Becoming God’s Jael: The power of the ordinary in a hands of a woman

This International Women’s Day, Salt&Light reproduces a sermon by Pastor Rachel Ongkili, a bi-vocational pastor and entrepreneur at SIB Skyline in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 

This message was first preached at Women Arise 2025, organised by the Network for Christian Women. Be encouraged that God can bring victory and breakthrough through what He has put in your hands. 

Every woman knows what it is to hold a tool. 

For some of us, it could be a kitchen knife. 

For some of us, it’s a laptop, a pen, a prayer journal. 

But what if I told you that in the hands of God, those ordinary tools can bring down strongholds? What if I told you that deliverance for God’s people came not from a sword, but from a woman in a tent holding a hammer and a peg? 

Meet Jael. 

I love the story of Jael, because she reminds us that God’s purposes are not bound by hierarchy, status, or human expectations. What do I mean?

She is, first of all, a woman. She is not a soldier. She is not a prophetess. In fact, she’s not even an Israelite, but a Kenite. 

We see her in Judges 4, where the people of God were in battle against the king of Canaan and his army commander, Sisera. Bruised from battle, Sisera flees on foot from the battlefield, comes into Jael’s tent, and unsuspectingly meets his demise there. 

God brought about deliverance and great victory that day – not through a warrior with military-grade weapons, but through a woman dwelling in her tent! 

Jael’s tent was her domain

Jael was not in the battlefield; she was hidden in her tent. It was her assigned place; the place where she exercised authority, where she used her skills and abilities.

Just like Jael, you and I have tents. Our tent could be our home, our marketplace, our business, our studio, our office, our classroom, or perhaps an online platform. 

You too have a place where God has called you to exercise authority and dominion; to utilise your skills, abilities and talents for His glory. That’s your tent. 

A tent is not a secular space, but a sacred assignment. 

Jael was not a soldier on the battle field. But while she was in her tent, she held a stake that would shift a nation. 

Likewise, most of us are not on pulpits. In our day-to-day, we are in our offices, in meetings, in boardrooms, and on Zoom calls. But just as Jael’s tent became the frontline of battle, your everyday role can become the place for a spiritual breakthrough.

Pastor Rachel Ongkili delivering her message on Jael at Women Arise 2025. Photos courtesy of Network of Christian Women (NCW) unless otherwise stated.

Understand this: Your tent is not your limitation; it is the place of your divine assignment. A tent is not neutral ground. It is contested spiritual territory. God can move in your tent to bring about Kingdom breakthrough.

Are there places in your life where you have disqualified yourself because you do not carry a title or a visible role? What if that hiddenness is exactly where God wants to anoint, develop, and prepare you for what He has ahead?

Jael doesn’t just react; she discerns 

When Sisera flees from the battle and comes into Jael’s tent, she invites him in, gives him some milk, and covers him with a nice rug. Hospitality at its finest! 

But Jael is not deceived by appearances. Jael doesn’t just see a weary traveler. She sees a threat to covenant destiny. She realises: Hey, this is not a man to protect. This is the enemy! And so, her hospitality ends when her spiritual discernment begins.

Sometimes the enemy shows up in our tent looking harmless. But we are not called to passively host strongholds. Spiritual discernment isn’t just about knowing what’s in your space. It’s about knowing what doesn’t belong. It sees what is at stake. 

In the marketplace, Sisera can come disguised as unethical culture, compromise, fear of man, greed, or even as spiritual exhaustion. What is the Sisera in your tent? What might you have allowed into your heart and habits that looks harmless, but is actually a threat to your spiritual authority and spiritual assignment?

Do not host it, but confront it. As daughters of God, we are not called to be passive hosts to the very things that are sent to steal, oppress, and devour. 

When Jael discerns rightly, she acts decisively

As Sisera slumbers, Jael picks up a tent peg and a hammer, and strikes the peg into his temple so hard that the peg goes straight down into the ground (Judges 4:21).

Now, if Jael had hesitated, Sisera could have regained his strength. If she didn’t strike hard enough, he could have awoken and possibly fought back. What does this tell us? Her actions were decisive and precise. She did not hold back or delay.

Likewise, when you know it is the enemy, do not negotiate. Do not delay. You drive the peg.

What does striking the enemy look like? Sometimes, it looks like…

Speaking the truth in love.

Praying and breaking generational curses.

Cutting off an alliance.

Launching that initiative that you’ve been thinking about. 

Starting that social justice work that you’ve had in your heart for a while now. 

Mentoring and discipling young leaders, breaking spiritual oppression through discipleship. 

When God speaks, be decisive and precise, because when obedience is indecisive, deliverance will be delayed.

Recognising your Sisera

I know someone who was a marketplace leader. She was faithful in church, and was known for her integrity in the marketplace. But over time, something shifted.

It started subtly, when someone introduced her to a few mindset mentors online. Their language was empowering, their branding was sleek, and their tools seemed helpful. They used phrases like, “Manifest your destiny” and “You are your own breakthrough.” 

At first she thought to herself: “It’s just language. I know who I am in Christ.”

But slowly, her devotional life got replaced by morning mantras. As her self-help books started piling up, her Bible began gathering dust. She stopped praying before her meetings. She started chasing high-paying clients, and began to echo teachings that had no place in the Kingdom of God.

It was not outright rebellion; it was slow and subtle erosion. She didn’t slam the door on God, but she left it open for something else. Then one day during a client call, she found herself repeating a phrase that she herself had once considered to be New Age. At that moment, she felt convicted. Like Jael, she suddenly realised: “Sisera is lying in my tent!”

That night, she came before God. She wept. She repented. She cleared her bookshelves. She rededicated her business to God as holy ground.

Today her work still carries excellence, but it also carries fire. She prays over her clients. She leads a prayer huddle before workshops. Her business didn’t shrink. Instead, it multiplied. Because when she reclaimed her tent, God restored her spiritual authority. 

What has God placed in your hands?

Jael had no title and no military weapons — just a hammer and a peg. 

Jael knew how to handle a tent peg, because the Kenites were nomads who lived in tents. It was customarily the job of the women to set up the tents. When the opportunity presented itself, she simply used whatever she already had in her hand.

Likewise, you do not need a title or a pulpit to have spiritual authority. Skills, stories and spiritual gifts can become weapons in God’s hands if you surrender them fully to Him. 

What is in your hand? What has God trained you to wield in your tent? It could be your voice, your prayer life, your business, or your story. These may all seem so natural, but in the spirit, they are mighty in God and deadly to the enemy. 2 Corinthians 10:4 teaches us that the weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. They have divine power to demolish strongholds. 

Do you sometimes think that what you have is too small for God to use? It may look small to you, but you have a great God! When anointed by God, the ordinary becomes a weapon of extraordinary deliverance. Surrender it to Him, and watch what He will do through you.

A woman whose name was barely known becomes the symbol of decisive breakthrough

What happens when obscurity meets destiny? Due to her decisive obedience, Jael becomes immortalised in a prophetic song: “Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women”! (Judges 5:24)

Her impact of her obedience is summarised in a succinct one-liner: “Then the land had peace 40 years.” (Judges 5:31)

God is not limited by public opinion or battlefield strategy. He often fulfils His word through the ones people least expect. Breakthrough can come through you! He’s just looking for our “yes”. Will you say “yes” to God?

Rise up, woman of God!

I believe God is calling it forth the spirit of Jael in His daughters. 

Ps Rachel praying over the congregation at Women Arise 2025.

He wants to raise generations of women who are not confined by their tent, not afraid of the enemy, and not impressed by the size of the problem. Instead, they know how to discern the moment and strike with spiritual authority. They don’t hold back, but strike with precision and decisiveness.

Today, I speak to:

The woman who is in her tent. 

The woman who thought her place was too small. 

The woman who thought her tools were nothing special. 

The woman who thought that the battle was for someone else. It’s for you! 

Your tent is your battleground. 

Your obedience is your weapon. 

Your “yes” is the sound of breakthrough. 

Bring your “yes” to God, and watch Him transform your workplace, your business, and your home. 

So pick up the peg, swing the hammer, and step into your purpose. 

Because when the hidden woman rises, the enemy falls.

Let’s pray:

“Lord, raise up Your Jaels all across the generations. Women of courage and breakthrough. Let no woman reading this think that she is unqualified, unseen or too small. Awaken the warrior within. Teach us to strike decisively — not against flesh and blood, but against every spiritual enemy that tries to enter our tent. We say yes to you, Lord. Use our hands, use our hearts, use our tents. Lord, your will be done, Your kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Pastor Rachel Ongkili will be a plenary speaker at Network for Christian Women’s (NCW) Women Arise 2026, July 16 & 17, 2026. Registration opens late April. 

The NCW60 Conference (organised by the Network for Christian Women), for women and men aged 50 and above, happens on April 16 & 17, 2026. Find out more here.

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