Cheryl Schatz

I am responding to Anthony who posted on the old post at http://www.strivetoenter.com/wim/2008/09/19/is-a-womans-voice-filthy/ The old post has the comments closed and all discussion is now on this new site.

Anthony wrote:

I believe in equal rights and a woman should have a voice but not for the sole purpose for trying to out-do a man or prove that she can be a powerhouse but to contribute to humanity.

We cannot see what is inside a person’s heart, but the statement you made is equally valid of a man. i.e. you could have said: “I believe in equal rights and a man should have a voice but not for the sole purpose for trying to out-do a woman or prove that he can be a powerhouse but to contribute to humanity.”

When we walk in the Spirit, we will live in the fruit of the Spirit and the problems of lording it over others will not be an issue.

Anthony wrote:

Some women just want to be heard just like some men but she should understand her role just like the women in the scriptures because I haven’t ran across any scriptures that ever said that a woman was a preacher, teacher, apostle-less, bishop,..but they were prophetesses which means God has put messages in their hearts that he wanted to be delivered and this was the purpose of a prophetess..to deliver messages but not to preach if god didn’t place a word for her she said nothing, and she didn’t add anything extra to the message, they took instructions seriously and they understood their roles, a message from God is just as powerful as a sermon, but it’s not to be abused on any level..and I personally believe that woman play a part in ministry just like men as long as they are obedient to their roles just like men should be.

God Himself determines our gifts and God did not limit women in preaching nor did He limit them in receiving and giving out a message from Himself. No limitations on gifts is ever placed upon the receiver of the gift except that the gift is to be used for the benefit of all. If we take a different view, then we are fighting God Himself who is the giver of the gifts.

Anthony wrote:

MANY of us should not even be in office just because we have spiritual gifts I say discover how God wants you to use that gift and not the way YOU want to..that is why many will say LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied and cast out demons in your name..why will he say depart from me I NEVER knew you..that is very serious and frightening! Feel free to comment back, this was not intended to start a spiritual conflict just voicing an opinion of why I think most men (from my experience)have a problem with female spiritual leadership.

When we deal with women in ministry we assume that we are talking about genuine believers. Anthony, your comment about Jesus saying “I NEVER knew you” shows that the person was never a believer and that does not part of the issue of women in ministry.

I also do not believe this is the reason why most men have an issue with women in ministry. At least it has not been voiced this way on my blog. The issue has been primarily about a privileged role for males alone that somehow suffers when a gifted woman uses her gifts in what is considered a male-only privilege so that she operates only under the fear of God rather than the fear of man.