PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 353: DO WE THINK LIKE GOD THINKS?
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 353: DO WE THINK LIKE GOD THINKS?
God’s vision is as big as the stars in the heavens, the dust of the earth, and the sand upon the seashore—all of them too impossible to count! And then we talk about changing the nation by prayer from the heart of your home.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re together again, and I am finishing off “IT WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS AWAY.” Last week we finished off the 19 different points of the ways God wants us to be fruitful. God uses 19 different Hebrew words to describe His people multiplying.
I don’t know whether there is another subject in the Word of God that uses so many Hebrew words to describe it. It is truly amazing. But we haven’t finished yet. God also used pictures to describe it. We’re going to look at those today.
No. 1. STARS OF THE SKY
God promised that the children of Israel would be like the stars of the heavens, which cannot be numbered for multitude. We’ll read Genesis 15:5: “And He brought [Abraham] forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell (or count) the stars, if thou be able to number them (which he couldn’t) and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
In Genesis 22:17, it says: “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven.” Now how many times did God give this description? Did He give it three times? Did He give it six times? No, God gave this description 11 times in His Word. I will give you all the Scriptures in the transcript so you can get them.
Even over to the New Testament we read, in Hebrews 11:11-12: “It was by faith that Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep His promise, so a whole nation came forth from this one man, who was as good as dead. A nation with so many people, that like the stars in the sky, there is no way to count them.”
No. 2. DUST OF THE EARTH
He describes them as “the dust of the earth,” which is absolutely impossible to count.
Let’s read Genesis 13:16: “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Of course, we know that’s impossible to count. That’s another description that God gave. He gave this four different times in His Word.
No. 3. THE SAND ON THE SEASHORE
We all know it’s impossible to count the grains of sand. Genesis 32:12: “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” I will give you the other references. God describes it that way six times in His Word.
No. 4. THE GRASS OF THE EARTH
Job 5:25: “You will have many children. Your descendants will be as plentiful as grass.”
No. 5. THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS
Genesis 24:60: “And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her . . . be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.” The phrase “thousands of millions” speaks of that which cannot be numbered.
I wonder if young brides getting married today would love to have that blessing on their wedding day? Maybe they wouldn’t like to have it. But Rebekah was so blessed to receive that blessing that they put upon her. “Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed (thy children) possess the gates of those which hate them.”
I would love to have that promise. I long that down the generations our family will continue to bring forth the godly seed, not only little numbers, but great numbers, to fill the earth with His truth, and with His glory.
Some more Scriptures. Numbers 10:35-36: “Then it came about, when the ark set out, that Moses said, ‘Rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered.’ When it came to rest, he said, ‘Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel.’”
Deuteronomy 1:11: “The Lord your God make you a thousand times, so many more as He promised you.” I’ll give other references in the transcript.
No. 6. LIKE A FLOCK
Psalm 107:41: “Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” This is how God describes the family that He wants to bring forth. He sees them as little flocks. Now a flock is not really two children, or our 1.9, which is the average number of children in America today for each family. No, that is not a flock.
Of course, a flock is not huge like in New Zealand where I come from, where farmers have literally thousands and thousands of sheep out on the paddocks, as we call them. What do you call them here? The pasture.
But in the Middle East, over in Israel, they l have little flocks. The shepherd will go ahead of his flock. You can see the Bedouin shepherds often walking along through the desert with their little flock behind them. Maybe six, maybe ten, maybe fifteen, maybe whatever. But they’re not thousands and thousands. At least they are a flock. They’re not just one or two. God wants to see our families like a flock.
We see this prophetic word also in Ezekiel 36:37-38: “I will multiply their people like sheep, like the sheep for offering, like the sheep of Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
I think it’s speaking specifically there of the heartland of Israel, which is yet to be totally possessed. So much of the heartland is still stones and dirt, waiting to be possessed. There are still more and more Israelis that need to go out to that heartland to farm the land, to build the cities.
These promises are in the Word of God, that the cities will be built. The vineyards will be sown. It will flower and bring forth great fruit out of that stony ground. But it says that they’ll be filled with flocks of people, so there are still more people to come out to this heartland. We need to pray those Scriptures into being.
Let’s read in Daniel 7:9-10, a beautiful description there. It’s speaking of God, the Ancient of Days, “whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” There are going to be thousands and thousands and thousands which cannot be numbered.
Revelation 5:11-12: “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” We can hardly take in those numbers, can we? But that’s God’s heart. God’s heart is not just for a little tiny few. His heart is for a big family.
We read in Hebrews 2:10 of how Jesus came to bring “many sons unto glory.” Here we read this picture in Revelation of the “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” These are more of the descriptions God has for the ultimate plan for His people.
NUMBER 6. PRAY FOR YOUR CITY AND YOUR NATION
Now we must go on to our point number six from our passage in Jeremiah 29:7. Let’s read it, shall we? It comes straight after “increase and do not diminish.”
“Seek the peace of the city, whither I have called you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof shall you have peace.”
Point No. 6, dear ladies, is to pray. There are quite a few thoughts about this. Well, I know that you've heard me speak to you about prayer so many times. But I have to talk about it again, because this is the point we are up to of the seven points that God wanted His people to do in Babylon.
They are still the same things He wants us to do today, and He says, did you get it ladies? He says that if we pray for our city and our nation, we will have peace. We want peace, don’t we? But we won’t have it without prayer.
Let me encourage you again. We always need to be encouraged. I need to be encouraged. Every one of us needs to be reminded about prayer because it is the easiest thing in the world to give up. Because life is so full, life is busy, life is filled with everything. If we don’t make it a priority in our home, everything else will crowd it out.
That’s why I believe we have to make set times. If you don’t make set times, dear mothers, it won’t happen. We have to make set times for ourselves personally. I have always made it a habit in my life, although there have been seasons, of course, when it hasn’t worked out. I’d been having so many babies and so on in all those days.
It’s always been my precedence to try to begin the day with the Lord. I get up and have my personal time in the Word and in prayer with the Father. Then we have our family devotions. I love our family devotions.
I cannot encourage you enough to make these set times in your homes. Unless you do, they’ll never happen. I find that in our home, I have to make these set times and everything else in our family life will go around them. If I was to try to just fit it in with everything else we’ve got going on, we’d never fit it in! We make that time.
After breakfast, it’s family devotions time where we come together. We hear the Word, we pray, and we worship. What a blessing to pray! We pray mainly for others. I think your personal time is more time to pray, if you have needs, to pray for yourself. But during family devotions we pray for the nation. We pray for Israel. We pray for the persecuted church. We pray for the needs of the world.
Of course, at this time, we’re praying so much for our nation. In the last four years, we prayed so extensively for our nation along with thousands of others across this nation. God answered our prayers. He saved us from going down a communistic, destructive path. If Trump had not won this election, we would already be going down a communist path. We were so blessed to be saved from that. We should never stop thanking God.
But now that Trump has come to that place of presidency, it’s still a fight. There is still a great fight against the enemy. It is a strong and powerful enemy. If you watched that speech that Trump gave the other night to the two houses of Congress, they were all there. It was so sad to see the democratic party, to see their hate for this nation.
There was no heart. There was no compassion, and even when Trump spoke about the good things that he is doing for this nation, there was resistance. When he spoke about people who had lost their children, and different things like that, there was no response. They could not care about anything. All they want is this destructive path.
Trump can do what he can, but really, it’s the prayers of God’s people that will really win the day. I know I’m speaking to people who love the Lord, who I know are praying families. I’m sure most of you have that worship, prayer, and Bible time with your family each day. But if it’s lagging, can I encourage you to keep going? Make it happen. If you've never started, well, just get started. Begin the morning and evening devotions. We do it after breakfast and we do it after our evening meal.
It’s amazing how the devil robs us of the most important things in our lives. I know the devil does not want prayer because prayer is so powerful. Prayer stops the enemy in his tracks. Prayer brings down evil. That’s not the plan of the enemy. If he can get families sidetracked, and today so many things we do for our families—often all that time when you would normally be in the home preparing the meal for the family, ready to sit down together to eat as a family, which is so important, and then to read the Word and pray together. But often so many families are out on the sports field, or still driving home, just grabbing some fast food. Nothing is set up for gathering the family together to pray.
The devil’s laughing. “Yippie! I’ve got them out of that prayer time again!” The more he gets you out of prayer time, the better he likes it. We’ve got to seek to make those prayer times.
Even in our churches, it doesn’t really happen much today. Churches have worship, and they have great preaching and teaching. But how much do they pray? How much time do they set aside for prayer? How many prayer meetings do they have a week?
I think of that Scripture in 1 Timothy 2:1-2: “I exhort therefore that first of all” (the first thing you do when you come together) “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, for those in leadership, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, who would have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth.”
This is why we pray. This is why we are meant to pray, even in our churches. The first thing we do is to spend time praying for our leaders, praying for the nation, that we may have peace and lead this quiet and peaceable life that comes through prayer.
So, ladies, I’d like to exhort you at this time, to encourage you. I’m sure many of you are, but can I ask you, how much are you praying for President Trump, and for his cabinet ministers, and for those who are in authority, and those who are seeking to put away the evil in our nation and to bring it back to righteousness?
And to expose the evil, expose the fraud, to expose all the terrible things that have been going on which need to be exposed and brought to justice. They’re having a hard time doing it because it’s a powerful enemy. But we must pray. It’s the prayers of God’s people that will break through.
Now, can I ask you another question? Do you know the names of the people in Trump’s cabinet? If you don’t know them, how can you pray for them? Can I encourage you to go on the internet and look up Trump’s cabinet ministers? Print them off.
I don’t know whether you have prayer boxes in your home. I couldn’t do without prayer boxes. We have our prayer boxes. We have nine or ten of them on different subjects. We have our prayer box for President Trump and the nation. Now we have all the cabinet ministers in that box so that we are praying for them.
They can do everything they want to do, but without the power of God, without the anointing of God, without the backing of prayers of God’s people, what can they accomplish? We want them to accomplish these good things. We want evil to be eradicated. We want the evil that’s been going on to be exposed and brought to justice. It will only happen through prayer. Can I encourage you? Imagine if every family listening today will begin to pray, morning and evening, for Trump and for these people. Amazing things will happen.
I’m not going to give all of the cabinet to you today, but can I just mention a few? Make sure you're praying for these. You should pray for them all, but of course, pray for J. D. Vance, the vice-president. It’s wonderful to see he is so open in acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, and how he is so bold to speak about his love for the Bible and standing for righteousness. But we need to keep praying for him. We need to pray for the safety of Trump and Vance.
We need to pray for Mike Huckabee. He’s the ambassador to Israel. He used to be the governor of Arkansas and he’s a wonderful evangelical Christian. He loves Israel and it’s amazing that Trump appointed him. He’s the right one for Israel. Pray that God will give him such anointing as he deals with the difficulties over there in Israel that they face constantly.
Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense. He's now over the military, which has, oh, our military is so sad. It’s become so weak and defenseless. Most of the people who are in top positions are gay or transgender. It’s unbelievable. This has to be rooted out. It has to become a true, strong, brave military again. Pray for Pete Hegseth as he seeks to purge out the military.
Pray for Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, which is such a very powerful position on behalf of the president, going to the different countries of the world and seeking to bring peace in those countries. He needs such wisdom and anointing in doing this.
Tom Homan, the border czar. Oh wow, this is a great guy. He’s full of courage and boldness, but he needs such help. He needs God’s help and strategies as he seeks to protect the border which has been overrun, of course, completely. Our land now is filled with millions of murderers and prisoners and all kinds of people and gangs. All those who are illegal, he’s got to get out somehow. So, pray for him.
Kristi Noem was the governor of South Dakota. Now she’s Secretary of Homeland Security, an important position. And, of course, we do have to pray for Elon Musk, don’t we? We need to pray for his salvation.
I think we should also pray for the salvation of Melania, Trump’s wife, and for Usha, JD Vance’s wife. J. D. Vance confesses Jesus as his Lord and Savior, but Usha is a Hindu. Let’s pray. Such a beautiful woman but let’s pray she finds Jesus.
Elon Musk has changed so much, but we need to pray that he finds Jesus and has a true encounter with Him. Pray for him because he is doing a great job as he is investigating all the fraud that’s been happening in the nation. And so many others. You can look them all up. But those are some of the main ones. Get to know who they are. Get a prayer box with their names in it and start praying for them. Teach your children who they are and get them to pray for them.
OK, so you're not only going to pray in your home. What about prayer meetings, where you gather with other people? Are you part of a prayer meeting, praying for the nation? Well, if you're not, if you don’t know of one around you, why not start one yourself? Just start it in your home. Call a couple of other families, and say, “Hey, come and pray with us. Just one night a week. Let’s get together and pray for the nation.”
Oh, it’s a wonderful thing. We have two prayer meetings a week for the nation here on the Hilltop. We have one at our place on Monday night and one at Serene and Sam’s on Wednesday night. They’re such powerful times. We don’t come together to eat. We eat before we come, and we get together. We worship and then we pray.
We get stuck into prayer, and it’s not only adults. The families come, right down to the little ones. And the little babies, and the pregnant mommies. Oh, it’s so beautiful to see these little ones, and then the ones who are just getting a little older. Even the five and six-year-olds. I was looking at my little granddaughter, Solly. She’s just seven. I think she’s seven now. I can’t believe where the time has gone. But oh, to see her with her hands waving, worshipping the Lord, and then being part of the prayer.
These children are part of the prayer meeting. Don’t leave your children at home. We don’t put them to bed because it’s a prayer meeting going on. You let them be part of it. We often have 30, 40, or more at our prayer meetings. Prayer meetings should be filled with people praying. If you don’t know one that’s around, well, start one. Don’t you think that’s a great idea?
And, of course, pray for revival. I do believe that as things continue to happen, and the fraud and the evil, and the hidden things that have been going on will be exposed in our nation, and brought to justice, it’s going to make a greater atmosphere for revival. We need to see a revival in the church, but a revival that also affects society. That’s what I long for.
I can remember, because we do come from New Zealand, that there was a time in New Zealand where we look back. We believe we were living in revival days. It was so incredible; the presence of God was do mighty in our midst. Every week, every Sunday, people would come to the Lord and be baptized. There was hardly a Sunday when people weren’t getting saved and baptized. During the week, they were coming to the Lord and being baptized.
It was an incredible time. And yet, even though that was wonderful, I have never yet seen a revival that’s really affected society. This is what I pray for. I was just reading to Colin the other night. I was reading him the account of the Welsh revival that happened with Evan Roberts in Wales.
There have been so many glorious revivals throughout the world. Of course, there was the Hebrides revival in the West Islands of Scotland. A couple of years ago, Colin and I, with others, went out to the Isle of Lewis and went into the very church where that revival started. That was an amazing experience. It was such an incredible revival where the presence of God came down and was felt by everyone.
But then I was reading to him about the Welsh revival because Colin and I were also very blessed. One time when we were in Wales, we were not far from that church where that revival began. We had the privilege of going into that very church, sitting on the very seat where Evan Roberts was and where the power of God came upon him and this revival began. There was something about being in a place where mighty revivals happened.
But I was reading to him how it not only affected the church. Evan Roberts believed for 100,000 souls to be saved. Within a year, they say there were 150,000 souls saved and that was a very conservative number. That was in a time when they didn’t have the populations they have today.
It so affected society that the pubs were closed! There was nobody in the pubs, and magistrates went to work and there were no cases for them to deal with. Can you imagine that? There was not a case for them to deal with! The whole of society was converted to the Lord. How amazing!
If that happened there, it could happen again. In fact, what happened on the day of Pentecost? Three thousand souls came to the Lord in a day. The Bible talks about the early and the latter rains, and how in Israel the early rain came, but then there was another rain, which was a bigger rain. The Bible talks about the early and the latter rain spiritually, how there is a greater spiritual harvest to come, even greater than in the early church (James 5:7). That’s what I am praying for, as we pray at home, and as we pray at our prayer meetings.
Oh, let’s all pray for a mighty, mighty revival. I’m just thinking, maybe I’m going overtime, but oh, I was really a little bit naughty. When I was courting Colin, I was so longing to be married. I remember praying, “Lord God, I do long for Your coming, but please, would You mind just waiting until I get married?” Anyway, the Lord answered my prayer.
But then, I was a little bit naughty again, and I wanted to have my first baby. I said, “Lord God, oh, I am looking for Your coming” because the Bible says that He’s coming for those who look for Him. And I do desire His coming. I desire the eternal world. But I said, “Lord, could I just have my first baby?” And He answered my prayer again.
Oh, and then came the time when it was time for grandchildren. I said “Oh Lord, here I am. I have had all these children and now it’s time for grandchildren. Can I just see my first grandbaby?” Well, I’ve got 50 grandchildren now and over 30 great-grandchildren! But now I’m saying to the Lord, “Oh God, I’m ready for Your coming, but if You would just let me, I would love to see a mighty world-wide revival that affects society. How I long to see that!” Well, I hope God answers my prayer!
Time to pray.
“Lord God, we thank You that You have given prayer into our hands. Lord, You don’t need us, and you don’t even need our prayers. And yet You have ordained that You work according to our prayers. And prayer, Lord. You long for us to come into Your presence. You want us to ask You for the things that You’ve promised.
“Lord, in Your Word, You give the promises. At the end of Ezekiel 36, God promises so many promises to Israel, and then He says, “I want you to ask Me for these things.” Lord, help us to be faithful prayers in our homes and together with the saints. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”
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FURTHER SCRIPTURES:
- 1. THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS
Read Genesis 15:5; 26:4; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; 10:22; 28:62; 1 Chronicles 27:23; Nehemiah 9:23; and Jeremiah 33:22.
- 1. THE DUST OF THE EARTH
Read also Genesis 28:14; Numbers 23;10; and 2 Chronicles 1:9.
- 2. THE SAND UPON THE SEASHORE
Read also Genesis 22:17; Isaiah 48:18, 19; Jeremiah 32:22; Hosea 1:10; and Hebrews 11:12. We read this description 6 times.
- 3. THE GRASS OF THE EARTH
Job 5:25 (NLT): “You will have many children; your descendants will be as Read also Ezekiel 16:7.
- 4. THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS
Hosea 1:10: “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which CANNOT BE MEASURED NOR NUMBERRED.”
Deuteronomy 1:11: “The LORD your God make you A THOUSAND TIMES SO MANY MORE as he hath promised you.”