Christian before marriage: I’m first and foremost a Christian before I’m anything else. My marriage does not come before and is not more important than my Christianity. I am first a Christian then I am married.
Walk with God – Marriage: “There is also this idea that as a Christian your marriage can be more important than your walk with God”. I don’t make a choice to preserve my marriage and compromise my Christian walk. I’m first a servant of the Most High God. I’m first a believer and a Christian and that’ll help me keep my marriage together not the other way around.
Story – Pastor John – marriage: “I would not have a marriage today if I had not given the Word of God first place completely in my life”. Pastor John and Pastor Sharon were a recipe for friction, heat and fire. “But because I brought the Word of God in and she responded to the Word of God and then brought the Word of God in herself the way she could, God changed it. So I was first a Christian, then I was a husband”. Like Pastor John, I give the Word first place completely in my life, I bring the Word of God in my marriage.
Marriage – the Bible’s way: I do not first seek counsel from a psychologist, family member, work colleague, someone else, book shop or online and ask, “So what do you think about this kind of situation in a marriage?”. Lord, I’m living from Christ, I’m living in Christ, and now I’m going to live in Christ in my marriage; now, I receive all the power that is in Christ into my marriage.
Powerless worldly advice: If I receive the power of worldly advice for my marriage, then I receive the power of that worldly advice, which is not very powerful at all.
Pastor John’s marriage statement: “I used to say; if I had to make a choice between ministry and marriage, I would choose marriage”. “I made a quality decision in my life that I would not compromise my marriage for ministry. That’s because at that time I was determined to not allow my marriage to fail because of ministry. But then God had to deal with me, and He said, “John, you are not called to marriage, you are called to Me but you are called through marriage. So, it is not a question of having to choose your marriage or the ministry. You choose Me and then your marriage will be what it needs to be. You choose Me and your ministry will be what it needs to be, and you should have both.” If I’m living in Jesus, my assignment will be what He wants it to be, my marriage will be what it needs to be and my business will become what it needs to be.
Marriage – options open: “Because I’m going to keep all the other options open – because the other options are what? The other options are; if my marriage doesn’t work, I’ll get divorced, I’ll keep that option open. No, don’t. Live for Jesus. You know, I’ve always said this, I’ve always said this; if you live for Jesus, the Light that is in you will do one of two things; it will either change your partner or it will make it intolerable and your partner will choose darkness. And the Bible is clear about that, if darkness wants to leave you; you’ve got to let them go. It’s the only occasion where the Bible says it’s okay to let people go, if they want to leave you because of darkness”.
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