Ten Years of Freedom, Fullness, and Fruitfulness

Leslie Basham: Sometimes God has a way of interrupting plans. One woman told Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Revive Our Hearts how He got her attention one day.

Woman: I’ve been married fourteen years. Right after I got married, I realized I didn’t want to be married. “What have I done?” I was going back home to my parents, and you were on the radio, and you said, “Just because it’s your time of the month, you don’t have to be a shrew.” For real—nobody told me that!

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It’s Thursday, September 8.

Ten years ago this week, the very first Revive Our Hearts series aired. It was called, Getting to Know Nancy. Bob Lepine from FamilyLife Today was interviewing our host.

Bob Lepine: What is on your heart? What do you hope God will accomplish through the ministry He has called you to?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You know, Bob, when the Lord saved me, when I was four years of age, He called me to Himself. He gave Himself to me. I gave myself to Him, and my whole life has been the developing of that love relationship with the Lord Jesus. That's something that I find very few professing believers really enjoy and experience to the extent that I think God intends.

So my burden, for years, has been to let women know what there is in Christ, the riches of our inheritance in Christ, and the implications of the gospel for our lives. What does it mean that Christ died for us, that He loves us, that we belong to Him?

Leslie: For the last ten years, the team at Revive Our Hearts has tried, by God’s grace, to live out that vision. We’re grateful to the Lord for allowing us to call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ these past ten years.

And we’re grateful for Nancy. She would be the first to tell you that Revive Our Hearts is not about her. But when someone invests into your life, it’s appropriate to thank them. It’s true of your pastor. Have you thanked him lately? It’s true of other leaders and teachers who invest in your life.

So we’re giving our listeners a chance to say, “Thanks, Nancy,” to say, “Congratulations to Revive Our Hearts.” And most importantly, to say, “Glory to God.”

Woman: We just moved five months ago, and I found a file from 2001. I had files of all the transcripts from Revive Our Hearts back then that I wanted to memorize. I see how in the last ten years, God has used that. It just set the groundwork for where I am today.

Woman: I took a real big risk and I left my career back then to become a teacher for two years, totally by faith. Then the Lord led me to homeschool for four-and-a-half years. During the homeschool years I felt very challenged by Nancy’s ministry to go off “the pill.” As soon as I went off the pill in obedience to the Lord, within a month I got pregnant. We had three more babies in three years. We call them our three little prophets because they are Isaiah, Samuel, and Micah. I feel like they are children of this ministry because God really specifically used that.

Fast forward from 2001 to 2011, and I have my husband’s permission to share this. He is incarcerated in a federal prison in Duluth, Minnesota for a business that failed in 1988. It’s so hard because he is in a negative situation with all these other men who are constantly in fear of their wives leaving them. There’s nothing I can do to fix that fear for him.

That is my one struggle, that the Lord will minister to him through the power of His Holy Spirit and through different radio broadcasts. Believe it or not, he does get the program up there. Visiting hours are Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. They end at 3:00. There have been several times that I have just been in tears, and the most ironic thing is that at 3:00 is when you are aired up in Duluth, Minnesota.

So I get in my car, and I already have the station pre-set so that when I drive away from the prison in tears, you voice is there to minister to me with whatever message you are sharing that day.

Woman: August 1, 2001 my daughter was born, and about a month after that, 9/11 happened. I was home carrying my daughter, and as I listened to Revive Our Hearts, the Lord just prompted me that I needed to be a stay-at-home mom for a time.

Throughout the time of 2001-2009, I think I listened to your program religiously every day. Sometime, Nancy, you just spoke right to my heart. I mean, the words that God put through you, through your voice, were just exactly what I needed to hear that day and that moment.

I would write things. I would usually wash dishes right at that time, and I would have my Bible on the counter and my notepad right beside it and I would just be soaking it all in. So I just want to thank you.

Woman: Probably a year ago, I just felt like God was placing on my heart the need to submit to my husband—a good six months of struggling with that, and seeing where God was leading me with that.

Then in October we went to True Woman 2010. I had the humbling experience of standing up in front of thousands of women to say I’m not really the wife that God intended for me to be. That was a good place to be, but boy is that humbling.
In that I think God really taught me I was supposed to submit to my husband, but more than that, I was submitting to him not because of what my husband had done but because it was what God called me to do. So it was more out of submission to God. Not that I supposed to submit to him, I did, but it was just a bigger picture of submitting to God.

In the conference you hear these stories of how it was bad and then how glorious it was. You sit there and think, “How come I don’t get that? How come I’m still in the middle of the trial?” Just thinking I never see a movie to that. I can’t see the situation getting that good that you get a resolution like that.

December 15 my husband and I had a very open discussion that just broke me and him—which is where we needed to be. It got us to start over. We had been married for sixteen years. It was good to see how God was working in both our hearts, and seeing him respond in ways that I thought, “Wow!” I even said to him, “I never dreamed that you would be open like this.” He’s a quiet guy.

In all of that, in February we had a chance to go to San Francisco, just the two of us. On a lovely night, with the sun setting on a small, little beach in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, he got down on one knee and he reconfessed his love to me and his commitment to our marriage to me and to the Lord. He gave me another ring.

I just stood there weeping for him and just for how gracious God is and how faithful He is. Revive Our Hearts was such a big part of that. To just say, “I have been preparing you for six months, and you’re not there yet, but we’re going to get there.”

So we’re working at it. But God is faithful and He is just. Just seeing how God is going to break through the biggest things we’ve gone through to just take us further in ministry has just been amazing. So thank you Revive Our Hearts—all of it.

Rosalind Hickman: Have you ever just prayed and stayed with that prayer? Like Jacob? “I’m not going to turn you loose, God. I’m not going to turn you loose.”

When I heard Nancy for the first time, I would get up from studying the Word of God. It seemed like everything that God was pouring into me about womanhood, she would address that. I called WMBW and said, “Who is that lady? We didn’t have anybody teaching like that!”

I don’t know what the first message was, but I remember it wasn’t the popular things that you heard women teaching, it was the pure Word of God. I said, “Why is it that we’re on the same page, God. I’ve got to meet that lady. It shouldn’t be that she’s in America and we don’t get to meet one another.”

I cried out to God. I said, “God, would you just let her come to Chattanooga and push this same Word that Covenant Keypers has been trying to push in our city? Would you do that for me, Lord?” I would turn my face every day in my time with the Lord. I said, “God, would you do that? If I find favor in your sight, would you send her, Lord?” I called my sisters all over the southeast. I said, “Pray. Pray. We need another voice saying the same thing.”

She couldn’t come. She said, “no.” We had also been praying, “Lord, not our will, but Your will.” So we had to humble ourselves. When the answer came back “no,” it really startled me, and tears filled my eyes. But I thought, “I can’t let this lady know I’m crying.” I said, “God, I was sure I had heard You. It was lining up. It had to be You.” You know what God said? “Rosalind, I didn’t say no; I said not now.”

Do you know that in 2010, guess who came to Chattanooga? It was such a wonderful sweet thing that God did in our city. Another passion buried within that was that black and white thing. I am a Christian woman. This is a Christian woman. We are all Christian women of God. I kept saying, “Why is this picture looking like this in Chattanooga?” I don’t want just black females to come to Covenant Keypers events, and she brought us together. We had our first all-white congregation to join up with Covenant Keypers. When they heard the message, we were drawn to one another. Because they were there for Nancy, we knew it was okay. They felt the same way about us. So God was doing something. Nancy, I love you. I wish I we could just talk. But until then, it may be in glory, but God knows.

Woman: My husband is locked into some addictions with alcohol and pornography. The thing your ministry has helped me with is I realize I can’t give up on him. God has called me to embrace where I am and who I am for such a time as this. I have something you said one time during a broadcast written on a little scrap of paper in my Bible. I was pulling into the parking lot of a marriage counselor, and you were giving a story about when your brother died. You said a family friend came in and said to you in the midst of your grief, “Are you willing to praise God in the midst of circumstances you may never get the privilege of understanding this side of heaven?”

That has become my life theme. I don’t deserve an explanation. I don’t deserve to know what the answers are right now in God’s divine, sovereign order. I have to look at everything in light of the cross.

I’ve received some additional counseling that has helped me to set some healthy boundaries. But it is an ongoing addiction. I was in the midst of the 30-Day Challenge in March. At the end of it, I was just two days away from completing it when I walked in on my husband viewing some pornography online. I got to the end of that challenge and it said, “Email us with how this has encouraged you and strengthened your marriage.” I emailed back and said, “Here’s what happened.” The personal email that I got back from a real, live person that is connected with this ministry encouraged my heart so much.

I just want to thank you and every person that is a part of this staff for caring about someone that’s on the other end of the email, and saying, “Here’s some additional resources; here’s links to articles. We’re praying for you.” It just meant so much to me. And I’ve been able to use that and to help other women whose husbands are struggling with similar addictions. I thank you for that, for the personal way this ministry continues to encourage me and affirm me.

Woman: Lies Women Believe. I read that on my own first and couldn’t believe how many lies I believed. I couldn’t get enough, so I read Lies Young Women Believe, and couldn’t believe how many lies I believed growing up. It sparked a fire in me to communicate that to the young girls of our church. Then I did a Bible study with some ladies that don’t go to our church. We were all transformed. Just in my personal walk, it just changed my heart in so many ways and changed me as a woman.

Then in October when I went to True Woman, my marriage was completely turned upside down and changed. I was doing so many things just wrong. I didn’t realize they were wrong. I never went home and apologized to my husband like you suggested that I do because I was nervous about how he would receive that. So I said, “Lord, I’m going to make a change, and I’m going to just do it. And if starts to recognize it, he’ll see it.”

About six weeks after I got home he said, “Something is different about you. You’re nice to me. You’re treating me in different ways. You’re deferring to me.” We have three boys, and a lot of times I would think that my way of disciplining or my way of handling the boys is just superior to his. I was just shown that is so wrong, and that I needed to take the back seat and let him be the person who disciplines. So we continue on with that.

Your radio show—I could just go on and on and on about how God is using you to change me and to heal me and to restore me in just ways I would never have expected, and to bless me. I feel so blessed and so undeserving of the gifts God has given me recently. I just feel like it is because of this ministry and all the work you put behind it and all of the prayer. I just thank you for that.

Woman: The first time I heard Nancy, you were doing Portraits of a Foolish Woman. I was driving down the road and I had to pull over because that was so me. I was newly married, and it was rough because I was foolish.

Your teaching coming alongside what our pastor was teaching from the pulpit was just always so timely. I can always just know that what we’re learning from him and what’s coming back on the radio through Moody and Revive Our Hearts is what we need as women. So I am very thankful.

God is sovereign. You pray for revival, but it starts in your own heart. So I am saying constantly, “Lord, keep growing me by Your grace. I just want to be about Your business.” Thank you for how you allow the Lord to use you in your calm and soothing voice. You call us on the carpet, but you do it in such an ebb and flow way. I praise God for that.

Woman: I was saved late in life so when biblical truths were taught to me, they radically changed my life. I had basically lived a genderless life. I didn’t identify myself with male or female. I wasn’t consciously, I never even thought about it. I learned what it was to be a woman for the first time, and it rocked my world. Ever since, I’ve been wanting to teach biblical womanhood and their identity in Christ. I’ve had the opportunity to one-on-one counsel women for the last twelve years. This fall I’ve been asked to lead the women’s ministry at College Park Church, so it’s been a real privilege.

I thank you for your ministry that’s given me confidence to hand homework to these women one on one and now to the mass. To know that the things I’m giving them, everyone is studying, and we are being likeminded and we’re after Jesus and loving Christ for everything we have. So thank you for your ministry.

Woman: I was blessed through this ministry because my husband was unsaved. But he got saved because you sent me 30 days to pray for your husband, so I prayed. He passed away two years ago, but three days before, he got saved.

Woman: Revive Our Hearts is very special to me because it is through this ministry that I came to know Christ as savior—it was almost two years ago. Not only was I introduced to Christ through this ministry, but daily this ministry feeds me.

I know that we are supposed to be connected in a church and receive instruction and accountability, but in the country that I was living in, there was not a church that believed that the Bible was the Word of God, so I didn’t have that. So it was Revive Our Hearts that provided instruction and encouragement. And for your wonderful staff who have often emailed me and encouraged me and said they were praying for me. I finally met some of them. And then also for the supporters—the ones who make the programs possible. I am a life that was changed because of it.

Leslie: We’ve been hearing from some Revive Our Hearts listeners as we celebrate ten years of God’s goodness. Nancy, what comes to mind when you hear stories like this?

Nancy: Wow, wow, wow! As I listen to these encouraging words and these amazing stories of what God has done over these years, my heart is full of gratitude. This is not Nancy Leigh DeMoss ministries. This is a ministry that has been consecrated to the Lord. Our desire all along has been only that He would be magnified. I hope you sense that is our heart—that Christ would be lifted up. It really is all about Him.

I’m so grateful for the privilege of having been a part of what God has done over these years. In fact, as I think about what we’ve just listened to, my mind goes to 1 Chronicles chapter 29. That passage where David was praying and thanking God for the privilege of being involved in giving toward the construction of the temple for the Lord. He said to the Lord, “Who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You. And we have given You only what comes from Your hand.”

I feel so much the same way. Whatever I may have given to this ministry and to our listeners over the years has only been an overflow of abundant grace that the Lord has poured out into my life.

So I want to say thank you to Him for His grace for His provision, His faithfulness, His goodness. And just for the privilege of having a part in this ministry. Then I want to say thank you to our team, the Revive Our Hearts staff who have served so selflessly and sacrificially over these years—most of them serving behind the scenes. Most of them are receiving paychecks that are far less than what they can be receiving somewhere else, but they have served joyfully as to the Lord. They are talented. They are loyal. They are prayerful. They are wise. They are faithful. I just so thank the Lord for the privilege of serving with them

I’m grateful for the counsel and the wisdom and the protection we’ve received from the Revive Our Hearts advisory board, for the ways they have supported us and advised us and encouraged us and helped us in this journey.

Then for our Ministry Partners—those who give to support the ministry financially. Our praying friends—those who undergird this ministry in prayer. Many of you are among that number. And could I just say, “Thank you. Thank you for giving us to the Lord.” Your investment really has made a significant difference—not only in this ministry, but through this ministry in the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and their families all across this country and around the world.

So together we just want to raise up our hearts in thanksgiving and say, “Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for what You’ve done, and by faith for what we believe You are going to do in continuing to revive hearts and transform lives in the years ahead.”

Leslie: Just after Revive Our Hearts went on the air ten years ago, the world was rocked by an act of terrorism. We’ll look back on that time and offer solid truth you can lean on when everything else is shaking. Please be back tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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