KISH: Tell us about you…
Chrystal: I’m Chrystal Crawford and I help people get unstuck. I am an author, wife, mother, spiritual mother and five-fold ministry leader helping multiple generations of believers find their purpose. In August 2019, I published my first book, The Birthing Room:The First Trimester, to help believers discover their purpose through understanding the kingdom and the supernatural. My newest book, Release Date: Eight Days to a New Beginning will launch in April of this year. I am the founder of The Ekklesia School of the Prophets, Forever 31 Mentoring, Team Jesus Healing and Deliverance Ministry and co-founder of The Ekklesia Training and Equipping Ministry alongside my husband Apostle Marshall Crawford. Together we have three children, Malachi, Jael and Marshall Jr.
KISH: What is your dream and how will accomplishing your dream benefit you and others?
Chrystal: My dream is to help people all over the world to live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives by finding their God-given purpose. After writing my first book, I discovered that there are studies that point to the correlation between finding one’s purpose in life and one’s well-being, longevity, cardiovascular and even mental health. People who live their purpose enjoy greater health, life satisfaction and overall well-being (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009). However, many people are not living their purpose – and worse yet, they aren’t sure what their purpose is. In desperate search for purpose, they are miserable (Steger, 2008). Among this group are Generation X women (the generation of Americans born between the mid-1960s and the early-1980s) who have “everything” – more education, successful careers and their own homes – and yet many feel empty inside. Despite achieving more objective success, women today are significantly more depressed than women were 30 years ago (Stevenson & Wolfers, 2009). I was that woman at one point in my life and I believe that disseminating the knowledge and revelation that will stop spiritual miscarriages, premature spiritual birth and overall complications in finding your purpose in life is my assignment. Accomplishing this will benefit generations of men and women.
KISH: Who or what inspired you to pursue this dream?
Chrystal: There is no one more inspirational than God. He gave me a vision, it was simple yet clear and has now turned into my pursuit of that vision. I saw 7 women, whom I did not know in a classroom setting. At the time, I was teaching classes in a space that I was renting which was a classroom-like setting. Before having the vision, I was stuck and did not know whether God wanted me to plant a church, start a theology school or just hold Bible study once a week. I was stuck, but when God gave me that vision, in my spirit I knew that whatever I did, was geared toward helping women find out who they were. I told my husband that all I knew was that I needed to create a course and God allowed me to teach a class prophetically for weeks. That class was called “The Birthing Room.”
KISH: What challenges have you encountered while pursuing your dream?
Chrystal: While pursuing my dream of helping leaders get unstuck, I encountered many challenges, some I would say were indeed tests. I taught through each pregnancy and continued to mentor and teach even after having a very devastating miscarriage and losing many people that I thought would be with me along this journey. I continued to press after enduring financial challenges that required me to turn in the keys to the very place where all of this began. Through it all, I never stopped teaching, writing, mentoring, studying, praying and worshipping God. I knew that what God was giving birth to was far greater than any pain I could feel, or anything that I had lost during that season of my life. I watched him redeem time and give back a double portion of what was lost during that season.
KISH: Who or what inspired you to keep pushing regardless of the challenges you’ve encountered?
Chrystal: The charge that was issued over my life at the time that I was ordained. During the service, one of the things that was prophesied was that “I would instill the fear of the Lord in the hearts of the people again” and that “There is a school…” among many other things said. Whenever I consider this charge, I am reminded of what I have to do no matter what, even if no one else helps me, God is requiring me to accomplish these things.
My husband has inspired me in many ways especially during the time that everything looked as if it were falling apart. He has stood by me through successes and failures. He told me that sometimes you will cast your net and you may not catch many fish, other times you will, but the bottom line is that you have to cast your net. His humility has inspired me to continuously look at life through the redemptive eyes of Christ. He keeps me grounded in pushing toward priorities and I find that if I find something to be a priority regarding the work, then he is automatically on board, always supporting the work that God is requiring me to do in the midst of him having his own assignment. With God and my husband’s support I am able to do this work. It is very important to have a spouse that is on one accord with you and most importantly, hears from God.
KISH: Please provide final thoughts/advice for others by finishing this sentence… dream.
Chrystal: “Be who you always dreamed you would become or live the reality of who the world says you are.”
Last modified: August 12, 2020
