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Articles
The following article is reprinted with the gracious permission of
Fuchsia Pickett and the magazine Spirit Led Woman published by Strang
Communications. For subscription information to this excellent magazine
click www.spiritledwoman.com
For Dr. Pickett's testimony, click
here.
Equal in Creation
MALE AND FEMALE CREATED TO CO-LABOR WITH GOD
By Fuchsia Pickett
THE CHURCH HAS LONG MISUNDERSTOOD GOD'S DIVINE PLAN FOR THE GENDERS. HE NEVER
INTENDED FOR MAN TO RULE OVER WOMAN.
In my more than 50 years of ministry, I have discovered that because people
often study their Bibles through the eyes of their own prejudices, customs and
traditions, they tend to read into the Scriptures what they have been
taught instead of reading out of them what the Holy Spirit meant when He
inspired His servants to write them. This practice leads to much deception in
the church. Nowhere is the deception more apparent than in the misunderstanding
about God's divine order for the genders.
Many Christians believe that God created man to rule over woman. They cite as
proof God's words to Eve after she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil: "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen.
3:16, NKJV). But in making this statement, God was not revealing His divine
order for the woman. He was imposing on her the consequences of her fall. He was
telling us how a fallen man and woman were going to relate to each other.
Results of the fall of man can never be construed as God's divine order for him.
God told Adam he was going to eat by the sweat of his brow (see Gen. 3:19), but
that was a consequence of sin rather than God's divine intention for him. God
had purposed that Adam and Eve eat of the vegetation in the beautiful garden He
had prepared for them and that they have dominion over every living thing.
PRIEST OF THE HOME? Another misconception prevalent in the church is that
the man is the priest of the home. But this is not a scriptural concept either.
The Scriptures declare that we--male and female--are all priests: "You at
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, holy nation" (I Pet. 2:9).
The New Living translation of the Bible translates royal priesthood as "a
kingdom of priests." There is no distinction here between male and female.
REVEALED FAITH: Some of us have difficulty accepting the truth about
God's design for the genders because we have not "come to faith." When we read
the Scriptures, we don't come in faith with an open heart and mind
to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Paul explains, Before faith [comes], we
[are] kept under the law up unto the faith which should afterwards be
revealed" (Gal. 3:23, emphasis added).
We can't understand the Word until we have "revealed faith" because tradition,
prejudice, culture, denominationalism, pseudo-masculinity and other bondages of
the carnal mind hinder us. After revealed faith comes, we are no longer under
the law but walk in the grace Jesus brought to us through redemption. Paul tells
us, "After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For [we]
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (vv. 25-26, KJV).
He declares that when we come to faith we will see "there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for
[we] are all one in Christ Jesus" (v. 28). Faith comprehends God's intentions in
creating mankind. But the fall of man has so damaged us that we are unaware of
the purpose for which God created man. We the are oblivious to the divine order
He intended for man and woman to enjoy.
Until faith comes to our hearts we cannot expect an illumination o the Word of
God that gives us understanding of the purposes of God. The Scriptures teach
that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14, NKJV). No wonder the church, which has not yet come
into a proper relationship with the Holy Spirit, is living without a true
understanding of God's divine order for mankind!
A basic misunderstanding arises from our definition of "man." The word we
translate from the Hebrew as "man" actually has no gender; it is more accurately
translated mankind." In mankind--in Adam--was both "male" and "female." Thus
when God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an
help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18, KJV), He was announcing His plans to do "surgery"
to separate mankind into two sexes.
After God made the woman, He brought her "unto the man" (Gen. 2:22); He didn't
put her under him. His purpose was for them to be one.
God ordained that the woman should be a "help meet" for the man. One of the
definitions of the Hebrew word for "help meet" is "reflection." That is a
beautiful picture of God's divine intention in creating mankind to walk together
as one in fellowship with God.
IN ADAM'S IMAGE: Unfortunately, it is not the picture we normally
see--because of our fallen nature. When God was about to create Adam, He said,
"Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness" (Gen. 1:26, NKJV). Then
He created him; male and female He created them" (v. 27). So Adam was created in
God's image.
But the Bible tells us that after the fall of man, Adam "begot a son in his
own likeness, after his image" (Gen. 5:3, emphasis added). This means
that Adam's descendants--including us--were born not in the image of God, their
heavenly Father, but rather in the image of Adam. We were born with his nature,
not God's.
God's eternal plan for us was not thwarted, however, for He had anticipated
Adam's failure before the foundation of the world and had prepared a Savior for
mankind. John assures us: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). That word "destroy" is
the Greek word louso, which means "to loose, to undo, outdo and overdo." So
Jesus came to undo, outdo and overdo everything the devil has ever done.
When we accept Christ, who is the called the "last Adam," as our Savior, we are
restored to the image of God. Restoration is a wonderful reality that promises
we will become all God ordained for us to become in His eternal purpose and will
experience what mankind would have known if the first pair had walked on with
Him and not fallen.
God knew we couldn't change ourselves back into His image, so He designed the
costly plan of redemption through the blood of his own Son, Jesus. Jesus was the
express image of the Father, sent to live in us by the power of the Holy Spirit
until that image takes over our inner natures-our spirits and souls. He begins
to change us from glory to glory. When He fills our beings, as He wanted to do
before man ever fell, we are going to go home in His image, complete and mature;
By the action of Calvary, we are being changed into Christ's image so male and
female can walk together in their own realms of authority. God puts both genders
back into Christ, not as male and female, but as mankind, walking with God.
Husband and wife, male and female preacher, man and woman leader will walk in
the cool of the day with Jesus, who is talking to us, fellowshipping with us,
giving us authority and changing us into His image. In the "last Adam," God is
restoring what we would have had if Adam had not fallen in the beginning.
RETURNING TO DIVINE ORDER: God ordained that man and woman should walk
with Him and be as one, and He would meet the innermost needs of both of them.
Divine order is higher than the plight of fallen man. It is far more liberating
to men and women than having to live under the doctrine of the curse of a fallen
Adam and a fallen Eve.
As God delivers His church from the bondages of tradition and culture--and from
fallen man's doctrine of divine order--we will see men and women function
together to build godly homes and to fulfill God's purpose for the building of
His church. When redemption cleanses us from the desire to rule, man and woman
will not be threatened by each other, but will welcome each other's godly
counsel.
The Bible gives many examples of women who provided godly leadership. Deborah
was appointed by God as a judge, prophetess and general in the army. She was
able to tell Barak what God had said to her, and Barak then declared he would
not go to battle without her (see Judges. 4:4-8).
I believe in these last days of God's outpouring of His Spirit, many Baraks will
say to their Deborahs that they will not go to battle without them. I believe it
is the timing of God to restore man and woman back to divine order both in the
home and in the kingdom of God. It is the hour for man and woman to come to
faith, to stop living under fallen doctrine and to start living according to
divine order--male and female walking together as one in Christ, each with his
or her own delegated authority.
FUCHSIA PICKETT is the author of numerous books, including How to
Search the Scriptures (Creation House). She has earned doctorates in both
theology and divinity and teaches at churches and conferences throughout the
United States.
Note: Fuchsia Pickett passed away on January 30, 2004.
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