"Why is it that even good christian Bible believing couples who heard clearly from the Holy Spirit before getting married still end up with the same challenges and failed marriages like our friends who do not yet believe in the word? Can you please explain this to me?"
Hmmm, today someone asked me this question and it reminded me of Noah's walk with God. If this question bothers you too, just relax, let me share a beautiful scripture with you, and help you plan to prevent this from happening to you and your godly spouse.
It's a very popular story about Noah, Genesis Chapter 6 verse number 9-22, but I will read it for the benefit of those who might be too lazy to open their Bible and study it after this post ;
"Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be THREE HUNDRED CUBITS LONG, FIFTY cubits WIDE and THIRTY cubits HIGH. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an OPENING ONE cubit HIGH ALL AROUND. Put a DOOR in the side of the ark and make LOWER, MIDDLE and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. BUT I WILL establish my covenant WITH YOU, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him." (NIV)
Uhmm, this is a deep one guys, Noah was 500years when he got the instructions to build the ark, and 600 years when he entered the ark with his family, this means that Noah spent 100years listening to God and following chiefly to His instructions and directions until the ark was finished.
The Lord came to Noah ONE DAY and told him to build and ark, He told the man exactly how He wanted the ark to be built, and established a covenant with him which includes sparing his life and that of his household. But what God not tell Noah was that it will take ONE HUNDRED YEARS of his life to do this. Wow!
What if?
What if Noah had rested on that covenant and built the ark carelessly? What if he had said "Okay, i have already been guaranteed safety, even if I build the ark 150 cubits long as against the 300 cubits that God instructed me to make it, my family and I will still be safe, God does not break His covenant"
What if Noah had just made one deck instead of 3 as he was commanded by God, because after all an ark is an ark, I guess they would have survived the storm alright, but they wouldn't have survived getting torn apart by the lions and tigers they would have let into the ark to share the same deck.
He didn't rest on the covenant, he didn't slow down on the promise, he didn't stop going to God for directions and next steps where he was lost, he didn't try to take the wheel from God and build the ark all by himself, to his own taste, according to his own preferences. No, even after he got a YES from God, Noah was still taking directions from God for a hundred years until the ark was completed.
One of the biggest reasons why our good Christian marriages fail is because we take the wheel away from God after we get that YES. We go to God with all we have got when we are asking for directions before marriage, we pray endlessly, we fast day and night, and tithe all we Have, but as soon as we get the leading of the Holy Spirit, as soon as we get that YES from God concerning that potential partner we are praying about, that's it. From that point on we don't need God anymore, we start leaning on our own understanding of our partner, and not of Gods' revelations.
Just like Noah, we start building our marriage ark 50 cubits long and 10 cubits wide, we start making little compromises that opposes all the heavenly principles we have learnt; building half decks and letting different kinds of animals in, because we only got the part where God said Yes, but we did not wait to take directions on how to actually build the marriage ark God is saying yes to.
Oh so deep... I ask God for understanding over anyone who is reading this.
It takes only a day, a second, for God to say yes to that marriage, but it is going to take the rest of your life for Him to constanly show you how you're going to build that marriage He has said Yes to. You have to stay with Him to get instructions on how deep, how wide, how long, and how many decks He wants you to build on that marriage. You're going to have to stay with God to find out how many doors you're going to open and how many kinds of animals you're going to let in.
Do not take that YES and leave.
Do not make that mistake in your tongue speaking marriage covenant..
You need to hear from God all the way, from the first yes, to the final 'welcome oh good and faithful servant.'
God bless you for reading to the end, and may this light stick with you today until your last days after I DO.
