This year I’ve been focusing on being authentically me, the person God created me to be instead of operating behind a mask or through filters that aren’t truly me. I have been working to be 100% wholly Brenda (in a Godly way, lol). My inspiration came from an “aha” moment as I read something Ana Werner said in her book, The Seer’s Path. “No more trying to put on others’ mantles. Just start walking in your own”.
We love to get prayed over by the “biggies” and receive their anointing. I’m not saying we shouldn’t and for years I did. Those times and prayers were amazing. However, I feel like I now have a different perspective on it. My mantle fits me perfectly and is created uniquely for me to wear. What I like best about it is that it allows me to walk in who I am without pressure to conform to someone else’s model.
I was listening to John Paul Jackson’s “Fireside Chats” (#18) yesterday and he said, “Take risks in the area you are called to, don’t take risks outside of that area.” Like in wearing my own mantle, I found that liberating.
I wasn’t sure of the Biblical definition of a mantle and after studying it I came up with this: A mantle is an area of your life where God has given you authority. Wearing your own mantle looks like this: It is to take who I authentically am and minister confidently out of what is uniquely mine to give, because of the authority in that area God has placed on me.
Well, I thought after coming up with that definition, that sounds great but what does that look like?
- Define your mantle. (What aspects of your personality connect with others? What do you enjoy doing? Do you see ways God has given you authority in relation to others? Authority is not to be confused with knowledge or experience.)
- Track when you recognize yourself wearing your mantle to make you more aware of it. (Are there ways you daily operate in that authority? It might be as small as sharing a sympathetic word with a coworker. Where is God’s love for others and your passion showing up?)
- Pursue learning about the things that relate to your mantle. (Courses? Books? Talking to authorities? God time. Holy Spirit classes.)
- Choose a physical “mantle” to wear prophetically. (I have a purple throw I consider my prophetic mantle and when it’s chilly I’ll put it around my shoulders.)
- Take yourself seriously. (Own your spiritual mantle. Wear it confidently as a gift from God, no matter how small or unprepared you might feel.)
Each of us walk in a unique relationship with God and are created for our own ministry and passion. There aren’t any formulas, except in a general sense.
We don’t automatically have or get a mantle; they are for God to give. However, as you grow in who you are and minister out of that with a heart of love for others, God begins to grant favor on you. Others begin to respect and trust what you do and say. Out of that God then bestows a mantle, which merely means his authority and favor are on you to be taken seriously. That includes taking yourself seriously.
It doesn’t mean you have to do something in Christian “ministry.” I’m referring to ministry as how you project Jesus to the world around you. Our love for Jesus should grow until it overflows onto others who touch our lives. I know two women who are life coaches to the secular world and yet, without necessarily using Christian words they project Jesus’ heart and passion to the ones they interact with. They wear a mantle of God’s authority in what they do.
I have a friend who is a supervisor in a regular job that is stressful and takes long hours of overtime, yet she walks under a mantle of God’s authority that her coworkers recognize and respect. It gives her the opportunity to minister into their lives. My daughter Jessie wears her mantle of authority both as a school teacher and in her church setting.
Another friend works in a greenhouse and teaches in a homeschooling co-op, yet her heart for her coworkers and students has given her a mantle of authority she doesn’t even realize she’s wearing. My son Jeremy is a semi-truck driver and I have been amazed at his mantle and how he has impacted others for God. I just want to make the point that it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters how you walk out your daily life representing God’s love and compassion for others.
I realized not that long ago that I haven’t taken myself seriously as a writer. I didn’t feel I deserved that title (even though I’ve now published seven books). I feel like an everyday woman who struggles along just like everyone else, living a normal life and doing normal things. It’s not like I’m “deeply spiritual” Brenda who walks with her eyes on Jesus all day and never experiences fear or frustration. I’m just a “commoner” who struggles on crutches to put gas in her car. Who cooks wearing huge, noise-canceling headphones to keep out the horrors on her mom’s TV (playing at top volume). I hurt when my kids hurt, pet the neighborhood cat, and ride my fitness bike (around foot surgeries). No, I haven’t exactly pictured myself wearing a mantle and walking in God’s authority.
However, this year I’ve worked to change my perception of myself and embraced wearing my mantle as a writer.
The closer you walk with God the more of a Godly impact you will have on the ones who touch your life. By walking with your eyes on God and growing deeper in Jesus you will realize that God has given you a mantle of authority, and it is something to be taken seriously. Wear it humbly as you walk confidently in it.
Own it!
I enjoyed this article, Brenda.
I have a tendency to want to “adopt” aspects of other people’s personalities or styles of ministry that I like—to the point that I have often wondered who I really am. At those times, I have to seriously step back and ask God to show me who He created me to be. And then I have to depend on Him to give me blinders so I can shut out the influences of my environment and hear His truth about who I really am in Him.
Thanks for being authentic, Brenda.
I think we all can struggle to see who we authintically are, and I have found that it’s a process, lol. Like you I see aspects of others that I’d like (or don’t want), but now I’m learning to focus on what is me. We have really cool things too. :) Writing this I stopped to think about “the influences of my environment” you mentioned, and instead of what commercials and the public says I think I struggle more with what I hear teachings on. As in whether that is God’s desire for me or whether it isn’t anything I need to stress over doing. In that way I’m the opposite, I usually don’t want to adopt something, I’m wondering if I’m supposed to be doing it because it isn’t “me,” lol.
I see what you are saying in the scenario of teachings we hear, Brenda. I was also thinking of this as I wrote my previous comment.
I think we (I!) need to be careful not to dismiss a basic teaching because something about it doesn’t feel right for us in the way it is presented. (I’m not implying that is what you are referring to as your struggle.) Put another way–don’t confuse an absolute, unchangeable truth of God with the way it may look for each individual. Example: We are all supposed to share our faith (witness), but it will not look the same for everybody. If a teaching says everyone should do it the same way, I would resist that part of it (and I have) but look for how God wants me to to it.
Back to your authenticity (I do like that word)–we need to be careful to obey God’s truths but not be bound to doing it the way someone else says or thinks we should. The impact God wants each of us to have in this world will be enabled when we are walking in who He made us to be.
YES!!! You are exactly right. The way we walk in something will look differently than someone else doing it. It’s when they think we should all look the same that I balk. :)