Dearest one, You are a child loved by a Father without reval, entrusted with a message and promise beyond compare, in a time without precedent. You have been hosen for this moment that is at once great and terrible. For this reason, you must love fearlessly … believe outrageously …and hope without measure.
If you discovered that the life you have always wanted was outside the realm of competition, this is for you. If you struggle with feelings of worthlessness or lack a sense of purpose, know G-d has positioned you to find contentment during any circumstance and live a life without comparison. Can’t you feel G-d putting His hands on both sides of your face, turning our attention toward Him, and then saying slowly and firmly, ‘I love you.’
Your first step in knowing your identity is found in who you are to Him. Gal. 3:26 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in the Messiah Y’Shua. All of them are equal implies G-d does not love sons more and daughters less. He loves male and female uniquely. Marvelously loved, there is absolutely nothing accidental about you and you don’t have to fight for your place at His table. No one can take you out or replace the gifts He has given you … you have no rival.
We were gifted salvation, for G-d saw us in our wretched, caged state, cowering in the corner of some religious humane society, and paid the price to save us to use our G-d given gifts.
Rom. 12: 5-8 So we, being many, are one body in Messiah, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teaches, on teaching; Or he that exhorted, on exhortation: He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruled, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
It is time G-d’s daughters celebrated ‘unique’ and stopped settling for the ‘same’ religious Pharisees. As we read the Bible, it is G-d’s Holy Spirit who instructs and leads us into all truth. Your eternal Father is the only one who has the right to define you, place His gifts in you, as we worship G-d, you are transformed into His image from glory to glory. Were one chooses to fellowship with should be G-d lead, for you want to be corrected by people who will bring out the best in you and recognize your G-d give gifts, having gender without rival. We cannot be opposed to racism, in which people are discriminated against as a result of something about which they can do nothing – their skin color and then accept with equanimity the gross injustice of penalizing others for something else they can do nothing about – their gender.
Male lions are the best killers, but lionesses are the best hunters. If you can’t speak to the women, you can’t win the war. Women have a voice and value just like the lionesses. Lionesses needed to know they were not simply following male orders but that they were part of something more eternal, the mandate to bring healing and life to their sisters who were isolated and often despised simply because of their gender. Without the involvement of women, there are many battles that cannot be won.
If the United States military understand that without the involvement of women a nation can fight but it will not win, then isn’t it high time the church empowers its daughters to come alongside the men. Gender rivalry has been known to swing both ways, but more often than not women are on the receiving end of the discrimination.
I have carried in my heart the women who’ve been wounded in the rivalry of the sexes. Women who have suffered in her marriage, family, workplace, or house of worship. I regularly read hateful comments directed at women on social media. This does not even begin to address the issues of sex trafficking, gendercide, and pornography.
Sadly, gender prejudice still blurs the lines of our gospel; we seem to use it to extend full redemption and freedom to men while measuring controlled portions to women.
Gender prejudice by stepping back to a time when the church was newborn, alive and growing after the resurrection, and there was an outpouring of G-d’s Spirit on both sons and daughters. The gospel was being released in both word and deed as the resurrection of Y’Shua was proclaimed. Panicked temple leaders, in an attempt to calm the storm of gender ruled only males could serve, for someone had to had to take care of business at home. Women could not even read the Torah (they might find out G-d’s Word was for both genders) but women could serve in their old age because their home duties are done.
Sadly, that is how doctrines are being made, for most church’s do not study the times and culture of when the Bile was written, to get the full understanding of what was being said, so they obstruct its members and silence their voices. For more than two millennia religious leaders have limited and at times prohibited thousands of church’s daughters from preaching and teaching in the sacred spaces under its governance.
Can’t you hear the Spirit whispering, ‘far too many of the daughters I have called and gifted by My Spirit for ministry have been held back, and denied their call by the church’.
You might have heard religious leaders say, ‘Women can teach other women but not men’. Or, ‘Women can share but there is to be no preaching’. And: ‘Women can lead, as long as it is outside the church’. Women who are bold with their faith are too quickly labeled aggressive. Women who are confident in their G-d are mistaken for ambitions. Is it right in the sight of G-d to listen to men rather than to obey G-d?
We can find our answer in the words Y’Shua spoke right before He ascended in Mark 16:15-19. Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them, they will lay their hand on the sick, and they will recover. So then Y’Shua HaMashiach, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of G-d the Father.
This directive was given to ALL who believe. The Great Commission is permission, it doesn’t even require a building or an organization, and this mandate is inclusive of both genders. In the Messiah, all are called and liberated to declare G-d’s good news. Once we’ve known G-d’s freedom and truth we should never allow human threats to silence us. G-d is our high and holy King. Our King has commissioned and empowered you. He has asked you to speak to His people on His behalf. This being true, how could you ever allow those who lead under the King to deter you? Each of us must be a living, breathing declaration of Matthew 4:10: We will worship the
L-r our G-d and serve only Him.
If obeying the King’s subjects means disobeying the King, then your real problem is with the King. In Esther (Hadassah) the king of Persia had not called for her, and the statues of his court forbid her to come before him. But Hadassah understood that obeying the ki8ng’s parameters meant disobeying G-d. Hadassah feared G-d more than she feared the displeasure of people, and she went. She approached the king strategically, but she did not dare remain silent when so many lives were at stake. There is a very real enemy who will not be content with simple silencing you. he is after your life and the lives of your daughters.
I’m not talking about ascending the pulpit by force, but you can use your G-d given gifts on those who have an ear, and not be afraid of the backlash. This is not the time for the faint of heart or the image bearers of G-d, both male and female. The last thing we need to be caught doing is fighting amongst one another! The learning curve is steep because until recently the women in this world have been few and far between.
The answer is not the elimination of the feminine voice; it is the education of women, gaining wisdom so the daughters with their Father’s Word in their mouths can speak. Should those with a portion of the answer be silenced? Be prepare to be shunned and resisted. This means you will run the risk of being misinterpreted, and very often you will suffer verbal attacks and isolation, but gender has little to do with someone’s capacity to lead. Humility, experience, faithfulness, education, and virtue are just some of the qualities that qualify leaders. But gender alone does not a leader make, apart from the Messiah we are all unfit.
Y’Shua teaches and instructs, it is with love and acceptance of all. He likened His church to a bride, His bride is made up of male and female. Eph. 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Y’Shua HaMashiach unto good works, which G-d hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Males and females were created to be separate in expression but never to be divided in purpose. G-d’s daughters are under vicious assault by the spirit of this world, and far too many houses of worship do not know how to foster the gifts of G-d has given to women. Far more than twenty centuries men and women have been learning side by side in the church. It is time we realize who we are in Y’Shua and lead side by side just a we were originally created to function in the garden. Men leading as men and women leading as women. We are to echo
G-d’s words rather than become mired down in a reasoning match. Let’s serve G-d so stunningly that we are living, breathing arguments for living a life of faith.
In heaven’s design, gender is neither an issue of wounding nor a battleground of rivalry. G-d’s sons and daughters living as one may yet be revealed on this earth. And through our unity, the image of G-d will be unveiled, and the glory of G-d will at last shine forth n all its dazzling splendor.
1 comment:
Good word
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