Read Romans 16:1

As women we often feel that what we do is the thing that brings us significance. Our intentions to strive to be the best are sometimes filled with an inner desire to please others or to be noticed for something that matters. Many women have found joy in ministry because they feel respected in an area where they serve. There are so many women who push for position and pull for authority, that it dulls the presence of their gift and makes it hard for people to receive the very ministry they are trying to deliver.

Phoebe was a woman who ministered not out of a need to be noticed, but a need to see the kingdom advance and God’s name be glorified. Proverbs 18:16 says in the Amplified translation, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.” Until we are able to truly serve God out of the abundance of who He is and without our need for recognition, we can never truly give the ministry we provide what it deserves. Phoebe was a blessing to God, and as a result, He made room for her gift and brought her before great men.
For many years women were oppressed from using their gifts in ministry. As a woman you may have had a painful experience in that area, but no one can minister effectively if it is rooted in pain. God sees you as a gift, a talent, and a treasure, and He has great plans for you in His Kingdom. Allow His healing touch to soothe away any pain of oppression and plug in to His purpose for your life with a new freedom.
Walk it out & Pray
Devote your talents to the Kingdom; begin to search your heart for your true motivation for ministry. As you serve in your area of ministry, see Jesus as the recipient of all that you do. When you focus your attention on serving Him, the need to be given credit melts away in the joy of knowing you are pleasing Christ. Bless someone anonymously with a card or a note of encouragement.  A small token of love in secret is where God can give the biggest reward!

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Read
Exodus 1: 15-20

A woman of destiny should always link herself with another woman of similar destiny. Godly relationships are one of the most effective tools in becoming who you want to be for the kingdom. Proverbs 27:17 (The Message) says, “You use steel to sharpen steel and one friend sharpens another friend”. Shiprah and Puah were women who decided not to let the next generation fall into the hands of the enemy. Each woman risked her life to defy the decree of the king, but knew that the Kingdom was at stake. Each woman has a destiny and a role to play in the advancement of God’s purposes on the earth. 

There are at least three benefits to linking arms with other women of destiny and purpose in your pursuit for God’s call for your life. One is the fact that common vision births great ideas. I have often marveled at times when I thought I had a great idea and felt that I had covered all of the bases. I would then submit the idea to a group of friends only to watch those friends add so much more to the idea- much more than I could have ever imagined alone. The second reason to partner with other woman is that you can truly get more accomplished.  Deuteronomy 32:30 (NIV) says, “One man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight”. You become more effective and accomplish more for the kingdom when you partner with other women who have similar purposes and goals. And finally, there is power in unity. Philippians 1:27 (The Message) says, “Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, …Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you – and both because of God.”  Unity of purpose pleases God and allows Him to move supernaturally in the situation.

I know that some of us as women have been hurt in relationships with other women both in and outside of the church. However, God is calling us to trust Him and move forward. Just ask God to heal the broken places left by past hurts and to allow you to trust Him to choose the women that you can serve with for His Kingdom purposes. I am sure that you will be blessed and fulfilled with partners in ministry to share the victories and joys of your assignments together.

Walk it out & Pray

Begin to evaluate the relationships in your life. Who has a similar purpose and inspires you to move forward? Pick out the dreamers in you sphere of influence that will open your mind and expand the vision in your area of ministry. And finally, connect yourself with an awesome prayer warrior. As women of God we all need a friend that can agree with us in prayer and help us to birth the purpose for our lives. If you do not know where to start in that journey, pray and ask God to reveal His plan for your life in this area.

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Ok…Ok….It might not be that serious, but I am all about the messages that were preached at each campus as a part of the Heroes series. The message at each campus was about Barnabas whom God used to train and encourage Paul to realize his full potential and therefore achieve all that he did for the body of Christ. This message truly connects with my heart because like Saul (Paul) before Christ, I had a name (reputation) that I was not very proud of and wanted so much to change. It was not until I received Christ and then became surrounded by people of God (Barnabas’) who could see potential in me and tell me who I was called to be, that the name (reputation) began to change. I was so happy when God connected me to Pastor Jerry and Chris who saw past the rough edges and saw a heart who wanted to serve Christ. It was so awesome to be challenged and to be allowed to make mistakes as I grew.

Hearing the message this weekend reminded me of the awesome job my husband and I had as youth pastors and seeing so many “Sauls” who just needed a little encouragement, guidance, and love to begin to steer them in the direction of their destiny.  I see so many of those kids now serving in ministry and starting families of their own. It also stirs me to realize that it does not stop with just youth and children, but we need to be constantly looking for the next Saul that God wants to link to our lives. Now ask yourself how many times have you seen someone with true potential but just needed a little polish? Do you offer the wisdom and love that God has given you through a Barnabas in your life or do you criticize them instead? Or how many times have you seen a group of young people and thought something negative about their behavior instead of gaining their trust through relationship and then access to their lives for direction? This weekend my husband said in his message that people are the only interest bearing account in heaven, and only what you have done for people will bring eternal reward. I can not think of a better investment than encouraging and helping someone to become all he was designed to be through love and support. So what about you?  Who will you encourage today? The body of Christ in some arenas has become such a bless me club that we forget about the joy of serving and blessing others. So many people in the body are so concerned about position that they forget to work themselves out of a job by training someone else! I pray that I can be a Barnabas in the lives of many others and that you will too.
1. Pray for God to point out the people in your life that you need to encourage and love.

2. Ask the Lord for wisdom with each person that you encourage so that they truly receive what God has in mind for them through your obedience.

3. Ask God for a Barnabas in your own life …we never arrive…so just keep growing!

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At a recent time of prayer early one Saturday morning my husband closed prayer with a New Years exhortation about resolutions vs. resurrection. The word resolution means; a firm decision to do something, and the word resurrection means; the revival of something old or long disused or bringing something that was dead to life. He talked about the fact that many of us make New Years resolutions and truly expect to begin to change things in our lives for the New Year. We decide to exercise or eat differently to loose weight, or we choose to place our credit cards in a block of ice to stop spending. I know many of us have signed up for all types of classes and bought resources to help us to study and get degrees or to become better students of Gods word. He challenged us not to make a resolution but decide to live a resurrected life in 2008! We were encouraged to allow attitudes and thought patterns that have held us back to die and for new ones to come to life through God’s word and His love for us. That was such a life changing day for me!

So often we begin the New Year with a bunch of outward changes that by March are forgotten and we soon fall back into our old state of being. If the desire in your heart is to loose weight, exercise class is not enough and diets are not the answer. The answers are in allowing God to shine the light of His word and His love on the area of your life on the inside that causes you to allow the habits that foster the weight gain. When those thought patterns or wounds of the past are identified, allow those places to die only to see God resurrect a new thought process in that area that brings life to your goal of loosing weight. Now I know that we all do not need the same changes to be made in our lives but we all need God to help us with the changes we desire. When we want change in our lives we can not depend on our strength and our will power alone, but when we submit our needs to Him and His process of resurrection of the life that comes with the price He paid for us, we can accomplish great things in HIM!

1. Pray and ask God to shine His light on the areas of your life that need resurrection.

2. Search the word of God for His promises concerning that area of your life and allow the word to bring new life to that area.

3. Write in your journal all of the answers that God gives you and the steps that He lays out for you….and then walk it out in faith!

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It is the holiday season and many of us are getting ready to write our annual Christmas letters or holiday greeting cards, and sign them at the end with Love or Sincerely Yours. This year I started evaluating the things that I say and determined in my heart that I would say what I meant and mean what I say in areas of ministry, relationships and especially to God!  Because of the weird way that I think, it caused me to reflect upon the things that I say and what others say to me. I began thinking about the whole Sincerely Yours at the end of a card or letter. The word sincerely in the dictionary means honestly and openly. So when we sign a letter with “Sincerely yours” we are saying we have been honest and open with the recipient of the letter in the correspondence. So of course I took that a step further and looked up the words honest and open and it gets even better. Honest means to be morally upright and open means not closed or locked, allowing people or things to pass through freely…. WOW!

I realized that the Lord was speaking to me and I hope it speaks to your heart as well. I want more than anything to be able to sign the letter of my life “Sincerely Yours”…. meaning HIS! I want to be honest (morally upright) and open (not closed or locked, allowing people and Him to pass through freely). It is so easy for us to slip into a stagnant area in our Christian walk where we are not being open to others or to what God would want to do in us. We also may find ourselves in a season where we are not being honest with ourselves and with God about who we are and the areas in our lives that we desire so much to change, but are too afraid of the process that will bring that change. Deciding to be “Sincerely His” means that we will need to really evaluate who and where we are in our walk as women of God and measure that against who He has called us to be. Now don’t get me wrong, you cannot do it all in one day. But the letter of your life is nowhere near over. So start each day with a goal of closing that day with Sincerely Yours (His)!

The holiday season is always such a great time to remember Christ and what He has done for us.  It is also the end of one year with the dawn of a new year just around the corner. I pray that this next year will be full of opportunities for you to be “Sincerely His” in your times of worship, devotion, and service to Him and fellowship with others.

Walk it out & pray about it: this section is designed for you to take the necessary steps to live the words of this devotion in your daily life.

1. Take a look at your times of devotion, worship, prayer, service and fellowship…are you being sincere (honest and open) to God and others?
2. Pray about the purpose of God in your life and determine ways to sincerely pursue His plans for you.
3. Begin each day with the desire to write a Sincerely Yours at the close of the letter of your day for Him!

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I had a dream one night that was very weird for me because I had been a leader in church for over 10 years at the time. God often speaks to me in dreams…not because I am deep, but because I am often too busy to sit down and listen when I am awake! I dreamed that I was holding a pharmacist tray (the type that holds pills) full of jellybeans (jelly bellies …I love them). I had begun to pass the jelly beans out as I saw fit, knowing they were medicine, to certain people that I chose. Then someone hit the bottom of the pharmacist pan and my precious jelly beans flew in the air and I felt panic come over me. I realized that I always intended on giving the jelly beans to others, but it was to who I wanted and when I wanted.

Now I know that may seem like a weird dream to you. I asked God …What does this mean? As a leader I was always giving, like the jelly beans on the tray, passing out my gifts, talents, time and finances. When God allowed the individual to hit the bottom of my tray, it was to rock my safe giving world and turn it upside down. God wanted to know if I would stop divvying the gifts he had given me out one by one and let them fly so that those I did not know could have the sweet medicine also. He wanted to know if I would give so freely that I would not be in control, but allow Him to pour me out to a hurting world and trust Him to guard the gifts. As a leader I was so shocked. I thought I was doing more than enough; however, it was not what I was doing, but how I was doing it. I was playing it safe and never letting my heart fully give. Oh don’t get me wrong… I would freely give in the areas I felt safe, or things I was good at. I would also freely give in circles that I felt supported and comfortable, because Lord knows I did not want to get hurt.

We have all been hurt and so when asked to give we can be guarded with our lives and pass out our little jelly beans in the measure and to the people that make us feel comfortable. Or we can give freely without trying to control who receives it and how much we pass out. If we give in obedience to Him, He will take care of the rest! Matthew 10:6-8 says “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. God has so lavishly poured His love on us; now let us freely give to those He loves!

Walk it out & Pray about it: this section is designed for you to take the necessary steps to live the words of this devotion in your daily life.

1. Pray and ask God to show you where you are guarded in your giving and service and then ask Him what He wants you to give in those areas.
2. Volunteer to help in an area that you have always been interested in, but were stopped because of fear.
3. Make a list of the gifts that you have been blessed with and ask God how He would like to use those gifts to build the Kingdom.

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Not the Chicago Bears, but the bears that we chase and slay to get to our destiny. Christian Life Center recently had Mark Batterson, the author of “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day”. He spoke of Benaiah, the man placed in charge of David’s bodyguard, who chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed it. (2 Samuel 23: 20-21) Unbelievable!  And we cannot forget the first of the lion and bear chasers and killers, David, who defeated both of his animal foes before he took on the mighty Goliath!

As women, sometimes I think we allow the bear and the lion chasing to be for someone else. I can hear you all saying, “I mean really…I’m a lady!” But we all have a bear or lion that we have to chase and kill to prepare us for our own Goliath, which is the ultimate purpose for our life.

In the typical woman’s everyday tasks of raising kids, loving husbands, working jobs and careers, serving God, caring for aging parents and balancing friendships… I feel way too tired to chase a lion…let alone kill it! But when I think about life and my ultimate purpose, I really want to achieve all that there is for me. When you think about being fulfilled and knowing you are doing and receiving all that God has for you, don’t you get excited and feel that there is no lion or bear that can stop you? Please know this is not about woman power…hear us roar! This is about remembering that even when we are great moms, wives, Christians, employees and friends, God still has an awesome plan for each of us to do something significant for the kingdom. It may be on a missions trip to another country or making a choice to walk across the street and share Gods love with your neighbor. Whatever it is, we cannot leave the bear killing and lion chasing to someone else. We each have a bear to slay!

Walk it out & Pray about it: There are several steps that you can take to apply these principles in your daily life.

1.    Ask God to speak to your heart about your Bear and Lion, which are the things you need to overcome to help you prepare for your ultimate purpose.
2.    Begin a journal to build your faith of the prayer requests that you have. Cheer as you see God’s faithfulness as He answers those requests which will give you courage in Him.
3.    Dream about the plan of God for your life. Make a list of what your passions are your purpose is usually close by.

Realize that God put a purpose in you before the foundations of the world, and because He knew what he would need of you, He has already put the goods inside of you. The lions and bears in our lives only bring the gifts to the light.

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One of my friends has always felt that she was a rescuer. She was becoming so stressed and burned out, that she felt the Lord was telling her to stop. However, I saw that being there for people in need was a part of who God made her to be, though there was a healthy way to do so.  I viewed my friend as being like a lifeboat. A lifeboat is a rescue vessel that saves people shipwrecked out at sea in order to carry them to the safety of shore.

A life boat was not designed to travel long distances or go on extended trips. When you have a heart to help those in need, make sure you are not turning yourself into a cruise ship. Those who you are helping may feel so safe with you that they may become dependent on you to carry them to each destination in their life.  To prevent this from happening, boundaries need to be placed.  Proverbs 31:20 says, “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.”  We know that it is God’s will for there to be women in the body of Christ who are especially gifted to love and help those in need; as a matter of fact, it’s what we are all called to do.

Our goal should always be to work in conjunction with God, and to make sure that we are not fulfilling our own need to be loved or needed through helping others. When people who need love, patience, guidance, support, and yes, even prayer come to us, it is our opportunity to point them to the true source of their deliverance. We are vessels used by God to point them to Him through our love and service. As a life boat you are a vital part of the body, but drop the passengers off at the shore and let God do the rest.

Walk it out & Pray about it
There are several steps you can take to apply these principles in your daily life.

1.    Evaluate relationships in your life that have become cruise ship relationships.  Ask God for wisdom to help you to be a life boat, and then help them to shore.
2.    Search your heart for your motivations in helping others to make sure you are not fulfilling a need to be needed. If so repent! God understands.
3.    Make a list of healthy boundaries to keep you from becoming a cruise ship for the next person in need. Pray for strength and wisdom so that you make right choices in the future.

As you become healthy in this area, you will find that the gift God has given you to help others will not become a burden but a joy!

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