God's Heart For Women

Ezer: What God Actually Said When He Made You

I didn't grow up in church. This is really the only church I've been a part of, and it's a place where women are valued in leadership. In fact, I'm not the first woman pastor. So, I don't carry the wounds that a lot of women carry from decades of being told there's a ceiling on their calling. But I've heard your stories, I've seen your pain, and I've done the study. So let's talk about what God actually said when He made you.

Because here's the thing — what a lot of women have been taught about their design is not God-made. It's man-made. It's tradition. And I want to show you that in scripture.

Genesis 2 and the Word That Changes Everything. God's True Heart for Women

In Genesis 2:18, God looks at Adam and says, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him." That word — helper — is the Hebrew word ezer. If you've been in certain church spaces, you may have been taught that ezer means something like assistant. Someone whose job is to come alongside the man, support his ministry, and help him accomplish his calling.

That interpretation doesn't hold up when you look at how the word is actually used across scripture. Ezer appears 21 times in the Old Testament. Twice it refers to the creation of woman. Three times it describes help that's being withheld from Israel as a consequence of disobedience. The other sixteen times? It refers to God.

God created women because He knew men needed them to be victorious.

Sixteen times, the word used to describe what God is to humanity is the same word used to describe what woman is to man. Psalm 121 — "My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." That word for help is ezer. Deuteronomy 33: "There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your help." That's Ezer. Psalm 115: "He is their help and their shield." Ezer.

We would never look at those passages and say God is a second-class partner helping humanity accomplish its own agenda. So we cannot read Genesis 2:18 and say that's what women are. The language doesn't support it. The context doesn't support it. Tradition supports it. Scripture does not. God's heart for women is that they are meant to be put in the game. They should be added to the battle to change the tides from losing to victory!

Strong's Concordance defines ezer this way: it emphasizes effective strength supplied from outside oneself, meeting extreme circumstances rather than offering sympathy. The woman, in God's design, is an indispensable partner who supplies what the man alone lacks. She gets put in the game to change the tide.

That is who you are.

Until I Arose a Mother in Israel

When I read Judges 4 and 5 in preparation for a women's conference, something in that passage stopped me. Deborah doesn't describe herself as a prophetess when she recalls what she did for Israel. She doesn't say, "I arose a judge." She says in Judges 5:7, "I, Deborah, arose a mother in Israel."

Let me give you the context. The moral condition of Israel when Deborah was called was not good. Judges 5 describes highways abandoned because robbery was so rampant that people had to take winding back roads. Village life had collapsed. Trade routes were dead. Government had essentially ceased to function. People were worshiping other gods. The nation was under severe military oppression for twenty years.

God's response? He raised up a mother.

Before Deborah ever received the military word she delivers to Barak in chapter 4, she was sitting under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel, day after day, dealing with a nation of people who didn't know how to do life with God or with each other. She was resolving conflict. She was restoring order. She was teaching people how to live in covenant with each other and with the Lord. That is mothering. And that is exactly what a nation in moral chaos needs before it can be freed from its oppression.

When Deborah finally receives the prophetic word about the military battle, she summons Barak — her military commander — and delivers the strategy. He responds, "If you go with me, I'll go. If you don't go with me, I won't go." Some teachers have called this cowardice. I disagree completely. Barak understood that Deborah held the highest civic, judicial, and spiritual position in the land. She had a direct line to God. They were about to walk 10,000 men into a battle against 900 iron chariots. Of course he wanted her with him. That's not weakness — that's wisdom.

And God didn't call Deborah because there were no men available. He called her because a mother was what the nation needed. When He needed a mighty man of valor, He called Gideon. When He needed a strong man, He called Samson. When He needed a mother, He called Deborah. He knew exactly what was required in that season.

Our Nation Needs You to Arise

We don't live in the same covenant as Deborah. We are all in Christ, which means every single one of us has the Spirit of God, the capacity to hear His voice, and a calling to advance His kingdom. He doesn't raise up one person to fix a generation anymore. He raises up many. He raises up you.

And here's what I want you to sit with: it doesn't matter whether you have biological children. The Hebrew word used for mother in scripture is used in a much wider sense than biology. Deborah was a mother to a nation. You can be a mother to a city. To the church. To the next generation of women who are watching you decide whether your calling is real.

The moral condition of the nation we're living in right now is not good. The things that used to be hidden in the dark are in the open. The things we used to grieve privately, we're now watching play out on a national stage. And in the middle of all of that, God is looking for women who will arise — not to replace anyone, not to compete for position, but to do what mothers do. Love people through their mess. Speak truth in a way that draws people toward God instead of pushing them away. Teach the next generation how to follow Jesus. Bring the effective strength that only an Ezer can supply.

Deborah didn't wait for someone to give her permission. She sat under that palm tree and did the work. She heard from God and delivered the word. She went to battle not because she pushed her way in, but because she was called, she was ready, and she said yes.

That's the invitation on the table for you today.

You are not designed to be small. You are not a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God. You are an ezer — effective strength supplied from outside, put in the game to change the tide when it seems like there's no way to victory.

The nation needs mothers to arise. In your church, in your city, in your family, in your generation. Show up. Do the work. Say yes.

If you want to go deeper on who God designed you to be and what's been holding you back from stepping into it, grab a copy of Belief Rehab: You Are Enough. And pick up The Deborah Anointing by Michelle McClain-Walters — it's the real deal.