She’s a tall, beautiful, strong African-American woman exuding confidence. She walks on stage with a tailored poise and a smile a mile wide. She knows that regardless of the venue—a church, a women’s conference, a youth conference, or an interview—God will use her to draw people to Him. She speaks with authority as one who wants nothing more than for people to know her beloved Savior through His word.
She also exudes a “mama lion” fierceness as she speaks about our unseen enemy and how to defeat him. In short, she is a warrior on God’s team. One comes away from one of her speaking engagements, videos, or podcasts emboldened to stand firmly on the promises of God.
What Is Priscilla Shirer Known For?
Priscilla Shirer is not only a Bible teacher and motivational speaker (in the best sense of the word). She was born into a pastor family, has been wife to husband Jerry for 24 years, and is a homeschool mom to three young men. If you’ve ever heard her speak, she often talks of her big, tall boys and sarcastically pleads for someone to “please, come help me feed these boys!”
Nearly 20 years ago, she and her husband founded Going Beyond Ministries, whose desire “is not only to see all understand His written Word but for all to experience His Power!”
She (and her family at times) travels around the world speaking at various church or parachurch events. She is a New York Times bestselling author.
Shirer is also a podcaster and occasional actor—she has featured in three Christian films: The War Room, Overcomer, and I Can Only Imagine.
She hosts a local Going Beyond event for women in her area every year. She is one of those women who makes you wonder how she does it all, but one thing is certain: she doesn’t do anything halfway when teaching the word of God.
How Did Priscilla Shirer Become a Christian?
When your father is a famous pastor with a huge radio ministry, it’s hard not to run into the word of God.
The daughter of Tony (and the late Lois) Evans of Dallas, Texas, Priscilla and her three siblings were exposed to the word of God from a young age. She attended the University of Houston and started working at a local Christian radio station in her freshman year.
Listeners who heard her speak began to submit requests for Shirer to come and speak to women’s groups in the area. Four years later, she met motivational speaker extraordinaire Zig Ziglar, who became her mentor. She spoke to and challenged corporate employees to become more “successful” in work and life. But after 10 years, her heart was to teach the word of God, which then led to her many ministry activities.
Shirer attended Dallas Theological Seminary, earning a Master’s in Biblical Studies.
How Did Priscilla Shirer Become an Author?
If you get a call to teach, you need to have something for people to follow along with as you teach. That’s how Bible studies get started.
Take that a step further, and you’ll find that Shirer began writing books, the first of which was A Jewel in His Crown: Rediscovering Your Value as a Woman of Excellence, published in 2004. The book’s marketing description sums up its message as follows:
“Women are becoming increasingly weary and discouraged and are thus losing sight of their real value as daughters of the King. A Jewel in His Crown examines how a woman’s view of her worth deeply affects her relationships, and it offers counsel for women in living out God’s purpose and design for them.”
Since then, Shirer has written several dozen books, in addition to children and teen bible studies and collaborations with ministry leaders such as Kirk Franklin and Beth Moore.
What is the Divine Disruption that Shirer Talks About?
In 2021, Shirer, her father, and her four siblings wrote a particularly special book entitled Divine Disruption: Holding on to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart. Over the previous two years, Shirer lost her mother and seven other family members back to back. She had part of a lung removed because of cancer. All of this happened just before the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
The book speaks about trusting God and honoring Him even when tragedy strikes. The family has now launched a live event based on the book.
Inspiring Priscilla Shirer Quotes
“Never think your circumstances are disconnected from his leading and His will. He uses seemingly meaningless activities as tools to guide you toward his plans.” — “25 Influential Christians You Should Follow on Social Media”
“He wants to lead us in every area of our lives, but He waits for us to come to Him. He wants to know that we want Him just as badly as He wants us!” — “Looking for Affirmation in All the Wrong Places”
“Don’t throw away the things you’ve been called, equipped, and prepared to become by refusing to run within the divine boundaries of obedience the Lord has set up for your benefit.” — Awaken
“The bottom line is we either trust Him or we don’t. He either is who He says He is and we stake our faith in it or not . . . if He is good on the mountaintop . . . He is good in the valley.” — Interview for Insight for Living Ministries
“When I look back in hindsight of 25 years of being in some portion of ministry…I realize that I could not have mapped out in my wildest dreams what God’s will for my life was. All I knew was the light He had given me for the next step . . .” — Interview for Allen Parr for THE BEAT;
“I think that we place such a priority on consistency [in prayer], that we’ve missed on remembering that being thoughtful about what we’re actually saying is also important, and that God has given us powerful promises that we need to incorporate into our prayers. That’s what sends the enemy to flight is God’s Words, not our words.” — CBN Interview
“You can ask your questions to God without questioning the character of God.” — Interview for Divine Disruption
Best Books by Priscilla Shirer
While any of Shirer’s books are worth exploring, these are some of her most inspiring works.
Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer. “. . . a hands-on, knees-down, never-give-up action guide to practical, purposeful praying.”
The Armor of God Bible Study. “The Armor of God, more than merely a biblical description of the believer’s inventory, is an action plan for putting it on and developing a personalized strategy to secure victory.”
Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God is Speaking. “. . . the more intimate I’ve become with Him, the more acquainted I’ve become with His voice. He has proven Himself to me, because He loves proving His word true.”
Awaken: 90 Days with the God Who Speaks. “These 90 devotions from the heart of a mom, wife, encourager and friend will Awaken you every day with fresh insights gleaned from the scriptures.”
Divine Disruption: Holding on to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart. “An insightful biblical and conversational response from Dr. Tony Evans and his four children—Chrystal Evans Hurst, Priscilla Shirer, Anthony Evans, and Jonathan Evans—on how God uses the hard things of this life to draw us into a deeper faith in Him.”
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Paras Griffin/Stringer
Mary Oelerich-Meyer is a Chicago-area freelance writer and copy editor who prayed for years for a way to write about and for the Lord. She spent 20 years writing for area healthcare organizations, interviewing doctors and clinical professionals and writing more than 1,500 articles in addition to marketing collateral materials. Important work, but not what she felt called to do. She is grateful for any opportunity to share the Lord in her writing and editing, believing that life is too short to write about anything else. Previously she served as Marketing Communications Director for a large healthcare system. She holds a B.A. in International Business and Marketing from Cornell College (the original Cornell!) When not researching or writing, she loves to spend time with her writer daughter, granddaughter, rescue doggie and husband (not always in that order).
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