More Reasons To Show Gratitude To God

Genesis 8:18-22

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after the other.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Genesis 9:1-3

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beast of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Genesis 19:16-22

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”

Genesis 19:30-32

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let us get our father to drink with wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father. 

I bless God again and again for another opportunity to share His word with His special people and I pray that His word will make a great impact in our lives and homes in Jesus Name.

I want us to take a second look at the issue of showing gratitude to God as a secret to receiving divine increase from Him for our lives such that in the midst of lack we the children of God will enjoy divine abundance. So we will consider the after effect of a life that has expressed gratitude to God and compare with a life that has not.

In Genesis 8:18-22, we read that after Noah came out of the ark, he selected some clean animals and birds and sacrificed an offering to the Lord on the altar he had built. The Bible then went further to tell us that God smelt the pleasing aroma of Noah’s sacrifice and said in His heart that never again will He curse the ground because of man despite the evil in the heart of man. He went on to declare that as long as the earth endures everything He has created will follow it’s due course as it should be.

But the beauty of it all is that God didn’t stop at making up His mind on certain issues in the life of man, He went further to bless Noah and his sons. He made a covenant of increase with Noah and his sons and every man on earth, and that covenant was a covenant of blessing. It was a covenant of increase and a covenant of divine provision of all that man would need. It was a covenant of protection as the Lord declared that He will cause the fear and dread of Noah and man in general to fall upon every beast that moves on the ground and on every bird that flies in the sky. Then the Lord said that all that moves and lives has been given to man as food. God held back nothing from man as He declared that He has given man everything.

Now this covenant came into existence because of Noah’s sacrifice. Noah was not asked to sacrifice as that was not included in the instruction God gave him when He told him to build an ark. But Noah sacrificed to God to show appreciation and as a form of gratitude to God for sparing his life and that of his household from the destruction that swept the earth and the benefit of that sacrifice is still being enjoyed till this generation. Yes, we still see the rainbow up in the sky in this generation as a reminder to God of the covenant He made with Noah and all man. God has not changed His mind nor has He gone back on the words He spoke to Noah in Genesis 9:1-3, neither has He destroyed the earth as He did in the times and days of Noah even though greater evil than then is seen in the world today.

The second scripture speaks of the man called Lot, whom the Lord showed mercy to and spared from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot just like Noah was delivered from a great destruction, but unlike Noah, Lot totally forgot to show gratitude to God. And there ended the mention of the name of Lot in the Bible. Rather than for Lot to appreciate God for showing him mercy, Lot ran to the cave and lived there in fear. He so lived in fear and became old and all that was said of Lot was that he fathered the children of his daughters in the course of getting drunk with wine. Yet Lot like Noah found favour with God and was spared.

So we see the difference between a life of gratitude and a life that forgot to show gratitude to God. As we truly desire an increase from God in our financial life and in fact in all areas of our lives, it is very important that we cultivate an attitude of gratitude. We need to imbibe a lifestyle of appreciating God for His gifts in our lives, both the little gifts and the big ones. Then we will flourish like the tree planted by the streams of waters bringing forth our fruits in season and in all that we do, we will prosper.

As we begin to crave for the abundance of God in our homes, it is time to start to building altars to the Lord and start to offer sacrifices on our altars that will be a pleasing aroma for Him to smell. When we do that He will pour out blessings on us that we do not have room enough to contain. Proverbs 3:9 says, "Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine." 

Books written by me are now available for sale at createspace.com. They are listed on the blog page and you can know more about the books and get a copy by clicking on the book of your choice. May you be so blessed and enriched and you get a copy and tell a friend about it. These are life changing materials that will make big impact in your life to the glory of God.  

A Grateful Heart Is A Heart that is Ready For An Increase

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

2 Samuel 6:12

Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of God had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ehpod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

Its another beautiful opportunity to share the word of God with God's wonderful people. People who are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Most High God in His glorious image. I am so positively sure that we will have a good year this 2016.

So we continue on the series of secrets to God’s divine increase in our financial life as a means to combat some pressing challenges in our marriages. And I will like to tag today’s post as “A grateful heart is a heart ready for increase.” I pray and hope that we are able to apply some of these knowledge in our lives and test God in His word for a divine visitation of His abundance. I am so very positive that God will not fail if we don’t fault in our obedience.

David was a man declared as a man after God’s heart. The Lord loved and favoured him and everyone knows about King David. But one secret I have found in David’s life is the secret of gratitude. David was a man who used every means within his reach to show gratitude to God. His words, his life, his singing, his dancing, his money, his everything was spent expressing his praise to God and giving Him all the glory.

It was David who confronted Goliath and said he was coming against him (Goliath) in the name of the Lord God of the army of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45-47). It appeared that of all the soldiers in the army formation of Israel including David’s elder brothers and King Saul, only this little boy David understood that the secret to their success in battle was to acknowledge the Lord. And because David acknowledged God, the Lord came through for him.

It was David who said he could not offer a sacrifice to God that cost him nothing (1 Chronicles 21:24). Irrespective of what David did to warrant him offering a sacrifice to God, he realized that what he was going to give to God must not come cheap. Now note this: at the time that David made this statement, Jesus had not come, He had not died for our sins, so you can then imagine that the sacrifice that God gave on our behalf which is the blood of His only son as a price for our sins did not come cheap. So if we say we love God and expect His love in return, then like David we cannot afford to offer cheap sacrifices to God.

David was a man who knew how to be grateful to God in songs and hymns. The book of Psalms says a whole lot about that. He sang joyfully to the Lord and appreciated Him for all the goodness He had received from God. Even when he sinned, he prayed and praised his way to receiving forgiveness from God. So knowing David for who he was and the place he gave to God in his life, will you blame God for blessing such a man and making his name great among all nations? Or will you blame God for declaring David a man after His heart? But God is not a partial God, if you and I can replicate David’s deed and even take it a little further, then we will receive the same blessings as David and even much more.

Another secret about David’s life was that he knew the God he served, in 1 Samuel 17:37, he revealed God had once delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear, so he knew God could deliver and was convinced that God would deliver and so he trusted God and boasted in the ability of God. 

In the theme scripture of this post, we see David dancing and making sacrifices to God as the ark of covenant was brought up into the city of David. As a wise king that David was, he knew that the presence of God signified by the ark of God carried a blessing with it. The Bible said the Lord had blessed the whole house of Obed-Edom and everything he had because of the ark of God that was in his house. So wise David ran quickly to get the ark and brought it to the city of David. Now will you fault David for dancing and sacrificing when he had seen a sample of what happened to Obed-Edom and understands the huge blessing entering into his city as a result of the coming in of the ark of God? 

We do not have the ark of God anymore but we have the presence of God in our lives in the form of the Holy Spirit and only the wise like David will offer up sacrifices of praise and worship to God just because of the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Just like the house of Obed-Edom was blessed so much that people could see and talk about, so is our lives destined to be so blessed that people can see and talk about just as a result of the presence of the Holy-Spirit in our lives. Joseph prospered everywhere he went because the Lord was with him (Genesis 39:2-6), so while as a slave, he prospered and his prosperity was so great that it extended to his master and so Potiphar was blessed by God just because of the blessing in the life of Joseph.

So in this year 2016, we the children of God will enjoy unlimited blessings as we learn to reverence the Spirit of God in our lives. Just like David we will learn to give our all to God as we begin to praise and worship Him in the little blessings and watch Him elevate us to greater blessings. Jesus said once we are faithful in little things then we prove ourselves ready for greater blessings (Luke 16:10-12).

In conclusion I have learnt the secret of success to be a grateful heart. When I learn to appreciate God for the little gifts I get, then I know that it’s just a matter of time for the big ones to come in. In Jesus Name our homes will receive a refreshing from God and we will receive our breakthroughs this year 2016 to the glory of God alone.  

Seeking God's Redress to the Financial Crisis In Marriages

So we continue in the series of seeking the face of God for His abundance in our homes. Like I said in my last post, once the challenges arising in marriage as a result of money are reduced to the very minimum if not totally eliminated, then we are working our way into a glorious marital experience. So today's post is in second in the series of tackling the financial problems of our homes and marriages.

There are a lot of books with various techniques and methods to apply in wealth acquisition and various seminar and programs have been put in place to teach people on wealth empowerment, but what I am trying to put across through the next series of blog post is totally different from what obtains in most of these seminars and books. This is going to be mainly the application of the word of God to test its efficacy and power to perform in our financial lives.

In this series of post I will be learning just as much as I am sharing on how to hold on to God and trust Him for the fulfillment of His word is my financial life as He has done in my marital life. What I desire is to have a repetition of the experience of Isaac is Genesis 26:1-14 in my life in this generation. I desire to have abundance in the midst of famine, and I do not want to gather wealth in an illegitimate manner or through a means whereby I am ashamed to tell the whole world the source of my increase. So I believe and I am convinced that if the Lord can come through for me in my marital life where He revealed to me the rules of a successful marriage and also helped to abide by these rules and now I have a very wonderful marriage that gives me great joy and gladness of heart, I know He will do the same in my financial life. So we will take time to search the word of God for the secret to divine increase in the area of finances and apply the rules of success in this area to our lives and I know with all certainty that divine financial increase will be ours for keeps this year in Jesus Name. Where there is famine in the land, we will plant and reap in hundred folds and grow rich steadily until we have grown very rich. 

Deuteronomy 7:11-15

Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today. If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land – your grain, new wine and oil – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to you forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young.

Deuteronomy 15:4

However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all the commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

Its no gainsaying that in the middle of severe lack and very bad economic outlook some people will be enjoying divine abundance because in truth that is the portion of true sons of God. David said in Psalms 37:25 that once he was young and then he is old yet he has never seen the righteous man forsaken or their children begging bread. And Psalms 34:10 says “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” So if we believe that the Bible is true and not one of the words contained in the Bible will prove false, then even in this very harsh economic times the true sons of God should not lack anything good. In fact Moses said that there should be no poor in the land, because those going to occupy the land are those God has chosen for Himself, they were a special people from all the other people on the face of the earth. They were God’s own people, and they should not be poor or live in lack.

So the very first lesson that I am learning and willing to share is that if I am to enjoy legitimate divine wealth in this very harsh times and I have so far enjoy the hand of God on my marriage so I know His words to be true, then I must belong to the category of God’s special people who have the seal of God’s ownership on their lives. These are the category of people that can enjoy legitimate non-shameful wealth at this time of economic hardship. For these people when everyone else is saying there is a casting down they are saying there is a lifting up.

God through Moses declared a huge word of blessings in the book of Deuteronomy, there are several portion of that book in the Bible where God spoken and reinstated His intention to bless His people and just as if that was not enough, in every book of the Bible, there is a word from God declaring His intention and will to bless His people, but there is a condition to meet. There are prerequisite to these blessings that are not longer God dependent, but on the ability of those to be blessed by God to meet and comply with. And these prerequisite condition is "to Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and to obey all of His commandments and decrees." If this prerequisite condition is met then having abundance of riches in the midst of lack is your portion.

So the declaration of blessings from God is for those who belong to Him; the people He has chosen for Himself, who love the Lord with all their hearts and souls and who obey the laws and commandments of God. So the next thing to know as we desire to enjoy the abundance of God is how to belong to him. And in answer to this John 1:12-13 says “Yet to all who receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not out of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but of God.” And Ephesians 1:13-14 reads, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory.” Here is what we need to do in order to belong to God, we need to receive Jesus into our lives and believe in His name. This is suppose to come from a truly yielded heart. When we accept Jesus into our lives and receive Him as our Lord and Savior, God puts a seal of ownership on our lives and that is the Holy Spirit. Then we become legitimate sons and daughters of God.

When we truly surrender our lives to Jesus, we become one of those who belong to God and can lay claims to His blessings. When we belong to God, and love God with all our hearts and soul and start to obey His commands and laws, then the blessings of God as we have seen in scriptures above begins to take effect in our lives.

I am learning and I believe the Lord that you are learning too as we seek the face of God for a life of abundance in the midst of lack. I believe that one major problem of marriage will be solved in this series of post as we learn to lean on God for a life of abundance in the midst of lack. Lesson one is that we truly give our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior and love the Lord with all our hearts and soul and obey the laws and commands of the Lord.

There are more to learn and know when it comes to enjoying abundance in the midst of lack so I hope and pray you follow this series and share with a friend.  

Books written by me are now available for sale at createspace.com. They are listed on the blog page and you can know more about the books and get a copy by clicking on the book of your choice. May you be so blessed and enriched and you get a copy and tell a friend about it. These are life changing materials that will make big impact in your life to the glory of God.  

How Big Is Your Faith?

In as much as there are still very big issues in marriages today, I believe also that there are big issues in the financial lives of many Christians. The economic situation the world over is not so interesting. A large number of marital challenges originate from the very challenging economic situation of the family. Its either the husband is getting frustrated from the financial pressure he is made to bear alone and thus taking his frustration out on his wife (such as the story I heard yesterday), or that the father and mother now have to work long hours in order to make ends meet thereby leaving the children to grow up by themselves with little supervision. As we all know this has its negative after effect on the society.

But surprisingly, as bad as things are getting economically, some very few people are getting richer by the day. They don’t have to do anything illegal to make wealth but when others are complaining about the times being hard, these very few are having a good time, with their bans full and enjoying their wealth. They are eating, drinking and enjoying the good things of life. Yet they are not ritualist, or corrupt personalities. They are engaged in legitimate work, and they are enjoying increase.

Genesis 26:1, 12-14

Now there was a famine in the land – besides the earlier famine of Abraham’s time – and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.

 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.  

This was the experience of Isaac. It was in the midst of famine that Isaac’s prosperity began to spring up. His elevation story started when there was famine. So that tells me that the economic downturn is not a limiting factor for those who God has earmarked for a blessing. So I am trusting God to open up to me and also to you as you visit this blog regularly the secrets of enjoying great wealth in the midst of famine.

I am positive these messages will require a series of blog post, so as we have enjoyed the series on marriages in the Bible last year, we will enjoy much more this year and all the glory will always belong to God. 

Books written by me are now available for sale at createspace.com. They are listed on the blog page and you can know more about the books and get a copy by clicking on the book of your choice. May you be so blessed and enriched and you get a copy and tell a friend about it. These are life changing materials that will make big impact in your life to the glory of God.  

This Divorce Is Inevitable; My Wife Has Evil Spiritual Powers

First I really need to apologize for the temporary break in delivery of my post, it was not deliberate as I had promised to always have a word for you from God throughout the days of this year by the special grace of God. I had some other assignment I needed to round up, but by the special grace of God I will make it up to you. For as long as the Lord provides His word, it shall be delivered undiluted and in good time. I thank those who called to find out the reason for the break and I feel blessed to be used by God for you. I pray that your lives and homes will always remain blessed in Jesus name. 
Today's post is in response to a feedback I got from the last post I shared on the issue of divorce, I pray and hope that everyone who reads this will receive a touch from God and make a God accurate decision on the challenges of their marriage. The glory of the latter marriage will surpass the former in Jesus Name.   
Please ensure you share what you have learnt from this blog with a friend. Spread the word and save a home. It's a priceless gift at no cost to you but of great benefit to someone needing it. So here is the issue and the response.
   
Issue

I agree with a lot of points you made in your last blog post on the issue of divorce, but my own case is exceptional. My wife is something else as I don’t even know how to begin to describe her. First she is very wayward, infidelity and adultery are issues that don’t sound like sin to her as they have become her regular practice. In fact these things have become her way of life. I have pleaded with her several times to slow down from this fast paced ungodly life style but all my talks have fallen onto deaf ears. She has absolutely no respect for our marriage. I have prayed and talked and nothing has changed. But I became moreconcerned about her and her attitude when she started making treats at me and saying things like: when she is done with me I will be worse than a church rat as I have no idea of the power she possesses. This I now believe calls for a more serious action on my part, I’ll rather divorce than loose my life or things that I have worked hard to earn for a wife who is not worth the trouble.

Respond

Waow! I am sure you would probably be feeling overwhelmed now by your marital situation and I thank God for the grace He has given you to be able to hold on till this point. But I will tell you that even at this point getting a divorce is not a solution to the problem, if God cannot handle this matter for you he would call your home and you will be freed of the covenant you both have in marriage and He will provide for you another helper as a wife. Now if I would say that divorce is not a solution then what is? First I don’t know the power your wife possesses that gives her the courage to boast of it without shame, but I can tell you that you also don’t know the power you have as a child of God that makes you want to run out of your marriage as a result of mere treat. Your wife is making a boast of her powers because she is aware that you either are not a child of God enough to operate in the power of God, or that you don’t know the enormity of the power that is in Christ Jesus that has also been given to you as you gave your life to Jesus. And so because she knows you don’t have the power or that you don’t know that you have the power she can make her own boast. Colossians 2:10 says “And you are complete in Him (Jesus), who is head of all principality and power”; In Matthew 18:18 Jesus says “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Isaiah 44:24-26 reads, “This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers.” These are just very negligible fraction of scriptures in the Bible where God spoke of the power He has given to His children. If you are now convinced within you that you are complete in Jesus Christ who is head of all principality and power, how come the treat of your wife should ever matter to you? You are complete in Jesus who is head of all principality and power and based on my own understanding you, who is in Jesus is head of all principality and power. You are head over your wife as her husband as the Lord has ordained it, then you are complete in Jesus who is head over all principality and power and by so you possess a power that is head over whatever power she might think she has. This knowledge should awaken your spirit being to know that God has empowered you with everything you need to ensure the victory of that situation. In answer to the question I raised earlier what then is the answer to this problem if not divorce; and I will say prayers, prayers, prayers and lots of love. Genesis 25:21 says “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” If God heard and answered Isaac’s prayer for his wife then why will He not hear and answer your prayer of deliverance over your wife and whatever spirit/ power she has? Rebekah the Bible says was barren and her husband prayed for her. She had an issue and rather than Isaac divorcing her and condemning her as barren, he prayed for her and God answered. Your wife also has an issue, though it is different from that of Rebekah, still it is an issue, so pray for her and don’t get tired of praying till God hears and answers that prayer. The God that delivered Rebekah from the clutches of barrenness can and will deliver your wife from any and every evil spirit she is moving around with whether she likes it or not. Pray for her expecting God to answer and don’t give up on your wife. I will share a testimony that I heard at an 80^thbirthday celebration of a man that I attended to close up this discussion. The wife of the celebrant who was really younger than her husband gave a testimony of how God used her husband to change her life. The age difference of the celebrant and his wife was about 30years and she married the man relatively young, she was in her early twenties when she got married to the man. She was just approaching adulthood and she was really out to have fun. She was what she herself described as wayward and not ready to settle to married life as she was still young. She would party and have fun. Her husband tried to talk to her and make her settle down and she would complain always that her husband was always nagging and not giving her room to enjoy her life. With patience and prayers and firmness her husband was able to prune her to shape. With her husband’s unrelenting effort she grew to be a responsible mother who has grown to love the Lord with all her heart. She testified that the lessons she didn’t learn under her parent’s watch she learnt under her husband’s watch. As at the time she gave the testimony they had been married for about 28years and she was able to testify that her husband brought out the best in her; qualities she never knew she possessed. I pray that will be your wife’s testimony too concerning how you have helped her bring a beauty out of the mess of her life in Jesus Name. I know it will not be easy and it was not easy for this couple too, there were lot of divorce treats, but they came out stronger and better. I pray that the Lord will uphold you as you work at earning this one soul which is your wife for Christ Jesus. 

Books that I wrote are now available for sale at createspace.com. They are listed on the blog page and you can know more about the books and get a copy by clicking on the book of your choice. May you be so blessed and enriched and you get a copy and tell a friend about it. These are life changing materials that will make big impact in your life to the glory of God.

Is it Possible For Them to Get Back Together?

Matthew 19:7-9

“Why then,” they said, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

1 Corinthian 7:10-11

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A woman must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

Malachi 2:16

“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the Lord Almighty.

I bless the Lord for the gift of a new day and a new opportunity to share His word to many wonderful people who have been and will always be blessed by the truth of God’s words shared on this blog. May the Lord never cease to always bless your homes in Jesus Name.

We have been receiving insight from God through His word in the Bible to help us build a wonderful home and enjoy a peaceful and beautiful marital life. But I trust the Lord to help do more than that in the lives of many. I trust God to help us rebuild broken homes and reconcile broken marriages. And because I know and believe that there nothing is impossible for God to do, I know that this one longing of my heart will receive answers from God in Jesus Name.

Some days back I spoke to a friend’s sister who had been separated from her husband for well over six months. Initially it started as a fight that eventually led to a separation and hoping that with time these two will miss each other and find their way back into each other’s arms the people around them let things rest. But when I heard that after about seven months there seem to be no hope for reconciliation, I decided to call the wife who happens to be the one I know to find out exactly what the problem is.

She told me so many stories beginning with how she met her husband and how he deceived her into marrying him. But according to her that was a long gone issue, but the recurring problem between them that she could not cope with was the fact that her husband was a laid back person who was not ready to do much in terms earning income but would rather she does all the work while he keeps spending the money. He would not take care of the financial needs of the family and she had absolutely no idea of how much he earns as income and how he spends his money. She also complained of his low moral values and the fact that he sleeps with almost every woman he meets. His low life attitude is so bad that he sleeps with her staffs who work for her in her hair salon. So all these put together, forms the reason why she worked out of the marriage and was not ready to go back into it. In fact she was thanking God she was finally out of the bondage called marriage that she has found herself in.

So many people would probably conclude that she has every reason by human standard to take a walk from the pathetic man called husband that she married and begin to live a better quality life rather than slave for a man who does not appreciate her. But before we conclude so, it’s important to search the mind of God objectively on the matter and know the will of God for this woman and many other husbands or wives out there that are about to be EXed (divorced) for good reasons based on human standard.

For those with marital issues, whether you are already separated or divorced or about to be, I pray that the Lord will sow a seed of positive change in that situation and life will be restored in your marriage and the glory of the latter years of your marriage will surpass the former in Jesus Name.

So we search the mind of God and see what He tells us from His word. I started this blog post with some Bible passages revealing the mind of God on the issue of divorce, and from what we see God say about divorce or even separation, it’s a complete NO NO from God. Divorce was not in the mind of God and still not on His mind. “I hate divorce” says the Lord God of Israel. Jesus went on to tell us that divorce came into being as a result of the hardness of the heart of man. So if the heart of man was not hard but forgiving, divorce will never be in existence. So if I am not going to sound judgmental (which I am trying not to be), divorce is only for those whose hearts are hard.

For those who feel wronged by their spouses and are either divorced or about to be, forgiveness and reconciliatory moves does not make you a weakling, rather it shows the high level of reverence and love you have for God and it depicts the fact that you are a child of God. Matthew 5:43-45 reads, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. If you consider your spouse as your enemy that you should divorce, the Lord Jesus says rather than hate your enemy, you should pray for them. So rather than hate your spouse so much that you want a divorce you should pray for him/her.

I always tell people when we get to have marriage talks that you cannot change your spouse by mere talking to them. Your complains, naggings, quarrels and fights cannot make that man or woman become what you want them to be. I do not mean that you cannot express yourself politely, but there is more to changing a man than complaining, nagging, fighting them or making quarrels. Consider approaching God in prayers on behalf of your spouse over that attitude or characteristics they possess that does not please you. Then follow up that prayer with good attitude and love, and for the wife, follow it up with submission and politeness. It is just a matter of time for you to start to see the changes in them that pleases you. For as long as the change you desire in your spouse is a Godly trait you can be sure that the Lord will make it happen even through you without a fight or quarrel.

If in the case that your spouse has committed adultery and is marital unfaithful to you, have you tried praying for such a spouse that the Lord who is able to make all things new, deliver him/her from the evils of fornication and adultery and make him/her a new person. Then find a place in your heart to forgive, rather than use the words of Jesus to fan the flames of the hardness of your heart which leads to a divorce. We have all sinned at one time in our marriages and we expect to be forgiven, now rather than be the one to be forgiven why not be the one to forgive.

Genesis 2:18 reads, “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.’”As a wife you are God’s divine helper in the life of your husband. The helper provided by God even when he is misbehaving and missing the call of God on his life. You are the mercy of God for his life to help restore him back to God’s will for his life, yet this wife is the one calling for a divorce from the husband she has been assigned to help over issues that she has been assigned to help him overcome and win victory over. Wanting a divorce amounts to you as a wife telling God you cannot do the assignment which He has given you to do. With all of these as God’s plan for the man and his wife we can understand why God says “He hates divorce.” 

Now if you cannot carry out this assignment of being a helper to your husband successfully, how can you prove to God that if He gives you to another man to help you can carry out that assignment successfully. So God says through Paul that if you have to divorce as a result of the hardness of your heart then you should remain unmarried or be reconciled to your husband. 

Proverbs 19:14 reads, Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. As a man, at the point of marrying your wife you had considered her a gift from God in your life, and you are not far from the truth because Solomon says a prudent wife is from the Lord. But when she began to show traits that you did not expect from the wife that God gave you did you bother to take her case back to God who gave her to you as a wife for Him to make the necessary adjustment in her life while you still continue to show her love as the Lord has instructed you to, or did you just throw her like a piece of rubbish out of your life and strolled to the law court for a certificate of divorce? Now again we can understand why God says “He hates divorce.” That piece of rubbish you just divorced or about to divorce is God’s favour for your life. Proverbs 18:22 says “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from God.” Can you prove to God and justify the fact that if He provides another favour for you in the form of a prudent wife you will not throw her out of your life again when she makes mistakes one too many times like you did the first?

Understand this very carefully when/if God sees that your husband or wife has gotten so way out of control that he/she cannot be tamed by God and that He does through you when you obey His rules for marriage, He will call him/her home and assign another helper to you as a wife or provide another head for you as a husband (Read 1 Samuel 25: the story of Abigail and Nabal). It is only through death which is from God that a marriage covenant can be broken not by you obtaining a divorce.     

In closing, I am sure you will not be surprised if I tell you that the advice I gave the young lady whose story I shared at the beginning was to go and pray for her husband until the Lord causes a change in his life. Her separation would not solve the problem and if she wants to please God, then she is not permitted to marry another man other than be reconciled to her husband. I pray by the special grace of God that testimonies will abound as a reason of this blog post and marriages that otherwise were dead will rise again to the glory of God alone in Jesus Name. 

The Responsibility of Raising Children, How is it shared Among Couples?

Genesis 18:18-19

Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken.

Ephesians 6:4

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Yeah it’s another beautiful day in God’s grace and goodness and for the gift of the breath of life that we have today, we bless God abundantly. Thanking Him who is our ever sure supply for the grace to share His word again today. I pray that lives and homes will be blessed in Jesus Name.

In looking at some very common avenues in which the devil can attempt to penetrate our marriage and steal our joy, we will be trusting God for a word on the issue of raising our children. Proverbs 22:6 says “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” There are two things I am believing God to open up our hearts to in this blog post, and the first is: who holds the higher responsibility in training a child between the father and the mother, and secondly what direction should the training of our children take.

In the world today, the way and manner in which responsibilities are shared in the home is that the husband going out to work and earn income, while the wife stays home to care for and train the children. And so there are instances whereby the fathers do not get involved at all or have very minimal contribution in the training of the children, other than making available funds to meet their financial needs. So it is easy to blame the mother when things go wrong with the children because it is assumed that she is the one staying at home to train them.

With the new economic downturn that has seen the wife also having to hustle to make ends meet as it is almost impossible for the husband alone to financially provide for the family, we have the wives overburdened with the task of making money, yet caring for and training the children. And in cases where the wife cannot cope, she unburdens the caring for and training of the children to the housemaid. This has in turn created all sorts of child abuse and ill-mannered children that we have in the world today.

So it’s important to have a Biblical understanding of who owns what responsibility when it comes to training our children. I also want us to bear in mind that for every assignment given to man by God, He demands an account (Genesis 9:5).

From what God said concerning Abraham that he is expected to command his children and his entire household to keep the way of the Lord and to do righteousness and justice, and also the word of Paul to the fathers in Ephesians 6:4 which says "bring up his children in the training and admonition of the Lord," answers our two major questions that it’s the father who owns the primary responsibility to train his children and he is to train them in the way of the Lord and for this responsibility on his life, he will give account.

Contrary to the tradition that is in play in this generation, the Lord expects that the father/husband commands and instructs his children and even his household which includes his wife in the way of the Lord. But caring for the children is the responsibility of the mother/wife. From the qualities of a virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10-31, we will understand that the wife/mother is burdened with the responsibility of caring for her children and entire household which includes the husbands, while the husband/father is holding the responsibility of issuing commands and training the children and the entire household in the way of the Lord. And in reality, the husband is the ideal and effect person to train the children as his instructions are seen to carry more weight.

But when it comes to the training of the children the mother also has a role to play. She is her husband's suitable helper, divinely provided by God to assist him in every area of his life and assignment that God has placed on his life and that includes the training of their children. So what I am understanding and sharing now is that the man holds the primary assignment to train the children in the way of the Lord while the wife is provided by God to assist him in this assignment.

With this very well understood, it should no longer be the trend that the mother will be solely held responsible for the bad behavior of the child while the father is exonerated of any fault. Rather both the father and mother should realize their lapses in training their children with the husband feeling more of the burden on the issue because he holds the responsibility to train his children.

In closing I will point out that mothers have more influence on their children and with this comes the need for them to lead by example. When the mother is implementing the commands and instructions of her husband in her life and the children are seeing her do that effectively, it becomes a step easier for her to enforce the father's instructions in the home. And most importantly is that the father as the head of the home leads by example also. Then the children will do as they do and not do just as they say. May God bless and replenish our homes and shine down on our children in Jesus Name.