She Is

By Nonkosi Sibande

In Genesis 3:15 -16 God says to the serpent:

“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

Women’s greatest enemy is the Devil and only when they learn how to conquer their enemy and teach their children the same, will the world be a safe place for all mankind to live. The key for women is to fight intentionally and perpetually using the tools that God through the Lord Jesus Christ has given them. God cursed pregnancy with complications in the womb and a painful labour for a reason; the reason being to force women to understand the importance of bringing up a child and to rely on God concerning motherhood. If women fail to do so, they will face the pain and suffering that comes with the curse stated in Genesis 3:15. Jesus Christ did it all at Calvary and conquered the Devil for mankind and it is only He who has the solution for the women’s challenges. Thank God for Jesus Christ, He deserves all the glory. Jesus Christ is the only One who has the power to conquer all the social ills existing in the world, both in the spiritual and physical realm!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nonkosi Sibande
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005070168

Book preview

She is

Nonkosi Sibande

Copyright © 2021 Nonkosi Sibande

Published by Nonkosi Sibande Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

ISBN 978-1-990960-12-3

Published by Sibande, Ntombozuko Nonkosi using Reach Publishers’ services,

Edited by Laura Grey for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

Sibande, Ntombozuko Nonkosi

[e-mail]

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Prologue

The Status of a Woman

The Inspiration

The Role of a Woman

She Is Free Indeed

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my late father, Lungile Nomgca, and my late siblings, Ntsikelelo Nomgca and Luyolo Nomgca. I will always cherish the memories of love, the words of encouragement and the life we had. Special gratitude goes to my mother, Nombini Nomgca, for all the love and support she has given me and for having faith in me succeeding in life. I also dedicate this book to my husband, Happy Amos Sibande, and our two dear children, Phila and Mthokozisi, for the support and love we share and for allowing me to pursue my dreams and purpose.

Special gratitude to all the servants of God who have contributed to my spiritual journey, especially the Apostle I.N. Sithole, and his wife, Prophet S. Sithole.

This book is dedicated to God Almighty for saving my life, in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ who died for all of us in order to receive eternal life. Glory and honour belong to Jesus Christ because He has been walking with me on this journey of self-discovery.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my Heavenly Father for the gift of life and purpose. I would also like to convey my sincere gratitude to my late father, Lungile Nomgca, and my mother, Nombini Nomgca, for raising me to be the woman I am today.

Special gratitude to my pastor, Apostle I.N. Sithole, and his wife, Prophet S. Sithole, for their love, selfless teaching and mentoring. A special appreciation to Mbuso Zondi, the editor and the team from Reach Publishers who together worked tirelessly in the production of this book. Thank you for the patience and support you showed me throughout the production.

Prologue

There are many opinions on and descriptions of women and to be more precise, women are the only ones that have the most descriptions in the world, good or bad.

In an article in The Telegraph, entitled ‘Feisty, frigid and frumpy: 25 words we only use to describe women’, Radhika Sanghani explained that there are words or labels thrown at women which have negative connotations which would never be used to describe men. Additionally, most opinions and descriptions do not come from women.

This book is inspired by a myriad of things affecting women in the world. The names and descriptions given to women and how these names and descriptions affect them are deliberated. The book aims to explore how God describes women in the Holy Bible as well as His purpose for creating a woman in the world. The objective is also to channel or align the characteristics of a woman to God’s purpose. The alignment with God who created woman will be beneficial to both the women and the men in the world.

Growing up in Africa, women experience and are exposed to many struggles. There are similarities in the kind of challenges experienced by women throughout the world, even though the degree of intensity may vary between countries and races. In a quest to find a definition and purpose of a woman, I looked into references in the Holy Bible which propelled me into a lifetime journey of self-discovery. Nowadays women are increasingly learning to rely on God’s description of them. Discovering the purpose of a woman and aligning that with the kind of employment or studies they pursue will not only boost their confidence but will also improve the economy and the lives of communities around them.

As it is written in Genesis 1:27-28:

27 So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created them male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and govern it. (NLT)

CHAPTER 1

The Status of a Woman

1.1 FRAMEWORK

Over the decades, violence against women has been happening across the world, notwithstanding efforts from various leaders to alleviate the plight or social, political and financial status of women. The changes implemented do not seem to end this violence, instead it worsens day by day. According to the United Nations Women’s Forum, reports have been published on the statistics of violence against women all over the world (UN Women, 2019).

Approximately 35 percent of women in the world have been either physically and/or sexually abused by an intimate partner or non-partner (UN Women, 2019).

In South Africa, reports show that about 70 percent of women have experienced either physical, and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner or non-partner in their lifetime (Statistics SA, 2019). Furthermore, reports have confirmed that many women who have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse show signs of depression, have had an abortion or have acquired HIV, compared to women who have not (Statistics SA, 2019). It must be noted that in South Africa, women face multiple challenges such as unemployment or having full responsibility for the family.

1.2 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND WOMEN-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS

According to Leonie Joubert’s article entitled ‘Women-headed Households’ from South Africa.co.za (2019), more and more households are headed by women, and women-headed households earn much less than men-headed households. Moreover, according to Chijioke Nwosu and Catherine Ndinda (2018), the reason that women-headed households are poorer than male-headed households is that in most women-headed households, there are more unemployed and less skilled members than in men-headed households.

Up to the present time, there have been numerous activities initiated by the leaders nationally and internationally from government as well non-government organisations that contributed immensely to the safety of women. And be that as it may, more work still needs to be done.

Without going into any specific details, concerning the contributions of the leaders and patrons, consistency and continuity of these contributions is very crucial to ensure that women are completely safe and secure, as well as empowered to their full potential. Even though there have been remarkable improvements in the protection and empowerment of women in South Africa, more work needs to be done to reach a status of complete safety and empowerment for women.

According to the Tears Foundation (2019), many people in South African communities who are affected by violence against women and children are crippled by the fear of being harassed as well as lack of resources to access available help.

Men are undoubtedly more physically strong compared to women and God has blessed them with strength for a very good reason, which is to protect and to support their women and children amongst other things. Women are also uniquely blessed in numerous ways that are deliberated in this book.

According to the book of Romans 3: 23, the Bible says that:

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. (NLT)

Before the fall, both men and women were in the most peaceful state with one another in the presence of the Lord. However, after the fall of mankind, the curse of sin took effect in the lives of people, affecting everyone. But, God in His amazing grace sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin in order to restore mankind back to their original position with Him. The Bible further states in the book of Romans 3:24-26 that:

24 He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. (NLT)

From the Scripture above it is evident that the status of mankind after the fall has penance, but God freed us from it through Jesus Christ and all who believe in Him will be free from punishment and the curse of sin.

In actual fact it means that when all mankind are submitted to God they will function to their utmost without harming others and this will be explained in the upcoming chapters.

The issue of violence against women by men is part of the problems brought about by the fall of mankind, according to the Holy Bible. Our main focus will be the issues of violence against women. The Bible states that, when the state of fall prevails, the Devil takes advantage of that loophole through many temptations and traps hence people lose focus on God and fall into many dangerous traps that can cause harm to others.

In other words, a true God-fearing human being is a self-controlled person, in that he or she is able to maintain and control their feelings no matter what may try to provoke them, but we cannot say the same thing about a human being that has not truly submitted to God. And this is where the challenges begin.

According to the