Several nights ago I had a vivid dream that woke me up. When the dream began, it was night and I was walking alone across an airport tarmac toward a plane, an F-18 Super Hornet. I was the pilot, a solo pilot, headed to the plane to take off and go somewhere on a mission.
In my hand I held a card key, similar to those used to open hotel rooms. I was turning it over and over in my hand, thinking about the task that lay ahead of me.
As I walked, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom before the flight. Alongside the tarmac was a large barracks building with the lights still on. I went inside and began walking down the hall, looking for an available bathroom.
The rooms on both sides of the hall were full of men, wide awake, talking and laughing. None noticed me as I walked on down the hall. And then I woke up, wide awake. I came to my desk and jotted down notes about the dream. Especially the name of the plane...
I had been thinking about Biblical women warriors in recent days, looking up scriptures about various women and reading their stories, specifically Deborah and Jael (Judges 4). Since that dream I have thought of several others. Esther was one. I read most of the Book of Esther yesterday. This morning as I was praying, the name Abigail (1 Samuel 25) came to mind, so I looked up and read her story too. Rahab also; a Jericho women / innkeeper / perhaps prostitute / head of her household who by hiding the spies sent by Joshua, saved a nation... and became an ancestor of Jesus. (Joshua chapters 2, 6.)
These women were all very different, with different lifestyles, occupations, and timeline of their lives. One thing they had in common, though: courage. With bold, faith-filled courage each one risked her life to save others. God used them to deliver His people, and they themselves were also delivered.
At a morning prayer meeting this week, I shared this dream with the other women there. While I mentioned F-18, I didn't remember that the plane was a Super Hornet, until one woman looked up F-18's on her I-phone and found them. Only one type could be piloted by a single individual, the F/A-18E Super Hornet. Versatile, powerful and fully armed, it was deadly to the enemy.
Then she looked up the words "hornet(s)" in the Bible and found three verses, all in the Old Testament. (See below.) God had promised Israel that he would send hornets to drive out their enemies from the land he was giving them, and he did.
This morning I found in Strong's Concordance the only Hebrew word for hornet(s). It is ṣirâ (pronounced tsir-aw'), a feminine collective word. Feminine - amazing! Collective means a group of things treated as a single item such as herd, flock, or army. The descriptive explanation says ṣirâ refers to a group of allies who will fight for you.
God had been showing me that he is raising up an army of warrior women, women who don't just pray, don't just attend church, don't just keep their mouths shut in the face of the horrible, demonic world outside their homes -- he is looking for women who will stand up and speak up, who will speak life, deliverance, and truth, whether it's "safe" for them or not.
Women who will courageously and boldly exercise their spiritual weapons and their authority, the authority of the believer. Going where God says to go. Praying what God says to pray. Speaking what God says to speak. Commanding what God says to command!
Boldly commanding, decreeing, and declaring God's Word, his desired message for the time and the need, not only in prayer but whenever and wherever else he desires it spoken. Even if they are the only "pilot" available at the time.
As I was writing the above sentences, the Lord quietly spoke to me. "This plane is not the only Super Hornet," he said. "My warrior women are, also. Versatile, powerful, fully armed with the weapons of My warfare, and deadly to the enemy."
"And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee." (Exodus 23:28 KJV)
"Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed." (Deuteronomy 7:20)
"And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow." (Joshua 24:12)
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