Jeff Finley
By Jeff Finley
Chapel of Change Pastors Brian and Laura Warth have regularly experienced spiritual warfare, and they are now helping others find inner healing and freedom from demonic oppression.
In a conversation with Brett Heintzman on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast,” the couple shared about their deliverance ministry and what they’ve encountered as they lead a rapidly growing, multisite Free Methodist congregation in Southern California.
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“… there’s more to be seen than with the natural eye.” – Brian Warth
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“My first couple of years of serving the Lord I was exposed to different forms of demonic activity,” Brian Warth said. “Our church is pressing in more so to teaching our congregation about spiritual warfare, and even demonic doors that can be opened in their lives. We’re seeing — I think because we’re in this urban context — that a lot of people are suffering from demonic strongholds in their life … so we’re really pressing in with the pulpit teaching people that there’s more to be seen than with the natural eye.”
They take their cue from Jesus in Luke 4.
“He starts off by talking about setting people free, and we believe that the same power that Jesus used to set people free is still available by way of the Holy Spirit, and the church should be a chief instrument of that power,” Brian said. “A lot of people are dealing with these demonic strongholds in their life, and they’re wondering why they’re still in bondage. They’re wondering why they’re still making bad decisions.”
While some problems are not related to demons, the Warths believe that “the forces of darkness” are connected to the breakdown of individuals and families. Chapel of Change’s tent revival in October 2022 included a focus on deliverance.
Laura Warth said they weren’t looking to become involved in this type of ministry, but they are being faithful to where God has taken them.
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“The Lord opened our eyes to see into the supernatural and have experiences with people that were heavily bound by demon spirits” – Laura Warth
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“Even early on as a church, the Lord opened our eyes to see into the supernatural and have experiences with people that were heavily bound by demon spirits, and we began to seek the Lord on that and we began to study and to pray for people more intentionally in that regard,” she said. “We began to see people set free. We began to see people set free from alcoholism, depression, shame, and guilt through abortions and other things that they had either done willingly or unwillingly — traumas, things that happened to them growing up — and we just really began to see the hand of God move.”
Strongholds
Brian said different definitions of strongholds exist, but “we define a stronghold as an unhealthy mindset that is usually set up in people’s minds as a result of falling for the lies or the exaggerations of Satan and his imps.”
He added that spiritual warfare can include “being mentally attacked with lies and exaggerations from the forces of darkness, and as we have our guard down, and we fall for the lies or exaggerations, it allows the enemy to build up these unhealthy mindsets that affect our lifestyle and affect our decisions.”
According to 2 Corinthians 10, “the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (v.4–5).
“Some scholars believe that [Paul] got that word stronghold from the fortress that was in the middle of the city of Corinth, and he used that image to paint that picture of what a stronghold is,” Brian said.
Proclaiming Freedom
In Luke 4:18, Jesus read from the book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
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“The Lord began to just, through these encounters and experiences, teach me and train me.” – Laura Warth
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Citing that verse, Laura said, “I, first of all, want to encourage us to know that this is what God came to do and then to equip ourselves. I basically had training on the go. It was hands on-training. The Lord began to just, through these encounters and experiences, teach me and train me, because at the time, I didn’t know where to go.”
She studied what the Bible stated about Jesus healing people and setting them free from demonic oppression. She then immersed herself in other books and training.
Praying or Commanding?
Heintzman asked the Warths about the “difference between commanding — taking authority in the name of Jesus — and praying supplication prayers for something, and how do you discern when to use those tools and how to use them?”
Laura said that when she is “asking the Holy Spirit to just come and permeate this place, this space, this atmosphere with His presence, His power, His peace; I’m speaking to the Lord, and it’s a direct request, I’m praying.” However, during spiritual warfare, when “I’m commanding spirits of fear or anything else that has attached itself or has put this person in bondage, I then turn to command mode, and that’s different. I never command the Lord. That’s not prayer. The demons I command because the Bible says that we have been given authority over them, and so it’s important to understand the difference between commanding and praying.”
Demonic Manifestation
When asked about whether demons had ever manifested themselves through people at church, Brian said that during Chapel of Change’s “last deliverance night, there were multitude of people at the altar, and some were manifesting. Some were screaming. Some would come contorting, and we were just contending in the faith.”
Another time, at Chapel of Change’s altar, one woman received prayer from another pastor and then from Pastor Laura.
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“… there was no fear, because God had given us authority.” – Laura Warth
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“I remember the moment I took hold of her hands and closed my eyes. I began to pray for her,” Laura recalled. “Almost instantly, I began to hear her release these words that said, ‘You can’t have her. She belongs to us. She was sacrificed to us. We own her.’”
Laura considered whether the woman was under the influence of something and then, because of her research on spiritual warfare, realized what was happening.
“By the grace of God, we ended up ministering to her that night,” Laura said. “This was one of those situations that was very radical, but I thank God that there was no fear, because God had given us authority. So when we stepped into that, we saw that this demon left. She just took a sigh, a deep breath, and looked up and just kept saying, ‘I feel so light. I feel so light.’”
Click here for the full conversation on the “The Light + Life Podcast.”
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