Prophetic Anointing and the Headcovering in First Corinthians Eleven
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Prophetic Anointing and the Headcovering in First Corinthians Eleven
Copyright © March 2011 Douglas W. Jerving.
All Rights Reserved.
God still has his prophets, and some times they are prophetesses. The New Testament teaches that a
woman should not be a teacher in the church, unless she is teaching the younger women how to obey
Christ in the church. But the NT also clearly allows for the ministry of prophet amongst the women,
who may have admonitions for the male leadership, whether they like it or not.
When greater magistrates fail their duties to call the body of believers to holiness, God often
choses the lesser magistrates to do that job. That is exactly the pattern we see in the OT which
is continued in the NT. The priesthood and kings were institutions under Mosaic law. The prophets
were always God's spokesmen from outside those institutions. Without the voice from outside the
institution the religion always drifted towards the status quo. The prophets called from without
to the people back to holiness.
The voice of the prophet was never determined by his or her status quo personna within the
community of the faithful. Often times, the prophet is one who is forced outside of the community
by those within it, even to the grief and hardship of the prophet. So Jeremiah is the weeping
prophet, and even Jesus is one who wept over an unrepentent Jerusalem.
True, women are not called to rolls of pastor/teacher over the church as a whole. But no NT passage
teaches that women cannot operate as prophets. The prophet is even a five-fold ministry ordained of
God and the pastoral epistles of Paul do not deny this, while the book of Acts written by Paul's
biographer Luke, confirms it.
Pauline doctrine in First Corinthians clearly states that a woman under submission to her husband
and the church should wear a sign, or symbol that represents her submission to the authority of
Christ when when she prays or prophesies publi...cly. The sign indicates that her prophetic authority
to speak publicly to the congregation comes from Christ Himself, to Whom she is in submission. In
other words, the headcovering that a publicly speaking woman wears bears witness to her submission
and yieldedness to God and the authorities in the church that her very message may challenge.
By it's very nature, the headcovering upon the woman is an evident testimony of her submission to God,
for what woman would do so out of a lack of submission unless it was a mere religious tradition?
Religious tradition would be obvious if ...the woman legalistically demanded that all women follow
her example or receive condemnation. But where there is no such condemnation of other women who do
not wear a headcovering, is not the woman displaying her own personal conviction before God? Should
she be condemned or allowed to walk in what God has called her to do?
Not every woman should wear the headcovering. Not even every woman who prays or prophesies in the
church should wear the headcovering. That would be legalism because it demands something of her that
is not a conviction of the heart before God. Paul's teaching on this subject is certainly difficult
for modern interpreters. But that does not mean that the church should not allow the free grace of
God to convince one woman to wear and another that she does not need to wear a cover. That is between
the woman and God.
It seems that Paul is implying a prophetic anointing is part of the ministry of the woman who publicly
speaks. If she speaks publicly, she should bear witness to her submission to authority in her family
and in the church. She bears witness... to the authorities over her even though what she speaks may
challenge and correct them, in the role of a lesser magistrate. She recognizes the authority of the
angels, or leaders. The Greek for angel and messenger is the same. She recognizes the messengers that
God has set over the congregation as God's ministers, be they pastors or even her own husband.
As such, she speaks as prophet, the authority outside of the institution of kings and priests, and
because of her submission to them, she has every right to speak out in challenge to the institutionalized
mechanisms that hinder the growth of the Kingdom of God. Lesser magistrate, yes, but the authority of
the whole Kingdom stands behind her when she speaks in humble submission to Christ. The prophet's voice
is as vital to the growth of the Church as that of the pastor and teacher.
The headcovering on a woman of faith in submission to God is a testimony to the whole church that her
word is true. She is a faithful woman bearing faithful witness to Christ without selfish or unclean
motives.
The headcovering is a sign of her prophetic calling to stand in the same place as the prophets of times
past. It says to all, I am a woman under authority, yet I have the word of the LORD. In essence, it says
"The word I bring to you is fro...m your God and you must heed it or you will not experience the full
measure of what God wants for you." Her headcovering is between her and God, however you judge it. It
challenges the church to hear her words, and receive them as they speak the message of Christ. It says
"I am a prophet of the LORD your God. Hear ye Him."
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Doug Jerving is the publisher of the NewEdisonGazette.com. You may contact him at
dje@newedisongazette.com.
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