On my husband's birthday (December 1st) I quoted an old post of mine in the MLC forum. It was this and the part I have put in bold is relevant to today. Why I keep coming back to this one post some may wonder. I no longer wonder.
Quote:
I learned a new definition for the word filibustertoday. In Church. And it gave me something to think about and it can be applied to our situations very effectively. The definition is below....Keep reading if you want to know how it applies to us...
Filibuster is the historical name, used predominantly in the 19th century, for private individuals who settled in foreign states with the intent of eventually overthrowing the existing government
Any of us, while we were lost or even if we were just uneducated in the ways of matrimony, caught up in our own selfishness, too busy to notice the sad condition of our homes...whatever the source of our marital problems, we can be considered to have been residing at that time in a "foreign territory". The enemy's territory. Only his work was being done at that time: destroying the family from within. For example, it applies to me in that I was lost and deeply mired in the sin of adultery and all the other sin that entails....so I was residing in a foreign territory - wholly welcomed by it's 'government' - living in the enemy's domain. Accomplishing his work and destroying my family.
But soon there came another Another who represented a better Government. He set me free - opened my eyes - forgave me - and I joined HIS battle to take back all the enemy had taken from me while I was deceived.
And now it's war. What will you do? What will I do? Will we fight for what we know is His WILL...that our marriages be brought back from the brink of divorce TO HIS GLORY?
It only takes one person to stand up and change things. Change the ENTIRE course of events. All throughout history there have been men and women who have done so for causes less than ours and causes EXACTLY like ours. Our cause is His cause. So all of heaven is behind us and there's nothing in hell or from hell that will change that. Unless we lay down. We are called to stand. We have to stand there against everything that comes against us but we are not standing without protection. We have the Armor of God and He tells us to put it on...
Gird your loins with Truth The Breastplate of Righteousness Feet shod with preparation on the Gospel of Peace The Shield of Faith The Helmet of Salvation The Sword of the Spirit
And so we fight.
Do we get tired? Yes. Do we get disillusioned? Yes. Do we give up? The truth is some will. I came close.
The more believers that gather, the stronger we are. And we have the only weapon we need. The Word. It doesn't matter what the circumstances say to us, or even what our spouses say....it only matters what God says but we have to claim it and KEEP CLAIMING IT until we see the manifestation of our faith. That is the restoration of our marriages. The facts may be that we and our spouses messed up really bad. The facts may be that we don't see any signs of reconciliation. The TRUTH is God said He will "restore the years the locust has eaten"...He did not say He MIGHT restore. He said He WILL. We are always asking Him for something. Maybe now He wants something from US. He wants to see faith. Yes, He wants us to believe in what we do not see. THAT'S what faith IS.
In the Gospel of Luke are several stories where Jesus said to someone "your faith has saved you", "your faith has made you whole". Another story tells of a man with palsy who's friends, trying to get him to Jesus, lowered him down from the roof into the house where Jesus was...they so believed He could heal their friend...the Bible says "when He saw their faith He said to the man 'your sins are forgiven'". It's about faith. And if faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain, we have what it takes, through Him, to save our marriages. He said in Luke 10:19 "Behold I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
We are in a battle. It doesn't matter if you THINK you are or not. Or if you WANT to be or not. You ARE in it. Everyone is. It is only a question of which side.
I went to church again today. In light of events last night, wild horses couldn't have kept me out. That being said, I had to fight to just wake up and get motivated. Thanks to Frank's post, I became motivated to see just what else God had to say.
My Pastor began talking about how one study says that 85% of the church today has reached a plateau. That is, they've progressed as far as they were going to. From there, they will decline. That happened to me. And I declined. I wrote, but did not post, last night that for the last year I really been a half-assed believer (excuse the term). I had plateaued. Even backslidden. Upon the separation, I found it increasingly difficult to stand in this environment; this apartment. Then, the world lured me out further and I slipped into unbelief. Unbelief is faith. It is faith that God is not going to fulfill the promises He gave to us. Well, that is not the kind of believer I am in my heart. I believe. I had just not been fully persuaded. I hadn't received the conviction, based on hearing. I wandered off course.
Faith speaks NOW. Hope speaks of something TO COME. Starting today, I thank God for the deliverance of my husband and for his salvation. Not that IS COMING, but WHICH IS. Remember, the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse, that is "set apart" or "made holy". Faith enables us to possess what has already BEEN PRODUCED. When I became a believer, every promise of God was mine. Same for you. All that was left was to walk in those promises. IN SPITE of what we see or feel. WE ARE CALLED TO WALK BY FAITH, NOT by sight.
When referring to plateaued Christians that return, my Pastor said:
"God does not say this is not going to happen because you missed the time period".
That spoke directly to my concerns last night about having missed the first warning I had that should have told me to pray for my family.
I referred last night to having found my original legal pad from when I first began to go to church, prior to MLC. I referred to having flipped up a couple pages and seeing written down the warning about satan destroying the unity of the family. What I did not write was when I flipped the legal pad pages back down, on the first page was written "Why do you call me Lord and do not the things which I say?". I pondered that last night, knowing I haven't walked the walk. Well, this morning my Pastor said to turn to Luke 6:46. Guess what it was? Yep. It was that verse. At that point I was just kind of stunned and then the third thing happened (in Pentacostal circles we call that confirmation ). He said in "Luke, there is a story of a man whose friends believed so much that when the crowd was too big around the house where Jesus was, they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to Jesus. Jesus responds to faith. But He did not respond to the faith of the man on the cot, He responded to the faith of the believers, the man's friends, that lowered him down and the MAN WAS HEALED". Then my Pastor said "if you want your family members saved, get them into the presence of the Lord". Faith is visible. Faith is action. Faith is NOW.
Guess how our family members get into the presence of the Lord in these earliest stages?
Through us who believe and have now positioned ourselves according to the Word.
It's us that has to carry the cot so to speak. Us that has to dig, fight and push through the crowd (of demonic influence as well as our own doubts) to get our loved ones to Jesus.
I don't know about you, but this is my calling. I don't know why and I didn't ask for it. But for some reason, He saw fit to equip me. I walked away last December. I plateaued and then I declined. But in His mercy and grace, today He took me back.
). He said in "Luke, there is a story of a man whose friends believed so much that when the crowd was too big around the house where Jesus was, they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to Jesus. Jesus responds to faith. But He did not respond to the faith of the man on the cot, He responded to the faith of the believers, the man's friends, that lowered him down and the MAN WAS HEALED". Then my Pastor said "if you want your family members saved, get them into the presence of the Lord". Faith is visible. Faith is action. Faith is NOW.
