“Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.” Numbers 12:6
About two weeks ago Michelle Swanepoel, a daughter of the Living God, sent out an email that landed in my lap. After an email conversation, one Michelle to another she gave me permission to share. I find it intriguing to see how God is speaking to others. Michelle is a German living in Africa, this message is one that she believes God is calling her to share with the women of the the world.
Michelle Swanepoel writes:
Hi there,
Sjoe - where do I even start with this message to all women. I will simply ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in writing this email to you. Please feel free to send it to any other women that you believe should be made aware of this. Also please pray about this message and share with us anything that The Holy Spirit might reveal to you.
I am now 36 weeks pregnant and the little one is rearing to come out….so far we have managed to keep her in, with lots of prayer from an amazing group of women, friends and Godly people all around. But God has been talking to me and comparing this pregnancy to birthing a revelation that He wants to share with others. I have been struggling to understand this revelation and have been praying and asking God to be more specific, to provide me with more clarity wrt this revelation that needs to be birthed…..aside from me having to birth a little girl.:-)
I asked God, who is the revelation for, what needs to be revealed, when does it need to be revealed - what is the revelation - but for the past few months, I have been dreaming, I have been getting mixed messages, I have been praying for clarity….and then this morning, while in the shower - it suddenly started pouring into my mind - as if God had finally decided that today was the day for me to understand. Please forgive me if I am jumping all over the place in this email - but I do hope and pray that the message will come across and that you will take up your responsibility as a woman, a lioness, a person of substantial worth and authority and fulfill one of the biggest purposes that God has for us.
A couple of months ago, I had a dream where I parked my car (a silver Honda) and in the next instance my car was gone - I was however totally at peace, as if I knew that the car had to go because something new was coming - God has been talking to me a lot of establishing me in my purpose, etc etc. so a lot of my prayer time has been spent asking God to show me this "Purpose" - and things have just remained a mystery….a very frustrating process! Anyway, in the dream I then found myself walking in the Southern Industrial area of Windhoek and I saw a man walking with a bunch of keys…I immediately recognized my Honda key in the bunch and stopped the man to ask him if he knew who had taken my car (cars in dreams and visions represent a ministry, a business, a lifestyle). The man said that I should follow him - and suddenly I noticed lots of men following me as well. WE walked around the corner and came to a massive warehouse with lots of brand new cars….you can probably imagine the excitement on the men's faces:-) Then one by one each man sat down at a table and signed a sales document to receive a new car (i.e. a new calling, a new ministry, business or life)…..no costs involved, in fact the sales docket stated that the cars were fully paid for. I also saw my new car - a brand new Honda 4x4, in green with two long range tanks - I won't go into the interpretation now, as it has no bearing on the message that God has for us as women. So, I got stuck on asking God what this dream meant and what my purposes was - will I help men find the keys to unlocking their new ministries, lives, businesses, etc????? And guess what God said this morning - those keys represent the women in the men's lives (wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, granddaughters, aunts, cousins, etc.) God wants to use women to unlock the blessings that need to flow through the men and into the families and the communities and the entire Body of Christ, to unlock men's true identity and purpose in God's Kingdom.
There is a Godly order in God's kingdom - first the men, then the women, then the children. So at this point I need to repent - because for most of my life I have been waiting for my Prince Charming, that man that would look after me, love me, take care of me, protect me and basically rescue me and do all the things that fairy tales have taught us about the prince on the white horse:-) But you know what - this morning God also revealed to me that our prince does indeed exist….it is Jesus - I dreamt of this man a month ago - he was dressed in white, He pursued me the entire dream, he wrote poems to me, he showed me sunsets and flowers, he spoilt me and He helped me take care of my children - He was so gentle and kind and considerate that I didn't want to wake up. I woke up in tears and asked God why I have never met such a man……and He said, my child you have - this is Jesus, who pursues you like this every single day - but you are often too busy to notice!!!!! I was so so overwhelmed - and obviously asked God for more of those dreams….I think all of us as women desire to be spoilt, cared for tenderly and loved wholeheartedly - but let me continue……
Another part that God revealed to me is that women are continuously ridden with guilt and shame, and seem to be running around to try and compensate for these feelings - why I asked. Well, think about the Garden of Eden - what did Eve do? Her disobedience left all of us women cursed with guilt and shame for being disobedient to God's very clear instructions. And the devil (and yes, some husbands as well…..:-)) keep reminding us women of how we started this entire sin-filled downfall. Well, guess what - just as the devil used us to bring destruction - God had a plan all along - and through Jesus's death on the cross, which has the power to turn darkness into light - women are now God's biggest secret weapon to releasing God's blessings into His people. My sister once recommended an amazing book to me. It is called "Lioness arising" and it is written by Lisa Bevere - she studied the behavior of lionesses - and guess what she found - they never hunt alone. And they are in fact a lot more vicious and cunning and strategic than the male lions. What I took from this book is that women need to stand together in this final struggle - they need to hunt the devil together, they need to strategize together - they need to pray for each other and for God's Kingdom to be established. Eve might have seemed alone - but none of us are alone - we have God, we have JEsus, we have the Holy Spirit and we have many many women around us to stand with us.
So what is this strategy - if you are anything like me, you have probably often grappled with this idea of finding your purpose in Christ - and it is a struggle to find clarity, mostly because our wordily qualifications tend to confuse matters. Or it might be financial pressures that force us to move in a certain direction, or maybe it is your past - maybe no one ever thought that you would be capable of achieving anything significant. Or maybe you are just too busy and overwhelmed by an endless to do list - so the thought of having a specific purpose just seems too good to be true. What God revealed to me this morning is that our purpose will only be revealed through His divine order. What does that mean? Well, if God builds His foundations on families then that is how our true purpose will be revealed to us. A family does not just consist of a husband a wife and children - a family is much more than that - and God's family is even more diverse, incl different cultures, age groups, genders, qualifications, backgrounds, etc. But one thing that stands is that the men are first in line, then the women and then the children. So where am I going with this…….again, I will be very honest and will admit that I have been trying my entire life, to be independent from a man…..hurts, disappointments, rejection, whatever the devil could find, he used it to reinforce this message that men are not to be trusted, will never live up to my expectations and will always hurt me. Can anyone identify with this? Or how about strong mothers - who also got hurt and who taught us that men are unreliable, etc. Or maybe your dad was never around, he left, or passed away before you could even get to know him properly. Or maybe your dad was very gentle but your mom was quite strong and she sort of managed the household? So all of these experiences have caused such confusion in roles and responsibilities and now when I listen to most women, they are disillusioned about the men in their lives. We read the descriptions of Godly men in the bible and we all pray that our husbands would change, or we pray for a Godly husband to come into our lives. We become so focused on our unfulfilled needs that we are even praying for the wrong things - I am drifting again - what I am trying to say is that our purpose will in fact come through the man. We will struggle to find our purpose on our own, men need to bring us to our purpose - that is God's divine order. Just as Christ will bring order into his bride - the men in our lives will bring order into our lives as women….I can see that a lot of women will probably ask how that can be possible…what if my husband is not even a Christian? what if my husband is abusive? What if the men in my lives have all been absent or passive or totally oblivious to my needs? What if men are just too busy with work, ministry, sport or whatever they have chosen to build their identity upon. Well, God will reveal this to us in due time.
Another important factor that we as women have never understood - we are supposed to be the "helper" in the lives of our men - again, my mind would say "A Helper" what is that???? It sounds like a cleaner or a 2nd grade person….well, maybe only I wonder about that. So I asked God, what about the things you have taught me, what about the knowledge and wisdom You give to me - how do I use that as a HELPER???? Yes, let me repent of pride right here……...then we attended a women's conference and the speaker informed us that the original Hebrew word that was used in that specific scripture was in fact not Helper but Warrior! I don't know about you - but this got me excited. And here God is telling me all the time that we must take up our authority and I just struggled with this concept of being a Helper and having to take up my authority - the scripture says : "My people perish because of a lack of knowledge" - no wonder, if we don't grasp the fact that we are in fact strong warriors - fighting for and defending our husbands and families - then we really lose sight of one of our most important purposes.
So, to get to a point: Pray for the men in your lives, pray that God would unblock them - to release them from the blockage in their systems, the blockage that is causing family blessings to be blocked (remember blessings flow through the husband, father, men into the rest of the family and into the rest of the Body of Christ). Pray for your sons to even now be unblocked from anything that could cause their future wives and children to not be blessed because of these blockages. Pray for your fathers - to be unblocked (imagine the double blessings - from our fathers, grandfathers and husbands). Imagine a plumbing system where fresh water needs to flow through - imagine the water to be the heavenly blessings that God has for His children (health, purpose, identity, significance, provision, etc.) and then know that once these mighty men are unblocked then God's orderly water flow can be established. Now imagine one woman (one gentle dove) praying for one family……and then imagine millions of women (millions of doves) praying for millions of men and families, rising up in the spirit and causing the darkness to flee through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in us. If you want to find out what your true purpose is……. start praying for the men in your lives - not for them to become Godly men….but for them to be unblocked so that they can become Godly men. Also ask God for specifics - let's not treat the symptoms, let's fight against the root causes: Father show me specific root causes of the blockages in my Father's, Husband's, Son's, Brother's, Uncle's, Cousin's, etc lives - and then ask other women to pray through these together with you. God is always faithful - and He will guide us through this process - can you imagine the ripple effect of all the women standing together in prayer!!!!!
Father - I would like to bring to you every single woman that has read this email - I pray for your supernatural and divine intervention in their lives. Open the eyes of their understanding and reveal to them your will in this strategy. Bring us as women closer together and help us to support each other and love each other and stick together in this time of warfare for the lives of our men and families. Establish in us the power and authority to take back what the enemy has destroyed and help us to move only when instructed to do so by your Holy Spirit. I pray for your truth to be revealed in all of us, so that we can stand in unity and in strength as we fulfill your Will Father God, Jesus, we acknowledge that You are the King of Kings and that you lead us every single second of the day. Open our hearts to hear you and help us to become submissive to your divine order. We thank you for the revelations that You bring, we thank you that our husbands WILL indeed become the men that You describe in your word and we thank you that You have a plan and a purpose for every single one of us. We love you and adore you and we believe by faith that you are in control. Amen
Michelle Swanepoel
Cell : +264 81 323 3756
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