Women of God, Arise!

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Womanhood Starts in the Heart"

"A Matter of Life and Day"

"The Truth about Sexuality"

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Dannah Gresh: When lies permeate a society, they have a huge effect on women.

Nancy Lincoln: Nobody came and said, "It's a baby. You'll regret that, and that will hurt you." They didn't tell me of the consequences that might come from that I was going to have a blind, surgical procedure. They didn't tell me anything. They didn't tell me about fetal development. They just said that it was an easy solution, and you can get back to the party. You are so young.

Dannah: A few weeks ago, I received an email from my friend Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, the founder and lead Bible teacher for Revive Our Hearts. She had just watched an online event related to the presidential election in the United States.

Now let me just pause and say, the email Nancy sent was not about the election per se. Nancy was and always has been concerned for women. I’ve watched her carry a heavy burden for us to live out biblical truth, especially as it relates to women’s issues.

The fact is, Nancy was struck that this political event raised a lot of issues that we’ve been talking about for years at Revive Our Hearts.

Nancy was watching an online event where women were invited to join a movement—one rooted in anti-biblical positions about womanhood. And Nancy wrote this in her email: “I don’t think people realize how powerful this kind of women’s movement could be.” My friend was sounding an alarm! She was inviting me and others receiving that email to think biblically about the conversations happening in our nation right now. And I want to pass that on to you today.

If you’ve been around Revive Our Hearts for long, you know Nancy believes in the powerful influence women can have. Matter of fact, long ago she dreamed of a movement of Christian women making a big difference through the actions they lived out right in their homes, churches, and communities. Here’s how she put it:

This potential helped spark in my heart a burden that eventually gave birth to Revive Our Hearts and the call for a counterrevolution—the True Woman movement.

So today, I’m not going to name candidates or tell you where, when, and who to vote for. I am going to pass on Nancy’s urging to build God’s kingdom right where we are. No matter who is in the White House, you can glorify God in your house.

Today’s episode of Revive Our Hearts Weekend is called, “Women of God, Arise!”

When we rise up as women of God, it won’t look like the rest of the world. We don’t express ourselves in anger, retaliation, or in worldly female power. Why? you ask. Or maybe you're asking, “Why not?” Well, Kelly Needham delivered a message I think you need to hear. It helps us embrace a different kind of “strong” and for the right reason. 

Kelly’s husband Jimmy is a pastor in the Dallas area. But when they first got married, he was an up-and-coming musical artist. Here’s my friend Kelly Needham.

Kelly Needham: My first year of marriage wasn’t easy. Not because marriage itself was hard. Jimmy was the kindest, most patient man that I knew. But all of a sudden I was Mrs. Needham. I wasn’t Kelly Adams. I wasn’t who people knew me to be. I was on the road with him, and the only thing that made me important to other people was that I was married to a rock star. And that was really hard. It exposed a lot of pride in me.

I remember standing by the merchandise table in the back. People were lined up to get his autograph. And all I could think was, I have things to offer, too. I’m important, too. Does nobody care about what I have to offer?

And, man, God convicted me that I was not okay to be a servant and a sidekick to my husband if that’s what he needed me to be. I wanted it to be about me. So God exposed my pride in that, and He gave me the grace to repent and turn back to Him. I found so much joy being a servant behind the scenes with Jimmy. It was awesome.

Dannah: Kelly says she was afraid to have children because she didn’t want to be stuck at home while Jimmy was on the road playing music. But on the other hand she did want to have children because her friends were having children and she didn’t want to be left out.

Kelly: Are you noticing a theme here? In all these seasons of my life, and many more after that, these things about womanhood, these battles that come up. I things that I knew in the Scriptures said were hard for me to accept because I was living for myself.

Dannah: Kelly really needed to dig into God’s Word, find a definition for womanhood there, and embrace it. She’s going to share some of what she discovered.

Kelly: Go ahead to Genesis 1, and we’re going to start in verse 26.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (vv. 26–27)

Now, turn with me to Genesis 2, and we’re going to read a little bit more about this creation account in Genesis 2, starting in verse 18.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (vv. 18–25)

So from that creation account, the first thing that we notice is that we were created. That seems like a simple truth, but it is incredibly profound and has huge implications. We are not the creator. We are the created. Which means we have no right to define ourselves.

Isaiah 42:5 says: 

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.

Take a few breaths right now. We don’t think about our breathing very much, it’s so normal. But God’s Word says that if you can breathe right now, God has given you that breath. He sustains your life. He sustains my life. And, therefore, because He created us as women, He sustains us as women; He has every right to define what womanhood should be.

And the second thing we see in this creation of woman is that we're created in His image. That means that we have value and dignity and worth. Because God is supremely valuable, and we are made in His image, it gives us value.

It also means that women are not a lesser gender than men. Conversely, it means that men are not a lesser gender than women. This is not a “Who’s greater than whom?” battle. We are both given equal value, equal dignity, and equal worth because we are both made in our Creator’s image. That’s a great honor.

It also means that being image bearers, we are not to point to ourselves. We were made a signpost to something else. Our creation is meant to reflect and point to God.

And in our togetherness as men and women, we reflect His image. We need each other to do this. And also, again, it means it’s not about us. It’s not about what we can get out of this life, but how we can make Him look awesome to the world around us, that people would want to say, “I want to know your God, and I want to know who He is.”

And the third thing that we see in the creation of woman, not just that we are created, and so we receive God’s instructions for womanhood, that we’re made as image bearers, we have value and worth, but we’re also made as helpers.

I’m going to read Genesis 2:18 again. “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

That’s two words in the Hebrew: ezer kenegdo—ezer, help. Kenegdo means at his level, or next to him, or complementary to him. We are made as a helper, suitable for him, or fit for him.

Now, our culture would scoff at that, that we would be called a helper. Sometimes when we think of a helper, we think of a secretary or someone who cleans up the house while someone else does all the important things. But that is not how the Bible sees help. In fact, there’s only one other person that our Old Testament will attribute the name ezer to. (Any guesses who that is? God Himself.)

You see woman called ezer, and you see God called ezer. Let me read you some of the verses where that word ezer comes up.

Psalm 121:1—2, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

What about Psalm 33:20? “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”

Psalm 70:5, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help [my ezer], my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!”

That word that we just saw in those verses, that God is our help in that way, is the same word He attributes to Eve, “I’m going to make an ezer for you at your level.”

Now, when we say that God is our help, does that belittle God? It does not. It exalts Him. We seek Him as a deliverer and a shield—somebody who’s desperately needed. “If You don’t come to my aid, I have no hope.” And that kind of neediness on God as our help elevates Him when we admit that we have our need and in need of Him.

So why would we, as women, feel inferior because we’ve been called a help? God does not feel that way. Why should we? We are no more inferior to man because we were created to help any more than God is inferior to us because He is there to help us. As God is a help to His people, so we as women get the privilege and honor to be a help to mankind.

Do you enjoy the fact that God is a help to you? Do you enjoy the fact that the One who numbers the stars cares enough to bend down and be a part of your life and help you? We have this awesome privilege to image God in a beautiful, humble, and sacrificial way.

And so, concluding that, our creation as women, God created us in His image to be a reflection of His helping nature. That means biblical womanhood is womanhood with God at the center. God made us in His image to reflect His helping nature. Which means biblical womanhood is a womanhood with God at the center. He is to be our center of gravity, our motivation, our ultimate goal.

Dannah: That’s Kelly Needham, sharing some of her journey in understanding true womanhood. She needed to seek God’s Word to discover God’s purpose in making her female. And we do, too. We don’t need the opinions found on Tik Tok or the headlines. We need the truth of our Bibles to understand what it means to be female.

In our climate, we’re hearing all kinds of ideas about what it means to be a woman. In fact, gender is one of the top ten issues in our election this year. Will you just listen to your friends and social media? I hope not! Each of us needs to do what Kelly did. Have an honest conversation with God about why He made you female. Ask Him why and if femininity matters. Ask Him how He wants you to live out your womanhood for His glory. 

If you want some help doing that, you’ll find hundreds of resources at ReviveOurHearts.com. 

Another top issue in our election: abortion. What I’m about to play for you won’t be easy for some to hear. Especially if abortion has been part of your story. But I believe we need to hear from women who have crawled out from the rubble of unbiblical messages they believed, and the tragic decisions they made as a result.

Martha Schaale: You know what, ladies, the world lied to me, and the world will lie to you. They don’t care about you. The world does not care about me, and the world did not care about me or my baby.

Nancy Lincoln: She said, "It's not a baby." And she's the medical person at the Planned Parenthood clinic, and I have no reason not to believe her.

Martha: I didn’t have anyone in my life to encourage me to do what was right.

Nancy: Nobody came and said, "It's a baby. You'll regret that, and that will hurt you." They didn't tell me of the consequences that might come from that I was going to have a blind, surgical procedure, with instruments put inside of me and a machine turned on. They didn't tell me anything. They didn't tell me about fetal development. They just said that it was an easy solution, and you can get back to the party. You are so young.

Jennifer Smith: I remember crying in my car, thinking, If somebody would just take me out of this set of circumstances, sit with me in a house and just kind of care for me, that would be the only way I could do this. If one person would just grab me, take me away, and live this out with me step by step, then I could do it. But I would have to have a really long-term commitment from that person. So that thought did enter my mind, but I didn’t find that person. I think my mom most certainly would have done it, but I never gave her the chance.

Martha: Even up to the time I walked through the doors of that clinic, deep within my heart and my soul I was wanting Rich to stand up and say, "Martha, no. We are not going to do this. I don't care what anyone thinks. I love you. I care for our baby. That baby is a part of me, too. And we're going to do what is right." But that never happened.

Jennifer: It was about the day before the abortion, and I walked into the bathroom, put my hands on my abdomen, and I just said, “I’m sorry.” Those were the only words I ever spoke to that child.

Dannah: I want you to know something. I believe that child is in heaven. I don’t know exactly how it all works, but it just may be that that sweet mother does get the chance to speak to that child again. If your heart is hurting because abortion has been a part of your life, I want you to know there are pregnancy care centers all across this country with volunteers, clergy, and trained medical staff at the ready to help heal your heart.

If you go to the transcript of this program at ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, we put a link there to a website where you can look up a reputable pregnancy care center near where you live.

Those pregnancy care centers are also actively working to counter lies women are hearing about abortion. Nancy DeMoss Wolgmeuth wanted to support one in her area. She spoke at an event to encourage people to give their money and be those volunteers who offer their time to help women. Let’s listen to some of what Nancy had to say about the value of life.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The Scripture talks frequently about our responsibility—the responsibility we all have as the people of God—when it comes to rescuing those who are perishing. Proverbs 24:11: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling [slipping] to the slaughter.”

He goes on to say, ignorance is no excuse (Proverbs 24:12): “If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” (ESV). I think that’s saying, “God knows your heart, and He knows that you should have known.”

We should know what matters to God, and we should know when God’s ways are being violated. We should care, and we should do what God enables and calls us to do, to have a part in rescuing those who are slipping to the slaughter. “Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?”

I was thinking about that word picture today: God keeps watch over our souls. Should we not keep watch over other souls that are precious to God, and will He not requite man according to his work? Psalm 82:4 says it this way: “Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Now, there’s a physical type of rescue involved there, and where needed, we need to be rescuing lives physically. But the ultimate goal is that their lives, their souls, will be spared from eternal destruction. 

And so, what are you doing to preserve life, to rescue the perishing, to rescue lives—particularly the life of the unborn? Now, I know there are some in this room who are doing it through bearing and nurturing children for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. You’re training those children to love and serve the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s pro-life!

There are others who are involved in working for legislation that protects the unborn. Other areas include adoption and foster services, and post-abortion ministry and counseling, and care for post-abortive women. I hope that all in this room are involved in—in some way—in praying for those involved in other aspects of the pro-life work in this country.

We need mothers, we need adoptive parents, we need counselors—and we need those who, one-on-one and in small settings, will encourage the “Angies”—who find themselves carrying a child that is unplanned.

Where would you be tonight if Jesus had not been willing to lay down His life—to make that ultimate sacrifice—to preserve and spare and redeem human life?

So the question to each of us tonight is, “What are you willing to sacrifice? What are you willing to risk in order to preserve and reclaim lives? In order to rescue the perishing?

Don’t minimize the importance of your prayers. Ultimately, the battle for the lives of these women and their children is not going to be won or lost in the White House or in the halls of Congress. Ultimately, it’s going to be won or lost in the house of God and in the halls of our homes as we commit ourselves to pray, to lift up this ministry and others like it in prayer.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. To hear that entire message, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. It’s called "Women of God, Arise!"

As we in the United States are preparing for a presidential election, a lot of important topics related to women are being brought up. We encourage you to search God’s Word and be grounded—able to share the truth and live by the truth no matter which party is in political power. Jackie Hill Perry is going to help us think through the topic of sexuality, another important conversation happening right now.

Jackie says the first chapters of Genesis show us that God created two genders: male and female. And that gender is part of God’s good creation and so is sex within marriage. But in Genesis 3, we read that Adam and Eve broke God’s command. Verse 7 says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Verse 8 says, “they hid from the Lord God.”

Jackie Hill Perry: After Adam sinned there are two things he did that he would not have done before. One is that he hid from God. Two is that he blamed his wife.

The intimacy he once had with God was gone. So instead of running towards God, he ran away from God. He hid behind a tree. He hid behind a created thing as if God wouldn't see him there. Then, when confronted with his sin, instead of saying, “Sorry, God, I apologize for not protecting the woman that You gave me. I’m sorry that I didn't step in.” He says, “The woman You gave me, she’s the one who gave me the fruit.” Before, she was “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.” Now she’s just the woman that helped him sin.

This is the beginning of humanity's inability to lovingly connect with one another. This is the breakdown of community.

And when it comes to sexuality, this is why we are so easily led to engage in superficial forms of intimacy. There are women who continue to have sex without a ring, not just because of lust, but because they're lonely. Sex to them has become their way of reestablishing what Adam has broken.

There are women in this room that are addicted to pornography, not just because they are lustful, but because they don't know how to have real authentic intimacy with a living, breathing person. Sin makes us believe that there is no relational risk to watching sexual images in private, but there is more risk than you can ever imagine.

God has created us for real community and real intimacy and real friendship and real love, and we really can have it.

Sin has also distorted how many see themselves.

Have you ever noticed that the first thing Adam and Eve took note of after their eyes were open were their bodies? They became aware of their nakedness, and this time they felt shame.

Do not think it odd that there are image bearers of the living God in our world today, people whom God has made and whom God deeply loves who, when looking at who they are biologically, will feel as if that is not who they really are nor is it who they should be.

When God made Adam and Eve, He stepped back and said, “It is good.” This included their bodies.

But now many are stepping back and looking at themselves and saying, “This is not good.”

What sin has also done to God's idea is that it is not only divorced sexuality or sex from marriage, but both have come to be defined according to the culture's perception of goodness.

In our world exists the belief that sexual immorality is a good thing on the basis of, “If it feels good to us.”

To reference Adam and Eve again, when the devil was tempting her to sin, the Bible says she looked at the tree and figured that it was desired to make one wise. Eve sinned because of her logic and her affections, and we are the same way. And I say we on purpose because we can't just think that all of this sin is out there as if it's not in us, too.

We are all born in sin. We are all women whose affections have been affected, and we have all sinned because we figured it would be a good thing to do so. But thank God for Jesus. You don't have to carry the shame of your sin. Jesus took care of that already.

You don't have to be afraid to confess the things that you have done in private.

You don't have to be like Adam by hiding behind the tree of your own making.

Jesus knows where you are, and He knows what you have done, but He has already promised that He is faithful and just to forgive you if you would only confess.

And also, I want to say to someone in this room that you are not what your sexual abuser said that you are.

You are not what your trauma says that you are.

You are a child of the living God.

What the gospel of Jesus Christ has done to God's idea is that it has overcome the sin and the death that we are subject to so that we, like the woman caught in adultery, are able to actually go and sin no more.

Dannah: “Go and sin no more!” Is that something your heart needed to hear today? That’s Jackie Hill Perry, from a Revive Our Hearts series called "The Truth That Sets Us Free." To hear that complete message, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend.

I want you to know that Jackie Hill Perry will be with us for next year's True Woman '25 conference. We are going to gather together in Indianapolis to "Behold the Wonder." Of course, I'm talking about the wonder of the Word. You'll find out more about that on our website, ReviveOurHearts.com.You will also find a trove of solid material to help you think through important issues that we are facing. Issues like sexuality, gender, abortion and the temptations of our hearts like selfishness, pride and discontentment.

That brings me to another issue that I think is important this election year . . . kindness.  The Bible tells us that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. We can't talk about all these controversial subjects if we don't have the power of the Spirit to put fuel and power and in our words. So as you engage on these really controversial topics, ask the Spirit to help you speak with gentleness and kindness.

What I really want you to hear today is that we need God’s Word and His presence to know how to navigate all these difficult topics. And at ReviveOurHearts.com, you’ll find resources that point you to the truth. It’s not always a popular position. It’s not a majority position. But it is a peaceful place . . . to live in the truth of God’s Word. In fact, it’s where you feel true freedom. I’m reminded of John 8:31–32:

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We are able to provide this program and all the other resources at ReviveOurHearts.com thanks to listeners like you who support the ministry. When you make a donation of any size, we’d like to thank you by sending a one-year devotional from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. It’s called Revive My Heart. Every day, Nancy will point you to a truth from God’s Word to help you navigate the confusion we hear all around us. Just visit ReviveOurHearts.com to donate any amount and request the devotional, Revive My Heart.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all the bad news and contention in your newsfeed? We all need next week’s topic. I’ve titled it: “Keeping Your Heart above the Headlines.” I hope you’ll join us, here on Revive Our Hearts Weekend!

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.