I’m happily in isolation on an island that can only be reached by seaplane or ferry. During this week away, I’ve asked several friends to fill in for me this week. Hopefully you’ll meet some new voices of people I admire.
Today?s post comes from Crystal Renaud. She was but a mere high school senior when I met her, seven or so years ago. Now she is growing into a passionate and brave young woman with a heart for helping women discover and embrace their God given gifts.
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Shortage of Power
Growing up, I was certainly a tomboy and even through high school I battled with the role of being a woman. But the older I get, the more I embrace my womanhood. What makes me special is that I am a woman. The world wasn?t finished before Eve and I think we as women we need to feel empowered to on our God-given role.
On more than one occasion I have read and heard about how much the enemy hates women. More so than he hates men. But why?
Because he is jealous of her. Before the creation of Eve, Lucifer was the most beautiful thing God ever created and he knew that Eve was more beautiful than he. He didn?t go to her because she was weaker than Adam. He went to her because he wanted to destroy her.
But it sort of backfired on him.
Yes, she was deceived, but in Genesis 3 God says to the serpent, ?Because you have done this (serpent deceiving Eve), cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (hatred) between you and the woman.?
Perhaps the serpent thought God would destroy her for him. Or that God would change his mind about having created her. I don?t know. But instead, God further condemned him and further raised Eve up to do battle.
So, not only do women have the word of God in them, we also have the calling and anointing to do battle. And even now the enemy knows we were created for battle against him. Which is why we are the ones he comes after.
Yet, society is robbing us of that power.
For too long (especially in my generation) women have been given mixed signals about who we are and what our role is. Some are told we?re in competition with men?in business, ministry and even in relationships. And some of us have been told we?re merely for show and pleasing men sexually.
Whichever voice we?ve heard most, these extremes are creating a generation of women who are sexually confused, angry at men and our relationships with God are strained or non-existent.
Jeremiah 31:21-23 says, ?How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.?
This doesn?t mean a woman is to rule over a man? or to be ruled over? no. It means she will stand beside him, stand with him, surround him, and even protect him in spiritual warfare. And that?s a powerful statement.
Joel 2 speaks of ?the fig tree,? ?the grapevine? and ?the olive oil.? I believe this is what God?s women are made of. The oil representing the anointing, the fig tree representing the sweetness, and the wine (or grapevine) representing the new thing.
When God-fearing women begin manifesting these things in their families, their churches and the world, the enemy will be filled with terror. He knows that women will impact their world for God, just as the early church did in Acts 2.
And that?s a whole lot better than the old ?sugar and spice and everything nice.?
There?s a quote that says, ?Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says, ?Oh no, she?s awake.??
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Has our culture of gender confusion and role reversal robbed us of our true call to do battle? What can be done to regain what’s been stolen?
Comments
10 responses to “Shortage of Power”
I agree! Our culture of gender confusion is trying it’s best to rob us of our true calling.
Awesome post!
With this in mind, it’s interesting to see how women outside the Church are led astray, as opposed to how women within the Church are led astray.
Outside the Church, women are widely told to exert their “power” (in business, sex appeal, whatever) – maybe because it does touch on some part of our created nature that we’re unfamiliar with, and because our enemy knows it’s not going to be used against him out there. Within the Church, women are widely told to be quiet and almost timid – and it almost seems right when you take a few scriptures out of context and point out that it’s opposite “of the world.”
Well said. And very true. I believe women (and men) are suffering from a severe identity crisis. And the only way to find out who they are is to hear what God says about them, their role, and who they are as a person.
@Lex and @Carrie // yes! you’ve iterated my point exactly. how can we truly be who we are created to be (and know what that even is), if we aren’t empowered and taught to do so?
WOW! Great post. One of our womanly God given gifts is the power of influence and it is perverted & abused, even by us God-fearing women sometimes. May the LORD call us all to a new level of consciousness regarding our influences over our own man/mate. Truth in the innermost regions is a must in these days of deception we live in. Thanks for calling women out to their higher purposes!
The ‘satan jealous of eves beauty’ argument is basically a romanticizing of scripture. While poetic and pleasing to a woman’s ear, it’s no better (or biblical) than ‘man was created to slay the dragon’ ala Wild at Heart.
Both merely add our ego to scripture and are devoid of meekness and humility IMO.
Yeah, I don’t know about this one either Randy. As a woman, it sounds great. But truth? Not really sure about that…and I’m going to do some research on the Jeremiah scripture. That’s a new one to me, I’d love to read it IN CONTEXT.
Great post Crystal! Your blog is super! I think women need to learn to “Power Think” – helps us focus on the key qu3estions: Who am I? What are my strengths? What do I believe in? What do I want? What is possible? Also effective thinking, such as focusing on a goal and developing clarity and purpose. A powerful thing you can do for yourself is to expand your self-perception…start to do things you preiously rejected because they were just “not you.” Hats off to proaction! Next to Anne, I love to read your writings! Thanks!
Ooops sorry for the typos…guess that is what I get for being in such a hurry. I want to clarify this last sentence I wrote: A powerful thing we can do for ourselves as ladies is to expand our self-perception…start to do things we previously rejected because they were just “not us.” Hats off to proaction! I didn’t mean to sound like I was singling you out. Can’t wait to read your next post!
@Paige – Most every commentary I’ve read observes that the woman is Israel and the man is Jehovah. One says, “the virgin of Israel will cease to go ?hither and thither after idols? and will seek and cleave to Immanuel.”
Jerome in the fourth century interpreted “a woman will surround a man” as the virginal conception of Christ, but most scholars don’t hold this view because a woman compassing a man is not at all the same thing as the Virgin compassing and bearing a son. Plus, this prophecy in Jeremiah has no other reference to it, FWIW.
The use of the verses in the post is classic proof texting; ignoring metaphor, allegory, and as you mentioned, context. Again it’s a very poetic and inspiring post as other commenters have observed, but hardly a sound biblical argument.