The field is the world, (
Matthew 13:38). If every house were a church and every table a pulpit, soon the world would be won. Jesus told us all to go to the highways and by-ways and constraint them to come it. He wants His house full. Yet, He bemoaned the fact that the labors are few. Could it be that He knew forehand that there would be those people who would say who could go and who can’t? Or who can speak and who can’t? What a heartbreaking thought for the Lord.
Peter the Apostle said in his first letter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood…”
Revelation 1:5-6 says that Jesus loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God. Now, how can I be a king or priest if I’m a woman? Perhaps it is the same way a man can be part of the bride of Christ.
It wasn’t until later that Tertullian a well-known Ante-Nicene Father of the Third Century said that no woman has the right to speak in the church, teach or baptize or anything that pertains to the function of a man or a place in the ministry. He started putting labels on what was deemed as a “manly function” or what a person’s place was in ministry. Perhaps this is what he needed to do because of the upcoming priest and nun separation groups of the Roman Catholic Church. We are no part of that heresy.
A Christian woman should be free to answer and fulfill God’s call in whatever capacity it is. She should live out God’s purpose for her life without clerical restraints. She is frequently called upon to teach Sunday school, give testimonies, lead the choir, or sing until the glory comes down in church services but not allowed to preach.
She is usually accepted as a missionary, and sent to the darkest part of Africa, or the most impoverished place in India, or the coldest city in China with no family, friends or fellowship. Yet, it’s ironic should she return home to her country the chains of limitations are snapped tightly on her spirit so that the fire of her calling is almost snuffed out.
In the homeland, she usually has to suppress the call that once burned brightly. All the while she may be asked to change diapers in the nursery or cook up a batch of peanut brittle for the current fundraiser. Or perhaps be asked to serve on the baking committee and wait on the tables at church dinners.
An interesting fact is did you know that that was a man’s job in the first church? “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business” (
Acts 6:2-3)
Yet, her call to futher the Work of God still burns inside with no hint of release. And though God will use her voice, man will not allow her opportunity.
No one knows better than Satan what the death, burial, and resurrection means to the woman. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (
John 1:17). Under grace sisters have a greater liberty to announce the gospel. Some have said a woman can only testify but not preach.
Paul said he testified the gospel!
Acts 20:24, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. In humility before God and man, let me fulfill my calling to testify the Gospel.” So can we testify and not preach? Is the difference simply in the tone of voice? Is there a difference if a woman stands behind a pulpit or stands in a congregation?
If we use one Scripture to silence women, what is to be done with hundreds that open her mouth? Let me remind you of a few mouth-opening scriptures, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Praise ye the Lord” PSA 107:2. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,” PSA 66:1. “Declare His doing among the people,”
Isaiah 12:4 “Let everything that hath breath, praise ye the Lord” PSA 150:6. “Tell of all thy wondrous works” PSA 26:7 “…talk ye of all his wondrous works” 1CH 16:9. Let me run this race with joy, declaring His wondrous works among all people!
W.B. Godbey wrote, It is a God-given, blood-bought privilege, and bounder-duty to the women as well as men, to preach the gospel. (Quoted in Lucille Sidere-Dayton and Donald W. Dayton, Your Daughters shall prophecy Feminism in the Holiness Movement, History, 14, Jan. 1976, page 84).
In Female Ministry, Catherine Booth argued in the following terms: If she has the necessary gifts, and feels herself called by the Spirit to preach, there is not a single word in the whole book of God to restrain her, but many, very many, urge and encourage her. God says she shall do so, and Paul prescribed the manner in which she shall do it, and Phoebe, Junia, Phillips four daughters and many other women, actually did preach and speak in the primitive churches. (Catherine Booth in Female Ministry or Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel London: 1859, reprint-New York Salvation Army, 1975, page 14).
Wouldn’t Jesus Christ be a fraud if He would tell a woman to go and tell and then allow Paul to later close her mouth? I have staked my whole eternity on the fact that He is real and not a fraud.
Throughout the history of the church, women have been agents of change and makers of history.
We try to measure ourselves among ourselves and for this we are not wise, the writer said in
Second Corinthians 10:12. His sheep hear his voice, answer the call, walk in the spirit, and follow after charity.
We need a holy haste to go into the entire world. Most people have never watched a pagan die.
Our religious "cast" system has banished innocent souls from the presence of God.