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Mission Statement
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CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN By RaJean Vawter With much taken from “Women: God’s Secret Weapon” by Ed Silvoso One of Satan’s greatest fears has to do with women. Are you aware that we are his greatest threat? Turn to Genesis 1. First of all, take a look at the creation of the first woman. 1. On the first day of creation, God created light and divided it from the darkness and He said it was good. 1:4 2. On the second day, God created the firmament and divided the waters above and below the firmament and He called the firmament Heaven but didn’t say whether it was good or not. 1:6-8 3. On the third day, God caused the waters under the heavens to be gathered together and dry land to appear and called the land Earth and the waters Seas. And He pronounced it good. 1:9-10 He caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs, trees and it was good.1:11-12. 4. On the fourth day, He created the sun, moon and stars and created day and night. And it was good. 1:14-18 5. On the fifth day, Got put fish in the seas, birds in the air, told them to be fruitful and multiply and it was good. 1:20-22 6. Then came the sixth day. He made all kinds of animals and creepy crawlers and said it was good. 1:24-25 Then the Godhead had a consultation and decided to make people in Their image, according to Their likeness and give them dominion over the birds and fish, the animals and creepy crawlers. 1:26-27. He formed man out of dust, put His own breath into Him, gave him the job of naming all the critters and then said, “It is not good.” 2:18 He did some more work until He finally said, “It is very good.” 1:31 What was going on? The rating on the sixth day began as good, went down to not good and ended with very good. What happened between the not good and the very good? Woman. God gave her creation the highest level of divine satisfaction. This is a point that we often miss. From the very beginning of life on planet Earth women have given God tremendous satisfaction. We are not an afterthought or just a little addition or something created for the benefit of the so-called king of creation. (man). We’ll look more closely at her place when we talk about spiritual abuse and bigotry based on gender. But for now, just consider the satisfaction God has in women. Think about it, Adam was shaped or formed out of dust 2:7 just like the animals were. 2:19 The Hebrew word used in the case of both means to “squeeze into shape, mold into a form as a potter, to determine, form a resolution, fashion, frame, make.” This word is used in Genesis 2:7, 8, 19. All the other words translated made in the creation story comes from a second Hebrew word which means to “make in the broadest sense and widest application.” Genesis 1:7,16,25,31 - 2:2,3,4,9 - 3:1,7 - 5:1 - 6:6,7 But a different technique was used on Eve because the raw material God used was more sophisticated. She wasn’t just made; she was “built.” 2:22 The word used in Genesis 2:18 & 22 means “to build literally and figurative, to obtain children, make REPAIR!” This is why men and women are so different: first because of the more refined raw material used, human flesh and bone, as opposed to dust, and secondly, by the fact that rather than shaping her, as in the case of Adam and the animals, God built and repaired her.” Ed Silvoso calls women “twice refined” because the technique God used in her creation “required a greater level of creativity and a more refined technique.” P. 29 And we wonder why men and women are so different and why men are just never able to understand us? Men don’t even have a telescope powerful enough to see all that is in us. When God told husbands to live with their wives in “with understanding,” 1 Peter 3:7 He knew that the only way they could obey this would be to develop a close relationship and communication with Him, the One who created the woman. Man just can’t do this in his own strength. The exquisite mystery of women and man’s ignorance about our mystery has been reproduced through the ages. God planned it so that, in the short run, men would be perplexed and in the long run, the devil would be devastated. It’s like we are God’s secret weapon. “Nothing gives the devil more satisfaction than to see this extraordinary expression of divine creativity overlooked or worse yet, despised. In fact, this is a key component in his strategy to keep women down. It is a crafty system of lies that Satan carefully maintains to drive home his fabrication that women are an accessory to things but not a key component. Nothing could be farther from the truth!” P.30 OK, so what are our characteristics that make us so dangerous to Satan? 1. Only women can know how it feels to have another human being inside of them. 2. Women are allowed to nurture a newborn on a more intimate level than a father who can only give kisses and caresses. We are able to give nurture and sustenance to one who is totally dependent through breastfeeding. Haven’t you ever noticed how a woman’s arms are shaped differently than men’s and why this is so? Our arms have a curve in them in order to better hold a baby. Men’s arms are straight. That’s why, unless they are very practiced, men often look so awkward holding a baby. 3. Women are the ones who are the predominant shapers of the character of a child. 4. Women have often been key players in God’s army. We’re going to take a look at some of these key players but first, let’s look at Eve a little more. When I started, I made the statement that one of Satan’s greatest fears has to do with women. That’s because, what women can do to him is constantly tormenting to him. The roots of this anxiety go back to the very beginning when God threatened him as part of the divine judgment. God’s threat is rather elaborate. Let’s look at Genesis 3. 1. He curses Satan “more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field.” Vs 14 OK, now he’s at the bottom of the pile. 2. Then God lowers him even further by cutting off his feet. Vs. 14b This really messes with his mobility. Vs 14
We always read this passage with the focus on the prophecy about the coming of Jesus. But just think about the fact that female anger aimed at the devil occupies such an integral part of God’s threat. God frames the first messianic prophecy with women. There is, more than likely, more here than what the devil wants us to know. We know that he’s the epitome of pride and that he’s a sore loser. We can see that from the moment this prophecy was uttered, he’s been working overtime on degrading women, pushing us down, discounting us, lying about us, keeping us from fulfilling our God-given purpose and destiny. He’s even gone to great lengths to create a false theology in the church concerning women. We’ll study that in another lesson. Don’t we sometimes feel like we have a bull’s eye painted on us and the devil is using us for target practice? But in reality, it’s the devil who has to watch out because he’s the one described here in Genesis with the bruised head. Women walk upright. Satan has to crawl, making his head vulnerable every time we set our feet down. So why are we so fearful? He’s the one who should be afraid. Very afraid. And he is because he knows that when women find out who they really are, his evil kingdom will come to an abrupt end. He cannot afford to have women walking upright. He’s got to keep us down. That’s why he’s formed a formidable worldwide network of oppression to hold us down. But he can’t do this forever because the Scripture tells us that the day is fast approaching when God will lift women up and release masses of us into ministry. Psalm 68:11-12 NKJ – The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it; Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home divides the spoil. That word company is sometimes translated host. The Hebrew word is feminine and has to do with war, an army campaign and soldiers. It’s the only place in scripture that this particular word is translated company. English Standard Version (ESV) – The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host. The 1898 Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) – The Lord doth give the saying, the female proclaimers are a numerous host. Contemporary English Version (CEV) – You gave the command, and a chorus of women told what had happened. 1965 Bible in Basic English (BBE) – The Lord gives the word, great is the number of the women who make it public. Good News – The Lord gave the command and many women carried the news. I’ve read a theological discussion in which a person argued that in the end times, there will be an all-female army that will bring a surprise victory. They come to this conclusion by continuing to read Psalm 68:13-14 Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Zalmon. The argument says that according to these verses, up until the moment of engagement, these warring women will have been forced to lie low, hardly noticed, like gray doves on top of dirty sheepfolds. At the appointed time, God will tell these humbled women to rise up and fight. When they give chase, God will use them to “wound the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.” Vs 21 And this is the culmination of the rematch promised by God in the Garden and the element of surprise will be the key to victory. The standard interpretation of this passage is that it is women who recognize first that the battle cry has been sounded; they rouse the fighting men and then after the victory, sing the songs of triumph as Miriam did after the Red Sea crossing. Whatever interpretation suits your fancy, we do know three things. 1. We are living in the end times. 2. There are more women missionaries than men. In China they call them Bible Women. They are warriors in a spiritual army in a spiritual war. 3. In most parts of the world, women are still forced to lie low, are humbled, considered as chattel or lower. The one who argued that there will be a physical army of women fighting a physical battle, believes that we, the church, should be praying diligently for these women to stand up and take their place at the appointed time and that we should be particularly praying for Moslem women. When I listed four characteristics of women, the last one was women have often been key players in God’s army. So I want us to look at some because in doing so, we’ll see some more characteristics that God has put into us that we need to draw out. MARY – Luke 1 “Jesus’ birth launched the fulfillment of God’s threat to the devil. When the time came, God confided the most sensitive secret component of His strategy to a woman.” He did this at a time when compromising such information could have put in jeopardy the divine enterprise. Jokes are always made about how women gossip. And unfortunately, we do. But we don’t have to. Gossip is one of the ways Satan trips us up from fulfilling our destiny because he knows that we actually have a greater capacity for keeping a secret than men do. We need to call that forth. Take a look at how Mary fared compared to Zechariah who received a similar revelation. When the angel announced to each of them that they were going to have miracle babies – Zechariah through a reversal in his wife’s barrenness and Mary through the virgin birth – each one asked questions. But Zechariah’s questions were motivated by unbelief so he was penalized with the inability to talk. Mary’s questions reflected a sincere desire to better understand God’s message. She got her answers and was blessed. Then think about it. Mary was the first who heard God’s heart beat as it developed within her. Hers were the first hands that touched Him and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. The God who made Mary entrusted Himself, allowed Himself to be totally dependent on someone He’d made. When God-in-the-flesh needed something, who was there to meet those needs first? A woman. She was His first teacher and His first disciple. Is it any wonder that women so often yield to the Lord first? It’s in our DNA. Let it happen. WOMEN ARE WARRIORS Back in the 1970’s we were in a church that really camped on the “roles” of men and women. Particularly women. That was a time in the U.S. when the emphasis was on who women are, what we’re supposed to be and do and all the things that are wrong with us. Though chauvinistic men were the primary purveyors of much of the nonsense being taught, women did their fair share of laying heavy burdens on other women. Our pastor literally taught that, since men are the head and women the body, since the body doesn’t think, neither should the women. For a closer look at where such ideas came from, go to the teaching on Spiritual Abuse and Bigotry but for the purposes of this lesson, we’ll just acknowledge that this has and often is still the case today. Our pastor’s wife was one of those who bought into the whole idea. She was a very thin, insecure woman who taught the rest of us how to be just like her. We were taught how to dress, what kind of night clothes we should buy and that we needed to spend x amount of money on makeup, perfume, our hair, etc. We were even told that close-toed shoes weren’t feminine and we shouldn’t wear them. I didn’t have the money or the inclination to buy all the stuff she advocated and I knew instinctively that the whole gotta-show-your-toes philosophy was hogwash. One of the measures I’ve always used when developing my personal beliefs and doctrine has been, will it work in Siberia? If not, it’s cultural. Not scriptural. Let your toes show in Siberia and you’ll soon be missing some of them. After a particularly devastating abusive experience years ago, I began to investigate the biblical view of femininity. Much to my surprise, the word isn’t even used in scripture. No where. Nothing. So I turned to the dictionary. It says that femininity is the quality or state of having characteristics of women. So OK, what are the characteristics of women? Because of the open-toed shoes doctrine, I didn’t want a “Southern Lady” or even an American interpretation. I wanted cross-cultural. So I turned to the Bible and began to study the women in the Bible. In scripture, I found such a wide variety of roles women played and things that they did, I came to the conclusion that biblical femininity is simply being who God designed you to be according to your own special and unique DNA. That’s why when people ask me what I do, I often answer, “I’m RaJean and that’s a full-time job.” It sounds funny but it is a hard-earned lesson that comes from a very deep place within me. As the old time-y preacher said, “Be who you be, ‘cuz if you ain’t who you is, you be who you isn’t.” When I came to the story of Deborah I identified so strongly with her I felt completely vindicated and my healing from the abusive experience began big time. · Deborah was such a mighty and wise woman of the Word that the Army Captain Barak wouldn’t even go into battle unless she went with him. She was a prophetess. So am I. She was a warrior, not afraid to go into battle. That’s me. I’ve taken on people in situations that others wouldn’t touch. Since I was a little girl I wanted to be one of David’s “mighty men of valor” and I’m still working on it. Twenty five years after the awful experience, God began to send us to Israel. Whenever we go to Israel, we visit a congregation headed by a very strong man of God who has been a real David on Mt. Carmel. The gifting and anointing that is on this man and his wife is phenomenal. The second time we were with him, we (a small group of us) began to pray. After the prayer he turned to me and said, “God has shown me that you’re a strong warrior.” And I was able to say with no apology, “Yes, He has trained my hands for war according to Psalm 18:34.”He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
· Who feared God more than Pharaoh and refused to kill the male sons when they were born? The midwives. They came up with an excuse good enough to fool the king and scripture says that “because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. He gave them families. Exodus 1:17-21 · Moses’ mother dared to challenge Pharaoh to preserve his life. When she put Moses in the basket and pushed it into the water, who “stood afar off to know what would be done to him?” Was it his older brother Aaron? No. He was only 3 years old. But Miriam probably wasn’t much older. Yet she had the presence of mind and was brave enough to not only hide in the bulrushes but to actually go up to the Pharaoh’s daughter in boldness and suggest she let her find someone to nurse the baby for her! That was one brave little girl. Exodus 2:1-8
· Hannah wrestled with God for a child, and then had enough faith in God to hand that child over to a man who couldn’t even raise his own children in the fear of the Lord. Talk about brave! And faith! What kind of prayer battles did she have to fight? 1 Samuel 1 · Queen Esther took the lead in the battle for her nation by saying, “If I perish, I perish.” WOMEN ARE LEADERS God called Sarah “mother of nations” Genesis 17:16 and she is listed among the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. And well she should be after being given not once but twice to a heathen king when her husband was fearful of his own life. Priscilla is listed first when described in a ministry context Acts 18:18,26 so she didn’t just go about household chores when an eloquent man preaching the Word of God inaccurately came across her path. With her husband, she helped – and maybe even led – in setting him straight. She was part of the team that founded the church in Ephesus – the site of the greatest power encounter recorded in the book of Acts. She was there, inside the crux of God’s power, when it dethroned Artemis and brought down the demonic socioeconomic structure that had controlled Ephesus. Paul said she and her husband risked their own necks for his life. Romans 16:3 Women were exalted as pillars of the faith in many of the epistles.
How could this be? I’ve told you what the status of women to Romans was. Jewish rabbis completely silenced women when they were inside the synagogue and pagans used women as temple prostitutes. The answer always comes back to God. God is the One who elevates women and the Early Church leaders discovered this. In fact, they discovered that in Christ “there is neither male nor female; or you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 History shows that wherever the Gospel has gone, the plight of women gets better. The first European convert was a very assertive female businesswoman: Lydia. Acts 16:14,15 I say assertive because Luke said, “she urged us” and “she prevailed upon us.” SENSITIVITY Scripture says that women are the “weaker vessel.” 1 Peter 3:7 To understand this phrase, think of the difference between a china cup and a tin cup. We know scientifically that men are usually bigger physically and women’s bodies are more fragile but women generally have a stronger constitution. The most plausible explanation is that women are more sensitive to spiritual things. That’s why it needs to be protected. But when it is, when a woman is willing to walk in humility, God will often reveal things to her that He can’t to men. For example, Jesus was able to reveal two of the most powerful truths in the gospels to women. He told Martha that He is the resurrection and the life. John 11:25-27 He told the Samaritan woman that He is the living water. John 4 Both of these women was in a state of confusion and error when He found them. But they were both able to hear, understand and believe profound truths that have transformed millions of lives. SPIRITUAL FORESIGHT According to Jesus, Mary exhibited great spiritual foresight when she worshipped Jesus by pouring the flask of perfume on Him. He was in a state of anticipation, sorrow and pain. He needed someone to minister to Him. And it was a woman who saw the urgency, the need and willingly, lovingly gave everything of value she had to comfort Him. Meanwhile, the men stood around totally misreading her actions, judging her harshly and looking at what she was doing through financial filters. John 12:2-8 RANGE OF EMOTIONS Women have the ability to express a greater range of emotions that enables us to experience worship in a more intense way. The result is that we’re often accused of being too excitable and emotional but this isn’t always true. Look at Hannah. Eli accused her of being drunk when, in reality, she was genuinely broken before the Lord. 1 Samuel 1 At a retreat one time, we had a day and a half of nothing but worship before having any speakers. It was an awesome experience. One of the men, a Baptist pastor commented on how beautiful it was to watch the women in the group worship. “You have so much of a deeper understanding of what it means to be wife,” he said. Then he continued, “Now don’t take this wrong, but, because of how you worship, I can’t wait to have my “sex change” when I’m truly transformed into the Bride of Christ.” GENEROSITY Women are generous. It was to a woman that God send Elijah in the middle of a famine. 1 Kings 17:13-15 He asked her for everything she had and she gave it. During Jesus ministry, it was women who were the most faithful and consistent in providing for the physical and monetary needs of Him and His disciples. In fact, no man is explicitly identified in the Gospels as a financial supporter of Jesus. Matthew 27:55; Luke 8:3; Luke 10:38-39 COURAGEOUS It was the women who stayed by the cross and were willing to courageously risk their lives by confronting the 24-hour military guard at Jesus’ tomb while most of the disciples hid in fear or were at a distance. The women were up close and personal. Luke 24:1-10 Is it any wonder that His last earthly concern before He died was for the woman with whom He’d begun His earthly life? She still stood beside Him. And she was there among the 120 on the Day of Pentecost in obedience, waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. While Herod was harassing the church, killing James the brother of John, it was Mary the mother of Mark who fearlessly hosted a large prayer meeting. Acts 12:12 Lydia did the same thing during a time of violent opposition. Acts 16:40 BELIEF IN GOD’S POWER Women are prone to believe God more easily. Deborah had no doubt that God would deliver the Israelites. Mary had faith in His word even though she was a virgin. After the resurrection the women were not only trusting that God would provide a way to move the stone in front of the tomb but they accepted the resurrection more readily while the apostles locked themselves up for fear of the Jews John 20:19 and Thomas demanded tangible proof. John 20:24-29 Perhaps that’s why Jesus made women the first messengers, the first evangelists, the first prophetesses, the first teachers and the first witnesses of His resurrection. Ed Silvoso writes, “Intrinsically women are not more godly than men are, but they are definitely more spiritual. They are neither the weaker sex nor an afterthought in God’s master plan.” P. 39 The devil would like women to be perceived as the weak link in the Garden, the one who brought so much misery to the human race. Yes, she was deceived and fell but we shouldn’t miss an important point. Eve was the one who identified the enemy! In spite of the shame she felt, Eve understood and described accurately what had happened and who the instigator was. Adam simply blamed her. But Eve knew. Generally speaking, women are quicker to recognize who the enemy is and men still pass the buck. It is time we women stop paying attention to Satan’s demeaning remarks. We don’t need a human platform to be heard because God has given us considerable spiritual height from which to speak. We are designed to be influencers and shapers, fulfilling key roles in God’s strategic plans.
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