PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 224: WHAT DOES GOD WANTS US TO DO IN THE LAND? Part 1
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 224: WHAT DOES GOD WANTS US TO DO IN THE LAND? Part 1
Today we begin a new series of what God wants us to do in the land of motherhood. We did a series of 20 descriptions of THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD. Now we will discover what we should do in the land. The first is to POSSESS the land. We don’t only put our toes in it but walk right through it, discovering all “the mountains, and the valleys, and the plains, and the springs, and the wilderness.”
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Lovely to be with you again! Currently I have been working on the new magazine, Above Rubies #100. Because it is No. 100, I decided to do something special. This magazine has articles in it only written by members of the family. That is three generations, of course, starting with Colin and myself. Then some of our children, and some of our grandchildren. We didn’t have room for everyone to write. Oh my, I think maybe only less than a quarter, there are so many in the family now. But they’re all wonderful articles.
It is now with the design artist, being prepared. But I have many challenges, because of all the shortages that this government is programming, there is much paper shortage throughout this country. I have worked with a printing company for many, many years, and it has been so great to work with them. But this time, when I came to get to get my quote, it was beyond anything I could imagine!
While I was away in England, the quote came in, but I missed it. It was for $39,000 to print. So then, I asked for another quote when I got back, and I couldn’t believe it! That was $49,000! I said, “Oh, this is beyond it!” I waited another week, thinking maybe I would get a better quote. The next week, it was $55,000! Just going up by the week! I thought, “Well, I can’t do this.”
I began to look around at other printers to find that so many printers have a paper shortage. Sometimes it’s no paper until December. Then, I found a printer who gave me a pretty good quote. Also, they have paper right now. I accepted this quote, because otherwise I can’t imagine when I would get this magazine printed.
However, the challenge I have is because he doesn’t know me, he wants everything up front. I’m used to not going to print until I have the money ready to print. But then, something happens. We print the magazine. Then I’ve got to send it out all across this nation, and then send it out to all the countries of the world. That takes up all the money I had for printing!
But then I trust the Lord that as it goes out into the nation, that those who have a burden and a longing to see families strengthened in the nation, see marriages come back together, see homes strengthened, will give. And the money comes in. By the time I get the bill, I’m usually able to pay. But, this time, I have to have all the money up for printing, which is more than we have ever had to pay before, plus all the money up for the shipping, because this company also ships it out.
So, that’s going to be a miracle. But I’m trusting the Lord. I think I will need about $80,000. I am trusting that God will enable us. Maybe you would even like to give, to help us get out this issue, No. 100, into the nations.
NEW GENERATION OF MOTHERS
Oh, I believe that the need for this message for family, and for strengthening motherhood, and for wooing women back to the home is needed far more than any time in history. In fact, far more than when I started this magazine 45 years ago. This month, September, I have been producing Above Rubies for 45 years!
Now, when I began the magazine, I was feeling the pressure of feminism coming against families. But now, 45 years later, I have to confess it is greater. We’re facing more challenges. We are now facing the rebellion of same-sex marriage, even transgenderism, and greater threats against the family as God instituted it, than ever before! Even for this new generation of mothers. Oh my, we have to get the magazine out to them! So many of them don’t even know it exists! I have been producing it for previous generations but there’s a new generation. We need to get it out to them.
So, if the Lord touches your heart, send it to Above Rubies. You can go to the website, and you can see how to donate. Also, you may know young mothers that need to get this magazine. You’re welcome to send in their names and addresses to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will be so happy to send it to them.
We do need to get truth out to this generation which are totally brainwashed with deception. Coming up through the education system, and all the ways of the humanistic media and society all around us, they are hearing everything that is negative against motherhood. They need to hear the truth. So, lovely ladies, can you join with me in helping to get out this issue? Also, to get it out to many young moms who have never, ever heard about it.
Now, I know that some of you will be saying to me, “Well, Nancy, why don’t you just make it digital? It will save all the expense of printing.” Yes, I know. I will eventually go digital, but I don’t believe the time is just yet. We still have so many precious Amish mothers, and Mennonite mothers, and Hutterite mothers who love to get the magazine. They are not digital.
There are also so many other mothers, who yes, they’ve got their iPhones, but they don’t want to be plagued by reading everything on their iPhone. I’m the same. I work on my computer pretty well much of the day as I’m writing articles, preparing magazines, and so on. But I don’t live by my iPhone. Yes, I have an iPhone, but if I was to live like people expect me, I just can’t imagine what life would be like! I would have to be looking at my iPhone all day to find out what was happening.
I’m constantly getting people say to me, “Oh, Nancy, did you hear this was on? Or didn’t you know about that?” No, I didn’t know because I’m not looking at my iPhone all day long. How do people live when they’re looking at their iPhones all day?
I actually have to admit I have missed three weddings because I didn’t see the wedding e-vite. In fact, I feel so sad. When I think of a wedding day, a marriage commitment, something that is a covenant for life, so sacred, so powerful, and yet we just have an e-vite to the wedding? Wow! I think it needs more than that. It seems as though gone are the days when people would send out and mail out an invitation. But I think a wedding is worth that, don’t you?
Even just this last weekend, a lovely couple were putting on a celebration for their wedding anniversary. They put out an e-vite, but the lady called me. She said, “Nancy, I’m telling you about it, because I know you won’t see it, so I’m making sure you know.”
I was so grateful about that, because there are so many, I think, like me, who don’t want to have their lives ruled all day long by iPhones. We want to read something. You won’t be able to read it . . . Oh, yes, you can read it on your iPhone, but there’s something about holding a book, or holding a magazine.
Mothers can sit on a rocking chair, nursing their babies, and read Above Rubies and be encouraged. Yes, they could look at their iPhone, but why have an iPhone right next to your little baby? Do you think that’s healthy? I don’t think so. Keep your iPhones away when you’re nursing your baby.
I think it’s so lovely to have some paper. You can hold and see it more clearly and relax more. So, ladies, I’m not quite ready to go totally digital, OK? Of course, I do send out emails and I do a Facebook post every day to encourage wives and mothers. You can be blessed by those.
But I feel that this issue must be printed. Maybe even the next issue. We’ll see how we go. Even though down the line we’ll most probably go digital. Most probably everything will eventually. In the meantime, I’ll hang on to some paper and to some books! I wonder if anyone can say “amen” with me?
I don’t really like to have my iPhone all over me all day. In fact, even at night, if I take it into my bedroom, I will turn it on to airplane mode and make sure it’s at least an arm’s length away from me as I go to sleep for the night. I don’t want to get all the vibes as I’m sleeping.
Yet I know so many young people, they have their iPhones right beside them all night. That is not healthy! Then they have them in their back pockets. That’s not healthy! In fact, I have to watch my husband. I will find his iPhone in his pocket. I say, “Darling, don’t you realize, you’re just losing all your T!” Now, that’s not a good thing to happen. I’m always trying to stop him from doing that. But of course, where do you put it? That’s the problem. But anyway, I think we do have to still watch iPhones.
OK, I trust you can be with me in this vision. God has been so good, so faithful. He has provided for 45 years, by God touching hearts to give, because they have such a vision for family, and for God’s heart.
The very first institution that God mandated was marriage and family. This is how He wants us to live. Of course, satan hates everything of God’s plan. He is totally against God’s plan for marriage and for family, so he comes to attack it in every way.
I should say, too, that all money, all donations that come in for Above Rubies go completely to the printing of Above Rubies. Colin and I do not take anything from Above Rubies. It is totally separate from our financial lives where we trust the Lord for our day-to-day. But we don’t take from Above Rubies. Also, all the money that comes in for books that I have written, or other books that I sell, it all goes to the printing of the magazine.
So, if the Lord touches your heart to help get this message out, you can know that it goes straight to printing, just to pay that printing bill and shipping bill to get it out into this nation, and the nations of the world.
All right, ladies, we are now moving on to sort of a new series. But it’s a continuation, actually. I recently did with you a series on THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD. We talked about 20 different descriptions of this beautiful, delightful, good land of motherhood.
But now, I want to take you on to the next part, which is, WHAT DO WE DO IN THE LAND? OK, we found out how God describes it, but what does He want us to do in the land? So, once again, I have gone back to the Word of God to see what God says they were to do in the land that He gave them.
Because we’re taking it from the type of the land that God gave to His people, the land of Israel, which He gave to them for an everlasting possession. There is so much now that He tells us about what we’re to do. It’s all a type. It’s a type, firstly, of how we’re to live in the kingdom of God. We now live in this land of the kingdom that He has brought us into. We need to know how to live in this land.
It’s also a type of the glorious land of His precious Word that He’s given us, that He wants us to know, so we can walk in the fullness of all that He has for us. But we are taking these same types into the land of motherhood, because it is a land, it’s the land where we live. It’s the sphere of life where we live.
First of all, before we start these ten points, because I have ten different points in this series, I want to take you to Joshua, because this is right at the beginning of the children of Israel going into the land. Even before they go in, God encourages them. God always encourages us in that which He has for us. He didn’t just tell them, “OK, you’ve got to go into this land!” No, He encouraged them.
We go to Joshua, chapter one. We see here, in this one chapter, the first chapter, we see four times God spoke these same words.
Joshua 1:6: “Be strong and of a good courage.” These were the words He spoke to Joshua as He commanded Joshua to take the children of Israel in to possess the land.
Then we go to Joshua 1:7. And He repeats it again: “Only be thou strong and very courageous.” This time, God doesn’t only say: “Be strong and have courage,” He says: “Be VERY courageous.” There’s another adjective. I often remind you of how God loves adjectives. He needs adjectives to describe what He wants to tell us because everything God tells us is above the normal.
He’s telling Joshua and the people here, “You can’t just be full of courage. No, you’ve got to be very courageous! You’re going in to face giants! But be very courageous.” God says these same words to you, dear mother.
Now, maybe there are some listening who are only just entering this land of motherhood. This is a special word for you. “Be strong and very courageous.” Many who are listening, you’ve been in this land for many, many years. But we still need these words, don’t we? We need them daily.
“Be strong and very courageous,” because the land of motherhood is not just some little wimpy thing. No, it’s full of challenges. Of course, that’s what makes it so exciting and that’s what gives us so much opportunity to overcome, because this is what this life is all about. It’s about overcoming.
In Revelation, it talks about all the promises that are for the overcomers. It’s the overcomers who receive the rewards. When the children of Israel went into the land, how did God describe it? It was a land of hills and valleys and mountains and deserts. It wasn’t all plain sailing.
There were mountains they had to climb. There were deserts they had to go through, even in the Promised Land! They’d come out of the wilderness, but when they went into the Promised Land, there were still deserts. We’ve still got deserts in Israel today in the Negev. It’s a desert. There are mountains, and there are hills, and there are valleys. There are all these different things that we have to face.
We face these in our daily motherhood too. Every day is a new challenge! “Wow! A new challenge! Help! I haven’t faced this before! What am I going to do now?” Well, “Be strong, and be VERY courageous” . . . That thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.”
Verse 8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” What a wonderful verse that is! I memorized that Scripture as a young person, and it’s still with me today.
It’s a wonderful Scripture to encourage your children and your young people to memorize so it gets into their very being. It will go with them through life, because what does it say at the end? “For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” I know that you want your children to be prosperous and be successful in life. Well, here it tells us what to do: “to meditate in His Word, day and night.” So, get that Word into your children, into your young people.
Now we go to verse 9. The third time God says these words: “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage.” He carries on: “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Precious moms, as you face these challenges each day, take this promise: the Lord is with you wherever you go, whatever room in your house you have to go, wherever you are. Most probably you are mainly in your kitchen, in your dining room, in the center of your home, in the heart of your home.
But this is where God has placed you. In this place, God is with you! No matter what you face, no matter the trial, no matter the difficulty, no matter what wisdom you need, God is with you. All you need is in Him. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You have it all in Him, and He’s right with you, right with you now, right with you every day. As you’re with your children, training them, nurturing them, loving them, teaching them, He is with you.
And then we go to the last verse, verse 18. God gives these words for the fourth time. It ends with these words: “Only be strong and of a good courage.” Precious mothers, these were the words that God gave as they went into the land. These are the words that God gives you in your land of motherhood. “Be strong and very courageous.”
Motherhood is not for wimps. No. It’s for those who are strong and very courageous. Not in our own strength, because relying on our own strength, we will fail. But we can rely on His strength and His promises that He is with us. Amen.
No. 1. POSSESS THE LAND
All right. Let’s look at point number one: you have to possess the land. There are nearly 40 references to going in to possess the land in the Scriptures. I’ll just read a couple here, and I will put all the references in the transcript for you.
Deuteronomy 1:8: “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land.”
Verse 21: “Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it.” The word “possess” means “to inherit, to seize it, to occupy it.” It’s even translated “enjoy.”
So, as we come into the land of motherhood, or even if you’ve been in it for a few years, or many, many years, we must have the attitude of embracing this land. This is how we possess it. We embrace it. We go after it. We’re going to conquer it. This is what it means to possess it.
WALK THROUGH THE LAND
Let me take you to a few Scriptures here. We can read Genesis 13. In this passage, this was after Abram, he wasn’t Abraham yet. He was still Abram. Abram had separated from Lot. God said to him, in verses 14-17: “Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.”
God gave that promise of the land, a land that his descendants would not occupy, would not possess for many, many, many years later. In fact, time would go on, and then Abraham will, no, not until his descendants, not even until Isaac and until Jacob . . . then Jacob went down to Egypt, and he was there with his descendants for over 400 years.
Then God brought them out with a mighty deliverance, and then they were in the wilderness for 40 years before God took them into the Promised Land. When God gave this promise to Abraham, it was hundreds of years before his descendants were living it.
But God said to Him, “I have already given it to you, Abraham. It is yours. I’m giving it to you for an everlasting covenant. But I want you to walk through it, every part of it. Just get the feel of it. I want you to know the land that I’m giving to your descendants.” So, we see that God wanted him to walk through the land, westward, eastward, northward, southward.
OK, let’s go over to Joshua 18. All right, now this was after Joshua had taken the children of Israel into the Promised Land, and had already conquered many, many enemies. But there was still land to be possessed.
Joshua 18:3: “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?” Do you notice that God always adds that? “I have given you the land.” Even though they hadn’t possessed it all, it was all given to them. It belonged to them by divine decree.
But there was still land to possess. So, Joshua said, “OK, I want you to choose three men from each tribe. If they shall rise up,” and verse 4 says: “and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them.” This was his plan. OK, we come down here a little more.
Go down to verse 8: “And the men arose.” That was three men from each tribe. “. . . And went away: and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land.” The same words that He said to Abraham. “Walk through the land.” And this time He adds something else. “. . . And describe it, and come again to me.”
Verse 9: “And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh.” Because this is where they were all encamped. This was their headquarters. Shiloh was where they established the tabernacle when they came into the Promised Land.
These men went out. They walked through the land, and they had books with them, so they could write everything in a book. Where were the mountains, and where the valleys were; where the cities were, and so they came back. It was all faithfully described in the book.
I love that. I like to take that thought with me when I come to the Word of God each day. To me, coming into the Word is like walking through the land, walking through the land of the kingdom. Because it’s in His Word that He describes the kingdom to us.
Yes, ladies, the kingdom of God is not only written about in the New Testament. We read a lot about Jesus talking about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. But no, the kingdom of God is also in the Old Testament. It’s right through the whole of Word of God.
In fact, at the end of Acts 28:30-31: “And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, what was he doing? “Preaching the kingdom of God.”
But, ladies, he didn’t have the New Testament. It wasn’t even written when he was doing that. He was preaching it from the Old Testament. The whole Bible reveals the revelation of the kingdom of God.
So, when I come to it each morning, and I open the Word, and I begin to walk through the land, I also have my book beside me, so I can describe, so I can write down what God is telling me, what new understanding and revelations He’s giving me about the land, the land of the kingdom which I am to live in.
Even the land of motherhood. Yes, there’s so much about family and motherhood in His Word. Often, we don’t even know it because we haven’t walked through the land. We walk through His book to find out.
Let’s give you one more Scripture as we close. I want to give you Psalm 48:12-13. I’ll read it from the New English Translation. “Walk around Zion. Encircle it. Count its towers. Consider its defenses. Walk through its fortresses so you can tell the next generation.”
EXPLORE THE WHOLE LAND
So, lovely ladies, when we come into this land, we don’t just put our toes in it.
We put our whole being into it!
We don’t just stay on the border of the land of motherhood.
We walk through it!
We explore it.
We’re going to get into every part of it.
It’s so sad that so many, even young mothers today, because they’re being so brainwashed through the public school system and through our humanistic society, they have been programmed with so much negativity about marriage, about motherhood, about family. They’ve been programmed in all this alternative junk and deception.
But they fall in love, and they get married. Well, they put their toes in. Oh, because they’ve got married. But yes, now in this land of motherhood, well, yes, you have children in this land of motherhood. “Oh, but I don’t want anything to do with that, so, OK, well, I’ve got my feet out here in my career, because that’s where I’m living!”
They’ve got their little toes just in, hardly on the border of motherhood. They don’t experience it. They’re living in another world. But God wants us to come into it and possess it! Embrace it with all our hearts! It’s only as we come into it and embrace it that we begin to live in the joy and the delight and the fullness of it.
Well, ladies, time has gone again. So, we’re going to continue this series next session. Come on in and tell other mothers about it. Young moms, would you tell other young moms? Oh, because they just so need to know what God says.
“Dear Father, we thank You with all our hearts that You have given us a land. Lord, You’ve given it to us. You’ve given us the land of motherhood. It’s a land that You planned for us from the very beginning of time.
“Lord, I pray that You will help us to come fully into the land, and to embrace it with all our hearts, that we will not have one foot in the land, and our other foot out in this other world. But that, no, we’ll have both feet in where You want us to be. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
GOD HAS GIVEN YOU THE LAND:
Deuteronomy 1:8, 20, 25, 35, 39; 2:29; 3:12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20; 4:1, 21, 38, 40; 5:16; 6:10-12, 23; 7:13; 9:6; 8:10, 23; 10:11; 11:9, 17, 21, 31; 12:1, 9, 10; 15:4, 7; 16:20; 18:9; 19:1-3, 8, 10, 14, 21:1, 23; 24:4; 25:15, 19; 26:1-3, 9, 15; 27:2, 3; 28:8, 11, 52; 30:20; 31:7; 32:49; 34:4,52; Joshua 24:15; and Jeremiah 16:15.