My soul doth magnify The Lord
I have been speaking of a very high standard for men in several posts on this blog and I want to explore an aspect of what a woman looks like as a counterpart to that kind of man. There are many features of the feminine, of course, she is big and expansive. She is like water and pours into many different parts of life, but I want to speak of one sacred quality of the divine feminine today. For the scriptural definition, I will go to Ephesians 5:22-25.
This is saying that the husband is to his wife as Christ is to the church. So quite literally, we women should reverence and devote ourselves to our husband in the same way that we are commanded to do so to Jesus Christ. A woman is to give herself to her husband and a man is to give himself for his wife.
If we want our husbands to step up and follow in the footsteps of the prototype of the saved man, then we need to be prepared to revere him the way we revere that great prototype. The definition of reverence is: A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
Anciently, it was always the bride who anointed the king. It later devolved and the act of anointing fell to the priests, but earlier it was the right of his bride to anoint him as her king. At the time of Jesus Christ the earliest “Christians” would have been very familiar with the ancient rites of the priestess-bride anointing her husband as king. When Mary Magdalene anointed Christ before his death, the act would have had a very specific meaning and it could have only happened if Mary was Jesus’ wife. We are told in the Answer & Covenant that Abraham and Sarah sit upon a throne and that Abraham could not be there without Sarah’s covenant with him. Back in 2012 Denver Snuffer wrote on his blog the following: “No man has ever been elevated to a throne in eternity who was not placed upon it by his wife.”
One sacred aspect of a woman’s role is to place her husband upon a throne, and by implication make him a king over her kingdom. She is to elevate him, enthrone him, magnify him, honor him, reverence him, submit to and obey him, anoint him, wash his feet as she kneels before him in devotional worship.
I expect that paints a rather distressing picture for the modern woman. But what good is a man who has stepped up into his divinely appointed masculine role and is following in the footsteps of his Lord, if he is denied submission to his protection and leadership within his marriage? A king requires a queen and a queen requires a king and they rise up to become such together.
Lest you be distressed at my insinuation that a wife should honor and worship her husband, in Luke 1:46-55 we read of Mary-the mother of Christ, honoring, reverencing and worshipping her husband, God the Father. She says in response to Elizabeth:
Her soul magnifies Her Lord, rejoices in God Her Savior.
In Denver Snuffer’s talk Our Divine Parents, he Says:
One of the first things we see Mary do is: submit to, worship and magnify God the Father in these verses in Luke, which is known as the Magnificat in Christianity.
In this post, I shared about how my marriage went through a profound shift a few years ago. I am going to share a little bit about how I became aware that something had changed. All of my life I have had a deep and abiding love for Jesus Christ. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of me, quite young in primary, with deep feelings of love and adoration for the Lord. I have carried this love for Him my whole life.
In 2010, I found the book: The Second Comforter, Conversing with The Lord Through the Veil. I read it quickly and my love and devotion to Jesus soared to new heights. I often joked with myself that I was having a love affair with the Lord during this time period, because He consumed my thoughts daily. Nothing took precedence over Him. Now to be clear, I was very much in love with my husband of course, and always have been. But the Lord has truly had my heart my entire life.
Well, in 2020, I began to notice a very distinct shift. This great devotional love I had for Jesus and, dare I say worship, had shifted onto my husband. This was a little confusing for me. On one hand it was so natural and beautiful and the fruit it was producing was incredibly delicious, but on the other hand, I was worried about the propriety of it all. I prayed many, many, many times to the Lord saying: “Is this okay? Is it appropriate for me to feel this way?”
I received the same answer to that prayer over and over: ”Yes, it is okay. This is how it is supposed to be.” I did not fully understand that answer at the time, but I eventually accepted it. Time passed and about a year later the Lord helped me to understand what was happening a little better. My love and devotion and worship of the Lord had not shifted away from Him and onto my husband, rather, my husband had shifted and moved more into alignment with the Lord. And thus my natural adoration and devotional worship was flowing to both of them, but it was as though it poured into my husband first and then through him I worshiped the Lord.
I have settled into this reality quite comfortably at this point in time. It produces beautiful fruit between my husband and I and God. If someone had described this to me years ago, I would have never believed I could feel this way, and yet here we are.
The kind of marriage that I am attempting to describe in this blog is a unity and oneness between a man and a woman in complete and total devotion to each other and God. There is room for nothing and no one else between them. It is sorted out and attained through hard won battles in mortality-the ultimate proving ground, and yet, it creates an expansiveness that spans the eternities and blesses all who are touched by it.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
This is saying that the husband is to his wife as Christ is to the church. So quite literally, we women should reverence and devote ourselves to our husband in the same way that we are commanded to do so to Jesus Christ. A woman is to give herself to her husband and a man is to give himself for his wife.
If we want our husbands to step up and follow in the footsteps of the prototype of the saved man, then we need to be prepared to revere him the way we revere that great prototype. The definition of reverence is: A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
Anciently, it was always the bride who anointed the king. It later devolved and the act of anointing fell to the priests, but earlier it was the right of his bride to anoint him as her king. At the time of Jesus Christ the earliest “Christians” would have been very familiar with the ancient rites of the priestess-bride anointing her husband as king. When Mary Magdalene anointed Christ before his death, the act would have had a very specific meaning and it could have only happened if Mary was Jesus’ wife. We are told in the Answer & Covenant that Abraham and Sarah sit upon a throne and that Abraham could not be there without Sarah’s covenant with him. Back in 2012 Denver Snuffer wrote on his blog the following: “No man has ever been elevated to a throne in eternity who was not placed upon it by his wife.”
One sacred aspect of a woman’s role is to place her husband upon a throne, and by implication make him a king over her kingdom. She is to elevate him, enthrone him, magnify him, honor him, reverence him, submit to and obey him, anoint him, wash his feet as she kneels before him in devotional worship.
I expect that paints a rather distressing picture for the modern woman. But what good is a man who has stepped up into his divinely appointed masculine role and is following in the footsteps of his Lord, if he is denied submission to his protection and leadership within his marriage? A king requires a queen and a queen requires a king and they rise up to become such together.
Lest you be distressed at my insinuation that a wife should honor and worship her husband, in Luke 1:46-55 we read of Mary-the mother of Christ, honoring, reverencing and worshipping her husband, God the Father. She says in response to Elizabeth:
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed. For he who is mighty has done to me great things; and I will magnify his holy name, for his mercy on them that fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their high seats and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Her soul magnifies Her Lord, rejoices in God Her Savior.
In Denver Snuffer’s talk Our Divine Parents, he Says:
“Lectures on Faith" identifies Christ as “the prototype of the saved man.” Lecture 7 focuses attention on Christ as the Savior and Redeemer. But the lecture extends the requirements met by Jesus Christ to also apply for every saved man. In other words, for any man to be saved they must “attain to the resurrection,” like Christ. Shifting attention for a moment from Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and Savior to His Mother, we could acknowledge Her as “the prototype of the saved woman.” In other words, could we consider what She did a Divine pattern to be followed by women?”
One of the first things we see Mary do is: submit to, worship and magnify God the Father in these verses in Luke, which is known as the Magnificat in Christianity.
In this post, I shared about how my marriage went through a profound shift a few years ago. I am going to share a little bit about how I became aware that something had changed. All of my life I have had a deep and abiding love for Jesus Christ. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of me, quite young in primary, with deep feelings of love and adoration for the Lord. I have carried this love for Him my whole life.
In 2010, I found the book: The Second Comforter, Conversing with The Lord Through the Veil. I read it quickly and my love and devotion to Jesus soared to new heights. I often joked with myself that I was having a love affair with the Lord during this time period, because He consumed my thoughts daily. Nothing took precedence over Him. Now to be clear, I was very much in love with my husband of course, and always have been. But the Lord has truly had my heart my entire life.
Well, in 2020, I began to notice a very distinct shift. This great devotional love I had for Jesus and, dare I say worship, had shifted onto my husband. This was a little confusing for me. On one hand it was so natural and beautiful and the fruit it was producing was incredibly delicious, but on the other hand, I was worried about the propriety of it all. I prayed many, many, many times to the Lord saying: “Is this okay? Is it appropriate for me to feel this way?”
I received the same answer to that prayer over and over: ”Yes, it is okay. This is how it is supposed to be.” I did not fully understand that answer at the time, but I eventually accepted it. Time passed and about a year later the Lord helped me to understand what was happening a little better. My love and devotion and worship of the Lord had not shifted away from Him and onto my husband, rather, my husband had shifted and moved more into alignment with the Lord. And thus my natural adoration and devotional worship was flowing to both of them, but it was as though it poured into my husband first and then through him I worshiped the Lord.
I have settled into this reality quite comfortably at this point in time. It produces beautiful fruit between my husband and I and God. If someone had described this to me years ago, I would have never believed I could feel this way, and yet here we are.
The kind of marriage that I am attempting to describe in this blog is a unity and oneness between a man and a woman in complete and total devotion to each other and God. There is room for nothing and no one else between them. It is sorted out and attained through hard won battles in mortality-the ultimate proving ground, and yet, it creates an expansiveness that spans the eternities and blesses all who are touched by it.
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