God s Design & Purpose For Matrimony

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Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59, 0703 76811 98. 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. We want to thank the Lord for the privilege he has given us for this Corpus Retreat this year.

And we want to first establish that the Corpus Retreat is a family affair. And we wish that as we sit together as couples, we'll be able to share together and bear the understanding that God will be bringing to us together. We also desire that as we begin this morning through the various things that God will be bringing, the Bible studies, the seminars, the Corpus testimonies that will come to us, and various things that God will lead us to do, we want to continuously reflect that there are no more two, but one flesh.

And what we want to do today, which we shall do throughout the course of this meeting, is that as we take issues to discuss, to study, and to bring the perspective that God will be raising, the two of us are going to be walking, we are going to be speaking and praying that the Lord will come to us very deliberately and very passionately. Sister Shade is here with me as we walk together on the issues that God will be raising. Our theme for this retreat is a fulfilling matrimony.

Purpose, principles, parameters, and practice. Which means there are four issues that we fear God will have us to spend time to deal with. Understanding what is the purpose for our matrimony.

Unless we begin to pursue the purpose for our matrimony, fulfilling it, having a fulfilling matrimony will only continue to be like a dream. But there are principles that God has laid for this institution that he himself created to operate well and to give maximum results and to produce a fulfilling experience for both the man and the woman in matrimony. If we do not learn to operate with God's principles, we are not likely to get God's results.

So as we go on, you will see us dealing with principles and practice, and we shall be looking at what is the parameter that God has set for us as husband and wife, and as couples, what God wants us to accomplish. And so this morning, we're going to just read the first two or three paragraphs of our body. We'll read it.

Sister Shade, you will please read that out for us. The first three paragraphs. A fulfilling matrimony.

Purpose, principles, parameters, and practice. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18 verse 22.

God who conceived the matter of marriage at the beginning did not intend it to be a trouble in the flesh of the man and woman in the marital relationship. Your marriage ought to be an experience of God's favor for your life and all you have to do in this life. Your wife was created and brought into your life as a helper that is suitable and meet for all you have been called to accomplish for God in your lifetime.

Our own life will also take shape and find fulfillment only as she feeds into her matrimony, not as a passive participant or will borrow to be pushed along, but as an active partner in it. Both the man and his wife are brought together deliberately to be the two basic beings that can join forces together to become a formidable team in establishing God's kingdom agenda on the earth. For if two of you shall agree together as touching anything you shall ask on earth, it shall be done for you by my Father in heaven, Matthew 18, 18 to 19.

Both of you are joint heirs of the grace of life, which you require to cause you to do what ordinary human energy cannot accomplish. Your matrimony is settled by God for great exploits. For this reason, we are coming to this couple's retreat to look at the principles, the parameters, and the right practice that will bring the fulfillment God intends for our marriage.

A fulfilling matrimony is a reality and your own matrimony must fulfill the purpose of God for creating it. We long not just to experience a relationship that barely survives the pressures of this life, but that which brings to back all that God has embedded in your lives as husband and wife for his glory and for his kingdom on earth. May you not fail to bring forth the offspring heaven longs for in this your union.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Just to quickly highlight before we now take our first step of study today in the word of God, is the fact that God is longing for something to break forth out of our marriages.

And that your marriage is a deliberate arrangement by God that the two of you, the two of you will become that basic two. When you say if two of you shall agree as touching anything they will ask on earth. So we began to recognize that we cannot enter into the revival God is talking about, the revival of the nation that God is talking about, the glory that God wants to release upon his people before his appearing.

If the very basic, the very basic implement God provided for his work on earth is not put into consideration. So we're beginning to look at something particularly in this couple's retreat. Even though there's a lot of issues that we're raising about problems, about how to make sure your marriage works well and all of that, I want you to know that this particular couple's retreat goes beyond settling quarrels.

This particular couple's retreat is set to release the purpose of God and the plan of God for our matrimony because you were created into this marriage for a divine assignment. When you have put aside all the misunderstanding and all of that, you, the two of you will hold your hand and say God, we are not just existing to be tried to patch up. Our marriage is not just established so that we can just quarrel in the morning, we settle in the night, we eat together, we sleep together, and we just go on until we die.

Our matrimony is set to accomplish a purpose and we are praying that we will know that until that divine agenda for setting up, for bringing your wife into your life has become a reality. God is going to gain something out of this marriage in the name of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God is going to advance. In fact, the more and more I'm praying, the more I'm becoming very, very aggressive in my spirit that what the devil did by coming to attack the home, which he is still doing up to now because he knows that that is the instrument God has set to fulfill his purpose on the face of the earth.

And I'm sensing in my spirit that it is time for God not only to revive our relationship as husband and wife, but to release us, to mobilize you as a basic unit of getting eternal things done on earth. So please, brothers, as we are going on, and sisters, as we are going on, enlarge your heart. Go beyond that.

You have already spent 10 years, 20 years quarreling. Enough is enough. Are we together? You have spent enough time beating about the bush.

You have spent enough time struggling with nothing. You have spent enough time, you are growing old and the divine purpose of God for you is hanging. In this retreat, heaven will release you.

You will break forth. Our homes will become a threat to the devil. Satan will suffer defeat as a result of what God will do in the course of this couples retreat in the name of Jesus Christ.

So as we begin, we are beginning from that angle. We are studying now because we are more deliberate that if God has brought two people like yourself together and he said if two of you shall agree as touching anything they will ask on earth, it shall be done. And we are talking beyond, Lord, give us food.

Lord, don't let our children suffer. All of those things, as good as they are, they are not the purpose for which the two of you are together. Those things preoccupy us because Satan will not want us to get to where we are going.

But by the grace of God, concurrently, simultaneously, from nation to nation, as God has now arranged that this meeting shall be happening concurrently, simultaneously, there will be an outburst. There will be an outburst in the name of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God will find an advance and Satan is going to suffer.

So before we go ahead, can you please join hands with your wife and begin just to pray one prayer. Father, the reason you brought me into my wife's life and the way you brought my wife to me, we will not die until we fulfill it. We will not be distracted until it comes to pass.

These two that you said are better than one, we will see the result of it in our lifetime. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Please pray with me. Pray with your heart. Hold hands together as husband and wife, wherever you are.

Even if you have not been holding hands, hold it now. There is a reason why we are born and brought together in marriage. We will not die until it is fulfilled.

My wife will not become incapacitated until we have finished what we are meant to do for God. Lord help us. Lord, we ask that you will come down.

You will release yourself to us. We will not die. We will live to fulfill your purpose.

We will live to carry out what ought to be carried out. The prayers we are going to pray to God as couples shall begin to cause eternal things to happen in our generation. Lord help us now.

Lord help us now. Father help us now. Lord help us now.

Thank you Lord. In Jesus Christ's name we have prayed. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. We will be doing this as we keep going.

And this is why we would not have wanted someone to come here without having his wife or her husband to hold because this meeting requires that. So please always make sure you sit together and pray together. Our brothers that are on the camera who can't sit with their wives, we don't know what to do for you.

Perhaps after here you have to do something. You have to do a retreat of your own. We know you are serving us but we don't want to rob you of this.

God bless you. Those that are not standing on camera but they are doing something, if their wives can sit with them that's okay but if not, God will help us. Praise the Lord.

I know God has started to deal with us with money. That particular money devotion was such a blessing to my own heart. Particularly when we saw Abraham and then they say Sarah herself also.

That means that Sarah was not a robot. Sarah was not passive. Even though she was submissive but she was active in hearing God.

She was active in making sure they don't make a mistake. She was active. The two of them had to walk with God and I'm praying that we will do that.

God will do it in your marriages in the name of Jesus. For this morning we want to begin from Matthew chapter 19. Not because we are going to study everything in Matthew 19 but we want to highlight an issue before we return to see how God is leading our discussions.

Matthew chapter 19 and we are reading from verse 3. Matthew 19 from verse 3. Sister Sade will pick it up and read for us. Yes from verse 3 you will read up to verse 6 in the first instance and then you read from verse 8 to verse 9 in the next instance or maybe verse 7 to 9 in the next instance and then we read verse 10. It's looking, I've just read all of them.

It's the way my mind was operating that I will read this verse now. Let's read. Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together let not man separate. That's the first segment that we want to read.

The question the people brought, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause? But Old King James says, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And it was this that Jesus Christ decided to answer. And the answer the Lord gave was a matter that we need to respond to first. The question they were asking is, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause or to divorce his wife just for any reason? And instead of Jesus to say no or to say yes, the Lord did not respond like that.

The Lord said, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And he said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they too shall be one flesh. So therefore they are no more two. They are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together let not man separate or let not man put asunder. It will be coming clearly to you as we go ahead now to realize that as if the question of divorce, the question of putting asunder does not arise as far as what God actually intends your life, your marriage to be. It's not a question to be considered and we should not even bother ourselves about it here.

May I say to you, you did not marry to put away your wife. Is that why you married? Eh? I need to hear from you. Did you marry to put her away? If you plan to put her away anytime, why did you marry at all? So as far as we are sitting in this meeting, that matter should be put aside.

It's not necessary. We are not even considering it. We may talk about it because we are going to talk about biblical knowledge.

But for us here, what God made in the beginning is more important for us to understand and to work with. And we don't want to approach this meeting from the remedial. We don't want to begin to speak from current occurrences.

We like to trace what is the original intention of God, what is the original purpose of God, and what is the original design. Why do we have that liberty to do that? He said, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them how? Male and female. That, when we come to that, we will be discussing as the Lord helps us.

And he said, for this cause, for this cause, there is a cause, there is a reason, there is something God wants to achieve. That a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. So you see from the beginning, God's intention is that these two will be what? Will be one flesh.

One flesh. One flesh. That is the purpose, right from the beginning, that these two shall be one flesh.

And so what God has done together, no man shall separate, no man shall put it asunder. So the first point that he has raised is, have you not read? That means we must go back to read what he said when? In the beginning. Now, but the next question that I want Sister Sade to read again, from that verse 7 to verse 9, is, he asked a question.

Why did Moses, please read. They said to him, verse 7, why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? He said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to divorce your wife, but from the beginning it was not so. You've not finished.

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her, who is divorced, commits adultery. So, I saw him again saying, but from the beginning it was not so.

And if to say that the beginning has been discarded, and has been made obsolete, and I don't need to be talking about what it was from the beginning, the Lord Jesus would not have added verse 9. In verse 9 he said, and I say unto you, as if whatever brother Moses told you to do, notwithstanding. He made you to do what, he told you to do what you wanted to do because your heart is hard. So the basic problem is not anything else.

It's what? It's the hardness of your heart. So, we saw again that the Lord Jesus quickly put his finger on what troubles marriage. In one word, what troubles marriage? Hardness of heart.

In one word. In one word. There is no woman, there is no man that we cannot live together and fulfill the purpose of God, except for one problem.

Please tell me in one word again. Hardness of heart. So every time you see any problem in any marriage, any time you see any almost irrecoverable challenge in any marriage, whenever you see someone walking out and everything is going on and on and on and for weeks and for months and for years, nobody finds solution.

What is behind the place? Let's put finger on that. So permit me to say to you before we go away. If there is anything that is making you and your wife to argue and argue and argue until you walk out on her or she walk out on you and you want to pray, say I cannot pray with you.

You say let's go there. Go your own. Jesus only said there is only one matter.

Hardness of heart. So as we are going on in the course of this meeting, can I beg you to note that the first thing we are going to pray about. Lord, Lord, Lord, give me the heart of flesh.

Take away from me the hardness of heart, the heart of stone. You might be thinking that if you want to be a man, you want to be a man. What I see you doing, doing, doing, doing is nothing but what? I want you to be repeating that so that I am sure that you are following it.

What is it? Hardness of heart. When there is a situation where you should have said, oh I am sorry, I am sorry. Well instead of saying sorry, say no.

She should learn wisdom. Do not take somebody here for granted. What is the question sir? Hardness of heart.

When a wife refuses to apologize, when she said every time I have been keeping quiet, I have been keeping quiet, I have been keeping quiet, he is always walking out, he is always doing this, he is always doing that. It is enough. I am staying only here for my children.

And I know when you are saying like that, I see how your body is shaking, how your leg is shaking, how you become a stammerer, even though God did not make you a stammerer. What is causing that sir? Hardness of heart. We have only one issue to pray about particularly this day.

Lord, every hardness of heart, whether it is manifested or it is not manifested, Lord, put your finger on it. Put your finger on it and uproot it for me. Praise the Lord.

So there are many things that have come into marriage which is not part of it from the beginning and it came because of the hardness of heart. It came because the man that God created has turned, has become a different man. His heart has shifted from God.

He has become a man of strong will who wants to do his will rather than the will of God. Praise the Lord. Now Sister Shade, you want to make a point here before we go to the beginning at this point.

Alright. Now we now go from here to now look at what it is that God made from the beginning. So for the rest of our time this morning, we are going to be looking at God's original design for marriage.

I know by God's grace our Bible study is going to deal with God's purpose and God's concept of marriage. So we know that the Bible study is already going to help us deal with that. But we want to start since the master says, have you not read from the beginning? So we want to read again from the beginning to understand what is God's design and what is God's intention.

What is God's purpose? We're going to read that and see how much of it we can begin with this morning. We'll come back in the evening to push it forward because I know this morning cannot be enough for us to do what we need to do. So let's go now to Genesis chapter 2. Right, you are reading from New King James, isn't it? Okay, I want you to start with Old King James.

You are reading from verse 18 and we will pick it. Let's open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 2, verse 18 again to 25. And brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was no found and help made for him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God hath taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Thank you very much. This was quoted in Matthew 19.

He quoted two passages but in one verse. Praise the Lord. He quoted Genesis chapter 1, verse 27 and 28.

That he who made them in the beginning. So please read for us Genesis 1, 27 and 28. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them.

And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea. And over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. The original intention was shown in verse 27 and 28.

Let's read it. So God created man in his own image. And in the image of God he created him.

Male and female created he them. All of you please follow now. Please make sure you are reading your Bible because it's very important.

This is important for me and you to catch it before we go away. God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him.

Male and female he created them. Did you see the word them now? Eh? Ok. Now in verse 28.

Please all of you. Then God blessed him. Is that what he said? Then God blessed them.

Please hear me. And God said to them. Who are these them? The male and female.

And he said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Them. So permit me to quickly note that that which God blessed, that which God commissioned, that which God said be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion, is what? Them. Originally.

Your blessing is bound together on the two of you. May all of us hear me very well that God's original intention is that everything you are going to accomplish in your lifetime is going to only be possible with who? With your wife. The commission of God on your life is a commission that is coming on the two of you.

Your blessing is a blessing on the two of you. He blessed them. Because originally, God's intention.

Okay. Before we move out of that, can you mom please go further and Apostate chapter five again. Genesis five.

And you apostate verse one and verse two. Is it okay? Yes. This is the book of the generations of Adam.

In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. I don't know whether you understand that now.

That in the day that God created them, male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name. What did he call their name? Oh my God you are not hearing me again. What did he call their name? Adam.

Please don't ever think that originally God had in mind that there would be two different people. There are only two different names. God's intention from the beginning is that all the blessings, them.

All the commission, them. And even their name, Adam. Every time we are reading the Bible and we are not reading it properly, you want to say Adam is the name of the man.

Excuse me from the Bible now, is Adam the name of the man? Whose name is it? It's their name. It's the name of the couple. So originally they are not to even bear two names.

Originally. Originally they are not to have two identities. Originally they are not to have two accounts.

Originally they are not to be separate. Originally he made them to be one flesh, one destiny, one blessedness, one commission, one fruitfulness, one manifestation and one identity. That is the plan of God originally.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So when we now go back to chapter 2 to see how God brought it about.

How God brought it into manifestation. We'll be dealing with the processes. And it is the processes that will help us to discover the principles.

But let us first settle one matter quickly before we go away. That he which made them in the beginning. How did he make them? He made them male and female.

And did what? I didn't hear you. And he blessed them. He blessed them.

You know what is coming to my mind now? Whenever I go to God and I'm saying Lord bless me, Lord bless me, Lord bless me. God said, eh? My hearing you very well. Where is Shaddai in this request? If that prayer is going to be answered, how do I reroute my prayer? Father, bless us.

I cannot have any separate blessing apart from this one. She cannot hold any blessing that does not contain me. And there is no blessing that God gives me that I will separately enjoy.

There is no increase that comes to my wife that she can put her personal name and say this is Shaddai's home. Will they please stay away? It's not possible. If she is promoted, who is promoted? I'm not hearing you.

We are promoted. If I am disgraced, who has been disgraced? The two of us are disgraced. That is the original intention.

God has never thought that they will be different, they will be separate right from the very beginning. Why did I come here? That was what Jesus quoted in Matthew 19. Hallelujah.

But now, he now quoted chapter 2 along with what he quoted in Matthew chapter 19. All of you, go back to Matthew 19 and then we'll come back to Genesis chapter 2 and see how Jesus in one sentence has quoted two important foundational instructions that we must carry now. Some of you are saying, Rabbi Lee, why are you making a big fuse about this matter? We thought we understood it.

I thought that we don't understand it. I thought that it was important. That's why Jesus pointed at it.

I don't think I'm doing well if I have not pointed at it carefully and deliberately. Now, go to that chapter 19 again and you want to help me point it out. In that verse 4 and verse 5. Now, Genesis chapter 2 now, verse 23 and 24.

Now, you will notice that in verse 24, chapter 2, he said, therefore. What is another way of putting therefore? For this cause. Because of this.

For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. For this cause. So, we're going now to now look at the word of God together.

Let's now go. We still have a few times to go. Now, mom, we're going to now begin to look at verse 18 down to that verse 25 and then withdraw issues as we want to read now.

Can I make a comment about this chapter 1? Genesis chapter 1, verses 27 and 28. So, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female.

He created them. The first thing that Joe told me as I was reading this scripture afresh is the fact that, you know, as he said, male and female he created them. It looks to me as if he is taking male and part of male because female is simply female.

Male. Go ahead. Male and female.

Part of male. So, the issue of removing the female or divorcing does not even take place. It's unreasonable because you are simply putting away part of the male.

Or if the female is divorcing the male, she is simply putting away what even makes her in the first place. The male of her fee. She is left with nothing.

So, they are part of each other. The female is part of the male. Then verse 28, which says, Because God blessed them and God said to them, God commissioned them to do all these things that were listed.

It means that that work is going to be impossible if they are not doing it together. It's going to be impossible. And you can see the reason why all our nations are in turmoil now.

To rule the nation is going to be impossible when the male and the female are not working together. When the man and his wife are apart, it's not going to be possible. To feel the earth is not going to be possible.

To put it under control is not going to be possible because they have a joint commission. So, to do it individually is going to be an impossible task. No wonder we are having trouble everywhere.

So, the family is very foundational to whatever good thing will come out on the face of the earth. The way the Lord is leading us this morning is critical. I want you to understand that as soon as a man, a boy is born, heaven already knows that there is a female part of this young man before he can fulfill his destiny.

And as soon as a girl comes out, God, not an afterthought, God already begins to see that there is a male for which this sister or this girl is going to combine to become one. I want you to understand that your wife that is sitting by your side, as far as heaven is concerned, is not an afterthought. All that you are born to be, all that you are born to complete and accomplish and contribute to the purpose of God on earth, God has heard that blessing for her and for you to come into it together.

I'm just praying that this thing that we are beginning to touch this morning, God will make it plain to you. God will make it clear in your spirit to the point that you are going to be able to go to God in prayer and say, Father. So it is not that I'm just marrying that sister.

It is that all that I could ever accomplish in life will not be possible except together with her. And that all that I thought you have called me to be and to do will never happen unless this woman has come in. So I think without, since the Bible study is going to deal with many things, let me raise one quick issue that jumped as you were talking there now.

And I think if we do that, because of time space, and since Bible study we are trusting that God will help our Bible study leaders to help us. Now, the Bible said, God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet a help uniquely fitting, a help that is designed for him.

And when God said that, I discovered that what God decided to do is not something somewhere else. Brothers, please listen now. It's not something somewhere else.

It's not something external to him that God needed to bring forth that help. It's achieved right from the very onset. There was something in him that God had to take out in order to bring the help.

What God was using to make the woman for him was not something alien to his life. I don't know what the Holy Spirit will give me wisdom and utterance to pass that now, but she's here to assist me. Now, as God is saying, it's not good for him to be alone, I will make a help for him.

And normally you would have thought that if God is going to make a help for him, God should go and start somewhere and look for something else to add. But what did God do? God made him to sleep. And he took out of him one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof.

When we come to dealing with other issues, we take all of that. But this morning I just heard that God took something of him, something of his life, something of his structure, something that is internal to him and took it out and closed it. So meanwhile, this man, as he's sleeping now, he had been wounded.

Something had been taken out of him and closed. Before, everything was inside. But it was not going to be good for him to be alone.

So God took a rib out of him. And the Bible said very categorically, and the rib which the Lord God took and taken from man made he a woman. So what did I say now? It means that in God's wisdom, in God's wisdom, what made, what made, what God did to make Sister Harriet, for example, are you understanding? Even though she was coming from far away, what God used to raise to make this woman is something that is internal to Brother Tewasi.

Am I communicating with you now? So that though Harriet has come from a different tribe and language, tribe and language by human arrangement, but by God's ordination, am I communicating? She is intrinsically part and parcel of Tewasi. That's why ethnicity, language has nothing to do in affecting marriage. Am I communicating with you now? The truth of the matter is that what made Sister Sade here, everything that she has become, has a basis in what God took from her.

So when Adam came to see that, he saw something that was very, very profound. What did he say? He said, this now is the bone of my bones. She is the flesh of my flesh.

She will be called woman. What's the reason? Talk to me. Because she's beautiful? Because she's intelligent? Because she's from my tribe? Why? Because she was taken out of man.

How I beg God that all of you that sit in these centers, wherever you are, you will look at your wife and see that actually, actually, actually, this woman is not a stranger that you are trying to be with. This woman is not one different person that you are trying to manage. This woman actually is, by design, part of you.

And until she comes in, you can never be complete. And until she comes in, your blessedness is angry. Until she comes in, your ministry, as energetic as you are, will not be fulfilled.

When we will be going along with God to pray, I pray that we have raised two critical issues, or three. I will highlight them so that when you are going to pray, I will tell you what it was. But I pray that there will be a revelation in our heart today.

A revelation to know that what this woman is, is basically part of me. She's not a stranger. She's not somebody I am pitying.

If I love my wife according to the word of God, what did he say? That you have only loved yourself. I'm praying that when they say, love your wife, love your wife, love your wife, love your wife, I pray that something will, first of all, be clear to you. That when we say, love your wife, love your wife, what are we saying, essentially, please? Love yourself.

Any man who hated his wife, or who does not love his wife, who has he not loved? You have not loved yourself. You are wicked to yourself. Your wife does not need to beg you to love him, I mean to love her.

If your understanding is clear now, you will know that to love your wife, you are only being a reasonable man. And to submit to your husband, sister, you are simply becoming reasonable. The reason is because, that is the man you are part of.

Apart from him, you are wounded. So the Bible says, for this cause, shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they too, shall do what? Become one flesh. Please speak into that, before we conclude.

Please speak into that, so that we can go from here. What is coming to my mind, is the love of God. Most manufacturers will not normally reveal how they make their products.

Because they don't want people to know it, and to go and copy the recipe and make another one. But God, God is showing us how he made marriage. He's telling us that this, the reason I'm telling you how to operate it, why you should operate it this way.

The reason I'm saying that you should work as one, and you should not separate from each other, is because of the way I made the two of you. That you are part of each other. You are only, you are one, and you should be one.

And he told us the reason, he's opening, he's revealing the secret to us. I feel we need to recognize the goodness of God, because if he hides it, there is nobody to take him to court. We will only be struggling with marriage much more.

But we are seeing God revealing to us how he made this marriage. It's something to thank God for. And when the Bible says he took, the rib he took from the man, he used to make the woman.

It's good we pray to understand this. Forget about what you are seeing in your partner for now. Just forget, and see what God made at the beginning.

Whatever is the trouble you are seeing will be resolved. But let's understand this, that as a man, you may not know how God did it, but God took a bone, something internal to you. Bone is not superficial.

The bone is a skeleton that makes the structure of a man. And God took part of that internal structure, something that makes you you. And he went and located it in your wife.

That's how God made it, so that you can't do without each other. Because she is permanently part of you, until death do you part. It's good to understand this, and work with this in mind.

Something internal to you, something pertaining to your life, your very life, your vision. Your destiny, something that makes you inside. You is inside this woman.

And as a woman, a whole lot of part of you is inside this man. How do you think you will survive without each other? How do you think putting each other away will solve the problem that is between you? It's important, I just pray that we will pray for understanding. That this woman, though she looks one kind now, and this man, though she is behaving one kind, is part of you.

Structurally. God is not talking physically, he is talking spiritually. Because structurally, physically, you won't see that a physical bone is missing in the man.

The same number of ribs that are in the man, the same number are in the woman, physically. So it means God could not be talking physically. God is talking something spiritual.

That a structural part of you, an internal part of you, is in this woman. Believe it! Trust God to understand this. Otherwise, you will lose a very crucial part of you.

Let's pray that God will give us understanding and let it be a reason for us to now cleave to each other. Come what may. Because that is how God made it.

Praise the Lord. As I see that our time for this morning is clicking off. And I still wish we can respect our inune with God.

Because we feel that this retreat, we must encounter God. We must speak afresh to our lives. I want to note with you that in Genesis chapter 2, it said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his own wife.

And the two shall become one flesh. One flesh. One flesh.

Please let me emphasize that God's intention is that the two of you will become what? One flesh. One inseparable flesh. And when we come to chapter 19, I again saw that the Master Jesus said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his own wife.

And the two shall become one flesh. Then he added, Wherefore, they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man.

Please listen now. Therefore, what God has joined together, I'm sure we're coming back later on to deal with what has God joined together. But let's agree that something has been joined together.

And it is God who has done it. And we cannot and we must not put it asunder. It was in Malachi.

Please, can we read Malachi chapter 2? Malachi 2, I don't know which version you will help us read or flash very quickly out there. Malachi chapter 2, verse 14 and 15. If you get any of those newer versions that says, I think it's Living Bible.

Please read it for us from Living Bible. Your mic. 14 and 15.

Malachi 2, 14 and 15 from the Living Bible. Why has God abandoned us? You cry. I tell you why.

It is because the Lord has seen your treachery in divorcing your wives who have been faithful to you through the years. The companions you promised to care for and keep. You were united to your wife by the Lord.

In God's wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in his sight. Wait. Did you hear the word? Did you hear the word of God? They are sisters and brothers.

Hey brother Larry, can you let me see whether all our centers are active? Whether they are hearing me? He said, the day you were married to your wife. Mommy, please repeat it now. You were united to your wife by the Lord.

In God's wise plan. In God's wise plan. When you got married.

The two of you became one person in his sight. God no longer sees two people. You became one person in his sight, the two of you.

The two of you, you became one person in his sight. From that day forward, there is only one account in heaven for you. When you kneel down to pray now, God is only waiting to see two of you have agreed as touching that matter.

Before anything can be released. As we stop at this point. The first thing we are begging God to do this morning.

Before we go anywhere else. Lord, give us understanding. Of what was your original design for marriage.

There are no more two. We have not come to dealing with. I'm keeping this one.

She's keeping that one. She bought land in her name. She did all of that.

We don't want to start dealing with problems. We want to understand that as far as God is concerned. She has become one with you.

And she has become part of you. And you have become part of her. You have become one flesh.

I know God is going to lead us as we go on studying. There is so much that we need to study here. But we want to go now to pray.

Don't forget that one matter Jesus identified. That every other thing that is standing against your marriage. Is not external.

I would have thought Jesus said, it's the devil, it's the devil. But Jesus said, what is it? The hardness of your heart. And I wish we would bow before God today.

I wish you would go before God and say, Lord. Is my heart still hard like this? Why is my fist so strong? Because my heart is hurting. Why is it that I am refusing to break down? As far as my relationship with my wife is concerned.

What was I insisting about? That I am arguing and arguing and arguing and arguing with my husband. Is my heart so hard? What am I defending? That is jeopardizing the divine purpose. I said some of you have spent 10 years.

Some of you have spent 15 years. Some of you have spent 30 years. Thank God.

But you only barely existed. If it was not quarreled about food. It is quarreled about money.

But because we are Christians. So you went on like that. And you did not recognize that.

This marriage itself is God's project. To accomplish a divine agenda on earth. And you have not started pursuing that.

You are going to go to be alone with God now. Say, Father. Open my eyes to see what you are doing.

We will pray briefly here. And then you will please go and be alone with God. We have run behind time.

But I still feel we can spend not less than at least 15 more minutes. Just to be alone. Individually.

Today I want brothers to stand. Sisters to stand. Just go to God and say, Father.

What you are saying to me now. Caused me to understand it. Sister.

What is the problem that you will not enter? Into what you are part of. What identity do you need? Outside what you are part of. What hardness of heart is hindering you from yielding all completely.

Let's go to God in prayer. Now pray. You trust God.

Then you will please take any position of prayer you like to pray. You want to walk under the trees. Where you are.

Or you just want to kneel down by the pew where you are. Or you want to lie down around the altar of your own place. Yes.

Personally. One different. The sister herself.

Receives strength to conceive. I think we should first go to God individually this morning. To say, Lord.

I am in marriage. But I am not sure I am married. I want you to do something about that for me.

Let's pray. Holy Spirit. As we go now.

And as we look up to you. Please undertake for us. As your children would seek your face this morning.

Recognizing that our marriage. Has a divine agenda to fulfill on earth. It has a divine assignment to carry out.

And knowing that when you bless. You didn't bless them one by one. You bless them.

You commission them. You empower them. And you call them their name.

You call it Adam. Lord we are praying this morning. As your children go to be alone with you for the next 15 minutes.

Please Lord do something in our midst. Break hardness of heart. What had been standing for years.

Confront it this morning. Confront it by the word of God. Confront it by your life.

Confront it O God. As we open our eyes to see Jesus. Stepping into our situation.

Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus Christ name. We are praying.

Amen.