The Women Were There First

There's a reason the women were at the tomb. Not the disciples, not the theologians. The women. They were there when darkness was thickest and they were there when the stone rolled away. Prophet Janet Brann-Hollis opened with that image on this Women's Month edition of JustGospel's Women's Voices, and it landed the way a prophetic word tends to land. Quietly at first. Then everywhere at once. Women, she said, have always had a particular sensitivity to the Spirit of God. More women intercessors. More women prophets. And it isn't a coincidence.

Janet Brann-Hollis is not someone you introduce quickly. Thirty years of international ministry. Founder of Ruach Ministries, a prophetic and marketplace ministry based in Johannesburg that has quietly shaped prophets, pastors, business leaders and ordinary believers across Southern Africa and beyond. She serves on the leadership of the Company of Prophets SA. She leads prayer over government. She runs a school of governance. And she still somehow finds time to train people on a Friday night and Saturday morning in Johannesburg how to hear the voice of God. That last one matters a great deal to her. Perhaps more than anything else.

Women Are Visionaries. That Was Always the Point.

One of the questions that's followed Carlett Badenhorst around for years surfaced early in the conversation: why is it so often women who start something and men who take it further? Janet didn't flinch. Prophetic women, she said, see from the heart of God. They have the perspective of the Spirit. And that means they see what's not yet visible. The vision before the structure. The word before the walls. But men, she was quick to add, have the calling and the practical knowledge to pursue that vision into the earth. Neither is in competition with the other. It goes back to Genesis. Eve wasn't an afterthought. She was built for unity, for helping, for completing what could not be complete alone.

She said it plainly: the so-called woke version of womanhood has cost women something real. Not because strength is wrong or calling is wrong. Something that was meant to be understood has been deliberately confused, and the confusion has stolen purpose. South African women, she said, need to return to what God actually placed in them. Not the world's version. Not the culturally corrected version. The original one. The mandate.

When the Prophetic Person Is Misunderstood

This is where the conversation turned personal, and honest. Prophetic women have a hard time being understood. It's not always a people problem. It's a fundamental challenge of communication across different planes of perception. The prophet sees from the Spirit down into the earth. But the person listening is standing in the natural. They see a couch, a tree outside the window, a tangible world with tangible rules. Asking them to receive something from the realm of the Spirit without grid for it is like broadcasting a signal on a frequency nobody's tuned to yet. The scripture says it plainly: the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned. When people try to measure the prophetic word by natural logic alone, they miss it every time.

But Janet said something important here, and it was grace-soaked. God doesn't stop. He keeps sending voices, keeps sending messages, keeps creating moments of encounter until the heart hears. It's only when we harden ourselves that the communication slows. And when that happens, she said, we don't just lose a word. We walk out of protection. We walk out of blessing. And somewhere, someday, we'll stand before God and see what was prepared, and what we actually did with it.

How God Speaks: A Practical Guide

This part of the conversation was asked for directly, and Janet gave it without complication. God communicates through the spirit man: pictures, impressions, through dreams in the night season, through the Word that suddenly leaps off a page, through a burden that settles on your chest, through a sense that something's wrong or something's about to happen. Moses heard an audible voice. The Old Testament prophets saw. Jesus himself said, "I perceive": a felt impression that the anointing had moved. These aren't outdated channels. They're the same pathways God still uses.

Praying in the Spirit, specifically praying in tongues, is what builds up that sensitivity. The more the spirit man is nourished, Janet explained, the more attuned you become. You start to distinguish between the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the noise of your own flesh. It takes time. It takes practice. It takes someone to teach you what you're looking at when you see something in the spirit. Which is why, she said, Ruach Ministries exists at all.

Carlett has done the course. More than once, actually closer to six times across prophetic levels one and two, in the days before COVID when it was still in-person. And she was the first to say it: once you know the Shepherd's voice, you cannot go wrong. You make decisions differently. You have a confidence that isn't arrogance. It's simply the boldness of obedience. You know what you're doing is God's idea. That changes everything.

The Prophetic Word for South African Women

When Carlett asked Janet to prophesy over the women of South Africa, what came wasn't soft or ceremonial. It was a call to account and a call to action.

It was not said harshly. But it was said clearly. And Janet didn't let the younger generation off the hook either. They need to be teachable. Not convinced they've already arrived. Not too proud to sit at someone's feet. Paul said there are many teachers but very few fathers. The same is true for mothers. Mentoring is impartation. You don't just pass on information. You pass on a life.

Janet shared the story of a dentist who saw a cleaner with unusual potential and trained her fully on the job, until she qualified as a dental assistant with over 80% in her exams. She worked with him for years. She fed her family. She built something real. Because one person looked at her and saw what was there, not what she'd been told she was.

That's the word. See the potential. Train the person. Leave something behind.

Seventeen Years in the Making

Before the broadcast closed, Carlett did something she doesn't always do. She stopped and honoured her guest. Not for the platform, not for the credentials, but for something quieter and more lasting. Almost seventeen years of relationship. Prophetic covering. Mentoring. Janet seeing something in Carlett long before Carlett could fully see it herself. Building it slowly. Still building it now.

Janet received it graciously and turned it back into what it always is for her. A reflection of what God does when two people are willing. When the older teaches. When the younger listens. When both show up.

Prayer Over Every Woman Listening

Janet closed the segment in prayer, and she prayed with the specificity of someone who actually believes God hears. For Carlett, for every woman in a lounge or kitchen or car listening that afternoon. For those who are struggling, the word was simple: His grace is sufficient. She spoke a blessing over Women's Month, praying that God would surprise every woman listening, that He would show Himself strong on their behalf. And to the older women who are sowing, time or talent or whatever it might be, she called the harvest: it's coming. The seed will not be wasted.