Pt 2 | What Does Spiritual Warfare Actually Look Like in Everyday Life? (feat. Mark Halstensgard)

[00:00:00] but they had no intention of like going down the spiritual route but they opened their doors in agreement through doing the activities that give permission to spirits to come in so when we do these activities we're agreeing saying I'm wanting to invite you into my life to do what it is that you

[00:00:20] want to do and that's why we need to start closing those doors. Welcome to the Everyday Faith Podcast where we believe you can live out your faith every day by starting with belief embracing your mission committing to obedience and pursuing community. I'm Dan and I'm Jess. Today we are sitting down once again with Mark Halstensgard. He went to the University of Northwestern St. Paul and has spent

[00:00:49] the last 15 years working in the finance industry. We're grateful for people like you Mark. Yeah bless you. Oh thank you. Beyond that Mark has a real passion for helping people grow in intimacy with the Lord. What does that look like? Well prayer and deliverance ministry helping people understand and walk in their spiritual gifts. When he's not serving at church or working Mark loves spending time

[00:01:14] with his family on the lake and wow I loved part one of our conversation. I walked away feeling honestly pretty empowered when it comes to being bold and praying with authority. So Mark we're looking forward to part two here. Thanks for having me back. I'm excited for part two as well. Yes. Well it'll be fun. We're going to talk about spiritual warfare and spooky stuff and we're very excited to be

[00:01:43] learning from you and having a discussion on what does this all look like? You know in movies you see like big scary objects that you know are going to take over and then you learn about the little whispers that you also get to fight. Wow. And every form in between right? Yeah I'm just really excited to be talking about this. So Mark I guess spiritual warfare right is very real. Yes. We um what do you

[00:02:13] use it? So that's step one. What did you say? We overuse it. Yes. You know it's like oh man spiritual warfare I gained two pounds. It's like not. It's the cake and the ice cream and the bread that you had. Yes it's the easy answer for everything. Spiritual warfare. The light turned red before I could go. It's spiritual warfare. It's like yeah probably not. Maybe sometimes. Right and I make fun of it so much but then we're doing this podcast and all these weird things start happening and so you're

[00:02:42] like well what is this? Consider I don't know but it never did this before. You know. Yeah. So it's always fun. Again God's there's no box for any of this stuff. Exactly. So Mark if you were to define spiritual warfare what would what would you say about it? Yeah I would say that from a high level

[00:03:05] perspective spiritual warfare is the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of darkness using non-physical means to try to influence believers in the physical. And that happens I'd say two primary ways. One is Satan and his kingdom trying to influence our thoughts to make us not believe what's true about the word of God, true about the Lord and true about what's been said about us. So that rather

[00:03:34] than walking in freedom we walk in bondage and sin. Or sometimes more what people think about when they think of spiritual warfare is actually like the demonic or other spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places that are trying to move us or the nations of the world to follow Satan rather

[00:03:58] than Jesus. So it's non-physical trying to affect the physical. Okay so that is like an amazing explanation of it. Yeah so it is both of those things. Yeah? Yes yep I would say it's definitely both of those things but I would argue that when we think of spiritual warfare most people go to the latter one of what I talked about thinking about demonic principalities all of that and there's truth

[00:04:25] there but when you look at what Paul writes about his spiritual warfare that he primarily talks about is Satan attacking our minds. So I want to go through a couple scriptures if that's okay. Please. Sure. So we're all familiar with Ephesians 6 and the armor of God and where it talks about in verse 11 to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the wiles of the devil. Now the Greek word for

[00:04:54] wiles is methodos and oftentimes it gets translated like trickery which there's truth to it but it's more accurately described as a road particularly a single road. So meaning of what Paul's wanting to articulate is that Satan's primary attack isn't 800 different ways there's one primary way that he comes and tries

[00:05:21] to affect Christians through spiritual warfare. Then move to 2nd Corinthians 2 11 where Paul again writes that we shouldn't be taking advantage of Satan because we're not ignorant of the devil's devices. And one of the things with devices the Greek word there is nomado which is primarily the primary word

[00:05:45] of it is mind but it's a compound word in the Greek that means a twisted mind. And so then I want to pair again with one other and we'll kind of connect all the dots. Yeah. So then the main spiritual warfare passage that most people quote 2nd Corinthians 10 verses 3 to 5 where Paul talks about though we walk in the flesh we don't war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not colonel but

[00:06:11] mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. So there again we see the contrast between physical and spiritual. But then Paul starts to go into what is that actual spiritual warfare? And he talks about taking every thought captive everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ and bringing every thought into captivity. So we see the three primary things that Paul mentions there

[00:06:39] are all having to do with our minds. So if we connect all three of those Satan has one primary road into believers and it's to get our minds to be twisted to not believe what's written and true in scripture. Mm-hmm. And he does that by bringing in like lies or illogical thoughts that go against the knowledge of

[00:07:03] Christ or scripture. And our primary spiritual warfare is to take thoughts captive, bring it against the word of God. And when they disagree regardless of our feelings, what we think is true, what maybe it looks like is true, falling onto the word of God and saying I'm going to believe that. And so I'll give a practical example of that when we talk about being the righteousness of God. If you were to ask most believers,

[00:07:33] do you believe you're righteous? Most believers would be able to get a quote of saying I know that the word says it, but they don't actually believe it. So when they get into praying for people or getting into spiritual warfare, it quickly crumbles because they look at and evaluate their life and go, I've fallen short. Therefore, I'm not righteous. And that is the road in to start believing lies where

[00:08:00] what we're supposed to do is grab hold of it and say, Hey, Satan's bringing against this accusation, but I have a greater voice and a greater blood crying out, which is Jesus of saying that I'm now the righteousness of God, not because of anything that I've done, but because of what he's done. So I'm going to stand on that. And then that closes off the road from the enemy for him to stop wreaking havoc in our life.

[00:08:26] Really good. That's there's so much depth there. Mark, as I think about, you know, you're, you are in ministry doing prayer with people, deliverance, right? So this is something that you are on the lookout for often, both when you're serving and probably when you're

[00:08:48] just out in community, just doing life. I'm curious, what are you looking for in, in order to understand the situation and, um, you know, understand, okay, is this spiritual warfare that this person is dealing with or, or is this just kind of like we were talking about earlier? Is this just kind of life stuff? Like this, this isn't spiritual warfare, but you're going through some hard things. And I see that.

[00:09:16] Yeah. I would say that what I'm looking for, and I'll kind of go into two realms with this. The first is on people's thoughts. So we obviously not everyone has like perfect theology. So I don't want to go into the ditch of if you start to figure out that there's something that you believe that was incorrect, that there's now this massive spiritual warfare going on. It's like, nope, we correct. We

[00:09:41] move into correct theology. But more of what I'm looking for is when a person start seeing and even repeating things that I know go directly against not only the word of God, but most of the time it falls into one of two things, either the character of the Lord or something that the Lord says about them that they don't believe. Um, where again, it's like, I don't think the Lord's ever going to love

[00:10:06] me. If you only knew what I've done, um, the Lord wouldn't ever forgive me. And it's again, we can all think of a hundred different verses that go against that, but that would be an example of where it's like lights are flashing in my mind. This is spiritual warfare of there's a road into this person's mind

[00:10:30] and we need to take scripture and demolish the lie and stand on the truth of the word and get that out. So that's what I would say for kind of like incorrect thing. Yeah. Can we go through like an example of, and maybe we'll use Jess. Yeah, great. I love being the guinea pig. It's my favorite.

[00:10:54] Jess, what's a lie you believe that we can talk about? What's a lie I believe? Um, hmm. Okay. Well, so identity is a big thing that I am constantly working on. Right. Um, and I think a lot of times I get, I fall into the trap of believing that, um, you know, my,

[00:11:20] my worth is found in what I do, what I accomplish, how well I do things. Um, being a mother, right? Right. It's true. Being a good mom, not just being a mom, but being a good mom. Yes. Um, is that something Dan? No, it's very true. Is that material? It's a hundred percent. Yeah. So let's see. Yeah. And I do too. So yeah. Now what? Like take us through the journey. Yep. So where I

[00:11:47] first oftentimes start with is James one where it talks about, um, a wise man or a foolish man looks into the mirror, sees what he looks like and walks away and forgets who he is. And what James is arguing there is that the word is our mirror. So again, just like in the natural, we've never seen what we actually look like apart from looking in a mirror or now with modern technology, um,

[00:12:16] pictures or videos or things like that. Sure. Because we can't take our eyes out, turn it around to look at us. And so what James is arguing is that you don't actually know who you are in the Lord. You've never seen who you are apart from the word of God. So if you're building your identity off of everything that you'd listed there,

[00:12:39] you're actually building your identity on what the word of God is not saying. So my job then is to go to the word and not be a forgetful here, but being a doer of it. So where I would go and there's a whole host of different places, but one that I think covers a lot is in John, Jesus says, greater love has no one than this and delayed on his life for another of where that is where worth comes from.

[00:13:06] God put worth on our life for God. So loved the world that he gave his son. And there's no greater act of love than him laying down his life on the cross. And that's never going to change. So I can therefore attach myself to that event and the unchangeable sacrifice that the Lord made

[00:13:28] and how my worth is derived from that. And that's where I'm look then looking into the mirror of saying, Lord, Hey, I feel like my worth is coming from being a great spouse, a great mother. And the Lord wants us to be those things, but our worth isn't from that. And I go, I want to start looking into the mirror and the mirror, the word of God says that my worth is defined by you sweeping

[00:13:57] the whole house and finding the coin, you selling your whole life to finding the buried treasure. And again, he's talking about us. That's the worth that he put on us because we can't sell anything to get the Lord. He sold everything to get us. So then what happens in life then is we go through times of where we're then like, Hey, I'm not being a good parent. I'm not being a good spouse. And those thoughts start to come. And this is where the rubber meets the road. Are we going to be wise

[00:14:25] or foolish? Immaturity goes back to forgetting who we are and say, you know what? I have fallen short. This is my identity. And I'm now lesser than where a wise person. When that comes up, goes, Lord, I thank you that my worth hasn't shifted because you haven't shifted. You can't undie.

[00:14:52] Okay. And therefore, I know I'm secure in you. Holy Spirit, strengthen me to be a mother and a spouse that will love and lay down her life and do what you did and lay down your life. Where then we operate out of identity rather than falling into guilt, shame, condemnation, things at the end. That's so interesting because even at the end, what you just said there, we operate out of identity.

[00:15:22] Versus out of guilt, shame. And I think what my mind was going to fill in the blank with identity versus like accomplishments or achievements. I love that you actually basically flip that on its head. Cause it's like, no, your, your achievement, it means nothing. Your achievements, accomplishments,

[00:15:44] how good or, how good you are. That that's actually filthy rags. Like, no, it's, if you're trying to operate out of your accomplishments, what you're actually doing is operating out of a place of failure already because none of that means anything. You're operating out of the law. And so then when you're doing well, our walk with the Lord can to degree thrive, but then when you're not doing well,

[00:16:14] it falls into the ditch because it's all based upon what you're doing rather than on what Jesus did and allowing the Holy spirit to grow us up into all things in Christ. And that's where I always like to remember of, if you remember, I believe it's Genesis 16, when, um, God is talking to Abraham and he says, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward, but where it's like, yes, we do have

[00:16:39] works that are prepared for us to walk in, but the Lord is our exceedingly great reward. And when we focus on that, what Jesus did, we then come into the secure place of, I know my identity. I know my reward is with the Lord. The things of the world, uh, are meaningless compared to my exceedingly great reward. And we're then wise walking in identity in the Lord.

[00:17:02] Yeah. Wow. Incredible. Amen. Well, talking about walking in identity. Yeah. So he transitioned to spooky stuff. Yeah. Well, okay. Yeah. You like that? So, cause, but I think, right. Cause spiritual warfare, right. Often doesn't look like creepy figures and I don't know. It just doesn't often look

[00:17:26] like what we think, you know, it's not, um, a cauldron and, uh, spell casting, but that is real, that is real stuff, but that's often not what we're facing in the day to day. Um, okay. So all of this, right. Uh, spooky season Halloween can, uh, feel, yeah, can make some Christians kind of feel, um, um, like they're on their heels, right. They're, they're, they're really cautious. Um, they're

[00:17:56] operating out of fear and not, um, out of that, that bold confidence place of authority. So, um, I guess dress your kids up in sheets. You're okay. Oh, wait a second. I don't know. Dan, what direction do you want to go with this? I feel like this is a, let's talk about Halloween, right? It's been so awkward the last, I don't know, a hundred thousand years, I guess not that long, but a hundred years in the sense of,

[00:18:22] you know, you have Halloween where there's just weird stuff happening, demonic stuff happening for sure. And then you have kids dressing up, which is cute. And then church is like, well, you still shouldn't do that. So then we have trunk or treat at churches. And then you're just like, where is the line here? Yeah. Right. And that's kind of the hard part of like, well, but then you're also, you know, Hey, we're on the winning team. So what are you guys all fearful about? And it's like, well, also don't play with it. Right. It's like this. So they're like, well, which one, where are we? So that's how I open this up.

[00:18:52] Well, and what we know about you, Mark, is that you are one kind of person and there are many of the other kind of person out there, but you see things often pretty black and white. Yes. And so for you, this is, this is a really easy decision. Whereas others, they may feel like, no, this is a gray area. I need to consult the Lord. I need to pray about this and figure out what the Lord has for me. Well, I would say look in the mirror, which is the Bible. Come on. Come on. Yes. Look, look in the Bible.

[00:19:18] Okay. So just prefacing the conversation with that, but Mark, share, share a little bit of your perspective. Yeah. So you're exactly right. My personality is for sure black and white. Um, and there are issues that I think are gray. I would fall into Halloween as not being one of those. Um, for a couple of reasons. One is as believers, we're not supposed to have anything to do with

[00:19:41] witchcraft, the occult, uh, talking about things of the dead and things like that. So Halloween's origins and why it's on the day that it is, is the occult believe that that was the day where the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest it would ever be. And that spirits would start to come on the earth. And so it was a day for them to connect with spirits and why they

[00:20:08] would dress up is to scare spirits away, to make them think that they were spirits. And the church then has started to morph into it of being like, well, it's not that big of a deal anymore. And we disregard everything in scripture that has to do with contacting the dead, witchcraft, sorcery, um, all things of the dead. And we just package it in a very cute way to justify in our

[00:20:37] minds why we should start to dabble in witchcraft, the occult and all of that. And we start to say things like, well, I'm not actively participating in it. And it's like, no, you are. If you're dressing up and going around on Halloween, doing the exact thing of why it was set up, which is to contact dead spirits, regardless of your intentions or not. And that's where I fall into that as

[00:21:02] believers. We shouldn't have anything to do with Halloween to go on the other side, though. That doesn't mean we need to be fearful of it. Mm hmm. Because all the days are the Lord's days and Satan can't hijack a day just because it's their high day in the kingdom of darkness. And what do I mean by that? It's the day where the most human sacrifices happen. It's the day where the most sexually trafficked people happen. It's the day

[00:21:32] where brides of Satan will go through all of their rituals because it's what they've tried to mark out as their day. And again, as believers, we just go, well, it's cute. I just want to dress up. And it's like, nope, we're participating in their holiday. But that doesn't mean that we have to shut down. But it's our job to bring light to what's going on. But I would fall into that. That doesn't

[00:21:58] mean participating, dressing up, going around and basically doing everything that they do, but just trying to slap Jesus on. Hmm. Wow. So what do you think of that? Well, so that's what not to do. Yeah. And yeah. What what should we do then? That's a good point. You know, we have four kids, six and under. Yep. And it's like, well, what should, is it bad to watch a movie? You know, like, cause they watch movies on Halloween.

[00:22:26] It's like, where's the line to on that and what we should do? Yeah. Um, so I would say that I don't believe that we should be dressing up and want to be clear on this. I don't think that it's necessarily wrong to dress up in like other instances, but for Halloween, I think that we should, again, go back to Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. What, why do people dress up? They want to

[00:22:50] put on another identity that isn't their own. And the identities are primarily ones that cover yourself up so that you can do actions that people can't trace back to who you are is really the gist of it all. And what is Paul saying Ephesians 2, 22 through 24? He says, put off the old man, be renewed by the spirit in your mind and put on the new man who is in Christ. And what Halloween

[00:23:17] does is we go to Satan's major holiday and we put on the old man and all these other identities and start to walk in darkness, debauchery and all of that. And we just slap on saying that it's a cute thing. And that's where I'm saying, no, don't do it. And so, so I would say to not dress up. I don't

[00:23:41] think watching Halloween movies is a good thing to do at all. Because again, it's all opening doors. It's all opening the road in agreement for Satan to start to come in and wreak havoc. So what Christian should do, this is again, where I don't think there's necessarily a specific answer to that. Like some people will do like actual outreaches. Great. Others will just say, hey, I'm living my

[00:24:08] life like any other day that isn't Halloween. Great. Others will be praying for their community. Phenomenal. I think all of those, and there's a whole host more that are all legitimate, but don't think a legitimate thing of what Christian should do is basically going in disguise of partnering all the things of the enemy and just saying, well, because I'm a Christian, this is fine.

[00:24:33] Yeah. I think you make a really good point that we are, we are as Christians supposed to look different from the world. Exactly. Now, what exactly is that going to look like in this context? I don't, I don't know. I will, I have to admit that like, as a parent, I feel like my, my perspective on this is kind of growing, right? Every year it's kind of like, okay, what, what are we going to, what are we going to do when

[00:25:01] this comes around again? Are we going to do the same thing we did last year? What did we even do last year? Uh, you know, but, but I do know that I don't want to just go along with what the neighbors are all doing, you know? Um, and so I think that's one of the big things that if, if anyone listening is like me and you're not really sure what you're going to do, I, this is a good reminder to say,

[00:25:27] well, am I just doing all this just because everyone else is doing it? Or do I need to actually give this a little more intentional thought? Exactly. And I think you're exactly right of that. We're called to be different than the world. And we have to ask ourselves of why in the body of Christ, are we not seeing the kingdom advance more than we are right now? And a lot of it is because of mixture. And I think Halloween is a

[00:25:56] great example of that, of, I can't paint a more serious picture than the Lord hates witchcraft, darkness, sorcery, all throughout the Bible, Revelation nine, he says they didn't repent of their sorceries after all the things that were done. And we start to again, be like, what are the ways that we can make sure that we can have fun in this age, even compromising things that we're supposed

[00:26:22] to stay away from. And then we go, I know I should be different, but there's nothing that we'll take a stand on. Even on the legitimate darkest day of the year, we try to find as Christians, whatever way we can justify, like stepping into the kingdom of darkness and still having our foot in the kingdom of the enemy. And it's like, we need to start maturing and start saying no to the things of the world. And we just have to do it. That doesn't mean that we have to go on a rampage

[00:26:52] against everything. But it's like, we're not going to participate in and we're going to actually start operating in the light of Christ rather than in the darkness of Halloween. I love that contrast. What does it mean to, you know, we, Hey, we open doors when we watch evil movies and we're dressing up and we're acting as if we're spirits. What does that mean? We open doors. Yeah. So the kingdom

[00:27:16] of darkness works primarily on agreement. And so this is where, even if your intention is to not do the fullness of what activities are, I'll use a different example, yoga, yoga literally means union and it's union with the spirits of yoga. And there's now all these things called like Christian yoga, things like that. It's like, Nope, it's a practice to get people into the spiritual world,

[00:27:43] but people will say, well, I'm not doing it for the spiritual experience. And it's like, no, you're doing the very thing that is giving agreement to spirits to come in and torment you because you're doing the very thing that's giving them access to your life. A different example I'd give of that is like drug use. If you talk to people who have gotten out of, especially doing like mushrooms, they all talk about the exact same spiritual experiences that they have.

[00:28:11] And most of them didn't go in trying to have a spiritual experience, but they take it and it opens them up to the demonic realm. And then they get freaked out, but they had no intention of like going down the spiritual route, but they open their doors in agreement through doing the activities that give permission to spirits to come in. So when we do these activities,

[00:28:37] we're green saying, I'm wanting to invite you into my life to do what it is that you want to do. And that's why we need to start closing those doors. Sure. Wow. And how would you suggest, you know, some people, I didn't realize I was opening doors or agreeing with this stuff. How, how would we close some doors? Yep. Uh, repentance would be the first thing of changing. Straight shooter. I love this. Repent.

[00:29:07] Yeah. Yeah. Get rid of it. You know, in the amount of Christians that read and watch Harry Potter, Twi'lay, again, all complete darkness. And it's like, what does it look like to repent of that? Go throw away your books. Do like what they did in Acts, have a book burning party, um, repent of it. And then fill your mind with truth of what's true of the Lord, that the Lord doesn't want us

[00:29:32] in witchcraft and sorcery. He wants us in the knowledge of the love of God. And so going into that and walking in the light of the Lord. So that's as easy as it is. And if you're like, wow, I feel like I'm still being like tormented for lack of a better word, get someone to pray for you to break off any lingering connections to any agreements that you've made. But the thing we

[00:29:55] always have to remember is Jesus is superior to any agreement that we've ever made. He paid the price for it all. What's the whole argument in Colossians one and Colossians two? He is the preeminent one who took us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the son of his love. And so there's always power, but it's time for us to close doors, repent, go to him, not associated with the kingdom of darkness. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. It's always,

[00:30:25] you know, I feel like the, the demonic's really good at distracting us with his, well, it's not that bad. Exactly. Right. Like loves that line of like, well, it's not that bad. Yeah. It's just right on the edge. And then all of a sudden, you know, it's just that 1%. And then over a year, boom, you're already, you know, looking the other direction. And it's, it's, um, it's interesting because have you ever seen the movie nefarious? I've not seen it, but I've seen the trailer for

[00:30:51] it. So I know what it's about. Yeah. Oh, it's fascinating. I really enjoyed watching it. And, um, one of the things they said that just like, Oh, got me was, you know, as, as the demon was talking was, we're patient and you're just like, Oh, you don't fight this like, you know, crazy, uh, urgent, you know, irrational demon, right? You're, you're fighting brilliant, uh, divisive, just need to

[00:31:19] move you 1% entities. Yeah. Right. And it's, it's amazing when you think of just like the 1%. And so even just recalculating, I think is really helpful. And, you know, even monthly of just being like, Hey Lord, please bring to my attention any agreements that I've had, you know, Hey Lord, let's cancel some contracts. Right. Cause I feel like it distracts you. So you don't even know. Um, cause I think a lot of people don't know that they're in a contract, right? I know I,

[00:31:47] that was for me when I started canceling them. I'm like, well, I didn't know this was a thing. Right. Yes, exactly. And it's like, who knows though? Holy spirit. Yes. To ask the Holy spirit. I'm like, Hey, show me some agreements that I have that I need to cancel. Yeah. And, and, and hopefully that can bring some freedom. Exactly. It for sure will bring freedom. And that's promised of the Lord where the spirit of the Lord is. There's freedom. It is for freedom that

[00:32:13] Christ set us free of any agreement that we've made. I remember I was listening to, um, a sermon from someone and they were talking about agreements made with the enemy. And even like, you hear Hollywood selling your soul to the devil and things like that. And it's like, your soul wasn't yours to sell. He bought you with a price. Jesus bought you with a price. So regardless of any agreements you've made, regardless of what you've done in Jesus,

[00:32:43] there's power to break it all off. No matter how dark you think it is, no matter how long the lineage in your family, Jesus is the superior one. He's the preeminent one. He's the first, he's the last. And when we submit to him, power comes to break it off and freedom comes into our life. Amen. Man, that just makes me, it makes me think of like, what is dangerous, right? Like,

[00:33:11] how can we as Christians be dangerous in this world? You know, you know, it's dangerous, loving your spouse, being selfless with a neighbor, having enough, having times where you and your family are just laughing and having fun. Like it's just so cool. God's strength versus the world's strength is like, ah, self-control. That's real strength. Yeah, exactly. And walking and all that, you're exactly right. It's what makes us dangerous because that is what is advancing the kingdom of God.

[00:33:40] And, you know, Jesus knows that we're the light of the world and it's time for us as believers to actually shine that light, walk in the light and light, no matter how dark a place is, the light will always overcome it. So that's where it's like, we need to start being bold. We need to stop compromising. We don't need to be fearful of going into situations because we have the light of the world, but we don't need to be partnering with those situations. Amen. I love it. I just feel like the

[00:34:09] Lord was reminding me that like one of the most BA ways of being dangerous is forgiveness. Yes. Yes. Imagine that spiritual warfare. That'd be fascinating to see someday. Oh man. Yeah. When, when we go be with the Lord or the Lord returns, seeing what the power forgiveness actually does, like spiritually, it'd be amazing to see. So good. Well, if there's anyone

[00:34:37] else out there who's like, Oh shoot, uh, you know, I used to go to the haunted things, right? The, the haunted hayride. It was like one of our first dates by the way. And, or, or, you know, you know, all this time I've been sending my kids out in letting them pick whatever their creepy Halloween costume is going to be. Um, or even if it's just like, I don't know, we, we just did the default

[00:35:01] Halloween things. It's pretty innocent, but, and, and maybe they're reconsidering, um, you know, man, what does that look like for me? I love that you, you said it's really pretty simple. Repent. Yep. Let truth kind of infill all those spaces. Yes. And, and partner with somebody if who, who can pray for you and maybe help you discern what else,

[00:35:27] what else needs to happen, what's going on. Um, you know, and, and man, we can all be praying just for wisdom of Lord, what, what are those spiritual battles that I'm fighting, whether I'm aware of them or not. And what are the next steps that I need to take? Where do you want me to, to, to put my attention here? And we know that that's going to be in the word. He wants you to,

[00:35:52] to seek his word first. Um, man, and then, and then apply it to apply those truths to your life. Exactly. There's no reason to wait. Don't be forgetful here, but be a doer of the word. And I love what you said in going back to something, Dan, that you'd mentioned. Yeah. This is one of the many reasons Holy Spirit was given to us to be our counselor, to be our helper. Why not ask him? And again, we, if, if for anyone listening, if you're like, I have partnered with

[00:36:20] this again, the enemy wants you to fall into shame, condemnation. That's not what it's about. It's no Holy Spirit wants to come in and just put a stop to it and move on. And so that's where we don't need to be fearful of it. Holy Spirit knows if you're like, I don't know where to start. Search me, Oh Lord, and know me. See if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way ever last. Yeah. Amen. Well, Mark, thanks for coming on. This has been amazing. I really enjoyed connecting with you

[00:36:47] and hearing all the testimonies that you had to share and the wisdom that the Lord's shared with you. Well, thank you so much for having me on. This has been just an amazing blessing. And yeah, thank you again. I feel like we could have some more fun conversations down the road. So, Oh yeah. Mark, watch out. We may reach out. Count me in. I love it. Thanks, Mark. Thank you for listening to this conversation from the Everyday Faith Podcast. Our goal is to inspire

[00:37:13] everyday faith conversations. Please join us by rating and reviewing wherever you're listening. And most importantly, by sharing with a friend. For more resources like this, visit our website, askaboutmyfaith.com. God bless you as you live out your faith in your everyday rhythms of life.