Not to seem to be all doom and gloom I'll only be dropping my "Sermon Series: Strongholds" blogs on the first Sunday of the month. The other weeks will be more of a standard posting as I continue to study and work on improving the art of picking a subject and putting it together in a format where I could deliver it in a church setting as a sermon that would not only share the word Jesus Christ but hold your attention, get you excited about living in Jesus and allowing him to live within you as well as help you apply to your everyday life.
November 1, 2020
Marriage? Once a sacred covenant that much like a ring went unbroken has now become a mutual extermination that looks like the ceremony was performed by the Secretary of War rather than a minister. Our nation is caught in a divorce epidemic and divorces frequently happen because of strongholds, strongholds in the way marriage is viewed as disposable. When people make a decision on marriage they make it far to often based on money, prestige, looks or a variety of reasons other than the right ones. Many people don't believe in sole mates or love at first sight...I here to tell ya, if you don't you're wrong. I knew immediately that my wife was going to be my wife before our actually first date. Why or how I knew, I can't explain...I just knew and we got married 35 years ago.
Malachi 2:13-14
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Because they disregarded the marriage covenant, God wasn't answering their prayers. The people were in shock, wondering why God would not receive offerings and hear their prayers. Marriage between a man and woman is a covenant before God, it's not merely social it's a spiritual issue. In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Paul tells Christians not to be mismatched with unbelievers. When a Christian marries a non-Christian there will be a clash of gods and covenants. Paul and Malachi agree, don't marry someone who doesn't share your faith because you're going in two different directions. Strongholds show up in marriages when we no longer realize that it's a covenant. Another reason for strongholds is they never got married correctly into spiritual oneness. Victory of marital strongholds is located in the Spirit first. As the Holy Spirit unites with our spirits and we individually draw closer to God, He brings us together as one. (Think of a triangle with God at the top and a husband and wife at the other points opposite of each other. The closer to God you get the closer you get to each other as well.)
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People have long been fooled into breaking the covenant of marriage for different reasons and all have been introduced by Satan in the form of a stronghold. Even in Jesus' time the High Priest or Pharisees thought and tried to trick Jesus. These legalistic religious leaders didn't care much for Jesus because He taught the truth and it undermined them so they were constantly trying to trick him into dividing his followers and weakening His teaching.
Mark 10:2-9
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
They ask this controversial question to merely test Him-whether or not it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife. There were two views about divorce held by 1st century Jewish scholars . According to one view, a man could divorce his wife if she committed sexual immortality. According to the other a man could divorce his wife for any reason. The Pharisees wanted Jesus to take side and thus alienate some of His listeners. What did Jesus do? He refused to enter their debate. Instead, He appealed solely to God's word. He ask them what Moses had commanded, and the Pharisees pointed to Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which in part says "If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house". But this permission from Moses to divorce had only been granted because of the hardness of their hearts. It wasn't God's ideal. God's design for marriage is clear from the beginning of creation. First marriage is to involve a male and a female (that rules out a lot of what goes by the name of marriage in our culture, but that's a different sermon). Second marriage is intended to be a permanent bond...therefore "What God has joined together, let no one separate.
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Are you a husband? You are to die for your wife in a spirit of grace. What does it mean to die for your wife? In Mark 10 it tells you not only what it means, but it also tells you how.
Ephesians 5:25,28 & 33
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Now here's the problem, far to many many men think headship means playing dictator and telling everyone what to do...can you say stronghold that builds strongholds. But biblical headship means being a responsible governing authority. A husband is to sacrifice for his wife and be her deliverer, protecting her and paying the price for her well being. God has created husbands to lead and wives to respond...that creates problem in todays society as well. The man then has to move first. When a woman sees her man initiating, owning responsibility, treating her as special and sacrificing for her well-being...she is apt to respond to him with heartfelt respect and submission.
The idea of a wife submitting is despised in today's culture, but part of the problem is it's misunderstood. First, though God commands it...submission is a voluntary act. You submit by choice, not by coercion. Second, submission has nothing to do with intrinsic value. Men and women are of equal before God; both are created in His image, neither is more significant. Third, submission is not passivity, a wife is not to give up who she is and become a doormat. Submitting is about being in alignment under God and recognizing the God given roles He assigned to husbands and wives.
You can be a kingdom husband and have a kingdom wife and your still going to stumble and have your issues, but you expect to draw on your heavenly blessing and to do so you must align your roles in the family according to God's good design through love and respect. Many married people think that if they find a new mate that their problems will go away...but that's not the answer.
My personal take on breaking martial strongholds boils down to 3 things.
1) First and foremost you both need to have a relationship with the Lord...a real loving turn it all over to Him relationship. It can't be one of these just going through the motions type things, you need to pray for each other and you need to pray together.
2) No, this is not a mistaken reprint it's just that important. You both need to have a relationship with the Lord...a real loving turn it all over to Him relationship. It can't be one of these just going through the motions type things, you need to pray for each other and you need to pray together.
IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET SATAN OUT OF YOUR MARRIAGE.
3) Respect. You've have to have a mutual respect each other. Husbands you may be consider the head of the house, but that doesn't mean your wife is in anyway inferior to you. Wives you may be his equal, but remember he is the head of the house and you should do your best to support his decisions unless they are illegal, dangerous or otherwise something that would not meet God's approval.
4) Communication. Meaningful discussion, not just idle chitchat...there's nothing wrong with that but as couple you MUST have meaning conversations. Maybe your husband needs to talk about his day, maybe your wife needs to talk about hers, it's your job to be the ear to listen...the shoulder to lean on. If your spouse feels the need to go else where for this, you might need to go back and examine #1 and 2. A marriage or any relationship at all is not going to last if the only conversations you have is arguments, that means that all parties involved are living in a miserable household and it's up to you to fix it...I mean fix the problem even if you have to go outside the house by visiting with your pastor or a dedicated marriage counselor don't be embarrassed by it. Marriages are not meant to be as disposable as today's society make them out be.
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