LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 353: DO WE THINK LIKE GOD THINKS?

God’s vision is as big as the stars in the heavens, the dust of the earth, and the sand upon the seashore—all of them too impossible to count! And then we talk about changing the nation by prayer from the heart of your home. 

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re together again, and I am finishing off “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY.” Last week we finished off the 19 different points of the ways God wants us to be fruitful. God uses 19 different Hebrew words to describe His people multiplying.

I don’t know whether there is another subject in the Word of God that uses so many Hebrew words to describe it. It is truly amazing. But we haven’t finished yet. God also used pictures to describe it. We’re going to look at those today.

No. 1. STARS OF THE SKY

God promised that the children of Israel would be like the stars of the heavens, which cannot be numbered for multitude. We’ll read Genesis 15:5: “And He brought [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell (or count) the stars, if thou be able to number them (which he couldn’t) and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

In Genesis 22:17, it says: “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven.” Now how many times did God give this description? Did He give it three times? Did He give it six times? No, God gave this description 11 times in His Word. I will give you all the Scriptures in the transcript so you can get them.

Even over to the New Testament we read, in Hebrews 11:11-12: “It was by faith that Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep His promise, so a whole nation came forth from this one man, who was as good as dead. A nation with so many people, that like the stars in the sky, there is no way to count them.”

No. 2. DUST OF THE EARTH

He describes them as “the dust of the earth,” which is absolutely impossible to count.

Let’s read Genesis 13:16: “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Of course, we know that’s impossible to count. That’s another description that God gave. He gave this four different times in His Word.

No. 3. THE SAND ON THE SEASHORE

We all know it’s impossible to count the grains of sand. Genesis 32:12: “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” I will give you the other references. God describes it that way six times in His Word.

No. 4. THE GRASS OF THE EARTH

Job 5:25: “You will have many children. Your descendants will be as plentiful as grass.”

No. 5. THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS

Genesis 24:60: “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her . . . be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” The phrase “thousands of millions” speaks of that which cannot be numbered.

I wonder if young brides getting married today would love to have that blessing on their wedding day? Maybe they wouldn’t like to have it. But Rebekah was so blessed to receive that blessing that they put upon her. “Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed (thy children) possess the gates of those which hate them.”

I would love to have that promise. I long that down the generations our family will continue to bring forth the godly seed, not only little numbers, but great numbers, to fill the earth with His truth, and with His glory.

Some more Scriptures. Numbers 10:35-36: “Then it came about, when the ark set out, that Moses said, ‘Rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered.’ When it came to rest, he said, ‘Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel.’”

Deuteronomy 1:11: “The Lord your God make you a thousand times, so many more as He promised you.” I’ll give other references in the transcript.

No. 6. LIKE A FLOCK

Psalm 107:41: “Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” This is how God describes the family that He wants to bring forth. He sees them as little flocks. Now a flock is not really two children, or our 1.9, which is the average number of children in America today for each family. No, that is not a flock.

Of course, a flock is not huge like in New Zealand where I come from, where farmers have literally thousands and thousands of sheep out on the paddocks, as we call them. What do you call them here? The pasture.

But in the Middle East, over in Israel, they l have little flocks. The shepherd will go ahead of his flock. You can see the Bedouin shepherds often walking along through the desert with their little flock behind them. Maybe six, maybe ten, maybe fifteen, maybe whatever. But they’re not thousands and thousands. At least they are a flock. They’re not just one or two. God wants to see our families like a flock.

We see this prophetic word also in Ezekiel 36:37-38: “I will multiply their people like sheep, like the sheep for offering, like the sheep of Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

I think it’s speaking specifically there of the heartland of Israel, which is yet to be totally possessed. So much of the heartland is still stones and dirt, waiting to be possessed. There are still more and more Israelis that need to go out to that heartland to farm the land, to build the cities.

These promises are in the Word of God, that the cities will be built. The vineyards will be sown. It will flower and bring forth great fruit out of that stony ground. But it says that they’ll be filled with flocks of people, so there are still more people to come out to this heartland. We need to pray those Scriptures into being.

Let’s read in Daniel 7:9-10, a beautiful description there. It’s speaking of God, the Ancient of Days, “whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” There are going to be thousands and thousands and thousands which cannot be numbered.

Revelation 5:11-12: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” We can hardly take in those numbers, can we? But that’s God’s heart. God’s heart is not just for a little tiny few. His heart is for a big family.

We read in Hebrews 2:10 of how Jesus came to bring “many sons unto glory.” Here we read this picture in Revelation of the “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” These are more of the descriptions God has for the ultimate plan for His people.

NUMBER 6. PRAY FOR YOUR CITY AND YOUR NATION

Now we must go on to our point number six from our passage in Jeremiah 29:7. Let’s read it, shall we? It comes straight after “increase and do not diminish.”

“Seek the peace of the city, whither I have called you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall you have peace.”

Point No. 6, dear ladies, is to pray. There are quite a few thoughts about this. Well, I know that you've heard me speak to you about prayer so many times. But I have to talk about it again, because this is the point we are up to of the seven points that God wanted His people to do in Babylon.

They are still the same things He wants us to do today, and He says, did you get it ladies? He says that if we pray for our city and our nation, we will have peace. We want peace, don’t we? But we won’t have it without prayer.

Let me encourage you again. We always need to be encouraged. I need to be encouraged. Every one of us needs to be reminded about prayer because it is the easiest thing in the world to give up. Because life is so full, life is busy, life is filled with everything. If we don’t make it a priority in our home, everything else will crowd it out.

That’s why I believe we have to make set times. If you don’t make set times, dear mothers, it won’t happen. We have to make set times for ourselves personally. I have always made it a habit in my life, although there have been seasons, of course, when it hasn’t worked out. I’d been having so many babies and so on in all those days.

It’s always been my precedence to try to begin the day with the Lord. I get up and have my personal time in the Word and in prayer with the Father. Then we have our family devotions. I love our family devotions.

I cannot encourage you enough to make these set times in your homes. Unless you do, they’ll never happen. I find that in our home, I have to make these set times and everything else in our family life will go around them. If I was to try to just fit it in with everything else we’ve got going on, we’d never fit it in! We make that time.

After breakfast, it’s family devotions time where we come together. We hear the Word, we pray, and we worship. What a blessing to pray! We pray mainly for others. I think your personal time is more time to pray, if you have needs, to pray for yourself. But during family devotions we pray for the nation. We pray for Israel. We pray for the persecuted church. We pray for the needs of the world.

Of course, at this time, we’re praying so much for our nation. In the last four years, we prayed so extensively for our nation along with thousands of others across this nation. God answered our prayers. He saved us from going down a communistic, destructive path. If Trump had not won this election, we would already be going down a communist path. We were so blessed to be saved from that. We should never stop thanking God.

But now that Trump has come to that place of presidency, it’s still a fight. There is still a great fight against the enemy. It is a strong and powerful enemy. If you watched that speech that Trump gave the other night to the two houses of Congress, they were all there. It was so sad to see the democratic party, to see their hate for this nation.

There was no heart. There was no compassion, and even when Trump spoke about the good things that he is doing for this nation, there was resistance. When he spoke about people who had lost their children, and different things like that, there was no response. They could not care about anything. All they want is this destructive path.

Trump can do what he can, but really, it’s the prayers of God’s people that will really win the day. I know I’m speaking to people who love the Lord, who I know are praying families. I’m sure most of you have that worship, prayer, and Bible time with your family each day. But if it’s lagging, can I encourage you to keep going? Make it happen. If you've never started, well, just get started. Begin the morning and evening devotions. We do it after breakfast and we do it after our evening meal.

It’s amazing how the devil robs us of the most important things in our lives. I know the devil does not want prayer because prayer is so powerful. Prayer stops the enemy in his tracks. Prayer brings down evil. That’s not the plan of the enemy. If he can get families sidetracked, and today so many things we do for our families—often all that time when you would normally be in the home preparing the meal for the family, ready to sit down together to eat as a family, which is so important, and then to read the Word and pray together. But often so many families are out on the sports field, or still driving home, just grabbing some fast food. Nothing is set up for gathering the family together to pray.

The devil’s laughing. “Yippie! I’ve got them out of that prayer time again!” The more he gets you out of prayer time, the better he likes it. We’ve got to seek to make those prayer times.

Even in our churches, it doesn’t really happen much today. Churches have worship, and they have great preaching and teaching. But how much do they pray? How much time do they set aside for prayer? How many prayer meetings do they have a week?

I think of that Scripture in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: “I exhort therefore that first of all” (the first thing you do when you come together) “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, for those in leadership, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, who would have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth.”

This is why we pray. This is why we are meant to pray, even in our churches. The first thing we do is to spend time praying for our leaders, praying for the nation, that we may have peace and lead this quiet and peaceable life that comes through prayer.

So, ladies, I’d like to exhort you at this time, to encourage you. I’m sure many of you are, but can I ask you, how much are you praying for President Trump, and for his cabinet ministers, and for those who are in authority, and those who are seeking to put away the evil in our nation and to bring it back to righteousness?

And to expose the evil, expose the fraud, to expose all the terrible things that have been going on which need to be exposed and brought to justice. They’re having a hard time doing it because it’s a powerful enemy. But we must pray. It’s the prayers of God’s people that will break through.

Now, can I ask you another question? Do you know the names of the people in Trump’s cabinet? If you don’t know them, how can you pray for them? Can I encourage you to go on the internet and look up Trump’s cabinet ministers? Print them off.

I don’t know whether you have prayer boxes in your home. I couldn’t do without prayer boxes. We have our prayer boxes. We have nine or ten of them on different subjects. We have our prayer box for President Trump and the nation. Now we have all the cabinet ministers in that box so that we are praying for them.

They can do everything they want to do, but without the power of God, without the anointing of God, without the backing of prayers of God’s people, what can they accomplish? We want them to accomplish these good things. We want evil to be eradicated. We want the evil that’s been going on to be exposed and brought to justice. It will only happen through prayer. Can I encourage you? Imagine if every family listening today will begin to pray, morning and evening, for Trump and for these people. Amazing things will happen.

I’m not going to give all of the cabinet to you today, but can I just mention a few? Make sure you're praying for these. You should pray for them all, but of course, pray for J. D. Vance, the vice-president. It’s wonderful to see he is so open in acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, and how he is so bold to speak about his love for the Bible and standing for righteousness. But we need to keep praying for him. We need to pray for the safety of Trump and Vance.

We need to pray for Mike Huckabee. He’s the ambassador to Israel. He used to be the governor of Arkansas and he’s a wonderful evangelical Christian. He loves Israel and it’s amazing that Trump appointed him. He’s the right one for Israel. Pray that God will give him such anointing as he deals with the difficulties over there in Israel that they face constantly.

Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense. He's now over the military, which has, oh, our military is so sad. It’s become so weak and defenseless. Most of the people who are in top positions are gay or transgender. It’s unbelievable. This has to be rooted out. It has to become a true, strong, brave military again. Pray for Pete Hegseth as he seeks to purge out the military.

Pray for Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, which is such a very powerful position on behalf of the president, going to the different countries of the world and seeking to bring peace in those countries. He needs such wisdom and anointing in doing this.

Tom Homan, the border czar. Oh wow, this is a great guy. He’s full of courage and boldness, but he needs such help. He needs God’s help and strategies as he seeks to protect the border which has been overrun, of course, completely. Our land now is filled with millions of murderers and prisoners and all kinds of people and gangs. All those who are illegal, he’s got to get out somehow. So, pray for him.

Kristi Noem was the governor of South Dakota. Now she’s Secretary of Homeland Security, an important position. And, of course, we do have to pray for Elon Musk, don’t we? We need to pray for his salvation.

I think we should also pray for the salvation of Melania, Trump’s wife, and for Usha, JD Vance’s wife. J. D. Vance confesses Jesus as his Lord and Savior, but Usha is a Hindu. Let’s pray. Such a beautiful woman but let’s pray she finds Jesus.

Elon Musk has changed so much, but we need to pray that he finds Jesus and has a true encounter with Him. Pray for him because he is doing a great job as he is investigating all the fraud that’s been happening in the nation. And so many others. You can look them all up. But those are some of the main ones. Get to know who they are. Get a prayer box with their names in it and start praying for them. Teach your children who they are and get them to pray for them.

OK, so you're not only going to pray in your home. What about prayer meetings, where you gather with other people? Are you part of a prayer meeting, praying for the nation? Well, if you're not, if you don’t know of one around you, why not start one yourself? Just start it in your home. Call a couple of other families, and say, “Hey, come and pray with us. Just one night a week. Let’s get together and pray for the nation.”

Oh, it’s a wonderful thing. We have two prayer meetings a week for the nation here on the Hilltop. We have one at our place on Monday night and one at Serene and Sam’s on Wednesday night. They’re such powerful times. We don’t come together to eat. We eat before we come, and we get together. We worship and then we pray.

We get stuck into prayer, and it’s not only adults. The families come, right down to the little ones. And the little babies, and the pregnant mommies. Oh, it’s so beautiful to see these little ones, and then the ones who are just getting a little older. Even the five and six-year-olds. I was looking at my little granddaughter, Solly. She’s just seven. I think she’s seven now. I can’t believe where the time has gone. But oh, to see her with her hands waving, worshipping the Lord, and then being part of the prayer.

These children are part of the prayer meeting. Don’t leave your children at home. We don’t put them to bed because it’s a prayer meeting going on. You let them be part of it. We often have 30, 40, or more at our prayer meetings. Prayer meetings should be filled with people praying. If you don’t know one that’s around, well, start one. Don’t you think that’s a great idea?

And, of course, pray for revival. I do believe that as things continue to happen, and the fraud and the evil, and the hidden things that have been going on will be exposed in our nation, and brought to justice, it’s going to make a greater atmosphere for revival. We need to see a revival in the church, but a revival that also affects society. That’s what I long for.

I can remember, because we do come from New Zealand, that there was a time in New Zealand where we look back. We believe we were living in revival days. It was so incredible; the presence of God was do mighty in our midst. Every week, every Sunday, people would come to the Lord and be baptized. There was hardly a Sunday when people weren’t getting saved and baptized. During the week, they were coming to the Lord and being baptized.

It was an incredible time. And yet, even though that was wonderful, I have never yet seen a revival that’s really affected society. This is what I pray for. I was just reading to Colin the other night. I was reading him the account of the Welsh revival that happened with Evan Roberts in Wales.

There have been so many glorious revivals throughout the world. Of course, there was the Hebrides revival in the West Islands of Scotland. A couple of years ago, Colin and I, with others, went out to the Isle of Lewis and went into the very church where that revival started. That was an amazing experience. It was such an incredible revival where the presence of God came down and was felt by everyone.

But then I was reading to him about the Welsh revival because Colin and I were also very blessed. One time when we were in Wales, we were not far from that church where that revival began. We had the privilege of going into that very church, sitting on the very seat where Evan Roberts was and where the power of God came upon him and this revival began. There was something about being in a place where mighty revivals happened.

But I was reading to him how it not only affected the church. Evan Roberts believed for 100,000 souls to be saved. Within a year, they say there were 150,000 souls saved and that was a very conservative number. That was in a time when they didn’t have the populations they have today.

It so affected society that the pubs were closed! There was nobody in the pubs, and magistrates went to work and there were no cases for them to deal with. Can you imagine that? There was not a case for them to deal with! The whole of society was converted to the Lord. How amazing!

If that happened there, it could happen again. In fact, what happened on the day of Pentecost? Three thousand souls came to the Lord in a day. The Bible talks about the early and the latter rains, and how in Israel the early rain came, but then there was another rain, which was a bigger rain. The Bible talks about the early and the latter rain spiritually, how there is a greater spiritual harvest to come, even greater than in the early church (James 5:7). That’s what I am praying for, as we pray at home, and as we pray at our prayer meetings.

Oh, let’s all pray for a mighty, mighty revival. I’m just thinking, maybe I’m going overtime, but oh, I was really a little bit naughty. When I was courting Colin, I was so longing to be married. I remember praying, “Lord God, I do long for Your coming, but please, would You mind just waiting until I get married?” Anyway, the Lord answered my prayer.

But then, I was a little bit naughty again, and I wanted to have my first baby. I said, “Lord God, oh, I am looking for Your coming” because the Bible says that He’s coming for those who look for Him. And I do desire His coming. I desire the eternal world. But I said, “Lord, could I just have my first baby?” And He answered my prayer again.

Oh, and then came the time when it was time for grandchildren. I said “Oh Lord, here I am. I have had all these children and now it’s time for grandchildren. Can I just see my first grandbaby?” Well, I’ve got 50 grandchildren now and over 30 great-grandchildren! But now I’m saying to the Lord, “Oh God, I’m ready for Your coming, but if You would just let me, I would love to see a mighty world-wide revival that affects society. How I long to see that!” Well, I hope God answers my prayer!

Time to pray.

“Lord God, we thank You that You have given prayer into our hands. Lord, You don’t need us, and you don’t even need our prayers. And yet You have ordained that You work according to our prayers. And prayer, Lord. You long for us to come into Your presence. You want us to ask You for the things that You’ve promised.

“Lord, in Your Word, You give the promises. At the end of Ezekiel 36, God promises so many promises to Israel, and then He says, “I want you to ask Me for these things.” Lord, help us to be faithful prayers in our homes and together with the saints. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

FURTHER SCRIPTURES:

1. 1.     THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS

Read Genesis 15:5; 26:4; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; 10:22; 28:62; 1 Chronicles 27:23; Nehemiah 9:23; and Jeremiah 33:22.

1. 1.     THE DUST OF THE EARTH

Read also Genesis 28:14; Numbers 23;10; and 2 Chronicles 1:9.

1. 2.     THE SAND UPON THE SEASHORE

Read also Genesis 22:17; Isaiah 48:18, 19; Jeremiah 32:22; Hosea 1:10; and Hebrews 11:12. We read this description 6 times.

1. 3.     THE GRASS OF THE EARTH

Job 5:25 (NLT): “You will have many children; your descendants will be as Read also Ezekiel 16:7.

1. 4.     THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS

Hosea 1:10: “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which CANNOT BE MEASURED NOR NUMBERRED.”

Deuteronomy 1:11: “The LORD your God make you A THOUSAND TIMES SO MANY MORE as he hath promised you.”

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 352: IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY! Part 2

Can you imagine God using 19 different Hebrew words to describe how He wants us to multiply? It’s pretty amazing.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, wonderful, amazing mothers! It’s you mothers who are doing the most powerful job in the whole nation. You are determining the destiny of this nation as you raise your wonderful children, your sons and daughters for God. There is nothing, there is nothing more important that you could ever be doing than raising godly children. God sees this, and He is pleased, and guess what? You are in the very perfect will of God.

When God gives you a little baby, when He gives you children, He gives them to you to raise for Him on His behalf. He doesn’t give them to you to give to somebody else. He gives them to you, and He gives you this wonderful, powerful responsibility, and yes, also this wonderful joy and delight of raising God’s children to impact the world. You have a world-changing career. There is no other career in the world that can get anywhere near it. Be encouraged today, dear mothers!

We are continuing today our podcast on the subject of “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY.” This is part two. We are looking into the Scriptures of how God wants us to be fruitful. We know that in the very beginning, the very first command God gave was to be “fruitful.” We read that and we don’t think much about it.

But when we go into the Scriptures and we see that the descriptions that God gives of how He wants us to be fruitful, it really, truly, does blow your brains away! It is amazing! Because I found 18 different Hebrew words to describe this commandment. But now, guess what, ladies? Today I found another one! I can’t believe it. So now I’ve got 19 points. I’m always finding more in the Scripture. Even though I think I have done the most thorough study, it’s amazing how many times I’ll find more.

So, let’s continue, shall we? We’re up to . . .

No. 8. NUMEROUSLY

Let’s read Exodus 1:7: “The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty. And the land was filled with them.” This is giving a description of the Israelites in Egypt and how they were fruitful and multiplied.

I don’t know whether you noticed, ladies, but in this one Scripture, just this one Scripture, there are six Hebrew words (adverbs or adjectives) to describe how they were fruitful. Let’s go over it again. “The children of Israel were fruitful (parah) and increased abundantly (sharats) and multiplied (rabah) and waxed mighty (atsam, that’s a new one we’ve got for this point), exceeding (meod) and the land was filled (male) with them. There are six Hebrew words in only one Scripture, trying to describe it. It is amazing.

Our new word for this point is atsam. I called it numerously because it means “to be numerous, to be strong, to be mighty.”

Let’s go over to Exodus 1:20: “The people multiplied and waxed very mighty (atsam).”

Psalm 105:24: “And He increased His people greatly and made them stronger (atsam) than their enemies.”

All right, let’s go to . . .

No. 9. GREATLY

And we see this word in Deuteronomy 26:5: “A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.” It’s talking about Abraham, and it gives three descriptions here to describe how he multiplied, even though he only had one son. Well, he did have more but he had the promised son, Isaac. Then, later, after Sarah had passed away, he married Keturah, and he had six more children with her.

But we see three adjectives, great, mighty, populous. The word “great” is another Hebrew word, gadol, and it means “to be large in number, magnitude, intensity, and extent.”

Some other Scriptures, Genesis 12:2: “And I will make of thee a great nation.”

Genesis 18:18: “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.”

No. 10. MIGHTILY

The Hebrew word here is atsum. It means “mighty, vast, numerous, strong in number, countless.” That’s the second adjective in Deuteronomy 26:5, where Abraham became a great and mighty nation.

We read this also in Genesis 18:18: “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great (that the word gadol) and now this word, atsum, and mighty nation. And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” So many of the Scriptures use more than one Hebrew word. Read also Exodus 1:9 and Micah 4:7).

No. 11. POPULOUSLY and ABOUNDINGLY

That’s the same Scripture, Deuteronomy 26:5 where “he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.” Populous in the Hebrew is rab, meaning “much, many, abounding, more numerous than, greater than, strong.”

We see it also in Exodus 1:9: “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more (rab)and mightier than we are.” Did you know that that is God’s plan for His people? He wants them to be more and mightier than the heathen. That’s what happened in Egypt. The children of Israel were in Egypt, but they became more and mightier than the Egyptians! That’s what God wants His people to be. He wants them to fill the land as the Israelites did in Egypt.

It says: “And the land was filled with them.” God wants the land filled with His people, sharing and revealing His image, His attributes, who God is. He wants His image revealed in the world because we are made in the image of God. He wants His image to be revealed. We are image-bearers of God.

When God spoke that first commandment in Genesis, and said: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,” He didn’t stop. That was actually only half the sentence. It goes on to say: “And also to take dominion.” That is what God wants His people to do, to take dominion.

God doesn’t want evil to take dominion. He wants righteousness to take dominion.

He wants the land to be filled with righteousness and goodness and mercy, and His salvation, and all that He is.

This is the plan. This is God’s heart, and this happens when we multiply, because it is another fact that the people, no matter whether they’re, Christian, non-Christian, or whoever they are. But if they fulfill God’s principle of being fruitful and multiplying, they will take dominion.

We see this happening in the UK where they have opened their doors, their gates of their land to all these Islamic people. Over the last number of years, more and more and more have been coming in. Now they are overtaking the land. They’re taking dominion. Actually, that’s what they have planned to do.

In fact, I don’t know whether any of you would remember the name of David Pawson, a great man of God. He’s passed away now. If you're younger, you most probably don’t know his name. If you're older, you most probably do. Many, many years ago, God woke David Pawson up and gave him this prophetic word that the UK was going to become an Islamic nation. It absolutely terrified him. He could not believe it. He didn’t know if what he was hearing was from God or not, because it was so unbelievable.

He brought it before many, many other men of God and pastors, to check it out. Did they believe it was right? They all were aware that it was a word from God. Unless the UK stopped what they were doing, this is what would happen. Now we’re seeing, before our very eyes, just what is happening. They’re completely taking over because they multiply. They don’t limit their families and the more they multiply, the more they will take dominion. Read also Exodus 5:5 and 2 Chronicles 1:9.

No. 12. POWERFULLY

This is the Hebrew word gadal. It’s different from gadol. Some of the words are similar, but they are different Hebrew words.

We see this word in Genesis 48:19: “I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.”

No. 13. GROWINGLY

I’ve had to make up some English words to keep up with all these Hebrew words! There are so many Hebrew words. I’m finding it hard to find enough English words to describe them. This Hebrew word is dagah. It means “to increase, to multiply.”

Genesis 48:16: “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them.” This is Jacob blessing the children of Israel, his children, his twelve sons. “Let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” The word “grow” there is dagah. It means “to increase and multiply.”

No. 14. INCREASINGLY

The Hebrew word is paras. It means “to break forth, break out, to increase.”

Genesis 28:14: “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad (that’s the word paras, spread abroad, to break forth, to increase) to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” That was God’s promise to the Israelite people.

Exodus 1:12: “But the more they afflicted them . . .” This was when they were in Egypt, and because they had grown more and mightier than the Egyptians, the Pharoah was intimidated. That’s why he put hard tasks and persecution upon the Israelites. But it says: “The more they afflicted them” What’s happening? Did they think, “Oh, no! Here we are. We’ve got to build these cities for Pharoah. We’re getting beaten and whipped. They’re not giving us enough food. There’s terrible persecution. This terrible life, and we can’t have any more children in this kind of lifestyle! We’ve got to stop!”

But no, the Word says: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” That word is “to break forth and increase.” Wow, that’s a real challenge, isn’t it? Today, even in the little excuse, “Oh, I don’t think that we could really afford another baby,” people will stop having children.

“Oh, I don’t think we would ever have enough money to send our children to college, so we’d better not have any more!”

“Oh, but my mother, and mother-in-law, and everyone is telling me to stop. Oh, I think we’d better stop having more children. We can’t have any more than two!” Then others say, “Oh, well, it would be too hard on my body. I don’t think I can have any more children.” They don’t realize that we, as women, were created for the very purpose of having children.

But we have all these excuses that come up. Whereas, back in Exodus, wow, let’s read what was really happening. Exodus 1:11: “Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens . . . And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor.” But verse 12: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.”

1 Chronicles 4:38: “These mentioned by their names were princes in their families: and the house of their fathers increased greatly.” That’s that word paras. Actually, this reminds me of this whole passage that we are talking about where I started this series in Jeremiah 29, which was the word of the Lord that Jeremiah gave to the people of Judah when they were taken to Babylon.

They were captives in Babylon, but God came to them. He said, “This is what I want you to do while you're there.” What He told them was the very things He had told this in the very beginning. We’ve been talking about them. There were seven things. Number one, they were to build houses. Number two, dwell in them. Number three, to plant gardens. Number four, to eat the fruit of them.

Now we are at number five, TO INCREASE. I’ll read you that Scripture. It’s Jeremiah 29:6: “Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.” Just as in Egypt, when they were under this hard bondage and rigor, they continued to multiply. God said, “Even while you are in Babylon, I don’t want you to diminish. Keep on increasing and multiplying.”

No. 15. FULLNESSLY

Well, I am really running out of English words, but we’re finding a new one to describe these Hebrew words. This time its melo, and it means “fullness, that which fills, a mass, a multitude.”

Genesis 48:19: “Jacob said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great [gadal] but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude [melo] of nations.”

Here’s another new Hebrew word. We’re up to the fifteenth Hebrew word. Can you believe how many different words God has to describe multiplying and filling the land? That’s how much it is on the heart of God. This is why I’m calling this session, “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BAINS AWAY.”

Ladies, we read the Bible. Yet, I don’t think we really read it! We don’t really know what it’s saying. Here I’ve just given you all these different words. It takes more than one English word to describe each one, because it’s so big, and so vast. Each one is very similar, but then, a slightly different meaning. God has all these different words.

It’s the same word that’s used in Isaiah 6:3: “The whole earth is full of His glory.” Yes, the whole earth is filled with the glory of God’s creation, but God’s greatest creation is man, who He created in His image. God wants His greatest creation, that which He created in His image, to fill the earth. He wants it filled with His people, because they are His glory, far greater than the physical creation of the world.

No. 16. INNUMERABLY

It’s the word mana, but it’s not the word manna that God gave to His people to feed them in the wilderness. That’s a different Hebrew word and we spell that with two “n’s.” This is the Hebrew word mana, and it means “to count, to number.”

Genesis 13:16: “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Here God is describing that He wants His people to be multiplying in numbers, so much so that you can’t really count them. Like the dust of the earth, you can’t count the dust of the earth.

1 Kings 3:8: “And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people.” This is Solomon praying. “Which Thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered for multitude.”

No. 17. COUNTLESSLY

Here’s another word that is just too much to count. The word in the Hebrew is saphar (pronounced sa-fare) and it means “to number, to take a count of.” It’s often used for a scribe writing down things.

Let’s see where they used this word. Genesis 15:5: “And He brought [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell (saphar) count the stars if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” As Abraham looked up into the starry sky, and he was out there in the desert where he could see the stars so clearly. Oh, we can see the stars out where we live here in the county, but we have houses around us, and so on. I can imagine what it must have been like out in that desert and how the stars would have been so clear.

Often people come to our home, and we have them for a meal. Then it’s time to go and we go down the stairs with them to wave goodbye to them. Often, it's a dark night and they come out of the door, and they say, “Wow! The stars are so glorious!” They often live in the city, and they just don’t get to see the stars like we see them out here.

But Abraham would have seen them even more greatly. As he looked up to the stars, God said to him: “Abraham, so shall your seed be.” And the next Scripture says: “And Abraham believed God.” He believed. At that time, he didn’t even have one son although God had promised him a son.

Often, when I read that Scripture, for many, many years I somehow thought that Abraham was believing God for his one son. But I was wrong. I wasn’t reading the Scripture correctly. God told Abraham to look at the stars which he couldn’t even count. He said, “You can’t even number them, Abraham, but that’s what I’m going to make your seed.” And he believed God for a multitude to come forth from his loins. What great faith that he had!

Genesis 16:10: “The angel of the Lord said unto her (that was Hagar) I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered [saphar] for multitude.” Although the greatest promises were for Isaac, God did not leave Ishmael out. He received the promise too.

Genesis 32:12: “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.”

Jeremiah 33:22: “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant.”

Hosea 1:10: “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered.”

I’ll give you one more: 1 Kings 3:8. Once again, this is Solomon praying. “Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast chosen; a great people that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude.”

Wow! Now we’re up to . . .

No. 18: ADDINGLY

I thought that was all we had. This one is yasaph. It means “to add, to increase, to do it again, to do it more.”

Genesis 38:5: “And she yet again conceived, and bare a son.” 

Deuteronomy 1:11: “The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more [yasaph] as you are, and bless you as He hath promised you.”

Psalm 115:14: “The Lord shall increase you more and more (yasaph) you and your children.”

A GENERATIONAL VISION

Wow! That’s a great promise. Do you want to take hold of that promise, dear mothers? Not just for you. You see, this is a vision. This is not only talking about your current family, and the children God has given you. Yes, it is talking about the children God wants to give you, but it’s more than that. It's their children, and their children again, and down the generations.

This is a vision that we must have, not only for ourselves, but we must pass it onto our children. They have got to get the vision. It saddens me to see families, and many times, they’ve opened their hearts to embrace the children God wants to give them. They have all these beautiful children, but they grow up. They get married, and they limit their families. They’re not challenged by the vision.

This is a family vision. This is not only for now but for the generations to come. Take this Scripture: “The Lord shall increase you more and more; you and your children.” Do you have a vision for your children to bring forth children? Oh, I do. I long for my children to bring forth children. And now, I long to see my grandchildren who are getting married to bring forth children. Oh, that’s the greatest joy of my heart.

IT'S A PROACTIVE VISION

That’s what it was talking about in Jeremiah 29:2, where it says that: “You are to take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may increase and not diminish.” So, we see the vision there. It’s a very proactive vision. It’s not, “Oh, well, if it happens, that will be fine.” No! It’s a proactive vision.

We should take hold of a promise like this and claim it for our family. “The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.”

Isaiah 26:15: “Thou hast increased the nation, oh Lord. Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified.” The word “increased” is yasaph. Do you notice that it says: “The Lord has increased the nation. He is glorified.” God is glorified when the nation is increased, especially God’s people.

No. 19. NUMBERLESSLY

Now, I’ve got to give you the number 19, and I only discovered this one today. It’s found in Numbers 23:10: “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”

This was part of the prophesy of Balaam. Do you remember the story of how Balek, the king of Moab, hired Balaam to come and curse the children of Israel? Because Balek looked out upon the children of Israel, and he saw that they were so vast and so numerous. They were a threat to him, and he was terrified of them. He wanted Balaam to come and curse them.

So, Balaam came along, and you remember the story of how even the donkey tried to stop him. Even the donkey spoke to him. That was quite a miraculous thing. But every time Balaam began to speak words of cursing over the children of Israel, instead God poured forth out of his mouth great blessings! Oh, blessing after blessing after blessing!

It wasn’t just one. It was about three different prophecies, maybe four. I know it was at least three that he gave over the children of Israel. They were all powerful, oh, incredible glorious prophetic words. This one is saying: “Who can count the dust of Jacob? Who can number even the fourth part of Israel?” The word “number” there is the word mispah, and it means “innumerable.” So, there we have another one, so I’ll have to have an English word for that. I’ll call it “innumerably.” But I’ve already got “innumerably” so what’s say we call it “NUMBERLESSLY.” Read also other Scriptures where this word is used:1 Chronicles 22:4, 16; 2 Chronicles 12:3; Job 5:9; 9:10; 25:3; Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:26; Hosea 1:10; and Joel 1:6.

So, there we are. We found 19 different Hebrew words just to describe how God wants us to be fruitful and multiply. Can you believe it, ladies? Does it blow your brains away? Wow! We really have to begin to think like God thinks, don’t we? I love that Scripture in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Oh, dear ladies, and dear me! Help! We’ve got to get our very lowly thoughts up to God’s higher thoughts. One of the biggest things in life is to begin to think like God thinks. To stop thinking our puny thinking which is so puny and shallow and to get up to God’s thinking, which is so much higher.

The only way we do this is knowing His truth, knowing what He says, knowing His ways, knowing His mind. We find this as we read it in the Word. When we discover it, we’ve got to somehow get our minds around it and begin to think like He thinks! Yes, and so, we’ll end on that prophetic word again.

I love the Scripture: “Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His.” Balaam is prophesying from the Word of the Lord. Even though he meant to be cursing Israel, instead he says, “Oh, I want my whole end to be like Israel! And all the blessings God has for them, and all the blessings that have come out of my mouth for them.”  Amen.

All right, ladies. That’s it for today but there’s more next week. I haven’t finished yet.

“Dear Father, we come to You today in the Name of Jesus. I pray for every wife, every mother, every daughter, and whoever else is listening. Lord God, bless them. I pray that You will lift our puny minds up, Lord, up to Your thinking, Your way of thinking, to how You think, Lord. Let us be those who think Bible thinking, rather than our own puny thoughts.

“Oh, Father, I pray for any mothers who are listening who are with child today, and the baby is growing in their womb. I pray for them, that You will bless them. I pray, Lord, that You will protect this little baby, and, Lord, that these little ones growing in the womb will grow to full term. And that You will give them the blessing of a safe and natural birth, and You will bless these babies, and bring them forth to be filled with Your glory and Your knowledge, and that they will be true image-bearers in this world. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 351: IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY!

We talk about "the time of life." What is it? Then we begin our new study called IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY. God's vision FAR EXCEEDS our puny mind and understanding.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Continuing our study of THE THEOLOGY OF CONCEPTION, I want to look today at Genesis 18, the most beautiful story of when God came to speak to Abraham and Sarah. Remember, He came as three men. Whether it was three angels, or the Godhead, we don’t know for sure. But they came to meet Abraham and Sarah at their tent and to give a specific message, actually a very specific message to Sarah, who was in the tent. She didn’t even come out of the tent. But God spoke to her even in the tent.

Let’s read it here. Genesis 18:10: “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.” We know that Sarah laughed in herself, because she couldn’t believe that being old as she was, that she could ever conceive.

Verse 13: “And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Nothing is too hard for God. That word “hard” and also “is” are actually very interesting. Both those little words that you take no notice of in this Scripture are actually the Hebrew word pala.

Pala, oh goodness me! Pala is one of the most wonderful words in the Old Testament. This word means, this is the amazing thing. When you look up a Hebrew word, you will usually find more than one word to describe the English word because there’s not enough English words to describe it.

In fact, we, in our inability, we can never fathom the fullness of this Hebrew language in the Bible, because you take a word, but every letter of that word has a meaning. Then every letter has a number which also has a meaning. We only read on the surface. We don’t read all the revelation in every word.

It’s like my brother said to me when I was down in New Zealand just before Christmas. He is in the last stages of Parkinson’s. Much of his time is spent in bed. He was sharing with me how he just loves to meditate and contemplate the Word while he’s in bed and how he loves the Word of God. He said to me, “You know, Nancy, I believe that we’ll have the Word even in eternity, because Jesus says: ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never pass away,’ and that we will come into greater revelations of things in His Word that we could never even understand here on this earth.”

But this word pala, which is translated “Is anything too hard?” It means “marvelous, wonderful, surpassing, extraordinary, miraculous, astonishing, beyond the bounds of human power or expression.” That’s the full meaning of that word.

So, God is saying, “Goodness, what’s giving you a baby when you’re 90 years old, and Abraham’s 100? It’s nothing to Me! Oh, goodness me! I work in miracles that are astonishing and miraculous and extraordinary.” He says: “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life.” He repeated that a second time: “according to the time of life.”

It was such a miracle for Sarah to conceive at her age. She was past menopause. She was no longer able to conceive in the flesh. But I believe that the miracle that God gave to Sarah was that He brought back to her again her cycle so that she began to cycle again each month.

Of course, in a woman’s cycle in those childbearing years, from when she begins to cycle until she reaches menopause, the average time of a woman reaching menopause is about 50 years of age, although many are infertile before then. The average age of infertility today in this country is about 45 years of age. But to women who will conceive later, some will conceive when they’re 50 or even above that which is miraculous. But some will become infertile, even before that.

But it’s in this time, this season of childbearing and having our cycles (and before we go on, to talk more about this . . . this time in our lives, ladies, is only a short time). Sometimes I think mothers think, “Oh, this is my cycle for the whole of my life, and I’ll be having babies forever, and I’ll end up with 30 children!” Ridiculous nonsense! No, that is not true.

Usually women who trust the Lord to receive from the Father the children He wants for them, usually it’s only an average of six, eight, ten, twelve or so children. You may meet some mothers with more children that that, but it’s not huge numbers.

Really, when we think about it, our cycle is not for long. When I think of, goodness, since I went through menopause, I have been a woman post-menopause for well over 30 years of my life! Wow! That’s a long time!

So, back to Sarah. I believe God restored her cycle, which is a beautiful thing. In her cycle, there is “the time of life.” Every month there is a time of life, the time of ovulation. It’s the only time you can conceive, in that time of life.

During that time, God came and visited Sarah, and she conceived. In fact, if we go over to Genesis 21:1, it says here: “And the Lord visited Sarah, as He had said.” “As He had said”. What does He say? “I will return unto thee according to the time of life. And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age.”

That’s another beautiful word, isn’t it? God visited Sarah. When did He visit her? During the time of life. That’s when she could conceive. Isn’t it an amazing thing? What a privilege women have to receive a visitation of God. Wow! I hear people say, “Wow, I’d love to be visited by God and have an experience with God.” Well, every time you conceive, you've been visited by God. Because it’s only God Who can give conception.

We read the same thing about Hannah. Remember God, after great prayer and intercession, He gave her Samuel? And then she dedicated him to the Lord and took him up to the temple. But God saw her sacrifice, and the Bible says that “He visited” (that same word again), He visited Hannah five more times, and He gave her five more children (1 Samuel 2:21).  

We’re back to this time of life. Wow! It’s a very special time you have every month. But once again, it also has serious consequences, because in this time of life, when God wants to come and visit a woman, He may not come every month. My, there are some mothers who are desperate for children. They’ve been waiting for years for children and maybe they only end up with one or two. It’s not how many children you have. It’s just being open to the visitation of God, when He plans to visit you in those times of life. He doesn’t visit every cycle. No. But God does it in His perfect timing.

When we say “no,” and some women, during that time of life, they make it a time of stopping, the time of death instead. They say, “No, God, I don’t want You to visit me! Help! No, I’m doing everything in my power to stop Your visitation!” This is what we’re really doing. We’re stopping a visitation of God. God’s way is the time of life, not the time of stopping life.

That brings us to contraception again. All contraception is “contra” to embracing a life. It’s not God’s plan. The sad thing is that many contraceptives today, or most of them, can be even abortifacient. They are more than contraception, such as the pill and all its associates, all its brothers and sisters and cousins. They keep bringing out new ways of stopping life.

The basic thing of the pill actually has three mechanisms to hinder the baby being conceived. It attempts to suppress ovulation. If that’s successful, of course, there will not be conception. That’s contraception. Secondly, it thickens the woman’s cervical mucus, which stops the sperm from getting up into the reproductive tract. That is also contraception. Those things can stop life but they’re not abortifacient.

But they’re not always successful. That doesn’t always work. If manufacturing companies are going to be able to sell the pill, they’ve got to make it work. So, they do have another mechanism, which is usually fool proof. If the first two do not work, it also causes changes in the lining of the womb so that it becomes a hostile environment.

If there is conception, if conception has broken through the first two ways of trying to suppress it, if there is conception, now there’s a new life. But what is the next thing after conception? It is implantation. That happens six to seven days or so after conception. That’s when this newly conceived life, with all the DNA of a person, that DNA that will be in them when they’re 80-plus years of age, that little life comes to implant in the uterus, in the lining of the womb, to grow and feed, and begin to develop.

But if this little new life comes to implant, and because of the change in the lining of the womb which has now become shriveled, the new life tries here and there and yet there’s nowhere for it to implant. What happens? This newly conceived baby, this zera, which is a life, a person, dies. It dies in the womb. Abortifacient.

This doesn’t happen all the time. The trouble is, with these abortifacient methods, the pill and all the ones that go with it that they keep inventing, the actual breakthrough conception, may only happen one or two percent of the time. Or it could happen one hundred percent. We don’t know. Therefore, no Bible-believing person can take the pill, knowing that there could be a death in her womb of her own flesh and blood, the child ordained by God.

Yet it is so sad that the majority are on the pill today. You can talk to Christian couples. I have talked to them. “Oh, you're getting married, and you're looking forward to having children?” “Well, no. We’re going to wait. We want to make sure we’ve got everything we need before we think about having children. We want time to get to know one another.”

I truly get sick of hearing that. No, that is not God’s plan. You’ll get to know one another just as well having a baby, as not having a baby. You do not have to stop having a baby so you can get to know one another. That’s not God’s plan for marriage.

But most of them will say, “Oh, we want to wait.” I will gently say, “So, what are you doing to stop babies?” Because you have to do something. They will say, “Well, of course, we’re on the pill!”

“Oh. Do you know how it works?”

“No, no. Everybody’s on the pill, aren’t they?”

Most people don’t know. They don’t know that every time they take it, there is an opportunity for death to take place. We, as God’s people, we must know the truth and walk by the truth. Amen? We dare not be guilty of one of those most important ten commandments; “Thou shalt not kill.” Amen.

Well, now I want to move on to something that’s all part of this subject. It’s all part of it. But I am calling it, “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY,” because actually I think it WILL blow your brains away! I want to now go into the Word of God to see how He wants us to be fruitful.

We all know that first command that God gave in the Bible: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” I think everybody knows that command, and yet, isn’t it amazing that the majority of Christians don’t take any notice of it today? When you think about it ladies, how much do we truly fear God? How much do we truly believe His Word?

The very first command, the very first word He spoke into the ears of man, if we can think, “Oh, well, I don’t have to take notice of it,” we’re playing God. We’re saying, “I’m God. I’ll do what I want, thank you!” Yet these were the very first words.

But, oh goodness me! That’s not the part that blows your brains away. Some time back, I did a check of all the Scriptures in the Word of God. Now you know how I love to find out everything. If I’m doing a study on any subject in the Word, I will go and find, not only every Scripture, but every Hebrew word on that subject so I can truly feel God’s heart and know what He’s saying.

Well, I found 18 different Hebrew words about the way God want us to be fruitful. He doesn’t want us to only be fruitful, but He gives us 18 different adjectives or adverbs to describe how He wants us to do it. I’m going to share them with you, because we really should know what God says, don’t you think?

All right. Now the trouble I had, ladies, was trying to get English words to coincide with 18 Hebrew words, because I don’t know. God has more words in the Hebrew language than we have in our English language. But let’s get started, shall we? I will give you just a few Scriptures on each one, and if there’s a lot of them, sometimes there’s a load of them, I’ll pop them in the transcript for you to look at further if you would like to do that.

No. FRUITFULLY

Well, of course, we know that: “Be fruitful.” That was the very first word God said. The Hebrew word is parah, which means “to be fruitful, to increase.” That is the foundation, but it wasn’t only fruitful.

No. 2. MULTIPLYINGLY

That was the next thing. “Be fruitful and multiply.” The Hebrew word is rabah, or ravah. You can use either. It means “to be many, to be abundant, to increase greatly and exceedingly, to enlarge.”

Just one or two more Scriptures: Genesis 22:17: “And blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying (rabah) I will multiply (rabah) thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies.” You notice that it’s two times in that one Scripture, that word rabah.

Then it goes on to say: “Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” Thy seed, thy zera, coming from the sperm. But sperms can’t possess the gates of enemies. No, sperms grow into people.

Genesis 16:10: “I will multiply (rabah) thy seed exceedingly (rabah), that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” Once again, the word rabah is pretty amazing, meaning “to be many, abundant, increase greatly and exceedingly, enlarge.” Whoo! That’s a big enough meaning. But then it says it two times, again!

We can just read these Scriptures and just gloss over them, or we can begin to read here how God thinks, and how He wants us to increase. God’s plan is for His people to multiply and fill the land with His glory, with His image, with His truth, with His salvation, with everything that He is.

God doesn’t want evil to fill the land. No! He wants His people to fill the land and righteousness to fill the land. How does righteousness fill the land? How does truth fill the nation? It happens through people! God’s heart and His plan is always for His people to be the ones who are bringing everything into subjection and dominion.

When we diminish, we become weaker;

When we multiply, we become stronger!

That’s why, when He said those first words, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue and take dominion,” He didn’t finish at “fill the earth.” No, He kept speaking and saying, “Subdue and take dominion.” How do we take dominion? By multiplying. When we diminish, we become weaker. When we multiply, we become stronger, and we take dominion. This is God’s plan.

No. 3. FILLINGLY

You’ll have to excuse me making up some English words, because I’ve got 18 English words to think about here. This word, this Hebrew word, is male, pronounced mah-lay. It means “to fill to completion, to be filled to overflowing.” That’s, of course, in the first mandate, Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” To fill the earth means “to fill the earth, to fill to completion, to fill to overflowing.”

It’s a sad thing that in these last years, the deception has come into the household of faith. People, instead of listening to God’s Word, they’re listening to the world. They followed the world. They followed the pattern of the ones who maybe, at the most, have three children. No longer are the people of God filling the land. Not only filling physically, but filling the land with His truth, and His righteousness, and His glory, and the image of God.

Instead, it’s this big fight against evil which we’re even fighting now, even as President Trump is seeking to eradicate the evil in the swamp, it’s a fight. These people are fighting back and protesting in the streets. Even now, Elon Musk is exposing all the millions and trillions that they have stolen of our tax-paying money to give to all these ridiculous nonsense things. Really, it’s money laundering, and it’s all coming back to them.

They have become millionaires, not just on their salary. They couldn’t do that. But they’ve become millionaires. How? Because of what they have been doing. Now, of course, they don’t like the exposing of this. They are fighting and protesting on the streets. But imagine, if God’s people had not diminished, had not fallen into the ways of the world, and if there were so many more millions of God’s people filling the earth with His glory.

Let’s see some other Scriptures here. Genesis 9:1. It’s repeating Genesis 1:28 again.

Exodus 1:7: “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty. And the land was filled with them.” That’s God’s plan.

Psalm 80:8-9: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt . . . and it filled the land.”

Psalm 127:5: “Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them.” Yes, “full of them.” You know, it is so sad that there are even pastors who will make fun and laugh at big families in their congregation. And they will make snide remarks about people who keep having babies, when actually they’re speaking against the very Word of God they proclaim to be spokesmen for. Wow.

Zechariah 8:4-5: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts.” Oh, I love this Scripture. “There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem” (I think this will be in the time of the millenium) “and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” Isn’t that the most beautiful picture? I love that. The streets filled with boys and girls playing in them. That is the blessing of God.

Well, I actually grew up with that blessing. I’m sure it’s not anything like the way it will be in that glorious time. But when we grew up years and years ago, way back in the dim, dark ages, we would all come home from school. We didn’t know about homeschooling in those days, sadly. But then schools weren’t what they are today.

We would all come home, all the children from each home in the street. We’d walk home together, and then we’d go in and throw our cases inside. Then we’d come out to play. We would play together on the streets. They were so safe. Nobody had to worry about anything. But today, you can’t do that. My! You dare not let your children out on the streets. You can’t even let your children walk home after school. You’ve got to take them, unless they’re going on a school bus, because it would be too dangerous.

Ezekiel 36:18. This is a prophetic word for Israel. God wants His land to be filled with flocks of men. All these wonderful words, “filled.”

No. 4. ABUNDANTLY

The Hebrew word is sharats, and means “to swarm, to abound.”

Genesis 9:7: “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.”

The modern Living Bible says of that Scripture: “As for you, be fruitful and multiply. Swarm over the earth and multiply.” That is the actual correct rendering of the Hebrew word.

No. .5. EXCEEDINGLY

The Hebrew word this time is meod, which means “vehemently, wholeheartedly, exceedingly much, muchness, to a great degree, abundantly, greatly, speedily, diligently.” Whoo! Do you see how many meanings there are in the Hebrew words?

Genesis 17:2: “And I will . . . multiply thee exceedingly.” Two times meod is used.

Genesis 17:20: “Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly.” It’s used two times again!

 Genesis 17:6: “And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.” Notice, it’s not just “fruitful.” It’s “exceeding fruitful.” Meod, which is “exceedingly much, abundantly, greatly,” and so on.

Oh now, here, and this verse we’ve got three different adverbs to show how God wants us to be fruitful. Genesis 47:27: “And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew (parah) and multiplied (rabah) exceedingly (meod).” There God uses three different Hebrew words to describe them filling the land.

I think that’s most probably enough of that one to read to you. I’ll just give you a couple more Hebrew words and we’ll leave the rest for next time.

No. 6. PLENTEOUSLY

This is the Hebrew word yathar, meaning to “just over, to exceed, to cause to abound, over and above, beyond measure.” Do you get how God thinks? He is never boring, normal, average. It’s always more than, over and above, beyond what we could ever think.

Deuteronomy 28:11: “And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy womb.” Amen?

No. 7. MULTITUDINOUSLY

How’s that for a word? The Hebrew word here is rob, or rov. You can use the “b” or the “v.”

Genesis 32:12: “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” The word means “multitude, numerous, abundant, multiply by the myriad, ten thousand, be increased, more in number.”

Genesis 48:16: “Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

One more, Deuteronomy 1:10-11: “The LORD your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he hath promised you!)”

Well, ladies, we’re just getting started on that. We will look at the rest of those words next time. I just hope you’re getting a feel of God’s heart because I’m not making this up. I’m reading the Scriptures! That’s all it is. I think we are not really very familiar with the Scriptures, so we don’t know God’s heart.

Ladies, we’ve got to be ladies of God’s heart, even as David was. God chose a man after His own heart. That means a man who would think like God, and act like God, and feel like God. We can only understand that if we get to know His Word and His truth.

“Dear Father, we pray that You will open our blind eyes to Your truth. Help us to see as You see, to think as You think, to feel as You feel. We pray that You will draw us more and more into Your truth and more and more into Your ways. I pray Your blessing upon every family listening. In the Name of Jesus. Amen”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.

Further Scriptures for:

No. 1. FILLINGLY (parah)

Numbers 14:21; Psalm 127:5; Isaiah 27:6; and Luke 14:23.

No. 2. MULTIPLYINGLY (rabah)

Genesis 9:1,7; 17:2, 20; 26:4, 24; 28:3; 35;11; 47:27; 48:4; Exodus 1:7, 10, 12, 20; Exodus 32:13; Leviticus 26:9; Deuteronomy 1:10; 6:23; 7:13; 8:1; 13;17; 30:5, 16; Joshua 24:3; 1 Chronicles 5:23; 8:40; 27:23; Nehemiah 9:23; Psalm 107:38; Isaiah 9:3; 51:2; Jeremiah 23:3; 29:6; 30: 19; 33:22; 16:7; Ezekiel 36:10, 11, 37; 37:26; and Zechariah 10:8.

No. 5. EXCEEDINGLY (me’od)

Deuteronomy 6:3 and Psalm 105:24.

No. 7. MULTITUDINOUSLY (rob)

Genesis 16:10; 32:12; Deuteronomy 10:22; 1 Kings 3:8; 4:20; and 1 Chronicles 4: 38.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 3509: THE THEOLOGY OF CONCEPTION, Part 2

Discover many stories in God's Word where God prophesied the name and birth of someone many years before their birth. God sees far ahead of us.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We are continuing today our study on THE THEOLOGY OF CONEPTION. We are currently looking at the Hebrew word zera, which is mainly translated “seed” in the King James Bible, but it’s also translated “offspring, descendants, posterity.” It’s talking about the whole spectrum of a person’s life, from conception in the womb, the baby being born, and then it grows into a little toddler, a little child, a teen, an adult, and an older person. It’s every stage and age.

We need to look at a few more Scriptures. We go to the passage in Malachi 2:15 which is talking about marriage. Here God says that He hates divorce. He loves divorced people, but he hates the spirit of divorce because it touches the godly seed. It says here . . . God asks the question, “What does God want from your marriage?” And then the answer comes: “I want a godly seed.”

That word “seed,” that is the word zera (and God is wanting more than little seeds, or little sperms), He is wanting godly offspring, godly children. That word actually covers the whole spectrum of a person’s life.

It’s interesting when we read that answer where it says, “I want a godly offspring.” That word “godly” in the Hebrew is elohim. It’s the very first word that is used for “God” in the Old Testament. In fact, the very first verse, “In the beginning, God . . .” is the word is elohim. It’s a plural word, speaking of our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When it says that “I want godly children,” God is saying that His longing and His desire is that we will have children in His image, and we will raise children to become more and more like Him.

Let’s look at some other examples, shall we? We go again to Genesis 46:6-7. This is telling us how JACOB came down from Canaan with all his family. Remember how it was a time of famine? Jacob had sent his sons to get food to save them from starving.

In the end, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. Then he said, “I want you to go and get my father, and all the rest of your family, and come and live with me here in Egypt.” So, he sent carriages and everything up to Canaan for them to come down. It says: “And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed” (the word is zera, and it says) “and all his seed with him.”

But then it goes on to describe who they were: “his sons, and his sons' sons with him.” Well, we could say his sons and his grandsons. “His daughters, and his sons' daughters.” We could say his granddaughters. “And all his seed,” all his zera.

Now we know that that word is used for sperm, but it’s also used for people. Did Jacob come down to Egypt with little seeds floating on clouds behind him? No, he came down with real live family. He came down with all his children, and all his grandchildren, all of varying ages and stages.

So, this word, as we can see, talks about life from conception from that word “seed,” zera, conception, right up to old age. That is amazing, isn’t it? When we understand the full meaning of that word, we understand, yes, that life begins at conception.

We see another example in Numbers 14:24. Here it’s talking about CALEB. Remember Caleb and Joshua? They were the ones who followed the Lord with all their hearts. Here it says Caleb “followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Here God is speaking of future generations of Caleb’s family. He is seeing them even though they are not yet born. God sees them. They are already in Caleb’s loins.

Imagine if we lived today and God gave that promise. “Caleb, I’m going to bring you into that land that you've been longing for. Your children, your seed, are going to possess it, from generation to generation.” Well, in today’s climate of birth control, there wouldn’t be very many to possess that land. Yet God could already see everyone who was destined to be born.

Let’s go to the story of PHINEHAS. Phinehas actually became the third high priest of Israel but at this time, they were having a war against, was it the Moabites, or the Amalakites? It was the Moabites. The children of Israel were being tempted. They were having parties with these people.

There was a couple there. One was a prince of Israel, and he brought in this woman, right into his tent in the sight of everyone. They were already in the midst of a plague because of their sin. Phinehas rose up and he went into that tent, and he put a javelin through both of them. That stopped the plague. God was pleased with Phinehas. Well, it sounds rather bloodthirsty, but God had to come against that evil, and that sin (Numbers 25:1-18).

Numbers 25:12-13: “Behold, I give unto him (Phinehas) my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed (zera) after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God.” So, God not only gave a blessing to him but to all his children that were yet to come. The Bible calls them zera. Every single one of those children came through a sperm, came through a conception. This is the power of conception.

We go now to look at ABRAHAM. Abraham had his nephew Lot who was with him, but they both began to gain so many flocks and herds and possessions that it was too much for them to live together. Abraham said to Lot, “You choose. You can take the plain, or you can take the high country, whatever you want.”

So, Lot looked out from the high hills and looked down on the beautiful plain. It was so fertile, so wonderful, so beautiful. He said, “I’ll take that.” So, he went down, and he actually ended up living in Sodom. Wow. That wasn’t a good thing to do. But that’s where he was.

Then there came a time where four enemy kings came against the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and defeated them. They took all their goods, and they took the people, and they took Lot and his family with them also. The news came back to Abraham; “They’ve taken Lot! The enemies have got Lot! What are you going to do?”

Abraham rose up, the Bible says, with 318 men, trained in his own family. Right there, in his own extended family, he had 318 soldiers. They went after their enemies. The amazing thing is, they went after four kings and their armies. God gave Abraham blessing and help, and Abraham and his soldiers were able to defeat them. They were able to get back all the possessions and bring back Lot.

When Abraham was coming back, he met this man called Melchizedek. The Bible says he had no mother, no father, and he was priest of Salem. Somehow Abraham knew that this was someone very, very special and he gave tithes to Melchizedek (Genesis14).

The interesting thing is, we go over to the New Testament, to Hebrews 7:9-10 where it tells us about this same story. It says here, reading from Hebrews: “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.” That is most amazing. Did you get that, ladies?

We read back in Genesis how Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. But here in the New Testament, it tells us that not only did Abraham pay tithes to Melchizedek, but LEVI. Now Levi was his great-grandson. He wasn’t even a twinkle in Abraham’s eye. Abraham had never thought of Levi. But God said Levi was already in Abraham’s loins and Levi literally paid tithes with Abraham to Melchizedek.

Now, of course, the tribe of Levi became the priesthood. But this is the amazing thing. Another translation says: “Levi, the ancestor of every Jewish priest who received tithes, actually paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham, for although Levi was yet unborn, the seed from which Levi came was present in Abraham.”

So, ladies, God sees far ahead of how we see. We just see with our very finite minds, but God’s truth is infinite. He sees the children who are not yet born. He saw Levi in Abraham’s loins. When we think of this, and really get down to tin tacks, it’s a very serious truth. Because if Abraham had lived in this day, and, of course, I don’t think he would have been a nominal Christian, but if he was, he may have used birth control. Levi would never have been born.

But you see, God has His purposes. God saw Levi, as if he was already there, ready to come forth. When we begin to do the opposite of conception, and we begin to do contraception, what are we doing? We are cutting off life, life that God intends to be born. Imagine . . . we take it so shallowly, so lightly, as though it’s nothing. “OK, I will stop life coming because it doesn’t suit me. It’s just not convenient at this time.”

We are actually stopping the opportunity of life, a life that God has planned to come into this world. But it’s more than that, more than that. When we stop a life coming into this world, we stop a whole dynasty, because one life rarely stays at one life. There will be some who will be single and never get married. But most will get married and have children, then grandchildren, then great-grandchildren, and so on. The descendants continue down the line. Here we are . . . we are already having our great-grandchildren.

But even more than that, we are stopping, not only a dynasty, but we are stopping a child from the blessing of an eternal destiny, because every life that comes into the world is an eternal soul and has an eternal destiny. Coming into the home of godly parents, we lead this child to Jesus Christ so they can be ready for an eternal destiny with God, with the King of Kings, with the Lord of Lords.

None of us can even fathom or imagine the glory of the eternal world which will be everlasting. It will be beyond what we could even slightly imagine now. And imagine stopping someone from the glory and the blessing and the amazingness of enjoying eternity forever? That’s what we’re doing. That’s pretty incredible.

All right. Let’s keep going because we see more illustrations in the Bible. Let’s look at SOLOMON. We read in 2 Samuel 7:12 how God told David that his son, who was not even thought of by David until this moment would come forth from his loins to be the next king. “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee (zera)”.

Yes, it’s a sperm, but Solomon came from a sperm. But he was more than a sperm. He became a little baby. Actually, a little baby that God loved. Did you know that Scripture is in the Bible, that when Solomon was born, the Bible says: “And God loved him”?

God loves all babies, but it’s amazing how we see that Scripture about Solomon particularly mentions, “And God loved him” (2 Samuel 12:24). But he didn’t only stay a baby. He grew to be a man and become a king. It says: “And I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels. And I will establish his kingdom.”

In 1 Chronicles 22:9, it says: “Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest . . .  for his name shall be Solomon.” God even told David his name, before he was even born! We’re getting to see how God sees life. He doesn’t only see it at conception. He sees it before conception. Even before Solomon was conceived, God spoke for his name and said he shall be king.

Interesting that it also says in another passage: “Thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto My name.” We think of his son, Solomon, coming forth out of the womb of Bathsheba, but no, God says that he came out of the loins of David. David held the sperm, the seed, in his loins. God sees that as the very beginning.

Let’s go to another story. 1 Kings 13:2. Here the prophet of Judah is prophesying against the altar where they were sacrificing to false gods. The prophet came along, and he was giving this judgement. He said: “Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places . . . and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.” He was prophesying to an altar.

Do you notice, he says that a child will be born called JOSIAH. Once again, God is not only talking about someone who is to come, but their actual name. How long did they have to wait until this prophecy was fulfilled? Do you know? It was actually fourteen generations later when Josiah came forth, became king of Israel, and fulfilled that very prophecy.

You can go over to 2 Kings 23:15-19, and you’ll see where Josiah fulfilled it to the exactness of the prophetic word that was given. I’m sure Josiah didn’t really even know about that prophecy. But here God, 14 generations earlier, prophesied his name, and said he would come into the world. Wow! I just love to see these examples of how God sees life.

Dear ladies, we’ve got to come up from our very shallow way of thinking and begin to think like God thinks. As it says in Isaiah 55:8: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD.” We’ve got to come up to His thoughts, His ways, and think like He thinks.

Let’s look at another story. Are you ready for another one? The Word of God is filled with them. This is about CYRUS. Cyrus was not a Jewish man. He was not an Israelite. He was a heathen king, and he was a great king. He was known as the “King of the Four Corners of the Earth.”

But God speaks about this heathen king even before he was born. It even tells us his name! Even before he was born. And how long before he was born? 150 years. Can you believe this? 150 years before this little baby Cyrus was born, God spoke a prophetic word in His Word. We’ve still got this Word today, it’s in our Bible, it’s in Isaiah. We can read about it, and God even says his name! It’s unbelievable!

Let’s have a look here. Isaiah 44:28: “That saith of Cyrus” (speaking his name! Wow! He hasn’t been born yet. This is 150 years before he’s going to come forth) “He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

This is amazing, ladies, because, you see, God sees everything, all that’s going to happen. He knows it all. He has His plan. He sent His people Judah into Babylon because of their sin. It accumulated to the place where God had to vomit them out of the land He’d given to them. He sent them to Babylon for 70 years. He told them they’d be there for 70 years.

But you see, God can never go against His promises. He said, “I will bring you back in 70 years, because I have given the land to you for an everlasting possession.” The land of Israel belongs to God ultimately, and then to Israel, for He gave it to them. In Genesis 17, we see where God says: “I have given it to you for an everlasting possession.” We must pray against all two-state solutions for Israel. We must pray for God’s promises for Israel to be fulfilled.

God had this plan. In 70 years, He had to bring them back to the land. How is that going to happen? Because once these people are captives and become part of the land, is the king of the land going to just let them go, and say, “Oh, you can go back to your land”? No, that is not a normal king. When he takes people into his kingdom, he keeps them.

But God used . . . He had to raise up a very special man. Even though Cyrus was a heathen king, there was something very special about him. A few years ago, I read this book called “Cyropedia” by Xenophon. It was the history of King Cyrus. It was the most amazing book to read. As I read it, I was getting challenged as much as when I would read the Bible because of his lifestyle.

He was born with this very loving, generous spirit. He always wanted to be blessing people. He always wanted to be giving things to people. And then, as he grew up, he became a general. He became a wonderful general. As he went to conquer countries, the people of these countries wanted him to conquer them because they would be so blessed. He didn’t keep them in subjection. He gave them a good life because there was something so good in him.

Even his own soldiers, if they did something good, he would bring everybody together, and he would get up and tell them about the good deed this soldier had done. He would praise him in front of everybody, and then he would give them a gift. This was the kind of person he was.

God had to raise up a king like this, because it was Nebuchadnezzar who had taken the children of Judah to Babylon. Cyrus had come and conquered Babylon and he now ruled in Babylon. But God was preparing him. He prophesied his name, even all those 150 years before he was born.

We go to the next chapter, Isaiah 45:1: “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.” Actually, that is the story of how he got into Babylon. It’s quite an interesting story.

“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”

Cyrus was a heathen king, but God said, I’m calling you by name, Cyrus “for Jacob my servant's sake” (because He’s thinking about His people) “And Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.” So, even though Cyrus didn’t know the Lord, God called Him to do this great task, prophesied 150 years before. Isn’t that amazing?

That makes me think even of our current president, President Trump. Many people often liken Trump to Cyrus. But it’s interesting because it was prophesied right back in 2007. How long ago was that? That’s 18 years ago, isn’t it? 18 years ago, yes, and it was prophesied then that Trump would come in. That’s before Trump had even thought of ever becoming the president, and that he would be president two times.

That was given by Kim Clement. You can still pick that up. You can go to the internet and just put in “Kim Clement prophecy, Trump two times, 2007.” You will get that prophetic word. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that prophetic words don’t always come to pass immediately like we think they should. Maybe you could hear something that was prophetic, and oh wow, that should happen right now! Or that person’s a false prophet.

Well, we’ve been reading all these incredible stories in the Old Testament. I mean, the prophetic word over Josiah didn’t happen until 14 generations later. The prophetic word over Cyrus was 150 years before he was born. Here we’re talking about Trump. That was only 18 years, but that’s still a long time, isn’t it?

Let’s carry on. Oh yes, what about Jesus Himself? God says that even Jesus Christ came forth from the loins of David. Every person listed in the genealogy of Jesus must feel so blessed and so privileged. How amazing, to think that you were in the genealogy of Jesus, even though He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, that He came down through the line of Mary.

Here it says in Acts 2:30: “Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” That prophecy, that was, goodness me, I think that was about 700 years before Christ came into the world.

We have been seeing something so incredible here, dear ladies, as we look into God’s Word on the theology of conception. Yes, life begins at conception, but God sees life, even before the conception. How amazing is that? That’s why contraception is so against God’s heart, because many times, how do we know whether a life that we are stopping was a life that God intended for His purposes here on this earth? And, of course, for eternity.

I have some more thoughts, but what’s our time, girls? How much more time? Oh, I think that we have come to the end of this session. I still have so much more to share with you, ladies. A few more thoughts on this, and then I think next week we’ll be able to get onto the next thing I want to share with you. I’m calling it, “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY!” Whoo! OK. Don’t miss.

“Dear Father, once again, we are in awe of who You are, for You are God. You know all things. Lord God, please save us from being so shallow, so finite in our thinking. Help us to think like You think.

“Help us to be submerged in Your Word, that we think and speak like Your Word says, that we speak Bible language instead of the language of this day. There is a humanistic language today. But, Lord, we want to be those who speak the language of the Kingdom, Bible language. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

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“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

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