When a kingdom woman’s alarm sounds each morning, the devil tries to hit her snooze button. He’ll do whatever he can to try and stop her from getting up and taking on a new day.
Hell hath no fury like a kingdom woman disturbed. She won’t stop doing all she can for the kingdom until she makes the devil regret ever messing with her.
Women are often the unsung heroes behind any major victory, discovery, or moral campaign. Throughout history, when the men were away at battle, women held down the fort, assisted in creating and sending the supplies, ran the businesses, maintained the economy and community, and farmed—all while still managing their homes.
Women have always held a place of influence in culture, even if it hasn’t been publicly recognized—or legally allowed. The nineteenth-century author Virginia Woolf wrote succinctly, “I would venture to guess that [Anonymous,] who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” In fact, women have been equipped with such an innate capacity for influence that they can change the world for good or, unfortunately, for bad.
We are all too familiar with the negative influences. For example, Samson could defeat an entire army with the jaw of a donkey, but he became weak in the arms of one woman. Solomon had wisdom, riches, and power, but he still bowed to the ungodly influence of his many wives. David killed a giant with all the bravery and bravado of a gladiator—with only one stone and a slingshot. Yet King David was taken down by just one look at a bathing beauty.
Feminine influence doesn’t solely come tied to sexuality, nor is it used only to gain a negative outcome. In fact, many women use their innate power to bring about good on behalf of those around them. Women in general mature faster than men, giving women an opportunity to make decisions in their earlier years that position them more securely in life and in the workplace. More women than men are graduating at all levels of college. And women’s earnings have increased 56 percent on average since 1963, but their male coworkers are earning less than working men in 1970.
Women are gifted with a winsome ability to be disarmingly charming, even without using additional physical appeal. This alone can guide conversations their way, or influence major decisions in many realms, even unknowingly to those involved. Women also often embody additional spiritual depth and insight that captivate men because those qualities reflect something that men crave for themselves.
Our culture often displays a mirage that shows men having all the power, control, and influence. And men, in their most raw form, do seek to create, explore, build, exploit, achieve, and conquer, and then grab the glory for doing it all themselves. What is frequently missed: examining the motivation behind a man’s ambitions, which is often the influence of a woman.
From early on, a man depends upon a woman in many ways—from the womb to early childhood, to teachers and the influence of media that creates an ideal image of a woman.
Rarely does an epic movie ever finish without somehow uniting or reuniting a man with a woman. Battles have been fought over women, history has been shaped by women, policy has been influenced or decided by women, nations have been run by women. Even in athletics women have power and influence.
Sojourner Truth, one powerful woman, said, “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”
Women grace this planet with insight, sensitivity, and a spiritual beauty that has put them behind great accomplishments. The popular sayings ring true: The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, and behind every great man is a greater woman. Or, in our case, behind every kingdom man is a kingdom woman. No one ever goes around saying, “Behind every great woman is a greater man.” That phrase wouldn’t fly. There are scores of single women who are successful, competent, and satisfied. And there are scores of married women whose husbands are clearly not kingdom men, yet those women remain every bit kingdom women themselves.
God created man out of dust from the ground. At a basic level, the Creator picked up some dirt and threw Adam together. The Hebrew word for God forming man is yatsar, which means “to form, as a potter.” A pot usually has but one function.
Yet when God made a woman, He “made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man” (Genesis 2:22). He created her with His own hands. He took His time crafting and molding her into multifaceted brilliance. The Hebrew word used for making woman is banah, meaning to “build, as a house, a temple, a city, an altar.”12 The complexity implied by the term banah is worth noting. God has given women a diverse makeup that enables them to carry out multiple functions well. Adam may be considered Human Prototype 1.0, while Eve was Human Prototype 2.0.
Of high importance, though, is that Eve was fashioned laterally with Adam’s rib. It was not a top-down formation of dominance or a bottom-up formation of subservience. Rather, Eve was an equally esteemed member of the human race.
After all, God spoke of the decision for their creation as one decision before we were ever even introduced to the process of their creation. The very first time we read about both Eve and Adam is when we read of the mandate of rulership given to both of them equally. We are introduced to both genders together, simultaneously. This comes in the first chapter of the Bible:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock,
over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26–27)
Both men and women have been created equally in the image of God. While within that equality lie distinct and different roles, there is no difference in equality of being, value, or dignity between the genders. Both bear the responsibility of honoring the image in which they have been made. A woman made in the image of God should never settle for being treated as anything less than an image-bearer of the one true King. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent in the world to be trodden on.”
Just as men, women were created to rule.
Kingdom Woman by Tony Evans and Chrystal Evans Hurst
A kingdom woman gives the devil as much reason to fear as a kingdom man. She lives confidently in the knowledge that Christ died and rose for her so that she can experience the significance of the destiny to which she has been called.
In Kingdom Woman, Tony Evans and his daughter, Chrystal Evans Hurst, remind women of their calling from God to be free, delivered, healed, and to have hope. The authors bring insight that encourages women to correct distorted perceptions and understand who they really are in Christ—never settling for less when connected with the One who gives them hope. All believers are covered by God’s covenant with Abraham. Evans and Hurst want women to know these rights and confidently claim and live by them. The new covenant offers more than a life of mediocrity. A kingdom woman is called and empowered to live a life of victory through Christ!
