The Constant Battle

This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Welcome to the Lantern Rescue.

What a treat we have for you today. We have actually Wren and Micah and Jay with us. And this whole idea of spiritual warfare, we want to kind of flesh that out a little bit more, even though our battle is not against flesh and blood. But Micah, you want to take it from there?

Yeah. Uh, the last episode we posted, we introduced this subject and we just want to continue on a little bit. And, um, we talked about how, um, the work that Lantern Dunn has been doing and currently doing, it's not just a small tip of the spear. It affects other areas of people's lives. And so we know Satan is not happy with what we're doing here because this also affects marriages and finances and people, their purity and relationships and even drug use.

And so if, if we're breaking the cycle, it's causing havoc for Satan. And so we want to continue just to educate a little bit more. And we want to thank ahead of time. We know we have our prayer team out there because we have that, um, you're able to text into that number and we send out prayer requests, but we even know from this last episode that people have committed to pray and add extra time.

So you just want to thank the team and thank you for our new listeners who added us to the prayer list and continue to lift this up in prayer. Um, well, I want to start out with, um, we shared a Bible story last time and I want to share another one and we'll paraphrase this, but, uh, we're going to talk about Exodus 17 and this is the time when Moses and the Israelites are in the desert and they're getting ready to fight against the Ammonites. And, um, it was a huge battle and we knew at the time that Israel was going to be defeated cause they're outnumbered, but God spoke to Moses and told him to stand up and talk to mountain and the raise his staff up in the air. And so as every time he raised up the staff, the Israelites were winning, but every time he lowered his arms, the enemy did.

And so the battle went on for a long time. And out of that, Moses got tired. So the Bible was going to say that both, um, Aaron and her helped keep his arms up. And because of that, Israelites won even as long battle, God prevailed and there was victory. And so I just want to share as listeners, we're like her, um, we don't know much about him other than his lineage in the Bible. So he wasn't even like a top leader or even a prophet or at the time who people respect of them, it was just a commoner who felt he wanted to participate and help out what God was doing. And so as us as listeners and prayer warriors, that's, that's exactly what we're seeing today. And if we can lift up, um, the frontline workers and the volunteers and the staff here at lantern, we're playing a vital part.

What God's plan is, and they kind of paraphrase it, it says he, they held up Moses arms. And so if you're holding someone's arm up, you're, you're right there. It's, it's not flashy.

It's not beautiful. It's kind of awkward to hold up someone's arm there physically, but spiritually when we're praying and spending a couple minutes a day or putting some time, uh, put some, putting some time on the side of the week. This is a huge asset to the team and it's so vital. And like the bottle said they won. And so we're going to continue to see victories. We're going to continue to see God do some incredible miracles in these situations and these missions. And we really know it's because of the prayer team and, and people helping in the background or in a position that no one else really gets to see is not flashy.

And so he's going to continue to thank you guys for the support with this. So Ren, you, you've certainly been in the battle many, many times. And have you kind of experienced that kind of the help from the prayer that you, that you were receiving from our listeners?

Yeah, absolutely. So personally, uh, recently we went through a lot of, um, what felt like a lot of spiritual warfare. And, um, recently I went an entire week where I was only getting an hour of sleep max a night.

Um, like in, in a full week, I got eight hours total for the whole week. Um, so during that time, there was a lot of stress and anxiety and stuff over cases and developments and, and stuff like that involving lantern that kept me up quite literally all night long. I'm completely unable to get rest, completely unable to sleep. And during those times I reached out to a lot of people on the team, a lot of people on the prayer team, a lot of people in our, in our church family, uh, to talk to them about, you know, what's going on and ask for guidance. Prayers, someone to be there, someone to talk to. And it, it did help tremendously, you know, even though those times were really hard knowing that I was able to talk to someone, someone was out there, you know, praying for me, trying to be there for us, being there for us spiritually. That was a huge help, even though in the time it was, it felt very dark and heavy and knowing that I had people there that were, that cared and that were thinking about it, praying about it, doing what they could for it.

That was, that was a huge help for me, huge help. So we're on the other side of that now, but that was a recent example that was as recently as last month actually. So, um, yeah, we've definitely felt that we've had a lot of, you know, spiritual warfare, especially recently.

It feels like it's more frequent than ever, um, personally, but yeah, so that kind of stuff is huge. Yeah, it sounds like, um, you know, like as they were holding up her, you know, um, Moses's arms, you know, these people were holding up your spirits in a similar way. And what an amazing story.

And how about you, Jay? Uh, yes, sir. So, uh, I just want to talk a little bit about the spiritual warfare that I first fell into. Um, I told you in my last, uh, interview that I was pretty competent as a physical warrior, but I was lacking spiritual warfare. So when I started looking at that, I need to understand what it really was.

So I found some examples. Uh, I thought it was really interesting in the book of Matthew chapter 16, um, Jesus literally looks at Peter and says, who am I? And that's the first time that somebody has said, you are the Messiah. And he said, yes, that came from God. So God was literally intervening in the physical world and talking to him. And then no more than eight verses later, Jesus started walking towards, you know, the end.

And Peter said, stop, don't go. And Jesus turned around and said, now that is Satan and said, get behind me, Satan, you know? And so that was, that was both, both sides of the coin, uh, entering the physical world. And that's where, I mean, the physical warfare or the, uh, spiritual warfare is very clear. It's going on in all of our heads, all of our minds, all of our hearts.

And that's just a very good example. And it, it's, uh, at first was scary. Um, I mean, my kids think that I'm the most fearless person in the world, but I had to explain to them that, uh, courage is not absence of fear, but doing what's right, even though you're scared. And so, uh, I started talking to them about the fact that we live in a fallen world. So the bad things that happen in life are not God doing it to us. It's that we live in a fallen world. We meet bad choices with our free will, the gift God gave us. And we pray every night that, you know, we thank him for those things because he takes those and turns them into good, even though we mess them up. Um, I started looking at that from a different perspective because everything in life is perspective.

And, uh, when I see a striking crush, uh, Ren mentioned it's been more frequent lately. I feel like that's a litmus test that is saying, Hey, you're getting it done. You're doing God's work and the devil doesn't like it and he's coming at you. So, um, the, like to give you an example of when that actually came to fruition, we were going to a country, uh, to check out how we can help some persecuted Christians. And it was kind of a mess getting over there. Um, we had four people going and visas weren't going through, we were coming up to the deadline. We had to, you know, what was happening, uh, visas had a problem.

I mean, the whole country basically shut down with visas. So that was one mark against us. One of our guys went off of communication. We couldn't get ahold of him. And we found out right before we were getting ready to leave that his father was extremely sick, was probably going to pass away. Um, we had another guy with another family problem.

So it was literally down to myself and maybe one other guy. And we were talking about, are we supposed to cancel this trip? What is God saying?

Like, are we not supposed to go on this one? And my thoughts on that and we prayed about it was, no, we're, we're doing the right thing and we're getting crushed for it. And, uh, we asked for prayers and all that. And, um, the prayers came through and we ended up making it. Um, and we had spent a week of just nothing but talking to people and getting the story and figuring out what's going on over there so that we can come in and help. And then it all went very good. Um, because we, we had faith, we trusted God and the prayers gave us that peace of mind, if that makes sense.

Darrell Bock Oh, yeah. I mean, it, once again, it just shows that, you know, and I love the fact that you stopped and asked God, you know, are we supposed to go? Um, just like David did, right? When he was going up against the Philistines, you know, in two different situations there, once he stopped and said, should I go? And they said, yeah, go straight up. And the next time, rather than just going without asking God, he said, this time, go around behind him.

When he asked the second time, go around behind him and wait until they come through the mulberry bushes or trees. And away you go. So, you know, it's so clear to me, uh, Micah, how, you know, God's very involved in this process and Landon has that definite advantage of prayer. Micah Yeah. And having this team of, uh, support in the background is huge. And because it's a worldwide, we know we're covering prayer around the clock. And so with all the countries that Landon's evolved with, but we got listeners, even in countries we've never been to, that listen to these podcasts and get involved and follow the social media. So again, we just thank our listeners and those who are involved in this huge support we have.

Darrell Bock Yeah, absolutely. And so as you begin to process this more, you wanted to give us some more examples, Micah, of how we could engage in this better? Micah Yeah. Um, in Romans eight, uh, it talks about how to pray and, um, eight, 26 to 28. Um, and it says that we don't know what God wants us to pray, but the Holy Spirit does. And so if God knows our hearts and he hears us as we spend time in prayer, um, it goes on to say that God can cause everything to work together for the good. And I think that's such a powerful statement of scriptures that, um, we do our part and pray for these.

And we don't have to know the team names. And that's what's hard because you are praying for unknown people out there doing things, but God knows. And that's what's awesome. When we pray at the Holy Spirit, God knows what they need is. And so our prayers are being heard and going up as petitions before God. And he's answering our prayers and touching his lives out there.

Darrell Bock Yeah. I absolutely love that scripture and the connection that you made that, you know, God says that the Holy Spirit is going to make these groanings that are, you know, ununderstandable from words, right? And so it's kind of always cool. In fact, often when I'm praying, ask the Holy Spirit, please help me out here because I don't know the words.

But he does and he's got that going on. Well, I bet you can hardly wait like me to hear the rest of this episode on spiritual warfare and ways that we can actually participate in the process of what's going on with Land and Rescue. So we'll be right back in a minute with a much more on this special look at spiritual warfare when it comes to Land and Rescue.

We'll be right back. security problems, such as genocide, terrorism, and human trafficking. As a nonprofit charity, they offer services free of charge to their host nations. Human trafficking has grown into the second largest criminal activity in the world, reaching an estimated $150 billion in annual activity. Land and Rescue has developed rapidly to combat trafficking. Land and Rescue operates through a trained international network in order to rescue women and children from sex and labor slavery and facilitates holistic aftercare services.

They're gearing up for operations right now and you can go to landandrescue.org to see how you can support them financially. Well, welcome back to Land and Rescue. This special episode, we're looking into spiritual warfare. And now we got some amazing real world experiences that have happened. And so Jay, you had an example. It's kind of mind blowing.

Yes, sir. I just wanted to point out that a lot of the places that we're going, in particularly the way that we have on our dollar bill, In God We Trust, our country has come together and put our faith in God. And our leaders in the very beginning asked for his guidance. And that's what we have put our foundation on. But there's a lot of countries out there that literally have made a pact with the devil in the time of need instead of God. One in particular, they signed a 200 lease, I guess you could call it, with the devil to help them out.

And that country specifically came up to their 200 mark at the beginning of the 2000s and they literally re-signed it for another 200 years. And those are the places that we're going that you see a lot of the voodoo and all the witchcraft and that kind of stuff. And you can actually feel it when we get there. You can feel the darkness, you can feel the heaviness, you can feel the snarling enemy because he knows that we're Christians and that we're there to weed him out and bring light. So that would be a very specific prayer. I know that we've had part of our team that encountered voodoo stuff with a sick kid and they were the ones that got hit hard on the way home.

And thankfully they knew they had teammates that would lift him up in prayer and they reached out and we started doing that. But that is the enemy we're going after. That's the place that we're going to. And so I think it's important to understand that when we're going there, we're going into a spiritual warfare zone. And so those are the types of prayers that we need.

That's how it's affecting home life. The enemy doesn't go right at you because obviously we have the Holy Spirit helping us and we have the shield and the armor of God with us, but they will go after families and that kind of thing. So I know I've had a lot of personal friends that are going through a lot of really bad stuff right now. And it's specifically because of the work they've done to affect good things in bad places. And so when we're going there, because of that stronghold that they have, it's important to know that these victims, even the victims, they don't realize that they're being victimized and they'll fight back a lot sometimes. So one of the major prayers that we have is that we pray for the victims and the Holy Spirit will enter them so that they understand that we're there to help. That's kind of a key thing for me that I ask people to pray for is pray for the victims, pray for the captors, pray for all those people that don't really realize that the enemy has a stronghold on them and pray for the Holy Spirit to enter them and make it easier on us or better on us. Easier. One of the lessons for my kids is that it's really simple to be a Christian, but it's not easy.

And that confuses them sometimes, but that's the case, right? So we pray for the movement inside of them because you can only force somebody to do something to a certain point, right? So that's kind of the biggest prayer that I have to go out.

Do you guys have any specifics that you want to talk about? And so Micah, you had some more scripture for us. Yeah, and this kind of ties in with what Jay was just talking about, and I'll share a little bit, but I want to read Philippians 4, 6 and 7.

It says, Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all that He's done. Then you'll experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

And I liked how Jay talked in the first half about how they felt the peace and how it helps you get through these situations and how Wren mentioned after the fact when she reached out, she was able to get her sleep back and things have worked out. And so that's what's vital is we just need to talk to God and just submit it to Him. But I like to come with a thankful heart when I pray, and I thank God ahead of time.

Even though we don't have the answer yet, we don't see the breakthrough. I thank Him that the results are coming. I thank Him for the protection over our families and over the team that's out there. And I thank God for the finances that are going to be coming through and the resources ahead of time, because we know that our prayers are not falling on deaf ears. And so, like Jay was sharing, these countries that have the other religions like voodoo and juju and so forth, that evilness and that corruption, that's their money making.

Like these witch doctors and bruharias, which are another level witch doctors, they pray on fear and so they collect money on making potions or casting spells. And so when we come in there with the gospel and love of Christ, we are freely giving this. And so when we even traveled recently, we were giving food out for free and helping the need, but we were laying hands on the sick and praying for them. And that really stirred up the enemy because it was freeing people's mind and we were seeing people be set free and delivered.

And God was answering prayer there on site. And so we know that the enemy wasn't happy because even like Jay shared with the other team, that week we left, we had attacks on our own family members and on team members. And so we know that going out there, we're being exposed and that Satan's going to attack us. But at the same time, we knew we had a team praying for us and everyone who had a personal attack on their family or a sickness or whatever, they all came through. Because we know that our listeners and people out there have been lifting us up in prayer and we're seeing God prevail because we already know the end result.

Satan loses no matter what. And so we have the victory and it's just us continuing to be thankful for that and moving forward and seeing that victory come through. Yeah, that's awesome. And Rin, that voodoo aspect is really behind some horrific stuff in Africa, right? Yeah, yeah, it really is. You know, a lot of the human sacrifice and some of the organ harvesting that is being used for ritualistic purposes, that's being brought on by their belief in voodoo and witchcraft over there. And that's what's really driving those crimes to be happening. So it is it's not only spiritually affecting that country, it's physically affecting the country and their their youth. And people are actually dying as a result of this exact, you know, connection between the voodoo and someone's life being ended.

Right, right. And as Micah was saying that, you know, that connection or no, it was actually Jay that was saying the connection, you know, between here's the spiritual and here's the physical. Jesus even knew that, that, you know, as he was talking to Peter, I thought it was really, really good that, hey, you're dealing with this, then you're dealing with that, then you're dealing with this.

But the physical reality of organ harvesting is just almost beyond, you know, what I can think about. So prayer seems like, you know, just a real good outlet for that particular, well, actually for all that you guys are doing. Yeah, absolutely.

It definitely is. You know, only love and prayer is going to save these countries at this point. They really need to be lifted up in that and that they are able to receive the gospel and change their ways someday is really the main weapon in this battle.

Right. And I love the aspect that you brought in was involving your church, right? That you had mentioned when you were staying up all those hours that you got word to the people in your church. And of course, there at the website, you know, when you guys text these things out and you see them as a listener, you know, what an opportunity you have. I bet you've got three or four different prayer chains like I do on your phone. You know, when you see a big one like that, what an opportunity as a listener that you can get the word out on something that you've maybe even heard today or that you become aware of, you know, by going to landandrescue.org and seeing the prayer needs that are happening right there. You know what I mean, Micah? Yeah, absolutely.

And I know from the experience the last trip was on, it was neat. We were coming up with a situation and one of the undercover agents got a text from his wife in a totally different country. And it said, hey, just so you know, tonight the church got together and we've been praying for the past two hours for you. And it was such an encouragement. They didn't even know we were in the middle of a situation at that time. But God knew.

And from hundreds of thousands of miles away, there was a church up praying. And it's such a powerful team and such a powerful connection we have as we work together moving forward with this. All right.

Absolutely beautiful. And so we just have a couple of minutes left. Jay, I'm wondering if you have some final thoughts for us. Yeah, this is one of the things I appreciate about Land and Rescue. There's a lot of, I mean, working in the military. I explained last time a little bit that now I'm blessed to be working with Christian brothers and sisters to my left and right. And that is the best protection you can have. And that comes because you're protecting more spiritually now.

It's a. Micah brought up the Holy Spirit working in people before I was with Lantern. I was overseas and it was a hard three or four days and. I could get into details, but I won't. But it was rough. It was hard. And when I got back, I ended up calling my wife and she asked if everything was OK. And I said, yes, it is. And she asked if everything was OK a day ago. And I kind of.

That was definitely a low point. And I asked her why. Well, my daughter had looked at her and said, do you think that's OK?

And she said, I don't know. But let's sit down and pray. So they sat down and prayed. And again, it's just incredible how the Holy Spirit works. I needed a prayer in a moment and I had two extremely great prayer warriors praying for me. And that's that's what we need more of out there. So by all means, I do encourage people that even if you're driving along and you feel like you should be praying about something, definitely do it, because that might be the Holy Spirit's turn that somebody needs your help. And that's the biggest help that we need of all is to help protect our spirit. So I do appreciate that we have that support out there and I value that more than most other things. So how neat was that when you you got home and you got to have that discussion with your daughter about her asking that question at just that moment?

Oh, absolutely. And it's those things that you add up in life, right? I like one of my favorite things to do is to talk about our lives in the past and some of the things like that, that, you know, my wife asked me that day when did I become a Christian? And for me, it was kind of a it wasn't like a key point, but I had like four or five like things that I talked to her about that were happened. I'm like, there is no other answer. Like there is a God and God is what got me through that.

And so those are the things like with my daughter, I can guide her going forward to listen to that kind of stuff. And so it it is an incredible thing to know that even though you're going through hard things, you've got people praying for you in the spiritual battle is being played out in the background by other people that support us. So, yeah, that's absolutely amazing.

Well, I hate we're out of time, but what a what a wonderful episode. Micah Wren, Jay, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. God bless. This is the Truth Network.