The True Focus of Spiritual Warfare

Over the last few weeks, we have been in a series called Practical Freedom Ministry, which has been breaking down the basics of spiritual warfare. The timeline of how we ended up here is interesting, and when I noticed this one thing, I realized that God was setting us up. 

Many of you remember that the Remnant Radio Conference was the first weekend of October. A few Wellspringers went to the conference, which focused on spiritual warfare, and we participated in numerous deliverances where people got set free from evil spirits. The next weekend, I was invited to New Hampshire to teach a four-part conference on spiritual warfare, while at the same time, Michael Miller came to Wellspring and hosted a Well service on the subject of breaking spiritual curses. 

After that, I felt that we needed to start our Practical Freedom Ministry series, which we've been in ever since. That's the timeline that's obvious. Something I've noticed, however, is that other churches are experiencing more deliverance as well. I'm a small group leader for the Word and Spirit School of Supernatural Ministry that is put on by Remnant Radio, and a number of my students say that they are experiencing deliverances on Sunday mornings at their churches. 

Then, some time last week, a former Wellspringer named Shawn Lazar reached out asking if I had any resources on spiritual warfare. Shawn was the guy who attended Wellspring for a while, with an amazing prophetic story that you can see here.  He said out of nowhere, a few people in his Wednesday Morning bible group agreed that demonization is a current problem, and they want to know what to do about it. This blew Shawn away because until this, he considered his church to be "light years away" from where Wellspring is with our engagement with supernatural ministry. He and I are getting lunch together to talk about how to teach his church about spiritual warfare.

Here's the part that made me realize God was perhaps setting us up for something. In the early part of September, before we went to RemCon in October, and before any of this spiritual warfare stuff started ramping up, I felt like I was supposed to spend the final three entire weeks of our "In Context" series on the topic of joy. I didn't quite know why, but we covered Nehemiah 8:10 for two weeks, and then we ended on Philippians 4:4-8. I felt like we needed to memorize the entire passage, so I asked Nathan to turn the passage into a scripture memory song that we have been singing for weeks now. 

Here's why I think it's a set-up. God knew we were going to be in a series and a season of focusing on spiritual warfare, and when you're doing deliverance and battling the enemy, it can be easy to become demon-focused. But the scripture tells us what to focus on. Philippians 4:8 is clear. No matter the fight we are in, our focus should be on the good and lovely and excellent things.

"Finally, brother, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable--if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

We will keep fighting the enemy, but the focus still needs to be the glory and the wonder of Jesus.