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Is it spiritual warfare—or is it stress, anxiety, and your body sending signals? Thomas Johnson joins the Men of Faith podcast for a practical conversation on discernment, how to respond to fear, and how to fight the right battle without giving the enemy too much credit.
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Website: https://projectchurch.com
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Creators and Guests
Host
Caleb Cole
Caleb, a Sacramento native, grew up in a pastor’s home and is a third generation minister. At the age of 12, after one of his grandfather’s sermons, he felt a call from God to be a pastor. He consistently pursued that call throughout high school and college. Caleb attended Central Bible College in Springfield, MO where he earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies and went on to the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary where he earned an M.A. in Theological Studies.
What is Men of Faith?
Men of Faith is a Christian podcast dedicated to calling men up and not out.
Hosted by Caleb Cole, each episode equips men to follow Jesus with conviction, character, and consistency—at home, at work, and in every season of life. Through honest conversations and practical biblical wisdom, Men of Faith tackles real issues like leadership, fatherhood, identity, marriage, discipline, spiritual growth, and navigating culture without compromise. This is a podcast for men who want more than inspiration—they want transformation.
00;00;00;08 - 00;00;10;03
Speaker 1
What do we tell people when they experience that? And how many of them wouldn't have maybe dealt with it as well as you did? You know, because they're afraid for sure.
00;00;10;05 - 00;00;15;19
Speaker 2
Oh, I should say I did feel fear. Yeah, yeah. I didn't like waking up like that. Yeah.
00;00;15;26 - 00;00;17;06
Speaker 1
You know, you were saying, I.
00;00;17;09 - 00;00;27;23
Speaker 2
Don't have, like. Oh, what? Who's in my room? Because I'm, you know, you fight your fight or flight. Yeah. Am I supposed to run or am I supposed to throw down? Who's in my room? Yeah. So I mean that there's definite fear.
00;00;27;24 - 00;00;47;20
Speaker 1
You're listening to men of Faith. The podcast dedicated to calling men up and not out. Join me as we live a life dedicated to our God.
00;00;47;23 - 00;00;57;03
Speaker 1
Hey, welcome back to the men of Faith podcast. I'm your host, Caleb Cole, with my co-host, Brandon Miller. Brandon. What up?
00;00;57;06 - 00;01;00;04
Speaker 2
Hello. Pleasure to have you here, Thomas.
00;01;00;06 - 00;01;01;25
Speaker 3
Hey, thanks for inviting me.
00;01;01;25 - 00;01;25;02
Speaker 1
To my left. Brandon's right. Is the legend himself. This is Thomas Johnson, also known as Thomas. But we'll be calling you both during this episode. So, Thomas, introduce yourself real quick. I know you're a part of Project Church. Yeah, but, maybe some of your background in life and work and all that good stuff.
00;01;25;04 - 00;01;48;26
Speaker 3
I'm a traveler. Traveled all over the world. Been in project for about seven years now. Walked in the door, was like, God called us here. Servant. Love to serve. Joyful servant. Serving now. So, married to Maria, my wife. She's at home sick, but hopefully she'll be getting better. And so, yeah, just live her life in Sacramento.
00;01;48;26 - 00;01;57;00
Speaker 3
Lived all over the Bay area, lived all over the country, lived all over the world. So, settle down here right now and, yeah. Look forward to this conversation.
00;01;57;02 - 00;01;59;22
Speaker 1
Yeah. Military background. Right.
00;01;59;24 - 00;02;01;18
Speaker 3
Thomas. Seven years in Army.
00;02;01;20 - 00;02;02;22
Speaker 1
Okay.
00;02;02;24 - 00;02;10;14
Speaker 3
Special ops guy. No kidding. Hahaha. Combat medic and a, intelligence analyst. Yeah.
00;02;10;18 - 00;02;11;17
Speaker 1
So love.
00;02;11;17 - 00;02;12;18
Speaker 3
It. I process things.
00;02;12;18 - 00;02;13;14
Speaker 2
Thank you for your service.
00;02;13;15 - 00;02;14;15
Speaker 3
Thank you. Thank you.
00;02;14;18 - 00;02;34;29
Speaker 1
Yeah, man, we appreciate you. We wanted to have Thomas on with Brandon. I today to approach this topic of spiritual warfare. This is a topic we haven't really, dove into too deep on the men of Faith podcast. So I do want to welcome all our MOFs back to the podcast. We actually have a lot more ladies listening to now.
00;02;35;06 - 00;03;00;03
Speaker 1
And, ladies, what's up? But we're just really excited for what God is doing through this podcast. Continue to do us a favor and share it. If you, are getting a lot out of this content, share it with friends. Like subscribe to the YouTube channel. Definitely follow us on Instagram, a faith pod. And, we really appreciate you guys getting the message out there as the podcast continues to grow.
00;03;00;06 - 00;03;21;26
Speaker 1
And really, that's what we wanted. We wanted to help men grow, grow in their faith, grow as men of God, men of faith, and grow in their discipleship. And so I think one area of growth we could all use is growing in the spiritual warfare department, because we know the Bible's clear that we don't just battle against flesh and blood, but we battle against principalities, powers of darkness.
00;03;22;04 - 00;03;43;08
Speaker 1
There are real, things at work that we don't always see, right? We may be censored at times. We feel it. We've experienced it in the supernatural. And so we wanted to talk about this because ultimately, the longer you follow Jesus, the more you realize, like, hey, there's other things going on, that aren't just in the physical realm, and it's in the spiritual realm.
00;03;43;10 - 00;04;03;13
Speaker 1
And so I wanted to hear a little bit from you guys, maybe as to your experience, you know, in the Spiritual Warfare department, maybe some misnomers, maybe some things you've learned, maybe some of, revelation God's given you. So let's just dive in, like, let's talk about spiritual warfare. What has been something God's shown you in your years of faith?
00;04;03;13 - 00;04;06;09
Speaker 1
How many years you've been serving Jesus? Brandon?
00;04;06;12 - 00;04;07;21
Speaker 2
1997.
00;04;07;23 - 00;04;09;16
Speaker 1
97. So 28 years.
00;04;09;22 - 00;04;11;15
Speaker 3
Thomas 1998.
00;04;11;17 - 00;04;23;09
Speaker 1
98. Okay. 20 not 27 years. And for me, I mean, I was five years old, to be honest, when I gave my life to Jesus, I've been sold out ever since. So since 1986.
00;04;23;12 - 00;04;25;18
Speaker 2
Could go.
00;04;25;20 - 00;04;38;00
Speaker 1
I didn't know much about spiritual warfare as a five year old, though. Giving my life to Jesus. So talk to me, guys. What what some of the things you've experienced and what is I don't know, some revelation God's given you around this topic of spiritual warfare?
00;04;38;08 - 00;05;10;21
Speaker 3
Oh, I guess I'll start. I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is the first part of that, the spirit. Right. And how much we don't know what we don't know. Right. So I remember when I got baptized in the spirit, that was a wild scene because I didn't expect it. And, Holy Spirit came upon me tongues and just the praising God, in the middle of a prayer session, like I should have been doing sound, but I walked off the sound stage bogged down because we were playing this song.
00;05;10;23 - 00;05;39;07
Speaker 3
Hosanna, Hosanna to the lamb that was slain. Hosanna, Hosanna. Jesus died and rose again. And I just remember this great desire for them never to stop saying that. And so I went through this whole theme, and I'm just having this feeling in my gut like, man, I keep keep saying that. That's like soothing to me. And before I knew it, in a small church in Virginia, I'm jumping up and down in the air, praising God on my knees, worshiping God, and I'm speaking in tongues, something I had never done before.
00;05;39;14 - 00;05;58;08
Speaker 3
Something I pray for. And I did that for some time. Nobody budged. Everyone you know kept during the prayer meeting. But that is what was happening. And that was my first experience in the spirit. So I was like, I knew in my mind I'm saying, why am I doing this? What's going on? Like, why am I speaking in these tongues?
00;05;58;16 - 00;06;15;18
Speaker 3
But in reality, it was the first experience of something other than my physical, something other than this realm. For me, it was that there's a spirit realm. So that's the first thing that comes up, because sometimes we don't know what we don't know. Yeah, right. And there is a spiritual realm out there for sure, right, that we have to be aware.
00;06;15;18 - 00;06;21;06
Speaker 3
So that's the first fact that spiritual warfare and the spirit and the spirit realm. Israel.
00;06;21;08 - 00;06;21;18
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;06;21;25 - 00;06;46;27
Speaker 2
Good. Yeah. I'm going to build on that because I agree, being aware of the spiritual realm, does move you closer to your faith in God, because if, if, if the evil presence is real, then absolutely God's presence is real. And I and I had similar experience coming up in a household where my parents absolutely understood that we don't fight against flesh and blood.
00;06;47;00 - 00;07;18;10
Speaker 2
And so you're never at odds with the people. It's the spiritual realm that we we live in and that we, we face opposition with. So at a young age, understanding that. And and until 1997, I was 22. That's when for me, I, when you when you go at it, when you go direct to it, you begin to appreciate the depth of who God is, his presence, his power, and the realization that this isn't actually a fight between God and the anatomy.
00;07;18;12 - 00;07;45;25
Speaker 2
That actually isn't where the realm of the struggle comes. It's us who are here in flesh and blood. It's us who have to traverse this natural plane against forces that are stronger, smarter, faster, never sleep, never rest, never have to eat, and therein builds in us this interest in need to connect to God. Yeah. And I think it's I think the whole system is built in that I recognize.
00;07;45;25 - 00;08;00;10
Speaker 2
I can't, I can't when this is me going into, you know, war against a being ten x my size ten must be, you know, and I have found that this particular topic always draws me closer to my walk with God.
00;08;00;12 - 00;08;29;19
Speaker 1
That's so good. It's good to say that God's already won. He's already been victorious. He conquered. He crushed. You know the head of Satan already simply by, you know, overcoming death, hell, the grave and essentially setting us free from our sin and destruction. And yet there's this battle going on for real with our flesh that we face, but also the supernatural that's happening around us.
00;08;29;19 - 00;08;53;27
Speaker 1
And the enemy does paint a target on our backs, and we know that the enemy does, you know, come against us. And there are spiritual forces at work that that will attack, you know, followers of God. And so what would you say? I'm curious, cause I think there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fear around, like, oh, Satan and demons and, and spiritual attacks.
00;08;53;29 - 00;09;08;24
Speaker 1
And so unfortunately, I think there's a lot of Christians that are fearful walking in this. So what would you say to those people who are like hearing this and like, yeah, man, I've experienced some scary stuff in the supernatural and I love God and I love Jesus, but I have a lot of fear around it.
00;09;08;24 - 00;09;34;09
Speaker 2
So I'll just take you back to last week. I was on a trip and, I was at a conference and I was scheduled to speak at this conference and the hotel we were staying at, it had thematic rooms. So I walk into my room and my room is covered with pictures, an album from the band kiss. So imagine going to bed at night with big, hulking life size pictures of men in pain with their tongues out looking crazy.
00;09;34;09 - 00;09;56;26
Speaker 2
And I just remember thinking to myself all through my childhood, this was the band I wasn't allowed to know about, listen to, and now I'm in this room having to sleep with these people, looking at me all night long. And so the night before I was supposed to give a big talk literally in my room, I woke up every 45 minutes hearing something in my room, like where I got out of bed.
00;09;57;02 - 00;10;19;12
Speaker 2
I'm looking around like there's something in my closet or someone in my bathroom is something I. I thought that there was a, something on my bed that I kicked off at one point. And so as the night is progressing and I'm tuning in to. Okay, this is this is super anime, I need to be aware. And so my go to is always to call in reinforcements.
00;10;19;14 - 00;10;42;07
Speaker 2
I start with my own prayer, and then I have friends that are on the other side of the earth, some friends in Africa, some friends in India. So when I message those brothers in like, hey, can you cover me tonight, man? I got this thing going. I got immediate response. We got you. So I do that. I turn on my my Bible in a year, I just start going through the Bible in a year.
00;10;42;08 - 00;11;03;19
Speaker 2
I'm like, take this. If you're going to be in my room, then you're listening to the Bible with me. Yeah. And I'm telling that's clear. And so but you know, by morning I'm good. But it was an example for me of like, that's right. There's spiritual reality here. This is what this is. The crazy thing is the next morning I get up and two of my other team members who are Christians also had similar things out the entire night.
00;11;03;21 - 00;11;26;02
Speaker 1
Yeah. So yeah, there there is real, spiritual warfare going on. And we do believe that, like, the demonic attacks are real. So, so hearing that in your experience, Thomas, you know, what do you see even even with what do we tell people when they experience that? And how many of them wouldn't have maybe dealt with it as well as you did?
00;11;26;08 - 00;11;28;25
Speaker 1
You know, because they're afraid for sure.
00;11;28;27 - 00;11;34;22
Speaker 2
Oh, I should say I did feel fear. Yeah. I didn't like waking up like that. Yeah. I, you.
00;11;34;22 - 00;11;35;28
Speaker 1
Know, saying I.
00;11;36;00 - 00;11;47;02
Speaker 2
Don't have like, oh, what, who's in my room because I'm, you know, you fight your fight or flight. Yeah. Like, am I supposed to run or am I supposed to throw down who's in my room? Yeah. So, I mean, there's definite fear.
00;11;47;04 - 00;11;47;29
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;11;48;01 - 00;12;21;13
Speaker 3
Yeah. I think, to that point, I think, there is there are two sides of that coin. And I feel like the, the spiritual side, we have to we have to know who God is, right? Like, in that moment, I'm always here. Preparing for that moment is not in that moment. Right? It's before. Yeah. So gaining a confidence in who God is, his supremacy, his his power, his love, everything about him preparing for that moment should be parity for us.
00;12;21;13 - 00;12;38;20
Speaker 3
When we encounter something in those spiritual moments, he should be the fact, like you said, like I can call a brother right now that we can prayer the Word of God. The demons understand that in the spiritual realm they understand that. And so there should be this opportunity for us to just kind of level set and say, but my God is all powerful.
00;12;38;22 - 00;12;58;10
Speaker 3
Like nothing. No weapon formed against me shall prosper outside of the plans that God has for me. Oh, and by the way, my steps are order. God's plans are good for me. They're they're gentle. They leave me. Right. So there should be this recognition of of the truth about what God says. And who God is in these moments.
00;12;58;10 - 00;13;16;09
Speaker 3
Yeah, but I'll share one other story, which is hilarious. Is that I went on to, I used to do this campus ministry, and we went to Carolina one year, and we're staying at this hotel with all these kids from all these colleges. And, I have a room, and I'm in a room with these kids. I don't know them.
00;13;16;11 - 00;13;33;23
Speaker 3
And we're here, and I'm, you know, hearing that things are going on with the kids and everything. I'm kind of like, God, whatever. I'm new Christianity, and I go to sleep that night, and I wake up in the middle of the night and I couldn't breathe. I'm choking and I'm gasping for air like, oh my goodness, what's going on?
00;13;33;29 - 00;13;55;04
Speaker 3
I run out of the hotel room into the hallway as kids everywhere, middle of the night, and I'm just just struggling for air. I finally catch my breath and I'm like, oh, spiritual attack. Oh my goodness. The enemy doesn't like us being here and bringing these kids here. Hindsight says I a too late. And it was acid reflux.
00;13;55;04 - 00;14;15;13
Speaker 3
That's what my side says. So there's two sides of this thing, right? And we have to be level headed to understand when it's a spiritual attack and when maybe it's us, right? When. Yeah. And that begs to talk about discipline like you spoke about before. Like if there's discipline in my life and I can easily decide, like, this is just me not being disciplined.
00;14;15;15 - 00;14;31;19
Speaker 3
Yeah. And I'm allowing this in my life. Maybe not so spiritual. Maybe just me and and my flesh or me and my sin. So I feel like there's this there's there's a there's a one coin and there's two sides to it. Right? There's definitely the spiritual side. But then we have to be aware of that, and we have to be aware of us as well.
00;14;31;19 - 00;14;37;01
Speaker 3
Right? Then we have to use a little bit of common sense and not flag everything spiritual.
00;14;37;03 - 00;14;58;14
Speaker 1
True spiritual attack. Well, I mean, you can think about how many people like, I got a flat tire, like it's a spiritual attack. The enemy didn't want me to get to work today. It's like, wait, what? Like now you just flat tires happen. We all get them. You know how much of that is practical? Part of just life in a fallen, broken world where tires wear out and pop.
00;14;58;17 - 00;14;59;11
Speaker 3
Right.
00;14;59;13 - 00;15;25;16
Speaker 1
But I do think we don't want to that way in all things and say nothing spiritual is right. But then we don't want to become super superstitious. So this is my issue with the church, is that we become superstitious, and then superstition will tell you that everything is a demon or spiritual attacks. So, you know, I'm talking to, a woman in our church and it's like, oh, the enemy is attacking me.
00;15;25;16 - 00;15;53;20
Speaker 1
It's why I don't feel well. And and, you know, and I'm like, well, no, you actually like, I think you just are sick, right? You got a cold and colds happen. And so there's like this balance, that we're always this tension, the two sides to the coin where we need to be aware of the supernatural and the spiritual, but we also need to be aware of the flesh and and the fallen world we live in that comes with brokenness and hurt and pain and sicknesses and all these things.
00;15;53;20 - 00;16;19;10
Speaker 1
Yeah. And so it's it's that discernment. Yeah. To say, all right, Lord, if I'm closer to the spirit, like you guys were talking about earlier, if I'm in tune with the spirit, I'm in prayer. I'm in my word. I'm I'm praying in the spirit. I'm praying in tongues regularly. You know, or walking whatever my gift to the spirit is, then I'm going to have better discernment to know when I'm under spiritual attack and when I'm just going through what life throws at you.
00;16;19;11 - 00;16;19;20
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;16;19;20 - 00;16;37;00
Speaker 2
So the day after I wake up and I'm, I'm recounting the story and I'm saying to a gal who happens to be a missionary, and she was at the same conference, and we're both there for different reasons. She works with a large organization. I was mentioning my evening a little more detail, and she said, did you pray over your room?
00;16;37;00 - 00;16;54;01
Speaker 2
And I said, oh, I thought about that. She said, yeah, so take a little oil and anoint your door. Watch. And so I didn't bring oil with me. So I just took a little off my forehead and I literally there were two doors. It was a big room because we were doing some, meetings in there. And so I just prayed over the room, ask, God bless this room.
00;16;54;01 - 00;17;17;10
Speaker 2
I need a good night of rest, please. Yeah. I don't want to be woke up by stuff in the room. And that night slept solid. I love it, absolute peace. And it's just a reminder that yes, we can move into superstition and and or not account for natural consequences and also discount the reality of the spiritual warfare that we are a part of.
00;17;17;13 - 00;17;36;12
Speaker 2
Yeah. And usually you encounter warfare most when you're against your enemy, right? So if what you're doing is intentional to incite your enemy, which is you're taking territory that the enemy thinks is his, then one might expect you're going to have Flack come back.
00;17;36;12 - 00;17;59;22
Speaker 3
You know one thing, if I can jump in here real quick, one thing I love, and I think is par for the course for this conversation is is job story, right. Because like you said, a lot of people will go through not even a, a small percent of what he went through. And yet it would be, you know, this, this very dramatic, like, man, life is the enemy is is on me, on me, on me.
00;17;59;25 - 00;18;20;25
Speaker 3
And I love the overarching theme there is that there was nothing outside of God's power. There was nothing outside of his will. And so in that, I like what you said earlier, is that a lot of times I find that I should not operate in fear first of all, and then some of these things draw me right to God, right?
00;18;20;25 - 00;18;43;22
Speaker 3
So if we look at job at the end of the story, I mean, I don't know about other people, but I feel like, man, he had a one on one. He had a he had the greatest counseling session ever given from his from all of the things that happened and the systematic leading him to question God and ask God what's going on, which I always feel like that's something that people should do.
00;18;43;22 - 00;19;12;21
Speaker 3
God is the spiritual, is it not? Is this an attack? Is it not? We should run to our father, but in that I feel like man. Like what an opportunity. I know he lost a lot, but man, he gained so much more. A one on one where God just revealed more God, more God, more God. And for me, like knowing that He's my father and he leads me and he guides me, that when things come against me, I still know that this is an opportunity to go to my father and be right next to him.
00;19;12;23 - 00;19;23;01
Speaker 3
And in that, discover who God is. Because Jobe didn't discover the power of the enemy and that he discovered the power of God in that story, in its fullness. And I love that.
00;19;23;04 - 00;19;51;01
Speaker 1
That's so cool that, I mean, it is great to bring it back to Scripture and even a story of what better example than Jobe? And again, this is all any spiritual warfare should bring us closer to the Lord. And even, you know, in this faith journey, we should be constantly drawing closer to him. But you're right, Brandon, that if you are stepping out and doing things for the Lord, you will encounter spiritual warfare.
00;19;51;03 - 00;20;13;28
Speaker 1
I heard it said that the the best way to know the enemy isn't against used to do nothing with your life, right? Like if you're doing nothing with your life, you're not ever proclaiming the gospel. You're not, you know, a part of building his church. You know, whether it be in your church or building his church, wherever you are sharing your faith, the enemy's probably not going to come against you.
00;20;13;28 - 00;20;35;09
Speaker 1
And so I think there's a lot of people that are doing nothing in their faith journey and then want to claim everything is spiritual warfare and a lot of the times they're making poor decisions that are antithetical to what it means to live a life devoted to the Lord and then go, why is the enemy against me? And why has God abandoned me?
00;20;35;09 - 00;21;09;28
Speaker 1
And it's like, well, no, your life is leading you down path of destruction. That is the result of choices that you're making. But then we want to make it spiritual warfare, and then we want to get mad at God. Right? I've I've found that those who rarely get mad at God, even as they're encountering challenging situations, circumstances are the ones who have pursued him the most and are serving him the most because they're going to see every attack as part of God's story that he's going to use and redeem and be a part of their testimony.
00;21;09;28 - 00;21;32;01
Speaker 1
Like Paul. Right? I just preached on this last Sunday. Paul's in in jail, writing the church in Philippi. And he's like, it's better than I'm in jail because it's actually, it's actually furthering the gospel, and it's actually giving all the brothers boldness to share their faith even more that I'm in jail and I'm still writing from jail, celebrating, encouraging them, building up the church.
00;21;32;04 - 00;21;50;13
Speaker 1
So spiritual attack. Some of us will get mad and be like, God, what's up? You're letting the enemy hold me down and put me in jail. And Paul's like, this is a good thing. Like God's using this and the gospel is going forth more and he's empowering the church more because I'm here. So it's all about perspective.
00;21;50;14 - 00;22;03;24
Speaker 2
Appreciate that. Because when you when you do turn the enemy's attack back on him in the sense of, well, God, you work all things for good. So whatever this was meant to do.
00;22;03;24 - 00;22;04;07
Speaker 3
Come on.
00;22;04;09 - 00;22;24;28
Speaker 2
For the enemy's strategy. How are we about to flip this on it? Yeah, because he always will flip that script back on this year in, there's a scripture that I've memorized real early in my walk, Luke 1018, where Jesus says, I saw the Satan. I saw the accuser fall like lightning from heaven. Yeah. And I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy.
00;22;25;04 - 00;22;51;24
Speaker 2
Nothing will harm you. And in the realm of spiritual warfare, because Paul told us you need to have a sword, and your sword is the Word of God. Yeah. Then my encouragement to Christians is learn your sword. If you don't know it, you will get kicked around the yard. But when you do, because that's some of what God will turn back on, the enemy is okay, now you have forced my son or daughter to now have to step in and go through some boot camp.
00;22;51;24 - 00;23;11;25
Speaker 2
They got to learn to fight. Yeah, because an armed warrior is a whole lot more formidable than one that's unarmed. Trying to walk through this world, you know, getting getting blown and tossed by every women, you know, teaching. So that's been a really key piece because all of the promises and all the truths they're already built in. Yeah, we're already told that you have the authority in Christ.
00;23;11;27 - 00;23;13;23
Speaker 2
And he already won. Yeah.
00;23;13;26 - 00;23;33;07
Speaker 3
And just to jump on that as well, I love the fact that you you brought the weapon of the sword of the spirit, right? The word of God. I remember in just for the the podcast listeners like real stories, right. These are like, people know me. I have a million stories. But I know we went to Tanzania not too long ago, and, we're there for the Lord, right?
00;23;33;07 - 00;23;59;10
Speaker 3
We're there to do the work of the missions field and, like you said, like you're pressing into God and doing the things that are along your purpose. And yes, the enemy is going to bring things to try to slow you down, deter you or stop you. Right. And so we I remember one morning where we're getting ready to load into the bus, and I'm out talking to the driver and, I'm putting luggage in the back and, someone call me to the front like, hey, you know, Thomas, let's go.
00;23;59;16 - 00;24;21;21
Speaker 3
So I leave from the back to the back of the truck is open. I leave from the back, I go into the front and boom, the truck gets hit by a guy in a parking lot for some reason. Decided to put it in reverse, back out of his spot, doing 40 miles an hour and run into our smashed all of his back window, move the entire door frame of the bus, bend it back, or we couldn't go anywhere.
00;24;21;23 - 00;24;42;17
Speaker 3
And so I remember in that moment, pretty much everyone on the bus was like spiritual warfare, and we were all in agreement, like there was something trying to stop us from the mission that we were going on. But I remember the action that we took in that moment was there was arguments going on outside. There was he was accusing us of being at fault.
00;24;42;17 - 00;25;07;17
Speaker 3
And we're like, wait, what? And there was just this chaos in the moment, in the spirit. You can just feel the chaos and then you immediately see our chaos is not of God. Pieces of God. Yeah. So the enemy is definitely here, right? So we're we're in this moment and someone breaks out a worship song and we start worshiping, and before long, this entire bus is singing and worshiping God over the chaos, over the noise.
00;25;07;17 - 00;25;34;09
Speaker 3
And there is peace around this entire thing, tears coming from my eyes. Because I'm like God, I can feel the difference between your peace and the enemy's chaos. And right now your peace is winning your peace for sure. Rounding all of this out. So to your point about that word, worship as well is another tool that we have given by the scripture to battle in spiritual warfare moments.
00;25;34;12 - 00;25;58;01
Speaker 1
I love it. I love that we've taken this. You know, topic to something like it is the call ups, the practical side of like in the midst of spiritual warfare, are you shifting your perspective? Are you seeing that God's going to work this together for your good and for his purposes? Are you bringing the word to whatever warfare you find?
00;25;58;01 - 00;26;20;06
Speaker 1
Because if you know it, it's in your heart. It comes out of you. You walk with greater authority and then we can worship, right? It is our weapon. It's our war. It's. It's how we war in the spirit, that we ultimately are giving him praise no matter what comes against us. And I think these are great call ups for the guys to say, like, this is what you do when you face spiritual warfare.
00;26;20;06 - 00;26;44;14
Speaker 1
And I just want to say, you know, in my experience in life, like I've experienced a lot of spiritual warfare, attacks. And I want to encourage guys because I think sometimes we think the enemy, we give the enemy too much credit. So number one, he's not, omniscient. He's not all knowing. All right. And he's not omnipotent.
00;26;44;16 - 00;27;13;12
Speaker 1
He's not all powerful. He does not know what you're thinking. He does not know what's in your heart. Right. And I think we think the enemy can just get in our head and, like, knows everything that's going on. No he doesn't. He can follow the patterns of your life though. So he does have, you know, spirits, demonic forces that are at work and may be following your life or present in your life or monitoring your life, whatever.
00;27;13;15 - 00;27;38;26
Speaker 1
But we don't have to walk with fear because ultimately God is on us and his spirit is in us. We have a greater power. And so I just want to say this because I think even even talking about this topic, it the more aware we become and the more it's at the forefront of our minds, the more susceptible we actually are, because we start to have a greater awareness of what's happening around us.
00;27;38;29 - 00;27;56;01
Speaker 1
But I don't want these guys leave me here with fear, right? And so I want you I just want you to hear this. Like we don't give the enemy too much credit. He may attack, but you have a greater power in you, on you. He doesn't know your thoughts. He doesn't. He's not all powerful. And the Lord's protection is so much greater.
00;27;56;03 - 00;28;16;16
Speaker 1
But also we need to guard ourselves. And so, my other call up, and we got, like, a couple minutes is to guard what you're watching, what you're allowing into your life, into your mind, into your spirit. I'm talking about movies. I'm talking about shows. I'm talking like some of these guys just playing around with horror films and demonic movies and shows.
00;28;16;16 - 00;28;36;17
Speaker 1
And then you wonder why you feel like spiritual presence, like you're inviting this stuff in anything in your life or in your home that has any spiritual connections outside of God, out of your life, out of your home. And this is how we protect ourselves. Yeah. And then we walk with a confidence, with worship as our weapon, with the word as our, you know, our weapon.
00;28;36;20 - 00;28;42;25
Speaker 1
And and we don't have to live in fear. Yeah. What are some final call ups? For you guys, for these guys today?
00;28;42;28 - 00;28;59;22
Speaker 3
You know, I just want to throw one more thing in there. Just because we're speaking of truth right now. You talked about the movies, the things that we watched and played in. I just want to also throw out these video games, right? These dwellings, these developers are creating these games and they are layered with demonic like these horror games.
00;28;59;22 - 00;29;19;18
Speaker 3
If you if you look up, like the shock horror games, like the independent guys are making games that are just laced with the demonic, and you're playing that innocently and you're letting that in. And so we have to be 100% careful about everything we let in. We have to be for God and not against him in this area.
00;29;19;18 - 00;29;20;14
Speaker 3
That's good. Yeah.
00;29;20;17 - 00;29;21;21
Speaker 1
I mean, I'm not a gamer, so.
00;29;21;23 - 00;29;22;25
Speaker 2
Yeah, but.
00;29;22;29 - 00;29;25;11
Speaker 1
That's good. I know there's some guys I need to hear that.
00;29;25;14 - 00;29;47;14
Speaker 2
Yeah. I think taking what you said that we as men who are called protect pray to cover, to lead, we have to recognize that even in that role, we will face opposition for leaving our families and leaving our kids. And so when we encounter it, you said, well, we're not to fear it, we're to engage it. And the number one way we do.
00;29;47;14 - 00;30;15;19
Speaker 2
And I so appreciate you bringing up prayer and worship and praise like we we have been given supernatural power in the spirit through these weapons that God has put into our hand. And my call up is use what God has given. Yeah, yeah, we don't want to operate in a spirit of fear. Use what he gave us. Definitely closed doors that might be open, but but engage because worshiping over your household, worshiping over your family, praying, praising.
00;30;15;19 - 00;30;28;10
Speaker 2
You know, more than just prayers at a meal, right? Like actual. Come on. I'm I'm lifting up the name of Jesus in my home, knowing that that's the standard. I raise up that standard. There's no place for an enemy in that.
00;30;28;13 - 00;30;38;26
Speaker 1
So. Good. Well, hey, thanks for listening, guys. So glad you came with us on this journey today on the Faith podcast. Thomas, great to have you today. Thanks for being a guest with us.
00;30;39;01 - 00;30;40;14
Speaker 3
Oh, how it all goes. I'm us.
00;30;40;16 - 00;30;51;24
Speaker 1
Yes. And, thank you, Brandon, as always, you're for being an amazing co-host. But hey, Moss. Love y'all. We'll see you next time. Grace and.
00;30;51;24 - 00;30;52;08
Speaker 3
Peace.