A marriage of love, unity and understanding

Worshipping God as Creator

When you look at your spouse and see the glory of God's creative artistry, it supernaturally follows with the ability to treat them with dignity and respect.

Our issue becomes when we want to re-create our spouse into our own image or at least into someone who would be easier for us to live with. It is here, in the questioning of the Creator, that we slip into the practice of dishonouring and disrespecting our spouse.

After a while, you will start to figure things out and you begin to do things differently. You will eventually learn how to love, respect, encourage, and challenge your spouse the way they need to be loved. Your desire to meet your own needs begins to diminish as the desire to meet the needs of your spouse increases. It is a beautiful thing, necessary thing, a biblical thing and it starts with worship.

Worship opens the door to wonder and joy as we celebrate the Creator.

Worshipping God as Sovereign

Life does not work out as planned, yet God rules the whole process.

Here’s what I mean by the sovereignty of God: God has the rightful authority, the freedom, the wisdom, and the power to bring about everything that he intends to happen. And therefore, everything he intends to come about does come about. Which means, God plans and governs all things.- John Piper

So here we are in our marriage where we bring cultural, familial and experiential influences of two peoples lives and put them all together.  It does not take long before we realize our spouse does not share our expectations.

“I expect that my husband will discuss and resolve disagreements in a systematic and logical manner.” “I expect my wife will be excited about making love with me every night.” “I expect a good deal of affection and a great deal of physical contact in our marriage.” “I expect that my wife will nurture and comfort me when I am ill.” “I expect that my husband will climb the corporate ladder and make ever increasing amounts of money.” “I expect that we will have daily devotions and prayer in our home.” “I expect that my wife will remain slim and shapely throughout our marriage.” “I expect that my husband will take pleasure in sharing the events of the day when he gets home.” “I expect to have dinner waiting for me when I get home at 5:30.” “I expect that my husband will do his fair share of household maintenance.” “I expect to entertain a large army of family members at major holidays.” “I expect to have an open home in which people feel free to drop by at any time.”

Only when we celebrate the sovereignty of God and how He formed us and brought us together can we quit being irritated by our differences and start realizing how much more our lives has been enhanced by them.

Worshipping God as Saviour 

How long do you think it will take you before you realize that you have married a sinner?

Our responses to our spouse is critical when this event takes place. Remember that we ourselves are in desperate need of grace. Remembering who God is and who we are. If we see our world, our lives, and our circumstances through the lens of Jesus’s cross, everything will come into focus. And that clarity of sight will awaken joy in us. It is looking through this lens that we find a deep sense of what it means to be loved by a good and kind heavenly Father.

As we worship our Saviour, we find joy in being part of the work of grace that God is committed to giving to our spouse and when they mess up, we will find ways to incarnate the transforming grace of the Saviour.

Where will we look today for the reasons to continue working on our marriage when we enter into those seasons of disappointment? Our marriages are particularly vulnerable when we are disheartened, and unless we’re constantly seeking after the Lord and looking for Him in our circumstances, disappointment will become a distraction, one that threatens to keep us from all God has for us.

Expect the expected

Our marriages live in the middle of a world that does not function as God intended.

Most couples do not realize that glorifying God is the deeper meaning of a Biblical marriage. In most marriages, the focus on Jesus is the missing puzzle piece to the abundance God planned. We seek the ways of the world (riches, lust, vanity, self-absorption) to guide us in marriage, while Jesus is waiting for us to seek Him through His Word.

These words should cause us to pause...

On that day you will be glad, even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while.  Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns. - 1 Peter 1:6-7

God decided to leave us in this fallen world to live, love and work because He intended to use the difficulties we face to do something in us that couldn't be done any other way.  God is working through our daily circumstances to change us.

We also do not get to be married to someone perfect.

Marriage can be tricky and challenging at times. So it's only natural that when you're in one of those funks, you begin to ask, "Did I marry the right person?"

We tend to personalize what is not personal.

A one-sided relationship is where one person does not seem to be pulling their weight or even care about the health and well being of the relationship. These relationships tend to be frustrating to the people involved and in the end, spiraling to the ground in with both partners exhausted.
 

However, we are not alone in our struggle.

As humans, we are not meant to be isolated. We all crave deep and lasting connections with other people. But we know it’s possible to feel alone in the middle of a crowd, and it’s possible to sleep in the same bed with someone for years and still feel lonely. Many of us never expect to be lonely in marriage, hoping that our spouse will be the lifelong companion who saves us from loneliness.

God is near, so near that in our moment of need we can reach out and touch Him because He is not far from each one of us.

The open tomb also reminds us that God is powerful.

Abraham could be an example of this. In the early days of his life, Abraham lacked confidence in the power of God. He made his way to the land of Canaan in obedience to the revelation He received from God. But when a famine came in the land, Abram made his way to Egypt, a decision which does not seem prompted by faith in God’s power or His promises. When he and Sarai arrived there, they conducted themselves as they habitually did throughout much of their marriage — they deceived others about their relationship. It is apparent from Abram’s words that Abram was afraid when he took his wife to a foreign land. Because there was no “fear of God in that place” (Genesis 20:11), he thought God’s power was somehow nullified. It seems Abram thought God’s power was sufficient to protect him only when he was in the right place and when the people of that place feared God.

Not interested in being realistic

As I write these posts I have two things in mind - my own marriage following a 10-week course where we followed Paul Tripp's book, What did you Expect? and my own daughter's wedding coming up in a few months.

As she went to premarital counselling I could not come up with a realistic expectation for her to discuss. So here are a few of my thoughts.

I changed the word expectation to perspective - hope this works for us.

Paul Tripp being interviewed gave these three --

• First, you are conducting your marriage in a fallen world. This means we all face the same thing and your marriage will be touched every day by the brokenness of our world.

• Second, you are married to a sinner. We just don’t get to be married to someone perfect. Your life will be affected by the sin, weakness, and failure of the person you are living with. And at some point you will sin against your spouse.

• Finally, you must remember that God is with you. You are not alone in your struggle. Yes, you live in a bad neighborhood (fallen world), and the two of you are less than perfect (sin), but in all this you are not left to your own resources.

 It is realistic to expect someone in a marriage whose needs are not being met to do two things - go without and suffer or get their needs met somewhere else - it is not realistic or even healthy to expect your spouse to meet all of your needs.

For old-timers like me, I should be taking a proactive stand when I see relationships portraying themselves in an unrealistic light.  I need to wonder out loud why a couple married for 10 years needs to act like they are madly in love every single moment. If I am going to wonder out loud, I might as well comment out loud too and ask to see the highlight reel of some of their ups and downs.

I remember arguing, debating and pleading with my wife to have my expectations met - as unrealistic as they were

One last thought - from my perspective - you have had a really bad day and you want me to say or do the perfect, world-fixing thing that I have become famous for when we were first dating and the first years of our marriage. Unfortunately, I cannot magically sweet-talk your problems or bad moods away. It is time to manage your own expectations. If you push me too much, you will be disappointed. If I do not talk you off your stressed-out ledge it is because I have even more stress on my own plate. Our marriage has gone through phases - where you are stressed out, where I am overloaded with work obligations, family responsibilities, bills and more. I am not wired to tell you where I am with all of this. I tend to shut down. So instead of snapping because I cannot read your mind, try to remember that my day did not go so well either. Then we can hold each other, work together and end our day in peace.

Relationship of Marriage

If the Bible tells us things about God, ourselves, life, and about human struggle along with the divine solution, then it is not a stretch that every passage can also be said to be a marriage passage.  There is something there that gives us wisdom on how to deal with relationships.

The Lord made a woman out of the rib.The Lord God brought her to the man,  and the man exclaimed,

“Here is someone like me!
She is part of my body,
    my own flesh and bones.
She came from me, a man.
    So I will name her Woman!”^[a]

 That’s why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person.

- Genesis 2:22-24

Have respect for marriage. Always be faithful to your partner, because God will punish anyone who is immoral or unfaithful in marriage.- Hebrews 13:4

It is also safe to say that the image of God is reflected in the marriage union too. The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; they are one and yet still individual persons. Marriage demonstrates two individual people becoming “one” for the rest of their lives while maintaining their individuality.

Relationship finds itself as a central theme in the Bible.  

“Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.”  - St. Augustine

God designed us for a relationship with Him. The whole of Scripture speaks of our relationship with Him: how to have it, how to hold onto it, how to rest in it, how to communicate it, how to enjoy it.

We can see that marriage is an intimate and complementing union between a man and a woman in which the two become one physically, in the whole of life. The purpose of marriage is to reflect the relationship of the Godhead. 

We can appreciate what God designed marriage to provide - partnership, spiritual intimacy and the ability to pursue God — together.

 And why isn’t God pleased? It’s because he knows that each of you men has been unfaithful to the wife you married when you were young. You promised that she would be your partner, but now you have broken that promise.  Didn’t God create you to become like one person with your wife?^[a] And why did he do this? It was so you would have children, and then lead them to become God’s people. Don’t ever be unfaithful to your wife.- Malachi 2:14-15

What does the Bible say about relationships and marriage?

Burning with the love of Jesus

It was what the Dutch Jesuit scholar and mystic Henri Nouwen once told a gathering of Baptist ministers: "Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community. A lot of people are always concerned about: 'How can I help people? Or help the youth to come to Christ? Or preach well?' But these are all basically non-issues. If you are burning with the love of Jesus, don't worry: everyone will know. They will say, 'I want to get close to this person who is so full of  God.'"

It is possible and the Suffering Church, by example, proves to us that it its indeed possible to lose everything...to suffer everything...to endure everything...yet maintain a joyful spirit and heart of love for the Lord.

So often our major shortcoming is simply to doubt that we could go through those experiences and come out of them as refined and triumphant.  Jesus never promised that our life would be easy - just fulfilling.  He never promised that things would be fair - only that He would be just. 

“It is more difficult to be a Christian in the USA than in Iran. There you are either a Christian or not!” - Iranian Christian leader Luke Yagnazar “We have physical persecution but you have materialism. Your lot is harder because we know what we are spiritually fighting. Many times you don’t.” - Pastor Samuel Lamb in southern China.

Our first semester passed quickly. Penina gave birth to our son, Dawaudi Babumba. In the fall I returned to my studies. It was then, in my second year, that I noticed the change that had come into my life. In Uganda, Penina and I read the Bible for hope and life. We read to hear God’s promises, to hear His commands and obey them. There had been no time for argument and no time for religious discrepancies or doubts.

Now, in the security of a new life and with the reality of death fading from mind, I found myself reading Scripture to analyze texts and speculate about meaning. I came to enjoy abstract theological discussions with my fellow students and, while these discussions were intellectually refreshing, it wasn’t long before our fellowship revolved around ideas rather than the work of God in our lives. It was not the blood of Jesus Christ that gave us unity, but our agreement on doctrinal issues. We came together not for confession and forgiveness but for debate.

The biggest change came to my prayer life. In Uganda I had prayed with a deep sense of urgency. I refused to leave my knees until I was certain I had been in the presence of the resurrected Christ. It was not just the gift I needed. I needed to see the Giver. I needed to know that the God of orphans and widows, the God of the helpless, heard my prayers. Now, after a year in Philadelphia, the urgency was gone. When I prayed publicly I was more concerned to be theologically correct than to be in God’s presence. Even in private my prayers were no longer the helpless cries of a child. They were spiritual tranquilizers, thoughts that made no contact with anything outside themselves. More and more I found myself coming to God with vague requests for gifts I did not expect. - Uganda pastor, Kefa Sempangi

However, in my work with SAT-7 Canada, we see the Church in many middle eastern countries and in North Africa as evidence the persecution does not guarantee church unity, growth or revival.  Then also we see the Church in South Korea at the other end of the spectrum for they are an example of a free country where the church is experiencing significant growth and revival.

 “It is not persecution itself but the lessons learned under persecution that make and keep the church and an individual believer strong in the Lord…what makes the difference is how we respond to persecution and how we respond to freedom.” Pastor Paul Negrut

May we be willing to learn and act accordingly and be prepared.

http://youtu.be/-X-9zI9PFN8

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Super-victors

Paul said this is the reason that “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
Huge waves that would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them. Let’s apply that to our own circumstances. The things we try to avoid and fight against— tribulation, suffering, and persecution— are the very things that produce abundant joy in us. “We are more than conquerors through Him” “in all these things”; not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. - Oswald Chambers

The lesson of Job is how sometimes, inexplicable tragedy happens. There's a lot we don't know - - we can't tell God how to run his universe! When the sufferer has a personal encounter with God, there are no more questions. Corrie Ten Boom said, "Now I know from experience that Jesus' light is stronger than the deepest darkness. There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still."

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Practising our faith

 

Wherever Christians are restricted in practising their faith, the experience of meeting corporately for worship seems to have much more intensity and meaning.  After - or sometimes before - a long hard day of work in an anti-spiritual environment, they are most desirous of meeting with the family of God to express their love, adoration and praise to their Lord.

"God of love, help us to remember that Christ has no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours.
Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the world. Ours are the hands with which to bless everyone now. Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good". - Teresa of Avila

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Fellowship

Read this great story of a gentleman's visit to a church in Saudi Arabia - http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/standing-strong-through-the-storm/standing-strong-through-the-storm-april-22.html

The reason for believers taking this risk is wrapped up in the significant word - encouragement. 

Some try to use the word - serving - as a contemporary synonym for this because it is about generously responding to other people's needs - thus encouraging them.  However, encouragement has a subtle nuance that goes beyond the concept and motivation of serving others.

Encouragement, as fellowship, requires time spent together.  It's the act of inspiring others with renewed courage, spirit or hope.  In humility, each of us must come to the point where we acknowledge we need massive doses of it regularly.

“One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement…It is easy to laugh
at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full  of discouragers.

We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many times a word of praise
or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the
man who speaks such a word.”
–The Letter to the Hebrews, William Barclay

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Witnessing

Manuel was an effective evangelist among the mountain Quechua people in Peru. One day some Shining Path guerrillas intercepted him on the trail and ordered him to stop going to the mountains; stop handing out Bibles, cassettes and other Christian materials; and stop preaching about Jesus. They threatened his life.

Some weeks later Manuel’s dead body was found on the trail. His feet, hands and tongue had been cut off. With a knife they carved on his torso the message in Spanish, “We told you to stop!” The chopped body parts completed the message, “...visiting the villages; distributing Bibles; preaching about Jesus!”

There was a memorial service for Manuel attended by many believers. An evangelist preached the memorial service message and challenged young people to come forward and take Manuel’s place. Ten young people made the commitment. An elder standing at the side asked, “But young people. What if the same thing happens to you as happened to Manuel?”

One of the youths cried out, “If we die, a thousand will spring up and take our place!”


This from China --

"…in the provinces, believers are still fined, imprisoned, and tortured; local regulations still prohibit unofficial church gatherings", One lady was held for 110 days in captivity. She was hung upside down and beaten with electrical cords. Others with her were beaten with wire from the waist down.

Their crime was meeting with an evangelist. Their testimony was, "...that God's presence was so tangible during the torture that, in fact, she felt joyful. 'Because of these afflictions, we loved the souls of China more...and we prayed for those who were torturing us... We go out ready to preach the gospel, ready to go to jail, and ready to die for Jesus' sake." (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, May 16, 1994, pp. 33-34).

"It is interesting to note that the underground church in China is apolitical! They pray for their leaders but maintain a careful independence...more than a few believers [in America] trade in their Christian birthright for a mess of earthy pottage. We must continually ask ourselves: Is our first aim to change our government or to see lives in and out of government changed for Christ?” Ibid.

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We are the Church

Jesus Christ calls His followers to be the church - not play church.  Our passion for Him is to be followed by our passion for the family of God.  Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Evangelism - as we fulfill these five functions, we express our love for God and our love for people.

It always seems necessary for me to point out that the 'church' is not a reference to a building.  I say that because of my work in the Middle East and North Africa with SAT-7.  There is a Church, but no buildings.

In many places in Eastern Europe, places of worship  are referred to as a 'House of Prayer' and in Cuba, as 'Templo.'

These believers are more aware than we that the Church is only made up of people - and not with the buildings in which they meet.  Serious problems can arise when we are confused on this point.

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Power in Perseverance

“When my husband Allen was sent to prison in April 1958, I was told that I would never see him again. I felt completely miserable and continually blamed God. The future looked so terribly bleak. I had the care of six children and my mother-in-law. I was only earning 80 cents a day. How could I keep my family alive on that?
“When it all became too much for me, one night I heard a voice: ‘My child, I have everything in My hands. These things come from Me.’ I replied, ‘If these things come from You, please protect me and my family. Do not allow me to dishonor Your name. I want to serve You and glorify Your name’
“Then I received peace in my heart. I was encouraged by Psalm 68:19, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. In those difficult years, people let me down, but God never abandoned me. But he did put me through trials.
“The first trial was the struggle to survive. I was only earning 80 cents a day. How could we get by on that? But God took care of us, in the same way that he took care of Elijah. He promised to be my shepherd and provider.
“One evening, my mother-in-law said that there was no food anymore in the house. The next morning, at five to six there was a knock on the door. ‘Are you sister Alice?’ asked a woman in her sixties, whom I didn’t know. ‘God wanted me to give you this.’ She put a package in my hand and disappeared. When I opened the parcel I found there was rice in it and some other food and a banknote to the value of about four month’s salary of a professor! Praise the Lord. Where man comes to an end, God begins! This was only one of the many miracles which kept us alive all those years.”


If the disciplines of spiritual warfare are the Word and prayer, the central attitude for those in battle in faithful obedience.  In order to continuously walk in the Spirit and produce the fruit of the Spirit, we must have that quality which we call perseverance.


The enemy's attempt to counter this quality is to create spiritual battle fatigue followed by spiritual lethargy - a general attitude we simply call giving up.


John Bunyan described it in Pilgrim's Progress as the Enchanted Ground --

"When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither,
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together;
Yea, let them learn of them, in any wise,
Thus to keep ope their drowsy, slumbering eyes.
Saint's fellowship, if it be managed well,
Keeps them awake; and that in spite of hell."

 "Sometimes God calms the storm,Sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child."

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Pray Long

 Peter Wagner says, "The central, foundational activity for spiritual warfare is prayer. In one sense prayer is a weapon of warfare, and in another sense it is the medium through which all of the other weapons are utilised." Without prayer we will live defeated Christian lives. That is why Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 6:18, to put on the whole armour of God, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…."

Pastor Ha's church in Vietnam grew from twenty-nine to over 5,000 in just a few years during the communist regime in the late 1970's. When asked the secret of this phenomenal church growth, Pastor Ha replied, "I have a very simple theology. When you have problems, pray! When you have more problems, pray more!" Every morning this church had a well-attended prayer meeting at six A.M. And the church grew and grew. Although they were constantly living under pressure, there was one Scripture text chosen for the wall of their sanctuary, "In everything give thanks."

And yet after his years of imprisonment, Pastor Ha said, “When I had my freedom, I worked with prayer sometimes in the background. In prison, I discovered that prayer is everything. It's like a pilot using a checklist before he takes off. If he skips the first item, many lives might be in danger. The first item on our checklist should always be prayer. If we skip it, the whole mission is in jeopardy.”


Vietnamese Pastor Cuong also spent over six years in prison. He says this about prayer:

“In my work I was so busy I had no time to pray. But in prison, I was thankful to God that He gave me time for prayer. I had about six hours of prayer every day. I had time to recall every member of my congregation to pray for them. Before that, although I served the church, I didn't have enough time to pray for them. I learned about the real presence of God in prayer there. When you kneel down and pray wholeheartedly with the Lord, you feel His answer right there.”

Even in the difficult conditions of imprisonment, Irina Ratushinskaya continued to write poetry, scratching out verses on a bar of soap and committing them to memory before washing them away. Later she said that writing helped her to survive her ordeal. While still at home in Kiev following her release, she was interviewed over the air by Chicago radio station WBEZ. Asked if she would consent to read one of her poems, she replied: "I will read a poem which I wrote already in freedom . It is dedicated to all those who thought and remembered about my fellow prisoners or about me." The following is a literal translation of the poem, submitted by one of our readers.

Believe me, so it happened often:
In solitary confinement, on a wintry night
Suddenly an embrace of warmth and happiness,
And a note of low would sound.
And then I sleeplessly know,
Leaning against the ice cold wall-
Now, now they are remembering me,
They are begging the Lord for me.
My dear ones, thank you
All, who remembered and believed in us
In the cruelest prison hour.
We, surely, could not have
Gone through all from end to end,
Not bowing our head, not faltering,
Without your lofty hearts
Illumining our way.

“I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. I am a disciple of HIS. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed! I’m finished with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, and dwarfed goals! I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power! My faith is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My companions few. My Guide reliable! My mission clear! I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, or delayed! I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, or negotiate at the table of the enemy! I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ! I am a disciple of Jesus! I must go until He comes, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have NO problems recognizing me. My banner will be clear!” --  this text was found on a scrap of paper in the home of an African pastor shortly after he was martyred.


At the beginning of 1935, Rees Howell had a new burden to pray for world missions. He shared this with staff and friends at SIM and they agreed to intercede for any nation and country, as well a missionaries, as the Lord indicated.


With the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, Rees and his intercessors were called to ‘stand in the gap’ in prayer; as prayer warriors they were to have no more claim on their lives, time or possessions than if they had been drafted into the forces. Particular prayer was made for Ethiopia when Mussolini invaded. Rees experienced a great trial of faith when Addis Ababa fell, but the outcome of their intercession was seen when in later years S I M missionaries returned to Wallamo Province, where they had anxiously left 48 young believers, to find a church of 10,000 Christians.


Two sisters in southern China came to Christ in a house church meeting. Twenty months later a friend from Hong Kong visited them and asked what they had been doing since their conversion. "Starting home meetings," was their timid response.
"How many home meetings?"
"Only thirty," was their halting reply.
"How many attend your meetings?" was the next nonchalant question.
"Well, at the smallest one about two hundred and eighty!"
Now the questioner was totally involved and quickly continued,
"How many attend your largest meeting?"
"Not even 5000, only about four thousand nine hundred!"
The Hong Kong Christian was flabbergasted. And in his excitement quickly asked, “How do you ladies—both new Christians—know what to do?"
They simply replied, “We pray. And after we pray, the Holy Spirit tells us what to do!”






Paul Youngi Cho, of South Korea, has one of the world's largest churches, with over one million members. When asked about the secret of his success, he says, "I pray, and I obey." His whole ministry is marked with prayer. They have a whole mountain for prayer, not just a room in the church. It is called Prayer Mountain. The mountain is covered with small caves where people from the church will go and hide themselves to pray for days at a time.

Every morning, Cho prays for five hours before starting any other work in the church. Many have asked him how he can find time to pray that much. He answers, "You don't understand. If I don't pray for five hours, I don't have enough time to do everything. But when I do, then God does everything I need."

James declares that prayer is powerful and effective" (James 5:16) John assures us that "God hears and answers" (1 John 5: 15). In the book of Acts there are 36 references to the church growing. Fifty-eight percent [i.e. 21 of those instances) are within the context of prayer. We would all love to see growth in every church in the world like it was at Pentecost and immediately thereafter. The key to what happened is found in Acts l:14 when it says: "They were all joined together constantly in prayer. They were all joined together - one mind, one purpose, one accord. That is the prerequisite for effectiveness. Then, they were all joined together constantly in prayer. The word used there means to be "busily engaged in, to be devoted to, to persist in adhering to a thing, to intently attend to it." And it is in the form of a present participle. It means that the practice was continued ceaselessly. The same word is used in Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves ...to prayer." Over in Colossians 4:2 Paul uses the same word again in the imperative form "Devote yourselves to prayer. Most significant expansion movements of the church through its history took up that imperative.

Pastor Cho from South Korea also shares this story - "The place where I went to plant my church - there were already shrines, and the priests from the shrines tried to intimidate me. They tried to burn up the tent churches. So to combat this, I spent five hours every day praying. But now a days I usually spend three hours every day praying, and if I don't keep praying regularly in such a way then I can't maintain the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I believe ministers cannot maintain their ministries without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For me, that means three hours a day to maintain my intimacy with the Holy Spirit."

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Spiritual Strength

“We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset in which to win them." Robert Moffat

 "Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil." - Ephesians 6:11

 All forms of prayer, to be effective. Must be Spirit-led, Spirit-directed. We must first pray for discernment from the Holy Spirit as to what to pray, who to pray for, what the points of prayer and ministry are, for the person or thing being prayed for, and how to pray it We must then "pray through", that is, pray with consistency, and as often as necessary, as led by the Holy Spirit, until we perceive that we have a release from the Holy Spirit not to pray it out anymore. This is the usual sip that the prayer of intercession or supplication has been answered in the Spirit-realm. It will only be a matter of time before the result manifests in the natural realm. Pray spontaneously from the heart, yielded to the Holy Spirit. Pray, asking, binding, loosing, and decreeing or agreeing, in Jesus’ Name. Include faith confessions in this type of prayer when led to do so by the Holy Spirit.

It is God’s will that Christians remain as emotionally and spiritually and physically bruised-free and victorious as possible through every attack the devil launches against them. Nevertheless, many spiritual battles have inflicted needless pain on born again believers, or will inflict needless pain, simply because Christian believers aren't aware that the devil is the one they primarily need to be waging spiritual war against during their time of struggle. Satan will do everything he can to try to get us to believe that he is not the instigator or originator of our pain. He wants us believing it is people period ... not people being influenced by the devil that is causing our pain. Or more deceptive still, he wants us believing God is the one behind it all.

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A Strong Family Likeness

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.
Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms when by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure, it varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move till Thou has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with Thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.
My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve;
It lacks the needed fire to glow, it lacks the breeze to nerve.
It cannot drive the world until itself be driven;
Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven.
My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch’s throne, it must its crown resign.


It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife,
When on Thy bosom it has leant, and found in Thee its life.

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We need your prayers...

"Alexander was on his first research trip to Cuba for Open Doors. He asked a Cuban pastor what his needs were. He expected the response to itemize the many material needs that the churches in Cuba obviously lacked.    
“The first thing we need is your prayers,” he replied, “to know the Body of Christ is with us.”  Then he went on to list their tremendous need for Bibles, teaching aids, Sunday School materials and printing supplies. Then he concluded with the statement that they could use anything and everything.   
“If you send us just a bar of soap, we’ll be grateful,” he confessed. “We'll praise God for it!”   
Alexander says, “I felt a big lump in my throat as I thought of all the Bibles, literature and freedoms I enjoyed. Yet even with all my blessings, my testimony was not as strong. So I struggled to articulate my feelings. ‘Pastor,’ I said, ‘I can only begin to sense and imagine the difficulties you have encountered.’”   
The pastor’s eyes became misty and he softly responded, “Oh yes brother, we have been through a most difficult twenty-five years. Yet we don’t fear persecution. As a matter of fact, we welcome it because it purifies us!”

 There is a story called, The Butterfly.  It implies a certain process that turns us into what we need to be so that we can do the things we need to do. 

Keith Price, "Affliction is a great watershed. It either drives us to God or from Him. Which course we take likely depends more on our existing relationship with God than any other factor. I have come to the conviction that my closeness to God is more precisely measured by my capacity for suffering than it is by my capacity for joy."

 "We do not want suffering; we want success. We identify not with
those who are low and hurt but with those who are high and
healthy. We don't like lepers or losers very well; we prefer
climbers and comers. For Christians, the temptation to be
conformed to this world is desperately sweet and strong. Yet, says
the apostle Paul, we are children of God if we suffer with Christ. ...
God does not give his hardest assignments to his weakest children." -- Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

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