PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 203: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, PT 14
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.