Contrast

There is an obvious contrast between the conception of the position of the woman seen and put in practice by men influenced by religious teachings which have pushed to the extreme, thus to imbalance, the thought of God's word on the subject, and the true thought of God.
The words regularly have a KEY PLACE in the New Testament, as if God's Spirit would like to highlight clearly the liberation which becomes theirs in Jesus Christ, not relating to the Old Testament law but relating to the principles which enslave them in our society.
Does that mean to say that from then on the woman doesn't have to submit to her husband or have respect for men any more. Far from it!
In the New Testament, the woman stays submitted to her husband and must learn to keep a woman's place in society, we haven't the slightest intention of questioning that. Women are always called 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 God.” (Titus 2:5).

Simply, there is a difference between:
•  To be submitted to one's husband and to be crushed by one's husband;
•  To take care of domestic chores and do nothing but this;
•  To be restrained and to be completely wiped out;
•  To be chaste and to dress like a grandmother;
•  To be a woman with a woman's role and to be considered like the religious Jews when they give thanks to God, thanking Him among other things for not having made a wife of them, that the joy for many of these same Jews, with childbirth, is reduced to a half if it's a girl and not a boy.

God's Spirit cannot share in such unfairness.

This is why it emphasizes clearly on the day of Pentecost, the words of Joel spoken by Peter, putting ministers and servants on the same level :

Acts 2:18 : “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”

Servants

The Scriptures show the quality of servants represented by many women. To serve = exercise a ministry for the body of Christ.
The woman who wiped the feet of Jesus with her tears, then anointed his head with perfume, Mary, the sister of Lazarus who anointed his feet with perfume and also wiped them with her hair: Both exercised a most humble and loving service on His behalf. The Lord showed, in front of the men who were shocked, how he appreciated the way these women had honoured Him. (Matthew 26:7); (John 132:3).
Women supported Jesus' ministry as partners:

Luke 8:3 : “Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

I am pointing out this Biblical principle because it's a woman, a member of our family who has supported our ministry for many years, after the Lord had made quite clear to do it. The ministries of liberality are the key ministries, of primary importance. They allow the whole ‘machine' to advance.
But there isn't this form of service = ministry that the women “have the right to exercise .” Women have the time to serve God in the main ministries. Example: Deborah who was prophetess and judge of all Israel (Judges 4:4).
Many women occupied the place of prophetesses in the Old Testament, which under the new alliance corresponds to one of what is called “the five ministries” no less.
Junias, listed among the apostles in Romans 16:7, is in fact – in the original text and rendered in other translations – one Junias.
Afterwards, the truth shows us women who have been strongly anointed by the Holy Spirit, in this century and in those past, to take the responsibility of pastors, evangelists, teachers, prophetesses and apostles.
To deny this is like denying the sun rises in the morning by the excuse that certain people have understood that the Biblical verses assert that they themselves don't get up in the morning. Looking at the sun - the obvious fact it rises just the same, such people should have understood simply that they misunderstood the word of God.
Anyone who has done a little investigation will find, throughout Church history, a large number of women POWERFULLY USED in all the five ministries.
The Holy Spirit isn't going to state one thing in the Scripture and contradict it in anointing these women for the ministry.
Jesus is God! Through His behaviour we understand that God's thought on the subject didn't correspond to what men have done about it.
That comes across clearly from His meeting with the Samaritan woman.

The Samaritan woman

In the context of this encounter Jesus breaks the useless human taboos and makes us understand that a certain way of doing things at the time came from men and not from God.
For example in John 4:27 it tells us:

“Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman . But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

If the disciples were astonished that He was talking with a woman it's because it wasn't in general the custom that a man should address a woman he didn't know.
It wasn't done, because the Pharisees and those who taught the people had pushed the rules of Biblical decency to an extreme, and saw the bad everywhere, to the point that they had pushed to extreme the observation of the sabbath and many other things to the extent of enslaving the people.
Jesus, still observing the law, passed beyond the ridiculous principles of the time, such as not speaking to a woman, and thus brought a woman to be THE INSTRUMENT OF REVIVAL OF A WHOLE TOWN.
The first people to have been confronted (thus chosen by God for that) at the resurrection AND WHO BELIEVED were women.

The women at the tomb

Luke 24:9: “When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”

These same men to whom the Jewish society gave a superior status to that of women, didn't believe in the resurrection to begin with, although they had been with Jesus; but the women believed.
These women announced, we are told, what they heard. Evangelizing is announcing the good news.
The women are called to arise like a great army that make known the good news of Jesus Christ, some by their testimony, others by preaching, according to their individual calling.

“Messengers of good news ”

Psalm 68:11: “The Lord gives the word (of power); the women who bear and publish (the news) are a great host.” (Ampl.)

“The Lord announced the word, and the (female) messengers of good news were a great army.” (Translation of Segond (French) (1979)
It is clearly a matter of female messengers here. The Crampon (French) Bible renders messengers (male), but most of the other translations give either messengers (female) or actually women, for the word is quite clearly feminine in the original text.
The “Segond” (unrevised) gives:
“women proclaimed the victory as a crowd.”
The “Darby” version:
“The Lord announced the word: Great was the crowd of women who spread the news.”
The devil is afraid of this great army of female messengers because they announce the good news; Satan is defeated, Jesus is victor, in whom we have salvation, healing, and deliverance from slavery.

The devil and women

The woman fell from grace first it's true, and that can indicate there are typically feminine weaknesses and they must be watched (but aren't there also typically masculine?).
As a result, like the Pharisees and the Jewish society, many Christians and pastors have carried submission of women beyond the limits God imposed. But we shouldn't forget she equally well received, after her fall, a fantastic promise of authority over Satan:

Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head , and you will strike his heel.”

To crush Satan's head, you are talking about a promise!!! It is time that many women grasp hold of this.
There is a whole truth expressed here: There is enmity, that is a ferocious hatred between the two parties: Satan and woman; that's the battle. What God expresses in the above verse is that Satan caused the woman to fall first, the woman, in Jesus (as the Church but also quite simply as woman), is supposed to be motivated by a holy anger (he made fun of me) and make him pay in return for having humbled himself.
Genesis, even after the fall and the curse, doesn't maintain, as some imagine, a series of difficult and harsh stances against women, relegating them to last place. It shows what woman will become, from the moment she agrees to react to sin: An instrument of destruction of Satan's works, in God's hands, motivated by a spirit of consecration and sacrifice which will lead her to overcome at the cost of his bruised heel (at the cost of real suffering) .
The woman has the child-bearing capacity, that's clear, and whatever is physical or material always corresponds to a spiritual reality. This capacity exists as much in the spiritual domain as in the physical.
The adversary wants to prevent women from giving birth to souls, from giving birth to the gifts that God gave them; he tries to kill these gifts “at the egg stage” or at the exit of entrails :

“The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.” (Revelation 12:4)

Tricks

The adversary uses many ruses to prevent women from arising; how many callings have been reduced to nothing throughout the history of the Church!
He makes things go awry (wrong):
•  Teachings taken out of context and misunderstood :
We have dealt with these points in the first series of courses “Light(s) of the Nations”. Let's simply recall here that certain of Paul's words badly interpreted that seem to close the door to a ministry of women, sometimes relate to the context of the time and place, or correspond to imperfect translations. They make reference again to behaviour of the wife in the setting of marriage and not at all the fact of teaching or preaching the word as ministry.

•  Many men that it suits – I believe – that the women stay in retirement, for they don't tolerate, for one reason or other, women being put at the same level as them. They assume that as a concern of the Holy Spirit, but it's a way of doing things that has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit.

•  The “clumsiness” of certain women who confuse the authority of ministry and authority in the framework of marriage, giving a bad account of authoritative women in all areas, potentiating their frustrations through ministry affairs. We don't intend here to endorse these imbalances residing in certain women who arise in the flesh and not in the spirit.

One of the seven cups

We have related in the course on the Church in the first “Light of the Nations” series the episode of a visitation of the Spirit in a Church in Minneapolis.
Seven angels appeared, each one pouring a cup which corresponded to a truth which God wanted to put into the body. One of these truths and commandments from God was the following : The Lord wants the women to rise up to serve Him, and the word added: No further discussion permitted.
The Lord indeed is weary of all these discussions which have brought so much confusion to prevent a large part of His army, the women, from rising up.
In these times, those who oppose this lifting of restriction will see God's judgement hit them. Too many of these opponents to feminine ministries have forgotten the very origins of their Church movement, brought about itself by a movement of the Spirit.
One of the first of the A.D.D. meetings was the Glad Tidings tabernacle in New York, which had been created by Mary Burgess. She had shared the pastorate with her husband. This movement is yet as a whole violently opposed today to a woman exercising such ministries.

My wife's case

I have always encouraged my wife to react favourably to all the Lord has asked her to do. Nevertheless, for several years she has been content to hold a place set back enough in relation to mine. She didn't want to get involved in things just for the sake of it.
Several times the Lord started to work on her profoundly and asked her to take a greater role. In a few months she found herself preaching in the Church, as at the time of our travels, testifying more strongly through our tours, in the “Aglow” chapters, organizing women's meetings in which she invites the wives of pastors to whom she asks to share suggestions, etc.
One could say she hasn't tried to cause any of that; she has been obedient to a precise direction from God and has seen the doors open in this way.
Certain husbands are frustrated when their wives arise. As far as I am concerned, I feel honoured and happy that my wife knows to maintain her place in the family context at the same time as taking authority in ministerial matters.

To husbands, children and brothers

Husbands and children, when God's calling manifests itself on your wife, mother or sister – it can be achieved less radically than the way it happened with my wife, for sure – encourage her, don't let the devil make you the instrument that makes her sit down again.
It's already so much harder, in view of the points we have shared, for a woman to rise up than for a man. She needs your support, your encouragement.
If you help her rise up, believe me, God will equally well credit you with the fruit which will come.