PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 404: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 12

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 404: Welcome to the Land of More and More, Part 12

Are you rising up into a MORE AND MORE lifestyle? Today we discuss having MORE AND MORE love in our homes and how God wants us to become MORE AND MIGHTER than the heathen.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Last weekend, I was at the Above Rubies Ladies’ Retreat in Olympia, Washington. We had about 140 ladies coming together. It was such a beautiful time. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been up to Olympia. I think maybe about 28 times now. Every year! And we’ll be planning another one for March 12 - 14 of 2027. So, if you are up in the area, and you missed out this time, well, I hope you’ll be able to get into next year’s. These Above Rubies retreats, the ladies’ ones and the family ones, are such a blessing and encouragement.

Well, before we get onto our next point in our wonderful series of “Welcome to the Land of More and More,” I was thinking about this Scripture, Psalm 48:12-14. “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.”

From other translations, the New Living Translation says: “That you may describe them to future generations.”

The Knox Translation says: “Then give word to the next generation.”

The Passion Translation says: “Then go and tell the coming generation.”

What it’s saying here is “go about Zion.” When we talk about this relating to our lives, well, what we are doing, right in this podcast, we are going into the Word of God. We’re walking round about it. We are discovering all the wonderful things that are in it, because we must learn, and we must learn to operate them in our own lives and then pass them on to the next generation.

This is who we are, mothers. We are transmitters of God’s truth to the next generation. We’ve got to find out all the glorious things in His Word, in His kingdom, and tell them to the next generation.

The Message Bible says: “Then you can tell the next generation, detail by detail, the story of God.”

I love Psalm 71:18: “Now also, when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to everyone that is to come.”

That was David’s desire and longing, that he wouldn’t leave this life until he showed the way to God and the power of God to his generation. Each generation has a responsibility to show the ways of God to the next generation.

All right, the next point we are talking about in this series is . . .

No. 23. MORE LOVE TO ONE ANOTHER

Last week, we ended off with more love to God. This point is more love for one another. We read in 1 Corinthians 12:31, that’s the Scripture leading into the “love chapter.”

Paul writes to the Corinthian believers to tell them that he is going to show them a “more excellent way” to live. The way of love is the more excellent way. It’s not just excellent, it’s the more excellent. When Paul was writing to the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 2:4, he talks to them and reminds them of the love “which I have more abundantly unto you.”

Then we go to the books of Thessalonians and read of Paul’s love for the Thessalonian believers. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Paul prays: “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.”

And then later on in the book, chapter 4:9, 10, he says: “You yourselves are taught of God to love one another . . .  but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.” Paul loves to use this word “more.” I was checking it out this morning, and I found that he used these words “more,” or “much more,” or “how much more” up to 50 times in his letters to the believers.

So, then we go on to the 2 Thessalonians, the letter he wrote to them. In chapter 1:3 he says: “Your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.”

The Berean Translation says: “Your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.”

Then, when he writes to the Philippian believers, he prays: “that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgements.” In that Scripture, do you notice there that he uses the word “abound” and “more and more”? Wow! You can’t get much more than that, can you? “That your love may abound more and more.”

Paul uses the word “abound” also so much in his letters to the believers. I counted up 22 times where he uses that word “abound,” or “abounding.” The Greek word is perissueo. This is what it means: “to excel, to exceed, abundantly furnished, to superabound, over and above, from bud to full bloom.” 

It’s a beautiful word, and it means far more than the status quo, the normal, the average. It’s above average. It’s excelling. It’s seeing beyond, and it gives the picture of coming from bud into full bloom.

Paul uses this word in his letters for all different things. He wants us to . . .

abound in hope,

abound in spiritual gifts,

abound in the work of the Lord,

abound in consolation,

abound in righteousness,

abound in thanksgiving,

joy,

faith,

utterings (that means testifying of Jesus),

knowledge,

diligence,

sacrificial giving,

grace,

rejoicing,

pleasing God, and, of course,

love.

Every one of these things, he encourages us, not just to do them, but to abound in them, to do them more and more. So, we’re talking about abounding more and more in love.

Well, of course, it starts right in our homes, doesn’t it, precious ladies? It starts first of all with our husbands. Loving him and not just loving him but finding ways to love him more and more. Do you ever take time to think about that? Oh, you know that “I know I love my husband”. Of course, I do. But there’s more. God always want us to go more and more.

Why don’t you take some time today and think about some ways. Ask the Lord to help you to think creatively of some ways in which you can love your husband more and more, even more that you're doing now. You may think, “Wow, I really love my husband.” But there’s still more. Yes, always be thinking of more, looking for more ways, so we abound in love. Amen? Do you think you can take that challenge today?

And then, of course, our children. Well, often it’s easy to love our children, isn’t it? Especially our little ones. Oh, there’s just love that pours out of our hearts for them. As they get older, sometimes they can get a little more difficult. Then we’ve got to keep remembering to pour out that love upon them.

And then, of course, to the saints around us, the people who we meet with, even the people just wherever. Just reaching out with God’s love. Yes, that’s always a challenge. It’s a challenge to me to be more and more. Because it’s easy to be just the average, just the boring status quo. No, God wants to take us into a new realm. It’s the more and more realm. This is the kingdom of God. This is the Word of God. It is God’s plan.

All right, so that’s 23.

No. 24. MORE AND MORE MIGHTIER THAN THE HEATHEN

We go back to the Old Testament now. Deuteronomy 1:10, 11. This is when Israel is now in Egypt. They’ve been there for some time. In fact, the Pharoah (Joseph was next-in-command to this Pharoah . . . he’s now passed on. There’s a new Pharoah now, but the people of God are still multiplying.

We read here: “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!)” 

Now, isn’t that amazing? Do you see God’s heart there, dear mothers? God not only wants you to multiply, but listen to what He says: Oh, “The Lord God make you a thousand times so many more as ye are”! God loves multiplication. He wants His people to increase. He wants His people to multiply. He wants His people to fill the earth.

Why is that? Because God wants the earth filled with His glory, with His image. The only way that can happen is through His people, as He lives in His people, and flows out in His attributes through His people, bringing His salvation, His love, His mercy, His kindness, His justice, and all His blessings into the land. God does this through His people. He works through His people. And so, God doesn’t want the heathen to be more. He wants His people to be more.

And then we read on. As they were multiplying, in Exodus 1: 7, it says: “And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them.” Wow! What an amazing description! Eight descriptions! Could we say that as a people of God in the USA today? Or in the country that you are living in? I know there are so many beautiful mothers listening in New Zealand, in Australia, and the UK, and even many countries in Europe.

You are listening. What about your country? Is this the testimony of the people of God in your country that you are increasing abundantly, multiplying, waxing exceeding mighty, and filling the land with the godly seed? That’s God’s plan for His people. Isn’t it sad that we, the people of God, have forgotten His plan? Or what could you say? We’ve even spurned His plan. We don’t even want to do His plan.

In verse 9, it says, the king of Egypt speaking here: “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are MORE AND MIGHTIER that we!” Now, that’s a powerful Scripture too, because that again, is revealing God’s plan. He wants His people to be more and mightier than the heathen. And this is what was happening in Egypt, and this Pharoah was getting scared, because when the people of God begin to multiply and fill the land, the devil gets scared.

We’re not really scaring the devil at this time, sadly. Isn’t it sad? It’s such an indictment upon the people of God that we have fallen into the ways of the heathen. We have limited our families. The current number of children per family in the USA is 1.6.

It was 1.9 just a few years ago, and even higher than that. Back a few years it was 2.4! It’s now down to the lowest it has even been in the history of our nation. Only 1.6. That is well below replacement value, which needs to be about 2.4. So, we are not doing what the Bible says. We are far from doing it.

Why is it that God’s people spurn His ways? Now we are no longer any threat to the devil. Oh, goodness no! Not at all! Here we are, trying to fight to keep on top, to keep our heads above water, to let the people of this nation know that there is a God in the land. Instead, we are overcome with such evil. Such a sad attitude toward God. There is such evil—abortion, sex trafficking, the transgender, antisemitism. All this stuff is filling the land, because we’re not filling the land with God’s people.

And so, because the king of Egypt, the Pharoah, was getting scared, what did he do? He said, “Let us set over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens.” It became a terrible time for the Israelites. They were “under bitter and hard bondage” the Bible says. But in this time of hard bondage and having to build these cities for the Pharoah as slaves (they’d become slaves in Egypt)! What did they do? Did they say, “Oh, no, we can’t have any more children now! Help! We’re enslaved! We’re in this hard and bitter bondage. What can we do?” No, the Bible tells us in verse 12: “But the more they afflicted them, THE MORE THEY MULTIPLIED and grew.”

My. What are we going through in our nation today? Are we in bitter and hard bondage? Are we slaves, slaving night and day? No, we’re not experiencing that. And yet, we’ve stopped having children. Here, the Israelites, even in their bitterness and hard bondage, they multiplied more than the Egyptians. That is such an amazing thing.

In fact, Psalm 105:24 says: “He increased His people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies.” That’s again what God wants for His people. He wants us to be stronger than our enemies. We do not become that on our own, all isolated or limited. It’s as we are fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, because when God said those words in the very first command He ever gave to mankind, which has never been rescinded, He didn’t stop, in the middle of a sentence.

He kept going, and He said: “and subdue and take dominion.” It is a divine progression. The people who obey that mandate and multiply are the people who will begin to take dominion. It is God’s plan for His people to take dominion.

But in many countries of the world, we see that the enemy is taking dominion. Many times, they’re doing that through God’s first mandate, being fruitful and multiplying. We see what’s happening in the UK, where this great country once sent out hundreds of missionaries across the world, who were God-fearing.

It’s now being more and more overtaken with the Muslim population. There are Muslim mayors all over the UK. There are mosques everywhere. There is a city in England where the mayor doesn’t even speak English. In an English-speaking country! What is happening? All because we have not fulfilled God’s first mandate where He wants us to fill the land, and to become more and mightier than the heathen.

In the UK, the number of children per family is down to 1.2, as it is in many European countries. Those are very scary statistics. For when it gets down there, they often say it’s impossible to ever get back again. The Muslim population child-per-family is 4.5. So, as they continue to allow more and more to come in, and they multiply more than the English people, they are automatically taking over the nation.

We must pray for this man, this English guy, Tommy Robinson. Have you heard of him? Well, if you’re listening in England, I’m sure you have. This guy has such a burden to bring England back to its roots and back to Jesus. He organized this huge rally in London, where literally thousands upon thousands came out. But he is having another one on the 16^th of May. We need to pray for that rally, that God will move, and the people of England will rise up again, to come back to God and back to His ways and back to what He wants them to do. Amen?

Yes, the other morning, I had this little thought, because the other morning in our family devotions, we were reading in James. We’re now up to 1 Peter. We were reading chapter two, verse 20: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” 

Well, we know that Abraham is the father of faith and the greatest man of faith. And yet, this Scripture tells us that he proved his faith by his works, by believing, of course, and also by works. We think back to Genesis 15, where God told Abraham to come out. He said, “Abraham, come out, and look at the stars. Can you count them?”

Well, Abraham couldn’t count those stars. Of course, there would be more stars in the sky up there in the desert than we can ever see in our cities. Even in the country, we see a lot more stars than in the city, but I’m sure we can’t see them all. And Abraham couldn’t count the stars. God said to him: “Abraham, that’s how much your seed will be that I am going to bring forth from you.” And the Bible says: “And Abraham believed God.” He believed Him. He didn’t even have one son. And he was old, but he believed God.

Then we know the story of how God miraculously gave him Isaac. But here, we read, wow! Verse 21: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” Now God’s asking him to lay upon the altar his only son, from which can come forth the seed as the number of the stars in the sky. What was Abraham going to do? But Abraham proved his faith. He believed God. He believed. He must have believed that God could even raise Isaac from the dead. But he believed God, and he also obeyed God.

What is faith? Faith is literally obeying what God says. That’s what faith is. Because so many times, it takes faith to believe what God says, because it’s beyond our natural. It’s beyond what we can do. It’s beyond what we think we can do. But as we obey by faith, we prove our faith.

I just thought of it. I never had this thought before, but I thought, “Wow! There was Abraham, who was prepared to obey God to the very, very limit, of laying on the altar his only beloved, precious, son.”

And yet, when God tells us to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, we say, “Oh, no, no, God. I couldn’t do that. No, how could we afford to have even another child? We’re just at a bare minimum now. We couldn’t afford any more. How could we afford to send them to college, or do this, or do that? Oh, God, no, no, no, we can’t do that!”

Oh. Are we proving our faith? No. We’re not at all. We prove our faith by our works, and our works are being obedient to God’s Word. If we cannot be obedient to the very first mandate God gave in His Word, this living Word, this eternal Word, do we have faith at all? That is such a challenge, isn’t it?

I think back to Psalm 78. Beautiful psalm, God talking about His people, and things they went through in the wilderness. We go to verse 18: “And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God. They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for us?”

Do you notice there, ladies, three times they said, “Can God?” That is the opposite of faith. That’s doubt. “Can God?” Oh, that’s what so many believers often say. I don’t think any of you say it who are listening today. But there are so many. The majority of the church, they’re saying this, “Can God? Can God provide for another child for us? Help! I don’t think He can.”

I remember one time, talking to a gentleman, and I said to him, “Oh, so how many children do you have?” He said, “We have three.” I said, “Oh, that’s so wonderful. How beautiful! Are you hoping to have any more?” And he said, “Oh, no, no! We could never afford any more!” My reply to him was, “Oh, so you believe in a God who can only provide for three children?”

And that’s the God that many believe in. Some believe He can only provide for one or two, and that’s it. They have a God of their own imagination. They are not believing in the God of the Bible. The thing that hurts God more than anything is when we do not believe Him.

It goes on say here, in verse 22: “Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation,” though He did this, and He did that, and He did all these wonderful things. It goes on, and we go way down to verse 40: “How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert? Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One.”

I was thinking, “Well, how can you limit God? It’s really impossible to limit God. I’d better check that word out.” So, I went to the Hebrew, and it’s a word that’s only used in this Scripture, nowhere else. And listen to what it means, dear precious ladies. It means “they wounded, they hurt, they pained” the Holy One of Israel when they didn’t believe Him, when they could not trust Him. It pained Him. It grieved Him. Yes, and it hurt Him. May the Lord help us.

Oh, goodness, I’m not coming to you from some great place of faith. How I long and pray, “Lord, increase my faith.” But I do know as I’ve walked with God that I can trust Him. He is a faithful God and His words are true. They do not lie. From the beginning, His words are true. Every word of God is true. Every word can be trusted.

Yes, and as I close this session today, my, it’s gone so quickly! Before I get onto another point, I will share something on this point we’re talking about. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 28. This is the “blessing” chapter. We call it the blessing chapter, well, I call it the blessing chapter, but if I was to be more correct, I would call it the “cursing” chapter because the blessings are from verse one to verse 14, and the cursings are from verse 15 down to verse 68! Oh my!

So, it starts off here that “If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” And so now we read the blessings.

Verse 3: “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.” In other words, wherever you are situated, lovely ladies, if you are in the country (many want to be in the country) you’ll be blessed, of course. But if you're in the city, and that’s where God has you, that’s where your husband’s employment is, God says that He will bless you there. Isn’t that wonderful? Take hold of that beautiful blessing. “I will bless you in the city, and I will bless you in the country.” Amen.

I’ve just been staying this last weekend with such a beautiful family. I stay with them on the Sunday night after the Above Rubies retreat. I have to wait until Monday to catch my flight. These people are right in the city. They are right in the heart of Seattle, a woke city.

And they have raised, and are raising their ten children, right in the heart of this woke city. They are raising godly, godly, beautiful children, who are growing up and walking in the ways of God, because God’s blessing is upon them in the city just as it is on other families in the country.

But then it goes on: “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb.” Now that is the first blessing. “The fruit of the womb” is the first blessing. And then He goes on to say: “And the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.” And so on.

Now, lovely ladies, all those blessings come AFTER the fruit of the womb. They come to bless and provide for the fruit of the womb. If you did not have the fruit of the womb, you would not need all this food, and all this provision, and this big home, and all that you need to raise these children. But God has promised. When He blesses you with the fruit of the womb, He will bless you with the provision to provide for them.

Maybe you think, “Help! How are we going to do this? How are we going to provide?” Don’t worry. The baby hasn’t arrived yet. When that little baby arrives, God will do it. God will provide. Oh, you may not get a big house, and get this and that, but God will provide. You won’t starve. God will provide the food that you need. And God’s provision is for what we need.

When God was talking about His people in Nehemiah, it says, and He was telling them all the things that He had done for them. It says: “And you lacked nothing.” Where were they? In the wilderness, living in tents. They didn’t have a little grocery store down the road. “Oh, we’ve run out of milk. Johnny, can you run down and get some milk, and get some butter while you're there?”

No, they couldn’t just go and get anything when they needed it. There was no store, no shops, no supermarket. There was nothing but wilderness. They’re in temporary tents. And they’re trusting in God for their provision each day. He sends the manna. And God says: “You lacked nothing.”

We don’t have to have everything we want, but God will provide that which we need. You can trust Him. Oh, lovely, precious ladies, I speak to myself as I encourage you. Can we be more and more women who trust God? Who will not pain Him or hurt Him because we doubt His word? Oh, may we be those who believe.

“Dear Father, I thank You for all who are listening today, that You will bless them. Oh Father, bless them in their homes, bless their children, bless their marriage, bless their provision, bless them with children. Bless them with the blessings of God. Oh Lord, I 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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