Crowned For A Purpose: Women's Conference Houston Day 2 by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Enemy Targets What is Switched On

The devil knows that if young people are switched on, he has no room to operate anymore. So what does he do? He attacks. The Bible says we are not unmindful of the devices of the enemy. We cannot sit and let him do as he pleases. We have power. We have authority from God, so we exercise it.

Counterfeit Identities That Get in the Way

Yesterday we began to look at identity under the theme of the conference. There are counterfeit identities that women carry that get in the way:

• Trauma identity — thinking "I am what happened to me." You are not what happened to you. What happened to you is separate from who you are.
• Performance identity — "I am only valuable when I succeed." Your value remains the same whether you succeed or fail, whether you are known or unknown. You have been bought by the blood of the Lamb. An old tattered $10 bill and a brand new $10 bill buy exactly the same thing in the market. Your value does not change with your status.
• Relationship identity — "I am only complete if someone chooses me." Do not wait for somebody to choose you. Choose yourself. I am beautiful. I am brilliant. I am intelligent. I am a go-getter. I am an achiever. I am a creator. I am a doer.
• Social media identity — "I am what people approve of." That is not your identity. It is an image.
• Comparison identity — "I must become her to matter." You are so unique — nobody has your fingerprint. There are 7 billion people on the earth and 7 billion different fingerprints. How intentional can God be?

Every time there is a union between a husband and his wife, millions of sperm cells are released, but the egg is designed to accept only one. You that showed up — you were that one. The rest died. You were a winner before you knew yourself. You ran faster than all the other sperm cells and got to the egg. No child is a mistake. The parents may have made a mistake, but the child is not a mistake. Nobody shows up here by accident. Before you showed up, God already programmed you for greatness.

Divine Placement and the Will of God

The focus now is on divine placement and influence. The scripture that shifted the trajectory of this message is Philippians 2:13 — "For it is God who works in you both to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

The crown that is sitting on your head is not for your pleasure. It is for the pleasure of God.

Because we do not have that perspective, many times we lose the purpose for which God has crowned us. We think we got the appointment to buy a bigger car. We think finishing a PhD means showing up in church wearing designer clothes. After that — then what?

God is working on your will. Many of us hold our will rigidly in our own hands. "It is my way or the highway." But it is God that wants to work in you. Paul is assuming our wills are submitted to him. Paul is assuming our will is yielded to the Lord. So he says, "It is God at work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

One of the reasons many of us do not submit to the call of God is fear of what God will demand. What will he take from me if I submit? But the life that you have — who owns it? If he collects the life, what is left?

God wants you to act according to his good purpose. There are bad purposes — people who have gifts but use them for exploitation and destruction. God wants to work in you for his good purpose.

How God Accomplishes His Purpose in You

God does it through your mind. Philippians 2:5 — "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Christ's mind was focused on God all the time. Christ's mind was always to do the will of the Father. God is saying, let that mind be in you.

What does "let" mean? If you knock on somebody's door, you are saying, let me in — allow me. If the person does not open the door, you cannot get in. Letting the mind of Christ in is a conscious act you choose to do. And this is where the devil begins to war with us: don't let God in. Don't let him direct you.

God can speak to you audibly. God can speak to you through his word — but how much time do you give to the word? When last did you open your Bible simply to read and study about God? The Bible says be filled with the Spirit by singing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That is how you get filled with the Spirit — by spending intentional time with the word.