TEACHINGS FROM THE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN NICARAGUA

Listen to the audio of the two sessions that I taught at the Pastor's Wives Conference in Corinto, Nicaragua in July, 2012.

 

A Woman and Her Identity

Who Am I and What Am I Here For?

A Woman and Her Struggles
Finding Intimacy With your Husband

FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!

 

As women we struggle with our identity. Sometimes we are identified as someone’s wife or someone’s mother, or someone’s daughter so often than we begin to think of ourselves in those terms. We spend so much time being a wife and mother that we forget that we are also a precious child of God, set apart, and called for a purpose. Your purpose is partly fulfilled in the role that you play as a wife to your husband. You are a help meet for him, created by God for that very purpose. God said that it is not good that men should be alone, so he created woman as his help meet. Your husband could not fulfill his ministry as effectively without your help. You are a team, put together by God himself and placed in His kingdom as he sees fit to carry out his work.

It is important to know that each of us also has our own ministry. We need to begin to see ourselves as an individual with special, unique gifts and talents placed in us by our Father. He wants to use each one of us for a special purpose that no one else on the earth can fulfill.

Most women suffer from a lack of self-esteem. Nothing will wreck your ability to be a successful woman of God more than feeling you have little value. What we think about ourselves greatly influences our actions and responses to other people.

- Our lack of self-esteem is rooted in our past. Our self-image was formed at an early age by the way we grew up, experiences we’ve had in school or at home, things that were said about us as children by our parents, our siblings and other children. Things that may not even be true, but we begin to believe them if said often enough. We need to begin to see ourselves as God sees us and stop believing all the negatives that the Devil has told us for so long. We need to say with the Psalmist, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful!” (Psalms 139:14) 

 

- Our lack of self-esteem leads to depression. Everyone wants and needs to feel valued. We can only see our true value when we see our value as a child of God. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:14,15)

 

- Our lack of self-esteem causes us to shut ourselves off from other people. If we don’t love ourselves, we feel that no one else can love us. We wear a mask to hide our true self from others.

- Our lack of self-esteem makes us have a negative and critical and jealous attitude. We are always complaining and whining about our weight, our looks, etc. We believe everyone else is better or has more than we do.

The greatest need of women in general is a healthy dose of God’s-worth. We need to see our worth in God’s sight. We should accept ourselves as God accepted us. God thought us so valuable that he laid down his life to save us. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:4)

Sisters, let us put on the garment of praise, because you are a person of divine destiny. You are a person of purpose and worth, uniquely fashioned, a true work of art - a Master piece. You are specifically equipped and set apart having been Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!

Reference:
The Fragrance of Beauty by Joyce Landorf

IF YOU LOSE YOUR LIFE, YOU SHALL FIND IT.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35

I have been thinking about this scripture for some time now, pondering on the meaning of it. This morning I met a lady in church who has been in prison for the past four years for dealing drugs. She said she has turned her life over to the Lord and wants to live for him and turn away from her old Sife.   She wants her two young girls to grow up knowing the Lord. She is living with a man who is an alcoholic with whom she had a fight last night and asked him to leave.

As I was talking with her, this scripture came to my mind again. If she hangs on to her life as it once was, she will ultimately lose her life and possibly the lives of her children. In order to gain life in the end, she will have to give up her old life for following after Jesus. But, oh what a reward!

Many folks are bound by their lifestyle, thinking there is no way out. Prostitutes, for example. Some of them may like their occupation, but many of them do it out of desperation, thinking they have no other choice to survive. They do not realize that if they will lose their old life and turn it over to Jesus, they will find new life in Him.

On the surface, it may be a scary thing to give up the security of selling your body for money, or dealing drugs for money. How will you live? Where will you live? How will you pay your bills? Who will be your friends?

I say, Give it all up! Take a chance on Jesus, give it all to Him and see what He will do for you. If you seek to save your current life, you will lose it all. But if you lose your life for His sake and the gospel's, you will save your life both now and for eternity. That is a promise!

SOMETIMES A FLOOD - SOMETIMES AS DRY AS A BONE

Jeremiah was a great prophet in the Bible during the time before the capturing and taking away of the people of Jerusalem. He was used by God to prophesy to the people of Judah and Israel the trying times that were to come for them. Obviously, he was close enough to God to hear His voice. He was the voice of God to the people of that time.

It would seem that someone that close to God would always have the help they need from God, doesn't it? -- always have their prayers answered, always have the right word for the moment, always have wisdom to make the right decisions, always have control of their tongue, always have perfect children, always have perfect relationships. Right?

It surprised me this morning to find that was not true of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 15:15 he begins to complain to God about his being persecuted for the Lord's sake; people were trying to kill him. Jeremiah told God that He had failed him in his time of need! He said God's help was as uncertain as a seasonal mountain brook -- sometimes a flood, sometimes as dry as a bone. (Living Bible)

Do you ever feel that God's help is uncertain - sometimes a flood, sometimes as dry as a bone? Doesn't it seem like sometimes we pray and pray, beg and beg God for an answer to our prayers and we get no response at all? No matter what we do, we can't hear from God? Sometimes we feel that we are walking blindly on our own without any guidance from God at all.

God's answer to Jeremiah? In verses19 through 21 God replies to Jeremiah's complaining, "Stop this foolishness and talk some sense! Only if you return to trusting me will I let you continue as my spokesman. You are to influence them, not let them influence you! They will fight against you but they will not conquer you for I am with you to protect you and deliver you," says the Lord.

RETURN TO TRUSTING HIM! The opposite of trust is worry. We can't worry and trust at the same time.

It reminds me of the scripture I read not long ago (again from the Living Bible). Psalm 50:15 - "I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give me glory."

Trust Him in all things and he will deliver you. Even when it is hard, even when we think His help is as uncertain as a seasonal mountain brook and it appears to be dry as a bone. That's when it is the hardest -- but He promises that he WILL rescue us so that we can give Him the glory.

Amen?