PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 103: SHOULD CHURCHES BE MEETING TOGETHER? Part 2

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 103: SHOULD CHURCHES BE MEETING TOGETHER? Part 2

Are you back at church yet? Please check out this podcast as we dig into God's Word to see what He has to say about this matter. This is a timely matter. God's people need to be back together, praying together, and crying out for the soul of this nation.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello again, ladies. Would you mind? I'm still on my little soapbox. I didn't get enough time last week to share with you. So here's a few more Scriptures. I'm not just sharing my own ideas. I want to give you something from the Word. Just know that it's coming from my conviction of God's Words.

I love that passage in Acts, how that the apostles had just been put in prison. The angel of the Lord came. Acts 5:19, and it says: “The angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 'Go, stand and speak in the Temple to the people all the words of this life.'”

And so, they did what the angel said. They were blessed, they were rescued from prison. So out they went and started preaching again. Then when the High Priest and the chief priests found out, they came to them, and they said: “Did not we straightly command you in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.”

And what did Peter and the apostles answer? They said, “We ought to obey God, rather than men.” That's Acts 5:29. So I think that is where we are today, ladies.

If God is touching your heart about this, call your pastor. Call your minister, and say, “Look, we're ready to come back to church as a family. We want to obey God's Word. We want to get back.”

I think maybe many pastors are waiting for their congregations to let them know. They need encouragement too. So let them know that you are ready. That can be an encouragement to them that can help them to take a stand.

If your church is going to just cave in and not get back together, well, look out for some other church in your community that is getting back. Go and worship there in the meantime. So you're making a stand for God.

Now, what is church? It's not a place. We know that. Here I'm saying, “Let's get back to church.” Of course, we know that we're the body of Christ, and it's not a building. But the fact that we meet together is very much a part of it. It's part of the togetherness. There's so much that we cannot do unless we meet together.

I was sharing about this on Facebook and I had a comment from someone who said, “Well, the Bible doesn't really say what “assembling” means. Maybe it can mean just in your home.” But I'm going to give you a bit more about that later, because we're looking into the Greek and the Hebrew, and seeing what it does really mean “to assemble.”

But No. 1, the Church is a gathering together to worship God, to hear the Word of God, and to take Communion. That is very important. But that's not all there is to it. Because secondly, the church is the gathering together to communicate with one another, and encourage one another, and exhort one another.

I noticed in Hebrews 10:25, where it says, “Don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together.” Before that, in verse 24, it says: “And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and to good works, not abandoning our own meetings.”

You see that verse comes before getting together. It's says we've got to spur one another on. We've got to love one another, and build one another up, and encourage one another. Well, how can we do that? We can really only effectively do it as we come together. That's why we have the gathering together.

Now of course, you can call someone up on the phone and encourage them. That's a good thing to do. But there's something about seeing someone face to face. I noticed even on Sunday, this last Sunday, as we met together. We always have fellowship meal after our service. People stay on, often into the mid-afternoon, or even longer sometimes.

But even with that time for fellowship, I really didn't have enough time to talk to everyone I wanted to. There were ladies who I know were waiting to talk to me. There were others who had, who were going through, really, a very difficult time, and needed to pour out their hearts. There just wasn't time enough, even in the time we did have.

It's so important, these “coming togethers.” The times I did have with the ladies I spoke to; I would never have had those times if we hadn't have met together. They would never have opened up about their concerns and what they were going through. It was because we were together, face to face, and fellowshipping over a meal.

You see, that's also part of church, and yet, maybe when we all get back together again, that we could do church differently than we have. You see, people have gone to church, gone to a building, ”Isn't worship wonderful?” Listen to a message, wonderful. And then just gone home again.

But there's more to it. There is fellowship. All throughout our church life, all throughout our lives, from the time that Colin and I were married over 57 years ago, Sunday has not only been a day to meet together with the saints, but to fellowship.

We've had different seasons. In some seasons, we’ve been pastoring and attending a church that didn't have fellowship meals. So we would always ask people home to our home, to sit around our table and fellowship with them. We would never go home from church without taking somebody with us to sit around our table.

For many years now, we've been doing fellowship meals where everybody brings a dish and we all  have it together after the service. This is as much a part of the church fellowship as the service. It's such an important thing, and we can't do that when we are hiding in our homes.

Now I will concede that many are sharing that they're loving their Zoom meetings with their church and their online meetings. They're getting blessed. And I am sure they are. Maybe you are too, and  you're doing this.

But we do have to face it. It's wonderful. It's good. In fact it's good, good, good, good, good! Yes! It's great! But it's not the best. It's not the ultimate. It's just something to tide you over. It's not what God ordained. He ordained the assembling of ourselves together.

It's the same in our homes. We can have our meals, and in some homes, they just sit and have their meals in front of the TV, or go to their rooms, or they just do what they like. Nobody's sitting around together at the table, looking at one another, face to face, having face-to-face table fellowship. And that's the difference.

It's the same with church. You can go to church. You can worship, and you can hear a message, and I love that. But there is more. There is fellowship, and that is so important.

Now the Scripture about church is in 1 Corinthians 14:26. I wonder if you've ever read this Scripture? I don't think many people have read it, because there are very few churches where this happens. And it says: “How is it then, brethren, when ye come together,” notice the “come together” again, “when you come together,” hear it again, “come together.”

Yes, it's great sitting on your sofa, just watching a Zoom meeting, but that's not “coming together!” When you come together, “every one of you has a psalm, has a doctrine, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.”

And so we get a picture here of the body of Christ coming together to share together, because they are not relying on only one church service a week to get their food. No! Every day, they're feeding in the Word. They are getting sustenance! They're getting revelation!

So by the time Sunday comes, they are full, over the top! They're ready to pour it out and share it with others. They're coming to give a revelation, another little word, or a testimony. The church is alive, and it's up to date with what God is doing in our lives.

Now this is the picture that God gives and says this is what you do. This is what you do when you come together. So once again, we see the church is a “coming together.”  Also, a time for sharing in our fellowship.

My husband will always give a word, or we'll have a visiting speaker. But we have quite a bit of time, quite a large amount of time also, for people to share, to share a revelation from the Word, or testimony, or what God is doing. That allows everyone to participate, because that Scripture says, “every one of you.”

Just as God said in the very beginning: “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helpmeet for him.” God created man not to live alone. He didn't create us for isolation. He created us for togetherness. That's why he designed marriage, and then the family, where we are living as a family corporately. It's the most healthiest, wonderful way to live, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Also, it just spreads out into the church. For our three-in-one God designed a many-in-one church, because that's Who He is. Colossians 3:15 says: “That we are called in one body.” Of course, great things happen when we come together. We can be prayer warriors on our own, but oh, isn't it wonderful to get with the saints to pray? I mean, there's greater power when we come together.

In Acts 1;2 it tells us how they were all filled with the Holy Ghost as they came together in unity. In Acts 4:31, it again tells us about them coming together. It says: “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness.”

Now ladies, isn't that exciting? When they, what does it say? When they were “assembled together,” assembled together, the whole place was shaken by the power of the Holy Ghost, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. God seems to come and do wonderful mighty things when we are together!

Yes, we can have amazing revelations and encounters with God on our own, but God loves to manifest Himself when we are together. In Acts 2:43-46, it says: “And all that believed were together.” We need to read these Scriptures, how that “they continued daily with one accord in the Temple. And they broke bread from house to house, and they ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.”

So they were meeting together, not only weekly, but daily! And then it says: “The Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved.”

I often wonder about that passage of Scripture, how they were so filled with God, so filled with the Holy Spirit, so filled with revelation of their new understanding of salvation! Because many of these were Jews who had done the daily sacrifices and offerings all throughout their lives, but now they're seeing that “Oh, we don't have to do that any longer. Jesus is our sacrifice. He was sacrificed as the Lamb for once and for all.”

They began to see all the revelation of Christ in all the practices that they were doing throughout the ages, in the Tabernacle, and then in the Temple. But now they're seeing the fulfillment of it, and they're so filled! They've just got to get with one another to share with one another. They just can't keep it to themselves, so they not only met weekly, they met daily!

“And daily the Lord added to the church, such as should be saved.” I sometimes wonder if we got back to this kind of lifestyle, the lifestyle of the early church, do you think we would also see people daily added to the church? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Yes, so thirdly, the church is a gathering together to pray. Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” We see in Matthew, chapter 18, how in verses 19 and 20, Jesus said: “That if two of you,” just two, “shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them, of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Oh, we come together. And notice again, gather together, “gather together in My Name.” That's what we do when we come together. We gather together, gather together. This phrase just comes over and over throughout the Word of God. “Gather together in My Name. There am I.”

Yes, of course God's going to come, even in your family, even in your little family, or your big family, if you gather in His Name, morning and evening to worship Him, and hear His Word.

But there is an even greater manifestation as we get with many believers. What does it say? Gather in His Name. “There am I in the midst.” And it's in the context of asking God. As we agree together, it will be done, because His House is a House of Prayer.

And that's another thing. Maybe when we get back together, we'll not only be a place to worship and have the Word, but we'll be a House of Prayer, where we come together to pray! Yes! I believe we need to come together to pray.

Ephesians 6:11, 12 says: “Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

We were reading this Scripture in our morning devotions the other day. And we looked up, we thought, what does this really mean, “the rulers of the darkness of this world”? The word is kosmokrator, and it means, “a world ruler, an epithet of Satan.”

How true it is that these powerful demonic spirits are seeking to rule the world! They want world domination. They want a global world where they can rule. Of course, they're going to rule through people, but it all comes back to these demonic spirits, these demonic ruling spirits.

We're facing that. Even today we're seeing this spirit of control and ruling come in over our personal lives. Infringing on our rights according to the Constitution, infringing on our mandate according to the Word of God, infringing upon our freedom. This is not from God. This is from the enemy, and we have got to come against this in prayer.

We cannot do it on our own, precious ladies. Oh my, yes, we can, but we need more. We need help, because these are powerful demonic spirits. They are hovering over every city and every nation, and especially in the most strategic places. Over Washington, DC. Oh, no wonder, we hear constantly how the swamp has got to be cleaned up. And President Trump went in to clean up the swamp. But my, I can't think he ever imagined how filthy the swamp was, and how it's really entrenched in these world-ruling spirits of darkness.

We have to come against them in the power of God, in the Name of Jesus, and through the power of the blood of Jesus. The Passion translation says: “For they are a powerful class of demon gods, and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.”

The Amplified Classic says: “For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only with physical opponents, but against the despotism, against the powers, against the master spirits who are the rulers of this present darkness.”

Are you getting it, ladies? We are not having a Sunday school picnic. We are in a battle, and we need one another.

The New English translation commentary of that Scripture says: “Depraved world rulers of this darkness does not refer to human rulers, but the evil spirits that rule over the world.”

So we're not praying against people, though we see what people are doing. Because we think of a man like Bill Gates. I mean, I guess he's a lovely, nice man. But he is bringing in deception. Oh my, if you just want to listen, or read what he is saying and writing, it's obvious he's coming from these demonic spirits.

We're not coming against people. It's the spirit world that we have to fight. And I go back to Daniel, in Daniel, chapter ten. Remember how Daniel, the archangel Michael was coming to Daniel, but he was held up for 21 days!

Daniel waited and waited. When he came, he said, “I was blocked by the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.” And he said, “I had to get Gabriel to come.” No, Gabriel, he was the one who was coming, but he had to get Michael to come and help him!

Now he was an archangel. So what about us? I mean, here were Michael and Gabriel fighting these spirit princes, and after he talked to Daniel, he said, “Now I've got to go back and fight against the spirit prince of Persia, and then the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece will come, and I've got to fight him.”

So we were just getting a little glimpse into this spirit world of where the battle is. When we're coming together as the people of God, this is the most powerful thing we can do, is to pray and intercede together. Just imagine, if God's people would come back together to pray and take authority over these despotisms, over these ruling demons who are seeking to take control! Oh my.

Now, personal prayer is powerful, but collective prayer is even more powerful. That's why we pray as families. That's even powerful. But then we need to have prayer meetings in our homes. And praying at church, battling, and wrestling in prayer. We are missing out on this, ladies as we're not meeting together as the people of God.

All right, so, number three, yes. The church is also a gathering, Yes, I gave you that, gathering together to pray. That was three, wasn't it? OK, and now four. It is a gathering together to be an exceeding great army. Oh, I've been thinking about Ezekiel 37. Do you remember this chapter, ladies? Ezekiel 37?

Now let me see . . . I'll go to Ezekiel 37. And this is the chapter of the valley of dry bones. The Hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel. Verse one says that the Lord carried him out in the Spirit of the Lord and set him down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.

And God told him to prophesy to these bones. In verse seven: “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his  bone. When I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them about. But there was no breath in them.”

But now they were flesh and bones and sinew and skin. That also takes me over to the New Testament, Ephesians 5:30, where it says: “For we are members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bone.” Oh, do you remember reading that?

Isn't that incredible, ladies? We are members of Christ's body. We are His flesh, and His bones. He is the Head, but we are His body on the earth. We're His flesh and blood and bones on the earth. We are His revelation on the earth. He indwells our flesh-and-bone body to reveal Himself on this earth. Not through one person, but through His whole body. Not one person can reveal the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is revealed through the whole body of Christ.

Of course, it goes back to Genesis 2:24, where God said: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” As we know, marriage is a mystery. It is the revelation of Christ and His Bride. That's why we have to put such honor on marriage. We dare not dishonor the marriage relationship. It reveals the picture of Christ and His church. He is the Head, and we are His body, and we are one! But we are His flesh and His bones.

For the fullness of His body to be together, we have to have our bones connected, just as they did in Ezekiel 37. Of course, I guess you remember the old children's song, “the foot bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the knee bone, and the knee bone connected to the thigh bone,” and so it goes on.

But they first had to come together. Yes, come together. Verse seven, we read it: “And I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together.” You notice the coming together again.

In the Hebrew, the word is kawrab, and it means “to come near, to draw near, intimate, proximity.” In some Scriptures, that same Hebrew word is used for sexual relations. So we see that it's a word that means “connection, connected together.” We're not really connected together, although it's wonderful and great to have Zoom meetings, online meetings, that's so wonderful, but it's not the coming together, the assembling together.

Let's go to the Greek word, over there in the New Testament. Hebrews 10:25, we talked about that last week. “Don't neglect assembling yourselves together.” Now in that passage, the word “assembling” is the Greek word episunagoge. The word “together” is the same word, episunagoge. They use it two times, the assembling together.

What does that mean? It means “a complete collection, especially a Christian meeting for worship.” Assembling together. Yes, it's together, ladies. Together. Now, we're doing good things, having Zoom meetings, but it's not assembling together, and that's what God told us to do.

Now, go back to Ezekiel 37 and what was the purpose of them coming together? Bone to bone. Let's go down to verse 10. “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

That, precious mothers and wives and families, and anyone listening, is the purpose of our coming together; to be what God wants us to be as the body, His collective body in our community, in the nation, in the world, ANA EXCEEDING GREAT ARMY!

That's why I shared last week with you, my dream that if every believer, which would be millions, all came back to church, bone connected to bone, and we were all together, in all our respective churches worshiping God, an exceeding great army, it would impact the nation! We can do it. All it takes is every believer getting back to church.

Nobody could do anything about it. They couldn't put millions of people in jail. What could all these liberal governors say? “We can't have church for so long?” What can they say? Well, they're already completely disobeying the Constitution, disobeying the Word of God. But what could they say about that?

You see, why don't we be who we are? This EXCEEDING GREAT ARMY! Amen? That's who we are. That's what is meant to happen when we come together. That is the purpose of bone to bone, being His flesh, and His bone in this world! We are going to be an exceeding great army!

I love the Song of Solomon 6:10: It's a picture of the Bride of Christ. “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible...” Some translations say “awesome.” Awesome or terrible, “as an army with banners?” An army with banners! Coming against the foe. It's an awesome, frightening sight.

It frightens the enemy, a bit like the nation that I come from. I come from New Zealand, and we have our lovely native people, the Maori people. Back in the early days, when some of them were even cannibals, they fought against the pakeha, because the white people were the pakeha.

Even when they had their Maori wars, and they fought against one another, they would have what you call a haka. It was a Maori war dance. It was frightening. I mean, today they still do it for entertainment, and they roll their eyes, and they do all these things. It's very frightening, but it was to frighten the enemy.

That's what we, as the body of Christ and the people of God, are meant to be. We're meant to be a threat to the enemy! The enemy should fear us, instead of us fearing the enemy!

Now ladies, before we can fight, we have to come together. Now a soldier who is in the army, he can belong to the army. You don't see a soldier on his own. He belongs to the army. If I see a soldier dressed up in his army uniform, I love to go up to him and thank him for what he is doing to protect our nation. But he can't do anything on his own. When they’re going to fight, they're called up, and they all go together. They have to gather together to confront the enemy.

It's the same with us. We belong to Jesus. We can have a beautiful relationship with Jesus, but if we're going to fight the enemy, if we're actually going to be awe-inspiring and frightening to the heathen, we have to be gathered together!

I was just looking this morning, just looking at the words “gathered together” in the Word and I noticed, there are hundreds of verses, I just took a few of the battles back in the Old Testament.

Joshua 10:5: “Therefore the five kings of the Amorites gathered themselves together against Gibeon and made war against it.” They couldn't make war against the enemy until they gathered together.

Judges 7:23: “And all the men of Israel gathered themselves together and pursued after the Midianites.” Now if one person, one lone soldier decided that he was going to pursue after Midianites, well, he would be wiped out. But they gathered together as one, a mighty army, to pursue them.

You see, our power is in togetherness. Satan knows it, and he is weakening our power. And dear ladies, I'm speaking this to you as precious mothers. We are the mothers of the families. We are the families that make up the church. We are the ones who have to have this vision to get our families back. So we become part of this mighty great army.

Let's look at one or two others. Judges 20:11: “So all the men of Israel were gathered together against the city, knit together as one man” to come against the city.

1 Samuel 17:1: “The Philistines gathered together their army,” gathered together their army, “to battle.”

2 Samuel 12:29: “And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it and took it.” So you see here, we just can't be lone soldiers on our own, lovely ladies. We've got to be gathered together. Then we have power to pursue the enemy. Amen?

So oh yes, have I got time for one little thought? I pray that when we get back together, that we won't be going back together with masks on. Oh, do you know, forgive me for saying this, but I have a thing against masks.

Now of course, if I was a dentist, I would be wearing a mask. My. Because I'm closely right up to someone's face and I would have a mask that was totally fitted for that career. If I was a doctor or nurse, I would have a properly fitted mask because I am treating maybe infectious patients. I'm protecting them, and I'm being protected.

But for daily life, out in the beautiful fresh air and sunshine, dear ladies, I'm sure you already know that even the CDC and the WHO have stated that wearing a mask will not help you in stopping to get coronavirus. If you were to get it, it will not help you.

In fact, people, they have found people who wear masks, they're handling their faces far more than people who don't wear them. You are only breathing in your own carbon dioxide. That is not healthful for you. You are far healthier getting the beautiful fresh air.

Once again, it is just a farce. In fact, it's more than that. I believe it's a picture, because everything is a picture. I believe it's a picture of DUMBING US DOWN AND SILENCING OUR MOUTHS! They want us silenced, and they want complete control of our lives.

You will not get me wearing a mask if I go to a shop. In fact, two of my favorite shops, Costco and Whole Foods, I don't go to either at the moment because they require you put on a mask if you go in. They don't get my business. I'll go where I don't have to wear a mask.

But why would we wear a mask to church? We're in a company of people who are indwelled by the Spirit of God, and not only do we become more like Jesus as we behold Him, but as we behold Him in  one another. Isn't it sad to see people with these masks on and we can't even see them?

My husband was somewhere the other day at a little restaurant, and he saw the waitress, and she had her mask on. He said, “You look like such a beautiful lady, but I can't really tell because your mask is on.” But it's so sad. You can't see people. You don't see their smiles.

The other night three of our beautiful, amazing grandchildren took Colin and I out for a meal. So lovely of them! The waiters and waitresses were all wearing their masks. But the one who was attending us, he had his mask on. For a moment he took it off, and he gave us this most beautiful smile. He said, “I want you to see my smile.” He put it on again. But we were so glad that he did that because you can't really see the face.

Let me end with this lovely Scripture. 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

We behold our precious Lord in His Word, but we also behold Him in one another. So when we come back, when all the millions of believers come back, and we become this great mighty army, let's behold one another, and see Him in one another.

“Dear Father, we pray that You will help us to rise up as the people of God, to fulfill Your Word. Oh God, save us, Lord, from being dumbed down by the lies and the deceptions of the enemy. Lord, we have been seeing more and more lies exposed, even through this whole pandemic.

We pray that You will help us to be people who do not live according to what might be also wrong predictions, but we will live according to truth, according to Your Word, and we will live by faith and trust in You. We will not fear. We will live in hope and faith and, Lord, that we will cast aside all fear  which does not come from You.

I pray, Lord, for great mighty revival. I pray for the great returning of the people of God to meet together. And, Lord, to let Your glory be seen in us, and through us, and out to this world.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.