BIBLICAL OVERVIEW OF MARRIAGE || APOSTLE MICHAEL OROKPO

Encounters improve the quality of our lives. Encounters come to reveal to us the futility of life without God. Sometimes we activate purpose and calling in our life and just come to restore intimacy and fellowship.

The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people which sat in darkness saw a great light unto them which sat in the region and the shadow of death. Light is stronger. Encounters come to restore intimacy. Encounters come to reveal to us the futility of life. If you don't have a relationship with God, anything of value can become God to you.

Welcome to Encounter Jesus Ministries, sustaining an experiential knowledge of God and walking in the fullness of our eternal ordination. Now listen to God's servant, Apostle Oropo Michael, as he takes us through an encounter with the world.

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Just go ahead and love Him. Tell Him how much you love Him. Honor Him, honor Him, honor Him, honor Him, honor Him, honor Him, honor Him. Give Him praise. Give Him glory. Give Him glory. Give Him glory. Extol His majesty. Worship the Father tonight. Worship the Father tonight.

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Go ahead and extol.

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Thank You, Father. We give You praise. We give You glory. In Jesus' precious name. And so, precious Father, tonight again, we are gathered. We ask that You grant us access to the secrets of the kingdom. We ask that You grant us the fortitude to receive them. And we also ask that You grant us the grace to apply them until we become everything You intended for us to be, even before we were created. Thank You, Father, because even as we behold You tonight, we will be changed from glory to glory, and Your name will be glorified in and through our lives. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. You may be seated. God bless you. Thank you. God bless you.

It's such a great honor to serve the Lord. It's such a pleasure to be taught by the Spirit of the living God. It's a great privilege to exist, to know the Lord, and to serve His will. And so, every time we gather together to learn the ways of God, it's because we've come to understand that there was a purpose in the heart of the Father even before we were created. And our life will not count as until we'll begin to manifest that very intent in the heart of God and come to the fullness of that manifestation.

The Bible said in Ephesians chapter 4, from verse 11, He said, "To some He gave to be apostles; to some He gave to be prophets; to some He gave to be evangelists; to some He gave to be pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry." And He said, "Until we all come to the knowledge, to the exact knowledge of the truth." And that kind of knowledge does not increase information in your mind. That kind of knowledge actually transforms you. He said, "That knowledge will bring you to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ, unto a perfect man, unto a mature man, unto a man without blemish."

And so, every time we open the scriptures, every time we gather in God's presence, it is an attempt to unveil the standards of God so that as we behold, we are changed. I shared with us last week Sunday, and I told us there are three major reasons why we exist. The first reason why we exist is so that we can host and represent the glory of God. That's why Paul, teaching in First Corinthians 11, he said, "Man is the glory of God." And the glory of God is not a shadow, it's not a cloud, it's not a mist. The word glory is the word *kavod*, it means the essence of God. And the essence of God is threefold: His nature, His likeness, and His life. So when you find a man who is able to reflect the nature of God, the likeness of God, and the life of God, that's a man expressing the glory of God. And so, existence would be a waste except as we come to that point in spiritual maturity where we are able to host and reflect the glory of God.

And I told us, the second reason we exist is to give expression to the will of God. God has a will, He has an intention, He has an agenda. And that agenda on the face of the earth will not be carried out by angelic functionaries. Angels are carrying out God's agenda as we speak now, perfectly in the heavens. If you go to the heavenly realms, they are angels in their order and in their ranks, and they are giving expression to the purpose of God. In Revelation chapter 4 and verse 5, for example, we see that forever and ever, day and night, the angels are worshiping, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord." Nothing truncates it because they've attained the level of perfection. But on the earth realm, the purpose of God is yet to be fulfilled. And so, God is still raising and equipping man to give expression to the purposes of God. And so, the second reason why we exist is to give expression to the will of God. That's what you call the kingdom. The kingdom is actually the ability to host the government of God and to express it in your context. Now, while, while you are doing that, Jesus said, "Every other thing shall be added unto you." And so, the things men pursue are actually supposed to be an addition to those who are living to give expression to the will of God. Because the will of God is a precursor, the will of God is a requirement, and at the same time, it's an activator of the resources of life. You will struggle unless you begin to live out the will of God. No man pursuing a divine vision is more on it. One of the secrets of becoming big is to pursue a vision. The moment you begin to pursue and advance the will of God, everything you need will be added unto you. And so, that defines the second reason why we exist on the face of the earth.

And the third reason why we exist on the face of the earth, like I told us, is for intimacy. God's idea behind creation is to derive pleasure. The elders were worshiping in heaven and they said, "All things were created for Thy pleasure." And the way God derives pleasure is through intimacy. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 9, He said, "The Lord's portion is His people." And that's why when God created man, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 8 and 9, you hear the Bible said, "In the cool of the day, the voice of God came walking in the garden." And all God did was to search for it, "Where are thou?" for intimacy to find expression. And why is that intimacy important? Because only through intimacy can divine agenda be born. The way a man and a woman engages intimacy and gives birth to an offspring, that's how divine agenda is born through intimacy. A man who does not have intimacy with God can never give birth to divine agenda, and anything he gives birth to eventually will be a bastard. The seal of God will not be on it. You notice in Genesis chapter 4, the Bible said Cain left the presence of God, and he pioneered the whole civilization that God knew nothing about. That kind of civilization is a bastard. It doesn't have the signature of God on it. But the moment Enosh was born, and men began to call upon the name of the Lord, the will of God, the purpose of God, the agenda of God began to find expression again.

So, three things that define the essence of our existence: to become custodians and reflectors of the glory of God. Number two, to become propagators and perpetuators of the will of God. And number three, is to become men of intimacy, don't get intimacy, seeking the presence of God and living there all the days of our lives. When a man gets to that point, he becomes a man truly fulfilling the purpose for his existence.

Having explained this basic foundation, tonight I want to teach on a very sensitive subject. People reached out to me, and they've been reaching out to me for a long time, and they said, "We want you to teach on this subject." And I said, "It's a sensitive subject because I'm a traveler. It's difficult for me to sit down and begin to do teachings on very sensitive subjects." Why is that so? There are certain subjects you cannot exhaust unless as you have the time to do a series, and then you are talking to the same people, so you can build a long-setting lines of revelation. But if you are in Enugu on Monday, on Wednesday you are in Sokoto, and on Friday you are in Abuja, then it will be difficult to sit down and address any sensitive subject. That's why I try to avoid them. But once and again, when I mention these subjects, it gets the attention of many people, and they begin to ask questions, sending messages, pleading that we should do a teaching so that they can know the position of God on the matter. And so, tonight, I made up my mind I was going to begin a series to deal with this very sensitive subject, even as we begin tonight. And it's the subject of marriage. My God, it's a very sensitive subject, very sensitive subject, but it's also important that we consider it. Praise God.

But before I begin, I will leave some disclaimers. You know, the Bible said in Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 19, it said, "The standard of the Lord, the foundation of the Lord, standeth sure." You can't blow that ground, you can't block God's foundation, you can't blow God's standard. He said, "The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." He said, "But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour." He said, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." Sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

So, the standard of God is what helps God to know them that are His. There are many who are calling on the name of the Lord, but they are not God's. They don't belong to God. The only way God can separate a people and say, "These ones are mine," is when His standards define their existence. Separation is not just staying in a room and praying. I was teaching somewhere last week, and I told them there are four biblical credentials that define a separated man. And you will find that in Romans chapter 8, from verse 29 to 30. The Bible said, "The first thing that defines separation is predestination." Those who are set apart before the foundation of the world, not necessarily because God is biased and chose some people, but because God, being omniscient, knows those that will accept the standard and live accordingly. So there is a preparation for them. That's the concept of predestination. And then after predestination, you have calling. He said, "To them whom He predestinated, then He called." Now, when God calls a man, he's got to accept that calling. And the calling of God is through the finished works of Christ. This is not a calling into the five-fold. This is the calling into the family of God. And so, the moment you believe Christ in your heart and confess Him with your mouth, you are saved. You become part of the righteous, those who are separated to stand according to God's standard. And then after the calling, you have the justification. The moment you accept Christ, He declares you not guilty and He exonerates you from the messianic judgment. And then after justification, you now have glorification. But between justification and glorification, you have sanctification and obedience. Because glorification is not just a gift, it's also a reward system. In Zion, when we get to Zion, where we reflect different measures of glory, the glory will be based on the quality of life and service we render to God while we walked on the face of the earth. So that's what defines separation. And all of that is what we call the standard of God. But you see, it's not something you know by instinct. This kind of knowledge is superior to the mind of a man. It has to come from the scripture. And this is why we teach the word of the Lord.

So, in Second Timothy chapter 3, from verse 16, the Bible said, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." This is what gets a man to conform to the standard of God. He said, "It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness." And he goes to verse 17, "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished unto every good work." For only for you to be thoroughly furnished, you have to be established in doctrine, you have to be pliable to reproof, you have to be submitted to instruction, and you have to be guided by correction. That's when you become thoroughly, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. Because when he said, "The man of God," he's not talking about the preacher. The man of God is not a preacher. The man of God is one who comes from God. When you are of it, it means you are made up of that substance. That means that essence is what defines you. So anyone who says he belongs to God and God defines him, he said the doctrine, the reproof, the instruction, and the correction of scripture is what will make him attain to the standard of God.

So, on the subject of marriage, the only way we can get it right is to what? Center it through the word of God. So, I give you my disclaimers very quickly before we begin on marriage. The first thing I want to say is that this teaching is not based on popular opinion. It's simply based on scripture. And so, if the Bible is not your absolute authority, I'm not talking to you.

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If you are an atheist, we will meet on another corridor. If you are Hindu, we'll talk on another corridor. But if you say you are a Christian and a practicing one, and the word of God is your standard, then let's have an interaction.

Number two, I begin now by defining context. Marriage is between a husband and a wife.

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You know, people are listening to us from different continents, so it's important. This one may not mean so much to you. But I was walking, driving into Wembley Stadium last month, and I saw over 40 flags, and they say it belongs to the LGBTQ+ plus. Now it's plus plus. They used to be LGBTQ, but they are discovering new things, so they are now plus plus. And they said the month of June and July is their month. These ones don't believe marriage is between a husband and wife. They believe marriage is between two adults that love themselves. So long as they are feeling permit them, they can get married. We are, we are talking the standard of God. So let me read two scriptures. Today, we will be reading Bible, so calm down. We will read because I don't want you to assume this is his position. Why are you laughing, my God? When I said wife, I meant two things. Number one, a wife is a mature adult woman. First Corinthians chapter 7, verse 34.

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He said, "There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. He said, the unmarried woman..." He didn't say the married man who calls himself a wife. He said, "The word a married woman that is a virgin." "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married, she that is married, careth for the things of the world, to please the husband." So, the wife in this context is a woman. And in case you are trying to understand who a woman is, let me add another definition to a wife. A wife is a female. Genesis chapter 2, verse 21 and 22. He said, "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 had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto him." So, the woman is a female with a female genital organ. That's a wife. Do we understand? And this is called definitional terms. It's to this, it's going to be a seven-part series. Today, it's called "Overview of Marriage." Overview. This is like a thesis. For those of you who are academicians, when you are trying to do a PhD defense, you must do definitional terms. They don't want to assume what you are saying. So, let's understand ourselves on every subject matter.

The husband is a man, an adult man. And now, this, you know, I said it's a seven-part series, so I will give you the qualification of a man who should marry. I will also give you the qualification of a woman who should marry. And then I will also talk on the area of sexuality. I will also talk on the area of crisis resolution as we proceed. But today's overview. So, let's flow by the Spirit. He said, "Nevertheless, Ephesians 5:33, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband." So, you know that she is a she. And then when you come to the column of the man, the Bible said in Genesis 5:15, "And the Lord God took the man and put him..." And put what? Him. You know, now you can choose on the strength of your feeling to say your gender is not specific. So they call such people they. So you can wake up this month and say, "I feel like a man because of the energy, the energy I'm feeling is masculine." And the next month, you say, "I feel another kind of energy that is feminine." So because you are in between the chords, such day is not applicable in marriage. A marriage is made. That's why I said, "He took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it." In verse 21, He said, "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept." So the husband in the marriage is a mature male. And the wife in the marriage is a mature female. Are we clear on the subject? So, if you are in any part of the world listening to us, we are not talking about man and man, or woman and woman. That's not a marriage.

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That's a demonic institution created to pervert the ordinances of God. And what you will create will be demons. Because there are three ways of begetting aliens from the Bible. I don't have time to talk about that. One of the ways to create an alien is to pervert ordinances. So when angels slept with women, they created Nephilim. Aliens don't just appear, they are created. And so, when you pervert God's ordinances, you open another gate, and that gate you open attracts demonic creativity. And so, the things that the devil could not send to the earth, you create a channel, a gangway for him to send his own. Because every time children are born, it's an errand from the spirit to him, to the hatred. That's why I said, "Before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you." But when, when people pervert God's ordinances, they give room for aliens. But we are not teaching about aliens. So let's go forward.

So, marriage is between what? A male and a female adult. The male chord is called the husband, and the female is called a wife. Number three, not every woman is qualified to marry. Because when you are dealing with a woman, you have girls, and you have ladies, then you have wives. These are three categories of women. Those who are girls are not yet mature to marry. And we will deal with that on another day. Those who are ladies have come of age, but they are still not mature to be married. Because age is not maturity. Because the Bible didn't say marry a lady. Because you don't become a wife when you are married. You become a wife before you are found. And so, if you are not a wife, you are not qualified to be found. Proverbs. This is disclaimer. In Proverbs 18:22, he didn't say, "He who finds a mature lady or woman." You know, a lady is a mature female that has the capacity to take care of herself. So she is capable of living independently without anybody's need or anybody's support. She can take care of all her needs, and she doesn't want any external interference. She wants to live her life as a boss. So God will accept her as His daughter. But God will not allow her to get into the institution called marriage because that institution has laws. So if you are a boss woman, you may be earning in six digits, and you may be somebody of class. You are so intelligent, you can address people in Harvard, you can address people in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You would have traveled around the world. You are a lady, and we admire and salute your career prospect. In fact, you are a great inspiration to the girls growing up. But when it comes to marriage, you are not an inspiration. Because the only inspiration that a woman should receive for marriage comes from modest. And I will show you. So ladies, don't inspire girls to marriage. It's wives and mothers that inspire girls. And a wife. So, okay, let me reduce my tone so I don't think I'm trying to attack somebody. It's overview. I'm trying to define some things. You know why I'm taking my time to do this? I sent a chat to the people at the media room. The average divorce cases around the world today is 1.7 million per year. Now, this 1.7 million, that's the chart. Now, this is the source. I didn't take it from a Christian garden. So you say they're exaggerating. This is wrong. No, no. Go back to that picture. Don't be, don't be inspired. This is glory. I wish it was clearer. I would have. These are the sources that gave this information. I will send, I will put the document online so that you see. Even Wikipedia is here, so you can go and type it on Google. The average rate of divorce is 1.7 million per year. Now, there are certain countries that have 5.4 million per year. Go to the next slide. I just want to show them. The first thing, this is still tiny, but go to the next slide. This is Maldives. I wish I put the population of the country. I made a mistake. So you'd have compared this number with the size of the country. This country has 5.52 million divorce cases in one year. You can ask yourself, how many people are getting married? So instead of praying for people to marry now, we should rather pray against divorce. That means the people we are prophesying to marriage are not ready for marriage. And every time a marriage breaks, the sanity of society is at risk. Because I can tell you with authority that 40% of the crimes and immorality cases in society is a product of broken homes. Maybe when next I come, I'll bring research documents. This is Kazakhstan. They have 4.6 million divorces in one year. This is Russia. They have 3.9 million. This is Belarus. They have 3.7 million. A continuous like that. Go and search for Nigeria.

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Has 3.2 million. Cuba has 2.9 million. Some of this country, this number you are seeing is 80% of the population. So there are some countries that almost every home is divorced. That's why you, you hear of demonic invention. Somebody is inventing a virus because demons are inspiring him. That's why you see demonic ideas. People sit down in certain economic council, and what they are debating on is how to kill one-third of the world population to reduce competition. That's how they want to solve world's problem. You now know that demons are whispering to people. And part of the problem comes from these kinds of things, broken homes. So when we are talking with gravity, it's because we know what is happening. Sometimes when you make some statements, people hear and say, "No, no, no, no, this is too harsh." They don't know the danger and the impact that we face.

And so, a wife is a mature female that is willing, is willing to be cultivated by her husband and to come under the lordship of her husband. That's a wife. A wife is a mature female that is willing to be cultivated by her husband and is willing to come under the lordship of her husband. And I will show you scriptures, don't worry. A husband, on the other hand, is not a man that has come of age. Because today, people are troubled. You find them, they can't sleep, they are questioning God for money. Tonight, you ask a question, they say they are 30 years old, they are not yet married. What is the problem? The problem is not with your age. Because you don't get married because you are older. You get married because you are responsible. Because if a wife is a garden to be cultivated, then the husband is a cultivator. That's why gardeners are called husbandmen, because their job, they need to have a lot of skill in bringing out the best quality out of that garden, so that every fruit of that garden can be a blessing to society. And so, when you can't find a gardener, it's not yet qualified. So men are hunters. And our sisters now are aware, so they avoid them. They come to church and they intimidate ladies with tongues. Tickle, bakula, vaga. If their tongue is not working, they will not come with a vision and say, "I was on the 90 days drive fast." The moment they said drive fast, the lady will now come under submission of God. If somebody is on 90 days fast, what did the Lord say? He said, "An Indian came and opened his crew, and he showed me about Russia, he talked to me about China. The last thing the Indian told me was that your face appeared, and when I consulted with God, I knew you were my wife." But don't worry, go and pray about it. And you walk out like a spiritual man and put the lady under psychological pressure. It's fake. The Bible says, "Two can only walk together if they be agreed." If God showed him, God to show you too.

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Many sisters now are afraid of marrying because we don't have gardeners, we have hunters. They check all the sisters. The ones that have prospect, they discover she dresses well, she speaks good English, she is responsible, and it looks as if she has some money. They will now begin to give prophetic word or encourage her. When they are head of department, they will give her opportunity. Leave the choir for two weeks. Even if you leave for one year, it doesn't mean he is your husband. Are we together? Only a gardener has the capacity to marry. And when you find the gardener, he has the capacity to develop the woman spiritually. He has the capacity to develop the woman socially. He has the capacity to develop the woman financially. And he also has the capacity to develop the woman emotionally. If a woman marries a gardener, her spiritual, emotional, financial, and social insecurities are handled. Because a woman is looking for somebody who will take over from her father. And that was the job the father was doing. And so, when you find boys who have come of age but are not mature, they are looking for women that you take advantage of. And so, you are not a husband because you are an adult being. Nowadays, in order to increase men for men to increase their prospect, they go to a gym and they trim their chest. Chest is like this. They wear suit and pull the collar. They just, if you like your chest to be longer than your face, it doesn't make you a husband. You must have capacity in the spirit. Because the man will have to find the presence of God. That's where the woman is cultivated. If he doesn't know how to join to the presence, he will not have the equipment, the tools to cultivate the woman. Because Paul was speaking in Ephesians 5:30, he said, "Marriage is a great mystery." And so, what you need in order to unravel the mysteries of marriage are in the presence of God. And so, if you don't have spiritual capacity, you are not a husband. If you are somebody who every little thing throws you off, you are still a little boy with a big age. You need to grow in God. So stop troubling God with your age. Your age is not what they are checking for now. Are you a husband? Why a wife is a wife before she is married. A husband becomes the husband after marriage. The job of the wife is to submit, so she needs to learn it before she enters. And the job of the husband is to cultivate. So when she gets married, he enters his primary assignment. If you study, I will go there. The book of Ephesians chapter 5, verse 26. He said, "That thou mightest sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word." So the job of the man is to bring out the value, the quality of the woman. You know, many men are looking for. They don't know. When the Bible says, "He who finds a wife, you will find that value." You will meet her, you will find her out. The word, "by the word," of God. The word of God there is the word *rhema*, it means to use the inspirations of scripture to bring out her potentials until she becomes everything God wants her to be. That's who a husband is. And so, many people need to begin to grow up to becoming husbands.

I move forward a bit. I want to enter into the meat of the teaching now. Or let me say something again. There have been diverse teachings of marriage. I respect them, and I respect the teachers. This is not an attempt of pride to show that you know so much. What I'm sharing now is one out of the many revelations that the Lord has given about marriage. And so, just in case there's a position that is not in alignment, it's not an attempt to pull one down. Sometimes we can use strong words because not because of those who are teaching, but because of the battle we are fighting. You know, extraordinary times, they say, require extraordinary measures. When you are fighting in the midst of the battle, in the heat of the battle, sometimes certain things happen. They call it collateral damage. There are rules of engagement that may be violated, but it's not an attempt to undermine somebody's position. It's the heat we are fighting. We are fighting aliens. And so, some stronger trances may be uttered at some point. Understand that is the battle we are fighting. Something that is not mortal. Praise God. And so, we respect all the teachings that have gone forward, and we also hope to advance and to add a little.

And so, there are six major emphasis I will put forth to you tonight before I tell you the five major purposes in the heart of God for marriage. Remember, we began by telling you the standard of God is standard sure. It's different from every other thing, and it's not popular opinion.

Number one, the Bible does not teach that you should marry who you love. And so, when you are looking for a wife or you are looking for a husband, your feeling is not qualified to lead you. That's why you hear me say again and again, "Don't marry who you love." One of the major reasons for divorces, as touching relationships, emotions come from the fact that people jump into marriage based on the feelings they have for others. Because the love before marriage is largely emotional. There are many reasons for divorce, financial issues, plagues, so many things, and we will deal with that when we are dealing with crisis and crisis resolution. But it's important for you to know that the institution you are entering into does not have regard for the feeling you have before you enter. And I will tell you why. The reason is because a spirit does not become part of a relationship on the strength of emotion. A spirit becomes part of a relationship only on the strength of covenant. And even the institutions of the world know better. No court will ask you whether you love the person. The father of the lady will not ask you whether you love her, because they know that when the agreement is knotted, even if it's one second after the agreement, if you don't love the person again, it's not enough reason for you to come out. And because your lack of emotions or feelings does not give you the right to come out, it is not a requisite for entering. The only basis where love could be a prerequisite for marriage would have been that if you enter and you don't love anymore, you are able to come out. But to show you the level of disregard that spirits are located to human feelings, because of the uncertainty that is with men, they never consider love as a factor before you enter. Rather, the moment you step in, you will now meet another kind of love. The love that motivates people into marriage, those who enter because of feelings are largely emotional. But the law of God commands in marriage is not emotion at all. It's responsibility. Now, while you are operating in the God kind of love, you will now begin to learn to add flavor. But what God is checking has nothing to do with your emotions. It is now your responsibility to cultivate emotion. And as I show you how God relates to marriage, you will discover that God will not consult with your feelings. For those of you who are spiritual, you know what I'm saying. You can even be in one relationship, and God will come and say, "He's not the one." And He will not explain. And then, while you are focusing on another one, God can come and say, "It's another person." And when you check the person, all the specs that you idolized in your soul will not be there. The reason is because the emotional love that listened to marriage are born out of the specifications that society indoctrinated us with. You know, society teaches you how to build feelings. The reason most men are dreaming is not because they love exercise. It's because women love six-pack. And that's what society taught them. That if you don't have six-pack, you are not handsome. And so, when they build the six-pack, and it's not showing in their tight clothes, they will go and trim the clothes and make it tighter. If it's not working, they will tear the clothes and walk like this because it's society is now teaching people what love is and conditioning their emotion. And then, when you, you see ladies, society taught them is the length of their nails, the glow of their complexion that defines love. And so, women run helter-skelter to make sure all of those things are in place. They show them is the size of their breasts and the size of their botox. So now, if you don't have enough inside, that you go and meet a plastic surgeon to inflate it, or you buy materials to pad up.

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And that's what people are doing now to get into marriage because the feelings are manipulated. And so, God knows that certain are not reliable. Because the moment you marry, one of the things that will happen is that you will become naked. And so, all the things you created artificially by society, it will be unveiled. So, in order for you not to enter and discover something strange, God is telling you ahead of time, "Look for things that cannot be manipulated."

So, when I tell you, "You don't marry who you love," it's not my position. It's the position of the Bible. The Bible says, "Love who you marry." Because love is a commandment. Love is a responsibility. And as you begin to grow in that responsibility, you will discover that emotion will come naturally. But this kind of emotion will be pure. It will not be the kind of emotion that is manipulated by society. It will be an emotion that is born because you are beginning to fulfill purpose together. You will now discover you love your wife regardless of her complexion. You'll discover you love your wife regardless of her height. You will discover you love your wife regardless of what she looks like, because the hidden man of the heart, which is the original man, is beginning to appear.

I show you two scriptures, and this is what you will find in the whole of the Bible as touching a wife on the subject of love. Titus chapter 2, verse 4. See what the Bible said. He said, "That they may teach young women..." It's telling the older women now, that have been in marriage for a while, to teach them. You see that this kind of love is not born out of, "I looked at her at first sight and something happened to me." No, this one is taught. So you now understand it's not an emotional kind of love. It's a responsibility kind of love. Because it's your modesty, it's your chastity, it's your brokenness, it's your submission, and your humility that creates love in the heart of your husband. Even your husband thinks he loves you because of the color of your skin. When he gets married to you and he doesn't find humility, he doesn't find brokenness, he doesn't find modesty, he will not begin to call you "balloon." You will say, "Is it not the man that said my face looked like apple?" The face is still intact, but there's no character. You know, you have to tell me this dragon from... Am I the one? Am I the one you are calling? He's describing the real. The one you showed him was fake. That's why I said women, elderly women, mature women should teach the younger women. And what they say should teach them. He said, "Let them teach them in particular."

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Let me get my script. Sorry, one minute. I want to read everything. Titus 2:4. He said, "That they may teach the young woman to be sober, and to love their husbands." That's why I told you, you don't marry who you love. You love who you marry. You are taught to love your husband. And then, as touching the husband, this is what the Bible says again. Please don't forget, if you are not under the authority of scripture, I'm not talking to you. Ephesians 5:25. He said, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it." You know what that kind of love is? It's a love that dies. This kind of love is self-denial, a sacrifice. And so, you came to the room, your wife looked at you in the face, and what you would have done is to slap her and say, "Go to your father's house." You now discover that emotion was not part of the bargain. You will die. That's why I say this kind of love, you love by dying. You don't love by feeling. The way Christ loved the church was that He died. And so, when your wife does what is wrong, that you should have advanced your masculinity, because one slap will silence her for five seconds at least, before she thinks again, her brain will reboot. You take your hand like this. You now remember, you don't die slapping. You will not die. You will now come back in the midnight when everybody is asleep, and sit your wife down, say, "You know, that thing you said is not how..." Your pride will be coming like this. Your prayer. You shouldn't have said like that. That you say, "What do you mean by that? Why would you tell me how to talk? Are you the one that gave me mouth?" You will die, my brother. Causing the nails of Calvary. Inhale. You will die. You thought that after seven hours, now she would have become reasonable. You'll not discover her brain, it's not in her head. The brain of the woman is not in her head, it's in her heart. And so, you will suckle her. You will suckle her. When she now comes down, you will discover that 90% of what she said, she diminished. When she say, "You are a demon, you are..." She didn't mean it. She is trying to provoke anger in you. She wants, she wants anger to come out of you. And because you die in loving, even if the anger rises, you hold your peace. You will look at her. When you refuse to talk, and enter your room, all the work he was doing at the backyard, you bring it to your room and start doing that. You will look to make this work. Sometimes, when you want to go out, you now close the door. You will now understand the difference between love before marriage and love after marriage. Love before marriage is feelings. Love after marriage is death. It's commandment. So the man dies to love. But our generation is not taught. So they tell people, "Do you love him?" He said, "Yes." "Do you love her?" It's Nollywood. That one is the doctrine of Nollywood. It's Bollywood 101. You saw them, they escaped from home and went to an island. That that movie is for two hours. Welcome to reality. Life is for many years. They want to carry the script of somebody who was drinking uh what a champ dog or was drinking some dough, is a fruit. One somebody that was drinking champagne or drinking whiskey, and when he was drinking whiskey, he got inspiration and wrote something. You now bring it to live your life. "I love her." And that's how, as we are talking, you are now thinking of Sharukhan, the way he carried his bride, and they drove through a wilderness. That is two hours movie. Come to life. You don't marry who you love. You love who you marry. And because you love who you marry, you can't jump into it. So when emotions rise, you will tell your emotions to come down. And you will find out how God selects women for men, and how God selects husbands for women.

Number two, you don't marry your friend. Ask yourself, where is your best friend when you were primary one? Do you know where he is? That's your best friend that you, you went out for sport together, you were doing uniform. You are just 30 years old, you can't even remember their names. Those things fade away. They are called the word for friendship is called *philia*. It's a passive feeling. That feeling is too passive to build your destiny on. What you do is that when you marry, you make your spouse your friend. If you marry your friend, you will not discover that the bond between friends does not reach blood. Meanwhile, the bond of marriage is from the blood. It's covenant. It's deeper than a sense of dependence, emotional dependence. It's deeper than mutual understanding. It is something that goes deep into the blood. And so, you cannot allow that passive connection that a misunderstanding can break to become the business for marriage. Many friendships break on the strength of this understanding. But marriage cannot break. When you misunderstand yourself, after a while, you compare yourself to understand yourself. If you misunderstand your friend, you can walk away. But when you misunderstand your wife, you will walk back. When you always misunderstand your husband, you will walk back. Many are not aware. They taught their wives and their husbands are their friends. And so, the same way they caught up with their friends and say, "Go to hell," they will tell their wives that. When you go out, if you finish drinking your guru, you come back in the night. Because there are those who are drunks that have no regard for God, but you will still come back home. It's not a friendship to enjoy it. You can create an atmosphere of friendship. You can build friendship with your wife. You can build friendship with your lover. But marriage is covenant. That kind of agreement is not two of you that are involved. There's a spirit also involved. And that spirit that is involved is not part of your misunderstanding. And so, when you finish misunderstanding yourself, you have to understand yourself. Because He said, "A threefold cord is not easily broken." He will not allow it. When you finish keeping the malice, come back together. When you finish quarreling, come back together. And many times, nobody will be there to say to you. Because if people said to you too much, your marriage will be commissioned. But the world taught us that just because you people understand yourselves, I mean, why this understanding are mostly on shallow things. They read things of life, they are not even bold to share it, they hide it, but they say, "We are friends." And when you ask them, they say, "We've been friends for five years." That's why somebody will be your friend for seven years, and then later you see him planning an engagement. I think you see what happened. He said, "No, I, I never told you I wanted to do anything. We have just been friends." You will now go home and start.

Fasting and crying and weeping to the Lord. That you were friends for seven years, and that's why we can't tell people. If a young man is blocking your space, ask him, "What is the matter?"

Because you don't marry your friend. He can wake up after seven years and tell you, "We were just friends." Did I tell you anything? And if you like, take it to any court, even if it's the court of heaven. They will tell him, "Tell you, you were friends." If somebody begins to come too close, there is a gap between a friend and a spouse. So find out if it's friendship. There are certain boundaries you can't cross. Don't call me by 12 midnight and say, "You are just checking on me." No, 12 midnight is for somebody.

Now, because your husband is not your friend, and because your wife is not your friend, but you can build friendship. Who are they? Your husband is your Lord. I know women hate these kinds of things. They will now go and invoke a doctrine that only Jesus is Lord. Jesus, the leader, said, "Jesus is my only Lord and personal savior." Welcome to Bible. You see, your husband is not your friend. Your husband is your Lord. And I will show you the kind of Lord he is. It's not a casual Lord. The Lord that the Bible compares him to. Let me show you, because what I want to show you now will shock you. You now know that what you cannot say to Jesus, and what you cannot do to Jesus, you don't have the right to do it to your husband. That's where the difference between the kingdom and the word system is. Because if you don't respond to your husband the way you respond to Jesus, your Christianity is fake. Because this is not about about feeling. This is about how God judges you from Zion. And you hear what Paul said? You know, in our generation, a sister will come and lie down before pastor. If you say, "How are you?" she will kneel down. She's bringing a cup of water. She will kneel down and give you a cup of water. When you finish drinking, she will collect it like this. But she will go home and look at the husband. If you're like, "Don't go to the kitchen," you are a fake person. You are not a Christian. Okay, let me read the Bible. Let's read the Bible. I'm making a mistake. I'm saying so they think it's my opinion.

The Bible is a strange vocal. Ephesians 5:22 and 24. If you read from verse 21, it says, "Submit yourselves one to another." And so from verse 22, he began, he began to define the nature of submission. And I will tell you why the Bible advanced these positions. Because there are things God wants to achieve through marriage. One of them is to make you become like Christ. And so what God, we the laws God gives us, is to fight our humanity until our humanity is subdued. So that at the end of the day, when marriage is perfected, all of you will look like Christ. That's why He gives these laws. It's not about dominance. It's a divine wisdom.

Ephesians 5:22 to 24. He said, "Wives." He didn't say women. Those who are not yet married can go on CNN and argue with a dictionary. He's not talking to them. You can even be a feminist and say you are fighting for the liberty of women. It's not for wives. Because this is an institution. It's just like you have a a school or maybe government, and then you have a vice president and you have a president. He's not talking about your nature or your essence. It's talking about order, authority, and structure. You are the vice, and you are the head. They are two different things. So if you now start arguing from a generic position, you are violating the institution. For example, if a Christian is a vice president today, and a Muslim is the president, you can come and start a campaign and say, "The Christians are being marginalized." It's not about religion. It's about office. And if a Christian is a president, and a Muslim is a vice president, you won't stand up and say, "Jihad, you are fighting for Muslims." He's not religious. This is office. The president has this authority. The vice president has this authority. Both of you are human beings who are equal. But in government, in this institution, this is a standard. That's what the Bible is showing here.

What the Bible says, there are very strong words that are scary. He said, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband as unto the Lord." The same way you submit to Jesus, that's how you submit to your husband. And so if you don't submit to your husband, you don't know Jesus. Because this is scripture. "As unto the Lord." He said, "For the husband." In case you say he's a figure of speech, he went further. That this is not a figure of speech. He said, "As the husband is the head." He said, "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." So the same way the church cannot challenge the authority of Jesus, that's how the woman and the wife does not have jurisdiction in the context of marriage to challenge the authority of the husband. A woman can be powerful outside her marriage. She may be president and command the whole nation. But when she comes home, she will put her office as the president in her pocket and submit to her Lord. Because this is an institution that has its root in the spirit. Because if you violate this order, what God wants to achieve can never be achieved. And so the next time you talk to your husband, be mindful that you're also talking to your Jesus. Because you don't have one Jesus. As a wife, you have Jesus the Lord in heaven, and you have Jesus the Lord in the family. He says, "Submit to your husband as unto the Lord." But they come up with demonic philosophy and see both of you are friends. And because you are friends, you can challenge your friend. It's normal. That's not marriage.

Let me read it from amplified version. Somebody is saying, "Kai, this is old King James version." Let me, let me read it. "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, not to every man, is to your own husband as a service to the Lord." So when you are doing it, it's also an act of worship. You don't only worship God when you sing a good song. He said, "When you are in subjection to your husband, you are doing a service to Jesus Christ." That's why it is God that rewards people as touching the context of marriage. He said, "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, himself being the savior of the body." You see, "As the church is subject to Christ, so as the church is subject to Christ, so let the woman, the wife, be subject to her husband." If you know this, you will not say, "I love him." That's why I told you, you don't marry who you love. Because you have to be very careful whether this person has the quality of Christ before you accept him. Because if you have accepted him, you have subjugated your will. So every time you stand up, "I have feelings for him," you are about to take a risk. So you need to make sure that this person possesses the quality of Christ before you submit to him in marriage. Because what God is dealing with is not emotional. It's a legalistic reality. And so if you take the risk of marrying a man who is not like Christ, then you will bear the body. They do not read what Paul said in First Corinthians chapter 7. He said, "If your husband is an unbelieving person," he said, "bear with him. Maybe you will save him." Do you that kind of salvation comes with a lot of sorrows? You may need to pray in tongues for 10 years every night with tears. You are trying to save him. And the reason that was necessary is because you didn't wait to marry a Christ-like man. You married a lover, and love has slapped you. Now discover that something is wrong. Meanwhile, one thing you will notice from here is that he said, "Your services as unto the Lord." That means everything you do for and to your husband is technically not to him, is to Jesus. So your service is not motivated by his response. Your service is based on you delivering on your office as wife. That's why Paul went further to say, "In case your husband is an unbelieving person." They say, "You may save him." But remember that what you are doing, you are not doing as a lover. You are doing as a wife. So that's your office. And the code that governs your office as a wife is to be submitted to him as Lord.

In case you think Paul hates women, Peter showed up and brought the same perspective. In First Peter chapter 3, this is what Peter said, verse 1, verse 5, and verse 6. He said, "Likewise, yeah, wives." These men are wise men. They are spiritual men. It is a year, women. Because if you say women, it will mean that the feminine gender is lower than the male gender. This is not about what all of us are. In the kingdom of God, we are equal because we are all heirs of salvation. But he said, "In marriage, I'm only dealing with a wife." So you can be loved over your wife, but your boss is a woman. If you make the mistake of talking to your boss the way you talk to your wife, you will not understand that there is a difference between wife and woman. Because your boss is not in your institution. Your boss will boss you. Because some men don't know that this is marriage. They will go out and look at every woman and say, "All these disrespectful women." Oh God, your authority is with your wife, not with every woman. So don't come out with your village mentality and myopic mentality. "I want to subjugate women in society." This is why some men say, "A woman can be president." That's from his village. That's not Bible. A woman can be anything a man can be. Because when He said, "Let us make man in our own image," it is a male. The Bible says, "Male and female, He made both." So a woman should not be subjugated in society. In society, they have equal rights. But when it comes to marriage, He said, "One is Lord."

So Peter said in First Peter chapter 3, verse 1, 5, and 6, "Likewise, your wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may be won by your good conversation." That means, even if your husband were not to be a Christian. That is, if you make the mistake, because the Bible counts says that you marry a believer. But in case before you got married, you were not wise and you followed your emotion and you married an unbeliever. He said, "Your good character without scripture can convert you." But we can't say that. You marry believers who are who have the fear of God. That's why I say, marry a Christ-like God. Because this is a risk. If that man doesn't fear God. And in verse 6, he said, "For after this manner, in the old times, holy women also." Not ladies, not civilized women. Holy. The word holy means consecrated unto God. Women that fear the Lord and are under the government of scripture. They say, "This kind of women." You know, our word today, we have intelligent women. We have women who are ambassadors of different institutions with different ideologies. Those are not the kind of women he's using as as a reference. He said, "Holy women also who trusted in God." That's the credential of a wife. A wife is a holy woman. A wife is one who trusts in God. That's why when the wife does not find what she's looking for in her husband, she goes to the Author. She doesn't go to Facebook. Our generation will not raise holy women that trust in God. We raise holy. We raise women that are looking for public opinion. And so they go and throw their marriage in public. And people with ideologies from the God has come to advise them. And they take actions that are not born by the spirit of God. It's a women who are holy, who are consecrated to God and fear the Lord. He said, "This is how they live their lives." He said, "They adorned themselves." That means the ornament of such women, the glory of such women, is not gold. The glory of such women are not necklaces. They are not. He said, "Such women adorn themselves in subjection." So when you want to find the beauty of a holy woman, it is captured in the degree of submission. When you find such a woman, the ambience that comes out of her is the glory of God. You can enter a home where she is the most powerful, but she knows the place of submission. And so when you find a woman who is supposed to be a leader decides to submit under the authority of the husband, what you can see is an institution that can be likened to the Godhead. That even though the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are equal, they decided for the purpose of administration that the Son will become the messenger of the Father. Not because the Son is lower in essence, but it is a beauty that is reflected only from the crucible of the divine. That two people can be joined as one, but one understands the place of authority and decides to go under submission, trusting the Lord that His purposes can find expression. He says, "Such women, their beauty is not in the ornaments." He said, "Their beauty is reflected in their submission." That's why today, with all their parents that many women deck themselves with, the moment they talk, people hit them because you can sense arrogance. And they do not know that this is not consistent with the character of holy women. And they know most women of the world now know that it is difficult for them to be admired. That's why they go about naked. You will hardly see naked men. Because the beauty of a man is not subjection. And when you cannot reflect your beauty, which comes through brokenness, you will have to use something else to buy attention. And so you find most women going about naked because that's the only way somebody can look at them twice. And even at that, it doesn't add value to them. It rather makes them to be used. But for a woman of God that trusting God, he said, "Her glory comes from her submission." That's why I say a woman should not prophesy with her head uncovered. He's not talking about the hair tie. He's talking about headship. The authority of the husband governing all her operations. So that wherever she stands talking, you can tell that even though this woman is powerful, she understands authority. She does not use self-authority. And a husband becomes a covering of her head. If not, even a spiritual assignment can attract reproach. And he said to do that because of the angels. Because the angels that undermined the place of authority, they were called demons. They were cast from the mountains of God. Because rebellion makes you to lose your place in kingdom. That's why I said there was no place found for him.

And finally, in verse 6, he said, "Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord." He said, "Whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." That means the sign that you are a holy woman, a daughter of Sarah, is not captured in your power to profess. It's not captured in your power to lead a good career. The sign that you are the daughter of Sarah is that in the same meekness and submission, you see and call your husband Lord.

Our mindsets have become so shrouded with western civilization. And so you have honed your husband until you forget that it's not a honey. Say your husband is Lord. And then when you finish with the wife, you will now assume that, "Hey, women are in trouble." He now turns to the man. You know, it's not the woman that dies. It's the man that dies. That means the judgment of the man is heavier. When you look at this, you say, "Why would God do this?" It's a chiseling process. He created you. He knows the corruption that affected your soul. And the corruption that affected the soul of the woman makes it impossible for her to want to come under government. And so the only way He can chisel her is to force her to stay under government. Meanwhile, the corruption that came on the man was self-centeredness, selfishness. Go around the world today, 99% of those looking for power are men. Selfish, egoistic, and proud. And so God sees that selfishness in them. So the only way He can kill it is that everything the man possesses, He asks him to give it up for his wife.

Let me show you three things He said to the man. While He was dealing with submission on the part of the woman, when He came to the man, He highlighted three things. Number one is honor. So the way a man loves a woman is to honor her. Because He has already told the woman, "Don't fight for honor, don't fight for authority, relinquish it." The man who down possesses it, He now commands the man to lavish the whole honor that is on his life on his wife. Number two, the way He instructed the man to love the woman is through sacrifice and selflessness. That's why you notice that in every relationship, it's the man that buys all the gifts. My wife will go out, it's okay, she doesn't bring anything. But if you don't bring something, you are a wicked man. Because it's your job to be sacrificial. Number one, you honor. Number two, you are sacrificial. And this sacrifice is beyond giving a gift. This sacrifice is to defend her interest, even if it has to do with your life. And I will show you the terrible consequences that God put if these things are violated. Your sacrifice to the point that you defend her values with everything that makes you a man. That's the sign that you love your wife. That's why when a man truly loves this woman, he fights to defend her. You can't say anything, but don't talk about his wife. Don't talk about his mother. If you touch them, you with the idea, he forgets everything that defines him. I heard one of the most reputable ministers of the gospel in this country. He said, "If you touch his wife, he will kill you." How many of you read it? This is one of the meekest men that is in existence. He is the most, one of the most powerful Christians in Africa. But he's so meek that sometimes you wonder how a man can hold so much power and temperament. But when he has to do with his wife, he said, "If you touch my wife, if you touch my wife, I will kill you." Because that's what it takes to be a husband. You fight to defend her injury. And that is what will make a woman to be secured to hand over authority. The reason women are fighting for their right today is because too many boys got married. So they discovered that these men are just there to prey on their weakness. And so because they've suffered enough, they decided to refuse. And because they can't trust them, they stood their ground. And so this is not an attempt to blame women and say they are irresponsible or they are arrogant. This is actually a balanced spiritual equation. If both parts play their role, you will see Jesus. Because when men come to your house, your house should not just be home. Your house should become Eden. Because the marriage institution was formulated in Eden. So when the family is right, you will find Eden. And Eden is important. We are encounters take place. The reason homes have become rebellious grounds is because husbands and wives no longer exist. Only lovers exist. The day husbands and wives emerge again, it will become Eden. And that is the only time you can be sure that we raise children that can carry the heritage of God. The reason children are becoming aliens and beasts in society is because they took the seed from the family. The child saw a father who was a tyrant, a beast at home. And so it entered the spirit. After 15 years, he becomes a violent boy in school. After 25 years, he becomes a bandit and a terrorist. He can kill without mercy. Because when he saw the recklessness of his father, he didn't show mercy. This is deeper than feelings. And so the man, God places a law on him that number one, he must honor. Number two, he must sacrifice and defend. And number three, he must cultivate. So the wife you are looking for, it's not on Facebook. The wife you are looking for is not in your neighbor's house. The wife you are looking for is in your vineyard. You will get what you cultivate.

And so let me just expand on it quickly. In First Peter chapter 3, verse 7, he said, "Likewise, as touching honor." Now he says, "Your husband dwell with your wives in knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel." Your wife is not weak because she's not physically strong. That's not what the Bible is saying. Because if that's what the Bible is saying, the Bible would have become absolute. Because you don't need physical strength to fight today. Your wife can be governor today. Your wife can be senator. So if you touch her, she will make a phone call. It's so just that we carry. A woman doesn't need to fight to be strong. When he said she's weaker, he didn't say she's weaker because she she doesn't have as much legs as you or muscle. It's not about that. She called her weaker vessel because she has already been commanded to submit. So her submission makes her vulnerable. Having been weak has nothing to do with her body. Having been weak has everything to do with the law that God has put upon her. He said, "Because of that law, relate with her with honor as unto a recovery one that is already constrained." That's why today you see women who are powerful in society. They come to you for counseling and they say their husbands are abusing them. You know, check. You're a bank manager. Is he doing it? You are a senator. Why is he doing it? You find a woman crying that the husband spoke to her. And then when you check, you are escorting her out of counseling room, and then you see soldiers coming to open the door. You are not who is this? Your husband. She is not weak because she is a woman. She is weak because she is commanded to be in subjection. And so the Bible is saying, don't take advantage of the fact that God decided to make her vulnerable in this equation. If you do, here's what Peter said. He said, "You should be mindful that both of you are heirs of the grace of God." And they say, "If you do, your prayers will be hindered." Do you see why the judgment of the man is worse than the woman? I have made a woman weak by telling her to submit to you. If you take advantage of her, I will cut you off from relationship with me. That means a man's relationship with God is also tied to the degree to which he honors his wife. Because of that, the woman is not only the weaker person. If the man has a relationship with God, the man will become afraid. This is why pastors are afraid of marrying. If you are talking and your wife doesn't smile, the church will look. Why she's not smiling? If you come to church and she doesn't follow you, people now say, "What happened?" So you will now beg her. If it's time to go to church, you say, "Please, service is five." Because you didn't come last week. If you don't come this week and you don't come next week, it will be a challenge. Meanwhile, it's not just about people. It's with God. If you dishonor your wife, that period, you are an alien. Now, if you are a man and you need God to make progress in life, and God now tells you, "I will cut off your relationship with me because you dishonor your wife." What will you do? You will now go and learn how to make your wife happy. When your wife dishonors you, the Bible says she's not a holy woman. The Bible says it's no longer beautiful. But when you now dishonor your wife, the Bible now says God cuts you off. Which is a heavier punishment? So in this equation, nobody is a victim. That means what God is trying to do is deeper than natural advantage. What God is trying to do is actually to improve on the quality of your soul. And so for a man to be steadfast, I don't know whether you build a relationship with God. But for those who are interested in the relationship, they know what it takes. Sometimes we need 40 days fasting, 40 days of fasting and intense prayer, and completely cutting off from the destruction of society to sense peace. Peace is that expensive. You know, he said, "Be anxious for nothing." He said, "But by all things in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." That the peace that surpasses all knowledge will guide your heart. The prayer that begs those times of peace sometimes take weeks. Now, if you prayed for seven days to have peace with God, you will not allow a disagreement to take it away. So if you need to go out and come in the evening and buy a new resort for your wife for that agreement to be restored, we do it. It's not because of her. You are fighting to keep your relationship with God. Because your relationship with God is life to you. And that's why I began by telling you, one of the meaning of existence is the ability to host the glory of God. And the glory of God is teared up through prayers. He said, "As Jesus prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered." This is why a spiritual man cannot imagine not acting. Imagine to dishonor his wife. Because he knows that if he dishonors his wife, he's been truncated from Zion. And because he takes their matters to Him more, he will not attempt it. So when a woman submits to a man who fears God, she is not taking a risk. That man is an insurance system. Because what compares that man to unknown return is not the principles of relationship that they teach in secular institutions. It is the spirit of God Himself that is the umpire that guards and forces that man to bring honor to that worker.

Number two, I said defense. Defense and defense has three layers. The first layer is to support. You defend a woman by encouraging, supporting, to build her up. Because women, to a very large extent, are moved by commendations. Sometimes you need to come back, sit down, check her job, find out what she's doing, and just praise her that she's a strong woman. "How, how annette, are you able to do this?" Meanwhile, what she did was that she wrote a letter. "What kind of letter is this? Where did you get this wisdom from? How are you able?" She says, "It's just a little thing." Talk to one side. Sometimes you enter the house and you say, "My God, you mean you have been taking care of this house? I've never noticed." "The fault, what kind of woman are you? How are you trained?" You say, "I don't know. I'm not doing my best." You are supporting. There are some men, they will never see anything good in their wives. Every day they come, they complain. From Monday to night. No, you are dishonoring her. Little she does, appreciate it. This is not politics. This is a responsibility. Sometimes you look at your children and you say, "Thank you. Thank you. See the children you give me. What would my life have been without you?" Pains of nine months, you will forget it in one second. Do you know what women go through? There is no man who can bear pregnancy for one week. We are too selfish. When we are brought to the child, a man who wakes up in the morning, he's already running to hustle for money. The women will walk like when he reaches several months, it becomes a wait. They will be walking like this. And they know that the moment they give birth, they will be de-shaped forever. And then when you follow them to the delivery room, you will know when tears will come out. Tears. Because every time a woman is delivered of a baby, she dies. That blood that comes out is death. And then you come back home and you say, "Why did they wash this plate? You're a glutton. Go and wash it yourself." Somebody has washed plates for several months. One day they didn't wash plates. Okay. How can you give me a cup of water? You see dust inside. If you ask a man, "When was the last time they gave a word of commendation to their wife?" They forgot it. Because they are bosses. They walk like kings. You don't know who a husband is. You support her. You provide for her until she finds security in you. A wife who only finds security in you when she sees your disposition to bring out the best in her. That's why Paul was teaching in First Timothy chapter 5:8. He said, "If you do not care for your household, he said, you have denied the faith. He said, you are worse than an infidel." Are you seeing the conditions God is putting? Because He knows that the authorities with the man. So He is very stern with the man. He said, "If you dishonor her, your prayers will not be answered." And He said, "If you don't care for her, you say you have denied the faith." God will look at you like an infidel. That's why you see most people come to pray. None of their prayers are being answered. It's an if they're praying, their prayer is an abomination before God. It's the prayer of a wicked man. You know very well that your sinful commendation means a lot to her. You will now keep it. She we want to kill herself. You will look away. You are laughing. The moment you are entering home, you frown. The lion has come to make her afraid. You are wicked. God said you are an infidel. You have denied the faith. If you like, be a bishop. In the eyes of God, you are an infidel. Because God brought a flower to your vineyard like this, cutting sun. You killed it. Your wife will marry you with a lot of confidence. Meet after eight months. She has become a shadow of herself because of the hostile atmosphere you created to choke her confidence. And the problem is not with her. It's with your insecurity. You think everybody is challenging your authority. You say, "Three things. You see, I'm the head of this home. I'm the man of the house." Who is asking you? Insecurity. They kill. They kill the women. And so when God sees such men, He calls them infidels. Because they can't provide for their spiritual need. They can't provide for their emotional needs. They can't provide for their material needs. It takes so much to be a husband. That's why it's not something you jump into. That I have feelings. You have denied the faith. And so the first way to honor your wife is to commend her. Is to support her. Is to encourage her. Sometimes when your wife dresses and she is coming up, shout, "My God, where did you go to? What are you eating the last week? Why is your skin glowing like this?" As she's coming out, run and open the door. "Your majesty, only queens appear like this." Only queens. Ah, shall we dream about that thing? She will dream when she sleeps. She will be dreaming. Is it not our selfishness? You saw the lady walking gorgeously. You married her, impregnated her, deformed her. You now wake up and say, "Ah, I'm looking for another lady." You know these women. If you are not careful, you will go to hell. Because in shape you want, you are married. You have damaged this shape. You want to go and pick another shape and damage. Safe with selfishness and self-centeredness. If the tummy has come out, it's a new dimension. Love it.

See, this is why love is a commandment. You love the slim belly and big buttocks. Now, belly has added its advantage. It's more grace. And if you want to help her to overcome the belly, go to gym with her or buy a gym and bring it home. You wake up, she dresses. You see, "What kind of gown is that? Don't you see the gowns your friends are wearing?" She had no friends before you married her. It is wickedness to compare her with her friends. It is wickedness to compare with other women. It is dishonor to a womanhood. Men are selfish. The second way to honor your wife is to fight to defend her integrity. When your woman, your wife, is involved in something, don't go out and break her. You find some men, their wife is involved in something. They show up in the public. They start rebuking her. Reduce her to rag to show that they are men. No matter what is happening, secure her first. If you need to rebuke her, don't rebuke her there to make her look like the devil or the fool in public. Your wife is doing something. She's involved in a crisis. Come and defend her. Take her away. Resolve the matter. Take the responsibility. When you go home, find out what happened. If she's wrong, teach her what she should have done. That way, you've built her. But you see African men. Some people come and tell their wives to kneel and apologize to the person to show that they don't, they don't, they have no nonsense man. No nonsense. No, you are not a nonsense man. You are a typical primitive, myopic African man. Ego. Ego. That's what kills the African man. And it's not scripture. This is what women are suffering. That's why most of them cannot submit anymore. So God expects you to defend her. And then number three, God expects you, under honor, this is under honoring your wife. God expects you to satisfy her needs. Find out what she needs. Sometimes women will not say everything. You've been with her for a while. Design her. And when you know she has a need, go out of your way to provide for it. Let her do it in such a way that she will know that you, you tried to impress her. You notice your wife is struggling with something. Don't tell her. Go somewhere. Do everything that is possible to remedy that situation. You will see how your home will become a heaven. You'll find many, many boys using tongues and the name of Jesus to satisfy their ego, their pride, and their primitive nature, claiming that they are men. You are not a man because you lord it over your wife. You are a man because you are able to die to bring the best out of her. That's what a husband is. This is why this is not a feeling. Many times, to do these things, you will die. I told you, after we married three months later, we had a little quarrel. And I told myself, "What? Not this lady that saw me and was relating with me as an apostle, is now arguing with me?" I went back to understand what was going on. Arguing with me after three months? My God. I told myself, "No, this can't continue for how long? I can't take this." Oh, my God. I will show you the purpose of marriage. Then I will talk this to you. You know something? I locked up. Partaking. Do you know me? Do you know me? Me that can be in one room for three months? You try me, you will suffer here. Oh, when I locked up in the evening, I sat down. She walked towards me. I just started reading something. She now knelt down and apologized. Ah, it looked like I was a devil. I now discover it was. It's been a long time I felt so like a demon. Hey, I became ashamed. I didn't know what. From that day, I tried to avoid every problem until I managed this carnality. I discovered ego was. Haha. Ego. Nobody taught me that I was full of ego. You come out, everybody say, "Hey, man of God, you have mysteries." But there was carnality. You are not a man because you boss around the person who says sorry. Is stronger because the way Jesus showed strength was to die. I learned something that I didn't read in any book. I've read a lot of books. It wasn't there. And so God began to teach me.

And then the final way you honor your wife is to cultivate. A cultivator. Why does God create these structures? Because there are five things He wants to achieve in marriage. And because I don't have time, I may just have to run through this. There are five things. God wants to achieve in marriage. The first is that God wants to bring out the image of Christ through both of you. In Ephesians chapter 5, look at what the Bible says. You know, I began to read from there when I started Ephesians chapter 5, chapter 6 rather. No, let me do 5:21. After he spoke about wives submitting, and he spoke about husbands loving, in verse 31, he said, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be cleaved unto his wife, and they too shall become one flesh." And he now said, "This is a great mystery." He said, "But I speak of Christ and the church." Now, what was for cause? If you look at verse 23, 24, and 26, you will see what it said. For this cause, in verse 30. Now, when you are reading scriptures, you need to find out what scriptures are trying to build or reveal. Don't just read and quote. If you read Romans chapter 12, verse 1, for instance, it begins from "Therefore." What is the meaning of therefore? Therefore is the submission of Romans chapter 1 to chapter 11. From Romans chapter 1 to chapter 8, Paul was revealing how God brought the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel through the finished works of Christ. And then in Romans chapter 9 to Romans chapter 11, Paul was revealing how the Jews, in the context of the new covenant, were qualified to be part of the commonwealth of Israel. Because if they assume that because they are Jews, that the heritage of God belongs to them, they'll be joking. Having explained how God qualifies the Gentiles who are full-time, was not part of God's heritage, and how the Jews who were supposed to be the custodians of God's heritage have been expounded on the booth. Paul now said, "Therefore, because on the strength of the finished works of Christ, both the Jews and the Gentiles become equal in the eyes of God. Now that they are equal, therefore, all of you present your bodies as a living sacrifice." So when he said, "For this cause," in Ephesians 5:30, he's saying this because of what he said before. And what he said before in Ephesians 5:23, 24, and 26 is that man should love his wife as Christ loved the church and died for the church. That means when the man is loving the wife and dying, he's dying to flesh, and the spirit is taking over. So when the man succeeds in loving the wife, what you will now meet will not be the man that got married. It will be the Christ that will manifest eventually. So the cause and the goal of marriage, number one, is to bring Christ out of the man. Because the man was seeking God for his own gain. He prayed for anointing. He prayed for ministry. He prayed for career. He prayed for a governmental position. All for his own good. God now brings him into a context and into an equation. And in that equation, all God is teaching him is how to give up his relationship with God. Before that time was how to take. All his faith was to take from God. "I must become a successful person in this election. I must become a successful minister. I must become a successful person in my career." And God answers all. Now that God is giving him all, God now brings him into an equation and tells him, "Here, you don't pray to receive. Your prayer is to give up. Self-denial." And so the more the man dies to save, the more he will not understand who Christ was and what Christ understood that made Him to give Himself up for the church. Because Jesus said something. He said, "No man can take my life from me." He said, "This commandment have I learned of my Father. I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up." So dying was actually a kind of power in the spirit. And that kind of power is for the sons of God. And so when a man attains that level of power, the proof will be that he has the ability to self-deny at all times. So when you meet that man, it is the essence of Christ we see. So the first priority of God that necessitates for marriage and which is the reason why Paul called it a great mystery is that marriage creates an atmosphere for you to be able to become like Christ. And for the man, it's self-denial. And then when he comes to the context of the woman, he said, "Submission and cultivation." In verse 23, say, "Let the woman submit." And in verse 26, he said, "Let the man wash her by washing with water by the word of God." And so when the woman submits, she allows the man to cultivate her. So at the end of the day, the woman who went into marriage is not a woman you meet at the end of marriage. The woman you meet at the end of marriage will bear the image of Christ. Because the goal of marriage is for everyone of us to become like Christ. That's why he said that He will present her before Him a chaste virgin. How can you be married and still be a virgin? It's a state of blamelessness. It's a state where you mirror the crystals. And so every time you submit to your husband, it's not because God is punishing you. God is actually using a spiritual technology to chisel you until Christ comes out of you. And the point will now come, your ego will die, your pride will die, your self-centeredness will die. You will become a fragrance and a virgin of the essence of God. And as the man continually learns long-suffering and endurance in dealing with this woman, he would think he's helping the woman. After a long time, he will now discover he was happy himself. Because before he got married, he was an impatient man. Everybody followed his command. Now he wakes up, he wants to go out. The woman is still in front of the mirror trying to paint. "Come out of that room. What are you doing?" When the woman comes out, he must smile to go out. He will die. When he corrects the woman, the woman refused to hear. He will die. He will threaten everything. When he's done threatening, he will die. When he ends up cultivating the woman, he will not discover he wasn't cultivating the woman. He was cultivating himself. Because the woman was a mirror. When you want to clean your face, you will be seeing the mirror. What you are doing to yourself will be happening on the mirror. You will think you are correcting what you are seeing in the mirror. You are actually correcting yourself. Every time you teach the woman something and she refuses to learn, God is teaching you patience and endurance. Because it's a double-edged sword. And when you succeed in perfecting the spiritual ordinance, you will discover that both of you will look like Christ. That's why when you come to a good home, over time, even in the physical, you see that the two people begin to resemble themselves because they are seeing the same mirror. And the impact of that transformation begins to impact on their physical expression. The first reason why God creates this kind of technology, marriage, and creates the institution in the first place is so that Christ can be born out of it. The church may not be careful to pay attention to your personal needs. Because all of us come to the church and act. That's why I told you, a woman can lie down for her pastor but insult the husband. A man can come out and be selfless in church. The moment church closes, he handles the microphone, put on the speaker, he carries the speaker to the store, he comes back, carries this one. You say, "Kai, what kind of man is this? This is a humble man. See the way he's serving the Lord." Wait until he goes home. If they don't cook after five minutes after the time of cooking, you will hear that man. You will be shocked. This is.

The man jacking all the amplifiers and all the speakers because God knows that the church may not be able to go deep enough to find your secret. He now comes somebody to you, attaches somebody to you tight, who knows you to your, in your, your most secret. And he will use that person as a basis of shaping and chiseling you.

So submission is not a punishment; it's a strategy of God of bringing out the nature of Christ that is in you. Sacrifice is not a punishment; it is God's attempt. So you are in marriage, your wife is not yet listening. And dear, some more. You are in the school of the spirit. God is teaching you something that Jesus knew that made him die.

Hope you know that after now, the church is still a daughter. And I'm not saying if your husband is beating you, you should remain. I told you I will deal with what crisis and conflict resolution on a separate note. The reason society doesn't look like God, one of many reasons, is that marriages are not working. When true marriages begin to emerge, you will discover that the family institution is more potent in carrying out work of transformation than the ecclesia.

When we come into the ecclesia, we are supposed to come as representatives. The church is supposed to complete what started from the home. And that is what gives you the right to bring children. You don't give birth to children because you are your father's only son and your lineage need to continue bearing the name of your father. You give birth to children because, to a large extent, you have become like Christ. So you can impute Christ to somebody and send him into society as an errand.

But today, the purpose of marriage is not taught. So lawless people are satisfying their sexual pleasure and raising criminals for society. If marriage is accomplished, the nature of the crystals will find expression.

Number two reason why God created this institution and created it the way he did was for an attempt to preserve and to extend divine heritage. One of the ways God secures his inheritance among men is through the family institution. I told you already that when the family institution is perverted, aliens are born. In Genesis chapter 6, if you read verse 5, he said the evil in the heart of man became unbearable for God because the imagination of the heart of man was continually evil. A point came when man could not but think evil and do evil. But the reason that happened was because there was an attack on the marriage institution.

In verse 1, the Bible said the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men and they perverted divine order. And when they gave, they entered into intimacy with one another. He said no feelings were born. He said those were the days of giants, for those men were men of renewal. And he said the things those men did was that they taught evil to the sons of men. So the whole earth became corrupt. That means they were God secures the purity of his inheritance is to insist that marriage is according to his prescription.

And that's why I began by telling you, I will tell you how God leads a man to marry. There are four major ways God leads a man to get married.

Number one is by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When I told you, don't marry your friend, don't marry who you love, it's not because you will not love them eventually or make them friends eventually. It is because there is something superior to your emotion. And that thing is the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you have not reached a point where the Holy Ghost will lead you to marry, then you are not yet qualified to marry. So what you should strive to achieve is not to get a woman to love you. What you should strive to achieve is to hear the voice of God. The moment you can hear the voice of God, you can be led. And when God leads you to who he ordained for you, that marriage will back the purposes of God. And so you don't marry your friend, you don't marry who you love, you marry who the Holy Ghost leads you to marry.

Number two, what informs the choices you make? You marry somebody who complements your purpose. These things are superior to emotions. These are things that are eternal in nature. And when you put purpose side by side between emotion, you will discover a thousand times purpose is superior to emotion. That's why in the course of destiny, sometimes we weep and cry, we go forward. Ask those who are making impact, they will tell you the sacrifices they made. Seasons where others are sleeping, they are awake building value. That's why no extraordinary man has a normal schedule. They pay the price to bet the glory on their inside. They defy feeling. And that feeling, they defile it even in the corridor of marriage.

And so you don't look at a woman on the street and see her eyelashes and say, "I love her." Neither do you see a man on the street, I see the size of his chest and say, "I love him." You'll find out what God told you about your destiny. What role can this person play? Because the first time he created a woman, he said, "We make for him a suitable helper." It's a help meet because this is about purpose. It's not about feeling. So the second thing that informs who you marry is your purpose. When you find your purpose, it becomes easy to find your wife because your wife will resonate around your purpose. If you find your purpose, it becomes easy to find your husband. Your husband will have the tools to bring out and to not show you in the direction of your purpose. It's not about feelings.

We have been trained by moving industries, Bollywood and Hollywood and Nollywood. Me, why go and check their family life? You will be shocked.

What informs who you marry is the leading of the Holy Spirit. If you are not yet sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, you are not yet ready to marry. What informs who you marry is the degree to which such a person is aligned to your purpose. And so if you have not found your purpose, you are not qualified to marry. What informs who you marry is the degree to which the person in question fears God. You want to marry somebody, you'll show him what God says. He said, "Forget it, it's not about Bible." Begin to run for your life. You may love that person, and that love is flowing like a river. Fetch that love, clean it off, tie it in the container, hide it. Because if he doesn't fear God, he won't fear your father.

"I love him, I love him." You show him, "This is what the Bible says." Say, "Relax, or this Bible, Bible, something. What time?" And you say, "I love him. We are friends." You may end up in the mortuary. The reason why homes fail, this is it. You marry godless people because they have prospect. You look at it, you say, "Ah, this guy did your, that is a bank manager." What do you know what he will become? That same money he's making from the bank, that's what he will take women to Dubai. And you will see a picture by mistake on Instagram. You will not say, "This person wearing speck looks like my husband." He is your husband. He's in Dubai. He's the prospect. That's the power of prospect. He has millions. Don't marry who has prospect, marry who fears God. Promotion does not come from the east, nor the south or the west. It cometh from the Lord.

Does that mean you should divide those with prosperity? No. There are many people who fear God and have respect. But prospect is not the priority. Is God leading you? Does he align with your purpose? Does he fear God? Those are serious matters, not flimsy feelings that come today and go tomorrow. Marriages are breaking every day. As fast as people are getting married, they are certain nations. A nation that is, its population is 20 million, has 5.3 million divorce cases in one year. That means marriages are breaking as fast as birth rate is happening. And when you talk, they say, "Feeling, feeling, feeling." Feeling is why we have gay movement today. Feeling is why people are marrying animals. And they are forcing it on society. And the government is so demonic, they don't want you to attack it. They call it tolerance. They force their own belief on you. It's an abomination for you to refute it. But you cannot advance your own belief. And so in certain nations today, a gay person comes to be. Whether you refuse, they arrest you, they sue you to court that you are intolerant. Because they want you to allow his own belief system to supine, pause on yours. Where is the justice? Because demons are manipulating the system. That's why sometimes we use very strong words.

Because these are not casual things. What informs who you marry? The leading of the Holy Spirit. The degree of alignment with your purpose. The extent of the fear of the Lord. When you don't find these three things, no matter how you love the person, you run away. It's not your spouse. And I wish you hear it twice and thank me in the next 30 years. If we knew this truth, most of the counseling needs we reduce. Because emotional people run into traps. When you want to stop them, they begin to quote philosophy. What do you mean? After three months of marriage, they start regretting because they undermined the concepts of God.

And so the second purpose of marriage is to preserve divine heritage, inheritance. Because when people marry against the will of God, that marriage is open to demonic interferences. And there are different types of demonic interferences ranging from sickness to raising of demonic children that afflict society. Have you read John chapter 9 from verse 1? Jesus came to the synagogue and saw a man that was born blind. And they said, "Who sinned, that this man was born blind?" He said, "Nobody sinned." Their gate was not kept because their parents are not custodians. A door was opened, so the devil entered before the child was conceived and planted something. That's why you find strange infirmities nowadays. I know the place of attack, but I also know the place of porous doors open because people didn't marry according to the purpose of God.

And unfortunately for those who are already married, if it's not according to the purpose of God, now that you have married, it has become the purpose of God. So what we can do now is to manage it. So don't hear what I'm saying and say, "Hey, I said it." Now that I know you are there, sir, it was already placed on the altar and it has been consummated. It is now. You know God can show you his purpose. You can create God's purpose. That's why there is a perfect way, there is the good way, and there's the acceptable way. If you create a purpose, so long as it's not a capital sin, they will allow you go through it. That becomes your cross, and grace will be supplied sufficiently. This is not insensitivity, but we say these things to save a generation.

The gullibility is too much. They thought purpose in the heart of God that makes for now. What I'm saying here is not a joke. When you read the book of Matthew, you can trace Jesus to David, and you can trace Jesus to Adam, and you can trace Jesus to Abraham. The reason you and I have salvation today is because Jesus is the seed of Abraham, so he can take charge of the covenant God had with God. Hope you know Jesus is called the King in the order of David. That's why the church has dominion today because there's a covenant David had with God, and God said he will never forget the covenant of David, and there will never be a time when the seed of David will not sit on the throne. Jesus fulfilled that covenant. And the reason that is possible is because a bloodline was kept. Even when they went to Babylon, they were forbidden from marrying the Babylonians. When God blessed Jacob, when Isaac blessed Jacob, he sent him to the house of Laban. Don't marry from the Canaanites, with it you will bring corruption. And two things will happen: the people who are not part of the inheritance of God will make a demand on it. This is why you have the descendant of Ishmael today who are fighting the body of Christ because a door was opened for people that had no access or inheritance with God to come in. You can't kill them until the world comes to an end. They will remain. God himself told Abraham, "I will make 12 princes from this man." You can't kill him. I made you a ruler over the earth. You decided to donate your seed to an alien. And so you have put the seal of God on that alien. Pray from money tonight, they will remain here. And what they carry in their spirit is violence. So you will continuously violence. You think they are about to stop? Better learn how to walk invincible because these brothers, they will be here. They will be here for a long time. They can't, they also carry the heritage. They carry it. So you can kill them. 12 princes out of Isaac, 12 princes out of Israel. It is inheritance. The same measure that belonged to the sons of light, through opening of the gate of marriage, we also made it available to the sons of darkness. When God is saying you should be careful, he will insist on who you marry. You think it's about emotion? There are some of you here that have a prophetic bloodline. And so part of your DNA is the power to see in the spirit. And then you go and marry a barbarian, and you carry that inheritance and give to them. And tomorrow you have psychics and diabolic people. You think they will finish? It is the family and the tribe that have the heritage of the prophet that decided to welcome aliens into the heritage of God. So when God is fighting for marriage, he is defending something that is eternal. Did you not read scriptures? He said, "The scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes." Anybody that comes from the lineage of Judah will be a ruler. It's part of his DNA. He said, "The sons of Issachar, they have understanding of times and seasons, and they knew what they ought to do." Why do you think before they begin their fast, some of the astrologers go to read the planet? They carry the heritage of the Issachar. Because it was in Abraham. And so they can look at the planetary bodies and they will tell you what will happen. They can look at the planetary bodies and tell you who will be king. While you are here fighting over PVC, they are flying around the country with helicopters casting spells and incantation. And on the day of election, 90% of Christians will not go out to vote. And then you are wondering why they can't go out. They've cast their spells on them. So on the day of election, they become tired. And so you'll find Christians sit down, cross their legs, watching, waiting for who will win. Meanwhile, they, the Issachar, they sacrificed what's on them. And they can use that seed to manipulate the stars. They can manipulate the moon and create darkness over the system. And those who don't have sufficient priesthood to live above the sun, that incantation will affect them. Because the sun darkens the heart. And so when you find a man who cannot ascend through priesthood to live from above the moon, when the moon is casted, that person will be asleep. They can create violence in their environment. And we find Christians who don't have a priesthood, they will fall to that violence. They cast spells and affect Christians because they have that inheritance. The same way we have the right to give birth to prophets, they also have the right to give birth to diviners. Because through the gate of marriage, the inheritance was open.

It's a deep thing, my brother. It's a deep thing. And any man who knows he carries something will be careful who he marries. That's why I tell you, they are no boost. They don't marry for love, they marry for kingdom.

When you know you carry something, you will not donate your seed. What do you think we are? We live for fidelity. I can't find a prostitute in Italy and donate a seed. No. There is something here. There is an inheritance. Everybody that comes from my Lord. He said, "The Levite, they don't pay tithe because they pay tithe in the loins of Abraham." Anyone that comes out of my loins carries the scepter of authority. And so I can't throw my seeds around. I know it's a gate. The reproductive organ is a gate in the spirit. The womb of a woman is a gate in the spirit. And these people know. If you like, live in Dubai for 30 years, you can never be a citizen. And any of their daughters that fall in love with anybody, they disown the person immediately. They cut you off from the inheritance. These are the, ah, not ecclesiastic. I think that's Malachi. Malachi 2:15. Open it for me quickly. You don't know the wisdom that governs the earth. When God gives instruction, somebody comes and says, "Feeling." Feel what? Feeling that you have one week and forget in three months.

See what he said. He said, "And did he not make one yet? Had he not residue of the spirit? Everyone he created, there is something in his loins." And he said, "And we are for one that he might seek godly seed out of them." Because there is a residue of the inheritance in the loins of the sons of light. And so because God wants to guard his inheritance, he will insist on who you marry. He will not allow you to. That's why I say, give not sacred things to swine. They don't know the value. You run around receiving partitions. They give you graces that can be traced to the patriarchs of old. Some of you operating in the apostolic order today, you are from the tribe of Paul. He said, "The things that you have received from me, the same commit to faithful men who shall be able to teach others." And a heritage they have been preserved for 800 years rest upon you. And then you stand up, you say, "You pick somebody from the godless. I love him." And throw a mantle to darkness. And you think it's about a feeling? They are deep matters. The reason why we, there are many battles the body of Christ cannot win, is because we endorse them. Did you not read the story? In fact, somewhere, what's the tribe now? Claim they came from afar. Is that the Amalekites? Now give your knight, and they adopted them. And the moment they did, God said, "This was, I can't destroy them anymore. You have put my seal upon them. I can't kill them again." And because they had a plan, when they now know that they have an insurance policy, they begin to wreak havoc. Pray and fast for 10 years, nothing will happen because they become part of God. It's a legal ground.

Number four, or number three, we're out of time. Paul said in Ephesians 5:31, he said, "Marriage is a great mystery." A mystery as deep as the relationship of Christ and the church. That's not something you jump into because you have a feeling.

The third purpose of marriage is to afford you an opportunity of worship. And I don't have time to explain it. But you see, worship is not a song. Worship is the ability to choose the will of God over and above your own will. That's why many times God can come into your space and say, "Marry this sister." And conform to that sister. Marry this brother. And your hands up. And you begin to train your emotion to love that person. That act of submission to God is called worship. In Zion, every time you submit to your wife is worship. Your husband, his worship. That's why he said, "Do it as service unto the Lord." And every time you honor your wife is worship, whether she qualifies for it or not. Because you are not doing it as unto her or him, you are doing it as unto the Lord. So marriage affords every one of us to become worshippers, whether you have a good voice or not. Your honor to your wife is an act of worship. And your submission to your husband is an act of worship. Many are not aware.

The fourth purpose is to activate the mystery of oneness. Because when God created man, one of the things God wanted man to enjoy is to experience what happens with God. And in the realm of God, three beings are called one. And the same thing applies in the realm of marriage. In the realm of marriage, man, husband, wife, and the Holy Spirit. Three. Husband, wife, and the Holy Spirit enter into a covenant. That's why God brings his blessing. Is to commit his spirit to that union so that what happens in the home is the same thing that happens between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul calls it a great mystery. And he said, "The two shall become one flesh." And the power of the divine is a mystery of oneness. And so when a marriage becomes correct, it becomes an invincible institution. The same way God does not sustain a weakness, you'll discover all of a sudden that a man's home becomes an impressive fortress. Many, many times the reason the devil is able to attack us is because there is a porous gate in the family institution. If a family is right, no demon can attack anybody there because it becomes the dwelling of God. That's why in Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 12, hear what the Bible said. He said, "One can prevail against him. He said, two can withstand him. He said, but a threefold cord cannot be easily broken." One man may fight, win or fall. Two may fight, win or fall. But when the tree is harmonized, the husband, the wife, and the Spirit, it becomes a three-fold cord. The same power that is exuded from the divine begins to flow out of the marriage. And so every time you break away from your wife or you break away from your husband, either through infidelity or through dishonor or through its lack of submission, you are making yourself porous. The bunch God created in the spirit, you are disconnecting it. The mystery of marriage makes us invincible before the forces of darkness.

When marriage is right, you will find people. For those who are living correctly, they know there are certain kinds of favor that comes upon your life the moment you get married. Why do you think you say, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor"? Why do you think he said, "One will chase a thousand, two will put ten thousand to flight"? Because when oneness is beginning to be achieved, authority is granted. That's why I said, "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there is power." He said, "Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven." And the clearest expression of two, three becoming one is a marriage. You will suddenly discover that the things you couldn't achieve as one man, you suddenly begin to achieve the moment you get married. And you are wondering what happened? There is a mystery of oneness that has been achieved. Because when two or three becomes one, the power of the heavens is committed to them. And so God wants us to experience what exists in the mystery of the Trinity. That's why he allowed us the opportunity of getting married. There are many other ways of routing power. You must not be married to succeed. But marriage is one of the simplest platforms that God creates to give me an advantage in life.

And finally, the purpose of marriage is for priesthood. You know, because many are not aware of this. Everything that happens at home, they run out and begin to look for people to come and help them. When preached to this emotion, what priesthood teaches you is selflessness manifested through intercession. When you get married, you will discover for the first time that what is happening to another person becomes your body. And so marriage forces you to enter into spiritual legislation and litigation. When your husband is not conforming to Christ, it's a call to prayer. When your wife is not conforming to Christ, it's a call to prayer. The reason many run out of marriage is because they refuse their body, not priesthood. And so after a while, they say, "I'm not doing any more." The reason you got to a point where you can no longer do is because you didn't deal with it on the altar. There is no easy marriage on it. There is no flawless marriage on it. Every marriage working is made to work. And the best way to make marriage work is on the altar. When you find out a man or a woman who truly is enjoying her home, go and check his knee. You will discover the secret of a successful marriage on your knee, not in a marriage counseling class. Because what is causing crisis in the marriage is not just misunderstanding. Spirits are involved. And there is no way they can cancel spirits out of the crisis. You can only pray them out of the crisis. And so the reason God allows us to live intricately is because he wants to teach us how to wield power in the spirit. And so when there is a crisis, thank God for the counselors, they are doing a good job because there are problems that are at the planes of the mind. But there are bigger problems that have their root in the spirit. Only on the altar can such problems be dealt with. And so when you want to succeed in marriage, you will discover that a heavy more liquid marriage is priesthood. I can tell you why many homes are failing. The husband is a drunk, the wife is a gossip. When the man has a problem, he goes on while away time with talaga beer. Some love her naked, anything they say, bring it. Mutually standard. When they bring the beer, fog, fog is coming out of it like this. They say, "Ah, they will now carry it and finish one bottle."

When you finish drinking seven, you're stuck at home like this. The next day, you will wake up. Your problem will appear like a mountain. Beer doesn't remove mountains. What removes mountains is priesthood. He said, "You shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed." And if you do not doubt in your heart, you shall have whatever you say. He said, "Be anxious for nothing." In all things, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. You will pray the Holy Ghost into your marriage until it overflows. That's why I said, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." He said, "But be filled with the spirit." Speaking to yourself in psalms, in hymns, and in spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord. It was after he said, "Be filled with the Holy Ghost" in Ephesians 5:18-20, that he now said, "Submit to one another." Submission is possible when you are overflooded by the Holy Spirit. And that's what priesthood comes to do in your life. You cannot be submitted to yourself just by counseling. You can read on the counseling book. When a demon comes and whispers to your wife, you'll be shocked until you develop the power like Christ and look at Peter and say, "Get behind me, Satan." You will never solve the crisis of your home. You have to check the spirit that is involved. And every woman that is a master of gossip, when you are done gossiping your wife, your husband to your friends, when you finish, your friends will carry the news abroad. The day you now make peace with your husband, you will now discover that you have given your husband the title of a useless man. You will come back to fight for his reputation. He's too late because you have turned him to shreds. That's why I say a woman should not prophesy with her head uncovered. And so instead of talking to everybody about the crisis of your home, go and talk to the Lord. That's the duty of a wife. You don't just pray your husband out of weakness, you also pray him into his seasons. That's why you are called a suitable helper. There are many graces that your husband is supposed to manifest. You are called to support him in prayer so that those graces can come. Because if your husband gets married, there are dimensions he can't enter until your priesthood supports him. You are called a suitable helper. Instead of Eve praying for her down, she was negotiating with the serpent. She was the one who attracted the serpent to with them. That's why Paul said it was not the man that was deceived, it was the woman. Because the woman left the place of being a helper, she became a talker. Marriage is spiritual. The emotional component of marriage is a flavor. That's not where the weight is. The weight is deeper than feeling. Tonight, this message came as a witness because there are many homes that are struggling. The Lord sent me with soccer because as you hear these words, you will discover that it will bring correction. He said, "The word of God, every scripture is given by the inspiration of God. He said, it is given for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction, and for correction in righteousness." As you hear these words, the area of rebuke you have received, the area of reproof, correction you have received. And so on the strength of your acceptance of the word of the Lord, receive soccer now.

I brought you this world as a witness because this is balm in Gilead for most of you that demons are already manipulating to walk out of your home. I came to lock the door because you will not go away. You will go back and make it work. And so the grace to make your home work, receive it now.

Most of you, your next level depends on the harmony of your home. But the devil has bastardized your home because he knows that a house divided against itself cannot stand. I come to speak peace over your homes. Every crisis, be it sensual, be it mental, be it spiritual, in the name of Jesus, receive healing now.

There are many young people here about to be deceived by their friends and their emotions. Hear this. Every one of you joining in the direction that God does not approve, receive deliverance now. You will not marry wrongly in the name of Jesus. And for those of you who are married and there are crisis that cannot be fought on the grace and the power to correct every error in your home, receive it now. We are not of the world. He said, "The standard of the Lord is standing short." That name, at the name of the Lord, they depart from iniquity. For some of you, the devil has manipulated your home. Your husband is now your greatest enemy. Your wife is your greatest enemy. And things that never existed are beginning to come in. I shut the gate of darkness and I silence the voice of that manipulator. I rebuke every spirit fighting homes tonight in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. We are out of time.

We're out of time, but we'll continue because I will deal with matters of sensuality and then I will deal with issues of crisis and conflict resolution, the biblical pathway for accessing resolutions in homes. The devil is receiving too much advantage because believers are not taught. Most of you, we go back to your home now and begin to correct the errors because there are potentials that will not manifest. There are some strange sicknesses that are in families now. It's the core that created it because you opened the door. In Ephesians 4:27, we say, "Giving no place to the devil." You were quarreling, you called your wife a demon, your wife calls you a crazy man, and you open doorways, and the demon came in. When you settled, you didn't tell the demon to go. And you find strange sicknesses. And sometimes these children that suffer, a child of seven years, every day parents are calling themselves names. If you marry that kind of child, you are in trouble, unless God works on the mind. The mind has been bastardized. That's why we have crisis. But the Lord will begin a work of recovery. Those of you who are here, your marriages will not fail. And those of you who are here to marry, you will not marry wrongly. And every grace that distinguishes homes, in the name of Jesus, the Lord, I release it upon you.

The Lord keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance over you, and the Lord give you peace. You're going out and you're coming in is blessed. See, the Holy Ghost is telling me now, he said, "There are many persons that their carriers have been destroyed because of the crisis from their homes." Some lost businesses, some were sacked, they couldn't focus, their potentials became deadened. And so I speak over you, everything in your life that was depleted and suffered decline because of the crisis and the anxiety that emanates from the womb, by the power of the help of God, I declare restoration over you.

You know, I taught you last week. I told you there are three dimensions of the help of God. There's intervention, there's restoration, and there's preservation. Intervention is when God stops every force that wants to undermine the quality of your existence. Restoration is when God redeems everything you lost because of the battles you went through. And preservation is when God keeps you in the blessings that he has given to you. In the name of Christ, the Son of the Living God, I speak over you tonight. Receive the help of God. Those who need intervention, receive it now. Those who require restoration, receive it now. And those that I need of preservation, in the name of Jesus, be preserved. Thank you, Father. Give the Lord a big hand.

If you were blessed by this message you just listened to and you wish to make Jesus your Lord and personal savior, kindly repeat the prayer after me. Dear heavenly Father, I believe in your son Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins and was raised from the dead for my justification. I therefore confess with my mouth that Jesus is the Lord of my life. I receive eternal life into my spirit. I am born again. Thank you, Father. In Jesus name, amen. If you just said this prayers, please send us an email at info@encounterjesusministry.org or info.ejfi.ng@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at www.encounterjesusministry.org.