LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 227: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land? Part 4

The latest George Barna poll reveals that only six percent of Christians have a true biblical world view. What an indictment against Christian parents! Are your children established in a biblical world view, and how does this question impact your mothering?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Good to be with you again. We are currently talking about the things that stop us from possessing the land. We began talking last week about discouragement, and how we can have the victory over it.

In Ezra chapter four, we see four different things of how the enemy came to stop them building the temple. He came to them to 1) discourage them, and 2 to put fear in them, 3) they hired counselors to frustrate them. And then, the fourth thing that they did was to send a letter of accusation to the king of Babylon, the king of Persia, actually. Yet again another thing that the devil still does today. He has the same strategies. He hasn’t changed. His strategies are the same.

So, ladies, you’ve just got to take hold of this and understand it. This is how the devil came back in those days. He came to discourage, to put fear in our hearts, to frustrate us (often with humanistic counseling) and then to accuse. The devil is the accuser of the brethren.

This letter that they wrote to the king was actually very successful. It caused the king to command them to stop building the temple. Accusations can be very powerful. But praise the Lord, that wasn’t the end. Eventually through God intervening, they did start building the wall again.

It actually did take 20 (no, it was the temple at this time), but it took 20 years for them to finish the building after they had come back from Babylon. That was quite a long time, but they did finish it. That’s important. We always want to finish, don’t we?

Those are the strategies of the enemy. Get to know them, ladies. When you find these things happening in your life, know where they come from. Resist the devil in the power of the Name of Jesus. Don’t let them have the victory. Amen? Amen!

All right. Now, the next thing that we’re going to talk about, the next thing that stops us from possessing the land is . . .

No. 5. HALF-HEARTEDNESS

We’re going to find that in Numbers 14. They had now come out of the wilderness. They’re going into the Promised Land.

Here we’re talking about Caleb. Joshua and Caleb were the only two who went into the Promised Land of those 20 and over who came out of Egypt. Isn’t that incredible? They came out of Egypt and were meant to go into the Promised Land but all those who were 20 and over never got in because of their unbelief and their fear of going into the land.

But Caleb had to, oh, can you imagine it? He’s had to wait all those years, just longing and chomping at the bit to get there. Oh, but at last he’s going in! He’s now 85 years of age. Somewhere, I’m not sure where it is, I’m not seeing it in my chapter here, but he says he’s just as fit as he was when he was young (Joshua 14:11).

Here we read, in Numbers 14:22-24, the Word of God is talking about those who did not believe and did not trust the Lord. “Because all those men which have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it: but My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed (his children) shall possess it.”

But why did Caleb get in, ladies? Because he had a different spirit. He was different from the rest of them. He didn’t just fall into the groove of what everybody else was thinking, and the unbelief, and the fear. No, he kept trusting God. We have to have that spirit.

Dear ladies, if we’re going to really come into all that God has for us, in His kingdom, because as we read these Scriptures about going into the land, it’s a type of coming and living in the kingdom of God that God has for us. But also, where are we in His kingdom? We are in our homes in the land of motherhood. This relates to us too.

EMBRACE MOTHERHOOD FULLY

As we go in, we must go in, not half-heartedly, not, “Oh, well, I’ve got this baby now, but really, help! I love this baby with all my heart! But I love my career too, so what am I going to do?” So many times, many precious mothers put aside motherhood. Oh yes, they love their babies. They love their children, but they don’t love motherhood yet. They put aside the fullness of their career of motherhood to go out into another career. Can you believe it?

And yet, that’s thought normal to them. Dear ladies, it’s not normal. It's abnormal! It goes against the very nature of who God created us to be. Our nature longs and cries for our babies and our children because God put that within us, that longing to nurture and to mother them. This is our career. Any other career is not THE career.

Maybe it’s something that you think is important but it’s not as important as motherhood. We can’t go into this land of motherhood with a half-heartedness. “OK, I’m going to have one foot in the land of motherhood, and one foot, or maybe a few more feet, in my career.” No, no, we’ve got to go in fully, fully, just as it says here.

“Caleb had a different spirit. He has followed Me fully.” This should be our attitude as we live in this land of motherhood. Oh, dear lovely mothers, embrace it fully! This is where you come into the joy of it, and the glory of it, knowing this is where God has placed you.

Even if you’re facing challenges. Many days are difficult, but God is with you! And you’re in the greatest career that He has given to women. We have such power to impact the nation, dear precious mothers. Oh, the more that you can pour into your children and prepare them to come forth one day from your home to be mighty sons and daughters of God, there is nothing greater that you can do.

So, none of this half-heartedness. No, it’s not half in the land of motherhood and half in your career. No, it’s all in, all in, just like Caleb was all in. Amen?

And then, the next one that stops us from possessing the land fully:

No. 6. ASSIMIMLATION AND INDOCTRINATION

These things will keep us from possessing the land fully. Let’s go back, shall we, to Leviticus 20:22-26. I’ll just read little bits from them, but you can always go back when you’ve got time, when you’re maybe not walking along the road as you’re listening to me, or maybe doing the dishes, or something like that. You can read it in your Bible later.

Also, remember you can get the transcripts for these podcasts. In the transcripts, I make sure I have all the references for you. Sometimes I put in a lot more references that we don’t even have time to talk about on the podcast because sometimes I have so many Scriptures. I don’t even give them all to you, but in the transcripts I will put all the references for you, if you want to have further studies.

All right, Leviticus 20:22-26: “Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for. . . I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean and unclean. . . And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.”

God is revealing to them here who they are. Who are His people? They are a holy people unto Him. He has separated them and severed them from every other people on the face of the earth. Now, did you notice there, we read, “which have separated you from other people,” and then in verse 26, “and have severed you from other people.”

Actually, both words are the same in the original Hebrew, but we get the real feeling, don’t we, when we read them. We read “separated,” and then we read “severed.” Yes, God severs His people from all the other nations. They were to be different. They were set apart to Him. They were His people, a holy people unto Him.

And dear ladies, this is who God wants us to be in the land. We are His people, His mothers, teaching our children His ways, because we are set apart to Him. We are not meant to be just like everybody else.

OK, what’s everybody else doing? Well, most probably, everybody else in your neighborhood is going off to their careers, going out to work, putting their children in daycare, sending them off to school each day. That’s the norm. But are you the norm? No, you’re not meant to be just the norm. God has separated us. He has made us different. We’re separated and set apart unto Him.

It seems to me such a sad thing today. It seems like so many people who call themselves Christians are wanting to be as much like everyone else as they can. Yes, they believe they are born again, and they love Jesus with all their heart, but they still don’t want to be severed. They want to be as much like everyone else around them, doing what everybody else does.

Dear ladies, we don’t live our lives that way. We have to check out everything in the Word of God. Is what I’m doing what the rest of the humanistic society is doing around me, or is it the lifestyle of the kingdom of God? What is the lifestyle I am living? Do you really know the lifestyle of the kingdom of God? We need to know what it is.

Now, let’s see a few other things here. Leviticus 20:23: “And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you.” Now, that word “manners” is the word that means “the customs and the ways of that land.”

We go to Leviticus 18:3: And God says, “After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, you shall not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.”

And then, if you have time to go and read Leviticus 18, you will see all the evil things of those lands that God is against. He says, “I don’t want you to have anything to do with them, the customs and ordinances of those lands.” Of course, He speaks about the different sexual things that are abomination to Him. All different kinds of immorality, and even homosexuality. And God calls them all “abominable customs.”

That word for “manners,” or “ordinances,” or “customs” is the Hebrew word chuqqah, and it means “appointed customs, manners, ordinances, statutes.” Now, ladies, the very interesting thing is that that same Hebrew word is used to describe God’s laws, and statutes, and ordinances. And He uses the same word to talk about Satan’s statutes, and laws, and ordinances.

Just a moment. Did you know, did you know, ladies, that Satan also has statutes, and laws, and ordinances? We often don’t think of that, do we? We think, “Oh, yes, the Bible talks so much about God’s laws, His statutes, His ordinances, His commandments, which He wants us to obey and to follow.”

There are some people who don’t even want to follow God because they don’t want to come under any statutes, or laws, or ordinances, thank you! “I want to be free. I want to do my own thing!” But do you know what? Nobody does their own thing. We live in either of two kingdoms, the kingdom of God, which has its own laws and ordinances from God. Or we live in the kingdom of the devil, Satan’s kingdom, which also has its own laws and statutes.

Now, let’s have a look at some other Scriptures. Go to Leviticus 18:30: “Therefore shall ye keep my ordinances, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.” You see, those abominable customs, that word is the same word talking about obeying God’s customs. We’re either going to obey His laws and customs or we will obey Satan’s laws and customs.

We go over to Deuteronomy 18:9: “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.”

2 Kings 17:7-13: I’ll just read you a little bit of it. “The children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. . . and walked in the statutes of the heathen.”

Do you notice that ladies? “The statutes of the heathen.” That’s the statutes of Satan’s kingdom. “Yet the Lord testified against Israel. . .. saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes.” So, we’re going to choose one or the other.

Did you know, ladies, that between 1995 and 2016, our federal government instituted 88,899 new rules, and 4,312 laws? Now that is coming from a liberal government. Most of those laws are really just to frustrate us, to bring us under tyranny. They are not laws of freedom. Most of them are totally unnecessary. Did you hear that? 88,899 new rules! Yes! Goodness me! Today there are 170,000 pages of government regulations on the books, most of them unnecessary, and all just tyrannical.

I remember staying with a dear friend of mine. We stay with her every time we go to Scotland. She was telling me one year, quite a few years ago, “Nancy, I went to the supermarket, and all I needed to buy was a potato peeler. I’d just run out. I was there at the checkout, getting my potato peeler and the light came on! A checkout girl said, “Just a minute. I have to get my superintendent when the lights come on.” So, the supervisor came, and she had to check that she was over 18 to buy this potato peeler because it could be a dangerous weapon!

How stupid can you get? Such ridiculous laws! A potato peeler being a dangerous weapon? That you can’t use one until you’re 18? This is how ridiculous . . . so many, (and we have crazy laws like that here too). It’s so ridiculous!

But, ladies, how are we living? Are we living by the laws and ordinances of God’s kingdom? Or of the kingdom of the enemy?

You’ll be familiar with George Barna, who is a research pollster. He did research in May to check out how many Christians are living by a biblical world view.

Now, if we really belong to the Lord, we’ll be living by a biblical worldview. Did you know that according to this research, only six percent of Christians have a biblical worldview? Actually, 51% of these Christians said that they had a biblical worldview, but when they were asked certain questions to prove it, it worked out that only six percent truly had a worldview from the biblical standpoint. Isn’t that sad? Isn’t that tragic?

Some of the questions: e.g., 49% said that reincarnation was a possibility after they died. And this was supposed to be people who said they had a biblical worldview! Can you believe that? Only 33% believed that human beings are born with a sinful nature and can only be saved from the consequences of sin by Jesus Christ. Wow!  

But precious mothers, this comes back to us parents. We are the ones that determine what our children are believing. We are responsible for what we are teaching them. How can it be, dear precious mothers, that only six percent have a truly biblical worldview? Do your children have a biblical worldview? Do they understand God’s truth and what it says in His Word regarding any subject at all? Or are they conditioned by this humanistic philosophy of this world?

Sadly, if they are in public education, they will have a humanistic worldview because this is what they are being taught from morning to night. In fact, more than a humanistic worldview, they’re now being totally brainwashed to believe abominable things, such as homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgenderism. These are even abominable customs, and they don’t belong to the kingdom of God.

Precious mothers, even homeschooling mothers, our children have so much bombarding them with the social media and if they’ve got iPhones. You can’t believe what they can pick up. We have to be constantly pouring into them God’s truths, His Word, that they know His Word, that they understand a biblical worldview. It is so important.

In 2 Kings 17:24, this was in the land of Israel, but there were people here . . . when they had taken the Jews to Babylon, they brought other people into the land, who didn’t know the ways of God.

It says here in 2 Kings 17:26-28: “Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore, He hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner (or the customs) of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, take one of the priests . . . and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.”

We see here that God was concerned that in the land, they followed His customs, not the customs of the people who had been in the land hitherto, because God had cast those people out, to bring this people in. We also are to live by the customs of the Lord, by His Word, by His statutes, His laws, His commandments, not by all the humanistic ordinances that are all around us, because they are also laws and statutes, but from a different realm.

So, ladies, here we are. This is our responsibility, to be teaching our children the customs and the way of the Lord, Amen? This is important, and if we’re not doing this, this will stop us from totally possessing the land. We can’t possess it unless we’re living in the lifestyle and the commandments, and the laws of the kingdom of God. Because every kingdom has its own laws. That what a kingdom has. A kingdom has a king, and a kingdom has laws. That’s how it operates.

Talking about laws, here’s another thing. It’s a little bit off the subject, but I thought of something that I would just pop in here. But it’s also talking about laws and ordinances. It’s talking about when people came into the land, or maybe strangers came into the land of Israel, and the Word of God says: “Or whosoever is among you.” God gave them certain principles.

Now, these Scriptures were a wonderful answer to me in things that I didn’t quite know what to do about. As I said earlier, every question I have ever had, I have found my answer in the Word of God.

Colin and I love to have hospitality. We love to have people coming and staying with us. Throughout the years, we’ve had so many different people come and stay, even come and live with us for long lengths of time.

But some people would come into our home, and they had different customs to us. I’ve had people in our home who would come in and they’d turn on the TV in the day and sit down and watch it. We don’t do that. We never watch TV at all, but there was a time when we would maybe watch in the evenings. Colin would love to watch the news, so we would put it on to see the news in the evening. We don’t even do that now. We even think that’s a total waste of time.

But I have had a law in my home that I don’t have TV on in the day because the day is for work. The day is for productivity. The day is not for sitting around, loafing on the sofa, gawking at some soap opera. That’s never been part of the law of my home.

And, dear ladies, every one of us has our own laws in our homes, don’t we? The only way we can function is if we have certain laws and principles so we can keep the home functioning. I thought, “Help! What do I do about that? Do I say anything or don’t I?”

Then I’ve had other families come in with their little children. And, oh, goodness me, you can’t believe it! They run into the bedrooms and jump on the beds! Well, I don’t allow children to jump on beds. That ruins the mattresses. It’s not one of the things that I allow in our home. But what do I do? Do I say anything or not? Do I just let them run over my house and do what they like?

Well, I found my answer. It’s very interesting. There are a lot of Scriptures here. I’ll just read one or two of them, and I’ll put them all in the transcript for you. It shows here what God wants us to do. OK? You have your strategy, your plan, your rules. Not that you’re making it a legal thing, but you have your structure for your home, and the things that you will not have in your home, or you’d love to have.

Exodus 12:49-50: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.”

Leviticus 24:22: “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.”

Numbers 15:14-16: “And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever he be among you (friends, foes, it doesn’t matter) whosoever he be, as ye do, so shall he do.” Did you get that ladies? “As ye do, so shall he do . . . One ordinance shall be for both of you of the congregation. And also, for the stranger that joineth with you. As ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and one manner (or custom) shall be for you, and for he that sojourneth with you.”

And there are other Scriptures too.

I said, “Oh, thank You, Lord. You’ve shown me what to do! You’ve shown me that there is one law, so that when people come into my home, they maybe will do things that I don’t want to do in my home.” I’m not talking about every little thing, of course, but certain things that would really upset the workings of our home.

Now I have the freedom, because I have the Word of God, to gently share with them, “Well, do you mind? We don’t like to do this in our home. So, if you wouldn’t mind, while you’re here, if you don’t do this.” I have had to do that. It’s not always easy to do, but it’s what the Bible says.

Maybe you’re facing something like that. Sometimes you even face it from in-laws, and people who come into your home who don’t know the laws, especially when talking about family here. Maybe you have parents who are not Christians, or something like that. You do have to keep to the standards that God has given you. One law and one custom shall be to the ones who are in your home, and those who come in, “whosoever they be.”

I thought I’d give you those, because I’ve often had people ask me, “What do you do? I’ve had different situations I’m facing. Help! This is happening in our home, and I don’t even know what to do about it! What should I do?” Well, here God gives us the Scriptures, and we have a strategy for what He wants us to do. Amen?

All right. We must conclude this session.

“Dear Father, we thank You again as we so often do, for Your wonderful Word, and how You teach us in so many different ways. Lord, it’s so easy to go our own way, but we thank You, Lord, that You give us the answers, You give us Your laws, and customs, and Your Word in how You want us to live. And how You want us to live in Your land, in our land of motherhood.

“We ask that You will teach us and show us Your way. Lord, we think of Your Word. The meek will He show His way. The meek will He teach His way. Lord, we want to have a meek spirit before You, that You will continue to teach us and show us Your ways. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

FOR YOU TO PRINT OUT:

THE SAME LAW

ONE LAW, ONE ORDINANCE

“AS YE DO, SO HE SHALL DO”

Exodus 12:48-50: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. Thus did all the children of Israel; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.”

Leviticus 24:22: “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.”

Numbers 9:14: “Ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.”

Numbers 15:14-16: “And if a stranger sojourn among you, or whosoever be among you in your generations . . . AS YE DO, SO SHALL HE DO. One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, and ordinance forever in your generations: AS YE ARE, SO SHALL THE STRANGER BE BEFORE THE LORD. ONE LAW and ONE MANNER (custom) shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.”

Numbers 15:29: “Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.”

Whatever laws God gave to His people, He expected the strangers in the land to adhere to them also. He included the stranger in all the laws and all the feasts and all the gatherings of Israel.

Read Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Leviticus 16:29; 17:10-16; 19:34; 20:2, 3; 24:16; Deuteronomy 5:14; 16:11, 14; 29:10-13; 31:12, 13; Joshua 8:33; 8:35; 2 Chronicles 30:25; and Isaiah 56:6, 7.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 226: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land? Part 3

One of Satan's biggest ploys in hindering us in our walk with God, and in the task God has given us to do, is discouragement. Do you get discouraged? How do you deal with it? God has an answer for you.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Oh, it is such a beautiful fall day! As I look out this window and see the lovely leaves turning yellow, and red, and gold, it’s always such a wonderful time of the year, isn’t it?

Well, let’s get back to our series. We’re now doing “What do we do in this Great Land of Motherhood?” No. 1 was POSSESS THE LAND. We’re still on this No. 1 points but now, we’re talking about, WHAT STOPS US FROM POSSESSING THE LAND?

We’ve talked about how unbelief can stop us. Fear can stop us. And now, today, we’re going to talk about discouragement. We talked about that last time, but I want to share a little bit more with you on this subject, because I think this is something that many mothers face. Oh, it’s so easy to get discouraged, isn’t it, dear mothers?

But before we go on to this point, I want to tell you about a Scripture that we read this week. In fact, it was a Scripture that popped up in one of our prayer boxes. I’ve told you before how we love our prayer boxes. Every morning and evening, when we have our family devotions, we use usually two of our prayer boxes. I have about nine different ones on different subjects.

We had chosen our prayer box about praying for Israel. In our prayer boxes, I do also have a lot of Scriptures, because, ladies, it’s so good to pray the Scriptures, isn’t it? To pray the Word of God. You know you’re in the will of God when you’re praying the Word of God. Sometimes we pray, and often we don’t know whether we’re really praying the right things, although God sees our hearts. That’s so wonderful.

But this Scripture was Jeremiah 32:41. It’s a promise from God about bringing His people back to the land. There are hundreds of Scriptures in the Word of God talking about bringing His people back to the land. Right now, we are continuing to live in this season of Bible prophecy, where God has already brought back so many. And He’s still bringing back His people to the land of Israel. Even though they were scattered to the four corners of the earth, God promised that He would bring them back to their land.

He says here: “Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” What an amazing promise! But, ladies, do you feel the compassion that’s part of God in this Scripture? He doesn’t just say, “And yes, I will bring My people back to the land.” No, He says: “I will plant them in this land ASSUREDLY.” Wow, what a word! “Assuredly.” “With my whole heart, and with my whole soul.”

This was God’s longing and heart for them. He wants His people in His land that He chose for them. He wants to plant them in the land because He chose this land for them. This is where He wants them to be.

GOD WANTS TO PLANT YOU IN YOUR LAND OF MOTHERHOOD

And ladies, we’re taking these Scriptures into our land of motherhood. It is true. God has this same heart for you in your land of motherhood. He wants to PLANT you in this land. He doesn’t want you to be just on the edge of it, with your toe in it.

No, He wants to plant you in this beautiful land of motherhood, because this is the land He chose for you. He wants to dig you into it. That’s what you do when you plant something. You have to dig into the dirt to plant it. He wants to dig us in so we’re established. When we’re established, when we’re planted strongly, and our roots are down, then we can grow.

Sadly, many moms don’t grow in their land of motherhood. They’re just there, and they’re so shallowly in it that they’re dry and wilting. They’re not lush and growing, because they’re not planted. But God will plant you as you let Him, and as you make this your purpose, knowing that this is God’s wondrous purpose for you. He wants to do it with all His heart, and with all His soul. He wants us to have that same purpose, too, that we want to plant ourselves in this great land of motherhood, with all our heart, and with all our soul.

YOU’VE GOT TO BE PLANTED, MOTHER

Oh, I hope you are blessed by that Scripture. You take hold of it in your land of motherhood, and you won’t be a little plant that’s hardly planted, that’s not growing any fruit because it’s not planted deeply. We can only produce fruit, and we can only live in the fullness of the glory of motherhood, in the lushness of motherhood, when we’re planted. We’ve got to be planted, ladies. Amen?

THEY DISCOURAGED THE PEOPLE

OK, back to our talking about discouragement. Deuteronomy 1:28, talking about going into the land. Some of the people said: “Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart.” That’s where you get discouraged, isn’t it? In your heart. You can get discouraged in your heart.

I know it’s easy. I can get discouraged, too. In fact, at the moment, I have a concern, something I’m grieving about. I could get really discouraged, but I have to do something about it. We’ll talk about what we have to do in a moment.

But let’s look at another Scripture, Numbers 32:7: “And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord God hath given them?” It seems that whenever God has a purpose for us, and His plan for us, there will always be those who discourage it. That discouragement comes from the enemy, because discouragement comes from the devil. It never comes from God.

When you’re discouraged, you’ve got to know where it’s coming from, dear ladies. It’s coming from the devil. Now, he may be using somebody else to say things into your life which discourage you, or say things about you, which make you discouraged. Or, you have to face circumstances that discourage you.

But let’s see. Numbers 32:9: “For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them. And the LORD'S anger was kindled.” God was wroth, although I think you say “wrath” here in America. I grew up saying “wroth.” But anyway, God was angry, because those spies discouraged the people.

Deuteronomy 1:21: “Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged.” God says these words to you today, Mother. Oh yes, I know. There are so many things that come against you, to discourage you. There are always people who are going to say all these derogatory things about you.

“Why are you staying home to look after these children, when you could be out earning so much money? And in your career.” And they discourage you in your powerful calling of motherhood. You get discouraged from this one and that one, and there’s always someone to say something negative to you, just make you feel lousy and down in the dumps. Oh, yes. Discouragement is all around us, isn’t it?

But the other day, I was reading in the book of Ezra. I noticed in Ezra, chapter 4, four different ways the enemy comes to bring us down, discourage us, and stop us from the great works that God has given us to do. As I read them, these were the things that they tried to stop them from building the wall. The people had come back from Babylon, and they were rebuilding the Temple. But their enemies and adversaries all around them were trying to stop them.

That’s what the devil is doing. He’s always trying to stop us do the perfect will of God. And when God gives us children, the perfect will of God for us is to embrace these children, to mother and nurture these children, to raise them in the home, not out of the home. No, in the home. God has given the home to raise children. He doesn’t want them out there in daycares and out with people who don’t walk with God. He wants His children to be raised in His presence. The enemy comes to discourage us and to stop us doing what the Lord wants us to do. Let’s look at this passage, shall we?

It's in Ezra 4:4 where it says that these adversaries (and we know that the devil is our adversary, the adversary, the devil, that’s what the Bible calls him, “our adversary, the devil”). It says their adversaries (the devil was using these people) “weakened the hands of the people.” Now, nearly every other translation of that Scripture says they discouraged the people. That’s what the word literally means, “to discourage.”

But of course, if we’re discouraged, we’re going to be weakened, aren’t we? When you’re discouraged, you feel weak. You don’t feel, “I’m ready to go! I can take on anything in the world!” No, you feel weak and useless. That’s what discouragement does to us.

The Berean Study Bible says: “Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build. They hired counselors against them to frustrate their plan.” They tried to get them down, to weaken them.

So, lovely ladies, when we’re in this place, maybe you’re going through something now. And you’re feeling very discouraged. Maybe you’re even feeling discouraged with homeschooling. You’re feeling discouraged. You’re not really making it. You just feel helpless. “Oh, I don’t know how I can even do this!” Dear mothers, it’s the enemy who puts these discouraging thoughts in your mind. We’ve got to realize, the first thing we have to realize, is that discouragement comes from the enemy. What are we going to do?

1) WE’VE GOT TO ENCOURAGE OUR SOUL

Oh, that’s such an important thing to do! In Psalm 42:5 & 11, and Psalm 43:5, three times David, the psalmist, says this same thing. Three times we read this Scripture. OK, let’s read this right: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”

We see here that David is feeling pretty down. That often happens when you’re reading the Psalms. You see, “Oh, David is complaining about what he is facing!” The enemy is against him, but he never stays there. You never finish a psalm without him coming into victory and putting his trust in the Lord. Here he says, “Oh my soul! Come on, soul!” He talks to his soul. Sometimes we have to do that, ladies, because it’s in our soul, in our heart, we get discouraged. Therefore, we’ve got to speak to our souls. Say, “Come on, soul! Get up! Come on! Put your hope in God.”

Now this word, because other translations say: “Why art thou discouraged?” The word is “cast down” here in the King James, but other translations say, “discourage.” Some translations say, “bowed down.” But when we’re feeling like this, we speak to our soul. “Oh, thank You, Lord, I can trust in You. Oh, come on, soul. Come on, soul! Praise the Lord! He is my help. He is the help of my countenance.”

Down in verse 11, it says He is “the health of my countenance.” But the interesting thing, ladies, is that it’s actually the same Hebrew word in both Scriptures. In one, it says that “He is my help.” In the other Scripture, it says: “He is my health.” But it’s the same Hebrew word, Yeshua. Of course, that is the name of Jesus Himself. It means “salvation, healing, deliverance, victory.”

So, we can speak to our soul and say, “Come on, soul. Look up to your Savior. Lord Jesus, You are my salvation, You are my deliverance, You are my healing, You are my health, You are my victory!” When you talk to your soul to get with it, and look up to the Lord, and look at Him instead of looking at your problems, it’s amazing what happens, and how your attitude changes.

Talking about encouraging your soul, I think of that story about David. Do you remember that story, when David had been out doing battles? He came home, he came back to Ziklag. This is the city in which he was living with all his fellow soldiers. It’s in 1 Samuel, chapter 30. Oh, it’s a sad story. David and all his soldiers had been out fighting and they came home.

And they came home to nothing! They came home to their city and what did they see? Nothing! It had been burned with fire. The Amalekites had come through and completely wiped out their city. Where were their wives? Where were their children? They were all taken captive. There were no wives or children. There was nothing! Can you imagine it?

My, I think they were more than discouraged. In fact, we go down to verse 6: “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.” And so, not only did David come home to nothing, but now his men were rising up against him! They were going to stone him! What was he to do?

It also says here what they did in verse 4: they “lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.” There was not another tear left! And they still didn’t know what to do. But then, David did something. At the end of verse 6, it says, “but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”  

He spoke to his soul, just like he did in Psalms 42 and 43. And He encouraged himself in the Lord. “God, you’ve taken everything! But, Lord God, I look up to You. You are my God. I trust You. Lord God, You are my deliverer.” And as he looked to God, God then began to show him what to do.

Now, ladies, there is a real principle here and I have found this in my own life. I’m sure you have, too. That when you’re discouraged, when you’re bowed down, and when you’re taken up with all that you’re going through, it so overwhelms you, and so overtakes you, that you can’t even hear the voice of the Lord. All you hear is all the negative. You just get more and more into your self-pity, and you never have an answer. You just stay in your rut.

But we’ve got to come to that place of encouraging ourselves in the Lord. “Lord God, You understand. It’s all in Your plan. You are bigger. I trust You.” And as David looked up to the Lord, he then said, “Wow, get me an ephod! I want to hear from God!” And he listened to God, and God spoke to him and gave him a strategy, showed him what to do. He said, “You go after them.”

So, David and all his men went after the Amalekites. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 30. It tells you how they did it, and how they found them. And then verses 17-18: “And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels. . . And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.”

Isn’t that great? But that only happened because he took his eyes off his discouragement, off this. What could have been worse than what they were facing? But he put his eyes upon the Lord. That’s what we have to do, ladies.

Number one: we’ve got to speak to our soul and encourage ourselves in the Lord. I love the Berean Study Bible of Psalm 42:5 and 11, where it says: “He is the help,” or the health “of my countenance.” This translation says: “He is the salvation of His presence.” It’s His presence. If we look up to Him, we begin to experience His presence again.

2) TAKE HOLD OF GOD’S WORD

The next thing we have to do is take hold of the Word of God. We can either stay in our rut of despair, or we can take hold of God’s Word. I love Psalm 146. There’s a little Scripture there, Psalm 146:8: “The Lord opens the eyes of the blind: the Lord raises them that are bowed down: the Lord loves the righteous.” That little phrase there, “The Lord raises them that are bowed down.” This is the same thing as feeling discouraged, isn’t it? When we’re discouraged, we feel bowed down.

I can remember a way, way, way, way back, when I was just a young mom. I was facing a situation that was really quite bad. It was so bad that it was actually not just bowing me down in spirit, but I was totally bent over with the weight of it, and the grief of it, until I learned how to get delivered.

I’d never really experienced that before . . . because I learned my lessons, I learned my strategies of victory. But unless you take hold of these principles, you can not only be bowed down in your heart, but your whole body can be bowed over. I did experience that because I didn’t know how to get the victory at that time.

But this Scripture says, and here are some other translations:

“The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.” That’s the New Living Translation.

The New Revised Standard version says: “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.”

The Good News Translation says: “The Lord strengthens the backs of those who are bent over.”

I like that, because the literal meaning of being bowed down is “bent over,” just like I had experienced, way, way back, so many years ago. But the Lord can straighten our backs! He lifts us up as we look unto Him.

We can take this Scripture and we can say, “Thank You, Lord! You are the One who lifts up those who are bowed down. I don’t have to stay bowed down. Lord, You see these circumstances but I thank You that You are bigger, You can lift me up, even in the midst of them. I trust You, Lord. I thank You.” We take the Scriptures and get into the Word. Read the Psalms. Take hold. As you’re reading, take hold of the promise that God gives you and speak it out loud. Take it to yourself.

3) PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD

Ephesians 6. You know how to do that, don’t you? But sometimes we have to do these things.

4) APPLY THE BLOOD OF JESUS

Another thing we can do is to, no, I don’t mean literally, I mean spiritually, to apply the precious blood of Jesus which is our covering, and which also has power to set us free, not only saving us from our sins, but also healing us, and delivering us, because that is the fullness of the word “save.”

That when Jesus saves us from our sins, the word is sozo. It also means “to deliver, to heal, to make whole.” There’s such great fullness in that word. It comes through the precious blood of Jesus. Way back in the Old Testament the priests had to apply the blood on their ears, and on their hands, and on their toes. Then, not only on the priests, but on all the people. The priests would take the blood, and they would sprinkle it all over the people, so they were covered with the blood.

Now, we are not going to do that today. But in the spiritual realm, by faith, we can ask the Lord to cover us with His precious blood. It is such a powerful thing. Even last night, at our prayer meeting, one of the brothers was sharing how his two little children were so sick, and coughing, just filled up with cough and cold. They couldn’t sleep. They didn’t know what to do.

Then he thought, “Wow, the power of the blood of Jesus!” So, even though they were just little, their little four-year-old, and their little toddler, he gave communion to them in the middle of the night. Guess what? They were immediately healed and went to sleep for the rest of the night! Isn’t that amazing? Incredible testimony.

5) DAILY STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNME SYSTEM

We’ve been speaking spiritually. But also, we do need to look after ourselves physically, because even when you get weak physically, it can affect you spiritually. Even that can make you discouraged too. It is important to always live as a mother (not only giving your children and because you want to feed your children healthily) but you must look after yourself and feed yourself healthily.

Whole foods. No refined foods. Just keep yourself eating whole foods, the foods that God gives you. Not all the junk, and the packaged food, and the refined food, but eat wholesome food.

6) DON’T GET TO BED TOO LATE

These are things that can run you down physically and then they affect your spiritually and make you discouraged. But God always has His answers for us, doesn’t He? Amen?

Now you know how to defeat discouragement. First of all, knowing it comes from the enemy, and because it comes from the enemy, you’re going to rebuke him in the name of Jesus.

“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). How did Jesus resist the devil? He spoke forth the Word of God.

Matthew 4:4: Jesus said these words to the devil: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

When we speak the words of God, His living words, we speak them out loud, and we speak them to ourselves, and we speak them to the devil—and he flees. He doesn’t like the Word of God. He doesn’t like the precious blood of Jesus. He doesn’t want these things, but these are our weapons against the enemy.

THEY MADE THEM AFRAID

All right. Well, the next point. It says they “troubled them.” We’re going back to what they did when they were building the Temple. The word “troubled” means “to make them afraid.” The word means, “to terrify, to palpitate, to be anxious, to dismay.” They actually put fear into other people, to try to stop them. We talked about that last session, I think, didn’t we? About how fear can paralyze us. He loves putting fear into our hearts.

Oh, goodness me! If mothers were to listen to everything the medical profession said to them about having babies, I don’t think anybody would ever have a baby! They’re always putting fear into mothers. “Oh, this might happen!” “Oh, I don’t think you could have any more children because of this, because of that!” Help!

Things that might happen most probably never will happen. It’s never a surety. It’s always something that might happen. It’s a fear of a fear. We do not take any notice of the fear that the enemy brings to us, because fear also does not come from God. It comes from the enemy! Yes.

THEY HIRED COUNSELORS

And then the next thing they did; they “hired counselors to frustrate them.” That’s interesting. They hired counselors. That’s an interesting one. We live in a day, ladies, where it seems that everybody is going to a counselor for something! For this or for that. Why is everybody running to counselors these days? Why don’t they run into the Lord? Why don’t they run to the Word?

The Word of God is our greatest counselor.

Psalm 119:24: “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” Do you know that I have always found an answer for every single thing I’ve ever wanted to get an answer about? I find it in the Word of God. You can find it if you search for it. It is there. God’s words are our counselors.

Now, I know there are some godly counselors. Actually, they’re rather hard to find, because there are so many humanistic counselors today, even in the church. Just because they’re in the church does not mean to say that they are truly a godly counselor. Many are guided by humanistic understanding. Most counselors have their degrees in psychology and sociology. That’s all humanistic. People are running to these counselors, and they’re getting humanistic counseling, which is not going to help at all.

These adversaries, they hired counselors. Oh yes, and what were those counselors going to do? They weren’t going to help them to build. They were going to stop them from building. They were going to frustrate what they were trying to do. 

We have to careful, ladies, where we run to as our source. Who is our source? Isn’t it God? Look, He is our source. He is enough. He is the God Who is enough! If your God is not enough, it's not the God of the Bible. You have a god of your own imagination if your god is not able, and you’ve got to run off to some counselor. God is enough. We can find our victory. We can find our deliverance. We can find our healing. We can find our comfort. We can find our encouragement in Him and in His Word. Amen?

So, we do have to watch that. The Message Bible of that Scripture says: “So these people started beating down the morale of the people of Judah, harassing them as they built. They even hired propagandists to sap their resolve.” Oh my, how the enemy loves to sap our resolve! To just take away our energy, take away our purpose, take away even the truth from us! And fill us with all this other stuff.

Oh, isn’t it amazing, that there are counselors today in the church who even advise young couples to “Please delay your childbearing. Just wait until you’ve got your house, and you’ve got everything. You’d better make sure you limit your family.” Hey, where did they get all that junk from? It’s humanistic counseling. It doesn’t come from the Word of God. We have to watch that.

But time has gone, so let’s pray.

“Dear Father, I pray for every precious mother today who’s feeling discouraged. Oh God, we know how easy it is to feel discouraged, but Lord God, I pray that You will remind these precious ladies today that You didn’t give them this discouragement. It comes from the enemy.

“Lord, I pray that You will help them to look up to You. Oh God, to know that You have not deserted them, that You are with them. You’re with them, right there in their situation. You’re there with them, right there in their homes, with all they’re facing. In their marriage, with their challenges with their children. With the circumstances, Lord, that maybe they’re facing at this time.

“Lord God, lift their hearts up to You. You are the One Who lifts up those who are bowed down, so You can straighten our backs. Lord, You lift us up. I pray that You will lift these precious ladies up, Lord, up from their pit of discouragement, up to a higher plane, a plane where You want them to be, Lord, where we are.

“The truth is, we are seated with You in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Lord God, save us from, Lord, coming down to this pit of self-pity and discouragement. Lord God, help us to see where You have placed us in You, in Christ, and seated at the right hand of the Father, in Christ.

“Thank You, Lord. Oh Father, pour out Your blessing, and Your encouragement, and Your comfort, and Your love all over them today, Lord God. Oh, Father, come to them. Let them feel Your presence surrounding them, Lord, all around them, filling them, Lord God. Oh, I ask this in the Precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 225: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land? Part 2

Find out what stops us from possessing the land. We also discover that God does not like slander against the land of motherhood! Sadly, there is a lot of slander and a “whispering campaign” about motherhood today.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We are in our new series, “WHAT DO WE DO IN THE LAND?” We began No. 1 last week, WE MUST POSSESS THE LAND. We looked at how God told His people to go up and possess the land that He had given them. He had already given it to them. It belonged to them, but they had to go and possess it. We also must possess our land of motherhood. It’s not enough to just come into it with our toes in it. But no, we must come in fully.

Let me tell you one or two stories. A friend of mine told me this story. His father had told it to him. His father was a real estate agent. This man lived on his farm most of his life. But over time, he became bored and dissatisfied so he thought he’d put it up for sale. He contacted the real estate agent, who after inspecting the land, advertised it as “A beautiful farmland, with rolling hills, nice home, three barns, several outbuildings, and two ponds. A delightful investment for someone wanting to make a good living from the land.”

Well, the owner was reading the paper and saw this advertisement. As he looked at it, he thought, “Wow, that’s just what I’ve been looking for all my life!” So, he looked at it a little more closely, and as he looked, he realized this was his own farm that was being advertised! Wow! He didn’t realize that what he had was already what he wanted. He immediately called the agent to take it off the market. For now, at last, he became satisfied with what he had, realizing, yes, this is what he really wanted.

Another true story. Alice Gurr was the director of Above Rubies in England for a number of years. One year, when I was there with Alice, she told me this little story about her brother who lived in New Zealand. Alice comes from New Zealand as I also do.

Her brother bought this land in Matamata, New Zealand. Now many of you will know that Matamata is the area where they filmed The Lord of the Rings. He bought this farm, but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make a living out of it. It became a hobby farm. He enjoyed it as a hobby farm. But because he wasn’t able to really make a living out of it, years later, he decided to sell. But when he came to sell, he looked into things properly and found that he had another ten acres that belonged to him that were the most fertile and lush land of his whole property!

This man had forfeited his own land just because he didn’t know what he had. He could have made a good living out of that land, but he didn’t know. I think that’s often the way with us in our motherhood. We come in and we’re on the periphery of the land. We’re so busy with everything else out of the land that we don’t really come in and dwell and live and occupy and possess and take hold of the land that God has given us!

There’s another story I read about Chief Crowfoot. He gave permission to the Canadian Pacific Railways to lay tracks from Medicine Hat to Calgary. In exchange for this, he was given a lifetime railroad pass. Well, he put this precious pass in a leather pouch, and he wore it around his neck for the rest of his life. But he never once used it. I think maybe we don’t want to be guilty of that either, do we? We have been given a land. Let’s embrace it with all our hearts.

Now, what do you think keep us from possessing the land? I have five different points here.

No. 1. UNBELIEF KEEPS US FROM POSSESSING THE LAND

We come into this land of motherhood, but, oh my, we don’t believe that God can keep us in the land! We’d better just limit our family to maybe two or three children because how can God provide for any more?

Wow! What an amazing thought! I remember challenging someone about that thought one day. Yes, I met this gentleman. He was telling me they could only afford three children. I said to him, “But is the God that you believe in? Is He only able to provide for three children?”

I think this is how many in the kingdom of God think. It’s amazing, because that’s not the God of the Bible. It’s the God of our own imagination. There are many people who go to church, and they say they believe in God. But they truly only believe that the God they believe in is so small, so little, so incapable, that He can only provide for three children? Our God is bigger than that! Our God is able to provide and will provide for every new baby He gives.

I think of this Scripture, Psalm 78:19-22: “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 His people? Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation.”

Unbelief, not believing Who God is! He is the God of the Bible! This God of the Bible . . . let’s just look over here in Deuteronomy 28. In this chapter, the blessing chapter, it says in Deuteronomy 28:3-5: “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle.” And it carries on with all the wonderful blessings.

But do you notice something? The first blessing is the “fruit of the womb.” Then God adds all these other blessings. “Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” Everything to provide for that fruit of the womb. If there was no fruit of the womb, there would be no necessity for them to have all these other blessings because there would be no one to use it for.

God provides when He gives a baby. Oh, I continually hear so many wonderful testimonies from couples. They say, “Oh, when God gave us a baby, He gave my husband a raise! When God gave us a baby, miraculously we were able to get this bigger vehicle!” And so on. God does these things because He is providing.

We go over to Numbers 14. This is where the spies went in to spy out the Promised Land. They came back. Oh, they couldn’t believe how amazing this land was! When they came back, it took two men to carry one bunch of grapes! Can you even imagine that? That’s how fruitful this land was.

But when they were there, they also saw giants in the land. So, most of the spies came back with this fearful report, this unbelieving report. It says here in Numbers 14:36-37: “And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.”

Here they came back, and instead of being full of faith, as Caleb was, Joshua and Caleb. Of course, Caleb had a different testimony. He said, “Oh yes, there are giants in the land. But they’re bread for us! We must go up at once and possess!” But the others, “Oh yes, it’s a beautiful land. It’s fruitful. It’s incredible. But there are giants there!” They came back full of unbelief.

Here, the King James calls it: “They brought up a slander upon the land.” This was the land that God chose for them. God chose it. The Bible says He went ahead and spied out the land for His people. He chose it and He gave it to His people. But they were too scared! They were too filled with unbelief to go in.

So, the Bible says: “They brought up a slander,” a slander, “upon the land.” In the Hebrew, that word “slander” means “defamation, infamy.” Yes, they defamed the land, even though it was a good land, even though it was flowing with milk and honey. They were filled with unbelief.

We have to watch, dear ladies, that we don’t bring a slander upon the land of motherhood. Sadly, I hear many women speaking slander against the land. They speak against motherhood in a despising way. They speak against motherhood in a negative way. They speak slander against the land. They speak so defamingly about even having children. Just lies about such things as having more children, and just look upon it with such, oh, that’s just so below me! That’s bringing a slander upon the land.

Now, who were the people who brought the slander back in this story? It was the princes of the land. Moses told them to choose a prince, a leader out of every tribe of Israel. It wasn’t some ordinary person. It was the best of every tribe. And yet, these leaders, yes, these leaders were the ones who brought back this slanderous report.

And very sadly, this is the same today. There are leaders in the church—pastors, ministers, elders—who speak disparagingly against the land. Young couples go for marriage counseling, and they counsel them to wait to have children. They counsel them to use contraception. They are not embracing the full truth of the land.

There are many older women who are doing the same. They’re bringing a slander to the young women instead of encouraging and teaching them the things God wants them to teach, teaching the young women how to love their husbands, and how to love motherhood, and how to love being a keeper at home, and so on.

God has mandated that the older women will teach the young women, teach this new generation. Now that doesn’t mean that they have to get meetings and stand up and speak to 100 or so many women. No, they can do this personally, encouraging the young mothers that are around them. Even their own young people who are growing up and getting married.

One of the sad things that happens is when I am sending out a new magazine. In fact, I am now just sending out the email to remind people to send in their change of address, because with every new magazine, we have to tidy up our mailing list. People are moving all the time. People are changing their addresses. It’s incredible. You wouldn’t believe just how many thousands of addresses that we change with people moving and so on.

But even today, I received an email from an older mother, saying the same thing that many say to me. “Thank you, Nancy. I’ve so enjoyed Above Rubies over the years.” This particular mother told about her lovely 12 children! And yet I couldn’t believe it when she said, “But they’re growing up now, so I’m going to cancel Above Rubies.”

I beg your pardon? Oh, she needed Above Rubies as her children were growing. But they’re growing up now. Now she needs it more! She’s got children! It’s a new generation! They’ve got to be taught. They must be trained. They must know the ways of God. Is she not even passing it on to her children? What about young mothers around her? What about the young mothers in the church that she knows? Doesn’t she care about them?

This is what I find. Most older women are thinking, “OK, I’ve finished! That’s motherhood over with now. They’re grown. I’m going on to my new life.” No, that’s not biblical. We are mothers until the day we die. God created us as females to be mothers. This is who we are.

Yes, we will do many, many things in life, of course. But who we essentially are, is a mother. This is our greatest career. When Adam spoke the words over his wife, he said: “She shall be called Eve, because she is the mother of all living.” When Adam spoke those words, there was not a mother on the earth. Eve was not yet a mother. Adam had never ever seen a mother. Neither Adam nor Eve had ever seen a baby. They didn’t know anything about motherhood.

And yet Adam is speaking these words. He is speaking under the unction of God. He is proclaiming prophetically the career that God placed upon His female creation. “She shall be Mother.” This is God’s plan for every woman, because not only has He created us physically to mother, with a womb, with breasts, but He has created us innately to mother.

So, mothers, women, because they’re female, will be mothering even before they ever have a baby from their womb, because they are innately anointed and created to be a nurturer. They will want to nurture, and to love, and to care for others in a motherly way. That’s who we are.

Our little girls do that from the time they are little. I was just watching the other night at our prayer meeting. When we have prayer meeting, it’s not just all the adults. The children come, and the little ones come. Even last night, it was so beautiful to see so many children all along as families. We are there as families.

But the other night, I was watching two little ones, two little girls, both about four and five. They had their little dolls, and they were nursing their dollies because they’re used to seeing their mothers nurse their babies. They were putting blankets on them, then they picked them up, and then they nursed them. They were intuitively doing this because it’s who they are as female.

Even women who are never able to conceive or have children, they are still mothering, because they have this nurturing, longing, and anointing in them. That’s why some of the greatest mothers who ever lived were women who didn’t even have children of their own. Like Mother Teresa and Mary Slessor, and all these great women of God who poured out their lives in nurturing, and cherishing, and mothering. They didn’t have their own flesh and blood, but they mothered so many more. You see, this is who we are. We dare not come against God’s plan. We dare not slander this whole, beautiful land of motherhood which He has given to women.

Another translation calls it “a whispering campaign against the land.” Another translation says: “spreading lies about the land.” We have to be very careful.

I was talking about the older women. There is a dearth. There is such a dearth of older women today. Where are they? Where are they? As their children are growing, they are totally vacating anything to do with motherhood, let alone taking up the mantle in a greater, greater way than they ever have before, because they have all these young women, and a new generation around them, waiting for them to teach God’s truth.

We, instead, have a generation growing up in deception. They do not know the ways of motherhood. Oh, in my prayer box, because we have lots of prayer boxes, in my ABOVE RUBIES PRAYER BOX, I picked up this week a card, “Pray for a great revival of older mothers to rise up and take up their mandate to teach the younger women.” Oh, it is so needed!  

Dare I say it? Yes, I have to say it, dear lovely ladies, because it’s the truth. Is every older mother who is not taking up this mantle to teach young mothers disobeying God? As I said before, it doesn’t mean that she has to be this great speaker, teaching women. No, it’s just in her day-to-day life and in the influence she has with her own family, and young mothers around her in the church. God has given her that mandate. He’s given it to every older mother. Oh, may we rise up into it. Amen?

We’re going to embrace the land and not ever, ever, ever slander it. Watch, dear mothers, older mothers, younger mothers, watch that you do not slander the land of motherhood, that you do not speak negatively about it. Because you’re speaking about a land that God has given to us as women.

No. 2. FEAR

Another thing that keeps us from possessing the land is fear. Perhaps that is one of the biggest ones of all. Fear. Oh, the fear of the unknown, the fear of, will be there be enough provision, the fear of having a baby. Or, of course, even if you’ve had many babies, the fear because something has happened. The fear of maybe you have something physically wrong with you. Help! How can I have another baby? Or whatever.

Sadly, the medical profession are fear mongerers. If you listen to the medical profession, I don’t think that anyone would ever have a baby! It seems that whatever is wrong with a person, well, “You’d better not have any more children because that could be the end of you!”

It isn’t true. Many listen to that and they stop having children. Many have chosen not to listen, but to trust God, and they have gone on to have another baby, completely safely and beautifully. You see, even if we have a difficult pregnancy, it doesn’t mean to say we’ll have the same again next time. Every pregnancy is different. Even if we have maybe a difficult birth, or something traumatic happens, that doesn’t mean to say it will happen again.

Even if you’ve had a c-section, often the medical profession will say, “Oh, well, can’t have any more babies,” or “You will have to have c-sections every time.” But that’s not true either. Hundreds and hundreds of women have gone on to have V-BACS, vaginal birth after c-section.

Because you see, God is a healing God. God is always healing our bodies. He heals our bodies on the outside, and He heals our bodies on the inside. If we have a cut, or even something quite serious, it will heal. God heals. Sometimes it takes time, but it heals. Broken bones heal.

Even if we have had a c-section, or something traumatic in the birth, or we’ve torn, or whatever, those things heal. Sometimes they take time, but they heal. We’re healing on the inside as we heal on the outside.

I believe it’s a beautiful thing for husbands to pray over their wives’ wombs, especially if you’ve been through something quite traumatic or you have a concern. Ask your husband to lay his hands upon your womb and pray God’s healing over you, to pray over your womb, to speak healing into your womb. Your husband is your covering and God hears him as your covering. That is a beautiful thing to do.

We look at Deuteronomy 9:1, 2: “Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims,” they were the giants. “Whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of Anak!”

So, they were fearful! How can they come against these cities that were taller and greater, and even fenced up to heaven it seemed like? They were giants, but God goes on to say in verse 3: “Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before thy face.”

You see, God is with us, dear ones. Yes, we face issues in our lives that are so much bigger than us. Yes, it's just like they saw these cities that were so great and tall and fenced up to heaven. And the people who were great and tall, and giants . . . Sometimes you’re facing a giant in your life! Oh, it's a giant! And the fear is creeping in.

I want to tell you God is bigger. God is bigger than any giant you face. He is your healer. He is your Restorer. He is your Deliverer. And He will go before you, and He is with you. You can trust Him.

Psalm 53:5: “There were they in great fear, where no fear was.” The margin of my Bible says: “They feared a fear.” I think this is so prevalent. This is what we often fear, ladies. When we look at it, come on, let’s get down to thin tacks. We really are fearing a fear!

Because someone has said something, and they put fear into you. But you don’t know that that’s going to happen. It’s not a reality! It is fearing a fear! This is what we’ve got to watch, that we don’t fear a fear. Yes! That’s a deception.

That’s what often happens when you go to the doctor. Oh, wow! They put that fear in you, but it’s not a reality. The fear of something, oh, it could happen, it might happen. Probably it won’t. And so, you fear that fear, and it takes over your life! No. We must not fear a fear. Listen to it again. “There they were, in great fear, where there was no fear.”

What did Job say? “The fear that I feared came upon me.” Fear is very powerful. What you fear can often come upon you, because of the power of fear. Fear is not of God, so we must resist these fears and put our trust in God. Amen?

No. 3. DISCOURAGEMENT

Now, the next one: Discouragement. Oh, that often keeps us from possessing the land.

Deuteronomy 1:28: “Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, the people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.”

So, once again, there it’s much the same as Deuteronomy 9. Not only did it fill them with fear, but now it’s filling them with discouragement. Did you read that word? They’ve discouraged us. Yes, discouraging words. Oh my, we have to be careful ourselves of speaking discouraging words into people, don’t we?

Because discouraging words can also lock us up. Fear locks us up. Did you know that fear locks you up so you cannot be free to be who you are? Fear locks you up so that you cannot even be free to do what God wants you to do. Or to embrace all that God has for you in His kingdom and in His land of motherhood. Discouragement is also a locking-up thing. We must watch that we don’t put it on others. We need to do the opposite, which is encouragement, not discouragement.

A WORD OF ENCOURAGMENT DOES WONDERS

Proverbs 12:25 in The Living Bible: “A word of encouragement does wonders.” Miracles. Amazing things! Oh, wow! It’s a wonderful Scripture that I love. When I read it years ago, I made it part of my life. “A word of encouragement does wonders.”

Lovely ladies, maybe you’re facing difficulties in your marriage, in your relationship with your husband. I want to tell you the secret: “A word of encouragement does wonders.” You can try it, even though you don’t feel like it. It’s the last thing you want to do is encourage your husband. You don’t feel there’s one thing you could even encourage him about. But if you ask the Lord, He’ll give you something.

There was a time when you loved him. You were in love. So, think of just one thing, and ask God for grace and help to say those words, to say a little word of encouragement. Every day, think of a new little word of encouragement to say. I guarantee you that you will see wonders if you will do it, and if you will continue it, because the Bible works.

The same with your children. If one you’re finding difficulty with, try that word of encouragement. It’s so powerful! It’s the opposite to discouragement. We’ve got to watch that we don’t discourage, but we encourage. Also, that when we are given discouraging words, that we don’t take them in and let them bind us up.

I see that time has gone, so we’re going to talk a little bit more about this next time when we get together. So, let’s pray now, shall we?

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. We’re always thanking You for Your Word. I thank You for Your Word every day, because this is how we know how to live. We thank You that You show us the way.

“I pray for every precious older mother listening today. I pray that You will encourage her, and that You will give her a vision to take up her mantle as an older mother. I pray that You’ll show her how You want her to do this. That You’ll bring alongside her a young mother, or young mothers that she can encourage and show the way.

“Especially encouragement. Lord, I pray that You will help her as she encourages her own daughters and daughters-in-law. I pray, Lord, for the young moms, and the middling moms. Lord, bless every mother today. Encourage them, bless them, strengthen them.

“I pray, Lord, as they face these temptations of fear and discouragement, that You will help them to see that they don’t come from You. They come from the enemy, and they will resist them in the Name of Jesus.

“Oh, God, I pray today for the strengthening of motherhood in this nation. I pray, Lord God, for the young generation of mothers. Lord God, we’ve got to reach them. We pray that You will help us to reach them, Lord. I pray that You will give women such a vision to, Lord God, to get, Lord, not just their one magazine, but many magazines, so they can have them to give out, and give to young moms. Lord, that we can spread the word of Your truth across the nation. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 224: WHAT DOES GOD WANTS US TO DO IN THE LAND? Part 1

Today we begin a new series of what God wants us to do in the land of motherhood. We did a series of 20 descriptions of THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD. Now we will discover what we should do in the land. The first is to POSSESS the land. We don’t only put our toes in it but walk right through it, discovering all “the mountains, and the valleys, and the plains, and the springs, and the wilderness.”

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Lovely to be with you again! Currently I have been working on the new magazine, Above Rubies #100. Because it is No. 100, I decided to do something special. This magazine has articles in it only written by members of the family. That is three generations, of course, starting with Colin and myself. Then some of our children, and some of our grandchildren. We didn’t have room for everyone to write. Oh my, I think maybe only less than a quarter, there are so many in the family now. But they’re all wonderful articles.

It is now with the design artist, being prepared. But I have many challenges, because of all the shortages that this government is programming, there is much paper shortage throughout this country. I have worked with a printing company for many, many years, and it has been so great to work with them. But this time, when I came to get to get my quote, it was beyond anything I could imagine!

While I was away in England, the quote came in, but I missed it. It was for $39,000 to print. So then, I asked for another quote when I got back, and I couldn’t believe it! That was $49,000! I said, “Oh, this is beyond it!” I waited another week, thinking maybe I would get a better quote. The next week, it was $55,000! Just going up by the week! I thought, “Well, I can’t do this.”

I began to look around at other printers to find that so many printers have a paper shortage. Sometimes it’s no paper until December. Then, I found a printer who gave me a pretty good quote. Also, they have paper right now. I accepted this quote, because otherwise I can’t imagine when I would get this magazine printed.

However, the challenge I have is because he doesn’t know me, he wants everything up front. I’m used to not going to print until I have the money ready to print. But then, something happens. We print the magazine. Then I’ve got to send it out all across this nation, and then send it out to all the countries of the world. That takes up all the money I had for printing!

But then I trust the Lord that as it goes out into the nation, that those who have a burden and a longing to see families strengthened in the nation, see marriages come back together, see homes strengthened, will give. And the money comes in. By the time I get the bill, I’m usually able to pay. But, this time, I have to have all the money up for printing, which is more than we have ever had to pay before, plus all the money up for the shipping, because this company also ships it out.

So, that’s going to be a miracle. But I’m trusting the Lord. I think I will need about $80,000. I am trusting that God will enable us. Maybe you would even like to give, to help us get out this issue, No. 100, into the nations.

NEW GENERATION OF MOTHERS

Oh, I believe that the need for this message for family, and for strengthening motherhood, and for wooing women back to the home is needed far more than any time in history. In fact, far more than when I started this magazine 45 years ago. This month, September, I have been producing Above Rubies for 45 years!

Now, when I began the magazine, I was feeling the pressure of feminism coming against families. But now, 45 years later, I have to confess it is greater. We’re facing more challenges. We are now facing the rebellion of same-sex marriage, even transgenderism, and greater threats against the family as God instituted it, than ever before! Even for this new generation of mothers. Oh my, we have to get the magazine out to them! So many of them don’t even know it exists! I have been producing it for previous generations but there’s a new generation. We need to get it out to them.

So, if the Lord touches your heart, send it to Above Rubies. You can go to the website, and you can see how to donate. Also, you may know young mothers that need to get this magazine. You’re welcome to send in their names and addresses to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will be so happy to send it to them.

We do need to get truth out to this generation which are totally brainwashed with deception. Coming up through the education system, and all the ways of the humanistic media and society all around us, they are hearing everything that is negative against motherhood. They need to hear the truth. So, lovely ladies, can you join with me in helping to get out this issue? Also, to get it out to many young moms who have never, ever heard about it.

Now, I know that some of you will be saying to me, “Well, Nancy, why don’t you just make it digital? It will save all the expense of printing.” Yes, I know. I will eventually go digital, but I don’t believe the time is just yet. We still have so many precious Amish mothers, and Mennonite mothers, and Hutterite mothers who love to get the magazine. They are not digital.

There are also so many other mothers, who yes, they’ve got their iPhones, but they don’t want to be plagued by reading everything on their iPhone. I’m the same. I work on my computer pretty well much of the day as I’m writing articles, preparing magazines, and so on. But I don’t live by my iPhone. Yes, I have an iPhone, but if I was to live like people expect me, I just can’t imagine what life would be like! I would have to be looking at my iPhone all day to find out what was happening.

I’m constantly getting people say to me, “Oh, Nancy, did you hear this was on? Or didn’t you know about that?” No, I didn’t know because I’m not looking at my iPhone all day long. How do people live when they’re looking at their iPhones all day?

I actually have to admit I have missed three weddings because I didn’t see the wedding e-vite. In fact, I feel so sad. When I think of a wedding day, a marriage commitment, something that is a covenant for life, so sacred, so powerful, and yet we just have an e-vite to the wedding? Wow! I think it needs more than that. It seems as though gone are the days when people would send out and mail out an invitation. But I think a wedding is worth that, don’t you?

Even just this last weekend, a lovely couple were putting on a celebration for their wedding anniversary. They put out an e-vite, but the lady called me. She said, “Nancy, I’m telling you about it, because I know you won’t see it, so I’m making sure you know.”

I was so grateful about that, because there are so many, I think, like me, who don’t want to have their lives ruled all day long by iPhones. We want to read something. You won’t be able to read it . . . Oh, yes, you can read it on your iPhone, but there’s something about holding a book, or holding a magazine.

Mothers can sit on a rocking chair, nursing their babies, and read Above Rubies and be encouraged. Yes, they could look at their iPhone, but why have an iPhone right next to your little baby? Do you think that’s healthy? I don’t think so. Keep your iPhones away when you’re nursing your baby.

I think it’s so lovely to have some paper. You can hold and see it more clearly and relax more. So, ladies, I’m not quite ready to go totally digital, OK? Of course, I do send out emails and I do a Facebook post every day to encourage wives and mothers. You can be blessed by those.

But I feel that this issue must be printed. Maybe even the next issue. We’ll see how we go. Even though down the line we’ll most probably go digital. Most probably everything will eventually. In the meantime, I’ll hang on to some paper and to some books! I wonder if anyone can say “amen” with me?

I don’t really like to have my iPhone all over me all day. In fact, even at night, if I take it into my bedroom, I will turn it on to airplane mode and make sure it’s at least an arm’s length away from me as I go to sleep for the night. I don’t want to get all the vibes as I’m sleeping.

Yet I know so many young people, they have their iPhones right beside them all night. That is not healthy! Then they have them in their back pockets. That’s not healthy! In fact, I have to watch my husband. I will find his iPhone in his pocket. I say, “Darling, don’t you realize, you’re just losing all your T!” Now, that’s not a good thing to happen. I’m always trying to stop him from doing that. But of course, where do you put it? That’s the problem. But anyway, I think we do have to still watch iPhones.

OK, I trust you can be with me in this vision. God has been so good, so faithful. He has provided for 45 years, by God touching hearts to give, because they have such a vision for family, and for God’s heart.

The very first institution that God mandated was marriage and family. This is how He wants us to live. Of course, satan hates everything of God’s plan. He is totally against God’s plan for marriage and for family, so he comes to attack it in every way.

I should say, too, that all money, all donations that come in for Above Rubies go completely to the printing of Above Rubies. Colin and I do not take anything from Above Rubies. It is totally separate from our financial lives where we trust the Lord for our day-to-day. But we don’t take from Above Rubies. Also, all the money that comes in for books that I have written, or other books that I sell, it all goes to the printing of the magazine.

So, if the Lord touches your heart to help get this message out, you can know that it goes straight to printing, just to pay that printing bill and shipping bill to get it out into this nation, and the nations of the world.

All right, ladies, we are now moving on to sort of a new series. But it’s a continuation, actually. I recently did with you a series on THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD. We talked about 20 different descriptions of this beautiful, delightful, good land of motherhood.

But now, I want to take you on to the next part, which is, WHAT DO WE DO IN THE LAND? OK, we found out how God describes it, but what does He want us to do in the land? So, once again, I have gone back to the Word of God to see what God says they were to do in the land that He gave them.

Because we’re taking it from the type of the land that God gave to His people, the land of Israel, which He gave to them for an everlasting possession. There is so much now that He tells us about what we’re to do. It’s all a type. It’s a type, firstly, of how we’re to live in the kingdom of God. We now live in this land of the kingdom that He has brought us into. We need to know how to live in this land.

It’s also a type of the glorious land of His precious Word that He’s given us, that He wants us to know, so we can walk in the fullness of all that He has for us. But we are taking these same types into the land of motherhood, because it is a land, it’s the land where we live. It’s the sphere of life where we live.

First of all, before we start these ten points, because I have ten different points in this series, I want to take you to Joshua, because this is right at the beginning of the children of Israel going into the land. Even before they go in, God encourages them. God always encourages us in that which He has for us. He didn’t just tell them, “OK, you’ve got to go into this land!” No, He encouraged them.

We go to Joshua, chapter one. We see here, in this one chapter, the first chapter, we see four times God spoke these same words.

Joshua 1:6: “Be strong and of a good courage.” These were the words He spoke to Joshua as He commanded Joshua to take the children of Israel in to possess the land.  

Then we go to Joshua 1:7. And He repeats it again: “Only be thou strong and very courageous.” This time, God doesn’t only say: “Be strong and have courage,” He says: “Be VERY courageous.” There’s another adjective. I often remind you of how God loves adjectives. He needs adjectives to describe what He wants to tell us because everything God tells us is above the normal.

He’s telling Joshua and the people here, “You can’t just be full of courage. No, you’ve got to be very courageous! You’re going in to face giants! But be very courageous.” God says these same words to you, dear mother.

Now, maybe there are some listening who are only just entering this land of motherhood. This is a special word for you. “Be strong and very courageous.” Many who are listening, you’ve been in this land for many, many years. But we still need these words, don’t we? We need them daily.

“Be strong and very courageous,” because the land of motherhood is not just some little wimpy thing. No, it’s full of challenges. Of course, that’s what makes it so exciting and that’s what gives us so much opportunity to overcome, because this is what this life is all about. It’s about overcoming.

In Revelation, it talks about all the promises that are for the overcomers. It’s the overcomers who receive the rewards. When the children of Israel went into the land, how did God describe it? It was a land of hills and valleys and mountains and deserts. It wasn’t all plain sailing.

There were mountains they had to climb. There were deserts they had to go through, even in the Promised Land! They’d come out of the wilderness, but when they went into the Promised Land, there were still deserts. We’ve still got deserts in Israel today in the Negev. It’s a desert. There are mountains, and there are hills, and there are valleys. There are all these different things that we have to face.

We face these in our daily motherhood too. Every day is a new challenge! “Wow! A new challenge! Help! I haven’t faced this before! What am I going to do now?” Well, “Be strong, and be VERY courageous” . . . That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.”

Verse 8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” What a wonderful verse that is! I memorized that Scripture as a young person, and it’s still with me today.

It’s a wonderful Scripture to encourage your children and your young people to memorize so it gets into their very being. It will go with them through life, because what does it say at the end? “For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” I know that you want your children to be prosperous and be successful in life. Well, here it tells us what to do: “to meditate in His Word, day and night.” So, get that Word into your children, into your young people.

Now we go to verse 9. The third time God says these words: “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage.” He carries on: “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

Precious moms, as you face these challenges each day, take this promise: the Lord is with you wherever you go, whatever room in your house you have to go, wherever you are. Most probably you are mainly in your kitchen, in your dining room, in the center of your home, in the heart of your home.

But this is where God has placed you. In this place, God is with you! No matter what you face, no matter the trial, no matter the difficulty, no matter what wisdom you need, God is with you. All you need is in Him. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You have it all in Him, and He’s right with you, right with you now, right with you every day. As you’re with your children, training them, nurturing them, loving them, teaching them, He is with you.

And then we go to the last verse, verse 18. God gives these words for the fourth time. It ends with these words: “Only be strong and of a good courage.” Precious mothers, these were the words that God gave as they went into the land. These are the words that God gives you in your land of motherhood. “Be strong and very courageous.”

Motherhood is not for wimps. No. It’s for those who are strong and very courageous. Not in our own strength, because relying on our own strength, we will fail. But we can rely on His strength and His promises that He is with us. Amen.

No. 1. POSSESS THE LAND

All right. Let’s look at point number one: you have to possess the land. There are nearly 40 references to going in to possess the land in the Scriptures. I’ll just read a couple here, and I will put all the references in the transcript for you.

Deuteronomy 1:8: “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land.”

Verse 21: “Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it.” The word “possess” means “to inherit, to seize it, to occupy it.” It’s even translated “enjoy.”

So, as we come into the land of motherhood, or even if you’ve been in it for a few years, or many, many years, we must have the attitude of embracing this land. This is how we possess it. We embrace it. We go after it. We’re going to conquer it. This is what it means to possess it.

WALK THROUGH THE LAND

Let me take you to a few Scriptures here. We can read Genesis 13. In this passage, this was after Abram, he wasn’t Abraham yet. He was still Abram. Abram had separated from Lot. God said to him, in verses 14-17: “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. 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. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.”

God gave that promise of the land, a land that his descendants would not occupy, would not possess for many, many, many years later. In fact, time would go on, and then Abraham will, no, not until his descendants, not even until Isaac and until Jacob . . . then Jacob went down to Egypt, and he was there with his descendants for over 400 years.

Then God brought them out with a mighty deliverance, and then they were in the wilderness for 40 years before God took them into the Promised Land. When God gave this promise to Abraham, it was hundreds of years before his descendants were living it.

But God said to Him, “I have already given it to you, Abraham. It is yours. I’m giving it to you for an everlasting covenant. But I want you to walk through it, every part of it. Just get the feel of it. I want you to know the land that I’m giving to your descendants.” So, we see that God wanted him to walk through the land, westward, eastward, northward, southward.

OK, let’s go over to Joshua 18. All right, now this was after Joshua had taken the children of Israel into the Promised Land, and had already conquered many, many enemies. But there was still land to be possessed.

Joshua 18:3: “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?” Do you notice that God always adds that? “I have given you the land.” Even though they hadn’t possessed it all, it was all given to them. It belonged to them by divine decree.

But there was still land to possess. So, Joshua said, “OK, I want you to choose three men from each tribe. If they shall rise up,” and verse 4 says: “and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them.” This was his plan. OK, we come down here a little more.

Go down to verse 8: “And the men arose.” That was three men from each tribe. “. . . And went away: and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land.” The same words that He said to Abraham. “Walk through the land.” And this time He adds something else. “. . . And describe it, and come again to me.”

Verse 9: “And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh.” Because this is where they were all encamped. This was their headquarters. Shiloh was where they established the tabernacle when they came into the Promised Land.

These men went out. They walked through the land, and they had books with them, so they could write everything in a book. Where were the mountains, and where the valleys were; where the cities were, and so they came back. It was all faithfully described in the book.

I love that. I like to take that thought with me when I come to the Word of God each day. To me, coming into the Word is like walking through the land, walking through the land of the kingdom. Because it’s in His Word that He describes the kingdom to us.

Yes, ladies, the kingdom of God is not only written about in the New Testament. We read a lot about Jesus talking about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But no, the kingdom of God is also in the Old Testament. It’s right through the whole of Word of God.

In fact, at the end of Acts 28:30-31: “And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, what was he doing? “Preaching the kingdom of God.”

But, ladies, he didn’t have the New Testament. It wasn’t even written when he was doing that. He was preaching it from the Old Testament. The whole Bible reveals the revelation of the kingdom of God.

So, when I come to it each morning, and I open the Word, and I begin to walk through the land, I also have my book beside me, so I can describe, so I can write down what God is telling me, what new understanding and revelations He’s giving me about the land, the land of the kingdom which I am to live in.

Even the land of motherhood. Yes, there’s so much about family and motherhood in His Word. Often, we don’t even know it because we haven’t walked through the land. We walk through His book to find out.

Let’s give you one more Scripture as we close. I want to give you Psalm 48:12-13. I’ll read it from the New English Translation. “Walk around Zion. Encircle it. Count its towers. Consider its defenses. Walk through its fortresses so you can tell the next generation.”

EXPLORE THE WHOLE LAND

So, lovely ladies, when we come into this land, we don’t just put our toes in it.

We put our whole being into it!

We don’t just stay on the border of the land of motherhood.

We walk through it!

We explore it.

We’re going to get into every part of it.

It’s so sad that so many, even young mothers today, because they’re being so brainwashed through the public school system and through our humanistic society, they have been programmed with so much negativity about marriage, about motherhood, about family. They’ve been programmed in all this alternative junk and deception.

But they fall in love, and they get married. Well, they put their toes in. Oh, because they’ve got married. But yes, now in this land of motherhood, well, yes, you have children in this land of motherhood. “Oh, but I don’t want anything to do with that, so, OK, well, I’ve got my feet out here in my career, because that’s where I’m living!”

They’ve got their little toes just in, hardly on the border of motherhood. They don’t experience it. They’re living in another world. But God wants us to come into it and possess it! Embrace it with all our hearts! It’s only as we come into it and embrace it that we begin to live in the joy and the delight and the fullness of it.

Well, ladies, time has gone again. So, we’re going to continue this series next session. Come on in and tell other mothers about it. Young moms, would you tell other young moms? Oh, because they just so need to know what God says.

“Dear Father, we thank You with all our hearts that You have given us a land. Lord, You’ve given it to us. You’ve given us the land of motherhood. It’s a land that You planned for us from the very beginning of time.

“Lord, I pray that You will help us to come fully into the land, and to embrace it with all our hearts, that we will not have one foot in the land, and our other foot out in this other world. But that, no, we’ll have both feet in where You want us to be. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

GOD HAS GIVEN YOU THE LAND:

Deuteronomy 1:8, 20, 25, 35, 39; 2:29; 3:12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20; 4:1, 21, 38, 40; 5:16; 6:10-12, 23; 7:13; 9:6; 8:10, 23; 10:11; 11:9, 17, 21, 31; 12:1, 9, 10; 15:4, 7; 16:20; 18:9; 19:1-3, 8, 10, 14, 21:1, 23; 24:4; 25:15, 19; 26:1-3, 9, 15; 27:2, 3; 28:8, 11, 52; 30:20; 31:7; 32:49; 34:4,52; Joshua 24:15; and Jeremiah 16:15.