Idols, Deliverance and the Glory of God

Hey, this is Confessions of a Pastor. We are Pastor Keith and Pastor Kara in the house. We want to just confess it all. Am I right, Kara? Yeah, I think so. Come on. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All for the glory of God. I'll tell you, we have been leading Journey Church for 16 years. And we have seen so much, Carol. Oh, yeah. I think over the years, here's the deal. We've probably said, "Oh, we've seen it all." But the truth is, there's always more, right? And I'll tell you, we got no hook for today's podcast, but I got to say this, in my belly, I could probably just throw up some stuff over the last three weeks. You've been wanting to do this for a minute. I've been wanting to do this for quite a while. The last time we had a Confessions of a Pastor was with Martin Smith. I was sick as a dog. I mean, barely made it through that podcast. Had to stop it a couple of times. I could tell you tried to hold yourself back from coughing a few times.

Oh, I didn't just hold myself back. I did cough. And they were so kind and courteous that they had to edit the podcast. We don't we don't edit this podcast. I mean, it's just like a start and a stop. But on that one, I mean, we had a legend, uh, the humble, the meek, but my guy, he he knows some stuff. And I've just been lingering on nuggets that he shared with us. And but more than that, we've got so much that has happened. We just got through an Easter weekend, which was crazy. So good. I mean, it was wild leading up to Easter. And then you you think this this is the tactics of the devil. You know what's interesting about the devil, Kara? He doesn't change. The same tools he's been using in the days of old, he's still doing today, right? He wants to steal, kill, and destroy because he's a thief. Yes.

He wants to take what God's doing and somehow get credit for it. And we we had the devil tried to destroy some stuff before Easter. But Easter was amazing. So, we got to talk about Easter and then all the things in between. I mentioned to you this morning, I'm like, Kara, you we got some stuff to talk about. Yes. I mean, we we got so much to talk about. I want to talk about demons, idols, deliverance, and the glory of God and great awakenings. Great awakenings, revival. I know. How do all those things fit in the same place? We'll do it. It's a spiritual world. So, uh I hardly even know where to go. But maybe we can Let's start with Great Awakening since you brought it up. Okay. Okay. Praise be to God. I I'm I'm expecting that in our lifetime, we're going to get to encounter and be a part of another great awakening. Yeah. I mean, I feel like the rumblings of it are already here nationally. Yeah. I'm not even just talking about locally.

Like, we're seeing and hearing from pastor friends, churches. Yeah. All over the country. The church climate is just it's it's fresh. It's new. It's people are coming to Jesus. Like I mean, I'm on a a thread with um a bunch of pastors from the our our network, our Father House or the Father's House Network Church, right? and bunch of pastors wives and just every one of them just said what how much fruit came out of Easter and I think this is I just think we're in a new season. I I totally agree and there the churches that are lifegiving right now and uh we can define what that is if we need to but they're the ones that are doing so many services on Easter weekends. Yes. You know they're the ones doing five, six, seven, eight, nine services because there is life on that. is not just about entertainment or seeker sensitive

movement of trying to get people in the doors. People are not only hungry. Yes. But there there seems to be um a spiritual fruit that we we've never seen and now we're getting to experience as well. Yeah. I mean this this weekend for us was dope. It was from Friday Good Friday service and kids and familyfriendly service to the opening on Saturday night. We've never done a Saturday night service and it was it was awesome. It was great. I mean, it was full. People were excited to be there to the Sunday services were full. I mean, it was great. I mean, I'd say the last few years, you know, we've done multiple services. Often we'll do like four back toback on a Sunday. And usually there's like a few that are like not as full. It felt like every service was full this year. It was good. And that was I mean just creates chemistry and synergy, but even more than that, the spiritual fruit. Yes. We we ran out of new believer booklets.

I mean, that's a great problem, you know, to have hands go up and I'm yelling, "Hey, get some booklet in these hands." It's like, "We don't have anymore." I mean, that's spiritual fruit. And I I love seeing it. And I love that it's not in one specific region either. It's like all over the country right now. That's what I'm seeing. Yes, I'm seeing it, too. And I'm excited about it. So, when we talk about a great awakening, we're talking about a movement that impacts regions in a tremendous way. Yes. Yes, it impacts economies. It impacts morality. It impacts government. I mean, it impacts uh and maybe it doesn't impact it nationally, but it will impact locally where it is. I we see this throughout the ages in the first great awakening in America with Jonathan Edwards. Um we see it in England with John Wesley. We saw it with the Welsh revival in the early 1900s. Uh there's the talk of the Jesus

movement in the 60s and 70s, you know, and I I was just telling you when preparing for a message this Sunday on the kingdom and and this the spreading of a of a mustard seed that movements of God uh have similar things in common. Yeah. You know, there's prayer, there's the preaching of God's word, and there's repentance, and it impacts massive amount of people. Mhm. And as you said, we're experiencing the rumblings of that. I don't I don't think we're experiencing a a revival yet. No, I agree. But we're getting tastes of it. And I'm not going to stop until we get to see the There's probably been pockets of some revivals, too, all over the country. We have yet to see it here. Yeah. Um but I think we the we have so much fruit, spiritual fruit that that is

coming out. Yeah. that it is. I mean, I guess you could um argue that maybe it just isn't doesn't look exactly like what other revivals have looked like. Yes. But we have a lot of spiritual fruit. No, it won't look like whatever the revivals look like because it's unique people and a unique place and a unique time. God's going to do a new thing. But I think these pockets of revival like you're talking about, we've seen over the last few years, college campuses come alive and worship last for days into weeks. Uh, and and I'll tell you about college kids. And one of the reasons I've I've thought about this, this is my theory about colleges is you've got kids that are coming from all over the country coming onto one campus and they're from different denominations, different churches. And when you're worshiping the one true God together, there's no longer

denominational ties. There's no longer the name of that church. There's just one purpose. There's unity. It's the presence of God. Yeah. There's there's unity. There's unity around that. Praise God that that would happen with college kids. Number one, that they're young, but number two is it actually makes sense. Well, I guess you you were saying that there are certain markers of revival, and one of them is unity, and one of them is is um repentance, right? And prayer. So, all three of those things I've seen on those college campuses. Yes. And and when with a region like Bend in Central Oregon, you first of all are in a region like the Pacific Northwest, which is um darker in terms of spiritual climate. And then on top of that, you've got um really dark histories of of a lack of church unity, a lack of revival or whatever the case might be. So, we're literally pioneering and forging a path in our day and in our time and in our

our geographic location that we've not seen before. And I'm really excited. I mean, the more I even cast the vision of things we've talked about, joked about even on this podcast is a Third Street revival. Uh because one of the great revivals in the last 150 years is the Isuza Street revival birthed out of Los Angeles and just it's beautiful. I mean there's racial unity. I mean just got all kinds of stuff. Pentecostal movements coming out of that and just there are clear attributes. I'm not saying people are perfect, but I'm saying it was there are clear markers that God was moving mightily in the Zuza street revival. And the reason I bring up the Zuza Street revival, it was in a very unlikely place, a place of poverty, a place no one had ever heard of. We are on Third Street in Bend, which cuts right through our city. In fact, we could argue it divides our city from the

west side, the halves to the east side, the have not say, who knows? Uh, and just generalization here. All that to say is Third Street would unite our city. A Third Street revival would would mark our city. It's got to happen in the next 5 years because we might move on to a campus right off of third five years from now. It's true. 5 years from now. But all I'm saying is I'm believing for greater things in our city and in our region. Amen. And God seems like I mean I remember a conversation I had with someone that comes to our church I don't know a month and a half ago. Yeah. And he was just like he was just acknowledging he's been in church a long time. He was acknowledging the amount uh the church growth that we have and the amount of people that we have that come to our church. They're not coming from other churches. No, these are people.

These are our long shots that we prayed for. These are people that are meeting Jesus for the first time or they're coming. They're prodical coming home. We This is not like what we're seeing is not people coming from other churches. Let's go. I I totally agree. And there's a a tension there because it's not all just this fantasy of church growth and non-believers are coming getting saved and discipled because it's it's bittersweet. It's like a double-sided coin. Even this weekend, we saw so many long shots come to church. I mean, I had so many people come up and whisper in my ear, "Pastor Keith, my long shot's here. Pastor Keith, I cannot believe it. My long shots here." I mean, we even heard testimonies of of people getting saved, you know, who are coming to church for the first time. The reason I say it's bittersweet, the flip side of that coin is we have church people leave the church.

This even the last few weeks the spirit of religion is so uh real even today just as it was in the days of Jesus. Sure. You could call it whatever you want to call it, but that pheriseical spirit of religion of control. I have it figured out. you better do what I expect you to do in the church, which is all the opposite of the New Testament church, which is a hot freaking mess. Yeah. The New Testament church is whoever gets saved gets to be a part of the church. Yeah. They are now the sent out ones, the eklesia. Amen. And I tell you, it's even in the last week just dealing with the mess of church people versus guys, can we just experience kingdom? Totally. Uh what about this whole thing about like forgive one another as I forgiven you?

this whole like love your enemies and I mean we've we've talked about this like sometimes I get just a little cynical I'm like are you even a Christian you know like you could be right but you're so wrong in the methodology of the way you live this out but I'll tell you it doesn't stop the kingdom of God it doesn't stop it I think the enemy wants to discourage us distract us but this ain't our first rodeo that's truth I mean I should have a big old belt buckle like I I've been through this rodeo like I've been knocked off of some horses before got back on and I'm I'm But when you're called to something, you're called and so you know, you just keep going. Yeah. I'm going to eat jelly beans, carrots as we're going cuz this is post Easter. Yeah. We got to get rid of these things.

But I I want to come back for just a moment and I'm going to go places that maybe we haven't gone on this podcast before. Oh boy. And uh I I just I'm going to theorize, but I'm going to use some biblical um examples of what we're going through today about the movement of God. You know, the last few weeks has just kind of been surreal in in in the world. I would love to even say our nation, but it's not unique to America. Just with the Iran war, you know, Ukraine and Russia still going at it. There's so much tension. Um I mean, you could probably cut the tension with a butter knife with China. Just all the examples. Obviously, um, Israel's right in the middle of this global conflicts and they've been being hit with missiles

more than I've way more than the Gaza war. These missiles are actually landing in Israel. So, I'm just like, okay, we are literally playing out history right in front of us. Yes. As the question was asked to me by uh Bishop Robert Sterns to a group of pastors, it it's not where are we geographically speaking, it's when are we? Yeah. When are we in terms of biblical history? When are we in terms of Christ coming again? So, here's where I want to go and and this is why I do believe we're going to get to see some great awakening in our lifetime is what we've experienced in the last few weeks have been surreal. I'll go here. On April 1st was the first time I ever heard about Artemis 2.

This this rocket ship that's going up around the moon into the atmosphere further than any rocket's ever taken humans before and then coming back to Earth. You know what I'm talking about, Artemis 2. I thought it was an April Fool's joke because it was all over the internet. All the news were saying it. I saw it all over social media. I'm like, if we're going to the moon, and that's that's what I kept hearing. We're going to the moon. We're going to the moon. First time since 1969, we're going to the moon or whenever we went last 74 anyways, 50 years since we've been to the moon, right? If we're going to the moon, what I have heard about this, I literally thought this was like an April Fool's joke. I'm like, how are we going to the moon? It's April 1st. Felt like April Fool's Day. Artemis, too. And I'm like, Artemis? Wait, isn't Artemis the name of a Greek goddess? And it like it's it stood out to me.

Yeah. I'm like, there's a lot going on in the world right now. And not only is a lot going on in the world right now, if you're in tune with the Holy Spirit, then a lot's probably going on in your life right now. Yes. In your family, in your church. Because when the spirit's moving, the the enemy has to move as well. Yes. And that's when you know there's movement and breakthrough in the kingdom of God is the kingdom of this earth is trying to take over it. Biblically speaking, I'm referring to Matthew 11. Since the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of of heaven has suffered violence. Yes. And we're not just to sit back on this violence and be like, "Oh, this world is hard." No. The violent take it by force. So we we advance, right? We advance. Jesus is building his church. The kingdom will always prevail.

So go with me here. And I know and as we advance, there's persecution happen. Amen. And there's confusion because the enemy loves to throw things into confusion. Uh the demonic forces. We we'll see an uprising. Yes. Of the same. That's I'm telling you, the enemy doesn't do anything new. We will see similar demonic spirits work as in the days of Jesus. I mean, similar ones. I mean, we've got massive mental health crisis today. Don't tell me that didn't happen in the days of Jesus. Yeah. You got Mary Magdalene delivered from seven demons. You know, you've got the demoniac who's known as one who's got an army of demons. That's schizophrenia. I mean, yeah, I'm not saying mental health isn't real, but what I am saying is demonic uh activity is real. Yes.

And uh so I'm I'm thinking about this Artemis too, and I'm like, wait, we've studied the book of Ephesians. We've studied Artemis in history. Artemis is the same as Diana. Artemis is the goddess of fertility, the goddess of hunting. Uh the temple of Artemis or the temple of Diana, whichever way you want to say it. One is Roman, one's Greek. The temple of Artemis was so significant people would travel from all over the world to come to Ephesus to look at the temple of Aremis. Yeah. She was so revered that the economy re revolved around this goddess, trinkets were made. And if you if you look it up and anyone can Google this, you look up Artemis um you know little shrines and you know little

trinkets. They found them archae archa ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar ar archaeologically am I saying that right? Uh archaeologically um they found these and it's it's essentially a woman that's got breasts surrounding her body. So literally this false god, false idol, completely false worship was centered around sex. Yeah. And of course the temple uh priest and priestesses of you know were essentially prostitutes and revolved around entertainment, revolved around religion, revolved around a strong economy, revolved around uh all of these things were centerpieces. Sounds really weird when you like this sounds odd.

Trinkets with boobs all over. Who who would do these things? But I'll tell you, there's remnants of that uh temple to this day. You can go to Turkey. Yeah. You can go to ancient Ephesus and see this. Why am I bringing all this up? Because we named a freaking rocket ship after, right, a Greek goddess, which isn't new. Like, if you look at a lot of the um rockets and uh satellites we've sent up there, they're they're named after Greek gods and goddesses. It's not abnormal. But here we are 2,000 years later replicating Greco Roman thought at the exact same time that Messiah chose to step into history and reveal himself as the son of God, the son of man that takes away the sins of the world. Now, of all the distractions

right now, when God is moving mightily to establish his kingdom, yes, our government that we live in, the great nation of America, United States of America, I love our country, but at the same time, we're ready to celebrate the risen King of all kings, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who came in the flesh, God in the flesh. We choose to market on national television a rocket that's going to do things that have never done before. Oo, we're doing things I've never done before. I tell you, our God is the God that can do anything. He's the He's the sustainer God. I'm getting on a soap box for just a minute because to me, it's all about distraction. It's all about deception. Yes. It's all about robbing from God the glory that he gets. And I'm not saying we shouldn't go to That's the enemy's greatest tactic, I

feel like. Yeah. Is taking your eyes off of the main thing, what matters, and onto a distraction. I feel like that's how he works in our lives personally, too. So, yeah, I agree. Well, just just think of this logically, $4 billion to send a few human beings into outer space. $4 billion. We might say, for anybody that's listening to this podcast, wherever you are, that's what you just paid taxes for. We're coming up against the deadline of taxes right now. And what you just funded was the name of a Greek goddess who revolved around the sexualization of demonic distraction. Yes. And you know when we talk about demonic things get weird if you're not in tuned with the spirit. If you're if you're not studying scriptures it's demonic.

Yeah. There's only two kingdoms of this world. There's the kingdom of God and there's a kingdom of earth run by the prince of this earth Satan and a legion of demons. starts to get weird until the more you get to know it, you see it everywhere. Yes. And I'm watching millions of people all over the world tune in to Aremis instead of get into the word of God, pray or repent of their sins and seek God's face. And in the meantime, we're at war all over the world. And I'm like, is is anybody like reading the Bible like Matthew chapter 25, there will be wars and rumors of wars and these will just be the beginning of birth pains. Is anybody else looking up in the sky saying, "Oh, yes, your redemption is near." I mean, come on. That could be a whole play on words right there. There. Let me just look that up real fast. Matthew chapter 25. The words of Jesus.

See that no one leads you astray. You'll hear of wars, rumors of wars. See that you're not alarmed, for this must take place, for the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation. Sounds like it. for kingdom against kingdom. I don't think that's just talking physically. I think we're talking spiritually. There will be one kingdom, the kingdom of God, and there will be a kingdom of this earth. That's when we're going to see things like false gods rise up. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are just the beginning of birthplace. This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and the end will come. This is the time we got to preach Jesus more clearly. That's why it's okay to preach revival and a great awakening because we're just simply taking Jesus at his word.

Yes, he's coming. He's coming. Jesus is coming. He's coming back. He's coming. He He says later in the same chapter. Um Oh, I'm in Matthew 24. I think I was trying to go to Matthew 25. Um which is Oh, this such good stuff. Uh G Jesus in Matthew 25. It's Matthew 24 that I was just reading, but Matthew 25, he tells us about the preparation that judgment is coming. These things are coming near. So, I'll tell you, Kara, when I see things like Artemis and I see things like going to war with Iran and just the way that the world is is working right now, the these are the signs of the times. Yeah. And how cool that you're going through the parables. Yes. Right now here at the church because those are

they're they speak to this. They speak to judgment and what the kingdom of God is. What it's not. Amen. Um and I've told you like going through these like I'm I'm getting hit over here with the Holy Spirit and I'm like is anybody else seeing this? Yeah. Like Jesus said this is real. He says, "Out of 10, half aren't going to make it and half are and the half that aren't going to make it thought they were making it. Hello, church." Right? Are you a little bit like alert or is there any urgency to say and I'm talking about the 10 virgins and the oil like you know that that just haunts me a little bit like totally that guys this is real. Judgment is coming. Yeah. The master is coming back and he will judge us upon what did we do with what I mean I told you this morning about the Yes. parable of the talents. And I'm

like, church, you will be judged. Should haunt us, too. Yeah. You You will be judged on what you do, with your finances, with your time, with your resources, with your life. Yes. And I I'm not the first to say that I haven't screwed up my time and life and money. But we have to repent of these. There's got to be a conviction in your heart that I want to honor God with these things. Yes. I had I had a lady a sister in the church come up on Sunday on Easter Sunday and just say, "Could you pray for me?" "Yeah, what do you need prayer for?" You know, I just feel like I snap at my family too quickly. I get a little angry and I snap at them too quickly. She's like, I feel weird even saying that. I can't believe we asking for prayer of that. Like, yeah, I'm a Christian. I should know better than these things. I'm like, you know what, sister? Like, that's the Holy Spirit.

Yeah. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you'll justify your behavior. you you'll say they they deserve that. You'll justify like, you know, they should change. You know, like if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't want to change. But when you have the Holy Spirit, all you want to do is be right with the Lord. You want the kingdom in your life. And what's the kingdom? Romans 14, it's righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. So, you just want what God wants in your life. You want more. So, that conviction is real. And my my plea for the church is that we would ask God for a spirit of repentance. you ask for, God gives it to you and he reveals it. And you might be surprised what it is. And you and I were just processing this morning before we prayed for for our day about sometimes it's one thing in your life

the Holy Spirit will reveal and it impacts everything. You know, whether it's, hey, you you got to work on this thing in your life and then when you work on it, it actually it reveals everything else. It reveals, oh, this is why you're having marriage problems or why you're having issues with your kid or issues with your finances or whatever the case might be. It might be one of those areas that reveals other issues, you know, like when the Holy Spirit reveals something, it's for the better good that God is creating in you. You Romans 8:28, you know, he's conforming you to his image. That when you love the Lord, he's going to work it for good, not just to keep you the same so that you would be conformed to his likeness. And and I I just, you know, the tangent whole thing about the rocket was just to reveal today that God's doing more today than meets the eye.

And we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to say, God, I I want what you want. Yes. I I want what you want in my life. And that's what I love right now over the last, you know, three weeks at Journey or whenever it was since the last time we recorded one of these podcasts is just seeing that and even having Martin Smith here the last time, you know, I recorded podcast. I think he gave some prophetic nuggets because I asked him about revival and as you said it won't look like previous revival and it was just it was a clear revealing like I told you today about you know megaurches mega mega mega churches I'm talking about the there's a word for for larger than mega church I don't know what it's called super mega is super mega supertore is that what it is I don't know it might be cuz like uh like mega church is considered 2,000 or more and then 10,000 or more is called something else I don't what it is.

Somebody look it up. Um would you look that up, Cali? Yeah. No. No. What's what's what's larger than mega church? What's 10,000 or more? Cuz you know, like a large church, I think, is 500 or more or a thousand or more. Um and you know, there's there's all these these terms for like sizes of churches. Giga Church. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Or super mega church. Okay. I think it's giga church. Let's call it a giga church. I've never heard it. Yep. So, uh but well, and there's not a lot of them, by the way. If you look at like yeah it's 10,000 or more as a giga church. So if you look at that in America you're probably talking several hundred of those churches. Is that divided among multiple campuses or is that like one campus? It's usually campuses because they usually have the capacity and the systems and the resources to do that. So you 4% total churches.

So 4% of churches Okay. 4% of churches in America are giga churches more than 10,000. So you you think about that. Yeah. So you mentioned like a Lakewood or Gateway Church of Highlands. Yep. Exactly. So, you look at these churches and you you look would revival break out in those churches. Well, often, and I'm going to generalize here, my theory is no. And here's why. It's so contingent on a personality. It's hard to have a unity that's going to be visible, which is a product of revival. Uh, you know, like, or is it the precursor to revival? Unity. Unity. Yeah. Well, I think it's both. Both. Yeah. It it's a precursor and it's a sign of revival. But what often happens in a giga church and by the way I'm not against mega mega churches. I'm not against we have turned into a mega church in the last year or

so. We've started to break those number barriers of more than 2,000. And I I'm not asking for revival journey. I'm asking it for our region. But what happens is if there's a personality based excitement, you often don't experience the same type of fruits. Even when I read about uh what happened in in Pensacola, and I've heard the good, the bad, the ugly about the the I don't know if we'd call it a revival because I don't think it falls under a great awakening, but this was in the '9s. Um it it lasted for a very long time uh the Pensacola revival and it happened it started on Father's Day with a guest preacher. So it wasn't the lead pastor of the church.

It wasn't a setup movement like a revival night, a conference or anything like that. It happened on a Sunday. And of all Sundays, Father's Day typically is not like this crazy attended, you know, um time. And yet having a guest speaker, I think what happened was hearts were open. It was received. There was spirit of repentance. And then then it was fostered through worship, through prayer, through this this movement, a call to repentance. Again, I've heard some negative things that have come out of that particular movement. But I've also heard some really powerful things. And I think one of the things was there was just there was a unity. And anytime it's based upon a personality, a talent, a gifting, which all those things, none of those things in themselves are bad.

Again, I don't want to a leader that's influencing a large level. I'm not in a sense saying that's bad. But what I am saying is I do believe a great awakening is going to happen. Now, as I'm saying this, in my mind, I'm thinking through people like John Wesley or Jonathan Edwards. You know, Jonathan Edwards preached his own sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And I would argue that it wasn't John Wesley that made that movement. It was the word of God. It was hearts open to repentance. Yes. You know, when people are clinging to posts worried that the floor would open and they would be sent to hell because of their sin. There's a heart of repentance. Yeah. I mean, I can't even imagine what that looks like. I mean, I don't think the American church I think the American church is void of that type of an awe and reverence of God. Yeah. Well, and that was in America. So, we know it's happened before.

Yeah. There was another movement uh within the hundred years after that which was in New York City and it was businessmen who met for prayer during lunch and it started with a few and then it was dozens and then quickly within weeks it turned into hundreds and then with weeks from hundreds it turned into thousands and within like a month or two of this movement of businessmen praying the city had to shut down during the lunch hour and then it impacted the entire entire economy of New York City because businessmen were so on fire for Jesus. I mean, massive impact. I mean, there there's definitely something to be said just about this unit. There wasn't an elevation of like uh uh one particular ministry uh pastor or um

so I I I'm just I'm excited about these days. I'm excited about what we're experiencing. Mhm. Uh we're doing baptisms this Sunday, Kara. And I think we should do a podcast shortly after cuz stories always come out of that. You know, the last time we did um baptisms just not too long ago a few weeks ago. I mean, just cool stories that came out of that. Someone coming to church for the first time, getting baptized, uh people whose lives have dramatically changed, people on our security team. Yeah. I mean, over and over, we're seeing this this obedience of disciplehip. Yes. saying, "I'm going to be disciplined and take the next step in my faith journey." Yes. And that's when we're going to see more and more and more. Yes. I agree. I'm excited about this. Yeah. I am too. The the signups keep rolling in. So Oh, praise God. Let's go. Well, Kara, as we look back at the last month of just

things we're going through. Uh, and we highlight Kingdom Come. We've been studying the parables. Uh, where we're seeing the fruit of this, what's happening around the world. I brought up Artemis 2. We got war in Iran. warranted Russia. I think China is going to get involved somewhere in this even if it's an economic war. There's we're we're positioning ourselves for Ezekiel 38 and 39 where we're going to see Gog Magog. We're going to see this movement happening and it's going to come upon Israel. We're going to see these things happening. Uh I don't mean to get all prophetic on you. I'm just wondering what what's what's going on in your life spiritually? Uh what are you excited for? What what what are you what are you sensing in the spirit of your life, our family? We're talking about parallels personally in our lives.

Well, this is so weird, okay? Because our I can trace this all the way back and I wasn't as spiritually aware when we started the church, but I can trace this all the way back to the beginning of starting journey. Yeah. But our family life, whether it be whatever we're going through with our kids or just personally, our finances, our marriage, it always it always mimics what the church is going through. Always. It's the weirdest. I can't explain it, but um it mimics it. And when we have breakthrough in family, we have breakthrough in church. and the opposite when when we have, you know, when we're just enduring in prayer for breakthrough, it's the same at the church. It's the weirdest thing. Yeah. So, let's explain that or um that might be confusing to people.

Unpack that. Yeah. Because here's here's the truth. We don't know it in the moment. Yeah. In the moment, it's hard. In the moment, we can't see it. Yes. In the moment, we ask why. In the moment, we're praying for reprieve or an answer, whatever the case is. And we're talking issues with kids, issues in our marriage, issues in our finances, issues with our home. You know, we've I don't I think on this podcast we've talked about flooding. Yes. You know, every time we have a flood, some type of breakthrough is coming and it was confusing for years. I mean, we literally started with flooding with our first house in Bend. Yes. Which was 21 years ago. It was flooding underneath the house. We had no idea. We home brand new house. Brand new house. It was newly built. Yes, we can go back to our very first house in Bend. And I'll tell you, it didn't stop there.

Well, the the cool thing about that, this is a dumb side note, but not, but um our neighbor who the whole house flooded still goes to journey flooded into, they still come to journey. Yeah. And they they had to do a bunch of damage repair to their property because of our flood. We were young and naive. Yes. And and you I mean I I think every house we've had has had a flood. Maybe with the exception of Nef. Do you remember any flooding at Nef? Mm- I can't either, but we did at Roric and we lived in five different houses in Yeah, we did in Arizona. I mean, we've had That's true. flooding everywhere. Our our current house that we're living in and we we move a lot because Kara's been in real estate. But but I mean, that's one example. But I mean, we've had examples where we are, you know, uh unsure of our financial certainty in our private finances and

then almost at the same time the churches. Yeah. And weird. It causes you this urgency to pray. examine where are you? What do you need to do differently? And then all of a sudden, you make changes and you seek God and you repent and then all of a sudden breakthrough. I mean, it's wild. It's really wild. I mean, let's just Here's the deal. I I have to preach. When do you think our biggest fights in marriages happen? Come on, somebody. Right? It's always a Saturday. It's true. If it's going to be a really big kingdom weekend, the fight will start on Friday, right? You know, and it will carry through Saturday and it will go into Saturday night. I mean, that it's just the truth. That's true. And it's over and over and over. So, that I just want to unpack that for anybody that's listening, watching like, "Oh, gez, you guys are so into tuned

spiritually. You see a sunset and you know God's working." No, no, no, no. It's usually days, weeks, or even months after that you start to identify and tie these things together and say, "Holy moly." Well, it took God is so good. Yeah. And it took me years to even realize that like things happen in the physical that do that what's happening in the spiritual. I It took me until we left on our sabbatical and hit rock bottom until I could start to see that things that happen in the physical are mimicking what's happening in the spiritual. Cuz a spiritual is a it's a weird world, you know. It's like we live in a natural world which is physical. Yeah. And we live in a spiritual world we can't see. And they are equally 100% real. Yes. And you can't see the spiritual one.

Too many times we focus on what we can see. Yes. Even though the Bible tells us to, you know, to to walk by faith, but the reality is if you can't see it, too many times we get distracted by the person in front of us, the offense that we have, you know, the the finances we need, the health issue we have. I mean, we've both had our own health issues. Those always parallel something spiritual. Always. Always. I mean, I'm currently dreaming forward some health things because it's like God doesn't want us to be complacent in any area. Yes. And if we start honoring him in every area, we get start to see the blessing in every area as well. Yeah. That's why he told the Israelites in exile, they were in a place they didn't want to be. God said, "I've got a future for you." Yeah. I've got hope for you and I'm going to prosper you. Now, if you're in a foreign land where you don't want to be and you don't even own your own land, God wants to prosper me, that doesn't seem right.

No, he is a God that's for you. But you got to start honoring him in exile. Yes. If you want him to honor you when you get back to the promised land. Amen. Cuz why would he bless you in the promised land if you can't honor him in the exile? And so there is a parallel and a beauty to everything. And I think that's partly why we get to see the breakthrough. Yeah. Is I mean that it's always exciting to me in our lives like breakthrough. what's happening at the church too. Breakthrough. And it's often happens not the way we think it's going to or when we want it to. Yeah. But it it happens. And I I I get it. If if if you were listening or watching this and you never experienced this, you'd be like, this is a little weird. You might even in your spirit be like, I think I want this, but I think you're weird and I don't want to listen. I'll give a quick example. When Martin Smith was here, we're talking about flooding and things like that. All of our toilets overflowed.

Yes. Our brand new bathrooms at the church church toilet. So yes, which 100% someone would be like that's a coincidence. Well, it's like well wait, we have seen that when there's water breakthrough, there's breakthrough coming and we had breakthrough that week and we did. So I you know what you might be like, well Keith, you're reading into this too much. Maybe I am, but I'm going to give glory to God. No, I you know I'm giving glory to God. Yeah, I'm speaking to the skeptic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I I literally I want to give glory to God because no matter what happens, I mean, you and I are sitting here as a living testimony. We shouldn't be married. We shouldn't still have a church. We shouldn't If anybody thinks that life is Marriage is hard, period. Yes. For anybody. And I I don't like it when people say like, "Oh, we've had the most blissful marriage. We've never fought." Well, then you may not have the greatest

spiritual breakthroughs. Because you really want spiritual breakthrough. All I know is the scriptures liken Israel to a bride. And then in the new covenant, the church is the bride, which is even more beautiful than just Israel being the bride because we're in the preparation of the marriage supper of the lamb. We're in the preparation of these things. All I know is marriage is hard. And if I look examples, I look at Joseph and Mary in the scripture. They were facing divorce before they even consummated their marriage. So this wasn't even an argument about sex. This was an argument about perception. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? like marriage is hard, you know? I mean, there's all over. I think it's good. Why would Paul talk so much about this in Ephesians chapter 5 going into chapter 6? I mean, when we really talk about breakthrough, we've got to acknowledge God wants every area of our lives.

Yes. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. All for the glory of God. Yes. That's why we even started this podcast to record that God does work all things together for good. He does. So good. Yeah. Yes. Yesterday was awesome, Kara. Um well which I I don't want to detour too much because I started to ask you a question. You started to unpack it. So you started mentioning about paralleling uh our lives. Is there more you want to say about that? Because I don't want to not No, not really. I just I would say I think you asked me um Yeah. What do you see God doing right now in the world that we're living in? Yeah. And just in our lives and all that. Like I'm just I don't know. I'm excited to be a part of I feel honored to be a part of what of of the this moment in history and church history and here and you know we've we've we've started the church 16 years ago and

there's been a lot of times when we've wanted to leave. Yeah. And that's just real and honest you know for many reasons many many many reasons. Um, but I do 16 years in, I more and more now see the value of perseverance. Yeah. And growing deep roots. And that's where like real fruit starts to happen is is when you go through the hard times, you go through the storms and you the roots go deeper and deeper and the fruit gets gets better and better, right? Um, and I feel like that's the season that we're in. Yeah. And I'm thankful for it. It has not been easy at all. Um it's been really really hard. There's definitely been moments of um you know celebration. Yeah. Mo then there's been moments of despair and then everything in between.

Um personally church-wise or like all of it, you know, but that I've wanted to run from. Um but I would say the fruit is is really beautiful right now and I'm thankful for even in the there's hard stuff too. There always will be. They just we're just people. Yeah. Um, but the fruit is good and I think acknowledging it is is the place of inviting God into it. What's that part of the brain back here uh that connects the cortex to the brain? It's amygdala, that's the word I was looking for. So the amygdala when the amygdala uh senses a trigger. So your brain senses something traumatic and it could be anything. Could be an emotional conflict. It could be a car accident. It could be um a thief coming in. It could be a financial crisis. I've got bills to pay but not money. It could be health crisis. So when the amygdala faces

trauma, the natural response is, and I think God designed us this way, is the fight or flight. Yeah, definitely. And then one of two things will happen. One is you leave something that you should have stayed through because it's going to mature you and you're going to grow. Uh or two is you're going to learn how to fight through this as Paul describes. It's scriptural. Uh fight a good fight. Yeah. Not the not the bad fight, not the wrong fight, not a demonic fight, but you're going to fight the good fight, which is honoring God, letting the fruit of the spirit work through life. Yes. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, like it's it's a good fight. So, when the amygdala when you face in our cases uh you know um water leaks, financial problems, marriage problems, all right, am I going to run from this?

Yeah. Am I going to negatively cause more trauma through fighting through this or am I going to stay and mature and grow? And that really requires your brain then to respond and and seek the Lord and invite God into every area of your life. And I hope that makes sense for somebody because yeah, it it requires a full surrender, too. Yes. It's taken decades for us to Yeah. Forgive me, Kara. That has taken me decades to figure out, you know, because I'm still working out my salvation. Right. We all are. And yes, and I I'm still learning, you know, all the things that I've done wrong. It's like, okay, don't repeat those patterns now, you know. And I think, like you said, we've there's been numerous times we're like, maybe we should give up on this. Oh, yeah. Uh, and I'm so glad every single time that we haven't because unless it's of God, and by the way, God does call people 100%

God does call people to new seasons and new places and new spaces. So, you got you got to lean into your own story. Yeah. But for our story, we get to see the fruit of uh, you know, living in the land of the living or what is that phrase? Walking in the land of the living. Something like that. Oh, there. What is that Bible verse? I'm gonna look it up somebody. Uh, so what are you most excited for right now, Kara? Um, yeah. See his goodness in the land of living. What verse is that? Okay. Okay. Psalms, maybe. What's the Bible verse? See his goodness in the land of the living.

We're going to find it out soon, friends. Here it comes. Here it comes. Psalm 27:13. I remain confident. The psalmist says, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Amen. So, so if I'm experiencing dead things right now, if I'm going through something, I preach to myself. Yes. I will remain confident because, and we can say this if we look back and say, I've seen it before. I've seen it before. That's why the Artemis thing was so weird to me. I'm like, I've seen this before. Yeah. in history. Y'all know we're repeating history. And we might not have a goddess with a whole bunch of boobs on her, but we just sent that goddess up into space, you know. And in that very rocket ship, I know there's like Christians, you know, cuz like Easter Sunday, I think one of them gave like a devotional and quoted scripture

and I don't know, like some of the smartest, most influential people in history often are Christians, you know, but it still is just it's I I I just think that we need to be in tune that the same spirits that have always existed still exist. Yeah. These aren't new demons. These aren't this not a new God. Same truth. Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Yes. the devil, you know, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of earth. So, what are you excited about? Well, Kara, thanks for asking. I am most excited about what we just said being articulated. We've got some really exciting things coming down uh the pipe at Journey. We've got a lot of guests still coming this year. um from Smith House worship to Kingdom Conference and just some of the best preachers I think in our world right now, young preachers who are raising up and and bringing about some of those things you're describing, pockets of

revival and Los Angeles and um all over the country and we're going to have them at Journey if Scottsdale, Arizona. I mean, we're going to have them at Journey. So, I'm excited about the anticipation that what's going to come out of it will be very different than what I'm I can dream. I I'm dreaming dreams and I've met people and realized, oh wait, you're not who I thought you were. Yeah. Either you're rude or, you know, you're shallow or you're not what I thought, you know, and I don't mean all judgment. But here's why I'm excited. God's going to move. And he's begun a movement where I'm I'm going to preach this Sunday. And I have such an anticipation that I'm going to preach that what God's done through the Welsh revival um through um the Zuza Street revival, what he did in the 1700s with Jonathan Edwards, he can do with us. Yeah. Why not? And I just want to be faithful.

I want to be faithful with God's word. I want to preach it with clarity and boldness and the anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit. I I want to witness hearts repent and I want to see marriages restored. I want to see people alleviated from the numbness of alcohol and marijuana. I want to see this in our day. So I am excited. I am excited because we have had taste of it. Tastes of it. We've had um uh obstacles and resistance from people, but we have had more people I mean car one of the parallels I mean this let's just get real for a moment and last week was a hard week at Journey because we had a few families like declare that they're leaving Journey or you know signs that

they're leaving Journey. It's like it's always hard. It's hard when you're shephering and sheep say I'm leaving your fold or whatever the case might be. And sometimes it's on decent terms and sometimes it's nasty. You know, it's like it's all over the place. And we had that leading up to Easter. And just even if it's one or two families, sometimes that'll get stuck in your head and it like starts to consume you when you forget about thousands of other people. We had over 3,100 people come in our Easter weekend and yet one or two families can derail you from from all of that. But I saw this weekend something I told you like I haven't really seen as much as I saw in one weekend. I saw so many people come back to journey that I haven't seen in years year some pre- pandemic because you know that pandemic sucked like we stopped meeting for a year and who knows where

people went they quit going to church they started going to other church who knows I saw people who some came up and talked to us some came up and hugged me some I just saw from a distance and I'm like what is happening in a good way like welcome home I'm glad you're back like this is this This is reconciliation. This is beautiful. This is not about me. It's not about you. You're here for church. You're here for Jesus. Let's go. God, go. So, I'm excited. If God can do that, it's not contingent on like holding on to people. This is open-handed. Absolutely. No one is ours. And so, I would just say like if God can do that, he prunes, some people leave. Yeah. And then other people come. And I know when one person leaves, God sends two or three more. And I'm just like, "Okay, let's go, Lord." Mhm.

I am really excited about what's to come. Like eagerly excited. Uh eagerly. And I I don't even know what that's going to look like, but I'm anticipating at pursuit nights, we're going to see cancer disappear. Yeah. Uh we we are going to see people who their marriages are done stay married. Uh we are going to see people who have been divorced have a living hope. Uh we're going to see a turnaround in a big way. Yeah. Uh I I I heard things on Sunday, you know, I told you about one, you know, I think I told Cali, you know, a man coming up. I'm suicidal. I've got no hope. I don't know what to do. Those strongholds are going to be delivered. I'm praying massive strongholds over children in this region. Uh strongholds that have a grip in our region of uh pedophilia and sexual addictions. I I want that released over our region.

So, what am I excited for? revival because those things are going to be taking place. Yeah. And we I mean it reminds me of a story not we don't have to share much on it but you know just about what happened on Sunday and the kids um you know which is just demonic things. Yeah. Let's go being released. Yep. And we talked I was talking about right before the podcast is the in Matthew I think it says where um the kingdom of God has come upon you when um demons are fleeing essentially is is the term and that Jesus said that. Yeah. Um when he was casting out demons he was criticized. Yes. And he's like no no no you've got this wrong. When demons are cast you've seen and experienced the kingdom. Yes. Kingdom is kingdom is it is here. Yes. And we are experiencing that.

Yes. And that's um a beautiful thing. I mean it's it's beautiful. It's the kingdom of God. What's better than that here on earth? What's better? Because demons and the Holy Spirit, they can't cohabitate. They can't coexist. They they they don't like each other. And at the end of the day, the the enemy wants to torment us. Even Christians, the enemy wants to torment. Yes. Christians. And some Christians, I say some, it's the majority of Christians don't even know it. Yes. They're fighting the wrong fights. They're fighting with their spouse. They're fighting with their Christian peers. They don't like their pastor, so they gossip about them and don't ever talk to them face to face. And they're fighting the wrong fight. And it's it's demonic.

But yet, when the Holy Spirit's in it, those demons flee. And it's it doesn't happen without some violence. Yes. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. And what what I'm just simply saying is the same thing we see in the New Testament still happens today. Yes. The devil goes after children. He goes after marriages. He go He goes after people, reminding them. Revelation 12, accusing. Yes. Day and night. I'm going to just accuse you. You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be here. Spirit of suicide. Huge. Huge. And so when we see the kingdom, those things flee. Yes. Those things flee. Yeah. It's replaced with hope. Yeah. Jesus. Amen. So, I'm crazy excited. We have coming up in June uh some worship leaders coming to the church. Kara, I haven't even told the church yet. I haven't even told the staff yet. So, hey, Confessions of the Pastor listeners, you're you're hearing it first. This called Smith House worship.

Go follow them on social media. This family who are musically inclined and their children start worshiping a young age. I've been following them for years. And there's a little girl, I think she's eight or nine, I think her name's SA. And she just worships with her little heart out. And it reminds me of some of the worshippers we have at Journey. And they're gonna come lead worship. And I I'm just I'm believing impartation. Children going to lead the way with worship. Children are going to lead the way with revival. We're going to see some breakthrough. So, what am I excited about? We are bringing kingdom come. Amen. I mean, it's exciting. I mean, we got some of my heroes coming to preach at Jan Church for the first time ever. I Yeah. We got Pastor Dave Patterson from the father's house coming in June. Like I'm like oh I'm like humbled and scared. It's like having dad come to preach. It's like h what is he gonna think of us? You know,

it's like uh we've got Travis Hearn coming in November to preach and he really impacted us. Pastor Travis Hearn from Impact Church in Scotsdale. In Scottsdale. And he's, you know, talk about kingdom. He should be dead. Yeah. He had a stroke and God preserved him and he's experienced miracle after miracle and he's making an impact in the world of sports and influence and just a kingdom impact. So I'm excited. We went to his church for three months when we were on sobatical and he I mean it was a part of my healing process. So he holds a special place in my heart. I'm excited to meet him. Kara, we never even met him. It's it's going to be just a dope year and I I mean that those are months ahead of us and it's going to come quick as we keep learning. Yeah, but we got marriage conference coming in the next 3 weeks.

So excited. We got intercessor gathering coming that changed our lives last year. That that made a mark on our church just to be watchmen on the wall. The Bible says it God is looking. Yes. The word of God says God is looking for the watchmen. And that promise was not just for Israel. God is looking for the watchmen today. Looking out spiritually. Who's going to be in tune for the signs of the time? who who's going to be the intercessors praying for the preachers to be like Paul bold with the gospel. I mean, we we So, I'm I just I can't believe we get to do this. Yeah, I know. It's an honor. It's a privilege. I wouldn't want to give my life to anything else. It is. And thank you for doing this podcast with me today. We're so busy. It's hard to squeeze it in. We've been trying to put it in our regular rhythm and both of us are going different directions. I think it was worth it. I do want to do a quick commercial because we do have our marriage conference coming up May 1st and 2nd. And here's the deal. If you've made it this far in the podcast, first of all, thank you.

We're honored that we just we we get to enjoy what God is doing together. So, if I could just say thank you. Whether you're listening or watching, we're humbled and honored. When Karen and I started this a couple years ago, we're like, "Nobody's going to listen to this." Um, I believe someone might, but you're like, "No one will listen to it." And so many of you have encouraged us. So many of you. So, if I could just say thank you. And some of you even like watch or listen with your family. So, hello families. Like, we love you. You say hello to us, we'll say hello to you. And uh we we love you and we're grateful. And we do have this marriage conference coming up May 1st and 2nd. If you're married, I'm I'm petitioning you. I'm pleading with you. I'm begging you, go to this. You you you can't invest enough in your marriage. I to spend a couple hundred bucks and to say we're going to pour into our marriage. It's an investment. And it's investment with a return. And if you really look at what you spend your money on, there's not a lot of things in life you're going to get a return on investment.

You will with this marriage conference. And so, first of all, if you're married, please register today. May 1st and 2nd's going to sneak up quick. Some of you going to listen to this afterwards and you're going to regret that you didn't do it. So, if you're getting this before May 1 and 2nd, sign up. Secondly, we are looking for some giveaways for the marriage conference because we're going to have hundreds and hundreds of people there and we have giveaways like this one. Come on, somebody. This is from Snap Fitness that donated a basket for us. And here's the deal. Uh we're giving this away which not only has like three months of um what gym membership, prepaid gym membership and I think personal training, personal training and all the stuff. I mean uh we we've got like the protein powder here. Um that's probably about like $2 million worth of protein powder just in this basket alone, which this is going to be a giveaway at the marriage conference. So you sign up, you can win this. But here's the deal. If you have something Yes.

that you could give away, let us know. And we want to make this just an exciting time. Yeah. I love what God's doing at Journey Kara. I love that we keep having food together and people are gathering on the table and a lot of times people are donating their time, their food, their efforts. We are the church. This is act two, baby. Yes. We're doing that. We're breaking bread and people have needs and you know what we're doing? We're meeting those needs. We're sitting around the table. Yeah. Yes. So, if if you want to help meet the needs of a marriage conference, maybe you're single but you have a business. Would you donate a gift card? You've got an Airbnb, whatever. Like, we all can pitch into this. So, we love you. We're grateful for you. Gifts like this. Thank you, Snap Fitness and Bend off Reed Market. Uh and there's if if there's others out there, too. Uh we're grateful for you. It's going to be awesome. Yes, I'm excited. And we're going to have Montel and Christian Jordan. Maybe we can get them on a Confessions of Pastor. Maybe.

Let's go. At a minimum, maybe at least Montel. I mean, uh they've been pastors. He's battled stage four cancer twice and have has beat it. Um this is a couple that that's done it and made it worldwide. has done world tours. I mean, uh, when you got a song that makes it as big as Montel did, this is how we do it. Uh, I tell you, uh, this is a guy that's been through some stuff. So, it's going to be awesome. The coming week. So, hey, make sure you hit subscribe where you are. And, uh, I don't know if we tackled everything. So, we might I got so much in my belly. I think we got some of it out, but there's even more to come. So, thank you all for listening with us. And let me just close in prayer. Lord, thank you for what you're doing through your church right now. We do pray for a great awakening. I pray for revival. I know people are listening from all over the world, not just Ben, but for this region. We say, "Central Oregon shall be saved." So that we can look back and

look at the declaration prophetically, believing that God, we are taking you at your word. We are believing that greater things are still to come. I I'm even thinking of Ephesians 3:20. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. To him be the glory through the church forever and ever. Amen. And I just say, amen, that you will do more than I could ask or think. and you'll do it through your church and the gates of hell shall not prevail. So we thank you for overcoming the enemy. Lord, we thank you for being a good God. Would you help those who have listened today to fight the good fight, God? Would you bless their families, their marriages, and if they're not going to journey church, would you bless their churches that God we would see revival and an overflow through your church for such a time as this? That God, we would be in tune with the spirit that our eyes would not be deceived by what we see in the media or the government or or whatever's happening in the world, but our eyes would be on your word. that your word would be a lamp to our feet, God. You

would be the light for our path. That God, we were going to go where you tell us to go, God. And we have an expectation that God, this is just the beginning of greater things. So, we love you and thank you in Jesus name. Come on, somebody shout amen. Amen. And hey, we'll see you next time on Confessions of a Pastor.