The Curse On the Woman
CONT., page 2
TESTIMONIES
It is most interesting how truth can cause such opposite responses. This was most certainly the case with the publication of the The Curse On the Woman. First, here was the response from a woman who has repeatedly placed herself in the position of wanting to teach and correct me. She had a very brief and pointed reply:
TAKE ME OFF YOUR LIST !!!
On the other hand, here is the response from two other women. The first is one who has studied Bride truths for some time now, though initially could not grasp them but kept coming back. Her response is what these teachings regarding the woman are all about—the hopes of producing good fruits in people’s lives, in establishing righteousness and wholesomeness. In clear contrast to the other lady, she replied:
As always, this writing is amazing. Within the last couple of months I have been working on submitting to all things concerning my husband, more so than ever realizing that it is the smallest of things that become most valuable in helping to submit to the "big things." Actually, the big things become quite natural now without even a second thought on how to do so. It has also made me take one giant step backward to review my heart’s only desire throughout my entire life to be a godly wife, and realized it cannot be a partial submissiveness but a complete giving of myself in order to truly become one flesh with him. This writing has not only confirmed what I have made my number one priority to achieve in this life, but again as always gives me solid guidance in how to do so.
As always, I thank you again and again and again.
I replied to her and asked if I could share her comments with others. She was most glad for this, adding this wonderful and affirming truth and encouragement:
You may absolutely share my response. I pray other woman receive the blessing rather than the curse. Being a woman, I myself would much rather receive the blessing, and cannot understand why any woman would choose the curse by not staying in our place, as you clearly point out. I fully understand humility as you shared straight from the Scriptures, and again don't understand what is so terrible about that. So to choose to be equal and/or greater and pay such a horrific price? Mind boggling!
She then replied once again with such wonderful revealing, exemplary, and certainly profound truth:
I'm sorry, I have to add one more thing that I think all women should know. In walking this submissive walk much more seriously of recent, I found that it was not about handing over my "power" to my husband where it would be abused by him. Actually, quite the opposite has happened. He now has a deep appreciation for me, a respect I did not anticipate, and a love that has grown so deep. There are no other words to describe it but as godly and true. I wake up every morning actually excited to do more for him, because what I am feeling I so want to share with him. Bottom line, I have found a great respect and honor for the man's proper place, and there truly is no blessing outside of this governmental order. Humility should first come with realizing Yahweh has our best interest in mind. Why would we fight Him or think we are any wiser? In fact you are 100% right—it's as bad as usurping the place of the Almighty, and is exactly what we do when we usurp the place of the man!
Her reply is indeed filled with incredible truth and is well worth every woman reading, and most certainly practicing. It is the way of Yahweh God. The woman has the greatest opportunity in the world to identify with Yahshua and be pleasing not only to her husband but to the Father as well, following in the ways of Yahshua. Oh what a privilege and opportunity for reward that every woman possesses! As this lady so well pointed out, set forth before every woman are the blessing and the curse. As stated in Deuteronomy 30:19, so is the choice: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.”
Ladies, choose life, ... not the curse!
Here is the second lady’s reply. She is married to an alcoholic husband, and others have encouraged her to leave him. But she is not going to, which I have supported and encouraged. Here she refers to being “a ‘savior’ and meet Yahshua upon the Holy Mountain” by keeping her place as a wife and making sacrifices in supporting her husband. What she is referring to here is of course addressed in The Curse On the Woman and comes from Obadiah 1:21, which literally reads: “The saviors [plural] will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.” I have encouraged her to become a “savior” to her husband by serving and honoring him, even as it is written in 1 Peter 3:1-2. We all have this opportunity of laying our life down for others, even as we are instructed and given the example in the Savior. Our greatest identification with Yahshua is in sacrificing our life for the sake of others; and we have that opportunity all the time, in one form or another, and to one degree or another. If we are indeed a follower of Yahshua, our life will be a living sacrifice for others.
I read and spiritually digested your new article, The Curse On the Woman. It is truly amazing to me the church has never realized these important links in Scripture. They are so very essential to kingdom living. I will most certainly ask for the Holy Spirit's strength to "be perfect" and apply them to my marriage.
Gary, it is so exciting that I can become a "savior" and meet Yahshua upon the Holy Mountain by keeping my place as a wife and making sacrifices in the way of supporting my husband. It is not easy to shut out the cries of the "women of the world" who have it so very wrong.
In the past two years I have lost two of my very best friends, Beth and JoAnn. Let me tell you about each of them. My friend Beth was 65. She married young and had two girls. When the girls were in their early teens, Beth's husband committed adultery with her best friend. Then he began to drink, and finally left the home. Beth was 30 when this happened. Although Beth and her husband remained separated, she refused to get a divorce. She made a vow before God, and meant at all costs to keep true to it. Five years later, her husband’s relationship fell through. He remained single, struggling with his alcoholism and trying to forgive himself for the hurt he caused Beth and his two children. Beth encouraged him, though it was long distance. For over 30 years she turned down possible relationships, and struggled to financially make it on her own and to successfully raise her two girls, which she did. She forgave him. At her funeral, her husband came forth to speak. He said if it had not been for Beth's devotion, encouragement, and love, he would have lost all hope. Although they never got back together, she had remained faithful to him. Some of her friends thought she was nuts not to have divorced her husband, but Beth was determined to keep her spoken vow. She died a virtuous wife, still fully devoted to her husband over thirty years after the infidelity.
My friend JoAnn was a "manly, worldly" woman of absolute compromise. After devoting her life to doing a man's career, she met Bob at work. They married, and JoAnn was the one who "wore the pants." She made it very clear to Bob that she would run the house. And she did. But at a high cost! Her life was draining away with each high paycheck. Each weekend she bought costly supplies for art, knitting, musical instruments, and things her inward woman was calling her to do. The sad thing was she never had time to do any of it, due to her 50-hour-a-week career, with training on the weekends. She and Bob had a six-bedroom house (just the two of them) filled to overflowing with things, things, and more things like expensive knitting machines, looms, crafts, woodwork, etc. You could hardly walk around in their home. Soon, JoAnn realized she was compromising her heart. She was losing control. But, it was too late. She developed a tumor on her ovary. It grew and grew and grew.
JoAnn went to so-called "new age witch doctors" who gave her herbs, and she refused to remove the tumor, as she "wanted to have control over it." After all, her career had told her that, yes, she was in control. But finally, after four years of bleeding and growing, the tumor morphed into cancer. When they finally removed it the cancer had spread, and three days later JoAnn was dead. Her husband, Bob, was left with not knowing what to do with all her "stuff." He became so overwhelmed that he just left. Nobody knows where he is. What a sad end for both of them.
I loved both of my friends very much. They taught me a lot. I saw Beth's steadfast devotion; one that the world could never appreciate. I saw JoAnn compromise her heart as a woman who wanted to stay home and knit, crochet, work with yarn, do art, etc. But she was a slave to her job, wearing pants and donning a man's haircut. She even wore man's shoes! She tried to run the house and marriage, but in the end ran herself to her own death; and nobody, not even I, could save her. Each time I told her to have the tumor taken out, her reply was always the same: "I am in control over it." But the tumor ended her life.
Gary, as I read your article I thought about these two women who were dear to my heart. I think they were both strong women, but one was strong in the wrong way, as the roles were all mixed up. And look what the final cost was—JoAnn's very life. Beth was the "hero," and I am sure she is a savior who will show up on Mt. Zion. She sacrificed much by staying true to her vow and being supportive to an impossible man, but she died in virtue. She was meek and lead the life of a poor woman, but happy in her little abode. People called her a "radiant woman," and this she was, until a sudden stroke took her life in an instant.
Well, I just wanted to share this with you, as my heart remembered these two friends who are no longer with me. I reflected upon both while reading your article.
I am most grateful for these comments. Very interestingly and encouraging, the more I address this matter regarding the woman, the more contact I receive from women affirming this truth. Why should I be surprised? There are many women like these two ladies “in whose heart are the highways to Zion” (Psalm 84:5).
If you would like to share an encouraging story as a woman, or about a woman, send it to me. I will consider publishing it as well for others to read. Send your story/testimony to me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
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