Don't get down when you're seeing the worst.
Cause the last will be the first. What a day,
I'm telling you. All things will be. This is
Jimmy and Annette, and we are living up in a
down world. At least that's what we try to do
on a daily basis. We want to welcome you to our
podcast today, and we are excited to be in the
studio. Episode 102. 102, and this is two weeks
in a row. This may be a new actual record. Are
you sure it's not three weeks? Is it two or three?
Two or three. You know what? It may be three.
It may be three. Wow. I don't know. Everything's
a blur right now. It is. Are you feeling the
same thing? Time is going by so fast. I don't
even know what day. Is it because we're getting
older or we're so busy or we're so filled with
purpose? You know, I thought it was because we
were getting older because... Most people, when
they're older, it seems that way. But our younger
daughter says time is going fast to her, too.
She does. I don't know. She's 24. 24. Yeah. Yes.
I have to think about it. I know. That's sad.
We're old. I don't have brain fog, though. I
mean, it's not that. It's just we look up and
we're so busy. Hands to the plow. Yes. We love
what we get to do. And so when you're having
fun, time flies. Yes. And we are having fun.
Just for those, if we have any new listeners
today, first of all, welcome to our podcast.
Living Up and Down World is what it's called,
like I said. But we are Pastor Jimmy and Annette,
and we lead and pastor a church. We've been here
nine years. It's called Bridge Church in Fredericksburg,
Texas, and we love what we do. Yes, and we love
the Hill Country. Oh, we love the Texas Hill
Country. We've lived in many places in Texas,
but the Hill Country is by far our favorite place
to live. Now, the most pretty place we've ever
lived was Midland, Texas. Ah, you're funny. Wow.
That's the ugliest place we've ever lived. But
I loved Midland. You grew up in that area. I
did. It's changed a lot since I grew up in the
60s and 70s. Oh, my gosh. How old are you? No,
I'm just kidding. I know. Me too. I actually
prefer Midland to Odessa. I used to work in Midland,
and I preferred that. I've lived in both Midland
and Odessa. But there's nothing like the Hill
Country. I know. It's special. Nothing like it.
It really is. Even people who come and visit
here say that. There's just something special.
It's kind of like the Old West. It's got that
rural vibe, beautiful hills, and right now we're
super green because we've had a lot of rain,
which we're so thankful for. Because it's been
about a nine -year drought. Yes. And so this
has been really refreshing. It was actually cool.
We walked at 645. We did our two -mile walk in
our neighborhood, and it was 67 degrees. It was.
It was beautiful. And we still had some storms
in the air, some thunderstorms. So you could
hear a little rumble of thunder every once in
a while. Which I liked. And then we could see
the clouds. Yes. We could see the storms, but
they were far away. Yes. It was like perfect.
Even if it was sprinkling, it would be nice because
it would cool you down. But it was pretty cool
this morning. It felt so good. Just seeing the
green and, of course, the sun coming up. This
is the greenest June we've ever seen. Amazing.
Yes. I walk outside or I drive into our neighborhood.
Reminds us a lot of Tennessee. Yes. Reminds us
of where we lived in Spring Hill, Nashville.
Which is the most beautiful place we've ever
lived. Nashville. Nashville's stunning. The most
beautiful. The countryside especially. But this
is the second most beautiful place. I agree.
And it's right up there with it, with the green
and the weather we're having. Especially where
we live. Yes. Yeah. Wow. So what a fun time walking
this morning. We've gotten back into our groove.
Walking and lifting weights. I mean, those are
like the two. Most important things we could
do, especially at our age. And we ate ribeyes
yesterday, part of our carnivore journey. We're
switching from sirloin to ribeyes. We're stepping
up our game a little bit. Oh, my gosh. As much
as I love. So it's going to double our grocery
bill. It will double. I mean, the top sirloin
from HEB is actually a great deal. But it's not
enough fat for us. We need the fat. So we stepped
up to ribeyes yesterday. Oh, my gosh. That was
amazing. It was really good. My stomach was telling
me, hey, you had a lot of fat yesterday. I know.
Anyway, if you're a carnivore, you'll get that.
But anyway, so yeah, carnivore journey's going
great. I heard good news about the movie, the
documentary we were part of. Yes, they did. It's
called Healing Humanity. Yes, and they finished
the filming and now they're in the editing stages.
It's exciting. I'm excited to see what's going
to happen. And then they're going to have a series
come out too. So we'll be part of the series
as well. They got a lot of footage. We're busy
people. I know. But it's fun. And I'm glad that
we're part of this community because it's given
us a whole new genre of people that we are. getting
some interesting, having interesting conversations
with, with people from all different walks of
life. And, uh, it's another way to bring the
gospel into another, um, stream. And I love it.
It's been really wonderful. We were supposed
to go to Seattle last weekend and we had to cancel
because we just partly, I was just tired of traveling.
We did a lot. We need to. For a little bit. And
we're leaving next week for L .A. Right. I knew
that was coming. Of all the places we're going.
Oh, I know. That'll be fun. I was talking to
our Bible group. And I'm like, we're going to
L .A. next week. They're going, what? I'm like,
I know. We're going to wait and see if the conference
gets canceled. I don't think so. I think this
is California. This is probably the time to have
the conference. Think about it. They live there.
Remember when we lived there and there were high
-speed chases every day? Yes. And we're like,
yeah, whatever. You know, I mean. Because when
you live in a place like that, it's crazy. But
we're flying into LAX. It may be better to fly
into Ontario or John, is it John Wayne? John
Wayne. We might look into that. I think John
Wayne is Ontario. We'll kind of see. One of the
reasons why we're going, for one thing, is we're
going to a conference called Last Stand with
Seth Gruber. Jack Hibbs is one of the speakers.
He is someone that we have followed for... A
while, a good while. We're going to go to his
church on Sunday. But another person that we
found out was going to be at this conference
is Victor Marks, who just happened. We just,
okay, you've been following him for months, talking
to me, going, I love this guy. And then we get
a call, hey. Victor Marks is going to be in Fredericksburg.
You think you could have him at your church?
And we're like. From our friend, Rick Green at
the Patriot Academy. And we didn't hesitate because
that was one of the reasons, another reason why
we wanted to go to this conference in LA. And
now he's going to be at our church. I know, it's
crazy. And you call him a door kicker. Do people
know what door kicker means? Door kicker is kind
of code, knuckle dragger code for like special
ops kind of guy. So he was a specialized. weapons
trainer in the military. He wasn't special ops,
but he trained special ops. He trained people
with weaponry. And he was also in the military,
a competitive shooter. So he's a marksman. He's
that guy. But he's done a lot since he got out
of the military with special ops, Delta Force,
various ones, working to do, they do rescues.
They go into dangerous, the most dangerous places
in the world. And they literally physically rescued
children from the human trafficking and sex trade.
Wow. I mean, this is like. That's another level
of special ops. So this conference we're going
to has to do with anti -abortion rights. Yeah,
pro -life. Pro -life. Yeah, cheering on life.
And I'm sure he's going to be talking about what
he does to rescue children as well. So it's going
to be very well -rounded. I'm very excited. I've
never been to a conference that started like
8 .30 or 9 in the morning and it ends at like
11 at night. Wow. It's going to be long. That's
going to be a long day. But it's going to be
very good. I'm tired thinking about it, but I'm
also invigorated knowing that there's so many
speakers and there's going to be a lot of worship,
which we love. And I think it's going to be very
refreshing for us. Well, it's going to fill our
buckets in another element of, and that's the
pro -life piece, that I'm excited about too.
I don't care how tired we are. Sometimes you
just say, suck it up. Tell your flesh to get
behind you. Well, the good thing about it is
we'll go to that, then Sunday we'll go to church.
Then we'll have a day to rest on Monday. That's
going to be good. We need that. Then we'll come
home on Tuesday, but we start our vacation where
we're actually off work, except the following
Sunday you're going to preach one time, but we're
off until August. What better way to start our
vacation than, you know, ending our time here
with a conference. It's going to be, you know,
take a lot of time and energy to be into. But,
man, we're going to have all that rest time and
go to the beach. That's why it makes it a little
easier to have a crazy schedule right now. In
fact, we've got so much going this week. On Saturday,
we're going to divide and conquer. You're going
to go to one event that we had planned. I'm going
out to the Patriot Academy because Karl Marx,
they're doing the final. Karl Marx? Karl Marx.
I knew you were going to do that. I knew I was
going to have that footy and slip. Karl Marx
is not a person we want to see, and he's dead.
I knew I was going to have that slip. Victor
Marx. Okay, rewind. Calm down. So Victor Marx
will be speaking at the Patriot Academy. And
he's going to be, it's going to be part of a.
of a new video curriculum that Rick Green and
the PA, Patriot Academy, are developing called
Rebuilding Liberty. And I was blessed to be a
part of that and share my testimony of scales
dropping from eyes and why as a pastor. Did you
let Rick know, by the way, you're going to be
there? No, I didn't. Oh, you should. You never
know. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because you need to connect
with Victor. Not Carl, but Victor. I'm never
going to let you live that one down. Well, when
you're fighting against Marxism and it's on your
mind all the time, it's kind of hard to make
a jump from Mark to Victor. One of all the last
names he has. I've never met anybody that had
that last name. I don't know if I would claim
that or not. Well, but his name is Victor, which
I love. Right, but Marx is M -A -R -X. It's not
even K -S. fault he was born in you know he's
born so anyway i'm excited about victor being
born here's another cool thing i mean so you're
gonna go with tina curry to a piano dueling a
dueling piano it's cool i've never been i'm really
excited i think it'll be fun it's different And
then Adam and I are going to go to the Patriot
Academy. Again, divide and conquer. That's how
much stuff we've got going on. But we're so excited.
We get to do this stuff. And I wake up every
day. I mean, I'm getting up earlier and earlier.
It's because I'm making you walk with me. Yeah,
and I've got to have my time with the Lord. Well,
I'm glad you're getting up earlier. So that you
can spend that time with me. So I'm now, I've
dialed it back to, I get up at 5 .15 every day
and I go in there and spend time in the word.
Not me, I'm up at 6 .30. Write my daily grind.
I know. Then I hear your alarm go off and our
dog, Mr. Chevy goes nuts. It didn't go off today.
I woke up before the alarm. I know he heard you
though. Cause he knows when you're up. I don't
know. He's like intuitive. So he's at the door
crying. I'm going, I'm going, Mr. Chevy, reel
it in. Come on. Come jump back in my lap. He
usually sits in my lap all morning while I'm
getting. doing my daily grind and stuff. So a
lot going, very happy to be doing that. Good
news on the Godcaster, super excited, getting
closer and closer to the app release date. We've
got the public beta app version. Sorry, can't
get that out to everybody, but oh man, I'm loving
it so far. Well, I love it. I mean, we've got
it on in our car because we've got the beta version
and I can see who's singing and that. It's so
exciting to have an app now that's going to give
us that information instead of wondering, who
was that? I want to download that song or whatever.
Well, Adam Curry is part of the development of
this. And he and his partners, his team, they
are constantly improving it. And by the time
we get the full release, you'll be able to download
it on your phone or whatever and be able to listen
to it through Sonos. Can you download it on like
an iPad? Oh, yeah, yeah. Anything but not a computer.
It's going to be an Android. I don't know if
they'll do a desktop version. It's not a need
for that because you can go right to the website
and listen to that. Yeah, I guess so. Anyway,
Godcaster's coming out. Really happy for Adam
and our team. I feel like I'm a part of it. The
team getting that done. So that's good news.
And also, we just want to always boost our friends
and say, go listen to Curry and the Keeper. They're
back in the groove just like we are. We've all
been busy, but it's good. What? No, nothing.
Keep going. You're telling me not to say that.
I don't mean it in a bad way. It's good busy.
I know. There's bad busy and good busy. Everybody's
busy. This is life. We're no different than anybody
else. So anyway, so go listen to theirs. Curry
and the Keeper, always amazing, always fun and
funny. And according to Tina this morning, we
saw her at the coffee house, which is you do
your Bible study there. And I meet with Russ
and she was like. It was so funny. She really
spun Adam up last night, so I'm looking forward
to hearing it. Yeah, we'll have to listen to
it on the way to Kerrville today. Yeah, we can
do that. All right, so let's talk about what
we want to talk about. So if you're joining our
podcast for the first time, our whole goal is
to teach believers, followers of Jesus, and those
who are looking at Christianity and examining
it, what does it look like to live up in a down
world? And we're not putting the world down.
We're just saying, according to Scripture, we
live in a fallen world, hence the word down.
So how do you live up in a down world? And so
we know that for us, we have found our hope in
Jesus Christ. First of all, he's saved us. We're
born again, free from sin, free from our past,
new life. Every morning's a new day, right? We
get up and say, we hit the lottery and we get
to do this, right? Hello. Good morning, Holy
Spirit. Let's go. And so that's our life. And
so I've been a pastor now 42 years. Yeah, 42
years, 41. I think I'm in my 42nd year. I'm losing
count. How old were you when you became a pastor?
I took my first church when I was 80 in 1984.
That's 41. Or 85. 85 is better. Okay. 85, so
yeah. So that'd be 40 years. Year 41. I lose
count anyway. A long time. It's Jesus Christ
who gives us hope. He is our life. He's our hope.
He's our everything. But in the second part of
that is the word of God, the Bible, the scripture.
And that is what change our, that changes everything.
Knowing the word. So we always say this as a
saying, the word works, but. You have to work
the word. There you go. And so every week we'd
like to have a topic of something that we feel
is on our heart that we feel like God wants us
to bring. to this podcast. And so today we're
going to talk about spiritual warfare. Yeah.
The title of, I wrote a daily grind this morning
because I woke up, I woke up thinking about the
weapons of spiritual warfare. What are other,
so we were told we're going to fight the good
fight of faith. We're told we're in the spiritual
war, but what weapons do we have? What do we
use? And if you're hearing bumps, it's okay.
We've got construction. They're doing the construction.
We got the guys doing, they're checking air conditioning.
Oh, I can't hear it. That's probably Russ setting
things up. Oh, okay. I was going to say. I think
they're at lunch. We're in a studio, but it gets
really loud in here because we've got construction
going everywhere. Constantly. Yeah. Building
a new building right now. So anyway, a lot of
stuff. So if you hear bangs and noise, don't
worry. We're okay. It's all good. So here it
is. The weapons of spiritual warfare. So listen
to this. I want to read it, and then I want you
to comment on this. In the words of John Eldredge,
you were born into a world at war. To ignore
the reality of spiritual warfare is to live a
defeated life. God has called us to live a faithful,
flourishing and victorious life. It's impossible
if every step you take is laced with denial and
despair. You possess spiritual weapons for pulling
down strongholds, casting down anything that's
against God and taking every thought captive.
Activate and engage God's mighty weapons to live
a life that overcomes anything and everything
that rises against you. Thoughts? Wow. The weapons
of our warfare. You know, we all have these thoughts,
these intrusive thoughts that come into our mind.
I know I do a lot. We all do. And that are negative.
And those... Negative thoughts are never from
God because God thinks only positive things about
us. He sees the end from the beginning. So when
we have a negative thought about ourselves, let's
just say about ourselves, not about someone else,
but about ourselves, that's where we have to
fight the enemy on that. And I think women probably
have to more than men. I don't know. I can only
speak for myself because I'm a woman. Right.
Thank you for clarifying that. But we talk about
it more to other people, whereas men keep it
to themselves. I'll just say that. You usually
don't have a conversation with a guy saying,
you know, I have this thought about, you know,
I've got these. I've got love handles. Adam,
I've got love handles, bro. What about you? How
are you? Women do. We talk like that. And I have
a lot of, especially lately, it's like the enemy
is barraging my thought process with just these
horrific thoughts constantly. And so I have to
fight it. And so, but there's also things that
happen to us. In the world that we have to fight
things, people coming against us, challenges
that we have in this world. And we have to have
a mindset that it's not the person, it's the
enemy using that person. A lot of times the person
doesn't even know that they, you know, are that
you have, you know, a problem with them or whatever,
but you have to. get to the point as believers
that you see, you know, through that person and
that it's not them, that the enemy uses people
all the time. And I think as Christians, we've
got to have that mindset because we get, let's
take, for instance, Moms of Liberty and the people
that went to the school board last week because
they filed a grievance against our school board
and because they won't, remove the porn porn
pornographic books and they even somebody even
read what was in it and they didn't want to hear
it they were they were appalled Yet they don't
want to take the books out, which doesn't make
sense to me. And so some people have just come
against those people that were on the board who
voted five to zero against taking the books out,
but yet they don't want to hear it. But they
want our kids to have access. Just totally blows
my mind. But some people believe. that those
people are evil, and we have to have a different
mindset. They're not evil. They're being controlled
by an evil one. We want to pray for them, not
against them. We need to pray that God will get
a hold of them and that the truth will open up
their eyes to the truth, basically. But as Christians,
we have to come to a point where we're mature
enough to recognize that and not go against the
person. And I think that's one of the hardest
things as a believer to come to grips with because
we want to come against the person. And when
I see people come against another person, especially
on social media, And I know they're Christians.
It bothers me. But then again, I have to go,
wait a minute. The person that's coming against
that person is not mature in their faith. They
don't know this. Maybe they've heard it, but
it hasn't become revelation. So then the Lord
says, well, then you need to have grace for that
person. So there's a two -edged sword here. You
know what I'm saying? No doubt. And that's a
good example, though, of when we get angry when
we see Governor Newsom. Let's just talk about
that. We're going to L .A. next week. We haven't
been to L .A. in how many years? I know. It's
been a bit. 20, 30 years, and yet here we're
going at the time of the riots. And Governor
Newsom and others in the media are saying there's
no violence here, yet we're seeing— Mostly peaceful
riot. And you know what? These are mostly peaceful
protests. And maybe they are peaceful with people,
but they're destroying property. They're not
peaceful. That is not peaceful. But we can't—I
mean— As believers, we have got, and I'm going
to say we as in me too, because I don't have
it fully, but we have to get to a point to where
we see the evil one behind Governor Newsom and
these others that are acting and saying crazy
things. They don't know the truth. So I have
something to say. Okay. I'm sorry. I tend to
take this over. I totally, totally agree. But
what I want to say is this. If we prayed for
people as much as we railed against them, As
much as we talked about them, as often as we
posted or reposted a meme or reposted a post
from somebody, if we spent that time, that energy,
that emotional and that spiritual energy praying
for them, do we trust God enough to believe that
he can shift? the heart of another human being.
If we don't, then we're... What's the point of
this? What's the point of Christianity? What
is the point of praying? I mean, we are called
to be intercessors. Now, we are the hands and
feet of Jesus. That means showing up at the school
board, showing up at city council, being involved
in the process, voting, all the pieces that we
do. Absolutely. We're in the middle of it. But
there's another level. I say it every Sunday.
America doesn't have a political problem. It
has a spiritual problem. The issue is spiritual.
It's the issue of the heart and the spirit. And
so I am with you a thousand percent on everything
you just said. And I'm not saying that I haven't
participated in talking bad about someone, but
the Lord is arresting me. This is what growing
in the spirit. This is part of discipleship as
a believer is he's arresting me saying, don't
get in on that. Pray. This is what we as Christians
should be doing, praying, not bashing. Now, can
I be upset at what's happening? Absolutely. Look
at what Jesus did in the temple when they were
gambling in the temple. Yeah, you can get upset
and you can do something about it by going and
saying what you need to say publicly in the public
square, so to speak. But we've got to get to
a point as believers that we are mature. more
mature and don't come against the person, but
see what's really happening in the spirit realm.
I don't think we think about the spirit realm
enough because we live in this world that we
can touch and feel. And so we don't think that
there's a bigger thing going on out there. We
don't see beyond the veil or behind the veil.
Yes. That, I mean, if you were to be able to
peel. the world back reality back or unzip it
and see what's behind it you would see so much
darkness And so many minions of the enemy, spawn
of the enemy that are working behind the scenes
to try to create chaos, division, offense, all
this stuff, confusion, all these things against
humanity and mankind. And they're just using
and leveraging what's happening around the world
right now. It reminds me of... Yeah, Frank Peretti.
Frank Peretti. Piercing the darkness. Piercing
the darkness. And I think we've talked about
it on this podcast before, but it's been a while.
But how he wrote this book and he put these characters
in and literally talked about, showed what was
happening in these characters' life. And it was,
it wasn't. factual but it really was in a way
whoops it really was in a way because he was
showing what was really going on what was swirling
in the spirit realm as these characters were
going about their daily life i should get that
book out i remember i was mesmerized while you're
mentioning piercing the dog i'm thinking we need
to read that maybe on the it's been an airplane
or something because on our on our i remember
reading it and it's like watching a scary movie,
but yet it's, it was so real. And I remember
he came to our church before I met you. He came
to our church in Abilene, Lubbock. And I just
was, he was an interesting man. I haven't heard
much about him lately, but that, you know, it
reminds me too, like one of the things that we,
that brought this up. As talking about spiritual
warfare, I have felt darkness in our home. I
even had a dream two nights ago. And in the dream,
there were two different snakes. One of them
was I was reaching up into our headboard. And
there were, we don't have this kind of headboard,
but there were actual openings. In the headboard,
like cubby holes, where you could put things.
And I remember I was reaching up. I can still
remember this dream, which tells me something.
And I could see the face. It was kind of about.
six inches of a snake and it was the face and
about six inches and the rest of it was inside,
but I couldn't see that. And I remember, but
this is interesting because I remember seeing
that snake and I didn't know what it was at first.
It was almost like I was coming out of a deep
sleep or something. And maybe I was lifting up.
I don't remember the context of the dream, but
I remember kind of touching that to see what
it was. And then when I, and nothing happened,
which I thought was interesting. And then I sat
back down and I kept looking at it and I went,
oh my gosh, that was a snake I just touched,
but it didn't bite. And it was really interesting.
I don't know what that means in the dream realm
of, you know, knowing what your dream means.
Where you don't get hurt or there's nothing,
nothing has no impact on you. Yes. But I remember
distinctly that part of my dream. And then at
the end, I don't know if I had another dream
or if it was at the end of a dream and there
was another snake and you picked it up or something,
but I don't remember anything else. Probably
ripped his head off. You probably did. But two
snakes. And I remember saying to you, we need
to pray over our house because here's the thing.
For those of you who are Christians and understand
this, and you can address this, but when you
feel darkness in your home, the best thing you
can do is go through your house and begin to
pray. and condemn that darkness that could be
in your house sometimes darkness can come in
through idols that you bring in you may bring
you may have bought something from a company
like what's the world market or something like
that right you know what i'm saying came from
that came from india or some yeah that someone
might have put a curse on or whatever and put
in makes you wonder that doesn't happen a lot
i don't i don't know if that really i don't buy
stuff like that. But sometimes people do have
stuff everywhere, but also there can be people,
strangers that have come into your home. Maybe
it was a pest control or maybe someone working
on your home or, or your, you know, whatever,
but somebody just coming into your home that
has darkness around them. Sometimes that can,
I don't know, can kind of stick around. If you
have a friend that brings their dog over. And
their dog has fleas. Yeah, that's true. You don't
see them. But you feel the effects of them later.
You may get a flea infestation simply because
that dog carried fleas and got them on your dog.
And now you're dealing with fleas. So that's
a simple, kind of a goofy metaphor, but it's
true. It's the same principle where things that
are on people and even sometimes stuff can get
on you. And it's the same kind of thing. And
you don't see it. It's not something that's outward.
But you can feel it. You can feel it in the atmosphere.
Because we live in a spiritual realm. felt lately
because we've had all different kinds of people
in our home. And I just feel like it's time that
we go through the house and I love what we do
is we open up the doors and we just command whatever
is nefarious or evil to leave new. We don't invite
them to leave, we command them to leave. We stand
in our authority. So I've got a scripture that'll
help our people do this. So let's say you're
in your home and there's probably a month, not
a month goes by or two months where someone comes
to me at church and says, It says, I hate to
be weird, but I've got some weird stuff going
on in my house. I'm hearing bumps in the night
or I felt a depression on my bed. Like somebody
sat on my bed in the middle of the night. Which
is what I have felt recently. It's happened to
me in the past as well. You too, recently. Or,
you know, something fell off the wall. I mean,
they're like, there's something going on that's...
I'm not trying to be creepy or weird, but it's
otherworldly. And I'm like, oh, well, you've
got critters. I always say that. You've got fleas,
basically. You've got an infestation. Well, what
do you do? So go to 2 Corinthians 10, starting
in verse 3. So I'm going to repeat that. So if
someone listening to the podcast wants to hear
that again, 2 Corinthians 10. Verses three through
six. Could I read it? Yeah. So I want to read
it to you so that you can hear it. And I'll give
a little tiny commentary as I go. Verse three
says this. This is the Apostle Paul addressing
the Corinthian church, which was a train wreck.
So they had stuff going on because they were
out of a pagan background. He says this. For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according
to the flesh. And that tells you a lot, right?
We live in this earth suit, our bodies, the flesh,
but we don't fight in the flesh. It's not about
how much you work out or how fit you are. It's
how spiritually fit you are. So it says we don't
war according to the flesh. He says this, for
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that
means fleshly, but mighty in God. And then he
says what they're for. So here's what the weapons
of the warfare are for. They're for pulling down
strongholds. Strongholds is anything that has
a hold on you, anything that has a strong hold
on you. That's what a stronghold is. It could
be anything or something in your home, a stronghold.
The second thing is, verse 5, casting down arguments.
In other words, your mind, you get in these mental
arguments and your mind's spinning. You're getting
intrusive thoughts like you were talking about.
So you can cast those down. Every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
That means against knowing him. So anything that
interferes with your ability to know him, those
are intrusive thoughts and these can be cast
down. The second one or the last one is bringing
every thought into captivity. to the obedience
of Christ. So there's the next piece of that.
You can actually capture thoughts. How do you
do it? Well, you do it, really it's obvious to
me, but maybe not to you if you've read this
for the first time or you're just starting to
look at it. You literally get this on your mouth.
So here's, I'll say something like this. Father,
according to your word, I stand in your authority
and I pray the scripture over this situation.
And your word says, for though... We walk in
the flesh. Annette and I do not war according
to the flesh. For the weapons of Annette and
my warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty
in God for the pulling down strongholds. So,
Lord, in the name of Jesus, we by faith pull
down anything that has a stronghold on us. Any
stronghold, anything that's not of you, we now
give it to you. We renounce it and we give it
away. We give it to you. It's no longer going
to have a stronghold on our life. And then, Lord,
we also cast down arguments. So by faith, we
cast down. It's like we throw them away. We throw
them away. Any arguments or anything that exalts
itself against us knowing you. See, all I'm doing
is taking the Scripture. praying through it.
And then Father, in addition to that, we take
every thought captive. We bring it captive and
we make it obedient to Jesus Christ. So any thoughts
in my mind or in Annette's mind, and you're in
agreement with me as I pray. Right now, we take
those thoughts captive by the Holy Spirit, by
the Spirit. We walk by faith and not by sight.
So by faith, we take those thoughts captive.
And we cast them down. We cast them away. We
send them to the abyss. We send them to the pit.
Get away from me. Get behind me, Satan. And we
do this in the name of Jesus, Father, as we've
invoked to the power of your spirit. We do this
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. That is like taking
a nice... A warm, beautiful shower when you've
come in from working all day outside. Which feels
so good. It refreshes you. After we walked this
morning, you jumped in the shower, then I did
after you, and we felt so clean and so fresh,
and we got a fresh start on the day. This is
cleansing your soul, cleansing your spirit. You're
clearing your mind and literally rejecting and
ejecting anything that would try to have a strong
hold on your life. Right. How's that sound? Great.
Is that helpful? And then if you feel this in
your home, you go through your home and we anoint
our home. A lot of times we'll anoint the outside
doors or sometimes inside above a door. Let me
just very lightly. We don't like pour oil over
our door frame. We put a little bit on the tip
of our finger and it's a symbol. I'll draw a
little cross just as a symbol. To say, you know,
we're covering this home. We anoint this home,
this threshold, this room in the name of Jesus.
And we command anything that is not of God, you
must leave now. And in our friend, Jim LaFoon,
Pastor Jim LaFoon, he says, go open the door
and kick them out. Eject them, evict them, evict
them, get them out of the house. So we do it
as a symbol. And we have to do it a lot because
we have people. You know, like I said, different
service people come in that we don't know. We
don't know if they're practicing witchcraft.
We don't know what's going on in their life,
but we carry things with us. That's why we need
to carry the blood of Jesus. And then use the
authority that God gave us. Yes. Just as an encouragement.
You yourself can pick up things in the world.
You can pick up fleas. I can get fleas just by
being around somebody who has fleas. I've talked
to people who say, I've gone to a restaurant
or I've gone into a business and I can feel.
We need to get to a point where we are cognizant
of what's happening in a place. And if we feel
that darkness, we should not stay. Yeah, we travel
a lot. We're very blessed to get to do that.
Oh, hotel rooms. So going into hotel rooms, it's
a good idea to pray over that. soon as you walk
in. Consecrate it to the Lord. Because you do
not know who has been in there, what's been done
in there. Exactly. And you go in there and you
consecrate that space to the Lord. We need to
do that next week for sure. Especially in California.
In traveling, sometimes you're flying into a
city or flying over a city. I mean, you can,
the more in tune you become with the Holy Spirit
and the closer, the more you abide in the vine,
which is God as a branch abiding in it. We abide
in Him. the more sensitive you become to these
kinds of things. So it's like a radar goes off,
a warning light goes off saying, hey, caution.
So anyway, good word. I hope this is helpful
to you. We may stay on this topic for a while.
I feel like it's really relevant because of the
world scenarios right now. There's so much hatred
in the world. There's so much division. The spirit
of hatred has been released on the planet. And
we just see humans, people. People hating people
because one of them's red and one of them's blue
or one of them's black, one of them's white or
one of them's whatever. I mean, there's so much
hatred released on the world. That means we've
got to remain vigilant and always remember we
walk in the flesh, but we don't war according
to the flesh. And it's time to grow up as Christians.
We've got to become mature Christians and not
look like the world. Amen. We don't, we should
never respond and react the same way the world
reacts. And we need to return hatred with grace
and love, overpower, win the war. We speak the
truth always because we love, but we always do
it in love, in love and because we love. So anyway,
I know it's easy to grab a keyboard and. you
know, blow somebody up. That's not what we're
about. Got to say a big thanks to Adam Curry,
who boosted us, gave us a striper boost. Thank
you, Adam. You're such a great supporter and
such a great friend. And we're thankful for that.
Anything else I need to mention from the week?
We kind of went quickly because we were on the
way. We'll probably go have a podcast early next
week. Yes, definitely. Since we're leaving. Definitely.
Looking forward to it. We love you guys. And
if you like this podcast, go to livingupinadownworld
.com. Feel free to write a review there. Leave
a note. We always get those. I love to write
folks back who write us. And let us know you're
listening. Great way for Value for Value to help
us out is send this podcast to other people who
you think it might help. Our whole goal is to
equip you to win in life, to have a victory mindset,
and to live up in a down world. That's our heart
for you, and I think that just about is a wrap.
So thank you for listening today. Annette, any
last word as we head out the door? I think we
did good. I think that's exactly what people
need to hear because I know I needed to hear
it. There we go. All right. Preaching out of
our experience. Listen, you guys have an amazing
week on purpose. We love you. And never forget,
we get to do this. We are out.