Subject to Men

Subject to Men

7/17/16

There are a few topics that spike fear and anger into the hearts of God’s children, with one of those being the subject of equality. Yes, God does address this subject and He does so in the very beginning of His Word for our lives.  Over time we have misplaced and misused this subject for our own personal gains, both male and female.  However, in all occasions, we have failed miserably in knowing what was originally ordained and then what our responsibilities were after the fall.  God does want us to be equal in all matters, but until we grasp this truth AND accept it, no matter how hard we try to obtain this status we shall continue to produce pain and agony.  While total equality can never be achieved while we are living in our current physical conditions, we can make the process so much easier if we just return back to God.

No one likes to be chosen last for a team, but for many of us, we have been there too often.  It is these types of occasions that we reflect on when things do not go our way and then personally use against us as the event unfolds.  It is easy to forget that each one of us has a purpose in our life and just as easy to fail to recognize it when the time comes for our purpose to be engaged.  As we stare at the active participants of the team from the bench, this notion of having a purpose fades and the doubts grow and then flourish until we lose all hope in ever stepping foot on the court.  Do you realize that it is this same process that our eternal enemy uses in order to gain a false sense of equality, an issue that is coming to light as you read this article?  So, let’s get to it.

Once again God is directing us to the book of Genesis and we are still in the time frame of the Garden of Eden with Adam, Eve, and Satan all involved.  Both sides of the fall are going to be examined, before sin entered and after it invaded and it will be difficult for the person who is wanting to understand this process to read for they will realize that the fall from equality of our eternal spouses and creations is horrific in itself, then we have to deal with the other aspects of sin that entered as well.  God gave me this article a while back and it has been weighing heavy on my heart ever since its conception.  I too have fallen into this trap of our enemy and have begun doing my best to correct the situation as best as I can.  Men, this is about us and our overall responsibility to restore this equality as much as possible, for even though male and female were created equal, one needs to be lifted up in many ways better than we have done in the past.

First and foremost we must understand that God created both man and woman equal.  Yes, the man was created first and then the female from his side.  But even though the female was created second does not mean that she is any less than the male.  For as she may be weaker in the physical sense – on many comparisons – there are some physical aspects of our lives that if men had to go through, it would not be handled well at all.  We have to give God the credit for the similarities and differences but in NO way should we ever overstep our boundary that we (men) are better than the women.  This issue is settled in Genesis and has for the most part been ignored by all men; a trick from our enemy so that hardcore division can be put into place without us even knowing about the origins.  And as God has spoken to us many times before, we must first understand the origins of our existence before true healing and restoration can be completed.  God would not have left us idly by without an explanation of what He expected us to do after we had sinned because we must always remember that God is a complete God and cannot change from His ways.

A while ago God shared with us about true equality and purity through His specific pattern of creation and it was through this perfect creative process that we came into existence.  Shortly, God will provide us a more specific detailed article about the rib and what it means to our lives, both male and female, but in this article God wants to remind us about His process in which He describes in Genesis 2:21-22 where He places Adam into a deep sleep, takes a rib from his side and then forms a woman from a perfect state and she becomes the fitting match for Adam.  It is through this process of holy creation that we were created equal and we remained equal until we decided to change our status by choosing sin and personal will instead of God.

Over the next few verses in Genesis, many things transpire in the lives of Adam and Eve.  Their entire way of existing changed and it was through their choices that cast the die for what we know and understand as life today.  How much simpler life would be if they had not chosen to live in their own selfish ways, but to be fair who would have fallen later in life if they had not?  We all know that someone down the road would have chosen that tree and disobeyed God.  The freedom of will is a very powerful ordinance that God gave to us and it is one that eventually determines our eternal existence.  Which brings us to the main meat of this article and the real reason God wants us to understand a few verses which have a great importance of our past, present, and our futures.  And consequently, these verses have grossly been misunderstood and through this misunderstanding has actually created a false pretense about our existence, one that is dangerously playing out today in our lives.

It is VERY important that you keep in mind the entire verses of Genesis 2:21-22 when you are reading this article for one cannot truly grasp what God is saying to us if you do not.  The verse that God wants us to understand is Genesis 3:16 and it occurs after Adam and Eve have sinned and God is in the midst of them and Satan in the Garden and all three of them are facing the consequences of their actions.  Genesis 3:16 states the following: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” 

I can hear some of the thoughts right at this moment, and some of them may not be very nice, but continue reading and in the end it will be interesting to hear just who is upset and who is not.  For we all know that if we are truly willing for God to search our hearts that His results can be humiliating when the truth is revealed to our hearts and I know that when God showed me this verse its message crushed my heart because I had not known the exact meaning of what was at stake here in this verse.

Now, this verse has many other topics that God will also share with us in the near future but the one aspect that God wants us to understand lies in the portion of the verse that says “and thy desire shall be to thy husband”.  And it is this portion of God’s Word that we have totally missed over time and have used incorrectly to the dismay and disgust of God.  If someone says that God is an equal God and that He desires all of His children to be equal on every level and does not understand the true meaning of this verse, they cannot properly understand how to accomplish this task.  We know that once sin entered into humans’ lives our holy equality vanished immediately and we also know that we cannot obtain that same intact and holy equality ever again while we walk this earth.  However, there is a way that we can tell both warring kingdoms that we understand what is going on and that we know how to bring ourselves back onto a level playing field where our spiritual battles are concerned; and it is through this verse that we can obtain this meaning.

Throughout Church history, it is predominantly clear that man – the man – has been in control of what “God says and does”.  If one reads any church history book, journal article, dissertation, or sermon it has been projected that the man has the say over all ordinances of God and His ways.  Stop and think about that for a while before proceeding.  What I just said is the truth and it is a concept that God never intended for us (men) to claim without the woman being equal in status.  But, how can we do this if we are not equal?  I am glad you asked that because it is this question as to why things are messed up so much in our lives and world ever since we allowed sin into our lives.  This verse does NOT give man the power to rule over the woman.  Remember, God created us equal and if God made something in a certain manner He cannot change His ways for anything, anybody or for any reason, He must remain constant at all times and that His laws cannot change from their original creative status.

Since that last sentence is true, then there must be something that we are missing concerning that verse.  This portion of the verse speaks directly to both the man and the woman when God is speaking and in truth places even greater responsibilities on the man than the woman.  Yes, you read that correctly, this portion of the verse actually states that man has a greater responsibility from that point on than he did before sin entered into the human world.  See, before sin was present both man and woman were equal, but now that the situation had changed so had their equality status.  However, man’s role in the dominion did not change one bit which meant that now that his mate / her mate were not equal the man’s role became intensified.  In no way did God change His plan for man to act as a slave master over the woman He did however place a greater strength in some areas on the man which is still present today.

The greatest change that occurred in this verse comes with what the man should be doing for the woman.  It is at this point that the woman now looks upon the man for guidance and strength, not meaning that she is weaker or cannot handle life as it comes her way but it places the responsibility of the man to lift up the woman so that she can become equal to the status that God intended before sin entered into our lives.  From the evidence of Eve’s actions with the serpent, Adam had lost much of his influence over her and allowed his activities to become more important than her.  Not that Eve could not demonstrate strength or make proper decisions on her own, but after all, she was human and had every human aspect that we have today.  We must keep this in mind when we relate to Eve and not automatically throw her under the bus and totally blame her for the misgivings we suffer with today.  Plus, this aspect of Eve can be witnessed in another representative body today as well.

What did Eve do that was so wrong?  It is obvious that her attention was turned from her dominion responsibilities and began entertaining the serpent.  The relationship with the serpent did not just blossom overnight it took time to develop just as relationships of all sorts occur today.  Even hardcore revolutionaries start their ideological changing at some point and question their beliefs at some point in the beginning of their change.  The Bible gives reference that Eve was the one who the serpent was conversing with directly up until she gave the fruit to Adam.  Now, Adam must have known that Eve was having many conversations with the serpent because of what the Bible says and does not say about Adam’s actions at that time.  This means that Adam had already fallen down on his job to keep and maintain the dominion that God had given him before Eve was created.  How much of a relationship have we initiated and then developed with the serpent?  We actually have no idea because we have completely focused our eyes on him instead of God.

When we think about this example we must conclude that Adam knew what his responsibilities were according to the definition of dominion that he and God had discussed.  Clearly, Adam had fallen down on the job and Eve’s actions were left unchecked. This setting could have easily been reversed and when we put it into the context of today’s world it becomes even easier to accept. But according to God’s Word this portion of the verse hands out what God says is an adequate consequence to the woman for her actions and acceptance for her disobedience, but it enhances man’s responsibilities as well.  

It reinforces the truth that man should always pay attention to his mate, no matter what the circumstances may be.  This does not mean to oversee her and to control her but to keep a mindful and loving heartfelt protective eye on her for she is the fairer sex and one that is to be desired by others.  In no way imaginable should the man ever suggest to the woman that she first seek personal advice from any other source before they talk for once this process starts, it is hard to discontinue, for the suggestions are usually considered exotic to the inquiring mind.

This means that every important decision that needs to be made should be discussed in its entirety with the woman and her reckonings and opinions should be treated equally as such; and to be honest, man can learn some things from the woman.  The manner in which man and woman were created form an unique bond and link to each other, a link that automatically relates to the other unless it is compromised by the world and it is through this link that we can work through every problem without mate if we both understand the responsibility of each other’s role in the relationship.  As we saw in the Garden of Eden, one of the main goals of our enemy is to break our holy unity and tie between the sexes and once this unity is broken it automatically becomes subject to a worldly standard.  This worldly standard will play on the senses but break apart the spiritual conception of life and then destroy it piece by piece through our earthly beliefs; in other words, self first, God out of the picture.

The words of God in this portion of the verse convey the message that the man did wrong by not covering his responsibilities according to the upkeep and dressing of God’s Garden (his dominion).  Therefore, while God was informing the woman of the consequences of her disobedience, God was also informing Adam that his responsibility of keeping the equality status between them had just been heightened.  We must keep in mind that Adam and Eve were equal before sin entered into their lives, so when God was forced to hand out the consequences of disobedience, those consequences had to be equal, meaning that if He spoke to one then He was also speaking to the other at the same time; equality has its consequences on both sides of the merry-go-round, meaning if all sides are good, they are good but if both sides are not, then both are not.  THAT is how equality truly works and operates.  God continues to see us as equals through His holy creation, while the world can only see us through defeated and dead eyes.  Why do you believe that when politicians are trying to make their point on an issue that they believe is true they always refer to the bad history of mankind and not God?  Their actions and words prove that their eyes are focused on the world and not the source of true life.

We cannot read this verse and believe that God was just speaking to the woman and basically placing her into a slave status underneath the man.  This is so not God said nor was it His intentions for us to believe as such.  It was a sign that while their sin was now in place both had the obligation to raise their standards together in order to function as equals according to a sinful nature rather than in a pure stature.  Look at all of the options that women have now – feminism, asexual, bisexuality, lesbianism, etc - because we (men) have fallen down on the job in keeping them as our equals.  This portion of verse 16 confirms our position as leaders and the ones ultimately responsible for the unity of humanity.  In NO way does this verse give mankind (the church) the authority to subject and to subdue women and treat them as 2^nd class creations.

I remember back in 1994 when my dad was still a pastor, a commercial came on the TV during the half of the World Cup match that I was watching and after it was over he stated the fact that the man had voluntarily allowed themselves to be usurped in the authority that God had given them.  While at the time I had no idea about the depths of his words he could have never been so right.  What is so amazing is that he was actually describing the current state of the Church and how she has opted to believe the world’s offerings and options because she has ignored the husband’s (Jesus) spiritual call for the return to equality; plus, it describes the status of Israel in the Old Testament as well. 

Jesus’ actions of obedience and sacrifice of separation from the world are the examples of what this portion of the verse of Genesis 3:16 mean for the Church.  Essentially, Adam did the exact same procedure in the Garden of Eden by allowing his command to dress and keep the Garden to be usurped by the serpent (world) and thus consequences occurred through this disobedience.  And we are witnessing this same activity today through the beliefs of the Church and how she has accepted the world as her friend and has developed a steady relationship with the world which has overtaken God’s laws and holy establishment within her heart.  But it is now evident that the Church wishes to follow in Eve’s footsteps instead of listening to what Jesus wishes for her.

From the long list of denominations to the acceptance of sin inside the church buildings we (the church) have chosen the options of inequality instead of equality with the One True God.  Until we understand that Genesis 3:16 not only is talking about what was going to occur to Eve but that it is what is ongoing and occurring in the Church today, we are sunk and have no chance of turning our hearts back to God.  Jesus has done His part in trying His best to lure us back into His holy order but because we have allowed our spiritual eyes to be turned away, we have chosen the usurpation of the first Adam instead.  This is one of the reasons why Jesus is referred to as the 2^nd Adam, think about this for a bit.  Our spirits lie within our lives and thus link us to God on a continual basis, but if we continue to allow this usurpation to flourish in our lives the Church shall rapidly die and the existence of the world live.

These two verses in Genesis that God has shared with us in this topic should bring light into our hearts of exactly what is at stake.  Our physical lives are directly in relation to our spiritual.  This truth makes it impossible for us to serve two kingdoms at the same time.  One kingdom has to dominate and push the other back, both in the physical and in the spiritual.  God sees this concept and has shared it with us in this topic for He wants His children to understand that He loves us and that HE provides a perfect restoration plan that will guarantee eternal life, not the world. 

There will be billions who do not wish to give up their worldly status but there will be millions who open their spiritual eyes to what is going on around them but in order for that to occur, we must begin to do what Jesus commanded us to do.  Church, you are being tricked by a usurpation earthly ruler who cares nothing but your eternal division from God.  God sent His only Son to die for our sins to make this choice easy and for someone to send their son into an eternal battle for people thousands of years before He lived and after He lived, something very important must be at stake.  Church, think about what God is saying to us and open your hearts and eyes to His truth through His Word.  Stop being subject to men and live through the original creation status of God.

DLB