Newsletter Contents:

1.   Use the Anointing for What?by  Barbara Collins
2.  Revisiting Abuse by Pat Joyce
3.  Jael's Companyby Barbara Collins
4.  What's New on the Web  A list of new material posted on the GWTW Website.
5.  Empower International Ministries - ministry opportunity
6.  Directions for accessing GWTW Podcasts

Revisiting Abuse
By Pat Joyce

A few years ago the Lord spoke to us about addressing abuse.  We added a section to the website under Healing Ministry entitled "Dealing With Abuse" and featured it in a few newsletters.  However,  now seems to be the time to bring this topic to the forefront.  

The Lord has a deep concern for the plight of women worldwide. What customs, traditions, cultural practices are abusive to women?  What is happening in nations and cultures around the globe that affects the well being of women?   

So, how do we get all this information?  We are asking for your help.  Send us information, articles, links, books, podcasts . . . whatever.   We aren't sure how we'll use the information since the Lord has not given us an exact diagram.  However, we can take the first step and ask you for your input trusting that He will guide us from there. 

The media in the US and Canada have done little to press this issue.  In our neighboring country of Mexico, every year hundreds of women are raped, murdered and abandoned.  Where’s the outrage, Mexico?  What is the plight of the rest of the world?   

Around 700 people a day from all over the world access the God’s Word to Women website. It’s only a drop in the bucket, but the ripples can spread.  Pray  we will stay on God’s track that His favor may rest on this venture.  Contact us!

Original Art by Karen C. Davidenko

Jael's Company

By Barbara Collins


The Israelites had become fearful of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan because the Canaanite king, Jabin, not only possessed 900 chariots of iron but also had harshly oppressed them.  (Read Judges 4 and 5).  The Lord spoke to Deborah to call for Barak to go against Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army with its chariots and multitude.  Although Barak responded with the assurance that God would deliver Sisera into his hands, he told Deborah, “If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”  When men in the Body of Christ ask women to go up with them to battle the enemy, then (and only then) will our inheritance and possession truly bring us a life of victory corporately and individually.  Deborah reminded him that there would be no glory for him, for the Lord was going to sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. 

Deborah, then, went up with him and told him when the exact day came that the Lord would deliver Sisera to him.  Barak indeed fulfilled the word of the Lord, and all the army of Sisera was killed and not a man was left except Sisera himself.  Fleeing along on foot, Sisera went to Jael’s tent.  The battle that Deborah started, Jael would finish.

Won’t you pick up your tent peg and hammer and join Jael’s company?  A tent peg secures the dwelling place of God as it is hammered into the sand and cords are tied to it.  Yet, one of those tent pegs can be coupled with a hammer and used to defeat the enemy.  Can such a weapon bring to death the adversary of our souls?  Yes!  Sisera was more than the commander of the army of the Canaanites’ king.  He was a capturer of women and plunderer of garments (5:30).  When Jael killed Sisera, whose army had already died by the edge of the sword, the capturing of women and the stripping of their garments ended.   

The translation of 5:2 is controversial and difficult at best.  The Hebrew means “to loose, or to let go” That loosing is done by women because the subject of the sentence is in the feminine form.  The Cooke translation comes closest to the true meaning in the Hebrew—“For those whose hair was let flow loose. . .”  Since the glory of a woman is her hair, that hair must be loosed for the glory to flow into the place of victory.  Katharine Bushnell in her book, God’s Word to Women, translates, “For that freeing women freed Israel,” which makes sense in that it is only as women are freed in the Body of Christ that the Church will be free. 

When will the “captured women” of today be freed, and their stripped-away garments restored?  When will women, such as Deborah and Jael anointed of the Lord, be raised up?  Where are the women deliverers who will loose and make free the Body of Christ?  Where are the volunteers who will willingly offer themselves for this last of the battles before our Lord’s return?   

Jael is the one that received the honor of killing Sisera.  Should Barak have come looking for him, he would have come too late to capture him alive.  Jael had Deborah to sing of her—“Most blessed among women is Jael. . . She stretched her hand to the tent peg, her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; she pounded Sisera, she pierced his head, she split and struck through his temple.  At her feet. . . he fell dead.” (NKJV).   

“She pierced his head.”  Where are the Jaels who will challenge the mental gyrations of that male contingent in the Body of Christ who leave women in captivity, stripped of their garments of leadership, confined to teaching women and children, banished from pulpit ministry and eldership, and abandoned to a second-class level in the Body of Christ.   

Where are the women who will rise up from their ease?  No longer satisfied to be complacent daughters but who finally understand that the vintage will fail and the gathering shall not come until the Spirit is poured out from on high?  (Isaiah 32:9-15).  Will these daughters of the king rise up and lament the failed harvest, knowing that it will not succeed until the Spirit is poured forth and a new Pentecost shakes the earth?  Once again, sons AND DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY. . . and not only will the freshness of His Spirit come upon His menservants but upon His maidservants as well.  (Acts 2:17-18).  What happened among women in the first century SHALL happen again as other parts of the Joel prophecy come into fullness as well. 

Will you be a part of Jael’s Company, rising up as free women—women deliverers—with your hair (your glory) flowing loose, freeing the Body of Christ?

How will you respond? 

(Based on Lesson 80 of God’s Word to Women by Katharine Bushnell.) 

PODCAST REPORT

Those who have tried to access our podcasts know that we have had some serious difficulties getting them to work properly. We're still not satisfied, but here's a way you can download and/or listen without problems.

Follow these directions exactly:

1.  Open iTunes  (to download iTunes click here)

2.  Click on iTunes Store (left side of page)

3.  In the upper right hand corner you'll see a box with Search under it.  In the box type God's Word to Women and hit "ENTER" on your keyboard.

4.  Double click on the picture of the woman which will take you to the "God's Word to Women" listings.

5.  If you scroll over on the listing and double click on the little "i" in a grey circle you will get  information  on each podcast.  To LISTEN,  double click on the selected podcast.  To DOWNLOAD, double click on "GET EPISODE."  To SUBSCRIBE,  double click on "SUBSCRIBE." 

6.  If you subscribe the last episode and all future episodes will be available when you open iTunes and click on "PODCASTS" in the left column.  You won't have to go back through the preceding process again.

Errors are still present in the way the podcasts are posted.  Pat Joyce is not the artist and the description needs to be changed.   Any tech people out there? We'll keep working on it!

   
   

Original Art by Alice Whisman

 

Use the Anointing for What?

By Barbara Collins

 

A friend of GWTW, Adele Hebert from Canada, shared her excitement about a revelation she received regarding the woman who anointed Jesus.  Adele noticed that Jesus demonstrated to those angry men a new concept.  A woman had anointed Him.  To anoint another person such as Jesus had been reserved for prophets and priests in the Old Testament.  However, her loving act caused this woman to swing the door wide open for women in the New Testament and beyond.  As far as we know, this woman was the only one—male or female--who ever anointed Him while he was living.

 The audacity of this woman!  She did what the host, Simon the Pharisee, had failed to do.  Not only did she wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head and kiss His feet affectionately, but she also anointed His feet. Rather than using the accustomed, ordinary oil, the woman used a rare, expensive perfume and poured it on His feet.  She wiped them with her hair which caused the whole house to be filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  She knew exactly what she was doing.  Jesus knew that she knew. 

 In Luke’s account, we do not know who the woman was. It could have been Mary of Bethany.  This woman didn’t care what the crowd thought of her actions.  May we quietly and quickly do away with all of our “fear-of-man” responses.  After all, when Jesus spoke to His host, Simon the Pharisee, He told him he had provided No Water for His feet, which this woman had washed with her tears and wiped with the hair of her head.  A woman’s glory is her hair. , “But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her . . . (I. Corinthians 11:15a) I  The picture of the woman wiping His feet with the hair of her head is a portrayal of her laying her glory at His feet.

Likewise, Jesus’ host had provided No Oil, not even the ordinary kind while this woman had anointed His feet with very expensive perfume.  Simon also had No Kiss for Jesus either whereas this woman kissed His feet affectionately.  Why was she able to come so close despite the criticism of everyone else?  Why did she love Him so much that she became oblivious to the rejection all around her?  He forgave her sins, which were many.  Only because of that forgiveness, which she so freely accepted, was she then free to love much.  Are you free enough because of His forgiveness to love much? 

Are you continually crying out to Him for a fresh anointing, or are you wisely using what He has already given you by giving it back to Him?  You will find that the fresh anointing you were seeking will surely come. You are giving back to Him when you become an absolute pauper, poor in spirit, who has cast aside all self-dependence.  He loves us to come to Him with absolutely nothing but what His grace has provided. 

Are you still in a dither because the “church crowd” doesn’t accept you?  Are you wasting your time in controversy and conflict seeking an acceptance which may never come, or are you “wasting” your priceless and precious anointing on Him? 

Could it be that Simon, Jesus’ host, could provide no water, no kiss, and no oil because he had never found the freedom that comes with forgiveness—the freedom to love much?  Is some of the leprosy still clinging to you, preventing the forgiveness that eludes you?  Do you lack a portion of forgiveness that is yours that keeps you from loving Him so much that you don’t care what others think?  Are there churches with which you are acquainted represented by the Simons yet in our world? 

Mary of Bethany received a revelation of Jesus beyond the others, including His disciples.  She was the only one who understood the announcement He made three times of His coming death and resurrection.  Therefore, she invested the anointing with the deeper meaning of the preparation of His body for burial.  All four gospel accounts of a woman’s anointing of Jesus use the Greek word muron for the perfumed ointment called spikenard.  The Biblical spikenard, used in burial for the dead, also gave the added touch of elegance and extravagance because this costly perfume amounted to a year's wages.  In fact, Mary of Bethany was not among the women who went to the sepulchre to anoint Jesus’ body for His burial, for she had already anointed Him while He was still alive.   

She stirred the ire of the crowd and caused His disciples to become indignant because of her actions.  Why? Mary of Bethany had such a grasp on the question they asked, “For what purpose is all this waste? (Matthew 26:8) that she moved out in the revelation she received from Jesus completely unaffected by their total rejection of her actions.

Where are the Marys of Bethany?  Are you anointing Him daily in preparation, not for His burial as the first Mary of Bethany did during His First Advent, but for His soon-coming glory at the time of His Second Advent? 

Of no other woman or man does Jesus say that wherever the Gospel is preached in the whole world, Mary’s story will be told in her memory. You have the freedom and the example of the story of Mary of Bethany to set you free to anoint Him as lavishly as the agape love He gives you allows.  As a present-day Mary of Bethany, will you lay down your glory at His feet as you anoint Him to hasten the glory of the day of His Second Coming?   

 

Our friend Carrie Miles, who has written for this website and has given her manual--Male and Female in Christ--a printable workbook to be downloaded and used without charge, is part of a group called Empower International Ministries. 

Empower International Ministries works alongside existing ministries in developing and historically non-Christian countries.  Their purpose is to promote biblical teachings on the equal worth and potential for unity among all human beings regardless of gender, ethnicity, social, or family status.  EIM seeks to emulate the early Christian church in raising the respect, freedoms, and rights accorded women in freeing men from norms of worldly masculinity that lead to violence and despair.  In addition, they encourage equal regard for marriage and family happiness as well as the promotion of community values that eliminate sexual, ethnic, and other social antagonisms.  EIM’s motto is:   Working to release God’s power in the lives of women and men around the world.

This organization provides a number of ways to serve.  We encourage you to go to their website and look for yourself to see whether God is calling you to participate-- www.empowerinternational.org   

What’s New
on the Web

We want to call your attention an outstanding new article that has recently been put up on the website.  You can always find the latest by clicking on "What's New" found at the top of each page.

 

The Meaning of Head by Dr. Kluane Spake.  The traditional interpretation of headship in the English language means that man has authority over the woman. Is this true and if not, why not ? In an excellent article Dr. Kluane Spake traces the origins of the traditional position on headship and reveals the flaws and unbiblical nature of such teaching.

 

We encourage you to forward the newsletter to those you believe would be interested. 

top of page  I  home  I  about us   I   book  
 studies  I  healing  I  newsletter  I  current events  I  resources   I  contact