God is a God who gives us more than enough. His blessings are endless and overflowing. He doesn’t set limitations on us. He doesn’t box us in. He sees endless possibilities in and for us. That’s the God we serve. We’ve pitched a tent in the world, accepting its way of defining our identity and treating other women. Meanwhile, He’s waiting for His royal daughters to receive our inheritance. So I want you to start seeing endless possibilities for your life and the women around you.
If we start a value revolution, if we stop settling, if we walk in our inheritance, if we change the way the world sees women and the way women see one another, just think about how many people will come to know Christ. Think about how many women’s walls of insecurity and self-protection will come down when they meet another woman who is speaking life to them and not competing with them or judging them. You have what it takes to start a value revolution, because God has brought you to this moment for such a time as this. He’s entrusting you with this word. We’re going to be carriers of Christ’s revolution for women, and it will spread all throughout our cities and beyond.
I dare you to speak life to someone you don’t know. Be ready for God to move miraculously in that woman’s life and in your life by your speaking words of value to her. Do you have difficult people in your family? I know I do. Write them letters that speak life to them. Speak life in the midst of all the crazy.
One particular woman in Joshua 15:16–19 really grasped the importance of her inheritance and was confident in her identity. A man named Caleb promised his daughter to the man who would attack and capture a city he had been assigned in the promised land. Well, a man named Othniel captured the city, so Caleb gave him his daughter to marry and gave the couple land. But this woman knew her father and asked him for something more. Do you know your Father in heaven like this woman knew her father, Caleb? Do you know that you can ask Him for anything? The daughter rode to meet her father and said, “Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water” (verse 19, NIV). And Caleb gave her what she asked for.
Caleb’s daughter didn’t think small or limit her father’s capabilities. She said, “Give me also.”
God is looking for royal daughters who will say, “Give me also. I’m not going to settle for only what’s in front of me.”
We serve a God who is more than enough.
Give me also breakthrough in my family.
Give me also healing in my body.
Give me also salvation for my entire family.
Give me also favor in my job.
Give me also strength to wake up tomorrow and crush it.
Give me also peace in my mind when negative thoughts come.
We’re not eating the stew anymore. We’re not camping out in mediocrity anymore. We’re going to walk into the promises of God because we serve a God who has given us an inheritance.
Of course, we don’t have a magic wand to wave, and we don’t make demands of God, but this heart posture reminds us to not settle and to know that He wants what is best for us. Just like my little girl isn’t afraid to ask her daddy for anything—and I do mean anything—we shouldn’t be afraid to ask our heavenly Father for our hearts’ desires. Matthew 6:27–30 says, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.”
What’s your “give me also” for your family? What’s your “give me also” for your thoughts, your job, your school, your finances, and your city? God has decreed that He is moving in your neighborhood. He is moving in your heart. I’m praying that this stirs your faith. I’m believing that if we’re all praying for one another’s family, for breakthroughs, for our communities, then we will break the limits we’ve placed on ourselves. What do you think will happen? A value revolution. Chains will break. The lost will come home. The broken will be healed. I’m believing that you will stop limiting God and you will remember that you have an inheritance as His royal daughter. Let’s step into what God has for us, our families, our cities, and this world. We are the carriers of His vision, His Spirit, and His life.
To understand our value and our inheritance, we must surrender everything to Jesus. So, in this moment, we’re surrendering every single thing, every single plan, and every single dream to Christ. With surrendered hearts, let’s ask and believe God for miracles. We surrender all to You, Jesus. We surrender.
Let’s Pray
Dear Jesus, thank You that You have given me a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Help me not sell myself short. I will no longer settle. I will look to You for my career, school, and relationship dreams. I trust You to decide what is best for me. I will not let this world pressure me into lowering my value and worth. I thank You that You have my best interests in mind, and I commit to putting my hope and trust in You.
8 Equipped to Fight
When I was preparing this chapter, I was thinking about different fights in this world and then I remembered when I was in elementary school and I got into a fight. The class was bullied by a girl named Jean who had a bowl haircut. She picked on everyone; she owned the playground as the self-appointed boss. She also was taller than all of us and used her height and strength to lord it over us. She was one of those kids that no one crossed. She just brought fear with her everywhere she went. Finally, one day I decided to do something. With my cute little press and curl, which is when your hair is really curly and tight, I said to myself, Today Jean is about to meet her match.
I told Jean, “It’s not fair that you’re bullying everybody.” And then I don’t know what came over me, but I hit her. For a moment, I felt proud of myself, but before I could blink, she popped me back so hard I literally saw stars. But I got back up.
Sometimes in life, we get knocked down by marriage problems, knocked down by stress in school, and knocked down by our dreams being delayed. But in this moment, God’s saying, “Girl, I’ve crowned you to fight.”
Which of us really knows how to fight for what we believe in? Which of us knows how to fight in prayer and cry out to God for breakthroughs? If you haven’t found your fight, if you’ve lost your fight, or if you need to be reminded to fight, I’m betting that by the time you finish this chapter, you’ll be ready, ’cause, baby, you’re worth it.
Esther 4:14 says, “Perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” (CSB). I was thinking about the state of our nation and world, and it’s easy to just get discouraged with the news and all the negativity we see on social media. But guess what? We’ve been called to fight. We’ve been crowned for such a time as this. This very moment, God isn’t surprised by the state of the world. We are part of the solution. We are part of the change that we want to see on this earth. We are part of the breakthrough. We weren’t alive a hundred years ago; we are alive now. God has called us to make a difference in our time. We don’t want to complain about the world we live in, and we don’t want to complain about the future. We want to fight for it. That fight happens in prayer, and that fight happens when we know that we’ve been crowned for it.
Sometimes you don’t choose the fight. The fight chooses you.
God wants you to hold your position. I don’t know what you’re fighting in your mind, I don’t know what you’re fighting from your past, but God wants to fight with you. So keep persevering so that you’re not completely knocked out. He wants you to bounce back. We’ve been crowned for the fight. Some of us were born into a fight. Some of us have to face fights that we didn’t plan or want. But remember, “you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
We’ve been crowned for the fight.
I think about a beautiful mom in our church. She fights every single day for her little girl. She goes to more doctors’ appointments than she can count and has visited the ER more than she ever would desire. But despite all this, she knows that she is crowned for the fight. Every single time she opens her mouth, she’s speaking praise, she’s speaking blessing, and she’s speaking faith. She didn’t choose this fight for her little girl, but she has embraced the fight and is standing her ground. I’m praying and fighting with her.
I think about another one of my friends, Lauren Kuehn. Several years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. She fought that battle with every single ounce of energy within her. I was fighting for her and fighting with her. If you had spent two seconds around her, you wouldn’t have felt sorry for her. Your faith would’ve been encouraged, and you would’ve been energized, because she knew she was crowned for the fight. Although her story didn’t end the way I had believed and prayed for, I’m forever marked by her fighting spirit. She didn’t choose that fight. She didn’t want cancer to be her story, but she dusted her gloves off and said, “Bring it on, devil. What do you have for me now?”
One day during her journey with cancer, a few of us went to lunch for her birthday, and this is what she said: “I don’t want any presents. I just want to speak life and God’s Word into our hearts.” So we sat at the table, and she spoke life into each one of us. She spoke to our futures; she spoke to our potential; she spoke to the call of God on our lives. She was a mom of four who was engaged in her own fight, yet she was still calling out the fight in all of us. No matter what battle you’re facing, God knows what it is, and He wants to wake up the fight in you and inspire you to be all that He’s called you to be.
First Corinthians 15:57 says, “Thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When Christ died on the cross for us, His fight guaranteed our victory. Those old thought patterns you’re fighting, He took them to the cross and guaranteed your victory. This is such good news.
Right before Jesus went to the cross, He cried out to God in prayer. He said to His disciples, “I’m going to go just a stone’s throw away to pray. Y’all pray with me.” The Bible says in Luke 22:44 that He was in such great anguish that His sweat was like drops of blood. He was in a fight for the world, and the fight was agonizing. Anguish isn’t pretty, pain isn’t pretty, but He took on all the agony so we would know that the victory is ours. We just have to step into the victory that Christ has already won.
Psalm 144:1 says, “Praise the Lord, who is my rock.” Who needs Him to be their rock today? The verse continues, “He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle.” God is not afraid of battle, and He’s not afraid of war. The thing is, we don’t have to fight by ourselves. He’s going to anoint us and strengthen us to be able to fight every battle that comes our way.
In the early stages of my friend Lauren’s battle with cancer, we were texting about fight songs. Worship is our fight song. Worship is how we acquire victory. Worship is how we endure the battle. Worship is where we realize breakthrough. So, right after she was diagnosed, Lauren and I were texting, and we both just started singing, “I will live and not die and tell of the works of God.”[1] We started declaring God’s presence over her. We started declaring healing over her. Worship was our weapon. We worshipped over that diagnosis all the way until her last day.
Our reward is heaven, our home. As much as we enjoy life here on earth, the Bible says it’s but a vapor.[2] So even though my best friend, Lauren, wasn’t healed on earth and even though I miss her every single day, I find rest knowing that she is no longer suffering. I find peace knowing that she is probably painting, dancing, and singing at the feet of Jesus. No more medicine, no more pain—pure, unending joy. What eternal victory.
No matter what battle you’re facing, remember you’re equipped with powerful weapons. I talked in chapter 5 about the power of worship while we’re in battle. But worship isn’t our only weapon. I’ve talked about another weapon all throughout this book. That weapon is God’s Word, our Bibles. When I’m in a battle and even when I’m not, you will find me blasting worship music, reading my Bible, and praying Scripture over my situation. I also listen to powerful and encouraging sermons to fill me up. Another practical thing I do is leave other people voice memos and text messages speaking life over them. What I’ve found is that watering others helps me get my mind off myself and lifts my head above the clouds.
My pastor, Laura Koke, is a fighter, y’all. She’s one of the toughest, baddest women I know. She fights on her knees in prayer. She lives in a constant state of surrender. After her teenage son passed away, she had every excuse to stop fighting. In grief, she wisely took time to rest and heal. But she now fights for those who have lost loved ones. She didn’t and doesn’t just stop with her own needs. She has mentored and fought for a trail of women around the world that follow her example as she teaches them how to fight, how to stand tall, how to remain faithful, and how to keep Jesus at the center. There were so many days when I felt like giving up after starting to pastor my own church with my husband. But Pastor Laura rejoiced with me in the small victories and prayed over me with faith and conviction in every discouragement. She was mentoring me when the first five people joined our church and is still mentoring me now that thousands around the world are part of our church. She still rejoices with me, still cries with me, and still prays with me through the highs and the lows of building our church.
Jesus fought for us, so we need to fight for the girls in our world. God doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t just sit back and let life slap us up and down; He teaches our hands to fight the battle. We’ve got to imagine a new picture of Jesus. Sometimes we think that He’s just chilling with a blankie when really He’s straight gangster and knows how to battle.
Listen to David’s words in Psalm 18:29: “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.” David knew God because he met with God so many times. God wants you to call Him your personal God.
