Women can pastor, and teach men, in the Ideal Church sayth the Lord.
God started with Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:16 Unto the Woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conceptions; in sorrow, thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
In the old covenant, he is to rule by example as well, not oppression. For our purposes here I want to point out that it is to the husband not every other man as well. God first, then husband, if married, that is what the Holy Spirit and the Bible teaches; not men in general ruling over women in general. Did you also know that in Genesis 3:16 the Lord gave me revelation that her name was Woman, and that he was specifically talking to her, not a generalization. He simply was putting a marriage back together, a marriage counselor if you will. God also shows in Acts that a woman following her man without staying true to God can lead to death, as in the story of the husband and wife lying about their tithe and being judged separately.
How you may ask did society get so far off course from the beginning of mankind. Sin is the short answer. First God created man. The first man was named Adam. He needed a help mate, none of the animals were sufficient. So God created Eve, but her name wasn't Eve at first; Adam first called her Woman, her name was Woman. Man, or in this case Adam, had a responsibility to educate and protect since he was the first created. He was supposed to lead by example, and love her. This is the proper order of things, for her to be equal in the garden as co-care taker. However over time this position was perverted, and man started to oppress women. This was not of God. God lets us know as we go through the Bible that He always intended to bring forth an only Begotten Son through Eve's line. He doesn't say specifically in Genesis to Adam or Eve, but Eve does apparently think that Cain was the answer, the Christ. As we go through the Bible from front to back, not jumping to what we want to here, we can see the female role wasn't meant for all time to be eliminated from spiritual leadership and/or importance.
It is just that all first-born sons or just any sons were pointing to Christ. The Levites and priest system in Jewish customs was also set up this way. You will find God even in the old covenant making exceptions, how much more can He do in the "New Covenant? It even allows for Aaron's daughters to eat of some of the sacrifices in Numbers chapter 18; they couldn’t eat of most of the sacrifices, it only mentions the sons of Aaron for those. This is because the sons as well as the sacrifice pointed toward Christ the only Begotten Son of God. However, God is specific in saying daughters in this chapter for the reason of the "new" covenant. He is considering them priests.
All sons pointed to the Messiah as they were the sons of the first Adam. This is why sons usually got the land and or inheritance, priesthood, etc. However, let us not forget the fact that a lot of what man is shown to do in the Bible and history is not of God's will. Like slavery the Bible shows God using it, helping with servant and master relations; but also, denouncing it. For it doesn't show love. As mentioned previously this is not for men to oppress women. Even in the strict "old" covenant however, there were exceptions. In Numbers 26:33 and 27:1-7 mention daughters getting an inheritance.
Num. 26:33 And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but DAUGHTERS: and the names of the DAUGHTERS of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
The promise of this inheritance being fulfilled is in Numbers 36:2-11. As you can see God is not afraid to put women in charge of something.
All the old way was to point to Christ the only Begotten Son of God. A type and shadow of the new way is Deborah. Given in the old covenant no less, God chose Deborah to be a pastor over a mega church for 40 years. Even though at least two male possibilities were there for God's anointing, this prophetess was risen up by God. This eliminates the notion that if a man or more qualified man or just a qualified man is there for God to anoint that the woman must step aside, not according to God. God is obviously pointing to something bigger down the road that He is preparing for.
Who was those two men you may ask? Well one was Barak. Now I know that you will argue that he was weak in faith, and that disqualifies him. However, God saw in him a great leader that is why he is called to lead the army in the first place; even lifted up as such in the victory song. God's anointing could do the rest; He could always help grow his faith before or after said anointing as well. The other man available may surprise some who like to preach and mix wrongfully the church structure and the married structure. Deborah was married. God did not choose her husband, that is against God's standard according to many male spiritual guides. You might say, he might have been weak in faith like Barak. Doesn't matter as much with her husband as with Barak; for one he, Lapidoth, was one with her. Making him like a prophet due to his connection with her, a prophetess. He was already with her, unlike Barak, which was probably already helping his faith. God's anointing could have handled the rest.
This is why in Acts 2:17 He says His daughters will prophesy. He continued to fulfill this in Acts 21:9 and beyond: "and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which prophesy". No, you don't have to be a virgin, stop being legalistic. The Bible teaches that a prophet or prophetess is only subject to God and no other man when comes to spiritual teaching and authority. Unless they are helpers in someone’s ministry, then they have some responsibility in helping that person run it as God guides that other person. Only in that instance is any prophet or prophetess under subjection of someone else. We all have our own personal ministry to do and responsible for, in other words no prophetess must seek out and be subject under any male authority to speak God's word or know when and what to speak. Only Christ is the head of the Church. Yes, He is still alive.
Even in marriage the woman was to be treated with respect and love. The Lord says, "if you look on a woman and lust after her you commit adultery". This is not a new law; God was bringing back divorce to His standard of behavior. Likewise you can say, "If you look upon your wife and hate her, you committed murder"; you are not to abuse your wife. This brings it back to sin against God. Not talking just getting mad at your wife justifying divorce; I am talking about abuse on your spouse. Likewise I am talking how you treat women in general. Look at Deuteronomy 22:13-18:
"13 If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid:
15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 16 And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;". I think I would prefer divorce.
Since I have described mostly Old Testament views of how God sees women, and even touched a little on the New Testament, then now let's look at the New Testament. Let's go over the pattern and the New Testament as God reveals his pattern in view on women.
Paul in one of his letters teaches us, encourages us, to live not of this world even though we would be in it, just don't be of it. So, what world are we of? We're not of this world but of the next world. Jesus tells us that in the next life we will not be given unto marriage, but we will be made like unto the angels. He says that in this life we should live all our life toward the Lord, in celibacy and if you cannot handle the celibacy to do it infidelity. He said for God made us both male and female for marriage for this reason. So, this means that in the afterlife in our new bodies we will not be male nor female. And that is the way it is in the ideal church; no male or female, master or slave, Jews or Gentiles.
Where does it talk about the next life as pertains to marriage: Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25, Luke 20:34 through 38: "34 And Jesus answering said unto them, “The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.
Angels can't die like we can, there is a hint there about why humanity was created. Think about it. Maybe that's for another book.
At any rate, we are not given into marriage in the resurrection. Jesus at another time would say the reason for marriage is between male and female because it would be hard for some in the flesh to be in celibacy. God gave me Revelation that any spiritual being would find it difficult in the flesh and being celibate. This is why he created them male and female in the first place.
