In march 2020 we were all asked to accept a new reality. The world was told to go home and not come out for weeks. All of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under us and life was never going to be the same. it was not safe outside our front doors. Stay home and be safe was the message the government was proclaiming from every rooftop. so much so people had to turn their television of to protect their fragile mental health. Some mothers got together over zoom and shared their concerns and prayed about some of the situations they knew about, even among their own friends and families. What if the home people were being asked to self isolate to was not safe? What if home was somewhere they should be escaping from, not to? And now all of their escape routes now seemed to be taken away. Now if it was not safe indoors it was not safe out doors either. What could anyone do about it? Where could anyone go if they needed help? The Lord had been speaking about being gatekeepers and some of us we had been talking about starting some form of compassion ministry in Portadown. We just were not sure what, now all those plans seemed up in the air in the virtual world How could we be the hands of Jesus reaching out to help people when we could not go out the front door? Unfortunately some of us who were meeting to pray in this new way over the world wide web have previous experience of what it feels like when something outside of your control sends your life into a tailspin. Everyone has their share of struggles and being paralysed in a road traffic accident has had it's challenges but the hardest thing to cope with has been the inability to hold a grandchild safely. I can cope with not being able to hug people in fact some of them I am quite glad I do not have to hug them or let them to close. But when your grandchild is born and you have to be helped hold them or one trips falls and you can not pick them it is tempting to cry yourself to sleep at night wondering how they will ever know you love them if you can not even hold them properly. A feeling some of us are all to familiar with now as we wave at grandchildren through the window and give them a virtual hug over the internet. In counselling it has been said we give our clients a therapeutic hug. That they feel held, in the time you have had in a room with another person, one to one, eye to eye without physical contact, that the person feels a connection with you that transcends words and lets them know, 'someone has got me. Someone has, perhaps for the first time ever held me while I cried, understood me when I raged against the world, then gathered up the fragments, gave them to Jesus; dusted me of and helped me face the world again with the belief that I can conquer all.
Is that not the job of a mother? Pick us up, dust us off and help us start all over again. Gatekeepers wee team kept growing and as mothers and fathers we prayed and supported each other God was speaking, we were speaking to each other and then facebook told us when you can not reach your grandchildren with your arms, hug them with your prayers.
Gatekeepers prayer support was raised up for 'such a time as this.' Through many scriptures and confirmations we felt God challenge us to do something. Instead of thinking well all we can do is pray, lets see prayer as the answer. The power house, the catalyst for change that we have all been seeking God for, believing God for, but had we. Have we honestly prayed more now, better now than ever before. Instead of prayer being glibly saying well I will pray about it, now we really are praying about it.
Esther 4 verse 14 says that if we remain silent at this time relief and deliverance will come from another source.
So relief and deliverance are coming, thank you Jesus, but God dies not want us to remain silent, or our fathers house will perish, that is a stark warning. Gatekeepers felet thay were being called to cry out to God for your family in these days for our families and they need you to pray like never before. Hannah prayed long and hard for her child, gave it to God and God gave her the child she longed for. Miriam hid her son in the bull rushes, prayed that God would protect him and then found herself becoming the answer to that very prayer by becoming his nurse.
Gatekeepers prayers are with the NHS, the bin men, the shop girls with tired legs from standing all day, We honour you, we bless you and we are grateful for you. without you we would literally be dead, and you do not get paid enough. But above all we pray for you that as you go into the frontline of the battle against this plague that the protection of the blood of Jesus would be upon you. The shield of The Holy spirit would go before you that you would be covered in the whole armour of God and that you would know peace, strength and courage as you recover on your day off and as you get ready to go into battle again, in our name, Gatekeepers thanks you from the bottom of our hearts for your heart to sacrifice so we may be safe in these days in Jesus name Amen.
With my own grandchildren I have learned that the old saying love conquers all really is true. I love them and they know it; and they love me right back with knobs on and we can love and laugh and have fun together as I enjoy their wee presence whatever way I can get it.
Love conquers the barrier of my wheelchair, they can sit on my knee. Love can conquer me not being able to walk because we can have a race. I can go 8 miles an hour on a good day and when they were smaller they could not keep up so I won. Love has a language of connection that goes above and beyond and transcends any obstacle. Romantic love promises to climb mountains and sail the seven seas to hold you in my arms. Real love pushes you up that mountain when you chair breaks down so you can have that picnic he promised you on your anniversary. And sure if you have a row on the way up, whats new? That is real love, love that knows the worst in you and loves you all the same. Real love is a precious commodity. Real love, Agape Love, Gods love watched His son, the only Son He had climb a mountain. That same Son went to the cross with real love in His eyes for those around Him who were causing Him pain. Now the Spirit loves us back into a real love relationship that had been fractured because of something we did. Agape love adopts us, restructures us and restores us. Real love relationships hold each other close and they know it. We all know if someone loves us, really loves we do not need words The Agape love of the Father in each other will see each through this. In this and after this may we as gatekeepers open the door of our heart and as our wounded healer loves us reach out witht hat same sacrificial love, to a world that desperately needs held in prayer,' at such a time as this. Esther 4 v 14
Love watched while love in the flesh Hang on a cross a cross on His