Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Join us for an exciting Season 2 of our podcast, which garnered over 7000 downloads last year! Your hosts, Rachel and Israel Campbell, are back to take you on an incredible journey. In this podcast, we invite you into the ongoing dialogues about life, love, parenting, relationships, spirituality, and whatever else sparks our interest!
Our motivation for creating this podcast remains unchanged: we believe that discipleship should encompass more than just a classroom experience; it should be a way of life. Drawing inspiration from Jesus' interactions with his disciples, we see that it was far from a traditional classroom setup. Instead, it was a continuous exchange of teachings and discussions encompassing all facets of life.
Imagine savoring a delicious bowl of soup – that's what our podcast is like. We're here to engage in honest and unfiltered conversations, covering a wide spectrum of topics. And now, we invite you to share this podcast with your friends, family members, or coworkers, just as you'd share a great meal. Just like Jesus and his disciples, we're here to explore the richness of life together!
So, come join us for another season of candid conversations as we dive into a little bit of everything – from the profound to the lighthearted!
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast Season 2 Episode 15 Has God closed this door?
Have you ever faced a door that just wouldn't open, no matter how hard you pushed? We've all been there, and in this heartfelt episode, we unravel the mystery behind life's closed doors. I share intimate stories of personal setbacks and the surprising good that can emerge when things don't go according to plan. Join us as we delve into the idea that these obstacles might actually be divine interventions, guiding us towards a greater path, and how fear of making the wrong choice shouldn't hold us back from moving forward.
As the conversation unfolds, we witness the powerful interplay of determination and patience through Israel's battle against the odds of a life shaped by addiction, and my own pursuit of uniqueness among a large family. We engage in an honest discussion about the art of decision-making within the spiritual realm, emphasizing the necessity of discernment, prayer, and wise counsel. Through our anecdotes, we illustrate the transformative nature of faith in navigating life's challenges, and how understanding God's heart can lead to profound changes in our lives.
In our final segment, we tackle the complex questions that arise when we encounter barriers on our journey. Is it a red flag from the divine, or just another hurdle to leap over? We invite you, our cherished listeners, to become part of the conversation by sharing your own experiences with seeking God's guidance and protection. Whether you're listening while tackling your to-do list or taking a moment to reflect, this episode is designed to offer encouragement and insight as we collectively seek to interpret the divine hand in the unfolding tapestry of our lives.
I just like that music, Rachel. I just kind of want to start dancing and I'm not even a dancer. Prove it. It really makes me, oh, wow, we're recording, you're moving closer, moving the equipment.
Speaker 2:Oh naughty.
Speaker 1:You're not supposed to do that, but that's okay. Well, welcome to the Campbell Soup podcast, where we talk a little bit about everything, don't we?
Speaker 2:A little bit about everything is a good description.
Speaker 1:Okay, and that's your favorite soup. Is a little bit of everything in it. Is that true? Or what is your favorite soup?
Speaker 2:in real life. We got a favorite soup. What's your most? Um, I love soup, as Tisgana I love. What else do we love around here? We don't make a lot of soup. To be honest, this is about as much soup as we make.
Speaker 1:Okay, is clan chowder considered a soup? Yes, okay, that's my favorite. Okay, before we totally disengage yes, hungry. All that kind of stuff, um, we are doing and talking about today, I think, a great topic, especially in the beginning of the year or maybe any time during the year. But, kind of the question is did God close this door? And uh, there's been some moments in our life and I'm sure every single listener and watcher is that it's like okay, is this a closed door? Um and uh, and then accepting it, or is it closed door or is it not closed? And I'm I'm supposed to keep knocking. And so I think that this is a really good topic and, um, we want to give you practical ways to know, but then also, at the same time, there are some moments where we just don't know, do we?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if we did this podcast 10 years ago or 20 years ago, it'd be a very different conversation than it is today, because we've lived through some um closed doors where we can look back and we were really disappointed in closed doors. And then you look back and you go, wow, that was the grace and mercy of God. We did not see it, you know, from this, from that side moving forward. But when you look backwards you're like that was the goodness of God that he closed that door. We were never supposed to walk in, even though it seemed like such a beautiful door.
Speaker 2:You know, there can be um beautiful opportunities in life, beautiful moments, and it feels like the right thing, and then all of a sudden it doesn't work out and it could be really disappointing. But the truth of the matter is Romans 8 28 that God really does work all things for the good of those who love him and that word love means gaze upon him that really want what he wants. And when we want what he wants, there will be moments he does it differently than what we were expecting.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think that that I think maybe just saying that right off the bat is fun, uh, to kind of take the stress off, is I don't you think that there's some, a lot of people Christian stress because we don't want to go the wrong door? I mean, obviously you don't want to make a mistake, right, right? And so then you can almost be bound by fear and never do anything because you don't want to make a mistake. But I love what you said is God has this ability, even if we choose the wrong door, um, he has this great ability of fixing it. And I think of the story of when the children of Israel weren't supposed to choose a king. And they choose Saul, and they weren't supposed to have a king, and it was bad, and Saul was bad, it was not a good door to go down, and then through it now we see David and it says that David is in the lineage of Jesus, and it's like what originally started out a bad door.
Speaker 1:God does have an ability, and so I think if we say that in the beginning and the preface, then maybe that will help just take down, uh, the stress of, oh, I don't want to ever go down the wrong door? Of course, none of us do, but there is this we do, sometimes our flesh um, and we are so passionate about something it's hard to know. Was that God, or is that just us really wanting that, you know, really desiring that? And then there's just a complexity of God actually seeing things beyond what we see and knows actually better than we. So, yeah, I think we wouldn't be here today. I think we had some closed doors that actually turned out to be open doors, and I'm glad that we didn't change it right.
Speaker 2:I'm glad too. Yeah, we'll tell the story. We were talking about doors and of course there have been all kinds of ministry doors. That's probably the first thing that we would always go to is the doors that were open to us, close to us, following God, making mistakes, god turning it around, all of those things. But today we want to talk on a more practical and fun chick-flick kind of moment in our life where God opened and closed doors.
Speaker 1:Definitely Hallmark movie worthy.
Speaker 2:Yes, but do you never work turtleneck?
Speaker 1:I would. If you did a reenactment, let's do a reenactment of it.
Speaker 2:I knew in Israel that he was in the cute little turtleneck. Okay, so when I was, was I 18 years old, 19 years old, somewhere right around there I had registered for the Bible college that I had wanted to go to my entire life Portland Bible College. It's where my older sisters went. My parents had been on staff at that church in Portland and I'd always dreamed about living on the campus and all their dorms and going to Portland Bible college. That was my goal and, yeah, I remember one day I was out of high school and the whole expert woke me up in a dream and told me that I needed to move back home and honor my parents for one more year of my life, because I'd moved away, we'd had some family issues that had gone on, and so, when I was 16, I moved out of the house to get into a better environment for myself and to strengthen my faith, and so I had lived away from home through most of high school and I felt like God was telling me to go honor my parents for a year.
Speaker 2:And so I called my mom and they had just taken a job at a Christian school up in Seattle Washington and she said that is so amazing. Of course we want you. We're so excited. We'd love for you to move back up here and in fact Portland Bible College has a campus that's a satellite in Seattle at our church, so you can actually still go to the same school. You'll just go to their small little campus in Seattle, and by small it was like eight students and then, I think, me and my two brothers registered, so it was 11 students.
Speaker 2:And we've both my brothers. Like I went to school with my brothers, so it definitely wasn't ideal. There was no student living, there wasn't that kind of lifestyle. It was kind of sacrificed to do what I felt like God had asked me to do and I did it. And you can tell the other part of the story.
Speaker 1:Well then there was this other guy named Israel, who also wanted to go to Bible school.
Speaker 1:And he almost saved and would have actually was signed up to go to Portland Bible College, which then we had a guy come in that was just prophetic and just kind of had a prophetic word over me and said you're not to go anywhere, you're supposed to stay here and go to the school here. And it was like I was like I rebuked that in the name of Jesus and the great thing is obviously that's where we met and because it was a small school you had to know me versus a school of hundreds or something, maybe we would have never met or fallen in love and I would have probably knowing me at that age got kicked out of Portland Bible College because they had enough students.
Speaker 2:They say, the best pastors are the ones who got kicked out of Bible. Yes, and.
Speaker 1:I think the only reason they didn't kick me out of our Bible colleges because they needed the students. You can't go from 11 to 10. I mean, keep this kid and the rest is history. And so, yeah, some closed doors in a sense that we can now look back and go whoa, I mean married 27 years this year. That was God Absolutely Orphan's reading that, so there's no way of saying that it wasn't. But at the time there was probably some moments, especially when you first came in and it was you and Becky Coffey and that was the only other girl your age. And then there was, you know, the Pajians in the back of the school and then the one guy that remember he had phlegm and he couldn't stop coughing in one of the classes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was like 50. Yes, but we loved him, we loved him.
Speaker 1:But I think there was probably some moments where we both were like this isn't what we wanted, or what we saw, it wasn't the dream. But it was. It is the dream, so now we can look back and do that, and so I think everybody probably has some moments where they're like, oh my gosh, thank God that door was closed Cause. Then look at the right door and I think that we preach that right we're like, oh, the door closes, Don't worry, there's another door that's better. But it's hard to walk it out, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think what we want to talk about today is that sometimes God closes doors to protect us and then sometimes doors have opposition.
Speaker 2:Paul talks about it.
Speaker 2:He says that there was opposition in me getting to this place, and it wasn't God, it was the enemy. And so I think that what we want to talk about today is living our lives in a place where we're going for it, we are knocking on every door that we feel led to knock on, and we're living with great faith in that, where we're not backing up, we're not letting go of those dreams we're pursuing and we're doing everything we know to do to fulfill the purposes and plans of God for our life. And at the very same hand, in the other hand, you're holding that, but you're also holding the surrender of God. I also trust you with my life, and if it doesn't end up looking exactly how I thought it was gonna look, I'm gonna trust you in that too. And both both going for it and knocking on the doors and pursuing and trusting God and fighting for those fighting for ground and surrendering and letting God be God are both great acts of faith. So I guess the question, israel, is how do we know which each door is?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's a million dollar question.
Speaker 2:If we could answer it.
Speaker 1:It's for each one. So, you know, just like a blanket statement, oh, this is how you do it, but the reality is it is, it really is being led by the spirit, and I think it takes some failures to know. Oh, and then I think it takes some wins, and I do think that Paul says that. You know, paul says an effectual door has opened unto me, and then Paul goes to a place and it says that the spirit kept him from going into another, so his intention was to go. Then the spirit actually prevented and then, like you said, you know, there's some other time where it's the enemy. There was a storm that arose in Jesus and the disciples trying to keep them from the other side of the lake, and he had to rebuke the wind to get over there. And so, yeah, I think maybe there's some practical things and maybe we can play some pickleball and I'll pickle you and you pickle me. I don't know if we should say that, but anyhow I think you should not say that.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about that on another episode. We'll talk about sex, love and marriage, but not today.
Speaker 1:Okay, not today.
Speaker 1:I love it. Okay. So some practical things for me, and we can go back and forth, but one thing that I like to do and this may sound very weird, but I think it helps is a practical thing to do is I like to obey any prompting of the Holy Spirit, whether it's big or insignificant. And so one thing that I have done I've probably done it a hundred times is I felt like the Holy Spirit will say drive a different way. And just drive a different way. And so then when I'm driving, I'm like what is it? Is there a church building? Cause I'm a pastor, I'm always looking at buildings.
Speaker 1:It wasn't, you know, when we were looking for what is it? A house Like why, why? And I really felt like the Holy Spirit was like no reason, just to see if you're obedient, you know, and just teaching the discipline of whether I know it's right or whether I know there's a benefit or not. I'm just gonna try to teach myself to tune in that this is the Holy Spirit and obey, even if it's just like turn right instead of turning left, or you know what I mean. And so just consistently doing that, then I think, when it comes to big decisions. I have gotten so used to the prompting of the Holy Spirit that it's easier to go. You know what I really feel like. We're supposed to move from North Carolina, rachel, and move to California, which is a really big turning left versus turning right into Wilson, and so maybe that will help somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think something that you've always been really amazing at is your persistence. You are persistent and you're constantly believing God for a miracle, for breakthrough, for open doors, whether that is with one of our kids, you know. I think about when Chloe was really sick and her fever wouldn't break and they wanted us to rush her to the ER, but you put that masking tape with the verse on her and walked around until that fever broke and that was a moment of you know, like it's a little scary because you're dealing with your kid's sickness, but you were persistent and God was faithful in that. And then I know there's been moments too where you've been persistent and we haven't seen the thing that we were going for, and you have to just at some point you give that to God. But I think that God really honors faith. He doesn't. You know, I always say this God is not a respecter of persons, but he is a respecter of faith. And it says it's impossible to please him without faith and you're never going to be penalized for pursuing, and I think that God honors that. I think that God wants us to be people who believe for the impossible, who knock on every door, who persist at every door and I know that, Israel, you honor God with that. You know, being number seven of 10 kids, I think that it can be easy for me to settle. Wow, and I don't think that you have that in you. You don't settle, you know.
Speaker 2:I think anyone can look back at their childhood, and even as an infant. What's the story of your life? It will teach you maybe the area, as God wants to stretch you. And so for Israel, he was born a heroin addict baby and had to literally fight since the day he was in his mom's womb. And there is something inside of you that is so good at the fight and you're not great at the weight, and that I'm opposite where I was number seven of 10 kids, and so I was never an individual. My whole life I've never been an individual, I've been part of a herd, and when you're part of a herd, you don't fight for your own things, you take it. You take what you can get, and so what God always stretches me in with the doors he wants for me is to persist, like that would be.
Speaker 2:My biggest test is to go for things, and it's something that I always am constantly going to God about them, and it's a stretch of my faith. And then for Israel, probably the biggest stretch in our lives for you, would be to wait and to allow. Okay, this thing, is it a closed door from God? I'm gonna try one more time. That's why we're sitting in the house we're sitting in, because you kept persisting and I'm so thankful and God did a miracle.
Speaker 2:And so there's these two ways of living, and both of them are spiritual disciplines. And so I think doors God's open doors and God's closed doors require discernment and really allowing him to be our good shepherd and trusting that he has the best intentions for us. And so praying and you know a prayer that we pray all of the time over our lives, especially when we're in decision-making moments and seasons, is God, will you please we're not smart enough, we know that we don't have the knowledge that we need for this Will you please make it impossible for us to make the wrong decision? Isn't that one of our Campbell family prayers?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say? The practical on that is just some prayer of God.
Speaker 2:Lead me.
Speaker 1:Yeah that has no problem closing the door and keeping it cracked. I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if God show me, give me the wisdom to know. Is this a door that you're shutting or is this opposition from the enemy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's really like you said. Because of our personalities, I may tend to be like I don't think that's the enemy, or I no, I think that's the enemy, so I'm gonna keep on pushing and thank God for you, or we would both be sitting around a lot.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I think that then there's a real release, like you said you know of, okay, god, I trust it, and then God does it. And it wasn't necessarily the hustle, you know what I mean. It wasn't that where, like Israel scheming something, he's trying to do it and so it is such a balance, but it is a God at the end of the day, trusting God, that he, I mean that's so good. Rachel, is that you're saying knowing his heart? I think helps when you know just John 10, 10, just the thief comes to kill, still in destroy, but Jesus says I've come to give life and give it more abundant, and so that can help you make decisions. Is knowing his heart Okay, I know his heart on this. It's not a heart to kill, still in destroy. So I don't think this is what the best is that God has for me, and so I'm gonna pursue the heart of Jesus on this and keep knocking. I love that. A practical one for me. And I don't know.
Speaker 1:I probably think we have made some major, major moves in our life. I mean, we were in Seattle, moved to Orlando, from Orlando, moved to North Carolina, north Carolina, now to LA. No water moves we're here, but significant moves like that almost all of them, rachel, I think came out of God's work for me and it just confirmed some things. So it would be like never forget reading in Genesis, where it says that Abraham moved from his family and we just had this sense of, okay, all of our families in Seattle, this is where we're at church, or whatever, and so, not knowing, and doors weren't opening, if you remember just ministry wise, we thought a door would open and now, gosh, I look back and go thank the Lord, but those doors not opening.
Speaker 2:we're very disappointing in the moment.
Speaker 1:Very disappointing, didn't know. I mean, I flew to Chicago to try to look at some things you know we had done. I mean all kinds of could it be this, could it be this, could it be this. But I think it started out with at least a God word, and so what I mean by that is you don't try to find what you want in God's word.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You don't like, okay, I really want to do this. Is there a scripture verse on sunshine, cause I really hate the cold? No, it was more of my, our personal devotions. And then the word jumping out like that, abraham, and it was like babe, I really feel like you know, and I was reading this jumped out to me and I feel like this, and so I think that one of the practical ways of knowing whether you should open the door, close the door, is this God's will isn't. Is really God wants to reveal it to you, and sometimes it's not the loud audible. You should move. It is whoa, that scripture let inside of me and I just feel like that's what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, when we're talking about doors I think we always have to bring up to the wisdom is found in the multitude of counsel and, you know, any major decision that we've ever made in our life, any door that we've gone through, never, ever gone through alone and people that God places in our life that we can trust and that hear from him and that intercede for us and care about us and our people of the word of God are extremely important when you're walking into new seasons and new doors.
Speaker 2:And you know, sometimes people can see from the outside and they're not in the thick of it like you are sometimes.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes, when we're really tired or when we've been hurt by people or situations, we can go through wrong doors because we want to get out of that, and so those are the moments where it's so important to have the right people in your world to that can help you go.
Speaker 2:You know what? I don't know if that's the right door for you from the outside, looking in, knowing you, knowing what you believe God is speaking over your life and knowing what we see, that may not or or we've also had people that are like you will be an idiot not to go through that door. You got to go through that door, and so when you're talking about doorways, it's I think the most dangerous thing to do when it's a doorway season is to do it alone, and I think it's so important to have people that can hear from God with you and for you and be praying over you and people with wisdom. You know, maybe it's not a spiritual door, maybe it's a move that you're wanting to make in your career and you're just not quite sure, then get around the people that might have some insight into that.
Speaker 2:And God always uses others. I think the most foolish thing I've ever seen and the saddest thing I've ever seen is people who think they don't need any counsel from anyone else on their marriage, they don't need counsel on their ministry, they don't need counsel on raising kids, but that God's going to do something so unique through you and so different, because you're just so amazing that you don't need others, and I think that that is committing doorway suicide. You know it's the fastest way to make wrong decisions and be set back 10 years is to isolate ourselves, have any kind of spiritual pride, and I just think it's so important to doorways require humility, yeah, and humility says I can't do this alone.
Speaker 1:Rachel. I mean, yeah, I always causes me to cringe when somebody like you mentioned like something in the marriage or whatever. Oh, we don't need counseling, the Holy Spirit's going to counsel us, we don't need that, you know help or whatever. I'm always like, oh man, it's really sad because I've never seen it in the whatever. How many years of ministry it work well doing that. It always ends up with some pain.
Speaker 2:You look at Jessica with Moses. I mean people have always needed counsel for everyday life.
Speaker 1:Hello yeah, if Moses needed it.
Speaker 2:we all need this, we all need it.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 1:Another practical for me and we've done this actually before and I think we've even helped this.
Speaker 1:You know it sounds non spiritual, but it's good is to actually make a list of the pros and the cons and really really work at it, like don't hide it like don't like hide it on, like oh, I'm not going to bring that up because I don't want to have more on that, but it's actually a great way to start praying through some things, because it's hard to pray for something you haven't really addressed or it's hard to really hear God on something you don't know all the facts. You know what I mean, and so actually putting a factual this is what it's going to cost, this is what it's going to take, this is what it's going to do it's a lot better than just the of you know. And then I think that's when you get in big troubles, because then you make it based on an emotion and a feeling and I and sometimes you have to tell your emotions Tough luck. This is a God word, we're doing it, but I don't think the God word is as strong as if you haven't listed the negatives.
Speaker 2:Does that make sense, rachel? And God is the God of impossible. So you're not making a list of why it's not possible, but you're making a list of this is what it's going to take, and can I trust God for this? Yeah, and of course God can do anything, but I think there is, there've been, moments where Israel has written out, or we've said them written out Okay, to renovate this new building that we're really asking God, is this the right thing or the wrong thing? We're going to make a list of exactly how much this is going to cost for us to do. And then we had someone come to us and say how much is it going to cost? And we actually had the number and they paid for it. And they wouldn't if we didn't have that moment where we counted the cost and we had it written down, what it was going, what we're believing God for, if they would have asked and we said, well, we don't really know about, maybe around we have the exact number and because of that, I feel like God really honored that preparation, the prayer, the really weighing what this will cost and what it's going to take and in the miracle factor, okay. So for another one, for me to speaking outdoors is timing, yeah, and I just want to encourage hello.
Speaker 2:Something that we have really learned and are still learning, because we Definitely not aced it but throughout our life, and in the word of God you see it over and over is that a closed door doesn't mean know forever.
Speaker 2:It might just mean know for now, and God's protection can be a delay, because maybe we're not ready or the situation's not ready for us, and his intention for us is to Go from glory to glory. And so you know, if you have a baby premature, where does that baby, where do premature babies go? They are not getting to stay overnight with their mom. They're having to be kept alive by a machine and Sometimes with our dreams. When we push doors that have a closed sign on them for now, and we push it and we go three years early, it might require more heartache, more, more work from the outside. It might that dream and that thing might have to be kept alive artificially instead of the grace of God for it in the right moment. And so you know, just because you might have a closed door right now, it doesn't mean that it's a closed door later, because we have to trust the perfect timing of God. I.
Speaker 1:Just think that that is brilliant, so good to, and maybe it can even help you emotionally. Is Don't like, oh, the dream is over, you know. I think that when those doors close sometimes you just wonder and then if you can understand timing, that just Emotionally just helps you hold on to faith, and so I think that that's a good you know like you think about when God planted in us to move to Los Angeles was 10 years, 10 years in our heart.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like we had this God word that we were going to pastor in LA and the next day we got a you-haul. It was 10 years of waiting on the Lord for that open door and I think that a lot of times we get discouraged when those dreams take waiting on the Lord. It takes the time and that's what makes it so beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. Well, we hope that that helps. Did God close this door? Do I need to keep on knocking or is it time to just pause? Or is it time to get the crowbar because the enemy is trying to keep you out of it, or Do you believe God actually protects you and loves you?
Speaker 1:and so that's it so good. Oh well, we love you guys and Please give us some questions or things that maybe you want us to try to answer, or just a share it with somebody. It's growing, it's getting all over the place. Maybe it's a blessing to somebody. Yeah, whether you're on your, your treadmill or In LA on your commute, or maybe you're vacuuming and listening to the podcast. Maybe, could that be the case?
Speaker 2:I hope those guys out there are vacuuming.
