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Articles
The following report is from Cindy Jacobs on the Women of Destiny
Conference that was held in the Spring of 1999. We feel that the
information about how the sins of our founding fathers birthed genetic defects
in the American Church regarding the place of women in society and in the Church
is important and needs to be available to as broad an audience as possible.
Cindy's website is www.generals.org and
her email generals@generals.org
WOMEN OF DESTINY CONFERENCE REPORT
by Cindy Jacobs
God moved in an unprecedented way at our first Women of Destiny conference.
We had felt the leading of the Lord to have the conference at CBN's Founder's
Inn in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As often happens, God had an over-arching
purpose for us being in the part of the United States where the settlers first
landed and which might rightfully be called the womb of America. As we
prepared for the meetings, we began to experience quite a high level of
spiritual warfare. In prayer we knew that the level of warfare was much
too high to simply be about gathering women together for teaching sessions.
One day when I was in Guatemala, I sought the Lord about what was going on and
He spoke to me, "There is an accusation against women in that area, particularly
against women in ministry. " I wondered if this could be verified, so I
asked a friend named Bob Fox to do spiritual mapping of the area. I also
wondered if there could be any correlation between what had happened to women
during the settling of this nation and the warfare we were encountering.
What he and his friends found was simply amazing!
In Bob's cover letter regarding the research about women and the settling of
America he states: 'Here is some preliminary research regarding the early abuses
of women in this area by the founders of America and the American church.
While women seeking to serve God may face similar resistance and blockages in
most cities in America, it seems that the sins of our founding fathers here
birthed the genetic defects in the American Church regarding the place of women
in society and in the Church."
Here are a few of the things that were found:
1. 1619 - Sir Edwin Sandys (Treasurer of the Virginia Company) used
trickery and deceit to get women to come, knowing that most of them would
die by disease, starvation, etc. He gave them the picture that they
were going on "an adventure."
2. During the next two years 150 came to be servants in Virginia.
Yet, many of these women were sold by their English husbands and were sent
to be married to the men in Virginia. Upon arrival, they were
purchased for 120 lbs. of tobacco. They were not only wives, but also
indentured servants. Four years after they came three-fourths of the
original 150 had died.
3. 1660 - Any woman found to be with child outside of marriage was
charged with "bastardry" resulting in 39 lashes. Black female house
slaves were often sexually exploited but subject to the same law. The
black woman could not bring charges against her master; thus, no punishment
was given to their masters.
4. 1660 – women in the Anglican Church were expected to be pious,
silent worshippers. They were never to take the role of a preacher or
teacher. When the Quakers sent female missionaries, they passed an
“Anti-Quaker” law. Shortly thereafter, Quakers women were punished for
preaching the Gospel. In 1662, Quaker preachers Mary Thompkins and
Alice Ambrose were pilloried, given 32 lashes each and their possessions
were taken away.
As we talked to some of the local pastors and leaders, we strongly felt that
these issues needed to be repented for and the stronghold broken down against
women in the ministry that existed even before we were a nation
On the last night of the conference, local pastors (some that were Anglicans)
and ministry leaders came and stood as we chose some women in full-time ministry
to come to the platform as representatives. One young woman came who was a
direct descendant of the Quakers who first came to Virginia.
The leaders began with gender reconciliation. The women in the conference
who had been hurt by men stood up, and Dr. Gary Greig and others knelt and
repented before them. What followed was very strange. You see, I
have led gender reconciliation meetings many times and have never been with such
an unresponsive group of women. They hardly made a sound. Usually,
by this time, individuals are weeping loudly.
Finally, I discerned what was wrong. I realized that the stronghold of
women being forced to be silent in the church was so binding that they could not
get free even to mourn, forgive and be healed. Quietly, I invited all the
women standing near the front to come forward. By this time much
reconciliation had been done. There was repentance to the
African-Americans and Quakers, as well as women in full-time ministry.
Yet, the stronghold had not broken. As I prayed for the women, I came
against the law of silence, which said that a woman could not teach along with
other prohibitions passed by the Anglicans. It was like I had dropped a
match on a fireplace soaked with gasoline. The women held each other and
began to weep and pray for one another. God’s healing river flowed and
washed away the stronghold.
At the end of the service, local leaders asked God to open the door in Virginia
Beach for women to become all they were created by God to be. These are
“Women of Destiny,” called to change their nation and be bearers of revival to
their generations. The rejoicing was tremendous as the power of the Holy
Spirit swept into the now-open door of this nation. The Lord Himself had
visited us and done an Isaiah 61:1 work in our hearts:
“Surely the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good tidings to the meek; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound.
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