PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 166: LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 1
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 166 – LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 1
Today, I begin a new series, LIFE TO THE FULL. God does not want us to be half full, but truly FULL. Today, we look at the very first FILL word in the Bible.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re starting a new series today, LIFE TO THE FULL. I wish I had called this podcast that very name, LIFE TO THE FULL, because I think this is what this podcast is all about. I’m always sharing with you from the Scriptures, how God wants us to live. And it is, LIFE TOP THE FULL!
This podcast is called From Our Home to Yours, With Nancy Campbell. Yes, I do sometimes talk about what’s going on here. But really, I love to speak more from the Word. I love to fill you with the Word, about life to the full, because that’s how God wants us to live.
John 10:10: Jesus said: “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” And our God is a God of fullness. We read in the Scriptures, Jeremiah 23:24: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”
Psalm 33:5 tells us how “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”
Psalm 119:64: “The earth is full of His mercy.”
Psalm 104:24: “The earth is full of His riches.”
Habakkuk 3:3: “The earth is full of his praise.”
He is a God of fullness. In everything that God is, He is in complete fullness.
We go over to the New Testament. I love this Scripture from one of the stories that Jesus told. In Luke 14:23, Jesus was telling the story about how all these people were invited to the feast, but they all had their excuses why they couldn’t come. So, the one who was the host, he said, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them that they may come in, that my house may be filled.”
God is THE GOD OF THE FULL HOUSE. He wants a full house. He wants His house in eternity to be filled. That’s why one of God’s favorite words is “Come. Come unto Me. Come, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden. Come, those who are hungry and thirsty. Come, be filled, come into My Kingdom.”
God wants to have a full house. But because God is a God of fullness, He wants His people to have this same mentality about being full. Not half-full, but full.
We go over to Ephesians.1:21-22. Oh, this beautiful Scripture! Talking about Jesus, Who is “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but 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,” and, listen to this, ladies, “THE FULLNESS OF HIM THAT FILLETH ALL IN ALL.”
Christ is the fullness. He is the One that fills all in all, that fills everything. He wants His body, His church, that is us, to be filled with His fullness, the One Who fills all in all. And so, it’s all about fullness, ladies, life to the full.
So, I’d like to take you through some Scriptures because God speaks about many different things, of how He wants us to be filled and what He wants us to be filled with throughout the Word of God.
So, we’ll look at some of these things. But we always have to start with that which is first. I believe in starting with first things first. That means we go right back to the beginning. And God doesn’t take very long to start us off on this great revelation of fullness.
In fact, he talks about it in the very first chapter of the Bible. We don’t even get past the first chapter and God is talking about the word “fill.” And, of course, it’s Genesis 1:28. It’s the very first words that God spoke into the ears of man. And he used the word “filled.”
You see, it’s Who God is . . . it’s on His heart. So out it comes, from His mouth, onto us, His people, onto the very first creation. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
That’s King James, but most other translations, I think nearly every other translation says: “And fill the earth and subdue it.” Because it is the Hebrew word male, or mah-lay. Those Hebrew-speaking people, forgive me, if I give you the wrong pronunciation.
But the word in the Hebrew is m-a-l-e, and pronounced, I think, mah-lay. In the Strong’s Concordance, it’s the number 4390, and also 4392. They are both male, and both have just about the same meaning, meaning, “to the full, fill to overflowing.”
So, God comes out with this great word, right at the beginning, the very first words He speaks into His creation. Therefore, ladies, we do have to take notice of them. I am amazed how many, even people who say they are Bible believers, take no notice of these words. “Oh, that was just for back then.”
No. Every word God gave was powerful. It was eternal. It was for all generations. And God spoke this word to give us His heart and His plan for us. And God hasn’t changed. This is what He speaks to us today, to all married couples.
God says, “I bless you.” And His blessing is “be fruitful, multiply.” The word multiply is rabah, and it means “abundant, increase, make greater, more, and fill the earth.” Was that the only time God said these words? No. While we’re on this subject, the very first subject for the word, “fill,” I’ll take you on to quite a few other Scriptures.
We go on to Genesis 9. This was after the Flood, and because sin came, and, oh, God was so sad that He even made man. And He sent this flood to destroy the whole earth. But He saved Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives, the only people who were not contaminated by the evil at that time.
Isn’t it interesting, ladies, that right throughout Scripture, we see remnants? You know, it’s not always all the people who are on the right track. No, it’s usually the remnant. Even Jesus said in His sermon on the Mount, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).
The popular idea, the popular way of life, is not always God’s way. And in that time of that evil upon the earth, God only found eight people. That was a very small remnant. Interestingly, what does the Bible say in the New Testament? That when Jesus comes, it will be like the days of Noah which were days of great evil. And in those days, there was only a remnant that was saved. This is very challenging to me. Oh, I often cry out to the Lord. Do you also?
I say, “Lord God, I want to be in Your remnant. Oh, don’t let me miss Your remnant!” Because the Bible tells us that there will be a great falling away and many will be deceived. Even some of the elect will be deceived. Oh, how we must be so careful, even studious, to study, to discern, to know, what is God’s mind, and to be with Him, and walking with Him, rather than walking with the popular opinion of the day.
So, after this flood, when most of the earth was destroyed, God came again to Noah and his family, and He repeated the words He gave in Genesis 1. Because, you see, this is God’s heart. He wanted them brought again, He wanted to remind Noah again, because this was His plan.
So, He comes again with these same words, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.” Male, fill to overflowing. No, not just, “Well, just have a few children, just whatever you think you could perhaps manage.” No, fill the earth!
This is God’s heart. Do we really think like God, or do we think like this humanistic age? We are to think one way or the other. Here, God said it in verse one, and He said it in verse seven, again. This time, He said it two times, so they would get the message.
Yes, so we move along. Then time goes on, and, yes, the people of God were filling the earth. God began to bring out of the earth a people, a special people, a people for His Name who would be His people, who would bring forth the Messiah, who would bring forth the Word of God into the world. They were the people of Israel, beginning with Abraham.
We get to the story of where the children of Israel, they’re now down in Egypt. You remember how Joseph was used to guard, to save Egypt and many countries, and, especially his own people, from famine. He brought his father and all his family down to Egypt. They dwelt in the land of Goshen.
The years went by, and they multiplied. But now, a new Pharoah has come. He didn’t even really know who these people were. So, let’s read about it.
We’ll start with 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." So here we get this word “filled” again. It keeps coming. We’re going to see that it keeps coming up, right throughout the Word of God.
We see that the people of Israel, they were doing what God intended them to do. Did you get it? My, there were a lot of adjectives here. They were . . .
“fruitful, and
increased abundantly, and
multiplied, and
waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was
FILLED with them.”
“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.” Oooh, what an amazing testament.
Did you know, ladies, that that should be the testimony of the people of God? That should be our testimony right now, in 2021, because this is God’s heart. This is His plan. When God gave that first command in Genesis 1:28, and He said, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,” He didn’t stop there.
He went on to say, “And subdue and take dominion.” You see, God wants His people to take dominion on the earth. He wants them to reveal His glory on the earth, to show forth His salvation from day to day, to show forth His mercy, and love, and glory, and judgment, and justice, and all the character of God.
God wants who He is to be revealed on the earth through His people. He wants them to take dominion. He doesn’t want the other side. He doesn’t want the devil’s followers to take dominion.
But how does it happen? It happens through filling the earth with His people. When we stop filling the earth, when we limit our families, we limit the government of God in the earth, we limit the revelation of God in the earth. We limit the justice of God in the earth. We limit the salvation of God. We limit the glory of God in the earth.
And, we are living in that time now. It is a sad state that the last few generations or so have turned away from the Word of God, from God’s very first commandment today, from the very first words that He ever spoke into the ears of man. They have turned to the worldly way.
Well, it’s really the devil’s way, because the devil hates life. God is the giver of life, the author of life, the lover of life. Satan, who cannot give life, hates life. He seeks to eliminate it, every way he can. Sadly, the devil has been very, very successful in blinding the eyes of even God’s precious people to begin to think like the humanistic mindset.
And to think, “Oh, wow, it is much better to only have, well, maybe two or perhaps three children, where we can provide for them. Then we’ll have time to do all the things that we want to. Of course, I can’t have too many children if I’m out in this career.”
Somehow, oh, I don’t know how it’s happened, but it’s happened gradually. Now, in so many, many churches today, it is the normal thinking. You go into a church today and apart from going to church on Sunday, apart from worshipping the Lord on Sunday, their lifestyle is not very different from the secular world.
Most of the women in the church are limiting their families. They are going out to work. They are not actually doing God’s ultimate plan, which is to fill the earth, to embrace the children God wants for them. Because this is how God brings His revelation into the world.
Now, we are living in a time such as we have never lived before. We are becoming under tyranny from those who do not fear God, those who try to bring us into subjection, instead of God’s people having dominion. It's all because we have limited the godly seed.
Just think of the thousands of millions of godly seed that would be on this earth, filling the earth with His glory, filling it with His justice, bringing righteousness into the land, instead of more and more evil. Instead, we are where we are today.
I don’t know. Is it even too late to get back? We have lost thousands and thousands and thousands of the godly seed.
But here we are, back in Egypt, they were doing it right. And they were more and mightier than the Egyptians. That was God’s intention. It’s still God’s intention.
But, of course, they (the Egyptians) didn’t like it. So, they said: “Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply.” Wow. Yes, can you see the devil’s cunning plan there, ladies? Do you see it? “Come on now, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.”
The devil is scared of multiplication! He is scared of the godly seed. He is scared of more and more of God’s people filling the earth. And so, he duped God’s people. Yes, he gradually duped us. He used his worldly wisdom to put these thoughts in their minds.
“Oooh, wow, the world, they seem to know best, don’t they? I mean, have all these children? Goodness me, how can you even survive? How can you provide for them? And how can you do all you want to do in life? How can you even serve the Lord?”
He puts all these thoughts into our minds, and he dupes us, lest we multiply, because he is scared of the godly seed. He is scared of godly mothers who know who they are. He is scared of those who are open to embrace the godly children. Oooh, he doesn’t want that. This is what he does.
And it goes on. Verse 11: “Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.” But verse 12 says, listen to this: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” Wow! Isn’t that amazing?
Here we are, you know, in a very affluent society. At this time, we don’t know what is going to happen. I am praying for God to move so mightily. I so long that we would see a great harvest of souls in this end time before the Lord comes. But I don’t know.
We are either getting very, very close to the end, as we see what is happening, even now, with trying to bring mandated vaccinations. This mandating is totally against our freedoms, the freedoms of us individually, the freedoms of us as a nation, the freedoms that we have through our Constitution.
All this is totally anti-Constitution, anti-who God made us to be, anti-everything that we are as a nation. It's not of God. It’s just like what we know is going to come at some time. Will it be soon, or is it in the future of the mark of the beast where we will not be able to buy or sell?
We’re certainly having a practice run now. Or it’s getting very close now, where already, in some of our states, they’re already mandating, “You can’t do this unless you have this vaccine passport.”
So, we are living in very precarious days. But right up until now, we have lived in freedom, the greatest free country in the history of this world, here in America. And yet, people, even in this beautiful country are still limiting the godly seed.
Here in Egypt, even with great affliction and taskmasters, whipping them and bringing them into bondage and servitude, they still did not stop bringing in the godly seed. They continued to fill Egypt.
So, wow, what an example it was! Then we go on, how the king of Egypt even told them (the midwives) they had to kill the sons when they were born. But the Hebrew midwives, oh, my. It goes on, verse 19: “And the midwives said unto Pharaoh” (because they kept the male children alive, and he was upset with them), they said: “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. And therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied.”
They still multiplied! Even when the king sent out this mandate: “Midwives, you must kill every male child!” Did they take notice? No! They defied the mandate! They defied the king of Egypt, the Pharoah. They defied it, in the face of death.
There are many who will say, “Oh, we must heed to Romans 13 which says we must submit to the government, whatever they say.” Yes, I believe that is true, but I don’t believe we submit when it is against God.
Just as in a marriage, a wife is to submit to her husband. That is biblical. But a wife doesn’t submit to something that God has said is evil or is not right. She cannot submit to wickedness. We think of the disciples who said: “We must obey God, rather than man” (Acts 4:18-20 and 5:28, 29),
Here, we see in this passage, how these midwives, they were given a mandate. They were given a law that they were to kill them, these precious babies! But they defied, they defied the king of Egypt. There are times when we have to defy that which is evil. And in the midst of all this, it says: “And the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.” OK! So, they were filling the earth.
All right! You know, terrible things can come when we don’t do what God wants us to do. Did you know that Saudi Arabia was once a Christian nation? It’s now a totally Islamic nation. In 100 years, it became Islamic. Nations can change if we don’t continue to walk in the fear of God, and in obedience to God’s ways.
All right, let’s see another Scripture about filling. Ecclesiastes 11:5. This is an interesting Scripture. It talks about how a baby is being created in the womb. It says: “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.” The words “with child,” ladies, it’s the same word we’re talking about, male, “filled to overflowing.”
And God uses that word when a baby is growing in the womb. Gradually this baby fills the womb. This is the word God uses. Isn’t that beautiful? The Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible says: “In the womb of the full one.” So, gradually, this little baby grows and fills the womb.
When this baby is filling the womb, it gets to a stage, where, oh, my, there’s no more room at all! And it comes time for this little baby to be born. But once again, we see this Hebrew word, “filled to the fullness.” It’s also about a baby coming on.
All right, let’s go to another passage, Psalm 80. In this passage, God is revealing His plan for Israel. It’s also His plan for His redeemed people. This is what God wants.
Now, sadly, because the people of Israel, they sinned, they turned away from God. We do not see, we have not yet seen the fullness of this Scripture. But it will come, because every word that God has given, there will come a time when it will be fulfilled. But it’s a beautiful picture.
Here is it, Psalm 80:8-10: “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt.” It’s talking about bringing His people out of Egypt. “Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.” God brought them into the Promised Land. They had to push them out and overcome the enemy. They had to annihilate them so they could fill the land.
“Thou preparest room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.” There was a time when the children of Israel went in and they filled the land. That was God’s plan. Sadly, because of their sins, they ended up being cast out of the land.
But let’s continue the beautiful picture. “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.”
So, that was the picture. It’s the picture God has for His people, filling the land. You notice the word “fill” again. You see, this is God’s Word. He loves this word. It’s His heart. It’s what He wants. He wants the land filled with His people. They did that when they went into the land.
But then it goes on to say: “Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the woods doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard, which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Oh, my, we need to cry out that prayer before the Lord, because God’s people have been cut down even in this land. Even God’s people have refused to bring them in but God wants . . . His longing is for the land to be filled with His people.
Isaiah 27:6: “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”
And then we go on to Numbers 14:21: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” You notice the word “filled” again? This is what God’s plan is, the glory of the Lord.
Now, what is the glory of the Lord? Well, His creation is His glory. Yes. But God has a greater glory. It’s His people. God wants to fill His people with His glory and He wants them to fill the earth. This is His ultimate plan, that there will come a day when all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, the glory of His people filling the earth.
Psalm 72:19: “Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen,” says the Psalm.
Habakkuk 2:14 and Isaiah 11:9: “For the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
All right, one more Scripture for this session, and we’ll have to keep going next time. We’ve got so many more! Ezekiel 36:38. In this Scripture, it’s in the context of God bringing back His people Israel to the land of Israel. Oh, I love this chapter of Ezekiel! I’d love you to read the whole chapter sometime when you get a moment. It’s amazing!
In fact, in this chapter, God is prophesying through His servant, Ezekiel. He’s not prophesying to people. We always think, when there’s a prophetic word, it’s a word to people. But here, the prophet is prophesying, not to people.
He says, verse 4: “Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and a derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about; Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Surely in the fire of My jealousy have I spoken against the heathen,” and so on.
Then He carries on again, verse 6: “Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains” (here it is again) “and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys,” and so on. It’s talking about how the land is to get ready for God’s people who are about to come.
Verse 8: “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.” It’s amazing, ladies, that we, as we are reading this, we are actually living in the time of this prophetic word being fulfilled.
We all know how Israel became a nation in 1948. Hitler tried to get rid of God’s chosen people, the Jews. He tried to eliminate them. But three years after he died, Israel became a nation again. God was working out His plans. And God did it. He has been bringing back His people to the land, from that time, even before that time.
And more and more, since 1948, and right up to this day, Jews are still coming back to the land and the land is blossoming. The land is bringing forth fruit. It’s amazing. I have been out to the West Bank, to some of these desolate places in Israel.
I went out with one tour. Part of the tour is to go and plant a tree for Israel. So, we go out, and there on the barren hills, they’re just stones. They give you a tree and you look at this little spindly tree, and you think, “Help! Am I to plant this here?”
“Yes, just go and plant it over there.” It’s just a bit of stony stuff. There’s no real good soil. You think, “This is ridiculous! OK, well, better plant it.” You try to dig a little bit and you plant this tree in this sandy soil, stony soil, really it is. Sorry, I’m going over time. I’ll just finish this story. But you look around, and there’s all these amazing, beautiful trees, so lush and glorious, that other people have planted. And they grew!
Then I went out to be with these dear friends of ours, the Wallers, who have the organization Ha Yovel. They are planting vineyards on the mountains of Samaria out on the West Bank. They’re planting vineyards.
Once again, it’s on this stony, rocky land, and you think “How could anything grow?” You look around, and these glorious, luscious vineyards are growing, because they’re growing prophetically! God said, He prophesied the word, that this land would get ready for His people. And when they came back it would flourish! Not only would it flourish, but it goes on to the end of this chapter.
Verse 37: “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 feast; so shall the waste cities be filled (there it is again) be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.” God wants, He loves the world filled, and He wants us to fill the earth.
“Dear Father, we thank You for Your Word. Without Your Word, we would not know Your plans. We would not know Your heart. And, Lord God, we see Your heart. You are God of the filling, the God of fullness.
You want us, also, to be part of Your plan. Help us to understand Your ways. Take us, Lord, from this earthly, humanistic thinking of our society, and help us to be people who think like You. We ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.abovwerubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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