Monday, May 17, 2010

Marriage in the Gap - Marriage as a Catapult



Are you unequally yoked in marriage or know others that are, and are struggling? The help you (or they) need is found by knowing oneself in Christ and addressing spiritual problems by spiritual means.

i'm freedom1 and today I'd like to speak to you about marriage in the gap and a bit later, stingray will be on to speak with you regarding marriage as a catapult for growth in the anointing.

i've got two real-life illustrations for you...
in example one, we've got michelle & bert.  you could say they are a little more than unequally yoked...michelle is minimally spirit=filled and bert is an unfilled baby christian.  i used to be very close to michelle, but now we are totally estranged due to a sneaking spiritual demise...i'll explain & you watch these events unfold...
after marriage, michelle absolutely must give up all of her 'guy friends' to appease her husband & i am hardly seeing her either.  now that probably sounds normal.  so, michelle & i communicate via email & she shares how her husband doesn't like the spirit filled church she's been in since she became a christian.  "hmm," i think..."something ain't right here."  she also mentions how he's getting jealous & possessive of her & won't allow her to go anywhere.  then he tells her he wants children when they discussed & agreed b4 marriage that it wouldn't be good medically for her.  they begin to fight a lot.  he gains weight.  she realizes he is slipping into sin--refuses to go to church w/ her.  she decides that she is going to be a proverbs 31 woman & win him to Jesus by her good example (remember what happens when you do a thing based on works...yep, she only fed the demanding, controlling spirit, driving this whole thing into deeper bondage).  so, bert starts to have medical problems--high blood pressure.  she quits her job at his request.  she does about everything but wipe his butt, and he is not changing.  michelle is experiencing medical problems & now fights depression.  she gets a new email address because he now doesn't approve of our friendship, so instead of making waves she hides our continued friendship.  then, i'm told they are going to a nice & quiet methodist church he likes.  her 'good example' is now an expected par.  he finds out about our secret friendship & now hangs betrayal over her head.  when i try to shed light on the situation, my words are twisted, she takes it out on me & our friendship is over.  can you say, downward spiral?  but that was just what went on in the physical realm....

now i'd like to share a testimony of not only a spirit-filled christian, but seasoned warrior as well, we will call her becky.  her husband, bob, is a long-time christian but a baby as far as spirit-filled.  bob is in a current back-slidden state.
one morning becky is going into her normal prayer time and realizes something is wrong.  she is noticing that, that sweet communion in the Lord that she normally has in a short period of time wasn't coming.  in fact, she notably felt hindered.  she recognized this abnormality as a hindering spirit & commanded all unclean spirits to leave the room, the house & the property.  as she did, she actually felt it physically leave her body. it went right down her body and out her feet.
she was shocked and amazed. she spent the whole day wondering,  "how did i get that?"  it was then she realized that it was most likely due to having intimate relations with her husband the night before.   before the intimate relations, her prayer time was fine, the next morning after the intimate relations, becky had an unclean spirit leave her body.

is a lightbulb going on about the demise of my first illustration of michelle & bert?  michelle took no authority & tried to deal w/ a spiritual problem in the natural & that ALWAYS backfires & feeds the flame you are trying to put out!  repeat...dealing w/ a spiritual problem in the natural ALWAYS backfires & feeds the flame you are trying to put out!

back to becky & bob....folks, becky's prayer life is consistent. she knew her environment was much more 'controlled' than if her prayer life were not consistent.  If it hadn't been she  never would have been able to pinpoint how or when this entered.   if she had not recognized that something was wrong... if she had accepted emotions of not feeling like praying or accepted this roadblock as God "off on vacation" for the day... this spirit could've easily gained a foothold in her life & the continued uncontested exposure gradually ripping her down til' we might see a similarity as we did w/ poor michelle.
becky testified to me, "in this i could see how a strong christian could take a sudden and unexplained drop off the radar, or deviation from the right path. an unclean spirit enters them, they don't even know it, and that spirit leads them astray."

after becky grasped what happened & took authority over these spirits her husband was picking up...it was a very short time til' the spirit's found themselves in a very unwelcome atmosphere.  the veil lifted from bob's eyes, because becky continued to be a holy 'fire-bottle' .  Now becky has the spiritual man of her dreams...all because she focused on the truth--wouldn't settle for less & drew close to her Lord.

If king solomon had only been obedient to the Lord's commands regarding foreign women..."You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." (1 Kings 11)
why?  because they burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.  solomon accepted the offenses of his wives above God's commands because he let those transferred 'voices' become normal. 
as we see in becky's example...her taking authority not only cleansed herself, but became as standing in the gap for her husband.  not only did he recover from a back-slidden state, but was catapulted far more than they had ever experienced in the Lord.
in this awesome testimonial we can see how the Lord soooo honors obedience & those that listen to His voice.  even solomon's heinous rejection of the Lord was softened by God's love for solomon's father, David...as we see down starting w/ vs. 11..."So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."
so in this we can see the power we wield in obedience to the Lord--for having a heart for God...and we can also see the power in marriage by first knowing our Lord intimately.  when both man & wife are equally yoked as a covenant unit each stands in the gap for each other and this grace compounds like a counterweight...each spouse catapulting the other ahead.
now i'd like to turn this over to stingray, whom would like to share more about this grace-filled catapult system...

Stingray continues on after Freedom1's "Marriage in the Gap", in addressing Men assuming their role as spiritual head of the house, and how married couples can catapult one-another in the anointing of God.
www.hearingGod.tv 

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