2 Honored by God
3 A New Name
4 Daughter of the King
5 Birthright of Peace
6 Made for Victory
7 Give Me Also
8 Equipped To Fight
9 Gifted To Lead
10 Crowned To Serve
11 Called To Gather
12 Be Still in the Middle
13 Worship in the Battle
14 Your Word Is Yes
15 Night Vision
16 Power in the Seed
17 Planted to Flourish
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
Foreword
I’ll never forget the day I met Oneka McClellan. We were filming a Propel Women curriculum with Christine Caine in California, and Oneka came walking into the studio with kind eyes and a big, warm smile. I found myself thinking, Wow, for such a beautiful woman, she sure does seem nice. Not that physical beauty and kindness are always mutually exclusive in women, but I’ve met a few whose grace doesn’t match their selfie face yet!
Within a few minutes, we started filming. For whatever reason, the production team had us perched on high stools under bright lights. I already tend to sweat profusely on camera, but because on this day I was also preoccupied with trying to stay put and not slide off the stool, I was a tad distracted when Chris asked us to share something God had recently been teaching us. Oneka answered, saying something that snapped both my head and my heart in her direction. She said, “I want to be a ‘there you are’ kind of person, not the ‘here I am’ kind.” I’d never heard humility synopsized so simply and profoundly before.
In the decade since that first encounter, Oneka has become a very dear friend whom I love to laugh with and learn from. Her clear and passionate delivery of the gospel onstage is more than matched by her transparency and compassion offstage. Her orthodoxy (what she believes to be true about God and His Word) is genuinely reflected in her orthopraxy (how she lives because of what she believes to be true about God and His Word). This Spirit-led union of authority and authenticity is a stunning reminder that being a daughter of the King of all kings compels us to be both royal and humble—upright in our ethics yet willing to get low enough to wash one another’s feet.
However, all it takes is a brief scroll through social media and it becomes apparent that humility is not exactly trending! I think there’s so much emphasis in postmodernity, on branding and influencing, that we’ve all but forgotten that being God’s beloved daughters often comes at the cost of popularity, that loosening the white-knuckled grip on our rights and our reputation is an inherent part of being shaped like Jesus.
Of course, it’s easy to post humble-brags on Instagram, but it’s a whole other thing to live a life bent toward God and other-oriented service, to be “there you are” carriers of the gospel instead of “here I am” consumers. And to emulate our Savior’s posture when He gave His disciples a Passover pedicure, knowing full well Judas had already sold Him out and the three closest to Him—Peter, James, and John—would soon fall asleep while He travailed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just prior to the Crucifixion.
As we soak in the wisdom our Creator Redeemer has poured through Oneka onto every page of this beautiful book, let’s not forget that our Savior—the One we’re called to emulate—willingly laid down His scepter in glory and acquiesced to death on a cross to wash our prone-to-wander hearts clean from sin with His blood. Let’s endeavor to lean into the royalty we’ve inherited by His grace—not earned by our behavior—with real humility and radical gratitude!
—Lisa Harper, speaker, Bible teacher, and author of Life and Jesus
Introduction
Almost every woman we meet, from the playground to the boardroom, hides a deeper story of broken friendship, insecurity, betrayal, unmet expectations, and feelings of abandonment. Sadly, we live in a world where these struggles are almost unavoidable. And the flip side is true too: At some point in our imperfect lives, nearly every one of us has torn another woman down or allowed a friend to gossip to us about someone when we should have been speaking words of life and encouragement over the women around us.
Born Royal isn’t just a catchphrase; rather, this is a movement, a value revolution of everyday women who are passionate about being a part of bringing heaven to earth. Passionate about turning the tide of comparison and competition and criticism. And passionate about lifting one another up instead of tearing one another down. Even as we navigate our own insecurities, a part of us is longing to bring hope and healing to our world today and to the next generation.
I think it’s time to break the mold of what we’ve been pressured to be. It’s time to break the box we’ve been locked in.
It’s time to put behind us what should be and step into what could be.
What if we celebrated women of all backgrounds and walked with our heads held high instead of taking ourselves for granted? What if we began to see ourselves the way Christ sees us? What if we lived as though our royalty was not just a thing in storybooks or a position for a select few but a posture of the heart and a way of life?
Because here’s the truth: It’s about who you are, not just what you are.
If I start living into the fullness of who God has called me to be and if you start living into the fullness of who God has called you to be, then together we start a movement. A movement that grows and grows to become a sisterhood.
As a sisterhood, we can commit to standing up for the women in our lives and also for ourselves. As royal women, we can lean in to strengthen and lift up girls of all ages in our communities, in our churches, and all around the globe.
And I am telling you now that you are a part of this movement.
It begins with each of us agreeing to a set of shared values and principles and declaring that we will embrace our worth, stand up for other women, and refuse to stop being forces of good in the world. We won’t stop fighting this uphill battle until every woman is loved and valued for who she truly is, for the beauty inside her. But we’re not doing this alone. God goes before us and has shown us the simple yet powerful way this is done.
Micah 5:1 says, “Gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; a state of siege has been placed against us” (AMP). This is unfortunately and horrifically true today. We are under siege in every area of our culture, from brutal bullying in schools to the horrendous crimes committed against women. Like it or not, we’re engaged in a war, my friend. But the divisive plan of the Enemy to sow enmity in our ranks has been exposed by the work of Jesus, and we can rise up against it, as daughters of God. We have the opportunity to join forces and sing a new anthem, which will send ripples of love and acceptance out into the world, and our song won’t be silenced.
