Kingdom Woman: Embracing Your Purpose, Power, and Possibilities (14 page)

All the army did, and could do, was walk around the wall. Nowhere does Scripture tell us that when they got to the part of the wall where Rahab lived, the army tiptoed. Rather, God collapsed the wall, all the while protecting the portion where Rahab and her family remained.

You may feel like everything around you is falling apart. It could seem like you are seeing tremors in your life, and the walls that were supposed to support and protect you are falling down. However, if you are where God says you are to remain, stay there. I want you to know that you can trust God in spite of what is happening all around you.

Both Zipporah and Rahab give us examples of women whose possibilities increased because of their faith. Zipporah’s disobedient husband eventually led the nation of Israel out of slavery and bondage from Egypt. Rahab went on to marry a well-respected builder and architect named Salmon, who founded the city of Bethleham. (1 Chronicles 2:11–51, 54).

Neither of these women came from the lineage of Israel. Neither of them, based on their culture and surroundings, would have been recognized as having a tremendous amount of potential. We don’t know about Zipporah’s past, but we do know that Rahab had a checkered past. Despite all of that, God honored the faith of both women, who eventually experienced their glorious destinies.

I don’t know what has happened in your life—perhaps you had a child out of wedlock or married a man who abused or misused you. Or maybe you made choices that took you outside of the will of God. Whatever the case, I do know that if you will respond in faith to the one true God, if you will honor Him with your actions despite the chaos around you, if you choose to walk the path of faith that He has called you to, even when you are unsure of the outcome, He will honor, protect, and establish you as a kingdom woman.

8

A story is told of a wonderful elderly Christian lady. She had very little money and lived in a run-down house, but she was always praising the Lord. Her only problem was with the old man next door. He was always trying to prove that there was no God.

One day, as the old man was walking by her house, he noticed the woman through an open window. She was kneeling down in prayer, so he crept over to the window to hear. She was praying, “Lord, You’ve always given me what I’ve needed. And now You know that I don’t have any money, and I’m completely out of groceries, and I won’t get another check for a week.” She paused and then continued, “Somehow, Lord, can You get me some groceries?”

The man had heard all he needed. He crept away from the window and hurried to the grocery store. He bought milk, bread, and lunchmeat. He returned to the woman’s house carrying the groceries. He set down the bag by her door, rang the doorbell, and hid beside the house. You can imagine how the woman reacted to seeing the bag of groceries. She threw her hands over her head and began praising the Lord. “Thank You, Jesus!” she shouted. “I was without food, and You provided the groceries.”

About that time the old man jumped out and said, “I’ve got you now.” She was too busy shouting “thank You” to Jesus to pay any attention, so he kept
going. “I told you there was no God,” the old man said. “It wasn’t Jesus who gave you those groceries; it was me.”

“Oh no,” the woman replied. “Jesus gave me these groceries—and made the devil pay for them.”

Prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of a kingdom woman. God can even use the unrighteous to answer the prayers of His own. God often acts through people, even the people you would least suspect. He does it in cooperation with humanity. And He does it in answer to our prayers.

When Jesus decided whom to use as one of the greatest illustrations on prayer, He chose a woman. He highlighted the tenacity and strength in this one woman as a goal all of us, both men and women, ought to aim for in our relationship with God. This woman understood the power of persistence. She understood that sometimes life is unfair, and her voice might not be heard, recognized, or valued, but she had legal rights that entitled her to more than what she was receiving. Based on those rights alone, she found the courage to keep asking for what was hers.

Luke stated up front the premise of the parable Jesus told about this woman. He said at the start of the story, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Jesus was addressing quitting, or throwing in the towel, when you feel like you can’t take it anymore or your prayers aren’t accomplishing what you think they should. Jesus wanted to remind each of us of the power found through the right kind of persistence. The parable refers to those times when you honestly don’t know how much longer you can endure the circumstances surrounding you.

Often, people will faint when they can no longer get a deep breath or enough oxygen to their lungs. From a young age, I have struggled with asthma. My father would take me to the emergency room when I was having an asthma attack. As you may know if you have asthma, when you are under an attack, you feel like you can’t get enough air. What is usually a subconscious action of breathing now comes to the forefront of your mind. Breathing becomes an intentional activity.

The same holds true for prayer. When things are going well in our lives, we say a prayer here or there without giving it much thought. But when we face struggles or difficulties, they have a way of heightening the intentionality of our prayer life. Yet when we see no improvement over time, it is easy to think that our prayers aren’t making any difference, so we stop or give up. However, what Jesus illustrated through the parable of the woman before the unjust judge is that even when things don’t look like they will get better, we need to maintain contact with God because prayer is to be an orientation, not a position. Tenacious prayer is a lifestyle that produces results. Prayer is more than getting on our knees or clasping our hands while closing our eyes. Prayer is an attitude of operating in conjunction with God. Prayer involves exercising our authority for heavenly intervention in our earthly affairs.

The Widow and the Judge

The parable in Luke 18 begins by informing us that in a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God or men. In other words, he did not care what anyone else thought or said about him because he was the judge. During biblical times, it was a lot like old west times in America, when a circuit judge would travel from town to town to try cases, settle disputes, or hand down verdicts.

This particular judge in the parable must have had numerous cases within his realm of authority. And over time, he had gained a reputation for being an unrighteous judge. Judges like this one were easy targets for bribes; the wealthy could always pay him off so he would rule in their favor. The widow who had a case before him most likely did not have any money or influence. She didn’t stand a chance of being heard or receiving a just decision in her case. But that didn’t stop her from trying.

From Genesis to Revelation, when God wants to make a point, He will often choose the lowest of the low to do so. He will often highlight the orphans or the widows because they represent the most vulnerable in society. A widow in biblical times had a number of things against her. First, there was little protection for women in that day. If a woman had no husband to stand up for her, the culture would not stand up for her.

Second, widows in biblical times were normally poor, without any significant financial resources, since most of the jobs belonged to the men. Likewise, the fact that this particular widow had to plead her own case means that she had no friends or relatives who would or could stand up for her. She was on her own. She was alone, with what must have seemed like the entire world against her.

Jesus didn’t give the exact details of the case that brought her to court, but we do know that something had happened in which she had been wronged. Something had happened that needed to be addressed legally. We do know she was requesting legal protection from her opponent. She must have felt vulnerable, at risk, and scared. She needed the law to arbitrate between her and the opposition, whose aim was to harm her.

So when she didn’t get the protection she was legally entitled to from the unjust judge, she decided to keep asking. She didn’t quit. Someone was out to do her wrong, and she did not possess the ability, money, or power to stop him. Only the law could stop him.

Before we dig deeper into the story, I want to pause to ask if you have ever been in a situation when the people who were supposed to help you did not. Either that or they made themselves unavailable to you when you needed them the most. Have you ever felt alone and vulnerable and yet entirely convinced that what has happened to you was wrong, and perhaps even illegal? If you have ever experienced feelings like that, then you know the situation that this woman was in. She did not possess the ability to protect herself in her culture or environment. She knew that if the judge did not intervene on her behalf, then she held no other recourse for gaining her own protection, or victory over her opponent.

However, the judge didn’t care. He was unwilling to help her and was not moved by her plight. He was an unjust judge, and it did not matter to him that this woman was entitled to legal rights. Yet what Jesus pointed out through this story was that even though the judge did
not possess a heart to help the woman, he did intervene on her behalf simply to get her off his back:

Essentially, the judge didn’t want to be bothered anymore. He didn’t want to continually have to hear about her problem. It wasn’t that he cared about her situation, or even that he cared what other people or even God thought about her situation; he was just tired of hearing her complain to him about it. He figured there was one way to get this woman off his back: Give her what she asked for! So he did just that. He gave her the legal protection that was her right to have.

We know how strongly this unjust judge felt about the tenacity of this woman, because the Greek word that is translated “wear me out” means “to give a black eye.”
[32]
The issue wasn’t that she was literally going to punch the judge or give him a black eye. To give a black eye meant to ruin his reputation. Not only was the woman wearing out the unjust judge, but he also knew that if she kept coming and coming, she had the potential to ruin his name because of his refusal to fulfill his legal obligation.

Evidently, this woman was showing up in a public court and telling the judge that he was failing to do what was right. She had taken the matter a step further than her desire for legal protection. She had questioned his name, and she did it publicly. So not only to get the woman off his back but also to protect his own reputation, the judge gave the woman what rightfully belonged to her.

Jesus makes an interesting contrast between the widow and the unjust judge and us before God: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (verses 7–8). Jesus made clear that if an unjust judge who did not care about God, people, justice, or the law—yet he cared enough about his own comfort and reputation—responded to this woman’s
plea, how much more will God—who is just, righteous, and compassionate—bring about justice for His elect.

The widow was a stranger to the judge. The elect are not strangers to God. The elect are God’s chosen ones; they are His children. You and I belong to Jesus Christ and make up His elect. If an unrighteous judge will grant legal protection to a stranger in order to protect his own reputation, how much more will God bring about justice to His own children, not only for the sake of His own name, but also for the sake of those whom He loves? Jesus makes it clear—He will not delay in doing so when you seek Him as the woman sought out the judge.

Claiming Your Legal Rights

Jesus used an interesting concept in His parable that is easy to miss. He used it a few times: the concept of justice, or legal protection. The issue at hand was not whether the judge knew the woman, liked the woman, or even felt sorry for the woman. The issue on the table was the law. She needed the judge to bring the power of the law to her situation because her opponent was treating her unjustly. She needed legal intervention.

See, there is more that can get God’s attention than His relationship with you, His compassion toward you, or even the sake of His name. As a child of the King, you have fallen heir to “legal rights.” These “rights” exist because of the new covenant that you came into when you trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation. The issue that you may be facing or struggling with today may be an issue of the covenant. If it is, you are free to appeal to God.

Even though the unjust judge did not care for the woman, he responded to her request and gave her what was legally hers because she kept confronting him with the law. The judges reputation was at stake, since he was not upholding the law, and ultimately he was obligated to the law.

God is a God of covenant. He is also a God of His word. He has obligated Himself to His own Word. He has tied His name and His reputation to what He has said. He is tethered to His own covenantal agreements. And because God is by nature righteous, He is committed to His own righteous standard and will operate in concert with His own covenant.

However, many believers do not understand what their “rights” are according to God’s covenant. Had the widow not known what the law entitled her to, she would have had nothing to bring before the unjust judge. Yet because she knew the law and knew what he was legally obligated to give her, she was able to confidently come again and again and again to ask for what was legally hers. Her knowledge of the law gave her a basis on which to stand.

Remember when we examined the healing of the woman who had been bent over for eighteen years? After Jesus healed her, the synagogue officials became indignant because the healing took place on the Sabbath. They told Jesus that work was not to be done on the Sabbath. Jesus’ reply was telling. He appealed to the woman’s covenantal right, saying, “Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Luke 13:16).

See, the Sabbath law was given under Moses. However, Abraham preceded Moses. As a daughter of Abraham, this woman fell under a covenant by which God promised to bring healing to His people when the problem came from a spiritual source. We had seen earlier in her story that the woman was not bent over because of a medical condition but because of Satan. Since it was Satan who had messed up her life, then her covenantal right as a daughter of Abraham entitled her to spiritual healing and release from bondage. She had a legal relationship that transcended the Mosaic law.