======================================================================== COUPLES ALTAR-2 by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni teaches that the couple's altar is a divine place where husband and wife achieve oneness and align with heaven's purpose for their union, beyond mere prayer or routine. Duration: 50:15 Topics: "Marriage", "Prayer", "Spiritual Unity" Scripture References: Matthew 18:18-20, Genesis 2:24, Genesis 20:12, Genesis 24:67, 1 Samuel 25:42, 2 Samuel 11:27 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this devotional sermon, Gbile Akanni explores the spiritual significance of the couple's altar in marriage. He challenges common misconceptions, emphasizing that the altar is not merely a place for routine prayer or selfish requests but a sacred space for husband and wife to unite in purpose and align with God's heavenly vision. Drawing from Matthew 18:18-20 and other scriptures, Akanni highlights the progressive journey of becoming one flesh and the importance of spiritual unity in marriage. This message offers practical insights for couples seeking deeper connection and divine partnership. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impart your heart as you encounter his Word. For further inquiry or counsel, contact Peace House, P.O. Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria. Telephone numbers 0703-0363659, 0703-7681198. Email address lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org. Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. I want to thank God for every one of us this morning, who is bright and early, and praying that God will meet our needs. All that he has prepared for us this day, by his special grace and mercy, he will bring to our various lives. We are in the series of devotional challenges in the morning. We are dealing with the different altars that are supposed to go on in a correct matrimony. The altars that are supposed to be raised by the family, by the husband, by the wife, and eventually the children. By the grace of God, our brother Simeon brought a very strong challenge, particularly to my own heart yesterday, as he dealt on the issue of the individual altar. He brought such good insights that by the grace of God, we are going to be chewing and praying that God will help each of our lives. If you open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 18, I will read a passage that will be like our general text, and we will look at it as God gives us grace. Matthew chapter 18, and I'm reading from verse 18 to verse 20. It's quite a popular passage of Scripture, and it reads, Verily, I say unto you, whatever you do shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. The first thing that God challenged me with, and if you don't mind we will pray together once again, even though we are praying, but let's pray once again. Father, we pray that you will gather our hearts, and you will deposit deep in the confines of our hearts that which is necessary for our lives, both for today and the days ahead as you have planned. Please grant utterance and grant an entrance. We are asking it in the name of Jesus. Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As I looked at this passage, I suddenly saw the three kinds of altars that are supposed to be in any correct home. I saw the three of them suddenly. In verse 18, I saw the individual altar. I saw an individual doing business with heaven. If you look at that verse 18, it says, I see this as each person's individual altar, binding and losing and agreeing with God on the things that are supposed to happen around the person. As a husband, as a wife, we've been eloquently taking through all of that yesterday. But then in verse 19, I see it comes down to two people, which is the couple's altar. Again, I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them in heaven. If you of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. I see that as the couple's altar, two people coming together. In verse 18, we see one person approaching the throne of grace and accomplishing a changing of his likeness, of his own purpose as he does business with God. In verse 19, we see two people coming together. Again, bringing issues of heaven and making sure the things going on in heaven is being done on the earth. And finally, in verse 20, they added the third component, where the children can come in, the other members of the family can come in. We now see a family altar. So, I see verse 18, verse 19 and verse 20 dealing with the three kinds of altars that should be going on in every home. Because of our focus, I'm not going to be talking about verse 18 or verse 20. I am going to be dealing with verse 19. But if I will just make a comment before I leave that again, I see verse 18 as a forum, the individual altar, a forum for achieving the likeness of the individual with God, a changing process that makes him and God become one. In verse 19, I see another changing process that achieves oneness. The individual is achieving likeness. The couple, two people coming together, they achieve oneness, they achieve an agreement, they achieve a sameness of heart and purpose before the Lord. So, I see them achieving a oneness before God. And finally, in verse 20, which is the family altar, I see them achieving a familiness. I'm seeing two, three, four, five members of a home coming together, uniting in focus, uniting in heart, becoming one flesh. Well, maybe not one flesh, that's for the couple. Becoming one, creating a togetherness in the home, which I usually like to call a familiness that they are developing. The altar, therefore, is a place that I see three things happening. Any altar is a place that connects heaven, a place where people go to, and it connects people to heaven. I see the altar as a place of divine transaction, something that makes human beings touch heaven, a place, an activity, a concept where human beings can actually touch God. That's the altar. And finally, I see the altar as a place that connects people to the heartbeat of heaven. When you come to the altar, you are forced to look at God. You are forced to look at what he wants. So, let me just leave that general introduction because of my time and move rapidly on and focus on the couple's altar. And in looking at the couple's altar this morning, permit me to first and foremost do some ground clearing, remove certain things that normally color and discolor the couple's altar. Certain things that has not made the couple's altar to work in many homes, which if we don't quickly remove aside, before we go and look at what the couple's altar is meant to accomplish and how it is meant to be operated, we might continue to have problems with it. The first thing I'd like to say is that the couple's altar is not first and foremost just a place of prayer and study between husband and wife. More often than not, couples approach their altar with a sense of duty. As husband and wife, we have to pray together. My husband, you are not praying with me. My wife, every time we want us to pray, you start sleeping. So, you know, I see first and foremost, the first wrong thing with many couple's altar is that it is approached from the standpoint of just an activity. Virtually all altars actually are far from just the activity. There are the activities of the altar, which I'm praying that we'll have enough time to look at at the end. There are the activities of the altar, but the couple's altar, the concept of the couple's altar, as God explained to me, is not first and foremost an activity. And I stumbled on these issues of the altar out of personal frustration. After we married, I wanted to pray with my wife, but I discovered that almost all the time that we attempt to pray together, sometimes it ends in quarrel. Like it has been said yesterday, I think we are assuming, sometimes it ends in quarrel. Sometimes we want to try it, and when we do it two, three, four times, we get tired. And I was saying, there must be something more than just for us to pray together. If it is to pray together, it's okay. We can pray together briefly and go our different ways. But my heart kept saying, there must be something more. There's something more about the couple's altar than just a place of activity, a place of praying. That's the same thing I discovered with the family altar. What is the concept of this altar? Like I said, I'm going to be looking at what the couple's altar is and what it is not. It is not just a place of activity. It's not a place where we go and say, okay, my dear, give us one chorus. And they say, no, I'm the one who gave you a chorus yesterday. It's your turn to give chorus. I say, no chorus is coming to my mind. Give us another. If you are not giving the chorus, we will be waiting until chorus comes to your mind. And the quarrel begins. I see such things. It happened with me. Okay, pray for us. I'm the one that prayed yesterday. If it is just a mere prayer together to pray, it won't be effective. Secondly, it's not a mechanical routine that we must keep. We have not prayed together for the past three weeks. My husband is no longer spiritual. My wife is not spiritual. Because we are not praying together, the focus is still on that activity. It's not a place where, as we are praying, somebody is sleeping, somebody is grumbling, all those different things that normally happen. That's not the couple's altar. And finally, it's not a time of just pouring, even when we overcome all those teething problems. Most of the time I discover that the couple's altar is reduced only to a place of pouring our selfish desires to God. What do you want God to do for you? What do I want God to do for me? What do we want God to do for us in this family? It is for us, for us, for us. The couple's altar primarily. Even though, by the grace of God, it would be a place of asking and getting things done for the family. That's not the first concept of the couple's altar. So, what is the concept, what is the couple's altar? I'm going to read that passage again, but I am going to read it from both the King James and the Amplified Bible. King James says, again I say to you, verse 19, now the couple's altar, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. The Amplified Bible says, truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on the earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven. And whatever you permit and declare must be forbidden in heaven. Now, suddenly the game changes. I'm suddenly seeing that it's not an issue of just coming for our selfish desires to be expressed. It's a place of discovering what is heaven's purpose for our union, what is heaven's purpose for our family, what is heaven's purpose for our coming together, what's heaven's vision for us as a husband and wife coming together. What is it that has already been declared about us from heaven? What is it that has already been declared and permitted and agreed upon in heaven that the two of us can now come together to agree together that it should come to pass on the earth? So I suddenly saw that the couple's altar is not a selfish place. Again, anything that Mr. Self enters, he normally spoils. Once Mr. Self enters the couple's altar, he's soon going to grind to a halt. If the focus is on self, if the focus is on the husband because he's the one leading, everything is about himself. And when the husband is doing that, the wife is also saying, what about me? You are not thinking about me. You are not raising prayer point about me. Whenever Mr. Self enters the couple's altar, anything actually, like we normally say, is that critical hindrance to God's purpose? Is that bad insect that once he enters your soup, he spoils it no matter what it is that you are cooking? So we are saying that the couple's altar is not first and foremost a place for selfish exercise of personal desires, a place where you just pour your selfish desires for God to handle. What is the good purpose of the couple's altar? What is the couple's altar designed to accomplish? What happens in the couple's altar? Number one, I see the couple's altar as a divine provision of achieving the oneness that we have been talking about. You will see that ever since this meeting started, we've been talking about that becoming one flesh. It is critical in every marriage. Any marriage that does not achieve a oneness, that does not achieve a togetherness, that does not achieve a becoming one flesh, a becoming gradually. I saw as the meeting was going yesterday and as Mom and Sister Shadi was pointing out, she said, they shall become one flesh. It is not a once and for all thing. It is a progressive becoming, a progressive fusing together, cleaving, becoming one flesh. I see from that verse 18, I see that whatsoever two of you shall agree, I see the primary focus of the couple's altar is a place to achieve agreement, to achieve a sameness of focus, a sameness of purpose, a sameness of desires. Achieve a oneness, achieve a togetherness. That's the first purpose of the couple's altar. When we have come together, it is a place to mingle. That's why we call it a communion. It's where the union communes. It's a communion. The union between husband and wife, that's the place of primary communing, a communing of the union. That's what makes it a communion. So the first thing I see is that achieving oneness, achieving one flesh. And if I look at that quickly as my time is really running, in Genesis chapter 2 verse 24, Genesis chapter 2 verse 24, we have quoted it several times. It says, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. I have quoted that scripture before. But let me, an intriguing thing happened to me as I was just studying my scripture. I saw this phrase and it looked curious. I don't know why it caught my attention. But I saw in about four or five different places in the scripture, I saw this small phrase and I'm just going to deal with one of them. But you can find it in Genesis chapter 20 verse 12, Genesis 20 verse 12. You can find it in Genesis 24 verse 67, Genesis 24. You can find it in 1st Samuel chapter 25, 1st Samuel 25 42, 1st Samuel 25 42. And finally you can find it in 2nd Samuel chapter 11 verse 27. What is this phrase that I'm talking about? Let me read Genesis 20 verse 12, which is the one we are going to study in a bit in achieving oneness in the couple's altar. And Genesis 20 verse 12 says, And yet, indeed, she is my sister. But not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. I don't know why it struck me. And she became my wife. And she became my wife. And she became my wife. I suddenly saw from this scripture that you marry your sister. Permit me to use this as just a time. Every sister. The Bible says you should not marry a non-believer. So every wife, every husband is your sister, is your brother. You marry your brother. You marry your father's daughter. You marry your father's sister. That's the first relationship where children of God together. But that does not make her automatically become a wife to you or become a husband to you. You are already born again. She is your sister. He is your brother. But she has to become your wife. And this becoming your wife, becoming your husband, is a primary implement of coming together. Every time you come together, the first focus is to achieve a togetherness, a coming together, a sameness of heart and purpose. She must gradually transform into your wife. I remember once when I was trying to prepare my boys for marriage. And we were looking at the Word of God. And God gave us a phrase about customizing your wife to God's purpose for your life. It's like every wife you marry is a sister. She's just a sister. She's like any other sister. But a sister, particular sister that has been allocated to you, when she now comes to you, it is your job for you to customize. What's the meaning of the word customize? To make particularly relevant, to tap the help, to tap the resources, to open up the things that are inside of her and ensure that the two of you are on the same page, becoming your wife. And I've discovered that, indeed, many, many sisters, they are wonderful. They are just sisters. But they have to become your own. It's like buying a laptop. The laptop is a laptop. Generally, it can be used for architectural work, it can be used for typesetting, it can be used for music, it can be used for anything. So when it gets into the hand of a musician, it is the responsibility for you to install apps, to do things inside that computer that's going to make that computer relevant to you particularly. The couple's altar is a place of envisioning, is a place of making sure that our heart is one, our focus is one, our understanding is one. That's the first thing. I was wrong because my time is going on. When I got married to my wife, again, Amos was saying he was the big brother and his wife. My role was the reverse. My wife, like I said several times, she was one of the people that followed me up when I gave my life to Christ. Of course, that time, we did not know we were going to get married. We were still in higher HSC. What do you call it? The A-levels of those days. That's when I gave my life to Christ. I gave my life to Christ in the fellowship. She was one of those who taught me how to do quiet time, how to do this, how to do that. Of course, from secondary school, we went our different ways. I went to university, different universities, and we lost, as it were, everyday contact before God brought us back again. You can imagine me. I am married to my mother in the Lord. I'm married to my spiritual mother, the one who taught me fellowship, who taught me this. She would say, no, that's not how you do as a Christian. You do like this, you do like this. So, when we were getting married, of course, when God pointed out to me as the person I'm going to marry, I said, what? But I became a man. By that time, I had become a man, so I proposed, and she agreed, and we moved in. So, you can imagine my surprise, my shock, when I now discovered that, ah, ah, I thought that because she was very spiritual, she knew Bible, she had been a Christian before me, she's a wonderful sister, I thought everything would just go hunky-dory. It was never like that. Even after years in the Lord before me, I still had to stand up as the man, to customize her, to show her where we are going, and to make sure that things go on well. I must run away because I'm only dealing with the first one now. She was, she was my sister, and she became my wife. The purpose of the altar is to achieve a oneness. The second purpose of the altar is to deploy that agreement achieved, to put it to work. The purpose of the altar is a place to put your agreement, to put your sameness, to put your coming together, your becoming one flesh, to put it into practice, to make it accomplish something on the earth. The first place you are going to practicalize it is about your personal issues. I must not, eh, I must not, eh, deny that. It's to pray for your needs, to pray for the children, when your wife becomes pregnant, eh, to pray as the child is growing up. That's probably the first place to deploy the agreement. In that Matthew chapter 18 verse 19, it says, If two or three shall agree as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done of them, or my father which is in heaven. Permit me to add John chapter 16 verse 24. These are all common passages. It's just a conceptual understanding that I am praying that God will pass across to us this morning. These are scriptures that we are familiar with. In John chapter 16 verse 24, Jesus said, Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name, and ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Now, what's the purpose of an agreement? What's the purpose of oneness? What's the purpose of, eh, of, eh, achieving oneness when that oneness is not deployed, when it is not employed into accomplishing things? So the second purpose of that couple's altar is to take our agreement as a, as a platform to ask, to make deliberate requests, to discuss with God. I see the couple's altar as two people mutually in agreement to their situation. And there are a lot of couples, myself included, unfortunately. We are achieving this oneness by the grace of God. God is helping us to gel together, to grow together, but we fail many times to deploy, to use this to accomplish. As husband and wife, to hold yourself and say, my dear, let's get this done. To use your oneness to accomplish purposes around you, to ask for your needs, ask for the needs of your children, set the destinies of your family, set the destinies of people around you, to use your couple's altar as a platform of bringing the things that has been determined in heaven, bringing it down upon the earth. That's the second purpose of that altar. If you achieve a oneness, the two of you are not quarreling, you are happy with one another, you are doing together, but you fail to come together to ask, it's an agreement wasted. It's a oneness not deployed, a oneness accomplished but left to wallow and fallow without being used. So the second purpose is coming together in agreement to ask. Now, so, in this second, the agreement is very key. A couple's altar sometimes to be drudging, what is the word now, a drudgery, a drab, unexciting place, is that we are not accomplishing things. We cannot see one, two, three, four things that our coming together it has accomplished. Oh, we prayed about this person the other time and see what God has done. Oh, we talked to God about this child the other time of reminding yourselves what God has done in the past so that God can be brought down to do more. So the first question you are asking, it's not that you just get there and say, okay, let us pray, we are praying, let's be praying. What are you praying about? What are we asking about? So my own couple's altar is not just a place of routine, we get there, we sing a chorus, after that, we read the Bible verse, then after that, we worship God, after we worship God, then we start praying and start interceding. When we come together, we are sitting down. So every couple's altar for us has a focus, has an objective, there's something we are wanting to accomplish by it. It may be a follow-up of something we started the last time that we have not finished, it may be a beginning of a new thing. But as a purpose, what are we talking to God about? What are we asking? What are we hoping to accomplish when we finish this? It's a deliberate thing that we are doing by the grace of God. So what are we asking? So it is, I normally encourage husband, wait to secure an agreement of your wife. It's not just an issue of running to pray. It's not just an issue of running to even ask. It's an issue of asking what you have agreed. So the question is, what have you agreed upon? I spend more time, we spend more time with my wife. I say I because usually it's the husband that is always, like my brother said yesterday, and go away, while the woman is still asking questions. She's asking questions. She has not come to a place of agreement with you. Why don't you wait? Before you deliberately together place a request before the Lord, hear her heart. Allow her to speak. Let her disclose the bodies and her own perspective to you. Sometimes it's the wife that also does this. She has one desire. My husband, come let us pray. Let's pray that this will not happen to the children. So sometimes I'm asking, why are we asking God this question? What is the motivation for this prayer? Can we defend this prayer before the Lord? My wife, sometimes we say, ah, no, it's just for us to pray. I say, no. Let's check our motive. Let's check our purpose. And we see that and we analyze. Look at this, look at that, look at that. And with time, my wife began to know how to do it more than me. Sometimes I'm coming with a burning passion. My girl, let's pray about this. She says, so, what did God say to me? How did He say it? I'm saying, no, the Lord, the Lord is saying, yeah, I know. Because God has also said something to me. And I want you to see, I want to know how this one, how my, what God is saying to me, how it fits into what you are saying. And sometimes I must tell you honestly, we are not able to come to an agreement. We don't rush to pray. We take the time, whatever time it takes to achieve that oneness before we pray about it. To achieve that agreement. Because just a passive assent is not necessarily faith. Okay, okay, okay, okay, let's pray, let's pray. Okay, let's pray about it, let's pray about it. That's just a passive assent. I agree, I agree. I know you use the word agree, but that's not real agreement. And agreement only comes when together. Both of you, your heart has come together on that issue. And both of you are passionate about seeing that thing come to pass. You have reached the point of agreement. You have reached the point of faith. I would like to say, wait for yourselves. Mommy, don't be too much in a hurry. Wait for Daddy to see what you are talking about. Daddy, don't be too much in a haste. Wait until Mommy sees what you are talking about. It is, it's a, sometimes our couple's daughter is a laboring to agree. Taking the time to, to first of all, bring our hearts together. We may spend one hour talking and raising issues. At the end of it, a five minutes or 10 minutes of prayer settles the issue. Because now we are praying in total agreement. Both of us know what we are asking God to do. And both of us are agreed that it should happen. So I say, labor to agree. Agree to ask. Then hold yourself while you wait for the answer. Number one, labor to agree. Number two, agree on what to ask. And when you have asked, number three, you will now become the support for one another. Sometimes the husband has forgotten that we pray together on this issue and is becoming agitated. My wife says, my dear boy, you forgot that we told God about this. We are only waiting to see it happen. Don't worry, it's going to happen. Ah, my heart comes again. I say, yes. And then you know my agreement that is trying to go away is grabbed back again. My faith is enabled and I come back. Labor to agree. Agree to ask. Hold yourself while you wait for the answer. Number three, the third purpose of this is a godly offspring. I'm sure that I don't have to teach too much on it because God already dealt that for us. Right from the first day, God started talking about an offspring. Something that springs out of your union. Something that is produced because the two of you come together. The couple's altar is a place to build that godly offspring. And I'm sure you remember that they say it is not just children, not just natural children. Natural children, spiritual children, yes. But we are talking about something born out of your loins and your womb. Something born out of your coming together. Something born out of your fusing together. You will remember that, for example, for a child to be born of a couple, the husband must donate something into the wife. There is the seed that is inside the loins of the man that he must donate, he must deliver properly into the womb of the woman. And she must conceive it and carry it to task as to it upon the earth. You know, that scripture that brother Simeon brought yesterday was very wonderful for me. When he said, Sarah herself received strength. She received strength to conceive. This takes place in the couple's altar. When the husband, who is the eye, who is the nose, who is the ear, who is the taste, who can see ahead, who can see a vision for the family, he pours that vision into the woman. And she herself, because she is in contact with God, receives strength to collect that vision. And she receives. Let me tell you, everything that you are going to bond to the earth, which is spiritual, the man must deliver that vision into the wife. And the wife must accept it, collect it, conceive it. They are the ones, it is, what you carry, sir, is only going to be born to the earth as your wife conceives it and provides a gestation length of incubation. And you know that one of the major assignments of a wife in the life of her husband is intercession. When you have delivered that thing into her heart, she carries it. And for the next nine months, she's providing warmth, she's providing nourishment, she's bringing it and it's building and it's growing. It's growing arms and legs. The vision is growing and showing. Finally, the two of you see it come to pass. I've seen this happen between us several times. Sometimes I see a vision. It doesn't have arms and legs. I just see something. It's a spark. And I say, my dear, come, I want us to pray about this issue. God is putting this in my heart. She says how, she asks me all the questions and all of that. So the person who is looking at me, she doesn't know anything. She's not, it looks as if I'm the one that has everything. She's collecting the details. She's asking me questions. We are communing over it. Some two, three, four couples alter. We are talking about it. She's reading my notes. I'm reading her notes. We are all of those things, we are doing those things together. Suddenly, sometimes I am just waking up in the morning and I'm hearing my wife interceding. And it is about that thing that I spoke to her about. She's crying to heaven. She's begging God as if her life depends on it. I say, oh yes, yes, that's my womb. Hello, sir, if you don't develop your womb, you will give back to nothing to the earth. The couple's alter is a place to deliver seed into the womb, to receive strength, to conceive it, to carry it and carry it to term. She will give back to it for you in due course by the grace of God. Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. She's woman. Some people have said woman means the womb of a man. I didn't see that in my own Bible. Rather, what I see is the woman is the womb, the man with the womb. That's the wombed man. That's the person who carries my womb. I have the seed, yes, but that's where my womb is located. And I must pour this seed for her to incubate it and bring it to term. Several things that God has accomplished out of our hands by the grace of God, I must confess publicly, is that she carries it. She labors in prayer until she sees it all. As she prays, I see clearly. As she prays, I hear better. I understand better. And my conceptual understanding grows as she incubates that vision. She's the wombed man. I was hoping that mummy would have gone ahead when she said she's the fee of male. I eagerly was waiting and I'm praying that God will still bring that thing down. What does it mean to be the fee of the male? I'm talking about pouring the seed into her to conceive. One unfortunate example is that God pours seed into a woman because of self. In Genesis 38, verse 9, you will see the story of a family. I think it's a family of Judah and his three sons. The first son was called El. The Bible says he was wicked before the Lord, so the Lord slew him. Then the father said to the second son, he said, go into your brother's wife to raise up seed in the memory of your brother. That's the practice in Israel in those days. When the senior brother marries a wife, if he dies without having children, the wife is transferred to the next brother so that the first child from their sleeping together belongs to the first brother that has died. That's why the nearest kinsman was saying, I don't want to mar my inheritance because he knows that according to the law in Israel, the first child that is supposed to come from a root will belong to Elimelech and her sons. So they say, no, I don't want to do that kind of labor. In Genesis 38, verse 9, an owner knew that the seed should not be his, and it came to pass when he went into his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. I don't want to talk about this bad person, but I'm saying something that can happen between husband and wife. Excuse me, sir. Don't spill your seed everywhere on the ground. Your seed belongs inside the womb of your wife. Don't look for a prayer partner somewhere. You are spilling it on the ground. You are spilling it on the seed. Don't be carrying your vision that has not been incubated and be broadcasting it. The first place to donate that seed is your womb. Don't spill it on the ground. And I want to beg husbands, make a deliberate effort to build this couple's altar. That's the place where things happen. I want to confess to you, and you heard our elder brother Billy and sister Shadi talking yesterday, they are saying, without themselves, they cannot accomplish. You almost want to say, hey, are you really sure? But that's what we have seen them say over the years. That's what we have seen them do over the years. They pour into one another. Many of the things that we see in peace and love, let me ask you, your visions, your aspirations, your hopes, where are you pouring it? If you don't pour it into that woman, you will not give back to anything on the earth. My time is almost over. I just have a few minutes to round up. I had thought I would have been able to talk about the activities of the couple's altar. I will just mention them because my time has finished. Of course, praying, studying, worshipping together is an activity that accomplishes this thing that I have been talking about. Having retreats together. Up to now, I still do it with my wife. We clear our engagement, locate it two, three days, maybe during the week because we are missionaries. If you have to be in the weekend, fine. Sometimes we go out many times, almost all the time. We go out of our home, get a guest house, get somebody's guest room, somewhere where my wife will not be troubled with cooking food. They will give us food. Sometimes we combine it with fasting. We are only eating once a day and we are together. Sometimes two, three days. Communing, pouring into ourselves, speaking our frustrations, our hopes, our aspirations, getting together in retreats. I know you are doing a loan with God as an individual. Put a loan together as a second point to it. From time to time, go out and be a loan together and you will see many things happening. Fasting and interceding together. I can almost say that every fast, every major fast that I have taken in my life, long fast, 30 days, 40 days, my wife has gone with me. She has accompanied me with it. We pray together. We fast together. We are located where we are doing together. We are interceding together. We want something accomplished. She joins. It doesn't matter what she was planning before. She says, my dear, once you are going, I am following you and we are doing together. Sometimes she is the one that initiates. I say, where are you fasting? She says, this, this. I say, okay, I am joining you. And we are fasting and praying together. The last thing I will talk about the activities of the couple's altar is making notes for yourselves. When God is speaking to you, write with the understanding that my wife is going to read this. Write with the understanding that my husband is going to read this so that she can understand, so that he can understand. Exchange your notes. When you have come to a meeting like this, let's read each other's notes so that you will see the perspectives that God showed each of you and you can go together. The last thing I will be talking about, which I will not, are the things that destroy the couple's altar. I will just refer you to the seminar yesterday. The things that destroy communication, majorly. There are several things, but if you just know that anything that does not allow your oneness to come together, your communication to be full-flowing, will destroy that communion. I'm going to ask you to pray with me this morning. What is it that God wants accomplished with your life? I want you to just briefly, one minute, and say, Lord, let us come into a communion. Let us come into an agreement. Don't allow our union to be useless, to be fruitless, to achieve nothing on the earth. Create for us a platform of communion. Permit me to pray as I stop this morning. Gracious Father, you have put out something before our eyes. It's like the popular words of Jacob. I pray that you will cause us to conceive with this understanding. I pray that each one of us will see the couple's altar from a different angle altogether, and we will pursue it. Lord, I pray for every husband and wife, myself inclusive, listening to what you are saying this morning, that we will put our union to work. We will make our union to accomplish your purpose on the earth. What is it that we are being called to accomplish? The union was brought together in order to achieve a purpose, that we will not live and die without accomplishing it. Thank you for hearing us. We worship and exalt your name. In Jesus' mighty name, we are prayed. Amen. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/couples-altar-2/ ========================================================================