Mary had seven demons. But Jesus cast those demons from her so that she could have life—real life, eternal and abundant life. She was completely delivered.
Jesus took the good in Mary—her God-given ability—and made her a useful, successful person. She became a minister to human needs.
According to respected Bible commentaries, Mary was on Jesus’ team as He went from village to village (Luke 8:1-3). Her experience proves that Jesus came to redeem women and to use them as His co-workers, disciples, messengers and representatives, just as He came to redeem and use men.
Since Jewish religion traditionally suppressed women, writers of the Scriptures dared not make much mention of their acts of faith. But a close study of women in New Testament history clearly shows them in places of great influence and action, carrying out the new role of the redeemed woman in the church of Jesus Christ. When Jesus becomes Master of your life, you as a woman can do anything God puts in your heart to do.
Delivered From Tradition
I have a friend in Africa who is the wife of a prominent evangelical leader. Until she attended one of our women’s conferences, she was timid and nonexpressive and did little more than warm a church pew.
Her husband was revolutionized by our conference. He saw that his own male superiority complex had made no allowance for his wife’s ministry to develop. Her potential was totally uncultivated.
As a successful leader, my friend’s husband was inundated with calls to preach and minister. He drove himself day and night, almost to the breaking point, while his allegiance to archaic religious tradition kept his wife’s powerful personality and energy shackled and restrained.
They both got their eyes opened at the conference. He saw the terrible waste of human energy and influence that church tradition had imposed by keeping the women of his congregation in silence. And she realized how ridiculous it was for her to allow herself to be subdued by chauvinistic prejudice.
That African woman, with the encouragement of her revolutionized, soul-winning husband, began to realize she was filled with the Holy Spirit just as her husband was and that she had the same anointing, the same faculties and the same responsibility to share Jesus with the world that he had. She not only became a powerful voice and influence in their rapidly growing church but also began to organize the women of the area.
Since attending the conference, they have given birth to an African women’s organization of preachers, evangelists, church builders, convention speakers, community promoters, home builders and school and clinic organizers. They have built a Pan-African women’s headquarters building and teaching center. They have done their work so well that even the government is recognizing their influence and their contribution to their nation.
Mary Magdalene was completely delivered by Jesus Christ—not only from demons but also from religious male domination. I pray that every woman who reads this will have a miracle deliverance—not only from sin, disease and negativism, but also from the tradition of churchmen that locks God’s army of women in a pious world of silence.
This world is lost. The gospel must be proclaimed by every voice and instrument possible. Christ’s commission is to all believers, regardless of gender (Gal. 3:28). The church can no longer afford the silence of two-thirds of its constituency.
Mary Magdalene is a symbol of what Jesus came to do. He defeated death, hell and the grave. He broke down the walls of division. He annulled the laws of segregation. He abolished the curse of racial or sexual prejudice.
By His death, burial and resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan once and for all. The new, liberated church was born. The Jesus-woman for the Jesus-church emerged as a redeemed, Spirit-filled, powerful woman to fill the role for which God created and destined her.
Now you have a choice. You can choose to love, obey, follow and serve your Lord. You can determine to accept your true identity as God’s child—a co-heir with Christ—and fulfill His dream for your life.
Your future, your new status, your new life of love and happiness and success and achievement all depend on your willingness to make a decision right now, to say to yourself and to God, “From this moment on, I will recognize—and walk in—my understanding of my worth as a woman in the kingdom of God.”
I made this choice long ago when it became apparent God was calling my husband into worldwide ministry. I didn’t want to stay home and hear about his exploits secondhand; I wanted to be a part of them!
How about you? Are you ready to get off the pew and step into the exciting future God has for you?
Daisy Wasburn Osborn (1924-1995) firmly believed that in Christ we are all equal, regardless of sex, race or color, and she devoted much of her energy to encouraging women to become all God intended for them to be, in spite of opposition from their churches, families or inner selves. The author of several books and a sought-after speaker in her day, she was responsible for countless conversions and transformed lives.
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