Overcoming Sexual Harassment: جنسی ہراساں کرنا

Hi, I'm Julie Weber of Liberate Ministries and today's topic is called overcoming Sexual Harassment.


Across the world, Sexual Harassment is on the top of everyone’s mind. We hear about new incidents of unwanted sexual contact all the time, from the Me Too movement to the rise of rape in cultures globally.


Sexual Harassment is an emotionally charged issue. So I want to approach this topic with respect and apply the advice found in

Jeremiah 23:35 (MSG) that asks the question, “How do we understand God in this?”


First, I’d like to share, I've observed sexual harassment in ministry. Many women I helped recover from their abortions, have been sexually harassed. As a group, they dealt with a lot of issues like humiliation, fear, anger, abuse and trauma. In some cases harassment, led to date rape and unplanned pregnancies. Thankfully, with God’s help, many women were able to work through the liberate ministries course and learn how to forgive those involved: people, organizations, society, and even themselves.



Second, I want you to know I’ve personally experienced sexual harassment. One experience where I didn't handle it well was when I was in high school, living in Florida, I had a job at the shell shop on the beach. One of my responsibilities was to organize the shells in the stockroom. The owners son, who was also my neighbor, gave me a ride to high school each day. He would come into the store and sexually harass me when no one else was around. I should of told my boss, the owners of the shell shop or my parents. But I didn't because I had just moved there, I didn't know anyone. I didn't want to take a school bus, instead I wanted a free ride to high school.


At another job I experienced sexual harassment again. This time I handled it better, but it took me a while to say something. Partly because I couldn't believe this was really happening. I'm married now and I wanted to do my best at my job. It felt very strange, even my husband didn't believe me at first. When I kept describing incidents, we agreed for me to get human resources (my authorities) involved. As a result, things got much better at my workplace. They tried to protect me as much as they could. But I still had to work with the person. Not easy, but I have decided to forgive him. My work performance improved. Before I said anything, I was so tired physically, emotionally, mentally I was always trying to protect myself at the work environment. It was exhausting.



I got to the point where I prayed that the person who harassed me would be delivered of demonic influence, lust and be healed. That when he looked at women he would treat them in a healthier way respectively.



So, How do we understand God in this?


Let’s turn to the bible, in Psalm 116:6 (msg), it says: “God takes the side of the helpless; when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me.”



I know, when you are harassed, it can feel like you are helpless and have no options.


Let’s read a bit further in the chapter, verse 10 says: “I stayed faithful, though bedeviled, and despite a ton of bad luck,”


The word bedeviled - means to torment or harass. Let’s re-read the verse again with that knowledge: “I stayed faithful, though bedeviled or (harassed), and despite a ton of bad luck,”


If we keep reading we see why the person was remaining faithful, verse 14 says: “I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do, and I’ll do it together with his people”



I’d like to summarize this section in one sentence, When we are helpless God saves us, and even though we are harassed, we can stay faithful and our destiny is not affected. That is an amazing promise.


So what are some things we can do when we find ourselves being harassed?



In the second example I shared, when I was personally harassed at my job, I took some steps in the natural and also in the supernatural. Let’s look at each type of response:


In the natural:

I told someone I trusted. For you this may be, your boss, your parents, a counselor or psychologist, a teacher etc. By talking with someone, you don't have to go through this alone. You can seek protection for the situation based on the laws in place in your culture.


In the Supernatural:

Pray for help and protection: I prayed that my husband would believe me and later that my bosses would believe me. After I spoke up, I continued to pray daily with my husband that the situation would change and that I would be safe.



More action we took:

We rebuked satan from causing problems and interfering with my new job and coworkers.

We cancelled enemy assignments of sending men to tempt me to have sex with them outside of our marriage.