Q. Can a woman be a prophet, seer, revelator or teacher? What should I do if a Christian woman comes up to me and claims to have a revelation or word from God for me?

A. The answer to the first question is, yes, if she is under the proper authority to do so (and we'll examine what that authority looks like in a moment) - otherwise she may not - and to your second question, be very careful indeed. The rôles of a woman in both marriage and the local assembly (church) are not the same as for men.

That women are capable of receiving authentic revelation, prophecies, visions and inspired dreams from Yahweh is confirmed both by historical examples in the Scriptures as well as by a specific and commonly cited prophecy by the navi (prophet) Joel:

"I will pour out my Ruach (Spirit) on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my avadim (servants), both men and women,
I will pour out my Ruach (Spirit) in those days"
(Joel 2:28-29, NIV).

Every scripture like this has a context, though. This particular one from the Tanakh (Old Testament) was quoted by the apostle Peter at the first Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, Ekatost, 'Pentecost') in Jerusalem. He declared it fulfilled when men and women were first baptised in fire and began to supernaturally speak in foreign languages (not modern day 'Pentecostal' and charismatic gibberish) as a testimony that the confusion of tongues caused by the curse at the Tower of Babel had in some sense been reversed because from then onwards Yahweh's people would be able to supernaturally communicate with unbelievers for the purpose of relaying the Besorah (Gospel, Good News) where no one could naturally speak the native tongue or language of the one being witnessed to.

However, quite clearly those present on that incredible occasion weren't apparently relaying dreams and visions. Whatever the First Messianic Shavu'ot was, it was the beginning of something new that was not limited to one single event. Indeed, Joel indicates that men and women (young and old) would be supernaturally gifted "in those days" in the plural, not just on that one memorable occasion of high drama when tongues of fire rested on the assembled talmidim (disciples) - this would, it seems, be an ongoing phenomenon. But for how long? For only as long as the apostles were alive (the belief of cessationists) or continuously up to the present day and beyond, as the Ruach (Spirit) willed (the belief of continuationists)?

The expression "in those days" is frequently used in the writings of the nevi'im (prophets) to refer to the 'last days' which is a description of the Messianic Æon or Age that began at the First Messianic Shavu'ot ('Pentecost') and lasts right up to the second coming of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). The 'last days', then, have been happening now for the last two thousand years. This isn't a spiritual anointing that dried up when the last apostle, John, died. The ability to authentically prophesy, see visions, have prophetic dreams and speak foreign languages supernaturally for the purpose of evangelism is available to both genders of all ages as and when Yahweh wills it. This does not mean that these gifts won't diminish in times of unbelief and apostacy and it doesn't mean that the devil won't counterfeit them too. Just because professing 'Christians' and 'Messianics' are prophesying, having prophetic dreams, seeing visions, etc., doesn't necessarily mean they are authentic, a reason why we are commanded in scripture to test (with a view to authenticating or falsifying) every kind of spiritual activity claiming to be of Elohim (God) (1 Thess.5:21; 1 Jn.4:1). There are most definitely times - sometimes for decades or centuries - when little by way of this particular kind of supernatural activity may be found to be operating in believers for a wide variety of reasons, all of them negative.

For this reason, Yahweh has established checks and balances in the Body of Christ to ensure the manifestation and conduct of spiritual activity is done within specific acceptable parameters. And as we shall see, the rules are a little different for men and women. This is why Paul established a set of rules because of the chaos that ensued in Corinth in particular when false tongues and prophesying started appearing 2,000 years ago, as they have again today since Azuza Street. These rules, which are mostly found in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Acts 2, included:

• 1. Nobody may speak supernaturally in a foreign language ('tongues') without an interpreter;
• 2. Everything must be done decently and in order - only one person is allowed to speak in tongues at a time (not all at once) and no more than three prophecies in a row in any particular assembly;
• 3. Tongues is only for the benefit of unbelievers so that they may be converted to the Gospel;
• 4. No gibberish or babbling is permitted - this must be a known language or dialect - 'I'd rather you spoke five intelligble words', Paul said, 'than speak a quintillion words of nonsense' (1 Cor.14:19);
• 5. Tongues isn't for your own personal stimulation or edification - all gifts are for the benefit of others;
• 6. The Ruach (Spirit) of prophecy is always under personal control and may be halted instantly at the wish of the one speaking prophetically - 'the spirits of the prophets is subject to the prophets' (1 Cor.14:32); etc..

The Bible is full of accounts of false prophets, seers and revelators making false prophecies, seeing counterfeit visions and having man-made or demon-inspired dreams. The majority claiming this gifting tended to be false and usually persecuted the ones with the true gift. This was as true in the Old Testament as in the New and remains true today.

The false can be detected in many ways, the most obvious being prophecies that don't come to pass at the time or place specified by the pretender-prophet or in the way predicted. False prophets, it must remembered, don't necessarily get everything wrong in a prophecy (otherwise they wouldn't be credible...though some amazingly do) and they may get everything right except for one crucial and destructive lie slipped into the mix. Scripture repeatedly warns against mixtures of every kind. Mixtures are just as dangerous and potentially deadly as an outright lie.

I once had a malak (angel) visit me when I was very ill. He stood in front of me - physically - and preached a spell-binding discourse on theology solidly to me for nearly two hours. I was fascinated because I recognised what he was saying was true. And then, very sudddenly, he slipped in a huge lie right at the end when I discerned him - he described, blasphemously, Yah'shua (Jesus) as the second-born son of Elohim (God), knowing I would probably be very tired after such a long session and more inclined to passively accept any lie he might say, thus giving the Enemy a legal right to gain access to my soul. But, tired and ill though I was, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) immediately alerted me to this attempted deception, and in a split second I rebuked him and cast him out of the room where I was convalescing. He appeared outside my the window, rapping the frame and begging to be allowed back in (perhaps because of fear of the punishment he would receive from his dark satanic master for having failed in his assignment) at which point I cast him off my property and land altogether and he was gone.

I had the authentic Ruach (Spirit), the discernment and the authority to deal with this imposter. But it was a close thing. We are warned that even the elect will come close to being deceived in the end times (Mt.24:24; Mk.13:22). But there's always a condition to being thus preserved and that is that we must remain under authority. I cannot stress the importance of this enough. What do I mean by that?

There is an Order in the Kingdom of Yahweh. There are lines of authority and spiritual coverings that go with giftings when that authority is exercised properly. A husband has authority over - and covers - his household: his wife (or wives), children and those under his guardianship. His wife is given designated authority to rule over the household by her husband and to have authority over his children when he is not present. This is her stewardship. She is accountable with this stewardship to her husband just as their children may be assigned duties or stewardships and are accountable to their father and to their mother by proxy. The father-husband or patriarch has his stewardship directly from Yahweh and is accountable directly to Him. Though those in his household (like wives, children, dependents, servants, etc.) have individual accountability to Yahweh for their actions, they are also accountable to this patriarch-father, husband or guardian. Such was the way that the household of Abraham and the other patriarchs was organised.

Every stewardship has both its responsibilities and privileges that are described in great detail in the Manual of the Kingdom, the Torah. The Torah has three levels:

• 1. The Penteteuch (the 5 Books of Moses - some, like the Samaritans, include the Book of Joshua in a 'Hexateuch');
• 2. The rest of the Tanakh (Old Testament); and
• 3. The Messianic Scriptures (or New Testament).

Every mitzvah (commandment) is therefore endued with power which is obtained by the one receiving, for example, a stewardship that is defined by these mitzvot (commandments). For example, a father and husband has the authority, given him by Yahweh, to nullify any vow or covenant made by his wife or daughter that either is contrary to the Torah itself or the rule he establishes for his household (Num.20:3-16). He can do this but only on condition he does so on the very same day that he first learns of this vow or promise. He cannot do this with his sons because they are under a different kind of rule. I have used this privilege to speed up the deliverance of my wife or daughter. It takes a lot longer with a son. This is therefore a great blessing to daughters and wives because it absolves them of certain responsibilities.

It is for the same reason why only a married woman can commit adultery - why a single woman can never commit adultery; she can be the instrument of causing a married man to break his marriage vows to his wife by becoming a fornicator but she cannot cause either him or herself to commit adultery, thus sparing her from the severe penalty that adultery demands. In the Old Covenant this was death by stoning. Fornication is a serious sin indeed but it is not unto death as adultery is. Thus in one way women are limited (because a woman is always under the authority of her husband, father or guardian) but privileged in other ways that men are not - single men can, and do, commit the serious sin of adultery that ranks second only after murder. Gender rôles are different but everything balances out in Yahweh's Kingdom Order which is not mysogentistic. Why has Yahweh legislated in this way? Because of way Yahweh has hardwired plural marriage into Torah and Kingdom life for human beings.

None of this makes any sense to those steeped in secular feminism and egalitarianism which seek to eliminate divinely appointed differences in gender rôles. Most of Christianity is badly infected by the feminist virus which as we are now seeing doesn't actually seek equality as once it did (in first and second wave feminism) but undisguised rulership and authority over men (third wave feminism). This is a reason there is now such gender confusion and anarchy in the world.

There are no woman apostles, bishops, pastors, prophets, seers, revelators and teachers in the same way there are men apostles, bishops, pastors, prophets, seers and teachers in the Kingdom of Elohim (God). There are most definitely women who have the apostolic, pastoral, and those spiritual gifts specifically listed by Joel but there is an order and place in which these may be legitimately exercised under the proper authority and covering. No woman is an apostle, bishop, pastor, prophet, seer, revelator or teacher in her own right. Her context, if she is married, is always her husband and his authority and covering, and if unmarried or widowed, her context is her father (if he is alive) or guardian, or under her firstborn son (if she is a widow).

Firstborn sons are instructed in Yahweh's Law to receive a double inheritance from their father because they are charged with the care of the family (brothers, sisters, mother) when the father is dead if there is an emergency or need. This is both economic and spiritual care. If there is no guardian or firstborn son, then according to Yahweh's Rule Book, the Bible, this must be a legally-appointed guardian, like a near relative. The story of Boaz and Noami illustrates this principle.

In the New Covenant, where Messianic Israel is not currently a nation but in diaspora scattered in other nations, until the Final Gathering and the Millennial Reign of Christ, such 'legal guardians' of a spiritual nature may be a mature Shammash (Deacon) in a congregation, a Zaqen (Elder) in a congregation, the Pastor of a congregation or the Bishop of a group of congregations (metropole). In short, the rule of the Kingdom demands that every woman have a covering and a guardian which must be provided by the Messianic Community. Indeed, in a properly functioning Christian congregation there should be no orphans or widows - they should be adopted in the same way non-Israelites are adopted into Israel by faith in Yah'shua (Jesus) and covenant obedience to the mitzvot (commandments) (Rom.11). This is something that can sometimes become a matter of life and death where there is no welfare state to assist them economically. (It needs to be remembered that the Welfare State is a relatively new phenomenon, only since 1945 in fact, and then only in the richer countries).

What this does not mean is that a woman is under the authority of all men (a false teaching of many conservative churches) because she is only ever under the authority and protection of one man. This is a Torah principle poorly understood by Christendom that without women are left defenceless and open to deception. A married woman is under the authority of no other man but her husband, not even the Pastor of the congregation that she is a part of. This is also true of her children. The only persons that Bishops (metropolitan Overseers), Pastors (local Overseers), Elders (Presbyters) and other male officers have any sort of authority over - in righteosness - is the Husband-Fathers of families because the stewardship of wives and children belongs solely to husbands and fathers.

If his wife or one of his children is accused of some wrongdoing by an Elder it is the husband/father who must answer to the charge and take the necessary action himself to impose discipline at home. If he fails to do this them, according to Torah, it is the husband who becomes responsible and liable to discipline in the local congregation. He is the cohen or priest of his own family. A woman isn't under the authority of other men except under very exceptional circumstances - for example, temporarily when under an investigating minister if her husband has accused her of infidelity and she protests her innocence.

Why am I saying all this in answer to the question about women exercising spiritual gifts? Because a Christian woman's first line of authority on the earth is her husband, or her father. By way of an illustration of what I mean, the four daughters of Philip the Evangelists were prophetesses in their local fellowship in Caesarea. Notice the wording:

"Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied" (Acts 21:8-9, NIV).

Born-again women are gifted no differently from men. They even have leadership rôles to play in the local assembly but notice who the Eldresses were called to minister to:

"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of Elohim (God)" (Titus 2:3-5, NIV).

The older women (eldresses) are to teach and train the young married women to do what? Love their husbands and children, exercise self-control, live in purity, be occupied in domestic matters, and to be obedient to their husbands. Why? So that no one will speak ill or, or slander, the Davar Elohim (Word of God). This is therefore to protect the integrity of Scripture and by extension the Scripture-Giver. Anyone woman who steps beyond these boundaries is slandering both Yahweh and the Bible. They are in serious trouble. There is a rule - and order - and we step outside it at our spiritual peril. And if a pastor allows it in his congregation, he is endangering the spiritual integrity of his congregation.

But can a woman do more than this? Can she teach men or should she be 'silent in church' as one scripture is commonly interpreted to men?

"As in all the congregations of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), women should remain silent in the assemblies (churches). They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Torah (Law) says" (1 Cor.14:33-34, NIV).

"If [the wives] want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the assembly (church)" (1 Cor.14:35, NIV).

"Did the Davar Elohim (Word of God) originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anybody thinks he is a navi (prophet) or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Master's's command. If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored" (1 Cor.14:36-38, NIV).

What if a woman has a prophetic word? After all, does not Scripture also say that a woman in a local assembly (church) must have her head covered when she is prophesying or praying? (1 Cor.11:5) This means she can speak in an assembly (church) gathering otherwise the ruling would have no meaning. So what is the difference between the woman commanded to be silent and make enquiry of her husband-teacher at home and one allowed to pray and prophesy as a nehiah or prophetess? The first was not properly subjected to, or under the authority of, her husband:

"Now I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is Elohim (God). Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head (Christ). And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head (her husband)..." (1 Cor.11:3-5, NIV).

So what were Philip's daughters prophesying about and to whom? We need to go back to the Book of Joel to answer this and related questions because this was the source of the inspiration and authority for what happened on the First Messianic Shavu'ot ('Pentecost'). If you read the whole of the second chapter of Joel carefully, you will see a more specific context. And that context is not just the the 'end times' or the 'Messianic Era' - the last 2,000 years - but specifically The Day of Yahweh or Judgment Day. Now clearly at the First Messianic Shavu'ot all language barriers didn't suddenly disappear. The world didn't suddenly revert to speaking only one language again as it had done before the Confounding of Tongues at Babel. The supernatural ability of speak in foreign languages or 'tongues' in the first century AD did not point back to a pre-Babel restoration but was a sign of what would yet come in the distant future.

A day will come when we all speak one language again. But in the meantime there was the urgent need to evangelise and sometimes believers would find themselves among a people with no one of their own being able to speak that people's language. At such times the supernatural ability to do so would become important. The grace-gift called 'tongues' was given specifically to do that with the greater promise of all languages reverting to one again being something to look forward to in the distand future, just like the resurrection and restoration of the cosmos with the end of suffering and death. Thus the gift was a kind of deposit just as the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is "guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5, NIV; cp. Eph.1:4). We don't have the fullness now, merely a foretaste, but we have enough, and we are to guard it tenaciously (2 Tim.1:14).

We are all called to serve in the sphere in which we are appointed by Yahweh. That of necessity means living with freedoms as well as limitations. Certain privileges are only for those with the callings to match them. Women have the privilege of bringing children into thye world and raising them. Men don't irrespective of what the lying tongues of the postmodern woke culture may insist. Our responsibility is to guard and protect both, and provide for them. Of course, the world is far from ideal, and at times women find themselves in positions of having to do what their husbands and fathers were supposed to do for them (and often heroically though at great personal cost to themselves) and also vice versa - sometimes men have to do what women fail to do too because they're too busy pursuing careers. It is a great shame when women have to do men's jobs, and men women's jobs. In times of apostacy when cowardly men have refused to step up to the plate, Yahweh has had to cause women to lead nations, like Deborah of old. What she did was magnifcent, but it was an exception, not an excuse to do things differently thereafter. (She didn't, by the way, actually go into battle - she still had a male proxy do that for her). That's the nature of the fallen world. But we should never think it right to normalise such abnormality, let alone impose gender doctrines and practices that are radically out of harmony with the Davar Elohim (Word of God).

We are all susceptible to deception, men and women alike. Both, to their shame, are guilty of abandoning their callings and divinely-assigned gender rôles for whatever reason. Men are called to provide, protect and lead - always - and women to be submitted wives, and devoted mothers and be industrious at home. Their first and primary sphere, stewardship or mandate is the home, but they are also called to serve, in a secondary sense, in the Messianic Community as eldresses as they get older to minister to the younger women. But there is, I would like to suggest to you, a tertiary sense too, where they can be helpmeets to their husbands outside the home, outside their principal stewardship.

There are women well able to serve in a greater capacity as ministers to both women and men but there is a strict condition: just as Bishops, Pastors, Elders and Deacons must be married to serve in the ministry under the authority of Yahweh, first, and other ministers (Deacons to Elders, Elders to Pastors, and Pastors to Bishops), so women believers can have a wider ministry when they have fulfilled - or are properly fulfilling - their primary and secondary rôles as wives/mothers and eldresses to the younger women of their local congregation...to serve a wider body of believers. But they must be married and properly subjected to their husbands who must themselves be properly subjected to their superiors. Remember, no position in the Kingdom has anything to do with power but with service. Wives may serve alongside their husbands in ministering to men. I have had my wife serving alongside me ministering to other men. The Pastor is the spiritual father of his congregation and it makes perfect sense that a congregation should have spiritual mother too - a pastress - as a helpmeet to her husband-pastor...if she has the gifting and calling. A Pastor probably shouldn't be serving in that capactity if his wife isn't similarly gifted and can compliment him in the ministry...another reason why men and women should select spouses compatible with their callings.

Philip was an Evangelist; and an evangelist, like an apostle, must have something of the prophetic in him, just as he must be able to preach and teach. The 'higher' and more responsible a calling is, the more giftings you will need as a rule. True prophetesses, therefore, will either have a father or husband operating in the prophetic so that he can discern what is happening in her or be a navi (prophet) himself. One of Isaiah's two wives was a neviah or prophetess like her husband [1]. Her authority to act in the capacity of a neviah (prophetess) is therefore contingent upon her husband both granting her that authority under his stewardship and himself being able to discern should she start spiritually 'wandering'. This happens, I have experienced it myself. Without that authority she cannot operate on her own - she must be 'at his side', spiritually-speaking.

Many a time over the years I have had to confront a woman operating in the prophetic who has stepped outside the authority of her husband and laid claim to authority she does not have. If they don't repent and submit, they are before long operating outside the Kingdom altogether in their own imagined authority and have fallen hard. The temptation these days for women to rule over their husbands has never been greater [2]. It therefore surprises most to learn that we as Messianic Evangelicals have been ordaining women since the very beginning in the 1980's but not in the way or along the same lines as liberal churches. We believe men and women have two quite separate if overlapping, complimentary priesthoods that are closely tied to marriage. You can learn more about these in the links at the end of this presentation.

There will be a great need for more and more women ministers in the very last of the last days. Already they are desperately needed to minister to the spiritually, emotionally and mentally wounded because they have that motherly touch needed for healing. But if they are ministering to men they must have their husbands with them. I commonly cite my own experience of two women - a mother and a daughter - who had a ministy in Bergen, Norway. They had no male authority or covering either at home or in their ministry. The mother was a divorcee and single. They had struck out alone. I attended one of their meetings which was jam-packed with men for they were both beautiful women. I soon learned the reason most of the men were there was because they had fallen in love (or lust in some cases) with either the mother or the daughter. It eventually got out of control and the mother had a complete breakdown as she could not cope with all the amourous approaches. In the end, the ministry folded too, when the men didn't get what they wanted - they were there for the women for the most part, not for Christ. It was well-intentioned - to help the down-and-out - but it did not operate according to divine spiritual tavnith or pattern. There was no male headship, covering or protection. You see, the way to hell is so often paved with good intentions. Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Sam.15:12)...for everyone's sakes, as King Saul learned to his cost.

You might say that was a rather clear-cut and obvious example of what not to do. I could cite many cases from personal experience. I knew of one couple where the wife considered herself to be a very spiritual person. She claimed to be getting revelation from 'God' on a more-or-less continual basis. She not only took over the marriage but micromanaged it accdording to her claimed 'inspiration'. Her husband foolishly looked up to her in awe and followed her leading, negating his own call to lead and be the family revelator. In the end the woman became quite delusional and the husband realised the spiritual trap they were both in. He eventually received pastoral counselling and was told he needed to exert patriarchal authority in his home again. He tried, his wife refused to repent and yield control, deluding herself into believing she was God's servant, and in the end she became so demon-possessed that she went mad and was carted off to an institution where she eventually died. Elohim (God) will not be mocked. The husband may not have been a prophet but then neither was she a prophetess. And he was quite capable to being a spiritual head and leading his family but bought into the lie that his wife was 'more spiritual' than him. She was seized by a Jezebelic spirit which ruined her life and destroyed their marriage. I could tell you other tragic stories like that one.

I repeat, am not saying that man can't be deceived too which is why they must have mentors. The Body of Christ, when functioning as it ought, has accountability structures, both to ensure the righteous exercise of authority and guard against pride and deceiving spirits. Men and women are tempted in different ways, each have their respective weaknesses. Both must learn forebearance to those set in authority over them. As the Pastor and the head of an international ministry I have always had one to whom I was accountable. The bigger the ministry, the more a man should have mentors. The late Charles Stanley, whom I had the greatest respect for, had a whole team of Pastors and Evangelists who were his mentors when he needed them.

As demons flood the earth so the possibility for ever greater deception increases. Yahweh's servants are vulnerable if they are unprepared and not subject to the proper authorities. Remember too that the Book of Joel, which speaks both of his own present (in the 9th century BC) and the future 'last days' and 'Day of Yahweh' (3,000 years in the future) was set in a Torah context. Protestants usually forget that. Those who claim to be prophets or teachers who are not properly subject to Torah are by definition lawless and vulnerable to great deception. I don't trust them, and never have. So much garbage is spoken by them - men and women - as to be shameful for the Body of Messiah. The context of the Book of Joel is ISRAEL - not the modern counterfeit in the Middle East but to the Messianic or Torah-obedient and Christ-trusting Israel of the future.

The 'Church' grows ever more lawless and anti-Scriptural by the day. That does not, moreover, exonerate those apostate, supposedly Torah-obedient Messianic groups who deny the deity of Christ or adhere to Talmudic Traditions. Prophecy (in particular) is neither intellectual nor feeling-based but spiritual. What is 'spiritual'? It is the true Elohim (God), Yahweh, worshipped; the Messiah, Yah'shua (Jesus) trusted and adhered to; and the Kingdom Constitution (Torah) obeyed. The 'Spirit' isn't any old feeling or conviction the heart might have, nor is it some intellectual proposition arrived at through the reasoning of man apart from the whole counsel of Scripture: Scripture without a context is a pretext for a prooftext for any number of false teachings. 'Fire' is more often than not judgment, not some spectacular, showy 'gift' like speaking gibberish or dancing around like a demented clown. The Gospel isn't showmanship but discipleship.

Let us be clear what Joel is talking about. "In those days" (Joel 3:1) when men and women, young and old, prophesy, dream dreams and see visions, there will be "wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood" (vv.30-31, NIV) and there will be a spectacular deliverance for those who call on the "NAME of the LORD" says the New International Version and other English translations too. And what Name, pray, is that? 'Lord' isn't a name. 'God' isn't a name. So what is the Name of the Elohim (God) we are repeatedly told throughout the Bible to call upon in all things? Yahweh. There will be deliverance for those who do that (v.32). So you'd better start using it because according to Scripture there is no other Name that saves. Even the Saviour's Name contains it: 'YAH'shua'', which means, 'Yah' or 'Yahweh saves'.

We are not judged in the days of our ignorance to be sure (Ac.17:30) but once we know the truth we are obliged to live by it or be counted as hypocrites. There are then no longer any excuses which then become acts of rebellion rather than acts of ignorance. If you know Yahweh the Father's Name, if you know Yah'shua (Yah^ushua) the Messiah's Name (or Yeshua as He was commonly known in the Aramaic which the apostles spoke), then stop using Jehovah, Yahuah, Yahovah, Jesus and all the other meaningless names or distorted (and sometimes outright blasphemous) names. I realise these may hold some sentimental value, if not familiarity and intimacy because you have used them for so long - and, yes, we can on occasion use them to communicate with those who know no better - but that is not a justification to continue to address Deity in that way. It shows a singular lack of respect. Yes, what the Name means is more important ('Jesus' doesn't mean anything philologically in any language, incidentally)- it's ultimately the character behind the Name and the identity of the person that holds the greatest meaning - that still doesn't mean you shouldn't pronounce it properly even when you know what it means. If I had visited the home of the composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi and insisted on calling him John Fortunate Frank Green all the time to everyone (because that's what his name means in English), people would rightly question my motives when I knew what his real name in Italian was, and wonder if I wasn't some kind of chauvanist. I would be showing disrespect - deliberately. Nobody ever called Verdi 'John Fortunate Frank Green' when he was alive and nobody ever called Yah'shua/Yeshua 'Jesus' when He was alive, so why are so many still doing it once they find out the truth? Stubborn, arrogant bloody-mindedness, and possible fear of being judged by peers.

I am saying all of this for the benefit of those stubborn, bloody-minded, fearful believers who cite Joel to justify their beliefs about spiritual giftedness - and particularly that of women - in a lawless Protestant setting. We have to understand prophecy, visions and dreams in the historical setting and time. We're looking at Joel 2:28-29 in context...its total context...because that's the only honest way to interpret Scripture. If I am going to parade my claim to be a Bible-believing Christian then I had better mean what I say and believe in the Bible. And if what I am claiming and doing doesn't actually match up with Scripture, then my claim to being a 'Bible-believing Christian' rings hollow because I don't seriously believe in the Bible at all. If I am Torah-disobedient, I am a hypocrite. If I claim to be a female stand-alone follower, let alone a ministerial representative, of Christ. I need to repent, and repent fast. There is no such thing.

So to answer the original question again - yes, I can, as a woman, be any of these things IF I am married, in proper subjection to my husband who has a similar gifting, if I am doing so under his authority and with his blessing to whom I am accountable, if I am Christ-trusting and Torah-obedient and recognise both the privileges and limitations of my calling, if my motive is service and not power, if I teach those I witness to to call upon the true Names of the Father and the Son by doing so myself having been approised of all these truths - then, and only then, am I justified. Then I truly have a blessed ministry as a woman!

As Messianic Evangelicals we very much want obedient, submissive married women who clearly have giftings to stand up and be counted in the ministry on the conditions that the Bible lays down. Anything else is, quite simply, apostate and an abomination. "In those days" - in the end of the end times, today and very soon, there's going to be a gathering of all nations in the Valley of Jehosophat where they will be judged. This is the context of the men and women, young and old, doing what they're doing in verse 28-28. This has not happened yet and what happened on the First Messianic Shavu'ot was but a foretaste of what was yet to come, and now we must prepare for it. We want married men and women to stand forward and walk in their giftings and callings, and to do so properly, decently, and in order. This is the Way.

Endnotes

[1] See Did Isaiah Have Two Wives? & The End-Time Remnant & the Two Wives of Isaiah
[2] See Women in the New Testament Messianic Community

Further Reading

[1] The Women in the New Covenant website