Woman Thou Art Loosed! 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition (9 page)

http://wtal.destinyimage.com/ch5

Amnon was wicked. He brutally raped his sister Tamar. He destroyed her destiny and her future. He slashed her self-esteem. He spoiled her integrity. He broke her femininity like a twig under his feet. He assassinated her character. She went into his room a virgin with a future. When it was over, she was a bleeding, trembling, crying mass of pain.

That is one of the saddest stories in the Bible. It also reveals what people can do to one another if left alone without God. For when Amnon and Tamar were left alone, he assassinated her. The body survived, but her femininity was destroyed. She felt as though she would never be the woman that she would have been had it not happened.

Have you ever had anything happen to you that changed you forever? Somehow, you were like a palm tree and you survived. Yet you knew you would never be the same. Perhaps you have spent every day since then bowed over. You could in no wise lift up yourself. You shout. You sing. You skip. But when no one is looking, when the crowd is gone and the lights are out, you are still that trembling, crying, bleeding mass of pain that is abused, bowed, bent backward and crippled.

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ave you ever had anything happen to you that changed you forever?

Maybe you are in the Church, but you are in trouble. People move all around you, and you laugh, even entertain them. You are fun to be around. But they don’t know. You can’t seem to talk about what happened in your life.

The Bible says Tamar was in trouble. The worst part about it is, after Amnon had abused her, he didn’t even want her. He had messed up her life and spoiled what she was proud of. He assassinated her future and damaged her prospects. He destroyed her integrity and self-esteem. He had changed her countenance forever. Afterward, he did not even want her. Tamar said, “What you’re doing to me now is worse than what you did to me at first” (2 Sam. 13:16). She said, “
Raping me was horrible, but not wanting me is worse
.” When women feel unwanted, it destroys their sense of esteem and value.

Some of you have gone through divorces, tragedies and adulterous relationships, and you’ve been left feeling unwanted. You can’t shout over that sort of thing. You can’t leap over that kind of wall. It injures something about you that changes how you relate to everyone else for the rest of your life. Amnon didn’t even want Tamar afterward. She pleaded with him, “Don’t throw me away.” She was fighting for the last strands of her femininity. Amnon called a servant and said, “Throw her out.” The Bible says he hated her with a greater intensity than that with which he had loved her before (2 Sam. 13:15).

God knows that the Amnon in your life really does not love you. He’s out to abuse you. The servant picked Tamar up, opened the door and threw that victimized woman out. She lay on the ground outside the door with nowhere to go. Amnon told the servant, “Lock the door.”

What do you do when you are trapped in a transitory state, neither in nor out? You’re left lying at the door, torn up and disturbed, trembling and intimidated. The Bible says she cried. What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Filled with regrets, pains, nightmare experiences, seemingly unable to find relief…unable to rise above it, she stayed on the ground. She cried.

She had a coat, a cape of many colors. It was a sign of her virginity and of her future. She was going to give it to her husband one day. She sat there and ripped it up. She was saying, “I have no future. It wasn’t just that he took my body. He took my future. He took my esteem and value away.”

Many of you have been physically or emotionally raped and robbed. You survived, but you left a substantial degree of self-esteem in Amnon’s bed. Have you lost the road map that directs you back to where you were before?

There’s a call out in the Spirit for hurting women. The Lord says, “I want you.” No matter how many men like Amnon have told you, “I don’t want you,” God says, “I want you. I’ve seen you bent over. I’ve seen the aftereffects of what happened to you. I’ve seen you at your worst moment. I still want you.” God has not changed His mind. God loves with an everlasting love.

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o matter how many men have told you, “I don’t want you,” God says, “I want you.

When Jesus encountered the infirm woman of Luke 13, He called out to her. There may have been many fine women present that day, but the Lord didn’t call them forward. He reached around all of them and found that crippled woman in the back. He called forth the wounded, hurting woman with a past. He issued the Spirit’s call to those who had their value and self-esteem destroyed by the intrusion of vicious circumstances.

The infirm woman must have thought,
He wants me. He wants me. I’m frayed and torn, but He wants me. I have been through trouble. I have been through this trauma, but He wants me.
Perhaps she thought no one would ever want her again, but Jesus wanted her. He had a plan.

She may have known that it would take awhile for her life to be completely put back together. She had many things to overcome. She was handicapped. She was probably filled with insecurities. Yet Jesus still called her forth for His touch.

If you can identify with the feelings of this infirm woman, then know that He’s waiting on you and that He wants you. He sees your struggling and He knows all about your pain. He knows what happened to you 18 years ago or 10 years ago or even last week. With patience He waits for you, as the father waited for the prodigal son. Jesus says to the hurting and crippled, “I want you enough to wait for you to hobble your way back home.”

Now God says, “I’m going to deliver you and heal you. Now I’m going to renew you and release you. I’m going to tell you who you really are. Now I’m ready to reveal to you why you had to go through what you did to become what you shall become.” He says, “Now I’m going to tell you a secret, something between you and Me no one else knows. Amnon didn’t know. Your boyfriend didn’t know, your first husband didn’t know. I’ll tell you something that your father, uncle, brother or whoever abused you had no knowledge of. Just realize that you are the daughter of a king. Your Father is the King.”

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ou are the daughter of a king.

When the infirmed woman came to Jesus, He proclaimed her freedom. Now she stands erect for the first time in 18 years. When you come to Jesus, He will cause you to stand in His strength. You will know how important you are to Him. Part of your recovery is to learn how to stand up and live in the “now” of life instead of the “then” of yesterday. That was then, but this is now.

I proclaim to the abused: There is a healing going into your spirit right now. I speak life to you. I speak deliverance to you. I speak restoration to you. All in the mighty name of Jesus, in the invincible, all-powerful, everlasting name of Jesus. I proclaim victory to you. You will recover the loss you suffered at the hands of your abuser. You will get back every stolen item. He will heal that broken twig. He will rebuild your self-esteem, your self-respect and your integrity.

All you need do is allow His power and anointing to touch the hurting places. He will take care of the secrets. He touches the places where you’ve been assassinated. He knows the woman you would have been, the woman you should have been, the woman you could have been. God is healing and restoring her in you as you call out to Him.

The enemy wanted to change your destiny through a series of events, but God will restore you to wholeness as if the events had never happened. The triumphant woman locked inside shall come forth to where she belongs. He’s delivering her. He’s releasing her. He’s restoring her. He’s building her back. He’s bringing her out. He’s delivering by the power of His Spirit. “
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts
” (Zech. 4:6).

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he triumphant woman locked inside shall come forth to where she belongs.

The anointing of the living God is reaching out to you. He calls you forth to set you free. When you reach out to Him and allow the Holy Spirit to have His way, His anointing is present to deliver you. Demons will tremble. Satan wants to keep you at the door, but never let you enter. He wants to keep you down. Now his power is broken in your life.

Tamar knew the feeling of desertion. She understood that she was cast out. However, the Bible explains that Absalom came and said, “I’m going to take you in.” You too may have been lying at the door. Perhaps you didn’t have anywhere to go. You may have been half in and half out. You were broken and demented and disturbed. But God sent Absalom to restore his sister.

In this instance, Absalom depicts the purpose of real ministry. Thank God for the Church. It’s the place where you can come broken and disgusted, and be healed, delivered and set free in the name of Jesus.

Jesus said, “
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised
” (Lk. 4:18).

You may have thought that you would never rejoice again. God declares that you can have freedom in Him—now! The joy that He brings can be restored to your soul. He identifies with your pain and suffering. He knows what it is like to suffer abuse at the hands of others. Yet He proclaims joy and strength. He will give you the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness (Is. 61:3).

Once you have called out to Him, you can lift up your hands in praise. No matter what you have suffered, you can hold up your head. Regardless of who has hurt you, hold up your head! Forget how many times you’ve been married. Put aside those who mistreated you. You may have been a lesbian. You may have been a crack addict. It doesn’t matter who you were. You may have even been molested. You can’t change where you have been, but you can change where you are going.

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ou can’t change where you have been, but you can change where you are going.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.
Psalm 24:9-10

He will restore to you that which the cankerworm and the locust ate up (see Joel 2:25). He said, “I’m going to give it back to you.” Maybe you wrestle with guilt. You’ve had abortions. You’ve been hearing babies crying in your spirit. You feel so dirty. You’ve been misused and abused. The devil keeps bringing up to you your failures of the past.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isaiah 1:18

All my life I have had a tremendous compassion for hurting people. When other people would put their foot on them, I always tended to have a ministry of mercy. Perhaps it is because I’ve had my own pain. When you have suffered, it makes you able to relate to other people’s pain. The Lord settled me in a ministry that just tends to cater to hurting people. Sometimes when I minister, I find myself fighting back tears. Sometimes I can hear the cries of anguished people in the crowd.

Like Tamar, you’re a survivor. You should celebrate your survival. Instead of agonizing over your tragedies, you should celebrate your victory and thank God you made it. I charge you to step over your adversity and walk into the newness. It is like stepping from a storm into the sunshine. Just step into it now.

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tep over your adversity and walk into the newness.

God has blessed me with two little boys and two little daughters. As a father, I have found that I have a ministry of hugs. When something happens, and I really can’t fix it, I just hug them. I can’t change how other people treated them. I can’t change what happened at school. I can’t make the teacher like them. I can’t take away the insults. But I can hug them!

I believe the best nurses are the ones who have been patients. They have compassion on the victim. If anyone understands the plight of women, it ought to be women. The Church needs to develop a ministry of hugs. The touch of the Master sets us free. The touch of a fellow pilgrim lets us know we are not alone in our plight.

The Holy Spirit is calling for the broken, infirm women to come to Jesus. He will restore and deliver. How do we come to Jesus? We come to His Body, the Church. It is in the Church that we can hear the Word of God. The Church gives us strength and nourishment. The Church is to be the place where we share our burdens and allow others to help us with them. The Spirit calls; the burdened need only heed the call.

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ow do we come to Jesus? We come to His Body, the Church.

There are three tenses of faith! When Lazarus died, Martha, his sister, said, “Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died.” This is historical faith. Its view is digressive. Then when Jesus said, “Lazarus will live again,” his sister replied, “I know he will live in the resurrection.” This is futuristic faith. It is progressive. Martha says, “But
even now
You have the power to raise him up again.” (See John 11:21-27.) I feel like Martha. Even now, after all you’ve been through, God has the power to raise you up again! This is the present tense of faith. Walk into your newness even now.