mentoring letter 34

8/4/2019 Mentoring Letter 34

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WHAT IS TRUE SUBMISSION?

Whenever bible thumpers speak on submission,they quote the scripture about women being

submissive to their husbands. With this scriptureas a backdrop, to be submissive is then subtlelydefined as being "weak" as women of Paul's daywere considered "the weaker sex." It thenfollows that submission is an expression ofquietness or of "having a quiet spirit." Quietnessis then equated with passivity. Passivity is beingmeely mouthed and evasive of facing the truthabout self and others--- head on--- and dealing

with it.

My history is that because I have a rather strong

masculine side, men have taken it uponthemselves to try to bring me down, kinda likethat Shakespearan play, the Taming of the

Shrew. Since I was not only a brain but also abeauty, men found it particularly challenging tosee if they could break me, as if I was some kindof wild stallion.

When I consider this kind of female "breaking,"I am reminded of the movie, "the Color Purple."Everytime I watch the movie, there is no side ofCelie's character or ways that I can identify with-

--at all. Not until she picked up that knife and putit to "Mistah's" throat, did I see a glimpse of a"former Pam."

Stuck in a bad marriage where her husband

treats her as an unworthy servant, Celie'ssubmission caused her to be a passive victim.Considering it safer to submit to an unholy

authority rather than to fight and risk notsurviving, Celie spends decades being a doormat.She doesn't find her own strength until she faces

the truth---that "Mr." intentionally separated her

from her beloved sister. Played by a dominatepersonality like Whoopie Goldberg, Whoopie did

an excellent acting performance for there isnothing of Celie in the real life Whoopie.

I personally identify with Shug Avery and withOprah's character, Sophia. Like Shug, I havebeen free, black and over 21 for a long time and

pamsheppard.com

CLICK THE CHURCHPEW BELOW TOWATCH A SHORTVIDEO CLIP ON ASUMMARY OF THEHISTORY OF THECHURCH: FROM

EPHESUS TOLAODICEA.


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like Sophia , I have struggled for decades tokeep my freedom and my independence. Shug

was larger than life but Sophia is about honesty.When Sophia struggles, she says so. When she'shurt, she goes to the person and lets them

know. So in that sense, Sophia is submissive as

she seeks restoration through personalconfrontation. However, when she is angry, she

retaliated aggressively---a trait that caused heryears of bondage wherein she was almost brokenby those who simply could not deal with her

honesty. A warning to all the Sophia's out there.Be angry, but sin not.

The reality is that the devil has been using mento break the spirit of strong and weak women ofevery race and culture for centuries. This very

pattern began in my life in the 60s, a realtumultuous time for me. Some broke my hearttemporarily, but they could not break my spirit,even when I was not saved and in the world.Once Jesus saved me in 1977, the enemycontinued using men who professed to beChristian, to try and bring me down. Two of

them were husbands. The Lord revealed to methat they were sent by the enemy to destroy me.My escape is filled with the supernatural

intervention of God Almighty. So the men whoclaimed they were Christian were also un-

successful at "breaking me".

My understanding of humility is that it is theopposite of pride. A humble person can admit to

making mistakes. A humble person is alsoobedient and submissive. To be submissive is toprioritize the needs of others over self

indulgence. But most of all, a humble person isobedient to the leadings and revelations of theHoly Ghost. When God is about to destroy

something, don't be like Lot's wife, and look backwith longing in your eyes. When you come out of

Egypt or Sodom, don't look back.

The jewels that I offer as a senior citizen andas an elder in Christwhether straight outtaught or simply sharedis this. What I have ofvalue to the maturing Body of Christ is myfailures. My failures are my most precious gift.One of my failures has been submitting to the


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wrong people. Recently, the Lord has impressedit upon my heart not to have any fellowship with

people that I pastored who were members oraffiliates of my last church. Three of them remainin the periphery of my life. I took steps this

week to obey God on this. The fear of the Lord is

upon me and so the one I must submit to is Him.

Below you will find a statement from a powerfulwoman of God who I only know on the postas "Barb." Here are her insightful words. My

thought is "why try to summarize, edit or re-write the words of a sister in Christ that aresimply soooo good on their own.

BARB ON SUBMISSIONI am 70 years old now and grew up within a church that

taught the wrong kind of submission of wives to theirhusbands. I also have 7 sisters and a mother who was themore pronounced authority figure within our home. You canimagine how that worked in my life as we approached the

feminist issues that arrived in the early 70s!

Now that doesnt mean that we didnt respect our father(poor guy 8 daughters!) or basicly consider him to be thefamily breadwinner. But it did cause some discomforts andproblems for me when I married 48 years ago andattempted to put the wrong submission rules in place, as Iwas a good Christian young woman and eventually motherand wanted to live by the precepts Id been taught in thechurch (and I wanted to have a marriage different from myparents)

Sooooo, instead of cultivating the partnershp in ourmarriage that we have now I got myself lost in living a lifethat was role playing. Not only was I very unhappy, butbecame confused when I felt the Lord moving me into aplace of leadershp where the abortion issue was beginningto surface in the late 60s, early 70s. I had an anointing to dowhat I eventually did as a state leader but my younghusband, in his so called god-given authority--- becameconfrontational and spent many a moment attempting to


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control that, as I moved into a type of authority politicallywith our state legislature and became a public figure,debating public authorities, public speaking across the state,and co-managing a state office.

It caused no small amount of grief to try to walk within the

boundaries Id established within our home while alsoattempting to do what I knew in my heart I was supposed tobe doing. In prayer, though, the Lord assured me that I wasdoing what I was called to do and I was counseled to notworry about my husband, to submit certain things to him (asmy partner), like travel arrangements, babysittingarrangements, etc., but to trust the Lord in dealing with oursituation.

Guess what??? It all worked out beautifully. After 47 years,we can say that we complement one another where ourstrengths and weaknesses are concerned. Men and women

have God-built instincts within us men being the protectorsand builders and women basicly being the nurturers andhomemakers. When those needs are met, in love, thenGods peace envelops a relationship.

That is the order of things. What I think Pam is referring to iswhat I found myself involved in way back when I was 29years old, and in a world that really did consider men to be adominating force. Well, I think God kind of blew that issueright out of the water. Perhaps, the devil was used to do it(feminism and abortion reform) but, we needed to moveaway from that old role playing concept. Pretending to

be what we are not is not only manipulative, but it isunhealthy.

As with many, many issues right now as to what is right orwrong in Gods eyes, I think we need to daily submitourselves to God and trust Him to work out the details ineverything. The divorce rate is skyrocketing; children arebeing raised in single parent homes. So much is out of orderthese days that our emphasis on some of these things isust not necessary or pertinent. As with all created beings,we each of us are created with certain abilities, talents,temperaments and personalities. God fits us into our lives

and relationships if we let Him. What drives one doesntdrive another, eh?

Domination is the key word. Domination is evil and whereverone sees that going on in a persons life or ministry you willsurely find the seeds of rebellion which is like witchcraft(spirit of control).

What I think we are referring to in our dialogue is how the


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godly kind of submission that was ordained for allbelievers toward one anotherhas been misconstrued andmisunderstood. God created women to be helpmates andpartners to men, not subordinates. Submitting to authoritycovers a lot of territory and refers to men as well aswomen.

There are many instances in scripture where women werecalled for leadership at certain times in history (Deborah,Esther, etc.). I believe we must use the scriptures as aguide book, not a rule book, and let the Holy Spirit bringrevelation to us as He works out the details of our lives. Toooften it is used as a rule book and the meaning takenout of context.

Only God knows the heart of another and His Spirit blowswhere it wants to. I believe, especially at this time in history,we must turn away from rules weve been taught and get

real close to our Messiah personally who is doing a newthing right now.

If a mistake is made, then be quick to repent and get backon the right track. We now live in that time prophecied forthe end of end times: people have become lovers of self.We must beware of the tendency to promote self, andyet at the same time be willing to be used, in whatevercapacity God would use us.

MY THOUGHTS OF THE EVENTS OF THIS WEEKApril 27th to May 2, 2011

My life changed on September 11, 2001. As I watched thesecond tower fall from my TV set, I knew we were at "theend." The number 911 became very significant to me. Thelate Dave Wilkerson, the founding pastor of the TimesSquare Church, played a key role in the events of 911. Firstof all, he predicted it, ELEVEN years before the towers fell.It is written in one of his books and in several of his writtensermons. On Sept. 10, 2001, Dave and the members ofthe TS church had a premonition that "something was up."


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So they began to make hundreds of sandwiches that weresoarly needed for the police, firefighters and other rescuersthe next historical day. So for Dave to have died on Weds.April 27th, just 4 days BEFORE the May 1st take down ofOsama Bin Laden, is "very telling." As Moses was notallowed to enter into the promise land because of a last

moment blunder, I believe that something similiar transpiredfor Pastor Dave. He would have been the minister at thecenter of all of the victory celebrations in NYC. Just 4 days!Wow!

So what was Dave's blunder? Of course, this is myspeculation as I am not suggesting that these are the wordsor thoughts of God. This is sheer commonsense andhuman reasoning. I have studied Dave's teachings for atleast 20 years. So I KNOW that DAVE KNEW for at leasttwo decades that the organized church is fast becomingMystery Babylon, that false prophets and witches were

steadily taking over the house of God. In fact, I found outabout that through reading as many of Dave's sermons andbooks as I could, especially after Dave proved to me by hisprediction that he is a prophet of God.

I perceive that the mistake that Dave made is trying toreform the organized church by remaining inside andPREACHING REPENTANCE to Her when She has nointention of repenting. If Dave had died in his sleep, even ofa debilitating disease, I would not be addressing this veryimportant point. Nevertheless, the WAY he died isquite noteworthy as it seems God is sending us ALL a

message. Dave's death was sudden, tragic, andviolent. Deny it if you will. I've read the statements of lotsof Christians who are viewing his death through rosecolored glasses. But the truth of the matter is that it is acurse to be hit HEAD ON by a MAC truck with your wifein the car beside you and the truck was not at fault.

So I suspect that Dave's blunder was that he did not comeout of the organized church when he KNEW that he should.Preaching hard against HER practices? Most certainly hedid and I owe him much gratitude as he has remained myonly teacher of this generation. Since I have only read

about half of his sermons and teachings, he will remain myteacher. But like the man of God in I Kings 13, Dave'scarcass was "left on the road."

And the message???

As Dave Wilkerson was the best minister that theorganized church had to offer in the last 50 years, I believethat God is saying to those in the organized church, LIKE


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DAVE,YOU ARE GOING TO CRASH.

The fear of the Lord causes me to tremble. I hear Hisvoice cry out, "Come out of Her, My People, lest yepartake of Her sins, lest ye receive of Her Plagues."

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Letwisdom cause you to be wise as a serpent and let thefear of the Lord prolong your life!

Pam

Sheppard's Counseling and Publishing Center, PO Box 356, East Greenbush NY 12061

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mentoring letter 34

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