God Kind of Woman

 

She Knows His Voice

I was on the train the other day on my way to London where I was scheduled to speak at a church the next day, being Mother’s Day (10th March). As I was meditating on the message the Lord had laid on my heart, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, ‘I want you to start producing a newsletter exclusively for women’. I thought this was a huge ‘joke’ from God. I found myself wanting to argue with God, wanting to say to Him, “but Lord, all the newsletters you’ve asked me to do, I’m still struggling to do them all, and now you’re asking me to do another one?” But the point is when you’ve been in a relationship with God for over 32 years; you obviously know HIS VOICE; you know when He is speaking to you.

 

Then I heard the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit saying, “what I ask you to do, I equip you to do”. That settled it for me. It wasn’t only that God asked me to produce this newsletter, He also told me what to call it – “God’s Kind of Woman” (GKOW). There was nothing else to argue about! God said He wanted me to share in this newsletter, what He is looking for in a woman that is called by His Name.

 

 

So, ladies, here comes your first issue of GKOW. I believe that just as I’ve been obedient and willing to submit my will unto the Father’s will, in writing this newsletter, so also will you be willing to submit to the Holy Spirit, to hear what He has to say. Praise the Lord!!!

 

God is Looking for a Woman

Beloved, 2 Chronicles 16: 9 says  “for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him’. God is looking for that man or woman on whose behalf He will show His might and power to a watching world. 

 

God is looking for that woman whose heart is so pure, whose ways are so clean before the eyes of the Lord, that she would radiate His beauty every where.

Do you want to be this woman?

 

Most of us Christian women are so familiar with Proverbs 31: 10 – 31, ‘the virtuous woman’, that we can even quote it by heart. It is one thing to KNOW what the Word says; it is another thing to DO what it says. Jesus said, we are not to be hearers only, but DOERS of the Word. The Lord will help us, in Jesus’ Name.

 

Interestingly, on my return home from my ministration in London, I found out to my surprise that my daughter had bought me a very special gift for Mother’s Day – “ALL OF THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE”. It is a valuable and treasured gift. I shall reserve the words that my daughter wrote on the inside cover, until an appropriate time. Now, this book contains ALL of the women in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, including the good and the bad. I haven’t read it yet, but I noticed from the preface and in the introduction that it mentions all these women in relation to their attributes, character, and relationship with God, etc. However, GKOW is not about ALL of the women of the Bible. It is about that woman who demonstrates the attributes of God; that woman who God can look upon and declare like Jesus, ‘this is my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased’. I’m sure you and I would like to be that woman.

 

 

My Model Woman

As I think of many of the women of the Bible, I cannot seem to get away from a particular one. Ever since the Lord gave me a revelation of this woman – His kind of woman, I can’t seem to get her off my mind. I hope that time and space will permit me to say all the Lord has revealed to me about this woman. In fact, you can’t miss her, because she stands out in the Bible, and occupies a UNIQUE place in history. Interestingly, my message on Mother’s Day, was about the outstanding character of this woman. It was life transforming for everyone at the service. The power of God came mightily and set many women free. I heard some of the women at the end of the service saying to me “my life will never be the same after this”.  One of the women in particular, who had been invited by a friend from another Church told me that the message was specifically for her. That she was meant to be there that day to hear that word.

 

Mary Magdalene

My dear sisters, the first woman God has laid upon my heart to speak about in my first issue of GKOW is Mary Magdalene, a woman from the city of Magdala. The interesting thing I like about this woman is that she was a “nobody” – very typical of God to take things that are base in the eyes of the world; things that are despised, those He chooses to exalt before the eyes of the world, that no flesh should glory in His sight.

 

So, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what was your background, you can be God’s kind of woman; a woman that God can use for His own glory; a history maker.

 

This reminds me of Joyce Meyer, who never stops talking about the mess in her past, and how God took her from the state of nothingness, to the place where today, she’s known all over the world.

 

Deliverance

There’s one thing we know about Mary Magdalene – she was the first and only person for which the Bible specifically mentions the number of demons cast out of her – seven (see Luke 8: 2). These were not ordinary demons; they were powerful ones. After Jesus cast out these demons out of her, this woman began to feature from then on, in the life and ministry of Jesus. She was very grateful for what Jesus had done, and decided that a Person who could do this for her, was worth serving, for the rest of her life. We see in this woman A DEEP SENSE OF GRATITUDE.

 

A Sense of Gratitude

How do you know a GKOW? She has a deep sense of gratitude. She wakes up every day with a realization that without God, she would be nobody. Women whose lives have been touched by God, live with a sense of awe; with a deep sense of gratitude. They realize that without God, they are nothing; that without God, their lives would be empty and shallow.

 

This sense of gratitude is an attribute that is lacking in many Christians today. Many of us are experts in taking others for granted, and in taking the love of God and His daily mercies for granted. I pray to God He would open our eyes to this truth. If this matter is not important, Jesus would not have talked about it, after He healed 10 lepers. When the ONE who saw he had been healed realized it, he went back to Jesus to say ‘thank you’; so that Jesus Himself remarked, ‘where there not ten healed? Where are the nine?’ I recall writing an article many years ago on ‘Nine Leper Christians’.

 

If there is one problem facing us today as Christians, it is this lack of the sense of gratitude. We not only take our fellow Christians for granted, we take God’s love and mercies for granted. This is why many of us can afford to live the way we do. What a difference it would make in our lives if we lived with this sense of gratitude every day. It would reflect in the way we love Him, and in the way we share His love with others. It would reflect in the way we conduct ourselves and in the way we relate with others. Mary Magdalene was a woman who appreciated the love of God. She appreciated what Jesus had done for her so much, that she settled it in her mind that this Man was worth living or dying for. She was going to go, ALL THE WAY with Him. She would serve this Man with everything within her. This devotion of Mary would become clearer, as we explore this woman’s life in greater detail.

 

 

Are you a woman who lives with a deep sense of gratitude? Do you remember to say ‘thank you’ to God every day, for the gift of life; to say ‘thank you’ for your salvation, and for daily mercies received? Psalm 103 is a good example of how to recognize and appreciate the daily mercies of God. How about that brother or sister who has showed you so much love; that sister who has gone out of her way to bless you; that family who stood by you when you were going through ‘deep waters’; have you gone back to say ‘thank you’? God takes account of these things. For even Jesus said that ‘a cup of cold water only’ given in His Name, would be duly rewarded. Therefore, it is not too late for you to go back in humility and say ‘thank you’. There are so many ways of doing so. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the best way for you to go back and say that forgotten ‘thank you’ to someone who has been good to you. It is better late than never!

 

 

Absolute Freedom

Mary Magdalene was not only totally delivered from the oppression of her past; she was released into the total and absolute freedom that the true knowledge of God can offer. So, following from her life, we find that another key attribute of GKOW is a revelation of what it is to be free; a

 

revelation of total and absolute

freedom. Jesus said (John 8: 36), “if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

 

 

Mary Magdalene knew what it was to be free. Really, how could you have been delivered from seven power demons and not know it? Sadly though, many of us who claim to have known Christ for so long are still so bound. Many who are bound, are not aware of it. In the case of Mary Magdalene, her total freedom was obvious in her “reckless” abandonment to Jesus. We’d examine this issue later, but in the mean time, we want to deliberate on Mary’s freedom. How did she demonstrate this?

 

‘Dead’ to the Opinion of Others

Mary is a good example of a woman who after she encountered God, became completely ‘dead’ to the opinion of others. She knew what it was to be free in God. She knew it was not a liberty to be taken for granted, but one based on a revelation of who she was in God. I remember sharing recently at a fellowship on ‘Knowing Who You Are in God’.  People who know who they are in God care less what others think. They know who God says they are, not what others think they are! We shall be exploring this matter further, in the next issue of GKOW. In the mean time, don’t forget to share this with others, whilst I pray that God would make you a GKOW.