Ladies, even before the world was made, you were chosen to be holy. Even before the world was made, you were chosen to be an example. Godly woman of purpose you were predestined according to His purpose. Before you were born, you were already set apart. That’s before anybody influenced you against God. That’s before anybody mistreated you. That’s before anybody abused you. That’s before you were ever put down because it’s a ‘man’s world’. Before the thought ever entered your parent’s minds to have you, God ordained you.  Let’s look into the Word and look at some women who found their purpose. Let’s look at what God said in the Bible. We are going to see that what God said in the Bible was way different than what was going on outside during Bible times concerning the role of women.

• ILLUSTRATION:  Christmas Presents
  Wife: “What are you getting my mother for Christmas this year?”
  Husband: “A cemetery lot.”
  ONE YEAR LATER
  Wife: “What are you getting my mother for Christmas this year?”
• Husband: “Nothing! She didn’t use what I got her last year.”
• ILLUSTRATION: Napoleon
  The most famous general in all of Europe during the 1800’s was a man named Napoleon.  With the French army behind him, he conquered all of Europe and declared himself Emperor.  He also decided that nobody could come into his presence without kissing his hand.  But one woman would not kiss his hand.  In fact when she came into his presence, she slapped his hand and told him that to her, he was nothing but a little child – that person of course was his mother.
• The greatest teacher I ever had was my mother. —   George Washington
• George Washington was great because he had a great teacher.
• Think about the impact on America that George had.

It is a Powerful Thing for a Woman to Fulfill Her Purpose.

• But, know that in ancient times women were not held in the same regard nor experience the same freedoms as women in America do today.
• The picture that is going to be painted here of Bible times is not flattering and unlike anything in the Western Hemisphere today.

Background: Role of Women in Bible Times

Roman Women in Bible Times

• “Roman wives were expected to obey their husbands in all things.
• During the Roman Republic, the husband had as much power over his wife as he did over his children…
• In some respects, the power of husbands in fundamentalist Islamic nations today is similar to that of the ancient Romans…
• Hellenistic wives also were obliged to obey their husbands. The husband’s power over his wife among the Hellenists was not so great as among the Romans, but it was still considerable.
• … the head of the Roman family held almost absolute power over all the members of his household. This power, which included even the power of life and death, was called patria potestas (Latin: “power of a father).
• It had diminished considerably by the first century A.D., but the Roman husband and father still held control of the family property.” ¹

Greek Women in Bible Times

• “Greek wives in the classical era, at least among the upper classes, lived extremely sheltered lives. They were not allowed outdoors except to attend important events, and then only accompanied by male relatives. This meant, for example, that husbands or slaves did all the shopping. A women seen in public in the classical Greek city was thought to be either a slave or a prostitute…
• Clearly a wife’s conversion to… Christianity could lead to serious conflict with her husband.” (Jeffers, 243)
• “Greco-Roman culture regarded women as incapable of the level of intellectual ability achieved by men. It allotted to women the duty of childbearing and child rearing.” ²

Jewish Women in Bible Times

• “Jewish women were not as restricted in public appearance as Greek women… The Jewish women was the mistress of the home, but was not qualified to appear as a witness in court and was exempt from fulfilling religious duties that had to be performed at stated times… The prayer from the Jewish book often cited… “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who has not made me a women,”… ³
• So, remember how the world viewed women in Bible times as we get ready to read what the Word actually says about God’s purpose in the life of women today.

Purpose to Fulfill Your Purpose

1 John 3:8 (NKJV)
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

• Last week, if you remember, we called attention to the fact that…
• Purpose comes first, manifestation comes after.
• We said…
• Jesus was the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.
• Jesus was considered slain by the Father God before the world was ever created.
• Purpose first manifestation after.

A Documentary: itsagirlmovie.com

• There is a documentary that just came out and debuted in Hong Kong, last week (Nov. 18th, 2013) called ‘It’s A Girl’ that documents the killing of 200 million girls in India and China just because they are female.
• In those countries today, having girls are undesirable.
• In America if you strangle a baby girl, you go directly to jail, in China or India you walk free!
• Here is an excerpt of the atrocities against women in these two countries today (from a web article at lifenews.com)
• “In parts of Asia – especially India and China – baby girls are undesirable, even unacceptable. In China, a ”one-child” policy, enforced by the state with forced sterilizations and abortions, exacerbates gendercide, leading some parents to take matters into their own hands. If you’re allowed only two children, and you already have one girl…well, in a culture where males are valued much more highly than females, it’s not hard to imagine what follows. Baby girls are stuck in sacks and thrown in rivers and down wells, even dumped upside-down in buckets of water.” http://www.lifenews.com/2012/11/02/200-million-girls-killed-in-china-where-are-the-feminists/

1 Cor. 12:18 (NKJV)
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

• God gave these two hundred million girls a purpose, a place in life and that was aborted by the policies in these two nations.
• We are centering on the ladies in the Body of Christ today.
• And stating in no uncertain terms, that God has as much a distinct purpose for your life as He does for the men.
• Ladies find out your purpose!

Many Do Not Fulfill Their Destiny

• There are many believers who never walk in the fullness of their purpose.
  How do we know that?
  This statement is not being made to just slap somebody or just fling something out there.
  It is not being made to try and motivate people from a negative point of view.
  There are no statistics available on planet earth where we can go for proof to back this statement up.
  There are no libraries that one can go to and find out what are the numbers of people that are not fulfilling their calling.
  But, we know that the number is low because Jesus told us it was.

Matt. 9:37-38 (NKJV)
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

• According to Jesus, few is the number that ever become laborers.
• It is not God’s fault that this condition exists.
• He predestined the laborers.
• He planned for the workers before there was ever a need for the workers.
• The problem is that women (we are talking to ladies today and we could easily flip this statement onto the men) are not finding it!
• Understand this statement, “The laborers are few” is not a gender specific scripture.
• It is not just men ‘who are few’.
• It is not just women ‘who are few’.
• It is both together that make up ‘the few’.
• “Few of us really know our strengths. The great teachers, and great leaders, recognize strengths and focus on them.” – Peter Drucker

Deborah: A Powerful Woman of Purpose

Judg. 4:4 (KJV)
4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

• Deborah was a Jewish woman, the same Jewish woman that men thought were not qualified in spiritual matters. The same woman that incited Jewish men to pray the ignorant prayer ‘Thank God I am not a women’.
• Notice the description of Deborah. Notice the order of the description. It is important.
• “Prophetess” comes first, then “wife”.
• Deborah’s office, the thing she was predestined to be, the office God called her to, comes first.
• This verse is not written from the perspective that men had of women in Bible times. This is written from God’s perspective.
• Ladies, you may see yourself only as a wife.

You may only see yourself as a mother but God sees you as He called you.

• Now, you may be tempted to think, that this verse is an isolated case.

2 Kings 22:14 (ESV)
14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter), and they talked with her.

• Same thing here. Huldah the prophetess, wife of…
• Calling first, God first, purpose first then everything else.
• And just in case you are tempted to think that THESE two cases are isolated cases also, here is yet another one.

Exodus 15:20 (ESV)
20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.

• Note in all three references, the purpose of God, the calling of God, the gifting of God comes before the physical relationships of family.
• Spiritual always comes first.
• Now, everyone really knows that is so anyway because we always quote “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…” (Matt. 6:33).
• God comes first!
• If you are not sure of this, in regards to family relationships, just ask Jesus.
• What would He say on this matter?

Matthew 10:37 (ESV)
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

• The spiritual always comes ahead of the physical.
• Anyone, male or female, will end up with unnecessary problems if you flip these two things around.
• If you put your children ahead of God, you are going to mess it up.
• If you put your family ahead of Jesus, you are going to create a mess.
• Sometimes the mess is huge.
• God is a God of order and things work when we get things in their right place.
• Granted, it’s a job to keep these two things straight!
• It is not easy; nothing good is!
• It takes constant adjustment.
• Your heart has to be toward Him all the time.
• Nothing else will do.
• When you have the order right in your heart, then from that heart you can minister to your family effectively.
• So now, in this vein of thinking what does one do with this statement?
• “The greatest calling for a woman is to be a mother.”
• Doesn’t this statement sound like the role of women in Bible times (to have and to rear children)?
• Motherhood is not the greatest calling.
• It is the greatest privilege.
• It is the greatest blessing.
• But it is not the greatest calling.
• You cannot make that statement line up with the Bible.
• That statement only lines up with Readers Digest or ancient Rome.
• One individual states:

The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother-which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.” — Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)

• The truth, ladies, is that God did not place you on planet earth to be a glorified incubator.
• Every woman has a divine gift from God.

1 Pet. 4:10 (NLT)
10 God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.

• Every woman should use the divine gift that God gave her.
• It is not God’s will that you leave your gifting’s wrapped up in a box.
• Remember, what you are is God’s gift to you.
• How you yield to that gift in obedience to the Spirit of God is your gift to Him.
• So, if you have a gift, use it in every which way possible.
• Don’t hoard your talent.
• Don’t be a miser with your talent.
• Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.
• ILLUSTRATION: The Magic of Believing
  A thirty-eight-year-old scrubwoman would go to the movies and sigh, “If only I had her looks.” She would listen to a singer and moan, “If only I had her voice.” Then one day someone gave her a copy of the book, The Magic of Believing. She stopped comparing herself with actresses and singers. She stopped crying about what she didn’t have and started concentrating on what she did have. She took inventory of herself and remembered that in high school she had a reputation for being the funniest girl around. She began to turn her liabilities into assets. A few years ago Phyllis Diller made over $1 million in one year. She wasn’t good-looking and she had a scratchy voice, but she could make people laugh.
• You have a divine commandment to minister; to minister your gift to others.
• Minister that gift to whomever the Spirit of God leads you to.
• Minister that gift to your family.
• Minister that gift to your husband.
• Minister that gift to your children.
• Minister that gift to believers.
• Minister that gift to unbelievers.
• As your relationship with heaven is right and to the measure that you flow in the Spirit and acknowledge your calling – it is to that extent that you will be a good wife and a good mother.
• Flowing in God’s purpose for your life makes everything right.
• When things are not right on the inside with you – things will not be right in your home.
• The father is the head of the house; the mother is the heart of the home.
• Things will not flow right as long as YOU are out of place.
• Vertical relationships must be in order for horizontal relationships to be rewarding.

Hindrance One to a Woman’s Purpose: “It’s A Man’s World”

• Not as far as God is concerned!

Psa. 24:1 (NKJV)
1 The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.

• Oh really, it’s a man’s world?
• Poor God, He didn’t know that. So, He just ignorantly anointed women and called them knowing that it wasn’t His world anyway! Is that what we are saying?
• Sometimes husbands get in the way of their wives gifts.
• You have all heard the Smith Wigglesworth story of his wife refusing her husband’s request to stay home from church. And Polly’s reply to that request, “Smith you may be my husband but you are not my Lord.”
• Smith was trying to get in the way of Polly’s commitment to God.
• Mark it down ladies…

    Your gift and your calling are not supposed to be sacrificed on the altar of your husbands’ selfishness.

• Don’t trade your anointing in!
• Don’t trade your calling in!
• Don’t trade your purpose in!
• Jesus did not act as if it was a man’s world.
• He liberated women.
• He spoke to them in a society that did not condone speaking to women in public as in the Women at the Well (John 4:7-9).
• They were sent to speak to a society that did not want to hear them when the Angels of God sent Mary Magdalene and company to tell the Apostles of the Resurrection (Lk. 24:1-11).
• He forgave them in a society that would have condemned them as in the Women Taken in Adultery (John 8:1-11).
• He healed them in a society that had relegated them to the back page of insignificance as in the case of Peter’s Mother-in-law (Matt. 8:14-15).
• Look at a list of Jesus encounters with women:
• All of the encounters are filled with dignity and respect.
• He Healed…
• Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt. 8:14-15).
• The woman with the issue of blood (Mk. 5:25-34).
• The woman that was bowed over for 18 years (Lk. 13:11-13).
• Jairus daughter (Mk. 5:34-45).
• Mary Magdalene who had seven demons go out of her (Lk. 8:2).
• Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter (Mk. 7:24–30)
• The woman’s son at Nain whom He raised from the dead (Lk. 7:11-15).
• Women prophesied of his birth
• And preached His resurrection.
• And were put up as examples of what giving should be like when He commended the widow’s mite (Mk. 12:41-44).
• Why did Jesus act this way, when the rest of society was going the other way?
• Convention versus unconvention!
• Jesus did the unconventional thing.
• Well of course He understood this fact.

Gal. 3:28 (NKJV)
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• The gift of God operating in a woman, a mother, a wife, is every bit as much God as the same corresponding gift operating in a man and must be respected accordingly.

Respect is a Big Thing in the Kingdom of God

• Respect is a big issue.
• Look at this verse in Isaiah which speaks of Isaiah’s interaction with his own wife.

Isaiah 8:3 (KJV)
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

• The phrase “I went unto the prophetess” is a Bible phrase here used to imply marital relations between a husband and a wife.
• Notice what Isaiah called his wife!
• He didn’t call her ‘my old lady’.
• He did not call her by any of the other slang vernacular often used in the world today by men to refer to their spouses.
• He called her by her office.
• He called by her purpose.
• He called her by the gift of God working in her.
• Isaiah didn’t view his wife as a sex object.
• Respect is a big thing and it matters not whether it is a male or a female that God happens to be using.
• Husband respect the gift and the call of God in your wife.

Hindrance Two to a Woman’s: “The Husband is the Head of the House.”

• The husband IS the head of the wife in physical things but NOT in spiritual things.

Ephesians 5:22–23 (KJV)
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

• The husband is the head of the wife in natural things not in spiritual things.
• A woman’s spiritual gift and calling does not come under the husbands’ jurisdiction.
• Her purpose is under Jesus jurisdiction as the Lord Head General of the Church.
• Saying it another way.
• The husband is the head of the wife in natural things; Jesus is the head of the wife in spiritual things.
• Ladies, because this is true, you will not  be able to say to Jesus at the time of judgment, “My husband wouldn’t let me…”
• You are not going to be able to say to Him, ‘My husband wouldn’t let me…’
• Pray
• Read my Bible
• Go to church
• Operate in my calling or gift
•  If you do, Jesus will ask you this one question, ‘Who called you?’
• ‘Who gifted you?’

 Call to Action:

God has a purpose for your life. Believe in that, trust in that. Seek God about and make it the cornerstone of your life. You can absolutely rise up and be the powerful gifted woman that God called you to be.

Question: What ministered to you out of this message. How did you relate? Please share that in the comments section below.

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