Gift of the Spirit

We need not to be ignorant concerning the gifts of The Spirit

1 Corinthians 12:1,3,4 – Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.  Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

The Lord does not desire for us to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts.  I personally do not believe that anyone regardless of the sexes will effectively preach the Word of God through the anointing of God’s Holy Spirit except God be with them.   St. John 6:63 – It is the Spirit that quickened; the flesh profited nothing: the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life. 

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we become quickened or spiritually alive.  The flesh is only the container that God uses to eject forth his Word. Our spiritual life is not dependent upon the genders.  Our spiritual life is dependent upon feasting upon the words of the Lord.  Because the flesh profited nothing, it makes no difference whether God uses male or female containers to eject his Words, but the main factor to be considered is do you believe in the Word of God?

St. John 3:34 – For whom God sends will speak the words of God.  We do realize that God has given those who have been baptized into the Body of Christ, many spiritual gifts.  These gifts are no less than the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 12:7.  God has distributed these spiritual gifts to those who have been born again into a new spiritual sphere, with Christ operating as the Head of all things pertaining to His body of born again believers (male and female) according as his will and purposes have permitted him to do, 1 Cor. 12:11).  Thus I take a firm stand in believing that God in his sovereign purposes can and will use women in positions pertaining to the Christian church.  The God that we serve is no respecter of person’s and has delegated out spiritual gifts to individual members of his universal body according as he has thus ordained to do so, Acts 10:34-35.

During biblical times there were not that many women who were used by God as a mouthpiece, especially during those times when women were treated as low class citizens within their societies by men.  Men justified this type of behavior because of the curse placed upon women, THY HUSBAND SHALL RULE OVER THEE, Genesis 3:16.

God did not place women under the headship of her husband to be abused, mistreated, controlled or dominated. Proverbs Chapter 31 – The Virtuous Woman. 1 Peter 3:7 – Likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.  Ephesians 5:22 -states that the man is the head of his wife.  Meaning that the wife is to yield to the authority of her husband.  Does this mean that women were inferior to men?  Subordination and inferiority are two different ideas.  God called the woman to a subordinate position in the home as under the headship of her husband. Meaning that a wife should honor and respect her husband as a man.  Woman should yield to the god given gifts and abilities as well as insight that God has given man so that he can demonstrate his headship in the home by making wise balanced decisions which must can promote the family.  Man and wife must work together as a team in the home.  It was in the will of God that woman would be a Helpmeet or fit for man.  Husband and wife must agree upon issues that affect their home and life, as it is written in Amos 3:3 – Can two walk together except they are agreed.   Men confused subordination with inferiority. Inferior meaning less important, lacking value and merit!

Although man is head of his house, we must not confuse this truth with the fact that Jesus is Head of the Christian Church, and the saviour of the Body.  He will use who he will choose to do his service, Ephesians 5:23.  He is the potter and we are merely the clay.

Two classic statements in Matthew’s Henry’s 18^th century commentary are worth recalling:

“Eve’s being made after Adam, and out of him, puts honor upon that sex, as the glory of Man (1 Cor. 11:7). If man is the head, she is the crown.  The man was dust refined, but the woman was dust double refined, one removed further from the earth.”

“Not made out of his head to be ruled over, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him.  But out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved”.

In the book of Genesis, at the creation of male and female, before the curse, God gave man and woman the authority to rule the world, Genesis 1:28. At this time man and woman were equal.  Woman given to man has his helper.  They were to work together.  Woman surrendered her authority and became under the rule of her husband, because of her willful disobedience to the expressed Word of the Lord.  Saved woman has discovered a new found freedom “in Christ,” through the infilling of The Holy Ghost. However women to mean that they are no longer under the headship of their husbands must not mistake this new freedom.  For this would be in contradiction of scriptures, Ephesians 5:23.  Women are free to serve the Lord as he appoints and ordains them to do so, yet they must remain in obedience to their husbands.  We must also recognize that in the Body of Christ, men and women alike are to be in subjection to church leadership, lest they should hinder the grace of God, Hebrews 13:17.

Sharon Therese Spencer