PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 340: THE BLESSINGS OF BEING PLANTED
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 340: THE BLESSINGS OF BEING PLANTED
God promises that when we are planted, we will be fruitful, flourishing, healthy, fresh, and bringing glory to God, especially when we are planted by the waters. Is this possible? And what are the waters?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hi, ladies! Last week we were talking about dwelling in our homes and being planted in our homes. Did you know that the word “dwell” occurs 468 times in the King James Bible? I found, as I was studying, 31 different Hebrew words for the word “dwell,” and 16 different Greek words in the New Testament.
Then I found 23 Hebrew words and 31 Greek words about eating our meals and sitting around our tables in our homes. That’s well over 100 words altogether, all about dwelling in the home. God is a dwelling God. He loves to dwell in our hearts. He loves to dwell in our homes. He loves us to be there too.
When a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, what happens?
Number one: she leaves the sphere that God intends for her. This is what God has intended for her from the very beginning.
Number two: when a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, she leaves her babies and little children whom God has given to her as His loved gift. When God gives us a baby, He doesn’t give us this baby to give to someone else to look after. He gives this baby to us. He gives this child to us, to love and nurture, and to train for His kingdom.
Number three: when a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, she goes out to make another man wealthy. She serves him, rather than her own husband. She’ll spend so much finance on cars and gas and clothes and daycare and fast food, and so on.
Actually, really, we can live so much more frugally when we’re at home. We can save so much, rather than gadding about and even going out to work. As my husband has always said, “A husband cannot afford for his wife to go to work outside the home. Too much is at stake.”
Number four: when a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, she is no longer fulfilling the biblical pattern God has given in His Word. God plainly states that He wants mothers to be keepers at home. He pictures the mother in the heart of the home. This is not modern theology but is biblical theology. The only correct theology is biblical theology.
Number five: when a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, her children are deprived, because no other woman, no matter how caring, no matter how efficient, can take the place of a mother. It’s only the mother who really knows that innermost needs of her child. Now stats are showing that in many daycares, children are being abused mentally and psychologically.
Number six: when a mother leaves her home for another career outside the home, there is no one at home guarding and guiding the home. We, as mothers, are the watchdogs of our homes. We are the guarders and protectors, not only of our children’s bodies, but their souls and their spirits.
That’s why satan loves wooing mothers out of the home, plucking them up out of the home, because then he can get his chance, his claws on their hearts and their minds. Watching over our children is a full-time job because we’re not just watching, caring for their physical needs, but their souls and their spirits. Amen?
Well, what is our next point? Oh, yes, I’m going to tell you all the blessings of being planted, being planted naturally in the home, and being planted spiritually in the Lord, in His Word, and in amongst His people.
Here they are. These are all biblical blessings, ladies.
No. 1. YOU WILL BE FRUITFUL
I’m sure we all want to be fruitful, don’t we? We want to have a life that’s full of fruit and blessings.
Psalm 1:3: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”
Who is that person? The one who meditates on the law of the Lord, day and night. God says he is like a tree planted and he’ll bring forth fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters . . . neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
Ezekiel 19:10: “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.”
Psalm 92:13: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall . . . still bring forth fruit in old age.”
Do you notice, ladies, every one of those Scriptures where it mentions that we are planted, the blessing is fruitfulness. Fruitfulness comes from being planted. We can’t be fruitful without being planted.
Then we go to John 15:1, and we see it in the spiritual realm. Jesus said: “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” Then He goes on to say: “Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, that it might bring forth more fruit.” God isn’t satisfied with our fruitfulness. He wants more fruitfulness, and even more than that, He wants much fruit.
Down in verse six it says: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 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, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”
We can be fruit bearers, but God is wanting us to bring forth more fruit. Then He says: “Oh, I want much fruit!” God is a God of fruitfulness, and this is what He looks for in our lives. But we cannot have fruitfulness without being planted. The more we are rooted in our homes, the more fruitful we will be. This is what the Scripture says.
No. 2: YOU WILL FLOURISH
You will not only be fruitful, ladies, you will flourish! Who wants to flourish? Some mothers feel they’re just wilting in their homes. Some feel they’re just barely surviving. That’s not God’s will for us. He wants us to flourish.
Psalm 92: 12-15: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.” The word “flourish” in the Hebrew is parach. It means “to bud, to sprout, to bloom, to blossom.”
Psalm 128:3 in The Living Bible says: “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine, flourishing within your home.” When you are flourishing, what will happen? You will be blossoming, flowering, blooming, growing luxuriantly, thriving, increasing, enlarging, expanding, developing, shooting out, and abounding.
1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” That word “abounding” in the Greek is the word perisseuo. This is what it means: “to superabound, to be in excess, enough and to spare, over and above, beyond what is necessary.”
That sounds a little bit over the top, doesn’t it? But that is the Scripture. That’s what that word means. It says we’re to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” And what is the work that God has given to us as mothers? If God has blessed you with children, your work is to nurture, and to train these precious children, and to build a godly home that glorifies God.
How are you to do it? “Well, I’m just surviving from day to day.” No! God wants you to do it FLOURISHINGLY! Yes! Meaning to be excessive, more than is necessary, over and above. It’s an over-the-top lifestyle! Wow! What is the lifestyle in your home? What is the atmosphere you're making in your home, dear mother, today?
Some other Scriptures: Proverbs 11:28 (HCSB): “The righteous shall flourish like foliage.” (Like lots of green leaves).
Proverbs 14:11 (NLT): “The tabernacle (or the home) of the upright, shall flourish.” Flourish is not just a normal word. It’s more than being fruitful. It’s more—It’s flourishing!
No. 3: YOU WILL BE VIGOROUS AND HEALTHY
Psalm 92:13-14: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall . . . be fat.” The Hebrew word is dashen, and it means “full of sap, full of oil, healthy.” Not really meaning “fat.” You’re not meant to be getting fat, but you're meant to be filled with vitality, filled with sap.
When people get older, their bones get brittle and dry. Often. it’s easy for an older person to break their hip or break their leg, or something. That’s because the sap is filtering out of their bones and their body. A healthy body is full of sap and vitality. When Moses was 120 years old, God took him up to the mountain because it was time for him to die. But do you know what? He was still so healthy!
The Young’s Literal Translation, which is a literal translation of the Hebrew says: “His eye hath not become dim, not hath his moisture fled.”
The New Living Translation says: “His eye had not become dim, nor were the juices of his body dry.”
The New English Translation commentary says: “Nor had his sap fled, or ebbed from his body.” That was because he was planted, planted in the house of the Lord.
God wants you to be planted in your house. God has promised health and vitality when you are planted in your home. Many times today, women are spread so thinly that they’re trying to make everything happen in their home, but they’ve got a job out of the home and are just being pulled in every direction. Really, it’s not what they’re meant to be doing, and it’s not for their health. God has promised, when you're planted in His house, when you're planted in your house, that you will be healthy and vigorous.
No. 4: YOU WILL BE LUXURIANT AND FRESH
There’s more yet, ladies!
Psalm 92:13-14 again: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall . . . be flourishing.” But this time, it’s a different Hebrew word, different from the first one. This Hebrew word means “to grow luxuriantly, fresh, verdant.”
Have you heard that word “verdant” before? That’s a word which means a very vivid green. It’s mostly translated “green,” in the Bible or speaks of very green trees.
The New American Standard Bible says: “very green.”
The Berean Study Bible says: “Healthy and green they will remain.”
There can be different types of green. We look out on our green grass, and our green trees, especially in the springtime. Isn’t it beautiful when the green leaves come out? They’re greener when they first come out, aren’t they? They’re so beautifully green.
I always think of when I go back to New Zealand. There’s something about the ozone layer in New Zealand. It grows such green grass. Sometimes it’s just like, oh, you can hardly believe it! And the vegetables are greener. I remember going into the vegetable shop. I’d just come from the States. I walked in and my eyes could hardly believe it! How much greener the greens were! The cabbages and the green vegetables were so luxuriantly green.
It was amazing. This is the kind of green it’s talking about, verdant green. It says that this is what we’ll be like when we’re planted.
Jeremiah 17:8: “Her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought.”
I love this Scripture in the Song of Solomon 1:16. It’s writing, of course, about the husband and the wife. It says here: “Our bed is green.” Well, I’m not sure that it was colored green but I think it was speaking of a bed that was fresh and luxuriantly green with growth. I believe that’s how God wants our beds to be in our marriage. Yes, flourishing, never dry and boring. No. It says: “Our bed is green.”
That’s an amazing, beautiful thing, because sometimes when some couples get older, wow! They seem to move out of their bed, and they get into single beds. How boring! And then, even worse, they get into separate rooms. But here, in the Scriptures, it says: “Our bed.” “Our bed is green.” Is your bed flourishing? Is it beautiful? Is it intoxicating? Satiating? Captivating? Green? Always fresh? Never cold or boring.
All right, ladies. One more promise: when you're planted.
No. 5. YOU WILL GLORIFY GOD
Isaiah 61:3: “That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” God is glorified when you bring forth fruit, and that happens when you're planted. “The planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.”
And also, dear ladies, you are glorifying God when you're planted in your home, because this is where, scripturally and biblically, He has planted you as a mother. When He gives you children, this is the place in His plan for you, to raise your children. When you obey Him, you bring glory to His Name. Amen? Yes! Glory to the Name of the Lord!
You’re not bringing glory to the Name of the Lord when you are plucked up out of your home. God’s plan is for us to be planted in our home. The devil’s plan is to pluck us up out of the home. We’re not bringing glory to God when we’re plucked up.
We go over again to John 15, where it’s talking about spiritual fruit. It says: “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” Yes. This is where we bring glory to the Lord.
WE MUST BE PLANTED BY THE WATERS
We have all those wonderful Scriptures of promise and blessing, but did you notice, as we were reading them, ladies, that they were planted by the waters? Yes, by the waters. That’s a very important point. What does it mean? To be planted by the waters?
Psalm 1:3: “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” By the river, yes, and that river, that water speaks of the Word of God.
Ezekiel 19:10: “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.”
There are two things that speak of the water, or the water speaks of these two things.
Firstly, the Word of God. The Word speaks of cleansing.
John 15:3: “Now ye are clean through the Word, that I have spoken unto you.” When we read the Word, we’re going to be cleansed.
I remember hearing this little story of a little Maori boy in New Zealand. In New Zealand, where I come from, our native people are Maori people, and they have their own Maori language. I think the Maori word for a basket is the kete. I hope so. Any Maori people listening to me? I think it’s the kete. It’s something like that. The Maori people make these flax baskets which they weave. They get the flax, and they weave them into a basket. But, of course, there are little spaces between the weavings.
This grandmother said to her little grandson, let’s see, what will we call him? Mohi. That’s a good Maori name. “Mohi, I want you to run down to the river, and I want you to fill this kete with water.” So, he wants to bless his Nana, so he runs down to the river, and he comes back running as fast as he can. But by the time he gets there, all the water has fallen out! It just runs through all the little holes between the basket weaving.
She said, “OK, I want you to do it again. Go down to the river and see if you can bring back water this time.” So, little Mohi runs down to the river with all his might, and he fills it right to the top with water. He's going to try to make it this time! He runs back as fast as he could, but by the time he got back, all the water had run through the weaving of the basket.
And what does his grandmother do? She said, “Mohi, I want you to go again. Try harder this time.” So, Mohi runs down to the river, and he fills it with water. This time he runs as fast as he can possibly go. When he gets back to his Nana, there’s no water in the basket.
“Oh, Nana, I couldn’t get the water!” She says to him, “Now, Mohi, don’t you worry. Look how clean it is!” She wanted a clean basket.
But it’s like the Word of God. Sometimes, even when we’re reading it, we may not feel that we’re really getting very much, or we don’t understand it. But you know what? We’re getting clean. Every time you read the Word, you’re getting clean. Isn’t that wonderful? That’s why we’ve got to be planted by the waters, to keep clean, because that’s when we’ll be fruitful.
Ephesians 5:26, this is the passage about husbands and wives: “That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the Word.” Husbands are meant to read the Word to their wives. That’s how they wash them. We can be washed by having a good wash in our shower or bathroom, but we wash our inner man with the Word of God.
Secondly, the water speaks of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 44:3: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, that your children, and My blessing upon My offspring.” What a wonderful prayer to pray over your children.
I love to pray that prayer every day, if I remember. Just say: “Oh, Lord God, please pour out Your Spirit upon my children today. Pour Your blessing upon my offspring. It starts off: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” Lord, I want You to pour floods of water upon them.”
Then we go to the New Testament, John 7:38-39: “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Holy Spirit.)” So, if we’re planted by the waters, we’ll have the Word and we’ll have the Holy Spirit. We need both, don’t we? We need God’s Word in our lives, and we need the Holy Spirit. We need it as mothers, and our children need it, day by day.
I love that beautiful Scripture in Isaiah 59:21. I think I’ve shared this Scripture with you before, but I must share it again because it is so powerful. “As for me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee” (that is the Holy Spirit. We cannot mother without the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be fruitful without the power of the Holy Spirit.
But then it goes on to say: “and My word” (We also have to have the Word) “And My Word, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children’s children, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever, saith the Lord.”
That’s where we want to be planted, dear lovely ladies, in our homes, but let’s have the water flowing in our homes. Let’s have the Word. Let’s read it every day to our children. Let’s have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oh, this is the rivers of water.
MOTHERHOOD AND THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
As we close this session, I just want to share some lovely thoughts from the parable of the Sower. Here I’m likening it to motherhood. You can read the parable of the sower in Matthew, and Mark, and Luke. I’ll give you the references in the transcript when I do it.
(Mathew 13:13:1-30; Mark 4:1-20; and Luke 8:4-15).
But in Mark 4:2-3, we read: “And Jesus taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine.” Jesus spoke doctrine. He spoke theology. But He spoke it in parables and pictures and stories. He said: “Harken. Listen well. Behold, there went out a sower to sow.” And He sowed the Word of God. It was the Word that He was sowing. But when He sowed this Word, there were different kinds of people, as you know, because you all know the parable of the sower.
But I want to liken it to us mothers.
NO TIME OR ATTENTION
The first one, “And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.” These people had no time or attention. Oh, yes, they heard the Word, but they didn’t have time to think about it or meditate on it at all. And so, the seed was devoured. They didn’t listen with their whole heart.
As one translation says: “They heard faintly with their ears.” Not a good thing to hear faintly, ladies. We’ve got to hear God’s Word closely.
And how terrible it is to have a scattered mind and heart!
Yes, they were by the wayside. They were going here. They were going there. They didn’t even have time to sit and think! No, they were too busy. So, the seed was devoured.
We see that over in Ezekiel 19:14. That is also an allegory about motherhood. “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood. She was fruitful because of many branches” (speaking of her children). Then it goes on down and talks about how she was plucked up! Whoo! She was meant to be planted, but now she’s plucked up. And what happens? Her fruit is devoured. The fruit of her womb is devoured because she’s plucked up from the home, and instead she’s out there by the wayside.
NO ROOT
Number two, the next group of people. It says, in Matthew 13:5: “Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.” They had no roots.
How terrible it is to have a stony and shallow mind and heart.
We have to be rooted. We’re only rooted, ladies, when we’re planted. And the Bible says that it got choked because of tribulation, affliction, or persecution because of the Word.
Yes, now these people, they were taking the Word. Oh yes, they were believing the Word, but they got persecution for it. So, it didn’t last very long. And sometimes mothers can, yes, they’re going the right way, homeschooling, but they get flack for it. “Oh, you’re having another baby?” Goodness me, the flack, from your mother-in-law, and your mother, and friends, and family. “What? You’re not having another baby, are you?”
And here you are, fulfilling the very first command that God ever gave to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. You are in God’s perfect will, but you’re getting persecution because of the Word! And so many other areas. Some mothers will give up. They can’t stand the persecution.
Really, it’s just a bit of flack, when you think there are Christians in the world who are being martyred for their faith. They’re being tormented and they’re being tortured! Help! You’re just getting a bit of flack? But we’ve got to be so rooted in the Word that no matter what people say, we will stand on that Word. We will not be able to be plucked up, because when you're really planted deeply, oh, it’s hard to be plucked up.
In fact, sometimes I go out there, and I’m weeding my garden. Some weeds, they’re so easy to pluck up. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. You pluck them up. Then you come to a weed that’s really rooted, and you're pulling, and you're pulling, and you're pulling, and you can’t pull it up! Sometimes I’ve got to go and get a shovel and dig down deep to get that shovel underneath the root, to pull it up. That’s the difference.
When you're planted, and something comes along—offenses, that’s another thing the parable mentions. Offenses. Oh, people get offended. That is the worst thing that can ever happen. To get offended, oh yes, we all get offended. But what do you do with that offense? Are you going to give up God’s Word because of an offense, or what somebody says? Help! No, we’ve got to be those who are so rooted, so rooted that it just doesn’t matter what happens. They can’t pluck us up! Amen?
NO MOISTURE
The next one, with no moisture. In Luke’s gospel, it tells us: “And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.” It wasn’t planted by the waters. Oh, ladies, we’ve got to be planted by the waters, by the Word, and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
How terrible it is to be dry and withered in heart and spirit!
We’ve got to be a watered garden, like Isaiah 58:11: “Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.”
Jeremiah 31:12: “And their soul” (not just their physical body, but) their soul shall be like a watered garden.”
I read this commentary. I love it. “A well-watered garden is a place where plants grow, flowers bloom, fruit ripens. It is a place where birds sing, bees buzz, and butterflies flutter.” I remember a few years ago, I planted a garden of large zinnias. I love the large zinnias. They grew up and I was amazed. That little garden of zinnias was full of butterflies. Butterflies love zinnias. I think it pulled every butterfly from all around. It was filled with butterflies because they were growing so luxuriantly. It was so beautiful.
But the problem with these people is that they were “choked with the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things.” That happens to mothers too. Many mothers leave their home because of the lust of other things. “Oh, we haven’t got enough! I need this, I need that. We can’t survive with me here in the home.”
OK. You may not be able to have everything you want when you're in the home, and you've just got one income coming in. But, you know, it’s amazing how you can survive. You can do it! It is true. I remember raising our children. I used to often say, “I would live in a tent rather than leave my children.” I couldn’t leave. We lived on the smell of an oily rag. We lived from day to day.
But God was faithful. It is so true. I know so many mothers, many who even have big families, six, seven, eight, nine, ten children. Wow, you can’t leave them and go out to a career (It's usually the mothers with the one or two children who leave the home) and yet, they’re surviving, with one income! It happens. You see, we think we can’t, and so we go out and do it our way. But when we trust God, He will show up. He always shows up.
NO STICKABILITY
The fourth one is those people who have no stickability. They were choked, once again, with the cares of this world. Another translation says: “They had no staying power, no stickability.” We’ve got to have that stickability, ladies.
How terrible it is to have a thorny heart!
NO BARRENNESS
The last ones were those who were fruitful. They had no barrenness because they were planted. They were rooted. Amen?
How wonderful it is to bring forth fruit, even one hundred-fold!
Well, I think our time is flying away. But here we have, even in the parable of the Sower, that beautiful allegory for us as mothers. Yes, and we will be fruitful as we’re planted, and we’re rooted in the home.
I want to encourage you, dear ladies, that it is possible to be in the home. When you obey God, and you think it simply cannot happen, but it does happen. I’ve seen it happen over and over and over again. Those who have taken the step to come out of their career and come home, and God has been faithful. I’ve proved it in my own life.
May the Lord bless you, dear lovely mothers. I pray that you will know the blessings of being planted in the home, and that you will be a planted mother, not a plucked-up mother.
“Dear Father, I thank You for all these precious mothers listening. Bless them today. Pour out Your blessings upon them, Lord God. I pray that You will give them vision to know, Lord, that as they trust You and obey You, they will do it Your way, and You will show them Your blessing, and You will show them Your faithfulness, and You will show them Your provision. Because You are a faithful God. We thank You, and we praise You. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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