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Shining Bright: Priscilla's Legacy in a Dark World · Arise Women of God

• 0:01
  I don't know about you, but for me, it is really difficult to live in a world that is so increasingly wicked and to feel like I'm pushing back darkness all the time.
• 0:13
  And so today we're going to talk a little bit more about one of the women in the New Testament and her husband who were really good at doing this because they lived in a time of wickedness as well.
• 0:24
  So stay tuned and we're going to glean some beautiful truths and about how we can apply this today.
• 0:32
  Are you a woman who knows God is calling you to something more, but you're unsure where to start or how to grow it into something impactful?
• 0:41
  You are not alone, and you're in the right place.
• 0:45
  totheArise WomenofGodpodcast, ashowforChristianwomenwhofeelcalledtoshinehislightandstepintotheirdivinepurpose.Eachweek you'llhearstoriesoffaithful women,bothfromtheBibleandtoday,whoheardGod'svoiceandchose tosay yes,evenwhenit feltuncomfortable oruncertain, tostepwithfaithintotheunknown.You'llwalk awaywithencouragement,spiritualinsight,andpracticalstepstofollowthoseholypromptingsinyourownlife.
• 1:18
  Solet'sarise togetheraswomen warriorsoflight.Let'sdoitGod'sway.
• 1:24
  Godstrong.Hello andwelcometoanotherepisode ofthe AriseWomenofGodpodcast.I'myour host, TamaraK.
• 1:35
  strong.
• 1:35
  Hell and welcome ttheamazingcohost,BonnieRandall.Bonnie,thankyousomuchforbeingwithustoday.
• 1:43
  Oh, I'm excited.
• 1:44
  Thanks for having me.
• 1:45
  Absolutely.
• 1:46
  And today we are going to talk a little bit more about Priscilla, who we talked about just a week ago.
• 1:52
  And she.
• 1:54
  We have some additional insights.
• 1:56
  We spoke about her amazing ability to work with her husband, Aquila, in business.
• 2:04
  And we talked about how they were very key in helping Paul in his journeys.
• 2:13
  They were very good at defending Paul.
• 2:16
  They saved his life at one point.
• 2:19
  They were tent makers by trade, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that today.
• 2:24
  And they also taught and expounded the gospel.
• 2:27
  So not only did they work together, Priscilla and Aquila did, but they also ministered together.
• 2:34
  They were key in the conversion of Apollos, as we mentioned in our last episode on them.
• 2:40
  And they were so, so Christlike.
• 2:43
  They invited people into their home, into their tent.
• 2:47
  And so if you'll go with me to Acts, Chapter 18, the first few verses kind of introduce us to the scene that we're trying to set here.
• 2:57
  And this is what Bonnie and I want to talk about today.
• 3:00
  So it says after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth.
• 3:06
  And that's significant.
• 3:07
  So we'll be talking a little bit about that.
• 3:10
  And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontius, lately come to Italy and with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them, okay.
• 3:23
  And this is where we learned that they were tent makers.
• 3:26
  So they had been kicked out.
• 3:28
  And here we are in Corinth.
• 3:29
  So, Bonnie, why don't you dive in and talk to us a little bit about why the location is significant.
• 3:37
  So the.
• 3:39
  The Roman emperor or whatever was exiling Christians, right.
• 3:44
  And kicking them out.
• 3:45
  And they ended up in Corinth, and Paul ended up there too.
• 3:51
  And he had just left Athens.
• 3:53
  And in Athens, he was having a hard time.
• 3:55
  He was trying.
• 3:56
  He was like debating and talking with all these different philosophers and stuff.
• 4:00
  And I don't know who would have been his contemporaries of the day, but that would have been hard because the Romans did look at themselves as being these, you know, elevated minded and intellectual people.
• 4:10
  And he came there and he was just kind of.
• 4:14
  He says to the people, I come to you in these humble circumstances, just kind of down and out.
• 4:19
  And I'm paraphrasing here.
• 4:21
  And then he meets Aquila and Priscilla and he likely he was being a tent maker so that he could provide for himself.
• 4:28
  Right?
• 4:28
  Like he was trying to take the burden off the church so the people didn't have to support him.
• 4:34
  So he was trying to work.
• 4:35
  And here he just happens to meet two people who are also Christian, which would have been rare in that day anyway, and that shared the profession.
• 4:49
  And they must have hit it off.
• 4:50
  And they took him and they housed him and they took care of him and they employed him and they worked together, which is really cool and humble of all of them that they weren't competing for this business.
• 5:03
  Right.
• 5:04
  And that in itself is a story.
• 5:07
  If you think about the abundance mindset that these three had, right.
• 5:11
  There is more than enough to go around.
• 5:14
  We don't have to compete with each other.
• 5:16
  And Paul, while he was the preacher, the traveling preacher going around, he was the apostle.
• 5:23
  He still sat and listened to Priscilla and Aquila.
• 5:27
  And I think that shows a real humble side of Paul.
• 5:31
  And so I'm like going on this whole tangent here, just from this one thing.
• 5:36
  Corinth is kind of a gross place.
• 5:40
  Like, it was very unclean.
• 5:43
  They were doing there actually became this, like, term, I think, to current the size or something like that, which meant to Incorporate your spirituality into sexual practices.
• 5:55
  There was literally a temple there where there were these priestesses that were employed to have sexual relations with people, to help them have a spiritual experience.
• 6:07
  So they were in a very corrupt city in a kind of a scary time where they're being persecuted and exiled and treated really poorly.
• 6:18
  And so, of course, the Christians would want to band together and look at what Priscilla and Aquila did.
• 6:25
  They created a church in their home, and they gave us a template of what to do in our day and age.
• 6:34
  Are we not surrounded by all sorts of evil and corruption and scary times?
• 6:39
  It's kind of dangerous to be a Christian in parts of the world.
• 6:42
  They are literally being killed.
• 6:44
  Right.
• 6:45
  And even on the Internet and social media and stuff, it's kind of scary to share your beliefs.
• 6:52
  But here we have some examples of people who are bold, and they did it in a quiet, humble way.
• 6:59
  And, and.
• 7:01
  And they didn't have to be these.
• 7:03
  I don't know.
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  And maybe they were.
• 7:05
  Maybe there's probably.
• 7:07
  They had to be somewhat bold if they were inviting people into their home.
• 7:11
  Kind of interesting.
• 7:12
  Oh, I absolutely agree.
• 7:14
  Well, and.
• 7:16
  And I.
• 7:17
  I love that you brought up the parallels to having your home be a place of safety and protection.
• 7:24
  Kind of tacking on from what we were discussing earlier that.
• 7:29
  That is so, so important.
• 7:31
  But you.
• 7:32
  You have to intentionally make your home a place where God Spirit can be and where he can dwell, and that we can live in wicked times and yet have spots where we're standing on holy ground.
• 7:52
  Right.
• 7:53
  Where people can feel God's love and peace.
• 7:58
  And it does take a lot of intentional action to make it that way.
• 8:05
  It's not something that just happens.
• 8:08
  We have to be very careful about what we're choosing to bring into that space.
• 8:13
  And I.
• 8:15
  I constantly am.
• 8:17
  Also, I've got to cast Satan out.
• 8:19
  Whenever I've got these.
• 8:22
  Those negative thoughts that kind of spiral into my head, I have to cast those out.
• 8:27
  If there's anger or contention in my home, you know, trying to pause and stop that, cast it out, bring in light and peace.
• 8:37
  But we have to.
• 8:39
  We have to center ourselves first.
• 8:41
  I think that's one of the biggest lessons as a woman, is that we can have a positive impact in our homes, but it has to start right here with us.
• 8:52
  Don't you think, Bonnie?
• 8:53
  I don't know.
• 8:54
  Absolutely.
• 8:55
  I mean, I learned personally, like, in order to stay calm in the chaos, they always say, mom is the heart of the home, and that we have influence over the energy in our home and the Spirit of our
• 9:12
  home and whether people are happy or sad or whatever, right?
• 9:16
  The.
• 9:17
  The phrase, if mommy ain't happy, ain't nobody happy, right?
• 9:21
  And I used to hate that because I thought, gosh, that puts so much pressure on me.
• 9:25
  And I wanted nothing more than to stay calm in the chaos, but I didn't know how.
• 9:31
  I had no idea.
• 9:32
  And God taught me through a series of several years of how to do that.
• 9:38
  And one of the things was healing the inner battles that go on inside of me, right?
• 9:45
  Being able to let my kids be kids and learn how to regulate their emotions.
• 9:51
  I had to learn how to regulate my emotions.
• 9:55
  I had to learn how to let go of all the insecurities and the wounds and all the trauma and all the deal issues I was experiencing that they were unfortunately triggering, right?
• 10:06
  And I'm not blaming them.
• 10:07
  That's not their fault that they were triggering me.
• 10:10
  If anything, it's actually a blessing because it.
• 10:14
  I had a trainer who said to me, a trigger is a good thing because a trigger shows your.
• 10:20
  You.
• 10:21
  It's your body's way of showing you that you have work to do, that there's something broken or missing or misaligned within you.
• 10:28
  And so when you're triggered, that's your body's way of saying, let's fix this misalignment.
• 10:35
  And so God showed me where I needed to bring harmony into my body before I could bring harmony into my home fully.
• 10:46
  Right?
• 10:46
  It's kind of a chicken and an egg scenario because they definitely build off of one another.
• 10:53
  But the most important thing was to bring harmony within myself.
• 10:58
  And that, I think, is another analogy or metaphor of the tent, right?
• 11:04
  If you think about the tent, Priscilla was a tent maker.
• 11:07
  She would take her house with her, as Tiffany mentioned on.
• 11:10
  On the podcast, right?
• 11:12
  We think about that.
• 11:13
  That's very personal, right?
• 11:16
  I am bringing my relationship with God within me and giving him a home within me.
• 11:25
  And when I do that, I can be calm in the chaos.
• 11:32
  The world doesn't trigger me nearly as much as it used to.
• 11:37
  My anxieties that I used to have, the panic attacks I used to have, all of that stuff is really gone.
• 11:45
  And when I do have a panic attack now or I do feel anxious, it's my body's way of saying, you're out of alignment, come back to Jesus, come back to harmony.
• 11:57
  And then I do all those things, you know, the Sunday school answers, read my scriptures, say a prayer, cast Satan out, turn on good music, I go take a bath, I do self care, right?
• 12:09
  What if I really need it.
• 12:10
  Go for a hike.
• 12:11
  I do all the things that we talk about on all those self help books and podcasts and stuff like that.
• 12:18
  I, I go to God and I say, what do I need?
• 12:21
  And he's like, today you need a bath.
• 12:24
  And you don't just need a bath, you need to put salt in there and you need to put this oil and you need to sit for a good half an hour and don't just watch some TV show.
• 12:33
  I want you to meditate or I want you to turn on the chosen.
• 12:37
  I love to watch the chosen.
• 12:40
  Sorry, this is probably totally tmi, but like the point is that he gives me a prescription and he's like, this is what you need.
• 12:48
  So that was a really long when did answers, but there it is.
• 12:52
  Oh, and I'm so glad, grateful we talk about this because I think as women building places of safety and understanding, first of all, that it starts with us.
• 13:04
  Just as Priscilla did in her day and age.
• 13:06
  She obviously was a safe place.
• 13:08
  She was a safe person to talk to.
• 13:10
  She was trusted by Paul, she was trusted by the people that she ministered to.
• 13:15
  She had to be that same safe place and she had to be grounded in Christ herself.
• 13:21
  And I love that you've given us an example of how that can look today, how God can teach us exactly what we need to do.
• 13:28
  And it's, it's down to the little minute details.
• 13:33
  I know I found the same exact thing myself.
• 13:38
  You know, sometimes when I'm off, I say the same prayer.
• 13:41
  What, what do I need to do?
• 13:43
  And he tells me the exact same thing.
• 13:45
  So it's learning to have that conversation with God today.
• 13:48
  Tamara, you need to just go stand outside and sit on the grass and breathe for a little bit and pray.
• 13:58
  And that's what you need right now.
• 14:00
  Okay, I'll go do that.
• 14:02
  Do you know what I mean?
• 14:03
  And so being mindful where we are when we get off, how to get re.
• 14:09
  Centered, because I think it is, it's constantly recentering and a world that's trying to pull, pull us out of this holy space of, of being united with Christ, you know, and so it is that constant realignment, realignment, realignment,
• 14:26
  and that's okay.
• 14:28
  Any final comments, Bonnie, before we finish?
• 14:32
  Yeah.
• 14:33
  I feel really impressed to say this is like hitting me so hard.
• 14:38
  So I hope that whoever needs this in this moment, even if it's just myself, will know.
• 14:47
  God wants you to know that this is something that we practice.
• 14:50
  This doesn't happen overnight.
• 14:53
  We don't gain that kind of relationship that Tamara is talking about where we can sit and pray.
• 14:59
  And we hear him instantly.
• 15:00
  And it's a back and forth conversation that doesn't always happen overnight.
• 15:05
  In fact, more often than not, it is a skill that we develop.
• 15:10
  And the more we pray and the more we ask him to show us how he's showing up in our lives, and the more we intentionally listen and act so we listen with the intention to act on whatever he
• 15:22
  tells us.
• 15:23
  And the more we do that, the more we gain that ability to hear and the more clear that voice becomes, and the more trust we have in ourselves and in him.
• 15:37
  And I feel like he is really calling us today to gain confidence in our ability to hear him because we need his voice.
• 15:50
  There's so much confusion and so much conflicting information out there that nothing is more important than our ability to hear Him.
• 15:59
  But I want to encourage you that if you feel like you've maybe never felt the spirit before, and I know lots of people who have.
• 16:06
  I remember feeling that same way when I was younger and I asked him to teach me how to feel the spirit.
• 16:16
  And that has been a beautiful process over the years.
• 16:19
  And I have been more intentional with that over the last five or six years, honestly.
• 16:24
  And I feel like I'm just now starting to get to a point where I'm starting to trust.
• 16:31
  So I hope it doesn't take you as long as it's taken me.
• 16:35
  But I just want you to know you're not alone and that he will show you and tutor you and help you build that muscle.
• 16:47
  No, it's a very good comparison because sometimes, well, in order to build muscle, you have to tear it and then it builds back stronger.
• 16:55
  Right?
• 16:55
  So it's a process, and sometimes it's a painful process.
• 16:58
  But through it all, we do grow closer to God and trust the process.
• 17:04
  It's a little wonky sometimes and.
• 17:09
  You.
• 17:09
  Learn by doing so.
• 17:12
  It is.
• 17:13
  It requires action.
• 17:14
  So trust yourself.
• 17:16
  Ask God to help tutor you.
• 17:18
  And he will.
• 17:19
  He will.
• 17:20
  So, ladies, thank you for joining us on this amazing discussion about how we keep ourselves and our tents, homes to be places where the spirit of God can dwell both inside and out.
• 17:36
  I just want to close this episode by inviting each of you that with God's light, we are always able to push back darkness, that we don't have to do that on our own, that he can shine his light
• 17:53
  through us and push back darkness.
• 17:57
  And so if you are feeling alone, know that you're not.
• 18:01
  This is not something that you have to do all by yourself all the time.
• 18:07
  Um, which I think the adversary kind of places those doubts in our minds.
• 18:12
  Like, I can't do that.
• 18:13
  That's too hard.
• 18:14
  But the good news is, when you invite Jesus in, you naturally shine, and he'll help you figure out what your first step is today.
• 18:23
  God, how can I push back darkness today?
• 18:26
  What can I do to bring more light in today?
• 18:29
  And those are the keys to helping us make the world a little bit better and a little bit brighter as we prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
• 18:40
  May you stand God strong and do it God's way for you.
• 18:47
  Thanks for tuning in to the Arise Women of God podcast, brought to you by Women warriors of Light.
• 18:53
  If you're feeling unsure how to move forward in your calling or just tired of doing it alone, visit womenwarriorsoflight.com you'll find resources, accountability, and a community of women who get it.
• 19:08
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• 19:12
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• 19:16
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• 19:21
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• 19:25
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• 19:30
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• 19:32
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• 19:37
  Until next time.
• 19:38
  May you arise, walk God's way and stand God strong.