The Gathering That Changed Our Church

This is Confessions of a Pastor. We're Pastor Keith and Pastor Kara, and we're here to testify to the good, the bad, and the ugly. Come on, Kara. All for the glory of God. Let's go. Hey, you can't make this stuff up. We have been testifying over and over to the breakthroughs that that God has has been doing in people's lives in in a real tangible way. And I've got just one more marijuana story. Okay? I mean, I don't want to because I'm thinking like, okay, what else can happen? But week after week after week, it's like we continue to get to testify to the goodness of God. Yeah. In the land we're living. It's true. And I would say before you even testified to it, uh yesterday at church, I'll just um mention this that Pastor Alex gave the message. Yeah. And at the beginning, he gave you a word. And a part of that word was that the impact that you will have or that you do have even already on people um

because you speak boldness and truth with grace. Okay. And it impacts people. And I think what we're about to talk about is a part of that story and that story unfolding because you're not afraid to talk with boldness about things that are really hard but that will be lifechanging um for them if they take it seriously. So I think God continues to elevate our boldness as we pray for it. In fact, Paul asked for that. He asked for prayer from the church in Ephesus. He says, "Would you pray that I would have boldness?" And I believe God's doing the same thing. And I just even ask our listeners, could you please pray for Yeah. Amen. boldness for us. And so this testimony is is right in line with the prophetic. And I want to come back to that in just a moment of God just moving and giving us prophetic words over and over again.

So I get an email and this person is once again testifying, thanking us for what he's doing. And he thanked us for uh calling out the sleeping saints, which he just said is is a massive untapped potential for those who are just seatwarmers in the church. But God wants to call them out. And he likened this prophetic word to like shifting gears in a car that that each gear can only go to so far in RPM. But he's like, "We're swi- we're switching gears. We're we're shifting gears." And then he goes on to say this, "Being bold and shining lights into the part of our regional sin, which is marijuana, clears out the enemy. Marijuana robbed me and kept me from a relationship with Jesus. I turned to pot and edibles and concentrated marijuana oils to get that feelgood when my emotional hurts were at their highest because of breakups with girlfriends, death of friends, and isolated loneliness. But Jesus is not a feeling.

He is living through me and is the air in my pot-free lungs today. Come on. It is because of Jesus that I've been set free and stained free. So I I just want to continue to testify. Last time we were actually uh on on uh this podcast, we said if you've got a testimony, let us know. Let us know. Text us, email us, testify to the goodness of God. And we continue to see this. It reminds me of the church in Ephesus when when God was was spreading the good news in the city. Demetrius the silver smith was upset. Acts chapter 19 because he essentially was telling all the other businesses. I mean, I feel like this is like modern day Bend, Oregon that these these pot shops are gonna find out. There's a church down the street. Yeah.

That's actually put us out of business. Breaking the bondage of what people need. And I know we're not there yet because I'm still seeing these parking lots full, but but there is a movement that is so good. I mean, it and it's real and it's tangible and it's real people and and and what a way for us just to remind ourselves that listen, if he did it for this person, he could do it for you. Yeah. Amen. Amen. And you know, it actually reminds me of when we when we came back from the sabbatical that was really a turning point for us in 2022. One of the things and we I know we've talked about it a bunch on this podcast, but one of the things that we really took seriously and and just essentially stood for was that if if God's calling us back, we're not going to shrink back. We're not going to do things the same. We're not going to be afraid. Like we're going to we're going to um ask God for the region. Yeah. Um, we're going to we're going to war in prayer uh to

release the grip of the enemy over this region. And I think this is a part of that playing out. Amen. And we're we're going to take back what the enemy has stolen. Absolutely. Over and over. And and he has stolen so much. I mean, financial, emotional, relational, and most importantly, spiritual. Yeah. He he he's tricking and trapping a generation thinking that we need something other than Jesus. Absolutely. I mean, I I am reminded yesterday after the first service, I had the honor of praying with a woman who has a fifth grade son at a um very expensive, very prestigious um private school here. Not a Christian school, but a private school. And she was came to me bawling because uh one of the kids in his class is is now using pronouns. Wow. And it was um

she was which is not uncommon in our region begging for I don't mean to change a like to pivot this at all but it's like it's it's what the enemy has over this region and she was begging for prayer because she was um she had called a meeting with the leadership and was going to address the issue and um I just wared in prayer with her. It's it's a to me it's just a picture of a piece of taking back what the enemy has stolen over this region. He has stolen the identity of uh children. Let's go. And it's disgusting and it's not okay. And I just feel like on our watch, we're going to do whatever we can not to let it happen. Yeah. And he's stealing the identity of children. He's robbing adults from from bringing that forward in the region. And that's that's what we're seeing. And it's so exciting right now. Kara, we're seeing growth unlike anything we've seen at Journey before. We're moving to three services in a couple weeks. Are you nervous about that?

Yeah. Yeah. Yesterday we're driving away and you're like, "Hey, we'd still be at church in a few weeks." And I'm like, barely into our third service. Let's go. And that's because we're we're over capacity in every way. And so, what a blessing. I mean, I told you this morning, we're once again going to hit over 2,000 this week, and this is the fourth time in the last couple of months. I mean, those numbers are megaurch numbers. And those numbers, they represent souls. Like I I just I think about like this wave we have of young adults that are coming that like um it's crazy like we we were talked about last night looking last night cuz we were looking for a movie and the Jesus Revolution was up there and I was like you know I actually feel like we're experiencing something like that with young people um that are they're coming to faith in droves and they're coming to our church um and it's

beautiful to witness. Well, well, let's go there because in the Jesus revolution, you saw a movement of young people who were hungry for God and it really it challenged the apathy of the the church of the day in in the 70s. And I believe right now we we have so many young people at church pressing in, pressing in in worship and in prayer. I mean, we had a prayer and they're serving, too. Oh, man. They're not just You were testifying that yesterday. Yeah. I I mean, I had a guy yesterday um just thank me profusely for these two young adults who were serving uh checking kids into the nursery and his little 10-year-old making an impact saw them and just was drawn to them and wanted to hold babies, wanted to just be with them and and help them. And they just brought her under their wings and encouraged her and um allowed her to do

that in a way. And these are these are two of the young adults. Come on. Uh they're just they're they're not just coming like they're not consumers. They're not we are not training up or raising up consumers to Christians. We're raising up an army. Well, Kara, we just heard earlier from one of our interns who's just the most incredible young man who is like being changed by the prophetic being prayed over. His name's Peter. And and people pointing out that you you have that spirit of Peter on you in the Bible that this this is apostolic and God is bringing something out of a a young person, a calling that that's actually going to transform the world because when he knows his identity and that God has called him and equipped him and given him spiritual gifts and then operates in that and doesn't wait till a better day or another day. Come on. I mean, he really is. This is our Jesus revolution. And it's no exaggeration. We

I mean, we have been praying for a movement of young people and now we're seeing it. We're seeing them press forward in in in prayer and in worship and then stepping up to serve and and they're bringing their friends. I mean, I I've I've prayed with these young adults and these are these these are not necessarily kids that were raised in church. I mean, these are these are getting saved. Yeah. Salvations and they're just genuine and they're kind and they just want more of Jesus. It's really really cool. Let's go and let's just prophesy out loud that we're not going to stop believing until we see our state on fire with revival, till we see our city transformed and changed. I believe that Oregon is the underdog that God is going to use to bring forth a movement of God in our nation. Amen. And and even more, I mean,

you mentioned the prophetic word given by Pastor Alex on Sunday. We continue to receive a prophetic word which confirms what God's doing here over and over. I mean, it wasn't too long ago that we were prophesied over at the father's house uh by by Dr. Mike Maiden that he said that out of our house would would be an influence and and all the nations would be drawn to to to us. And that was first prophesied a few years ago that we would impact the nations and and I was told by Linda uh that to ask for the nations and that just seems so grand and great. Then all of a sudden, God just started doing it. Yeah. With, you know, Ukraine and then Western Africa and then Eastern Africa. And of course, we've got the partnership with Alex, you know, which is in Eastern Africa. But it just keeps expanding. And then he connected

me to Pastor M at Mavono Church in uh Nairobi, Kenya. And this expansion keeps going. I mean, [laughter] tell the story about the lady yesterday uh who who grabbed you and said she had to talk to me. Oh my goodness. So this this sweet older woman walks up with a cane to the you know we sit kind of at the front at the side of the stage. She just walks up with with just she just had an urgency. She was on a mission and she's like I have to talk to Pastor Keith like I have to and I was like I am not stopping you. And she had this thick Hungarian accent. She's from Hungary. So she's 80 years old. Her name's Nora and she's from Hungary. I mean she is like straight up out of a character out of one of the kids TV shows they used to watch. I mean, she was dying to talk with me. Oh, I mean, she was hilarious. And she's lit. She's from Hungary with this thick accent. I'm like, "Okay, now we're getting Europe, too." I mean I mean, we got Ukraine, we got Hungary, we got

Africa. I mean, we got all over the the uh the the Latin and Hispanic uh you know, the Spanish speaking countries. I mean, Colombia, um Puerto Rico, Mexico, I mean, uh Ecuador, I mean, it's just all over. I mean, God continues to expand beyond what I ever thought he could do, but and it happened through a prophetic word, which I I want to speak into that because that that's God working. And when you're ready to receive the word of God, he'll give it to you. Yeah. When you open up your eyes, I think of uh the blessing and the biatitudes. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. When you hunger for it, God will give it to you. Yeah. And and we've seen it over and over. And Pastor Alex gave us great honor on uh on Sunday and then on on Saturday at the

intercessor gathering. Pastor Noah gave us great honor. I mean, it's like all the things that we we were longing for, God has given us through the prophetic. And and I'm unashamed about that. Paul says that we ought to go after that. We should go after the prophetic of all the gifts that that's the one thing every person every person should go after prophetic. That's true. Yeah, I agree. And I've I mean I've seen a prophetic word turn people around like like one word from heaven makes such an impact on you that it marks you forever. So I think that's that's maybe a part of why Paul encourages everyone to to seek the prophetic. Yes. Because it really has a deep deep meaningful um impact on people. Amen. Well uh Pastor Alex's prophetic word was that our influence is only going to increase. Yeah.

Um across the board. It's hard to hear those things because uh when you have a heart of humility, it's like, well, Lord, I'm not asking for this, but I I'll receive it. But if but if the impact is if if if the impact is transformation, Yes. then um whatever God wants to do to to use you to um help people Yes. meet Jesus in a transforming way, then praise God. Amen. I I totally agree. And I want to just give the scripture for anyone that's uh listening right now is like, well, where is that that I should seek the prophetic? Well, Paul's letter to the Corinthians when he's talking about spiritual gifts, when he's talking about unity, he says in 1 Corinthians 14, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. So, so Paul's exhorting us to to go after the

things of God. It's been our theme this year. Love like Jesus, pursue love. Like that's what's going to change the world is when we love like Jesus and then be equipped and unleashed with your spiritual gifts especially prophecy. Now he goes on later to say now I want all of you to speak in tongues but even more to prophesy even more. This apostle speaking to the church and saying I want you to prophesy because that's God's word now going out. Yeah. People's lives as you say they get to be changed. They get to hold fast to uh who they are. They get to hold fast to the promises of God. And and the world will be changed when we take God at his word. Absolutely. When we don't just read this and we don't just study this, but then we put it into practice. Now we see a movement of God, which is what we're seeing at Journey Church and Ben, which is why we're talking about this.

And a part of the movement that we're seeing is spiritual gifts actually being um um unleashed in some ways um or um I just it's a I it's like God is just he's doing something and people are hungry. Yes. And so he meets us where we are in our hunger. Yeah. And a part of his plan really is spiritual gifts with the edification of the church. And I think for for way too long uh the church um has has too many people in it with dormant spiritual gifts. They're laying dormant and they're and it's it's a tragedy because he he it's a part of his plan for the church. Uh so to to see um the prophetic and um just the spiritual

gifts starting to come to life in a really um uh scaled way, not just a few, but like we can go into the intercessory prayer gathering, too. That's where my heart was going, too. Let it's a living example of what you're talking about. Yeah. I mean, this isn't just like lip service. When you're hungry for the things of God, you take risks. Yeah. In fact, God has put a few things on our hearts that I just wonder in the coming weeks if we'll talk about them. I'll just say put a pen in this because God's put some God-sized things that it's like this is uncomfortable. And Pastor Alex talked about this when he preached yesterday at Journey that the things of God are often uncomfortable, right? When he puts something on your heart, it's not going to be easy to do. when he when he calls you out of the boat, you know, when he asks for you to figure out how to feed the multitude, [laughter] uh when he he sends you out to go do the things he did, those things are not comfortable, uh but they're the things of God. And so, just put a pen in this.

I wonder if we're going to testify in two weeks to what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, but but it'd be premature for me to share, but but it is uncomfortable. And on Saturday, we had our first ever intercessor gathering. And I say first ever because it was just that. It was a dream of Pastor Noah. He's been talking about this forever. You know, he he's he's been changed by going to conferences at other churches that are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. And I think he wanted something similar here because we're doing it. But can we do it? And and those are the things that I'm I'm really pressing into the staff that we can we don't need to travel anymore to do these things. We can actually start training up other people to do these things. And I really believe that Saturday was the guinea pig of the beginning of greater things. It was and it and you know guinea pigs are here to see is does this medicine work? If it doesn't, it dies and we we don't keep

using it. [laughter] If the if the guinea pig gets healed, you know, we're going to keep doing it. And I would say this guinea pig worked. I mean, that that was a a marking for our church. It was. And I I appreciate Pastor Noah and that that it was birthed out of his heart. Yeah. But I think that that I just it's it's another just passion that I have is is that to to see the churches be um activated. Yes. Into what into the things that God's put on their heart. So that's when we will be the most impactful like scaled. Come on. Is when each of us go after the burn that God has put in us um in a surrendered way and we support each other. Yeah. And then we and then we come alongside as we're not competitive or jealous. Absolutely. But when we come alongside and say, "Wow, you have a burn for something that I know is important. Let's expand this into I I may not have the

quite the same burn, but I'm going to encourage you. Everybody wins." And it was it was cool to watch him put so much energy into it. It appeared leading up to it. His wife is in the room. Uh it appeared he was nervous. Was he nervous going into this, Hannah? Oh, yeah. [laughter] It seemed like he was nervous, but it was like a good nervous. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because just leading up to it is like, you know, you get that anxiety. It's like somebody getting married. You know, they want to get married, but you could just tell they're like, "Hey, I'm nervous." Well, it was almost like uh having a baby, you know, like like he's nervous like this thing's going to come out. He doesn't know what it's going to be like, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and I think we were all didn't know what it was going to be like. And then people just slowly started signing up one by one by one.

And then leading up to the few days beforehand, Pastor Leanne printed who's or not printed, opened up who's coming and she asked, "No, did you realize people are coming from Eugene and other churches in our city?" And and it's like, "Oh, well, people are interested in this. People are hungry. People in our own church. There was young people, old people, people came by themselves, couples came, there was whole families that came. In fact, one whole family came. They brought both their uh tween boys and they just said, "Is this appropriate for our boys?" I was like, "Absolutely." And I was like, "Nothing weird's going to happen." And then [laughter] we weird stuff did happen. But have you followed up with them? No. No. I I should though. But he's like, "Well, what do you mean weird?" You know, and I was like, "Well, we're not going to what I what I meant by and this what I explained to him is, you know, we're not going to go into some of some of the deep trauma that that's hindering uh people and, you know, like

you can go all places with intercession and prayer and and what's stopping you from experiencing answered prayer." Yeah. So I, you know, maybe we can call that deliverance or that's a whole another subject. But so I'm like, we're not going to go there. He's like, "Oh, this is great." And I said, "Your kids are going to love this." And but it did get weird for the glory of God. [laughter] And we talked about this, the good, the bad, the ugly, all for the glory of God. This is good and weird. And well, so good. Let's walk through the Let's walk through the whole gather. Let me let me just Where are you going? [laughter] explain a little bit of what you're saying or at least give it some type of like um thought. Um okay, if something is of God, yeah, then it might be weird, but it's okay. Yeah. Like if it's not of God and weird, then then we reject that completely. Yeah.

But if if if God is in it and doing it, then then it it's it's beautiful. Even if it feels uncomfortable or strange or something you've never experienced before, um God is a mystery. Amen. Think about all the miracles of Jesus. They're they were weird. You know, ripping off a roof, right? Lowering somebody down. Weird. Yeah. Uh think about a woman crawling on her hands and knees who's making other people unclean by touching them. And then Jesus pauses and calls her out. Weird. Uh think about spitting in the dirt and rubbing mud in the eyes. and he gets healed. Weird. Yeah. You know, and then it pro it continues to get weird when when the religious people can't understand it. Who did this to you? How did it happen? You know, it is weird.

So, I totally agree with you, Kara. There's there's two types of weird. There's weird where God's in it because it's God-sized and can't be explained because it's the glory of God and the power of God and the presence of God. And then there's weird that's just wacko weird. Yeah, we even talked about one of those churches that no longer exists in our community, but it seemed like every single time they met together, there was 20 or 30 of them in the whole church. It was just weird, period. And it was like one of those things like you would never want to invite somebody there because it was always weird all the time. meaning like it's just people yelling and hooting and hollering and flags and falling down and and I'm not saying any of those things are necessarily bad, but when it's all the time, it feels a little bit like this is contrived, not um a moment with God. So, let let's talk through the gathering and and we'll get to the weird because it it progressed to the to really the presence of God

meeting people in a powerful way. So, we we launched it off. There was breakfast and I think you and I were in the lobby saying, "This is sweet." Yeah. Like it was set up beautifully. It was like set up like a conference. It's only a half day and then we go in, we leaned in uh from the very beginning. This was Pastor No's idea. Let's just start with prayer. No welcome, nothing. Tell me what you felt about that because I was on the platform praying. Um how was that intro? Uh I thought it was great. It it set the stage for the day. Okay. Um, I actually wasn't I didn't um know that you were going to be that long for some for some reason. I thought it was going to be shorter, but that's okay. Music. I don't [laughter] know. I I It's okay. It's just It set the stage for the day. Okay. Um, so I think I was supposed to be 3 to 5 minutes.

Oh, okay. That totally was like 16 minutes. Oh, okay. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Uh, it was like I looked up the clock. It was about 16 minutes. I I lose myself a little bit when I pray, especially if I close my eyes. Sometimes I'm gonna confess something I've never told anybody. No, no, this isn't this isn't too crazy. It's just this is just a confession. Okay. Uh I've discovered this a lot lately. When I close my eyes, I think I'm like facing one direction and I find myself facing a totally a different direction. Well, I'm I'm not like in a different place. I'm just saying like this [laughter] is like I'm just like I'm I'm talking about both on the ground and on the platform. Like sometimes I'll go up and then like come out of worship and I'll pray, you know, it's a transitional prayer. And I I'll think I'm like facing like perfect parallel with the people.

Then I'll open up my eyes and I'm like crooked. I'm like over face to the side. I'm like, "Oh, this is weird." I know that's a weird confession, but it's like it's been happening a lot lately where I'm like I think I'm facing one direction, then I open up my eyes and I'm facing this direction, you know? So, okay, we open up with just prayer and um I thought it was shorter and so was [laughter] it was a little longer than I thought. Um, but it was just starting off and then we went into worship which was oh powerful. Super powerful. Super powerful. There's something about worship that just um just ushers you into the presence of God like nothing else can. Especially when it's powerful um and it's anointed and we have anointed worship here and we have we talented too like just and it but it's not just talent. It's anointing. There's a difference. Okay. Um, and tell us the difference. Maybe you could tell us the difference.

Well, talent to me is like going to a concert and you're just hearing something that's good. Anointing has the power and the presence of God in it and it pulls you into his presence. Yes. I I couldn't have said it better. One of my favorite uh pastors and authors, RT Kindle. Yeah. And he's got an a book about anointing. And that's essentially how he paraphrases it. It's the presence of God on your life. Yeah. So even in the Old Testament we see anointing. It often with the Levites and the priests with with oil there was anointing but there was anointing like when when Saul was walking with the Lord he was anointed by the spirit of God when he walked away from the Lord that anointing left you know so uh it's the presence of God on your life. It's the spirit of God maybe even just you can't contrive it. You can't uh you you can't force it. Yes. Um, it's it's the spirit of God and and Paul

even talks about in his letters to the churches, you can quench the spirit, but when the when the anointing is on you, what what begins to happen is there's the manifestation of things that you couldn't get on your own. So, the worship was anointed. I mean, and I think partly it's like it wasn't it felt like church, but everyone that signed up for this wanted to come go dive deeper in prayer. So, when you get people together, it's what what happened at that conference we went to a month ago. you it's all full of ministers and so they're just hungry. I mean the first chord every hand's like you know it's like I mean people are just they want to worship God. They're hungry for God. They love Jesus and they just they want to give praise and honor and glory to God. And that was it was like that on on Saturday. People were hungry. They were intentional about their lives. They wanted an encounter with God and they pressed in. Yeah. And so we went from worship,

which was super powerful, to pastor Noah set the stage out of Habachok, which I just thought was uh lovely. Uh he just gave uh three or four quick points um out of out of Habachok. And I want to just go there just for a moment. I should have written it down in my Bible because I did take notes of what he said, but the first thing he said to do is remember, which is right on point to our theme this month. November to remember. This is a November to remember. And we are experiencing that. Yeah. It's playing out maybe in a different way than we anticipated which is totally like God. Yes. But most definitely. So he he said remember he said write it down. And then he also said have the faith for it. And so he just set the stage. This is out of Habach 2. The Lord answered me write the vision. Make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its

appointed time. It hastens to the end and it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. I'm just I'm reminded that when God says it, he will do it. And how many times we we forfeit the miracle, the breakthrough because we're not waiting for it. We're not faithful in it. We're not um waiting for it in prayer. Yeah. So, Pastor Noah kicked us off with with that word out of Habac 2. And then Pastor Alex preached. Tell me what you got from Pastor Alex. Oh, well, I was I was debriefing with you, I think, that night, and I think for me it was just he he preached out of I think Isaiah and Ezekiel and two prophets um that were calling

out um just unfaithfulness um just uh Israel, you know, and um and it was essentially God saying um just is there one? Is there is there just one that will stand in the gap for the nation or or whatever? Like, is there one? [clears throat] And um and that to me was like it was like this huge aha like I've obviously understand the power of prayer and the power of intercession. But to me it was it it just I just had a deeper revelation of it. like um I I think I explained to you it gave me a new revelation of even us coming back from sabbatical and claiming new things um and more bold things and in more um uh more pure perseverance and more often um because if not us then who right who's going to stand in the gap to um

to make traction in this region for the kingdom to take back what the enemy has stolen so we have one life you know like Why? Why would we not? So to me, it was actually a charge. It was a call up to step up the game in intercession for all kinds of things. I I agree. What struck me about that verse out of Ezekiel, I think it was Ezekiel 59, I mean, it was not like your standard everyday verse on prayer and and it was God through the prophet looking for intercessors, right? Well, it clearly wasn't Ezekiel 59 because it's only Ezekiel 48 29. So, let's I don't remember 40. It might be 43. Try 43. 43. 43. Uh, okay. 43. Let's go to Ezekiel 43. Uh, but if I didn't put it in my Bible, Ezekiel 43.

No, this is the the glory that fills the temple that that uh well, I'm going to have to look it up and we'll come back to it. Uh but it was God calling out looking for intercessors. He was looking for intercessors who who are going to be the watchmen. Yeah. And you know, God is faithful and does not change. God is still looking today for intercessors. He's looking today for people who are going to be praying for the lost. He's looking today for people who are going to call people out of of their strongholds and into the life of liberty. He is looking today and and and he's doing it. I'm wondering uh Hannah, could you do me a favor? Could you grab

a journal over there? It's a leather journal. I just I'm going to die if I don't get this scripture. Ezekiel 22. Thank you. Come on, somebody. You got the notes. All right. So, that's Cali that if you heard that background there. Ezekiel 22. All right. I I just I I just wanted to see this. So, Ezekiel 22. It was towards the end. Yep. 23. Yep. And it was verse 30. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land that I should not destroy it. And then this is what the Lord says, "But I found none." None. And what what a sobering challenge that although this this was for a generation uh long before Christ was even born, God is still looking for

us to to even be the watchmen on the wall today to stand in the gap to believe for greater things. Not not to be the critics, not to be the keyboard warriors, but to be the ones that stand up and say, "You've called me, and now I'm going to walk in that calling. I'm going to be led by the spirit. I'm going to go do the things of God. Operate as we said in 1 Corinthians 14. I'm going to I'm going to pursue love. I'm going to operate in the gifts. I'm going to pursue prophecy and and I'm going to stand in the gap. Yes. I'm I am going to believe that um the war happens um Amen. in the heavenlies and and I'm going to go after it. Let's go. Like I mean you had a meeting reminds me of a meeting you had last week with someone that just has an aranged child, adult child. Yeah.

And grandchildren. And that's a pretty common situation right now. It reminds me of prodigal children and we've been through our own season of that. And uh the war was won in prayer. Yes. Um and I think that's what you tried to impart to them which maybe felt a little bit foreign or scary. Um but until you understand that we have victory, we just have to claim it. But it takes action. Yes. Um we we do have an epidemic of estranged adult children. Yes. With their adult parents. Yes. And in large part it's because uh the enemy has been working overtime in our nation at least and around the world. I mean I don't think it's unique to America because I I have heard that it's happening in many countries where adult children now blame their parents for the trauma they have in their lives. Now,

granted, that's probably true, but the reality is we're just sinners and God still calls us to honor our mother and father. Yeah. So, the devil has actually duped an entire generation and said, "Go ahead and cancel your parents. Go ahead and don't talk to them. Don't let and manipulate and uh forfeit them from having access to their grandchildren." And it's awful. It's it's so mean-spirited and evil. I agree. But but the point though being is that we do have victory in Jesus and it's going to happen in the war room. So you're referencing my counsel to them like they they wanted counsel. They said what what do we do and this is getting harder and harder and I I had told you that day. I was like well I just went there. I I said this here's the reality. This is a spiritual war. Yeah. You battle not against flesh and blood.

So it's not your son your son's girlfriend. I said this is this is a demonic force and you got to start calling this out. And I even likened it to what I just experienced even in our lives that there is a demonic spirit of Jezebel. You know, we read about it in the book of Revelation. We read about in the Old Testament with with Elijah. And he had to stand against Jezebel who was was sexually uh perverted, sexually uh impure, controlling to men, uh manipulative, uh evil, caused fear and control. And uh many men don't know what to do when they're influenced under a Jezebel spirit. Therefore, they have the spirit of Ahab, you know, where they tolerate evil. And and Jesus warns the church in the book of Revelation not to

tolerate Jezebel. She's wicked. And it's time to be bold and lay a stake in the ground and be righteous. And it takes a significant amount of boldness to stand up against the spirit of Jezebel. Amen. And so to these parents, that was my I said, "Yeah, you need to understand spiritual warfare. You need to understand this is these are ancient truths that we have access to. And when you do, that's when the breakthrough is going to happen." Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, that's when we've seen it in our own personal lives. That's when we we've seen victory. And it wasn't it it's it's not it's often not quick. Like it often doesn't come after the first time, you know? You have to war and you have to war and you have to battle and you have to trust and you have to keep going back and keep surrendering and um but we do have victory like we have hope. Yeah. We we we are not a people without hope.

Come on. You know until those demons are locked up in eternity in hell forever. They're going to keep working. Yeah. And that's why we have to keep waring, right? I I when I had a meeting with somebody a few weeks ago, we got on an interesting conversation. I don't know if I've ever even thought about before, but how regions often have uh the same demonic um manifestations [clears throat] because uh when those demons are cast out of somebody else, they stay in that region. It sounds really weird, but until you like read the scriptures and you start to put context. For example, when Jesus faced the demoniac, they they revered Jesus and recognized who he was. And then they they simply uh said, "Send us into the pigs." Meaning, don't send us into the abyss. Don't send us far from here.

We we want to stay here. So, send us into the pigs which are here. Okay? You know, and it was like, okay, you start to put these things together of what happens. Why do certain regions have generational issues? You know, like we look we've named here we we we have named them and they are generational. We can look back two, three, four, five generations over this region of central Oregon of of of the same issues. Yes. Why are churches not thriving in certain particular areas? Oh, they're the same demonic issues. And we can name those spirits, but you know, at the end of the day, it's just it's it's the wickedness that wants to oppress the church or or or people from experiencing the fullness of God. So, we got on a tangent because God's looking for intercessors. Yeah. So, that's what Pastor Alex preached.

Just just a powerful message to call us up and out to go be the ones that stand in the gap, the ones that build the walls, that are watchmen on the walls in our generation. And then what did you what was your take out of it? Well, I I would say actually the exact same thing uh is that we for such a time as this, we need to be an army of intercessors and not just us, but that we need to call people out into it. and then operate in it. Yeah. I I'll never Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I I the other thing he really clarified too is uh supplication and intercession. You know that Paul constantly calls the church to pray and he also with supplication. And he said supplication is calling out the things that are of God and then intercession is for the things that are not. You know, so inter

interceding for the loss, then supplication. If your kids believe in Jesus, you're calling out those things out of them that that you know, God would continue to work out of them, that they would operate in their gifts, you know, those sort of I don't know if I am explaining that well. So, you shared with me, this reminds me, you shared with me, Pastor Alex, how he has, I don't know, four or five kids back in Africa, Uganda, and you shared with me that his oldest, Aaliyah, he'll often hear her warring in prayer early in the morning. Yeah. For like an hour, right? Yeah. So he alone wakes up at 3:00 am to pray. Yeah. And truly does intercede for hours at a time. Yeah. You know, for one, two, three hours just consistent. And this is every day of the week. This is not like a one day of the week I'm going to get up extra early. It's who he is. And I'm like, how does this guy do it?

How does he function? Because when you go to Uganda, they have people over their home till midnight just doing life together. I mean, he told me right now he's got five teenagers that are not his living at his house. Oh my goodness. And I'm like, oh, you know, I'm thinking like, are these orphans or, you know, he's like, oh no, they got great families and stuff. He's like living with them. Well, they're just living with him because of the schools that they're going to right now and they need to be close to their schools. So, he's just helping them and they're probably helping taking take care of the younger kids. Exactly. They all pitch in. Yeah. And they have three bedrooms in their house. Oh my goodness. So all the boys get one room and all the girls get one room and he's got girls and he's got boys. So our uh his oldest is Aaliyah. Our youngest is Elelliana and they were born four days apart in the United States. Is so cute. We've

got little babies together. You got the African baby and the little organ white baby BB and it's got Leah and Elelliana. They're just little uh pastor's kids uh born, you know, close to each other. So he tells me uh he gets up at you know and this was me asking about what he's going to speak on at the intercession like hey tell me about prayer. He's like he's just going to share what is natural. I'm like okay. And then he tells me what I just love is when it when it's natural for you it'll be natural for your kids. Yeah. He says my I hear my daughter every morning I can hear her out loud in her room praying. And this is what he told me he loves is she's got a younger sister Albbright who's uh close to her in age and she watches her and wants to be her and emulates her.

That's so cool. And I'm like, this is so rad. So, first of all, how many 16-year-olds you know in America that get up at 5:00 a.m. and pray? Second, who pray out loud in the room with the door closed and then so she can leave for school by 6:00 a.m. by the way. So it's like just up early and such a different life. Yeah. And it's it it it was impactful to both of us and it was challenging I think in our own lives and you know we don't want to emulate and just copycat but we don't want to learn and and just be challenged by mean how do we raise up those type of people like why not it doesn't have to just happen in Africa. It can happen here. It can happen in our lives. And so that's what was cool about the intercession gathering is uh the intercessor gathering is that people wanted to go deeper in prayer. We were challenged by Alex to do that. We were challenged by

pastor Noah uh to remember, right, and have faith for these things. And then Pastor Alex said, "We're going to practice these things." Yeah. And he had seven prayer points. Uh but he only got to, I think, number three. Uh two, he only got to number two. [laughter] He only got through two of the seven before he just said, "Come on." And then he called us up. He's like, "Pastor Keith Kara, you come up here and we're just gonna we're just going to lay hands on people that want that that want, how did he say it? The glory of God that want the presence of God that uh if you want that, we're going to get oil and we're just going to lay hands on you and Well, so it was kind of it was he had a method to it. So he called us up and then he started with Noah and Hannah and then prayed over them. Oh, yeah. That was beautiful. And then yeah, because you guys were leading the way for the prayer. So he had a method to it. It was it was no and Hannah and then it was the prayer

team and then it was the Oh, you're right. It was methodical and I know it was for a reason. So yeah, he said before the prayer he called up all the prayer team which was cool by the way because it was a whole army of prayer warriors. I don't know how many were up there. 30 40 uh prayer warriors. A lot. All at the front of the platform getting ready to pray over all the people that came that day. And there was there's an army of them. and he says, "Okay, first we're going to start with No and Hannah since they're the the the leaders of this prayer uh intercessor gathering." And then he said, "Yeah, you're going to go and you're going to pray over all the and this is to come back. If you're watching, if you've made it this far in the podcast, [laughter] this is where it gets weird because as we're praying over

the prayer team, this is what happens often times when Pastor Alex just starts praying for people. He just touches their head and the glory of God hits them and they fall down instantly. The language in the charismatic churches, slain in the spirit. Uh I don't know where that comes from. I don't know if there's a scripture that refers to slain in the spirit, but you and I have actually talked about it on this podcast before. uh a doctrinal foundation that this is all through the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, where you see someone encounter God. Yeah. And they give up their inhibitions and literally fall down as though dead. And that's what happened. Not once, not twice, not thrice. Come on, somebody. Not a dozen times. Dozens and dozens and dozens of people.

I I I tried to count to somebody the other day. I was like, between 30 to 60 people, probably more than 30. I mean, probably between 50 to 60 people. Yeah. 50 to 60 people because they But but what was also cool about it was the age, the demographic. It was It was everybody. Young, giant men. Yes. It was everything in between. Men, women, Yes. I mean, I saw just the sweetest little young adult. I just It was beautiful. It was And they I think God met everyone each individually in in individual [clears throat] ways. Amen. and but but equally impactful across the board. Uh it was it was wild. We've had this happen at pursuit nights before. Um you know on Sundays of course we we try to keep a controlled environment recognizing that the

unbeliever is is is stepping into uh into the church. And so we we try to present the gospel clearly and without confusion. But then when we are believers gathered in the living room operating under the gifts of God, something unique happens. And uh that was so special. And that's where I say it gets weird because it is weird. I mean, frankly, it's it's it's weird. You just watch people collapse and you watch grown men. I had numerous grown men, manly men wailing and weeping, you know, one of them just in my in my breast, if I can just call it that. just his head just whailing. You know, that happened the previous pursuit night. A

completely different man came up and the prayer team's up there and I I joined you guys and he was crying and I just go I give him a hug. He holds on tight to me and he's weeping and he turns around and walks back to his seat. He just wanted a big Yeah. And then he told me just on Sunday, he's like, you know, thank you. He's like, "I came up and I wanted a confirmation from God and you hugged me and you whispered in my ear exactly what I needed confirmation. I didn't even need prayer after that. God just confirmed it." Kara, I don't even know what I said to him. I was like trying to recall. I was like, "What did I say to him?" I I may have said something. I don't know back because I don't even remember, but I may have said something like, "God loves you or it's going to be okay." I don't even know. I don't remember exactly. Um, some of this is like I I you know, we've talked about um last week I think at staff meeting we kind of told some testimonies of people

that are are we're starting to see a spirit of repentance here. Oh, come on. And um it's something that you've been praying for. Yeah. And it's starting to like come to life, Kara. I've prayed that over and over and it's weird to pray it because how do you get to see an answer to praying for people to repent? How do you get a seen answer and God keeps showing us here? He's doing it. We have people that are wailing. Yes. Um and like I I confessing sin. Yeah. I got to pray with someone two weeks ago, a woman that was just just broken over some sin that she had in her life that was separating her marriage. Wow. And um it was just like it was just so real that the spirit of repentance is is coming onto this house. Like it's

Yes. And that's why as we talk about remember, write it down and have faith for it. Because when God does it, you've got to let that grow your faith now. You got to let that mature your faith that God does hear your prayers. He does answer it. Because when people are praying and confessing pride, come on. I don't know if I've heard that in the church. Maybe I have, but just to see that and people weeping over that, it's huge. When people, as we talk about being set free from marijuana, we've never seen it to this level. No, I mean, we've seen people freed from alcohol inves free from alcohol. Uh, and and when I say alcohol, I mean the bondage of addiction, you know, and and just to have people because it's not about marijuana, it's not about alcohol. It's

about breaking the bondage of sin. And when that happens, you're set free and you you're being sanctified. Yeah. And I mean, Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly. Anything that's any stronghold is is is stopping us from abundant life. So that's I think that's like um the heart behind it. Amen. And pride is like it's such a um tricky one. A tricky one. It's hidden. It can be hidden. It's it's when you can justify your behavior for it, you know, like and and that's like like you have to really kill some pride to even repent of pride. Um so that's the truth. Even just to to see that is just really it's it's a sign to me that um God is truly moving. Like yes, he really is moving in this body.

That that's the truth. And so to come back to the weird on Saturday just so we don't leave that lingering. Uh I want to just go there because uh it marks people. I mean there were so many different testimonies I heard and I know we went home that day and we were just exhausted uh because you know when you're waring in the spirit it can be exhausting. I I think it's what happened to Elijah after Mount Carmel when he called down fire and you know he's he's waring in prayer and of course then the the priests of Baal are killed and then immediately he hears word about Jezebel and he's off wanting to commit suicide you know he's depressed and yep God's like take a nap and eat some cake you know like just like hey just relax a little bit like you're just tired all

right like you're tired and this isn't who you are you you just had vic victory. You have the spirit of God upon your life and you're getting rid of false gods and false idols and you do have victory over these things and and it was exhausting on Saturday for for most of us. Some people told me like I had more energy afterwards. I'm like, "Oh, good for you." Like, you know, like praise [laughter] God. But I know I talked to a few people that are just like, I've never been so tired before because we just went to war and it was good and we experienced the presence of God. And there are moments that you can encounter God uniquely. Uh where you you have the Holy Spirit. You're you're marked and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Uh but then there are times where where you're filled, you're baptized, you're you encounter God. And

you know, absolutely the scripture I just closed the service with and I' I've shared this one before and there's there's others as well, but it's just Revelation chapter 1 where John he's it appears that it's it's a Sunday and it's I'll just read just a portion just to explain what happened on Saturday. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known to me by sending the the angel to his servant John who bore witness to the word to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads these words and prophesies and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written for the time is near. Where do I want to go, Kara? Um he falls down as though dead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's in chapter one.

Um is it verse 17? Is that where I want to go? Bible. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Uh Cali just called it out. you're helping me with all these scriptures today. Thank you so much. So then John says in Revelation 11:17, I just started from the beginning. It would have taken me a while to get here. When I saw him, yeah, I felt at his feet as though dead. Let me just point out a couple things. When I saw him, so when I when this is a guy that walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, touched Jesus. We know he's familiar with Jesus. He wrote a whole book on the life of Jesus. He was there. He is the one that wanted a seat at the right hand of God. So we know he was not unfamiliar with Jesus. But when he saw him when he encountered the living Jesus Yeah.

I fell at his feet as though dead. I fell. I didn't Yeah. with dignity go down to my knees, put my hands down. No, this I fell down as though dead. I mean, this is There was a flopping here. This is I can't control myself. I'm [snorts] experiencing something even greater from glory to glory. Uh I'm experiencing the fullness of who Jesus is. Now, he didn't stay there. There's nothing to be afraid of when we talk about weird with God. You never have to be afraid. Never. If if there's an invoking of fear or anxiety, uh God does not call us to fear. 2 Timothy 1:7, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. And and here he laid his

right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, for I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forever more. I have the keys of death and Hades." Write these things. Write down the things that you have seen. So, this is this is the reality of Jesus Christ. He is He's not a tame god. Yeah. He is the lion that CS Lewis tried to explain in the Chronicles of Narnia that that has power and authority. He is the great God. I think you know generally speaking the American church has stripped that like has really taken um I don't know not um not not done a good service to this God.

Yes. We we've explained him away. We we try to explain him away in safe sermons. We try to explain him away through religiosity or and we're just we just live in a culture that's dignified, you know, like um it feels undignified to um fall. Which is interesting because David told Mahel his wife, if if you think that was embarrassing what I just did, I will be even more undignified. Well, and that's when I think that's when as a a believer when we cross over from like just lukewarm comfortable Christianity into something that's actually really spiritfilled kind of like what Pastor Alex was preaching on me yesterday, the spirit infused life. Yeah.

Um when you go from religion, law, I I can do all the things. I'm going to be dignified to spirit infused. The spirit's going to lead me. I I'm I am going to let God use me. and we um use my spiritual gifts, right? I am going to be a little bit more undignified like that. That's when you cross over into territory that the enemy hates. Come on. The enemy likes the sleeping church. Yeah. He hates the church that's alive. Come on. And I I stand in agreement. And you will do things with the spirit that is God that you would never do on your own because God will call you out of your comfort. He will call you out of apathy, complacency, lukewarmness. And he will call you into uncomfortable things, being a light in the darkness. He will call you into operating with your your gifts. He will call you to lay hands on

the sick so they'll be they'll be healed. He will call you to cast out demons. He will call you to preach the gospel. He he he calls the church up. This is for every one of us that we would be called into uh the season God's I mean I just I I can't help but think Christ is coming. Our redemption is near. Let's go. Let's be the generation that operates in this. Absolutely. And and let's raise up the next generation with us. Like praise God. And that's what we're seeing. Yeah. Amen. In a very uh fresh real way. Uh we're witnessing this in a mighty way. I would say just a a personal um uh reflection on intercession if we're if we're wrapping this up. Um is sounds like you're wanting to wrap it up. [laughter] We've been talking about it for a long time. Uh is just the power of intercession or the the what happens in a lack of intercession. Um, uh, we have

a good relationship with Pastor Dave at the Father's House and he'll give us monthly like we're in cohorts and things and he'll give us like monthly videos and I'll never forget one that he sent like maybe two years ago and it was like after we had come back from our sobatical which we were completely burnt out. If you want to hear all about it, go to a previous podcast. Um and uh and one of the things that he just encouraged the pastors on the video was like if you don't have a uh large intercessory prayer team behind what you're doing. Yeah. You're going to get pummeled. Come on. And that was the word that he used. And that was like such a revelation to me cuz we had gotten pummeled 100% over and over and over and over and over again. And then we're like, why are we getting beat up? [laughter] Because we didn't have an army of mighty men like David had. Yeah. And and and David

had mighty men. And because of that, he didn't just win the battles in victory. You read through those stories. I mean, these guys were going in and going at it. Yes. And when we talk about a spiritual war, we we're better together. We we have victory together and and we're praying together. And that's I mean the the dichotomy of what we experienced this last week versus what we experienced we just go back four years ago and we talked about this the last few days the honor that that those near us have have given us which let's unpack that for a minute because that humbling that can feel like something that other than what it's not well and for us we are loving it because we have honor in this house and it's it's amazing because it's healing it's restorative because honor is from God and somehow how we've made Christianity

about being weak uh poor and little and those are those are contrary to the kingdom and I think what's happened often in this house is we didn't seek honor because it looked like pride you know the devil had almost tricked us to say well if you get attention or if people recognize you so as long as you stay under the radar and as a result we weren't asking for prayer we weren't asking for honor and then what happens is you have conflict and it's confusing confusing. Then devil comes in. He loves division. You get a tow hold of division. Breaks up unity. Unity I've been learning is the greatest supernatural strength or um h how do you say it? Weapon of the [snorts] church is unity blessing in it.

As long as we're not in unity, the enemy is like, "Oh, they're not tapping in their their greatest weapon that they could be fighting me with." 100% agree. And honor and honor is is a part of that. Amen. Like it's very biblical. The Bible says outdo one another with honor. Honor your mother and father. Like there's just it's it's a biblical principle. Yes. Um and when it's practiced in church. Yes. It's um it it's healthy. It it sets an example. Yes. Um and so it's it's something that um like you said for many years and I'll just ad like say from my own personal experience of helping plant the church. I suppressed my kids for years. like, "No, they don't need this. They don't need to be on the stage. They don't need this." Because I never wanted anybody to feel like we were giving them special

treatment, which first of all, they probably should have gotten special treatment. Yeah. What's up with that? Like, we don't want to give favor. Well, we have a God of grace upon grace, which means favor upon favor. I had to learn all these things. Like, I had I I was telling you the other day, like I had such I had zero framework for planting a church. Zero. When we got married, none. I was not raised in church. I led you with no framework. [laughter] Well, and I just it it so I've learned I think we've both learned the hard way. And so, um I think of the picture of my leadership to you starting a church reminds me of like um you know the picture of um uh Neanderthalss and [laughter] like the woman's got a ponytail and I'm grabbing you by the hair, you know, and I've got a club in this hand and I'm like, "Come, come woman." [laughter] you know, like we're

starting church, you know, like like that's that's how I picture we started this church like kind of and then I'm like and you will submit to me and and you're going to see God work and you're going to love this and you're going to love me and it just it fell apart and I interrupted you. But I would tell you this and I'll repent of this and I I've repented it before but just you know why we didn't get honor at Journey Church early days. I didn't give honor in the churches I used to serve at. You know, when I was sat under the leadership of lead pastors, the truth is I was critical of them privately. I never had the balls to look them in the face and say it, but I would come to you or to others and I I actually thought I could do it better than them. Hence, starting a church.

It's like, let's go do this. And I think that's why the Lord humbled us for the first few years to grow a church smaller. You got to realize it's not as easy as it seems. And that's that framework you're talking about. I I didn't know what I was doing and you didn't know what you were doing. Keep going with where you're going there. I I think my point was just that um that that um building a house of honor like this is a healthy thing. It Amen. There's blessing in it. Um and there's unity and um it's just good. I'm I'm thankful for where we are. I am thankful too. I'm I'm blessed. I'm The Funny thing is I'm honored. You know, it's like it it truly is an honor because it's humbling, but the then like the more you're humbled, the more the Lord exalts you, the more he lifts you up. And uh what a season that we get to

be in. And and I I deeply desire that unity because that enemy, he does work in such a way that as long as we can hold an offense, Yeah. Yeah. As long as somebody who's coming against us is um they might even be in the wrong, but as long as we don't honor them, uh the enemy, he he wins. And I if there was ever such a time as this, and this church is so sad to watch the division. And I I'm generalizing, you know, because there's so many keyboard warriors. I just the past couple weeks, we had a number of them. uh which one of them was last after last Sunday. It was a powerful weekend. I woke up and my I always my phone goes automatically on do not disturb at 9:45 and it stays on do not disturb until 6:45 and then it goes off of that

automatically know that. Oh yeah, every night. Every single [laughter] night. Uh that's I don't get any notifications. What if one of her kids like had an emergency? There'll still be an emergency tomorrow. So, [laughter] uh, so, so, uh, so so, so I woke up on, uh, Monday morning last week to a one-star review, and it was so clear to me the language of this one-star review of someone who's been trying to do this to us for the last year and a half or two. Like, the language was similar. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, it feels like the enemy is just provoking the same spirit. like it's it's not um it's not a [snorts] new a new tactic. I was like one star review on Monday morning. Come on, devil. This isn't clearly God advanced the kingdom if he

wants to try to discourage it Monday morning. So, I wasn't that discouraged. I actually brought it to uh Callie, my assistant, and said, "Cali, you you've gotten some of these removed before. Can you do it?" And Cali, don't you know they did it? They removed it. They did. It's removed. So, the devil did not win this one. We got it removed because it was bogus. Yeah, it was a bogus name. It was someone that said, "I tried to meet with leadership about scripture and they they make you leave." And it's like, "No, you didn't. Who is this? They did not meet with me, you, or any other person that we're aware of." But not only that, the same week you got a letter, and I actually brought the letter. It's in my Bible of someone who's trying to discourage the church. And and they signed it disgruntledly. They they signed it uh a what? A disgruntled atheist. disgruntled atheist.

Pissed off atheist, excuse me, a piss a pissed-off atheist. So, I mean this it's and it's all generalizing that we're not doing this, we're not doing this, we're not doing this. And the irony is, hey, pissed-off atheist, if you came here, you'd actually see all the things you're saying we're not doing, we are doing. And we just may not be boasting it uh from the rooftop because what we do boast from the rooftop is Jesus. Yeah. It's all about Jesus. But, uh, I we can imagine it's a female just cuz you can read the handwriting. Um, but it just says this is righteous anger and and not caring for the poor. And it's like, man, if you only even knew uh the things that God's doing here uh with real people who have real needs. I mean, I shared a story just on Sunday of a testimony of

of someone from Rooted who was financially struggling struggling who gave her last dollar who in her group surrounded by community at this church gave her last dollar to the church yet God provided her not only a place to live but someone that paid the rent for a year. Yeah. Those are the testimonies of like, man, this is just real. This is like I'm in the trenches. Acts chapter 2. you have a need. Well, let's pray about that need and then God providing for that need. And we want more of that. And it does happen through the church being united. It does. And so those on the outside can try to criticize it, but until you come in on the inside, it come to Jesus. Come experience the fullness of God working through real people in real tangible way.

God's designed the church and how we do help each other. Amen. Well, so that testimony that woman got her rent paid for a year and then Landon, another staff member shared with us that someone through the church paid for Stars Ministry Uganda their rent for a year. That's so awesome. And it's it's like all happened in the same week. All in the same week where it's like people in the church, right? Caring for the least cities. And those who don't know what stars is, it's a ministry to disabled children in Uganda. very rare in Uganda to have a ministry to disabled children. It's not normal. In fact, disabled children in Uganda are often seen as a cursed. They're often cast aside. They they they don't have any ADA rules in Uganda. There's no ADA is American Disabilities Act. They don't have a UDA.

They don't they can't get around. They And if you're in poverty, you just you're often overlooked. And this ministry reaches so many powerful um it is the ministry of Jesus. It's it's reaching the least of these uh who are in poverty. And just to see the church step up and someone covered that for a year and just over and over and over I heard of someone else who got who was being evicted here at Journey Church. They were being evicted. They brought it to their rooted group and within a week of that prayer, their dad came and said, "Hey, we came into some money, paid off all that rent, so no longer being evicted, covered even more." I'm just like, "Come on, man. The testimonies keep coming." Amen. It's awesome. I mean, I have two thoughts of that. Number one is is um when you when you really start to trust God with

your money, um it's it's it's amazing. Like he he never runs out. like you can't outgive him. He is Jehovah Gyra. He will provide. Yeah, that's a good word. And and then to watch people start to step on into that is awesome because their life their life is about to go to a next level like and we're just scratching the surface. Um yeah, and it's great. That's one of the things that's so impactful and and beautiful about Rooted is it it takes you through the rhythms of being a believer and one of them is trusting God with your finances. So those type of stories are just they're so powerful and impactful and even to share that other people might um uh be um encouraged to start to take that step of faith. Yeah. Um and to trusting God with your money.

And I had another thought and I totally lost it. Well, speaking of rooted, I I've been introduced to the pastor that created Rooted. He's uh out of MON Church in uh Nairobi, Kenya. And I'm believing, I'm just going to testify this out loud. So, it's recorded forever, uh, that he's going to come to Journey Church. Yeah. We're going to bring him here and we're going to see greater disciplehip. His church uh, is exploding right now in Kenya and they're discipling people. He's planted 52 churches in two years. 52 churches in two years. And I wrote him an email just a few days ago and he was doing a conference at his church. And uh in fact someone from our church is there right now and uh it's I don't think she even knew um this but I watched a message from this conference and he's like there's a pastor in the US somewhere I don't know where somewhere in the US I'm thinking he has no clue where Oregon is right you know but I had sent him an email and

he wrote me and he said that they're doing mazizi which is rooted mazizi is just swuahili for uh roots and you know he testified that uh this pastor wants to learn more about what what God's doing here and I'm like How cool is this? God's networking us divinely with the right relationships. And what's cool is like Christianity is not an American idea, right? This is God's idea and it works in Africa, works in the Americas, works in Europe, Asia, come on. It works anywhere. And I just I love what God's doing. And we're continuing to see God do greater things. So when Pastor M comes to journey, I'm going say, remember when I said that on the podcast, Kara? Do you remember? Uh, right. I'm believing it. I'm prophesying it out there. Pastor M from Aono Church. He's coming. So, it's going to be good. It's going to be good.

Is there anything we didn't cover today, Carrie? You I don't know. Not that I can think of. Well, I I know God's doing more than we testified to. He is. And And we're seeing God work in mighty ways. And this is just one way we get to confess it. We get to confess the good things God's doing. We get to confess the bad things that that the enemy is doing, but God still gets the glory for and even just the mess of ugliness. It is the church and we're all just people. And uh in [snorts] the hands of God, he uses Yeah. Uh people just like us. And so I hope that encourages somebody today. I hope I hope the walk away from this podcast today would be calling forth intercessors. Yeah.

God's looking for someone just like you. And you might feel like, well, I don't know how to pray very well. Great. It starts somewhere. It just starts somewhere. Just start by writing these things down every day. And I know I'm doing that. I prayed for you today. I wrote it down. Uh I prayed for uh our church. Uh I prayed for the three services coming forward, the things we do at Journey. They're bathed in prayer because it's it's a little terrifying sometime to step into something new, not knowing what's going to happen. Uh but I'll tell you, when we pray for it, we're giving it to God and we're allowing God to bless us. So, may I just encourage somebody today, wherever you are, hey, be a praying person. Uh, if go learn about intercession, supplication, beg God for the things of God. He's given us everything we need, the anointing, the anointing for such a time as this. Amen.

Every promise of God is ours. So, get to know God's promises and then act on it. Yeah. Pray them out. Pray them out of other people. When you start praying for other people, changes everything. It does. I agree. Wow. Well, thanks for the conversation today. I'm looking forward to next time because it seems that God is just calling us from deep to deep. Yeah, he's taking us to deeper places. He's also calling us from glory to glory. This is not the end of the journey. This is just the beginning of greater things to come. I'm looking forward to more testimonies and and seeing God's prophetic word fulfilled in our generation for such a time as this. So, how about I just close us in prayer? Want to hold my hand? Let's do it. Lord, I thank you so much for this time today. Thank you for this uh podcast that we just get to testify to your goodness behind the scenes what you're doing at Journey Church and Ben. And we pray for your favor and blessing. We're calling

forth an army of intercessors for such a time as this. That God, you would breathe upon us that your ruach just your word, your spirit for such a time as this. We want an army to come forth that we would get to see more that just like in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19, it impacted the economy. We're praying that for our city of Ben. We're praying that Central Oregon shall be saved. And I pray that any person that's made it this far in the podcast would hear this prayer and they'd be challenged to pray. They'd even write down, "I will be an army intercessor. I will stand in the gap. I will be a watchman on the wall. That I will be one in this generation that asks for a great awakening, for a great revival." So Lord, we thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for all the testimonies we've shared today. We say, God, you get the glory and we're just asking for more. You are the God that's able to do exceedingly and

abundantly more through the church for this generation and forever more in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, well, God bless you all. Until next time, peace