God's Plan For Women

GOD’S PLAN FOR WOMEN

A Sunday school class was discussing King Solomon. People pointed out that though Solomon had been so wise, he made some foolish choices. Finally, the teacher asked, "Are we picking too much on Solomon?"

One older saint replied wryly, "Ah, with all those wives, he was used to it!"

Victor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, said something that I will never forget, "Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching a goal. I would rather attempt to do something great and fail, than attempt nothing and succeed."

Prov 29:18 "where there is no vision, the people faint."

I have a burning passion within me to see every child of God discover God’s vision for his or her life and then go for it! I remember about a year ago seeing a church sign that read, "All some people do is grow old." And I thought boy, is that ever true and the real shame is that a lot of those people are sitting on church pews.

God has a BIG VISION for every one of His kids! It’s our responsibility to find out what it is and then go for it!

I. God has a plan for your life!

A. Jer 29:11-14 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest."

GOD’S PLAN FOR YOU IS THE BEST PLAN.

a. So get God’s plan and then go for it!

b. You can’t come up with a better plan for your life than God! Turn to your neighbor and tell her, "you can’t come up with a better plan for your life. God’s plan is the best!"

c. So we would be very foolish to try to go after any plan other than God’s plan for our lives!

THE FIRST STEP IN DISCOVERING GOD’S PLAN IS TO PRAY AND SEEK HIS WILL AND PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE!

a. He said in Jer 29:12 "In those days when you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest."

b. Notice that He said, "when you pray...when you seek me...look for me in earnest."

c. In other words, this has got to be of great importance to you and to me! This isn’t just a flippant little prayer we throw out to God, "oh yeah, God, I’d really like to know what you want to do with my life, so uh, just let me know, would ya?"

d. We must pray and we must EARNESTLY seek Him!

YOU MUST AGGRESSIVELY PURSUE THE WILL OF GOD FOR YOUR LIFE.

Don’t just let life happen to you! I want to see women get set free from this ca-sera-sera mentality that satan has bound us up with.

a. There are too many women in the body of Christ who just kind of go through life and live according to "however the cookie crumbles." Well, I’ll just kind of see how life plays out and whatever will be, will be. Whatever happens, happens I guess.

b. Satan has lied to women and convinced them because they’re women, they are limited, that their lives aren’t as important and therefore, they don’t need to be concerned with goals in their lives

WOMEN ARE VERY SPECIAL TO GOD AND EXTREMELY IMPORTATNT IN CARRYING OUT HIS PLANS ON EARTH.

a. Don’t think for a second that just b/c you’re a woman that you are off the hook!

b. Read the Bible ~ God used women mightily in the Kingdom in many different ways and He hasn’t changed! HE still wants to use women mightily! HE wants to use YOU mightily in His Kingdom.

FIND GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE AND THEN GO FOR IT!!! WHATEVER IT IS HE HAS GIFTED YOU AND CALLED YOU TO DO, DO IT! DON’T LET ANYONE STOP YOU FROM WHAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO DO.

Which brings us to a very controversial issue in the church today: WOMEN’S ROLES IN THE CHURCH

I’m very fortunate to have such a wonderful, loving and nurturing husband. I thank God for the man I’m married to! I realize how blessed I am, because I know that men like my husband are very rare in the world today. For those of you who are single, "don’t settle for less than God’s best! Wait on God and let Him choose your mate for you."

I want to give you a brief history of my journey down this road called "women’s roles in the church."

In 1988 I surrendered my life to Christ as a college student in Kansas. I think I have a pretty interesting testimony and one of the interesting things about it is that while I was living a life of sin, this voice kept speaking to me in my mind and this is what the voice said, "you will never be happy or fulfilled until you’re serving God in full-time ministry." I would be out drinking and partying with my friends and this voice would go off in my head. So finally, like the prodigal son, I came home and I immediately knew that God had called me into full-time ministry. However, I quickly realized that the church world was not nearly as open to women in ministry as to men. So I became very confused about my giftings and callings which led me into a detailed study on WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT WOMEN’S ROLES IN THE CHURCH. Because you see, I had this wonderful husband on one side, saying, "kelly, you need to get your credentials, you need to lead, you need to preach...you need to use the gifts God has given you." Then, on the other hand there was this large majority in the church world saying, "NO, you can’t lead, you can’t teach, you can’t preach...YOU’RE A WOMAN! BE SILENT!" So, after several years of confusion, depression and a lot of tears and frustration, I finally got a clue..."GEE, WHY DON’T I SEE WHAT GOD SAYS."