INTRODUCTION
The topic before me here is: GETTING MARRIED WELL
Let me read through a few lines in ISAIAH 62 very quickly:
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet…
For your sake, the Lord says He will not be silent or keep quiet!
For your marriage, the Lord says ‘I will not keep silent!’
He says ‘I will not remain silent!’
My Lord says He is not sitting still over your issue!!!
You are desperate to know His Mind but more than anything else, He is desperate to show you, His Mind!!!
Get this right!
You will be called by a new name, that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
A new name for you, sister!
You are gonna drop your father’s name and you will pick up that man’s name. The man whose name the Lord is the one choosing for you!!!
You will not choose for yourself. He will choose for you!
You receive the grace to allow the Lord choose for you in the Mighty Name of Jesus!
So, there are new names being given out today from the mouth of the Lord. May the Lord open your ears to hear, your eyes to see and your minds to know in the Mighty Name of Jesus!
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married
My Father said that the days of your desolations are ended!
He said you will no longer be forsaken!
He said you will no longer be desolate!
He said you will be called Hephzibah because now, He delights in you, your case, your marriage!
And you will be called Beulah because you will be married!
Hallelujah!!
Amen???
GETTING MARRIED WELL
Sisters, it is the Lord’s desire that we should be happily married.
Proverbs 18:22 says: The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord.
Ecclesiastes 9:9 also says Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun…
It is His desire that we ENJOY our marriages!
He wants us to be settled in our own families.
He created marriage and to Him, it was good! It was beautiful! It was perfect!
Well, not until the Devil stepped in and lied to Eve and she chose to follow the directives of the Devil over the directives of the Lord.
The Lord says marriage is good; the Devil says it is not good. Whose voice will you believe?
The Lord says: “Wife, submit to your own husband as if he is your Lord, then you will be a godly, happy wife.”; The Devil says, ‘No way will you do that when you are not a doormat. Rule over your husband, woman!’
But I ask yet again, whose voice will you believe?
The Lord says ‘Wait on me. Again, I say, wait on me’ but the Devil says ‘God’s choices are not always the best. You know yourself way better. Choose for yourself!’
I say, sister, whose voice will you believe?
When it comes to marriage, these days, the voice of the Devil seems to be getting louder and more celebrated than the Voice of the Lord even in our churches!
God says one and the Devil says the other. The ‘other’ usually seems better and fun so much so that many Christians are falling deep into the Devil’s trap!
This is an old trick of the enemy and he is cunningly still wielding it today!
Let me show you in the Scriptures, how it was from the very beginning.
Genesis 3: 6 says: When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
Kaaayaaa!!!!
The lust of the flesh!
The lust of the eye!
The pride of life!
All summed up in a verse of the Bible!
Sisters, this is still the cunning trick the devil uses today!
One man whose marriage was failing a few weeks ago was lamenting and complaining to my husband and I. He was really wondering what he had done to the Lord, to make the Lord hate him that much.
‘I wonder why God would make me marry this woman’
‘Despite my prayers and fasting and seeds sowing’
My husband said ‘Erm, you told us that at that time you were not a serious Christian. So, yeah, that must have resulted into the error. God shouldn’t be brought into this at all’
He interjected ‘But my mum is an Evangelist. She prayed on it. She confirmed it. So many men of God confirmed it. They prayed on it and asked me to go ahead. He should have stopped me!’
That is how so many marriages are today!
They are labelled ‘Christian marriages’ but they are far from it. Christ isn’t even present in them at all. But if they fail in any bit, Christ’s name would be dragged in the mud. And the devil is glorified once again!
PRAY: My marriage will not turn others away from the Lord but will compel others to come worship the Lord with me in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
PRAY AGAIN: My marriage glorifies God! Satan will have no way in my decision of who to get married to in the Mighty Name of Jesus!
The Devil is always ready to rise against you when it is time for you to make a life-changing decision. He wants you to miss it!
He can’t just sit still and watch another home being built for the Lord. He just must rise up!
When Jesus’ ministry was to start, immediately the Devil realized how great a havoc Jesus would come and cause, He rose up quickly, not even scared of the 40days and 40 night fasts the Lord had just concluded.
Paul was to go to Thessalonica. There were some urgent works to go do for the Lord there. The Devil was not happy about that one too, so he rose up!
1Th 2:18 says: Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
What of the first marriage at the Garden of Eden?
The Devil realized that he was doomed. Man had been made to be like God! In the very image of God; while he had been ejected out of the Holy Heavens because of his iniquity.
No way will man enjoy this glory!
Wow, God even gave man a wife? A woman to enjoy? And the gift of multiplication and fruitfulness?
No way!
So, he rose up yet again and before you know it😪
I can go on and on dear sisters to show you examples in the Bible of how the Devil is always rising up to fight God’s Purpose!
He is always rising up to make sure people drag the name of the Lord in the mud because of our own sheer mistakes!
He rose up when we were born, we overcame all the sicknesses and attacks he brought.
He rose up when we were at the secondary schools, to steal our sexual purities. Some stood, some fell but still came back to the Lord. He’s mad.
He rose up to stop you from realizing your purpose and God’s Will for your life but well, glory be to God, you are thriving in the center of His Will.
He rose up to make you hate the things of the Lord. Hallelujah, the prayers of the brethren have been keeping you up.
He would rise up when you are to get married! He definitely would because he needs that union! 😭
The Devil cannot come on his feet physically to operate on earth!
God cannot come on His feet to physically operate and bring His Will to pass on earth.
The Lord and the Devil both need bodies! They need human bodies to inhabit, who will do these things for them, under their controls!
So, just as the Lord needs godly marriages to help fulfil His Will on earth, the Devil needs marriages to help populate his Hell!
And he would rather that these marriages are from the church! Because the more he is able to get people from the church, the more he is able to corrupt the church of Christ and the more many would be disheartened to even desire marriage or pray for it!
Even when you are married and it is so obvious that you married well, he will still rise up!
And this is where many people miss it.
Because of the heart-stirring testimonies they got in the bringing together of them and their husbands; because the Lord clearly led them together with great signs, they relax!!! 😊
They get into marriage and assume they had entered into their joys!
Like the rich fool, they’d tell their souls to relax, kill the spoil, eat and enjoy.
Foolishness!
Be on the guard, Christian!
Why?
Because the Devil like a roaring lion, walks away seeking who he’s going to destroy!!!!!
At every phase of your life. At every gate of new beginnings. At the junctures of your greatness, please remember, sisters, that the Devil will rise up!
He rose up and got the marriage of Adam and Eve. But no matter how he rises up against us, and our marriages, he will always fail and be put to perpetual shame in the Mighty Name of Jesus!
So, while the Lord wants you, desires you, prays you marry well and beautiful, the Devil is fighting tooth and nail to make sure it is over his dead body that happens!
Sisters, the Lord is on a search for souls that are hungry for His Will to be done on earth!
God is hungry to have Christians who are interested in defeating the Devil with their lives and livings and exalting Him gloriously in their marriages.
2Chronicles 16:9 says: For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…
God’s eyes are running to and fro!
Running!
On a search for people who have a perfect heart towards Him!
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to enjoy sex!
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to bear Mrs.
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to bear children.
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to share testimony of being ‘remembered’
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to make their parents grandparents.
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to have someone, they can gist with every night.
They are not seeking God for a marriage just because they also want to lift the pressure of ‘When are we eating your rice’ off their necks.
They are seeking God for a marriage with a perfect heart!
To build a home that pleases the Lord!
To be the best, biblical wife according to the Scriptures!
To follow the Bible’s instructions on being a godly wife and to be hungry to teach others the Holy ways of the Lord.
To raise up fiery children in the Light for the Lord in a dirty generation!
To get married well and build a glorious home so that through them, others will glorify the Lord!
These are some of the things the Lord is looking for passionately in every heart.
Every day, He is connecting hearts that are alike like these and making them joined together in holy wedlock.
But the Christians with this passion are very few, unfortunately!
Maybe that is why you are still single and probably frustrated. You think the Lord has forgotten you when in actual fact, He’s been waiting for you just to get it right!
Just to have the right heartitude!
The Lord desires you to be a vessel carrying Him around in this dark generation.
The Devil has the same desire! He wants you to be a vessel that carries him and his will around in this world!
The Lord is searching to just see if you would have the same heart that He has.
The Devil is fighting tooth and nail to see to it that you never glorify the Lord!
I have been able to establish these facts, right?
So, how can you marry well despite the darkness surrounding even Christian marriages these days?
1. DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD.
You should quit eating from the Devil’s table and still desiring the Lord’s blessings.
“…Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
You cannot sit on the fence. Choose now between the Lord and the Devil.
2. ASK THE LORD TO CUT YOU TO SIZE.
If you want to make a very good dress for a special programme, you will buy the clothing material and take it to the dress maker to cut it into size!!
You won’t just wrap it round your body that way!
That is it!
As children of God, we sometimes are encumbered with so many baggage. Baggage that won’t allow us to have time for the things of God. Baggage that won’t allow us grow! Baggage that won’t allow us see the road!
We need to go to the Lord to cut us to size! To trim us and make us fit for Himself!
David said: Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
That is cutting to size!
Hebrews says: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles….
Cutting to size!
‘Father make me fit for Your glory’
‘Jesus, glorify yourself through me’
‘Daddy, cut me to sizes!’
‘Spirit of God, deliver me from being an errand girl for the devil!’
‘Savior, save me from myself!’
‘Father, do not allow flesh to prevail over me’
‘Redeemer, strengthen my spirit to fall in love with you the more’
These and more are the heart cries of the person who desires to be cut to sizes!
3. LEARN FROM GODLY MARRIAGES!
These days, I have realized that the marriages that make the Christian youths to ‘awwwnnn’ and ‘God-when’ are the ones where the couple can insult each other, even though they are Christians, slap and hit each other playfully, call each others bad names, bash each other, prank each other and so on. People would say ‘Real couples. That’s what I am talking about’
C’mon! Be careful, Christians!
My own watchword is ‘What does the Bible say about this?’
I am very, extremely close and friendly with my hubby like a little child. We do hides and seeks and chase each other around the house. Glory be to God.
But I wouldn’t bash him!
I wouldn’t prank him!
I wouldn’t slap him because I am playing!
I wouldn’t call him names and insult him because I want to be down-to-earth and friendly with him.
No way!
Why?
Because the Bible doesn’t teach me to lose my Biblical ‘home-training’ because of marriage or what I see so called influencers do in their marriages.
A diligent woman who would love the Lord to be present at the very heart of her home and marriage knows better than allowing the world and worldly Christians teach her how to build her home!
She searches out, digs out, mines through the earth into the deeps just to find the godly ones and learns from them!
The Lord has some godly women today doing so well in their marriages, following the footsteps of the Master- follow these people!!!
But of course, most importantly, follow the Lord!
4. LEARN FROM THE SCRIPTURES!
When you buy a blender, you should pick the manual in the carton and read. Or maybe you see the people who have been using the blender for a long time and it has still been well-preserved, you can ask them for guidelines.
But these days, people no longer want to read the manuals or ask these wise sets of people. They would want to intentionally go to the people whose exact blenders didn’t last, who misused it, who have dumped the blenders, who speak against the blenders and so on. Those are the people they want to learn from. They are seeking advice and steps on how to use the blender from these ones. How? Why?
You want to end up the same way they ended up?
Read the manual!
The Lord created marriage and He gave us the marriage manual. Pick it up and study it!!!
Follow it step by step and you will enjoy your blender. And it will last very well!
Many of us here do not even know what the Lord desires from our marriages. We do not know what the Lord says about being a godly wife. We just follow the ones around us that tickle our flesh and we are shocked in marriage.
Sister, if you want to enjoy the marriage that the Creator had in mind at the beginning, the One that He called ‘Good’, study the manual!
So many of us don’t read our Bibles but we want the blessings of the God of the Bible. It cannot work, ma😂😂😂
5. KNOCK PASSIONATELY FOR A GODLY HOME
My sisters, this is the last point I will be mentioning today before I go.
The Lord says ‘Ask and you will receive’ That is one stage. When you ask, you are being simple. You are being gentlemanly about it. You just say ‘God, give me a good home, Father. Thank You Lord’
That is asking. It is good, okay. Very good but not the best.
The Bible goes forward to say: ‘Seek and you shall find!’
It is something that is lost that you seek. You seek under the bed, in the wardrobe, in your pockets, everywhere possible.
Oh, your prayers are getting more desperate when you seek! They are getting serious! They are mounting up pressure already on the Lord. They are telling the Lord that you are serious!
A very good prayer approach but certainly not the best you can do!
The Bible concludes by saying: ‘Knock and the door shall be open to you!’
Gba gba gba!
Ko ko ko!
‘Father, for a godly home, I plead’
‘I desire to do Your Will Lord’
‘Reveal Your mind to me concern my marriage, Lord’
Gbam Gbam gbam!
This is desperate!!!!
This is the one the Lord desires from us. It is the highest level of praying. It is the one that communicates our importunity. It tells of how serious we are. It reveals how desperate we are.
It is the ‘I will never let You go except You bless me’ kinda craziness.
It is a prayer type that cannot be refused.
Even if one wants to pretend not to know that there is someone knocking at the gate, when the neighbors and passers-by start to call your line or join at knocking the gate together, you will come forward to open.
That is it!
ROUNDING OFF
God still leads, sisters!
God is still ready to make your marriage beautiful.
God is still interested in leading and guiding you.
He wants you to marry well.
But do you want to marry well?
Are you desperate to marry well?
Or you so desire to marry well but you lack the desperation to knock and prepare for it?
Think on these things, sisters.
TO MARRY WELL, I MUST:
- Have a burning relationship with the Lord!
- Be broken- Cut down to sizes!
- Learn from Biblical Marriages-whether real life examples or the ones I read from or watch.
- Put the Lord in front! His Word at the center!
- Passionately knock for it!
