PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 119: WE ARE GATEKEEPERS OF OUR HOMES, PART 3

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.