I am not particularly passionate about camping. I like to be comfortable. Not really a less is more kind of a gal. I think more is more—
I’m a big fan of lavish. So it’s a bit of sweet irony that I now lead this wild adventure called Woman Camp and charge into each new camp season with giddy excitement. Why, you may wonder, am I so thrilled to get way outside my comfort zone twice a year? It’s because what I am actually passionate about is fighting for women to encounter and connect with the God who loves them and has life-changing plans and purpose for their lives. Watching women shed the bondage of false identities, be filled with power and walk into freedom is my absolute favorite. And it turns out that God is lavish too. He has so much more goodness for women then we realize. So each year we ask God what new thing he wants for us to experience at camp. We don’t just camp for fun (although it really is a party out there). We camp to go to new places with God. He always has more for us and this year he said loud and clear:
“I want to unleash you”.
So, if you have ever felt sidelined or like you have reached the end of your leash and no matter how hard you push against the things that are holding you back, you just can’t get free—I have a message for you:
You are stronger than you think.
No matter how stuck you feel, no matter how long you’ve sat on the sidelines, no matter how leashed you feel to fear—the truth is that God designed you to live an unleashed, powerful life. You may be knee-deep in diapers or feeling stalled out in your career or frustrated in your relationships. You may not believe you have what it takes to participate in God’s epic story. But God’s plan for women is to be warriors and world-changers. The amazing news is that He also has unlimited power available for you to face anything that stands against you living in the fullness of His calling and purpose.
Sometimes, it feels safer on the sidelines. We exchange our battle cries for comfort. We trade in our courage for fear. We wonder if we are worthy to be a warrior. We worry so much about being liked or being able to meet the needs of others that we forget our first calling is to be a daughter of the King, and that calling comes with power.
Many of us are waiting. Waiting for rescue. Waiting for the right time or the right person. Waiting for a door to open. Waiting for an invitation. Waiting to take our place at the table. Waiting to feel like we have the power to fight for our place in God’s story.
The time for waiting is over.
God wants to unleash women into the fullness of his plans and purpose for our lives. He wants us in the fight. He has plans for us to have big impact in the world with the giftings he’s planted in us. We have things to do in His kingdom that only we can do. Now is the time to pick up our anointing. No more waiting. There is power for us. Power to forgive the unforgivable and be set free from the hold those past hurts have on us. The power to be healed and move beyond our brokenness and walk into redemption. Power to hear and discern the voice of God for ourselves, our family and our sphere of influence. Power to pray and prophesy. Power to break chains of bondage for ourselves and to fight for others to do the same. Power to repent from sin in our lives and change our direction. Power to lead others closer to God. Power to be fully who God created us to be. Power to live authentic, honest lives. Power to wield self-control over the choices we make with our bodies and our hearts and our minds. Power to bring real change to our own lives and our communities, even our city and nation. Acts 2:17 says, “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above.”
God’s power can be unleashed in us to accomplish all this and more. It’s time to get off the sidelines. He has promised to pour his Spirit over us. And this, my friends, is where we begin.