Episode 5: DON’T VACATE YOUR SENTRY DUTY

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder, and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies. I wonder if you got to listen to my last podcast, YOU ARE PART OF A MIGHTY ARMY. If you didn't get to listen to it, do go back and pick it up. You will find it powerful and encouraging. If you did listen to it, I wonder if you have thought anymore about this deserting army that I talked about. God, in His word, in Psalm 68:11-12, talks about a great army. It doesn't say an army. It says a GREAT army, and this army is in the home. Sadly today, there are many who belong to this army who have deserted their home. They're not there in their homes. I believe this is a great matter for prayer in this hour. It is a great revival that is needed of turning back the fathers, as the Bible says, and the mothers to their homes (Malachi 4:5, 6).

Today, of course, we're speaking about this army that's in the home and I want to talk a little bit more about it today. I have a few more thoughts. In fact, when I first got this revelation on Psalm 68, I spoke about it at our Washington Above Rubies retreat earlier this year.

We came to the airport to go home, and as we sat (and there was a whole crowd of us because I had taken with us Serene and Pearl and Evangeline, and not only my daughters, but granddaughters and great-grand babies), so it was a great entourage of us. As we sat down, we looked at this woman who was crying, so sad when you go to an airport and there's someone crying and so upset, but we noticed that she had a military bag beside her. We thought, I wonder if this woman is being deployed.

As we began to talk to her, yes, that was the truth. And why was she crying? This mother was leaving two little children. She was leaving a little baby and a little toddler and being sent away for at least one year; it might've even been two. You can imagine how she felt leaving these little, precious children, and we said to her, wasn't there any way you could get out of it?

 She said, “I tried. I tried. They were many, many single women who wanted to go and take this post. They wanted it with all their hearts. I didn't want it because I'm a mother, but no, they wouldn't give it to them. They said I had to do it.” Of course, if you desert in the army, there is big punishment. Here she was having to go, having to leave her precious children.

Of course, what she didn't realize was that she was deserting an even more powerful army that she belonged to, and it was a more important post that she was leaving. Serene was there, and of course, with her mother heart holding her little newborn, she was totally employing her, "Don't go, don't go, don't go." Of course, that wasn't possible.

I don't believe in women being deployed overseas. In fact, why do they even enlist in the army in the first place? It's not biblical. It's not what God intends. He intends the men to go out to war. Whenever you read in the Word, it's the men going out into the battle. It's the women who are at home holding the fort. We see this in this beautiful picture that we've been talking about in Psalm 68, how the men went out to fight the battle, but the women were at home. They were holding down the hatches at home. They were taking the responsibilities at home.

I want to talk a little bit more about this. Another little thought, I had a wife who is married to a marine talk to me recently and she said, "Nancy, we find that the men in the marines often have to do what is called standing duty.” They must stand for 24 hours on guard. That means without sleep. That's not an easy thing to do. I don't think everybody in the world has the caliber of our current president. I was watching an interview with him just the other night on Hannity, and he was interviewing him as he finished his big talks with Kim Jong Un, and when he was interviewing him, he had been awake for 25 hours, and he looked as fresh as if he had just woken up.

Anyway, back to these men and Marines who must go on standing duty. They are usually given preparation time to prepare to do their duty so that they can catch up on some good sleep and be prepared, ready to be able to do it. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't bother to prepare, and they keep late nights and want to go to their parties and do whatever they want to do. Then it comes to their standing duty, and they can't make it, and they even fall asleep on duty. Of course, there's punishment for that.

I think that relates to us too, as the army in the home. We have a great assignment from God and many times we don't prepare for it. In fact, I believe as mothers we have to prepare for each day.

We can't just do what we like into the hours of the night and think that we're going to be fresh, and able, and strengthened the next day to tackle our job of raising our children, which is a huge job, and managing our home. No, we must prepare.

I think it is important that mothers go to bed at a reasonable hour and don't stay up late reading into the hours of the night. I say that because that is a discipline that I have had to work on. I especially had to work on that as a young mother because I've always loved reading. Of course, before I was married, I would read into the hours of the night. I was a total book worm. I came to marriage, motherhood, all these little children around me, and I just want to keep reading my books and if I had a really good, exciting one, I'd want to read into the hours of the night. Then, could I cope the next day? No, I was hopeless. I had to discipline myself so that I didn't read books. Of course, I would keep exciting books for vacation time and just read the Word as I was going off to sleep because I had to be prepared for the next day.

Now, today, not everybody's a reader, but everybody's on social media. I was talking to a friend recently who belongs to a home school Facebook group. She was saying it was most enlightening because she found that, at about 10:00 pm, this Facebook group, with all these mothers, would come alive. They've got everything done, it's the end of the day, now it's their time. They get on social media, but it's getting later into the evening and often they stay on there for a long time. Instead, they should be preparing for the next day, for their great assignment. 

What about just going to bed with their husband? He's tired, he goes to bed, and you're still up on social media, and he's waiting for you in bed. We’re deserting the bedroom, and then, we're getting so tired we're going to desert our post the next day. These may seem like little things, but we must be mothers who are prepared for the job. That takes me onto another point. I have four more points I'd like to speak about on this subject.

The first one is PURPOSEFUL MOTHERING. I believe that we must be purposeful about our mothering. We can mother in all kinds of ways. In fact, every mother loves her children. I mean, every mother, no matter who she is, would die to save her child. She loves her children passionately, but not every mother loves MOTHERHOOD. They may love their children, but they don't love motherhood. This is something we need to come to because this changes the whole atmosphere, the whole attitude, the whole way of living, of our mothering.

When we not only love our children but we love mothering, it changes. We enter into the joy of mothering. We enter into the purpose of mothering. We enter into the anointing of mothering. Many mothers, they may have an extra job as well, and they can care for their children, clothe and feed them, make sure everything is fine, but mothering is so much more than that. We must have a purpose. We have to know what we're doing. We have to realize this is not a part-time job. This is something God has given to us full-time. We are not to be just pathetic mothers but PASSIONATE mothers, passionate about being mothers, passionate about waking up each morning to fulfill this great career that God has given to us.

You say, "Well help, goodness me, do I have to be all worked up and passionate about mothering?" Well, aren't we meant to walk as Jesus walked?

I was challenged about that this morning. My husband read in our daily devotions the Scripture from 1 John 2:6: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." If we are born again, if Christ dwells in our hearts, we'll be wanting to walk like He walked. How did Jesus walk? In other words, how did He live? Was it just pathetically? No, he lived passionately. In fact, he lived an abundant life. He said these very words himself: "I came to give you life and to give it to you MORE ABUNDANTLY." That word literally means “super-abundantly, over the top, above and beyond, more than enough.” It's speaking about something that's not ordinary, not status quo, not boring.

It is more. It's not just life, but more than that, because it's Christ's life. We also see how that when Jesus went into the temple, what did he do? In fact, way back in Psalm 69:9, it is a prophetic word talking about Jesus, and it says, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."

One day, when Jesus walked into His house, He saw in the temple all the money-changers at their tables selling and going on. Oh, His heart was grieved, and He just rose up with His passion and His zeal, and He threw out these money changers, and He whipped them out of the temple, and He threw over the tables, and He shooed out the oxen and all the animals, and He cried out, "My House shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."

When that happened, the disciples remembered that prophetic Scripture which said, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Well, have we even got a little wee bit of zeal that Jesus had? I believe we should become zealous mothers. Why be boring and status quo? That doesn't change the world. We've got to rise up into a whole new attitude, an attitude of purpose because we have purpose. God has given it to us. He has mandated it. We didn't decide we were going to take up the career of motherhood. No, God put it in us right from when we were created. It's innately within us. He even created us physically for the task, and then He mandated it in His Word. It's a divine calling, not just something we decided to do. It's something mandated from God. Now, anything that we have from God, surely, we can do with passion and zeal. Don't you think? I do.

Another important part of our being this great army of mothers at home is that we're also to be PROTECTING mothers, mothers who are watchdogs, mothers who guard over their homes.

When I was raising our children, I read this Scripture. It’s found in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and it's a prayer that Paul prayed over the Thessalonian believers. As I read this prayer, it was quickened to me, and I just took it up as my own. I made it my purpose. I made it my goal for raising our children. This is what it says:

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly (Now, it's not H-O-L-Y, but W-H-O-L-L-Y, sanctify you wholly, every part of your being) and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." That became my prayer, my purpose. When I stand before God, as I will do, and I will have to present all my children (since those days it's grandchildren as well, and even great grandchildren), and I stand before Him, and I must present them before Him, how do I present them?

Will they be whole--whole in spirit, soul, body? Wow. Now, we may not make the fulfillment of that fully, but we have it as a goal. We have it as a purpose. You see, motherhood is far more than just caring for the bodies of your children. It's their souls, their spirits--and that word PRESERVED. Wow. It's the Greek word, tereo. It means “to guard from loss or injury by keeping your eye upon.”

As watchdogs . . . a watchdog has to be there . . . if the watchdog’s gone, he's not a watchdog. If the mother is gone from the home, if this mother is deserting the home, the watchdog is not there. God wants us to be there, keeping our eye upon. It's not just little wee ones we have to watch over. In fact, we watch our children in different ways at different stages.

I'm sure many of you older mothers will just say Amen to that. When you're watching your little ones, you're having to guard them so that they don't hurt themselves and guard them here and there. You’ve got to watch over them physically.

But then as they get older, you don't have to watch over them physically so much. They've learned to protect themselves, but you still are watching over their hearts, their minds, their souls, their spirits. Oh my. That is a far greater watching, and that takes time, and that takes being there, because often there's a greater watching needed over our older children growing up into their teens more than when they were little. Precious, lovely mothers, can I encourage you? Don't vacate your post, don't vacate your standing duty, don't vacate this great, mandated career God has given to you. Be a purposeful mother, be a protecting mother and be a praying mother.

Of course, one of the greatest ways that we protect our children (especially as they're getting older and they know how to protect themselves physically now) is protecting them in prayer. Oh mothers, do you think that you can get away with mothering without praying for your children? I couldn't. I couldn't survive. I had to pray. I couldn't make it without praying. In fact, when our older children were teens, we moved from the sweet, little, lovely country of New Zealand, and we went over the sea to Australia, and we lived there for the next 10 years. When I took our family there, most of our children were getting into their teens or already in their teens, and we didn't go to a nice little town in Australia. We went to the Gold Coast, Surfer's Paradise, and we pioneered a church right there in Surfer's Paradise.

Our church was right opposite the Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast. In fact, our house looked out on the casino, and the bedrooms of our children looked out on the casino. This place was the playground of Australia, and it was filled with nightclubs and every bit of flesh and materialism.

Bringing my teenagers and my children into this place, how am I going to survive? Well, there was only one way to survive and that was pray. Of course, prayer has power, and no matter where we are, as we pray over our children, God will keep them. I love that Scripture in Deuteronomy 28. It's the blessing chapter. Well, I call it the blessing chapter. I'm sure, as you know, there are far more cursings in that chapter than there are blessings, although I usually just read the blessings.

Now, the first blessing, apart from the fruit of your womb, is: “God will bless you in the city and bless you in the country.” Oh my. What a powerful promise. Now I know, maybe I'm speaking to some moms today and you think, "Oh, if only I could just get out of this city. If only we could take our family out to the country where it's peaceful. It would be so much more wonderful and so much better for raising our children." And yes, I will admit it's a wonderful blessing to have raised your children in the country. Now, our grandchildren, not all of them, but a good many of them have this wonderful blessing, and we now live in the country. Three of the families of our daughters, the three daughters, they've all grown up together around here on the hilltop, so the children have grown up together and not only are they like brothers and sisters, but the cousins are like brothers and sisters and have been so blessed to grow up in this environment, but my children didn't grow up like that. 

I would go out each morning; I would walk the beach. We lived right near Surfer's Paradise/Broadbeach, and I would walk down the beach with the rolling breakers coming in off the Pacific and just cry out to God for my children, cry Out to God. Dear mothers, God hears your cry. He kept our children, even in that evil environment.

In fact, I remember one time, I have to tell you this story. We had a lady come to our church. We were always having visiting people because we were right on the Gold Coast where people are traveling all the time and this lady came, and we always love to show hospitality. Every Sunday, we'd invite people back from church to our home. Often, we’d end up with 30 or 40 people back home. Colin would invite people. I would invite people. And as the children grew up, the teens, they'd be going around inviting other people too. We'd end up with all these people and have such glorious fellowship together.

Anyway, this lady came, she was from Texas. I said, “Oh, come home and have some fellowship.” She was staying at the casino, which was opposite our church, because their family were having a big reunion. She enjoyed the fellowship. I said, “Come back next Sunday after church, we'd love to have you.”

However, during the week I got a call, “Nancy, I'm just calling to say I won't be coming home to your place for dinner after church because I'm going home. I can't stay in this place any longer.” She said, “You see, I come from the south.” Well, I hadn't a clue what that meant.” Come from the south?”  What did that have anything to do with her going home? It wasn't until a few years later when we came to the South (in USA) that I understood.

You see, back there on the Gold Coast, it's a little bit like Florida and maybe LA where it's so hot, and people don't wear very much. In fact, everybody is very scantily-clothed. We would go down to baptize people in the greatest, hugest baptismal pool in the world, the Pacific Ocean. We would have to cover our eyes as we went down past the topless bathers, and this was the scene of the Gold Coast in which we were daily surrounded. Sadly, although you hated it, you’re vexed by it, you kind of got used to that environment.

But this precious sister from Texas, she was there for one week and could not take it. Well, when we eventually came to the States and we came to Nashville, the “Buckle on the Bible Belt,” and way back then when we came (that was about 27 years ago), it was more conservative than it is now, and we arrived. Wow. People were clothed. It was amazing. Wow. All of a sudden, I thought, now I know what that lady was saying when she said, “Oh, I'm from the south.”

Anyway, that's kind of explaining the environment in which our children grew up, but God kept them through prayer, and they ended up being on the offensive, and all our young people, they began to go out onto the streets, into Cavil Mall, which was an open-air mall there. They would preach on the streets, and they would all preach, right from our eldest son right down to little Pearly. Some of you know, Pearl and Serene through Trim Healthy Mama. Back then, Pearly was just a little girl, and she would preach in her squeaky little voice. They got up there, and they preached the Gospel.

I remember my son, Rocklyn, he was just a young teenager who would come out of the surf, barefoot and jeans, and begin to preach like three Billy Graham's put together and crowds would gather as he preached the Gospel. From that, they moved on. Our sons got a vision for putting on a Christian nightclub in our city because it was filled with worldly nightclubs, and they were such a temptation to the young Christians, so our sons felt we needed something for the Christians there. They began to bring in Christian bands, and they just set up the whole thing in our church, where they had food, and pool, and table tennis, and Christian bands, and testimonies for Jesus. They called it Club Genesis. Interestingly enough, the band that was the most popular was, guess who, the Newsboys.

They were the only band that got into the prayer meeting and prayed up a storm about an hour before they played. Eventually my son, Wes, began to do their sound; then he became their manager. He brought them to the states. Of course, he has made them what they are today, one of the very big Christian bands in the USA today. That all happened back on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Time is going, and I think what I'd like to encourage you to do is to go to http://aboverubies.org/index.php/articles-stories. Oh ladies, there's so many stories, testimonies, and articles there to bless you on every subject, but go to the subject of PRAYER IN THE HOME and under that, you'll want to read everything there, but particularly pick up HOW TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN. Here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/HowToPrayForChildren

You could print it out. These are the prayers that my husband and I pray over our children, and I have Scriptures with every prayer. Now, you can't pray every one over them every day. There's so many. You take one each day and pray it over your children. In fact, never let a day go by without you and your husband together, praying over your children, each one by name.

Now, you can do it because if I can do it, you can do. We've got more names than you have. I'm sure we have more names than you have with all our children and their spouses, and their children, and their children and their children. Maybe you've just got seven or eight names, you can do it. Talk to your husband, say, "Darling, I feel we just can't get through without praying for our children. When do you think would be the best time? You tell me, do you think we should get together in the morning before you go to work? Or maybe in the evening? You tell me the best time and I'll make it, and we'll just pray together."

If you can't pray anything else with your husband, pray for your children. Check that out. Check out how to pray for your husband and check out our priestly responsibility. That's another powerful article I give you about how to pray over your children. Here’s the link for this one: https://tinyurl.com/OurPriestlyResponsibility

Now, I've got one more point, but I think we'll do that in our next episode. It's special, ladies, because I'm going to ask my daughter, Evangeline, to come and join me in that episode, and we're going to talk about the next point then. Let me pray for you as we end this session.

“Dear Father, I thank You for these precious mothers. Oh God, I pray that You will make the conviction of your mandated mothering more and more powerful in their minds and in their hearts. Bring them in to Your purpose for mothering. Oh God. Raise them up to be mighty watchdog, protective mothers, not only over the bodies of their children, but their souls and their spirits and their minds and their emotions. And Lord, I pray that You'll make them, above all, praying mothers, mothers who never let a day go by without praying and interceding for their children. Oh God, I ask it in the precious name of Jesus, and I ask Your blessing over them. In Jesus' name. Amen.”