Every day, we hear hundreds of different messages about who we should be.
Whether it’s someone telling us how to act, a TikTok video telling us what to wear or a TV show influencing us more than we care to admit, it’s easy to let our identity be shaped by outside forces. But as author Lisa Bevere explains, there’s only one source we need to listen to in order to discover our true identity: God.
In her new book The Fight for Female: Reclaiming Divine Identity, Bever tackles the current struggle women — and by extension, men — are facing daily when it comes to their identity. We sat down with Bevere to find out why this was a topic she wanted to focus on, and what we can all do to live out our unique calling.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
RELEVANT: What do you hope readers take away from your new book, The Fight for Female: Reclaiming Divine Identity?
Lisa Bevere: My hope is that women will realize they’ve compromised what it means to be a woman and recover the strength of that. In 2016, I had a dream where I saw women had unknowingly befriended an enemy. There’s this warfare between the serpent and one woman in the garden that translates to a dragon and the woman, the church corporate and women as a whole, in the book of Revelation. I wanted to speak to that battle and what’s at risk because I believe the attack is coming against the next generation.
What does biblical womanhood look like in your own words?
I love biblical womanhood. We try to make it too narrow. When you look at the Proverbs 31 woman, sometimes we want to slap her and say, “Of course she’s doing that much; she’s got all these servants.” But it gives us permission to do more rather than less. Biblical womanhood is being obedient to whatever God tells you to do.
I’m concerned because there’s a spiritual battle. It’s not culture oppressing women or men oppressing women, but a demonic battle going on. On one extreme, we have the trad wife movement, and on the other, the freeze your eggs and do whatever you want movement. I don’t like either. Everything in your life should be seasonal and according to who God is asking you to be in that season. There have been seasons where I stayed home and breastfed my babies, and seasons where I traveled and spoke. The right thing in the wrong season is the wrong thing.
I’m not okay with women being sexualized or silenced, or with men and women being pitted against each other. We’ve made it about politics, gender issues and race, and we’ve forgotten that there’s an enemy trying to divide and make everything binary. He constantly says, “You have to choose.” But you can stand in the middle and declare truth. That’s where Jesus always stood. He never chose sides.
I do a podcast called The Fight for Female and decided to talk about spiritual warfare. It blew up. People are realizing they’re wrestling not with people, but with principalities and powers. If a generation is convinced their formation is a mistake, they’ll struggle to trust God with their transformation. That’s where the enemy is. If, as a young woman, you feel like you don’t have value if you’re not married and producing children, the enemy will get you to question God’s work in your life. We need to realize there’s one who will always undermine what God wants to do in your life by comparing it with others. We must not be ignorant of his devices.
So, how exactly do we push back against the enemy and reclaim our identity?
First, I think a lot of women haven’t realized they’ve been careless with their femininity. We’ve listened to messaging that said to be powerful, women need to act like men, go into the marketplace, and beat them at their game. When we do that, we grasp at the image of male instead of living in the fullness of the image of female. I’m talking about wisdom, kindness and investing. The Proverbs 31 woman is influential and has agency. It doesn’t say she asked her husband to buy a field; it says she buys a field.
The first step for me in any spiritual warfare is humility. Ask God where you’ve partnered with lies and entertained untruths. Drop the stones, stop blaming others, and ask where you are trapped or deceived. Then, resist the devil and he will flee. Fill the space he occupied with everything God created you to be. We all have hopes, dreams, and longings. God puts those in us to pull us towards who we really are and towards eternity. We miss moments in disappointment and discouragement when God is saying, “I need you in this moment.”
John and I recently spoke to some leaders, and people are having a hard time right now. God is shaking everything that can be shaken. I’d love to say it’s going to be a great year, but the best days aren’t always the easiest days. I’ve learned the most in my hard seasons. Smooth sailing doesn’t make skillful sailors. God is bringing the body of Christ through hardship to teach us that struggle is strengthening.
Right now, there’s a battle for women. Our divine imagery is being unmade into a sexualized costume, and we should be upset about that — not upset with the people seeking wholeness in brokenness, but that we’ve allowed it to be diminished. We don’t get to share what it means to be a woman. We want to say that to be a woman is to be entrusted with the heart of other people, even if you’re single. We are the guardians of the hearts of communities, friendships and family, and messengers of conversations that bring connections for people feeling disenfranchised and confused.
What impact does this have on our world, churches and communities if we reclaim our identity?
Right now, instead of just saying there’s a problem, we need answers. We have many experts on what’s wrong and few with a strategy to build what’s right. Women can be relational equity builders. Instead of focusing on disagreements, we need to rebuild what could be healthy. For example, what can you do to make a difference in your school community? Could you join the school board or volunteer? What can you do in your community? Can you run for office or be part of legislation? Instead of criticizing, get in the field and into the battle.
The attack on women is also an attack on men. Male and female together usually have a better perspective. We have a power union with male and female — not just in marriage, but in perspective. We’re part of a team, and we need to honor both contributions.
We’re in a season where we learn by doing. We need some doers. The first case of civil disobedience in the Bible is the midwives in Exodus who refused to kill the babies. We’ve got skillful women stepping in to preserve lives. A mother saw something special in her child and decided to act, even without a prophet or angel telling her what to do. She hid her child, placed him in the river, and Miriam, who would become a prophetess, watched as he was taken by Pharaoh’s daughter. All of the heroes in that part of Exodus are women. Right now, we need women to lead an exodus from the way things are to the way they should be.
We all have different roles, but we’re in a season where the best way to learn is to do. I want to see women equipped to rescue. This is the first time I’ve tackled our relationship as daughters of the most high God to our culture. We need to be part of a cultural rescue and restoration.
