Below I have cribbed together my notes from live Facebooking for the tribe. Also, Dawn Bray kindly transcribed her notes from the live event, and I will start with those out of honor to the woman of G-d.
Notes courtesy of Dawn Bray, Reposted with permission.
Introduction
*Know your essence.
*You are allowed to be crazy unique
*What has God placed in you that was intended to change the world in some way / context
*How is that supposed to be a significant impact in the world
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Mary / Martha / Lazarus
*Carried extraordinary label of friend (few people received that label in the Bible)
*Didn’t call his apostles friends till later
*Storyline – doers and worshippers
*There is a world of difference between timing and perspective, vs essence
*(Not scoring for your team…not told their essence is bad. It’s an event. Poor eye / hand coordination)
*It’s not an attack on your essence when you make a mistake
*Martha owned the house! It was Martha’s house. She is the head of the home.
*(Jesus went to Martha’s home)
*Overtly her lifestyle – she is a doer, she makes thing happen
*That moment was a wrong judgement call, but not a judgement on her essence
*The next chapter – Lazarus died. Martha first out of the house to meet him. Her response – serious faith for resurrection
*Jesus in her face with the faith to believe. And she says she is in. (This is not Mary’s moment…even though she had been at His feet)
*Many builders in scripture have high levels of faith
*At the beginning, God builds the universe. No worship place, but a command to build.
*A new heaven and earth at the end.
*Job 38 – God discusses his essence. He describes himself as a builder. Because he is a builder, we trust him and honor him
*Nehemiah – a builder
*Joseph – built a system in Egypt
*David – built a kingdom and many different structures.
*Building is legitimate construct to know their God with power and intimacy with that key of music
*Proverbs 31
*Describing a builder
———-
Abigail
*Described from God’s point of view:
*Beautiful
*Intelligent
*Profound validation of what is important to Him about her
*Describes her husband:
*Very wealthy
*Cruel
*Evil
*Essence: beautiful and intelligent
*He also has a hairline temper – she walks on eggshells
*She didn’t leave him. And earned the respect of the staff as they watched her
*Our deepest trust comes from the places we’ve had the greatest challenges
*She understands angry men. So she heads off to intercept him. He is murderously furious. She falls at his feet…
*Blessed for good judgement by David
*Diplomacy
*Moved from microcosm that she is in danger, into the big picture of what God is doing.
*Why could she do that? Because she has done it a hundred thousand times in her mind.
*Under random and irrational leadership
*Lawyer a thousand times, appealing for justice
*Not speaking it out, but thinking it
*Fruit of living with Nabal and being a peacemaker in her household
*Intelligence with a keen sense of justice. She didn’t dissolve and become powerless, but mastered the art of diplomacy
*Told Nabal, his heart became a stone. Shock of her sharing caused a physical problem. He died because God struck him and he died.
*God himself killed Nabal. Vindication for his wife.
*No time to grieve before David claims her in lust. He sent men to take her.
*Now a refugee on the run, married by force by David.
*9 year period – 4 wives, each had one child, and moved on. She was wife #2
*Culminated in Bathsheba, but it was going on long before her
*Kiliab – chip off the old block (no children before, now a boy…hope) then he is never mentioned later. Died later?
*Human situation that never really worked for her – from abused to being discarded and abandoned
*In the end, she still knew her God
*Her final statement – ‘God is my judge’ I stayed true
*Nobility in midst of tragedy
*Designed by God to be an amazing partner in life
*At the end, still dignity
*Life giving in the place of her own tragedy
———
Hagar
*Egyptian
*Not sure how she ended up in Abraham’s household
*Possibly given by Pharaoh, possibly purchased as a gift for his wife
*Either way, given as personal slave to Sarai as a gift – she was a prize, a cut above
*Concubines were different.
*Scripture is clear we have a different dynamic with Hagar
Given by Sarai
*Family dynamic has shifted. No longer a slave but a wife
*Hagar’s lack of discretion isn’t great. Got full of herself.
*Big time injustice. Sarai complained to Abram.
*Abram went back on the marriage, and gave her back to Sarai as a slave
*Sarai was very vindictive.
*Hagar runs away. God comes to her- where are you from, where are you going?
*God’s answer to her honesty – ‘God has heard your misery’
*Promise over Ishmael
*When you feel powerless, you dream of violent justice to the injustice around you
*This household is all wrong…and God gives a promise of freedom and vengeance / justice to her son. Defiantly independent and fierce. Bedouins
*Validation of essence to a resident troublemaker.
*She goes back.
*Issac is born, being weened.
*Ishmael is making fun, Sarah goes on a rant.
*Abraham loves Ishmael and is caught in a hard place. Hates playing peacemaker. God says emancipate them.
*Her essence: passion for justice and slavery
*People deal with varying degrees
*The hatred of injustice and slavery
*Matt 23
*Hagar was never a slave at heart
*She accrued the favor of God
*Coyote vs dog
———
*Beauty and drama, but look at depth
Queen of Sheba
*Heard about Solomon
*Two exhorters
*Come with drama
*Came to test with hard questions
*Not only a queen and wealthy, but considered herself intelligent.
*Talked to him about her questions. Saw the wisdom and was overwhelmed.
*Didn’t believe them until she saw them with her own eyes
*Praise be to the Lord your God who made you king over Israel
*Never had seen so much spices and wood before or since. And returned to her own country
*A woman who liked her bling.
*Her position, the intangible things – intelligent but was no pushover
*Intrigued but not impressed. How much is reality.
*Was not going to embarrass herself – she brought her wealth with her
*Essence: she was competitive
*For brand, for wealth, knowledge
*Dignity and knowledge
*Exhorter to the core
*Wanted to know about this God
*Solomon easily had the wisdom needed for the competition and the hunger
*Nothing unusual about her coming except the intensity – why is it included
*To celebrate her competitiveness ?
*Anyone that has a passion to complete is seen as being offensive or problematic
*Competitiveness is designed by God, can be a godly manifestation
*Jesus – to serve not to compete. But chose disciples because they would be the ones to disciple entire nations
*That drive, to have measurables – built into humanity
*Designed to achieve
*Usually becomes destructive
*But to align with God’s purposes
*Brought the treasures of her nation
*Moved from competitive to awe
*Awe is not an ordinary part of conversation.
*Not controversial term, generally embrace but do nothing about
*Lack of awe-
*Editing: glory stories, and praying smaller prayers
*Never pray smaller!
*Highly competitive people are big people. Large capacity for awe
*What if you can’t dial back and be content.
*You will serve a big God, not a small god
*Contentment is often laziness
*Permission to dream
———-
*Opposite of competitiveness:
*Complacency, lacking fire and passion
*Tearing someone else down – woundedness
*Wholeness – want to walk because older siblings are walking
*Want to have more – to unpack treasures
*Building ourselves and others up vs tearing down
*Competition: Envision people’s design and language it for them to encourage them, champion people, cause them to desire it
*Competition is against forces of darkness
*Craving to see all the power of God in our hands, tangible results
*Don’t tear down, grow more in the essence of God
*The drive that is God-given
*Competition: To not tear down, but to be bigger than I was yesterday
———-
*Mercy with anger
*Is your anger focused or floating?
*John – gift of mercy, but 1st John is a cutting epistle
*Phineas – zealous for God’s glory
———
*Exhorter gift:
*Focused on presentation
*African American culture – carries exhorter gifting
*Clothing, bling, music – can pull it off like no other
———
*Daniel – not a volcano, he was mellow man while surrounded by wickedness
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Mary
*Whiplash, got yanked every which way
*Angst – external world being changed
*Grounded internally or are only anchored when your external world?
*No sin of her own- but hand of God and culture, to change change change
*Amazing for her capacity to remain grounded despite it all
*Flawless grace through it all
*Her family had moved from Bethlehem to Nazareth – where you go when you had no where else to go.
*‘Single wide on a dirt road’ picture.
*Gabriel shows up and encounters her
*If God can pull it off, I’m game.
*From a very small environment, a poor home – she’s in
*Profound Magnificat
*Glorious time, but then goes home and has to face the shame.
*She is the only one that knows that she knows that she hasn’t slept with anyone
*No big wedding, but community acknowledgement that she and Jospeh had messed up
*Census – every 10 years, except for this time. 6 years too soon.
*Heavily pregnant
*You can’t integrate the stable birth and the Gabriel visit rationally
*Whiplash – how did I end up here?
*Shepherds: reaffirmation, God still has her number
*Living in a house in Bethlehem – 1-2 years, surviving
*Out of the blue, magi with their entourage
*Mary and Joseph process another whiplash – who has ever heard of this stuff?
*But it’s real – Gold frankincense and myrrh is left.
*Leaving for Egypt in the middle of the night – contrary to their nature and integrity
*Trying to be obedient. Went back to Nazareth after a few years.
*Jerusalem. Whiplash – 3 days of looking for him! Jesus duking it out with Ph.D’s of the day
*Caperneum – Mary can’t handle it and grabs his brothers to take him back. But he doesn’t answer the door
*Crucifixion – Mary watched
*Where do you put that
*What experience trains you for that moment
*Against the backdrop of all the miracles
*After resurrection – who am I to Him now?
*And Mary is there on day of Pentecost where Peter preaches under the Holy Spirit
*Through it all – she maintained her emotional balance from inside not the outside
*Not a lot of people that could sympathize or encourage her, about the bigger picture or what was going on
*Fluid in how she approached life and also extremely grounded
*Free spirits are usually not grounded.
*One or the other
*Two different tribes that don’t relate to one another
*Womanhood – an expression of her essence. Grounded and fluid, on the most extraordinarily playing field of anyone in human history
*She built a life with groundedness and fluidity
God placed that in her in utter defiance of her circumstances
*Tough life, but she graced that life with the essence of womanhood that she unpacked and walked out
*Amazingly grounded and incredibly fluid
*Grace for resilience
*Deep Faith beyond culture
*Promises that are supposed to happen that seem impossible
*Believe in the nature of God when the actions of God baffle you
*God speaking of emotion of the Father
*Separated from culture so you are free to be counter culture –
*Looking back to see you are on time at the right place
*Masterpiece of grace and dignity
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Naomi
*You stole vs. you are a thief = Action vs. Essence.
*‘You are..’ essence statements
*You can’t change them
*Difference between behavior statements vs essence statements
*The enemy loves damaging essence statements
*Salvation and sanctification is transformation.
*What doesn’t change is core essence. Is it misused or using unwisely
*The enemy will attack and condemn our essence
*God breathing on essence vs external issues
*She names her children sickly and puny, and they die
*She is going home to face the shame
Does the culturally appropriate thing for her daughter in laws
*Marred by failure, grief, and hopelessness
*‘This is Naomi?’ Clear difference
*She said they don’t know the half of it
*She was broken
*One objective for Ruth – stay out of trouble (young, foreign…)
*Kinsman redeemer discussion – Naomi’s essence
*Wheeler dealer.
*Deal maker
*She knew the rules, with a plan and package
*Arrangements
*It didn’t have to take a barley harvest .
*God could have connected them a thousand different ways.
*But used the thing that had gotten Naomi into trouble, to give her dignity back
*God is aware she is broke, broken, and misrepresenting him
*Wheeler dealer had gotten her into deep trouble, but God redeeming for her
*Completely changed her storyline
*IBM messed up, witch-hunt
*Tore up resignation, expensive mess up but had integrity
*Behavior issue, but not essence
*Mess up but not unsolvable
*No welfare
*God did not intrude in Naomi’s life with exterior resources, but pulled the treasure out of her.
*God had made her a deal maker – part of the master plan.
*He breathed on it, and let her work a deal in her culture
*Saul of Tarsus
*Murderer – Mr. Genocide
*Brilliant Theologian
*same essence
*Come to Jesus meeting on essence – didn’t marginalize Him, but God equipped him.
*Took legal mind and passion for religion and used it for His glory
*Exiled to Syria – didn’t believe in his essence but God did
*God craves restoring essence to be as He designed it
*Mess up that everyone bet against when God bet FOR
*Gehazi – lying in the name of the prophets. Absolutely indefensible. And *Yet, he is in the palace two chapters later – healed of the leprosy
*Did business with the Lord
*Durability of design
*Lord, confirm to her spirit that this is her season. In her heart language. *Brood over the truth center of her being. Assuring her there is a new season – this is a new season. For that to be manifest.
*It not a 30 day wonder…
*Regaining respect of community.
*Set your face like flint for what God has for you
*Naomi was only hoping for survival.
*But received wealth, prestige, and mention in the scriptures
*That’s what God did for her
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Elizabeth
*Taken for granted, overshadowed
*Most of the attention goes elsewhere
*But the others depend on her
*Not overlooked, but she’s overlooked
*Scripture is very intentional that she descended from Aaron
*She was in the priestly line
*Very clear statement of her emotional well-being. She hid for 5 months *when she got pregnant. Clothed with shame.
*Keenly felt the social shame
*Solitude – why did she hide for many months?
*Because of awe, no distractions
*Spirit driven person not soul driven person
*Spiritually large person, so her son was spiritually large
*Elizabeth had continued to live in faith when she had waited for so long for what she had wanted
*She refused to strut her stuff because it’s an intimacy moment with her God
*John – in the wilderness, harsh in pursuit of holiness
*Forerunner, preparing the way
*Spiritual realm to break things open
*Only 6 month ministry for John, with 3 month overlap
*First prophet in 400 years
*Jesus compares John to Elijah – says he is greater!
*Immensity and intensity in his spirit, cracking the religious spirit
*Look at his mother. Overwhelmed by gratitude and awe when she became pregnant, months in adoration.
*A breaker anointing blessing of her spirit
*Cadences is our lives are biggest points of conflict between us and God.
*Desires, cultural norms, and expectations…
*Explosion of the right thing at the right time.
*Submitted to God’s time.
*Consumption of a whole lot of choices.
*Feeling blocked. Probably were
*By your junk, or hand of God
*Taxi and taxi and taxi to never get airborne, or the enemy
*Fight against the block and we become damaged,
*Or trust God through it and are transformed
*A woman who understood the art of gratitude
*Romans 1 – brain rot
*First step is ingratitude
*Romans 12 – renewed in the mind
*Gratitude at the center
*Elizabeth defines a spiritual climate with a passionate gratitude with the gift God has given her
*Facilitated Jesus’s ministry by domino effect
*Pregnant with the purposes of God
*Core part of essence – but yet unseen
*Hope and dream has almost died
———
*Bathsheba
*All David’s fault or two players?
*Adultery
*Judgement by the prophet
*David went from grief to Bathsheba
*Story becomes beautiful
*Roving eye stills
*No other wives (besides Abishag that was not consummated)
4 sons with her
*4th child – prophet came, God really really likes 4th born, Jedediah
*Parents don’t use that name – Solomon
*Book of Proverbs
*Solomon repeatedly mentioning nurture from father and mother, David learned how to do marriage from a very wrong start
*Patented together and successfully
*Parented around issue of wisdom
*Honorable – Bathsheba was a learner
*Fail forward.
*No undoing what she did, what happened
*When Solomon met with God – too young, I need wisdom
*It takes a lot of wisdom to know you need wisdom
*Building the temple that David was not able to build.
*To build in the exact area of failure, takes learning.
*Freedom to run hard after God to mine after wisdom, imprinted on him
*Finding wisdom is worth the work
——-
Moses mother – Armram and Jochebed
*Nation at war
*Civilian during wartime
*Involved in covert activity – whole family at risk
*Defy martial law
*”Who are you to disrupt others’ survival?”, said Jochobed’s neighbors.
*Jealousy
*Competition over children creates strong jealousy
*Choosing to put community at risk without their permission, instead of peace in slavery
*Life and death choices
*Who do you think you are
*Lots of social tension
*Deal with princess
*Likely didn’t live to see her vindication when Moses returned
*Essence: courage
*Gambled enormously and strategically
*Vast courage
*Theme – fear based responses. Self justification
*Head of the line for lake of fire – the cowards
*Cowardice is rampant in the body of Christ
*Uncommon courage
*Believing her God is better than Egyptian gods
*The hardest changes are from God’s order to God’s new order (OT to NT)
*Marked with fear if you are trying to keep the old ways
*Seasonal change requires huge courage, and taking great risks
*Willing to change and disrupt when God is changing the order
My pleasure, Jamie! Blessings!