Kingdom Woman: Embracing Your Purpose, Power, and Possibilities by Tony Evans, Chrystal Evans Hurst Read Free Book Online Page A

long you’ve been there. He has a way out of any hopelessness you may feel.
    He doesn’t just want to bring His money to you, His castle to you, or His chariot to you. He wants to bring you to Him. He wants to take you out of the bondage and let you live in the freedom of His presence and provision. He wants to show you your new position and your new glory. He wants to get you out of a spirit of slavery. He wants to give you hope.
    Suppose Cinderella had given up. Suppose she had resolved to stay locked away in the house. She would never have been found by the prince. She would never have tried on her own shoe. She would have missed out on happily ever after.
    A lot of us have given up on God. We have counted the years when it seems our prayers have not been answered, and we have determined it’s too late. Too many times we miss out on the destiny God has for us because we have stopped looking. We have stopped hoping.
    Scripture has another story for us of a woman limited by bondage. She wasn’t Cinderella, but she faced her own ongoing struggles that kept her from living out the truest form of her destiny. This woman who was unable to stand tall is in the book of Luke. It says, “A woman was there [in the synagogue] whohad been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all” (13:11).
    Here we have a woman who for eighteen years had an unfixable problem that doubled her over. Like the hunchback of Notre Dame, she could not straighten up. Her eyes regularly saw only the ground because she was unable to look elsewhere. The passage makes it plain that there was nothing she or anyone else could do to straighten things up for her. She perhaps had some kind of spinal deformity that kept her bent over.
    Because of her physical position, she could never fully see things as they really were. Her perception not only of herself but also of the world around her was distorted. Her issue was not just one of health, but it had become one of habit simply because it had gone on for so long. Eighteen years is a long time to have your world affected adversely by something you did nothing to deserve and have no power to change. This woman’s life had to have been filled with discouragement day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. It would be easy to assume that the woman may have lost her hope.
    Are you able to identify with her—or with Cinderella—in any way? Maybe you have experienced a pain or a problem that won’t go away, and you feel stuck in a rut. Or stuck in a position that doesn’t offer any hope for a brighter tomorrow. While this woman’s issue was physical, many trials can force your head or heart downward either emotionally or spiritually. It could be something your dad said or did, or even your mom. It could be something an unthinking sibling might have done or said that has kept you emotionally crippled for so long. It could even be a spouse, friends, or people at work who have mislabeled you and held you back from your destiny as a kingdom woman.
    You’ve tried reading books to set yourself free, attending Bible studies, and talking to a counselor, pastor, or friends, but no matter what you do, the problem or bondage seems to remain. The first thing I want to tell you is that you are not alone. Many women feel bound by emotional, spiritual, or physical pain. It could be that you feel you’ve followed God’s Word and honored Him with your life, but somehow He hasn’t held up His end of the bargain. Whateverit is, it has you downcast. And whatever has you downcast has distorted your perception not only about yourself but also about the world around you.
    Before you give up, though, look up.
    See, being a kingdom woman isn’t summed up in just going to church more or doing more good things. It’s about connecting with the One who gives hope. Luke 13 tells us that the lady who couldn’t straighten up was in the synagogue. She was at church: