He who finds a wife finds a good thing. And obtains favor from the LORD (Prov. 18:22).
Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD. (Prov. 19:14).
A wife is a favour from the LORD. A man that wants a prudent wife must go to the LORD in prayer to get her. It is God that makes a wife for a man. And the LORD God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him!
The primary reason for which the wife is made is to be a help comparable, meet, suitable for the man (her husband). Every wife who understands this divine vision for her life is very cardinal in the revival of her home.
Revival can be simply defined as the re-awakening, resuscitation from dead or almost the spiritual life of the Christian wife.
Revival is the wife. It is God finding a wife who is willing to bear His Name and His Word by His Spirit to affect and influence others especially her family members. Such wife becomes an instrument of revival in the Hand of God.
A revived wife most times gives birth to a revived home. It is the spirituality of the wife that determines the spirituality of the home. The spirituality of the female folks in various denominations and in the nations determines the spirituality of the Church and the nations respectively. Women are indispensable agents of transformation in every generation. (The world adage says that if you train a woman you have trained a nation).
In the Bible days, several women played key roles in the revival of their days; women like Sarah, Rebecca, Jochebed, Hannah, Deborah, Esther, Mary the mother of Jesus, etc..
God’s eye is searching again in our time for wives who will lay down their lives so that He can pass through them to bring revival to homes.
FEATURES OF A REVIVED WIFE
A revived wife can be said to be a wife who fits into her divine roles as written in the Scriptures and does it passionately. She displays spiritual maturity evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit as a lifestyle. She exhibits competence in going about her roles as a wife. In this edition, we shall be examining her roles under these sub-topics: Help meet, Building Her Home, and Her Influence outside the home.
Help Meet
And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone: I will make him a helper comparable to him’. (Gen. 2:18)
After God formed the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it, He said to Himself in a soliloquy that it is not good that the man should be alone. He made for him a helper fit, meet, comparable, suitable to him. Having a helper for the man means that he has a divine mandate for which he needs a helper as a partner. The basic partnership for God’s work is a man with his wife. Every male m an has a divine mission to accomplish in his life time which is responsible for God’s provision of a wife with whom to accomplish this mandate. A wife is uniquely fashioned for every husband to accomplish this task. The main purpose for Christian marriage is that the man with his wife will accomplish the divine mandate for their home. Other reasons as good as they may be are secondary.
A woman who is revived understands this responsibility and applies herself to fulfilling this role with her husband as a priority of life. She knows that she was made for her husband and plays her role towards her husband with joy as unto the Lord.
As his helpmeet, she lives in submission to her husband and does him good all the days of her life as exemplified by the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 verse 12. She sees his vision as hers and partakes of it wholeheartedly. She prays for her husband, encourages him, gives him godly counsels, satisfies him emotionally and helps his physical needs.
Builds Her Home
The wise woman builds her house. But the foolish pulls it down with her hands. (Prov. 14:1).
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10). A wise woman is a woman who fears God. She is the one that builds her home while the foolish woman pulls down her home. A woman who is spiritually revived is wise and God-fearing. She builds her house.
How She Builds
For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God (Heb. 3:4). Any wife who must build her house correctly must first submit to God the Builder of all things. She must submit to the making of God. As God builds her life, she is also building her home. It is to the extent she submits to the making of God that she will effectively build her house. The home is not just the physical building; the home here refers primarily to the members of the household that is, the husband/Father, the children and others living in the house such as disciples and servants as the case may be.
God makes a woman in the place of her personal devotional altar. It is as she maintains regular effective personal devotions with God, where she communes with Him through daily study of His Word and prayer that God by His Holy Spirit transforms her life equipping her as the builder for her home. She is then able to build into the lives of her husband especially in the area of prayer; she will be apt to teach her children the Word of God both by life example and formally. She will disciple her household especially her daughters after righteousness. She will be in the watch tower for her home effectively praying. She will both be keeper at home and house keeper, competent in her spiritual and physical roles as a wife.
Such wife Her children rise up and call her blessed: Her husband also and he praises her. (Prov. 31:28)
Her Influence
A revived woman is a woman of influence. Apart from her competence at home where she has her primary assignment, manning strictly the gate of her home, her husband stays comfortably at the gate with the elders judging cases. Her life affects those that are on her path in life whether in her neighbourhood, her office, and the market place of business, the Church etc. Her life of meekness, lowliness of spirit, compassion, hospitality and holiness recommends her to all. She exercises her spiritual gifts in fullness fulfilling her God given ministry, contributing tremendously to the furtherance of the kingdom of God in her time.
HOW CAN YOU PERCEIVE A NEED FOR REVIVAL?
When as a wife, you are not coping with your divine roles at home, you see yourself becoming very brittle and you cannot stand stress, collapse with little challenges of life, it is time to cry out for revival. If you discover you have no hunger for spiritual things like studying the Word of God, praying, attending fellowships, edification meetings with the brethren, the likely problem may be that there is a lust you have developed that is killing your spiritual lust. Don’t take things for granted one lust kills another. Lusts for worldly goods kill the lust for spiritual things hence the warning, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it but he who does the will of God abides for ever. (1 Jn. 2:15-17)
One who manifests freely the works of the flesh for example, anger, quarrels, lies, gossips, competition, envy, etc. (Gal. 5:19-21) needs revival.
HOW TO SEEK REVIVAL
Firstly make sure you are born again that is you have repented of your sins and have turned to Jesus in faith for salvation with evidence of the fruits of repentance. You must be baptized in water by immersion (Mk. 16:16) and also seek to be baptized in the Holy Spirit if it is not yet your experience. Engage yourself in practices that bring revival, start by praying to encounter the Lord personally as was the case of Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-8).
Isaiah was preaching and proclaiming woes unto Israel for their sins until Uzzah the king died and he also saw the LORD. He had an encounter that opened his eyes to see himself how God saw him. He then said Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isa. 6:5). Encountering God personally marks the beginning of a genuine lasting personal revival. You must then begin a personal walk with God. Have regular effective personal devotions, set aside time to commune with God personally to study the Word of God and pray, marking His Words personally to you. It is called quiet time. Find time to read good Christian books and listen to tapes, DVDs, etc, and fellowship with likeminded brethren. You with your husband can have spiritual oversight from one that God leads you to, what is called discipleship relationship to grow your spiritual life.
HINDRANCES TO PERSONAL REVIVAL
Sin will block your walk with God. You must not keep wrong relationships which will corrupt your good manners (1 Cor. 15:33). You must avoid having wrong priorities of life, rating the physical things over the spiritual. Lack of self control especially with time management makes a woman to give in to time wasters such as unnecessary phone calls, chattings, internet browsing, face book, Whatsapp, etc. Also excessive sleep and procrastinations and purposeless visitations deter spiritual growth yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as an armed man. (Prov. 6:10-11).
BENEFITS OF REVIVAL
A wife who is revived will fulfill her divine mandate and live a life of peace, joy, godliness with contentment. Your home will become an effective platform for God to use to reach lost souls and establish lives for the kingdom. It will be a place of succor for many battered lives. Your entire household, your husband and children will not suffer loss. Darkness will never encroach upon your home.
CONCLUSION
Wives are indispensible instruments of revival in the homes. A revived wife is a great blessing to her husband and her neighbourhood, the Church and the nation at large. Homes with revived wives can never suffer loss but a home where the wife is unspiritual will be very gullible, both the husband and children suffer great loses. Heaven is in dire need of revived females at time like this and God’s searchlight is on you. Will He find you available? Pleas pray!