FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 76- THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 9

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We see that all throughout the Word of God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make the most of these precious times.

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

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

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

The next one: WE DEPRIVE OUR CHILDREN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WE DEPRIVE OUR GRANDPARENTS.

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

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

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

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

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

WE DEPRIVE SOCIETY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is so huge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who else do we deprive? WE DEPRIVE THE CHURCH.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next, WE DEPRIVE GOD OF HIS CREATIVE POWER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lastly, WE DEPRIVE ETERNITY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we pray?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 75: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 85)

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

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

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

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

                                                Why don't we live in our glory?

                                    Because we're being told a different story.

But I think we should have a more positive one:

                                          If you want to live in your glory,

                                    Take heed to God's story.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

BAD NEWS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FILLING THE LAND

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

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

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

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

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

MORE AND MIGHTIER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TAKE DOMINION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's pray.

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

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

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 74: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We see these words written in other passages, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We read it again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s look at those words:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There we see it all reiterated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s just a different generation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s pray.

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

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

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

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

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Episode 73: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 6)

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello, dear ladies. Today we are continuing our series of living in the glory of womanhood. We are continuing Point Number Seven which is raising young men to be strong is our glory. Well, it's their glory, but it's also our glory because we are the ones who are raising them. I'd like to share a little poem with you as I'm thinking about young men. I wrote this for young men. It's called, “Young Man of Valor.”

Young Man of Valor

Young man of God, will you guard your eyes

And keep them only for your greatest prize?

The wife God planned for you from the beginning,

She’ll be enough to keep your head a-spinning!

Don’t waste your emotions looking at other girls,

No matter how special or gorgeous their curls,

Instead, keep your eyes fixed on the Lord,

Follow His leading and you’ll never be flawed.

Young man of might, will you guard your heart?

Don’t give your feelings to any upstart,

Keep your heart disciplined and wait for the time

When God gives you His choice; it will be sublime!

A daughter of virtue who has kept herself pure,

Who follows after truth and trusts God for sure,

One who loves children and keeping the home,

And who delights to serve without a moan.

Young man of valor, will you keep your body pure

For your wedding day when it’s bliss for sure?

Will you start your marriage on a holy foundation?

This is the way to strengthen the nation.

Establish a family that will endure any test?

God will be with you and you will be blessed,

In the storms, the wind, and the battles of life

If you keep the covenant with your lovely wife.

If you'd like to have that poem for your young boys growing up you can email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I'd be happy to send it to you.

We are continuing our thoughts on raising young men to be strong in the Lord for that is their glory. We read in the last session in 1 John 2:14: “I have written unto you, young men because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you, you have overcome the wicked one.” How do they become strong, mothers? It's by having the Word of God in them. Therefore, as mothers, of course along with our husbands, their fathers, we need to get the Word of God into our sons, right when they are little.

We don't start when they are older, we start at the beginning. When is the beginning? I believe the beginning is in the womb. You can speak the Word of God over your little babe in the womb. Then, when the little babe is born, and you're nursing your little baby at the breast, you're sitting around the table with your older children, and the father is reading the Word to the children, your little babe is there, and the Word is going into their hearts.

They won't understand, but somehow, it's going in because the Word of God is not an ordinary book. The Word of God is alive and active. The Bible tells us that in the homes of those who love the Lord and where His Word is read, it prepares our children for salvation. 2 Timothy 3:15, this is Paul writing to Timothy and he says: “That from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.”

Remember, in another passage it talks about his mother and his grandmother who taught him the Word of God (1 Timothy 1:5). It's interesting that there's no mention of a father even, or a grandfather, in that Scripture. Maybe his father didn't walk with the Lord, yet this mother and grandmother were faithful to teach Timothy in the Word.

Perhaps you are a mother listening and your husband really isn't walking with the Lord or maybe he is resistant about reading God's Word to your family. Well, dear mother, you can still get the Word into your children. God will show you how. Maybe, as your husband goes off to work early, you can take devotions with them at the breakfast table. You can read the Word to them. You can get the Word into your children just like Timothy's mother and grandmother did, even though there was no mention of a father.

It says here: “That from a child thou hath known the Holy Scriptures.” From a child. That word, child, in the Greek is the word brephos. That word is used of a babe in the womb. It's used of when Jesus was in the womb (Luke 2:12) and then again, it's used of a newborn babe. That was used of Jesus too and how the shepherds came to see Him, and the angel said, “You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, in a manger. It speaks of a newborn (Luke 2;16). Brephos speaks of a toddler and a little child. It's from the womb, and birth, and growing up as a little one. It's not waiting until they are older. It's when they are little that you are putting the Holy Scriptures into their lives.

“From a child (from a little one), thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” In a home, where the Word of God is being constantly read and the little ones are hearing it, they can come to a readiness for salvation quite early, even four years of age, maybe even three years of age.

I remember when little Breezy, our granddaughter, was only about three years of age, and she was with us at family devotions and my husband was reading the Word, and he saw the presence of God all over Breezy, and he felt she was ready to receive Jesus. He said to her, “Breezy, would you love to ask Jesus into your heart?” She said, “Oh yes,” and she followed him in prayer, asking Jesus to come into her heart. It was amazing.

The next few days she was going around singing and making up songs of how Jesus was in her heart. Breezy will be ten in a couple of weeks, and she is still walking with Jesus. I love watching her in church, without any pressure from anyone, on her own, and we are worshiping the Lord, and she has her hands up raised in worship to God. Such a beautiful thing to see in a young girl.

Most of our own children came to know Jesus at about four years of age. They are all continuing to walk with the Lord today. That experience wasn't something that was forgotten. It was something that they remembered in their lives, and they continued to walk with the Lord. I believe that it is important for our children to find Jesus at a young age because the enemy is after their souls. The sooner that Jesus comes into their lives and there is an openness to Christ, to His Word, to come into their world, that the more they can walk with him.

Even we, as adults, have to learn to walk in victory. We have to learn in all the situations we face to say no to the devil and yes to Christ.  Because we have two natures living within us—we have that old fleshly nature, but of course, we have Christ who dwells within us, and we want Him to fill our lives. We don't want that old nature to rise up.

When we face temptation, when we face situations when we want to blow it and yell and scream and get mad and angry, or when we have a bad attitude toward our husbands, that's the flesh! That doesn't belong to Jesus. We have to learn to say no to the devil and yes to Christ.

“Lord Jesus, I thank You that You dwell in my heart. I thank You for Your love that is within me. Thank You.” You're saying yes to Christ, yes to His nature. We teach our children this. We don't have to wait until they are older for them to learn to walk in victory. When they face these little things and they get mad and angry, we teach them, “That's the old nature, but darling, you have Jesus living in you now. His nature wants to love. His nature doesn't get angry and mad. His nature forgives.”

We teach our children about how Christ dwells in them. They can say yes to Him and the more they get in the habit of saying yes to Him, the more they learn to live and abide in Christ and live in the nature of Christ and be conformed to the image of His son. We start when they are young, and we keep going. We get our children into the Word.

My husband was reading an article this morning before we started out family devotions, and it was saying Bible illiteracy is at a crisis point in our nation. I have to agree with this writer. Bible illiteracy is at a crisis point in our nation because I find that so many young people in our church today don't know God's Word. They know so much about sports, so much about the latest movies; they know so much about social media, but if you ask them Scripture, they don't know it.

 Oh my. I have been doing a little competition recently at our family camps and different family gatherings that we've been at and asked to speak. I've been speaking about the Word of God and encouraging parents to get the Word into their children. I've said, “Let's see how well we know the Word of God, shall we?” I have quoted a few very familiar Scriptures, ones that I learned as a child, ones that we as Christian parents should be teaching our children. I would say half the Scripture and say, “Ok, what's the rest of it?”

Well, I was so sad to realize nobody answered me, not the moms and dads, not the children, not the young people. Nobody knew the rest of the Scripture. In some places, one or two would get a couple of them right but mostly, they didn't know them. Dear ladies, that means we are Bible illiterate. This wasn't just the children; this was the moms and dads. How can we, as moms and dads, get it into our children if we don't know it? That means we are not in the Word of God. We've got to get into the Word ourselves.

There's one way I find is such a blessing. Although I love to have my own time in the Word of God in the early morning, I also love our gathering as family for family devotions or whatever you like to call it in your family—family Bible reading, family worship, or whatever. When we come together, and the father reads the Word and we are hearing it every morning and we come together again at the evening meal at the end of the meal we are hearing it again. We are getting the Word into our hearts. I would have to say that most of the families are not doing this, or they would know these Scriptures.

How about I have a little try on you? What do you think? Is that a good idea? Maybe it's not a good idea. Well, I think I'll give you a little competition anyway. I'm going to say it halfway through and see if you can, in your heart, say the rest of the Scripture:

“Thy word have I hid in my heart that . . . ” What comes next? Did you get tit? I know some of you got it. “That I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). That's a wonderful Scripture to teach our children, isn't it? And also to have in our own hearts. “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” You see, we've either got the Word in our hearts or we can be tempted to sin. As one little statement says: “The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

We've got to get it into the hearts of our children. Here's another one:

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way . . . ” Can you get it? “By taking heed thereto according to thy Word.” That's Psalm 119:9. That's an important word for our young people to know because it's talking about the young man. How can a young man keep clean? This is the way—having the Word of God in his heart. Amen?

What are we talking about? Raising young men to be strong. 1 John 2:14 says they will be strong if they have the Word of God abiding in their hearts. Lovely mothers, get that Word into your children and into your sons. Amen?

Here's another one for you. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you . . . ” How is it meant to dwell in you? How is God's Word meant to dwell in our hearts? Did you get it? I'll give you the answer in case you didn't. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly”  Colossians 3:16). Not a little bit, not just here and there. It's not enough, darling ladies, to take our children to Sunday School on Sunday or church on Sunday or Saturday, whenever we worship. No, we've got to get it into them richly, filling their lives. That means every day, every morning, every evening. Amen?

Alright, John 6:37: “Jesus said, him that cometh to me . . . ” What? Can you finish it? “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

What about Romans 6:23? I learned this as a child, so important for our children to know Scriptures about salvation if they are going to be able to lead people to Jesus. Romans 6:23. Do you know it? “The wages of sin is death but . . .  What's the rest? “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Such an important one to know, isn't it?

Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall . . . ?” “Shall be saved.” Amen?

Let me give you one more. Are you getting them all? That means you are one who knows the Word. If you're not, that means, my lovely darlings, you're a little bit illiterate, and we don't want to be illiterate in God's Word. We want to be familiar with it, don't we? One more. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock . . . ” That's Jesus speaking. What does He say next? Do you remember? Say it with me, I'm sure you know it. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

Lovely ladies, these are not obscure verses in the Word of God. These are very familiar ones. They are ones we should all know. They are ones we should be teaching our children to memorize.

It's a great thing to teach your children to memorize the Word of God. I think that was one of  the greatest lessons of my childhood, perhaps even more in my growing into youth and my later teenage years. In those years, I really began to be more purposeful in memorizing the Word of God. I did learn many Scriptures as a child, but I really went into memorizing. It was such a great blessing because as I memorized those Scriptures, they are still with me today.

I was blessed to have a father who loved to memorize the Word of God. My father never slept very well. All his life, he only slept a little bit off and on through the night, but he never got into a state about it. He would memorize the Word, and he would go over and over the Scriptures, and we would learn Scriptures together. Even in his late eighties, he was still memorizing Scriptures. In fact, he would memorize whole chapters of the Word of God. When he got up to preach, Scriptures would  just come out of his mouth, and he would quote whole chapters of the Word.

That was a great blessing in my life. I would encourage you, dear ladies, to do this because we are raising young men to live in their glory, remember? If they are going to be strong, they have to know the Word of God and know how to overcome the wicked one. How did Jesus overcome the wicked one? We go to Matthew 4:1 when Jesus was taken out into the wilderness, and He didn't just land there. The Bible says that he was led. God led him into the wilderness. Satan came to tempt him.

You know, don't you, that every temptation Jesus came back at the enemy with, “It is written?” The first one was: “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We live physically by bread, by food to keep us alive, but we live spiritually by the Living Bread, the Word of God, which keeps us alive spiritually and keeps us strong from the enemy.

If Jesus used the Word, He showed us the way. We have to do it. We teach our children to do it. We teach our young sons growing up to do it. Amen!

Do you remember how Jesus was only twelve years of age and they had come up to Jerusalem for Passover? They all began to go home. All the families and Jesus' mother and father didn't even notice that he wasn't with everybody. When they noticed, oh goodness me, they were looking for him everywhere and they thought, well, we better go back to Jerusalem. Three days later, they found him in the temple, discoursing, debating, talking, and listening to the teachers in the temple. There he was speaking over the things of the Word of God. He was only twelve at the time, but we say, “That was Jesus, the Son of God!” But he became flesh and blood and sometimes we think our children don't really have to get interested in the Bible while they are young. One day, they will. No, no, no.

Why was Jesus able to talk about the Scriptures with these teachers? Because he would have grown up learning them in his home. Back then in those days they learned the Scriptures, they learned the law, they learned the Torah. They memorized it. Back then, young men were mature in their youth, even the disciples.

Now, most people often think of the disciples as older men. You see pictures of them with their beards, and they look older or at least the age of Jesus, who was 30 years of age when He became a rabbi and gathered disciples to Himself. The law in Israel was that you had to be 30 years of age before you could be a rabbi, and there were lots of rabbis in Jerusalem at that time and each one would gather disciples around them.

Ladies, we often get it wrong because the disciples were young. Back then, rabbis didn't gather grown men around them. No, grown men were either a rabbi themselves or they were in their business, their family business. They had to provide for their families. They gathered young men. Back then, in the time of Jesus, most young men finished their education at about 13 - 15 years of age. That seems young to us today, doesn't it? But they had a good education. By that time, maybe some of them could recite the whole first five books of the Bible. They were serious in their education, and they knew the Word of God.

Then they would come out about 13 or 15 and they would either go be with a rabbi, perhaps like going to college, and learning more from the rabbi, or they would get into their father's business. It was like this with all the disciples that Jesus called to be His disciples. He called Peter, James, and John from being fisherman. They had already got involved in their family business as fisherman. He called them from that, and they became his disciples.

Later, we know that Peter was the only one who was married. It speaks of his wife, well not really, it speaks of his mother-in-law and that they were in his mother-in-law's house and how Jesus healed his mother-in- law, so he was obviously married. Usually by about 18 years of age. They liked to make sure that the young men were married by that time. I know that sounds so young in our society today, but these young men were ready and mature and ready for marriage. They were ready to take on the responsibility of a family.

Not long before the death of Jesus, Jesus said to Peter, “Hey Peter, go and get a shekel for you and me.” Every person who was 20 years of age and over had to pay taxes. It was half a shekel a year, so Jesus told Peter to go and get a shekel, half for Him, half for Peter because they were the only two among his disciples who needed to pay. The others were all younger. They were young men, but they had grown up to be mature in their youth and to take responsibility, and they would have also been very familiar with the Word of God, with the whole Torah, and the Tanakh, the whole of the Old Testament. They had been grounded in it. As young teenagers, they were not unfamiliar with the Word of God when Jesus called them to be His disciples.

Dear lovely ladies, I must give you this Scripture. It's found in Hosea 8:12. It says: “I have written to him the great things of my law.” Here, God is saying, “I have given you great things in my Word. That means ‘abundant, excellent, multitudinous.’ There's multitudes of wonderful things in my law, people.” Sometimes we think ,the law, oh that's just the Ten Commandments. No, the law is the word, torah, and it actually means teaching. It's all the teaching that God has given in His Word.

He says: “I have given you great things in my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Isn't that sad, ladies? May that never be in our families as you raise your family. Don't let that ever be a testimony of your family, that the Word of God is a strange thing. Don't ever let that be a testimony of your children or your young sons growing up, that it's a strange thing.

That Word has got to be in them; it's got to be richly in them. It must not be strange; it must be familiar, these basic Scriptures of the Word of God. If they don't know them, start making them memory verses so that your children can, when you say or speak a very familiar verse, they can finish it, they know it. It's in their hearts. Not only in their hearts but in their mouths. You see, lovely ladies, it's not enough to get the Word into our children's hearts. We have to get them into their mouths. This is the mandate God has given to us as parents. Isaiah 59:2, I'm sure I've shared this Scripture before, but I'm reading it again because it's so powerful, and it is the mandate that God has given to us.

It says: “'As for me, this is my covenant with them,' saith the Lord, 'My Spirit which is upon you and my Word, which I have put in your mouth.'” Did you notice that, ladies? It doesn't just say the heart. “My word which I have put in your mouth.” That's in the mouth of us parents. Fathers and mothers, we've got to have it in our mouths so that we can get it into the mouths of our children. It says, “'I've put it in your mouth, and it shall not depart out of your mouth nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children's children,' saith the Lord, 'henceforth and forever.'”

Do you see God's plan? We are getting God's Word into the hearts and mouths of our children so that they will pass it on to their children and their children will pass it on to their children, for every generation. Amen?

God's word is the anecdote to deception.

Dear mothers, we are raising children in an absolutely deceived world, and the only anecdote to the deception that's all around us and in the world is God's Word. Now, what does it say in Matthew 24:24? “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and they shall show great signs and wonders: insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

Yes, the deception is so powerful that God says even the elect can be deceived. Therefore, we have to be girded up and filled with the Word of God. We've got to get our children filled with the Word of God so that it's coming out their mouths, so that it's familiar with them so that when they face deception, they discern, they know that's not right because they've got that Word in them, which is the anecdote to deception. It discovers and discloses the deception.

This is the thing today, even Christians are being deceived because they don't know the Word; they haven't a clue, so they go along with what society is doing.

2 Peter 1:4: “Whereby give unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” He hasn't just given us promises, no. “Exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

If you want your sons to grow up pure, cleansed, and holy young men of God, they've got to have the Word of God in them, for it is the Word that delivers from corruption. It is the Word that keeps us from the lust in this world today. Amen? Lovely ladies, raise your children and your sons to live in their glory which is to be strong in the Lord and have the Word of God in their hearts, so they can overcome the wicked one. As you do that, you are living your glory. Amen?

“Dear Father, we thank You for Your precious Word. Yes, You’ve given to us great things. You've given to us exceeding great and precious promises. Lord, Your Word is that which keeps us from corruption. Your Word keeps us form the lust of this world. Father, we pray that You will anoint us. I pray for every precious mother. Amen.”