What would God say to WOMEN?

Lyrical monologue

My thoughts about you are timeless. You may protest, had I created you on the same day as your other half, maybe you would be better acknowledged. My timing for your entrance into the scene of creation was nothing but artistic.

All creation sat in the humongous auditorium called earth, I blindfolded man and brought you out of my closet. The entire Garden of Eden marveled at your gait, all creation envied Adam, trees cried and their flowers blossomed in that instant. The wind stood still, the clouds held back their tears and the 24 elders worshipped the Creator for the glory of this second house was surely greater than the first.

It was in the deepest time of need that I created you to be eternally relevant. Just as I am an ever-present Help, I created to you to be a helper, My name made flesh. Help in a body that’s what you really are. I am amazed at the fact that people have downgraded this help to washing dishes. It was not so in the beginning. Adam was not surely looking for a dishwasher. He succeeded in inventing a dishwasher but He could not invent you. What was Adam really looking for? He was looking to commune with a body that is moved by the Spirit of God, and that is who you are.

Adam was right in his statement that he did not consider you in anyway inferior to who he was, but as his own flesh and bone. Flesh that was pierced and bone that could not be broken on the cross of the second Adam. When I healed my son’s flesh in that tomb it was your emotions that I was healing. I prevented the perpetrators of the cross from breaking His bones. Yes, if you are still willing to believe, over centuries to this very day of brutality against you, your core strength (bones) in Christ is still intact. Tap into it.

DISCUSSION: Withering Masculinity

How did we get from that to this?

1 Peter 1:24 (KJV 2000 Bible) “For all flesh is as grass, and all the GLORY of man as the flower of the grass.  The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away”

1 Corinthians 11:7 (KJV 2000 Bible) “woman is the GLORY of man.”

Allow us to make a closer read in the above scriptures. A parable is used to speak about man and his glory. We would like to use the underlying principle beyond the context in which the scriptures were written to speak about the current state of women in our society as a whole.

In the illustration of the scripture by Peter, all flesh is like grass and their glory like a flower. He speaks in general, both on the inside and out, in the collective as well as in particular, and at a macroscopic and microscopic level. Let us zoom at the level of gender that is biologically male or female.

In this context the grass will refer to the male gender and the flower, would be a woman.

In the current state of universal ichabod (departed glory) due to widespread far-reaching and deep seated sinfulness of humankind, gender based violence is expected although not justified. Sin precludes all flesh from the glory of God according to Romans 3:23. We know the Apostle Paul is referring to the glory of God in Romans and not the glory of man who in the sense of the above apostolic letter to the Corinthian Church is a woman. How does this come together? All glory can only be perceived in His glory, “By your light we see light”. Light revealing light, i.e. glory revealing glory.  Hence once the glory of God; the creator, departs, the glory of creation will soon follow suit.

Note the words of the Apostle Peter, “the grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away”. The withering of masculinity will result in the falling of women or being thrown to the ground. We would like to remind our readers that the gender based violence is not perpetrated by trees or the non-conscious animal kingdom but by men, and sadly enough in collusion at times with women.

What is the solution?

The solution would be to halt the effect of withering. Grass that is not watered will eventually wither. We need to learn the lesson of Zechariah (Zechariah 10:1), “Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every grass in the field”.

What is this rain? It is the Holy Spirit that is poured out. The use of the term poured out in our minds constructs an image of a liquid. The Prophet Joel completes the painting for us, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:” (Joel 2:28).

We all know of one event that involves the pouring out of a refreshing, regenerative and restorative liquid on all the earth and those that inhabit it at the same time, which is the rain. Holy Spirit rain down! When Dr Tumi uttered the words in song, “Let it rain on us, pour it out on us. Till it overflows”, the Dew of Heaven (the Holy Spirit) was tangible in that gathering of worshippers.

The Kings of the Labour Room

Our words have been chosen carefully, Kings of the Labour room, the place where a Woman goes by herself to birth kings, presidents, accountants, teachers, doctors, engineers, and the list is endless. They face the curse of augmented labour shielded by the blood of Jesus who was made a curse that we may be a blessing. In the same way, Rebecca without hesitation urged Jacob to go and seize a blessing that was rightfully his by revelation but was being diverted by tradition. This brave woman in the labour room on the verge of giving birth to the blessing of Jacob said to her son, “And his mother said unto him, upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.” (Genesis 27:13) The blessing of Jacob was guaranteed by those words. Lord rain on us again and raise a Rebecca of our generation that will hold the curse of our generation in one hand and with the other push the Jacobs of this generation into their blessing.

Jesus spoke of an illustration that only women would understand better. We are not saying that men cannot understand it but only women would understand it better. He speaks of a woman in the labour room. Oh woman! Jesus understands you, otherwise He would not have used this illustration. He goes on to describe the affliction of childbirth. Labour is time bound and not endless.  As soon as birth happens, eternal joy breaks out. The context of this illustration is the coming of the Holy Spirit. The move of the Holy Spirit in all generations is always preceded by a short season of affliction. Jesus in the same scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit as the helper, the same principle upon which a woman was conceived, created and deployed in the world.

Dear Woman and Church, the mystery of God that was hidden in all generations until now is to know that Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Not the glory of Eden but the glory of Heaven. In His temple, all cry GLORY!