Eve found herself between two men. One was simply her husband, a person who exercised natural authority. But the other was obviously a wise spiritual leader (“the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field”). He was obviously a spiritual authority. Why shouldn't’t Eve listen to the Serpent? He talked with impressive wisdom and authority, and her husband was obviously spiritually inferior. The serpent spoke as though he knew what God wanted and intended. Perhaps her husband was jealous and just wanted to hold her back.

Eve became dissatisfied with Adam’s leadership and lost respect for him when someone else injected himself into the family as a spiritual authority. The new spiritual authority implied that Adam’s leadership kept Eve from becoming like God. Adam was limiting her spiritual development. Adam was clearly holding her back. Therefore, when the Serpent promised to fulfill her spiritual aspirations, she promptly spiritually divorced her husband and took the headship of the Serpent. When Eve accepted the spiritual authority of the Serpent, she divorced herself from the spiritual authority of God and the natural authority of her husband.

Just like Eve, many women are unsatisfied with their husbands. They see their husbands for the natural authority they have that God gave them, and they want them to be spiritual authorities like their pastors. For most men, this will never be the case. Nor was it meant to be. Most pastors inadvertently take the position of the Serpent by superseding the natural authority of the man and assuming the spiritual authority meant for God.

Like Eve, most wives have pastors who seem wiser and more spiritual than their husbands. Most wives regard their pastors in much the same way Eve did the Serpent. And, like Eve, they lose respect for their husbands because of their pastors. Even knowing the esteem and admiration that women have for them, most pastors have little concern that many women have replaced them as their “head.” Most pastors enjoy it. This unholy union is nothing short of spiritual adultery.

What should women do? First, eliminate your husband’s competition. Your husband is to be your only natural authority, and God is to be your only spiritual authority. Men know that they cannot compete with pastors, so they don’t try. They give up as they see you embrace another. Stop going to an institutional church where your husband is replaced as your head. Find a home group or start one of your own where your family can grow and where your husband can be the head of your family as he is meant to be.

The Serpent enticed Eve by promising that if she listened to him instead of her husband she would become godlike. This is a common event in most churches. Women perceive spiritual growth from submitting to their pastors. They conclude that their husbands are not spiritual and do not know God – at least not like their pastor. This eventually causes them to complain to their pastor about their husbands, which causes yet further division. Instead of being directed back to the headship of their husband they are consoled. The damage done here affects not only their husbands but God as well. When a woman submits to the authority of a pastor, she breaks free of both the authority of her husband and of God. It is comparable to weeds growing in a garden sucking the nutrients from the vegetables. As you and your pastor grow together, you steal from your husband that which he needs to grow: his leadership. You essentially sacrifice his spiritual life for your own. Women who do this live off the spiritual life of the pastor, not the Holy Spirit. Their spiritual growth takes place when they are around him and other spiritual leaders they have selected to follow. Eve was looking for the fast track to her spiritual development and understood that this is what the Serpent offered. She truly believed that she had the answer. So “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her.” As a result, they both died. You may believe that you have the answer for your family’s spiritual development, but if it is submitting to the spiritual authority of a man, thereby sacrificing the leadership of your husband or his spiritual development, you are as deceived as Eve. Healthy spiritual development never divides the family.

These snippets are taken from an e-letter by http://members.triton.net/kmsrjs/thoughts.htm The website does not to appear ro be working so you can email them at kmsrjs@triton.net for a full transcript