A Must Watch For Women: It's Time To Discover And Reclaim Your Identity by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

You Are a Legal Resident of the Earth

The first and most foundational truth about who a woman is: she is a bonafide, legal resident of this earth. She has a right to operate here.

There is a difference between one who lives legally and one who is undocumented. The undocumented person may have been somewhere for thirty years and yet they are never at peace — always worried that someone will come and arrest them, deport them. That is how many women live: as though they have no right to be here.

For many years, that was a personal reality. The earliest memories were shaped by a father's offhand questions — What does a man do with a female child? What is the value of a girl? — and those words began to form a sense of having no right to operate. A mother's comparison — of all the girls, Christy is the least pretty — was one sentence that sat like a toga of inferiority for decades.

But God said to speak to the women who are sitting with that same weight: you have a right to be here.

Genesis 1:27 is the operating document, the terms of the covenant of existence. God created human beings reflecting his own nature, responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, the earth itself. He said them — not he. That is two: the male and the female. Both created in his image. Both given the license to operate in this space.

Satan does not have legal right to operate here because he is not a legal resident. He is illegal. How then can you — a legal resident — allow the illegal to hold you where you are not supposed to be?

Every dissenting voice is seized right now. Let only the voice of the Master speak your worth and your value. I uproot every seed of inferiority planted in your life. I dislodge it in the name of Jesus.

Your Life Is Not Small

In 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote that the smallness felt on the inside is not about the size of a life — it comes from within. Your life is not small. The smallness you feel comes from inside you. You are living a large life in a small way.

I speak today to that thing inside that refuses to see the bigness of God and only looks at the smallness of circumstances. I uproot it. I dislodge it in the name of Jesus.

Who I Am Is Spirit

The first and most important declaration: I am spirit. Not a spirit — spirit. And one of the beautiful things about spirit is that there is no baby spirit and no adult spirit. Spirit is spirit. The melancholy can shout. The introvert can erupt. That is the vibrancy of the spirit — it transcends temperament, it swallows it up. When the spirit needs to move, temperament cannot say anything.

I am spirit. I am vibrant. I am alive. I am sensitive. I am connected to God.

Being sensitive to the spirit means picking up divine instructions that others miss entirely. A story: holding one million naira for a safe house project — a property for battered women — when the house was sold before the purchase could close. The Lord said: go and buy land with it. One million naira. A quarter plot? The Holy Spirit said: tell him you want ten plots. Standing there on that land, that instruction came — bold and clear. The flesh jumped in immediately: I need six months to pay. But obedience had already been placed.

Within ten days, five million naira was in the account. People who had not responded before began calling unprompted. In fourteen days, six million was complete — ten plots of land secured. Then two additional plots came, and eventually, through further sensitivity and obedience at a cousin's birthday across the country, a car was given — bought six months earlier by a man who heard God say it was for one of my stars and waited until the instruction was complete.

I am spirit. I am sensitive. I do not miss my instructions. I obey. I am on time. I am instant in obedience.

Who I Am Is a Brain

The second declaration: I am a brain. A mind that thinks. A mind that strategizes. A mind that implements.

What is the value of a female? That question, asked in contempt, was the very thing that was uprooted when a young girl with measles missed almost an entire school term — then went back just for revision week, sat the exam, and came second in the class. The father who had questioned the value of girls began parading that result among his friends, making her read the newspaper aloud to gatherings of important people. The brain was always there. The question was always wrong.

The Bible says the wind bloweth where it listeth and no man knows where it is going or coming. So are the sons of God. Who told you that you are average when you are the wind? Nobody pegs the wind.

There needs to be a dedicated thinking time — not just sleeping time, playing time, prayer time, Bible study time, but intentional time to sit down and think. To strategize. To implement.

And those who believe they do not know anything — stop saying that. You know something. You may not know everything. No one came to this earth empty. No one came here useless. No one came here without capacities. Everyone has capacities. Find your own. If it is not academics, leave the academics. Not everyone will do a PhD. Find what you are carrying and give it.

Who I Am Is a Heart

The third declaration: I am a heart and a soul that loves, that cherishes, and that nourishes.

God already made the woman with a womb — and a womb is for nurturing. Life can deal with a person and cause that nurturing tap to be switched off. Switch it back on. That is where the essence flows naturally.

A mother is not only the one who births a baby through the birth canal. A mother is the one who stays until the child becomes. Those who cannot birth through the canal — go and carry them from the orphanage. Pack ten and put them in the house and raise them for Jehovah. The equation is balanced: a child is looking for a parent to love them. Go and collect.

But the heart that loves also has the capacity to shut down when it is being taken for granted. When it is seen that what is being given is being abused — what is carried, what is offered — that is the moment to shut down until they learn to respect it. That is not ungodliness. That is the height of godliness. As Paul said: I magnify my office.

Abused people perform below capacity. Abused people develop low self-esteem, and people with low self-esteem stop making effort. If someone is beating you, leave — at least until that person learns how to channel anger. One is changing — from peaceful to disturbed, from beautiful to messed up, from a thinker to an abused human being. The one who needs to change is not you.

At the safe house ministry, a team of ten men — pastors, a bishop, lawyers — go to meet abusive husbands when their wives come for shelter. They present him with a legal covenant: if there is ever trouble in the house, he leaves, not her — because the children are there. If he threatens her job or touches her again, there are consequences. It works. Men have learned self-control through accountability.

I am a heart and a soul that cares. But I will not be taken for granted. I will not be abused. I will not be reduced. I will not be relegated. I will not be trampled upon.

Pain Can Become a Weapon

God is an investor and one of the commodities he invests is pain. 2 Corinthians 1 — blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us with all manner of comforts, that we may comfort others with the same comfort with which we have been comforted. Your pain is not about you.

The level of challenges that come at a person is directly proportional to how much respect God has for them. If all that is ever experienced is fingernail-level pain, that is all the respect God has — because he knows that if anything greater comes, denial will follow. But those who carry real pain — God trusts them with it.

Don't waste your pain. Don't hoard it either. Hoarding pain means refusing to heal, refusing to get past the issue, making the person who hurt you into an idol — dwelling on them when they have long moved on. One woman sat with her justified pain until cancer came. She never even died when the man found someone else. Don't suffer twice.

Pain can become a weapon of war. Every sibling in the family died from addiction — from alcohol, from years of drinking that killed one by one, until only one remained. The shame, the pain, the anguish, the loss. Then a son went on a tangent and almost died from crack cocaine. And God said: that is why I drew your attention to it. You have lived with it all your life. You know what it looks like. Go do something about it. Today, a drug rehabilitation centre runs in Pakot. The same thing that the enemy brought against the family became the weapon in the hand. Like David: when Goliath fell, David had no sword of his own — but he used the very sword Goliath brought to remove Goliath's head. The same thing that has come at you is exactly what God wants to use to fulfill purpose in your life.

Who I Am Is Resilient

The final declaration: I am resilient. I am unbreakable.

In physics, elasticity is the capacity of a substance to return to how it was before it was pressured — before it was stretched. Everything in creation has an elastic limit. Stretch it past that limit and it cannot return. But the female was made without elastic limits.

From the age of eight to ten, the girl's body begins to stretch — to accommodate the breasts, the hips, the curves. Then she grows up, marries, and stretches further in the intimacy of that covenant. Then a microscopic seed is deposited in her body and she has the capacity to take that microscopic thing and build it into a full human being — for nine and a half incredible months she is stretching in ways that are unbelievable. When it is time to bring life to the earth, she stretches again and pushes those babies out. Then she stands up like nothing happened.

There is nobody like the woman — created with the capacity to stretch, push, and then stand like nothing happened.

The elastic limit exists everywhere else. But not in her. Do whatever you want to do. When you are done — she goes right back.

Who I am is resilient. I cannot be broken. You can stretch me. You can pull me. You can do whatever. But when you are done, I am going right back — like nothing happened.

Who I Am Is a Body

Finally: I am a body. Beautiful, delectable, desirable. A body I am not ashamed to nourish and care for.

Care for this body. Every organ and every system must serve until the last day on earth. Nothing is failing. The body is who you are, and the body must serve to fulfill purpose — if the body packs up, purpose dies.

• Lord, every organ and every system in my body will serve me till my last day on earth. Nothing is failing on me.
• Brain, you will not pack up. Heart, you will not pack up. Liver, you will not die. Kidneys, you will not fail. Blood, you will not be poisoned. Leukemia is far from me. Cancer is far from me. Bones, you are strong. Muscles, you are functioning.
• My diaphragm is functioning. My ears are functioning. My eyes are functioning. My mouth is functioning. My tongue is working. Nothing gives up on me. Nothing stops functioning. Disease is far from me. Infirmity is not my portion.
• My knees will serve me till I leave. My back is strong. Heart disease is far from me. In the name of Jesus.

I challenge you to be the light God created you to be. See your current state and look forward to the legacy you are leaving. You will not leave this earth without leaving a legacy. The memory of the just is blessed. When you are no longer here, everyone who talks about you will talk in blessing terms. God is for you. God is with you. God is on your side.