FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 120: HERE IT IS— YOUR DISEASE-BUSTING, ANTI-AGING MIRACLE PILL!
But it’s actually not a pill!

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies. 

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies!

Well today is a very special day because I have my lovely daughter Pearl with me. Wow, I feel so privileged to get Pearlie because as you know, Pearl and Serene do the THM poddy.

They not only do that every week, but they do their “UnShow,” another poddy. I sort of think half the time they must be poddied out. Anyway in the middle of all her business Pearlie said she would come and be with us today. We have a most interesting subject to talk about, so just hang on for a minute.

Before I get talking you must say, “Hello!”

Pearl Barrett: Oh yes, hello, hello everybody, great to be here! And we only do the UnShow once a month, Mum, so I’m not too poddied out.

NC: That’s so good.

Anyway, before we get on to this most interesting subject, I would like to ask you something: Did you get to either go or did you get to see online THE RETURN, which was on Saturday in Washington D.C. with Jonathan Cahn?

It was the National and Global Day of Repentance and Prayer. We didn’t get to go but we did watch it online and we were able to listen to Jonathan Cahn’s prophetic message to the nation. It was so powerful. It was God speaking to America.

I want to encourage you that if you didn’t get to see it or hear it please check it out. You can go to YouTube and just check out Jonathan Cahn’s Return National Day of Prayer and Repentance.

If possible, listen or watch it and gather your whole family around because what happened on Saturday and the message that he gave was to everyone in the whole nation.

It’s now a scary time really. We really have to respond and if there is a response in this nation of repentance and turning back to God, I believe we will see a great revival. But if we don’t take any notice and there’s not a returning back, a returning back to God to pursuing God, to righteousness, to life, to family, to everything that is on the heart of God we can only expect His judgment and calamity.

So it is a scary time. It’s really over to us as a nation and I believe everyone needs to take part. I just encourage you to make sure you don’t miss out on listening if you did miss it.

We were having our family devotions this morning. It’s amazing because so many of the Scriptures just spoke to us again. One of them was Isaiah 63:18 and it says: “The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while . . ..”

That’s talking about the land. God gave the land of Israel to them as an everlasting possession. But they didn’t hold it for long because of their sin.

It goes on to say: “ . . . our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.”

Everything that was of God got trodden down and then they got vomited out of the land because of their sin and yet it was theirs by divine mandate.

Even for us today, I believe that God planned for America to be this city set on a hill, a light to the nations even as Israel is a light to the nations. But we really, as the people of God, wow, I don’t think we’re where God wants us to be. We’re pretty pathetic and I believe there needs to be such a turning back.

I think of Nehemiah. This verse always gets to me because we’re even experiencing it a little now and if we allow things to go on as they are, we could yet experience this fully.

It says here in Nehemiah 9:36, 37: “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.”

Isn’t that terrible? To be servants in a land that belongs to YOU?

Wow, we are free people in this US of A but if we do not return back to God, we may not always be a free people.

It goes on to say: “And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”

Wow. That’s so powerful. They even had dominion over their bodies. We have now all this great “excitement” about a vaccine coming for this current virus. They want to make that mandatory.

I hope that you are writing and calling your governor and writing to the president. Write to every person you can think of to plead with them that they do not make this mandatory because that’s having dominion over our bodies.

We know that Bill Gates, who is the instigator of all this, his whole plan is to de-populate the earth. Of course he can do that through vaccinations. Some people will get away with it but there are many people to whom it will be such a detrimental thing to their bodies.

I believe, I am a great believer in freedom, and I do not believe that we should ever have to have people who take dominion over our bodies and tell us what to do and what we should have to do with our bodies. But that is a judgment that comes when we are in sin and this land is in sin.

We have laws that allow babies to be aborted right up until birth. We have laws that allow same sex marriage. We have laws that allow people to change the whole way that God created them. These are such abominations, and we have to turn and repent from them, that God will heal our land and we will live in freedom and they will not have dominion over our bodies.

Anyway, I’m sure you feel just like I do at this time. Make sure that you don’t miss out and you get to hear that message. In fact, there were things happening all day: Prayer and words for the nation, the whole day. You can listen to that.

Now, we still haven’t got on to our question yet, to our interesting subject, but I must get Pearlie to talk about what’s happening this week in your family, Pearlie.

PB: Oh yes, we have a wedding! So my Noble, he is my second to last, he’s my fourth, he’s getting married to a beautiful girl called Megan.

We’re just so excited because we love her so much. They’re actually going to live on our land. There’s a little barn with an apartment on top of the barn.

NC: The Poddy.

PB: Yes, it’s actually our poddy cabin. They’re going to live there for the meantime until they get established. But they’re a beautiful couple. They’ve been with one another, courting for about three years. They were young.

NC: Yes, they started courting at fifteen. But they have somehow lasted till they were eighteen years of age to get married.

You think, “Oh goodness me, they’re so young!” But you know what? I always call them “Old Ma and Pa” because they’re just so mature and beautiful in their relationship.

They’re not really like many young people. They’ve got maturity about them, haven’t they?

PB: Yes, they do. It’s just been amazing to see because I’m not a mother who is really into young dating or anything. When they first looked at one another, they had this look in their eyes like, “Wow” and we all could tell something was happening.

We thought, “This is too young. Fifteen! They’re not ready to be married. We’re only about courting or dating if you’re going to marry someone. What do we do?”

It was on both sides of the family. Megan’s mom, Erin, who is a friend of the family, she’s like, “What do we do?”

We sort of allowed this to go slowly at first and they were sort of just special friends and that developed into more. We’ve watched it and it’s been really beautiful. I’ve been amazed and I’ve been so thankful to God. I’m just so thankful that He’s brought my son such an amazing, amazing girl.

Sometimes you think to yourself, “Well our children are only going to start dating when they’re eighteen” or “Only at this time.” Things happen that are not predictable sometimes, and I think if we pray through it and we just allow God to lead us, beautiful things can happen. Sometimes it’s just not the way we think they’re going to happen.

NC: I see that it is a beautiful safety. I mean, instead of just kind of going off and doing all their young people things, it’s brought stability to both of them. I think it doesn’t happen to everyone. Some don’t meet that one that God has for them until they’re older.

But when they do meet young and you recognize that God has brought them and when God brings them together, often it’s just the greatest blessing. I see that in how a lot of our grandchildren have married young, but they’ve all been ready for marriage. They’ve been ready to take on the responsibility for marriage, to embrace family, and to provide.

If they have that maturity, they are ready to marry.

But anyway, we’ve got the wedding on Sunday, haven’t we?

PB: Yes, we have. One thing about that, both of my sons have married early at eighteen, but then I have another son who will (maybe) be getting married next year at twenty-one, so he’s a little older.

But it still seems young! We were never all about, “You get married young, children! “We were never all about that but once they find their person we were about, “Well it doesn’t matter the age so much.”

NC: No, the age doesn’t matter.

PB: But I look at my sons and before they found their partners in life, they were young boys, they were teenagers, they were great guys. But we’re all about that if they want to get serious about someone, they need to have marriage in mind because what’s the use of it?

Watching them mature into men, who knew they would have to look after a family, has been incredible because that was the thing that took them from boy to man. It was the idea that, “I’m going to be a husband, I’m going to be a father. Okay, let’s get my act together here.”

NC: Yes, absolutely. We have watched those three boys, Bowen and Noble and Rocklyn, actually change from boys to men overnight.

I remember Bowen was still in school, and then all of a sudden, he saw this beautiful girl, Kahoru, and in about six months he grew up to be a man.

Wow, it was just unbelievable! I think its marriage that matures a man, or preparing for marriage, because every one of them said, “You’re not getting married until you can provide.” So they had to get involved and they’ve all got amazing jobs.

Rocklyn is now in real estate. In fact, his future father-in-law said, “You’re not marrying my daughter until you make good money.” So he’s really got into it!

Noble was working with Trim Healthy Mama but now he’s taking on a whole sawmill at eighteen! Isn’t that amazing?

NC: Yes, along with his cousin, Cedar, that’s Serene’s son.  That’s exciting for them.

But we’ve got a subject and I’m anxious to get on to that.

PB: Before that I’ve got to say something else! My mother she’s like really revving me up to talk about the wedding because if you don’t know my Mum, Nancy, she really loves weddings more than any other person in the world.

Mum just came over to my house the other day, we’re just like a little stone’s throw away. She came over and just sat there and wanted to talk about the wedding and I’m like, “I love weddings and I love that they’re getting married but I’m just not as much of a wedding person as you.”

Every time I would try to change the subject Mum would bring it back to the wedding!

NC: Oh yes because I think they’re the most wonderful days! Oh I just love weddings!

But I think God loves weddings, too. Actually in the Word of God we read that when God’s blessing is upon a nation it says that there will be” the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride” (Jeremiah 33:11)/

It’s all celebration and joy! That’s the voice of the Bible’s description of weddings!

Then that same word is used in the context of judgment. It says that when God’s judgment is upon the land that there will no more be heard the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the voice of joy and gladness (Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; and 25:10).

That’s the thing that God uses to say that there is judgment upon the land. That’s pretty powerful, isn’t it?

We see God loves to come into weddings. But what I wanted to say is, how in the world, Pearlie, did you manage to get the most beautiful daughters-in-law in the whole of the world? Well two, you have got Kahoru, and then Megan gets married on Sunday, and then next year Rocky is getting married to Mary Beth. But how they are all so, how can you describe them, absolutely beautiful?

PB: Yes, they are all physically beautiful girls, all three of them. You just stare at them and you’re like, “Wow, oh my goodness.”

But really, they are. If we go out as a family and we bring everybody, people will actually comment and mention like, “How did you get all these beautiful girls?” But really, it’s their hearts. None of them even realize they’re beautiful, I think.

They’re beautiful, beautiful. Every day my husband and I pinch ourselves and we say, “We’re so blessed. We’re just so blessed!”

Any way, we’re going to get on this subject mother! I know you want to talk about weddings!

NC: Yes but anyway, back to this subject. Actually, you know what we’re going to talk about? We’re going to talk about one of the nerves in our body. It’s actually the longest nerve in our body. Do you know what it is? Does anybody know what the longest nerve in your body is?

Okay, tell them, Pearlie!

PB: Okay, so it starts with “V.” Vagus. It’s your Vagus nerve. But actually, Mum, it’s more like a muscle than a nerve because the more you use it, the stronger it becomes.

The reason we want to talk about it today is because of what, when it activates, and when I say activates, who is doing the activating of it? You.

You can hack this Vagus nerve and you want to have it on. You want to turn your Vagus nerve on. You want what’s called “Higher Vagul Turn” in the scientific world.

I’m not a doctor or anything, I’m a researcher and I love this stuff but it’s really going to impact your life in huge ways as it has mine, understanding about this nerve in your body, which as Mum has said is the longest nerve.

Think of it as a big power line going from your brain to your gut. It’s constantly passing information between the two. When activated, and Mum I’ll swing it back to you because I can really talk.

NC: Yes but isn’t there another name for it? Isn’t it called the Wanderer nerve because it wanders all through your body to all of the parts? That’s why it’s so important.

PB: Yes. Now when it is activated, here’s why you want to activate it because it regulates all aspects of your body, including your heartbeat, your blood pressure, digestion, endocrine function. That’s all your hormones, your immune defense, even the health and length of your telmerones.

Do you know what those are, Mummy?

NC: No, say that word again.

PB: Telmerones.

NC: The what?

PB: Yes, it’s telmerones.

NC: Tell me how you spell it.

PB: Um, it’s T-E-L-M-E-R-O-N-E-S.

NC: That’s a new word for me so I’m going to find out!

PB: Well you’re going to love it, Mum, because these are the cells that determine how swiftly or slowly you age.

NC: Oh I like that!

PB: Because you’re almost eighty so you’ve got another fifty years of course! These are your long-life cells. These determine how long your body will live.

NC: Oh boy, I’m getting into this one.

PB: Okay! Also, inflammation is huge. When your Vagus nerve is activated it SHUTS DOWN ALL THE INFLAMMATION. It may not completely but it is the thing that pulls down inflammation in your body. Also chronic inflammation and organ damage, there is just a massive amount of studies on the Vagus nerve right now.

Science is doing a study that shows it even reverses organ damage in your body, which is unheard of because organs are hard to reverse when there’s damage to them.

NC: Well this is interesting because you must be really activating it.

Pearlie popped over yesterday, well that’s what we say— “Popped over.” She didn’t actually pop! But we always say, “I’m popping over to see you!” or, “Someone just popped over!”

But anyway, Pearlie popped over. Colin and I were going for a walk and we were walking away after talking to Pearl.

My husband said to me, “You know, Pearl just looks so much younger than she even did when she was young!”

PB: Oh I don’t know about that, Mum. But I’m about to turn fifty in February so I’ll take it.

Anyway, so let’s talk more about how do we activate this nerve? But another thing it does— it turns on the parasympathetic nervous system and you probably know what that is, right Mummy?

NC: No—that shows my ignorance!

PB: I’m asking you all these questions like you better know! This is crucial to every aspect of your life. It’s the system in your body that makes your whole body go, “Ahh.” It’s called rest and digest.

NC: I love that.

PB: Yes you do.

NC: I like that. I often do that.

PB: Yes, rest and digest rather than the “Gur” the other system in your body. It’s there for a reason but it’s either fight or flight. You know, something is happening, and you have to pull your children out of a fire or whatever.

So many people have that on constantly whereas your parasympathetic nervous system makes you digest your food and makes you relax. Your Vagus nerve turns that on, too, which is huge.

Dr. Jeffery Rediger in his ground-breaking book Cured has this to say about the Vagus nerve: “The more you use it the better you get at using it and the more health benefits you reap.”

So how do we activate this nerve?

NC: That’s the thing: How do we activate it so we can get these blessings?

PB: Well science has just recently discovered what this nerve does so right now they are in the quest to be like, “Whose going to be the first big doctor that comes out with the “Here’s how you activate your vagus nerve, take this pill.”

They’re trying to medicalize it and do all that. They’re also doing studies on electro stimulation where they use electricity and all sorts of things because studies have shown that it can help arthritis, colitis, epilepsy, congestive heart failure, chromes disease, headaches, depression, and the list goes on and on.

So there’s a race to find out what activates it.

But you don’t have to involve yourself in a clinical trial. You don’t have to do any of these things.

NC: No, we want to get down to tintacks here in the home.

PB: There are other much, actually really affective ways, of YOU turning your Vagus nerve on. I want to talk about the biggest one soon but there are some things that you can do before I’m going to talk about the biggest thing.

Just learn to SLOW YOUR BREATHING. If you’re realizing that you’re breathing fast, that turns your Vagus nerve off, so just slow it.

It’s actually your breath out. I didn’t realize that. You tend to think, “Breath in, I need to learn to relax.” It’s actually that breath out for five seconds, which actually turns it on much more affectively than the breath in.

Slow it and then concentrate on the breath out.

DISPELLING STRESSFUL THOUGHTS AND FOCUSING ON POSITIVE ONES can do it, too, which I’m going to focus on more.

There are different things, but I want to talk about the biggest one that they’ve discovered.

In his book, Dr. Jeffery says, “When you experience feelings of LOVE and connecting, that plays a song for your Vagus nerve.”

We’re not even talking about like falling in love with someone here, although that can help your Vagus nerve. But it’s the small moments of love that you cultivate throughout the day with your husband, with your children, maybe even a friend, maybe even someone you don’t know.

You’re out in the grocery store and you give a kind smile or a kind word. That stimulates your Vagus nerve.

You don’t have to go around saying, “Oh I love you!” to everybody.

That’s good, right, but it’s these micro moments they’ve discovered constantly throughout the day, making more of them than you usually do and focusing in on them. Actually thinking about, “Oh I love my child. Let me show that moment of love to my child.”

Your husband walks in the door, “Oh let me show him how much I love him right now. Let me express it.”

They’ve actually found that a LONG HUG OR A STRONG HUG, not a light hug, stimulates your Vagus nerve.

And so it stimulates yours and it stimulates your husband’s. It stimulates yours and it stimulates your child’s.

They even say a FIRM HANDSHAKE will do it with a stranger. It’s none of this light mamsy pamsy. You know how we always grew up and you taught my brothers especially and us, “Never shake like a little fish. Shake firmly.”

But there’s science to that!

NC: Isn’t it amazing because you know, have you shaken the hand of someone that’s all limp and they give you this limp handshake? You feel like vomiting, don’t you?

It just shows you a lot of things are just natural. We will naturally do what is right.

But I love that, Pearlie. I love it. You know, because I was just thinking as you were speaking, that you say science is revealing this, but do you know what? The Bible reveals it.

If you go back to Titus 2 in that passage where it tells the older women to teach the younger women, there are two things amongst the others. One is that wives are to love their husbands. But do you know what the word for “love your husband” is?

PB: No.

NC: There are different Greek words for love. There is eros, which is sexual love. Then there is agape, which is God’s love, which you know we love even when we don’t feel like loving.

But the word that is used for loving your husband is philandros and it’s from that philio word meaning: “Affectionate love.” So the Bible right there tells us, “Okay older mums, tell the young women they’ve got to be affectionate, showing it to their husbands.”

You don’t just think, “Oh I love my husband.” When I look at my husband, I look at him and I think, “Oh I just love this guy.” I can just look at him and I’m just in love. But that’s not enough. He most probably doesn’t see me staring at him in love. But I have to SHOW it.

When I show it (and I like it that it’s not just a little hug, it’s a strong hug). Wow, that’s cool. I’ll just get a bit stronger.

PB: Yes and you know that’s something that we develop. I didn’t know about the Vagus nerve back in the years when my husband and I developed this. But I thought, “I’m not going to walk past him in the house without hugging him” and we do.

NC: I love that, too. Now did you know? Have I ever told you this story?

Before we were married a dear old gentleman came up to my husband. He walked on two canes. This man told my husband, “I have never passed my wife in the house without stopping to give her a hug.” That was the advice that he passed on to us.

I have to confess, I haven’t done that every time I passed my husband. In fact, in the early days, you’re so busy with babies and life and overwhelmingness and I needed to be reminded.

This is good we are talking about these things. We are reminding you of what is meant to be normal and natural. I guess you come to understand things more as you go on. But you know, now that is the thing that we plan to do. You always miss every now and then, but you try not to miss so that when you see them, you’re going to connect.

PB: Yes, it becomes habit. Then when we walk past each other and we don’t hug, we turn around quickly and look at each other like, “What just happened?”

Then we’ll go back and hug.

But as you say, life happens. Sometimes there are busy days and you’re rushing around the bedroom to the laundry. Don’t feel down on yourself but do cultivate that because, like you said Mum, the Scriptures have always been there. Science just catches up.

I’m a researcher of science, for health specifically. The more I research science, the more the Bible just backs it up day after day after day after day.

NC: Yes because not only is the word, “Love your husbands” a very tangible affectionate feeling of touchy love but also, it’s the same with your children.

The word for “love your children” is also the basis of the philio word, which is affectionate, tangible, hands on love.

The Bible is amazing!

PB: Yes. And you know what children love the most, right? When they’re squished in the middle of a hug between you and your husband. I mean, that is like the best. So you can still keep it up if you are holding your child. Children just love it. They giggle.

It’s so good for their vagul tone.

We’ve got five minutes left, Mum, on this one.

NC: You need to come back next session! You’ve got to!

PB: We’re just scratching the surface.

NC: Okay yes, next session but carry on!

PB: All right. So essentially, we are created for love. God is love, right? Essentially love is your disease busting, anti-aging, total health miracle pill.

It already was biblically, but now it is scientifically. It is your disease busting, anti-aging, total health miracle pill.

NC: You’re allowed to say that again because this is amazing! This is life changing. This is going to change everything that happens in your home. If you get this, this is going to change the relationship you have with your husband. Wow, he’s going to be bombed out of his brain!

In fact, the minute he walks through the door, just look out! Then every time you pass him, he’s just going to get undone with you.

Then your children, you’re just going to overflow them. It’s just going to change your home and your life and everybody you meet when you go out!

So Pearl, say it again!

PB: Okay, LOVE IS YOUR DISEASE-BUSTING, ANTI-AGING, TOTAL HEALTH MIRACLE PILL! -

Now, I want to get to the end of my sentence, Mummy. It sounds like we’re selling snake oil or something, like it’s too good to be true, but it’s not according to discoveries and science. It’s spot on.

And once again it backs up the Scriptures.

But of course we need to get more skilled in this love practice—it’s a skill. We can’t just say, “Oh today I’m going to love, and all my ailments are going to go away.”

It’s a skill like a master. You begin like an apprentice and you work your way up. These things we practice, and we practice them until they’re perfect.

Just like we should eat wisely and move our bodies in order to prevent and heal illness, loving others more consciously and more often, and do the same thing.  In fact, it can even be more affective.

In his book Cured, Dr. Jeffery says that if you can rearrange your life (and that’s REARRANGE IT. We’re going to be undone here and we’re going to build it back up) to more frequently experience these higher states of love. This is what he says and he’s a doctor. You can inoculate yourself against chronic fight or flight response.

NC: Praise the Lord! We don’t even need vaccines!

PB: That’s what he says! As surely as you could get vaccinated against tuberculosis, it’s like your natural vaccination.

NC: Okay ladies! We just don’t need vaccines! We’ve just got it if we get this!

PB: Barbara Fredrickson, she’s a Ph.D., she studied the vagus nerve and how emotions impact our health for over two decades.

In an article titled “The Science of Love” she puts it this way and I don’t know if she’s a Christian or not but she’s just a secular scientist: “Just as your body was designed to extract oxygen from the earth’s atmosphere and nutrients from the foods you ingest, your body was designed to love.

“Love, like taking a deep breath or eating an orange when you’re depleted and thirsty not only feels great, but it also is life giving and indispensible source of energy. It’s sustenance and it’s health. In describing love like this, I’m not just taking poetic license but I’m drawing on science.

“New science that illuminates for the first time how love and the absence of love fundamentally alters the biochemicals in which your body is steeped. They in turn alter the very ways your DNA get’s expressed in your cells.”

NC: Amen, this is so good, but everything goes back to the Bible, doesn’t it?

Even just Proverbs 16:24: “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”

You know, even the words we speak, words that are positive, words that are loving words, affirming words, and uplifting words, sweet words— oh, they are all affecting your Vagus nerve, aren’t they?

Anyway, look I know Pearl has got so much to say!

PB: I know, we’re going to come back, but I want to do the cliffhanger. You know, we’ve probably said it’s probably a big Wow for me understanding this. It might be a big Wow for you realizing that “What? I can use love to stimulate my Vagus nerve?”

That was huge but then I got this download and we’re going to talk about it next session. Its mind blowing.

NC: We’ll keep it for our next session! You’ve got to come back for our next session next week because I know already you are hanging on.

Let’s just pray:

“Father, We thank You so much, Lord, for all that You show us. We thank You, Lord, that the very foundation of what we’re talking about is in Your Word and it’s who we are. It’s how You created us to be. Lord, if we are walking with You it’s really how we will naturally want to walk.

“Lord we pray that You would set us free from all of our bondages and hang-ups that hold us back and help us to learn to walk more freely in love, loving our husbands, loving our children, and having that spirit of love wherever we go. In the name of Jesus. Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 119 - WE ARE GATEKEEPERS OF OUR HOMES, PART 3

We must be strong and courageous as we guard the gates of our homes. As mothers, we are both the Lion and the Lamb. And we need God with us!

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. We continue our series; We Are the Gatekeepers of Our Homes. And we are up to point number three today, and that is, we must be alert if we are going to guard our homes.

No. 3. GATEKEEPERS MUST BE ALERT

1 Chronicles 9:19 says that the gatekeepers were responsible for guarding the entering into the sanctuary. They guarded the door. A guard cannot go to sleep on duty. Actually, that reminds me of Phinehas. It tells us the story of Phineas in verse 20, the very next verse.

Phinehas had lived back from when this was written. Phinehas was the leader of the gatekeepers in the earlier times. At one time, the Israelites got tempted to go and worship Baal with the Midianites and the Lord's anger rose up against them. He commanded that the ringleaders of this to be executed.

Now as this judgment was being issued, one of the Israelite men brazenly brought a Midianite woman into his tent. But Phinehas was a gatekeeper. He was watching, and he noticed this happening. But he didn't only notice it. He took action. He immediately, the Bible says, jumped up, took a spear, rushed after the man into his tent, and thrust him through with the spear. He was an alert gatekeeper.

God really honored him for that. The Bible says that because Phinehas not only looked, but he took action. God said to him, “Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and his descendants after him. The covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the people of Israel.” That Scripture is back in Numbers 25:10-15.

So, gatekeepers, keep alert! Of course, you can't . . . you've got to go to sleep . . . you have to have your nightly sleep. But it's being alert in our spirit, isn't it? Because we watch, not only with our physical eyes, but our spiritual eyes.

No. 4. GATEKEEPERS MUST HAVE GOD WITH THEM

We must have God with us. In 1 Chronicles 9: 20, as I was talking about Phinehas, it says in that Scripture that “Phinehas, son of Eleazer, had been their leader, and the LORD was with him.”

That's a beautiful thing to have on your resume, ladies! God is with you. We certainly need Him with us, don't we? I mean, help. We can feel so helpless ourselves. We need God's anointing. We need His wisdom.

But as you pray each day, and as you bring your children before the Lord each day, and pray over them, God will show you things that you wouldn't even think about, if you weren't praying for them. He will give you wisdom about these things, too.

The wonderful thing is if you can pray with your husband for your children. Do you pray with your husband each day? That's one of the most powerful things that you can do in your marriage, you know.

The Bible says in Matthew 18:19, it says there: “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father, which is in heaven.”

What a wonderful promise to take hold of! “If two of you,” now that's husband and wife. You can get together with another person, but I believe the most powerful unity is the husband and wife together, because that's the first unity that God ever put together, a husband and a wife. He put them together in such unity that the word back there in Genesis 2:24 means that they are glued together. Glued, glued, glued.

Did you know that you, as a married couple, are one? You are glued together as one. And God makes you one flesh. But also one spirit, one soul, to have one purpose and one vision. Also to have unity in prayer, so it is a powerful thing when a husband and wife pray together and pray for their children.

That's perhaps one of the most powerful things you can do as a gatekeeper. So you are praying for them. As you do, God will be with you and give you His wisdom, and His understanding, and His anointing.

I love Zechariah 4:6: “'Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of Hosts.” I am constantly praying that prayer because I realize I have no wisdom, no strength, of myself. I have nothing. It's only by His Spirit.

“Oh God, come by Your Holy Spirit! Come, by Your Spirit, because I have no might of my own.”

As we pray for His Spirit to come, He will be with us. Amen.

No. 5. GATEKEEPERS MUST BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS

We must be very strong and courageous. Now the gatekeepers in the Temple, and back in the Tabernacle, they were not little wimps. Did you know that on their resume they had to have strength? Yes, they had to be strong men.

Now this is the description that the Bible gives in 1 Chronicles 26:6-9. It describes them as “mighty men, men of valor, strong men, able men, for strength.” Shall we look a little more closely at those words? Because, remember, I have shared with you so many times that, when we look up a word in the Hebrew or the Greek, then we get a whole another string of words to help us understand that one word.

So the words “mighty men, strong men,” is the Hebrew word gibbor. And it means “powerful, warrior, champion, strong man, valiant, even a giant.” Yes, so they had to be warriors. They had to be men of strength, of valor.

Now the Hebrew word here (1 Chronicles 26:6-9) is chayil. It means “the force of an army, valiant, strong, courageous.” It's usually used in the context of an army going out to battle. The interesting thing is, ladies, that this word, chayil, although it's used of “mighty men, strong men, valiant men” and we read this word a lot in 1 Chronicles Chapter 12, where it gives all the descriptions of David's mighty men.

But this word chayil, did you know that it's also used of women? Yes! In Proverbs 31:10, it says: “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” The word “virtuous” is chayil! It's interesting, isn't it, that the translators of the Bible, when they're talking about men, they use words such as “mighty,” “valiant,” and so on.

But when it comes to the woman, they, I don't think they felt so free to use those words, and so they used the word “virtuous.” But it is the exact Hebrew word, chayil. “Who can find a valiant, courageous, strong woman? For her price is far above rubies.”

Now it is true, the Bible tells that the woman, that she is physically weaker than the man. God has made the man, created the man to have more brute strength than a woman, although we can also be strong, and we can become stronger.

I believe that when we get married, and we have babies, and we're carrying babies around, and they get heavier and heavier and heavier . . . we do become stronger. Have you noticed that you are stronger since you've had babies than before? Yes! Your arms get strong.

You're kneading bread, and you're doing housework, and vacuuming floors, and scrubbing floors, and you get strong. Yes! A woman in the home is, can be strong physically, even if she's not as strong as her husband. She can still be strong physically.

But I believe we are meant to be strong inwardly, strong in the truth of God's Word. Women who know the truth, strong in our convictions, and strong in guarding our homes. Yes, we're not little wimps. We are women of strength. That's who we've got to be when we are guarding our homes, guarding the gates, guarding what's going on.

Oh my, sometimes, yes, you've got to face up your children with something. It's come into the home, and my, you know that before peace, you're going to have a big storm. Sometimes you don't want the storm, and you might just want to gloss over it.

But that's not being a gatekeeper. We cannot let anything unclean come into our homes without dealing with it. Even if we have to have the big war, we're going to have that first. I mean, war always comes before peace! To just let things just glide over, they only become worse.

So “valor” was the word, chayil.

 “Strong” men, the word chayil again.

“Able” men, the word chayil again. Three times we get that word for “strength.”

Here's another one: koach, meaning “to be firm, vigorous, powerful, and to have ability.” So you can see that these gatekeepers, they weren't little wimpy weak men. They were strong men, physically and spiritually.

I remember the story in 2 Chronicles 26:16-20. Or you can read the whole chapter. It's about Uzziah, King Uzziah.  He grew very mighty as a king. The Lord blessed him. He took over cities, and he grew in wealth and might.

The sad part about it is, when he became strong, he became very prideful. And he even went into the sanctuary, into the Temple, to burn incense. The Bible had strictly told the priests that no one was to ever burn incense at the altar, except the priests. They were given that job. The king, that was not what he was meant to do.

So when the high priest, Azariah, saw him going in, wow, he went up to him, and when the other priests around saw what was happening, they went in after him too! The Bible says that 81. . . can you imagine it? Because it was the high priest, and then 80 others, “fourscore priests,” all valiant priests it says, not little wimpy ones.

We often think of priests, “Oh priests, they're just, you know, burning incense, and lighting candles . . . “No! They, the priests, and the gatekeepers, all had to be strong. In fact, the priests who were doing all the sacrifices, they were killing beasts, and cutting up beasts . . . man, they were strong people.

So these men, gatekeepers and priests, who went into, who were at the Temple, they were strong men. They really had to be strong too, to protect the Temple. Did you know, ladies, that the Temple was filled with gold? And amazing treasures. They kept them in the Temple. Did you know that even the Holy of Holies, where God resided in His Shekinah glory was filled with gold. You see, there was the outer court, and then the Holy Place, and then the Holy of Holies. In that Holy of Holies, it was complete gold. Floor, roof, sides, and the Ark of the Covenant and the cherubim, everything was gold. The Living Bible says, bringing the measurements, well, the weight, up to our modern day, it says there were 23 tons of gold in that Holy Place!

Much of the rest of the Temple was covered in gold. The treasures were kept in the Temple. So they could have thieves trying to come in. These gatekeepers, they had to be watching carefully. Also, they had to be strong enough, and courageous enough, to attack any attacker. I mean, there could be more than one person coming to try and get in that door. They had to be able to push them back. They had to be able to bounce them out. Maybe we should even call them bouncers!

When we were Down Under, in fact we were born and raised in New Zealand, then, when we were raising our children, we moved to Australia. We moved to the Gold Coast of Australia. We pioneered a church there on the Gold Coast which is a very beautiful place. Sun, surf, and sand—Surfer's paradise. We lived right near the beach. Our church was right near the beach. It was a beautiful place.

But one of the very first converts to come into our church there was this big black guy. He was of island and aboriginal descent, but he was a big guy. We got to love this guy. In his early days, he'd been a bouncer before he was converted. When he was converted, he still didn't know how to do anything else, but bounce. And, wow! He knew how to bounce!

In other words, he would go to a nightclub where he was working each night, for he would always work at night. He was there to be the gatekeeper. Or they would call him “The Bouncer,” because if anyone tried to come in without paying, or who shouldn't come in, he would “bounce” them out!

Or, of course, there were often drunken fights, and all kinds of things going on in these nightclubs, and he could bounce out anyone who was playing up. And he was so tough! One bounce from him, and a person would go flying out that door!

The amazing thing is, he would come to Colin and me before he went to work. He would say, “OK, Friar and Mum, time to pray!” He would ask us to pray over him as he went out to bounce people out of the nightclub!

But we're still friends with this man today. He became a preacher of the Gospel and has continued to serve the Lord now for over 30 years or more. The last time we were back in Australia, he drove about 27 hours to come up and see us again. It was so wonderful to visit with him.

After he was converted, his name was Brian, he would call himself “Brian Israel Thunderbolt Booker.” Then he would say, “God love ya, God bless ya, Jesus love ya, and I love ya!” Then he would give us a big hug, and we'd feel as though all our ribs were cracking. But what a wonderful blessing he is.

So that's what a bouncer is. These gatekeepers, they had to be like bouncers, bouncing anything out of that, that would come near that Temple, to attack.

So we also, we have got to be bouncers in our homes, too. Bouncing out anything that is unclean, that is evil, that is going to spoil the holiness of our homes. Because ultimately, we talked about it last session, we are making a holy place for God on this earth. Isn't that amazing? Yes, so let's seek to keep our homes holy,

1 Peter 5:8-9 says: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom RESIST steadfast in the faith . . . ”

James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you.”

“Resist” is the opposite of “tolerating.” Dear mothers, we live in an age of tolerance. We live in a church of tolerance. So much is tolerated today that God calls an abomination.

TWO OPPOSITES

But we are to be strong and valiant and courageous enough to resist evil, and to bounce it out of our homes. We as mothers, dear ladies, we are really kind of quite unique because we have two opposite things working in us. That's not wrong, because we see two opposite things, even in Christ Himself.

Do you remember when John was looking into heaven in Revelation? We'll go to it, shall we? Revelation chapter five. And John said: “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?' And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”

And John says, “And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open  and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:” Don't weep, John. “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”

But when he looked, did he see a Lion? No, he saw a Lamb. A Lamb that had been slain from the foundation of the world. So John saw in Christ both the Lion and the Lamb.

We too, mothers, we have within us two different things. Yet it is so great. We have this beautiful, soft, nurturing anointing that God gives us as mothers. We are nurturing in the image of God. We are showing what God-nurture is like.

But we also have this lion-like spirit, which will rise up to come against anyone who would come to attack our children. Or the enemy that would come to infiltrate our homes. And so we have both these virtues in us as mothers. They are part of every mother. We need both. So we embrace that beautiful gentle nurturing, but we also embrace that watchdog-like spirit.

We see that also when a mother is nursing her baby. God is so good! When a mother is nursing her baby, she has two hormones, oxytocin and prolactin, both beautiful hormones.

Oxytocin is that beautiful, calming, blissful, love hormone. It just makes you feel so calm and peaceful. Every time the milk lets down, that oxytocin is working. It causes mothers to just feel relaxed, and sometimes even sleepy. You'll often go to sleep while you're nursing your baby.

But you also have prolactin. Prolactin is a very motherly hormone too. That's why it's so wonderful. When we nurse a baby, God gives us all the hormones we need, to even make us more motherly. In fact, they  have found, with studies, that the more a mother nurses her baby, the more motherly she becomes. nod they have done studies in the wild, to find that an animal that is nursing its young, it will fight to death any other animal that comes near  her young one. Because of the prolactin, that strong protective hormone.

They have injected it into roosters. It will cause a rooster to become all clucky, and just hover over the little chicks, because it's a protecting hormone. We have that in us as mothers, to protect our baby. And as they get older, we still continue that protecting anointing. We have to be strong for that, don't we?

No. 6. GATEKEEPERS MUST BE WISE

All right. So we're up to number six. We must be wise. 1 Chronicles 26:14 talks about Zechariah the gatekeeper who was recorded as a wise counselor. He was a gatekeeper, but he had on his resume “a wise counselor.” We certainly need that too, don't we?

As we're watching over the gates of our homes, we need God's wisdom, His counsel. There's so much humanistic wisdom around. We have to find in the midst of lots of human wisdom, we've got to find God's wisdom.

We find that in His Word, of course. That’s why we need to keep in the Word of God, because it's that which keeps us, keeps us from deception, keeps us knowing what is the wise thing to do.

No. 7. GATEKEEPERS MUST GUARD ON ALL SIDES AND ALL NIGHT

We must guard on all sides and all through the night. 1 Chronicles 9:24 says the gatekeepers were on all four sides, east, west, north, and south. So you don't only guard a little part of your home. We must guard every part of our home, inside, outside, and on every side, watching every area.

Some of the gatekeepers spent all night around the House of God, to guard it. It had to be guarded day and night. Of course, we've got to get our sleep at night, but just as we check all our windows and lights before going to bed, so we always check the whereabouts of every member of our family to know where they are, what they're doing, what time they will be home.

As our children get older, often the great task of guarding can be even more needed. When our children are little, we're just physically guarding them, and watching them. As they get older, we're often more guarding their minds, and their souls, and their spirits.

I think I told you about that Scripture that I used when I was raising our children. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where Paul prays: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So we're praying for that end. We must guard, that was guarding on all sides.

No. 8. GATEKEEPERS MUST WATCH OVER WHAT COMES IN AND GOES OUT

All right, we must watch over what comes in, and what goes out. Ezekiel 44:14 tells us about those who were “keepers of the charge of the house for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.”

In 1 Chronicles 9:28, it says that there were certain gatekeepers who were in charge of the utensils that were used in worship. They would count them when they brought them in, and they would count them when they took them out. So we have to be guardians over even the things in our home. Isn't that amazing? The Bible is so practical, isn't it?

No. 9. GATEKEEPERS MUST WATCH OVER ALL THINGS

We must watch over all the things, even the furniture, utensils, pots and pans and bowls, and even all the food! Wow!

1 Chronicles 9:29 says there were other gatekeepers, who were put in charge of the furnishings, and all the utensils of the sanctuary, as well as the flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the incense, and the spices.

Did you know that everything in your home is significant? And God put everything that's in your home in your charge, to watch over it, because God loves to guard things. And He wants us to be a guardian over our things, even our furniture.

OK, maybe you've got some very posh furniture. Maybe like us, you just got it from Goodwill, or second-hand from someone. But whatever furniture we have, we do watch over it. We should guard the things that God gives to us.

Well, we don't kind of treat them as gods, goodness me. We let them be used. But we don't allow our children to disrespect them, because we're teaching children how to respect not only their own property, but other people's property.

So I never allowed our children to jump on their beds and jump on the sofas, using them as trampolines. No, get a trampoline for your children! Children love to jump! Of course they do! But get a trampoline, so they can get all their jumping done, out on that. Because if you jump on beds, and jump on sofas, it's going to ruin them.

And if you allow your children to do it, will they do it when they go to someone else's house? Well, I've had children do it in my home. Not my own children, but other people's children. So I've had to tell them, “No, we don't do that in our home.” So really, they should have learnt that in their own homes.

I don't allow our children to, well, when they were growing up, of course and even now, when the grandchildren come, I don't allow them to eat their food in the bedrooms and places like that. No, we eat at the breakfast table, at the dining table, in the kitchen. We keep food, as much as possible, to the kitchen, because it saves so much cleaning up. If you have little children taking food everywhere in the house, goodness me, the house becomes filled with crumbs and bits of stuff and dirt. Oh, goodness me, no! You will save yourself so much time by keeping it all to where you eat.

A home has certain places. You have bedrooms to sleep and relax. It has a kitchen and dining room to eat. So, we use the right rooms for the right things.

We watch over our food supplies. Yes, they had to even guard over that. They had to check when they were running out. They had to make sure they had enough. And so should we.

It's a good idea, you know, to even order a lot of your food in bulk, rather than running to the store every time you need something. That wastes gas, and every time you go, you see something else, and you buy more than you need.

I have found that the less that I go to the shop, well the less I buy! I think I've got enough stuff in this house without buying any more. Really, we usually have too much stuff, don't we? We have to even guard stuff we're bringing into our homes, that we don't fill them with stuff. So we just look after the stuff we do have.

But with food, it is good, often, to buy more in bulk, so you're not running out all the time, and not running out of stuff. Oh goodness me, I haven't got that. Can't make that, because I don't have this, and so on. We guard and watch over those things.

No. 10. GATEKEEPERS MUST BE ALTAR GUARDERS

All right, last point, quickly. Number 10. Oh yes, that's a big one. Oooooh. Number 10. We must be altar guardians. In Ezekiel 40:46, talking about Ezekiel's temple, it talks about the keepers, the gatekeepers who were in charge of the altar: “These are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, who come near to the Lord to minister unto Him.”

We also, dear ladies, need to be guarders over the altar in our home. Now they were talking about a literal altar there that they had to attend to. They had the brazen altar where they did the sacrifices. They had the altar of incense where they lit the incense which speaks of the prayers of the saints.

Now we don't have a literal altar today, but it is important as family, to create an altar in our homes, a time, a place, where we gather together as a family. Around the table is a wonderful place to do that. But at a time, when, every day, morning and evening, we meet together.

We meet as a family to hear God speak to us, to call upon Him as we pray. So, it's like an altar, because the altars were where they met with God. God said: “There will I meet with you and speak with you face to face.” Yes, an altar is where we meet with God. It's so important that we establish this in our homes.

Then we have to guard over it, because . . . have you found, ladies, so many things will come up in our lives to stop us having that altar? Have you found that? Oh, life is just filled with interruptions and filled with things you've got to do. Things in our lives get so busy. Then we've got . . . help! We haven't even got time to have our altar!

Oh, no! The altar is the most important thing. We have to make them happen. When we meet, we gather our family. We do everything in our power to do this, to gather our families together every morning, every evening, to meet with the Lord.

We must guard over it. Unless you guard over it, it will fall by the wayside. You have to make it happen. You have to be a guardian over it, just like those gatekeepers. They had to be even keepers over the altar.

So, dear ladies, our time has gone.

“We thank You, Father, so much for all the wonderful things you show us in Your Word. We pray that You will help us to be strong and courageous and anointed wives, gatekeepers of our homes.

“I pray for every mother, that You will bless her in her home. Lord God, give her sharp spiritual eyes to see what is happening in the lives of her children. Lord, I pray that You will help them, even as husband and wife, to pray together over their children every day. And You will raise them up to be mighty gatekeepers of their homes. That they will establish on this earth, in the midst of a deceived and wicked generation, that they will establish holy homes for You on this earth. In the Name of Jesus, Amen”

 

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 118 - WE ARE GATEKEEPERS OF OUR HOMES, PART 2

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies. 

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. We are now starting our second podcast in the series, We are Gatekeepers of Our Homes.

We didn’t get to it last week because we began to tell you of all the different stories that were happening to people and the beautiful triumphant home going of Maria into eternity. I know you would have been so amazingly blessed by that session.

But here we are again, finding out how to be gatekeepers of our homes.

I was telling you about some Hebrew words that talk about guarding. We were talking about tsaphah from Proverbs 31:27 where it says: “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”

The Hebrew word for “she looks well” is the same word I told you last time, but I’ll tell you again. It’s exactly the same word that is used of a watchman of a city or a watchman on the wall. Like in 2 Kings 9:17: “And there stood a watchman on the tower . . ..” There are many Scriptures about the watchman.

It means: “To lean forward, to peer, to observe, espy, keep the watch.”

And so it is a guarding. Guarding, we learned last time, comes from God. God is our ultimate Guarder. As we are created in His image we also want to guard.

We have to guard personally, guarding our own lives even as the Bible says in Habakkuk 2:1: “I will stand upon my watch . . ..” Wherever you watch like a watchman, on the tower, or on the city wall, or at the gate, wherever he is watching.

“ . . . And [I will] set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”

We can take that Scripture personally. We have a special watch where we spend time with God each day as we ask Him to show us things in our lives that are not pleasing to Him so we can get them right.

We also watch over our children in prayer during those times.

Proverbs 4:23 says: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Psalm 141:3 says: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

Those are speaking about a personal watching, but we are going to go on and talk more about watching over our homes.

NEW TESTAMENT GREEK WORDS FOR GUARDING

I’d like to tell you two more New Testament words. I told you two last time and now I’d like to give you the other two.

In Mark 13:34 Jesus is telling the story and He is saying: “For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work . . ..”

You notice how everything was organized. He didn’t leave and just leave them all to work it out. No, He left every person with his task that he was to accomplish.

“ . . . And commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

In that passage it talks about the porter. That’s a watchword.

The word porter has two Greek words, thyrōros, meaning: “door” and ouros meaning: “To guard, to keep watch over.”

Do you remember when I told you the meaning of “keepers at home” in Titus 2:4 where the older women are to teach the younger women to be keepers at home? The word in the Greek has two words oikourgos, which is “home” and then ouros, the same word again, ouros, which means “to guard, to keep, to watch over.”

The “keeper of the home,” she is guarding over her home. The” keeper of the door,” he or she is guarding over the door.

Then it has the word “watch,” which is grēgoreō, which means “to keep awake, to watch.” You can’t keep watch if you’re going to sleep on the job, can you?

Matthew 24:43 uses this word also: “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.”

That’s a powerful Scripture, isn’t it?

Why did the house break up? Because the ”goodman of the house,” the man of the home, or even the woman, was not watching.

We can stop things from happening in our homes and to our children if we are guarding and watching over them.

Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation . . ..”

Mark 13:37: “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

We have now found four different Greek words about guarding in the New Testament.

OLD TESTAMENT HEBREW WORDS FOR GUARDING

But let’s go back now, shall we, to the Old Testament. Back in David’s time in David’s tabernacle he appointed 4,000 gatekeepers. Isn’t that amazing?

There WEREN’T 4,000 working at a time but there were 4,000 rotating work so that the tabernacle, and then the temple, was always guarded at all times, 24/7.

In 1 Chronicles 9:22-29 it talks about a lot of these gatekeepers. In the King James version it calls them porters, but most translations call them gatekeepers.

The Message Bible calls them “security guards,” all meaning the same thing.

The interesting thing is that these gatekeepers or door watchers or whatever we want to call them, they had to be specifically chosen. They had to have certain characteristics about them before they could be chosen for this great work.

It wasn’t a little work. It was a very important task.

It says that they were chosen, they were ordained, they were given oversight, they were given charge, and another verse says they were appointed.

The word “chosen” in the Hebrew is barar and it means “examined, cleansed, polished, purified, purged, and made clean.” They had to be really examined, polished, and purified before they could take on this job.

Would you like to come with me as we go into the Bible and we see the criteria or the resume of a gatekeeper?

When you used to be out in your career, maybe before you got married and maybe before children came along, you may have got used to sending out resumes with everything that you have accomplished in your studies and in your work.

But here the Bible gives us a resume for gatekeepers.

Here, precious ladies, you are the gatekeeper of your home. You are the watchdog of your home. You are the guardian of your home and did you know that you actually need a resume?

Let’s look at these things, shall we?

No. 1. GATEKEEPS MUST BE TRUSTWORTHY

The gatekeepers in the Bible had to be trustworthy. David and Samuel actually appointed the gatekeepers and it says they appointed them to their “trusted positions” (1 Chronicles 9:22 HCSB).

I like The Message Bible where it says that David and Samuel the seer handpicked them for their “dependability.” Actually that is the correct word. A number of translations use “dependable.” It means “moral fidelity, faithfulness, stability but especially to be dependable.”

It’s so important for us as mothers to have that dependable attitude, that dependable characteristic. Our children should see that we are dependable; we keep to the same convictions. We don’t do one thing one day and something else the next that doesn’t add up.

No, WE ARE DEPENDABLE.

I think of another beautiful thing when we think about dependability, that is one of the salvation names of God and that is Jehovah-Shammah. That literally means, “The Lord is There.”

He is always there for us.

Isn’t that wonderful, ladies? When you need God, He is there. He is waiting. You can call out to Him.

It says in Jeremiah 33:3: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

We don’t call up God and get an answering machine saying, “Oh sorry, He is out at the moment. Try again in three hours.” No, He is always there for He is Jehovah-Shammah.

Ladies, as we mother in our homes, it’s not insignificant. We can reveal the character of God. We can show to our children what God is like. One of the most beautiful things you can show them is that God is there by you being there.

You think, “Oh goodness me, what’s that? Just being there? Goodness me, I just want to get out of this place.”

No, dear ladies, the fact of you being there in the home is a very powerful thing. You are showing to your children what God is like: that He is always there and that you are there for them when they need you.

So many babies, yes even babies, and so many toddlers and little ones are in daycare these days. They are taken to daycare every day while women go out to their career.

They are looked after physically and they are cared for but not spiritually, not emotionally, not mentally, no— a little baby, a little toddler, even an older child, they long for their mother.

No one will ever understand how they feel inside, longing for their mother, and it is a mother that they long for. They need their mother there.

MOTHERING MOMENTS

Now as your children get older, they don’t need you every minute like a little baby.

You are always there for them (your babies) because it won’t be long before you put them down and they want to nurse again. As they get older, you’re not attending to them every second, but you have MOTHERING MOMENTS.

I remember one day, several of us were talking together and a mother was complaining, “Oh I just feel so lousy as a mother because I just want to give to my children those specific and quality times but I’m so busy looking after them all and so busy keeping the house. Oh goodness me, I just can’t give this quality time!”

She just had this in her brain that she should give each one a certain amount of time.

I said to her, “That’s not how it works. You can’t make that work in life because life doesn’t work like that. Your children need you there for those mothering moments.”

Just at that moment, her little boy had been playing out with his friends. We were all gathered together for a church fellowship. They were all happily playing together but then he hurt himself and he came crying to mummy. Of course he didn’t want anyone else but mummy.

She was able to comfort him and put him on her knee and just cuddle him and comfort him. That’s what he needed.

But soon he stopped crying and jumped off her knee and off he went to play. He didn’t need his mother to sit on her knee for the rest of the day.

He needed that mothering moment. That’s when he needed her. He was happy to go out to play because he knew that if he needed her, mum was still there, and he could run to her again.

You see, precious mother, that’s what being there is like. You’re there. Your children may not need you every moment but there will be moments throughout the day they will need you. Things happen and little ones run to you. You’re there to comfort them, cuddle them, and pray for them, to help them, to show them whatever. You are there for those mothering moments.

They can be happy playing without you for a little while because they know you’re there if they need you.

I remember growing up, that’s a long time ago back when I was a child and going to school (we didn’t know about homeschooling in those days). When I came home my mother was there. She was a stay at home mum.

But sometimes she was out. Maybe she was running late with getting her groceries and I would come home from school. But usually she was home and as I got older, I would just throw my bags in the door and rush out to play with the children on the street. That was before I was older and there were homework days.

But I felt free to do that. My mother was there. I would say, “Hi Mum,” and throw my bag in the door and head out to play.

But then if I came home and she wasn’t there, I didn’t know what had happened to her. Wow, goodness me, had the Lord come? Back in those days the coming of the Lord was preached very frequently. We don’t hear so much about the coming of the Lord today.

But back in those days I think every week we heard messages about the coming of the Lord and, “You’d better be ready!”

My, if everybody had gone and nobody was in the home I would think, “Maybe the Lord has come and I’m not ready!” or I would wonder what had happened to my mother. I wouldn’t run out to play. I would mope around because I didn’t feel that security until she came home.  

Wow, here she was! I was free! I could run out and play again.

It just shows the power of a mother’s presence and how it has such great stability upon the child. It gives them stability and it gives them that knowingness. They can trust God because they can trust their mother.

They can trust God to always be there— Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord Who is present, the Lord Who is there.

You can reveal that to your children as you are a dependable gatekeeper.

No. 2. GATEKEEPERS MUST BE CLEANSED

Number two on the resume: We must be cleansed. The King of Judah, Jehoiada . . . it says in 2 Chronicles 23:19 that he stationed gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord so that no one could enter in who was in any way unclean.

Gatekeepers were responsible to guard the temple from any unclean person entering it. They had to make sure that nothing impure or unholy got past those gates.

They guarded the Holy Temple.

They were meticulous gatekeepers. They couldn’t even allow a little bit of uncleanness into the house, not even one tiny bit.

As we know as the Bible says: “ . . . Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”

Ezekiel 44:9, talking about Ezekiel’s temple says: “No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary . . ..”

And so lovely ladies, we are at the gates of our homes watching over them, making sure that nothing unclean comes into our homes. Nothing unclean comes into the bedrooms of our children. Sometimes they might sneak things past the door into their bedrooms and maybe hide them under the mattress.

No, we’ve got to watch out for every unclean thing. We are living in an unclean, adulterous world. We are living in a society where so many of our children will have iPhones and they have so much access to uncleanness.

We have to be gatekeepers who watch over what our children have, watch over what they are seeing, watch over what they are reading, and watch over what they are doing.

We must guard them from uncleanness.

I remember my own mother. Back in my day they didn’t have to face what mothers face today with all the social media and all the unclean things that are there on iPhones and TV’s and computers today.

But she even watched over what we did have. What did we have back then? We didn’t even have TV!

We had books. Yep, that’s all we had: Books. That was pretty good. We had books to read. I remember one time bringing home books from school from someone who had leant them to me.

Of course, as usual, my watchdog mother with her beady eyes, got hold of these books and she looked through them and they weren’t to her satisfaction. They weren’t wholesome.

So she said to me, “Young lady, you will take those books back first thing tomorrow morning, back to whoever gave them to you. I will not have them in this house.”

She was a watchdog mother. How I am so grateful to her. Even though she didn’t face what we face today she watched over what we did see. I am so glad.

I guess this sounds pretty amazing but I actually grew up and I had not watched or listened to anything that was evil or unclean and I didn’t have unclean things in my mind that I had to get rid of because I had a mother who had watchdogged over me and guarded me.

I am so grateful for that.

See, we face it so much more powerfully in this day in which we live. Ask God for wisdom. Ask Him to show you how to deal with all the social media in your home.

Most of all, pray over your children. Many, many families get programs they put on their computers and so on to stop things from coming in. I think that’s a very, very good thing.

But I think, to me, the greatest protection, yes outward protection is very important, but the greatest protection is inward protection where our children grow up with such a hate and abhorrence for evil that when they face these things they will not be tempted by it.

I have two illustrations.

HORRIFIED!

One, a few years back, we were in the UK. Colin and I were speaking throughout Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. We went to the four countries in the UK.

Our lovely granddaughter, Chalice, came with us. She was only 14 at the time. She was traveling with us and we were sitting on the bed. I was preparing for a message and I said to her, “Chally, you do home school on your computer and your iPad. Tell me, if anything should pop up that was evil, what would you do?”

She didn’t sit there and think about it before answering me. Immediately, it just rose up within her.

She said, “Oh Nana, I would vomit! I would be horrified!”

I was so blessed as I heard that because she had a protection that was on the inside. She had grown up to know that things that are unclean and evil, they are abhorrent to God and because God hates them, I hate them. She had a hate towards them and so that was her protection.

I believe that we need to have that. The Bible talks about the difference between the clean and the unclean.

The priests back in the Old Testament, that was one of their jobs. It was to teach the difference between the clean and the unclean. That is one of our great tasks as parents: To teach the difference between the clean and the unclean (Leviticus 10:10, 11; Jeremiah 15:19; Ezekiel 22:26; and 44:23).

We are always lifting up that which is beautiful, lovely and holy as the Bible says to think on these things that are pure and lovely and so on.

If something evil comes around and we hear about it, what do we do? We must tell our children, “This is horrific.”

THE SUPREME COURT OF OUR LAND DEFIED GOD

Let’s just give an example, perhaps when marriage was no longer made a marriage between a man and a woman, and they made same sex marriage just on level with godly, biblical marriage. I mean, I still cannot get over how that happened in our land? Do you? Or do we get used to it?

You see, it is very easy to get used to things. We must not let ourselves get used to things.

When that happened, what did you do? Did you rise up and speak to your children and say, “This is a horrific thing that has happened in our nation. This is an abomination in the eyes of God.”

Now all sin is evil before God, but the Word of God talks about some sins that are an abomination and that is one of them.

It is an abominable thing. It is horrific to the eyes of God. It is a slap in His face because He has created male and female to create a marriage that could bring forth children.

This same sex marriage completely obliterates that.

We have to watch in other things, uncleanness, fornication, adultery, we must call our children to have a hate towards these things that are evil so that will be in them because God doesn’t want anything unclean in His temple.

That means in our temple, too, because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In our home we make it a temple and a tabernacle for God. He doesn’t want the unclean in it.

Not only do we watch unclean things coming in, but also, we have to be cleansed ourselves.

In Nehemiah 13:22 Nehemiah restored the gates of Jerusalem and he commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should come and keep the gates. After he had restored and built up the gates of Jerusalem, he was going to put gatekeepers at every gate. There were 12 gates in Jerusalem at that time.

He repaired and strengthened each one of them. But then, once they were all built up again, because they had all been burnt with fire and were all broken down, he had to get the gatekeepers in.

But he said that before they could even be keepers at the gates, they had to cleanse themselves. And so, dear mothers, we need to be cleansed mothers if we’re going to be keeping the cleansed gates. Amen?

Oh, a while back I read on Facebook, and it was a friend of mine, and on his Face book he said, “I have just confiscated five phones, four laptops and two tablets. I will bore these children into shape.” He was being a gatekeeper.

Sometimes, though, ladies, things may creep into our home. Oh goodness me, yes, they can creep in. If they do creep in, we have to make sure we do something about them.

In King Josiah’s time he ordered the priests and the gatekeepers to bring out of the temple all the vessels that were made for other gods. What did they do? They burned them to ashes. That was in 2 Kings 23:4.

If you find anything unclean in your home or you find your children involved in it, well, you’ve got to take some action.

You do whatever you have to do but cast them out and get rid of them.

Yes, 2 Corinthians 7:1 says: “ . . . Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

AN EARTHLY PLACE FOR THE HOLINESS OF GOD

I was just reading this morning in my early morning Bible reading and I read Hebrews 9:1 and it says here: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.”

Well, that is King James. What is it really saying?

Let’s go to ESV and it says: “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.”

In other words, God had on this earth an earthly place of holiness. You see, the tabernacle, ladies, was built in the likeness of the heavenly one. Did you know that?

Sometimes people don’t know much about the tabernacle. We read about it in Exodus and Leviticus, but they have never really been taught about it.

But it is a very powerful thing to know because it’s not just a thing that’s way back there in Exodus and Leviticus—and how boring. No, it is a picture. It was built in the type of the heavenly one, which is now, which is still in Heaven, which John saw with his very own eyes and tells us about in the book of Revelation.

It was made in the likeness of the tabernacle in heaven.

This Scripture is saying that there was a tabernacle on earth to be an earthly place for God’s holiness. The J. B. Philips translation says:  “ . . . A holy place in this world for the eternal God . . ..”

Don’t you love that? Can I say those words again? “ . . . A holy place in this world for the eternal God . . ..”

The tabernacle, and then later the temple when it was built in Jerusalem, they were specific holy places on this earth for the eternal God. For in the Holy of Holies God resided in His Shekinah glory. He came and He filled that Holy of Holies with His presence and with His glory.

Now we don’t have a tabernacle and we don’t have a temple, that’s all finished. But now God has another temple. He has the temple of our lives.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

First Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

Ladies, that word temple is the Greek word naos and it doesn’t only mean temple, it is the actual word for the Holy of Holies.

The Holy of Holies is where God dwelt. Back in those days, no one could go into the Holy of Holies; only the High Priest and only once a year because this was where God dwelt and he could not go in unless he took the blood and was covered with the blood.

But now my body is the Holy of Holies for God’s presence. Your body is the Holy of Holies for God’s presence.

Your home, God wants to fill your home. He wants to make your home a holy place on earth for the eternal God. Isn’t that amazing? We don’t want to bring anything unclean into this holy place for the eternal God.

NOT ONLY YOUR HOME BUT ALL AROUND YOUR HOME MUST BE HOLY

Just one more thing as we close, ladies. Did you know that it wasn’t only the temple that was to be holy?

The Bible tells us and talking about Ezekiel’s temple in Ezekiel 43:12 it says: “This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”

I’ll give it to you in another translation, in the ESV: “This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple.”

This is saying that not only in your home but all around your home. You see, it was not only the temple but all around the temple.

God wants us to keep our home a place of holiness on this earth for Him but also all around. Our backyard, however much land we own. It might be only just a quarter of an acre or it might be 15 acres or whatever, but God wants the land around your house that you own to also be holy unto Him.

You watch not only what goes on in your home but also what goes on around your home. Who comes around your home? Who hangs out with your children? What is happening on the inside? What is happening on the outside?

We have a responsibility to keep our home and all around our home holy. Amen?

Can I give you that again? “ . . . A holy place [your home and all around your home] in this world for the eternal God . . ..”

“Oh Father, We thank You for Your Word that shows us what You want. Oh God, Lord, help us to see our homes as You see them, a holy place for You. In this sin sick world we make holy temples for You.

“Oh God, I pray that You will help each mother, Lord God, help her to be a dependable and cleansed gatekeeper, keeping her home clean from the uncleanness that’s all around us in society. What a huge task You have given us, Lord God. Help us, Father. Give us wisdom and anoint us by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Help us Lord. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Transcribed by Morgan Roth

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 117 - ACCIDENTS, DEATH, LIFE, AND THE GOODNESS AND GLORY OF GOD

My daughter, Evangeline joins me today.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. Today we are hoping to continue our series about “We Are Gatekeepers of Our Homes.” However, before I get onto that, I thought I'd catch you up on what's been going on. I know you love to hear all the nitty gritty.

So we have recently been down in Florida at Laguna Beach for our annual Above Rubies Family Retreat down there. It was such a wonderful time. We had nearly 600 people, with all the children. Lots of children and young people! It was just the most glorious time, although we did have lots of little mishaps.

When I think about one dear precious mother, who was pregnant with her fourth baby. She had these  two or three beautiful little girls. She's expecting a little baby, and she fell down the stairs! Wasn't very nice at all. No, she had to go to the hospital. But praise the Lord, her baby was fine. She's since emailed me since being home, saying everything is great. They just can't wait to get back next year and to show off their little baby boy.

And then another little boy, someone kind  of closed the big door on him, and it nearly took his toe off! They had to rush him to the emergency. He had to get his toe stitched all up.

We also had a beautiful couple there. She was pregnant, but also was fighting leukemia at the same time. So we were all, in fact everyone in the camp was praying for her on the Friday night. We all gathered around and prayed for her. She was just loved by everyone.

Anyway, so those things were going on in the midst of a very precious time with the Above Rubies Retreat down there in Florida. It's a bit different from all our others. Usually, they're just the weekend. But this one, because everyone loves coming to the beach, and it's become so popular, they usually come for a whole week.

Anyway, the main part is over the weekend. So we're getting to the end of the retreat, and all the Johnsons, and Evangeline and Howard and their family, they couldn't get there until Sunday. So they arrived Sunday. There were still loads of people there, because they're staying on for sort of a weeklong.

So anyway, things are going along, and then I think, yes, Wednesday, yes, you'd better tell us about that! We'll start telling you about some of the things that happened. It was hurricane time; those two hurricanes were coming in at once. We weren't in the line of the hurricanes. But of course, the whole Gulf was just whipped up, and the sea was so rough!

Evangeline, who is, she's the ocean kayak lady. She loves to go out a mile or more in the ocean and fish for sharks. She was determined to get out, and Sam, Serene's husband was going out. Who else was going out?

Evangeline: It was just Sam and me.

NC: Yes, but he couldn't get out.

Evangeline: Yeah, so the day before, we had got out, and it was really wonderful. But as we came in, we knew we were going to take a tumble. It's not if, but when . . .

NC: Was that on . . .

Evangeline: No, that was on Wednesday, the day before we got out. But we still had got the tumble, right? So the next day we could see it was sort of going to be a little bumpy. And miraculously, I had got over all the waves. But my kayak was full, and I was dumping out all the water. But I couldn't even fish because it was just, it was like eight-foot swells out there. I was like, whooo, sliding down the biggest. I wasn't that far out, so I knew I could get back in. I practiced like; things took over. You have to always practice that.

So anyway, I was looking around to call out and say, “Sam, don't come out! Don't come out, there's no use! We won't be able to fish!”

Then way over on yonder, I could see Sam on the shore. So I was thinking, “Wow, so he can't make it out.” And then when I got in, he tried three times, but he said, “Pray for Jireh!” I was like, “What?!” Jireh's my son. Sam couldn't . . . Jireh had gone out into the surf to help Sam, and the whole ocean, a wave had brought up our big kayak, we've got the big PA-14. So with the whole weight of the ocean . . .

NC: It would have been over 300 pounds.

Evangeline: Yes. So with the whole weight of the ocean, this kayak came up. Jireh was off to the side, but it twisted at the last minute, and came straight down on his head. So I came up on the shore, and everyone's telling me.

Jireh said he blacked out, so Sam grabbed him and got his hands on the kayak. They managed to bring him in. And we thought he was paralyzed, because he heard, he blacked out, and he heard his neck snap! So he literally heard it, and he was like, “Oh no, there goes my whole life!” So it's amazing that Sam was able to grab him, and he didn't get swept out into the ocean because there were rip tides. So unless you're on a surfboard or kayak, you are not supposed to go in. But he was trying to help Sam get in.

So they got him up, and the next thing, his whole body is going into tingles. So the emergency, what do you call those ambulances? The emergency people came, and we were just praying for his life, because if his neck's broken . . . he’s just about to be a father.

I literally couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I was like, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, save him!” So anyway, there were about five hours. They put him in the CAT scan. We were praying the whole time, just barely able to breathe. We were so in prayer.

Then the news came back that his neck wasn't broken! There was no fracture, and his muscles had taken the whole of the weight. He's really strong. In his work, he would run and do the job of about 15 men, for three years. In fact, he finished it, because he thought, “If I continue on like this, I'll run myself out in a couple of years.”

They said his veins were so huge and healthy, they were like highways. They'd never seen veins like it. So his neck, because he was so strong, his neck had taken the whole brunt. He was like a robot that couldn't even move his head one centimeter to the side. But he was alive, and he was going to be able to be well.

I heard, and I literally laid down on the street where I was, and just screamed out, “Thanks to the Lord!” It was like I could breathe for the first time.

It's so interesting, Mum, because all that week I had been in Luke 21. You know, Jesus is saying all these things are going to happen in life, and people are going to tell you it's the end. You know, you've got all these things, with what you guys have dealt with. Corona all around the world, and everyone saying our life will never be the same, and doomsday, doomsday, negative.

But you know, at the end of 21 in Luke, Jesus and the words we read . . . He was saying these words. He was like, “These things are bound to happen, but take heart.” And you know, these things were mulling in my brain that whole week, and then this happened with Ji.

He said, “Stay bold. Keep constant watch over your soul. Take heart. Be free from all worry of this life.”

We have to choose that. We have to choose that in the moment. I'll tell you what, we were stretched to choose that. I'm going to go on and tell you a story of how we saw that so, so vividly before our eyes, where we were having to work at it. But stay passionate.

NC: Yeah, that's so powerful, Vange. But we haven't finished yet, because, I mean, OK, we were all concerned about Jireh.

Evangeline: We still were!

NC: Oh yes!

Evangeline: We still were, because we didn't know how many . . . six months, or a year he was going to be in . . . he was in massive pain. Yeah.

NC: Yes, so praise the Lord! Well, we were leaving that day. But just before we were leaving, the ambulance was there, so we went over and Colin was able to pray (we’d all been praying of course) just pray over him as the people were taking him out to the ambulance. Of course, we're continually praying. So God is working, and He is healing so beautifully, isn't he?

Evangeline: Oh yes, it's incredible.

NC: But then we went home that day. And of course, we were still praying for beautiful Maria, that's the wife, the young wife who is, yes, who has leukemia. Over the retreat, she just felt she needed a blood transfusion, so they went in. She had two blood transfusions.

Then she got a brain bleed, and they said that they didn't think she was going to last. You know, the whole, all of the camp was so praying for her. But on the Thursday, that was the next day after Jireh's accident . . .

Everyone had left then. There was just Sam and Serene and family and Vange and Howard and family left. That day we heard that she died. So Vange was there, and I just wanted to tell you about it, to see once again . . . You know, we face these tragedies, but in all these tragedies, it's how we face them.

Evangeline: Well, Jether . . . We were intense in prayer. Jether was there in the hospital. He was able to be with Maria, even though she was on life support, in a coma. Apparently, the last thing that goes is the hearing. So he was able to be with her, speak with her. And his mother, beautiful Jenny, was there, and they were able to hold her hand, and be with her to the last moment.

And then he called up with Zadok, that's my oldest son, who's his best friend. “Zadok,” he said, “She's just gone to be with Jesus.” We were all out on the beach, and we were praying for resurrection, and Serene was praying, and I was down the beach crying out to God for resurrection.

And then Jether came back about three hours, three hours later. I want to tell you this, because I have never in my 55 years seen . . .

NC: Aren't you 56?

Evangeline: No, I'm 55. I thought I was 52, Mum, but I thought I was turning 53. But somebody told me I was turning 55, and now Mum's trying to tell me I'm actually 56! I've already gained three years, and now she's trying to tell me I've gained four!

But I'm getting younger and younger every year! So I actually couldn't believe I was turning 55. But I want to tell you, in 55 years, I have never seen, seen in my life, the glory of God to touch down. Jether came back, and it was all the Allison family, and all of ours in the room.

And he came in, and we were, our families were crying out to God. And Jether picked up the guitar, and all of a sudden, he started singing made-up songs, and he was in Heaven! I've never felt such, the Presence of God.

And here's this young man, and his beautiful 23 and a half-year wife, and she was in Heaven free from pain after all these years. She was dancing before the Lord, and he knew it! And here he was, before the Lord, worshipping with his wife. It's like he could see through the veil. The veil was so thin. It was so thin, and he was there with her! He could see through the veil.

He was on the other side, worshipping, worshipping our Father with her, for the three and a half . . . for the years he had with her. His songs were about . . . they just . . . I've never heard anything like it. Different octaves. It was, it was the most precious thing I have ever been able to humbly witness in all my born days.

He was singing to the Lord about his first kiss, and his first night, and that God had given to him a word, and how good God was. And it went on for an hour, and I was caught up, literally, into Heaven.

Heaven had come down and saved my Jireh. Heaven had come down in worship, and in a man who chose to worship the Lord. Heaven had come down again.

And he after that, he was in this place, and we were the ones he ministered to. He went round, and he literally prayed for every single one of us individually, laying hands on us, like even down to the little baby. Even to the six-year-olds. And there were like, 25 of us or more. And he would spend 20 minutes or more, for each person, until they were bathed, covered in the love of Jesus.

This young man has yet, you know that night, he slept out on the beach with my son. The night before he got married, he went off with all the boys and Zadok, and they slept in the woods. The night after Maria was with the Lord, they did the same on the beach, with the thunder and the stars. It's not that at night, of course, he's like, “God, come and be with me, come and help me.”

But this man has chosen this place, and God has granted to him. God, I have witnessed the Glory of God! What otherwise would be just horrendous pain. And this is the Glory of God like I've never ever seen, Mum.

And I came home, and I was in it, and I was witnessing it. I came home, yet my own stuff, my own brain, was like, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me, help my own brain. I see it in Jether, her husband. God . . . ”

You know, again, Luke 21 came, and the Lord spoke to me. He said, “Keep your heart. Stay passionate.” And I'm a passionate person, and I knew that was passionately in love, of thanking the Lord.

And that's what I saw Jether do. I saw him from morning to night, he was thanking Jesus. “Thank You, Jesus, for my time with her. Thank You for my daughter, Promesa.”

He's got a beautiful 10-month. They had a beautiful 10-month daughter, Promesa. I've never witnessed anything so profoundly chosen, and God granting back this place of Heaven.

NC: Yes, when the Allisons got home we popped over to say hi, and Serene also shared. She couldn't even talk about anything else. Because she said, “I have never experienced this in life. Not only did Jether pray for each one, but he prophesied over so many. It was like, because he had just been in the place of heaven, it was . . . ”

Evangeline: He was bringing heaven down. He was literally . . . this man literally had entered Heaven. And we got to witness when he brought Heaven down into the room to us. I have no words, but I have to share with you what God can do!

NC: Yes And I was talking with Jether today, and said to him, “How are you, Jether?” And he said, “I'm so great. God is so good.” He sees the good in everything. He sees every little blessing he experienced with his wife and he is thanking God for. It's so beautiful, and I said, “You know, would you mind if we shared of our beautiful Maria?” Because she was so beautiful.

Evangeline: Gorgeous! Gorgeous in every way, in her looks, and in her spirit.

NC: “Yes, well, only if God is glorified.” He said, You know the place I'm in, it's not me. Nothing is me. It's just God. God is good.”

Isn't it wonderful? We wanted to tell you this experience today because many of you face such difficult times. But we can go through them in despair, or we can go through them in triumph, according to how we see God.

And he's looking at the goodness. It's so amazing. And I think it's an amazing thing, something I feel so incredible about. This whole thing is that they were only married about 3-1/2 years or so, 2-1/2, not long, maybe only 2-1/2 (I think it was less). And they have this darling little 10-month-old girl. And she has another baby in her womb. That little baby died before they , , , But that little baby also went straight to Heaven!

Evangeline: Yes!

NC: And when you think about it, this marriage, this marriage has brought forth two eternal souls for the eternal realm, to live forever and ever! And although they only had these two-plus or so years together, they brought forth fruit for eternity! And they're going to enjoy their children together in eternity. It is so amazing isn't it?

Evangeline: And you know, it's true that, even though she was in a lot of pain, and he knew that, going into marriage, that she would be fighting for her life, it was the happiest years of her life on earth. And now she's in Heaven, just free from all of that too. So much God, so much goodness. And Jether, he knows the reality, the truth, the realness of really what has truly happened. Yes.

NC: Absolutely. Oh yes, for all those who were at the retreat, I think to many of them, one of the most beautiful memories of the retreat is that on the Friday night when we all prayed for her, and later on, they were worshipping, and singing. And Maria began to dance. She was just dancing before the Lord.

Many got up and testified, and that was before she even passed away. But that was the most beautiful thing that touched them. And so, so many just saw her dancing before the Lord, even before she was dancing in Heaven!

Evangeline: You know, Mum, Jether actually talked to me about this later. He said that was miraculous because he did, he'd been with her, and he couldn't fathom how she got that energy, how that even happened. He said that was the Lord. It was absolutely the Lord. Yeah.

NC: Yes, Yes. It's just like a little taste, because I had, I wasn't in the room at that moment. I missed it! Oh, help! But they said she wasn't doing a little dance. She was totally and passionately dancing before the Lord. So it was like a little taste before she went into that heavenly realm.

Oh my. But you know what? Though that was the most.... Well, do you know, I guess we have to say, it was triumphant. Even in the grief, it was the most triumphant...

Evangeline: I think many triumphant winnings and stuff, but in my whole life I did nothing that can match that triumphal entry. And of how Jether heralded her. He heralded her, with Jesus and the angels. Her husband heralded her. I have never ever been to such a triumphant, triumphant entry of awesome, beyond awesomeness . . . and that's not to take away from the missing he will have, completely. I know that. But God, God has done something there.

NC: Yes, God is bigger than every circumstance. And that wasn't the end of the retreat. Allison Hartman, you've often listened to her on my podcast. Allison is the one who does all the hard work behind the scenes to put these retreats on. She's so amazing.

But right through that retreat, her beautiful little darling girl, Emily Kate, was so sick! She could not lift her head off the pillow! You know, they knew she had a sore throat, but it just got worse and worse, so they . . .

Evangeline: They took her to the doctor. Three times!

NC: Oh, I know. So while the retreat was on, they took her on two different occasions to the hospital. The second time, Allison pleaded with them. She said, “Please!” They said, “Well we can't. . . . You know, she's just got . . . It might be strep, we don't know. She'll just get over it. Just give it time.”

Because it was the second time they had taken her, Allison pleaded, “Please, give me some antibiotics, just even to see if they'll work” because she knew how sick she was. But she did not improve.

So when they went back home, I guess it was Wednesday or Thursday, they went back to Pensacola where they live. They took her again to the hospital there. When they got there, they said, this was an infection that wasn't just in her throat. It had gone into the bone, and the bone had become sceptic.

Evangeline: They gave her a scan.

NC: Yes, the other place, they didn't even do anything! They just looked at her. Here, they gave her a CAT scan, and they found that this infection had gone into the bone. It had become sceptic. They said she hasn't got much time left. So they immediately got her onto IV antibiotics. Praise the Lord, little Emily Kate has come right too. But that was a very touch and go thing too.

So we went through that. and praise the Lord that everyone was so much in prayer about everything. Oh my, doesn't prayer work? And then, oh goodness, you started with Jireh, and you had Jether with Maria going. And then the next thing was Saber, wasn't it? What happened to Saber?

Evangeline: Oh yes! Well, Saber, he was . . . They had pulled there, and pushed, and I don't even know how it happened, but the next thing, he came in, and his whole . . . from the knee, all the way down, had completely opened up to the muscle! Like about, oooh, about 16 inches long! He walked in with blood gushing everywhere! He had opened his whole leg up, from the front, all the way down!

NC: Oh, by the way, Saber is Serene's youngest son.

Evangeline: Serene? Mine!

NC: (laughing) Vangie's! When the children were little, and I was raising them, I would usually say every name before I got to the right one!

Evangeline: So, yeah. And then, so we got him all fixed up, and he had . . .

NC: You didn't rush to the hospital with that one, did you? Howard fixed that up because he's actually the family doctor on our land.

Evangeline: He's very good. He works, because doctors are a lot of his friends, and they call him back and forth. But by the time we'd worked through these things that we had lived through, something like this was so little, even  though it was cut down to . . .We could see the muscle!  But Saber was so strong and so we did, I think it was about 15 butterfly stitches, and super glue. It's all healing up so wonderful.

But at the same time, Olivia, Jireh's wife . . . her brothers were with us too, and they're like other sons of mine. Her mom is like my bestie. John had gone out surfing.

Because the rip tide was so bad, there was one woman, just at her ankles, and she got out to just her knees, and the tide whipped her right out! She was a larger woman, and she came around, did the right thing, but she didn't go far enough. She waved to her friends that she'd be right.

And Jireh can't move. He's like a robot, just watching from the balcony with this huge thing around his neck, just only able to move his eyes. He's saying to Liv, “Liv, she's drowning!”

And then Isaiah was there, and he couldn't swim. He was like, “I would only drown both of us.” So she went round three times! She came around, and the riptide took her out again. She came around, and the riptide took her out again. On the third time, she knew she was drowning.

And they screamed to John, and John went out with his surfboard and was able to save her life. And then he was out, and on the way in, the keel of his surfboard came off and dug into him and did a huge gash in his calf muscle. So Howard had to sew him up. Then he had to sew Sharar up, who knocked his whole front toe off! (Sharar is another of Evangeline’s older sons).

NC: (laughing) So . . .

Evangeline: These things will happen. Luke 21, but it's not the end!

NC: So Howard was really, you know, you went down, of course, to do your kayaking. But really, the whole thing changed.

Evangeline: Exactly. It wasn't about our kayaking at all. God, God so had us there. It was amazing. It was such a time. It was beautiful.

NC: Howard put in full time, wasn't he? Sewing people up! (laughing) Oh yes. So anyway, when we came home, and of course, we were in prayer for everyone. Then we were just, I was on the phone, hearing the news of Maria.

And then Colin was on the other phone, my husband, of hearing the news of a very dear friend, a dear pastor friend, who we've been with for years and years, Shaun Kearney, from New Zealand. His son called to say how he had just gone to be with the Lord.

Sadly, some of his family were in Australia, and they can't even get back to the funeral because nobody can get into New Zealand. They've kind of just cut it off. That has been such a sad thing, hasn't it, about this whole lockdown.

Things are coming out now, how that all the numbers have not been true at all. That the real numbers for COVID have gone right down. I think it was about, oh, I had it before me, and I forgot. They were saying it was 153.504 recorded deaths, and now it’s only 9,210 who actually died from COVID alone.

The heartache that people have had to go through. Our dear friend Willy, a dear friend in California, one of our very dear friends, Willie Tata, he's one of our native New Zealanders. He got pneumonia. They took him to hospital, and he was so bad they even had to give him a blood transfusion because he couldn't even . . . his antibodies couldn't fight this thing.

All he was doing was calling out for his wife. She was home calling out for him, and they couldn't even be together! It was so sad!

And then, we had another dear friend, I guess because we're getting older, some of our dearest friends are passing away. Another dear friend, we had worked in full-time ministry with, many, many years ago. We got a call to say that he had passed away, John Dornan.

Evangeline: You are kidding me!

NC: Yes, John and Andre.

Evangeline: You didn't call me!

NC: Oh goodness me, I'm so sorry!

Evangeline: What's his name?

NC: Shaun.

Evangeline: Oooooohhh . . .

NC: I know. John and Andre, they, oohhh, these people I'm talking to you about, they are not just ordinary people. They were saints of God.

Evangeline: I knew them! They were like uncles.

NC: Yes, John and Andre, they were always, did you notice, they're together. You never saw them ever alone. They were together!

Evangeline: It's interesting that it was in the same week.

NC: No, no. Andre's still alive. No, it was a few weeks ago for John. But anyway, he had had a stroke, and she had said they had to put him in a home  because she couldn't cope with some of the things she had to do for him.

But she would go every single day and spend the whole day with him. Because they were an inseparable couple. They couldn't be separated. But when this COVID thing happened, they told her,  “You can come for half an hour only.”

Evangeline: NO!! No!

NC: Yes.

Evangeline: But what would be the difference? Half an hour, or a day? That's disgusting!

NC: I know, it's been so sad. Well, with half an hour a day, he was languishing. They said he was not expected to die, but he died! And it was because of loneliness, the longing for his wife. It was so sad! And that's just been multiplied, over and over and over again.

But anyway, we're talking about this last week, and while we were hearing of Maria, we were also hearing of our dear friend Shaun. And then the next day, we heard of another precious friend, dear Rosa and Ben Brant. She used to look after Above Rubies in Canada. Such a wonderful beautiful woman.

And her husband, he was blind. But he was, he had such an anointing of God upon him. Such a sweetness of soul. When you were with him, you felt like you were just touching Heaven. And we got the news he had passed away.

Anyway, in the midst of all this, it just brings us closer to eternity, doesn't it? Because I think this is what happens. In this life . . . really, what is it? It's a vapor.

Evangeline: It is.

NC: The Bible says it's a vapor. It's going to be here and gone, like a vapor. Here it is, and then it's gone. And that's what this life is, but we live for the eternal realm that is forever and forever. Yes.

Evangeline: Yes. And when you start to see the aspects of the eternal realm, wow! Yeah, you know, it really does change you. You come back, and you're like, “Whooo! Wow!” This is just, this is just nothing on earth.

NC: I think we have to look at everything in the light of eternity, don't you?

Evangeline: To see somebody who does, who's going through it, like I did, to see someone who does, it literally brings Heaven to earth.

NC: Oh yes, so anyway, I didn't start our series, but we'll start it again for next week. But let me just close the session with this Scripture.

2 Corinthians 4. Yes, and this is talking about those who are going through difficulties, and even those who are feeling weary, and all kinds of infirmities and things.

Verse 16, and it says here, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment...” Sometimes we think that our affliction, or what we're going through, it just goes on and on and on. But the Bible says that when we put it on God's scales, it's light! It's but for a moment. And in the eyes of eternity, it's nothing! It's but for a moment.

“And it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” Five adjectives are given to describe the glory that will be revealed in us as we go through . . .

Evangeline: 2 Corinthians . . .

NC: Yes, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. So it takes five adjectives to reveal the glory that will be worked in us as we let God come into the situations we're going through. Listen to it again.

“A FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY.”

Do you see the scales go down? My infirmities, my thing I'm going through, oh, it seems so heavy! But when we put it in God's scale, boom! Up it goes, and down comes the weight of glory.

“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

What does your translation say?

Evangeline: Well, I love how it begins here. It says: “For no wonder . . . ” No wonder! “we don't give up.” What a way to start it! “For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal weighty glory far beyond all comparison.” That's what I saw and witnessed this week, Mum.

“...because we don't focus our attention on what is seen, but what is unseen.” And that's the choice. We choose that, Mum. That's when you see the glory. “For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.”

NC: That is the Passion Translation. Well, let's pray.

“Father, we thank You that we've been able to talk today about, really, about eternity, about the glory of eternity. We've had little glimpses of it. And Lord, even in all the little things, and the big things that  we have faced over these last couple of weeks, we thank You, Lord, that You are bigger, and You are greater, and You are more glorious.

And Lord, that we can find Your glory and Your anointing in everything. I pray Lord, for every precious mother, young person, grandmother, whoever is listening today, that, Lord, You will pour out Your glory upon them into their situation, into whatever they are going through, Father.

I pray that they will, Lord, choose to see You, and to see Your glory, and, Lord, that that they will see into the eternal realm, and realize that this life is truly a vapor. It's going to be here and gone. But, Lord, we have to prepare, and live, and do everything for the eternal realm. Thank You, Jesus. Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.