Guess who's back? Season 2 Ep 1

Keith and Megan Peeler return to share their stories of freedom and transformation in Christ. This season they discuss their journey from Montana back to Texas. They are returning to podcasting after a break since 2019. They share their stories of prayer, deliverance, freedom, and healing in the name of Jesus.

Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome to season two of the Everfree podcast with Keith and Megan Beeler.

Hey friends, welcome babe.

Yeah, we're back.

We're back.

How long has it been? 

Oh, a couple of years.

2019 was the last podcast for Everfree and we're back.

Guess who's back? 

We're back.

Good game.

Sorry.

That's a little M&M reference.

Probably not appropriate for all people, but so glad that we're finally going to do this.

Babe, a lot has happened.

A lot has happened.

In the two, three, four years, whatever that's been.

I'm not good at math.

2019, we're in Montana.

We were getting freed from a role in a church, freed up from that role, which meant a lot of transition.

And we had to come back from that job in Montana.

And that's where we birthed Everfree full time.

We've been doing our prayer ministry since 2010, but in 2019, that's what launched us to begin Everfree.

And so I thought we'd start off this podcast and this time together, just catching you guys up on what we've been through a little bit, kind of like a, where are we now and what's going on? And so where do we even begin? 

Okay.

So Montana didn't work out as we thought it might and hoped.

That was a lot of difficult transition for us.

What would you say in 2019, we're finishing our time there.

We're praying, we're seeking the Lord and we're asking him, uh, one, how to process all the stuff.

What are you thinking about? 

Like when you look back on 2019, it's, it's spring coming into summer.

Um, the snow is sort of melting in Montana at that point.

And we're headed back to Texas at that time.

We didn't know where.

So let's just start with that.

We're, what was going on in you? 

Like, what were you thinking about all of the life turmoil? We'd moved up from Dallas.

We sold a lot of stuff.

We'd made some significant financial investments and moving.

And then boom, it gets pulled out from underneath.

And we lived with your mom and dad for nine months.

Well, that's when we got to Texas.

I'm talking, I'm not even talking about a year ago, dear.

I'm talking about like Montana time, like in, in Montana.

Yeah.

Like we sold everything, moved there, lost all of our financial supporters because we were going on stuff with the church.

We didn't need our fundraising support as we did.

We stayed on staff with Novo, which we still are today.

Uh, and in that, like everything was pulled out from underneath us when that freedom happened from that role at the church.

We like freed better than fired.

I used to say fired, but the Lord has really trained my heart around that to be freed from that.

Yeah.

I think I was excited to get back to Texas.

So while I was disappointed that Bozeman didn't work out, I'm excited about what God's going to do with the next chapter.

But we had no idea where we were going to land.

So I think there was a lot of unknown that was happening and it was a little scary, especially because we were waiting to sell our house in Bozeman, um, in order to find a new home.

And so there was a sense of excitement, but also sadness.

Um, and just feeling a little confused on why we would get to Bozeman and have it not work out.

So I don't really know what I learned in that, except that God takes us to places for a reason.

And we go to one place and he prepares away for another.

And that's what I've gotten to see in our marriage.

Well that's true.

And I think as you say that what highlights to me is, you know, in, in the Dallas based ministry, I was still primary ministry guy and you were supportive wife who does prayer appointments with me.

Right.

Yeah.

And then what I saw in you in the transition of Bozeman was you becoming your own leader.

When I had the role at that church, my, my attention and energy was going towards that one particular body.

Um, but you got connected to a number of people in a number of churches, even shared your testimony.

You had this network of women that you were ministering to.

You were leading and doing prayer stuff without me.

Yeah.

Really for the first time in our marriage.

And so I think I'd like to hear you tell everybody about that part of the journey because I don't know that you expect, I didn't expect that.

I didn't, I didn't foresee like, Oh, once we do this, Megan's going to go do her own thing.

So how did, how did that start for you? 

Like we're so right.

We got this neighborhood ministry halftime.

We got a prayer ministry halftime.

We take a role to be a missional pastor missionary.

How do you, how do you live the stuff out every day? 

That was really our heart and the role that we had taken.

Um, so I'm doing that in that body and you're, you get connected to this kind of large women's ministry at this large church there that was not related to it.

Well, it was relationally related, but it was not the church that I was serving.

Yeah.

So I think it would think it'd be helpful to process through like, what was that journey like? 

I have always known myself to be married to a pastor and, um, be a supporter of yours, but also be a speech pathologist.

Like that is my passion.

And there was a season in Montana where I couldn't get a job and that was unheard of.

And so I started stepping into ministry opportunities to share my, um, my testimony about having my daughter at 23 and what I experienced through that.

And people just wanted to hear more of the story.

And in that story, I talk about my own personal journey of healing and deliverance.

And then I started walking alongside women that were passionate and excited about that as well.

And so then I invited them.

She's a little charismatic.

I don't know if you know this, but she is and like, like this one attracts people, you know, in mostly the good ways, but I mean, obviously I'm attracted to her.

Um, but, but I mean, you are, you are, you are attractive, right? 

You are bubbly, you're optimistic.

You have this testimony of freedom.

And even in the midst of what was really traumatic and chaotic, there was, there was slander about my character.

The termination was for art, this prayer ministry.

Um, and so it was a theological difference, even though it wasn't a biblical difference.

Right.

And so that was traumatic as a couple you're seeing your husband go through the stress of meeting with elders and all, all of the things that happen, um, in a termination process.

Right.

But I mean, you remain joyful for the most time.

We had our own, so get me wrong.

But even in that, I watched you continue to share your freedom journey with women.

And I think what we went through, um, with all of that caused us to lean in even deeper to Everfree and what we represent and why we do what we do.

And so it made it really clear to me that this, this freedom ministry is crucial to my life, to our marriage and other people want that too.

They just don't know how to get it.

And so I feel like the reason I'm able to be vulnerable and authentic and real about my story is because there's a lot of hope in it.

And so I can share that story with people and then they're like, well, how do I get that? Yeah.

And I just found a lot of joy in walking alongside women and, um, sharing my passion of freedom with them and walking with them.

And so I had lots of opportunity to do that because I couldn't find a job.

And we needed a lot of freedom in our marriage in that process.

Yeah.

And we've talked about that.

We've talked about the repetitive role of doing listening prayer together and deliverance prayer together as a couple for each other.

And we'll unpack that some more in this series, but, um, this series is really going to be about the trauma that has been experienced and the role of inner healing and deliverance prayer.

Um, and we don't even really like determining the segmenting prayer prayer is prayer, right? But it does help us understand what we're talking about when we're listening in for the Lord and it helps us process those things.

So, so you're talking about, you know, you're paying attention to my journey and our journey together.

And, and for me, uh, I'll, I'll never forget, right? 

Like I remember, um, bringing a stack of books for the elders to consider that were kind of the core texts around what we've been doing and what we've been studying.

And um, I don't know if those books are ever used or not.

Honestly.

Um, I think at the end of the day it was, it just wasn't going to work.

Right.

So I bless them.

We've, we've gotten through that.

We bless that church.

We, we know Jesus is in that church and, um, you know, the enemy really used a lot of circumstances to harm people, us, them.

The whole thing was hurtful.

Uh, anytime a pastor is released from a church, it's confusing.

Uh, especially with, I mean, frankly, with, uh, the litigious nature of our society and the fear of lawsuits, they, they couldn't be transparent or chose not to be transparent about the details.

Um, we chose not to talk about it because it was something the Lord was very clear about.

Um, be silent, be still.

Exodus 13, 14 or 14, 13.

I get them backwards.

Um, you know, stay quiet and I will be your defender.

Right.

But in that part, I wasn't released then.

I mean, it took me a long time to even want to go back to a church.

Um, you know, it was very challenging, but I know for me on the teacher side of this and the seminary side of this, I went back to every book that I had ever read and went, Lord, if there's anything in this that's not of you, then I mean, I take it very seriously.

When the scripture says better for you to tie a millstone around your neck and throw yourself into the bottom of the ocean, then lead a believer to stray.

Okay.

I, I am not, I don't want to publicly teach or talk about anything that I don't know.

I can find truth in the word about it.

And that's what was so funny to me in that season.

There was one, one of the rumors flowing flying around was like, well, we heard Keith say that he, he doesn't need the Bible because he hears from the Holy Spirit.

I was like, well, I do hear from the Holy Spirit, but how am I to determine in my human flesh if it's of the Holy Spirit, if I don't know the word, I have, we have to know the word.

You have to know what the Bible says about the nature and character of God, the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy Spirit.

And this is a church, and I've said this in other places before, this is a church then, and their Trinity was the father of the son and the Holy Scriptures.

That's right.

It was not, I'm not saying the Holy Spirit isn't there.

I'm just saying in the way that we understand and work with the power of the Spirit, it is in direct conjunction with the scriptures.

When the Lord talks to us, when, when we're praying and we're sensing something from the Lord, we don't just make decisions because I heard the Lord say this, now I'm going off to do it.

Like, we share it together, and then we take it outside of our marriage, we meet with wise counselors and say, hey, we think we're hearing this about our life and our ministry, what do you think about this? 

Would you pray about this and give us your wisdom? 

And we find that that's also a problem or a struggle with people and individuals and couples and families that want to serve the Lord is, they begin to hear from the Lord and their prayer lives change and that listening prayer things changes and they hear something and in almost in a desire to be obedient, I think it's an earnest desire to be obedient, they just kind of go like, I heard the Lord say this, we should go do it.

And without testing that, the scriptures teach us to test things without testing that, that can lead us into a misunderstanding, right? 

So here you are blowing up women's ministry, sharing your joy in the midst of this chaos and trial, your husband's being freed from the church.

You're going through a cancer diagnosis for Ma, your grandmother.

I literally was freed the day you were on a plane, we weren't even together when I was terminated.

You were on a plane to get a visit with her.

With my grandma, yeah.

Another trauma, another loss in the midst of all of these things.

Yeah, and you know, you're talking about testing what we hear.

Us going to Montana was tested and prayed over and we had a huge group of people encouraging us and supporting us and listening with us because it was such a big decision to go across the United States to Montana.

And I feel like if we hadn't had all of that support and encouragement, it would have been more difficult.

Like did we miss it? 

Did we not really hear wrong or yeah, I get, yeah.

Totally.

But people ask me that I had the reassurance of knowing that there was, there was purpose even in it, even if I couldn't see it.

And so that was really helpful for closing that chapter and knowing that there had to be purpose in it.

And I think we did learn a lot and I'm thankful that we can look back now and see what we've learned and we're able to share that with everyone else.

So.

Well, and in that journey, you know, I had a lot of time on my hands, right? 

There was, we did have some income and we were able to just pray and process and launch Everfree full time again.

Nova was super supportive and helpful, just giving us the time that we needed to figure it out.

But it really tested me in like me as father, head of household, spiritual leader of the family.

Yeah.

The enemy was all over me in the, whoo, how could you do this to your kids? 

How could you, you know, take them from the place that they'd live pretty much their entire young lives and then do this and then give them the gift of the beauty of Montana and then rip it out from underneath them.

That's how it felt at the time.

And if we didn't have wise advisors around us speaking truth into our life, that would have been devastating.

Right.

So I think one of the things that friends, as you're listening, I want you to hear is one, we've been deeply wounded by quote, the church and we've recovered to our emotions matter.

The way we feel about things matters.

We don't make our decisions based on how we feel, but those emotions matter and they matter for the sake of really allowing ourselves to feel the trauma and the pain of what's happening.

Three, I think that, um, learning to hear from God is going to be tested in your life.

So we've shared this before.

We'll share it again.

The number one fear people have is I don't hear from God or what if I do this prayer time with you guys and have a healing prayer appointment and I don't hear anything and we've used the language.

What are you sensing in our prayer time with people because we don't want people to assume that you're going to hear an audible.

I don't hear the audible voice of God.

Um, I sense it in my spirit.

I know it in my bones.

If you will, like an internal knower, it's a, it's a, it's a thought or a phrase that comes from within.

It's not a, I do.

I know some people who have literally heard God speak to them, I think in their, and that's how they would say it.

Um, but there's a great intimidation in that.

And then the other intimidation is what if I get it wrong? 

Yeah.

Right.

We're so concerned about getting it right.

And we should be, we're dealing with either salvation for somebody we're dealing with, you know, not wanting to represent the Lord incorrectly, but these are all good, important things to pay attention to.

But the father is so relational with us and he's so near to us.

And I believe the enemy uses those two fears significantly to keep people from operating in the fullness of their freedom.

Yeah.

Right.

And so, okay, here's this chaos.

Um, I don't recognize I'm freed yet.

I'm still feeling fired.

And um, we're trying to work that out emotionally.

We're trying to work it out with the spirit.

Holy spirit.

Did we hear you asking those questions? 

And it was, it's brutal, right? 

Yeah.

It's brutal to go through that.

But in the process of staying, I would say consistent or committed or obedient maybe is another word I'd use to the process.

It was clear we couldn't stay.

We tried.

Wait, we had some really powerful ministry events starting to happen in Montana.

We saw some fruit emerging, which was really confusing.

We were hosting Freedom Fridays at our house and people were coming from all over to be a part of it and experiencing powerful experiences with the Holy Spirit.

And we did that a couple of times and then it was blowing up.

It was time to go.

But it was clear.

I mean, you know, if the Lord's called you, he'll fuel you, meaning he'll finance you.

And, and we, we did everything that we knew to do to stay in Montana, to be faithful to that.

And when the finances were no longer there, it was like, we physically can't stay.

Well, you know, and I think about it because COVID hadn't happened during this time.

It was about to hit us and we were launching into full-time online Zoom prayer appointments and then COVID hit and everyone is doing Zoom appointments and we had already started it.

So I find that really interesting that that was happening.

The Lord is preparing the journey of this.

We didn't, well, we didn't intend to start an online ministry.

Yeah.

It was the very real fact that we had no money.

And we were in Montana and I'm trying to fundraise to support this.

You know, financially we have to have our income was missionaries is raised by supporters, by generous supporters like you.

Sorry, cheesy, but it's funny.

And so doing that, we couldn't fly back to Dallas all the time.

That was the hub of our financial, emotional and spiritual network was Dallas.

And so we started doing Zoom calls to just, hey, can we tell you about the ministry? 

We're going to launch this and would you consider supporting us? 

And then people would say, hey, can I get a prayer plan? 

And like, well, we're in Montana.

Could we try it on Zoom? 

And we sort of stumbled into it.

Then we did the podcast because we started, OK, if we're going to do Everfree, we want this story to be told.

What is that going to look like? 

And did that in the midst of that season as well.

And it's been amazing because we haven't even we haven't done an episode in three plus years.

And the podcast continues to grow.

And it's not I mean, we're not blowing it up like some megastars, but at the same time, seeing that the fruit of it has continued even in the midst of that difficult transition.

And we process some of that with you guys in the podcast, but not all of it.

We were too close to it.

We hadn't processed some to talk about it freely.

And we've learned a lot since then.

Well, let me let me shift gears just a hair here.

We're acknowledging that we went back and looked at all the biblical stuff and the books we've read about what I would call is the the practices of inner healing.

Dr.Kraft was our primary mentor.

But from that place, we launched into teaching.

I mean, learning from lots of other people.

And we put together our own way of formulating what a prayer point looks like.

We acknowledge that it's biblical.

We acknowledge that the spirit is in it.

We acknowledge that the Lord is blessing us in it, that he sent us to Montana.

We're acknowledging that all and yet devastation.

Yeah.

And so part of what happened in that season was I'm praying and you were not hearing you were still holding on because yes, you were ready to come back.

You heard you said earlier you were ready to come back to Texas.

But in Montana, you wouldn't have said that.

Right.

You were you had a really great network of women.

And so you really wanted to stay.

And you're like, I'm going to find a job as soon as I can find a job.

And like if you can find a job, we can stay.

Right.

But the Lord had been whispering to my heart and I was like, we're not staying.

Mm hmm.

I couldn't say that to you yet because you your heart was still really desiring to stay.

And so in that place of waiting and the Lord was clear with me like that, like you need to love your wife well and give her time.

Right.

You need to plan for your family, but love your life well.

Let her process.

Let this work out.

And so in that space for me, I'm praying one day.

And I'm journaling and I'm just working on just kind of working my junk out, honestly.

And this this town comes to mind.

I heard Wimberley, Texas, and I write this in my journal.

I'm like, where is that? 

And I kind of pack it away again, leaving it.

And I don't know if it was three weeks or a month or two months.

I don't even remember.

But I do remember this.

There was there was an online deal you had you had replied to a speech therapy job and they're like, this is a really great job.

And you're like, oh, this is going to be it.

And then turns out because of the way Google searches work, we thought it was a local job, but it was one of the health funky.

Well, it was that no, it wouldn't even tell how I think it was a job in California or something.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter the details about it.

But like you were so excited and then it was like, and I remember you saying, that's it.

I'm done.

It's time.

We have to go.

And I was like, yep, I know I've been, I've been waiting for the Lord to show you and you to process that.

And then I say, Hey, this is weird.

Right.

Um, I got the word Wimberley, Texas.

You know what that's at.

And you were like, I mean, I don't remember how you said it.

Like, yeah, I mean, we grew up going there.

We've been there.

We've been camping there my entire life.

And you're like, you know, Keith, we have been there.

I'm like, what are you talking about? 

She goes, you know, that time we met my parents and it's this cool little like falls kind of area.

And it's like this kind of bluish green water and it's kind of swampy.

And we, you know, kind of had some cocktails and had some floats.

I'm just, we're hanging out with my parents.

My parents, we met up my parents there one time and I was like, Oh, that's beautiful.

And I was like, okay, so what's that about? 

Right.

And so one of the things that we acknowledged as a family was moving to Bozeman, Montana.

Beautiful.

Um, the beauty changed us.

And we knew that coming back to a big city after having that one, it was just really good for our kids.

Yeah.

Um, particularly Olivia.

She's an outdoors girl and, um, we had some medical stuff coming with her.

We didn't even know at the time that we'll share that later, but we knew we want to play be someplace beautiful.

And it was like, well, when really is beautiful? 

Well, let's just see.

So we're kind of cooking on that for a little bit.

We're starting to get the house ready and we finally go, okay, we need to pull the trigger and get a realtor.

I had met a guy that I really liked and became a realtor.

Um, we got the house set up.

We did the pictures.

It's summertime now of 2019.

And I'm just crispy, right? 

I'm like, I don't know.

We had 14 chickens, two dogs, a bird, a couple of alley cats that ran the yard.

And I was like, man, corralling all that to show this house with dirty kids.

And we had two geckos.

Oh, lizard.

Those things.

Anyway, I'm like, I asked the realtor, I was like, Hey, uh, do we need to stay? Or like, is this house going to sell quick or like, where are we at? 

And he's like, Oh, Keith, this is a great house.

It's a great location.

The market's on the upswing.

Again, this is pre-COVID.

So it was still in Bozeman.

The market was crazy even before COVID.

And I was like, so if we just go ahead and move back to Texas and start looking for a house, will that work? 

And he's like, yeah, yeah, that'd be fine.

Okay, great.

This thing will sell quick.

So we set up with my parents like, Hey, can we live with you guys for a couple of months? Um, while we sell this house and move in and we'll come down to Texas for July 4th.

Cause that was kind of a family tradition, our family.

And yeah, sure.

Keith, that sounds great.

So fortunately, my brother has this great storage at his property.

The guy who owned the house before them was used to build cars or something.

I don't know.

And he was gracious.

And so yeah, so we loaded up a U-Haul and over four days drove the U-Haul, hauling a big old, well, Mike, you know, we were hauling my car.

Uh, no, we weren't, we were hauling another, another, like one of those big old trailers of like, uh, enclosed trailers.

And then you had in the trailer behind yours and we even got rid of a bunch of stuff, packed it all up and headed back down to Texas.

Yep.

What were you thinking when you saw that big old truck and all the animals? 

I, I don't do well with the unknown and feeling unsettled and not knowing what's next.

Um, so I think I was very nervous about how everything was going to fall into place because literally we had no clue what was going to happen.

We just knew we were dropping our stuff off at your brothers and then we were staying with your parents and that's all we knew.

And so it was, it was a really scary season.

Um, I, even just the idea of driving a U-Haul with my car and all these animals across states was, was scary too.

I'd never pulled a U-Haul.

Um, so I think for me, it was, it was just like, okay, Lord, we trust you.

We don't know what's next, but we trust you.

And we know you're going to make a way where there is no way.

And, um, I'm forever the optimist.

So I was very hopeful that, that he was going to show up and show off for us.

Cause that's what we needed for ourselves and for our kids.

Yeah.

No, there's no doubt.

And I, I'm the risk taker in the relationship.

Yes, you are.

I'm not afraid to jump off the diving board before I know if there's water.

Um, but even in that, there's a lot of tension.

There's a lot of stress.

I remember my body feeling the stress.

In fact, I went back to an old journal entry.

This is right before we packed up and in, we were coming down to visit mall.

We were doing a one last trip back and forth.

And, uh, and I remember in this journal, I'm like, I'm sitting here on the plane.

I've got the kids and I feel like my head might pop.

And my wife's not here.

I got fired and like, I'm trying to take care of my family and like, just the pressure of all that felt like overwhelming doesn't do it justice.

Um, again, got through it, got past it, kind of decompressed a little bit, came back and we pack up and move down and okay, this is gonna be fine.

This'll be great.

You had a couple of contracts on the house and they're terrible.

Like, like low ball bids, one contract came in and it was just like, you want to what, like, well, we want to put a contract on the house.

We want to renovate it.

But before we own it, because we need the money to do it.

And I was like, you, you want me to give you permission to renovate a house that I can't oversee with money.

I have no control over or contractors.

I don't even have control over let you do that.

And then sell you the house.

Anyway, bottom line is it was nuts and the house didn't sell for nine months.

And so here we are.

Summer's coming.

Uh, it's over.

It's coming to be over.

Like, uh, kids have to start school starts in like two weeks.

All right, Lord.

We're going to need a, we're going to need a breakthrough here because we've been going down to Wimberley from my parents lived in a spice with Texas area over near B cave and we love the area and we enjoyed them, but we knew after looking at many, many houses over the time that summer, we had a feeling that Wimberley, it was a confirmation.

You know, we, we got the word of knowledge.

I got the word of knowledge essentially that Wimberley, Texas was the place to go.

But then we tested it.

We were doing my parents.

We looked at houses in South Austin.

My parents live near Buda where your family lives.

We looked at all these different places and we kept again, kept coming back to Wimberley, right? 

You know, and I, I'm thinking even about how long it took.

It took nine months, which is how long it takes to birth a child.

And while that felt like forever looking back now, I can say, okay, Lord, you really wanted us to be right where you wanted us.

And if we hadn't waited, we may have made some other decisions.

And so I see that as strategic on God's part to, to allow us to land right where he wanted us to go.

No, I think that's good.

And I think for me, that's a great pause to break up these episodes.

So we're going to continue this journey in this story.

We've gone from Montana.

We're talking about the tension and trauma, the words of knowledge that got showing us this path, even in the midst of this great darkness.

And he gets us to Texas.

We unload and we pack.

We're waiting on Wimberley, waiting on Wimberley next episode of the every podcast, waiting on Wimberley.

All right.

We'll be back with you guys soon.

Take care.

Bye bye.

Hey everybody.

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