PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 57 – How Can We Change The World? - Part 23
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Podcast 57 - How Can We Change the World- Part 23
Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy: Hello ladies, it's such a beautiful day here in Tennessee. Hope it's great where you are. Maybe some of you are in the wintertime down under, and you're freezing and cold, but we are lovely and warm here today. Anyway, last podcast, I was telling you about a prayer we pray each day, and my mind went blank just as I was going to tell you. I must tell you what it is today.
Every day, when we are having family devotions, and we pray for God's protection over our family, we pray this prayer: “O God, that You will keep them all from accident, harm, sickness, and danger and all enemy attack, both physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually in every way. Amen.” That's a little prayer that we love to pray. I don't know how it has come to be part of our family, but it has. I think it was even passed on from Colin's family because he used to pray it and now it continues.
I was sharing about how God's protection had been upon our granddaughters and the other girls in the car when they had had their accident. Then, Friday night, we had another accident in the family. Our grandson, Arrow, that's Evangeline and Howard's son, was helping his brother and sister-in-law on their car, and the radiator blew up in his face. It was terrible. I think he wondered if he had lost his eyes; he couldn't open them. He was in terrible pain. His whole face was burned, so he ran to a muddy puddle with stones, and he was scraping his face to get this heat and burn off. Apparently, that was one of the best things he could do. Then, they put his head, while the ambulance was coming, in a bucket of cold spring water, and they got a snorkel for him so he could keep his face under. That was very good too.
Eventually, the ambulance came and took him to the hospital where they scraped his face. That's pretty painful, but he was put under with the highest painkillers you could get so that they could scrape it all. His face was down, everything was gone. Anyway, God was good. We were crying out to God and praying for His miracle-working power, and God was all over him. He was able to come home later that night.
Now, he's having to heal. He looks even worse now than when it happened, but that's the whole part of the healing process. Some of you may have seen a picture I sent out on Facebook and Instagram. He looked pretty amazing there, but it looks worse now, but that's all part of the healing. Once again, we are praising the Lord for His wondrous protection. God is good because he has his eyes; they are perfect, and we keep praying for the beautiful healing of his face. He's not allowed to go out in the sun for six months. Sometimes, he has to, and he'll get an umbrella. He'll get out walking at nighttime, out of the sun.
How important it is to be praying over our children and over our families for God's protection. I know there are so many times when I don't even know about how God has protected our family. We have children and grandchildren and of course now, great grandchildren. Our older children are flying and traveling, not only all over this country but all over the world, and God's wondrous protection is upon them. I believe we have a responsibility to pray that each day that little prayer we pray when we are all together, but Colin and I like to pray specifically for our children. We do that together. I believe that's a powerful thing, don't you?
Do you pray for your children with your husband? I do believe that's one of the most powerful things that we can do as husband and wife. One of the wonderful things I was excited about when we got married was that Scripture where it says where ”two of you should agree on earth as touching anything, it shall be done for them as my Father which is in heaven.” When we get married, we are two, but He makes us into one, so we have not only the promise to the two, but we are one together. We agree. We are made one. We have this powerful promise that the things that we pray, especially for our children, as husband and wife, God hears those prayers.
I want to really encourage you to pray together as husband and wife. Perhaps, you haven't been doing that with your husband. Perhaps your husband is one who doesn't even like to pray much. I think, you know, to really encourage him to do it . . . Now, don't tell him this is something you should do because then he won't do it all. Men don't like to do things when you tell them what to do. But you can come to your husband and say, “Darling, I've been really feeling the need to pray for our children. There are so many different areas where I need God's help, and they need God in their lives. Do you think that you could possibly pray with me for the children once a day?” Hopefully, he says yes. Even if he gives a bit of a grunt and doesn't sound excited, even if he gives a tiny affirmation, then say, “Darling, when do you think would be the best time to do it? I'll do it whenever you're free. We can do it in the morning or in the evening. Let's make a time but you tell me the time.”
You don't have to have a great, long length of time but just pray over your children, just to bring their names into His presence, even if you can bring each one of their names before the throne of God, that would be wonderful. If you would like, I do have a list of things that we love to pray for our children, and I have Scriptures with each one because each one of them are a Scriptural prayer. You can email me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I can send them to you. Let me read them to you.
There's a lot of prayers here, and we don't pray all of them every day. Sometimes, we will just take one or two and pray over them. You can look up the Scriptures, and you can pray these Scriptures over your children, and it becomes very powerful. Here we are:
We pray that they would have a real, born-gain experience and come to know God personally.
I believe that's our number one prayer, that our children have a personal, born-again experience, and they come into a personal relationship with Jesus. If we are praying for this, we will be looking out for that moment when our child is ready to take that step. I have talked with families, with mothers, and their children are getting on, eleven, twelve, and I've said to them, “Are they born again?” They say, “I don’t know. They know about salvation.”
We need to know, dear mothers. We must know if our children are born again and if they have opened their hearts to Jesus. I believe that children can do this at a very early age, especially in a godly family. In a Christian family, where you are reading the Word every morning and every evening to your children, and all our children are around, all your little ones, maybe you're nursing your babe at the breast, but your little babe is hearing the Word of God. Maybe you have a toddler and your husband has got your little toddler on his knee while you read a few verses of Scripture into their lives. That word is going into them. You may think, Oh, they don't understand much; they are so little, but that Word is alive. That Word has power to go into them. The Bible says that the Word has power to bring them to salvation.
Do you remember when Paul was writing to Timothy, and he said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15: “From a child, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which is able to make you wise unto salvation.” That word “child” there is the Greek word brephos, and it's the same word that was used when Jesus was in the womb (Luke 1:41-44). It's used of a babe in the womb.
It's the same word that was used when the angels spoke to the shepherds and said, “You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger” (Luke 2;12). That word babe there was of a little newborn babe.
Often, it's used for a little child. This word there is not talking about older children but young children. Even a young child can come to know Jesus if they are getting the Word into them because that Word prepares them for salvation. Even children of three and four can have a true born-again experience.
Quite a number of my children came to Jesus and asked Jesus to come into their lives at four years of age. That experience is still real in their lives today. They are still walking with God today in their fifties, and they remember that moment where they gave their lives to Christ. Look out for that, pray for it, look out for it and give opportunities for it, and when you see that their hearts are tender, you can ask them, “Would you like to ask Jesus to come into your life?”
When they have Christ in their lives, then He dwells with them, and you are able to teach them how to live in victory. When they are naughty and they get mad and upset, you can tell them, “Listen, that's your naughty flesh that's wanting to do that, but Jesus now lives in you. He's in your heart, and He wants you to live like He does. Jesus is full of love and joy, and He wants to do that in you. He wants you to yield to Him and say, 'Yes, Jesus, I will be kind to my brother. I'm not going to get mad and yell at him' because that's your naughty flesh, but when you have Jesus living in you, He will help you to be like Him.”
You are able to teach them how to live a godly life, even as a little child. Why do we have to wait until we learn the secrets and principles of the Word of God? No, we teach them to our little ones, right when they are little.
Let's get on with these prayers.
We pray that they will have a soft and tender heart to hear and obey the voice of the Lord.
That they will walk humbly before the Lord.
That they will love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength.
That they will love to read God's Word and receive revelation and insight as they read.
Such an amazing prayer to pray. So many children grow up today and they hear God's Word at Sunday school and at church, but they have never learned to listen to hear God speak through His Word to them personally. This is something we have to teach our children.
When we have family devotions, family Bible reading, we say to the children, “Daddy is now going to read the Bible. This is God speaking. I want you to listen with all your hearts and listen, for God might have something special to say to you, something very important just for you so be listening.”
At the end of the few Scriptures that you read, you can ask them, “Did God say something to you in your heart and in your mind?” You'll be amazed, as you teach your children to listen, what they will say to you. You'll find that God is speaking to them, especially as you get them into this habit.
I believe it is one of the most important things we can do as mothers, to teach our children how to hear God speak personally to them as they hear or as they learn to read God's Word. In fact, we have to learn to do this for ourselves. Never rely on the Sunday sermon to get what you need from God. Let's get it fresh every day. They had to go out and get the manna every day, and if they didn't, “We didn't have time to get the manna, we will use some of yesterday's manna.” No, they'd go to get some of yesterday’s, and it would be stinking and breeding worms.
God never allowed it to last until the next day. They always had to get it fresh. God wants us to get fresh words from him every day. You can get them, and you can teach your children how to get them as you listen to God's Word, which is alive and active and works in our hearts.
When I read the Word, I read every Word. I'm believing and expecting God to speak to me through every word. Sometimes, it's just one word in the middle of a verse but that one word will speak to me. As that beautiful worship song says, “I don't want to miss one word You speak.” When we hear or when we are reading God's Word, we don't want to miss one word He speaks. Let's get our children into this habit, ok?
That they will love to pray and be committed to pray.
Do your children love to pray? Teach them how to pray. How do you teach them how to pray? By praying. That's how you teach them. The best way to learn to pray is to pray. They learn as they hear you pray.
That they will be committed to the regular gathering together of God's people.
Of course, that's your habit I am sure. I trust that you are a family that is committed to meet with the Lord's people. Whether you meet on a Sunday or a Saturday, you are committed to meeting with God's people, as the Word says that we will “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).
I believe that we show to our children our personal commitment to go by our being committed to His people, by being committed to at least the minimum, one service a week. Help. That is pitiful really. I can remember when we grew up as children. Back in our day, we went to our church three times on Sunday. We went to our morning service as a family. We sat as a family. Back in those days, we never had time for children to go out for Sunday school, children’s church. No, the whole family sat together. We came as families. We worshiped as families.
If you read the Word, you will find that everywhere where God calls His people together, He doesn't say, “I want all the adults to come, but I want you to separate the children.” No, He says: “Come as families.” We read that passage in Joel where He says: “Come to pray and to fast” (Joel 2:15-17).
You would think when there is a time of serious fasting and praying, you would imagine the pastor saying to his congregation, “Now folks, we've got this serious issue. We've got to pray and fast. Now, this is so serious, you're going to have to get babysitters. You're going to have to leave the children at home. We are going to have to get into business with God.” If that's what he says, it's unbiblical. Because when God calls His people to pray, even to fast, He calls them all, the children, the little ones, the nursing moms. He calls them all, the suckling babes. Everyone is mentioned, the little toddlers and the suckling babes and the children. God longs for us to do things together as families, and the most important thing we can do is worship together as a family. Let's do it as families. That's a wonderful thing to do.
That they will love righteousness and hate evil. That they will stand strong against the wiles of the devil and never compromise. That they will hate the spirit of this world and not give into the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Amen. I've just remembered, I didn't finish telling you my story. I was saying how back in my day, we used to go to church three times a day. I only got up to the morning service. We would fellowship, worship as a family and hear the Word together as a family, then we'd all go home for lunch.
Then us children would go back to church, and we would walk. We didn't get our parents to take us in the car. No, we weren't wimpy back in those days. We walked, and it was well over a mile, maybe a mile and a half to two miles. We walked back to Sunday school. There we had our Sunday school. After Sunday school, we walked back home again.
Then we had the evening service, so we had it three times day. That was life. That was Sunday because it was the Lord's day. We didn't go shopping; we didn't go out and do our own thing that day. That was for the Lord. In fact, back in that day, can you even believe it? The shops weren't even open on Sunday. Can you believe that? I guess if you are younger, you can't even believe that there was a time when shops didn't even open on Sunday. No shops were open even for the secular people. The secular people didn't open shops on Sunday back then. Now today, Christians go shopping on Sunday.
Anyway, we got to the next generation and my husband and I have been pastoring all our lives, since we've been married. I have to confess; we have kind of degenerated a bit because we only had two services when we raised our children. We had our morning service and then we had our evening service and that was it. Ok, two services.
Now, can you believe it? I have to confess and really, I feel that it’s so sad. We've got down to one service. Now, this next generation, the third generation, we have our Sunday morning service, which is such a beautiful time, but that's all we have. We have a prayer meeting midweek. Of course, church's always, all over, have always had a midweek prayer meeting. Isn't it amazing? We are now down to the one service, and that is becoming typical with so many churches. I don't know how it is that we've even succumbed to this, but we have.
What gets me, what I can't understand, is that we only have one service, yet even for one service, sometimes people don't come.
“Well, something else happened.”
“I think we will go on a picnic today.”
“Somebody else came to visit.”
That's more important than meeting with God and His people? I beg your pardon. What are we saying to our children? We are saying to them, “Children, this little incident happened, but it's more important than God. It's more important than meeting with His people.”
We do that, and we can arrive late, even half an hour late. What's that? I'm only just going to meet with God. What's that? They'd never be late for work; they'd get fired. We are so lax even about one service. Oh my. We have degenerated, haven't we? There is a statement that says, “One generation is a generation away from degeneration,” and I believe it. It's happened in my lifetime. This is one of my prayers. That our children will be committed to the regular gathering of God's people, and as they get older, they will not deviate from it. Sadly, sometimes, as they get older, they tend to deviate from these Biblical principles. How we have to pray. Let's carry on. You can understand how we can't pray all these prayers every day. We'll just take a few each day.
That they will hate lies and deception and seek after truth.
That they will shine as lights in this dark and deceived world.
That they will understand true justice and have discernment concerning good and evil and the holy and the profane.
That they will seek God with all their hearts.
That they will keep their whole spirit, soul and body pure and blameless for the Lord. That they will keep themselves from evil.
That their faith would not fail.
That God will pour out His spirit upon them mightily.
That they will become laborers in God's harvest field.
That they will keep themselves pure and holy, body, soul and spirit for the man or the women that God has chosen for them. That's an important prayer. That in this lustful world, our children will keep pure and holy, ready for that one that God has for them.
That God will, even now, prepare them for a godly wife or husband, who will be committed and faithful to the marriage until the end of their lives. That they will love and embrace children and establish a godly home.
All these prayers that I just said, there are Scriptures to go with them all. You're welcome to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for them if you would like a copy.
Well ladies, back to our series on HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD. We've still got five more points to go. I've got 20 points. Can you believe it? We've been talking so long to get through this. Of course, if we are going to change the world, it's going to take a little bit of time talking about it, isn't it? We are up to number 16.
No. 16. JOYFULLY MOTHERING
We have talked about diligent mothering and abounding in mothering, but this Scripture I am going to read talks about joyful mothering.
Psalm 113:9: “He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”
Notice, it doesn't only say to be a mother of children. No, God puts in one of His adjectives, which He loves to do. The adjective for mothering is joyful, joyful mothering.
We talked a little bit about this when we were talking about the 25 points of the different ways God wants us to work in our homes. One of those ways is to work joyfully. Here, it's talking about mothering joyfully.
Are you joyful today? Filled with joy? Overflowing with joy/ Or are you going through a bit of a self-pity trip? Are you feeling miserable, downcast, got a bit of depression going there? Darling mothers, please, rise up. Remember, God wants you to be a joyful mother.
It's the same word as Proverbs 16:13: “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.” To have a cheerful countenance and put a smile on your face really starts with your heart. Sometimes, if your heart is not there, you've got to do it anyway. When you put on a smile, then it does something to your heart and to your whole body. You just try it.
After you've listened to this podcast, well, I don't think you'll be depressed. If at some stage you get tempted to feel depressed and get into that self-pity trip, I want you to try something. I want you to put on a smile and look at one of your children and say, “I love being your mother, Abigail. You are such a blessing to me.” Say it with the biggest smile on your mouth and on your face and your eyes are squinting with your smile. You're not going to feel so depressed. You can speak good things, happy things. And you can't make your face go into this big smile and still feel lousy. No, because when you do something, when you speak and when you do an action with your body, it effects how you feel.
Proverbs 17:23 says: “A merry heart does good like a medicine” It's like health. It gives you a fix. Do you remember I talked about that Scripture in 1 Kings 1:39-40 where it tells the story of Zadok anointing Solomon to be king? It says: “All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound.” Can you believe that? Earth-splitting joy. Now, that was a lot of joyful people together. When all these people were joyful together, it split the ground. That is exactly the same word as in our Scripture. He makes us to be a joyful mother of children.
Now ladies, we are talking about how do we change the world? Can I tell you? Bland, boring, downcast mothers don't change the world! They are a bad testimony to the world, but joyful mothers will change the world.
As joyful mothers go out to the supermarket and out into society, as they take their children to different things, when they have smile on their face and they are full of joy, they will impact the people around them.
Feminists have no comeback for joyful mothers. What can they say? There is no argument. When there are joyful mothers who are embracing their career of motherhood, knowing that this is the greatest career that God has given to them, that it is the most powerful career in the whole of the nation, for there is no other career that can even get near it. I mean, others may think they are in some very important career, but it is only temporary; it's only for this world. It's going to burn up; it's going to fade; it's going to be left behind, but motherhood is an eternal career. It goes on into eternity.
The children that God gives you are eternal souls that are going to live forever. The teaching and loving and everything that you pour into them is going into them and will go on even into eternity. As you pray and you lead your children to a born-again experience and to know Jesus, you will take them into the eternal realm with you. It's so powerful.
Of course, not only for the eternal, but for this nation. It is us mothers who determine the future of the nation. Who is the next generation? It's our children, and they become the nation. It's how we train them that determines what the nation will be like. Dear mothers, you wield the greatest power of anyone in the nation. You're determining what the nation will be like for the next generation.
Let's embrace it with all our hearts, be filled with joy. We know we are in the perfect will of God. We can rejoice, and we can go out into society with a smile on our face because we know who we are. What does our humanistic, feminist, socialist society have to say? They have nothing to say when mothers are joyful, and they know who they are, and they are changing the world, and they are preparing a righteous generation for the future. Can you say amen with me?
Become a world changing, joyful mother. You can definitely affect not only your children but generations to come and society all around you. Amen.
Let's get onto our next point, and it is number 17:
No. 17 DELIGHTING IN GOD AND HIS WORD
God not only wants us to acknowledge Him but to delight in Him. God not only wants us to do His will but to delight to do His will. God not only wants us to own Bible's, and I'm sure you've got a number of Bible's in your home, but he wants us to delight in His Word. Let's look at some Scriptures.
Psalm 37:4: “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Do you notice what it says? It doesn't say to delight yourself in the things that you are coveting and wanting and think you so desperately need. No, it says: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” As you delight yourself in Him, God will give you the things that you need.
Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added onto you.”
Psalm 40:8: “I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, your law is within my heart.” That's a statement that we can say before the Lord, but do you know who said that statement? It was Jesus himself. Psalm 40 is a prophetic Psalm. these few Scriptures in this passage, they are prophetic.
Let's go to Psalm 40. This is Jesus himself speaking. He's already in the eternal realm. He has not yet come to earth. This is prophetic. Verse 6 says: “Sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire. My ears hath thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering hath thou not required. Then said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Ye, thy law is within my heart.” Jesus is speaking here and saying: “In the volume of the Book, in the eternal Writings, it is written that I will be the Lamb. I will be the sacrifice. I will be the One who will have to die and shed my blood so that I can redeem a people unto myself.”
Instead of wondering, “How will I do this? How can I leave the eternal realm? How can I go to this sin-sick earth and die and take the sin and the sicknesses of the world upon me? How can I do it?” Instead he says: “I delight to do your will, O my God.” If Jesus could say that when He had to lay down his life, when He had to go through that terrible physical suffering, but more than that, the agony, the incredible agony that no one will ever know how to even put into thoughts or words of taking upon himself our sin and our sicknesses. He had to take upon himself the evilest thing that's ever happened in the world. The most excruciating pain that's ever happened to anyone. He took it all. He took it upon himself. God couldn't even look upon Hm as He took the sin of the world upon Him. He did that for us and He said, “I delight to do thy will, O my Father.” Wow.
We are in the will of God as we are mothering. We have the joys of our darling children around us, the joys of our precious little baby and darling toddlers and children who are so incredible. Every life is amazing. We have a home, and tangible blessings. I'm sure you've got a washing machine and a dryer. And a dishwasher maybe, and you've got this, and you've got that. You've got furniture. You've got more than you'll ever need. Yet, many times, we are groaning and complaining.
Let's be those who delight to do His will, amen?
Let's look at Psalm 1:2: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Let's go back and read the whole Psalm.
Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” What happened? “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Yes, that's when we delight in His Word . . . how much do you delight in His Word? Often, I like to say to the folks living in our house, and we have quite a number of folks living with us currently, and they will come out to breakfast and I'll say to them, “What did you get from the Word of God this morning? Remember, “No Bible, no breakfast.” That was the word that an old Chinese saint said. He would always say every day, “No Bible, no breakfast.” He would not have any breakfast; he would not feed his body until he fed his inner man.
I will say, “Who got something very special as you read the Word this morning?” Most times, nobody answers because they haven't even read the Word. They are coming out for breakfast. They are coming out to get food for their bodies, but they haven't even got food for their souls. How much do we delight in His Word? How much do our children see us delighting in His Word? Do they see us making it a real habit to have our Bible reading time every morning and every evening, or do we just let things come along and take over?
Oh, we haven't got time. Oh, we've got to do this. Oh, we don't have time for Bible reading. Oh, this has happened. We have to do this today. We don't have time.” Do you know that unless you make it a precedent, unless you make it a habit, unless you make it a time and a place every day, you won't have it? Life does that to you. Life is so busy. Life takes over our lives, but we are the ones to determine what happens, not just let life take over. No, we must determine.
Every morning, every evening, we establish our time at our table where we have our Bible reading and prayer. To me, it is the most important thing of the day as a family, so I make it happen. Other things can be forgotten. If we don't have time for other things, too bad. This is the most important. When we do this, we show to our children that we delight in His Word. That it is more important than all the little things that we think are important, that are going to take us away and rob us of this time.
Really, it's the enemy that is doing it because he wants to steal this time from us, he wants to rob us. He does not want any family sitting down to Bible reading and prayer. He’s going to try and stop it every way he can, so you have to rise up in the strength of the Lord because you're not going to be a weak mother, you're going to be a strong mother.
What does Proverbs 31:10 say? “Whoso findeth a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies.” That word virtuous there means “strong, courageous, valiant.” This is the mothers that we have to be. Mothers aren't wimps. Mothers have to rise up in strength. We've got to be strong to make happen in our homes what we know must happen.
Therefore, we also show to our children that God is preeminent in our home. His Word is preeminent. If we let other things take over, we are saying to our children, “Children, God's Word is not as important as this little thing that's happening or this thing I have to run to now.” No, let's not be hypocrites. Let's let our children know that He is preeminent in our home. That His Word is preeminent and that we are a family that seek God, and we can't do it without praying together and that prayer is more important than anything else we will do in the day. Amen?
I've got to stop because time is up. Next podcast, I want to talk to you about a Scripture that I just read about meditating on His Word night and day. The word mediate in the Bible is quite different than what we think of it today. I'll tell you next time.
“Father, thank You so much for Your wonderful goodness to us. We want to be a thankful people. Thank You for these lovely wives and mothers and grandmothers and children who are listening. Bless them. I pray that You will help each mother and grandmother to be a joyful mother.
“I pray, Father, that You will give us all a heart to delight in You, a delight to do Your will, a delight in Your Word, a delight to pray, a delight to seek Your face, a delight in our mothering because this is the career that you've given to us. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.”