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Part 6 of 7
The Power of a Praying Woman
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There's nothing worse than winning in public while struggling in private. You might experience great professional success and career advancement, yet face serious struggles at home that prevent you from truly celebrating those wins. When what matters most is falling apart, you haven't truly experienced struggle or prayer until you've witnessed a mother pray for people in her own house.
Many of you are sitting here today not because you're perfect, but because somebody prayed for you. They prayed for you when you were losing your mind. They prayed for you when you were making crazy decisions. Without someone who had me on their mind and took time to pray for me, I don't know where I would be.
Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her love, she'll give you life. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you a heart. Even if you give her a problem, she'll give you a purpose.
Women have a multiplier anointing. While everyone else is waiting on a finished product, a woman can take what's not yet finished and make it look more beautiful than anyone else could. She's not just a maintainer—she's a multiplier.
Proverbs 31:25 describes a woman's true strength: She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.
Verses 26 continues: When she speaks, her words are wise. Wisdom is more valuable than most people realize. Solomon, the wealthiest man in scripture, asked God for wisdom above all else. He understood that wisdom can give me what money can give me. Wisdom can give me what a crown can give me. You may lose material things, but wisdom will help you see how to get them back.
Wherever there's wisdom, there's wealth. King Solomon was not only the wealthiest man ever to live—he was also the only king who never had to go to war. When you have wisdom, you don't have to fight unnecessary fights. When you have wisdom, God will make your enemies favor you. He'll make people who don't like you bless you. Because when you have wisdom, even though they may not prefer you, they can't deny you.
It's a sad thing to get a new life and keep an old perspective. God's ways are higher than our ways; His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. The goal is not just to think about God—it's to start thinking like God.
Often we appreciate mothers and value them, yet we overextend them and overwhelm them. We make mothers have to be everything to everybody while they abandon their own self-care and self-worth. The mother figure—whether it's the mother of your children or your wife—carries such power that when she's sick, we're sick. She can't even enjoy being sick because the moment she gets down, the whole household struggles.
What do we do when the person who helps everybody needs help? This is the question at the heart of our text today.
In Mark 1:29-30, Jesus goes to the house of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. But we can't understand what happened in the house without understanding what happened before they got there. Text without context becomes pretext, thus conning us out of the truth.
Just before going to the house, Jesus was teaching in the synagogue (Mark 1:23). The people were amazed, saying, How does he teach so incredibly? This is the best message I've ever heard. But in the middle of his teaching, a man possessed by an impure spirit cried out and manifested.
Here's what happened: He was informed and in bondage at the same time. He had a notebook full of sermon notes yet was possessed by a demon. He was praising God and giving a praise break while in bondage. He knew the Word, but he couldn't apply the Word. Just because you have spiritual knowledge does not mean you have spiritual maturity.
Jesus had to shift from presentation to demonstration. He tells the demon, Come out. Jesus is teaching and preaching, but he says, I can't preach this out. I have to cast this out because you cannot counsel a demon. You can't go to therapy for a demon. Deliverance happens at the spiritual level.
Here's an important distinction: Deliverance is when God frees me from it. Healing is when God frees me from me. And I can't get free from me until I get free from it.
The demon recognizes Jesus and cries out, Why are you here? Jesus of Nazareth, you come to destroy us? It's striking: the demons recognize who Jesus is, but the religious leaders don't. The demons know exactly what spirit is in the room.
Jesus looks at the demon-possessed man and simply says, Come out. Two words freed this man. Those same two words apply to you today: Come out of depression, come out of anxiety, come out of debt, come out of dysfunction. Come out of addiction, come out of the pain, come out of the soul ties, come out of your private secrets.
It's possible to be saved and still be in bondage. Salvation and sanctification are not the same thing. Jesus came not just to the church but to Simon's house. Notice: Jesus went to Simon's house, not Peter's house. Simon hadn't yet become Peter—that name change would come later when his character matched his destiny. But Jesus didn't wait until Simon became the best version of himself to come to his house.
Aren't you glad that God did not wait until you became the best version of yourself to come to your house? He came to your house while you were asleep. He came while you were stuck. He came while you were struggling. He came while you were high. He came while you were drunk. He came while you were lying. He came while you were cheating. God doesn't wait until you're perfect and have it all together to come into your life.
Even though she didn't make it to church, Jesus made it to her house. I'm glad I serve a God that's not stuck in the four walls of the church. Wherever he has to come to get to you, he will come.
Your house won't be the same after you leave church and come back to it. Peace is about to hit your house. Favor is about to hit your house. Prosperity is about to hit your house.
When Jesus arrives at the house, they tell him, Wait a minute—before you go in the house, my mother-in-law is sick with a fever. They may have been warning him because according to Jewish culture, a Jewish man could not touch a woman he was not related to without becoming unclean.
But I'm so glad I serve a Jesus who doesn't mind touching unclean things—unclean places in my life, unclean hearts, unclean mindsets, unclean character. Jesus says, You don't have to be clean for me to touch you. Because I am clean, I will make whatever is unclean, clean. When other people touch something unclean, they become unclean. But when Jesus touches it, he changes it.
Be careful when you're in a rough season of your life about who you allow to touch you. Have you ever been in a low season where you were vulnerable and allowed the wrong people into your life, making things worse than they already were?
She had a fever. Jesus steps into a heated situation. What comes out of you when you get heated?
After some research, I learned that a fever is the body's normal response to fighting off infections or illness. It's defined as body temperature raising up. So even though the fever was a burden, the fever was also a blessing. A fever is evidence of a fight—something got inside you that shouldn't be there. The fact that you have a fever means your body is fighting for you.
But a fever isn't just physical. Some of you are sitting here with a spiritual fever. You can't feel the heat, but consider these symptoms:
Number one: Chills. Why have you become so cold-hearted? What made you so cold to where you're confusing being strong with being numb? You're confusing having a healed heart with a hard heart.
Number two: Body aches. Why is everything hurting so badly? You're saved, but the people who love you most talk to you the least because one wrong word wounds you deeply. Now they love you, but they have to walk on eggshells.
Number three: Fatigue. You love your kids, but why do you lack patience for them? What happened to your patience with God? You've been praying, but as soon as he doesn't do what you want when you want it, you move on to your own solutions.
Number four: Constant sweating. Why do you keep releasing what you need to keep? As soon as your feelings are hurt, you ghost and run away. Now you have no long-term connections or commitments—just a pattern of abandoning jobs, churches, friendships, family members.
Number five: Lack of appetite. What happened to your hunger for God? You used to wake up ready to be with God, seek his face, read his word. Now you go straight to Facebook or Instagram. You have more appetite for fun than for building your faith. You used to be on fire to fulfill God's dreams and purpose for you. Now you're constantly complaining about who disappointed you.
Number six: Excessive thirst. Why are you so thirsty? Someone gives you one compliment and now he's your future husband. You know you have excessive thirst when you're easily impressed. You're settling for what's available because you're not full.
She's laying down in bed sick with a fever. We don't know if she's experiencing all these symptoms, but we know she's laying down sick. And watch this: as soon as it feels like she's at her worst, the Bible says that Jesus comes walking in the house.
Is there anybody grateful that when you did not feel your best and thought you had no more solutions, Jesus came walking into your house? Sometimes you don't realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
When Jesus comes into her life, she doesn't wait for the fever to disappear first. He touches her hand—a ceremonially out-of-order act, but Jesus is a rule breaker. He touches what He should not touch. Then He does something even more significant: He helps her up.
While Jesus was not in the house, she was laying down. But when Jesus came into the room, He raised her up. Fever and all, girl, get up. Your money may be down—speak to it, get up. Your family may be down, get up. Your marriage might be struggling, get up. Your emotions may be all over the place. Get up. It's up season for you.
When you grab your neighbor by the hand and pull them up, you're not just pulling them—you're pulling them out of their pain, out of their problems. This matters because in order to change her condition, He had to change her position.
Some of you are staying stuck in the condition you're in, not because the condition can't change, but because you are too attached to your position. Close your eyes and think about whatever may be down in your life. Speak to yourself, to your destiny, to your future. Say these two words: Get up. Get up. Say it again until your mind agrees with it. Shout it until your heart believes it. When she got up, the fever got out.
But fever is a side effect. The real question is: What keeps causing you to overheat?
The mother was so stretched thin, doing everything for everybody else, that stress made her sick. Are you sick because of something biological, or because of something emotional? God may be delaying a season in your life because He knows that if you don't get free from people-pleasing, people will crush you in this next season. You cannot be everything to everybody.
What if she got a fever because she was so busy preparing for everybody else that she got cut and didn't know it? She allowed that open wound to get infected. At what point are you going to deal with some of the old cuts in your life? You may have gotten over your past, but I'm talking about your unresolved past. What or who cut you that you never dealt with?
God cannot fix what you're not willing to face. Be careful when pride won't let you acknowledge that you're sick. In the natural, you get hurt, you don't forgive, you become bitter, you stuff it down. But you cannot defeat what you choose to deny. Some of us will never get to destiny because we stuck in denial. What is the blood of Jesus for? Why is it there if not to wash away what we're willing to face?
What if some fevers have been broke in your life because you keep listening to the wrong people? It's like having a physical fever and going to a mechanic—they fix cars, not souls. But maybe that's what you're doing in your life. You have people you're supposed to have fun with, but they can't fix you. Not everybody who hears you can help you.
Notice this carefully: address ungodly connections, not ungodly people. For some of you, we may not have a people problem. We may be addicted to screens. We may have an unhealthy relationship with achievement. What's the connection that you need to address so that God can get you free and heal your house?
Let what we make happen for God's house happen in our house. Healing is hitting our house. Our children are being made whole. A revival is happening in our homes. We come against chaos, division, and strife. Thank you that You're blessing us to live at peace with each other and with You. Thank you that You won't just heal us individually—You'll also heal our families, our friendships. Help us to be committed to doing the work, to becoming more like Jesus, so we will not leave here the same way we came in.
