Women, You Are Indispensable to the Plan of God!

Women, You Are Indispensable to God's Plan!

9/13/2017

Who can find a virtuous woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
-Proverbs 31:10, KJV

So many prophetic words lately concern the immeasurable worth of women. God is intensely interested in affirming the value of women in this hour: our dignity, our worth, our potential for great impact in the Kingdom of God. On July 27th, He spoke to me, releasing a word for women that astonished me and brought me to tears with His love. (To read it, click here). And He is still speaking.

Why? Is God taking sides with the feminist movement? Far from it. He is trying to restore some essential things that we, the Body of Christ, have lost. God is restoring the truths that men and women are equally important in His plan, that we function best together, and that “gender relations” are about partnership, not one-upmanship.

Let’s be candid. It’s not easy to be a woman in a man’s world. Many areas of the globe still oppress women horribly; read Manal Al-Sharif’s book, Daring to Drive, about women in Saudi Arabia, for a look at the current state of gender oppression there. We have much work to do in the areas of both human and women’s rights.

Yet even here in America, I encounter women who are still afraid to move forward in the things God has uniquely gifted them to do. We are still slowly emerging, as a nation, from a time when a woman’s sole purpose was to serve her husband and raise her children. Quietly. At home. After all, this is what the Bible tells us to do, right?

I believe there is more to a woman’s worth than changing diapers and serving dinners. We have done both. But we can do more.

A Biblical Example

When a Jewish preacher described by God as “mighty in the Scriptures” and “eloquent” arrived in Ephesus in Acts 18, it was a husband and wife team (Priscilla and Aquila) who took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:26, NASB.) Lest you think this is the only thing this woman ever did, let me expand on the story.

Priscilla and Aquila escaped Roman persecution in Italy, coming to Corinth, where they met the apostle Paul. Aquila had been persecuted for his Jewish faith. Defying any fear of retaliation she may have felt, Priscilla opened her home to the Corinthian church, showing hospitality. (Incidentally, she was at the same time a working woman, making tents alongside her husband.)

When Paul moved on to Ephesus, this powerful couple moved along with him, establishing a second church there. That Priscilla was influential as a woman goes without saying, even apart from her discipleship of Apollos. As late as 2 Timothy 4:19 (one of Paul’s last letters), we find him sending greetings to “Prisca and Aquila,” who are still serving the church, alongside Timothy.

Priscilla chose to use not only her gift of hospitality (as most women are comfortable doing), but also her gifts of mentoring, discipleship, teaching the Word, church planting, and likely a host of other talents in the service of her King. That she was a woman of the Word and prayer goes without saying.

A Worldly Example

Women often watch from the sidelines as their more ambitious counterparts work their way up the corporate ladder. They see the sacrifices these women make, trying to mold themselves into men. Demands for equal pay, executive authority, and the right to be heard echo through corporate hallways. “Good for them,” they think. “They're paving the way for the next generation.”

Failures such as Hilary Clinton’s lost bid for the Presidency remind these women that gender equality is not “there” yet; there is still something lacking in the system for women. They hope, one day, to see a true “equal opportunity nation.”

Friends, the good news is that we already serve a God of equal opportunity!

The story of Priscilla and Aquila gives us a beautiful picture of what God intends for the Christian woman. She is submitted to godly order and authority under her husband, yet sure of her worth and potency in the Holy Spirit. She does not see her work outside the home as contradictory to her domestic work, but as complementary. Without emasculating herself or abandoning her role as mother and nurturer, she instead assumes the mothering and nurturing of various spheres of influence under her care – both men and women! Her heart and home are open to all who seek to know her, or to know God.

This, I feel, is what is lost sometimes when women fight for just one aspect of equality: they shut down their God-given, nurturing heart, seeking instead to compete. Women will not succeed in God’s plan by stifling the essence of who they are in order to become more like men. It is the embracing of the feminine, not the rejection of it, which brings balance to the Body.

A Personal Note

I attended a women’s college in the 1980’s, and heard all the rhetoric of the feminist movement. I watched many of my female friends graduate and begin the long climb up the corporate ladder, hoping to establish themselves as experts in their fields.

30 years later, I see the fallout from those decisions. In closing the door on their femininity and traveling the more “bullish” road to the top like a man, some of these women have lost their homes, husbands, families, and yes, even their coveted positions. One extremely successful college friend made it to the top of a multi-million dollar international corporation, only to admit that she lost everything she held dear in the process –including her family. It was a wake-up call, 30 years too late.

On the opposite extreme is a woman I met last week: an anointed woman of the Word, full of God’s Spirit. She chose to stay at home with her family, served in her local church, and – to my amazement – admitted she felt miserable!

This woman was doing everything “right,” according to the “Christian Standard Version” of life we pass on to women by tradition. She did not lead or teach men. She submitted to her husband. She maintained an impeccably clean house and showed hospitality like a boss. But she was silently suffering, she told me, because she had something to say and was afraid to say it.

She had a wealth of wisdom in the Word, but carried a ball and chain of insecurity that prohibited her from stepping out in what she felt called to do. Instead, she reluctantly set aside the promptings of the Holy Spirit, striving to serve in every other capacity her church demanded - until she was worn out.

When I suggested that perhaps this was not God’s best for her, she listened eagerly. Would it not make more sense, I asked, to follow the leadings God had supernaturally placed in her heart and be authentically true to herself as she lived her life? After all, if she was designed to be a “hand” in the Body of Christ, why should she continually hide that hand behind her back and try to be a foot instead?

One week after our meeting, I received a text from this sweet woman. Having been encouraged to step out in the things she felt passionate about, she was now initiating a ministry all her own, rallying other women to join her. I rejoiced in this and praised God for giving her the courage to act on her dreams! Instead of trying to be someone else, she was becoming authentically herself. She just needed someone to believe in her.

Conclusion

When women in all parts of the word realize that they are designed to be more than whipping-posts, like Manal Al-Sharif did, or that they are needed alongside men as they fulfill their callings in the Kingdom, then the world will take note.

The softness of a woman balances the toughness of a man. Both represent, together, the completeness of the image of God. The sooner we find a way to work in partnership, each gender supporting the other’s unique qualities and strengths, the healthier we will be as the Body of Christ.

It’s not good for man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18.) But it isn’t good for woman to be alone, either. I believe it’s time to restore the heart to Christ’s Body. To embrace her, with all her messiness and complications! Will men need patience as women find their places? YES! But there’s a blessing.

1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to give honor to their wives, treating them with respect as the weaker vessel, so that their prayers may not be hindered. How fascinating that the same command is given to the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:22-24.

The parts of the Body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. The parts we consider less honorable, we are to clothe with greater honor. God has both composed the Body in this way AND given greater honor to the parts that lacked it.

Women, you are indispensable to the plan of God, now and forevermore. He can’t do it without you! You need look no further than the day of your creation to see God’s heart for you! It is my wholehearted prayer that you will realize your immeasurable value in God’s eyes, and that one day, men will see the same thing. Until then, I am praying for you, that you will have the boldness to step into your divine destinies without fear and without losing sight of who you are, bringing balance to a Body that has been unbalanced for far too long. Amen.

© Deborah Perkins / www.HisInscriptions.com

Watch a related prophetic word for women from Lana Vawser & Patricia King here!

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