And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. (1 Kgs. 17:22).
This Scripture is very important to understand revival. Revival is again becoming an important word or subject in our day because the LORD is working again to bring in another revival. The first problem is whether all of us who are using the word are speaking the same language. If we are saying the same word but mean different things then we are not speaking the same language and this could delay revival or give us a false revival. For example many see Revival as a week long meeting or event. Some see it as introducing band and other instruments of music into church choirs. Others see it as all-night prayer vigils and yet others see it as speaking in tongues or some external excitements and simulations which mimic the charisma. No, all these are not revivals but, at best, may aid the pursuits of revival.
From the Scripture above, revival involves life, not externalities and facades. Actually lack of revival is when religion becomes a mere form and denies the power thereof. Revival is not lack of religion. Actually both in the Old and New Testaments when there was no revival there was actually much religion but no life. At such times there was usually attendance of worship services, offering of sacrifices, etc., yet there was decay in the lives of the worshippers. People were more interested in the buildings, regalia’s, motions and forms, outward show, etc. That was why at such times God raised up prophets to point men back to God and turn away from unrighteousness.
In that Scripture the widow’s son in the widow’s house where Elijah was staying died; life had gone out of him and he was lifeless. He was still there but there was no breath in him. The woman brought him to Elijah and he prayed and cried unto the LORD and He heard him. The LORD brought the soul of the child back into him and he revived – he came back to life, started breathing again and was alive. So, revival is a coming back to life from the dead. When religion is lifeless, cold, formal, official and merely external then there is need for revival. It will come when men yearn for it and cry in prayers. Revival is always God’s answer from Heaven to the prayers of some concerned men up on the earth. It is a work of God but with some human partners on the earth, whose job is to keep crying to God until He responds.
Now the matter of prayers for revival cannot be overemphasized. There is no revival without concerted kingdom praying. Revival cannot be simulated or activated by some human means or methods. Prayer to God in Heaven must precede and precipitate it. So revival will tarry when men do not appreciate their condition and therefore are not bothered and so do not cry out for it. But when men begin to appreciate their condition and begin to yearn for a change and begin to turn to God in earnest prayers and tears then Heaven will respond. Even this appreciation, desire and yearning is still the work of God who works in men both to will and do of His good pleasure. So revival is the work of God through and through though He needs human partners.
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: And thou renewest the face of the earth. (Ps. 104:29-30).
Let us quickly take note of the matter of Divine timing for revivals. A study of revivals show that it is cyclical. There are times when because of sin or some other reasons God hides His face from man. When that happens man is troubled (together with animals and other lives). When this happens decay sets in and sooner or later death occurs and disintegration starts as man returns to dust. After this, at His own time, the merciful God who does not stay angry forever, sends His Spirit (His Agent of Revival and life giver) and life returns and is recreated afresh and He renews (revives) the face of the earth. It is like when rain comes after a dry season. It is a wonderful experience as everything soon turns around, vegetation, environment, crops springing up, fresh smell, joy, etc.
It is important to understand and take note of this matter of timing for revival. The Scriptures make it clear that as long as this earth remains, seedtime and harvest…, and day and night shall not cease. (Gen. 8:22). Also the preachers tell us that: To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven. (Eccl. 3:1). It is important to know all these. A farmer who carries seeds to go and sow at the beginning of dry season is only planting to sweat for nothing. Yet there is seedtime and harvest. Those that sow in tears shall reap in joy. There is a time to prepare for revival if one will partake of the joys of the harvest of revival. Yet, what we want to stress here is the matter of being sensitive to Heaven concerning the timings and seasons of God. After night comes day. It has been so since God created this creation. Like night does not last forever, with its darkness, dryness and lack of revival does not last forever. Infact when the night is darkest the day is already breaking and will break to its fullness some hours later. If anybody is yearning for revival and wants to labour for it he must understand this. We are on the threshold of another wave of revival because the long night of darkness of sin and lack of revival is running its course and the ‘day’ is already breaking. The merciful God is about to visit again by sending forth His Spirit. For all those who have been yearning for revival this is the day of sowing the seeds of earnest prayers for God to remember us again and in wrath remember mercy. To say that it must happen whether you pray or not means you do not understand how God works. Except some men on earth take up the matter with Him in prayers, even His promises may not be fulfilled. When Daniel found out from the prophesy of Jeremiah that the captivity would last for 70 years he did not go to sleep but went into his closet and sought God in earnest prayers, supplications, confessions and with fasting until Heaven responded.
Friend, the time for another visitation has come. The night is far spent and the day is at hand; the cloud is already bent and there is a sound of abundance of rain. It is time for us who have been yearning for a visitation to guard our loins and move into the upper room and pray concertedly until another Pentecost arrives. May the LORD depend upon you to watch with Him as we welcome this new day.
Also it is good to remark that personal revival comes before corporate revival. It is only men that have caught fire that can affect others. A cold iron cannot press out and straighten rumpled clothes. A man who is not personally revived and on fire for the LORD cannot affect anything. Such cannot be catalysts and agents for revival. Each time God wanted to visit the earth with revival He always laid hands on few men, like Gideon, Deborah and Barack, Elijah, John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, etc., first. These became the vanguard men for an outburst. They caught fire first, at their private altars before God used them to affect others and bring about a full blown revival. You can be part of the vanguard company by asking the LORD to give you understanding and burden your heart for His Church and lands. Then you must join the company who are already engaging Heaven in different places on the earth now for an outburst of revival. It will not be long before the rains start the signs are already there; so join the vanguard company and have the first joys when the rains fully come.
Now, in between personal and corporate revival there is the family revival which is so crucial if revival will be generational and be perpetuated and last. Many a time this level or dimension of revival is neglected and this has resulted in short-lived or ‘shallow revivals’ that soon finished. As you become revived and becomes burner for revival, the first place to work for revival is in your family before going outside. So genuine and long lasting revival is in concentric circles – me, my family, the community, etc. Infact if those around you do not catch fire they will jeopardize your own fire.
THE FAMILY AND REVIVAL
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Lk. 1:5-6).
And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. (Judg. 15:4-5).
When darkness gets very dark that is the beginning of a new day, a day of divine visitation. The days of Herod, the king of Judea, under the Roman Empire was a dark day indeed. For 400 years, there was no prophet and therefore no Word of God. The absence of the Word of God automatically means darkness. That darkness had become dark and progressively became darker. King Herod was a very wicked man of impunity who killed so many Jewish children in his attempt to make sure that the king, the Word, was not allowed to rise and take His place. It was at this time that God decided to visit again with revival. And whenever He decides to move His eyes begin to go to and fro through the earth to identify those that will be His agents for that revival. He usually goes beyond individuals to look for families and homes that He will use for revivals. In the days of Herod, He identified the family of John and Elizabeth.
Before we zero our searchlight on this family and others, for the purpose of gaining insight on the family and revival, let us state again that revival needs burners. Our Lord like Samson, has a mission to set His people and consequently, nations ablaze. This fire is to burn down the enemy’s plantings and harvest, every chaff and base desire, and usher in the fire of holiness and righteousness and the charisma. This fire requires lives to carry it – foxes. They must be caught and trained and then tied tail to tail. This is a work that must be done before genuine revival – discipleship. It is when 2 foxes are tied tail to tail and a torch set in the midst of the 2 tails and lit them they are released. These foxes have learnt to deny themselves and never love their lives again. Samson knew that one fox alone could not carry that fire effectively and may not go far. So he tied 2 together. Revival that will go far and last long and be effective needs a teaming together of likeminded men and the first team is the home (the husband and wife firstly).
This is why God’s great burner is a couple who are correctly tied. When God finds such He has secured lives and homes for His move and years of darkness and decay and formalism will soon give way to life and vibrancy again.
So in the dark days of Herod He looked for homes that were instrumental to His mission of Revival.
Zecharias and Elizabeth
Zecharias and Elizabeth were individual persons. They were human beings (flesh and blood) and not angels. Even though it is a basic fact that can be assumed. It is important to restate that whenever God wants to work on earth, He looks for human beings. The heaven, even the heavens are the LORDS; But the earth hath he given to the children of men. (Ps. 115:16). So if God must do some things on earth, including ushering in Revival He needs to find some men on earth to anchor it. So in these days He found Zechariah and then coupled him with Elizabeth. They were people of like passion like every other person and were subject to normal human impulses, challenges, etc. They could fail, feel joy and pain, be subject to natural laws. They were mortal and not supernatural. It was them that God chose to be His agents (with others) in that visitation.
Now both men (Elizabeth and Zachariah) came from families; God setteth the solitary in families; He bringeth out those which are bound with chains But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psa. 68:6)
The family is so crucial to God’s work on earth. It is wherein He sets every human being that comes into the world. Elizabeth and Zechariah came from 2 different families. Their son John the Baptist who became a great burner in his generation came out of their family. Their family provided a home for John who in 6 short months charged and turned his generation back to God and ushered in the greatest revival in history – the first advent.
Whenever we talk of family the first place the mind of people go to is to a physical house filled with gadgets and furnitures. No, that is not what it means first and foremost. Family first means the people that congregate in a house. It is this people, this community that is a family and so very important to God as His environment for the work He desires to do in the lives of those He has chosen to use whom He sets in families. If a man cannot stay in a family – relate with others – he must be rebellious and God locates such in dry lands. Such men never see good and amount to nothing in God’s hands. The family is a place where you can be loved or hated, where you can be treated harshly or softly; where you can be embraced and accepted or rejected. No matter what, the family is indispensible to God for your making and preparation for what you will do on earth. All the great men that God used for His purposes in different generations came out from families, whether good or bad families. Even the greatest man Jesus that ever lived came out of a family – a family of poor parents. His siblings persecuted and rejected and insulted Him but He lived there till He was 30 years of age. Without that family, despite all the contradictions, the Lord Jesus would not have been adequately prepared for what He did in His day.
So, all of us whether you are still to marry and start a family or whether you have started one must now settle down to build our families for the LORD. Your family is His sanctuary where He hides His agents as He brings them into the world. The family is His factory where He makes men and women before He can use them as He wills. Nobody chooses his or her family but God sets ,men in families in His wisdom and there fashions them for what He wants them to carry. So my own duty is to build my family to His specifications according to His Word and trust Him to raise every man He will set there, from time to time, to receive training and equipment so as to be adequately prepared for what such will do for God. To build a correct family for God is already a great work and a very big contribution to Revival. If you do well may be your family will be the home and base for the men and women that will carry the fire in their generation.
Then all of you that have left the homes where God has placed them must return now if they still want to be in the Divine reckoning. Do you not see that since you left, either as a biological child or as a disciple, you have been in a dry land and just struggling? Did you not hear what God said to Hagar after she ran away from the Abraham? And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hand. (Gen. 16:9). Whatever the reason you left, whether it was because you were treated harshly like Hagar, I hear the LORD saying to return to your master/father/mother/mistress, the return is with a capital ‘R’ and you need to do it promptly so as to end your struggles and dryness. If you come under that family again then the LORD will raise you and lift you up in due season. It is in that family, community, environment that He has chosen to work in you and outside it you are in a dry land. If you return He will make a way for you with the people there and receive you like He did the prodigal son and sooner or later you will take your place in the coming move of God.
Choice of Wife
Zech married Lizzy. She was his choice and she agreed to marry him and gave him her consent. Their parents also gave their consents at some point and eventually the marriage took place and the home began and this was the one God ordained to set John the Baptist inside. Now the first thing to note is that a home starts when a man marries a woman. Please note that God did not design for a male to marry another male or a female to marry another female. It never crossed His mind and is not natural or even reasonable. Infact it is an abomination with dire consequences. If you are involved in such wickedness you better stop resisting the Word of God and repent.
God needs homes for His work on earth. The beginning of the home is when a man marries a woman. After God has trained a man and he matures spiritually, mentally, physically, vocationally, etc, and begins to be focused on what He was saved for, a time comes when he needs a woman to help him fulfill the call of God upon His life. The timing for one to get married is in God’s hands. He knows that time and a man that has a proper vision of what marriage is all about will be very sensitive about Divine timing. He should not marry too early or too late but be timely in this matter.
But when that time comes he must find his wife Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing. And obtaineth favour of the LORD. (Prov. 18:22).
Every correct wife is a good thing (never a bad thing); infact she is the greatest provision that God gives to any man. A man that has found a wife has obtained great favour from the LORD. Such a man will not suffer loss and can become a man at the gates and a great instrument for Revival (together with his wife). But such a woman needs to be found (discovered). Among all the women upon the face of the earth there is only one you can marry and you must stay with her until death parts you. It is God’s will to give to you a Helper to help you, infact He has made and raised one for you, but you must find her. You must find her from Him not from the night club or at a party or such like places. If you are not in communion and relationship with Him then do not expect to perform magic at such a time. So the first person to find, young man, is not a wife, but God Himself. When you have not sought God and found Him and established a relationship and communion with Him you are not likely to find a wife from Him. Unfortunately He will not overrule you when you pick any woman of your choice. But if you wait on Him and find your wife from Him then you have started well and honoured Him and He will surely help you to succeed.
Now, we do not have the space and time to investigate how to find the will of God concerning who you will marry here but we will just learn a few lessons from Uncle Zach and aunty Lizzy.
Uncle Zach was a priest from the course of Abia. So he was a bonafide Israelite from the tribe of Levi. He had grown and began and entered the priesthood and grew in it until he could stand at the altar. Friend, again marriage is not for boys but for men who are matured. That you have grown physically and grown beards does not mean that you have grown and matured and can now marry and lead a home. So grow on so that when the time comes you will have the requisite credentials and testimony. When it was time for him to marry he found a lady from the daughters of Aaron and particularly sis Elizabeth. So sis Lizzy was also an Israelite from the tribe of Levi and particularly from the priestly family.
The Word of God contains enough and sufficient instructions concerning the general will of God concerning who to marry. If you check you will see that the Bible tells clearly who an Israelite can marry and goes further to say who a priest can or cannot marry. Infact to marry one that God says you should not marry will put you out of the priesthood. Every unequal yoking will render one (and the other) ineffective or even totally incapable of ploughing. Some priests married from the heathen girls around but not bro Zach. He knew the will of God and must have submitted to his father and other older priests. Now after the Word of God excluded all those you cannot marry then from among those you can, marry you must choose one. Zachariah must have looked to God and chosen Elizabeth. God must have laid her on his heart in prayers and he must have confirmed that by other witnesses as he kept praying and sharing with his father and mother and other elder priests.
Friend, there are some people you cannot marry as stipulated by the Word of God. Do not disobey God at this point for it will not work well for you. Pray much for your own wife specifically and do not be independent and hasty at such a time. God, your Father is interested in who you marry because it is for Him and His purposes and will show her to you if you seek Him earnestly.
Zachariah made a correct choice. Actually the best person to marry a priest is a priest’s daughter. She has grown in a priest’s house and side by side with her brothers who are being trained to be priests. Two of them are coming from the same kind of background, training on so on and their marriage will be easier and more effective in serving the LORD. Yet for your particular wife you must look up to the LORD to bring her to you. Elizabeth from the priestly line looked a perfect match for Zachariah, yet we must not choose by sight.
All believers are born again and are priest. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation … (1 Pet. 2:9). So, once a man is born of God, he is a priest of God and if he grows will eventually stand at the altar to burn incense and intercede on behalf of his fellow brethren and other men. When it is time for you to pick a bride you must wait upon the LORD and from among those you can marry He will give you a priestly lady. If it is Him who brought you together then both of you can build a home that will answer His quest for a home to use for His purposes, especially at a dark period like this.
Marry Her
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the LORD blameless. (Luke 1:6).
And he answered and said unto them, Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female. And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matt. 19:4-6).
If the LORD will look to your home and use it then the beginnings – the foundation – must be solid and good. Many people struggle and suffer throughout their married life and make marriage the end rather than the means to an end because they did not start well. If you understand the purpose of God for the home and desire God to use your home as His platform (springboard and base) then your beginnings, your entry into marriage, must be sound and solid. This is a crucial point and you need to tread very deliberately under God.
Brother, when you have found who to marry you must propose to her and give her chance and space to pray and seek the face of the LORD whether you are the man for her. When she gives you consent then you can proceed. Give her chance and space and do not pester her or intimidate her. If she comes back with a “No”, go back to the LORD and the tell Him and pray again. If it is His will He can still make it work. Until she says ‘yes’ or another sister says yes you have not engaged (the gear) and the journey of marriage cannot start. Before a lady gives consent to a brother they are in neutral and cannot move yet. For a brother or sister to assume anything at this point is foolishness and may end in heart break. Sister, never you assume that a brother wants to marry you until he has proposed unambiguously to you. Brother that a sister is so nice to you and very close does not mean that she is already your wife. Stop thinking and acting as if she is your wife. Propose to her, wait, and get her consent then you are engaged and courtship can start.
Marriage starts with courtship. Marriage is a means of joining two things to become one, or mixing two different things to become one new compound. It takes time and starts with courtship. Marriage will continue for many years after the wedding but courtship is the beginning and foundation. In marriage which is correct, a male and a female that God has raised come together and begin to be fused together to become one. It is God that does the joining together but the male and female involved must engage themselves vigorously in courtship and thereafter.
Marriage takes place in the 3 realms of man – spirit, soul and body. You join the spirits by studying the Word of God and praying together. The minds are joined by talking and reasoning together until both become like minded. The bodies are joined by playing together and by sexual intimacy. Now during courtship only the spirits and souls are joined together and later in the courtship maybe some physical things and properties. The bodies should not be joined until the wedding day.
Marriage is not 2 people living in the same home but 2 people who have become joined together to become one. Many couples are just flat mates and really have nothing in common. If a man will marry a woman successfully he must leave father and mother and cleave to his wife. This cleaving together involves communion and communication between the 2 and moderated by an elder or discipler. As they leave others and cleave together then they begin to become one progressively until perfection. As they commune and communicate God keeps joining them together. If they refuse to divorce – pull apart – but keep pulling together they will become one. To put asunder is to divorce but to marry is to cleave together. They are mutually exclusive and cannot be done together. For example, if a couple quarrel often and the man refuses to eat, he cannot at the same time be happily talking to his wife and playing with her. He has to stop one to do the other. So marrying must go on during courtship up till wedding and thereafter until 2 become wholly one. Courtship and the first few years after wedding are very critical and the couple needs to spend a lot of time together to get to know themselves more and more and marry their visions, backgrounds, consecrations, gifts, properties, obligations and liabilities, assets, parents, etc. It is a time of reorientation, amalgamation, etc. It is not a time of frivolities and carnalities, lightness, etc. It is a time of serious business to lay a solid foundation and base for the new home.
If marriage has successfully taken place it will be evident, it will show. Zachariah married Elizabeth as can be seen in their testimony.
And they were both righteous before God, walking…
This testimony speaks volumes about how Elizabeth and Zachariah had married. That both of them were just before God, without any gap, is not a mean feat and could only have been achieved by God as they went together marrying. Both of them loved God in a dark day. Both of them committed themselves to living by the Word of God and this made both of them just before God. The word – both – becomes a key and crucial word in that testimony. For many it would have been that one of them was passionate for God, pursued Him and became just, while the other had no interests in the things of God and observed lying vanities. Such may be living together but not married. But the word both in the testimony of Zachariah and Elizabeth shows that they had married and continued to marry. They had the same testimony, same passions, same consecrations, etc. It was a matter of both. They must have studied and prayed together, talked together and went together. They had come to a point where they had the same loves, became likeminded and were desiring together to see a Revival.
Friend may be you did not have a good courtship and so not seeing a harmonious home today. Maybe you have even given up and settled to keep tolerating and managing the situation since you cannot call it quits. No, it is not late yet. God still needs your home for His purposes. Both of you (husband and wife) can decide to stop your quarrels and divorcing and begin to marry deliberately. Cut off some of your activities and pursuits and begin to spend time together to pray together, talk together and play together. These doing things together will put you together. Stop going around complaining about your spouse and looking for a miracle. Stop putting things in his soup or bringing strange soaps into the bathroom to ‘catch’ him or her. Sow the seeds of going together in marrying and you will reap the harvest of being joined together and build a good home and live fulfilled lives.
DIVINE PLATFORM
The family is for God as His platform. Whenever He is ready to do something new and special He begins to search for correct lives and homes in which to put His choice arrows. In it He fashions them and begins to shoot them forth. Many homes are bypassed because they are of low standard or just ordinary and so do not meet His specifications. If you build your home solidly by digging deep and founding it upon His Word then His searchlight will zero on it and it could become His base of operations.
In the days when Jesus was to be born and Heaven prepared to visit the earth again in a mighty Revival after 400 years of no open heavens, there was a thorough search for homes by the ONE whose eyes go to and from throughout the whole earth. The family of Zachariah and Elizabeth was picked (and then the family of Joseph and Mary and others). The family of the Zachariah was where John the Baptist was set and his first sanctuary of hiding the place where his formation began before he went to the deserts for final preparations before his manifestation to Israel.
Even before John came, that home was chosen by Heaven to give Mary, the mother of Jesus, a sanctuary and refuge to nurse the new Baby inside her womb in a godly environment. Who else would have understood that the Baby Mary was carrying was not from sin if not for people connected to God like Elizabeth and Zachariah in a house where there was a burning altar, etc.
And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth And it came to pass that, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she speak out with loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. (Lk. 1:39-45)
O, this is glorious! Mary was coming all the way from Nazareth in Galilee to this family in the hill country of Judah. She bypassed so many houses containing so many families to get to the Zachariah’s. Why did God bypass so many families as unfit for His purpose at that time? What was special about the Zacharias’ was it the architectural design of their house or the gadgets therein, or what? It was the people inside that house, the family that could attract God. Once Mary entered and greeted, you can see why God chose that family. You can smell the atmosphere in that house by the exchange between the younger maiden and Aunty Elizabeth. The language is awesome, there were greetings and courtesies and God was flowing through prophesies. It was after Elizabeth’s prophesy that Mary’s Magnification came as the Holy Spirit spoke through her. Elizabeth who was nearing term and Mary who had just became pregnant helped and ministered to each other, trusted God together and kept sharing together. So in that house there was love, mutual encouragement, service, thanksgiving, etc. the first matter was not the gadgets and furnitures but the godly people that lived in that house. That is the place God found the first accommodation for His Son when He came into the world, not in a cozy house full of gadgets but in a house inhabited by cozy people, connected to God and connected to one another.
Again, friend how is your family? Can the LORD settle upon it and use it. Whenever Jesus went to Bethany it was in the house of Martha and Mary that He found conducive accommodation. The house of Acquila and Priscilla was where His assembly met in their day. During the time of Abraham God felt comfortable in his home but refused to enter Lot’s house and when He was compelled it became clear that the Divine presence could not dwell there and that, that family was unusable.
God could trust the Zacharias’ to bring up a son – John the Baptist – for Him. If they were not married properly and spoke with one voice John would have been unfortunate. His name and testimony would have changed. When the day came to name him his father was still dumb but the mother called him John and insisted when the elders wanted to change that name. That was the name they received for him from above. As the argument was going back and forth, Zachariah took a slate to confirm what his wife said and wrote – John. At this his tongue loosed and he broke into prophecy. What a godly couple.
How many children who would have become instruments for God have had their testimonies in life and the direction of their lives changed because their parents were living together but not married and so could not say the same things to the child? They do not bear the child before God together or discus issues concerning the child, etc. They even quarrel about the child and in front of the child. They say different things to the child and get them confused and come in between them. God cannot trust His choice arrows into the hands of such a couple.
CONCLUSION
Friend, God has decided that He cannot do without a man if He is going to work on earth. Then every man is set in a family which is God’s place for hiding men and making them. So, the family is also indispensible to Him. If there was a time to pay attention to deliberately build our families, based on the specifications of the Word of God, it is now. This is especially true at a time of darkness like we are presently experiencing. If the Revival we are expecting will fully come and this cloud will not pass without pouring the rains, then we must provide God with homes that will be acceptable to Him
Your man and young lady, get yourself ready in your present family for the family you will start. Learn all that God is exposing you to wholeheartedly. Take your academic pursuit, vocational training and home training very seriously. Of course the primary training is your spiritual training. Submit yourself to all of God’s disciplinary dealings and bear the yoke in the days of your youth and the future will be rosy. When it is time to choose a bride do not walk by sight but wait on the LORD until He shows you His will for your life. Do not marry a fire extinguisher or else you will regret and be less than God ordained for you to be. There are several sisters who panicked because they thought that age was catching up on them and fell into the hands of a man who sapped away everything in them and made them end up with doubts of whether they would even make heaven.
For those of us who are married settle down and become truly one. Do not let any issues become the matter for incessant divorces. Learn not to live by feelings but by the WORD of God. Practice the Word of the Lord whether you feel good about it or not. Elizabeth and Zachariah did not have a child for many years yet they lived happily until God brought John. Children are not the first matter but to prepare the home for them so that when God brings them the environment is already there for their discipleship. No issues must be allowed to come in between the two of you.
Understand it that your marriage and family is not for you but for the LORD. It is His base and platform for His work. Build a strong family altar on top of your personal altar. Serve and pour into everyone God’s brings into your family for Him. You may be raising an Esther, a Timothy, an Obed, etc, for a time of His visitation. That family is your ministry and gives you ministry, both inside and outside of it.
Let us prepare vessels for the moment that has come upon us. Every correct householder prepares vessels and stations them at strategic points around the house before the rainy season starts. If he does not do this when the rains come he will collect nothing and may have the troubles of containing floods and erosions. Friend it is time to settle down and prepare. The cloud is already bent and the showers are here. May thy not catch you unawares and become a challenge but may they rather be showers of blessings.