Saturday, September 10, 2011

Thoughts On “Raising Daughters to Function in Apostolic Ministry”

After reading countless articles on Biblical Womanhood, femininity, Above Rubies, submision, obedience, etc. etc. as well as gleaned many treasures from spiritual writings on discipleship and the apostolic, I wrote this article to attack the issue of women in God's will from the spiritual perspective.
 
Scripture is very clear on the order of life. The Word of God tells us all about God – His plan, His will, His creation, His order, His design, etc. and if we were to search Scripture with open hearts and seek God, through His Word we will see His heart. It is no easy thing to bear the heart of God. It is so great. To those who are called to do so,and to whom God chooses to share His heart with – how blessed are they, yet how much it must cost them. These are men and women who understand the cost of discipleship, who avail themselves to the Spirit, soul, and heart of God, at the price of their own heart and soul.

God has a certain order in creation. He created man to be man and woman to be woman. He created man in His own image. And He created man with a need for a bride. “Why is that?” I asked myself. Why did Adam have to be created with a need for Eve, for a companion? Because Adam was created in the image of God. “Why then did god not be different?” Because He is God the Rock, perfect and unchangeable. It certainly tells you something, when Adam, the World's only and perfect man, created in the image of God, still had a need – for a bride, for woman. What a mystery. This is the mystery of the Mashiach.

We raise sons to be warriors, to be kings, to be prophets, to be preachers, evangelists, fathers, builders, protectors, providers, etc. But what do we raise daughters? Why did God create women?

Only in God and His Word can I find answers for all the questions that race through  my mind from every possible angle of the issue, if only I dare ask God for the answer, and if I dare accept His answer. But that is faith, knowing that though life, suffering, sorrow, and misery may seem so meaningless, God is there – He is my God, my Creator, and this faith will keep me secure. I know He has a wonderful plan, a wonderful design. It's not meaningless. Life is not mere vanity and drudgery. When I look to God I am at peace, even if I cannot see the answer right before my eyes. God has a reason for everything. When I have faith in my Creator, I just know that life is worth something, that I am created for a purpose, and that no sparrow will fall to the ground without Him knowing of it. Surely God is working.

Being females, we don't have to take for granted God's plan for our life. Just like men, we have a place in God's will and working, if only we avail ourselves to Him, that is, make ourselves available for His service.

“Here, oh God, “ the maid did softly cry, “Is Your servant. Let it be to be according to Your will.'

Who knows what His will may be?

I don't to take any part of life for granted, but I want to be equipped for every good work. Yes, women were created to be help-meets and mothers, and God has created such things to be natural, but that doesn't mean we cannot be strong, and we cannot be spiritual, that we must live for the moment, for the laundry, the dishes, the meals, etc., that we have no life beyond the grave and no destiny beyond the kitchen sink.

I don't mean that we are created to be leaders, preachers, and authorities. I don't mean that women should be ursurpers, pseudospiritual, or feminists. It's that the word of God points us to the woman whom I must be, that is,

  1. Thoroughly equipped for every good work
  2. Totally surrended to the will of God
  3. Totally in love with God alone, heart soul and mind dedicated to Him
  4. A woman who knows the heart of God.

Women like Huldah and Deborah are remembered today as prophets, as great women. But let us not forget, that they were not primarily functioning in these roles on a day to day basis. Huldah was just an ordinary housewife,. But she was available to God for His service, and used once to give a prophetic word to the High Priest and to the King. Nothing in the physical ambition or mind of Huldah could conjure up this spiritually momentous prophetic word, or the influence she had on the destiny of the nation. It is just that she was obedient. She was available to God.

God doesn't use men who want to use God's using for themselves, their own reputation and “ministry”. God uses His servants, literally servants. God used a donkey to speak to a wayward prophet, and God used a woman to speak to a wayward nation.

Women must be equipped. Daughters must know the Word of God, and have a relationship with God. Daughters must grow up strong, cornerstone women, pillars of spiritual fortitude and moral virtue, emissaries of love and mercy. Daughters must be wise, discreet, chaste, and quiet. “Quiet” means that a woman must have self-control, especially that over her tongue. Oh, these daughters must ever be disciples.

Dorcas was a female disciple, the only one mentioned in all of Scripture. A disciple does not mean that she became a great evangelist that spoke to thousands in the streets, a prophet who staged a public showdown between Baal and God, or a pastor over men. Yet she functioned in the highest apostolic calling. A disciple is one who leaves all to follow Jesus. Without that element of death to self, death to this world, death to ambition, death to desire, death to the mind and the flesh and every thing she called her own, yes, even her own life, Dorcas could not have been a disciple. It's not that work that you do that matters, it's the work of God in you. A fully-functioning apostolic ministry can look just as much like Dorcas's life, or Mary's life, than it can look like Elijah's or Peter's life.

Love is the cross. It means that in whatever state or setting of life, you love God, and that love equals the pain and suffering of the cross, for the cross was the work of God. Daughters, let God use you.

Mary was used by God. She lived the sacrifice of the cross. She was His maidservant.

Daughters must be women of character. It means that they must spend their whole life studying, loving, and savouring the word of God. A daughter must grow into a woman who knows how to pray, how to intercede, and how to stand in the gap before God; a selfless woman.. A woman who sees behind her own life and little joys and troubles and sees the heart of God. This heart of God will be revealed to her. She will stand and see, and know the times and seasons. She will stand upon the wall a watchman, powerful, through Christ a mediator, yet trembling before the awesomeness of God.

Here is a woman who knows what revival means, who knows what righteousness means, and holiness means. This is a woman who avails herself to the heart of God, and is so filled with the supernatural grace of God that she can love beyond her ability and affinity. This is a woman who can experience the compassion of God fill her hearts, who can cry with tears for those who she is not personally in connection with. This is a woman who sacrificed her own, little pathetic heart, and received a burden for the lost, a burden for the nations, a burden to see souls saved, a burdened for revival in the land, a burden to see the lost sheep of the House of Israel within the fold of Yeshua.

Yes, she may be a mother, of two, ten, or twenty. She may yet be a daughter at home. She may be a widow with burdens of her own. She may be a woman on her own.Yet what separates from the other women of her kind is the great relationship with God. Great, because it cost her greatly, and continues to cost her every day. Great, because she is not proud. Great, because she is broken by the things that break God's great heart. Great, because not matter how little, how insignificant her role in life may be, she can see eternity, and behold the future glory. 

Let us not worry about our life, what we will serve for dinner, wear when company comes, etc. but seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things will be added unto us. 

Here is a daughter of Sarah, of Rebekah, of Rachel, of Leah. Only when we women can behold eternity, and live our lives with eyes fixed above, can we be of any earthly use whatsoever. Only when a woman can minister before YHWH, in his holy courts, in the solitude of her own personal prayer closet, can she minister to her home and to her family. Only when our citizenship, our heart, our joys, are set above, can we properly wash the dishes, do the laundry, feed the cows, weed the garden, and raise a family, etc. This is because we can discern the purpose, the plan, the hand of God, in every little thing.

No, a disciple is not a person so “spiritual”, so “incredible”, “perfect”, that she is basically wrapped up in herself. She is pretty credible, honest, giving, and practical – very down to earth, quick to respond to needs, quick to obey the voice of God, and quick to relinquish her rights. She is a woman, just like Dorcas. She is a woman, just like Mary. She is a woman, just like Huldah. Ordinary; a humble servant, a meek and lowly “donkey”, but behold, she is “bat Melech”, a daughter of the King.

No comments: