I was having a discussion with my dear friend/pastor's wife about how it has seemed that so many men, even in our own church have been "asleep" spiritually and how we had for years and years prayed that God would "wake them up".

We partially prayed this because at the time we were praying, we still had a vague "hangover" from traditionalism that left us feeling that if we lacked male leadership the women needed to "hold back" until the men woke up and became the spiritual leader.

That prayer sort of faded away once God started to teach us as a church about what it means that "there is neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus".

Now here is the amazing thing.The men, at least some in our church, are truely begining to "wake up". And it so happens that the ones waking up are the husbands of the WOMEN who are learning that they are equally image bearers of God, equally given the great commission with men and have decided that they must adjust their lives and do what God leads them to do and STOP holding back.

Now these couples are begining to be powerful for the Lord in their area of giftedness.It's a beautiful, powerful thing.

My friend/P.W. had a revelation from the Lord about this that I think is profound and exciting.

Why is it that when we stopped praying for the men to "wake up" that some finally did and why are other men still asleep?The Lord's answer was:

GOD KEPT ADAM ASLEEP AT CREATION UNTIL EVE WAS FULLY FORMED.

Do you see!? Eve had to be a whole person, FULLY formed by God alone before God was willing to wake Adam up.Otherwise they might each get a mistaken idea of the part that each plays in the other's life. Now that the "Eves" in our church are allowing God alone to fully form them, i.e. looking to God alone for their identity and their primary sorce of life love and comfort, God is waking their husbands up spiritually to come alongside each other as co-labors for Christ. If He had awakened the men up while we were still in traditionalism,the women would never have learned who they really are and would have gone right back into believing that they need a man to define them.Also, if the men had woken up while the women were praying for them to become spiritual leaders they wouldn't have learned about God's views on equality. We were praying the wrong prayer so God in his wisdom kept scilent.Isn't God's grace awesome!!?? What do you think about this?

(Patti)

This is some of the worst exegesis I have read in a while. Ladies, let's not begin to read into the text... but allow it to speak for itself. God did not write that passage about Adam, so that 20th century readers would misapply it to lazy, apathetic men. And to say that Jesus would have come back 50 years ago if women would have been leading is next to blasphemous. If we are in control of the end times (women or men) then we are in BIG trouble. It would be far better for us to submit ourselves to the Greatness of God, than to subject ourselves to the who�s better argument: men or women!

(Jen)

Jen, I was not trying to exegete the passage or paint men who are in a spiritual slumber as lazy or apathetic. I never thought of my statement as a "who's better, women or men" argument because I don't think in those terms and wouldn't engage in that kind of an argument (nor would the fine people of this forum allow me to.The purpose here is community not hierarchy of any kind).

My point is that many, many women have taken their identity from the men in their lives first, and God second.In this passage Eve was fully formed by God alone. Every part of her being was defined by God completely BEFORE God took her to meet her husband.Her first and primary relationship was with God.

Because Adam was asleep, no part of HIS WILL was involved in deciding anything about her life or what she should be like.That job was God's alone.

What my friend saw in this passage is that perhaps God is waiting for women to come back to him as their primary source of life and love so that He can correctly show us who we really are and stop expecting men to do a job they were never created to do. Adam's being asleep while Eve was being formed tells me that God never intended the man to "form" the woman. And perhaps,God in his grace,is still keeping some men "asleep" for their sake and our's (women's) so that we will both figure out that God alone decides who we are.

God choose to use part of Adam's body to "build" Eve and he kept Adam asleep during the process.I think what Adam recognizes when he exclaims "at last, here is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" is "Here is someone like me!She has the same mind as me, the same heart as me,the same emotions as me. And like me, she too was made by God."

(Patti)