Equal In Creation

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.

Instigators & Initiators... in a GOOD Way!

The following is a prophetic word spoken by Kim Clement in Dallas, March 3rd, 2007.

Kim Clement
Prophetic Image Expressions

God said, "I'm looking to women again to bring forth and to birth what will change a generation" The Spirit of God says, "You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses--the greats of yesterday that stood out amongst men, amongst royalty, and made a difference--they are surrounding you . For there was a sound in each one of their spirits when they faced the giants of their time--that sound exists in this generation of women," says the Lord of Hosts. "This sound is a sound of tenderness; this sound is a sound of bold gentleness. This sound is a sound that has petrified the powers of hell, for this same sound existed within Esther. The same sound existed within Deborah. The same sound existed in Mary when the Rock came forth, and satan has watched the women of this generation and said 'no more,'" but the Spirit of God says, "they will arise, and when they arise, they will bring forth the Rock, Christ Jesus again!" As a prophet, I have heard the sound--In this day, and in this year of acceleration--women suddenly accelerating and touching the untouchable, and reaching the unreachable. That's what I saw and God said, "Tell these women, you are the instigators and the initiators of this movement that is about to touch the entire earth." "It has been some time now," says the Lord, "that I have focused My attention once again on the women to bring forth the Word--the Rock. It has been a while now, that I have looked for a sound to come from a place where women would arise not with temperament, but with character and with virtue. And a sound that would come from them for one reason, 'God, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And Lord, what You are dictating in Heaven right now, we want to perform on earth,' this is their prayer." And God says, "There's been a sound that I've been waiting for, and this year was the year that I designated to bring forth women of great virtue and of great power. Some of you have been locked away; some of you have been bound. Some of you have been freed to the point of now understanding the bondage of others. But this is not the question at hand today." The Spirit of God says, "Do you know that there is inside of you--about to be born that which has been there for a long time, for a long, long time," says the Lord. "And this time as women who worship come forth," God said, "there has been a quickening--something is moving inside the spiritual womb." Now God says, "This place has been transformed into a delivery room." God says, "No, you will not walk from this place saying, 'I received much.' But you will walk from this place saying, 'I delivered something; I delivered something.' A delivery room, as you know, is a place of pain and a place of stress where there is blood," but God said, "in the midst of all of this, once the sound of life comes forth from the womb," God said, "something new, something fresh begins to take place in the atmosphere." God said, "I'm looking to women again to bring forth and to birth what will change a generation. You have not gathered together in vain. What has happened, is you have brought forth and I hear the sound of a child being born. I hear the sound of a child being born. From your spiritual womb a movement shall take place," says the Lord, from this house.

Lopsided Theology

There’s an unbalanced thought floating around Christian circles that respect goes only one way -- woman to man (or wife to husband) and as long as men love women, they will want to respect them, and as long as women respect men they will want to love them.

Right off the top let me say I totally believe it’s important to respect men and I would certainly hope they love their wives. I just happen to believe the balanced notion that it’s supposed to go both ways. I wish this lopsided theology was only within the framework of marriage, but unfortunately it has seeped out to mean even more than that – and that is, the notion that men are wired so as to be insecure in so many things that if we just make a point to respect and admire them to the max, well, basically it will all but make them putty in our hands. If that’s not manipulative, I don’t know what is, but getting back to my original thought…

There is a danger in taking one short scripture such as Ephesians 5:33 and building a theology on it. I remember when the extreme version of the “prosperity” doctrine came out, the scripture most of these teachers readily spouted out as their foundation was: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” The reality is, this scripture in 3 John 1:2 is a greeting from John to Gaius, and really has nothing to do with whether somebody in 2007 should be riding around in an Escalade or buying their dream house. But that’s what happens when you build a theology on one scripture instead of looking at the whole counsel of God’s word.

What does the Word of God tell us? It tells us over and over again to love everyone. It tells us to humble ourselves – all of us. It tells us to be servants. The last time I checked, nobody was exempt. Not only am I to be a servant to my husband, and he to me, but we are to be servants to the world. We are not to be servants more to men than we are women. Giving honor and respect to men is not wrong, however when we begin to believe or act as though they are worthy of more respect than women, or that a husband deserves more respect than a wife, we have developed a lopsided theology at best.

I’m sure some of the teachers who started the various emphasis on these passages of scripture never intended people to take it to some of the extreme to which it’s been taken. That is something no teacher can really control. But it’s alarming to see how many people will grab on to a small shred of the Word and go to such an extreme that it makes for a very unhealthy life and relationship.

Does God want me to respect my husband? You bet. Does God also want my husband to respect me? You bet. Don’t agree? Think about this. God said, “husbands, love your wives.” I’m so glad mine loves me. But do you think that because God didn’t tell me to love him means God is giving me license to skip that part or to not love him? Of course not. Based on the whole context of the Bible, it would be a given that I would be required by God to love my husband, and everybody else for that matter. I would call this the “duh” factor. Are some people actually so clueless and out to lunch (or desperate to come up with something new to sell books) that they believe God is only asking us to respect our husbands, but not love them? No. Does the fact that God tells my husband to love me mean that he expects him to give me no respect? Of course not. God’s word, in fact tells us to engage in the practice of mutual submission. As far as good old fashioned R-E-S-P-E-C-T, God expects us to give it to everybody. This is the essence of the golden rule. When we look at scripture we mustn’t just look at a sentence, but the full context and also the overall tone of God’s Word. God would not give instructions to everyone to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and then expect a wife to respect her husband, but not necessarily have to give others respect or vice versa. Look at the plethora of “one another’s” in scripture… love one another, forgive one another, bear with one another, etc. The overall mandate in scripture for how we treat one another is very two sided…love and respect is definitely not a one way street. God’s street, in fact seems to be named, “one another.”

I do know if I were a man, I would be offended of the notion that some people teach that men are so fragile, and insecure that they can’t handle truth telling by their partners, that if they are not met with a quiet surrender and reverent respect in all situations that they might feel such intense pressure, they might not succeed in life or relationships, or God forbid have a breakdown. I submit to you, if that is the case with a man, he needs counseling, not for a woman to enable his insecurity. Are there perhaps, many insecure men in the world today? Perhaps. There are a lot of insecure women too. The truth is, their security needs to be found in Jesus, not in the way someone else speaks to them, doesn’t speak to them, respects them or doesn’t respect them.

With that said, do I believe that when men love women it makes it easier for us to respect them? Absolutely. And do I believe that when we respect them it makes it easier for us to love them? Absolutely. But this does not mean we are not to grant both to each other.

Taking this issue beyond the marriage setting, we have heard recently about a woman who, after being exposed to this lopsided theology decided to “try this” on every man (exclusively) in her office building. This was in an effort to better get along with them and have a better working relationship by understanding how much they “needed it” because of “the way they’re wired.” My question is, isn’t that sort of manipulative, unless she was doing this with all of her co-workers across the board? The fact that God would be asking her to extend this to the men in her company, excluding the women sounds particularly un-Christ like to me. Some would say, “maybe a woman’s goal in doing this is not to manipulate but to rather honor men.” My point to this would be: why would she be honoring men over women, or versus women? There is no scriptural mandate to do so. Unless one is trying some pop psychology experiment, it would seem rather pointless.

When I am in a group setting of colleagues of both sexes and we are working on a project, I do not defer to a man in his opinion or way of doing things simply because he is a man in the group. I do not give his opinion more respect than a woman’s, nor answer him in a fashion that gives him deference versus the woman. As long as we are lateral colleagues, I would extend to him the same level of respect that any other man or woman in the group would have and would value his opinion as such but no more, no less. Respect is not to be increased, nor decreased because one is a man or a woman. God expects us to treat all people with courtesy, humility and love no matter what their gender. Even if a person is not in authority, we should still treat them with respect. While we should treat our boss with respect, God is definitely not saying, “treat your boss with respect, but don’t worry about showing care in how you treat your co-workers.” When you break it down, it’s really so simple, you wonder how so many people are missing it.

The danger when a Christian woman speaks out on this is that people get the impression that she is speaking from the standpoint of believing it is okay to disrespect a man. Speaking for myself or Pastor Tara I can say this is definitely not true. We absolutely do believe men deserve respect. We just believe that women do as well…for respect is also an issue of…equal time.

Pastor Deanna Shrodes, Co-Founder of Equal Time