I had the honor of interviewing Pastor Reita Ball of Metropolitan Tabernacle in Chattanooga, TN. It was a time of insight and deep revelation – I gleaned much from the interview, I believe you will, too.
FreshOutlook: What issues do you believe to be most relevant to Christian women today?
Reita Ball: I think the biggest issue facing women today is personal identity or “Who am I?” For a woman to be effective in ministry or in life, she must first determine who she was created to be. Too many women depend on too many crutches. Their husband can be a crutch, their kids, their job, their pastor, even their past. There are different reasons for crutches. A lot of women look for role models and they want to be like that person, and my questions to that woman would be, “Who are you? Who did God design you to be? If you remove your husband, family and career from the equation, what were you born to do?” When a woman discovers who she is, then she can step into her destiny.
We have a lot of voices that try to tell us who we are. The church, our spouse, our employers all attempt to tell us who we are. We must sift through all of the voices in life and hear God’s voice. He is the One who has ordained us! He is the One who knows us best and still loves us the most! There are world changers that we will never see on television. There are women around the world who have heard the voice of God and responded in obedience to become instruments of tremendous change in their world.
FO: How would you instruct women to find out who they are, how do we accomplish that? How do you know who you are when you have been branded by everything else around you?
RB: You have to get your “nose in the book and your face in the carpet.” You have to go to God’s Word to find out who you are. His word is a strong and powerful mirror. When you look into His word and really digest what He says you are it is life changing. When God describes our package it is mind blowing. It is amazing to walk in the revelation that God knew me before I was born. That is more than awesome. The situations in life will brand you. We spend most of our lives trying to live up to or walk away from many of those “brands.” We need to renew our minds and realize that even with all of our failures…all of our junk…God has a plan designed just for us. The first place to go is His Word!
FO: What are you hearing from most women in the church as you travel around to minister?
RB: Women are reaching for something real. They have tried religion and man-made kingdoms. Their spirits are screaming for a relevant message. They are crying out for truth and a move of God. Women are tired of the fluffy answers. They are tired of the cliché messages. They want to know how to make it on the back side of the desert when God seems to be a thousand miles away.
FO: What has been your greatest challenge in your own life and ministry?
RB: I guess my greatest challenge has been finding out who I am. I was raised in a good Christian home, and my parents raised to to “soar with eagles.” The stories that are popular today such as “I have been delivered from drugs, perversion, and alcohol” are not my story. My story is that I was delivered from religion. Religion enslaves entire people groups, religion enslaves nations. Religion tries to keep you in a cage. In a cage you can feel the wind, even receive sustenance. But until you walk out of what has held you in bondage, you are not truly free. Bondage comes in many forms, some of our own making. I often say that I was delivered off death row. There are different kinds of death row. Death row can be in your house, in your church, on your job, or in jail. So, my greatest challenge has been finding out who I am and then finding my voice. Once you find out who you are, your voice follows. And then, God makes a way for your voice to be heard.
FO: How do you balance ministry, family, and church?
RB: Sometimes, I balance life really well and sometimes I blow it! I am a driven individual and too often there are not enough hours in the day for what I need to get done. However, I have learned that to be mightily used of God I have to pull aside sometimes and say no. No one can be all things to all people. Being a co-pastor with my husband, there are a lot of people depending on our leadership. There are giftings that I feel pastors are called to walk in, therefore if I neglect my spirit man, I cheat those to whom I am called to minister. I typically take my morning hours to do what needs to be done at home and to spend time with God. You simply have to spend time with God. If you are a morning person, just get up and do it. If you are not a morning person, then stay up an hour later…just spend some time with God!
In my opinion, the description of the Proverbs 31 woman is a portrait of the seasons of her life. It is difficult to juggle the responsibilities of life: spouse, children, and ministry. You have to find balance. You have to pull yourself aside into His presence.
FO: Many people I talk with this year are talking about and experiencing a ‘press’ in the body of Christ, do you sense that?
RB: Yes, I sense intense pressure in the body of Christ. I feel like the heavens are pregnant and the remnant is pregnant with what God is doing and the pressure is increasing like a woman in labor. I often tell our congregation that the greatest time of pressure is when you are on the birthing table and the baby starts down the canal. We are sensing intense pressure and intense darkness, you come to a place where you either birth it or you abort it. Something has to give. I feel like that is where our world is right now, something has to give. The body of Christ is feeling that pressure. There is a pressing in of the spirit of God as well. It’s like He has just come in to dwell with us. In April, the church celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Revival. I don’t know if other ministries experienced it or not, but we turned a corner. God is just displaying His power in our midst. Lives are being transformed! God is pressing Himself in to His people and the saints are pressing into God and this is causing the pressure. And the dam is breaking.
FO: What would you tell people are the keys to withstanding the press until they get to the place of victory?
RB: The Bible says to stand fast in the liberty to which He has called you and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. If you know what you have been delivered from then hold your position, regardless of the pressure. Take a look back over your shoulder at how far you have come. In our microwave mentality we want everything in twenty seconds. So often we as the body of Christ get a word that God is going to do something spectacular. In our mind, we think that it should happen in the next three days. But when you look at Abraham and Sarah’s story, theologians say it was some 26 years between the promise and when Isaac was born. So if you are waiting on an Isaac, wait on the promise. Now, time has sped up and you won’t have to wait 26 years, because that’s not the season God is in now, but stand fast and hold your position.
I have learned that the enemy’s strength is staying on his assignment. He stays on his assignment 24 – 7. We stay on assignment one week because God has said something to us and then the next week we fall back into saying, “Well, I don’t know if it was God or not.” Then we hear the Word of the Lord a few weeks later and get back on track, and then the next week we are wavering again. Now in our seasons of questioning, doubting and wavering, the enemy has stayed on his assignment twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. How much ground have you allowed him to gain in your life while you were believing one day and wavering the next? So my advice is to stand fast and hold your position. And even if you fall…fall forward in prayer. Then get back up.
FO: You talked about the season God is in right now, what season do you feel that is?
RB: When you look at the scriptures you will see we are living in the last days. I think God is in a season of releasing everything His word declares to those who are in position. We limit the release of God when we run from church to church, relationship to relationship, job to job…always looking for an easy way out. The ones who are making the decision to stand fast and hold their position are receiving the blessings of God. People come into our ministry and ask us how we got this so quick. We didn’t get this quick, this came from seasons of sowing. You can sow for a harvest of tomatoes or you can sow for an orchard. If you sow for an orchard then don’t expect a return tomorrow. But if you have sown for an orchard, once the return starts the orchard will feed you for the rest of your life. Sometimes we block the release from God by not being in position. So get in position.
FO: What final word would you say to our readers?
RB: Get past the silly woman syndrome! I preached this message at my conference last year. In the book of II Timothy 3:1-7, the Bible talks about gullible or silly women. It is time to get past your silly self and find out who you are. Then become who you were ordained to be for your world is waiting on you. It’s your choice to walk in your destiny.
Known for anointed preaching and motivational speaking, Reita Atkinson Ball is a highly sought after crusade and conference speaker. It is her heartbeat to see the people of God walk in their destiny. Pastor Reita hosts the annual Daughters of Destiny Women's Conference, one of the nation's premiere women's conferences. She also co-hosts Destiny Living with her husband, Dr. Steve Ball, which can be seen on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they founded and pastor the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church, a non-denominational, spirit-filled church characterized by services which are intense, dynamic and full of the presence and power of God. Metro Tab is a multi-racial church with over 17 different nationalities represented in its membership.
