An Interesting Observation

There has always been an economic connection between the city of Butte and the town of Anaconda. Anaconda lies thirty miles west of Butte and was the site of the smelter that processed the ore produced by the Butte mines. The Anaconda schools recently advertised an opening for a math teacher, and that grabbed my interest. After all, they are a larger district than Willow Creek making them able to pay a larger salary and thirty miles is less than fifty miles so that would improve the commute some. But the Spirit clearly is saying "No!" to me. I don't even feel okay about calling them to check out the opening. Why?

First, Ruth and I both feel that God had more for me to do at Willow Creek School and that means I need to spend another school year there—in spite of the tiny salary and high commuting expense. Second, we are called to Butte to do spiritual warfare here, not somewhere else. The interesting thing is that despite the economic connections and close geographic proximity of the two communities, the spiritual systems of Butte and Anaconda are separate systems. (This is the gift of Discerning of Spirits at work. See 1 Corinthians 12.) Discovering this surprised me since all along I've just been assuming that the two communities were connected spiritually. That doesn't appear to be the case, however and if I were to go there to teach I would be entering into spiritual battle with a different enemy/strongman than the one we are called to take on and we would be spending our spiritual resources in a fight that isn't ours.

All this also makes me wonder about why the Lord has me in Willow Creek. We do have family connections there since Ruth's father's family was centered there, but I don't see any spiritual connections between Butte and Willow Creek. Connections of that sort, if they exist, may yet be revealed, but it could also simply be that God has me in a "safe place" while we wait for the Lord's timing on starting the church and doing more active spiritual warfare in Butte. We will see....

Lord, I pray for Anaconda, that You will raise up and bring in spiritual warriors to that town, led by your spirit to do warfare there. Bring down the dark principalities of that place and fill Anaconda's valley with your light.

Father, I also pray for Willow Creek, that You will fill that valley with your light and heal the people there. Take away the enemy's hold on that community. Fill the school with your presence and fill the church there with your Holy Spirit. Raise up spiritual warriors to battle the enemy’s work in that community.