I believe that God has given women a voice that is meant to be used. God would not give us a beautiful gift and tool if He didn’t intend for us to use it to bring him glory! But far too many of us are walking around unsure of how to use our voice, if we should use it, or if we even have a voice. We live in a world full of comparison. We are surrounded by superficial images and portrayals of women, and because of this, God’s true design of his beautiful daughters can get lost in the confusion.
Unfortunately, some of you have even been told, at one time or another, that there is not a place for you at the table. There is not a place for you to teach, or to lead, to have influence, to have an opinion or to give input. You have been silenced. You have forfeited your giftings because of the lies the enemy has led you to believe, the lie that your voice doesn’t have value.
And for some of you, you live in fear. You have been wounded, you feel insecure, you have low confidence, you feel unworthy, unqualified, shy, embarrassed or timid. The one thing these all have in common is your identity. The enemy uses the root of identity to steal the voices of God’s daughters. You see, if we don’t know who we are in him as his true daughters, the confidence in our voices starts to dwindle. It starts to shrink. Before we know it, the enemy has stolen from us the most important tool that God has gifted us to declare his glory.
I, I’m the One comforting you. What are you afraid of–or who? Some man or woman who’ll soon be dead? Some poor wretch destined for dust? You’ve forgotten me, God, who made you, who unfurled the skies, who founded the earth. (MSG)
Isaiah 51:12-13
First of all, the silencing of your voice is from the enemy. God gave you a voice that he intended for you to use. How unfair would it be if He gave us a voice and didn’t want us to use it to its fullest capacity? Would you ever want your child to not use any part of their giftings or skills to their fullest capacity? No! Neither would our heavenly father give us a tool to bring forth our giftings, skills, and talents and not want us to use it to its fullest capacity! Any feeling you have that makes you think your voice is not of value, is entirely from the enemy. Satan is a thief who comes to steal, and he works very hard to steal (silence) the voice of God’s daughters (John 10:10). God values you and your voice, and he wants to speak through you! You are his vessel!
The problem for many of us is we don’t know our own voice well enough or aren’t confident enough to use it. We also don’t know how God wants to use it. We don’t know when He wants us to whisper, or to shout, or to speak boldly. So we hesitate and way too often we remain silent. Or we get discouraged from trying, always feeling as if we made mistakes. Also, way too often women feel they have to sound like someone else, or even like men in order to have a seat at the table. But God didn’t design us to sound like someone else. He didn’t design us to sound like men. He designed us to sound uniquely like us, with our own voice and our own tone. Also, just like little children learn to speak by hearing their parents, God wants us to learn how to use our voice by listening to Him.
I teach you how to talk, word by word, and personally watch over you (MSG)
Isaiah 51:16
Some of you may feel tired, out of breath, or honestly, you’ve just been wounded so much that you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut and it’s taken your breath away. Ultimately, there is one thing that you absolutely need in order to use your voice and in order to produce sound. You need air. You need breath! The Holy Spirit is the breath that will breathe the life into your being!
God is calling his daughters, “Come sit with me and hear my whispers, let them permeate your being and bring forth the beautiful sound of your voice.” Those beautiful whispers are all the breath that you need to bring the breath of life back into your being and bring forth the power in each of us that allows what we say to be powerful, in exactly your voice and your tone. He will turn the shy and timid into confident, powerful vessels, to bring forth His glory! He will turn the ones whose voices have become entangled in the ways of the world into mighty vessels for His glory!
The power isn’t in the volume of the voice, it’s not about who speaks the loudest, or who says the most words, or who has the most followers on social media. It’s about the fact that He that is in you that is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4), and when you spend time hearing His whispers, the voices around you fade away as the truth of His breath, the Holy Spirit, brings forth your destiny, purpose, and your beautiful voice to bring him glory.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah 4:6
As a daughter of the king, you have access to the kingdom. God wants his daughters to walk in the confidence of a princess, a true daughter, knowing who she is, whose she is, and that she was designed for a purpose (Jeremiah 29:11). A daughter who, in knowing this, will effortlessly stand out as a rose in a field full of dandelions, dandelions who are striving and competing with each other. A daughter with confidence, that stands out completely amidst the confusing ways of the world and the false identities that the world offers. These false identities the world offers never last or withstand time, they only force one to seek the next false sense of worth and identity, over and over again. The confidence given through Jesus is given through a river of living waters, waters that permeate your being, waters that will always sustain you (John 7:38).
I believe that God has uniquely called you and destined you for a purpose and destiny. I believe the destiny God has planned for you looks different than anyone else. Through every season, assignments and role, He wants to bring forth your voice and his purpose. I believe that as we discover our true identity as a daughter of the king, and as the Holy Spirit restores the breath that was stolen from us, He will bring forth our voice in confidence! He has given us a voice that was meant to be heard, a voice that was destined to be heard, for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).
God has been faithful to restore my voice, through Jesus Christ and the power of the cross, a voice that at one time the enemy did try and steal from me. As God has lead me through my journey of restoration, He’s impassioned me with the desire to see other women set free from whatever is holding them back from their true identity, to see them set free from pains and hurts, and to see them set free from the lies of the enemy, the lie that says their voice is not of value. I long to see them burst forth with confidence and their voice, a voice made mighty by the Holy Spirit, a voice that declares the glory of God!
Hear me on this sisters, I believe that God is raising up an army of women! The time is now. It’s an army of women who will not be defined by pain, who will not be defined by hurt, who will not be defined by anger, or insecurity or comparison! An army of women who will be defined by WHO our heavenly father says we are! When we find our place in the army and when we find our confidence in who He says we are, our voices will be released in a mighty way!
Please join me on this journey as I share teachings, truths, exhortations and encouragement. I long to see you set free in the same way that I’ve experienced. Through Jesus Christ, I have received abundant, everlasting freedom (Galatians 5:1), and I will use my voice to declare his glory!
