LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 205: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 16

The land of motherhood is a safe land and a plenteous land. Also, a special word to older mothers. 

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Podcast 205! As I share this with you, I’m looking out the window, and everything is just beautifully, brilliant green. In fact, here in Tennessee, no matter what window I look out, everything is green. It’s so beautiful.

No. 8. IT IS A LIFEGIVING LAND

We are up to point number eight in our journey of going through the land of motherhood. It is a life-giving land. I wanted to give you a few more thoughts on this, before we go to the next one.

I wanted to say that when we take on being a life-stopper instead of a life-giver, we not only stop one baby, but we stop dynasties. This is the amazing thing. Sometimes we don’t think into the future. But when we close off our “time of life,” and maybe stop a baby coming into the world, it’s not just one, because that baby can grow up to marry and have children, and their children will marry and have children. We stop a whole dynasty. There are so many dynasties that we are eliminating, even in our nation today.

In the Bible, it was a very, very important thing to God, that the name of a family continue in Israel. That was why God had the practice away back then, that if a man died, his brother, his next brother to him who was not married, was to take his brother’s wife to be his wife. The first child that they would have together would take on the name of the brother who had passed away, so that, as the Bible says: “His name will not be blotted out of Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:5, 6).

It's interesting how God was so interested in the names, the family names. I think of our own experience when we started having grandchildren. We actually got to 15 grandchildren before we had a Campbell grandson. We already had grandsons, but we didn’t have a Campbell grandson. It wasn’t until grandbaby number 15 that we actually got a grandbaby who carried on the family name. So, there’s something very, very powerful about passing on the family name.

You usually need more than one son to do that, because otherwise it’s hanging on by a thread. I think of my maiden name, Bowen. I came from a very little family of only three children. I think I was deprived.

As we grew up, we were all living in different countries. Colin and I moved from New Zealand to Australia, and then America. My brother moved from New Zealand to, well, he went on the Anastasis, the YWAM ship. Of course, they were in many countries of the world. Then my sister immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen, although she is now here nearby me in America now.

My brother, he’s away back in New Zealand now. So, we’ve always been quite apart. I think you need quite a number of brothers and sisters to keep having them around you and also to keep that family name going.

My father only had one son, my brother. He lives in New Zealand. He only has one son, and his son actually lives here, nearby us, here in Tennessee. But he only has one son with the Bowen name. This young man, it all hinges on him. May he be spared, and may he marry, and have more than one son, to keep that name going. Otherwise, if he marries, and he has no sons, that’s the end of that name. It's rather interesting, isn’t it?

A WORD TO OLDER MOTHERS

Another thing that I think is so important, and that is, if I could have a little word to older mothers who may be listening today. Dear older mothers, we have such a responsibility to encourage and teach and train the young mothers in God’s way, not the world’s way, not the way of our humanistic society today. But God’s way, according to His living Word, which is alive, and which has never become stale, and which is eternal. His Words are for every generation.

We go to that famous passage in Titus 2:3-5, where it says the older women are to teach the young women. It doesn’t say they’re to go out, taking great big seminars teaching Bible doctrine. No, they are to teach the subjects of marriage, and motherhood, and homemaking. This is what God has given them to teach.

There are very few who are doing this. I don’t know. I’m trusting I’ll live to 120, but I am getting a little older. I believe there needs to be raised up an army of older women who will become encouragers and teachers of the young women in God’s ways, teaching them how to love their husbands, and teaching them how to be life-givers, and embracing life, and enjoy motherhood, and know that it’s God’s highest career to women.

The trouble is today, most older women have no idea. I don’t know. Do they not read the Word of God? But if we read the Word of God, we’ll soon see that this is what we’re meant to be doing. It’s not time to pack up, and think, “OK, mothering days are over!”

No, we are in our mothering days until we meet Jesus, because this is who He created us to be. He created us to be mothers, nurturers, life-givers. So, we keep on mothering and nurturing when our children grow. Then, of course, the grandchildren are coming. But also, we don’t minimize motherhood, we maximize motherhood.

Because we now have more time. We can open our eyes and look around and see the fields that are white unto harvest. We see all these needy women. We see needy young mothers, and needy single moms, hurting moms. They all need help and encouragement. They all need truth! They need to know God’s ways. How can they receive them? Only through the older mothers!

We are seeing such a dearth of this in our society today, as mothers just, “OK, my children are grown. I can go and do my thing now.” They’re not taking up their mantle. The sad thing is, God holds us responsible. Even more sadly, many of these older mothers are not only not doing anything, but they are passing on the wrong message.

Most older women today are negative about a young mother having children, or having more than two or three, perhaps. They give a negative message. They encourage them to be life-stoppers, not life-givers. One day, we will stand before God to give an answer to this, because we hold this generation in our hand. We’re responsible for passing on His truth to this coming generation.

I have been doing Above Rubies now for many generations. Now there’s a generation that, they don’t know about Above Rubies. Please, I hope you do get more than one magazine. One magazine is so lovely to just read and be encouraged. But, oh, we’ve got to have a bigger vision than that!

This nation is bereft of mothers in the home. Most have gone AWOL. There needs to be a great returning of mothers to the home, where they will raise strong young men and women, and raise strong families, and strong homes. Because the nation is only what its mothers are.

If the mothers are out of the home, the homes are being fragmented. If the mothers come back with a vision in their hearts to know what God has called them to, we will not only raise great young men and women, but we will raise a strong and mighty nation. I would encourage every older mother to take up your mantle, to be an encourager and trainer of the young women, encouraging them to be life-givers.

But it’s not only the older women who are vacating their tasks that God has given to them, but even the pastors and the elders. They’re giving a wrong message. So many young couples who are courting, they go for counsel as they prepare for marriage, and what are they told?

“Well, you must prepare yourselves and get your home ready, and get everything before you think about children.” Of course, if they say that, then they’ve got to tell them what to do to stop having children, so they’re going to be talking about birth control, and contraception.

Can I ask, where do they get all that stuff? Do they get it in the Word? No, it is not there. It is the opposite to God’s heart who wants us to be fruitful and multiply, who every time He says, “I will bless thee,” He then says, “I will multiply thee.” The One Who created us to be life-givers. This is the Word of God.

Stopping life is on the devil’s side. We’re either on one side or the other. If we belong to the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of life, we will be open to life, we will promote life, we will encourage life.

But on the other hand, if we are stopping life, if we are against life, if we are negative to life coming into the world, we belong to the devil’s kingdom. The devil hates life. He wants to stop life. That’s what he's in the business of doing. He just wants to bring contraception, sterilization, and abortion. That all belongs to the devil’s kingdom.

I think of when the children of Israel were taken, well, it was the children of Judah, really. They were taken to Babylon. There they were captives in Babylon. The Lord wants to speak to them and encourage them.

He brings a word through the prophet Jeremiah. So, Jeremiah speaks this word, saying: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven, the God of Israel.” Then he begins to tell them seven things that He wants them to do while they are in Babylon.

Here they are, captives! Actually, what He’s doing is just telling them, “I want you to do what I told you to do, always! It doesn’t matter that you’re now in a strange land, that you’re captive. No, that’s not the point. You never stop doing my commands. They work, no matter where you are, no matter what generation. You keep obeying.”

It's so amazing actually. We go down to Jeremiah 29:5, and the first thing he says is: “Build houses and live in them.” Number two, “Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.” Number three, “Take wives and have children.” Number four, “Have grandchildren,” and number five, “Don’t diminish.”

Here they are, captive, in a strange land. But God says, “Even there, don’t diminish! You have children, and then you get your children to get married!” He’s very proactive, yes. Jeremiah 29:6 says: “Give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased, and not diminished.”

Then the next point is to pray for the peace of the city in which they live. The last one was to not be deceived. Now, we would think that would be an important one. God would say, “Now, don’t you be deceived by Babylon. It’s just filled with everything that’s against My ways, and deception and delusion. Don’t.”

But no, that’s not what He said. He said: “Don’t be deceived by the prophets who are in the midst of you.” Sadly, today, we have pastors, elders, who are in the midst of the church, who are counseling young couples to do the very opposite than what God has told them to do in His Word. We have to watch out for those deceptions, because we are in the land of motherhood, which is a life-giving land. He has chosen us to be life-givers.

UPSIDE DOWN

Let me just give you one or two Scriptures here. I love giving you the Scriptures. Let’s go to Isaiah 29:16. Here is says: “You turn things around. Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay? That what is made would say to its maker, ‘You did not make me.’ Or what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding.’” That was the New American Standard Bible. The King James says: “You turn things upside down!” Yes!

Let me go to Isaiah 45:9-10: “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?”

All right. Let’s go to Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O LORD, Thou art our father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand.”

Well, let’s go over to the New Testament, to Romans 9:19-20: “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”

Here we see in these Scriptures, that how can we question God, the way He created us? He created male and female. He created us female. He created us to be life-givers. Why would we go against the way that He has created us? Let’s be life-givers.

No. 9. IT IS A SAFE LAND

Well, the next point, number nine: it is a safe land. That’s good, isn’t it?

Leviticus 25:19: “And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.”

Micah 4:4: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.”

God wants our land of motherhood to be a land of safety. Then we go over to the New Testament, in 1 Timothy 2:13-15: “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”

The context of this Scripture here is that Eve was the one who was deceived. They were both in the transgression, but Eve was first deceived. The Bible says here that however, notwithstanding, if she embraces her childbearing, “notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing.”

“Saved,” the word is sozo, S-O-Z-O. This word actually means more than “saved.”  The full meaning of the word is “saved, preserved, healed, delivered, made whole.” It’s exactly the same word that is used in the New Testament when many times Jesus healed people. The Bible says: “And they were made whole from that moment.” Made whole—body, soul, and spirit. It’s a beautiful, all-encompassing word of wholeness and healing.

It’s a glorious word, the word that was used when Jesus healed people. But it’s used right here for us as women. We will be saved. Yes, we can be saved and born again, but it’s more than that here in this Scripture. It’s in the context of Eve being deceived. We will be saved and delivered from deception if we embrace our mothering role. We will also, as we embrace it, we will be preserved and healed and delivered.

It’s a glorious word, a wonderful promise to women. And “childbearing” there, it can mean “childbirth,” but that is not the full meaning. The actual full meaning of the word there is the whole aspect of childbearing as a career of embracing children, and nourishing children, and feeding children, and teaching children, and raising children. It’s embracing the whole understanding of motherhood. In doing that, God promises that we will be saved. We will be kept safe from deception.

Now, in the last days, we are explicitly told that we are to watch and pray, lest we enter into deception and into temptation. “In the last days, even the elect will be deceived.” Deception is such a subtle thing. Often, when you’re deceived, you usually don’t know you’re deceived.

The only criterion to expose deception is the Word of God. If we’re not in the Word, if we’re not filling ourselves with the Word, if we don’t know the Word, we can be deceived. If we don’t know what the Word of God says about motherhood, we can be deceived.

That’s why I’m taking you through the land. All the 20 different points that God speaks about the land, every one of them is a truth for us to embrace so that we will not be deceived. Dear ladies, if you want to live in safety, if you want to be safe from deception, embrace your mothering role. Embrace your homemaking role. Not, “Well, I guess this is what I have to do. I’ve got these children, so I have to be home looking after them.”

No, you’re not going to get much out of that. No, it’s embracing the joy, knowing I’m in the very perfect will of God, knowing I am doing the most powerful thing any woman could do, knowing that I’m in a career that is going to impact the nation, and generations to come, and come, and come, because I’m involved in establishing a dynasty with my husband, and impacting eternity. As I embrace this, I will be in the very place where God will keep me from deception, because when we move out of the home, we’re moving out of the place where God wants us to be.

IN THE LAND

It’s like if we read through Deuteronomy, we read this phrase over and over again: “In the land.” God says “I will bless you in the land. I will do this for you in the land.” It’s all in the land. When we move out of the land, we’re moving out of where we have God’s safety and covering, and where we’re saved from deception.

So, women get out, they move out of their role in the home. They get into their career out there in the workforce, in the marketplace, out there in the man’s world, where God intended for the man. He didn’t intend it for the women. But as they are out there, they can slowly, subtlely, little by little, be brought more and more into deception. They eventually come to that place where they believe this is where they are meant to be.

In fact, I find, every day as I post a little post on Facebook to encourage marriage, to encourage motherhood, I will often talk about coming back to the home. I cannot believe the reaction. These are from Christian women. They’re supposed to be, I would hope, Bible-believing women. But they’re not really believing the Bible because what they’re doing is the opposite.

And because they’re out of the land, they’re in a place where they can be deceived, where they believe that what they are doing is perfectly right! But, you see, they haven’t got the Word that’s backing them up. We have to be in the Word, dear ladies. As we’re going through this, the land of motherhood, I’m constantly giving you the Word. Let the Word go into your heart and into your very being. Begin to live the Word and you will be in His perfect will. Amen?

No. 10. IT IS A LAND OF PROVISION

Deuteronomy 8:9 calls it, “a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. Thou shalt not lack anything in it.”

Deuteronomy 28:11, and also chapter 30:9: “And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.”

Oh, there’s so much in that one Scripture there. Not only how He will provide for us, but it talks about where He will provide. In the land. Did you notice that? That phrase that comes over and over again, “in the land.” Yes, “the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the land, which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.”

Once again, we’re reminded of His promise that it’s a gift to us, just as it was a gift to the children of Israel. They didn’t go and buy it. They didn’t go and purchase it. It was God’s gift to them. The land of motherhood, we may not have chosen it, but God chose it for us. It is His gift to us.

Now this word “plenteous,” “plenteous in goods,” and “plenteous in the fruit of your womb,” and “plenteous in the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground.” What is that word “plenteous”? It’s yathar and it means “to jut over.”

It’s not just, OK, just right there measuring it right to what you barely need. No, it’s “jutting over, exceeding, excelling, abounding, that which is left over.” So, it’s more than enough. That is the promise. Of course, that promise starts out in Deuteronomy 28, where it says: “If you will obey His commandments, and you will walk in them, then these blessings will all come upon them.”

As you know, Deuteronomy 28 is the blessing chapter. I love the blessing chapter. Don’t you? Do you often read it? Deuteronomy 28:1-14 are all the blessings that will come upon us if we hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord our God, to observe to do all His commandments. Then it goes on with all the blessings.

But it’s also the cursing chapter, and the curses are from verse 15 right over to verse 68. My! So much more than all the blessings! But let’s keep in the blessing part, shall we? And here we see, too, in this beautiful blessing part of Deuteronomy 28, we see how God blesses. Just have a look. Come on with me, ladies. I want you see how God does it.

GOD PUTS FIRST THINGS FIRST

OK. Here we are. We started in Deuteronomy 28:4: “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, the fruit of your womb.” Did you notice? The first blessing. God always puts things first. Nothing is haphazard in the Word of God. This is the very first blessing that God gives. It’s His ultimate blessing, the fruit of the womb. God loves this. He loves the fruit of the womb.

But then, He doesn’t stop with that blessing. He keeps on giving blessings, and it goes on to say: “And the fruit of thy ground.” Wow! Your garden is going to grow so prolifically! “And the fruit of thy cattle. And the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.”

Do you notice the progression, ladies? First, the blessing of the womb, then God blesses the ground, and blesses the cattle, and blesses our basket and our store. What for? To provide for the first blessing, the blessing of the womb. There’s no need for the other blessings unless we have the blessing of the womb. That’s why God provides them! To provide for the blessing of the womb.

You see, you’ve got to get it in God’s order, lovely ladies. So often we are so concerned, and we’re just living, you know, just on our budget. We’re hardly making it. Well, I found that I could hardly ever keep to a budget. In fact, can I tell you a little secret, ladies? Colin and I have been married for 59 years, and we’ve never ever had a budget. I think we did try it in the beginning, but it never worked. We gave up, and we have never ever had a budget.

Well, the main reason is because we have always loved hospitality, loved having people in our home. If we had kept to a budget, we would never have been able to have anybody! Because we would never have made it on a budget. We have always lived far beyond our means. We just lived!

We just ask people, and because God is a hospitable God, and He loves to bless His people as we reach out to them, He comes down and blesses so we can see them! We usually find the more we bless people, the better we eat. That’s just how it is with God.

It’s the same with our having children. We think, “How could I have another baby? We can hardly survive now!” Well, you haven’t got the next baby yet! Forget it! Don’t worry about it! If God gives you another baby, what will He do? He blesses. He blesses the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, and your basket and your store. Oh, He just blesses it all to feed that fruit of the womb! That’s how it is.

Each baby that comes on, you think, “How will we ever manage another baby?” And God blesses! It’s just how God does it! It’s just so exciting!

We just have to do it God’s way. So, lovely ladies, trust God! This land of motherhood, it’s a land of provision when you trust God and you do it His way.

Well, let’s pray, shall we?

“Oh, dear Father, we just thank You for this land that You have given to us. Lord, it’s a wonderful land. You have given us everything we need to live in this land. Your promises and your blessings are not for out of the land. They are for in the land!

“So, Lord God, help us to embrace the land, and live in this land, and make it the most wonderful life for our husbands, and our families, and all those we bring in to enjoy it with us. We ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 204: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 15

Motherhood is a life-giving land, life-giving from the cradle to the grave. We are life-givers, life-embracers, life-nurturers, life-feeders, life-speakers, life-restorers, and life-refreshers. We are created to bring life to the world!

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! How are you today? I wonder what you are doing as you’re listening to this podcast. I know so many of you are listening from all around the world. In fact, when I mentioned those who have listened to every single podcast, right up to number 200, the messages that I got were not from people in the USA, but from people overseas, in European countries, such as Slovakia and places like that. It was so exciting to think that these wonderful ladies are listening so faithfully in all these countries of the world.

A TASTE OF HEAVEN

Well, what’s been happening in our end of the world? We recently returned from our annual Above Rubies Family Retreat down in Florida, where we have it at Laguna Beach in Panama Beach, a lovely place. Of course, everybody wants to come to the beach. But, oh, we do have the most wonderful retreat. This was no exception.

I think it was perhaps the most glorious we have ever enjoyed. About 800 folks came together, more than 100 families joining together. Loads and loads of young people and children. And, of course, the meetings were wonderful. But the fellowship was so rich, so wonderful, like a little taste of heaven. Everyone was so blessed that I think just about everybody booked in for next year, before they even left.

So, if you want to get in on this wonderful retreat for next year, you have to start thinking about booking in right now, because we were actually completely overloaded this year to fit into the auditorium. But we are thinking of next year hiring a huge tent so we can fit up to 1,000 or more in that tent.

If you want to be part of this wonderful, glorious assembling of families together, encouraging one another, being blessed and inspired and encouraged, look into it. You’ll love it! We had families drive all the way from Canada, all the way from Montana, and all these different states. Not only from around Florida, but all over the nation. If you’re interested, you can contact Allison Hartman, 850-221-1222. I know you won’t want to miss out.

THE “HANG OUT” REUNION

We’re also having an August reunion. That’s the 10^th to the 17^th of August. We have started that now. The families who are getting to know one another can’t wait a whole year. The August retreat is not so packed as the April one with things that are happening, it seems as though it’s go, go, go, go, go, the whole time, although the weekend is the main time for the meetings, and the volleyball contest, the basketball contest. This year we had tug of wars down on the beach. That was something so amazing! We’ll be making that a yearly thing, too.

But the August one is more, people just come to vacation and to get together and fellowship. We usually arrange one thing for each day. Like last year, about three times us ladies got together just to share for a morning tea. One night all the young people cooked a beautiful meal for all the couples. That was so cool. So, we do different things like that. Just be in, and don’t miss out on the blessings.

ANOTHER FAMILY WEDDING

This last weekend has been a great weekend. Friday night we had another family wedding. How we love our weddings! This was Pearl and Charlie’s son, Rocklyn Barrett. I have a son called Rocklyn. I also have a grandson called Rocklyn.

Rocky and Mary Beth were married on Friday night, down in Alabama where she lives. Mary Beth was also an Above Rubies girl. She came about three years ago to be an Above Rubies helper. I think it was love at first sight! But it’s taken a few years for it to all come together. And now they are married. It was such a lovely wedding.

BABY DEDICATIONS

And then Sunday being Mother’s Day, we had a most beautiful service. We dedicated seven babies. Oh, that was so wonderful! Then my husband gave such an amazing message to mothers. It was so encouraging and inspiring. I so wished we had recorded it so you could have heard it.

WILD TURKEY IN THE FREEZER

And then, this morning, I knew I had to prepare for this podcast today, but I got a call from my grandson Arden. He said, “Nana, I’ve shot a turkey for you!” He’d been out early this morning, and he came over with this great big, huge, huge turkey! It had a great big, long beard which he cut off for a souvenir. But then he said, “Sorry, Nana. I’d like to fix it up for you, but I’ve got to rush into the city. I have an appointment. I think you’d be better skinning this one, rather than plucking it.”

Well, I’m used to plucking chickens and plucking turkeys, but I hadn’t skinned one before. So, I thought, “What would I do?” OK, call another grandson! “Hey, Arrow! Got a few moments? Can you come and skin this turkey for me?” He came over, and we skinned this turkey. Now I’ve got it all cut up and in the deep freeze. That’s good.

I just love getting some real good wild stuff in the deep freeze. I was brought up on wild meat. In fact, I don’t think we rarely ever bought from a butcher shop. Well, today you go to supermarkets! Back in our day, you went to the butcher shop.

But my father would always kill our own meat. He’d kill a sheep, or kill a cow, and cut it all down. We’d throw it in the freezer. Also, he was a great hunter, deer stalker, duck shooter. We used to have all this wild game in our freezer, too. So, I was used to all the wild game.

In fact, before we ever had deep freezes, in the days when we didn’t have such things, I can remember duck shooting season was only for three weeks. My father would go out every morning for those three weeks. He’d leave early in the morning to go out, and he would always get the number of ducks that you were allowed to get. He’d always get a full bag and come home.

We had so many ducks! We’d have to pluck all these ducks. We couldn’t keep them all because we had no deep freeze! When you get a limit bag every single day for three weeks, what do you do with them? Well, of course, my father would give them away.

But also, we would eat duck every single night for the three weeks of the duck shooting season. The first night, there was only three of us children, but my mother would cook three ducks! One for my father. He’d eat the whole duck, and the rest of us would eat the other two. But I don’t think it was ever quite the same when we got a deep freeze, and we could have them throughout the year and space it out. There was something about just duck for three weeks. It was quite a great memory.

2000 MULES

Oh, yes, another thing. Last week, Colin and I went to see in the theaters the documentary movie that is now, well, it was only out for a couple of nights. Dinesh D’Souza’s movie, 2000 Mules. I wonder if you have heard about it. It’s no longer in the theaters. It was only there for a couple of nights. But now it is available digitally. You can go online. I would encourage you, go online, look up 2000 Mules, M-U-L-E-S. This movie exposes our stolen election.

Now, I know we’ve all known that it was stolen. We knew the cheating that went on with the Dominion machines, and so many other things that happened that were totally unbelievable. Yet, although this has all been proved, still nothing has happened.

But this movie doesn’t go into any of that. It has exposed another whole realm of cheating that people didn’t know about. It is unbelievably amazing. You have to see this movie to see it, and how you actually see what they called these mules, these people who get these ballots, which are illegal. They take them to these drop boxes in the dead of night. They were all being sent. They were not legal. You see it all happening. It's actually quite unbelievable.

I believe that every single person in the nation needs to see it. I have been very saddened to be on some threads on social media and see that even in the conservative community, people say, “Well, why should I have to pay for it? I can’t afford $20 to rent it, or $30 to buy it.” I beg your pardon? Our country is at stake! We, at the present, do not have a constitutional republic. We do not have it. We have a stolen election.

We do not have WE THE PEOPLE, because WE THE PEOPLE voted, we voted, even as this movie proves, well beyond the stolen vote of Biden. But we don’t have the legal president in the White House. This is not what America is! It is not even, at this moment, a constitutional republic.

In fact, at this moment, unless things are changed, unless people see this movie, and unless people are awakened, and unless people do something and begin to write to their senators and congressmen, and make a voice in their state, and federally, it’s not going to change. It’s only WE THE PEOPLE who can change this. If we don’t, we’ll have another stolen election.

Because, at the moment, there has been nothing changed to change what happened. All these things will happen again! Therefore, we are not a free people. We are just going down the drain, into communism and dictatorship. They are dictating who wins.

I trust that you will get it. You can gather in friends and family to watch it with you. We did that on Saturday night. We played it downstairs where we actually have our church, and where we have all our big family gatherings. We played it on the big screen. We’re going to do it next week as well, and get in as many, many people as we can. I don’t think we got enough in the other night, so we’re going to go for it again, and get more people.

If we can all do this, and then do something about it, we can see change. Sometimes people think, “Well, can anything happen?” Well, it can, if we do it! We are the people. This is how this country is meant to be governed. We the people. But at the moment, we are being dictated to. I’d encourage you to check that out, OK?

ENJOYING THE JOURNEY

All right, ladies. We’re still going through this land of motherhood. Are you enjoying the journey? We haven’t got through yet! There’s still more to go as we discover the land.

Today we are up to . . .

NO. 8. IT IS A LIFE-GIVING LAND

Yes!

Last week we were talking about how IT IS A FRUITFUL LAND. Well, today it is a life-giving land. Before we even look into that Scripture, because every point I have is taken from the Scriptures, I want to remind you ladies that this land, this promised land, this land that flows with milk and honey, this land that God gave to His people Israel, He gave it to them for an everlasting possession. This land is a GIFT! Yes.

GOD’S GIFT TO YOU

I’ve just been reading through Deuteronomy again. I finished it this morning.  Chapter 34 is the last chapter. It was just a joy to read through again. I noticed that 70, SEVENTY times in this one book, God reminds His people that it is a land that He gave to them. Let me give you just a few Scriptures here.

Deuteronomy 1:25. This particular Scripture is in the context of when they have gone out from the wilderness to explore the land, before they were going to possess it. They came back, the twelve spies came back, and they said: “It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us.” They acknowledged that God was giving it to them. God had promised it to their fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so many times.

These are not the only Scriptures. I’m just taking the book of Deuteronomy, where it speaks about it 70 times. But, of course, God promises them in other places as well.

That’s a good confession, isn’t it? They said, “It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give to us.”

What we’re doing, ladies, as you know, we’re taking the Scriptures about the literal land of Israel, and we’re likening them to our land of motherhood. We can also liken them to this land of the kingdom of God that He has brought us into.

This is the wonderful thing about the Scriptures. We read it, and as we read the top level, it’s just the literal, the literal thing that it is saying. But there’s always deeper and deeper levels. So, these Scriptures apply to us who now live in the kingdom of God. “It is a good land that He has given to us.” It applies to us as mothers. It is a good land that God has given to us as mothers.

But wow! This Scripture goes on to say: “Notwithstanding” Moses was talking to them all, and he said: “You would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ye murmured in your tents.” Isn’t that amazing? The spies came back! Wow, “It’s a good land, everybody! It’s amazing!”

Just look, they came back, and there were two spies carrying one cluster of grapes. It took two men to carry it. That’s how prolific the land was. But they noticed there were giants there. They put fear into the people, and the people rebelled.

Moses reminded them, “You would not go up. You didn’t obey the Lord God, who told you to go up and possess it. And instead, you murmured in your tents. You murmured behind the closed doors of your houses.”

Oh, my, we’re not so much different to the people of Israel, are we? The land of motherhood is a good land! We talked about that, it’s a good land. It’s a land that God has given us! He’s given it to us. And yet, what do we do? We murmur, and we complain. “Poor me, I’m just home all day with these children. I don’t know. If only I could get out and get a job. We’d survive much better.” We groan about this, and we murmur about that.

And yet, motherhood is God’s gift! It’s His gift. It’s the land He’s given to us. It’s the land He planned for us. And it’s given! Yes, and He didn’t tell the people of Israel only once. He told them just here in Deuteronomy 70 times! To remind them. We need reminding. Ladies, I want to remind you today, the land of motherhood is God’s gift to you.

I won’t give you the 70 verses. I’ll just give you two or three.

Deuteronomy 12:17: “The good land which the Lord giveth you.”

Deuteronomy 7:13: “He will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy womb in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee.” Yes, He sware unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “I am giving you this land for an everlasting possession.”

Deuteronomy 9:23. Moses was reminding them again: “Likewise, when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.”

So many mothers today come into the land. God has given it. But they think, “I can’t survive in this land! Help! I’ve got to go out, and I’ve got to work. I’ve got to join my husband, providing for this home because we can’t survive unless I do.” And you forget the Lord God has given you this land. He’s given it to you, to be in it, and to dwell in it, to mother your children in it, and to make this beautiful home. That’s what God wants you to do.

But they didn’t believe that God could do it! And so, we’re much the same. We don’t believe that God can provide and He can do it. Just wanted to remind you that this is your gift. This land is God’s gift to you.

Now we’re looking at, IT IS A LIFE-GIVING LAND.

WE MUST BE LIFE-CHOOSERS

We go to Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Let me read you verses 19-20: “I call upon heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, CHOOSE LIFE, that both thou and thy seed may live. . . that thou mayest dwell in the land.”

Now, when Moses spoke the words in Deuteronomy to the people of Israel, 34 chapters, it was all God’s words through Moses to His people as they are poised to go in and possess the land. They didn’t do it the first time. Now, for 40 years, they’ve been wandering in the wilderness.

Now God says, “It’s time to go!” OK, but He has so much to say to them. It’s about a month before they’re going in and they’re all assembled to hear the words of God through Moses. He says to them, “As you go into the land, you are to be life-choosers. Always choose life.” Look up that passage again later on, when you have time, and read it over. Powerful words.

And, dear ladies, in this land of motherhood, we are to be LIFE-CHOOSERS. This is who we are as women.

WE ARE LIFE-GIVERS

It starts right back, as we go back to the beginning, Genesis 3:20: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” Eve. The word “Eve” in the Hebrew is chavvah. It literally means “LIFE-GIVER.”

Dear precious ladies, this is who we are. When God created the woman, He created her to be a life-giver! We are blessed beyond measure. We have the privilege to conceive life! And to grow life in our wombs. Of course, it is God Who is doing it, but we are this sanctuary, this house, this beautiful place where He grows this baby, this life! It's life! It’s life from conception, dear ladies.

And we are to be life-givers, not only from birth. We are life-givers from the moment of conception. No, it goes even before that. We are life-givers, even before conception, because we are open to life. To receive life, we have to be open to life. We are open to life, even before conception.

From the moment that baby conceives, a life is growing in the womb. And we are privileged to house that life, a life that is not only for this world, but a life that is eternal, and will live forever. There is nothing more powerful that you can do. You are doing something eternal. It’s not something that you do and it’s just going be destroyed or left behind. No, it’s an eternal soul who will live forever. This is so powerful.

The word chavvah comes from the root word chavah, which means “to make alive, to revive, to repair, to restore, to recover, to nourish, to preserve, and to be whole.” That encompasses the whole mothering anointing. We are always giving life. We give life through our wombs.

And then we continue to give life, as we then begin to nourish this little babe at the breast. We give life to this babe as we suckle this babe at the breast. Oh, it’s so incredible, who we are! No wonder God called us “life-givers.”

The amazing thing is, it’s unbelievable. Yet so many women today, even in the church, instead of life-givers, they are life-stoppers. We’re not meant to be life-stoppers, ladies. We are to be life-givers to the world.

“THE TIME OF LIFE”

I’m thinking as I talk about this in Genesis 18. This is when God came to visit Abraham and Sarah. Three men came. Was it the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit? Well, maybe, because it was God. First, let’s look at it.

Genesis 18:1: “And the LORD appeared.” You see, the Lord appeared unto Abraham: “And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.”

But what did the first verse say? “And the LORD appeared.” This was God appearing, coming as three men. And Abraham said: “My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away.” And then he talked about, “Look, I’ll get some water for you to wash your feet, and I’ll get a morsel of bread, and I’ll prepare some meat for you. I’ll get this meal ready for you. Just sit there in the shade while I prepare it all.”

We go down to verse seven: “And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them,” and so on.

And then, verse nine: “And they said unto him,” THEY, the three men. They, plural, plural, but it was the Lord, and He is plural, three in one. “Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.” She’s there, in the home, in the heart of the home.

“And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to THE TIME OF LIFE; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself.” She didn’t laugh out loud, just within herself.

“Saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did,” (remember? “And the LORD said unto Abraham,” it was God who was visiting them), “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

And then He said it again. “At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to THE TIME OF LIFE and Sarah shall have a son.” Two times here He mentions a phrase, “the time of life.” “According to the time of life.”

What is the time of life, ladies? The time of life is that time during the month when we are ovulating, when we are open to conception. You’re not open to conception all throughout the month. Your most fertile time is during that time of ovulation. That is your time of life that comes each month. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? God calls it “the time of life.” He also mentions it again in another story in the Word of God.

During this time of our monthly cycle we should be open to life. Imagine if Sarah had not been open to life. Because I believe the miracle that happened, was that Sarah, her cycle was restored to her. And because her cycle was restored, even her youthfulness came back to her. She began to cycle again. During that cycle is the time of life. God was able to come and bring conception.

Well, God could have done this at any time. God is miraculous. He can do anything He wants. But God, I believe, keeps to that which He has created. He created the woman with this monthly cycle, which includes the time of life. “The time of life.”

And later on, we read how God uses the word: “And God VISITED Sarah, and she conceived” (Genesis 21:1). God came and visited her, and she conceived. I believe that happens with every conception. God visits, because even in the time of life, we may not always conceive. It is God’s doing. It is God who gives conception. During that time of life, God can visit us.

And yet today, so many women will not allow that time of life in their month. They do everything in their power to stop it. It’s got to be stopped! It’s closed off. It’s shut. When God comes to visit, well, even when the husband and wife come together, there is no opportunity for life. That is opposite to God’s plan because we are life-givers. Amen?

Life-givers before conception, life-givers open to conception, life-givers as we’re growing this baby in the womb, and life-givers as we nourish this little baby. And then, of course, as the baby eventually weans, we continue to give life-giving foods. Because we’re life-givers, ladies, we are always giving life-giving foods to our families, to our husbands, to our children.

LIFE NOURISHERS, LIFE FEEDERS AND LIFE SPEAKERS

We’re not giving them junk food, devitalized food. No! We think of life! What is life? What is wholesome? What is going to be nutritious for them? We’re always thinking life, because we’re life-givers, we’re going to be seeking life-giving words! Yes, because it’s who we are.

Well, let me close, shall we, with an acrostic about our being a life-giver. I’ll just take the first letter of each word, each letter of life-giver. OK, LIFE:

L –          Life-giving to the world through the power of your womb.

I –           Inspiring your husband and children daily with life-giving words.

F –          Feeding your husband and children life-giving foods, never dead or devitalized.

E –          Embracing your life-giving role of birthing and nursing babies.

Next word: GIVER

G –         Giving freely as you pour out your life for your family and others.

I –           Interceding for your children and the strengthening of families in the world.

V –         Valuing life in the same way God values life.

E –          Engraving God’s life-giving Word into the hearts of your children.

R –          Reviving, repairing, restoring, reconciling, recovering, refreshing, renewing, and rescuing lives and relationships.

Be a life-giver.

“Lord, we thank You that this is Who You named us. The first woman was named Eve, who was the prototype of all women to come. Lord, You named her “Life-Giver.” You have put this name upon each one of us. We are all life-givers to the world.

“Oh, dear Father, please help us to understand and see who we are, and who You created us to be. And Lord, that we will never be in the camp of the life-stoppers. But we will always be those who are life-givers from the cradle to the grave. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

2023 ANNUAL ABOVE RUBIES FAMILY RETREAT

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April 19 - 26

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 203: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 14

God is a God of fruitfulness, and He looks for fruitfulness, MORE fruitfulness, and MUCH MORE fruitfulness.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are, podcast 203! We’re talking today about fruitful families.

 In Deuteronomy 30:5, it says: “And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed. And thou shalt possess it, and He will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers.” So, when He brought them into the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, He said that He would bless them and do them good by multiplying them and making them fruitful.

Deuteronomy 6:3: “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.” In the land of motherhood, it’s a land of fruitfulness, a land of increase. Our God is a God of fruitfulness. Our God is a God of increase. He is never stagnant. He is always wanting more.

I love that Scripture in Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

We read the words of Jesus, in Matthew 18:5: “Whoever receives one little child like this in My Name receives Me.” The word “received” there is dechomai. It means, not the attitude of just take it or leave it, but it says, “active receiving, to receive by deliberate and ready reception of what is offered.” It means “Do not reject.”

Again, in Luke 9:48, Jesus said: “Whosoever shall receive this child in My Name receiveth Me. And whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth Him that send Me.” We should always have this attitude of receiving, actively receiving.

As we read through the Word of God, we’ll see the words “multiplying, fruitfulness, increase.” We see the word “filled.” Filled. Let’s look at some of these Scriptures, shall we? I know I give you lots of Scriptures, but, dear ladies, this is the most wonderful thing I can give you.

Because if you’re just listening, whatever you’re doing at this moment, and you’re taking in the Scriptures, it’s the Scriptures that will change you. The Scriptures will edify you and lift you up. The Scriptures will strengthen you. They are so powerful. They are life-giving. They are alive and active. There’s nothing better in the whole world that you can listen to.

Genesis 1:28: let’s start at the beginning: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” It is interesting that the very first word that God spoke to man included the word “fill.” It is obviously very much part of God’s heart.

Then we go over a few chapters, and we read where God spoke to Noah. This was after He destroyed the earth. Then He repeats this same command to Noah again and says: “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

So, we see it again. God meant what He said. He repeated the command to Noah. This time He doesn’t say it only once. We go down to verse 7, and He says the exact same words again. Now we’ve got in those first few chapters of Genesis, God speaking this word to His creation three times.

Multiplying is always God’s blessing. Psalm 107:38: “He blesses them also, so they are multiplied greatly.” That word “fill” is male, M-A-L-E, which means “fill to overflowing.”

Now, I know a lot of people take objection to that today. Isn’t it strange, how people take objection to God’s Word? They’d rather have their own words. Many homes today are more filled with stuff and gadgets, and furniture, and bigger TVs, and computers. Well. I think most homes today have more TVs than they do children! It’s not how God planned it.

All right, let’s go to Exodus, chapter one. This is where Jacob and his family have come down to Egypt. There were only 70 of them when they came down, but now, 400 years later, they have emerged a mighty nation. Exodus 1:7: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.”

Yes, that’s what God loves! He wants the land to be filled with His people. They became more and mightier than the Egyptians who began to fear them. Yes, the heathen will begin to fear God’s people when they are more and mightier, not when they are a decreased and a small people. God wants His people to be more and mightier than the heathen.

We know how Pharoah began to make them slaves and to build his cities. They lived a very, very terrible persecuted life for some time. But the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the Bible says, the more they multiplied! This is God’s purpose. Not just when everything’s going fine! I mean, that was amazing! The more they were persecuted, the more they were afflicted, the more they went through, the more they multiplied!

Psalm 105:24: “He increased His people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.” Now, when we are a diminished people, we are not stronger than our enemies. No, it is only when we are more and mightier that we are stronger. You see, those words that God gave to mankind, the words He spoke into the ears of His very first creation, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

But He didn’t stop there! It goes on to say: “And subdue it and have dominion.” It is a progression, and it is a true thing that God has put into order, that those who fill the earth are the ones who will subdue it and take dominion. That’s just how it happened. God wants His people to take dominion, to reveal His glory in the earth. But they cannot do it if they are diminished. They must fill the earth!

Let’s go to Numbers 14:21. God says: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” This is not only talking about creation, but God’s people, who bear His image in the earth! God wants His image, His likeness, to be revealed in the earth. That’s why He wants to fill the earth with His people, with His glory.

We go to Psalm 127:4-5: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver,” what is it? “full of them.” You see how this word keeps coming up again and again? It’s the language of God. It’s the language of the Bible.

Now, lovely ladies, if we belong to God, and we believe His Word, don’t you think we should speak the language of the Bible? It’s a bit of a dichotomy if we say we are believers, and we say we believe the Word of God, but we don’t even talk the language!

In fact, the Bible language is often strange to us. It’s often opposite to how we live. You see, Bible language is “fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, increase.” This is God’s heart. This is the Bible language. Let’s get with it! We’re either with it, or we’re not! We’re either a Bible believer, or we’re not. We say we are Christians, but do we really believe His Word? Do we speak it? We should be speaking it! It should be our vocab!

“Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemy in the gate.” Parents who have their quivers full are happy. The word is actually “happy, happy.” It’s a double Hebrew word there.

Psalm 128:3: the next Psalm, talking about the wife: “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine.” There it is again. Not a vine with just one or two miserly grapes on it. No, a vinedresser longs for fruitful vines, vines with luscious bunches of grapes, just hanging off those vines.

Can you imagine what those vineyards were like when the children of Israel first went into the land? Do you remember how Moses sent out 12 spies, one from each tribe, to check out the land? When they came back, they said, “Oh, it is an exceedingly good land, flowing with milk and honey! Look! Here’s just one bunch of grapes!” It took two men to carry one bunch of grapes!

Now, that’s fruitfulness, isn’t it? That’s the land that God was taking them to. That’s the land that He wants us to live. The land of Israel is just a type of the lifestyle He wants us to live today, a lifestyle of mothering, in our homes.

“Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house.” That just means “within your home.” That word in the Hebrew is yerekah. It means “in the very heart of your home, in the recesses.” This is where God has placed us, in the heart of our homes, “Your children like olive branches, round about thy table.”

We go over to Ezekiel. It’s amazing where we can read about motherhood in the Bible. Ezekiel 19 is an allegory, talking about Jerusalem, or Judah actually. As we read, God is likening Judah to a mother. When we read it, we see how God sees motherhood.

Ezekiel 19:10: “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters. She was fruitful.”

Haven’t we already just read that Scripture in Psalm 128:3: “Your wife is like a fruitful vine”? Well, here it speaks of that description again. “Your mother is like a vine. She was fruitful and full,” full, full “of branches.” Not a few, full! That word “full” again! “Full of branches by reason of many waters. She had strong rods for the scepters of them that bare rule.”

That was talking about her children, and her young men, growing up to be mighty in God. “And her stature was exalted,” lifted up high, “among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.” Here were all her children, and her young men, growing up in their youth all around her. She was in the heights. She was lifted up.

When God talks about motherhood, He talks about it being exalted, lifted up high. You see, motherhood is the highest career that God has given to women. Yes, we can all do many things. We all have so many gifts where God has put within us such creativity and gifts and uniqueness. Yes, it makes us the uniqueness of who we are.

But because He created us female, He created us physically to give birth, to nurse babies. He created us innately with a nurturing anointing. He created us for this high, divine calling of motherhood which is the most exalted career in God’s eyes. Because this is the career that impacts not only the children God gives, but impacts our surroundings, impacts our cities, impacts our nation.

We, as mothers, determine what the nation will be like, because we bring forth the children, we raise them. How we raise our children will be what the nation is like. If they are raised by people who have no understanding of God, and therefore, they are embracing progressivism, and humanism, and feminism, and all the -isms, and now even transgenderism, and everything that’s contrary to the heart of God, we’re going to raise a nation, which we are now, we’re raising a nation of liberals who are brainwashed with humanistic, socialistic ideology. That’s what our nation is becoming.

But we, as mothers, have the power to raise godly children, who are steeped in the Word of God and His truth, who are richly filled with His Word. Those kinds of mothers can determine a nation that is strong in truth and righteousness. It is righteousness that exalts a nation. We have such influence and such power as mothers. Our career is exalted. When mothers lay down this career, the nation fails.

Ezekiel 19:12: “But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit.” This is all allegorical. But her fruit, the fruit that God wants to come forth from her womb, it’s dried up. Now, when a woman decides that she’s leaving the home, oh, she still loves the children God has given her. Yes, how every mother loves her children!

But she’s obviously lost the love of motherhood. We can love our children, and yet not love motherhood! But when she leaves the home and embraces another career, you can’t keep having children. How do you do it? You may survive with your two or three, but to trust God completely, to have more children, you have to be IN YOUR LAND. Because that’s where it happens.

So. her fruits dried up. “Her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.” Now, literally, it’s talking about Judah being taken to Babylon. They’re now in a wilderness place. They’re now captives in a foreign land.

Babylon speaks of confusion in the world, and in the flesh. That’s where she’s now planted. “And fire has gone out of the rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit.” Oh, if we are not in the home, if we are not teaching our children, the enemy can get ahold of them.

He plants his seeds of unbelief, his seeds of doubt, his seeds of all the things that the enemy wants to put in them. If we’re not there, hovering over them, the enemy can get to them. That’s what happened. He devours her fruit, “so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.” This is what God is saying.

It was literal, but it was also allegorical about motherhood, that when the mother leaves the home, when her fruit is dried up, when her fruit is devoured, it’s a lamentation because it’s not God’s plan for her. He wants her to be full of branches.

Let’s go on, shall we? Zechariah 8:4-5. This is one of my favorite Scriptures. I believe that this is a Scripture for the millennium. I don’t think that it’s actually going to happen until that time. But it gives us a glimpse of God’s heart.

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full.” Full. There’s that word again, ladies. And what will the streets be full of? “Full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.”

Don’t you love that picture? I love it! That’s what God wants, that’s His heart! That’s what it’s meant to be now! But we can’t have it now, because the enemy is too busy, prowling around. How can parents leave little children playing in the streets today?

Well, I look back on my childhood, and praise the Lord, we were able to do that back then. That’s what we did. We went to school, we came home, we threw our bags in the door, and we all went out in the street and we played. We played in the streets because it was so safe. There was no one going to come and take off little children.

You can’t do that today. Parents have to drive their children to school for safety! My, parents wouldn’t think of doing that back in my day! Goodness, you walked to school! Even if you walked a couple of miles. That was good for you, and it was, too. But, today, you can’t do that. You’ve got to watch your children, right to their school gate, and then right when they come home.

Well, I already think I would never send them there, because now, today, when you leave them at the gate, you’re no longer watching them. You don’t know what is happening. You don’t know what is being spoken into them. You don’t know what influence those other children around them are having on them.

It is a different world today. I was a teacher myself. But today I would never send my children into the schools because there is nothing of God in there. Why would we, as believers, send our children to receive anti-God indoctrination? That seems ridiculous, doesn’t it?

That’s what God loves, that beautiful picture of boys and girls filling the streets, playing. Yes, I love that! Playing! God loves children playing.

OK, let’s go over to the New Testament. Luke 14:23. Jesus was giving them this parable, and He said to them: “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” You see, God is the God of the full house. He wants a full house, ladies.

This parable was about all the people who had all their excuses because they couldn’t come to the wedding feast. Well, the host said, “OK, they don’t want to come? Well, you just go out and grab them in! Compel them to come in! But I want my house filled!” That’s God’s heart. He wants His home in heaven filled.

I think that’s why He waits. He waits, He longs for those who will come to Him. But also, He wants us to get our homes filled too, because if He’s the God of the full house, He lives in us. He wants us to also have houses that are filled, not filled with TVs, and all this stuff!

We can have so much stuff, can’t we? Don’t you find stuff is a nuisance? I’m always trying to get rid of stuff! But somehow, more stuff comes! We’re always getting rid of stuff, aren’t we? Because, really what is it? It’s just a lot of nuisance. More stuff to clean.

But God wants our houses filled with children, filled with people, filled with babies. Yes, He wants them filled, not with stuff, but with precious souls, the children that He gives us. Then those who we want to bless in this life and bring into our homes. So, ladies, there it is! It’s a fruitful land. Amen?

Let’s see, what is our next one? Oh, yes, I should say that I found over 40 Scriptures about how the Lord wants us to multiply, increase, be fruitful, and fill our homes. I haven’t given them all to you, but maybe in the transcript I will list all the Scriptures for you, so those who really want to get into the Word can look them up.

No. 8. IT IS A LIFE-GIVING LAND

Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Let me go to Deuteronomy 30. God is speaking here: “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.” 

Notice that little phrase again? “IN THE LAND.” Look out for it when you’re reading the Bible. I love that phrase, “In the land.” What’s He going to do when we are in the land? Bless us! This is where He wants to bless us, in the land.

“But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” 

What a wonderful passage! And what does it say? “Therefore, choose life.” Dear ladies, we have to be women who always choose life, in every situation in life, and also from the womb to the grave. No matter what the situation, we always choose life. God is a God of life. God loves life. He is the author of life.

And, ladies, I hope you realize the devil can’t give life. He does not have the power to give life. He is jealous of God who is the only One who can give life. Because he is jealous, and because he hates God, he hates life. And he does everything in his power to eradicate life. He especially wants to eradicate life in the womb. even before it is conceived.

Today, of course, we have birth control—contraception, sterilization, and abortion. Those three. It’s interesting that there are three. It’s interesting. We go to John 10:10, and we read how the enemy comes to Jesus, the three things. The devil comes “not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” It is the same thing as contraception, sterilization, abortion. They all have the same purpose: to eradicate life.

Abortion really is a back-up plan. If the enemy can’t take life and stop life from coming into the world through contraception and through sterilization, well, then he’s got abortion as his back-up plan. Because that’s what the enemy does. He comes to steal, kill, destroy.

God comes to give life. Ladies, if we are on God’s side, we are on the side of life.

If we are siding with death, if we are siding with the elimination of life, we are on the devil’s side. There’s no in between. There’s only one side or the other.

Even if you have been born again. Many people can be born again, and yet, they are not yet transformed in their minds. They are still bound by the enemy’s thinking of the old kingdom of darkness. But we have to come into the new understanding, and the new vocabulary of the kingdom of God. It’s a vocabulary of life, of choosing life.

We’ll talk a little more about it in the next session. But let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that You are the God of life. Help us to always understand, Lord God. Help us to firmly be rooted in Your kingdom. Your kingdom, which is a kingdom of life. Lord God, save us from ever, ever siding with the enemy’s kingdom.

“Oh, God, help us to be always life-choosers. Lord, we ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. We thank You for the preciousness of life. Help us to understand and see the preciousness of life, to see that life is not just for now. It’s eternal. That every new soul is an eternal soul that lives forever. It is precious, and it is eternal.”

Oh, God, help us to always guard life, and love life, and choose life. I pray for Your blessing on every mother and daughter listening today, or this evening, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

FRUITFUL LAND SCRIPTURES

Leviticus 25:19; 4-10; 26:4, 5; Numbers 13:23-27; Deuteronomy 8:7-10; 11:13-15; 28:3-5, 11; Nehemiah 9:25; Psalm 67:6; 85:12; 107:36; 37; Isaiah 30:23, 24; Ezekiel 34:27; 36:8, 29, 30, 34-36; 34: 26; Zechariah 8:12; and 10:8.

MULTIPLY IN THE LAND SDRIPTURES

Genesis 1:28; 9:1, 7; 17:2; 22:17; 26:4, 24; 28:3; 30:15; 35:11; 48:4; 49:22; Exodus 1:12, 19, 20; 23:30; 32:13; Leviticus 26:9; Deuteronomy 6:3; 7:13; 8:1, 13:17; 28:4; 30:5, 16; Psalm 105:24; 107:38; 115:14; 127:4, 5; 128:3; Isaiah 26:15; Jeremiah 3:16; 23:3; 29:6; 30:19; 33:22; Ezekiel 36:10, 11, 37; 38; and 37:26.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 202: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 13

Another miracle testimony about manuka honey. Today we discover that the land of motherhood is a land of dependency. We don't live like Egypt in the land that flows with milk and honey. It is also a land of fruitfulness.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are together for podcast 202. Last week I was giving you some testimonies about how powerful honey is as a healer. I wonder if any of you have tried honey. Any honey is good, but the most effective honey is manuka honey.

It comes from New Zealand, my country of birth, and I was telling you about that last week. But you don’t have to live in New Zealand to get it. It’s now become very much available across the world so you can go onto the internet and check it out. It comes in different grades. The higher grade it is, the more effective it will be.

I was telling you of how, well, actually Arrow came and told you his testimony of how he had his whole face completely burned. Yes, how the manuka honey made it look so beautiful. He healed liked a little baby’s face.

My mother was healed from an ulcer. I was healed twice, from two different infections that I got out of getting a cut. Antibiotics wouldn’t even touch them. The moment I got on to manuka honey, it was miraculous.

I want to tell you one more story before we move on. That is about Serene’s youngest little girl, Solly. When Solly was born, she was born with a hemangioma. Now that’s a big, long name, but it’s really just a name for one of those strawberry birthmarks. When Evangeline was born, she was also born with quite a big hemangioma on her arm, down the lower part of her arm.

They say that it’s actually a little bit of placenta. As the placenta will have life to grow for nine months, a hemangioma will grow for about nine months to a year. It will stop growing and then it gradually begins to fade. When Evangeline was about five years old, her strawberry, we used to call it a “strawberry” in those days, it was pretty much faded.

But about ten percent of those who are born with a hemangioma, they will get infected. Sadly, little Solly’s strawberry got infected. Hers was on her leg. It became a terrible ulcer that was eating into her. It went right down to her bone. It was terrible! She was just this little baby and it was so sad to see. They are so, if they get ulcerated, they are so unbearably painful.

The doctor said that Serene would have to give her beta blockers for one year, plus she would have to go under anesthesia for surgery. Serene certainly didn’t want her to go through that. She didn’t want her on those drugs for a whole year.

Then, of course, oh, goodness me, why do we forget? Suddenly we thought of manuka honey again! Yes, so back to our miracle working, whatever you can call it. It’s a miracle worker. Serene got hold of the high-grade medical grade manuka honey. The moment she began to put it on, the change happened immediately. In about two weeks, this revolting ulcer was healed! It was miraculous! Amazing!

I’m telling you these stories because we’re talking about honey and how powerful it is, and how the land of Israel was the land flowing with milk and honey. We’re also relating it our land of motherhood. So, ladies, if any of you, or your children get any kind of infection, and you can’t break it, any ulcer, or any terrible burns, you can go for manuka honey. Maybe it’s good to have some on hand. D honey is miraculous

d) HONEY IS MIRACULOUS

My fourth point about honey, of course, is that it is miraculous!

e) HONEY ENERGIZES

The last point about honey, honey energizes. We know that. It energizes the heart, and it increases the blood flow so that in the physical, but I believe also, our homes should be filled with energy.

Now, I’m not talking about screaming children bouncing off the walls. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of that! But I believe we should have the energy, not of the flesh, but of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the energy of lots of wonderful projects, and things that we’re doing in our home. Our homes should never be stagnant, boring places, but places that are filled with wholesome energy of productivity and things that are happening.

I believe the home is first a nurturing center. It’s also a birthing center. Maybe many of you have birthed at home. It’s a training and education system. This is where many of you who are listening are homeschooling. It’s a praise and worship center, a prayer center, and an eating center, of course. A hospitality center, a cultural development center, a social center, a counseling center, a health and healing center, an industry center. I’m sure you have many projects going. Maybe some of them you are even making a little bit of money on the sideline. You’ve got a webpage, and you’re selling the products that you make because of your great creativity that you have. It’s a convalescent center, and a garden center.

Well, wow, ladies! How do you have time to vacate your home? When your home is all these amazing things, the home is meant to be that hub. It’s the hub of our family life. It becomes the hub of where we live. Our society and home should be the hub of the nation. Sadly, we are living in this society where homes are being vacated. We are losing the strength of our nation because homes are the strength of the nation.

No. 6. IT IS A LAND OF DEPENDENCY

Let’s move onto another point. Another description about the land of Israel is that it is the land of dependency. So is the case in our land of motherhood.

Let me read you Deuteronomy 11:10-12. This is what God says to His people about the land they were going to: “For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, when you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden, but the land which you cross over to possess is the land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven. A land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.”

What a beautiful promise! Dear ladies, you can claim that promise for your land, for your home, too. When you make your home a home where God delights to dwell, when you seek to have His presence in your home, you can claim that promise. “The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.” Don’t you love that? That would be a beautiful promise to print out and pin up on your wall somewhere to remind you.

Now, you notice that God’s eyes were upon them in the land, in the land that He was giving them. This is where God’s eyes are upon us, dear mothers. When you come into your home and embrace your land and all that God has given to you there, oh, you can claim that promise! His eye is upon you. Because you’re in the place where He wants you to be.

We see that they no longer had to do everything in the flesh. When they got to the Promised Land, they didn’t look after their gardens like they did in Egypt. In Egypt they had to rely on the overflow of the Nile. They stored their water by artificial means.

They irrigated their fields with treadmills. Do you notice that the Scripture says that they had to water it by foot? You see, they were using the treadmills. They had to use their feet to make them work, to get the water out of them. It was very, very tiresome work. It took human sweat and toil.

But when they went to the Promised Land, they didn’t have the Nile River. Well, they had the Jordan, but that wasn’t like the Nile. It couldn’t provide all the water they needed. They had to rely on God Himself! They had to rely on the early rains and the latter rains.

When God sent the early rains, it was just at the right time when they were planting the seed. Then He would send the latter rains at the time of harvest, to get it ready for harvest. When the children of Israel were walking in obedience to God’s ways, those rains came. They would have bountiful harvests.

There were times when God stopped those rains. There was famine when the rains didn’t come. That was because they were walking in disobedience. But when they walked in obedience and trusted God, He did it for them! You see, it was different in the land that God took them to.

And darling ladies, it’s different in our land of motherhood too, where we are learning to trust God. We’re not meant to do it like so much of society is doing it today. There are many, many wives who, because while they’re just barely making it, they’re hardly getting through financially, they think, “OK, well, my husband, he’s just not doing enough. I’ll have to get out and get a job too. We both need to work. We can’t even survive without two incomes coming in.” That’s how most people think today. “We need at least two incomes.”

Well, of course you do, if you’re going to do it according to Egypt! If you’re going to do it according to the flesh, and you’re going to tread the treadmills yourself and do it your way, you will need two incomes. But if you realize you’re in the land that God has brought you into, it’s a land where you no longer do it on your own strength. This is land where you become dependent upon God. You’ve got to trust Him! Wow, that’s not easy, is it?

But we find that when we trust Him and we walk in obedience to His ways, He will be faithful! He told them, “This is how it is going to work. You’ve just got to trust Me. I’ll send the rains. I’ll provide. You walk in obedience to Me, and My eye will be upon you, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year!”

So, lovely ladies, I know many of you have come back into the home. Others of you, you long to. This is where you want to be, and you think, “How can I ever do it? How will we ever survive? We just barely make it on our two incomes!”

Because you’re doing it the way of Egypt. You see, we’re not meant to live the way of Egypt when we come into the Promised Land. We’re not meant to live the way all society lives who do not know God, who do not know how to trust Him. But when we learn to trust Him, walk in obedience to Him, we will find that God is true to His Word!

Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Even when we’re wanting to walk in the Spirit, we often find we’re still walking in the flesh, don’t we? We’re so used to it. But may God help us to learn to walk in the Spirit, trusting God, believing His promises.

In the flesh, you most probably would never come home from your job. Because in the flesh, you can’t see how you can do it. There’s absolutely no way. It’s all a step of faith. I remember such a dear friend of mine, Val Stares. More than a friend, she has been with me in the vision of Above Rubies from the very, very first day that I got the vision. That is about 45 years ago, back in New Zealand.

I remember walking up, well, no, I drove up to the hospital to see a friend. Her little boy was in hospital. Val had come too. We were both there, visiting her. While we were there, I said, “Oh, Val, I’ve just got to tell you something! I’ve just got this incredible vision! We are going to get out a magazine to the families and the mothers of the nation to encourage them in God’s ways!”

Well, she looked at me with this blank stare. Interestingly, her name is Val Stares. She really had this blank stare that day! I didn’t know that that very morning she had said to the Lord, “If Nancy Campbell comes up with any more of her great ideas, I’m not getting involved!” Well, she got involved! She’s still involved with me today. Since we left the shores of Australia, she has looked after Above Rubies in that nation for all these years.

What was I telling you that for? Oh yes! Because, if you only knew Val, she is the most motherly, nurturing person you could ever meet. She is a lover of babies, and a lover of children. But when she started her life as a mother, she wasn’t saved. She didn’t even know the Lord. Her husband wasn’t saved. He didn’t have any vision for family. They stopped at three children because that was, well, what you did. That was pretty good, having three children! She even had a tubal ligation.

But then, she gets saved! Oh, I remember the night she came into our church! She was not saved! Not even interested in God. The Holy Spirit came upon her. That night she was born again. She went into the baptismal pool that same night. She was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and never the same again.

But she’d had a tubal ligation. And she longed and longed for children. Also, her husband, who wasn’t a Christian, he still made her work. OK, he was adamant! “No, you can’t leave your job! We won’t be able to survive!”

She was wanting to be a lovely Christian wife and please her husband. But every week we would have an Above Rubies prayer meeting. We would be praying for all the needs of Above Rubies, praying for women who we knew needed prayer. We would always pray for Val. “Oh, Lord God! Please free Val from this job! Lord, You know how she longs to come home! Oh God, we pray that You would touch Bill and let her come home!” We’d go on and on praying. We’d all be praying.

God never answered our prayers. Bill just stayed the same. Then the time went by. One day she came home from her job, and she found her eldest daughter in the bathroom, with a man. Val was so devastated. I have never seen anyone so devastated. She wasn’t well at the time either. But it gave her that last thing to say to her husband, “I cannot do this any longer. I have to be home for my children, for my other children.” Grudgingly, he said OK. Very grudgingly, wondering how they would ever work.

She also wondered, “How will we ever do it?” She was working three jobs to try and make ends meet. Well, she gave in her notice by faith. And the time came she got her last paycheck. Do you know, Val would tell you this, if she was sitting here. Sorry, it was a bit hard to get her when she lives down at the bottom of the world.

But she says, “God continued to provide! We didn’t land up on the streets. We survived. Oh, we didn’t have everything we wanted, but we never went without a meal again.” And God continued, from that moment, to provide for their needs! All it took was one step of faith.

You see, when we do it our way, God has to stand back and say, “Oh, well, you want to do it like Egypt. Well, OK, I’ll just wait. But when you come and you trust Me, I’ll show you that I am faithful.” So, there you go, ladies.

No. 7. IT IS A FRUITFUL LAND

Let’s go on to the next one, shall we? Number seven: it is a fruitful land.

Deuteronomy 7:13. God says to His people: “He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.”

He's telling them that in the land He’s going to bless their wombs, and He’s going to bless everything else! That’s the amazing thing. You see, God always speaks of first things first. The very first thing He says here is: “I will love you and bless you.” And how is He going to bless them?

The next thing He says: “I will multiply you.” Oh, there’s not a lot of people who actually name the name “Christian” who like those kinds of Scriptures. Because that’s not the only one! There are so many Scriptures where this is what God says. He says: “I will bless you, bless you.” The next thing He says is: “I will multiply you.”

He’s going to make them fruitful in the Land. But he doesn’t stop there. That’s the first thing. “I will bless the fruit of your womb. But then, I’m going to bless your land, your corn, your wine, your oil, your cattle, your sheep! Oh, all of it! Why? Because you’ll need that to provide for the fruit of the womb.”

You see how God works? The fruit of the womb comes first. Then the fruit of everything that’s needed to provide for the children He gives us. And notice what He says here. We see this over and over again. He will do this IN THE LAND, not out of the land. If you’re out of the Land, and doing it your way, you can’t really expect God’s promises. The promises come IN THE LAND, in the Land.

So, here they are. They’re going into this land that God has provided for them. It wasn’t a barren land. It was a fruitful land. Oh, amazing! In fact, God was the first real estate agent. He was the One Who went out and searched out this land.

Ezekiel 20:6: “I lifted up My hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.”

Now we notice, when we look more into the descriptions of this land, that we see that God speaks about fruitful gardens and fruitful families. Let’s look at some of the Scriptures, shall we? I’m not making all this up. This is all from the word, ladies. Although firstly it’s speaking about the literal land of Israel that the people of Israel went into. Back in that time, when they went into it, it was the most fertile, flourishing land that you could ever dream about. It is starting to come back to that today now that God is bringing His people back there again. But let’s look at a few Scriptures, shall we?

FRUITFUL GARDENS

First of all, about “fruitful gardens.” Did you know that God loves fruitfulness? He is a God of fruitfulness. He longs for us to be fruitful in the natural and in the spiritual. Everything in the Word of God is first that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.

We go over to John 15, and we see the spiritual here in John 15:4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.”

Well, before we get to that, I should go back to verse 2, actually. We’ll start at John 15:1: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

You see here the progression. God wants us to be fruitful, but He says that’s not even enough! “I’ll even prune you so you’ll bring forth more fruit.” Then we go down to verse five, where I was reading. It talks about bringing forth much fruit. In fact, I think He actually says that word, “much fruit” again. If I can just find which verse it is in. But it’s down there in that chapter. Yes, it’s John 15:8: “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be My disciples.”

We’re going back to the Old Testament. We see fruitfulness in the natural. Here in the New Testament, we see fruitfulness in the spiritual, although I must pop in here. I have had people say to me, “Well, God’s not really interested in people having children today. He’s only interested in our bearing spiritual fruit and bringing people to Jesus. We don’t have to bring them through birth. As long as we bring them into the Kingdom through evangelism.”

Well, that’s a little ridiculous, because if we don’t first bring them in through birth, how will they even be here to evangelize? It’s being fruitful in the natural and fruitful in the spiritual.

OK, let’s get back to these fruitful gardens. We see, in fact, in the very second chapter of Genesis, the very first thing God did after creating the man was, do you know what it was? The first thing was to plant a garden. Can you believe it? People don’t take much notice of gardens today. “Goodness, what do you want a garden for? Just go down to the shop and get everything you want!”

Of course, they couldn’t do that in those days. But maybe it won’t always be like that either. Even now, even when we go down to the shop, even to get our vegetables and our fruits, they are, unless they’re organic, they’ve been sprayed, or they’re GMO’d. Even organic, you look at them sometimes, and they’re all wizened up. You think, “How long have they been sitting there?” It’s absolutely nothing like going out and getting fresh vegetables from your garden.

I guess many of you are aware that they are currently seeking to organize a famine. This country is filled with food, an abundance of food. There’s so much food thrown out. It’s unbelievable. And yet, they are trying to make a famine. They’re trying to bring this country down. I’m sure many of you have heard this. Even Biden himself is saying that this could be happening. Those who are wise, and listening, are preparing foods. They are putting food away. They are preparing their gardens. Gardens may be very important in the future.

But let’s go back to Genesis 2:8: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. There He put the man whom He had formed.” We just read, “And the Lord God planted a garden.” Well, how do you plant a garden? Just say the word and the things appear? No, to plant a garden you have to put your hands in the earth.

I’ve had some ladies say to me, “Ooh, I don’t want to do a garden. I hate getting my hands all there in the dirt. I just don’t even like it.” Well, God liked it! That was the very first thing He did after creating the man! God put His hands into the earth and literally planted the seed. The seed is “planted.” He didn’t just say, although He said “Let there be” for all of creation, now He actually wants to get into the garden! He wants to do creative things, and He actually plants! Yes! We see that happening, right there, in the very beginning.

Let’s look at a few other Scriptures. Isaiah 27:6: “Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Yes, Israel again is starting to do that. You get these wonderful Jaffa oranges from Israel. Now they’re even importing their amazing wines from Israel that are growing out there on the West Bank of Israel. Vines that are prophesied. God said that when the people come back to the Land, that they will plant vineyards.

This is what is happening out there on those barren hills of Samaria where there are just stones. There’s hardly anything there. Then you see vineyards! You see all these barren stones, and then next to them, there’s where they’ve planted vineyards, and they’re prolific!

I have been there myself. I have stood on those dirt stones and picked these glorious bunches of fruitful grapes off these vines that are growing out of stones! It’s all miraculous, because God said in Ezekiel 36, He prophesied to those stones, and those barren hills, and those waste places. He said that when His people came back, that they would grow, and they would come forth out of the ground and be fruitful. It’s happening now.

Leviticus 25:19: “And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.”

Psalm 107:36-38: “He maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.”

Jeremiah 2:7: “I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof.” So, we go on. I’m just giving you a few, because, actually, I looked up all the Scriptures about fruitfulness, fruitful vines, and vineyards, and gardens, in the Word of God. Let’s see, I found over 40 Scriptures about this. Don’t worry, ladies, I’m not giving all of them to you.

Just a couple more, because time is going again. Isaiah 65:21: “And they shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” It’s amazing how many times God speaks to His people about the mundane. We think it’s mundane, but God sees it as very important. Building houses, planting gardens! That’s one of the most basic things God wants us to do. He’s so interested in your building your home. Or getting your home, however you do it. And planting a garden!

Ezekiel 28:25: “Thus saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land. . . and they shall dwell safely therein and shall build houses and plant vineyards and dwell with confidence.”

We go over to Jeremiah 29:5. The last Scripture was talking about in the land of Israel. This time, this Scripture is talking about when they were taken into captivity, to Babylon, away from their beloved land of Israel! Here they are, captives in a foreign land. And the prophet comes to them, and he says: “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.”

In Jeremiah 29:5, what does he say? “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.” Then he repeats it again, down in verse 28! “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.”

Did you know that this is all Bible, ladies? Sometimes we think, “Oh, yes, this Christian life. You go to church, and you hear a message about sanctification or faith.” Good subjects, but when do we hear about building houses and planting gardens? There are so many Scriptures about it. And God longs for fruitfulness. He loves fruitful gardens, and He wants us to be fruitful. We will be fruitful when we have fruitful gardens.

But time has gone, so we’ll talk more next week.

“Lord God, I thank You again. We’re always thanking You, Lord, for Your wonderful Word, which is so precious, and so real, and so down to where we live, and how You want us to live. Dear Father, help us not to slide over Your Word, but to take every word.

“Lord, You want us to build houses and live in them. You want us to plant gardens. Yes, this is very close to Your heart because it was the very first thing You did after creating Adam. Lord, help us to take notice of Your ways.

“I pray that You’ll bless all these precious dear wives and mothers today, Lord God. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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