personal conviction is you said you had never heard a good sermon on the parable of the sewer. So Sunday's come and gone. You heard the same sermon three times. Give me your honest feedback. I'm gonna not I'm going to do everything I can to not be offended if you That's hilarious. Um no, I thought it

was really good. Um I think it gave even me deeper revelation of um of the concept of why that parable is if you don't understand this one Yeah. you don't get the rest of them. Yeah. Uh because it's it's it really does all come back to the condition of the heart. Yeah. You can it was just I mean like you preached like you can throw throw the word out. you can you can uh sew the seeds generously to a group of people and you know they're all going to walk away different because of this the soil is different and it was kind of a revelation like that's it was good it was very um it it offered some revelation so I think it's uh it was good well I appreciate that and uh it is as from a preacher's perspective it's always weird I mean and we saw it

literally the day before on on Saturday we did a celebration of life and it was my only the only request from me was just to preach the gospel clearly and do an invitation. So, you know, it was a short at least in my mind it was short uh presentation of the gospel. Uh and I I invited people to believe for the first time. I I thought it was just clear if you've never believed, you know, raise your hand if you want to believe in Jesus. We had 21 Yeah. Uh people raise their hands. Yeah. And what was interesting about that is Kara, there was people in their 70s, 80s like older generation people who are raising their hand, you know, and I'm like, "Oh, okay." Like, you can't assume that someone came into a church of a celebration of life for a believer.

Yeah. That they believe that they understand that they're saved and that they're going to go to heaven, right? You know, and it was really sobering. So, 21 people, I mean, that's pretty fruitful at a memorial service. Absolutely. 21 salvations. I mean, wow. I mean, I know some churches don't get that in a year. I'm not criticizing. It's just like, let's just celebrate. Look what God did in one day. Yeah. But then at at a celebration at a celebration of life. And I'm setting this up. And as as you and I were trying to even leave, a a couple stopped us that we don't know. We've never met before. And she talked to you and he talked to me. I'll let you tell your perspective. But he was pretty rude to me. And he this is how he set it up. Well, it started kind, but yeah, I don't I don't know if his started kind with me, but he set it up with I'm not trying to be rude. So,

anybody that starts off by saying that, it's like, you're probably about to be rude. He's like, not trying to be rude, but he's like, this guy starts talking and I'm thinking, how long is he going to talk? That's how he sets it up. I'm like, okay. And he's like, and then you just kept going. And he's like I'm like, oh my goodness. Like, yeah, thanks. You know, frankly, it's like less than half the time I normally preach. You know, it was Yeah. It wasn't like a 4550. And it was really good. Like that that it was it was good. Well, thank you. It's nice of you. So, it's it's ridiculous. He did not even He didn't even He would didn't even have the courtesy to lie to me and be like, "Hey, that was great." He didn't start off by saying that was great. He's like, "Uh, not to be rude, but you started talking." I'm like, "Who is this guy?" And then you just kept going. I'm like, "How long is he going to talk?" Confessions of a pastor.

Yeah. And then then he's like and then after a while he's like I thought this is pretty good. That's how he leaves it. That's all he said. And he's like then I thought this is pretty good. And I'm like I don't even know how to like all I responded Kara. This is what I said. I say oh thank you. And then then I flat out lied. So Lord I'm sorry. Forgive me. I flat out lied. He said thank you. I appreciate that. I didn't appreciate it. I was like thank you. I appreciate that. I'm like what? Are you just telling me how long I just spoke and you're questioning me? So, and then she Do you want to say what she said or not? I don't know if it's worth it. I don't She was rude to you, too. She was She was very rude and there was no honor. It's Well, this particular person didn't come to our church and so she just was confused why it wasn't done by her pastor. That was the the point of it.

Yeah. And and I was like, I don't know. It was It was just rude. I mean, sometimes Christians could be the worst people. Like, we we can be the worst to each other. It's truth. It's It's true. And it shouldn't be like that. But I I remember a pastor once who actually lost his church, ended up losing his wife, divorced, and he wrote a book about uh Christians are the only people that eat each other, and it's it's the image of the ichthus fish, the two fish, and one fish is taking a bite of the other fish, you know, like you don't even see pagans doing that to one another, you know, like. But Christians could be mean. Yeah. Like mean-spirited, rude, you know, dishonoring, divisive. Uh going back to the Israelites.

Yeah. Murmuring, grumbling, complaining. Uh man, just Yeah. It's an interesting world. But all that to say is we know why we're at war, right? There are two wars going against one another. And we we see it. So, uh, appreciate your kindness with, um, yeah, I mean, look at 21 people got saved. Like, not that has anything to do with you, but, um, the word was preached in a in a a very powerful, impactful way and people responded to it. So, it was it was excellent. Well, so go back to yesterday. Um, I appreciate that it wasn't the worst sermon you ever heard on the Parable Zer. And, uh, there there is so much revelation. I told you going into yesterday, I was like, Kara, I don't even know if I'm going to get through this and I might have to do two parts on it. Yeah. You know, because

there's so much with even the the mystery of the seed. Like if you just study the seed alone, it goes back to the garden of what God put in every living organism is a seed. You know, like it's we reproduce. Think about it like that. You said that at one of them. Yeah. It was the 10:30 service. Yeah. But the and I imagine over the course of the next few months as we study kingdom and the parables, more and more is going to keep coming out. Yeah. But one of my favorite I I I literally think like if my like top three favorite things of being a pastor is baptisms. Oh yeah. I totally agree because someone is choosing publicly to not stay the same. Yes. That never gets old. And we and and they're so real like most of the time I mean I don't know a lot of the time if you can if you see their faces a lot of them are weeping.

Yeah. It's emotional. They're they're or they're smiling just huge smile. I mean, it's a decision they're making that is theirs and it's real. Yes. Uh that's the truth. And you know, a cool thing yesterday is we had a lot of young men probably like mid 20s, uh early 20s, you know, I don't know how old they were, but 18 to 25 somewhere in there. A lot it seemed to be a lot of them yesterday. And they I mean these guys were like strong physically like you touch them and like you feel the muscle. I'm like, whoa. You y'all are like manly men. And they all had those tears in their eyes, whether it was swelling with tears or they were just like vulnerable enough. They they were moved in the spirit and they were obedient to the Lord and they're stepping forward getting baptized. And I'm like,

you know, statistically right now there's a movement happening around the nation where they're saying that millennial men are going to church at a very high rate more than millennial women. Okay? and um and the young millennials, not the older millennials. Yeah. Um the the young ones and uh I feel like a journey when I look around it feels like when I look at that age group, it feels like there's more girls like women in that young demographic. I'm like where where are the young men at? Because nationwide I'm reading this statistically. I'm talking about Barner research and uh data that Carrie Newuhof came up with if anybody wants to Google it and see what I'm talking about. But man, yesterday I'm like, "No, I saw the fruit of that." Yeah. It was like three men, young men that is to every young woman.

And young women did get women did get baptized. I was very proud of them, too. I mean, there was a couple of them that I'm just like, how rad is this church that we got all demographic, all ages getting baptized. There was a little a little girl that got baptized or a young girl. Oh, yeah. She was seven or eight maybe. No, she was 10. 10. Okay. And I was able to speak into her. My kids were to Kara. That girl was terrified. Yeah. To be in front of people. She had uh what do you call it? Like a fear, a phobia of going in front. She did not. She's like, "Can we do this not in front of people?" And her mom's trying to give her pep talk. And I'm like giving and eventually I just concluded with her. I said her I think her name was Emma. There was an Emmy too. But I was just Emma if you do this you're going to get to see the power that you're doing hard things. Yeah.

And Jesus is going to help you do harder things. you know, this is going to be the beginning of greater things. And she did it. And she did. Her mom thanked me afterwards. And because I spoken to her afterwards, too. I said, "See, you can do all things through Jesus. He's gives you strength." And I I I just I those days like they build my faith. Yeah. And it wasn't until really after church that we learn behind the scenes that there was uh divisiveness or, you know, some some you know, dark things happening uh that just would normally distract Yes. from those kingdom things. And I'm so grateful I didn't even know during the day because I could focus on preaching, praying, baptisms, you know, like totally because those things can be exhausting too in their right mind. You're having to coach people and speak into them and prophesy over them and pray over them and uh but but it was exciting day. We had guys from our security team uh get baptized.

Yep. A staff person got baptized. Oh my. Uh hey, have y'all was that the first time Kayle's been baptized at Journey? She was baptized as like a kid. A kid. Okay. But made a decision like it shocked us. Wow. And at the end of the day, so that never gets old at journey either when you see people close to you say, "Now the Holy Spirit spurred me." Like this wasn't forced. Well, we've had elders get baptized. Elders, pastors. Yes. Come on. Hannah. Oh, yeah. That That's right. And your husband years earlier. I mean, it's like I can't believe we get to do this. I know. Oh, it's so good. I can't believe we get to because it really we start off this podcast saying busyiness does not define transformation.

No, obedience does define transformation and fruitfulness. Jesus said you can tell a tree by its fruit and a good tree will produce good fruit and an evil tree will produce evil fruit. Again, kingdom absolutely ding ding ding. You know, like you look for these things and when we see this, it's like, okay, devil, you're losing this one. We're going to advance the kingdom and we're going to see hearts turned. Uh I I want I just came to mind another testimony. I mean, there's so much I told you there was so much today I wanted to talk about with Kingdom Matters. So, uh, I'm not going to give any names here, and I'm not going to even allude to names, but there was a guy who was helping set up for baptisms on Saturday, who was just helping get

ready for Sunday doing baptisms. And he was so hit by the Holy Spirit. He wasn't at a church service. Nobody had to preach to him. He realized what he was doing, setting this up for people to be obedient and change their lives. He ran home. This is what he did. He took his marijuana, the stash that he had, put it in the toilet. Yeah. Videoed it. Sent it to his girlfriend. Then took his bongs, smashed them, put them in the trash. Yeah. took his vape pin and got rid of it and said, "I was setting this up for other people to be obedient when I need to be obedient." And and he's like, "It's the one thing that keeps coming back as I need this, you know, as a comfort in my life." Yeah.

And it was like that was before Sunday that his OB like and the Holy Spirit did that. It's like that's fruitfulness. Yeah. I mean, I'm you know, years ago when I would hear about like Christians and marijuana, it would be like surprising, you I would be like almost like what? You're doing meth or hard drugs? But then like today I'm convinced that there are more Christians that are participating in marijuana than like probably most people even know. Yeah, I agree. You know, it's like it's like this little stronghold like because the city we live in, like I talked to one guy recently about it and he says, "Listen, just coming to church here, you got to pass by six or seven or more pot shops just to come to church here." That's true. And so the convenience of going home, it's easier to get marijuana or cannabis or call it whatever you will to get a little help to sleep or relax

from stressful day. It's easier to get that than it is to get fellowship or you know uh community in the Lord in the city that we're in. I mean we are at war in this city. The devil did a good job working over trying trying to distract the people from what really will give you hope, what will really set you free, what will really give you the spiritual fruit in your life. Yeah. Absolutely. It's there's a lot of false false things out there that that pretend that they will. Yeah. And they won't. They all they leave us all empty. They do. And we we've talked about this on this podcast. We've offended people on this podcast because of it. But I will tell you, as long as we're in this region, we're going to go to bat for the things that God cares about. And we do see that God cares about our obedience. This isn't outward. That's the one thing I got from that parable as Jesus sets the tone for all future parables is that this is a matter of the heart, right?

This is the heart. It's the kingdom is inside out. Yes. When we go outside in, it's religion. It is. And and typically we can see people start off well and they look good, but it's like that seed that goes into the rocky soil. It springs forth and then eventually when tribulations come, yeah, they they fade away. And uh it was interesting for me thinking about that parable, Kara, because I can look over the last 16 years. And I could names and people come to mind with each of them. Yeah. People that I mean, we know where the Satan snatches the word quickly. Totally. Uh people who spring up quickly, people who get choked out by the the worries of this world, you know, and then eventually we also are seeing the good fruit and yesterday was no exception of that. I mean, we saw people when when someone gets saved at journey, whether it's genuine or not, I can't always tell. I can't look at their hearts,

but I can't predict whether or not this was an emotional spring forth quickly or man, God, you're going to take this one. This is like a acorn. Yeah. That's going to grow into an oak tree that's going to be generational. And there are tens of thousands of more seeds inside this salvation today that's going to go forth in revival. So I believe Central Oregon shall be saved. And this past week was just one more sign that we are at war. Yes. And we are advancing. Satan's not going to get our family. Amen. He's not going to get us. Uh he's not going to get those around us. And we're going to advance forth. We're going to declare that this is a cancer-free zone. Yes. We're going to declare that anyone can get saved. Yes. And this is going to be a multiplying miracle work. Amen. That that's by the way everyone why we're doing this podcast.

So that one day we can look back and record and say no no we said it. Yeah. We believed it. Amen. We prayed it and we're going to keep going forth. Yes. So good. Well, is there anything over the last week, Kara, that that we didn't talk about? I mean, we didn't talk about the things coming up, but uh we just we at least look at the last week. I just want to make sure uh when we talk about war, you know, we talked about the women on Friday night, and man, that battle's not going to be over. We talked about baptisms yesterday. We talked about our own personal families. How uh the enemy even goes after our kids physically, emotionally, spiritually. Uh but is there anything we miss? Okay. Just want to make sure. I don't think so. Okay. Well, I I think we we did well. We got some really cool things coming up this month. Yeah. We got Mark Smith coming into the house.

Yes. Uh we're gonna ask him to be on this podcast. whether he accepts the invitation. We will see. Uh we're going to So stay tuned everybody. We might have a very special bonus episode. Yes. And we we're going to have a very special pursuit night in just one week. Yes. A week from this coming pursuit night. Uh we've got just really good things happening. Yeah. I'm excited. I'm I'm excited for this year. I'm excited to study more of the parables and to keep having this conversation with us. Uh I believe we're going to go into the parable of the treasure this okay Sunday. So which is interesting because you go from a long parable to just a single sentence parable. It's like this to me is like the profoundness of Jesus teaching is just Yeah. Yeah. It's it's crazy. It's wild. Yeah.

So uh it's going to be interesting to see what happens on this journey. And I pray that we only grow in the knowledge of the kingdom. Yes. And uh keep advancing the kingdom and witnessing God's kingdom come even in this world. what's happening at war with uh Iran and Israel. We didn't really talk about that today, but I think there are things happening that I just I almost I shouldn't say almost. I feel a spirit of repentance that I said it all three services that we as a church need to go to the scriptures and we need to pray and we need to be aware of the signs of our times and be prayerful people. Yeah. Uh and so I I I just I feel challenged with that even in my own spirit. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. Because eventually this is going to be a part of history. Yeah. And we don't want to be those that in history were like, "Oh, we didn't even know this was happening." I mean, that was the case in World War II. How many people were naive and

didn't prayerfully consider uh the scriptures? And uh I mean, last thought and then maybe we can pray, but I told you all of this is happening during Purum. Yeah. Uh which is the Jewish holiday remembering what happened in Esther. Yeah. with Hmon who tried to eradicate all of the Jewish people. And what he intended for evil again, kingdom of darkness. Absolutely. What the enemy intended to evil to annihilate the Jewish people, God used for good. Yes. Because one woman raised up, confronted the king, not knowing what would happen and preserved God's people. And then Hmon ended up being hung in his own gallows. He was hung. And so we speak against that which the dictator in uh Iran meant for evil actually could cause revival in

our generation. But why would we not be a praying people and even uh there have been many many hundreds if not thousands of missiles sent towards Israel this week and some have landed and killed innocent uh pure Jewish people. I say pure meaning like they did not they were not at war. children, 16-year-old young man was uh a boy was killed by a missile from Iran. And so I just say in the midst of all this war, whether it's innocent lives in Iran or Israel or Kuwait, as we saw as well with uh the horrible sad news of uh American armed forces dying, uh we need to be prayerful people. So uh church, come on, raise up

in prayer right now. Let's be praying for our nation, for our armed forces. Let's be praying for God's kingdom come. Yes. In Iran, in the Middle East in general, of all Islamic and Arab nations, let's be praying it for Israel. Jesus is coming soon. Uh this this is our time. And let's be praying for our nation that we can get a great awakening. Yes. Not contrived through emotions, not contrived through our strategies or systems, but literally a movement of the Holy Spirit. So, I'm going to believe that over our lives, over our kids, and I'm going to believe over our church. So, let's pray. Lord, I just thank you for this time today as we talk about these kingdoms that there will be a revelation that it wouldn't be lip service, but we would actually take this so seriously. We would get to see that you are the king of all kings and you never stop being the king. And so, I just say today, God, every word that we said that it would be not only honoring

to you, but it would spur us on to do good works. That we need each other. that we need to be the army right now that goes out and advances your gospel. You've given us everything we need. So we thank you, God. I pray that every listener here today would be encouraged, inspired, that any bad thing that's happened to them, it may have been demonic. It may have been a part of the kingdom of darkness, but God, that will not be the final say. What the enemy intended for evil, oh hallelujah, God, you will use it for good. So we declare you are the good good God. You never stop. You are perfect in all your ways. We pray that you would advance your kingdom in our lifetime for such a time as this. We pray for revival in the Iranian church. That Jesus, the gospel would be spread to many Muslims that

would surrender their lives to you, Jesus. And we would be caught off guard and surprised at what you're able to do that that Allah is a false god. And we declare Jesus, you are Messiah. And we thank you, Father, that you are drawing people to yourself for such a time as this. We say, Holy Spirit, move mightily in our age. We declare in our region central Oregon shall be saved and we ask Jesus that you would be glorified in all these things for your glory. I ask in Jesus name. Bless the listener Lord that they would get on their knees and fight the good fight today and see you advance in their lives. In Jesus name I ask these things. Amen and amen. Amen. Well, God bless you all. Thanks for joining us with Confessions of a Pastor. We look forward to our next time with you. See you.