Do you believe God will call a woman into ministry?

 I have had several good questions by different people come to me to be answered, and if one person is asking, that usually means there are a bunch more people out there asking the same question. Therefore, I am going to repost my answers to these questions with a little more thought and scripture so more people will know the biblical answer.

Do you believe God will call a woman into ministry? My answer is that I can quickly think of one instance where God did call a woman into ministry. This is Deborah in Judges 4:4. 

 ⁴And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

God was already using Deborah, but as you read the story; God uses her greatly in the salvation of Israel. Further, on in Judges, you see that God had called Barak to lead an army, but he was reluctant to go, so God sent a message to Deborah to remind Barak of God’s call.

⁶And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulon?

 ⁷And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

However, Barak was chicken, as my wife likes to say, and would not go up unless Deborah went with him.
 ⁸And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.

Therefore, God said he would not get the victory, but a woman would.

 ⁹And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

To make a long story short, this is exactly what God does. God tells Barak exactly how to attack and from where, plus He gives a rainstorm that makes the chariots are mired in the mud, and they routed them. (Judges 4-5) However, Sisera, the commander, escapes and runs to another women …. 

¹⁸And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.

 ¹⁹And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.

 ²⁰Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.

 ²¹Then Jael, Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took and hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

There are many other places in the Bible were God called women into ministry; one of the big ones is where it says women minister to Jesus in His earthly ministry.

Matthew 27:55
And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:

What people usually quote when talking about women in ministry is

 1 Corinthians 14:34-35
King James Version (KJV)

 ³⁴Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.

 ³⁵And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

You see, in the example of Deborah, God gave words to give to a man. Therefore, there seems to be a contradiction. Look a little closer at the story of Deborah. You see that in Judges, they were in very apostate times, men were not listening to God, so God used someone whose heart was right, and it happened to be a woman. I think in 1 Cor. Paul is talking about the ideal. God wants to use men to lead the church and minister, but in apostate times, God will use who ever will listen to him. So if you want to get down to it, if God is using women in ministry, (which we know He is, because we see it in the Bible and in modern day.) Then men have hardened their hearts to God. We need a revival of men in the church today. The answer is God does and has used women in ministry.