Leonard Ravenhill, said, Everyone wants to be clothed with power but no one wants to be stripped of self.
You may be saying this is not possible. How can you equate a stripper with a calling from God. First let us define the world’s definition of a stripper. A stripper is a person who earns money by taking off their clothes slowly and intimately. I had remarkably close relatives that were strippers. At this time in my life, I just had my first baby and was a struggling college student. I did not even have money for pampers. I remember the day I asked one of them would she give me money just for a bag of pampers and she said no but I will get you a show with us.
I turned it down immediately. I figured it out. I knew I was going to stay in school when she dropped out. I knew I wanted to finish school so I could give my son stability. I knew that was a temporary solution that would have taken me down a road further than I was willing to go. I am grateful that I did not become a stripper at that time, but God has called me to be a stripper now.
Let me explain. In the garden it says, Genesis 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. Since my youth, as young as I can remember, I have always lived like an open book. I am very transparent and willing to be vulnerable. Transparency is as necessary for me to exist as the air that I breathe. Regardless, that this was one of my most challenging seasons as a single mom and I also did not have the support I needed in so many areas of my life, I did not buckle. Now, as an adult and on the other side of my faith standing trial, I understand why God has called me to be a stripper in his kingdom. He originally created Adam and Eve to live in the garden naked and not ashamed. He is calling us to live the same way.
God wants you to be a stripper as well. He wants us to be transparent and vulnerable in our ability to come boldly to his throne of grace to obtain mercy in our time of need. He still wants us to live naked and unashamed. Naked and not ashamed about our weaknesses with Him. Naked and not ashamed about our pain. Naked and not ashamed about our childhood trauma. Naked and unashamed about our brokenness in our marriages and relationships.
Naked and unashamed about our brokenness in our humanity so he can take our weaknesses and empower us. When we come into deeper realms of intimacy with him, we will not be afraid to strip away the fear, the pride, the envy, the bitterness, the mistrust, the doubt, the anger, the adultery, the hatred. God wants you to take it off like a garment that we wear and hide behind like Adam and Eve did when they made fig trees to cover themselves.
He wants to bring you into new levels of accountability and responsibility so he can bring you back into a place of dominion, power, and rest, but it will require a new level of healing through vulnerability and transparency. God wants to know will you strip yourself for him so he can make you whole and cloth you with his power?