This past month, the Lord spoke to me as we were nearing Mother’s Day. I had been watching, with a discerning eye, the attacks that the enemy had been waging against women and children, as well as the function and identity of men and women. The enemy’s tactic is to destroy the kingdom partnership between men and women by bringing confusion to their functions. As I was praying about this, God spoke to me and said, “I am raising up matriarchs that will bring alignment to the body of Christ in this hour.”
The Matriarch Mantle
Throughout history, the enemy has worked overtime to put women and mothers in a box. In cultures around the world, women have been oppressed, held back and hindered; it is still that way in some countries and cultures. Let me tell you why that is.
The tactic of the enemy is that if he can’t oppress and silence women, he will steal their identity and what makes them unique. Why does the enemy have such a vendetta against women? In Genesis 3:15, God says to the serpent who tricked Eve, “And I will put enmity (hostility and hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This is the first prophecy of the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus. Through Mary’s obedience, Eve’s disobedience was undone, and the Savior came into the world. Jesus, the offspring of a woman, crushed the head of the serpent, destroying his kingdom forever and humiliating him.
Now there is a hatred that satan holds for womankind. He desires to silence and humiliate women, because he knows that there is a unique kind of surrender to God that women carry, which is capable of shifting nations.
Recently, I was reading about lions and the way the pride works. The male lions are the protectors of the pride, but the lionesses are the hunters. See, there is a maternal instinct that women have to hunt down every enemy that is coming against their family, household and calling. There is an aggressive spirit that rises up in a woman which says, “I am not letting go until I see the promise manifest!”
Women are, by definition, wombed men; they’re birthers. When you begin to see God raise up matriarchs, you will know that a new season is being birthed.
Birthing Through Prayer, Intercession, Fasting and Action
“Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear My voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto My speech … Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” (Isa. 32:9, 15).
In this passage God, through the prophet Isaiah, is calling on a company of women who are asleep and complacent to rise up into their destinies and functions, because there is an assignment to bring forth something new. When women lose sight of their assignment, there is a sleep that falls upon them, allowing evil to flourish. You see, even though the kingdom has been given to us, we have to birth that into manifestation through prayer, intercession, fasting and action.
When God wants to usher in a new season He always raises up a matriarch mantle, because there’s a birthing that needs to take place.
Smith Wigglesworth accredited his entire ministry to his wife. In fact, she was the one who birthed the ministry, doing the majority of the preaching in the early years of their ministry. Smith Wigglesworth said, “All that I am today I owe, under God, to my precious wife.”
A survey from a while back revealed that an average American congregation is around 61% female and 39% male. However, it was revealed that families are 90% more likely to go to church if the man of the household attends. If the men and women are not in alignment, we can lose our families. If we lose our families, what ensues is chaos, complacency and misalignment.
“On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
“‘When the princes in Israel take the lead,
When the people willingly offer themselves –
Praise the Lord!
“‘Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!
I, even I, will sing to the Lord;
I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song.
“‘When You, Lord, went out from Seir,
When You marched from the land of Edom,
The earth shook, the heavens poured,
The clouds poured down water.
The mountains quaked before the Lord,
The One of Sinai,
Before the Lord, the God of Israel.
“‘In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
Travelers took to winding paths.
Villagers [in some translations, the warriors] in Israel would not fight;
They held back until I, Deborah, arose,
Until I arose, a mother in Israel.
God chose new leaders
When war came to the city gates,
But not a shield or spear was seen
Among forty thousand in Israel.
My heart is with Israel’s princes,
With the willing volunteers among the people.
Praise the Lord!'” (Judg. 5:1-9, emphasis added)
The word “arose” in the Hebrew means to rise up against, to decree, to stand up, to stir up, to strengthen, to establish.
At a time when there was no fight left in the people, and the men had forsaken their positions, God raised up Deborah as a matriarch, and she influenced the men to take to their rightful positions. Matriarchs are raised up to bring alignment and to strengthen the partnership between men and women. {eoa}
For the rest of this article, visit elijahlist.com.
Jesse and Amy Shamp are a powerful evangelism team based in Columbia, Tennessee, and are the founders of Spirit Word Ministries International. Their mission is to edify and equip the body of Christ for the work of the ministry. Signs, wonders and miracles follow their ministry, and they often receive powerful prophetic dreams from God for the church. They are committed to crusade evangelism and are passionate about bringing in a harvest in the nations.
Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.
Joyce Meyer 
Stephen Strang 
Charisma Media Staff 
