Women of Purpose and Destiny: What on Earth Are You Here For!

Women

of Purpose and Destiny

What On Earth Are You Here For!

PATRICIA TALBOTT

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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© 2013 Patricia Talbott. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/26/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8260-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8259-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8261-0 (e)

Libary of Congress Control Number: 2013919993

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NIV–New International Version

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All rights reserved.

Contact: Patricia Talbott

EkSousia International Ministries

Email: trish.talbott@gmail.com

Phone: +44(0)7976-389872

Contents

Dedications

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Chapter 1 Abigail—Woman of Wisdom

Chapter 2 Esther—Woman of Courage

Chapter 3 Hannah—Woman of Prayer

Chapter 4 Leah—Woman of Favour

Chapter 5 Jael—Woman of Determination

Chapter 6 Mary—Woman of Obedience

Chapter 7 Naomi—Woman of Harvest

Chapter 8 Rahab—Woman of Faith

Chapter 9 Ruth—Woman of Commitment

Chapter 10 Tamar—Woman of Action

Chapter 11 The Shunammite—Woman of Hospitality

Chapter 12 Mahlah, Noah, Hoflah, Milcah, Tirzah—Women of Promise

Chapter 13 Corrie Ten Boom Woman of Forgiveness

Conclusion

Dedications

This book is dedicated to my mother and first mentor—Isadora Selma Hendricks Shaw—a woman of strength, faith and resolute. Despite all, she overcame the obstacles thrown at her, as she would quickly say, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Her seven children rise up and call her blessed among women.

To my sisters, my nieces and my three daughters, who are my inspiration and continued encouragement, and to my amazing grandchildren, Keep shining to the Glory of God!

There are myriads of women of purpose and destiny who have impacted my life considerably on a personal and spiritual level. I do not want to run the risk of leaving any names out from the multitude of women who have impacted my life beyond measure, so I will refrain from mentioning each one individually. Thank you for investing in me in so many ways!

Acknowledgement

This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in His sight!

It is my pleasure to acknowledge my dear friend, Cathy Berner. Thank you very much for your sacrifice, dedication and support in editing this daunting assignment. Without hesitation, you volunteered to give your time and continued prayer support. I appreciate you.

I also acknowledge my spiritual mother, Donna Ruth Jordan, who taught me through her lectures, her friendship and by her godly surrendered life that ministry, destiny and purpose can only truly flow out of an intimate relationship with the One, True and Living God. Continually, she has encouraged me to ‘live for eternity.’ Thank you mom! I am forever grateful for the examples you have shown to me and many others who also call you mom.

Introduction

Being a woman is no simple charge. We multi-task and navigate our way through the many roles and myriads of responsibilities: mother, wife, sister, aunt, friend, confidant, daughter, employee, employer, homemaker and the list goes on. We then ask the question how we can possibly get the time or even the energy to develop the relationship with God that we need in order to propel us into our purpose and destiny. When faced with the reality of this question, I am forever hopeful, encouraged and strengthened by the words of the Lord to Zerubbabel "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.’ Zechariah 4:6. My role is to relinquish the control of all these responsibilities over to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Relinquishing of control and rights is never an easy thing to do, but often times very necessary, it takes wisdom, courage, prayer, the favor and grace of God. It takes determination, obedience, faith, commitment, action, resting in the promises of God and believing the Lord of the Harvest for the abundance and increase.

Becoming a woman of purpose and destiny requires action on our part, the kind of action that each woman in this book demonstrated. It does not matter whether it is in the form of courage like Esther, prayer like Hannah or faith like Rahab. However, what does matter is the action required in allowing the Spirit of God access to break away everything in your life that would create a barrier or hindrance to your purpose, including the stronghold of limitations, negative experiences and memories of the past that still holds you captive.

The journey to becoming a woman of purpose and destiny is exactly that—a journey. You will come upon a variety of personalities and characters along the way, people who in their limited wisdom know exactly what is best for you. Your course of action will then be to block your ears from the naysayer around you and to close out the intrusive voices telling you to just accept your lot in life and settle for less than what God has for you. You will meet Tamar who although lied to by her father-in-law, refused to accept what she saw in the natural. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to work in concert with our spirit in joining our will to His. Not until we are ruthless with the interferences of the enemy in our life will we become Women of Purpose and Destiny.

The individuals highlighted in this book are ordinary women who through the telescope of faith saw that they were more than mere women. They each had the same kind of faith that God encouraged Abram to exercise in Genesis 13:14-15, "The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever’." These women made themselves available to be used by God in extraordinary ways. They all stepped out in radical faith coupled with obedience and were rewarded.

These real women with real life experiences made some radical life-changing choices that set them apart from the rest. Each one made them self available for God to work through them. Being women of excellent character, they distinguished themselves by their obedience, faith and their strong desire to be available to God.

There are approximately 188 named women in the Bible. I chose to highlight these specific women as their courage, faith, tenacity and determination spoke volumes to me. What was it about their lives that marked them as women of purpose and destiny? What caused their names and deeds to be recorded in the most read book in the world so that thousands of years later we are still reading and writing about them? How did they move and position themselves in places of influence, notoriety and fame?

Within each of their stories, we could probably find ourselves. Inside the pages of these women’s lives, lay the tale of pain, struggle, rejection, betrayal, adversity, loss and even emotional abuse. However, we also see courage, faith, determination, faithfulness, strength and grace.

There are lessons that each of us can glean from their lives as we seek to be all that God wants us to be. We will read how their adversities were turned into triumph. Their stories will show us that we, too, can overcome, no matter what we face. However, it will require a determination and fortitude of spirit, to step out of fear and out of our comfort zone.

I was raised in a traditional apostolic church where grace and forgiveness were in short supply, but following the letter of the law and living a life of piety was paramount. However, despite the many rules of dos and don’ts, deep within me, my value system were set and the love for the Word of God was developed. Because of my church upbringing, when my marriage sadly ended and I consequently became a divorced single mother, I was left with a negative belief system. Due to my new status in life, I thought that I no longer could be effective in the Kingdom.

When faced with this prospect, I could have believed the lie and settled for a life of mediocrity, missing out on what God had for me. Alternatively, as the women highlighted here, choose to believe that there is a future and a hope for me as ordained by God.

Thank God, I chose to believe what His Word says. Before conception in my mother’s womb, God knew the plans He had for my life. Amid the detours of life, God is able to bring those plans back on tract. He also knows how to prevent them from being thwarted by the interferences of the enemy. No matter how hard the enemy tries to derail me, he will not succeed. This is the same for you.

From beginning of time, God intended humankind, men and women, to live a limitless life in all areas. One only needs to look at creation to see that God did not confine Himself to designing replicated copies of creation because of limited imagination. The variety of plants, trees, birds, animals, vegetation, flowers and sea creatures displays the limitlessness of God all around in a creative array of colors, shapes and sizes. Genesis 1:27 tells us that we were created in the image of God, which means that we are image bearers of Him. Therefore, God intends for us to reflect Him and live a limitless life.

After God created the man and woman at the inception of human existence, He blessed them and told them to be fruitful. They were to multiply and increase in number, to fill the earth, take charge, subdue and rule over it. You and I have been given the same charge by God. We have His permission. He has released us and commissioned us to go and be fruitful by taking dominion over our sphere of influences.

We have the seed and DNA of God inside of us, birthed by the Holy Spirit and thus every one of us has been created for greatness, no exemptions. We have an assignment to bring into existence the purposes of God in every sphere of our life, our society and our world.

Fruitfulness and multiplication is a sign that you have the life of Christ in you and that you are fulfilling His call on your life.

God has entrusted His children with the responsibility and the assignment of occupying or doing business until He returns. In Luke chapter 19, Jesus told the story of a noble man about to embark on a journey. Before he left, he called his servants and gave them some money, with the instruction to put the money to work until he returned.

In Kingdom economy, the money for us represents the gifts and callings that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has invested in each of us. In other words, our purpose—God is expecting us to invest in the lives of others, using the gifts given to us and to be aware of leaving a lasting legacy, those fruits that remain. You cannot live a fruitful life in the Kingdom unless you learn how to make wise investments that will yield a lasting return in people’s lives.

As women of purpose, the Kingdom of God must be reflected in everything we do and in how we live our lives. When the Kingdom of God is reflecting in all areas of our lives and our sphere of influences; we are both occupying until He comes and living a limitless and abundant life. However, before we can subdue, multiply, increase, be fruitful and occupy as women, we have to remove the limits that we place on ourselves.

Looking and comparing yourself to others in a negative way, holding back because of fear of reprisal, placing yourself in boxes based on what others say about you, or how they behave towards you is limiting yourself and squashing the fullness of Kingdom purpose in your life.

So why do we compare our selves to others, why do we hold back or imprison our self in doubt. I believe that most of the time the root cause of limiting our self and settling for less is fear. Fear of failing. Fear causing us to choose defeat rather than success. Fear causing us to quit and give up rather than press forward in persistency, regardless of what we see in the natural and fear of stepping out in faith.

The negative words from others and the lies and deception of the enemy as he presents his case against you does at times seem real. Your mind will reflect back on the reality of past defeats, but the truth of the matter is that God has appointed and anointed you to serve Him in your generation; every accusation against you God has already settled. He has given you the promise of His Presence, He will never leave you or forsake you and all you have to do is to take Him seriously.

Heaven has made all its resource available to you and me, holding nothing back. However, if you allow fear to intimidate and subjugate you, your result will be like the group of doubters among the Children of Israel. They all died in the wilderness without benefiting from their promise.

The children of Israel had fallen victim to a limited mindset. God unequivocally gave them the land of Canaan as their inheritance. He had done the hard part by subduing the enemies along the way, following their exodus from Egypt. All they had to do was the following:

• Walk by faith, relying on their history with God and the truth of His character as experienced in the wilderness;

• Go in to view their inheritance, including the abundance and lay of the land; view what they would be inheriting

• and bring back samples of the abundance of their promised land.

Moses sent out twelve spies on a fact-finding trip. However, while there, they caught sight of the giants that were currently living in the land. The spies’ hearts failed them with fear.

Ten out of the twelve spies became debilitated and demoralized as they replaced the fear of God, in taking His words and His promises seriously, with fear of the giants. These men lost sight of the most important and potent weapon, the Presence of Almighty God. He had promised that He would be with them to take them in to their promise.

When you lose the awareness that the Presence of God is with you at all times, it will not take long for the spirit of fear to present itself in your heart. If you do not act swiftly, it will become your master.

Only two out of the twelve came back with a positive report of faith. The remaining ten spies were so terrified of what they saw. Fear entered their hearts causing them to lose sight of who they were in God’s eyes. Not only did they die in the wilderness without enjoying their promised inheritance, but also their negative report and lack of faith in the God of Israel caused others to lose and miss out on their promise. Be careful of the report you give to others about God, do not hinder them from entering their promise because you are limiting what God wants to do in your life.

Scripture gives full account of how the two spies of faith, Joshua and Caleb, inherited their destiny. They had believed the promises of deliverance given to them by God. They looked with eyes of faith beyond the size of the giants to behold the abundance that God had given to them.

It is amazing what happens when our eyes are turned towards God, rather than on our challenges. No matter the gravity of the situation as it looms over us, whatever we are faced with will seem small in comparison to the bigness of God. The giants of your life will take on a dimness that only comes from believing the eternal truths of the promises of God.

Unlike the ten other spies, Joshua and Caleb refused to see themselves as grasshoppers in their own eyes. They had the liberating understanding that as people of promise, the giants in the land had nothing on them. They were more than mere bugs.

Caleb, at the golden age of eighty-five years old, still filled with energy and an expectation of more from God, was able to say to Joshua, I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me the hill country that the Lord promised me that day. With the Lord’s help, I will drive out the enemies just as He said. Psalm 18:32 tells us that the Lord will gird us with His strength and make our path perfect. How do you see yourself?

There is a well-known character in the book of Judges Chapter 6 by the name of Gideon. God wanted to use Gideon to deliver the children of Israel from their enemy, the Midianites. The angel of the Lord paid Gideon a visit. Upon seeing him, the angel greeted Gideon by saying, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

Now bear in mind that this is not how Gideon saw himself. Fearful of the Midianites, Gideon was hiding and threshing wheat in the winepress, a place where he could remain obscured. The threshing of wheat was traditionally carried out in the open on an elevated area where the wind is present to separate the chaff from the wheat kernel. Here is Gideon hiding in the enclosed area of a wine press for fear of the enemy attacking him.

I can imagine Gideon looking behind himself to see whom the Angel of the Lord was referring to; it certainly could not have been him! However, God saw what Gideon could not see in himself. God saw a mighty warrior and deliverer of Israel. The opening statement to Gideon, The Lord is with you is a statement of affirmation and empowerment. God wanted to maximize Gideon’s potential far beyond hiding out in a winepress, because when the Lord is with you, the weapons that you need to combat your enemy is also present with you.

There was a call, or divine assignment, on Gideon’s life to impact and change the oppressive situation of his family, community and nation. God visited Gideon to activate and release Gideon to fulfill his purpose, as well as to assure Gideon of His Presence with him. Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you? Eventually as Gideon believed God’s word about his identity and accepted his call, the Bible tells us that with the help of the Lord, he was able to defeat the enemy.

Your existence or life here on earth is not just living, but knowing what you are living for.

God sees in you what you cannot see in yourself. God wants to develop you to live a life of empowerment in your family, community and nation. He will use you at anytime, anywhere, when you are open to Him and His purposes. Even when you are hiding in the winepress of life, God will find you. David said in Psalm 139, "Where can I go from your Spirit, where can I flee from your Presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." The love of God will pursue you because He has greatness engraved on your forehead and He is committed to see that you accomplish your destiny and purpose.

What is God placing before you that you are refusing to accept, because you see yourself as too small and insignificant? What are you allowing to occupy your mind and your spirit—fear or faith? What will it take to have faith occupying your spirit? If it is speaking out words of declaration each morning when you wake up, then start declaring, I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength. The words that you speak are powerful; the bible warns that your words will create life or death over your destiny. Your existence or life here on earth is not just living, but knowing what you are living for.

It would be an insult to God and His predestined plan for you, if you were to float through life with a careless attitude and not pursue the reason for which you were sent to earth.

Ask God to give you a new pair of spiritual glasses or a cornea transplant so you can see what He sees. Cultivating the mind of Christ will give you a reversal of how you think and see yourself.

Paul reminds us that a carnal mind, one that is governed by the worldly or earthly way of interpreting who you are, will create a division between you and God. Ultimately, it will cause death of your purpose, because you will not be able to please God or to come into agreement with what He is saying about you and to you.

When God is telling you that you are a mighty warrior, you are refuting the truth of His words by your negative actions and aimless life. Your purpose will only be perpetuated by knowing God and allowing Him to revolutionize your mind into conformity with His.

In Romans 12:2, Paul reminds us to no longer confirm our thinking to the way the world thinks, but to transform our mind by making the shift and adjusting our thinking after the pattern of Kingdom living. Then and only then will we know what the good, pleasing and perfect will of God is for us, as our thinking comes into alignment with His thinking.

Paul goes on to tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that the mind of Christ comes from receiving the Spirit, Who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given to us. The Spirit of God will elevate your mind and expand your capacity to think like Him. His Holy Spirit will help you to unlock, revive and activate the potentials that have been lying dormant. He will position you in the truth of His Word.

God, in His Word, paints some amazing pictures of how He sees you and the thoughts He has towards you. It will be of great value and benefit for you to get to know Him and see the same picture of you that God sees. He is unapologetic about the destiny He has for you and will not consult anyone but you in the process.

Change the images you see of yourself. Refuse to allow your limited thoughts to mold your future. The world—those around you—does not know the mind of Christ concerning you and the plans He has for you. Therefore, stop thinking like them and start the readjustment process, so that your thinking will come into alignment with His.

Why allow people to shape your world with their opinions and bring you to a place where you think less of yourself? As you think, so you will become. Do you want to become less than what God has mapped out for you? To the degree that your mind is renewed, is the degree that your life will be transformed.

God said to Abraham, Lift up your eyes and see. Look, as far as your eyes can see, I will give to you. The success of your destiny will depend on the choices and decisions that you make. It requires you making the right decisions at the right time. Why procrastinate? Make a purposeful decision to lift up your eyes. Look with expectancy and faith at what God is offering you.

To the degree that your mind is renewed, is the degree that your life will be transformed.

God wants to take you to a place without limits, where you will rely completely on Him. He wants to expand you and bless you in such a way that no man will be able to take the credit. The Word of the Lord to you is for you to: "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will disposes nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated" (Isaiah 54:2-4).

Do not hold back; stretch yourself out, enlarge your imagination, think big. You will not be of benefit to the Kingdom when you allow others to squeeze you into their small space. Stop being embarrass for thinking big because you are concerned about what others will say. When it comes to your destiny and purpose, you are permitted to be obese, expand your expectations of what you want from God. God cannot work in confine spaces; he is outside of time and space. With a clear revelation of this God of Creation who is before all things and in Him all things are held together, David utters the words no matter where I go Lord, you are there. He is an enormous God who wants to do enormous things in your life.

You need to start imagining yourself as living too small for what God is calling you to do. Greatness is not just for the selected few whilst you live your life on the peripheral looking in.

God has given you something of benefit for the Kingdom, it will not look like what I have and you will not be asked to fulfill your commission in the same way that I am asked to fulfill mine. However, know for sure that you have a direct command from God to use what he has given you, to go forward and multiply.

Lift up your eyes from where you are. Do not look at the fact that you may have had a limited education or regarded as least in your family. Gideon faced the same challenge, as he was from the tribe of Benjamin, considered least of the least and the smallest tribe in Israel. Yet, Gideon was appointed as leader of Israel. It is time to take the limits off your life and allow the gifts and callings of God to excel to there highest level.

He has given you everything you need for life and godliness. In Him, you were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. Ephesians 1: 11. The Message Translation puts it this way. It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. You are equipped to make a difference in your life and the lives of others who are waiting for you to make that shift. Recalibrate your thinking. The adjustment period might be painful, but it will be worth it. God’s design is on you and His power in you for greatness!

You might find the shift a difficult one to make because you have lived a life on ‘Comfort Zone Lane’ for so long. You have been living as though you had all the time in the world. Nevertheless, God wants to come in and remove the restrains that are holding you back. He wants to relocate you from ‘Comfort Zone Lane’ to the ‘City of Expansion and Exposure’. In your new location, those who had initially looked at you and probably thought can any good thing come out of this one, now looks on in amazement as God comes in and set your boundary lines in pleasant places.

Remember Jacob, who was dominated by self, greed and deception—a life that limited his purpose? When he needed the limitations of his old nature removed and a name change from God, he held on with tenacity and wrestled with the angel of the Lord. He said, I will not let go of You until You bless me with a new identity.

His meeting with God set the stage for his transformation into a God-centered life. Jacob’s time of wrestling represented the letting go of his limited past in order to embrace and gain his inheritance into a new expanded future.

Like Jacob and so many others, ask God to give you what you need to get to the next level in your life. You know there is more. Regardless of what the enemy and the haters around you are saying about you, you want that enlargement. Refuse to hold back. Reject the limited life.

We are each responsible for selecting the words that come out of our mouth, for the thoughts we entertain, and for our belief system concerning our destiny. We are responsible for and are accountable for the direction we take. We are responsible for shaping or designing our destiny and you will design your destiny by the choices you make.

While you might know that God has a mapped out plan for your life, those plans will not automatically start manifesting themselves. It is up to you how they are executed. In that respect, you do have full control of the direction in which your destiny takes. Everyone passing through this life is on a journey, how you respond to your journey will be essential in your ability to move forward and take possession of your purpose.

Several months ago I upgraded my television cable for extra services. Unfortunately, the engineer who came to install the new satellite dish said that due to the location of my flat, he would not be able to place the dish very high. As a result, my reception was poor and I missed out on several channels. I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be getting all the service that I was paying for. I had accepted that fact until the satellite reception went completely, leaving me without any channels. I called the cable company, who sent out a new engineer. As soon as he saw the dish, he apologized for the incompetence of the previous engineer and stated that it needed to be placed higher; the original location of the dish was too low and was obstructed by the surrounding trees.

He surveyed the outside wall for the most appropriate location and in no time at all move the dish from where it was placed and repositioned it in a higher location. After about fifteen minutes, I was getting all the channels that I had resigned myself to not receiving.

After the engineer left, this thought came to me. How many of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that what we are receiving from the Lord right now is all we will get, simply because we are not properly positioned and correctly connected to Him. We live with low expectations just aiming high enough as to not shoot our self in the foot, just in case and miss out on a thriving relationship with Him. We settle for a run of the mill existence, instead of wrestling for the abundant life.

Can I encourage you as a woman of purpose and destiny to ask the Holy Spirit to take you to a higher level where the reception is clear, away from the interferences that come in and distort your spiritual signals? A place where you will be tuned in to Him and the purpose He has for you. In the natural, I do not like elevated areas; I do my best to stay away from heights. However when it comes to my purpose the higher I go the better my panoramic view of God gets. Find your quiet place with God. Position yourself in the Word. Allow the Holy Spirit to tune in your receptor to the right channel for clear and precise reception. As your reception becomes clear, you will no longer want to live a life of limitedness, because you will be exposed to all the possibilities of a fruitful life.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). God knows the path He has for us, but we have to cooperate with Him, we have to rise up and say ‘no more’—no more will I allow the enemy of my soul to triumph over me—no longer will I be stolen from—I refuse to fall short of the journey that God has planned for me.

Women, chosen handmaidens, beloved one, we have to develop a resolute and