Consider for a moment the time in which we live. A time when opportunities are opening for women in the fields of government, politics, medicine, law, media…just to name a few. It is an unprecedented day for women as the doors of opportunity stand wide open.
It would also seem that God is bringing a release for women within His Church. As a woman, I’ve had opportunity of preaching in twenty different nations and finding myself ministering to and training literally thousands of ministers and church leaders, of which most have been men. That alone speaks of the new thing that God is doing in this hour.
As I have traveled I’ve watched as God has set women free and unshackled their voices, their arms, their legs and their hearts. Women are finding freedom in God as well as their place in the church. In each country, and for each woman, their involvement is unique; some taking their place in the pulpit while others find their greatest calling and anointing serving in their home and others still in the marketplace.
The location and means of ministry are not what is important here. What is important is that each person in the body of Christ has an opportunity to hear the call of God, to know they are chosen, and have the ability to follow that call. The real issue today is not that the Lord is releasing women. The issue is the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
I am not writing this article to promote women. I believe that comes from the wrong spirit. I believe that our focus must be on establishing unity in the Body of Christ and in so doing, building the Kingdom of God. In other words, this is not an hour (or an article) to “lift up the women”, nor is it to “put down the men who have oppressed us”. NO! Let me make this clear…that is not my heart or my motive.
I believe that this is a day to see the women of India take their place among the men, to stand at their stations and do their jobs, thankfully receiving the inheritance that God has given them and running with it, all the while helping the one beside them to do the same. The Word of God tells us that God did not intend for the Kingdom of God to be “one or the other” but to be “all working together”. We are to be co-laborers together with God, as Paul says in First Corinthians 3:9. Whether we are men or women, we are to take our place in the Kingdom and carry the Good News to the best of our ability.
Women: Is it the untapped power of the Indian church?
Women make up over 2/3 of the church of India. That means that on any given Sunday, two out of every three people who attend church in this nation will be a woman. And found toddling at her side and pulling at her sari is nothing less than the hope and future of Christianity in the nation…the children.
A great missionary to India once said, “If we are to win India for Christ, we must lay our hands on the hands that rock the cradles, and teach Christian songs to the lips that sing lullabies. If we can win the mothers of India to Christ, her future sons will soon be brought to fall at the feet of Jesus.” I believe this is a powerful truth. Women are important to the church of today…and they are vitally important to the church of tomorrow.
Most of us would have to admit that women across the globe have been held in chains of bondage; not placed there by mere men but by the enemies of the cross who would fight to hold captive the very ones who “rock the cradle”; the very ones who hold future destiny in their loving arms.
Even still, to some it may seem foolishness to put time, resources, and energy into a ministry to the women of India. To some it may seem unnecessary. But I believe, as I know many others do, that when the women of India find their identity in God and freedom to live in the fullness of the character of God, the future generations of India will be saved.
As women, we are greatly impacted by the testimony and ministry of other women. Ministry to them and by them is critical to seeing the women of India reach their full potential in Christ. It is not that we can only learn from another woman or that as women we do not want to submit to a man. On the contrary, to have such an attitude is to go against the very teachings of Christ.
Those of us that are women are required to have a humble heart and we must keep our focus pure. We must remember that the Kingdom has never been about self-exaltation but it is about servant leadership. With hearts uncorrupted and unpolluted by bitterness, contention, division, unbelief, and fear; a stream will be cleared to feed and nourish a generation yet to come.
The Power of Ministry to Women
For centuries no man or women on earth ever ran faster then a 4 minute mile. In 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile for the first time in history. You might think that because it took so long to be broken that his record would stand for a very long time. However, less than two months later, someone else broke the 4 minute mile. By the end of the year, 13 people had done it.
Once someone proved it could be done, it created an environment of possibility, an impartation of hope. The testimony of one spurs on another to run faster and farther than they have ever run before! It is, in fact, a natural principle. The person who breaks through the barrier makes it more possible for others to do the same.
This is what happens when a woman testifies of the work of God in her life. It encourages other women to join in. And this is the power and potential of women’s ministry in India. I believe there is a heroic anointing yet to come upon the women of India that will cause an impartation of hope and possibility to arise within the church. Hope for women who thought they could not be called of God…and possibility for women who felt they were not chosen.
I believe that God is pleased by the efforts of Pastor Gavin and Amenla Cunningham and First Assembly of God Church. At a time when their own building was falling apart and their resources were tight, they pressed into the vision to see women hear the testimony of Jesus and the call to find their destiny in God.
In the book of Nehemiah the walls were broken down, causing a breech of protection. Disheartened by what he saw, Nehemiah took to the task of repairing the walls of Jerusalem. It mentions in Nehemiah 3 that they repaired the walls opposite the “House of Heroes”. It has been said, “The House of Heroes was where the memory of God’s hero’s were not only recalled, but also perpetuated and imparted to succeeding generations.”
The Women of Destiny Conferences and the work of the Cunningham’s and their congregation at First AG Bangalore are doing for the women of Bangalore are just as the House of Heroes did for the people of Israel. Through the testimony of vibrant, Godly women there is a perpetuating and imparting to the succeeding generations. They are creating an environment of possibility and an impartation of hope by letting women know that they can follow God with a servant’s heart and a heroic anointing that will break through the barriers in one generation so that another generation can go even further.
Yes, we are all called and we are all chosen. And we are all guardians of a deposit that God is pouring out on this generation. Let us all enter the House of the Heroes. Let us, as men and women of God, look on the scrolls, carvings, shields and swords of bygone heroes of God. It’s time to lean in and listen for what advice and counsel they would give us now. Surely they would say to us, “Serve the Lord with all your strength and love Him with all your being!” Surely, there would be no talk of gender, of race, of color or of culture. But only a harmonious cry to the generations…”Come, while it is yet YOUR day, seize it!”
