PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 35 – HOW CAN WE CHANGE THE WORLD (Part 1)
Episode 35: HOW CAN WE CHANGE THE WORLD (Part 1)
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Rocky: Welcome to the podcast FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy: Hello ladies, always great to be with you and to be able to open the Word with you and encourage you in your home as a mother with your little ones all around you, maybe a grandmother, single, whoever you are. Let's get into the Word again today.
Today, I'd like to speak to you about HOW WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. It doesn't matter who we are. Whether we are a young person who's still unmarried, whatever we are, a mother with little children, older children, a grandmother, whoever we are, our lives are always influencing someone, and we have the opportunity to change the world in some little way or maybe even a big way, every day. In our home or wherever we go, even if we go out to the supermarket, we constantly can be available to affect people’s lives.
The trouble is with most of us, we are too ordinary; we are too boring; we are too mediocre; we are too middle-of-the-road. Most people don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to do anything that would maybe upset anyone. They don't want to say anything that might challenge somebody because then that person perhaps wouldn't be too happy with them, so we just stay middle-of-the-road. We are never going to change the world if we are just ordinary, when we are middle-of-the-road, when were on the fence. No, we have to be radical. As we go into the Word of God, we find that God doesn't expect us to be normal. No, He expects us to be above the normal, beyond the ordinary, over the top.
As we read the Word of God, we read so many adjectives. I'd love you to look out for the adjectives as you're reading the Bible. I'm amazed at God's Word. It is so extravagant, and it's filled with adjectives. When we read about peace, we don't just read the word “peace.” It describes peace. It says that when we have Christ dwelling in us, we have “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4;7). That was written to people who were suffering difficult times and persecution. It's not talking about being peaceful because everything's great, the sun is shining, we are sitting on the beach and life is happy. No, it's facing life, facing the difficulties, facing the challenges. No matter what we are facing, when Christ dwells within us, we have “peace that passes understanding.”
The Word of God talks about joy so much, and it doesn't only say the word “joy.” It talks about “exceeding joy” (Matthew 5;12 and 1 Peter 4;13). It talks about “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8). Once again, that passage where those words were written, were written to people who were suffering persecution. The joy that Jesus gives us is not just happiness because everything is great. It's joy that we have because Christ dwells in us, because we know that we can trust Him. We know that we have an eternal hope. We have an anchor. We know that we can trust our God.
When it's talking about life, when Jesus said: “I have come to give you life,” He didn't only say “life.” What did He say? He said: “I have come to give you life more abundantly.”
Did you notice that every promise has an adjective? Then we go into the Greek or the Hebrew to check out those words, we get a string of new words to describe that adjective. When we look up how Jesus wants to give us abundant life, we find that it's life that means “superabundantly, over the top, more than enough, beyond the normal.” It's beyond mediocrity.
Dear precious ladies, can I give you a vision of reality? Not just some “I'm talking off the top of my head.” No, this is God's Word. This is truth. This is reality. I have to speak to myself because I have to confess that I'm so often normal myself. I'm just ordinary, yet how can that be? How can that be when I have dwelling in me Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, with all His enemies under His feet, who will, one day, be crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords and has all power over the enemy? He dwells in me; therefore, I am elevated to a new realm of living, not under but over. Overcoming in Christ.
Let's look at a few points today of how, if we are going to be effective in changing the world (and let me pop in here), I want to say to the mothers who feel very trapped in your home, and you've got little ones around you, and you think, how can I change the world? Dear mother, you are changing the world by mothering your children, by nurturing your little ones. Even sitting on your rocking chair, nursing your baby, you are impacting the world. It is true: “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world” because a nation is only what its people are.
Not only its people, but the marriages and the homes and the families and YOU, as the mother, have the greatest power, the greatest potential, to mold the lives that God has given to you in your hand, in your home, in your four walls. You have these precious children, and you are training them; you are molding them. You are preparing them to go out into this world to impact this world, to reveal Christ, to reveal His love, to speak out His salvation, to show forth His love and compassion, and you are going to raise children who will take Christ into this nation and maybe to many other nations of the world.
Now, of course, while they are little, you are not sending them out. I hear many mothers say, “I send my children out into the public school to be witnesses for Christ.” I have found that that doesn't usually work like that. It may in some few cases, but it's a tough world out there, even in the public-school system, even amongst the children. Then, as they sit in the classroom, being taught by their ungodly teachers (of course, we have some godly teachers dotted here and there who are still in the system trying to be a light and we thank God for them), but on the whole, there are more ungodly teachers because they are trained in an ungodly system. Our colleges today, our universities today, are now training grounds for extreme socialism and leftism and pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality, and even pro-transgender. It's hard to even believe.
I mean, there was a time years ago, when you could go to college to get a great education, and you would not be affected by all this ideology. But now, this is the main theme of the professors in our universities and even in our schools, even right down to very young grades.
I can never understand that godly parents would send their children into an ungodly system, which it now is unfortunately, to sit under ungodly teachers and unlearn all that they are teaching them at home. No, we have a responsibility to teach our children God's ways, His word, His character, and to prepare them to be strong, ready to go out into this deceived world.
Now, they are not ready to go out when they are little. They don't even have the truth of the Word filling their lives. It takes time to get that Word into their hearts and into their minds, to become part of their very being. God's plan for us as parents, mothers with your little ones, and mothers with your middling ones, and your teenagers, it is His plan for us to not only get His Word into the minds and hearts of our precious children but into their mouths. That's the plan. Now, that takes time, to get it so powerfully into them that it's coming out of their mouths (Isaiah 59:21).
Can I ask you this little question? Is God's Word coming out of the mouths of your children?
I speak to many young people today, I talk to many young people, who are from Christian homes, who are in Christian churches, and I am amazed at how little they know of the Word. That Word is not coming out of their mouths. No, everything else is coming out. Goodness me, they know about the latest movies and the latest this and the latest that and the latest fashion, but I never hear the Word coming out of their mouths. They are not prepared to go out and face a deceived nation. No, because they haven't got truth; they haven't got an answer. We have to be ready. What does it say in the Word? It says, we are to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks us the reason of the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). We have to prepare our children so that they have His word in their hearts and in their minds, coming out of their mouths. They’ve got it there, so they’ve got the answers of the hope that is within them because, especially in today's society, that truth, that hope that we have from God is so opposite to society.
I remember growing up as a child in New Zealand, and even the non-Christians lived by Christian standards. Today, we don't find that. Today, even in our schools, the transgender ideology is being promoted. Colin and I were speaking at an Above Rubies family retreat the end of last year, the last retreat we did for the year. There were two school teachers there. Both were homeschooling their own children, but of course, they taught in the public school because that was their job.
This one particular guy got up to share and asked everyone to pray for him. He said, “I am in a school where I am the only Christian.” He said that they are promoting the transgender ideology. He has two of his students in his class, fourteen-year-olds, who are in the process of changing their sex. He said, “We are commanded to encourage them and get the whole class encouraging them that this is a great thing to do.”
Now, this is an evil hour in which we are living. Precious ones, it's an evil hour, it's a time when we cannot be normal; we cannot be mediocre. We have got to rise up and truly be the people of God. These people in our nation are a minority, but they are ruling the nation, and they are ruling our schools. They are seeking to rule government because they are bold. We just stay in our little mediocrity. We've got to get out of that.
Dear mothers, it is not insignificant what you are doing. It's powerful; it's forceful; it's going to be forceful. This is going to take everything you have to raise children who are strong in the truth. You are going to have to do that while they are young and get them stronger and stronger. There will come a time when they will have to go out, when they're older, when they're ready. We send them out because we are not training them for hibernation. We are training them for the revelation of God into this world, but we have to get them ready for that. As we send them out, they cannot be mediocre. They will get flattened by the enemy; they'll get deceived themselves. To go out into this world, they have got to be absolutely passionate for God, to know His truth, be able to face persecution and ridicule, but who know how to stand up for truth.
What a mighty, mighty task you have as a mother. You are training children for God's end-time army. You are enlisted in God's plan. You are called, and you are commissioned by Him to do this. Please don't take your motherhood lightly. It is powerful. Take up the commission that God has given you to raise children who will be mighty soldiers in this end-time army, in which we live.
Let's look at a few of these characteristics that we need to have ourselves and also that we need to impart into our children's lives.
No. 1 BE VERY COURAGEOUS
Let’s look at the words that God spoke to Joshua as they were going into the promised land. Now, they had been in the wilderness for forty years, and now, all those ones who didn't believe God, who were scared to go into the promised land, they all died, and there's a new generation. Joshua is taking them in.
In Joshua 1:7, these are the words of God to Joshua: “Only be thou strong and courageous.” Now those are great words, aren't they? Encouraging him, stirring him up, but actually, I didn't read it correctly. What does it really say? “Only be thou strong and VERY courageous.” Yes, did you notice the adjective? You see, God is always putting in the adjectives. We are never meant to be just normal, or even just courageous. No, it's not enough to be strong and courageous. To go in and possess the land God wants us to possess for Him, we have to be strong and VERY courageous, VERY courageous.
That word in the Hebrew is meod, and this is what it means, “to be alert, physically and mentally.” When you're reading about being strong and courageous, you're thinking of someone who is really strong physically, but it is more than that. It's being strong mentally, being alert mentally. It means being steadfastly-minded. Nothing is going to deter you. Nothing is going to lead you off to the right hand or the left. No, you have a straight course because you know what God has given you to do. It means, “to fortify, to strengthen.”
As I think of how it means to not only be strong physically, but alert mentally, I think of 1 Peter 1:13. The Word says to “Gird up the loins of your mind.” We constantly have to do this. That's a beautiful picture Peter gives in 1 Peter 1:13. Back in those days, the men also wore long robes. When they wanted to do something physically, they would have to gird up, pull up, their long robes and tuck them in their belt so that they could run or do something that took a lot of action, and they couldn't have robes in their way. They had to get them out of their way, so they'd have to gird them up and tuck them in their belt.
That's what we have to do so often with our thoughts. Our strength really starts in our minds, doesn't it, ladies? If we are not strong in our thoughts, we are not going to be strong at all. We have to be strong in our thoughts. That means we have to get rid of all the things and all the thoughts that hamper us from action. We've got to cast them off. We've got to get rid of them. All those deceiving, deluding, disheartening, disappointing thoughts, all those thoughts that tend to despondency and despair and sorrow, those thoughts of self-pity, we've got to get rid of them. Gird up the loins of your mind.
Do you remember what the very first thing the older women are too teach the younger women? We read about this in Titus 2:4. I wonder if you can think of it. I'll tell you. The very first thing it says that the older women are to teach the younger women is to “be sober.” Now, that word doesn't mean to not be drunk. It means a lot more than that. The Greek word is sophronizo. It simply means to have a sound mind. You’re thinking the right thoughts. You're not filled with thoughts of “poor me” and self-pity and grumbling thoughts and “I wonder what’s going to happen? “How can I do this?” Thoughts of negativity.
No, you've got a sound mind, thinking according to the Word of God. That's why we have to be in the Word. We've got to have the Word so that we can have a sound mind, so that we think straight. That word comes from the Greek word sofron, which also means “a sound mind, a person who limits their own freedom and ability with proper thinking.” Not just here, there, and everywhere and whatever I feel like, I'll do. No, they have a purpose. They have a purpose.
You as a mother have a purpose. You have a purpose to make your home a beautiful sanctuary for God. You have a purpose to build your marriage and make it beautiful. Did you know, precious mother, that your marriage is what it is according to what you've been building into it, what words you have been speaking, how you have been thinking? You've got to think about how you can make your marriage more beautiful. How you can make life lovelier for your husband. How you can serve him to show your love and appreciation to him. Think of words you can speak into his life each day. You don't go through a day without saying I love you. You have a purpose to build your home and your family and raise your children to be mighty men and women for God. You have mighty purpose. You can't flitter away your life doing what you feel like. No, you've got a purpose, so you've got to stick to it. That's part of having a purpose.
If you have a purpose, you have to put aside many other things. Anybody who is great at something in their lives has to sacrifice many other things. Now, I'm not saying they're wrong things. They may be very good things. They have to put aside even good things to be able to excel at the best thing. That is the same for us as mothers. There are many things that we can go out and do and be involved in this and that, and they can all be good things, but often, those good things can hinder our being the very best. They can hinder our fulfilling the purpose that God has given us. Often, when we get involved in too many other things, those other things tend to weaken our family life. They will tend to fragment us as a family. Therefore, we have to keep to our purpose and decide to do those things that are going to keep our family together and strengthen it and make it greater. The things that are going to make our marriages greater. We put aside other things, even things that are good. There's nothing wrong with them, but they don't fulfill our highest purpose.
I wrote on my Instagram yesterday a little statement that God gave me some time back, and it says, “Everything that is good comes from God but not everything that looks good is from God.” You see, there's a lot of good things, but they may not be what God wants us to do because they hinder the highest purpose that God has given us. If we have a sober mind, we will be thinking straight. We will not be flittering here and there and just, “Oh yeah, that's a great idea” and get involved in that and go here and there. No, many of those things will fragment our family life. We have a strong mind that keeps to our purpose.
It's exciting to look at the words in the Bible. To be sober is the word sophronizo. It comes from the word sophron, “having a sound mind.” Sophron means a “sound, safe, and self-controlled mind” and then that comes from a basic word which is sozo. I love that word, sozo. That's a very common word in the Bible. We read it all the time. Most of the time, it is translated “saved.” It talks about how we can be saved from sin but also saved from other things in our lives too because that word has such a full meaning.
It doesn't only mean saved from sin. It means to be saved from deception. It means to be healed, delivered, protected, preserved and to be made whole. Many times, when Jesus healed the sick, we read the words, “And they were made whole from that moment,” or what Jesus would say, “Your faith has made you whole.” Those words, “made whole” are also the word sozo which means “to be completely whole, healed, preserved.”
I love this word because it also speaks to us as mothers. In 1 Timothy 2:15 it says that mothers, we will be saved, “sozo”, through motherhood. As we embrace motherhood, we are saved; we are healed; we are preserved; we are delivered, and we are made whole because it is a beautiful lifestyle that God has planned for us as women. We were even created for this lifestyle. We were created with a womb to bring forth a child. We were created with breasts to nurse that child. That's why, as we embrace it, we are healed. We are preserved because we are doing what God intends us to do.
Continuing this strengthening the mind let's go to 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. I know you love this Scripture. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations . . .“Do you notice that we have to be ruthless with our thought life? Do you get ruthless with your thought life, or do you let it take over your mind? Dear ladies, it's so easy for our thoughts to take over our lives. Thoughts usually tend to negativity. They usually tend to despair. They usually tend to self-pity. When we let them take over, they pull us down into the pits. We are no good to our husbands. We are no good to our children. We are no good to anybody else around us. We can't change the world when we are letting our mind be overtaken. We have to be strong. We’ve got to gird up the loins of our mind.
Here in this Scripture, it says, we've got to pull down the strongholds. Sometimes, it takes work to pull them down. We've got to be ruthless. “In the name of Jesus, I rebuke that thought. It does not come from God; I will not receive it.” Then we begin to think on God's Word. We think on the things that our lovely. We think good thoughts. We think the truth. We think what God says about us. Then it goes on: “Casting down.” Here again, we've got to pull down, cast down, be ruthless.
“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” I love the Passion translation of this passage. It says: “We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought.” Now, isn't that good? You've got to capture your thoughts that are negative and pulling you down. I've got to do that too. This is a good reminder to me because we are all prone to it, aren't we?
If we are going to be strong and very courageous, it's going to start in our thought life, and we've got to be ruthless. “Capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion.” That has to be our attitude when we notice any rebellious thoughts, stubborn thoughts, self-pity thoughts, airy-fairy thoughts. We’ve got to take them into captivity. We capture them like a prisoner of war. We put them in prison. We get rid of them so we can be strong in our minds.
I see that time is gone and we only talked about one point, but we will carry on next week. Let me pray for you.
“Father, I thank You so much for Your precious Word. It shows us the way to go. Thank You for speaking to us again today and reminding us about Your thoughts. Lord God, it's so easy to let our minds go. We pray that You will help us to be very strong, very courageous, and we will be those who will not give in to deceiving thoughts, but Lord God, You will give us the strength to pull them down, cast them down, capture them and to gird up the loins of our minds so that we can think straight, so that we can think correctly, so that we can be those that are sober-minded, with self-control. We ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”