FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 77 - THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 10

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. We are continuing our series, The Glory of Womanhood and we’re on a new point today.

Today we’re going to be talking about GLORYING IN OUR TRIBULATIONS. Wow, now that doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? But I think it’s something that we need to talk about because we’ve been talking about the glory of motherhood and the glory of our homes and the glory of even breastfeeding.

I know that many of you have faced problems and difficulties as you mother and train your children. It’s just not all a piece of cake! It doesn’t always go smoothly. Some of you face difficulties. Some of you have children with physical problems or even neurological problems.

You’ve got lots of challenges and you’re saying to yourself, “Where do you get the glory in all this?”

Once again, lovely ladies, we’ve got to come back to the Word, the Word of God, because that gives us our comfort and our answers. As we come to the Word, we can see how we are able to cope with life, cope with our difficulties, cope with our trials, and cope with our challenges because not one of us are exempt. Every one of us faces them in different ways and in different circumstances. We all face them because life isn’t perfect.

Whatever you are going through today, I want you to be encouraged as we go into the Word.

Let’s start with Romans chapter 5. You will notice that in every podcast I am taking you into the Word. I’m not just making up the things to tell you. I’m speaking to you from a foundation of the Word of God.

Now in Romans 5:2-5 we read: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we GLORY in tribulations also . . ..”

Oh goodness me, there it is, ladies, in black and white. Paul is writing and he says we GLORY in tribulations.

Wow, we actually rejoice and praise the Lord even in tribulations?

“ . . . Knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

And so, dear ladies, somehow, we must come into a new mindset, don’t we? We usually complain in our tribulations. We are usually miserable in our tribulations.

But Paul’s confession was that we GLORY in our tribulations because we know that God is doing something bigger.

As we trust the Lord in our tribulations, God works things in our hearts.

As it says, He works patience in our hearts. He works hope in our hearts. He fills us with His love even in the midst of difficult relationships.

We’ve got to just let God do it.

We go over to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. I’m going to read it to you and as I read the Word, lovely ladies, just drink it in because the Word will minister not just to your mind, but it will go down into your spirit.

 ^“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment . . ..”

Ladies, I know that sometimes you think your affliction is heavy. Oh, it is weighing you down and it feels too much for you. But you see, what we have to do is, we have got to put our trials and afflictions on God’s scales. Now when we put them down on our scales, on our side, oh this trial, oh it’s so heavy! The scales weigh right down.

But then we put it on God’s side, and we see what it is doing for us. We’re going to see more as we read this Scripture. We’re going to see how God’s scales make our light affliction go right up and down comes God’s side.

So we’ll see about that as we go on!

“Our light affliction is but for a moment.” Sometimes we think it is going to go on and on and on and on and oh, when will we get through this? In the eyes of eternity it is but for a moment.

Now get ready to look at this: we are going to see five adjectives. I’ve often told you, look for adjectives in God’s Word. God’s Word is extravagant. It is filled with adjectives because not one word is enough to describe what God is trying to say to us.

Now He uses five. Look at them:

“ . . . Worketh for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of glory . . .”

Oh ladies, do you get it?

You see, our light affliction, which we think is so heavy, weighing us down, it’s but for a moment, but we feel it’s just never ending.

Then we put it on God’s scales. We look at it in the eyes of eternity and God says it’s (and watch the scales go down as we say the words) working for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of G L O R Y!

You see, God is working in us that which will prepare us for the eternal realm because this life is preparation for eternity.

In eternity we don’t have any more chance for preparing. We have no more chance of learning how to overcome evil.

It’s only in this life we have opportunity to learn how to overcome evil and how to overcome and stay on top of our trials.

I know some of you can be going through such hurtful trials. You’ve been hurt. You’ve been cut off. Other people have abused you, even in your family, and it’s so hurtful. It’s so hard to get over. It’s weighing you down.

But dear ladies, don’t let it. We don’t have to let our problems overtake us.

In this life we’re learning how to overcome as we look to Christ.

We say, “Oh God, I don’t know how to get through this, but I give it to You. I thank You that You are in control and You are working it out for my good.” For He has promised that He is working everything out for good to those that love Him.

Yes, He is working it out. We can trust Him. We don’t have to work it all out ourselves.

God is not only going to work it out here. He’s not only going to work it out in us so that we come out stronger. He is working for us this great glory—a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of G L O R Y that we will receive in the eternal realm if we are overcomers.

Isn’t this exciting? So praise the Lord when you have things to overcome because it is the overcomers who receive the rewards. Revelation tells us that it is the overcomers who receive the crowns. Even the martyrs will receive the crowns.

I think of the persecuted church (because we have such a burden to pray for our brothers and sisters who are in prison for their faith) who are being tortured for their faith; who are cold, who are hungry, who have been torn apart from families, and who are going through trials that we could not even imagine.

Here we have our few trials and we complain and we’re miserable and go on about them. We know nothing, nothing of persecution and torture and pain like they are going through. As I think of them, I think, “Wow, they are actually going to get rewards as they are trusting in God and overcoming in their situations. What am I going to get?”

I mean, I think the more that we have to face the more reward we will have in eternity.

We don’t have to think, “Oh why should I have to go through this?”

No, as we trust God in it, He is working out such a great reward for us because the Bible says that we’re going to be rewarded for everything that we have done in the body, that which is good and that which is bad. Everything will be rewarded (1 Corinthians 3:13).

I think of that passage in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter.

There in Hebrews 11:33, 34 it’s talking about these great men of faith:  ^“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword [and listen to the next words], out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

These great warriors, lovely ladies, did not start out strong. They started out weak.

“Out of weakness were made strong.”

We are like that. So often we begin weak in our trials. We begin, “Poor me,” and we get into self-pity. We groan and we complain, “Poor me.”

But as we get into the Word and we learn that, yes, we can trust God, we can learn to be over comers.

As we put it in God’s hands, and we trust Him, He works in us and we become stronger. We realize that Yes! God got me through this. God did it. We become stronger in faith. The next time we face a trial we know, “Yes, God’s got this in control.

“I’ve got to suffer this, and I’ve got to go through this, but I’m not coming under it. I’m living with God in this. I’m sitting with Christ at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies with my enemies subdued under me ( Ephesians 2:6). This is where I am in Christ and this is where I’m going to go through my trial, NOT UNDER IT BUT OVER IT in Christ and Christ in me.

We get stronger and we wax valiant in the fight. The more challenges we face in this fight of faith and in this life that we live, the stronger we get and the more valiant we become and the more we learn how to overcome.

We need these trials, don’t we, to learn how to overcome? So you can rejoice! Amen?

Let’s go, shall we, to 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. I know you know this passage but it’s good to read it again.

Paul is writing: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Don’t despair when you feel weak, dear mother. Know that God is your strength, and, in your weakness, He will show you His strength.

Trust in His strength. Confess it. Say, “Oh thank You Lord, You are my strength. You are my shield, You are my buckler, You are my rock, You are the One in Whom I trust.”

Change your confession from, “Oh poor me, I don’t know how to get through this trial” into, “Thank You Lord. I thank You that You are in control and I can trust You.”

I want to take you to Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

In this wonderful promise we learn how to change our confession.

It’s so easy to say, “I’m going through the waters. I feel like drowning.” No, that’s not what’s happening here. God says, “When you’re going through the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU.”

That’s the testimony. So we change our testimony: “Thank You, Lord. You ARE WITH ME. I’m not going through this alone. Thank You Lord, thank You! You are in me, You are with me, You are in front of me, You go behind me, You are all over me. Thank You Lord Jesus!” Amen?

When you’re going through the fire instead of saying, “Oh, I’m going through this fiery trial, oh help me.” No, that’s not your confession. That’s not the testimony here. The Scripture says, that when you walk through the fire; yes, it does not say that you’re not going through it. When you walk through the fire. IN the fire, you are IN the fire, just like those three men were in the fire.

But there were not just those three men, there was a fourth man, “like unto the Son of God” AND HE WAS IN THE FIRE WITH THEM.

They came out of that fire and they didn’t come out with the smell of the fire upon them.

Some people come out of their trials and they still have the smell on them. They say, “Oh, I had to go through this.” They are still complaining even when God has delivered them. No, that’s the smell of the fire.

These men came out and the Bible says that there wasn’t even the smell of the fire upon them. You wouldn’t have even known that they had been in that fiery furnace.

That’s how we come out of our trials: with not even the smell of it on us.

We confess, “Thank You, Lord that even though I am I the fire I am not going to be burned. Hallelujah, thank You, Lord! The enemy can’t burn me, he can’t touch me. You are with me in this fiery furnace. You are with me in this trial. Thank You, Lord Jesus! My trust is in You!”

This is your confession. Can you change your confession? Amen?

Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities . . ..”

There it is again ladies: glory. GLORY in them.

Wow. We certainly have to change our mindset, don’t we?

“ . . . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

I love the Amplified Translation. It says: “ . . . So that the power of Christ may completely enfold me . . ..”

When you’re going through these afflictions and trials, God has promised to be with you to completely enfold you in His arms.

The Amplified Classic version says that the: “ . . . power of Christ may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!”

That translation is exactly according to the Greek because the Greek word there is episkēnoō. It literally means “to pitch a tent over me.”

It’s the picture of God residing in the tabernacle in the wilderness. It’s a symbol of perfection and communion. Isn’t it beautiful?

That is the word when it says: “That the power of Christ may rest,” may rest. May pitch a tent over me. He pitches a canopy of protection over me.

Can you claim that next time you’re facing this difficulty or trial?

Say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus. I thank You that in the midst of this difficulty that You are pitching a canopy over me. I thank You that I am not alone. You are with me.”

Amen.

We’re carrying on here. We haven’t finished with 2 Corinthians 12. He says in verse 10: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Let’s look at some of those things that Paul went through.

Infirmities, that means your weaknesses. Are you going through a weakness in your body? That’s not easy when you are raising a family is it? But look to Christ and look to His healing too.

God is our Healer: “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” He is Jehovah-Rapha. That is Who He is; that is His name.

Claim your healing. Ask your husband to pray for you. It is important for your husband to pray over you because God sees him as your covering, and He hears your husband’s prayers. Get him to lay hands upon you and pray over that area of weakness in your body. Ask for God’s healing power.

Ask for the elders to come. That’s what the Bible says, that if you are sick, ask the elders to come and pray over you (James 5:14-16). Sometimes we forget about that but that’s what the Bible says in James 5:14: “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him . . ..”

Reproaches, that means your insults, mistreatments and hurtful speech that people say against you. Those can be hurtful things. They’re not physical things but often they do become physical. Hurtful words and reproaches and things that people say, they can actually become physical. I have seen this happen. I have seen a person go right down in health just because of things and rejection and things that have been spoken over them.

But when that happens to us, we dare not let those words go into us. No, we just give them back.

God shows us the way in 1 Peter 3::9 where it says that when people speak against you, PAY THEM BACK! That’s what we want to do, isn’t it? We want to pay them back.

But the Bible says how to pay them back. He says to PAY THEM BACK WITH A BLESSING.

Isn’t that beautiful? God’s principles are the opposite to how we feel but they always work. So you pay them back with a blessing. You get on your knees and you bless them over and over and over again.

Another translation says: “Retaliate with a blessing.” When you feel like retaliating, instead of retaliating with hurtful words back, you retaliate with a blessing. You learn to overcome in this area too.

In necessities, that means in distresses and in hardships. In this affluent society we don’t really go through many hardships, do we? It seems that we are so affluent that even those who are poor, even those who live from hand to mouth, still have a roof over their heads and still have food to eat and clothing to wear. We do have far more than we need, don’t we?

The other weekend I had to go to Colorado to speak at an Above Rubies retreat and my case didn’t arrive. I thought, “Oh that’s no trouble. It will arrive the next day.”

But it didn’t! In fact, it didn’t arrive the whole weekend and so I had to live with nothing. I had to wear the same clothes that I traveled in every day. The poor people looking at me had to look at me in the same traveling clothes. I didn’t have a thing with me, no changes, not even underwear. I had nothing!

But you know what? I survived. It’s amazing what you can do without.

We just think we need so much, don’t we? We think a lot of things are necessities but even necessities we can do without. We can through those trials.

Persecutions and distresses, that means narrowness of room. When you’re in a tight situation, even there, God is with you.

Pressures, that’s anguish, troubles, and difficulties.

That just about covers all the things we go through, doesn’t it?

Paul said, “Even in all these things I GLORY in them. I TAKE PLEASURE in them that the power of Christ may rest upon me, may pitch a tent over me.”

I think of 1 Peter chapter 4:12:  ^“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.”

In other words, when you are going through a fiery trial don’t think it’s strange because it’s a part of life. All of us will face these things at certain times and in different ways.

Verse 13 says: “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory [there is glory again] shall be revealed [that’s in that coming day when we will enter the eternal realm], ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

Oh if we can just keep eternity in our minds, we can go through anything because it’s only just for a moment. Even our trials here are not forever. They are just for a time and just for a season. We don’t go through them forever, even on this earth.

In eternity we will be free which is the eternal realm.

I think of Job. Sometimes we read Job and we imagine him and think that this is the man who went through all the suffering and Job lived a life of suffering.

No, that was only for a season. At the end of Job we read how God blessed him far above all that he had before and restored everything to him after that season was over.

So suffering is usually for a season. Then glory is an eternity.

“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ . . ..”That is when people speak against you and say hurtful, nasty, and negative things to you. I am sure if you are homeschooling and having more children than the usual two children family that people will say these negative things to you.

What do you do? Do you get upset? No, don’t get upset. Feel sorry for these people who are saying these things. You know, many are only saying them because they’ve been programmed to say them. They’ve been programmed that you don’t have too many children. They’ve been programmed in all these humanistic ways. They don’t know the truth.

God has been revealing His truth to you. He’s been showing you His ways. You can rejoice that you are in His perfect will and so you respond with a smile.

When they say, “Oh goodness, look at all these children, are they all yours?” you can say, “Oh yes, we love children! Don’t you?”

When they say, “Oh you have got a lot on your hands!” you can say, “Yes, my hands are truly filled, they are filled with blessings! We just love blessings, don’t you?” and you put it back on them.

Sometimes you are also reproached for your faith in Jesus Christ. But what does it say? That “ . . . ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

This is the one “if you are reproached;” that is what we are talking about: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory [the Holy Spirit of glory. He is the Spirit of glory] and of God resteth upon you . . ..”

Here again it talks about in our difficult times that God rests upon us. But it is a different word. Our last word was episkēnoō, meaning: “He pitches a tent or a canopy over us.”

This word is anapauō and it means: “To refresh.” This time this is the actual meaning of the word that “ . . . spirit of glory and of God resteth upon [will refresh] you . . ..”

Isn’t that beautiful?

Even in your trial, as you look to the Lord, as you trust in Him instead of keeping your eyes on the problem, you put your eyes on the Lord Who is your Strength, Who is your Rock, Who is your Deliverer, that you will find His rest comes on you, His refreshing.

God is able to refresh you even in your trial as you look to Him.

It’s where we keep our eyes. We take our eyes off our problem; yes, the trials are still there. We have to go through them, and we’ve got to face them. Sometimes God doesn’t take them away immediately. Sometimes they just keep there, and it takes some time, but God wants us to learn to trust Him in them.

We put our eyes on Him. Learning to keep your eyes on Him.

What does Isaiah 26:3, 4 say? These two verses are some of my favorite Scriptures: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee . . ..”

This is where we keep our peace, ladies. When we stay our minds on the Lord, we keep our minds on the Lord.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” There’s another double. It’s a double plural word: “Peace, peace.”

It’s perfect peace because, why? Because “He trusteth in thee.”

He trusts in the Lord. When we trust in Him and keep our eyes stayed upon the Lord, we will know His peace in us, and we will know His refreshing upon us.

“ . . . Because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”

Ladies, did you get that? God’s strength doesn’t run out.

Our strength runs out but when we get to the end of it ,we go to God because He is everlasting strength and His strength never runs out. Amen?

And so: “ . . . the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”

Dear ladies, as we glory in our tribulations, we glorify God. We bring praise to His glory because people can then see Christ, His life, His peace, His rest, and His joy in us even in the midst of our trials. Amen?

I trust that these Scriptures have been an encouragement to you. I will leave you with one last one, Romans 8:18: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the GLORY which shall be revealed in us.”

Amen?

“Dear Father, We thank You, Lord, that Your glory is not only for when times are good and everything is just going perfect. Lord, You give us Your glory even in the fiery trials and even in the difficult times.

“We pray that You will help us to glory in our tribulations, in our difficulties, knowing that You are working for us a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

“Help us to live in the light of eternity, not getting bogged down with all that we have to go through here but knowing that it is preparing us for that glorious eternal world.

“We thank You in the name of Jesus. AMEN.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 76- THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 9

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello again ladies. I can’t believe that I still haven’t finished our point that God wants to fill the earth with His glory.

We’re going to talk a little more about it today. I want to turn to Psalm 127. This is a family psalm. I know you know it so well. Psalm 127 and Psalm 128 are family psalms. It’s good to read them frequently and go back to them because they keep us in the right place because we live in a deceived and twisted world.

It’s so easy to just get out of the way God wants us to live, but these are beautiful pictures God paints of the family and it’s good to come back to them.

Verses 3-5 of Psalm 127: “Lo, children are an heritage of the  Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”

Once again, we see that word “filled.” This is what we’re talking about, these Scriptures that have this word and here it is again.

The word “happy” is a plural word in the Hebrew. It literally means “Happy, happy.” “Happy, happy” or “Very happy” is the man who has his quiver full of them.

People have different ideas of how many arrows you can have in a quiver. It all depends on how big your quiver is.

But the main thing is that this warrior (because it’s talking about our families in the context of war and a warrior whose raising sons), it says here that he will have his quiver full. Any man who is going out to war is going to want to have his quiver full because he’s not going to go out to war with one arrow in his quiver because he won’t stand much of chance staying alive. Nor will he go out to war with 1.7 arrows in his quiver, which is the average number of children per family in the US today.

That is not enough to win the war against the enemy. It’s not enough to be “more and mightier” than the enemy. So it is just natural that a warrior will want to fill his quiver. God says that man will be happy. This is the picture God gives.

It’s interesting. Lots of people laugh about it, but isn’t it sad when you hear people laughing about God’s Word and just taking it so lightly and joke about it? I’ve even heard pastors joking about this subject.

There are so many pastors today, wonderful men of God, and I’m sure that they have such great revelation and understanding on God’s Word, but somehow, they’ve never really gone into God’s Word to see what He says about having children. They’ve just imbibed what society says and what they’ve imbibed in their education growing up, so they don’t know the truth and they joke about such things.

 How dare we joke about God’s Word. This is His Word.

Here is another one about having our quivers filled. Let’s go to Zechariah chapter 8:4-5. I think that this is in the context of the millennium.

It’s a beautiful Scripture: “Thus saith the  Lord  of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.  And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.”

Don’t you love that picture? Full of boys and girls playing in the streets! Once again, we get a picture of God’s heart. We see as we read these words what He loves.

God loves to see children playing in the streets, happy. They’re filled! The streets are literally filled with boys and girls! Isn’t this amazing? That’s just what God loves. I think that’s a picture of the millennium. It’s not something we could even see today without a miracle.

I remember when I was growing up that we used to play in the streets. We’d come home from school, throw our bags into our houses, and go out. The other children would come out and we’d play on each other’s lawns or in the streets because it was safe back then in those days.

You really can’t, if you live in the city, allow your children to play out on the street today. You just could not do that. My, it’s just too dangerous!

In fact, can you believe it? When our first child was born in our little town of Te Puke in New Zealand, I remember when it was time for our son to have a little nap and if it was a beautiful day, I would put him in his pram.

Back in those days we had those big prams. We used to wheel our babies down the street in these big English prams. They were very beautiful with the hoods over them. In fact, when my husband and I went out to the mission field in the Philippine Islands when our son, Wesley, was only three months old, can you believe it? I took that pram.

It was so psychologically in me at that time that that’s what you had to do: You’d wheel your baby in the pram. I didn’t even know about baby carriers then. Oh, how sad!

But anyway, it was just such a nuisance to take this big pram. Because we didn’t fly, back then. We had to go by boat and so we took this. I remember one time wheeling this big beautiful English pram down the streets of third world Philippines. We were living way down on one of the islands.

Along the route would be balut, just out on the side of the road. What is balut? Those were the eggs that they would let sort of mature until they were nearly a chicken. Then they would eat it!

They would be singing out, “Balut! Balut!” and they wanted us to buy it.

But I have to tell you: I never actually ate one. I couldn’t bear the thought of eating a raw chicken in the egg.

But anyway, I remember the one time, all these little Filipino children were running behind me, because they had never seen such a thing in their lives. They were saying that they thought it was a funeral and they thought I was wheeling a hearse down the road.

But anyway, I don’t know why I did such a thing as take that all the way over there. It was a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, I would leave my little baby boy in this pram and I would leave him out on the lawn. Yes, the front lawn, not the back lawn, because there was a beautiful tree there. I would put him under the tree and when he woke up, he would see the leaves fluttering in the breeze and they would entertain him.

Our dog would sit by the pram and guard over him and I would go out to check every so often. It was safe.

You could not even think of doing such a thing today!

It was actually a lovely thing back there because it was so beautiful for babies to sleep outside and so healthy. He would come in with these rosy cheeks and it was so beautiful.

But we can’t do such things today. But one day, obviously that will happen again, because here is a prophetic Scripture of boys and girls filling the streets. This just shows the heart of God and how He loves, not just seeing one child in the street, but streets being filled with boys and girls.

We go to Luke chapter 14:23 in the New Testament. Jesus says here: “ . . .Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

God is the God of the full house. He wants a full house. God doesn’t want an empty eternity. He wants a full eternity.  That’s why He sent His precious, beloved Son to die.

Jesus came and died so He could bring many sons into glory.

I believe, how can we have many sons in glory if we don’t bring them into the world?

A few sessions ago I talked about how some think, “Oh we don’t have to have natural children any longer, just spiritual children.” But how can we have spiritual children without having natural children? It’s when we bring natural children into the world that then these natural children can be born again and then they can be ready for eternity, to enjoy eternity forever.

We’re helping God to bring many sons into glory.

It reminds me of John 15. Of course this is speaking about the spiritual here, but it’s the same. The Bible speaks first that which is natural and then that which is spiritual. What applies in the natural applies in the spiritual. What applies in the spiritual applies in the natural.

We see that all throughout the Word of God.

In John 15:2 it tells us how He wants us to bring forth fruit: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Do you know the progression? God is not satisfied in our spiritual lives with a little bit of fruit. He wants us to bring more fruit. 

But it doesn’t stop there. We go over to verse seven: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified [we’re talking about glory, and we’re to the praise of His glory], that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

God is not satisfied with fruit or more fruit. That applies in the natural and the spiritual.

I believe that because God wants His house to be filled, well, how is God’s house going to be filled if we don’t fill our houses along the way?

We fill our homes with children who then are born again by the Spirit of God and then they are sealed with the Holy Spirit and they have the earnest of the inheritance that they have an eternal inheritance and will come into glory. Amen?

Wow, well it took three sessions for me to share with you these Scriptures about how God wants us to fill the earth.

Oh, I must give you one more Scripture. It’s in Revelation. You see, we go from Genesis to Revelation and all the way through the Bible. I wrote a book called “Be Fruitful and Multiply” just writing about all the Scriptures right through from Genesis to Revelation on this subject. It is currently out of print, but you can still get it on Amazon.

We start with Genesis 1:28: “ . . . Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion.”

Then we go over to the very last book of the Bible and we see in Revelation 7:9, 10 when John looks into the eternal realm and he sees. What does he see: “ . . .I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number . . .”

See, this is the fruit, dear ladies. This is the vision that God has.  He wants us to be fruitful, to fill the earth, to bring forth the natural fruit so that they can be born again and be conformed to the image of His Son and come into the eternal realm.

God doesn’t want a little few in His house; He wants a multitude and John saw that: “ . . . and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Amen?

But then we look at the negative. We have been looking at the positive.

I don’t think that this is the testimony of any of you that I am talking to today, but we still need to talk about it because it is prevalent around us. So many, even in the church, are seeking to stop having children. What happens when we stop having children? We deprive ourselves.

Apart from salvation there is truly no other greater gift we can receive from God than a little bundle of cuddles and love. There is no greater gift than a little baby. So precious! What greater gift can a young couple receive?

This morning Arden and Esther came in. He was setting up the computer for us to do the podcast. They had their little darling baby, Gethsemane, with them. Oh and to see them so happy with this little baby, this little baby that is a miracle that God has given to them. There is nothing more precious.

Every baby that we say no to, WE DEPRIVE OURSELVES.

Sometimes when you have two or three little ones around you, or even four little ones around you, you think, “Oh! I couldn’t have any more! I’m just overwhelmed! I’m just up to the top and I can’t do one more thing!”

And it is true; I think that when you have your first two to four little ones, that is your most overwhelming time of motherhood because you don’t have older ones to help you. You’re doing everything for them.

Now I still believe that these are glorious days. I look back and I remember when I had three under 17 months and four under four and oh my! They were such busy days. I hardly had time to go to the toilet or I hardly had time to sleep.

But I look back and they were glorious days. Oh yes, they were sleep-deprived, and both my husband and I were tired. But I would do them all over again because they were still precious days.

Make the most of these precious days, mother, because they go by so quickly. You think, oh, I’ll remember these sweet little times and the sweet little thing my little one said. But the years go on and they fade, and you forget.

I wish I had written so many things down. Of course you’re so busy you don’t even get time to write them down! You need to have a fulltime recorder, don’t you, who you can say to, “Oh, write this down please!” so you can remember it forever.

Make the most of these precious times.

Don’t stop then, because if God does bless you (because it is God Who gives the baby, it is God Who gives conception) with another baby you will find that these little ones are getting older and you have helpers. Everyone wants to hold the baby. They can do little jobs and get this for Mummy and get that for Mummy.

You’re sitting on the rocking chair nursing your baby and you can have little ones running around getting things for you, doing this and doing that. You can also mother them at the same time as you sit on your rocking chair, nursing your baby. You can say. “Come children, come and gather round!” If you have too many you can gather on the sofa and you can all read a story together. Oh, they can be such precious times!

I have written down nine ways we are deprived when we stop having children.

The next one: WE DEPRIVE OUR CHILDREN.

The greatest gift we can give our children is another sibling, a friend for life. The more children in the home means the more fun, the more fellowship, the more friendship, the more exciting things that happen! Oh! Family life is fun!

That’s why God said “He makes families like a flock” because life in a flock is so much more fun and glorious (Psalm 107:41-43).

Each new child that comes into the family is another blessing. Children would rather have a baby than another toy which brakes and gets lost and is soon forgotten about. But no, they have another baby and another friend for life.

My children are all grown now, but I see how they are friends. They are best friends.

I remember one time going to a special function at a church. We were all going as a family.  The food was there, and people were there talking to one another. I was going around saying hello to this one and that.

I noticed some of our family members, our children and their spouses, just sitting together in a group. I thought, “Oh goodness me, what are they doing?”

I went over and said, “Hey guys, aren’t you going around talking to everybody?”

They said, “Oh no, we love each other best.”

They were a bit naughty, weren’t they? But it is true, they find more fun just fellowshipping together than going out and talking to someone else, which, of course, they really should have done.

They are best friends and as they were growing up, you know, some would be closer friends. Then as they grew older it would change and they would be more friends with another one in the family. It just changes at different times throughout family life.

WE DEPRIVE OUR GRANDPARENTS.

I meet so many grandparents who are waiting for grandchildren. They don’t have any. They raised maybe two children, sent them off to college, and they got brainwashed about family. Sometimes they’re not even married yet and if they’re married, now they’re doing their careers and they don’t have time for children.

These grandparents don’t have grandchildren. The glory of grandparents is their grandchildren and they’re deprived.

Sometimes I meet grandparents and I will say, “How many grandchildren do you have?” They will put on such big smiles and beam with joy and say, “Oh, we’ve got two!” They’re so happy because, oh, at last, they’ve got two grandchildren. They are the joy of their lives.

But you know, grandparents are meant to have many grandchildren.

Sometimes I’ll say to them, “Oh that’s so wonderful. Currently we’re at 48 grandchildren.” They just about faint on the spot.

WE DEPRIVE SOCIETY.

Children who are raised in the ways of God have the opportunity to bless society and bring God’s love, light, truth, and salvation to this hurting world. This is how we fill the earth with God’s glory: bringing children into this world and raising them for God.

This is the way we impact the world. The more children you have, the more you impact the world for His glory.

If we say no to children, WE DEPRIVE GENERATIONS TO COME.

We often forget about this, don’t we? We just get caught up in the now and get taken up in our circumstances and what we think we can cope with now.

But family is far bigger than just today. We are building a family for the generations to come. We are mothering for generations to come.

When we say no to one baby, we are not saying no to one baby. We are saying no to a dynasty because that baby will grow up to have children and more children hopefully. What children will their children have and who will they be? How will they affect society? How will they impact the world for God?

It is so huge.

I think of that Scripture in Hebrews. It talks about Levi who was the great grandson of Abraham and it says that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek while he was yet in the loins of Abraham (Hebrews 7:9, 10).

Now Abraham had not even thought of Levi. Goodness me, he wasn’t even in his brain! And yet God saw Levi already in his loins. God thinks far beyond our human thinking. He thinks like God because He is God.

We don’t think like God because we are human. God said that Levi paid tithes. Now who is Levi? I’m sure you know. Abraham had Isaac, that’s second generation; Isaac had Jacob and Esau, so that’s third generation; then Jacob, this is fourth generation, has his twelve sons and one of them is Levi.

So this is fourth generation down from Abraham and God is already sees His name in his loins.

God sees the generation to come. God sees those whom He has planned to come into the world before they come into the world.

And yet so many of these destined human beings are not here because our parents, our grandparents and even God’s people in this world have said no.

Who else do we deprive? WE DEPRIVE THE CHURCH.

Just as every shepherd wants to increase his flock, every pastor wants to increase his church. Of course he tries to increase it with new converts. He has evangelistic crusades and he thinks of ways to get in new converts.

But the greatest way to grow churches is with godly families. The more children families have, the more it fills the church. What an exciting church! A church filled with growing families is the most exciting church to belong to.

Next one: WE DEPRIVE GOD because God is looking for godly offspring to come from every marriage union.

In Malachi 2:14-15 it says: “And what does God want from your union?”

Then we look and we read the answer and we hear God speaking and He says: “I want a godly seed.”

In other words, “I look for godly children.” That’s what He looks for from our marriage union.

That word godly is the Hebrew word Elohim. It’s one of the names of God. It’s the first name of God that is used in the Bible.

“In the beginning God . . .”, which is ‘Elohim.

Now God says, “I want ‘Elohim, children in My likeness. Children who will show forth My glory and My image on the earth.

So when we say “No, no, no God! I don’t want any more children,” we think we are just saying no to having another child. But no, we are saying no to God because He is looking for this godly seed. He’s looking for more children to fill the earth with His glory.

Next, WE DEPRIVE GOD OF HIS CREATIVE POWER.

Because God is a Creator He doesn’t stop creating and He loves to create new life.

Every new baby He creates is a new creation. He doesn’t create robots. He doesn’t create people just the same. Every single new life is a new creation.

When you have a new baby that God gives to you, there has never ever been another person in the history of the world like this baby God gives to you. It’s a new creation that God has delighted to create. He will never ever create another baby just like this one. Even twins— they’re not the same. Even identical twins are not the same.

My sister-in-law is an identical twin. Of course I know them both and when we first met, we couldn’t tell them apart.

But as we got to know them, we saw the differences in them. One has a higher voice than the other. The one has this different than the other. There are so many differences.

(Did you ever listen to Podcast No. 3, where my sister-in-law, Judy, tells the most amazing story of how she and her twin sister were switched at birth  and it wasn’t noticed until they were about two years old—and what happened after that)!

Even in identical twins there is distinction because God is a fresh Creator and He loves to create. We deprive Him of creating this new incredible human being.

My daughter Serene, many of you know Serene, and you listen to the THM Poddy and you get to know Serene and Pearl from Trim Healthy Mama.

Serene has 14 children, nine of which are biological. She says to me, “Oh mom, I do hope that the Lord will bless me with maybe two more children.”

She is hoping, as she is getting older (43 years  now) that she might be able to fit two more in if the Lord blesses because it’s always God Who does it.

She said, “It’s just so exciting! I can’t wait to see what this new baby will be like!” Because everyone one of their babies, like your precious children, each one is so different.

I mean, she has children who are very dark. They have this very dark olive skin and they’re so beautiful. Then Vision popped out and he’s got paler skin with freckles and red hair! He took after me! Oh goodness me! He doesn’t even look like his brothers.

She had all dark brown-eyed babies, but then her last two babies came and little Remmy came out with light blue eyes and now little Solly, her latest little baby who will be two in the new year has these bright blue eyes. She just looks so different than the others! You just don’t know where on earth she came from.

It’s just so exciting because you never know what God is going to give you. It’s just amazing, isn’t it?

Lastly, WE DEPRIVE ETERNITY.

I have been talking about Hebrews 2:10 where Jesus came and died for the express purpose to bring many sons into glory. Oh, that is His whole purpose to fill eternity with redeemed sons and daughters. How glorious.

Do you know, precious mothers, that as we say no to a baby, we deprive a little child of the glories of eternity.

I don’t think any of us, including me, have a clue of what we are depriving a child from. Eternity will be beyond what our minds can ever even fathom on this earth. We can never even fathom the glory of it.

This will be the ultimate glory and it’s for eternity.

What a blessing to bring sons and daughters into the world, to teach them of Jesus and teach them of how they can ask Jesus into their hearts and be born again and teach them of the ways of God and prepare them for eternity.

How glorious to bring sons and daughters into eternity. They can experience eternity.

When we get to eternity, we will wonder how we could have ever deprived children of coming into this glorious place. Why did we say no? We could have brought another child into eternity.

Let’s just get our minds off this humanistic age, see God’s glorious plan, and see that all this talking about children is all for eternity, the glory of eternity. Amen?

Shall we pray?

“Dear Father, we thank You for Your glorious plan of redemption.

“Dear Lord Jesus, we thank You that You were willing to leave the glory of the eternal world and come to this sin-sick, hurting world and become a man and humble Yourself and become obedient to death, even the death of the cross so You could bring us into eternity.

“That is Your joy. For the joy that was set before You, You endured the cross.

“Oh God, we don’t have to endure the cross. Sometimes we endure some sleepless nights and we endure some of this and that. But we don’t endure the cross.

“Oh God, give us strength to endure t our little wee trials and challenges we face as we raise our families, for the joy of eternity and knowing that we’re raising sons and daughters for eternity.

“Help us to understand Your eternal plan. Take us from this earthly understanding and we will live in the glory of that heavenly understanding. We ask it in the name of Jesus.

“I pray, Father, that You will bless every mother listening today, every daughter, and every grandmother. Pour out Your blessing upon their home, their marriage, and their family.

“I pray that you will give them grace and strength to build their families and make them strong so that every family will become a light in the midst of this deceived world.

“I pray that they will stand for truth and not be intimidated by their antagonists but will stand for Your truth and bring Your glory into their community in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 75: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 85)

How has Satan deceived God's people in the last few decades? How has this mindset influenced our nation today? How will socialism affect the future of our children and our children's children? (Session Two on the subject of “God Wants to Fill the Earth with His Glory.”

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We are continuing from last week about how God wants to fill the earth with His glory. That is His people, revealing His character in the earth. What a beautiful thing!

When we first started this series, I said a little ditty:                                                                                                                                      

                                                Why don't we live in our glory?

                                    Because we're being told a different story.

But I think we should have a more positive one:

                                          If you want to live in your glory,

                                    Take heed to God's story.

And this is what we're talking about. We're going into the Word and seeing what God says. Do you love coming with me into God's Word and discovering His Word? Because when we read His Words, we're not only just reading words, we are feeling the heart of God. We're understanding His plan for us. We're understanding His heartbeat, and His vision that He has for mankind.

We are not just here for nothingness. No. We are here for a purpose. Our greatest purpose is to reveal God's glory in our lives, to be a praise to His glory. And, of course, we are bringing forth children who we are also teaching in the ways of God that they will be a praise to His glory.

In one of our sessions, we talked about how the greatest thing we are doing is preparing our children, that on the day when we meet Jesus, we will present them before Him, and this will be our greatest glory. They will be our glory on that day, our joy, and our crown, and our glory.

So, the last Scripture I gave you was talking about how God wants to fill Israel again in these last days as He brings His people back to the Land with flocks of men. I was thinking of another Scripture where it talks about that, Psalm 107:41-43. And it says: “Yet setteth He the poor on high from affliction, and maketh Him families like a flock.”

God loves making families. Did you know that ladies? Oh, God is so interested in your family. He wants to dwell in your home. He wants to be part of your family. He loves to make families because this is God's original intention. He wants us to live as families. He does not have any alternative plan. God says: “I will set the solitary in families.”  He doesn't want anyone to be living independently. God plans for us to live as families. A father, a mother, raising children in a home.

Now that's pretty simple, isn't it? But that's God's desire. And that's what works. That's what makes strong families and then a strong nation. And so, the fact that you are in your home, building your family, you are in the very perfect will of God. And He makes families like a flock.

BAD NEWS

We learned last session that the latest statistics are that the number of children to a family in the US is only 1.7, barely two children per family. And that's in all those females from 15 to 44 years of age. And that is just so sad.

In fact, last year was the lowest birthrate in history. But do you know what? The year before that was the lowest, and the year before that was the lowest, and the year before that. For the last nine years, it's been the lowest in history, and every year gets lower. So last year was the lowest of the low.

Oh my. I think we need to change that, don't you? It shows you how far away we are from God's plan. And we could understand that if that was just happening in the world (because we don't expect the people of the world who don't know God's Word to follow His Word), but we, who say we are God's people, who say we believe the Bible, surely, we'd better follow His Word. And His Word talks about filling the earth with His glory, with His people.

The only way that God can truly show His glory is through His people. Yes, He does show His glory through creation. Yes. But that's not what that Scripture was speaking about, when it speaks: “I will fill the earth with my glory.” He's speaking about His people, who are created in His image.

So, here's this other Scripture about making families like a flock. Did you notice that? “Like a flock.” Do you think 1.7 is a flock? No, if you see a shepherd with a flock of sheep, have you ever seen him with 1-1/2 sheep? No, that is not a flock. That is something weird. I mean, the people would be aghast. “Well, what's happening here? What kind of a shepherd is this?”

No, a flock is more than just one or two. It's a flock. Now back in New Zealand where I grew up, we have huge sheep stations. Many of our sheep farmers have thousands of sheep. They are huge flocks. But in the Middle East, in the Bible lands, they didn't have thousands. They would have just a small flock. But it was a flock. It wasn't one or two or three or four or five or six. It was a good flock.

And so, God is likening our families to a flock of sheep. And it goes on to say: “The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

What it's saying here is that when the righteous or the wise see a couple having another baby, what do they do? They rejoice! Oh, that is meant to be our response to when another baby is coming into the world, when another little lamb is being added to the flock. Oh, we rejoice! The shepherd rejoices when another lamb is added to the flock. The shepherd doesn't want his sheep to be barren. No! He wants them to bring forth little lambs and to build up his flock.

And so, the wise, the righteous who observe these things, they rejoice. And there's “all iniquity will stop its mouth.” I think it's time, because I know that a lot of precious people say things because they don't truly understand. They are victims of our humanistic age. They are victims of our education system which have programmed generations now that you don't have too many children, and you must limit your children, and you must get out of the home, and do your career, because that's more important. All this jazz, and it's all junk.

So, they are conditioned in their brains, so when they see another baby coming, they will say some negative thing. Well, that's anti-Bible. We might as well get it straight. They often don't know that they're being anti-Bible. They're ignorant. They're being brainwashed. But that is the truth. It's anti-Bible.

When we say something negative about a new baby coming, whether it's our own or somebody else's, it is totally foreign to the heart of God and to the Word of God. It says: “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. But whoso is wise and will observe these things, they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

It's God's lovingkindness to bring another little lamb into the flock, to make your family like a flock. I remember talking with a lovely family in the UK. I've got to know them so well. We have been back to the UK many, many times to speak and we've got to know this family. They have raised a beautiful family.

At one time, they were kind of going through a time of doubt. Their family was just starting to get a little bigger. They were like, “Oh, can we keep doing this?” Because everybody around is saying they're crazy. They were just walking a little, “Oh, I think we'd better stop.”

But God began to speak to their hearts. At this stage, one of their teenagers was beginning to get rebellious and they felt his heart pulling away from the family. At that time, their children were in public school and God touched their hearts to bring them home and also touched their hearts to trust Him for another baby.

So, this was all happening about the same time. When they brought this teenager along with their others home to homeschool them, this mother had a little baby, a little baby boy. And God did such a beautiful thing. It was His lovingkindness. And this teenager, he fell in love with his little baby brother.

As the baby brother grew, he then began to sleep in his room as he got older. He bonded with this beautiful little baby because he was home. He wasn't away from home all day at school and getting home late on the bus. No, he was home. He was part of this.

And as he bonded with this little baby, his heart softened. His heart softened to his parents, to home, to family. And God did a beautiful thing. He brought him back into not only into the family, but back to God, and back to His ways.

I know this young man today. He's in the Navy today. He's doing so well. He's an upright, upstanding Christian young man. But he was saved by a little baby coming into the home. Oh, God's ways are so beautiful, aren't they?

FILLING THE LAND

Let's see what else I've got here. Oh, let me take you to Psalm 80. This is another picture. I love the pictures that God paints, don't you? He's talking about Israel here. Psalm 80:8-10: “Thou has brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.” That was a picture of God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt and bringing them into the Promised Land.

“Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.” There's that word “filled,” again. Filled. That was God's plan, to fill the land. “The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.” A picture of Israel filling the Land. Oh, that's what God wants.

Let's go back, shall we, to Exodus, Exodus 1. And we're going to see there another example of how Israel filled the land. This was actually when they were back in Egypt. Let's read about it, shall we?

OK, Exodus 1:5: “And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.” And so when Joseph brought his father and his family down to Egypt to protect them from the famine, there were only 70. That's all there were, 70 souls.

Then Exodus 1:7: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” There's that word again, “filled.” It's the word male, and it means “FILLED TO OVERFLOWING.”

MORE AND MIGHTIER

Yes, “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, 'Behold, the people of the children of Israel are MORE AND MIGHTIER than we are: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.' Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.”

Now you see here that as they multiplied and increased, they filled the land. And because they filled the land, they became more and mightier than the Egyptians. And that is God's plan. He wants His people to be more and mightier than the heathen. This is God's plan, dear precious ladies.

And did you know, that in this land of USA, that this could be our testimony as the people of God. But sadly, it's not. Today, we are in a fight between that which is good and that which is evil. We are in a fight to see righteousness prevail.

As we are coming to our next election, 2020, there is just such a fight between the right and the left. Sometimes it's like it's 50-50. There's this fight. And what will happen?

This should not have ever been a fight, dear ladies, because if God's people in the last few generations had obeyed God's Word and had fulfilled His very first command to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, to embrace the children God wanted them to have, we would be more and mightier than the heathen, than these who we are actually fighting against today, these who are promoting abortion, the murdering of life, even right up to the day it is born, or even the next day. Can you believe we are living in this glorious country that has now passed such laws? It is unbelievable.

This should not be. We are living in a land where homosexuality is law. Can you believe that? We are living in a land where now our schools are promoting transgender. Young people, young students changing from one sex to the other, which is diabolical, which is an abomination against God.

In fact, we recently at our Above Rubies retreat up in Pennsylvania, we met with a wonderful man, who is a teacher in New Jersey. It was the second retreat that he'd been to. And he was telling us again, “Yes, this is still happening in my school where I am commanded to honor and promote these students who are changing from one sex to the other. In my school, I am not allowed to use the personal pronouns of her and him and so on.”

This is diabolical. This is what we are fighting. And dear ladies, we would not be doing this if God's people had embraced His command to be fruitful and multiply. If we had, God's people would be more and mightier today. We would be filling the land. Yes, of course, we'll always have the heathen with us, but we would be more and mightier.

But Satan has won a victory. Satan knew the most powerful way he could defeat God's people and bring in his horrific ways into the land and that is to deplete God's people, to decrease them, to diminish them, to stop them coming into the world.

Because he is the one, as it says in John 10:10, Jesus said: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” But Satan comes to rob, to kill, and to destroy. It's like the three things that come against life—contraception, sterilization, and abortion. There's those three, those three that come from Satan because they all eliminate life.

Abortion is like a back-up plan. OK, Satan knows that if he can't get rid of life by programming people's brains, so they don't want children, they're going to limit their children, they're going to stop children coming into the world. But if somehow, they still come into the world, “OK, well, we've got abortion as a back-up plan. We'll get rid of them any way we can.”

That's Satan. That's from the evil one. That is not from God. God is the giver of life. He comes to give life. He is the author of life. He loves life. He wants to make families like a flock. He wants His people to be more and mightier in the land.

Oh, my. is there any way, is there any way of remedying this situation? I don't know. We've gone so far away, but at least I believe God's people can start coming back in repentance, and in embracing His truth, saying, “Yes, Lord God, I will embrace the children you want me to have.”

TAKE DOMINION

Because when God said those words in Genesis 1:28, He didn't end at “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.” No, He didn't stop there. He continued, and He went on to say: “and to subdue and to take dominion.” This command, this mandate God gave in the very beginning is a mandate that whoever obeys it will receive the outcome of the finality which is “subdue and take dominion.”

It's a progressive mandate. Those who fill the earth will become more and mightier. Those who fill the earth will subdue and take dominion. Now God wants His people to take dominion over His earth. But now we are being taken over.

Oh, let me share with you some Scriptures. They are so challenging. I was just reading the other day in Lamentations 1:16: “For these things I weep. Tears flow down my cheeks. My children have no future, for the enemy has conquered us.” I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

Oh, mothers, these are powerful words. And these are true words, because when the enemy takes dominion, when the enemy overpowers us, there is no future for our children.

We are facing a precarious time in history. We are facing in our nation today a time when the left, the socialists, are seeking to bring us into socialism. They've been seeking to do this for many, many years. They've been doing it and paving the way behind the scenes.

But now they have come out blatantly. Blatantly. And this ideology is being taught and it's being propagated in our schools and in our colleges. Most of the professors at our colleges in this nation are socialists and they are programming our youth with socialism.

Now many of these don't know, really, what socialism is all about, and what is the end result, and it's never ever been successful. How can they even be promoting it when it has caused more deaths in the world than anything else in the history of mankind?

It's how it has brought countries to absolute poverty and destruction, which is what it does, because socialism can only work in a wealthy country, where they start off with the wealth of that country. Then of course, they take that wealth, and they distribute it, and then it's used up. Then there's nothing else and we end in poverty.

But they don't understand this. They think, “We'll get free housing, and we'll get free schools, and we'll get free this and free that. We'll get all the handouts,” which nobody can actually pay for.

But the thing is, what are we doing? Are you standing up against these things? Are you speaking up? Of course, I know you will vote. My, we need to not only vote ourselves, but to encourage every God-fearing person in this nation to vote in this next election. Because we now have not only all our millennials, but our post-millennials who are going to be at the age of voting, who have all been brainwashed in socialism. They're going to be voting. They're voting ignorantly, but they're voting against themselves.

But they're not only voting against themselves, they're voting against our children, our future generations, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren. because if this country does accept socialism, it's finished.

And here we are. We're facing all this, dear ladies, and all because our parents and our grandparents did not have the children God wanted them to have. And many of us are not having them. Oh, may God touch our hearts to come back to His ways.

Let's look at one or two other Scriptures here. Let's go to Nehemiah. This is a scary Scripture. Oh, goodness me! Nehemiah 9:36-37: “Behold, we are servants. . .”  Now Nehemiah is speaking. He's speaking about the history of the children of Israel and all God's wonderful goodness to them. But then how, because of their sins, how God had to judge them, and they were sent out of the land.

Nehemiah 9:36-37: “Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.” Can you believe that? Here they are, in the land that flows with milk and honey, the glorious land. God gave it to them. It was theirs by divine decree.

But they allowed their enemies to overtake them. Now they became servants. Then he says: “And it yieldeth much increase,” not to us, but “unto the kings whom Thou hast set over us because of our sins: also,” listen to this, ladies, “also,” oh, I don't even like reading this Scripture. “Also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.”

“They have dominion over our bodies.” Do you know that, currently, our government is taking dominion over our bodies? I mean, these are laws that have already been set in, and they have been there for many years. I mean, vaccination is mandatory today.

I have a very dear friend. In fact, it's Erin Harrison, and I do the weekly talk show with Erin. Maybe some of you listen to us on the talk show. Well, you'll be pleased to know that Erin has just got another little foster boy. He has lots and lots of problems. She is up in the hospital with him now because he needs 24-hour care. She is learning how to take care of him.

My, she's just so wonderful, Erin. She's just pouring her heart into this little boy. They're going to take him into their home. They may even be able to adopt him.

Last night I went up to the hospital to visit her and this little boy. Oh, what a joy it was, to just see him, yes, all the problems that he has, but just to see the potential that is there as he comes into a home with love and care.

But as Erin went into this fostering, it has now become mandatory. She wasn't even allowed to start in the fostering program until she had all her vaccinations. Now that is pretty tough, because I know that will stop many people from going into fostering, which is such an important thing for so many precious children who need care today.

But God has put it on Erin's heart, so she felt, “Well, I'll just have to do it. I don't believe in it. I'll have to do it, I know. All I've been through,” she's been through much sickness in her life. And she knew it would be detrimental to her.

But she went ahead, and she did, unfortunately, for a week, she was very, very ill. But then they demanded she take the flu shot. She doesn't even agree with that. Nor do I. You may do. But goodness me, I think it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Anyway, it took loads and loads of stuff to help her counteract this. She was able to get, you can ask for a flu shot that doesn't have all the mercury and the other negative things in it. So that's a good thing to know.

But isn't that sad? All these things are mandatory. They have dominion over our bodies. Maybe you have heard personally, as I have, of children who have gone to the hospital that had a problem. And once the hospital begins to take over that child, and the parents may not feel happy about what is happening, they may prefer to take that child and do something more alternative, something more natural. And they've even found natural things that are very effective.

The hospital treatment is not being effective, but if they refuse, well, the CPS will come in and take that child from the parents. Now that is taking dominion over our lives! My, how we have got to stand up to truth. Oh, we've got so far away. But let's come back. Let's each personally begin to obey God's Word.

Oh, here's one more Scripture about this. Let me go to Judges, Judges 15. And this is in the story of Samson. And Samson, you'll remember about him. This was after he went down to see his wife and found that the father had given his wife to someone else.

So, Samson, he was mad about that. He went and caught 300 foxes and he tied them tail to tail. And he put a firebrand in each one and set them amidst all their crops, in the corners. They burned up all their corn, and all their vineyards, and all their olives. Of course, the Philistines were mad!

OK, so Samson had gone up to hide. Well, I don't know whether he was hiding, but he'd gone up to somewhere. Anyway, so the Philistines, they came, and they said to the people of Judah, “You've got to get Samson! I mean, we want him!”

And of course, they were scared of the Philistines, so they went to find Samson. So here we are, Judges 15:9: “Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, 'Why are ye come up against us?' And they answered, 'To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.' 

“Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson,” listen to these words. I can hardly believe them. “Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?”

Can you believe that? Here they are, the people of God, living in the Land that God gave to them by divine decree, to give it to them for an eternal inheritance, forever. God gave them the Land forever. It still belongs to Israel today, every little square inch of that land. And far more then they have today, because the boundaries that God gave are far bigger than what they have today.

But here are these people in Judah and they're overcome by the enemy. The Philistines have taken dominion over them, and they are servants to the Philistines, in their own land? And they say to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines rule over us? We're subject to them.” This is unbelievable. This was a lie. Well, it was true, it was happening. But it wasn't meant to be the truth! because God's people were meant to be more and mightier and filling the whole land with His glory. And what is His glory? It's the revelation of Who He is, His truth and His salvation, and His deliverance, and His ways, and His compassion, and all that He is. But no, they were fearful, and they were under the enemy.

Oh my. I pray that that will not be our concession. “Don't you know that these leftists and socialists rule over us, and we're subject to them?” May that not ever be.

Oh, may God save us. Oh, how we need to repent of how we've turned away from God. We've been more interested in material possessions. We've been more interested in our careers. We've been more interested in just doing what all the humanists do than listening to God, and to His ways. You see, His ways are so powerful. His ways are what work. He wants to make families like a flock and fill the land. Each family a little flock, filling the land with His glory. And each family, the husbands, the wives, and the children growing up in those families, revealing what God is like. This is what it's all about, lovely ladies, filling the earth with God's glory.

If you are in your home, precious mother, and you've got your little darling children around you, maybe some middling, maybe some older ones. Oh yes, life is full. Yes, and sometimes you maybe wish you were doing something else.

But can I just remind you today, that you are in the very perfect will of God, and you are doing what God wants you to do. And you are doing a powerful thing. And you are making your family like a flock. You are preparing children who will one day go out into this world to reveal God's glory. What you are doing now, you are revealing the glory of God.

Because when you are doing His mandate, what He has planned, you are to the praise of His glory. Oh, be encouraged today. Let's not be intimidated any longer by all these lies and diabolical junk that's all around us. Let's stand up against it and do not be intimated.

Let us hold our heads high and walk in the truth of the Word of God, and raise our families in a great family life, to build into our families and make them strong. And embrace the children God wants us to have. Raise them to be mighty in God. Oh, there's nothing more powerful in the whole of the earth. Just continue to pray. Pray in this hour.

Oh, we pray morning and night. We pray at our prayer meetings. We pray against what is happening in this hour. We are praying that God will do a mighty miracle and there will come a move of God to our colleges that will bring back God's truth and save our young people from all this deception.

And of course, we need to be raising young people. If you've got young people, just growing up, you have teens, oh, fill them with God's Word. Fill them with truth so as they go out, they will not be intimidated. They will not be taken over by all this around them. But they will be strong in the truth, to go out, and to speak it out, wherever they go in the nation. Amen?

Let's pray.

“Oh God, we see again what is happening, and how, Lord God, we have allowed the enemy to overtake us, because we have not fulfilled Your mandate to fill the earth to overflowing, to embrace the godly seed.

“Oh God, please help us to come back to Your ways, and to embrace Your ways, Lord God, and that Your people will begin to fill the earth with Your glory, with Your children, and with children who are filled with Your Word, and filled with the ways of God. Oh, we ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 74: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 7)

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies, wonderful to be with you again. We are continuing our series of The Glory of Womanhood.

Today I want to talk about a Scripture where God says that He wants to fill the whole earth with His glory.

We go to Numbers 14:21 and it says here: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.”

Now this is in the context of when Moses has sent the twelve spies into Canaan to spy out the land. They came back sharing what an amazing land it was. It was a land filled with milk and honey, but they also saw giants there and they were scared and afraid.

Ten spies brought back an evil report. In fact, the Bible actually uses the word “slander.” That is very interesting— they brought back a slander upon the land! It was the land that God had promised to them, but they had slandered the land.

Of course we know there were only two people, two men, Joshua and Caleb who said, “We can go in! God is with us!”

God was so disappointed. He could not believe that they wouldn’t trust Him after all they had seen Him do. How He had delivered them from Egypt and how He had shown His mighty right arm and brought them through the red sea and done great miracles.

And now they still could not trust Him, and He said to Moses, “I’m just going to do away with all these people. I’m going to start again with you.”

Moses interceded for the people and said, “Oh no, God, if You do that all the people who have seen Your power will say ‘Oh no, He couldn’t do it.’”

Any way, He brought judgment on the children of Israel and said that all those 20 years of age and up could not go into that Promised Land. They would die in that wilderness and it would be their sons and daughters who could go in. Then He concluded with these words: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.”

We see these words written in other passages, too.

Psalm 72:19 and the psalmist praised Him here saying: “And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.” I’m not just saying that [amen], that’s the Scripture!

Again in Habakkuk 2:14 the words say: “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

What is this glory? Is it kind of beautiful clouds floating around with the colors of the rainbow and the glory of God upon them?

No. God is speaking about people here. People are His glory. His creation, male and female that He created, they are His glory. They are the reflection of His image. They are to reveal Who He is and His likeness in the world.

Because His people whom He had gathered (He was making a people, His very own people who would reveal Himself to all the other nations around), now they couldn’t even believe Him. They could not even trust Him. And so He had to bring judgment upon them.

But He said, “There will come a time, it will happen, when the glory of the Lord will not only fill the land of Canaan, but it will fill the whole earth.” And God was speaking of a time when His people would fill the earth with His glory.

We can go over even to the New Testament. In fact, I was just reading this passage this morning, Ephesians chapter one. I noticed that in this chapter the word glory is mentioned five times.

We look at verses 5-6: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

He is saying here that we, His people, His redeemed people, are to be to the praise of His glory. That’s what He wants us to do. He wants us to reflect His glory and as we do, we are praising His glory.

We go down to verse 12. Here it says it again: “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”

I love the Amplified Classic translation of that verse. There are two Amplified versions of the Bible, did you know that? One is called “The Amplified” and one is called “The Amplified Classic.”

Here it says that we “have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory!”

Isn’t that wonderful? That’s what you’re doing today, dear precious mother, dear precious wife, in your home. You are living to the praise of His glory.

As you allow Christ to live His life in you and through you to your husband, to your children, to those you meet each day, you are bringing glory to the Lord as you embrace who He created you to be as a female.

Don’t resist that but embrace who you are and live it to the full. You are being a praise to His glory for this is how He made you and this is how you will bring glory to Him.

We go down to verse 14: “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

We read it again.

Would you listen as I read verses 17-23? I want to actually speak about verse 23, but these words are so incredible that I want to read them to you. It’s just the Scripture, it’s not what I’m saying. In fact, you’re going to get more out of hearing God’s living Word more than what I say.

So as I read these wonderful words from God’s living Word, let them go into you and seep into your being. Embrace them into your whole being. Not just your mind and your heart, but your whole body. Let them just take it in.

That’s how we should read the Word, isn’t it? Not just read it on the surface and say, “Oh well, I better do my Bible reading for the day” and we read it and we hardly know what we’ve read. But no, it’s so good when we open our ears, eyes, and hearts and our whole beings and say, “Oh God, I want to take it in and let it seep into my very being.”

So from verse 17 it says: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory [there’s the word glory again. He’s the Father of glory], may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what [what? What does He want us to know? That ye may know what . . .] is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints [oh, that is His glory: what He sees of Christ in us, His children whom He has redeemed with His precious blood], and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places . . .”

By the way, we are there with Christ now if we are born again. The Bible says that we not only died with Christ, we were raised with Christ, and now we’re seated with Christ in heavenly places. It tells us about that in chapter two of Ephesians. And there we are . . .

“Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”

See, God wants to fill the earth with His glory, and He is going to do that with His people.

He wanted to do that back when He raised up the Israelites. They were His people He wanted to show forth to the nations all around His glory through them. Of course they sinned and turned away from Him, but of course we know the glorious story of the Bible where Jesus came.

He came to lay down His life and redeem us so that, as it says in Hebrew 2:10: “For it became him [Jesus], for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain [or the leader and chief] of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

We see there in that Scripture how that Jesus came. He not only came to die to save us from our sins, but to redeem us to Himself and to give us the hope of what He is doing now in preparing us a place in eternity.

He wants to bring many sons into glory. That is His purpose. Oh, He came to redeem many sons to fill eternity, to fill His glorious eternal home with redeemed sons and daughters, redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

As we read these Scriptures, we are seeing the two commissions that God has given.

He gave the first commission in the very beginning: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

That was the very first commission God ever gave to man. They were the very first words He ever said to mankind.

But then we go over to the New Testament and we have a second commission. It’s called the Great Commission where we are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, discipling them and baptizing them in the name of Jesus. That’s called the Great Commission.

There are some people who say, “Well, you know, all we need to do today is the great commission. God’s not really interested in actual children today.”

You know, there are still many Christian people today who still believe in limiting their families.

You perhaps say something to them, and they say, “God’s not interested in the natural children. Now we’re in the New Testament and He is only interested in spiritual children and bringing people into the Kingdom of God.”

Well I believe in that with all my heart and that is the Great Commission for each one of us, even us wives and mothers, in our homes.

We go out and we meet so many people as we go out into the supermarket and roundabout with our children doing this and that. We are to be witnesses wherever we go, through our lives, through our tongues, speaking His truth, His Gospel and His Word. Yes, yes, yes!

But that doesn’t negate the first commission. In fact, if we negate the first commission, we’re going to have fewer souls to win to Jesus!

In fact, this is the thing: the more children that we have in our families means the more witnesses we are raising for Jesus. So we are not only bringing more natural children into the world, but we’re going to bring more spiritual children into the world. As our children grow up and go out and are witnesses to Jesus, they are going to impact more and more children.

Both commissions are so important. God wants the natural children to be brought into the world so that they can be redeemed by the blood of Jesus and become His spiritual children. That’s how it works.

We see this Scripture here how He wants the whole earth filled with His glory. That word glory is the word kabod.

We’ve talked about that glorious word kabod that God uses when He is speaking about women. But it is mostly used of God Himself. He is the God of glory, the Father of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory, the Holy Spirit of glory. He also wants His glory to be revealed in us.

Let’s go on to some other Scriptures, shall we?

I mentioned Genesis 1:28 where it says: “ . . . Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [fill] the earth . . ..”

Let’s look at those words:

“Be fruitful” is the Hebrew word parah and means: “to increase.” Increase. It doesn’t mean just stop. It means INCREASE. Remember, this is the very first commission God ever gave, the very first words God ever gave to man: “Be fruitful.” So we are to increase.

“Multiply.” That is the Hebrew word rabah meaning “abundance, exceedingly, make great, more and more.”

Then “To fill the earth,” that is the word male. It just means “to fill to overflowing.”

What we’re really going to talk about today is the glory of the Lord is filling to overflowing. We’re going to see where these words are used in the Bible. He wants the glory of the Lord to fill the earth.

Here in Genesis 1:28 He says, “I want you to fill the earth.” What are we to fill the earth with? Not inanimate things, no! We are to fill the earth with people. With babies, with children, with people who grow up to reveal the image of God in the world, especially as they grow up in godly homes.

As your precious children grow up in your home and you are raising them in the ways of God and you’re filling them with His Word, as you do this they are getting filled with Jesus, filled with His Word, filled with His truth, they will reveal His glory.

We go over to Genesis chapter 9:1. This now is after the flood and after God wiped out all mankind because of their sin. He had only saved Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives.

He came again and He said these words again. This time He repeated them two times. He didn’t just say it once, but He repeated it twice. “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

What does it mean? It means: “fill to overflowing.” This time God, to make sure they got the message, He spoke this first command He had ever given to mankind two times.

Actually, if we just look at that a little closer in Genesis chapter nine, He goes on and makes something even clearer. In verse three He talks about how the fish and the clean animals could be food for them.

Verses 4-7 says: “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.”

He’s not only saying this a second time, but He’s saying the words a second time as He reiterates this.

Why is He saying this? He said: “For in the image of God I created you.”

This is why every person that comes into the world is sacred. Every new conceived human being is sacred. Every new conception is a person from that moment. God says that their life will be required.

Life is sacred to God because life is being created in the image of God. God wants His image revealed on the earth.

This is His glory and He wants His glory to fill the earth.

Now we know that every person who is conceived and grows in the womb and is born is created in the image of God. There is a light of God that God puts in every new creation. Sadly in homes where they do not love God and they may be even atheistic or antagonistic toward God that light can be dimmed. That child therefore doesn’t grow up with the knowledge of God.

But they still have opportunity. God is over all and in some miraculous way God moves and works and that person can be born again. We know of great, glorious redemptions of people who have grown up in terrible, antagonistic toward God and atheistic homes and God has redeemed them by His precious blood.

But oh, how glorious it is for children to grow up in homes where God is loved, and His ways are taught. This is so strong on the heart of God.

We talked just recently on a podcast how God says in Micah 2:9, “Oh, you have taken children, My children, out of the home. You have taken them away from Me and you’ve put them with pagans.”

You see, God wants His children raised in godly homes learning about Him.

Every single child is sacred, and everyone has that opportunity. Yes, more so in a Christian, godly home, but by the moving of the Holy Spirit others can come to know Christ and become sons of God. Amen?

There we see it all reiterated.

So precious ladies, God wants to see our homes filled with children. He loves to see our homes filled with children. It’s sad that there are many homes in our nation today that have more TV’s than they have children. Often, they’re just filled with material possessions and often just one or two children.

I was recently reading some recent statistics, the National Center for Health statistics. The latest I read was from 2018.

The 2018 birth rate for the US had fallen to 59 births per one thousand women during the ages of 15-44 years. That is the lowest birth rate ever recorded in US history.

Now ladies, isn’t that sad? I mean, here we leave in this affluent society. We are more affluent today than in any other time. I think this generation today has no idea of the affluence in which they live.

I grew up in New Zealand, an affluent country just like the US, but our lifestyle was so different than it is today. I think even grandparents today, their lifestyle was more different than it is today.

I thought when I grew up that we were rich. We had everything we needed! But we didn’t have what we have today.

I mean I can remember Christmas time. Oh, I couldn’t wait for Christmas. In my little stocking, well my parents would put up a pillowcase. We didn’t believe in Father Christmas, but my parents still just did this for fun.

We’d wake up in the morning, and we knew that it was mummy and daddy who had filled our little pillowcase with things.

If I got an orange, an ORANGE, ladies, in my pillowcase I couldn’t believe it. It was so exciting. Back then if you got an orange— wow! I mean if you grew them on the tree that was great. But to buy them in the shops out of season, you didn’t do that because back then, of course, we didn’t have all the refrigeration or all the deep freezers. So you only ate what was in season. You didn’t have anything out of season. This generation doesn’t know how to live like that.

They can have anything they want from any season and from any country of the world. You just go down to the supermarket and buy it.

You didn’t just go out and buy new clothes. You made your clothes. Today of course it’s just about cheaper to buy your own clothes rather than make them.

This was back in these days. You lived so frugally. Even now I absolutely cannot stand to throw out food. I have to eat it.

When we have our big family gatherings and all the children are there for Thanksgiving and Christmas and other big celebrations, we have all this food laid out. It’s like a feast.

Then I will say to all the children, “Now children, just take what you can eat. You’re so welcome to come back for more. But don’t take more than you can eat because Nana’s not going to be very pleased if you leave food on your plate.”

So I give my little lecture every celebration. But sadly every celebration I go around, I am collecting the plates and there is still food left on the plates.

I feel so sad to throw away this food, beautiful lamb and turkey and chicken, all good food. It’s just as well we have some dogs we can give it to.

But that is so sad. Today I notice how most Americans eat. They fill their plate and then just leave half of it and throw it out like it’s nothing, just nothing! Oh, goodness me! Oh! it doesn’t matter!

They have never known what it’s like to have just enough money to survive and you eat what’s on your plate. In fact, back in those days if you didn’t eat it, it was put away and you ate it for the next meal. It was never thrown away.

It’s just a different generation.

But in this affluent generation, what are the birth statistics? We are the lowest birth rate in history. How can that be when our forefathers struggled? They didn’t have what we have today. But they had children.

What is it? What has happened? And yet, especially us who are God’s people, who say we’re “people of the Book.” Who say we believe God’s Word and His very first command is “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth to overflowing.”

And we can only have our 1.7 children. That’s what the statistic is, it’s 1.7 per family. That is not enough to replace the next generation.

That’s why we have to bring in all this immigration and of course who is coming in but all the Islamics? They’re bringing in a different culture and a different religion than how this country began. It’s all because we will not have our own children.

We see what’s happening in other countries. We know the one child policy of China (which I think they’ve just changed to two just recently). The statistics are that by the year 2030 there will be 30 million more men of marrying age than women of marrying age.

This is because they have done selective abortion and they have only been allowed to have one child for years and   they therefore would abort the daughters. You can hardly take that in.

What about India? In India there is a study by The Population Research Center. They have discovered that one in ten of every ten men in India will never have been married by the time they have turned 50 years of age because there are no women to marry.

All of this is because we have become a selfish people. We want more material things in our homes than we want children. Isn’t that amazing? Oh goodness me!

We will see just a few little Scriptures as I finish this session. We go to Ezekiel 36. This is a glorious chapter! Oh, I love this chapter of the Bible, ladies.  It’s a chapter speaking of God’s prophetic word to the children of Israel coming back to the land.

We know how God spewed them out of the land because they began to do these wicked sins like the people of Canaan whom God told them to wipe out because of their sin. Now they began to rebel against Him. Eventually God just scattered them across the face of the world.

God is a covenant-keeping God and although He had to bring judgment upon them, He will never break His covenant with Israel. The Word of God is filled with promises of how He will bring them back to the land.

In fact there’s an article on my webpage called “Israel and the Land.” Just go to website aboverubies.org and search under my articles and type in “Israel.” Actually, here is the link: http://aboverubies.org/EverlastingPossession

It gives all the promises written out under different headings. It has all the promises of how He has promised to bring them back. We are living in the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy right now and have been for so many years! God has been bringing back His people to the land. It is so incredible! How can anyone not believe the Word of God? How can anyone not believe in God when we are living in the middle of prophetic prophecy coming to pass?

Anyway, Ezekiel 36 is amazing. You need to read it sometime how God says: “Prophecy.” He doesn’t say “Prophecy to people” He says: “Prophecy to the land. Yes, prophecy to the land, to the hills, to the mountains, to the rivers, to the hills, to the valleys, to the desolate places and to the cities that have been forsaken. “ He says they’re to prophecy to this land. You’ve got to speak to this land that it will bring forth fruit for my people who are coming back.

I have seen this with my very eyes as I have visited Israel.

This chapter is specifically speaking about the West Bank, the heartland of Israel and the mountains of Israel. I’ve been out there to those mountains and they are so barren and desolate. It’s just like stones and dirt.

And yet when they begin to plant the vineyards and other things in that land, they just grow! They grow out of dirt! I mean, everything grows out of dirt, but this is just stones and barren dirt. It doesn’t even look like rich, lush soil there because there is not rich, lush soil there.

But because of the prophetic Word of the Lord it just grows, and these glorious vineyards are just growing. God said He’s going to do it.

He also said in verses 37-38: “Thus saith the Lord  God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

God is prophetically speaking, and it’s happening right now: this heartland of Israel and all over Israel is being filled, not only with crops and becoming like the garden of Eden, but it’s being filled with flocks of men.

God wants to FILL. When He blesses, He fills. That’s the heart of God. When God said, “Be fruitful and multiply” He didn’t just say it. No! He did something before He said it.

What did He do? Do you know? Before God said those words, it says: “And God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.”

When God came to Noah and his sons after the flood it says: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

And as we read through Genesis and right throughout the Word, every time we read about God bringing forth a child or blessing them with family or multiplying them, it first says, “And God blessed them.”

God blesses to fill. God doesn’t want us to half fill. He wants us to fill to overflowing.

I’m going to talk more about this in our next session because there is so much more. 

Let’s pray.

“Dearest Father, we want to thank You for Your heart, for Your Word, for Your way.

“Forgive us, Lord, for being so ignorant of Your ways. Lord, we are Your people. Help us to be people who know You, who know Your Words, who know Your Book.

“Lord God, help us to be Your people who walk in truth and who walk in obedience to Your ways. Give us revelation and understanding and bless these lovely listeners today, Lord God.

“Bless their hearts, bless their families, bless their homes I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.”