Christian Women Arise: Revelations from Biblical History and the Challenging Landscape of Christian Blogging

Ever pondered about the power and significance of women in biblical history? As I recount my enlightening experience at the Joyce Meyer Love Life 2023 conference, I am thrilled to share the potent message delivered by Lisa Bevere. The message, centering around the strategic roles held by women within the biblical narrative, is an affirmation of purpose and a call to action for all, but especially for women. Her words serve as a reminder of the importance of women in the grand scheme of things, their value, and their potential. 

Switching gears, we navigate the terrains of the Christian blogging community, focusing predominantly on the female demography. Intriguingly, there are more female bloggers yet fewer successful ones compared to their male counterparts. We delve into potential reasons and explore how viewing blogging as more than a hobby can bring about a shift. From the significant roles women have played throughout biblical history to their standing in today's Christian blogging community, this episode is a rich blend of empowerment, inspiration, and a call to action. Join us on this journey, as we take a step back to move many steps forward.

If you are interested in taking your digital discipleship to the next level through blogging, YouTube, social media, and/or online Bible study groups, be sure to join my private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdombloggers
You can also follow me on YouTube where you will find a variety of helpful tutorials for navigating each of these important platforms: https://www.youtube.com/@KingdomBloggers

Transcript

LeeAnn Fox: 0:02

Welcome to the Kingdom Influencers podcast, where our mission is to get more Jesus online. This podcast will equip and empower ministry leaders as well as regular everyday Christians to take the message of Jesus Christ throughout the digital realm. I'm your host, LeeAnn Fox, digital Ministry Coach and the creator of the Kingdom Bloggers Ministry, and I am so excited and honored to be a part of this journey with you. Let's get started. Hey everyone, leanne here from Kingdom Bloggers. So today I am fired up.

LeeAnn Fox: 0:36

Last week, actually about a week and a half ago, I went to San Antonio for the Joyce Meyer Love Life 2023 conference. I'll be honest, I was kind of hesitant to go, just because of all the stuff going on in the world. You know, my background is actually terrorism, and so I was allowing the fear, the enemy, to kind of get me with that spirit of fear and I'm like, okay, no, God did not give me that spirit, he gave me the spirit of love and courage and all the things. So like, be gone with you, devil, right. And so I went and I am so glad that I did. You know everything I do these days, whether I'm listening to my sermon at church or just any kind of you know podcast or whatever. It always kind of impacts me in a way, as it applies to my ministry like how can I use this information to pour into my ministry, which is the Kingdom Bloggers ministry, which is pouring into all of you? And so this conference one of the speakers in particular really touched my heart, really just got the fire going. And you know, I come back and just, of course, had to get caught up and all kinds of stuff. And here's how I know it was really powerful, because as soon as I got back home, like everything just seemed to start going wrong. I'm not going to go too much into detail about that, but just some things in my house, bro, there's going to cost some money, and just it was just one thing after another. So I'm like, okay, you know what? Uh-uh devil, I'm not going to let you get me distracted by all these distractions, because I know that's you, because people, my people, you need to hear this message.

LeeAnn Fox: 2:05

Many of you are familiar with Lisa Bavir. She's an amazing, passionate speaker, a woman of God, and she gave a message that was just so powerful and spoke directly to our women. So, guys, if you're watching this, you can take some notes, but I'm really speaking to the women in this particular video and if you're listening by podcast and, of course, by podcast, um, but the message really applies to everyone. Like we are all called and I'm here to help all creators, um, but I really want to speak to the women in this one. So she was talking about, you know, the lioness. She wrote a book called lioness arising. I'm waiting for it from Amazon, so I can't wait to read it. But she went on to tell you know, her story of how she wrote that book and she didn't pray in advance, but then after the fact, she was kind of just asking God to bless it and seeking confirmation.

LeeAnn Fox: 2:52

Long story short. This was during, kind of the during the war in Afghanistan, right, and she got this call like her husband had set up this thing, um, and she's like trying to help her kids with their homework and all this stuff this man calls and, basically, to cut to the chase, he was in charge of putting together this team of special operations women. So if you know anything about the military special ops, like your Navy seals, your Delta Force, all of that, that's all men. Women typically aren't involved in that and combatant roles. Now, a lot's changed since then and they're starting to open that up to some women. But during this time that's just not a role that women were put in. And so the moral or the point of this story is she's talking about so this, this military leader contacts her. And he asked her like do you know why we're not winning the war in Afghanistan? And she's like you know why? And he said directly because we can't speak to the women. And so that really got her like huh, and I know, just because obviously I served in the military. You know there are certain, you know, in the, in those Middle Eastern countries, women like for one, our women can't go in there because of the, you know, special operations requirements. It was all men, but the men cannot touch or speak to the women. Of course that posed a problem with patting them down at checkpoints and stuff like that. I'm not gonna go into full detail on that, but there's so much that could be accomplished if we had access to the women. Why? So? Now? Let that set the tone for what we're gonna talk about today.

LeeAnn Fox: 4:22

All throughout biblical history, you know, we tend to see women as being the subservient, and in biblical times, I mean, you know, the women were the men's property and they couldn't own their own property and all that. And yes, that is true. However, when you really dive into biblical, you know those stories, all the stories of the Bible that include women. You see that women hold a very, very important place all throughout history, biblical history. Who were the first at the tomb to see Jesus when he arose on the 13th? The women at the tomb. But let's go back even further. Who was the first person that Jesus revealed himself to separate from the apostles? The ones he eventually, you know, made his first 12 apostles separate from them, but the ones that he said, hey, this is who I am. Go forth and tell everyone. It was a woman, this emeritan woman. And there's many other stories throughout the Bible, of course.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:15

Most of you should be familiar with those as Christian vloggers, where women were put in very key, strategic places to carry out the story, the eventual prophecy being fulfilled, right. So now let's bring that to us today In the Christian blogging community. And again, if you're a guy watching this, I am not excluding you because I want you to do what you do with your gifts, right, because you have a very important place here too. But I really wanna speak to the women, because the majority of Christian bloggers are women and many of them get into it, for you know, they're at home, they're like I'll just do this. I love Jesus, I wanna share, I wanna pour into others, whatever, whatever the reason, but God's given you this gift and he's put this calling on your heart.

LeeAnn Fox: 5:55

The problem is, even though there's more women than men in this, the men are more successful. So last week I published a video and a podcast talking about this specific thing why most Christian bloggers are never going to be successful or fruitful. The reality is of, even though the percentage of men is so much less than women, the men are more successful. Is it because they're better? Not at all. It's because, I think, as women, we still tend to view ourselves in a lower position and we are afraid to step in and be confident in the calling God has put on our heart. But also and this is just for my own observation of doing this over the years, many years now the women that either join my courses or join my Facebook groups or just reach out to me directly and over time. You know I'm trying to mentor and guide them, but what I often see is a lack of focus, and I talked about that in the other video too.

LeeAnn Fox: 6:47

It's really just treating this, this whole blocking thing, as like a pastime, as like a hobby and not a calling. Okay, if God has put this on your heart, it's because he has a purpose for you. He like the end game. What's the end game? The end game we know what the end game is. It's salvation for everybody. We're called into the world to love God, love others and what Share the gospel, to pour into others, to bring more people into the family of God so they can be saved and be with us in heaven. That's the end game.

LeeAnn Fox: 7:16

But here's the thing women, christian women, christian women bloggers and I say bloggers but I mean it could be YouTube, it could be some other area of Christian influencing, if you will, social media and so forth. I just use blogging because that's like the most common one. There's a place for here, and God planted you here because he has a mission for you. So I'm all about mission oriented. Coming from the military, I speak the language. That language applies to us out here. We are God's army ladies. We are the women, the women warriors in God's army, as we've seen all throughout biblical history. We are poised we are specifically poised to be in a very vital position to carry out this mission, to have mission accomplishment, and without the women.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:01

So back to the story of Lisa's, the book and this man that reached out to her. He was explained to her like we're losing the war because we don't have access to the women. The women are the key. If we can get to the women and in this scenario they're trying to reach these women to tell them that they have purpose, they have potential and they don't have to be enslaved to the culture and the things of those times that is allowing all of this, the terrorists and stuff, to kind of take over their land. Women need to rise up and take a stand for their families, for their children and for their faith, and so if we take that concept and bring it to us today, then, ladies, we are the gatekeepers, we're the key holders, we are raising the children, we are in the PTA, we're in the school systems, we're in our neighborhood groups, we're in the playgrounds, we're in all these places.

LeeAnn Fox: 8:54

But many of you and I know not everyone is a stay at home mom and things like that, but many of our Christian blogging community is and I wanna speak directly to you for a minute that you're at home raising your own kids and now you have this time to carry out the gifts, to implement the gifts God's given you with writing, because you have direct access to people. That's the thing about Christian bloggers y'all. We're not just bunch of people just playing on the internet. We hold the key to every person out there seeking something from this little device. Right, we have direct access into people's homes, into their ears, into their minds, into their hearts, with the message of Jesus, like I don't know how more obvious I can make that Like you literally hold the key to reaching people through the gift that God has given you with the writing.

LeeAnn Fox: 9:43

Now I wanna kind of break off that a minute. Whether it's writing, if you're called to be a blogger and you write, maybe video is your thing, maybe you're a great speaker and maybe it's YouTube, or maybe it's social media, or maybe creatives, maybe you're great with canva and creating activities and worksheets and Bible studies and things like that, then maybe that's where you're needed. But through all of those things, you have direct access to people. So what's the point of this Not to say, hey, women, you're the key. I mean that's kind of it. But, ladies, you have to start getting serious. You know, I try to say this without sounding like er. You know my military mindset starts creeping back in when I get passionate about talking about this stuff.

LeeAnn Fox: 10:21

So many of you are treating this as a hobby. You're not treating it as a mission-oriented assignment. God has called you. He has said hey, you, whatever you listening to me right now on the screen, I call you to write content that people in that internet thing, in that phone, in that tablet, wherever they're seeking, wherever they're hanging out and being miserable and lonely and hopeless and in despair, I'm calling you to reach them. But if you treat it like a hobby and just get to it whenever or just sort of kind of half-hazardly go about it, you're never gonna be mission-completed, you're never going to complete the task. God has given you All that to say.

LeeAnn Fox: 10:58

Listen, I'm gonna link to the video in the notes for this one, or, if you're listening by podcast, it'll be linked below so you can reference that video, that message, if you didn't hear it. But it's about focus and discipline and education. Like, take this seriously, like, if nothing else, and you mean obviously, take your kids seriously. I'm not saying don't take your kids and your family seriously, but you have to treat this as a priority because you know the internet is so full of hate and ugliness, it's so full of despair and hopelessness. The enemy is just running rampant there, but you know what? We can also run rampant. We need more Christian women to stand up, take their gifts seriously, like step into the confidence of the calling God has put on you. And that's really, I think, what it comes down to.

LeeAnn Fox: 11:42

When I talk to people all the time it's like well, you know I love to write, but you know I'm just. You know I don't know Like, who am I? You're a child of God. That's who you are. God put this on your heart. That means he wants you to do something with it. Like you didn't just randomly wake up one day and be like oh, I think Christian blogging is like a thing I want to do. No, god put that in your head. But you know, what also got put in your head is, on this side, the devil, the enemy, saying yeah, you're not good enough, you're not this, you're not that, you could never do that. But we know that's a lie and you have to start recognizing those lies, that you are good enough. It doesn't, I mean your testimony, your story, your background, your history matters, because pulling from all of that is what's going to help you push forward into your calling, into reaching the people that are supposed to be reached with your specific message, right. And so I don't know Like I just I get so fared up about this when I left Lisa's.

LeeAnn Fox: 12:32

Well, when she left, like she walked off the stage, right, we went on break and I was just like, wow, you know, this is so important and so powerful and speaks directly to the Christian creators out there. Like ladies, stand up, take a stand. Like, you know, mama Bear, like just got poked. They're coming after our kids, they're coming after our families, they're coming after the very idea of being a woman. We know the enemy hates women, right, because Jesus is coming back for his bride and that's us. So we need to stand up, stand confident that God is gonna give us the resources and lead us to the right people. But ultimately, we have to take action.

LeeAnn Fox: 13:08

It's kind of like the story, you know, people are like well, you know, god will lead me to where he wants to lead me. It's the story of the man and the flood. And he's on the rooftop and like this guy's going by in a canoe, he's like, hey, you need a ride. Like, drain it on your roof. He's like, no, I'm waiting for God. I'm like I'm waiting for God, he's gonna save me. And then, okay, they row off. And then another like canoe or small boat rolls up and it's like, hey, get in the boat. He's like, no, I'm waiting, god's gonna. It's like, okay, god's sitting up here shaking his head like dude, I sent you to boat. Like, what else do you want from me?

LeeAnn Fox: 13:37

Okay, god is going to lead us to the resources, lead us to the things we need, but we ultimately have to accept it. We ultimately have to take action on it. Right, it's not just gonna happen itself. Like he wants us to be an active participant in this. And here's the thing too, and I think this kind of stings.

LeeAnn Fox: 13:56

My pastor said this one time. This was early on in my blogging journey. I don't remember the entirety of his message, but you know he basically puts it this way like God calls everyone to do something and God's gonna complete His mission, with or without you. So when he calls you, you can either be a part of the end game, or you can be a part of watching somebody else be a part of it. Which is it gonna be? Because ultimately, we know God's gonna win the game. But do we wanna be on the winning team or do we wanna be observers of the winning team? I don't know about you, but I wanna be on the winning team.

LeeAnn Fox: 14:30

Okay, and so all this to say look, ladies, if you are watching this, I'm guessing it's because you're a Christian blogger. You have aspirations to be a Christian blogger. Now is the time to get serious. Learn what you need to learn. Seo is vital. Stop trying to lean on your own understanding. God has put all those resources out there by way of people like me and other bloggers communities.

LeeAnn Fox: 14:50

But here's something too connect to other Christian blogging communities, because the secular blogging communities, while there is information that might be of value, much of what goes on in there, the enemy is working overtime to create distractions to get you from accomplishing your mission. No-transcript, greatest, best tools, and you know Google's updates, all these things. I'm not saying many of them are not important or they're not valuable at some season in your blogging, but more importantly, they are tools of the enemy to keep you distracted, keep you spending your real so that you don't have mission accomplishment. So I, just I am, I would say, I beg you, I implore you, please, you know, talk to God about this. What do you need to do to reel it in? Get more serious, get more focused, get more disciplined, learn what you need to learn. And, like I mentioned in the other videos, it's not about me selling my courses, because everything that I teach is freely available by individual videos on my YouTube channel or on the blog.

LeeAnn Fox: 15:49

Okay, but it takes discipline and perseverance to get in there and learn it. And, like like Bible study, it takes like discipline and focus and I'll be honest, that's a struggle for me. But sit down quiet time to let nothing come in your brain except this knowledge so that you can be battle ready. That's what it comes to. You know, in the military, we train and we train and we train until we're blue and the face and we're just like I don't want to train no more. But because we do it so much, when something does happen we don't even have to think like it's muscle memory. Okay, it's like putting on that armor of God. You need to put on the armor of God so that you can do battle on the internet. And that takes the knowledge and all of the things of understanding how this playground works the rules of the game, if you will.

LeeAnn Fox: 16:26

But, more importantly, it takes tunnel vision, it takes focus and surrounding yourself with other people who are mission focused kingdom mission focused Not I need to fill my bank account mission focus not. I need to sell more products mission focus not. I need more followers mission focus. The mission that we focus on is get more people to Jesus. And so, if you are ready to do that, if you have not already joined my Facebook group, please do that. The links are down in the notes. If you need help, just reach out to me. If you need to take a formal course, I have my free courses and I have paid courses, but I'll tell you, the free ones are very, very valuable, but I would not be doing my job, you know, in the calling that he's given me, if I didn't start really getting in the hammer down on those of you that I know he has called because I see your talent, I see your writing. God has something very, very big planned for you, but he's waiting for you to get serious and take action.

LeeAnn Fox: 17:21

So, all right, everyone, that's all. I hope I didn't sound like a soapbox here. I just. I am so fired up after you know, coming back from the conference and you know, a lot of confirmation for me happened with the different messages, but hers in particular really, really struck me, and so I want to kind of empower you, ladies, with that. Ladies, we are the women at the tomb, we are the Samaritan woman, we are all the women throughout biblical history who are a very important piece of the puzzle towards the final destination, when Jesus returns. Okay, all right, everyone, have a blessed week. I will talk to you soon. Bye-bye.