God created humans in the His own image--male and female. It is a difficult idea for us to understand that “in His image” (singular) is described as “male and female” (plural). But from the beginning this is a concept that is foundational to our understanding not only of our humanness but also of Divinity Itself.
God tells us that He is not just He, but also She. But we have neglected this fact. God is much greater than the human beings He/She created. In describing God we have a pronoun problem. God is much larger than gender or any other descriptor or name that we could assign to the Creator of All That Is. Source, I Am, YWHW, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Michael, Archangel, Rose of Sharon, etc are all names that describe attributes of God, but God ultimately can only be partially described, not completely named or known.
What is interesting is that we use mostly masculine names and pronouns to describe the functions or attributes of God. Creator is probably the closest we come to describing the feminine attributes of God. The Shekhina presence, Sophia, or Wisdom are less known names of the feminine qualities of God. These are more prominent in ancient Jewish traditions.
But the qualities of the feminine aspect of God are essential to our redemption and healing from sin. Spirit is the feminine quality of dwelling within that is what ultimately brings healing and close harmony with God. It is the Spirit that draws us into relationship with God and into relationship with each other.
To honor the Divine Feminine is to honor a Spirit-filled life. It is to acknowledge that God is not only a God of power and might, but also a God of relationship and intimacy. Sin ultimately separated us from God. What had originally been an intimate relationship of trust was breached with mistrust and suspicion on the part of man and woman. You see the Old Testament filled with stories of a relationship with God that was based on separation and submission to authority.
The New Testament brings us the story of Christ and the bridging relationship that His life created. A new paradigm is created of restoring trust and intimacy. After the resurrection the disciples were distressed that Christ was leaving them but He told them it was good that He should leave so that the Comforter, the Spirit, should come to them.
We have what we can in human terms understand as qualities similar to the family created by God —the Father, or energy/life force, the Mother, or conception/creation, and the Son, new beginnings/bridge to Heaven. It is the Son who bridged the gap created by sin and the Mother who nurtures us through a Spirit-filled life to grow into new Beings--and the Father who oversees and provides. Each entity has a distinct quality yet are working in harmony together. It is the doctrine of the trinity yet describes the Spirit as the feminine aspect of God that has traditionally been assumed to be masculine.
We have erred in that we have reduced God to our level. We have reduced God to gender and traditional roles. Thus all of the abuses on earth of the masculine have been attributed to God.
We do not have to reject everything we’ve been taught about God in order to embrace the idea that God is also Spirit and demonstrates what we know and describe as the feminine, nurturing, aspect of Divinity. We do not have to create a plethora of goddesses to make up for the abuses and the misunderstandings of the patriarchy. We must simply be willing to expand our ideas of All That God Is. To honor the feminine in God is to honor the Spirit in your life. To miss this is to miss out on the intimacy of the life that God has in store for each one of us.
To view God from a strictly patriarchal, male aspect is to lose the power of the indwelling Spirit that brings new life. Jesus so powerfully demonstrates the nurturing, mothering qualities of the Spirit in His own life when He weeps over Jerusalem proclaiming that He longed to gather her under His wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks about her.
This tenderness is a quality of God that longs to draws us to Itself to draw us back to restoration and intimacy. It is the longing heart of a mother to hold her child close and be reunited with the object of its love. This is a picture of God that the world longs to see and understand. We long to belong to a functional, whole family system that sees who we are and loves us completely.
We are the object of God’s longings and desires. To hold us close again is the desire of the Mother’s heart. To honor the Divine Feminine aspect of God is to allow your self to be drawn into the loving arms of God and be filled with the Heavenly Spirit of love and restoration. It is to be restored to a sense of community a belonging in God’s kingdom.
God tells us that He is not just He, but also She. But we have neglected this fact. God is much greater than the human beings He/She created. In describing God we have a pronoun problem. God is much larger than gender or any other descriptor or name that we could assign to the Creator of All That Is. Source, I Am, YWHW, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Michael, Archangel, Rose of Sharon, etc are all names that describe attributes of God, but God ultimately can only be partially described, not completely named or known.
What is interesting is that we use mostly masculine names and pronouns to describe the functions or attributes of God. Creator is probably the closest we come to describing the feminine attributes of God. The Shekhina presence, Sophia, or Wisdom are less known names of the feminine qualities of God. These are more prominent in ancient Jewish traditions.
But the qualities of the feminine aspect of God are essential to our redemption and healing from sin. Spirit is the feminine quality of dwelling within that is what ultimately brings healing and close harmony with God. It is the Spirit that draws us into relationship with God and into relationship with each other.
To honor the Divine Feminine is to honor a Spirit-filled life. It is to acknowledge that God is not only a God of power and might, but also a God of relationship and intimacy. Sin ultimately separated us from God. What had originally been an intimate relationship of trust was breached with mistrust and suspicion on the part of man and woman. You see the Old Testament filled with stories of a relationship with God that was based on separation and submission to authority.
The New Testament brings us the story of Christ and the bridging relationship that His life created. A new paradigm is created of restoring trust and intimacy. After the resurrection the disciples were distressed that Christ was leaving them but He told them it was good that He should leave so that the Comforter, the Spirit, should come to them.
We have what we can in human terms understand as qualities similar to the family created by God —the Father, or energy/life force, the Mother, or conception/creation, and the Son, new beginnings/bridge to Heaven. It is the Son who bridged the gap created by sin and the Mother who nurtures us through a Spirit-filled life to grow into new Beings--and the Father who oversees and provides. Each entity has a distinct quality yet are working in harmony together. It is the doctrine of the trinity yet describes the Spirit as the feminine aspect of God that has traditionally been assumed to be masculine.
We have erred in that we have reduced God to our level. We have reduced God to gender and traditional roles. Thus all of the abuses on earth of the masculine have been attributed to God.
We do not have to reject everything we’ve been taught about God in order to embrace the idea that God is also Spirit and demonstrates what we know and describe as the feminine, nurturing, aspect of Divinity. We do not have to create a plethora of goddesses to make up for the abuses and the misunderstandings of the patriarchy. We must simply be willing to expand our ideas of All That God Is. To honor the feminine in God is to honor the Spirit in your life. To miss this is to miss out on the intimacy of the life that God has in store for each one of us.
To view God from a strictly patriarchal, male aspect is to lose the power of the indwelling Spirit that brings new life. Jesus so powerfully demonstrates the nurturing, mothering qualities of the Spirit in His own life when He weeps over Jerusalem proclaiming that He longed to gather her under His wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks about her.
This tenderness is a quality of God that longs to draws us to Itself to draw us back to restoration and intimacy. It is the longing heart of a mother to hold her child close and be reunited with the object of its love. This is a picture of God that the world longs to see and understand. We long to belong to a functional, whole family system that sees who we are and loves us completely.
We are the object of God’s longings and desires. To hold us close again is the desire of the Mother’s heart. To honor the Divine Feminine aspect of God is to allow your self to be drawn into the loving arms of God and be filled with the Heavenly Spirit of love and restoration. It is to be restored to a sense of community a belonging in God’s kingdom.
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