Day 2 Evening Session III

The book of Ephesians chronicles the prayers of Paul for the Ephesian Church. He prayed that they would experience the operations of the seven spirits of God beginning with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. When he was giving instructions concerning the proper conduct in families, he referred to the operation of the spirit of the fear of the Lord. These prayers all point to the fact that one must be equipped by the seven spirits to thrive in our families as God ordained it. (Ephesians 1: 17, Ephesians 5:21 )

God is a family God; He is known as the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Everything He is doing is a family business; family was the first institution God brought forth. Though marriage was first established, it was a covenant through which the family was brought forth. The family is therefore the foremost and strongest institution on earth. It was given to man before the fall and that is what is sustaining the earth till now. Without family, man would have perished faster. Family is one horn of strength that Satan has attempted to break with different horns but has failed.

The institution of family is older than the Church in physical manifestation. Thus, the Church is also a family. Families ought to reflect what God has in mind concerning the Church. God intends to use the family to mirror an eternal ordinance. God loves family; that is why He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The revelation of Himself as a Father is essential and we must understand Him as a Father to value family as He values it. Because of the fall, we lost the value of family. If we understand what family is to God, we would fight for our families. The prodigal son did not understand the value of family thus he squandered his inheritance. (Luke 15:11-21).

God never planned for man to be in isolation and that is why he established families. Satan knows that family is precious to God, which is why he fights against it. The family is the last line of defence against Satan. Darkness is forcefully pushing but God will win at the end of the day. One of the strengths God has to show on earth is family. Satan knows that family is backed by the wisdom of God. He knows he cannot manipulate it so he decided to pervert it.

God created woman by bringing her out of man. Then He brought together the man and woman as male and female in a family. Same-sex marriage is not marriage and should not be regarded as one because it does not align with the natural order. God used the story of Noah’s ark to teach that salvation is for male and female; the animals entered two by two into the ark, which signifies salvation is for male and female. Anything outside this order is corruption. Two by two speaks of a family unit. It is within a family that we express the conversation of all our revelations. (Genesis 7:9).

Children are God’s heritage because there is something He wants to gain from them. The fruit of the womb is God’s reward. This further establishes that God is a family man. God desires godly seed because He wants His conversations to be perpetuated on earth. To have dominion which God has ordained for man, we must be fruitful. Fruitfulness does not mean giving birth to children naturally. Rather, it is coming into a measure of life. Multiplication is the reproduction of the life God gave as a seed. After this, we are to replenish, that is, spread the life on earth. This is God’s heritage and reward. ( Psalms 127:3-5)

After replenishing, we ought to subdue or have dominion. We cannot have dominion if we have not spread. Thus, God desires godly seeds as they are avenues for God to spread His life till it dominates the Earth. The life of God is one of dominion. He is spreading people to places so that they will replicate His life in those places. The reason why we have not come into dominion is because we have not followed the order of fruitfulness, multiplication, replenishing and subduing. (Genesis 1:28).

The reason for family is salvation. It is a quiver constructed by the man and woman and should be full of children. Quivers ought to be full of arrows and they have to be strong. A family is an assembly and the members are arrows. Strong families make strong churches. This is the design God has ordained. It is saddening when families break up as it affects even the children. If couples will only obey the Lord, there would not be irreconcilable differences leading to separation. It is in the quiver that the arrows are placed, developed and sharpened. If Satan succeeds in punching holes in the quiver, the arrows therein will be lost. This is the warfare we must fight in the times we are in. (Psalm 127:5).

The church is closely related to the family. The family was enacted on earth to mirror the family of God in heaven. Thus, we must desire to see the conversation between Christ and the Church as well as the Father and the Son, and bring them down. This is the true expression of dominion. (Matthew 6:10).

There is a conversation that needs to be manifested on the earth. It is by conversations that we truly take ground. We can pray and do revivals but family is needed to preserve what heaven brings through those activities. We must bring down a conversation that is stronger than the forces on earth for us to have dominion. Satan wants us to fashion our families according to the standards of the world; what he wants is for families not to import any godly conversation.

Man was created in the midst of a cosmic conflict between light and darkness. Hence, keeping the family unit is warfare. We must therefore not be vain in our mindset about families but be focused on doing the will of God. This is because we have an adversary who does not want anything from God to be brought down to earth. We must realise that family is warfare because marriage was instituted between a man and woman to create a family for the purpose of defence. When God thinks of family, He thinks of an institution that would be able to keep the enemy at bay.

The relationship between a husband and a wife is a mystery that depicts the relationship between Christ and the church. Genders are important to the program of God. The program of gender is beyond the body because; it also resides in the soul. Changing the body will not change the configuration of gender in the soul. We will still maintain our genders in the resurrection.

The intent of God for the Church is that she will know and express His manifold wisdom. The wisdom of God is a manner of conversation or life. Couples must understand that they are their partners. A man must see his wife as himself and vice-versa because this is how Jesus sees the church. Irrespective of the expressions of the churches, the Lord still loves us all. He is committed to cleansing and raising us so that we can all be presented together as a glorious church. (Ephesians 3:10).

Salvation is the conversation that must be brought down to the earth. It is one of the expressions of God’s strength. Family is for salvation; salvation is not a personal race, especially for those who are married. It is a two by two journey. Spouses will be in the same estate in the world to come.

All of our revelations are to be tested and practised in the family, that is, both the biological family and the church. God still has to wash us clean from our tongue, kindred, people and blood. Our brethren in Christ are our true blood relations as this is stronger than natural blood. It is among the brethren that our revelations will first be fleshed out. Faith, Hope and Charity ought to first be expressed as a family conversation before it is taken outside.

God has a family and His thoughts are full of family. Any revelation that leads one away from family into isolation is not of God. Satan is using many things to fight the family. God thinks family; therefore, we should also think of one another as family. The family named in heaven is one that has gained heavenly conversations. There are also families that are still earthly in their conversations but God is still the Father of them all. The family of God in heaven are those who have trapped heavenly things The family of God on earth has also trapped an earthly conversation. (Ephesians 3:14-15, John 3:12).

The glory of God has riches. The riches of God's glory are substances for building strength in men. If we do not understand that we are here to trap conversations, we will misuse family and we will not see the reason to pray for strong families. The strength is according to riches or revelation. The doctrine of everlasting life contains in it riches of glory. If we trap them in our souls, we trap heavenly conversations that will make us be part of the family in heaven.  We can be here on earth but express a heavenly conversation. To do so, we have to trap everlasting substances. (Ephesians 3:16-17).

The repeated teaching of everlasting life is how we receive substances that will lift our families from being earthly to being heavenly. We are fighting spirits in the category of horsemen. Yet, in the midst of this, some families will be named among those in heaven because they trapped heavenly conversations. Consequently, churches will also be named in heaven. These churches will have done all of Christ without running away from its challenges. They would have walked in love even when it was not convenient.

Families on earth can deal with demons by virtue of the conversations they possess. However, there are spirits that can only be handled by families that have heavenly conversations. Churches must have heavenly and everlasting conversations that will be able to endure. An everlasting church will show the life of God through their conversations. Spirits would not be able to wear out churches like these. Hence, Satan does not want churches to get to this level.  (Ephesians 4:2-3).

The essence of the doctrine of everlasting life is to raise us from being an earthly church to one that is named in heaven. This is where our strength is. The horn of strength is a horn that has been exalted like that of the unicorn. Unicorns are rare animals with only one horn in the middle of their head pointing towards heaven. A person with such a horn is only focused on glorious things that are heavenly. Such a one will call for a fresh anointing (Psalm 23:5, Psalm 92:10).

Churches and families that will survive this season are those who are named above and have gained new strength. Some churches will not survive the onslaught of Satan. Persecution is coming and churches that would stand are those that are built against wickedness, darkness and evil. This is a dark season but in the midst of it, the glory of the Lord will appear. Ministers of churches will have to depend greatly on the Spirit, not technology. We must be careful not to be spiritually desensitised by the advancing technology in the world. In these days, it is only those who are named in heaven that will be able to stand because that is the strength that we need.

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