A couple years ago, I was in church. My infant daughter and I were in the “Mother’s Nursing Room”, which was really just a storage room off of the gymnasium where our church was meeting at the time. I had just nursed her, and I was cradling her and bouncing her in her carrier. I had the door cracked so I could hear what was going on in the service. Our pastor was challenging our congregation to ask God where he was calling us, “Is there a nation God is putting on your heart?”
I waited and listened for God to speak. You see, I have a heart for the nations. A burning heart. Ever since I was a young girl, I remember the sponsor children my mom would have up on our fridge. I remember donating many of my toys to send to children overseas. “Are you sure you want to give all of these?” My mom asked me, making sure I knew what I was doing, but at the same time I’m sure she was proud of my generosity. I nodded reassuringly, “Yes.” I knew there were many children who didn’t have anything, and I was happy to give what I had to help them.
In my teen years I had the opportunity to travel on month long mission trips to Panama and the Philippines, then traveled to Bangladesh after college. Each trip burned in my heart God’s love for the nations and my call to do something about it. I had plans and dreams to become a missionary some day.
Then I had had a season late in high school and college where I struggled with identity, and in that season some of the vision and dreams God had placed inside of me had felt far away. But God is so faithful, and as he restored and healed my heart, he renewed the fire within me for my calling at the same time. I started carrying many “spiritual babies”, that I held on to and nourished for a long season. Some of you know what I’m talking about, “spiritual babies” are like spiritual dreams and destiny that God puts inside of you to care for and believe in until the right opportunity where he releases or births those “spiritual babies”.
So, here I was, in the storage room, bouncing and cradling my physical baby, Grace, in her carrier as she fussed, walking in circles and straining to hear in the service. “Is there a nation that God is putting on your heart?” I paused and listened, because I knew God had already instilled in me a heart for the nations, from such a young age, and he’d been renewing that desire in my heart for many years now, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had whispered a nation to my heart that day. So I listened and waited. Then I heard the sweet voice of the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart. “Save my daughters.” I nodded my head as I started feeling the familiar feeling of the burning fire of the Holy Spirit within my gut. I heard it again, and this time my heart beat faster still and the fire within me grew hotter. “Save my daughters.” I knew this obviously wasn’t a nation, but it was clearly the answer God had for me and I knew with complete certainty that it was the Holy Spirit. I nodded as tears streamed down my cheeks and landed on Grace’s dark full head of wavy hair. “Yes Lord. Yes, I will!”.
As I said yes, I saw women flash through my mind. Women in nations overseas, women in our own nation, women young and women old. Women who were being kept in bondage and restricted. Lost. Alone. Women who had been physically and sexually abused, women who had been emotionally abused, and also women who had been deceived for far too long by lies of the enemy. I saw God’s daughters who had been restricted and held back from the call that God had on their lives. Women who had been limited from their destiny, their ability to use their giftings, and from their calling. “Jami, I need to release my daughters.”
Now, I want to be clear, this wasn’t a new revelation for me. As God had been taking me through that season of healing and restoration after I had struggled with identity during my college years, he had begun to reveal some of my calling to me, specifically, he’d been putting on my heart his daughters. I had been receiving great revelation of his heart for his daughters. That was one of those “spiritual babies” I had carried with me for a long time. I’d been sensing it for a number of years at this point, but in this exact moment I couldn’t deny the clarity of his voice.
The Voice of His Daughter’s Being Stolen
As I’ve gone through my own personal healing journey, one of the most significant things God has done for me has been to restore my voice. For many years I had felt like it had been stolen from me and like I didn’t have much of a voice left. But God has brought forth my voice again, through his breath of life. Without it, I would not be able to walk out God’s destiny for my life.
As God restored my voice, I began to realize that God’s daughter’s voices being stolen from them is not at all uncommon. As I began to allow God open up my eyes to his heart for the issue, it became so evident. Do you realize how common it is for women to walk in insecurity, comparison, feelings of inferiority or inadequacy? Be honest with yourself, are those issues you deal with? How about how many women are told they don’t have a place to use their voice? Some are not allowed to teach or lead. Or how many women are trapped in bondage, either through emotional or abusive relationships, or literally held in bondage, or in sex slavery, as many women are around the world and in our own nation? Women are being silenced. Their voices are being stolen.
The problem with the enemy stealing the voices of God’s daughters is that God needs his daughters to use their voices to bring his glory! That was his design from the very beginning! He has very specific assignments for his daughters, and he needs them to be released to do it!
Lee Grady, founder of an organization called, “The Mordecai Project”, that since 2003 has been confronting the abuse of women and girls globally, said this at a conference I attended recently. “There are certain things that will not change until women step into battle.” Why is that? Well, because God tells us to pray for his kingdom to come. Matthew 6:9-10 says we are to pray like this, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (emphasis added)
If we are to pray for his kingdom to come and be vessels in which he does it, we all must be able to walk forth in this! Women are created in the image of God, we are designed to be vessels that his love flows out of to reflect him! His love! His love that he purposed to flow through the beautiful vessels that women are. So if women aren’t released or willing to be walking in their part to bring forth God’s kingdom on earth, then there are some things that won’t be fixed. It’s that simple. Because we need the fullness of who God is to restore the earth. We have work to do!
What is beautiful about God’s design of male and female, is that when they come together, in unity, we see the fullness of God’s glory on earth! We are both designed so beautifully in his image, reflecting his character in different ways. Why else would we see the enemy attack, so strategically, the very union God had designed for men and women to come together to reflect the fullness of God himself, in the holy covenant of marriage? Divorce rates have skyrocketed due to selfish convenience, and the very godly design of marriage has been attacked so heavily in this season! Satan knows, if he can break marriages up, or redefine marriage, he is attacking the fullness of the image of God that it is intended to portray.
Additionally, he hates when men and women, as a whole, come together in unity to bring forth the kingdom of God! So he pivots women against men in anger and blame, and men against women. Each thinking the other is the problem. So he creates division. Creates strife. Creates victimhood. Creates ideology of superiority (for either gender). Listen, daughters of God, contrary to what the world may tell you, the enemy is not men. They are our partners! The Bible makes it very clear that the enemy is not flesh in blood! (Ephesians 6:12)
Instead of walking in anger, division, or victimhood, we are called to look to Jesus Christ to bring forth unity, and to trust him alone to bring forth our voices to bring him glory! This can only be done by his power through us! (Zechariah 4:6) We need to stand up against the enemy’s attack on women which tries to keep them from moving into position, from using their voice, from having unity with men in their marriages, in the church and in all areas! You must remember who the enemy is! (1 Peter 5:8)
God’s Heart Breaks for His Daughters
God loves his daughters and he sees the way at which the enemy is strategically attacking them. He’s looking for those of us who will have his eyes to see and recognize this. You also must remember this very important detail, the devil wouldn’t attack women so strategically if he didn’t realize what a threat we are to him. Your voice is a mighty tool!
- Today, in India, girls and women are discriminated against and murdered, just because they are female. More girls and women have been discriminated against and killed in the past century than any other modern-day genocide. (Invisible Girl Project)
- 1 in 5 women is a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime (U.N. Development Fund for Women)
- On average, one girl is aborted in India, every minute, just because she is a girl. (Invisible Girl Project)
- Infanticide is so widely practiced in India, that little girls in India are 75% more likely to die than little boys. When a daughter is born, family members may kill the baby girl, just because she is a girl.
- The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the US is 12 to 14 years old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children. (DoSomething.org)
- According to UNICEF’s June 2019 report, 12 million girls are married before they turn 18 every year, and, and in the developing world, one in nine girls is married before they turn 15. Around the world, 650 million girls and women alive today were married before they were 18.
- Each year, millions of girls in poverty are kept out of school. Instead, many are forced to stay home and work, while others are made to marry and bear children before they are physically or emotionally ready. (https://www.wvi.org/1000-girls)
- It is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in the countries where the practice is concentrated. It can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. (World Health Organization)
I understand this list is painful to read. It’s just a very small fraction of the many difficulties that God’s daughters face. But it’s necessary to see what’s happening. To his beautiful image bearers. So, when God told me that Sunday morning, as I paced that storage room while bouncing my daughter Grace, my salty tears streaming down my face, that he wants me to “save his daughters”, and he needs to, “release his daughters”, honestly I didn’t and still don’t fully know what this encompasses and what it looks like. But I know that he needs those of us who are willing to be used, to stand up and lead the charge to bring forth change and bring forth a mighty army of women. Women who are confident in knowing who they are, knowing they are daughters of the king, and that they have a purpose, a destiny and a calling. Women who are not afraid to speak, and women who are not afraid to do what it takes to have their voice restored through the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, I want to be your voice!
So here is my question to you, dear sisters. Are you willing to stand up and say, “Lord, use me! I want to be your vessel, I want to be your voice!”? God has such destiny and amazing plans for each of you (Jeremiah 29:11).
2 Chronicles 16:9 says this, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” Did you know God is searching throughout the earth to actually show strong support to those who seek him with their whole hearts? Who are willing to say, “Use me Lord!” no matter the risk? Those who are willing to go through the process of healing and restoration, so that they can have a voice that can be used to bring him glory?!! And when he finds those precious ones, he will show strong support and favor upon them. Don’t you long to be one!? One he bestows favor and strong support upon?
Don’t you long to be one!? One he bestows favor and strong support upon?
He has a destiny waiting for you and your voice. He had one from your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13-16) You have your own unique calling. Different from mine. If you were asked that same question that I was asked on that Sunday morning, maybe God would have whispered a nation into your heart. Maybe he would have whispered your city’s name, or a different city he wants to send you to. Maybe he would have whispered your career – some of you have great callings in your career and God wants to use you in mighty ways. Maybe he would have said it’s being a mom and a wife in this season. Maybe he would have called you to fight one of those horrific attacks against women on the list I shared with you.
Honestly, the possibilities are endless. Our callings span as wide as the vastness of his kingdom. All unique, all intended to have their own place in his mighty army. And each calling has different seasons and assignments within it. But it’s your calling. No one else has a calling quite like yours, and no one else has a voice that was designed to say the things God needs you to say in exactly the way you need to say them. In your voice. In your tone. Don’t let the enemy steal your calling. Don’t let him steal your voice.
No one else has a calling quite like yours, and no one else has a voice
that was designed to say the things God needs you to say
in exactly the way you need to say them.
Loren Cunningham, founder of “Youth with a Mission”, says this in his book, Why Not Women, “Your greatest satisfaction will come as you submit to God and fulfill the purpose you were created for. God has gifted you to do what He has called you to do. He’s not unjust. He would never ask you to do something without giving you the ability to accomplish it, nor would He give you a gift and then tell you to never use it.”
Here’s my prayer for you today. I pray that you’ll be brave enough to go to him for healing and restoration. In your being, in your marriage, in your family. His power is big enough for all areas of your life. And, that you’ll be brave enough to dream the dreams that he has whispered in your heart. That you’ll be brave enough to stand up and say, “I have a voice!!”. Because, beautiful daughter, YOU DO! The enemy knows it’s only a matter of time before the ones God has called will rise up and not give to the lies any more. The time is now for God to release restoration and healing to the voices of his daughters. He has work waiting for you.
Pray with me.
“Father God, I want to stand bravely before you and say, use me! Do what you need to do to bring healing to my voice. I want to feel your Holy Spirit breath your breath of life back into my being and bring forth my purpose, my voice, and my destiny. Search me and know me oh Lord, let me be one whose heart is blameless towards you.”
