Gender Blogs - xana

Written by: Wilma Luimes

I love the bible story of Deborah. For starters, it’s all about women’s leadership, for she was both a prophetess and the leader of Israel as a Judge, which historically in the Jewish tradition was a military leader, (Deborah 4:4) for more than forty years. Incidentally, she was also the wife of Lappidoth. I cannot help but note that God’s mandate to go to war did not come via Lappidoth, dare I question it; the “head of the home”? Just sayin’…(☺)!

Clearly God’s divine gifting is individually allocated and different between husband and wife; gifting that is aligned with our individual callings and God-given purposes for which we will account to our Creator, not to our spouses. That said, Lappidoth interests me. Clearly he was a man whose understanding of divine calling was rather different than the average man, for his culture embraced and endorsed a wide gender divide. By virtue of his wife’s role in the country, he was a man who understood the benefits of allowing his wife to operate in her God-given giftings which were:

Peace both in his home and in his country; literally… she led an army out to war and when the battle was won “the land had peace for forty years” (Judges 5:31).
Access to godly wisdom as God spoke directly to his wife and she was humble enough to listen and be used by Him.
An awareness that the calling over his wife’s life would never be detrimental to him as her partner, but would be a rich source of blessing.
The benefits of a partnership that used the strengths of both parties to better everyone’s lives, including their own.

This story reminds us that God’s victory is given not to those who have been commissioned to go but to those who respond to the sender and step out in faith. And in this case, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the men who had been sent would not be given the victory; the victory would belong to the women who responded to His call. She [Deborah] sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. 7 I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.” Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go. “Certainly, I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honour will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.(Deborah 4:6-10 NIV)

The lack of women’s leadership within the church and society is a two-fold problem.

There is a culture that has been created to stifle women’s growth within the church and elsewhere called patriarchy. That is a given. But there is also a culture among many women of complacency and contentment with that lot. Notice that both of the scenarios are not God’s intention for gender relations between men and women. Again we all need to be reminded ‘God’s victories belong to those who respond to the call’.
Women, being a wife and a mother are not your calling because that would make your divine purpose subject to human approval.

That’s a role you play in your families. A calling or purpose is a visible ‘heart for a need’ with an impact measured in lives changed. God’s success is measured in the number of souls saved and only you can stop or delay your purpose. God’s plans for your life cannot be subject to the approval of another human being. Your calling is much bigger than that and between you and your Creator, not you and your husband; albeit your calling may be a co-calling with your spouse. What worries me is the number of divine callings that remain unfulfilled in the name of ‘godly marriage’. So to all the women out there…

Are you humble enough to be used by Him?
Courageous enough to act on the vision you have been given?
Attuned enough to recognise Him as the source and intention of His purpose in this world?
Wise enough to understand your role as the vehicle through which God establishes His will in this world?

Ladies, really; it’s about time! God’s been calling.

Share this:

Written by: Wilma Luimes

…because love imparts value and doesn’t seek to control.
For generations in many churches, patriarchy has been passed off as the divine order of things. Its foundation lay in a quest for power and the legitimization of male leadership. But a divine order must produce godly fruit and blind, unqualified submission to an ungodly man, produces destruction and death. How can that be God’s plan for women’s lives in the context of marriage? Simply put. It’s not; for death and destruction are not of God. Loving someone means to impart a value to someone else equivalent to one’s own and give them what they need; [not necessarily what they want] and love shows up when needed. The pursuit of power instead of love, justified at women’s expense, the fruit produced in an imbalanced relationship, and inability of patriarchy to meet the needs of millions of women and children around the world should have sounded the alarm of its fallacy and illuminated the reality that its roots are a result of sin (Genesis 3:16), not godly hierarchy as so many would like us to believe; a deception that has become a widely accepted societal norm. For loving someone as God requires is to take into account their well-being and ensure their needs are met; for they are neither worthless nor worth less than anyone else. That seems contrary to a worldly view of love that sells love as free, easily accessible, a form of self-gratification and a means to meets one’s own needs often at someone else’s expense. It is however an accurate reflection of Jesus’ life which illustrates true love as an empathy and compassion for the needs of people that generated action. This is apparent as during his ministry, Jesus met the need for:

Healing (woman with bleeding; Matthew 9:20 & Mark 5:29, Peter’s mother-in-law; Matthew 8, paralysed man; John 5, man with the withered hand; Matthew 12:10, the royal official’s son, a leper; Matthew 8, 10 lepers; Luke 17, the Centurion’s servant; Matthew 8, Bartimaeus of blindness; Mark 10:46, restoring the severed; ear Matthew 26, etc.)
Counsel (Samaritan woman; John 4, Zacchaeus; Luke 19, Mary and Martha; Luke 10:38, disciples, little children; Matthew 19:13, the rich man; Matthew 19)
Grace, compassion and protection (Samaritan woman; John 4, woman accused of adultery; John 8:4, etc.)
Food (the feeding of the five thousand; Matthew 14 & Mark 6, four thousand; Mark 8)
Life by raising up the dead (Lazarus; John 11, the widow’s son; Luke 7, Jairus’ daughter; Mark 5:35)
Peace (healing from demonic spirits – man from Capernaum , Gerasene man possessed by demons; Mark 5, etc.).
Justice. “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations” Matthew 12: 18.
Truth – “I am the truth, the way and the life. No one comes to the father but through me” John 14:6.
Salvation – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. That who so ever believes in him shall have everlasting life” John 3:16.

The life and ministry of Jesus Christ demonstrates God’s equal value for humanity; men, women and children alike. His response to those in need shows us his heart.(Incidentally Jesus also met the need for wine… John 2; but that’s a story for another blog… ☺ ) Patriarchy, in contrast, seeks to accumulate power and dominate women. God’s plan for marriage was not that. Men do not ‘need’ blind submission and women should not be blindly submitting. God’s plan for marriage requires mutual submission and accountability; “submit to one another out of reference for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Marriage was intended to be a relationship where needs are met and where love shows up when needed and where both parties hold each other as valuable; a relationship of love and protection. Patriarchy teaches and produces something else altogether…

Category: Gender Blogs

Women, You are Called

God’s Plan Cannot be Patriarchy…