Draw Near To God, Rebecca Chavez’s Story

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Hey friends, welcome to the Her God Story podcast where you will always hear a good

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story to encourage and inspire you in your walk with the Lord.

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I'm so glad you tuned in.

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I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America International, author

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and traveler on this journey with Jesus.

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Did you know you can download a free six-week devotional on women of the Bible at hergodstory.org?

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God will use it to minister to you in so many ways.

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We also have a 12-week devotional on women of the Bible that you can purchase for just

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$12 and all the proceeds will go to our widow and orphan funds, so check them out.

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And I have a favor to ask.

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Would you rate this podcast on your favorite streaming platform or just click rate the

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show in our episode description?

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That will help others find this podcast too.

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You know, sometimes our hearts feel faint and our spirits, the willing, feel weak.

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We want to follow the Lord, but we just can't muster up what it takes.

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So what do we do?

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Well, Psalm 73 gives us some insight.

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Verses 25, 26, and 28 in the New Living Translation reads,

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Whom have I in heaven but you?

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I desire you more than anything on earth.

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My heart may fail, my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart.

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He is mine forever.

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But as for me, how good it is to be near God.

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I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter and I will tell everyone about the wonderful

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things you do.

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Drawing near to God is always the answer.

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Whether we are on a mountaintop or slogging through harsh places, when we draw near to

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God, He strengthens us and guides us.

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He shelters us and shows us wonderful things that we can share with others.

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My guest, Rebecca Chavez, has made it a priority to draw near to God.

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After an experience that shook her church and her family, anxiety plugged her heart

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and sapped her strength.

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But as she leaned on the Lord, her strength and confidence were restored.

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She knows that the presence of the Lord dispels all fear and lights the path before us.

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As she's followed his leading, God has opened amazing doors for Rebecca to tell of the wonderful

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things God has done.

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Rebecca is the founder and president of Deborah the Brave Ministries as well as the Alliance

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of Christian Women for Israel.

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She has two adult sons, three grandchildren, and a husband of over 35 years.

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Welcome Rebecca.

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Hey, thank you so much for having me on today.

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Well, Rebecca, your early years were a little chaotic, but God was sowing seeds in your

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young heart even then.

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Share about those years and how you came to Christ as a young adult.

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Well, I did not grow up in a traditional Christian home.

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My mother knew the Lord, but she married my father who was an Episcopalian and not a faithful

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one.

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So we were what you would call creasters.

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We went to church on Christmas and Easter and that was about it.

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But my mom was a believer.

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And I know that because she was constantly watching programs like Billy Graham and Oral

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Roberts.

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But our home, because of that not having a foundation of faith, my parents ended up divorcing

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when I was 12 years old.

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And it was a very, very chaotic time.

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There was alcohol in the home.

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They wouldn't admit any kind of problem with that because my father was in the oil business.

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All of his relationships were high echelon kind of relationships.

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And so they hit a lot of the problems.

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But I remember as a child that when we would go to bed, they would fight.

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And my sister and I would hear that.

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And so after the divorce, well, during the time of their separation, my sister actually

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said that we came home from school, she's four and a half years older than I am, and

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found a letter that my dad had left.

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And I to this day have no recollection of that.

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So I know that it must have been devastating.

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But I remember caring as a child, when things happen, you interpret things usually through

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your own lens.

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So I interpreted all of that as I did something wrong or it was my fault.

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So to cope with that, my little brain said, well, it doesn't matter.

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Whatever makes them happy.

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And I kind of pushed some of those things aside, which bothered me later as a young

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adult.

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So I lived with my mother and she was gone a lot.

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She was herself struggling.

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And my sister moved out to move in with a boyfriend.

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To this day, I'm still amazed at how we all survived those years, not having a parent

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at home raising myself a lot of times by 13 and getting myself to school.

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My mother wouldn't be home for a few days or so.

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She'd come in, check in, fill the refrigerator and then take off again.

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And so I became very independent.

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And that later on led to a lot of self protection.

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But as I got through high school and for a period of time live with my father, who was

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remarried, I decided that I would go to college.

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And when I went to college at 19 years old, that's when I met the Lord.

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So when you made Jesus Lord of your life, God started revealing himself to you in all

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sorts of ways.

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So how did he do it?

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Share some of that.

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Well, I always had a longing for the Lord in the sense of I would hear my mother pray

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and I would emulate her prayers.

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I can remember always believing I had some kind of destiny that I was made for a purpose.

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I didn't know it was God, but I felt like there was a God.

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So I can remember even as a little child laying out on our front lawn and looking at the stars

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and just praying to God.

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I didn't know Jesus per se, but I would just say over and over, I know you made me for

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a reason.

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So I had that longing to be connected, but I didn't know how to get there.

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So when I went to college, I went to college here in New Mexico.

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I didn't have any friends really.

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And so I joined a sorority, which was very out of character for me because I wasn't that

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kind of girl, honestly.

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So I joined a sorority to meet people and the sorority I happened to join was one of

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the ones with the best morals.

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God did that.

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And I met a girl who was in Campus Crusade for Christ.

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And she took me under her wing one day.

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She said, isn't it just so great to be a Christian?

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And I said, well, I'm not sure that I am.

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I knew that I had this searching, but I didn't know what to do with that.

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So she actually led me through the four spiritual laws right there.

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And I believe I was born again.

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And that at 19 years old started my journey.

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I still had a lot of healing to go.

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Sure.

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And it was an amazing experience to come from a place of complete darkness to a place of

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light.

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And I just felt that my life was a comp.

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You know, when they first Corinthians 521 says that we are a new creation in Christ,

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I actually tangibly felt that it was big.

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Some people, you know, don't have that big experience, which is okay.

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This doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

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But for me, there was some kind of experience.

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And so it was an amazing time, an amazing thing.

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After you had this experience with Jesus feeling a new creation, you started really getting

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into the Word of God, listening to it on tape and reading it and going to church.

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And during that time, you became really struck by the Book of Acts and living the Book of

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Acts.

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Share about that experience as you tried to understand what the Book of Acts was all about.

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Well, I had an insatiable hunger for the Word of God, I believe, because number one, the

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Holy Spirit now lived in me and was, you know, connecting me to the Lord and wanted to show

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me Jesus.

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That's what the Holy Spirit does.

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It reveals Jesus to us.

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And so that was one reason.

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Another reason was because I didn't know anything about the Bible.

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I didn't grow up with Bible stories.

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I may have heard the name David and Goliath, but sometime, but I didn't have any knowledge

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of the Bible.

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And so when I began to read it, it opened up to me in ways that, you know, the Word

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of God, one of my favorite verses in Hebrews.

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The Word of God is living and active.

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It's the only book that you have in your home or on your shelf or in your lap.

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It is actually a living organism.

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That's how I view it.

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So when you read it, it becomes part of the fiber of your spiritual being, your spirit,

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your soul.

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And I think that's so exciting.

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And that's the draw that keeps me going back to it.

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So I just began to study as much as I could, and it became to me a living love letter.

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It just became, you know, the father that had left the bridegroom that I didn't have,

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the relationship and somebody that truly loved me, but also gave me some direction.

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So in order to study the Bible as deeply as I could, I figured out pretty quickly that

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I was reading about a savior that wasn't a white American and that there was culture

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involved.

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And so I understood that, wow, the Bible's not written in English.

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I mean, we have translations, but the original documents weren't in English.

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So I started to learn some of the original languages to better interpret and understand

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the fullness of what the scripture was saying.

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And as you are really delving into scripture and the Holy Spirit was really empowering

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you in your Christian walk, you started that healing journey that you mentioned earlier,

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the healing journey from the wounds of your childhood.

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Tell me a little bit about how God walked you through that healing journey and gave

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you that new identity.

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Well, you mentioned the book of Acts, and I think that's very important to accent here

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because I believe a lot of believers seek healing, but without the power of the Holy

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Spirit, we're really incapacitated because he's the one that is our comforter and our

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healer, the spirit of God living in us.

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So the summer that I had gotten saved and went to a Baptist church and they were not,

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I didn't learn much about the Holy Spirit.

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I was on the Baptist Student Union Council.

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I was teaching discipleship classes and I started to, I was serving, serving a lot,

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but I started to feel just so much dryness and I couldn't figure that out.

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So I went home that summer and I spent the summer reading the book of Acts and I thought,

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wow, I just remember them saying that the Holy Spirit doesn't really move and work the

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way that I'm reading.

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And so why have we not studied this book?

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So I had a series of tapes.

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You remember cassette tapes way back when?

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Oh yeah.

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Oh yeah.

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And as a young college girl, I would lay in the sun and out in the backyard and I listened

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to those tapes over and over and read, just read the Bible.

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And there was actually one side note that I think is so encouraging is there was a kind

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of a trailer park next to where our home was.

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We lived near the hospital and my mother and my sister and I lived there.

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And there was a lady that would listen to those tapes as I listened to them through

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her trailer.

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And she ended up meeting the Lord through just listening to the book of Acts.

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Wow.

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Yeah.

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It was really a neat experience.

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So those, that was a really formative time, you know, as I, as I journeyed forward and

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went back to college and was relieved of my duties as the discipleship coordinator.

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And it started though, the Holy Spirit living in me in such a fuller expression of who he

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is.

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It's more of an immersion and a bubbling out, you know, whatever you want to call it.

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I had an encounter with him and that I believe he started stirring up the waters.

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He knew that I needed to be healed.

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And yeah, and he started me on that journey at that point when I was in college.

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So I came home to, by that time my sister had moved to Roswell, New Mexico where I live

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and she was working and I decided to go to nursing school and I came back here to live

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with her and met a Christian counselor who was very gifted at leading people through

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a healing process.

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And that, that, that opened up, you know, the can of worms, all that.

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I was single at the time, which was really good.

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No one had to walk that through that with me.

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And I feel that the word of God and a trusted advisor, trusted counselor, support from the

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women in my family and a good church were just, you know, the nest egg, the nest I needed

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to receive that healing and understand my identity in Christ.

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That was the biggest probably aha moment in my entire life was understanding that.

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And I think that a lot of women just being in women's ministry and married to a pastor

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and working in our women's ministry, that is the biggest hindrance and also a work of

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the enemy to keep that hidden of how cherished and truly loved we are by the Lord.

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Well, you mentioned that, you know, you married a, you married a pastor and that kind of started

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when you changed churches, when you went to Roswell to, to Roslyn to go to nursing school.

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The timing of your relationship wasn't exactly right when you first met your husband there,

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but share a little bit about that, those early days of meeting Jerry and what God did.

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Well, I was going to, I started going to church there, non-denominational church, and with

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a friend who kept telling me about, Oh, I really want to meet the support, the worship

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pastor.

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And he was a worship leader and a youth leader at this church here in town.

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And she was interested in meeting him.

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So I backed off quite a bit, but he kept coming over to where I was, seemed like we'd run

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into each other all the time.

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And she, she then moved and, and was not interested in him anymore.

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And so we met and we went out on, we used to call them coke dates, you know, we just

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went to Sonic and got a coke trying to just kind of get to know each other.

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There weren't a lot of single Christian believers where I lived and where we lived at the time.

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And so we started a friendship and it was during that time that I felt a call to go

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to Israel.

232
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How did that come about?

233
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I mean, that's out of the blue, right?

234
00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:32,880
Totally.

235
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:33,880
Right.

236
00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:34,880
You'd never traveled before.

237
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:38,880
No, I, you know, growing up, I didn't even know any Jewish people.

238
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I, it was completely a foreign thing to me, except for when I started to really study

239
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several years before I, I, as I said, I realized that this guy in the Bible, my savior, I mean,

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he's, he has this family and culture and I liken it to when I met my husband, my husband

241
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:05,120
is Hispanic and Spaniard.

242
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:11,520
And so when I met him, there were a lot of things his family did and words they used

243
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that I had no clue what that even meant.

244
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:19,000
You know, what was a miha and a miho and, you know, why did we only have tortillas and

245
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beans for dinner?

246
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:25,160
And there was just things that they did the way that their family worked that I didn't

247
00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,100
know anything about.

248
00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:30,720
And it's the same with our savior because he's Jewish.

249
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So there's so much in the Bible that we don't understand because we don't understand his

250
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,440
culture and his family.

251
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:44,240
And I wanted to know everything about my husband's family because I was in love with him.

252
00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:46,200
And I felt the same way about Jesus.

253
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:50,920
I was falling in love with him and I wanted to know everything about him and that included

254
00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:52,440
his family.

255
00:18:52,440 --> 00:19:02,720
So I was working my, I guess my career has always been in psychology somewhat.

256
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:12,840
So I was a psychiatric aide in a hospital and I on the side had met somebody that was

257
00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:14,440
teaching biblical Hebrews.

258
00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:20,600
So I took the classes because I wanted to know, you know, go deeper.

259
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:28,760
And they knew of someone in Israel that needed a nanny and for two little boys and they worked

260
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,000
for CBN.

261
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:35,020
So they needed somebody for a year commitment.

262
00:19:35,020 --> 00:19:41,420
And I don't know out of the blue, I just felt like, wow, what an opportunity to really know

263
00:19:41,420 --> 00:19:43,660
Jesus' land and people.

264
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So I did it.

265
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,080
I left everything.

266
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:52,520
That was before Jerry and I had kind of, we just had those couple of coke dates and so

267
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,760
there wasn't any spark really, just friends.

268
00:19:55,760 --> 00:20:02,360
I left for a whole year and I landed in Tel Aviv, flew over to Israel, left my family,

269
00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:09,600
sold my car and landed in Tel Aviv with a suitcase and looked for my name on a poster,

270
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:12,640
you know, because I've never met the family.

271
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And so I started, that's how I started that journey in Israel for that first year.

272
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:22,840
It was incredible.

273
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:27,800
Back in those days too, it was more, it's difficult to live in Israel, but it was even

274
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,400
more difficult.

275
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:31,760
But that began that journey.

276
00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:37,960
So I lived with this family, I took care of two little boys and then I got to go to all

277
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:43,720
of the different places and tour and I had time off sometimes to do that and also to

278
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:48,320
take Olpon, which is learning the Hebrew language, modern Hebrew.

279
00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:49,880
I mean, you just fell in love with the land.

280
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,960
You thought your intention was to just stay there.

281
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:53,960
Yes.

282
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:59,040
But you came home over the summer for a visit, see family and God redirected your steps very

283
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,080
surprisingly again.

284
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:02,440
So how did he do that?

285
00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:07,440
Well, I came home just for the summer, as you said, for a break and to check in.

286
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:13,000
And everybody at home thought I was coming home for good.

287
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:19,880
So they thought I was coming home, but I had a round trip ticket and I informed them when

288
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,640
I got home that I was going back for another year.

289
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:26,760
There was a couple that lived down the street from the original family that I worked for

290
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,720
and they wrote all of their music.

291
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:36,160
They were musicians, they were believers, wrote all of their music into Hebrew gospel

292
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,520
music to reach Israelis.

293
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:43,120
So they offered me a job and I felt like the Lord said to do that.

294
00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:50,680
So I came home for that summer and lo and behold, Jerry, my future husband, was here

295
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,480
also and he came home for a summer.

296
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:58,640
He was working and traveling with the evangelist at the time singing.

297
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:03,000
So we met and we spent the summer together and there was something completely different

298
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,920
about him.

299
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:07,680
He was different.

300
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:08,960
He was deeper.

301
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,560
He was more serious about the Lord than he had been.

302
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,040
He had had an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

303
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:21,860
So we spent that summer together and as friends and I knew I was leaving.

304
00:22:21,860 --> 00:22:28,640
He knew he was leaving, but there was something there that we didn't say anything about.

305
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:29,840
We just left.

306
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:35,840
So the second year that I went back to Israel, we wrote letters to each other and we didn't

307
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:42,600
have phones, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have email even.

308
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:47,040
We just had the old email snail mail.

309
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:48,600
That's what we had.

310
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,960
So it took a week to get a letter, a week to get back.

311
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:53,960
You didn't hear from the person.

312
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:58,240
I mean, that's discipline.

313
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:03,200
And so what was so beautiful about that experience though is through those letters, all we talked

314
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,240
about was the Lord and our relationship with the Lord.

315
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:07,840
And he prayed for me.

316
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,280
He was my intercessor while I was gone.

317
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:15,900
He was here at home just praying and telling me what he was praying.

318
00:23:15,900 --> 00:23:22,960
So it was really beautiful because we both still have all those letters, the paper letters.

319
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:28,040
And we didn't talk about a relationship or dating or anything like that because I felt

320
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,400
that I was called to live in Israel the rest of my life.

321
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,920
And I knew that he didn't have that same feeling.

322
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:35,920
So what changed?

323
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,640
Because you live in New Mexico now.

324
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:45,760
I knew, I felt this something happening with me and the land.

325
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:52,360
Sometimes I think we can have a deep calling, but we can also make an idol out of that calling.

326
00:23:52,360 --> 00:24:02,280
We can be so attached to it for our, even for our identity or who are we without that

327
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,560
if we don't have that label or that title.

328
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:12,360
And I felt something happening and I had my ticket to go home again for the summer.

329
00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:18,080
I remember just going up to Yemen Moshe, it's in Jerusalem and looking over at Mount Zion,

330
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:19,960
a direct view.

331
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:26,040
And I heard the Lord say that this was the last time I was going to see it for a while.

332
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:27,920
And I was devastated.

333
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:29,000
I was really devastated.

334
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,640
But I surrendered everything at that moment.

335
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:38,680
I said, Jesus, you're my first love, not even anything else, not a calling, not a ministry.

336
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:43,640
If I don't ever have anything again and just have you, you're enough.

337
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:52,000
So I went back home and Jerry and I had written letters, of course, that whole year.

338
00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:57,080
And he wrote a letter to me saying that he felt like the Lord was speaking to him about

339
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:01,080
our relationship, that it was supposed to go the next step.

340
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:06,000
And that I don't remember that time if he said I was going to be his wife.

341
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:07,760
I think he said that later.

342
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:15,920
But I wrote him back and said, hey, dude, I'm sorry, but I'm called here.

343
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:17,360
I had another friend there.

344
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:22,480
He was just a friend, but we were sort of investigating whether we were supposed to,

345
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,560
if the Lord was calling us together.

346
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,720
I told him all about that.

347
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:32,000
And that letter is the only letter out of a whole year of letters that never made it

348
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,920
to him, never got that letter.

349
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:40,240
So he asked my mother if he could pick me up at the airport, which he did.

350
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:47,080
And I'd been flying 30 hours and it's not easy to get to Israel from New Mexico.

351
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:53,120
And with the moment I got in the car, he said, so what did you think about my letter?

352
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:55,800
And I said, what did you think about mine?

353
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:59,100
He said, I never got a response.

354
00:25:59,100 --> 00:26:00,920
So I was really tired.

355
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,680
I said, listen, let's just have a summer as friends again.

356
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,520
It's really nice to have another believer.

357
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:13,160
I'm not at a point right now, this moment to talk about that, but let's just spend time

358
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:14,160
together.

359
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:19,800
And then I fell asleep the rest of the way.

360
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,800
Because our drive to an airport is three hours.

361
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,680
So we did, we started spending time together.

362
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,560
And as we did, the Lord just kept speaking to me and I kept trying to push it off and

363
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:37,440
ignore it.

364
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:38,920
We were friends.

365
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,000
We were not dating or anything official.

366
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:48,320
But I'm not saying that we just automatically got together on the word of the Lord, but

367
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:49,800
it was kind of like that.

368
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:55,760
We each had a word from the Lord and that we were to be to each other's husband and

369
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,360
wife.

370
00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:01,120
And I was developing feelings too.

371
00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:03,040
I wouldn't say do that without that.

372
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:05,560
I'm not saying that.

373
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,920
So it's a joke in our family with my boys, because when they were teenagers and they

374
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:14,500
asked to hear our story, they said, well, that's great for you guys, but we're going

375
00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:15,500
to date.

376
00:27:15,500 --> 00:27:17,800
We're going to date girls.

377
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,880
That's not our story.

378
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:27,000
So eventually the Lord spoke to me through his word and I knew that it was the right

379
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,000
thing.

380
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:37,320
We were in church one evening on a Wednesday night and he afterwards was in charge of locking

381
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:38,320
up.

382
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,000
So we were locking up the building and he said, I have a song I want to play you because

383
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:43,920
he was a musician.

384
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:52,160
So he wrote me a song and he played this beautiful song and then he asked me if I would marry

385
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,240
him and I was shocked.

386
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,360
You know, I wasn't expecting it.

387
00:27:57,360 --> 00:27:59,040
And I was stunned.

388
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,000
And so we have a joke in our family.

389
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,960
He's the mercy one and I'm sort of the black and white, you know, stuff comes out of my

390
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:11,400
mouth that sometimes shouldn't or it's too black and white.

391
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:16,880
And so I said, well, let me think about it.

392
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,400
And so I did and prayed.

393
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:29,200
Oh, I prayed because I knew that if I committed to marry him, that I was going to, I wouldn't

394
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,080
be going back to Israel for sure.

395
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,360
That would for sure be a thing.

396
00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:36,120
And I had to give that up again.

397
00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:42,240
And I drove to the church parking lot by myself and sat in the car and talked to the Lord

398
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:43,640
for hours.

399
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:50,600
And finally at the end of it, I felt like the Lord said, Rebecca, you're not going to

400
00:28:50,600 --> 00:29:00,520
know me any more deeply than you do right now unless you get married and have that relationship

401
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:04,360
so that I can teach you more about my deep love.

402
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,840
And so I surrendered my singlehood.

403
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:08,560
I mean, I had to give it up.

404
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:15,160
I was 27 by then and independent and he kind of was too.

405
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:20,560
And so I'll never forget just having to give that to him as a gift.

406
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,120
And so that's how that happened.

407
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,840
And we got engaged and five months later got married.

408
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:26,840
We never dated.

409
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:32,160
I, you know, we never had any physical contact.

410
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:37,920
And we, you know, held hands and he kissed me, I think, when he, when I said yes.

411
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:39,640
And that was about it.

412
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,040
So five months later, we were married.

413
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:43,040
Wow.

414
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:48,160
And that was a whole new experience for you because he was a music pastor and a worship

415
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,000
leader and that required you to move around a little bit from place to place.

416
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:59,440
And eventually and quite supernaturally, Jerry was called to be a senior pastor.

417
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:00,440
Yes.

418
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,680
Back in the same city of New Mexico where your families were.

419
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:04,680
Yes.

420
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,240
Just tell about that story a little bit, how that happened.

421
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:14,200
Well, we were, we moved around several times when the kids were little because he was,

422
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:18,720
you know, an associate pastor, a worship leader.

423
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:28,160
And we were living in Texas at the time and we were traveling through, could be that job

424
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:29,160
had ended.

425
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:35,620
We were traveling through on our way to California to check out a new position for him.

426
00:30:35,620 --> 00:30:40,200
And we stopped here in town along the way to visit our family.

427
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,680
And we stopped in at a church where a lot of our friends went to church.

428
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:48,280
The day we stopped in, their worship leader resigned and their pastor.

429
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:49,280
Wow.

430
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,480
So we had friends coming up.

431
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:56,360
I mean, they, it was like, they ran up to us and said, you need to, you need to be our

432
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:57,360
worship pastor.

433
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,660
And then someone else came up and said, you need to be our pastor.

434
00:31:01,660 --> 00:31:04,600
We said, no, we're going to California.

435
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:09,800
So we had made a commitment that the next church that we went to would be a really good

436
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:15,800
fit for our kids, for our boys, that, that the children's church and the children's ministry

437
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:17,700
would be strong.

438
00:31:17,700 --> 00:31:23,160
And when we got to California to check out this church, they didn't, they didn't have

439
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:24,880
one really at all.

440
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:31,160
There were two or three kids in a back room with volunteer people every now and then.

441
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,180
So we didn't feel the connection.

442
00:31:34,180 --> 00:31:39,040
And Jerry really wanted, he's comes from a strong, you know, Hispanic background, very

443
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:40,040
family oriented.

444
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:46,280
He wanted to be near his parents and, and my mother lived here and my sister lived here.

445
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,940
My mom was remarried, lived on a ranch near here.

446
00:31:48,940 --> 00:31:52,880
We had people contacting us and just asking us to apply.

447
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:53,880
They had a search committee.

448
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:57,680
I'd never heard of that before, but they, they had one.

449
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:02,000
And so we were the first, first people to apply for that job.

450
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:07,240
And we decided that while we waited, we'd come here and we'd lived with his parents

451
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:15,240
in a little tiny house and got along by the grace of God just wonderfully.

452
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:25,960
And we were the first to apply and we were at the very last man standing.

453
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:30,840
And so they, they ended up, we, it was five to six months later.

454
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:35,880
That, uh, that we ex homeschooled the boys during that time.

455
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,000
And we all lived in one little bedroom.

456
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:39,000
It was crazy.

457
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:44,240
And you know, you go home sometimes to live when you're 25 or 26 out of college or, but

458
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,120
not when you're 40.

459
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:56,840
So, but he was, so he was hired here as the senior pastor and we were a little terrified

460
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,840
honestly, cause he, he didn't have a Bible degree.

461
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:06,400
He hadn't, that wasn't in our, in our view really, except for that I had seen the development

462
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:11,560
of his gifts changing is he's very strong, good in a very good leader.

463
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:14,880
And, and, uh, I, I started to see the transition.

464
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:20,480
So I w I wasn't that surprised, but, uh, we've been here now 22 years.

465
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:21,480
Wow.

466
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:26,680
Well, things at the church and in your family and everything seemed to be just going really

467
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:32,160
well when you got a call in the middle of the night that really rocked your world a

468
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:33,640
little bit.

469
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:34,640
What happened?

470
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:36,520
We got a call at two o'clock in the morning.

471
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:41,120
One night we'd been at the, we'd only been there two years at the church.

472
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:42,800
The name of our church is Christ church.

473
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:48,080
It's a non-denominational church and our church was on fire.

474
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:49,800
So they called my husband.

475
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,060
Um, I was of course home with the boys.

476
00:33:52,060 --> 00:33:55,280
My mom happened to be in town staying with us.

477
00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:03,040
So not long after he left, I left to, to, to go to the church and it was an arson fire

478
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:10,160
started by a young man, uh, with a Molotov cocktail, just threw it into, happened to

479
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:18,360
throw it into through the window into the, um, closet where we keep all of the decorations

480
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,160
and you know, floral plants.

481
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:22,160
Very flammable.

482
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:23,160
Yeah.

483
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:24,160
Went right up.

484
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,960
Um, it was a horrible experience.

485
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,080
We just had a funeral for my best friend's daughter that day.

486
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,440
So it had been a really hard time.

487
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:41,360
And when, when it happened, the amount of pressure and the investigations that are open

488
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:44,000
during a church fire, we had no clue.

489
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,440
The ATF moved in, the FBI moved into our parking lot and trailers.

490
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:50,000
They interviewed our staff.

491
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,680
They interviewed my husband over and over alone.

492
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:58,680
They would take him into this trailer and I, I tried my best just to keep it together

493
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,360
for my kids and for our congregation.

494
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:07,760
So I didn't process it well because I was, I wouldn't say I was trying to be the strong

495
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:14,640
one, but I was trying to help everyone else navigate what was happening because you know,

496
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:20,040
they'd had few there, they had loved ones die and be have funeral in that church.

497
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:21,960
They got married in that church.

498
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:23,680
They got baptized.

499
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:31,680
And so, um, the whole church burned to the ground because the fire got up in between

500
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:35,720
the walls and in between, we had a double roof.

501
00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:41,680
It was a complete, um, it completely burned down to the ground, except for our youth center

502
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,800
was still, was still there.

503
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:50,560
So, uh, I didn't know it at the time that how, how it had affected me.

504
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,760
Yeah, but after months you were on, you were basically in go mode, right?

505
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:56,160
It really took a toll on you.

506
00:35:56,160 --> 00:36:00,200
So what did you start experiencing and how did, how did God pull you through it?

507
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:09,440
I started experiencing like heart issues, like a lot of, uh, tachycardia or skipped

508
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:10,440
beats.

509
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,400
I, so I went to get my heart checked.

510
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,340
Uh, my husband also was having trouble.

511
00:36:17,340 --> 00:36:20,520
He would get, he had his heart, you know, we, there were just all these physical, physical

512
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:25,200
from the stress, physical manifestations that started happening.

513
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:31,680
And um, I, I woke up one night in a complete panic attack.

514
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:33,880
I'd never had a panic attack.

515
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,200
You know, I flew to the middle East.

516
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:36,960
I didn't deal a lot with fear.

517
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,720
I felt like in my, you know, I, I didn't know that I did.

518
00:36:40,720 --> 00:36:46,440
Uh, and, but fear and anxiety, I think that that's a misconception because fear and anxiety

519
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:48,120
are two different things.

520
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:55,040
Anxiety is a definite illness and it's a definite physical manifestation of something.

521
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,320
It's a completely different animal than what most people think.

522
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:05,380
So, uh, and I knew people that were on medication and I didn't judge that, but I didn't feel

523
00:37:05,380 --> 00:37:07,520
like for me that I would ever do that.

524
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:14,840
It was, it was, I, I had a, you know, it was pride, probably just pride.

525
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,160
And so I started having more and more issues.

526
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:19,160
I couldn't sleep.

527
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:22,560
I was having, um, I couldn't eat.

528
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:31,040
I was having a severe, it was an on, it was like one big long pan panic attack.

529
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:32,320
My mom had to stay with us.

530
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,280
My mother had to take care of the boys.

531
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:40,460
And uh, that was a, that was a, that was the first time in my life I had, I did not feel

532
00:37:40,460 --> 00:37:42,820
the presence of God whatsoever.

533
00:37:42,820 --> 00:37:46,720
I was completely stunned that I know people that go through hard times and they say, Oh,

534
00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:48,280
I had so much peace.

535
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,840
Well, not everybody goes through it that way.

536
00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:56,720
And there's a misconception I think in the body of Christ that, Oh, you know, just cast

537
00:37:56,720 --> 00:37:59,120
all your cares on him and you'll get over it.

538
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:03,480
And uh, all kinds of things that we tell each other platitudes.

539
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:08,900
Um, cause we don't know a lot of it, a lot of it is just, we don't know how to help.

540
00:38:08,900 --> 00:38:14,720
So I learned a lot about anxiety and depression during those times, which has been extremely

541
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:23,480
helpful during the last two to three years because I help a lot of women in this area

542
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,360
with those, those issues.

543
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,480
So I eventually had to be on medication.

544
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:29,480
I had to go to a doctor.

545
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:33,640
I couldn't, I don't know how I got to, it was a miracle.

546
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,120
I got to a doctor cause I didn't want to go to a doctor.

547
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:42,240
I was afraid I would get put in a, some kind of institution away from my family.

548
00:38:42,240 --> 00:38:48,960
And um, I had a friend that knew about a doctor that lived about practice about three hours

549
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:50,360
from us.

550
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,200
And one day I just called out of the blue.

551
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:59,520
I don't, it, it was, it was just the Lord and I asked for an appointment and they said,

552
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,160
no, we don't have any appointments for four to six weeks.

553
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,420
I said, I don't know if I'll be around then.

554
00:39:05,420 --> 00:39:12,360
So they said, well, if you, if you can get, no, I remember I called back that next morning.

555
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,160
I called every day to see if they had a cancellation.

556
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:20,240
And they said, if you can get here by 10 o'clock, um, you can have this appointment.

557
00:39:20,240 --> 00:39:25,120
And I got there about one minute late, but my husband had to drive me.

558
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,800
I couldn't even drive at that point.

559
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:35,760
Now people who know me were so shocked because I seem like such a strong person.

560
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:43,200
And, uh, I think I carried that outward independence and confidence that wasn't real.

561
00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:49,320
It really wasn't, but it was what I used, you know, to cope and to live.

562
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:56,900
So during that time of going through that experience and, and then having to identify

563
00:39:56,900 --> 00:40:03,080
with other people with mental illness, I was one of them all of a sudden.

564
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:07,520
And you know, watching how people look at you and they don't know how to talk to you

565
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:13,200
and you know, all the things that go along with that.

566
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:19,900
Um, I, I gained such a heart for people that struggle with that.

567
00:40:19,900 --> 00:40:23,680
And we all do to some degree, especially now in our world.

568
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,360
Um, anxiety is rampant even in our children.

569
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:34,000
Uh, now we have children that are on antidepressants, you know, little, little bitties.

570
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:41,840
So, um, I, the Lord broke my heart and, and I, I was broken and I, I needed it.

571
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:47,440
You know, I, I heard a minister one time say, you can't really love other people until you're

572
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,120
just reduced to love.

573
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:51,960
And that's what happened to me.

574
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:58,280
And so that heart exterior and some of the, the, I had a lot of change to my personality

575
00:40:58,280 --> 00:40:59,280
as well.

576
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:02,040
It became much more merciful.

577
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,480
And so, um, I thank God for that experience.

578
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:07,080
I hated it.

579
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:12,880
I would never want to go through it again, but it was invaluable to my walk with him

580
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,040
when I started to receive healing.

581
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:26,560
The, the, I don't even have to describe the, the, how to say my relationship with him was

582
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:30,000
just went to a different level.

583
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:37,760
It, it, it was amazing to me and I learned so much about rest.

584
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,040
I learned about works that we do.

585
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:46,940
I learned about, you know, performance based acceptance that people, we all struggle with

586
00:41:46,940 --> 00:41:51,760
and why we do the things that we do, why we get involved in things.

587
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:56,560
Sometimes we're just trying to get our needs met, um, for affirmation, for love, whatever

588
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:03,280
they are, you know, the, uh, apart from Christ, that's what we call the flesh walking in the

589
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:04,280
flesh.

590
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:11,160
And so, um, it formed everything that I do now with women, I believe.

591
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:16,640
Well, you know, Rebecca, you talk about deepening your relationship with the Lord and, uh, we

592
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:23,760
hear a lot of sermons on that, you know, but, you know, how, how do you have a meaningful

593
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:25,220
quiet time with the Lord?

594
00:42:25,220 --> 00:42:26,920
How do you relate to God?

595
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:29,840
Um, what did you learn through that?

596
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:34,240
What are some practical, practical, I don't want to say tips, but you know, they all

597
00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:40,440
are, you know, how do you practically have a quiet time with God that turns into a meaningful

598
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:41,440
communication?

599
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:42,720
Can you, can you share?

600
00:42:42,720 --> 00:42:48,680
I think one of the greatest desires of the father is that we understand that when we're

601
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:54,120
born again and come into relationship with him, it's not because he needs somebody to

602
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,760
be his secretary.

603
00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:00,180
He does that because he wants to be connected with us.

604
00:43:00,180 --> 00:43:02,120
He wants union.

605
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,280
You know, the Bible says that we were baptized with him.

606
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,800
We were buried with him, but we were also raised with him.

607
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,000
That's a very intimate thing.

608
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:14,720
And now we're seated in heavenly places.

609
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:18,880
You know, people explain the Bible away a lot by saying, oh, that's positionally because

610
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:22,200
they haven't had the experience, most of us.

611
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:23,600
And I understand that.

612
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:27,000
And I'm not saying every day I feel like I'm, you know, living in the heavenlies or anything

613
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:28,000
like that.

614
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:34,720
But what initially healed me was understanding my identity as the bride of Christ, how cherished

615
00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:45,880
I was and how God's first number one priority and desire is to have union with his beloved.

616
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:54,000
And we are his beloved because the Bible starts with the creation of a man and a woman, let's

617
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:55,580
say a wedding.

618
00:43:55,580 --> 00:44:02,200
The middle of the Bible is Song of Solomon, which is the greatest place to start that

619
00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:07,560
if you want something practical, the Song of Solomon became my roadmap.

620
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,080
So I'm in it all the time.

621
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:16,120
I've studied it for years because it describes how God really feels about us, our relationship

622
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:25,400
with him and the transition that we make from feeling so dark, but yet lovely into by the

623
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,280
time you get to Revelation, we're getting married again.

624
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,680
It's the way we became the wife of the lamb.

625
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:32,720
How do you do that?

626
00:44:32,720 --> 00:44:40,920
So as I meditated on all those things, you know, it's a process, but when I approach

627
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:47,840
my time with the Lord, I call it going into the secret place or I don't call it sitting

628
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:49,920
down to read my Bible or having a quiet time.

629
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:55,360
I say, I'm going into the garden or the secret place or I call it a chamber.

630
00:44:55,360 --> 00:45:01,880
Just on a Bible study, I wrote, that's what I call it and I approach it like I'm going

631
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,000
into really meet with God.

632
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:09,360
So some practical tips that have helped me because I do have, I have had dry times.

633
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:17,000
It's not that, you know, but some of the things that have helped me really a lot is making

634
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:24,360
sure that when I hit that chair, I have a chair I sit in where I have my time, my concentrated

635
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,760
time with the Lord.

636
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:33,160
We should practice the presence of God all through the day, but we know that we, as a

637
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:41,600
beloved, if you love somebody to have undistracted time alone is gold.

638
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:43,760
So I approach that time.

639
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:50,920
One of the things that's helped me a lot is to just begin so simple, but just to begin

640
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:55,080
with adoration and gratitude.

641
00:45:55,080 --> 00:46:00,120
Instead of just, you know, getting out my Devo and getting out my prayer list in my

642
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:04,920
journal and you know, sometimes we approach that time like, okay, checklist, check, I

643
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:05,920
did it, I did it.

644
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:07,640
And then if we don't do it, we feel guilty.

645
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,800
But you know, that time with the Lord is not a checklist.

646
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:15,960
I mean, this is your meeting with the God of heaven and the God of the Bible, like your

647
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:18,800
bridegroom, the one you're going to spend eternity with.

648
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:24,200
The most important person you will spend the rest of your life with is Jesus.

649
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:28,680
And so I do a lot of adoration and I'm not really good.

650
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:31,960
I'm not a writer, so I'm not super good at flower language and all that.

651
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:33,520
It doesn't have to be that.

652
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,320
I just start by telling him I love him.

653
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:38,140
I say, I love you, Lord.

654
00:46:38,140 --> 00:46:41,980
If I've read something about him, I say, say that about him.

655
00:46:41,980 --> 00:46:43,080
You are mighty.

656
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:45,440
You're so mighty.

657
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:48,400
You're stunning to me, God.

658
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:52,680
Just a love language with him, developing just a love language with him.

659
00:46:52,680 --> 00:46:59,240
And it seems really simple, but the Holy Spirit envelops that.

660
00:46:59,240 --> 00:47:02,520
And he comes and he sits with me.

661
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,480
And it's the Holy Spirit that shows us Jesus.

662
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:08,360
So I, you know, you've heard this probably before.

663
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,320
It takes God to love God.

664
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:15,280
It takes the Holy Spirit in me to give the kind of love that Jesus is worthy of, because

665
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:17,280
human love isn't going to do it.

666
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:18,680
I don't have that.

667
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:20,560
I don't have that kind of love.

668
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:23,000
I have to get it from the Spirit.

669
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:27,320
And so I start with like that, you know, or telling what I'm grateful for or how blessed

670
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:28,320
I am.

671
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:34,360
And it's incredible how that is just a springboard, you know, to go on like this morning.

672
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:36,200
You know, I love to declare the word.

673
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:37,400
I believe in that.

674
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:41,640
I love decreeing and declaring the word of God because it's living and active.

675
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:43,120
I do that over my grandchildren.

676
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,960
I do that over my kids, over our ministry.

677
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:51,960
But this morning I started just with that adoration and I didn't want to do anything

678
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:53,680
else.

679
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,680
Now your brain will tell you, oh no, you didn't cover this.

680
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:58,440
You didn't cover that.

681
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:02,000
But you did the most important thing of the whole day.

682
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:06,680
You gave the King of the universe the glory that's due his name.

683
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:14,400
And in these times, turbulent times that we're going to be walking in more, more and more,

684
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:20,600
we to be transformed into what we need to be transformed into the mighty bride of Christ.

685
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:22,840
You know, we're a warrior bride.

686
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:26,360
We're going to have to have that kind of connection and union.

687
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:31,600
So it's the most important thing to me right now on the earth is to see and to call up

688
00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:36,520
the bride of Christ to walk in who she is and to know who she's in love with.

689
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,560
It's so good.

690
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:50,120
You know, around this whole time when you were coming out of your anxiety and deepening

691
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:56,320
your relationship with the Lord, God had a surprise for you because he was reconnecting

692
00:48:56,320 --> 00:49:01,360
your heart to Israel, a place you had given up.

693
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:04,360
You laid it down before the Lord.

694
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:08,640
And he birthed a calling in you that's really taken a whole lot of forms.

695
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:10,680
Let's share a little bit.

696
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:15,640
I mean, you do a lot with Israel now, but share a little bit about what God's some of

697
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:17,920
the amazing things God's done with your.

698
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:18,920
Yes.

699
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:25,240
When God placed in my heart that love for his people and his land, it was completely

700
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:27,440
just a calling.

701
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:29,760
I out of the blue.

702
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,080
That was years and years ago.

703
00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:38,560
And yes, there were times I had to just put it on hold and trust him that one day maybe

704
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:39,560
something would happen.

705
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:45,320
It was actually my husband came to me when my kids had grown and gone on and he said,

706
00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:54,700
you know, I just feel like sad that you have, have you forgotten about your love for Israel?

707
00:49:54,700 --> 00:49:59,040
And I just want, I want to release you to follow that calling.

708
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:05,960
Well, at the time I was teaching, which I still do, I was teaching the women at our

709
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:15,400
church and I wrote, I say wrote, but I delivered a Bible study on Deborah, the prophetess.

710
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:16,520
It was a Bible study.

711
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:22,980
It was just easier for me instead of watching a video and doing other studies to just develop

712
00:50:22,980 --> 00:50:24,880
my own at the time.

713
00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:27,880
So I just did it for the women at our church.

714
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:34,960
And at that time I was going to go on back to my first trip to Israel.

715
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:35,960
I was so excited.

716
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:38,400
I didn't think I'd ever get to go again based on the anxiety.

717
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:40,640
How can you get on an airplane?

718
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:46,320
So I wrote that Bible study, my, my little group, they took up an offering.

719
00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:51,720
They knew I knew I was going, was going with 10 other ladies and joining a tour.

720
00:50:51,720 --> 00:50:58,680
And I took up an offering to just give to a woman that I had known that known that I'd

721
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:03,520
worked for that had gone through a horrible divorce and her husband was kicked out of

722
00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:04,520
the country.

723
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:08,640
She was in the U.S. for two years and she was left with kids she'd adopted.

724
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:15,120
And I took up an offering to take to her and I got there and gave her the offering and

725
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:19,240
she told me about all the other friends she had that were in the same position and how

726
00:51:19,240 --> 00:51:28,360
hard it is to live in Israel and how the place where the family is, has the greatest significance,

727
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:34,720
I would say on the earth in Israel is the place that is where the family is being attacked.

728
00:51:34,720 --> 00:51:42,560
So when I got home, I had a friend who said, you know, Rebecca, this is your heart.

729
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:47,440
And I remember just weeping for days over what I'd experienced with her.

730
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:52,000
And so we, because I was teaching as Bible study on Deborah, the prophets, we just said,

731
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,880
well, let's just start the Deborah project.

732
00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:56,120
And we did.

733
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:57,120
Three of us, we did.

734
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:04,360
We started it and I applied for a five oh one C three and we went through that whole

735
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:08,040
process of becoming a nonprofit.

736
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:14,220
And we started this project that started out with single mothers and widows, divorced women

737
00:52:14,220 --> 00:52:15,720
and orphans.

738
00:52:15,720 --> 00:52:20,800
And we just started raising funds and through our Bible studies and teaching.

739
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:22,660
And that's how that was born.

740
00:52:22,660 --> 00:52:24,080
And that was 11 years ago.

741
00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:26,400
It's 11 years old.

742
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:34,480
And I want to quit about every other day, but it takes the beauty of it is it takes

743
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:38,000
me to Israel three or four times a year.

744
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:43,760
And it's opened up doors just to connect with people that I can't like you.

745
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:45,440
I got to connect with you through Israel.

746
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:49,800
One of my best friends I met in Israel, even though they're from America.

747
00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:52,560
So I, I do that too.

748
00:52:52,560 --> 00:53:00,040
I take a love to take people to Israel for that light bulb to go on about the land and

749
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:03,600
you know, the love that Jesus has for his people too.

750
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:06,520
And our and the covenant that's still in existence.

751
00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:10,400
So I'm I now I birth a lot of prayer groups.

752
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:13,640
I'm involved in doing a lot of that and teaching online.

753
00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:19,680
I teach a it's a study that we started during COVID and it's just kept going.

754
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:23,560
And every Israel is infused in everything that I do.

755
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:29,960
And I work with the Jewish agency some with bringing Jews back home to Israel according

756
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:32,220
to prophecy.

757
00:53:32,220 --> 00:53:36,340
But I do most of everything I do out of relationship and it really God opens the doors.

758
00:53:36,340 --> 00:53:43,880
I'm not it's not a big nonprofit, but it's been incredible just to see how this, you

759
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:50,040
know, pastors why from this little city in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the

760
00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:53,080
union and what the Lord has done.

761
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:58,160
And that's the thing I want to communicate to other women to help launch them into their

762
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:03,320
God given dreams that we're in partnership with Jesus and we get to do we don't do this

763
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:04,640
for him.

764
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:08,600
He wants us to do this with him and it's never too late.

765
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:11,320
You're never too old.

766
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:17,760
There's many, many people that went before me that probably said no, that were more qualified.

767
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:24,720
But I just believe I try when the Lord I feel the Lord asking me to do something to say

768
00:54:24,720 --> 00:54:27,960
yes right away before I have time to think about it.

769
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:31,280
That's not always good, but I have other people who are the thinkers around me.

770
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:36,260
Well, you know, as you've taken care of what got what's on God's heart, the Lord has taken

771
00:54:36,260 --> 00:54:39,560
care of what's been on your heart.

772
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:42,760
And you saw a miracle in your family.

773
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:45,680
Just take a few minutes and share about what happened.

774
00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:49,400
Thank you for asking that because if there are listeners out there that are believing

775
00:54:49,400 --> 00:54:55,200
for a miracle, I, I, this was an incredible experience for my family.

776
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:57,840
And we, we believe in miracles, right?

777
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:03,640
As believers generally, but we don't always believe that miracle can happen for us.

778
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:07,640
And those miracles manifest in all kinds of different ways, not necessarily in a beautiful

779
00:55:07,640 --> 00:55:10,880
outcome, but sometimes through a beautiful life.

780
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:13,360
But my kids always had trouble getting pregnant.

781
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:18,840
And we have an anointing for some reason at our church for women to have had a hard time

782
00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:20,200
conceiving.

783
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:25,400
So one Mother's Day we had a message and the Lord gave me a word just to share with our

784
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:30,720
people that he wanted to touch people to get pregnant.

785
00:55:30,720 --> 00:55:38,400
So my kids came up for prayer to my husband and I talk about, you know, this rivers of

786
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:39,700
tears.

787
00:55:39,700 --> 00:55:42,280
So they got pregnant with my first grandson.

788
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:48,200
They always had trouble conceiving and they, they moved to Denver.

789
00:55:48,200 --> 00:55:56,580
My husband, my, sorry, my older son is a pastor now and they were done having kids at two

790
00:55:56,580 --> 00:55:58,600
because it took a lot just to get the two.

791
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:02,240
Well, she and my daughter-in-law ended up pregnant.

792
00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:05,560
And right after they got to Denver, they'd had a lot of transition in their lives and

793
00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:08,160
church hurt all kinds of things.

794
00:56:08,160 --> 00:56:12,640
And so I wasn't, I didn't know at first if I was super thrilled, like I thought the time

795
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,600
was not real great, you know?

796
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:18,400
And so she, they were, they were excited.

797
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:20,240
It was going to be their third.

798
00:56:20,240 --> 00:56:26,040
And this was just a year ago, year and a half ago, two years.

799
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:29,720
And they told us that they were pregnant and all was fine.

800
00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:32,480
Well, she went to all of her appointments at first trimester.

801
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:38,120
And then the second trimester, my son called me one day and said, mom, I don't know what

802
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:44,180
to do, but we've had a horrible diagnosis on the baby.

803
00:56:44,180 --> 00:56:50,960
They want us to terminate the pregnancy, which of course we won't do.

804
00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:55,180
My daughter-in-law said, we're going to love whatever God gives us.

805
00:56:55,180 --> 00:57:00,980
But every week there was, there was, there were so many, I've never seen so many tests

806
00:57:00,980 --> 00:57:06,720
on a baby that's not even born yet.

807
00:57:06,720 --> 00:57:10,320
Every step of the way, they, they wanted them to terminate the pregnancy.

808
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,680
And I told my daughter-in-law, I said, you tell them if they ask you that one more time,

809
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:16,080
you're getting a different doctor.

810
00:57:16,080 --> 00:57:22,120
So she got a different doctor and they did MRIs, all kinds of things all throughout.

811
00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:26,080
Well, he was missing a major component in his brain.

812
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:29,080
It's, it's in the middle of your brain.

813
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:35,560
It's, it's, it's an organ almost that helps your both sides of your brain communicate.

814
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:38,640
And if you don't have that, you don't know how to eat.

815
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:40,680
You don't know how to walk.

816
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:42,500
You don't know how to talk.

817
00:57:42,500 --> 00:57:48,940
So they started connecting them with agencies for, you know, wheelchairs and tracheotomy,

818
00:57:48,940 --> 00:57:54,280
all that stuff that he was going to be severely, severely handicapped.

819
00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:58,960
So we pray throughout the whole time.

820
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:03,040
And I told him, he said, what am I going to do, mom?

821
00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:09,600
I said, honey, I, I don't want to, I, I'm not taking away from the, how horrible this

822
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:10,600
is.

823
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:11,660
I get it.

824
00:58:11,660 --> 00:58:16,600
But the only thing I know to do, the only thing I know to do is to stand on the word

825
00:58:16,600 --> 00:58:17,600
of God over this.

826
00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:20,040
I don't know how to do anything else.

827
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:21,720
So the Lord gave me Matthew 1926.

828
00:58:21,720 --> 00:58:26,760
It says with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

829
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:32,160
So when she went into labor, she allowed me and her mom to go in with her.

830
00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:39,160
There were nine doctors in there because we were at a neonatal unit and in a hospital

831
00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:44,600
where they could take him immediately and have him checked out.

832
00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:50,080
And so when he, when they had an MRI right before the delivery a few days, and yes, the

833
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:56,960
same diagnosis, we have the films, we have actual pictures of this corpus callosum is

834
00:58:56,960 --> 00:58:57,960
called is missing.

835
00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:00,360
It's not there in his brain.

836
00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:07,720
So we just continued to pray and we had prayer from all over the world for this little, this

837
00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:09,320
little baby.

838
00:59:09,320 --> 00:59:15,520
And they had told him he didn't have fingers, told her all kinds of things.

839
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:24,640
So when he was born, he, he was born naturally, you know, there we are and about half the

840
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:30,480
doctors leave and we kind of, we're looking around like that's, that's unusual.

841
00:59:30,480 --> 00:59:36,240
So he, one of the biggest signs is can he latch on and you know, breastfeed, which he

842
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:38,240
did.

843
00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:41,880
And so they started running tests on him.

844
00:59:41,880 --> 00:59:45,600
He was crying, he was acting normal.

845
00:59:45,600 --> 00:59:49,640
And the next day they, we had to wait a whole 24 hours.

846
00:59:49,640 --> 00:59:56,880
They did another MRI and the doctor came in and said, we don't know how to explain this.

847
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:00,720
Everything that you were told before is true because I looked at the films that was not

848
01:00:00,720 --> 01:00:02,280
there.

849
01:00:02,280 --> 01:00:11,360
But I'm telling you that that, that the corpus callosum is there and fully formed, present

850
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:13,320
and on paper.

851
01:00:13,320 --> 01:00:20,480
I took a picture of the document, you know, just to have a picture of the document.

852
01:00:20,480 --> 01:00:26,480
So you know, that was, that was like way up to the, to the very last minute.

853
01:00:26,480 --> 01:00:28,800
We didn't, we didn't know.

854
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:30,360
We didn't, we didn't know.

855
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:36,800
The only thing we knew was to latch on with our might to prayer and the word of God.

856
01:00:36,800 --> 01:00:41,760
He is the most incredible little baby.

857
01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:48,120
He's he's they, they still want him to pass these certain milestones, you know, any, any

858
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:50,240
is every single one of them.

859
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:52,120
So, oh gosh.

860
01:00:52,120 --> 01:00:53,120
Yeah.

861
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:54,120
So good.

862
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:55,120
Incredible.

863
01:00:55,120 --> 01:00:56,120
Incredible.

864
01:00:56,120 --> 01:01:02,160
So if, if you are believing for a miracle or any of your listeners are, I just, I just

865
01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:06,960
unite my heart with you and believe with you that that, that really can happen.

866
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:11,080
Sometimes, like I said before, you know, we, we know families and have precious families

867
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:15,840
that have kids that struggle, but that's a miracle too.

868
01:01:15,840 --> 01:01:20,240
You know, I mean, the things that they learn and go through and, and how they grow in their

869
01:01:20,240 --> 01:01:22,880
faith is just as much a miracle.

870
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:24,960
So anyway, God is so good.

871
01:01:24,960 --> 01:01:28,240
Name is Bronx, which is a very different name.

872
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:29,240
I know.

873
01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:34,200
And when my son first told me he wanted to name him Bronx, I said, uh, you know, I zipped

874
01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:35,200
my lips shut.

875
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:38,320
I was like, Oh my gosh, that is the strangest.

876
01:01:38,320 --> 01:01:43,080
Why would you want to make anyway, when I looked it up, what the meaning is, it means

877
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:46,920
breaker, breaker, breaker, anointing.

878
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,840
He's breaking every milestone and it's, it's really neat.

879
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:51,840
So

880
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:56,840
well, that is, that is an amazing, amazing thing that God did.

881
01:01:56,840 --> 01:01:59,360
And he is an amazing God.

882
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:01,360
He does amazing things.

883
01:02:01,360 --> 01:02:07,880
Well Rebecca, uh, has we close, would you share just a minute as I ask all my guests

884
01:02:07,880 --> 01:02:13,400
about a woman of the Bible, um, whose story has encouraged or inspired or taught you something?

885
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:17,880
Well, I'd have to say, of course, Deborah, the, I call her Deborah, the brave, the first

886
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:21,880
female judge in the Bible, prophetess and judge.

887
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:28,520
And it, it encourages me that to see that God is raising up Deborah's in our hour, in

888
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:29,840
this hour on the earth.

889
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:35,400
He's raising up women as we know, and, uh, we're becoming warriors, but we're soft hearted

890
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:41,840
warriors and I love her story because, uh, she was a woman of integrity.

891
01:02:41,840 --> 01:02:43,300
She was married.

892
01:02:43,300 --> 01:02:46,960
Her name in Hebrew means be or lightning.

893
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:50,800
And actually her husband's name means keeper of the flame.

894
01:02:50,800 --> 01:02:56,040
So um, I think that's a great synergy that they, they probably had together as a couple,

895
01:02:56,040 --> 01:03:00,800
but she used to judge Israel up on a hill underneath the Tamarisk tree.

896
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:05,480
It was kind of like a canopy and she did it.

897
01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:11,780
Um, she, she counseled and judged the people openly so that there was no question about

898
01:03:11,780 --> 01:03:13,000
her integrity.

899
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:18,180
But what I love about it is that that tree means canopy and it means chamber.

900
01:03:18,180 --> 01:03:24,360
She had her own to me area where probably she and God dwelled.

901
01:03:24,360 --> 01:03:31,120
I just envisioned that, but, um, she wasn't alone in fighting the battles that she fought

902
01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:34,080
and she relied on her general Barack.

903
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:41,280
We know she relied on, um, yeah, L another female who helped carry out and win the war

904
01:03:41,280 --> 01:03:44,000
for Israel during that time.

905
01:03:44,000 --> 01:03:49,160
And what I love about Deborah is that she was willing to give credit to others because

906
01:03:49,160 --> 01:03:55,240
in Deborah's song and judges chapter five, it says that it was a woman who won the war

907
01:03:55,240 --> 01:03:57,100
and she wasn't talking about herself.

908
01:03:57,100 --> 01:03:58,880
She was talking about it to someone else.

909
01:03:58,880 --> 01:04:03,400
And so I love that about her, that she was willing to raise up other women and let other

910
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:08,040
women be in the spotlight and not she herself.

911
01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:13,320
And even in Hebrews chapter 11, what's so interesting is it talks about, you know, the

912
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:19,760
heroes of the faith, those who inherited the promises and they walked by faith, sometimes

913
01:04:19,760 --> 01:04:22,200
not seeing the fulfillment of it.

914
01:04:22,200 --> 01:04:24,120
And you know, she's not mentioned in there.

915
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:27,840
They mentioned Barack that story.

916
01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:32,740
And I, I just think she's probably just chuckled, you know, to herself, like it doesn't matter

917
01:04:32,740 --> 01:04:34,360
as long as God gets the glory.

918
01:04:34,360 --> 01:04:35,360
I'm all right.

919
01:04:35,360 --> 01:04:36,360
You know?

920
01:04:36,360 --> 01:04:44,120
So one of the things she said to Barack that I think is so vital is she said, this day,

921
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:50,720
the Lord has given your enemy into your hands because he has gone before you.

922
01:04:50,720 --> 01:04:55,840
And I, I, I can't tell you how many times that has helped me through my life.

923
01:04:55,840 --> 01:05:00,080
The Lord Jesus Christ has gone before us into the battle.

924
01:05:00,080 --> 01:05:04,420
He's already gone into the battle and he's handed over our enemies to us.

925
01:05:04,420 --> 01:05:10,480
So it's our job to fight for these little ones, to fight for the next generation, to

926
01:05:10,480 --> 01:05:15,920
open up our hearts to what he's doing on the earth and get involved, be engaged after we

927
01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:17,400
spend time in the secret place.

928
01:05:17,400 --> 01:05:19,960
That is a good word.

929
01:05:19,960 --> 01:05:24,920
Well you know, James four versus seven and eight a in the new, new international version

930
01:05:24,920 --> 01:05:31,040
says submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

931
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:34,640
Come near to God and he will come near to you.

932
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:39,480
As you've said, the best way to resist the devil is drawing near to God first.

933
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:43,320
As we do that, our desires change, our perspectives change.

934
01:05:43,320 --> 01:05:45,240
We want what God wants.

935
01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:51,280
He gives us the courage and power to do what he wants us to do, um, to fulfill the purposes

936
01:05:51,280 --> 01:05:53,640
he has for us, just like he's done in your life.

937
01:05:53,640 --> 01:05:57,200
Rebecca, would you just take a moment and pray for our listeners?

938
01:05:57,200 --> 01:06:03,120
Baba, I just thank you for every daughter of the king that is out there today that may

939
01:06:03,120 --> 01:06:08,280
hear, hear us sharing about, about the king of kings.

940
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:16,000
And Lord, I just ask that every woman, uh, under the sound of our voice would reach out

941
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:23,240
to you today would, with just her own, her own way of saying yes to you, whatever you're

942
01:06:23,240 --> 01:06:29,520
asking her to do, but more importantly, Lord, that she would be stirred to want to know

943
01:06:29,520 --> 01:06:34,640
you in a deeper way, just to enter into union with you on such a deep level.

944
01:06:34,640 --> 01:06:39,720
It's, it's, it's the thing that will relieve us of all of our, all of our questions and

945
01:06:39,720 --> 01:06:45,120
our, our heartache and everything is, is in that place.

946
01:06:45,120 --> 01:06:50,080
And so I just ask Lord that you would empower women today to enter into the secret place,

947
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:55,440
to spend time with you, to be empowered, to be encouraged, to be healed.

948
01:06:55,440 --> 01:06:59,880
And Lord, if there is someone out there that is in need of a healing today, I just unite

949
01:06:59,880 --> 01:07:04,240
my faith, Jody and I do with that, that, that one.

950
01:07:04,240 --> 01:07:06,560
And we just say, don't give up.

951
01:07:06,560 --> 01:07:07,840
There's hope.

952
01:07:07,840 --> 01:07:08,840
Jesus loves you.

953
01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:09,840
He's good.

954
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:10,840
He's a good God.

955
01:07:10,840 --> 01:07:15,400
His desire is to heal you and to heal your family member.

956
01:07:15,400 --> 01:07:20,600
And so we just unite our faith together and say with man is impossible, but with God,

957
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:21,820
all things are possible.

958
01:07:21,820 --> 01:07:27,280
So thank you for signs and wonders today for miracles happening and Lord, we thank you

959
01:07:27,280 --> 01:07:29,280
in the mighty name of Jesus.

960
01:07:29,280 --> 01:07:30,280
Amen.

961
01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:31,280
Amen.

962
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:32,540
Well, thank you for tuning in.

963
01:07:32,540 --> 01:07:33,720
Don't drop off yet.

964
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:37,280
You're going to hear a priestly prayer in just a minute, but check out our show notes

965
01:07:37,280 --> 01:07:41,720
at her God story.org for scripture and other information that we talked about.

966
01:07:41,720 --> 01:07:45,200
Remember you can get your free six week devotional and women of the Bible there.

967
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:48,640
And we would love to pray with you on our 24 seven prayer and text line.

968
01:07:48,640 --> 01:07:54,920
You can give us a call or text anytime at eight five five four five nine care or email

969
01:07:54,920 --> 01:07:57,500
us at prayer at somebody cares.org.

970
01:07:57,500 --> 01:08:01,720
So now Rebecca, would you declare that priestly prayer over us?

971
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:02,720
I will.

972
01:08:02,720 --> 01:08:05,980
I'd just like to bless all of us today.

973
01:08:05,980 --> 01:08:09,800
And I'm going to do this first in Hebrew and then I'll do it in English.

974
01:08:09,800 --> 01:08:15,360
This prayer is it was done by the priest.

975
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:16,360
It's out of numbers.

976
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:23,480
I'm sure many of you know it, but it's it was done so that it says that God could put

977
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:25,940
his name on the people.

978
01:08:25,940 --> 01:08:30,320
So when we receive this blessing, it's his name being stamped on us, which I think is

979
01:08:30,320 --> 01:08:33,100
a beautiful, beautiful description.

980
01:08:33,100 --> 01:08:36,200
So let's all pray it in Hebrew first.

981
01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:40,120
They are a hot on I guess.

982
01:08:40,120 --> 01:08:41,120
Miracle.

983
01:08:41,120 --> 01:08:42,120
Yeah, I don't know.

984
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:43,120
I know.

985
01:08:43,120 --> 01:08:44,120
They they.

986
01:08:44,120 --> 01:08:47,120
They saw I don't know.

987
01:08:47,120 --> 01:08:49,120
I don't know.

988
01:08:49,120 --> 01:08:51,080
They just send.

989
01:08:51,080 --> 01:08:53,600
They have shalom.

990
01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:56,360
May the Lord bless you and keep you.

991
01:08:56,360 --> 01:09:00,520
May the Lord shine his face upon you and be gracious to you.

992
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:04,760
May the Lord lift his face upon you and give you his peace.

993
01:09:04,760 --> 01:09:05,760
Amen.

994
01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:10,400
Her God story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and International.

995
01:09:10,400 --> 01:09:39,240
To find out more about or support the ministry, go to somebodycares.org.