Women Teachers & Pastors in the Church?
by James & Janice Swinton
Many women do not believe the Apostle Paul nor most churches, men and women approve of women holding any leadership role over men in the church today. After examining these scriptures on the surface, it does appear, I say again, "does appear" that Paul didn’t approve of women holding leadership positions over men in the church, but to learn in silent from men. What do these scriptures mean? Did Paul feel women were inferior to men? Did Paul speak against women speaking in the church and women teaching men in the church?
Facts to Ponder
*1) The word “preach” means one who proclaims the gospel of God’s saving work through Christ (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, [Carmell, N.Y.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986]).
*2) The Bible says we have been given the ministry word of reconciliation [There isn’t any distinction here, both men and women in the Body of Christ] of reconciling people to Christ, to tell them that God isn’t imputing their trespasses unto them if they accept Christ’s sacrifice – shedding His blood on the Cross for them (II Cor.5: 17-18,19).
*3) In the Body of Christ there’s no distinction between males and females (Gal.3:27-28).
*4) Women in ministry in the Old Testament: (a) Mirian (prophetic office) Exodus 15:20; (b) Deborah (prophetess and judge in Israel) Judges 4:4; (c) Huldah, a contemporary of Isaiah (a prophetess) II Kings 22:14; (d) Jael, a contemporary of Deborah, raised up in the place of a man that she might put the cowardly Barak (Judges 4:8) to shame (Judges 4:18-19,20-21,22-23, 24); (e) Abigail, who saved David (I Samuel 25:2-38); (f) Queen Esther who was instrumental in saving the Jewish people of her time (Esther chapt. 3-9); (g) Ruth was the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:13-22).
*5) Women in ministry in the New Testament: (a) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary with her were told by an angel, Go and tell my disciples that I have risen from the dead, that He is going to Galilee and there they shall meet Him (Matt.28:1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8, 9-10); (b) Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9; Joel 2:28); (c) Aquila and Priscilla had a church home (I Cor.16:19) and they, both Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:26), taught the man Apollos (Acts 18:24-25,26).
(d) Phebe, a sister, was a servant of the church (Rom.16:1). The Greek word for servant is “diakonos”. It means deacon or minister.
Women Equality
Women are neither inferior nor superior to men: "...in the Lord neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God"(I Cor.11:11-12 NASB).
Women Speaking in the Church (I Cor.14:26-39)
“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church” (I Cor.14:34-35,36).
Paul did not condemn women to complete silence in church for he mentions some were able to prophesy (I Cor.11:5; cf. Acts 21:9).
Finally, Paul nails this falsehood about women not speaking in the church: “Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid [women] to speak with tongues [in the church]. Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Cor.14:39-40).
If Paul meant women aren’t allowed to speak in church, he would be contradicting the teaching that “we are all one in Christ, neither male nor female”(Gal. 3:28).
Women are no longer under the law because the law was fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are no longer under the law as we could never keep it and this is bondage. In Galatians 3:10, “But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s book of the Law. So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the Law.’”
Women Teaching in the Church“...woman...learn in silence...I [This was a personal opinion, not from the Lord] suffer not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (I Timothy 2: 11-12).”
Another example is I Cor. 7:25: “Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment....”.
Conclusion
Since women in this age have the same opportunity to learn the Word of God as men, God wants to use their God given talents in ministry, whether as deacons, teachers, preachers, etc.
Note: If this article has been of any help to you, please e-mail me [see "contact us" form]. I would appreciate it very much.
God bless you,
James
Looking Back in History:
Memoirs of Julia Foote
(A Black Woman Used Mighty of God)
by James Swinton
Birth, Family, and Early Childhood
Julia was born in Schenectady, New York in 1823. Her father was born a free man, but her mother was born a slave to a cruel master, who whipped her for not submitting to him sexually. When Julia was about eight years old, she recalled that because her father had family worship every Sunday morning, she developed a desire to learn to read the Bible. Even though her father hardly read himself, he taught her the alphabet. After her family moved to Albany, New York, they joined an African Methodist Church; here was where Julia began to learn about Christianity. But the world and its pleasures had a strong hold upon her. While Julia was attending a dance, she felt a hand pulling her to the floor. After a few steps, an inner voice kept saying to her, "Repent! Repent!" She immediately sat down; a crowd gathered around her; the present of an invisible force seemed to fill the room, and the dance broke up quietly.
Being Born Again
Julia became a Christian when she was 15 years old. As the minister was preaching from the text Revelation 14:3: “And they sung as it were a new song before the throne…,” a voice in Julia said, “Such a sinner as you can never sing the new song.” As Julia meditated on these words, she fell to the floor unconscious, and had to be carried home. Julia was unconscious for 20 hours, but while unconscious, these words flashed across her eyes:
“This is the new song - redeemed, redeemed!” Immediately she awakened and began singing, “Redeemed! Redeemed! Glory! Glory!” She read the new song: “But now, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called thee by your name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you; when you walk through fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame scorch you" (Isaiah 43:1-2).
Doubts Conversion
One week after Julia’s conversion, she began to doubt her conversion because some people told her she had to go to the alter and be prayed for by a minister. But God sent a minister to her and said: “My child, it is not the alter nor the minister that saves, but faith in the Lord Jesus, who died for all men.” He also read: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…"(Ephesians 2:8).
Education Needed
As Julia read and studied the Bible, she realized she needed an education. But she said the Holy Spirit helped quicken her mental faculties. She believed that if she was more educated, God would make he understand what she needed to overcome the desire to sin.
Sanctification
A year later, a man and his wife spoke at their church. They said they had taken all their fleshly desires to Jesus, that His blood had cleansed and sanctified them wholly to Him. Julia then told everyone she wanted to be sanctified.
A few weeks later, God sent an old lady to her, who read and explained many scriptures to her, such as John 17 (Christ last prayer), and I Corinthians 6:9-10,11; read especially verse 11 - “…you were washed…you were sanctified…you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Two days later, the glory of God revealed to her: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Marriage
A year later. Julia married George Foote; they moved to Boston, where Julia joined a local church. During her testimony, she spoke about her sanctification. After church services, many came to her asking questions about sanctification. Julia then realized “the great need of ordering all my words as in the presence of God, that I might be able to maintain that purity of lips and life which the gospel required. God is holy, and if I would enjoy constant communion with Him I must guard every avenue of my soul, and watch every thought of my heart and word of my tongue, that I may be blameless before Him in love.”
Called Into Ministry
As days past, Julia felt the impression that God wanted her to work in the vineyard; this led her to pray about the matter. As she was praying, an angel appeared before her with a scroll which read: “Thee have I chosen to preach My gospel without delay.” One night as Julia was seeking the Lord to remove this burden from her, an angel again appeared and said, “You are lost unless you obey God’s righteous commands.” Two weeks later, for the third time, an angel again spoke these words: “You have I chosen to go in My name and warn the people of their sins.” Julia immediately said, “I will go, God.”
Excommunicated
Julia soon faced opposition, but mostly from her local pastor. He did not only refuse to allow her to preach in the local church, but did not want her to be allowed to preach anywhere else in Boston. In regards to this matter, Julia held a meeting in her home with various members in the congregation. Because her pastor felt she had broken some church rule, Julia was excommunicated.
Julia later submitted her grievance to the Church Conference, held in Philadelphia. But her complaints were not even considered, but thrown under the table.
Preaching in Philadelphia
While at the church conference in Philadelphia, Julia met three other women who had been called to preach the gospel, and who also had met opposition mostly from men ministers. Julia proposed they rent a meeting hall for preaching the gospel. The preaching continued for eleven nights; the room was full each night. Even some of the ministers from the conference attended.
Preaching Circuit
After leaving Philadelphia, Julia preached for several months in her parents’ hometown of Binghamto, New York. In February 1845 Julia left for Ithaca, New York, where she preached for a short period. She preached also in many other towns: Osswego, Onondagay, Geneva, Rochester, Albany, and many others.
On June 18th, 1849, Julia was joined by Sister Ann Johnson, who became her traveling companion. They continued ministering the Word of God throughout the state of New York and other places. Sister Johnson remained a faithful worker with Julia until Sister Johnson’s death in 1856.
A Word To My Christian Sisters
“…you will not let what man say or do, keep you from doing the will of the Lord or using the gifts you have for the good of others. How much easier to bear the reproach of men than to live at a distance from God. Be not kept in bondage by those who say, ‘We suffer not a woman to teach,’ thus quoting Paul’s words (I Corinthians 14:14-34), but not rightly applying them.”
Looking Back in History: Memoirs of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw (A Black Woman Used Mighty of God)
By James Swinton
“Remember, dear brethren, that they who will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and numerous foolish and hurtful lusts, which will eventually drown them in perdition. Cease, therefore, from earthly accumulations; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Remember the love of money; it is [a] root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10). Love not the world; for the love of God is not in those who love the world.”
Birth, Family & Early Childhood
Ziloha was born in the state of Pennsylvania around 1790 to Christian parents. Her mother died when Ziloha was 12 years old. Her father then placed her under the care of Pierson and Rebecca Mitchel, who was Quakers, until she was eighteen. Zilpha said she miss the family devotions they had mornings and evenings where prayer and praise were offered to God daily. But in her new Quaker family, their religious devotions were held, if any, only in their mind. As a result, Zilpha soon fell into sin.
Born Again
But she said God rebuked her through a dream in which the Angel Gabriel said, “Jehovah was about to judge the world, and execute judgment on.” After months of prayer seeking God’s forgiveness for her sins, Zilpha said, “I distinctly saw the Lord Jesus approach me with open arms, and a most divine and heavenly smile upon His countenance. As He advanced toward me, I felt that His very looks spoke and said, ‘Thy prayer is accepted. I own thy name.’” From that moment, Zilpha never doubted God God’s love for her soul. This was the time of her total acceptance of God. And in the year 1808, Zilpha joined a local Methodist Episcopal Society.
Zilpha still felt the lost of her mother: “Oh, how often do I think of the advantage enjoyed by many young people, who are blessed with devout and godly parents, and of the little estimation they are held in by too many perverse and giddy children, who, instead of greatly prizing the grace conferred upon them, resent the kind restraints of family worship and attendance at the house of God.”
Marriage
In 1810, Zilpha married Joseph Elaw, who was not a Christian. Zilpha advised against such marriages: “Oh! Let me affectionately warn my dear unmarried sisters in Christ against being thus unequally yoked with an unbeliever. In general your lot would be better, if a millstone was hung about your necks, and you were drowned in the depths of the sea than that you should disobey the law of Jesus [Matthews 18:6], and plunge yourselves into all the sorrows, sin, and anomalies involved in a matrimonial alliance with an unbeliever.”
Sanctified - Called to Ministry
In 1817,, Zilpha, while attending a gospel camp-meeting, a voice spoke to her and said: “Now you are sanctified…I will show you what you must do.” Afterward, as she appeared not to be on earth, she prayed publicly. Many came to her requesting her to present their petitions to God, thus began her “ministry of prayer.” Before the end of the gospel camp-meeting, the Holy Spirit revealed to Zilpha that she was to be like another Phoebe [Romans 16:1-2, a colleague of Apostle Paul] who was to visit the sick. This revelation confirmed what her sister, after recovering from a near death experience, had stated a year previous. Her sister had said she had seen Jesus, had been in the society of the angels, and that an angel came and told her that Zilpha must preach the gospel.
Both of these revelations still did not move Zilpha to preach. But doing a severe sickness, Zilpha said a person appeared and stood by her bedside and said: “Be of good cheer, for you shall yet see another camp-meeting; and at that meeting you shall know the will of God concerning you.”
It was nearly one and an half years later before Zilpha attended the next camp-meeting. While at the camp-meeting, a voice said to her, “Go outside the tent while I speak with you.” Immediately Zilpha went outside of the tent and began to speak, as if involuntarily, exhorting the people. After Zilpha had finish speaking, she said, “I sat down and closed my eyes; and there appeared a light shinning round about me as well as within me, above the brightness of the sun; and out of that light, the same identical voice which had spoke to me on the bed of sickness many month before, spoke again to me on the camp ground, and said, ‘Now you know the will of God concerning you; you must preach the gospel; and you must travel far and wide.’ This is my commission for the work of the ministry, which I received, not from mortal man, but from the voice of an invisible and heavenly personage sent from God…my ministry was commenced in the midst of thousands who were both eye and ear witnesses of the fact.”
Closing Comment
These articles are examples of God using a women who went against the establishment. Mrs. Foote and Mrs. Elaw did not allow society to dictate or redirect their called to ministry. They obeyed God and preached the gospel, not accepting the doctrine of men, men who do not know how to rightly divide the Word of God (II Timothy 2:15 KJV). Yes, God has selected certain men and women by visitations and dreams in all ages, past1 and present.
All Christians have been given the commission of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18) - to tell mankind that God sent His Son to this earth to die for our sins (II Cor. 5: 19). You can say ‘yes’ to His offer by accepting His offer that He died in your place for your sins (I Corinthians 15:3), confessing with your mouth [to] the Lord that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9). Even if you believe God exists, you have to accept His Son, as well, to be acceptable to God. No man can come to the Father (can be saved) except through Christ (Acts 4:10,12).
Source: Andrews, William L. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington, Indiana
University Press, 1986
Footnote: How God selected individuals in the past
1 ) Noah (Genesis 6:9)
Abraham (Genesis 12:1)
Moses (Exodus 3:1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8,9-10)
Samuel (I Samuel chapter 3)
David (I Samuel 16:11,12,13)
Paul (Acts 9:1-2)
*2) The Bible says we have been given the ministry word of reconciliation [There isn’t any distinction here, both men and women in the Body of Christ] of reconciling people to Christ, to tell them that God isn’t imputing their trespasses unto them if they accept Christ’s sacrifice – shedding His blood on the Cross for them (II Cor.5: 17-18,19).
*3) In the Body of Christ there’s no distinction between males and females (Gal.3:27-28).
*4) Women in ministry in the Old Testament: (a) Mirian (prophetic office) Exodus 15:20; (b) Deborah (prophetess and judge in Israel) Judges 4:4; (c) Huldah, a contemporary of Isaiah (a prophetess) II Kings 22:14; (d) Jael, a contemporary of Deborah, raised up in the place of a man that she might put the cowardly Barak (Judges 4:8) to shame (Judges 4:18-19,20-21,22-23, 24); (e) Abigail, who saved David (I Samuel 25:2-38); (f) Queen Esther who was instrumental in saving the Jewish people of her time (Esther chapt. 3-9); (g) Ruth was the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:13-22).
*5) Women in ministry in the New Testament: (a) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary with her were told by an angel, Go and tell my disciples that I have risen from the dead, that He is going to Galilee and there they shall meet Him (Matt.28:1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8, 9-10); (b) Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9; Joel 2:28); (c) Aquila and Priscilla had a church home (I Cor.16:19) and they, both Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:26), taught the man Apollos (Acts 18:24-25,26).
(d) Phebe, a sister, was a servant of the church (Rom.16:1). The Greek word for servant is “diakonos”. It means deacon or minister.
Women Equality
Women are neither inferior nor superior to men: "...in the Lord neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God"(I Cor.11:11-12 NASB).
Women Speaking in the Church (I Cor.14:26-39)
“Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church” (I Cor.14:34-35,36).
Paul did not condemn women to complete silence in church for he mentions some were able to prophesy (I Cor.11:5; cf. Acts 21:9).
Finally, Paul nails this falsehood about women not speaking in the church: “Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid [women] to speak with tongues [in the church]. Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Cor.14:39-40).
If Paul meant women aren’t allowed to speak in church, he would be contradicting the teaching that “we are all one in Christ, neither male nor female”(Gal. 3:28).
Women are no longer under the law because the law was fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are no longer under the law as we could never keep it and this is bondage. In Galatians 3:10, “But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s book of the Law. So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the Law.’”
Women Teaching in the Church“...woman...learn in silence...I [This was a personal opinion, not from the Lord] suffer not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence (I Timothy 2: 11-12).”
Another example is I Cor. 7:25: “Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give judgment....”.
Conclusion
Since women in this age have the same opportunity to learn the Word of God as men, God wants to use their God given talents in ministry, whether as deacons, teachers, preachers, etc.
Note: If this article has been of any help to you, please e-mail me [see "contact us" form]. I would appreciate it very much.
God bless you,
James
Looking Back in History:
Memoirs of Julia Foote
(A Black Woman Used Mighty of God)
by James Swinton
Birth, Family, and Early Childhood
Julia was born in Schenectady, New York in 1823. Her father was born a free man, but her mother was born a slave to a cruel master, who whipped her for not submitting to him sexually. When Julia was about eight years old, she recalled that because her father had family worship every Sunday morning, she developed a desire to learn to read the Bible. Even though her father hardly read himself, he taught her the alphabet. After her family moved to Albany, New York, they joined an African Methodist Church; here was where Julia began to learn about Christianity. But the world and its pleasures had a strong hold upon her. While Julia was attending a dance, she felt a hand pulling her to the floor. After a few steps, an inner voice kept saying to her, "Repent! Repent!" She immediately sat down; a crowd gathered around her; the present of an invisible force seemed to fill the room, and the dance broke up quietly.
Being Born Again
Julia became a Christian when she was 15 years old. As the minister was preaching from the text Revelation 14:3: “And they sung as it were a new song before the throne…,” a voice in Julia said, “Such a sinner as you can never sing the new song.” As Julia meditated on these words, she fell to the floor unconscious, and had to be carried home. Julia was unconscious for 20 hours, but while unconscious, these words flashed across her eyes:
“This is the new song - redeemed, redeemed!” Immediately she awakened and began singing, “Redeemed! Redeemed! Glory! Glory!” She read the new song: “But now, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called thee by your name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you; when you walk through fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame scorch you" (Isaiah 43:1-2).
Doubts Conversion
One week after Julia’s conversion, she began to doubt her conversion because some people told her she had to go to the alter and be prayed for by a minister. But God sent a minister to her and said: “My child, it is not the alter nor the minister that saves, but faith in the Lord Jesus, who died for all men.” He also read: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…"(Ephesians 2:8).
Education Needed
As Julia read and studied the Bible, she realized she needed an education. But she said the Holy Spirit helped quicken her mental faculties. She believed that if she was more educated, God would make he understand what she needed to overcome the desire to sin.
Sanctification
A year later, a man and his wife spoke at their church. They said they had taken all their fleshly desires to Jesus, that His blood had cleansed and sanctified them wholly to Him. Julia then told everyone she wanted to be sanctified.
A few weeks later, God sent an old lady to her, who read and explained many scriptures to her, such as John 17 (Christ last prayer), and I Corinthians 6:9-10,11; read especially verse 11 - “…you were washed…you were sanctified…you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Two days later, the glory of God revealed to her: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Marriage
A year later. Julia married George Foote; they moved to Boston, where Julia joined a local church. During her testimony, she spoke about her sanctification. After church services, many came to her asking questions about sanctification. Julia then realized “the great need of ordering all my words as in the presence of God, that I might be able to maintain that purity of lips and life which the gospel required. God is holy, and if I would enjoy constant communion with Him I must guard every avenue of my soul, and watch every thought of my heart and word of my tongue, that I may be blameless before Him in love.”
Called Into Ministry
As days past, Julia felt the impression that God wanted her to work in the vineyard; this led her to pray about the matter. As she was praying, an angel appeared before her with a scroll which read: “Thee have I chosen to preach My gospel without delay.” One night as Julia was seeking the Lord to remove this burden from her, an angel again appeared and said, “You are lost unless you obey God’s righteous commands.” Two weeks later, for the third time, an angel again spoke these words: “You have I chosen to go in My name and warn the people of their sins.” Julia immediately said, “I will go, God.”
Excommunicated
Julia soon faced opposition, but mostly from her local pastor. He did not only refuse to allow her to preach in the local church, but did not want her to be allowed to preach anywhere else in Boston. In regards to this matter, Julia held a meeting in her home with various members in the congregation. Because her pastor felt she had broken some church rule, Julia was excommunicated.
Julia later submitted her grievance to the Church Conference, held in Philadelphia. But her complaints were not even considered, but thrown under the table.
Preaching in Philadelphia
While at the church conference in Philadelphia, Julia met three other women who had been called to preach the gospel, and who also had met opposition mostly from men ministers. Julia proposed they rent a meeting hall for preaching the gospel. The preaching continued for eleven nights; the room was full each night. Even some of the ministers from the conference attended.
Preaching Circuit
After leaving Philadelphia, Julia preached for several months in her parents’ hometown of Binghamto, New York. In February 1845 Julia left for Ithaca, New York, where she preached for a short period. She preached also in many other towns: Osswego, Onondagay, Geneva, Rochester, Albany, and many others.
On June 18th, 1849, Julia was joined by Sister Ann Johnson, who became her traveling companion. They continued ministering the Word of God throughout the state of New York and other places. Sister Johnson remained a faithful worker with Julia until Sister Johnson’s death in 1856.
A Word To My Christian Sisters
“…you will not let what man say or do, keep you from doing the will of the Lord or using the gifts you have for the good of others. How much easier to bear the reproach of men than to live at a distance from God. Be not kept in bondage by those who say, ‘We suffer not a woman to teach,’ thus quoting Paul’s words (I Corinthians 14:14-34), but not rightly applying them.”
Looking Back in History: Memoirs of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw (A Black Woman Used Mighty of God)
By James Swinton
“Remember, dear brethren, that they who will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and numerous foolish and hurtful lusts, which will eventually drown them in perdition. Cease, therefore, from earthly accumulations; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Remember the love of money; it is [a] root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10). Love not the world; for the love of God is not in those who love the world.”
Birth, Family & Early Childhood
Ziloha was born in the state of Pennsylvania around 1790 to Christian parents. Her mother died when Ziloha was 12 years old. Her father then placed her under the care of Pierson and Rebecca Mitchel, who was Quakers, until she was eighteen. Zilpha said she miss the family devotions they had mornings and evenings where prayer and praise were offered to God daily. But in her new Quaker family, their religious devotions were held, if any, only in their mind. As a result, Zilpha soon fell into sin.
Born Again
But she said God rebuked her through a dream in which the Angel Gabriel said, “Jehovah was about to judge the world, and execute judgment on.” After months of prayer seeking God’s forgiveness for her sins, Zilpha said, “I distinctly saw the Lord Jesus approach me with open arms, and a most divine and heavenly smile upon His countenance. As He advanced toward me, I felt that His very looks spoke and said, ‘Thy prayer is accepted. I own thy name.’” From that moment, Zilpha never doubted God God’s love for her soul. This was the time of her total acceptance of God. And in the year 1808, Zilpha joined a local Methodist Episcopal Society.
Zilpha still felt the lost of her mother: “Oh, how often do I think of the advantage enjoyed by many young people, who are blessed with devout and godly parents, and of the little estimation they are held in by too many perverse and giddy children, who, instead of greatly prizing the grace conferred upon them, resent the kind restraints of family worship and attendance at the house of God.”
Marriage
In 1810, Zilpha married Joseph Elaw, who was not a Christian. Zilpha advised against such marriages: “Oh! Let me affectionately warn my dear unmarried sisters in Christ against being thus unequally yoked with an unbeliever. In general your lot would be better, if a millstone was hung about your necks, and you were drowned in the depths of the sea than that you should disobey the law of Jesus [Matthews 18:6], and plunge yourselves into all the sorrows, sin, and anomalies involved in a matrimonial alliance with an unbeliever.”
Sanctified - Called to Ministry
In 1817,, Zilpha, while attending a gospel camp-meeting, a voice spoke to her and said: “Now you are sanctified…I will show you what you must do.” Afterward, as she appeared not to be on earth, she prayed publicly. Many came to her requesting her to present their petitions to God, thus began her “ministry of prayer.” Before the end of the gospel camp-meeting, the Holy Spirit revealed to Zilpha that she was to be like another Phoebe [Romans 16:1-2, a colleague of Apostle Paul] who was to visit the sick. This revelation confirmed what her sister, after recovering from a near death experience, had stated a year previous. Her sister had said she had seen Jesus, had been in the society of the angels, and that an angel came and told her that Zilpha must preach the gospel.
Both of these revelations still did not move Zilpha to preach. But doing a severe sickness, Zilpha said a person appeared and stood by her bedside and said: “Be of good cheer, for you shall yet see another camp-meeting; and at that meeting you shall know the will of God concerning you.”
It was nearly one and an half years later before Zilpha attended the next camp-meeting. While at the camp-meeting, a voice said to her, “Go outside the tent while I speak with you.” Immediately Zilpha went outside of the tent and began to speak, as if involuntarily, exhorting the people. After Zilpha had finish speaking, she said, “I sat down and closed my eyes; and there appeared a light shinning round about me as well as within me, above the brightness of the sun; and out of that light, the same identical voice which had spoke to me on the bed of sickness many month before, spoke again to me on the camp ground, and said, ‘Now you know the will of God concerning you; you must preach the gospel; and you must travel far and wide.’ This is my commission for the work of the ministry, which I received, not from mortal man, but from the voice of an invisible and heavenly personage sent from God…my ministry was commenced in the midst of thousands who were both eye and ear witnesses of the fact.”
Closing Comment
These articles are examples of God using a women who went against the establishment. Mrs. Foote and Mrs. Elaw did not allow society to dictate or redirect their called to ministry. They obeyed God and preached the gospel, not accepting the doctrine of men, men who do not know how to rightly divide the Word of God (II Timothy 2:15 KJV). Yes, God has selected certain men and women by visitations and dreams in all ages, past1 and present.
All Christians have been given the commission of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18) - to tell mankind that God sent His Son to this earth to die for our sins (II Cor. 5: 19). You can say ‘yes’ to His offer by accepting His offer that He died in your place for your sins (I Corinthians 15:3), confessing with your mouth [to] the Lord that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9). Even if you believe God exists, you have to accept His Son, as well, to be acceptable to God. No man can come to the Father (can be saved) except through Christ (Acts 4:10,12).
Source: Andrews, William L. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women’s Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington, Indiana
University Press, 1986
Footnote: How God selected individuals in the past
1 ) Noah (Genesis 6:9)
Abraham (Genesis 12:1)
Moses (Exodus 3:1-2,3-4,5-6,7-8,9-10)
Samuel (I Samuel chapter 3)
David (I Samuel 16:11,12,13)
Paul (Acts 9:1-2)
