PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 229: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land? Part 6
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 229: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land? Part 6
THREE FIGHTING PRINCIPLES
I continue talking about how to defeat our enemies, personally, in the home, and in the nation. God gives us three principles for how to fight, which are important to understand. Of course, we are not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, LIFE TO THE FULL with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Oh, wow! Were you blown away by our last podcast? When Peggy came and shared what is happening with all this transgenderism, oh my! I was blown away myself! We certainly have to stand up against evil, don’t we?
That’s what the children of Israel had to do when they went into the Promised Land. God gave them this beautiful land, but it was filled with evil. They had to dispossess the people, and to drive out the evil, and destroy the evil.
Today, we are facing evil in our land. It’s even creeping into the land of motherhood because it’s touching our precious children! We can’t just take it sitting down. We’ve got to drive out this evil.
I wonder if I can say these words again. I spoke them last podcast, but these are the specific words God gave to the children of Israel, and what they were to do about the evil. We need to get them into our being, because we’re not meant to think, “Well, that’s so terrible. I’m so sad to hear that.” No! We actually have to DO something!
So, let me remind you again. Every one of these is an actual Scripture.
Contend with them in battle.
Drive them out.
Destroy them.
Destroy them utterly.
Destroy them quickly.
Destroy their altars.
Destroy the names of them out of that place.
Pluck down.
Dispossess.
Smite them.
Make no covenant with them.
Show no mercy.
Make no marriages with them.
Break down their images.
Break their pillars.
Cut down their groves.
Burn their graven images with fire.
Overthrow their altars.
Burn their groves with fire.
Hew down the graven images of their gods.
Blot out their remembrance.
Now, we are not going to do this to people. We are not fighting flesh and blood, but we are fighting principalities and powers. It’s the evil spirits that are behind what these people are doing. Ultimately, it is the devil himself, who comes to rob, and to kill, and to destroy. He is the destroyer. He wants to destroy life. This is all about destroying life.
We belong to a kingdom of light, and we’ve got to bring light into this dark world, this deceived world. We’ve got to drive out this evil, through prayer, and through standing up, and through speaking out, and through making the truth known.
In conquering the land, I see in the Word, there were three different principles that God gave them. These principles are the same that we need to use today as we fight against evil. Let me give them to you.
Number one: THEY HAD TO CONQUER THE LAND LITTLE BY LITTLE
Exodus 23:29-30: “I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.”
Again, in Deuteronomy 7:22: “And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.”
God saw that it was impossible to do it all at once. They had to go little by little. As they possessed and overcame the people and obliterated them, then they were able to possess that part of the land. Then they would face the next battle and they would possess that.
Because when we push back the devil, we’ve then got to fill that void with the Lord. That’s even in our own lives. The Bible talks about it. They cast out a devil from someone and if the person is not filled with the Holy Spirit and filling up His life with the Word and the truth, well, then, seven more devils can come in. (Read Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26).
Here God is saying, “You can’t do it all at once, because if you possess the whole land, if you drive out the people from the whole of the land, you don’t have time to possess it all at once. It takes time to possess, and to build, and to be able to look after what you have taken.” We do it little by little. Amen?
The next principle: TO LEAVE NOTHING REMAINING
When they went into the land, God told them they had to wipe out their enemies until there was absolutely no one or nothing left. This is a very important principle. Once again, we’re not talking about flesh and blood. We’re talking about fighting principalities and powers.
Often, in our own personal life, we may have to deal with something that is not right in our lives. Sometimes we can take pity on ourselves and we’re not ruthless with ourselves. We’re just so kind to ourselves. We leave a little bit of it there so we can still tamper a little bit with this thing.
But you know what? That doesn’t work. If there’s evil in our own lives, or any kind of habit or something that is holding us back, we must deal with it ruthlessly. Even in our homes, or our children’s lives, if we see evil creeping into our home, if we see the spirit of the world coming in, the things of the flesh, and the things of the world, as the Bible speaks about in 1 John . . .
This is a wonderful Scripture. 1 John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
When we see these things coming in, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and the things of the spirit of this world, well, we don’t want to leave them lurking around. We want to deal with them. We want to eradicate them. God wants us to totally eradicate them. Not just leave a little bit, so we can still, yes, we can have a little bit of the world. No! That’s not how it’s meant to be.
A THREE DAY GAP
Moses was taking the children of Israel out from Egypt. Oh, it didn’t happen at once, because Pharoah was holding on tight. He wouldn’t let them go. He kept making excuses for them to stay in the land. Once of the excuses was when he said, “OK, well, you can go to the border and sacrifice to your God there. But don’t go any further.”
Moses said, “No, God has told us we are to go a three-day journey” (that was three days walking) “before we can sacrifice to Him.” There had to be a three-day gap between Egypt and between them going out of the land and walking into the new land. That is still God’s principle today. We must have a three-day gap, not just a half-hour gap, or perhaps half-a-day gap . . . We’re still sitting on the fence. We’ve got one foot in Egypt, and one foot in the land God has for us. No, we’ve got to have a three-day gap. (Read Exodus 3:18; 53; 8:25-27; and 10:24-26).
Here are the Scriptures God told them, regarding their enemies in the land. You can read Deuteronomy 3:3.
Then let’s go to Joshua 10:33: “Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.”
Verses 36-37: “And Joshua went . . . unto Hebron; and they fought against it: and they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword . . . he left none remaining . . . but destroyed it utterly.”
Verses 38-39: “And Joshua fought against Debir; and . . . he took it and . . . utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining.”
Verse 40: “So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded.”
God did not tell him to go into the Promised Land and to destroy most of the people so, you know, they’d have room to build and grow. No, He told them they were to destroy them utterly. This is the type for how we fight the enemy, how we deal with evil, how we resist evil today. We don’t resist it a little bit. We resist it, and we fight it until there is none remaining, because if we leave a little bit, what happens? Well, God told them what would happen.
Numbers 33:55: “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.”
Again, in Joshua 23:13: “They shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.”
So, ladies, this is a very important principle. When we’re dealing with evil, when we’re fighting back something that is not from God, we know it’s from the enemy. We don’t just deal with it a little bit. We deal with it until there is none left remaining. We do this in our personal lives. We do this in our homes. Because if we leave a little bit, it’s going to come back.
It’s going to be like thorns in your sides, pricks in your eyes, and it will keep on coming to vex you continually. I’m sure you’re most probably already experiencing that. When you don’t deal with something properly or even something that is going on in one of your children, it just continues. You’re fighting that same battle all the time. Usually it gets worse. You have to deal with that thing completely so there’s nothing left remaining. That is Scripture. That’s the principle. It’s wonderful, isn’t it, how God give us principles for fighting back the evil.
The third principle: this is another wonderful principle I want to give you, ladies. This is for every battle you will face in your own life personally, and also even in your home life, and also nationally. Let’s have a look at this.
It’s the principle in God’s Word that GOD FIGHTS FOR US BUT WE ALSO HAVE TO FIGHT
God works for us, but we also have to work. God wants us to fulfill His plans on earth. He is in heaven, but we are His voice, His hands, and His feet on the earth. We see this in every aspect of life.
God is the bread-giver, but we have to work to grow the grain and to make the bread.
God so generously and lavishly provides food for us. He is the food-provider, but we have to work to plant it, make it grow, and then prepare to eat it.
We see this in other areas. Yes, God loves marriage. He loves to bring couples together, but they have to build into their marriage to make it beautiful. We always have to do our part.
Do you remember the wedding in Cana of Galilee? The first wedding it talks about that Jesus went to. You’ll remember how they ran out of wine before the wedding festivities were finished. Oh, the people who were hosting the wedding didn’t know what they would do! That was a terrible thing, to run out of wine before the end.
But Jesus’ mother had a little word with Jesus. She told Jesus what was happening. Jesus told the servants to fill the water pots with water. Wow! I guess they felt a bit stupid doing that. “Just fill them with water.” But Mary, His mother, said, “You just do what He says. Just watch out what will happen.”
And so, they did. They filled. They obeyed the word. They filled all the big water pots and barrels with water. And then, when they took out from that water, it was wine! It was Jesus’ first miracle, and what a glorious miracle! Not only was it wine, but the guests at the wedding simply couldn’t believe it! They said, “You have kept the good wine, the best wine, until now!” So, you see how they had to do something. They had to fill the water pots with water. But Jesus did the miracle (John 2:1-11).
Then there’s another beautiful story in 2 Kings chapter four. Here it tells us about this woman. She was a wife of one of the sons of the prophets. She’s talking to Elijah and says: “Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen,” because my husband is now dead.
And Elijah said to her, “OK, what do you have in your house?” She said, “I don’t have anything, but just one pot of oil.” So, Elijah said to her, “OK, you go, and you borrow, you find every vessel that you can find. Go to all your neighbors abroad. Go as far as you can and get all the pots and vessels that you can. Borrow not a few. In other words, get as many as you can. When you have come in, you’ve got all your vessels, shut the door. And then, pour the oil into the vessels.”
So, she obeyed. When they got all the vessels, she poured out the oil, and what happened? The oil just kept pouring, and pouring, and pouring, until every vessel was full, and there was not another vessel to pour into. The oil stayed. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “OK, go and sell the oil, and pay your debt.”
So, we see that principle there too, how the word of the Lord came. What to do? She obeyed. She did it. She went out, and she got all the vessels. And then God did the miracle. So, God works for us, but we always have to do our part.
Now I’m going to show some more examples of this, so you can see this principle, and you can begin to see it happening in your own life.
GOD DOES HIS PART BUT WE MUST DO OUR PART
Let me take you to Deuteronomy 33:27. This is a wonderful Scripture. It starts off with a glorious promise. “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” I love that Scripture. How true it is that God’s everlasting arms are always underneath us. Even when we feel as though we’re falling, and we don’t even know what to do. Where do we fall? We fall into His everlasting arms. They will always hold us up. What a beautiful promise. Take that promise today if you need those words.
But then, it doesn’t finish there. It goes on to a whole new subject. It says: “He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee.” And then it goes on to say: “And shall say, Destroy them.” Now, do you see a principle there? It says God will thrust out the enemy before us, but then God says to us, “You destroy them.” So, God does His part but then He tells us to do our part.
Let’s go to Deuteronomy 7:2 and 16: “When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before you . . .” OK, that’s God working on our behalf. He’s going to deliver our enemies before us. Then it says: “You shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; you shall consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver you.” So there, that’s the children of Israel fighting. God delivered them before them, but they had to then smite them and utterly destroy them. Do you get the principle? God is working but then He wants us to do our part.
Go to Deuteronomy 7:23, 24: “The Lord shall deliver the nations unto you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they are destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings into your hand.” Wow! Who’s doing the work there? It’s God. But then, it goes on to say: “And you shall destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.” So now, God’s saying, “OK, your turn now. I’ve delivered them into your hand. Now, you destroy them.”
This is a biblical and eternal principle. When we’re facing a difficulty, we’re facing the enemy, we’re facing a challenge, we cry out to God . . . God will always work for us. He will do whatever He has to do, but He will also give us our part to do. We will have to rise up and begin to destroy and resist and push back the enemy.
Here we go again! Deuteronomy 9:3: “The Lord thy God which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before your face.” Who is working there? It’s God! God is doing this for them. But then, it goes on to say: “So you will drive them out, and destroy them, as the LORD hath said.” So now that’s you fighting. Well, it was the children of Israel there.
OK, 1 Chronicles 14:15, 16. Here we read a strategy that God gave to Israel for one of their battles. “When you shall hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle.” That’s you fighting. “For God is gone forth before you to smite the host of the Philistines.” That’s God fighting. “David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gazer.” So there was David, fighting with all his might. But God had already paved the way for him. Getting the picture? I hope so.
YOU AND GOD TOGETHER
Now, here’s an amazing Scripture. Jeremiah 51:20-24. I want you to stay with me here. We’re going to look at something. In this passage, it’s actually God prophetically speaking through Jeremiah to Israel. He says: “You are My battleax and weapons of war. For with you,” OK, that’s us. “With you, will I break in pieces the nations.” That’s God fighting. It’s you and God together.
“With you,” He says, OK, that’s us, “I will destroy kingdoms.” That’s God doing, but He's doing it through us. You see, it’s you and God together. Me and God together.
We keep going. “And with you (you fighting) I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.” That’s God doing it.
“And with you (you’re fighting) “will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider.” That’s God fighting.
“And with you (YOU fighting) will I break in pieces man and woman.” GOD fighting.
“And with you” (YOU fighting) I will break in pieces the young man and the maid.” That’s GOD fighting.
“I will also break in pieces (GOD fighting) with you (you are fighting) the shepherd and his flock.”
“And with you (YOU are fighting) will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen.” GOD fighting.
We see all these different illustrations. God says, “I’m going to do it through you, but I’m going to be the one doing it. I’m going to be with you. I’m going to be showing you the way. I’m right behind you. I’m doing it, but I’m doing it through you.” This is how God shows us that we fight our battles. It’s God and me together, God and you together.
It ends up . . . “With you (once again YOU) “I will break in pieces captains and rulers.” That’s God saying what He will do. But He will do it through you.
Powerful principle isn’t it, precious ladies, that we must get hold of. God fights for us, but He wants us to do our part. He wants to do it through us.
I’ll just give you one more. There are so many in the Word. Judges 4. This is the wonderful chapter where it talks about how Deborah rose up as a mother in Israel, and how she went with Barak. They went and destroyed King Jabin of Canaan, and his general Sisera, who actually had 900 chariots of iron.
Judges 4:13: “And Sisera,” he was the general, “gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron,” that’s nearly a thousand chariots. Wow, they were sure facing a big enemy. “And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.” OK, God is working. “Is not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. And the Lord discomfited Sisera.” See, God is working! “And all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.”
It seems, from when we read the prophetic song, that God sent rain. It all became muddy, and all the chariots got stuck. They had to get out of them and flee because God was making all these bad things happen. But then, we haven’t finished yet, but then it says: “Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword;” because Barak and his army went after them. “And there was not a man left.” God worked for them, but they also had to fight that battle with all their hearts.
So, there it is, my precious ladies, three very important principles in fighting the battles that we face. Today we talked about how we have to fight off our enemies. There are always enemies to fight, aren’t there? We’re always facing, oh my, some evil that we’ve got to stand up against. We face subtle inroads of the enemy who comes into our homes to try and bring in his insidious ways.
MOTHERS ARE WATCHDOGS
As mothers we have to be such watchdogs, don’t we? Watchdogging. Oh, keeping our eyes alert to what is happening in our homes and what is happening in the lives of our children. We can’t really be off doing our own thing. It’s a fulltime job, guarding over our children’s lives. We’re not only guarding over their bodies, but over their souls, and over their spirits.
We’re watching what they are looking at, what they are reading. If they have iPhones, what are they seeing on them? Oh, we are . . . there’s never been a day when we have to guard, and guard, and watch so powerfully, and so carefully. When we face things that we know are not from God, we know it’s the enemy trying to creep into the lives of our children, or into our homes, or into our husband’s life. Oh, my, then we’ve got to go to battle! Of course, our first battle is in the area of prayer. That is number one, dear ladies, praying. That is the greatest, greatest weapon that we have.
I’m just thinking of this Scripture here. Leviticus 26:7-8: “And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.” We’re not talking about natural enemies, but we’re fighting principalities and powers.
We fight in the prayer room personally, but also, we pray as a family. Here it says that five, even a mom and dad and three children, that five can put 100 enemies to flight! It says here that a hundred of you, wow, that’s a whole lot of godly families, they can put 10,000 to flight.
We’re also fighting battles on the home front. We fight battles nationally, and I believe we must be in that fight also. We, as mothers, we’re in a fight to save our nation, because that is the saving of our children. This nation is going down the tubes with evil, with all that they’re bringing in.
Everything that’s so against God, a slap in the face to God, and it’s an abomination to God. Same-sex marriage, and the transgenderism, and continuing abortion, even though we have had a reversal of Roe v Wade. Oh, all this sex trafficking! We cannot even hardly take in the evil that is in our nation. We as families, we can become prayer-watching families. We can become nation-changing families as we pray together and push back the enemy in prayer. That is the number one.
Then, standing up and speaking out, and being a voice. So, dear precious ladies, the battle is there. Don’t hide your head in the sand. Get into the battle with all your might and take hold of the principles God has given us to fight. Amen?
“Father, we thank You that You show us the way You want us to do it. We thank You that You are with us, Lord God, as we cry out to You, that You will bare your mighty right arm. You will go before us. But, Lord, You will also show us what You want us to do. Help us be faithful in the fight. Lord God, not only to just fight half the fight, but fight a full fight, that we will leave none remaining. Oh, God, that we will do what you have told us to do, Father.
“Oh, God, I pray that You’ll raise us up as warriors, that we, as mothers, will become a great army, pushing back the evil in this nation, Lord God. That our children will grow up in a godly nation, Lord, for godliness exalts a nation. Sin is the reproach to any people. Lord, we so long for a godly nation in which our children and our grandchildren can grow up. We pray for godliness to return to this nation.
“Lord God, I pray for prayer warriors to rise up. Lord, we need an army of prayer warriors, rising up in this hour, praying in our homes, praying together with other families, praying in our churches, crying out to You. Because, Lord, You have said there’s only one answer.
“If My people will pray and humble themselves and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land.” Lord, we need such healing in our land! Lord God, Lord God, we ask, Lord, that You will arouse Your people to pray, and seek Your face, Lord, that we can see this great, mighty healing. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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