Fruit of the Ministry

Leslie Basham: It’s encouraging to hear how God is using Revive Our Hearts in the lives of women.

Listener: It helps me tremendously as a mother of three and a new pastor’s wife. It keeps me grounded. At times when I want to throw fits and give up and be self-centered, it brings me back in.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Friday, January 23.

God can use whatever means He chooses to accomplish His purposes. It’s humbling to hear how He is choosing to use the ministry of Revive Our Hearts.

Last fall, over 6,000 women converged in Chicago for True Woman ’08. They came away with a renewed passion for glorifying God in their homes, marriages, churches, and areas of ministry.

God has used Revive Our Hearts in some incredible ways among some of these women, and we’re going to hear their stories—not to promote a radio program, but to say, “Thank You, God, for all You’re doing.” (These women shared their stories during a break at True Woman ’08.)

Woman 1: Two-and-a-half years ago, my husband and I had a crisis in our marriage—a big-time crisis. My world turned upside down.

A radio station by our house—I didn’t even know about this radio station—right at that exact time, I remember turning the dial (I don’t even know how I came about finding this radio station), and Nancy Leigh DeMoss was one of the people on the station.

So every day, I tuned in to Revive Our Hearts. She was a person that God used to keep me in the marriage, to keep me running to God.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You know what I’ve discovered? More often than not, the person who wants help holds the key to that marriage. The person who’s coming and saying, “We need help,” usually holds the key.

Love says, “What can I let God do in me that will meet the needs of and minister to this person that God has called me to love? Whether I get anything out of it or not, how can I be a giver in that relationship?”

Woman 1: Her encouragement, her truth, her not watering down the Scripture—it really hit home and kept me home and kept me with my husband and with our kids. So from listening to Revive Our Hearts, hearing about True Woman ’08 got me so excited. I passed the word along to my girlfriends, and here we are.

Woman 2: Revive Our Hearts’ ministry really became a blessing to me about a year and eight months ago, when I was married. There was revival in my life, and true conviction that I had been really “all about me.”

There are so many times the ministry has blessed me. One time I can think about is the February after I was married. I was married in January ’07, and in February Nancy did a special on hedges.

Nancy: Those of you who have hedges around your property know that it’s one thing to get them trimmed and shaped properly. But you always have to be taking care of them, or they get overgrown and start to look very unattractive.

There are hedges—boundaries—that we need to place in our relationships with men as women. Not only do we need to put those hedges up, but we need to be careful to maintain those hedges.

Woman 2: That was one of the areas in my life where I was just paralyzed. I really thought that generationally—my sister had had an affair; my father had continuous affairs in my parents’ marriage . . .

Nancy: That’s why you need to know your own areas of weakness and vulnerability. Get a godly accountability partner who will help you know where you’re more vulnerable.

Perhaps based on what you’ve been exposed to in your past? Maybe where you’ve been? The battles you’ve had in your past? Maybe past failures have left you more vulnerable. If you have had moral failures in your past, you may need tighter hedges and parameters to protect you.

Woman 2: It was such a point of turn-around for me, to realize that I could walk in God’s truth and walk new. That’s just one of the many times.

There have been so many times that I’ve been kind of paralyzed and convicted by the truth that has been on the show. It has caused me to be honest with my fiancé (at the time, now my husband) about my past and about being a very self-centered person.

I don’t know where I would be. I think a lot of people don’t know where to turn to get the truth about what God’s Word says about marriage. But it’s all over Nancy’s show. She’s constantly bringing that back to you and pulling you back into God’s Word.

There are so many lies that I’ve believed. Now I go to her show on a regular basis. I try to catch it every day if I can, because I know that she brings you back into God’s Word and back to the truth. It’s so revitalizing and it’s so new, to be able to feel like you can start over and walk according to His truth.

Woman 3: Well, I had written Nancy a letter in March about my husband confessing that he had committed adultery in February. He confessed to me because when he walked in the door, I was listening to Revive Our Hearts, and there had been a story about adultery on that program.

Nancy: First, it’s very obvious, as I hear your story . . . A marriage coming to the place where divorce is being threatened and the man or the woman is involved in an extramarital (I hate to call it an affair, because that sounds so happy, and this obviously wasn’t a happy thing) but involved in adultery that really threatens your marriage . . . that doesn’t happen overnight.

It was a series of choices in both of your lives that got you into a place that seemed to be utterly hopeless. Even in the most hopeless situation, God is not absent.

Woman 3: We were having a conversation about guarding our hearts. I guess I was the one talking about it. And he just said, “We’re in the same boat, and I need to make a confession.” It had just happened that Monday, and he confessed Wednesday.

God had really just prepared my heart, I guess, because after the initial anger, I cried out to God, “What do I do? How would Jesus respond in this?” Because I didn’t know.

And forgiveness came rather easily. Nancy and Revive Our Hearts were a huge part of that, of being able to resist the temptation of anger and bitterness, and giving forgiveness and love instead.

At this point—it’s months and months later—even though we don’t celebrate the sin, I wouldn’t change it, because through counseling and through that pain, my husband’s been able to deal with a purity issue we didn’t even know existed. And I’ve been able to deal with issues that I didn’t know existed.

So God has used it for His glory, for sure. It’s been really awesome to see God work and change my husband. He’s a completely different man now. We still have a long way to go, all the way to heaven. But it’s been a good road to walk.

Leslie: We’ve been hearing from guests at the True Woman ’08 conference on the impact of Revive Our Hearts and the teaching of Nancy Leigh DeMoss. They also told us about the way God has been using Nancy’s books, along with the radio program.

Woman 3: I have been listening to Nancy since she came on and since Elisabeth Elliot passed the baton. I was a big Elisabeth Elliot fan; I always called her my mentor.

But I’ve been listening to Nancy since she started, and I’ve read several of her books, because I’m a “book junkie.” If it’s on, I’m calling to order it.

Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free—I really love that book. That’s really what it did for me.

Nancy: You see, what we believe about ourselves ultimately determines how we live. If we believe lies, we’re going to act on lies, and we will ultimately end up in bondage.

Listen to how these women expressed that believing this lie of their worthlessness threw them into bondage. This woman said, “For the longest time, I thought I was not worth anything. Even after I was saved, I thought I was equal to pond scum.”

Woman 3: Growing up, you just knew and believed, and you were taught family and community and what-have-you. But the Word of God sets you free. So that book was really wonderful.

And I love Nancy’s books on modesty. I have her modesty package and Biblical Womanhood In the Home. Mine’s all raggedy.

I got a new one in my bag. I’m so glad, because I use it to read and to share with other women. I just enjoy all her writings. They hit right to the heart. They revive our hearts.

Woman 4: I was talking to Nancy about her book Choosing Forgiveness. The Lord used that book in my life a great deal a couple of years ago.

As the enemy often does, he was pressing some buttons and picking the scabs of some old wounds. The Holy Spirit began to talk to me and say, “By the way, you know that thing that you didn’t forgive 20 years ago? You know, the thing with your husband, that problem you had? You need to forgive him for that.”

And I said, “Oh, but God, I have. I truly have. We talked about it, and we did the forgiveness thing, and we haven’t talked about it since.”

The Holy Spirit said, “I think you need to revisit that, because it’s not done. You haven’t forgiven.”

So I began to look for a book, something to help me. “Maybe I don’t understand what forgiveness is.” I found this book, and I poured through it; I could not put it down.

Nancy: I had just turned this manuscript over to the publisher, and I’d been working on the book for about a year. I had used the word picture throughout the book of pressing the delete button—a word picture of forgiveness, letting it go, clearing the offender’s record, choosing forgiveness and not waiting for my feelings to come, not waiting for the other person to come back and say, “I was so wrong. Would you please forgive me?”

“Yes, you sinned against me, but God has forgiven me, so I am going to release you as God has released me from my debts.”

Woman 4: The truths that were brought out in that book—some things I had known, certainly, about forgiveness; but some things I had never thought of. I went to my husband and said, “I have learned something, and I want you to know that I’m truly forgiving you. As the Lord has spoken to me through this book, I want to make sure this is all cleared up.”

I guess my husband, in his curiosity to find out, “What is this? What is this thing that has wrought this huge change?” read the book. And he’s a pastor now. He read the book, this was about two years ago I guess, and he has since recommended that book to everybody.

In fact, just a couple of days before I came to this conference, he was talking to some people at our church, and he said, “It is the definitive book on forgiveness.” That’s as far as he’s concerned, and he’s a voracious reader. He reads everything. That was his opinion.

Woman 5: My oldest daughter had always wanted to get married. She always wanted to find the perfect young man, but she always had an independent spirit. About two years ago, I guess in 2006, at work she got involved with an older divorced man.

Even getting ready to get involved with a married man, she was always open about sharing with me her struggles. I told her this was the end of the road. She’s either going to have to cut this off, or she’s going to have to leave the home.

My friends and I had just finished the series on Seeking Him together. I gave her the booklet, and I said, “You really may want to look at the section on purity and honesty.” I said, “Take that into your room, and get quiet with God, and let Him speak to you.”

Nancy: Within marriage there is no shame in sexual involvement. None.

Outside of marriage, sexual activity is wrong, and it is shameful. Why? Here’s the bottom line of why: because sexual purity, sexual faithfulness, mirrors the character of God. What is God like? He is a faithful, covenant-keeping God.

Woman 5: The next day I went off to work, but when I got to work I received an email from her. She said, “Mom, thank you for loving me. Thank you for the book.”

She said, “I realize now that what I was caught in a struggle with was sin. I just prayed and asked God if He could help me to finish, to do the right thing. That’s my heart’s desire. And Mom, don’t give up on me. Just continue to pray for me.”

Well, the Lord has been faithful. It hasn’t been easy on me these past two years. However, this past August 16, she was married.

The Lord brought a godly young man into her life that loves the Lord with all of his heart. One thing she said to me was, “Mom, thank you. I’ve waited. I’ve given myself to him in purity.”

The Lord is really doing a wonderful, wonderful work—and He has done a wonderful work in her life. So I just want to thank God for it and thank God for Revive Our Hearts, for the resources I was able to give her at that time for God to speak to her.

Leslie: It’s so encouraging to hear how God can take something simple like a printed page and speak to women. Guests at True Woman ’08 have been telling us about some of the ways God has been at work in their lives.

He’s used radio, books, and the True Woman conference as well. A strong contingent of women traveled from the Dominican Republic to Chicago to attend True Woman ’08, and they were glad they came.

Woman 6: We first heard about Nancy through her books. Our country is a Spanish-speaking country, and we received Lies Women Believe.

That book has been greatly used in many places in our nation—in women’s Bible studies, in women’s retreats. Also for two years we have been putting it on the air on a radio station—one lie three times a week.

This January we heard there was going to be a True Woman conference. Two churches in the city got together, and we thought, “This will be a nice project. We might get a small response from our women.”

But to our surprise, every day more women were registering. And today we have over 100 women here in the conference.

There is a thirst in Spanish-speaking women, and there is a need for this kind of ministry. We would love to get True Woman and Revive Our Hearts and all of this ministry out of the boundaries of the United States and bring it to our women, to our Spanish-speaking women, not only in Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic but in all Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries.

Leslie: We asked another True Woman attendee what the highlight was for her.

Woman 7: I think it was today during the prayer session we had after Karen Loritts spoke, where she challenged us to get on our knees and to let go of bitterness. For me there were a lot of turning points when I watched her show, and I said, “I could forgive my father; I have to forgive myself.”

But there was something about today that was a final release for me. I was able to really set aside the bitterness that I had there that was rooted in unforgiveness toward my father. Sometimes you forgive a little, but you don’t completely let it go.

Today, I let it go. I said, “I forgive my dad for what he did, and it doesn’t define our family. It doesn’t define me, and it certainly won’t define my marriage and my future.”

For me, laying that down was like lifting a world off my shoulders and saying, “Yes, Lord, I will be a godly woman. I will walk wherever You call me to walk, and I will be who You call me to be in my marriage.” It was very freeing.

I believe that the Lord has called me to a new level, a level that’s never really been seen in my family—a new legacy, kind of a new ministry. I have a lot to share. I’ve been through a lot of different things, like sexual abuse.

But the Lord is going to use my story, I believe, to show others that the truth that’s in Him can wipe away your past and bring you to a new level of healing. I believe that when people hear my story, they will know that this is a God that is truly amazing.

I was really looking forward to this conference because I knew that God had something here for me. I knew there was a true woman out there that I could become.

I was holding onto this old definition of what it meant to be a woman and of what I thought God had for Joy. But this is a new beginning for me.

Woman 8: Wow. I am so glad, number one, that Nancy responded to God’s calling to undertake this. This is a huge thing, and no one person could do this. Somebody had to do this, and I think God has called her to at least start this movement.

I totally believe that this can spread, through the power of prayer and through the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. Each one of us can take this away.

She said, “Look at the road 30 years ahead of us. What are we going to see? How are things going to be changed?”

If 200 women who met here 40 years ago in Chicago can have the effect that swept our culture over the past 40 years in regard to the feminist movement, how much more powerful is God than that, with a conference where we have 6,000 people here?

I’m so thankful they organized it and made it available. I love Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ radio program.

We flew here. It cost us quite a bit of money to come to this, and I’m not one who flies around to conferences; I’ve got seven kids at home. But I said, “This is a really good investment of our time and our money,” because she is a woman of the Word.

You can tell she is different than other people who speak on the radio. She doesn’t have a lot of fluff to cushion what she says. She gets right into the heart of God’s Word. There’s so much meat there.

I talk about her a lot with my friends. I’m also a Bible study leader myself. I appreciate her courage and the fact that she doesn’t mince words as she spreads the truth from God’s Word on that radio program.

He who began a good work in you—
He who began a good work in you
Will be faithful to complete it.
He’ll be faithful to complete it.
He who started the work
Will be faithful to complete it in you.

He who began a good work in you—
He who began a good work in you
Will be faithful to complete it.
He’ll be faithful to complete it.
He who started the work
Will be faithful to complete it in you.

Leslie: If you ever wonder if change and growth are possible, the stories you just heard prove they are. Nancy, it’s exciting to hear what God’s been doing through Revive Our Hearts.

Nancy: Leslie, as I listen to those kinds of stories, I’m moved by the power of God to change people’s lives. I find myself deeply humbled and so grateful to God for the privilege of being a part of this ministry.

I often think of how the Lord takes those few loaves and fishes that we have to offer Him, and when we give them to Him, He blesses them and multiplies them and uses them to feed multitudes. That’s certainly been true with Revive Our Hearts.

So many times I have felt that I don’t have the strength or the wisdom or the ability to sustain a daily radio program. Yet God has chosen to use this program in powerful ways despite my own weakness.

And He’s used you, as well. Our listeners have prayed for us and have given sacrificially. The stories you’ve heard today are a result of the faithful support of listeners like you.

While I’m thinking about it, I want to say a special word of thanks to every person who gave to help with our matching year-end challenge a few weeks ago. People have asked, “Did you meet the challenge?”

I want to let you know that God was gracious to meet that challenge and beyond, to enable us to continue this ministry in the weeks and months ahead. I know this is a tough financial climate, and I’m so encouraged by your generosity.

I know God will use it in great ways to impact more listeners like those that you’ve heard from today. Even now, stories are unfolding in the lives of women in ways that we will never know this side of eternity.

Leslie: When you encounter messages through books or movies or even conversations, how do you differentiate truth from error? Next week, Nancy will help you discover what it means to have discernment. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

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

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