MOTHER'S DAY (2026) DEBORAH - MOTHER OF ZION

MOTHER’S DAY –

 MAY 10, 2026

DEBORAH – MOTHER OF ZION

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

I wish all of our mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.  Whether you are a mother to those of natural birth or to those you have nurtured spiritually, you are by grace and election a Mother of Zion.

Every year, we have a “Mother of the Year.”  Our Mother this year is Rev, Sandra Farley, Prayer Pastor.

It is well said, “we don’t realize what all people do until they are not there.”  After 8-weeks of hospital and rehabilitation, Sandra is now home with her family, Allen and Chris.  Sandra is one of those hidden power houses who quietly fills many empty spaces in the church, not just through intercessory prayer, but through service.  She is also an intercessor for Capitol Hill Prayer Group and Prayer Net as well as the coordinator for Wednesday night prayer at East Gate Church.  She is also my bodyguard. No one will attack me when I walk into a meeting with Sandra Farley.  She wears the garments of a Saint.

A mother of Zion is a woman of God who has been tested in battle, proven and faithful, who has endured seasons of change, challenges, and fiery darts of the enemy.  Their experience with God in life/ministry and tenure have afforded them certain levels of wisdom, maturity, and insight.

They do not succumb to or engage in rivalry, jealousy, envy, backbiting, division, cattiness, competition or discouragement.  For those who carry that grace, they want you to win.  They don’t need the lime-light, recognition, or the approval of man.

In the Bible, the “mother of Zion” symbolizes Zion as a nurturing, life-giving, and spiritual source representing both the city of Jerusalem and the people of God, giving birth to nations and the presence of God in the people of God.  Zion is wherever the presence of God abides.   

Song 3:11: Go forth, o ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

This is our dowry as the bride of Christ, the crown that we bring to King Jesus.  We worship, praise, love and adore Him, constantly lifting Him up in our hearts and lives and making Him king and Lord in our hearts.  Then as His Bride, He produces a son in us.

In Bible times, the espousal took the form of a ceremony before witnesses and followed much the same structure as our wedding ceremony.  Vows were exchanged and the bride wore white, The espousal was as binding as marriage.  The only difference was they did not begin to live together at the time of the service.  Love was not the determining factor in the marriage choice.  They were chosen for the kind of wife and mother they would make. 

2 Co. 11:2: …for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

I have chosen Deborah as our bible heroine today.

DEBORAH

Judg. 5:7: The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.  

As intercessors, we too are not only a mother in Israel, but a mother in the United States of America. Not just over nations, but over generations within nations.  Yes, we pray for our families and each other, but there is a higher calling for mothers of Zion.

There is a healing and restoration for families being called forth.

Donna Rigney Sagan; 4/10/2026: “Great Light is coming to the world.  For far too long, darkness has covered My children; the darkness of poverty, sickness, pain, heartache, divorce, and division in families and churches---corruption in all areas of society.  Now is the hour when I will arise, and the light of My great glory will cover the earth, just as I said it would.  My goodness and great love will be manifest for all to encounter.  As my light shines, what was hidden in thick darkness will be exposed for all to see. this will cause a great disgust and a sudden turning from wickedness to Me, and many will enter My kingdom and leave the camp of the enemy.  

     Get your fishing nets ready, because there will be many [whom] you [will] have to pull into the Church and disciple. Just as fish need to be cleaned once they are caught, they will need to be cleansed of the filth that got on them before they were pulled out of the darkness into the light.

    This is why We led you to train so many of Our children in deliverance. They will be very effective in setting the captives free and removing their filthy garments and cloaking them in their new, white, shiny garments of righteousness.”

Let us keep the perspective just as we are all called to become sons of God, we are all the Bride of Christ. 

Deborah is the only woman in the bible who was placed at the height of political power by the common consent of the people.  She lived in the time of the “Judges” some thirteen centuries before Christ.  There were few women in history who have ever attained the public dignity and supreme authority of Deborah.  She was like Joan of Arc, who twenty-seven centuries later rode in front of the Franch and led them to victory. 

Prophetess Deborah was the wife of an obscure man named Lapidoth.  His name means camel driver.  Others say torch bearer.   The rabbis say Deborah was a keeper of the tabernacle lamps.  She is one of the seven women prophetesses whose prophecies are recorded in the Bible.

Later, when her faith in God became the strength of Israel, she would become the keeper of a new spiritual vison that would light all Israel.  

In all her roles, first that of counselor to her people next as judge in their disputes, and finally as deliverer in time of war, Deborah exhibited womanly excellence.  She was indeed, “a mother in Israel.”  She arose to great leadership because she trusted God implicitly and because she would inspire in others that same trust.

For twenty years, Jabin, king of Canaan, had oppressed the children of Israel.  Their vineyards had been destroyed, their women dishonored, and their children slain.  Many had turned to the worship of idols. 

Canaan today encompasses Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Gaza, with Israel occupying 59% of Gaza.

As a counselor in time of peace, Deborah became known far and near, but her greatest service came in time of war.  She led her people into war.  Most of them stood by fearfully because they were afraid of the enemy’s 900 chariots of iron, when they had none.  Deborah burned with indignation at the oppression of her people.

The question she faced was whether Israel could exist as a nation split in two by a powerful Canaanite force.  In calling for mobilization in Yahweh’s name, she prophetically stood for all that God had set forth in his original covenant with Israel.

“She judged” proving her to be one of the 16 judges of Israel in the period between Joshua and the kings of Israel (520 years). “She dwelt under the palm tree.”

“Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying, ‘Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with you then thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulum?  I will draw Sisera with his chariots and his multitude unto you at the river Kishon.  I will deliver him into your hand.  Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.”

As a prophetess, it is the Word of God that goes to war.  Barak is dependent upon her hearing from God to tell him when to attack.  The Sept. adds at the end of verse 8, “For I do not know the day when the Lord would prosper the angel with me.”

I do not judge this as unbelief, but wisdom and humility.  Barak recognized and respected her gifting and wanted the gift of God (the Word of God) to direct the battle.

4:9: She said I will surely go with you; notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.  Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

In Barak’s defense, I think he was a man of great faith who was not concerned about his honor, but desired victory over the Canaanite’s.  The Holy Scriptures commends his faith not his unbelief.  For this, his name is also in the Hebrew 11:32-35, Hall of Faith Fame.

What shall I say, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson…, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness… waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens…

The glory of victory was shared by two women:  Deborah’s call to a Holy War and Jael finished it.  However, Barak is the one honored for his faith.

4:9: She said I will surely go with you; notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.  Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh.  He went up with ten thousand men at his feet.  It took faith to call two tribes of Israel together and amass an army of 10,000 based on the spoken Word of God (by a woman).

  Deborah went up with him.  Sisera gathered together all his chariots of iron and all the people were with him.

Deborah again spoke the word of the Lord to Barak: Vs. 14: Up; for this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into you hand; is not the Lord gone out before you? So, Barak went down from mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him.  The Lord discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet.

 “Up---this is the day” is the battle cry of the prophetic utterance of the spoken Word of God.  After which the conflict moves quickly to its conclusion. 

The lightly armed Israelites were in no way affected.  Barak pursued the chariots, and smote them with the edge of the sword, but Sisera fled to the tent of Jael.  “There was not a man left” (utter defeat).

Jael went out to Sisera, put him in her tent, covered him with a robe, (he must have been wet and cold).  He asked for water.  She gave him a bottle of milk which is believed to be an Arabic sleeping aid of “leben or yogurt”.

Jael and her husband, Heber the Kenite had been the ones to warn Sisera of the mobilization of Israel (4:11).  He no doubt thought he would be safe with her.  He preferred the woman’s tent to that of Heber, because of secrecy and supposed safety there.  According to Eastern custom no man was permitted to intrude into a woman’s tent or the apartments of women; to do so meant the death penalty.  Thus, Sisera was brought under the death penalty, and it was permitted of God to fulfill the prophecy of verse 9.

Then Jael, Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand and smote the nail into his temples…so he died.

As Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, come, and I will show you the man who you seek.

So, God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.  The hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

With God’s prophetic word and the prophetic action of the two warriors, Deborah and Barak, an army of 10,000 without arms defeated a well-armed army with 900 chariots.  By faith they went to war based on the Word of God.

Isa. 66:7-9: Before she was in labor, she gave birth, before her pain came she delivered a male child.  Who has heard such a thing?  Who has seen such things?  Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?  Or shall a nation be born at once?  For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.  Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Says the LORD.  Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? says your God. 

What is happening in Israel is a foreshadowing of what will be happening in the Church.  “First in the natural and then in the spiritual is the fact that is foretold that Israel---the natural Israel --- would go back to her land at the end of time and again become a nation in her own right. 

The spiritual Israel, the church, is also scattered throughout many denominations (nations).  The Holy Spriit has brought people together.  The returning of the Jews to Israel was the natural event that foreshadows the spiritual awakening in the church, the spiritual Israel and the coming together of all different denominational people to worship together in Spirit and in truth (charismatic renewal).   The Bride of Christ together with natural Israel is getting herself ready to become the Mother in Zion to birth the Great Harvest.  That the United States and the natural Israel joined in battle to defeat their mutual enemy, Iran, is a prophetic sign. 

The Word of God has again gone to war! 

Mothers in Zion arise!  The Bride of Christ is neither male or female.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX www.eastgateministries.com

I entered into the labors of the Purpose of the Bride, Lyn Gitchel; All the women of the Bible, Dean; The Word of God Goes to War, Pastor Sissom.